Grrl Power #910 – Jabber blabber
When I sit down to write a page, I know basically what I want to happen on it, and have a general idea of what the dialog will be. It takes some time to actually compose it and sort it into comic panel friendly chunks, but for this page – I knew what was going to happen on it, but had no idea what I was going to do for the dialog.
Sitting down to write it though, I wasn’t really worried. One of the secret powers of ADHD (for me anyway) is kind of never having to worry about writer’s block. It pours out like goo from a massive lanced boil. Doesn’t mean it’s going to be any good, or that I won’t just sit in my chair spinning and daydreaming twenty different scenarios instead of actually typing something out. The point is, quantity is not the issue. I stared at the screen for about 15 seconds and was like, “Hmm, what is Sydney going to verbal diarrhea about… ah! Jabberwokky’s kiss cure.”
Actually I had that story banked for another page or three, but I think it’s at least as amusing in this form.
Fun fact, Jabberwokky was supposed to be obnoxiously chatty, which is where she got her nickname. But I forgot to do that every time she showed up. Maybe she switched her meds right before her first appearance.
By the way, for those of you wondering, Clip Studio Paint does not handle large blocks of anti-aliased text well. The program is embarrassingly single-threaded. It’s actually amazing it’s as fast as it is, but I would really like to see some GPU support.
Check the vote incentive to see Sydney not naked. Check Patreon to see her… well, you can guess.
Boobs.
(. )( .)
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
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Sydney! INHALE!
Then again, if she loses consciousness due to constantly talking without taking a proper breath, her autonomic systems should take over, unless the drug is causing paralysis of course.
There *has* to be a word for “It’s hilarious and it’s horrible”.
Hilorrible?
‘Hilarrible’ or ‘horribrious’, either of which at least gets points for onomatopoeia.
Awesome. Terrible. both have alternate meanings based upon their name. Awesome and Awful. Terrific and Terrible. you can use either or both for your meaning without creating a new word.
But what’s the fun in that? This language evolved from hundreds of years of loan words and then imperialist expansion. It wasn’t built for the current age and these days if enough people say it and it’s built from existing greek and latin roots, it’s a word. Neogism is how the language grows.
The word is riveting by the way. In the so awful you can’t turn away kind of way.
Thus the motto of the Logophile Empire: “Victoria Propter Verba!”
That is NOT the motto of my Empire, dude.
It’s: “Victoria Per Verba!” (Victory Through Words… not FOR words.)
Your motto may be victory ‘through’ words, but that doesn’t prevent his battle cry being victory ‘for’ words.
… because The Logophile Empire’s lust for conquest grows out of our desire, not for mere gold, but for words. WORDS! More words!
We scorn “loan words” – we seek “pillaged” words!
All Your Base Words Belong To Us!!
that there is a great example of superantiexistentialisticalitarianizationism.
I heard that in Julie Andrew’s voice ;-)
Also, spoon.
“English doesn’t “borrow” from other languages: it follows them down dark alleys, knocks them over, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar and valuable vocabulary.”
Tragicomic is the best option that comes to my mind
Ever read the fast penta scene with Miles from “Mirror Dance” by Lois McMaster Bujold? That’s what this reminded me of. Come to think of it, Syd and Miles are also both about the same height too.
Reminded me of Prak from The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Prak
Yeah, I was going to mention that but decided to look through the comments to see if anyone else got to it before me. Prak is a (formerly) living example that the truth hurts…And too much truth can be deadly.
I hereby award you 1 internet point for reading the comments before excitedly shouting the same thing everyone else already said. Well done sir.
I thought of that scene too, but I’m pretty sure that scene is from Brothers in Arms. Mirror Dance is the second book that Miles’ clone Mark appears in and the fast penta interrogation is from the first book he appears in. It’s possible I brain-farted the title, I don’t think I did.
Yep, you are correct, it WAS “Brothers in Arms.” (I actually re-read that book a couple months back, so I can be about as certain as I am of most anything.) And yeah, it’s VERY much like the reaction Miles had to fast penta and pretty much immediately what I thought of while trying not to asphyxiate from laughing.
Same. I didn’t know I wanted Syndey and Miles to meet before I read this page.
in at least one of the books miles mentions that he has a ‘unique’ reaction to fast penta. given his family its probable that it was mile’s dad and the intel chief that did it to find out. I’ll bet that was fun for them…
Heh, I thought of that too. :)
I think Syd’s taller.
A tiny bit.
Does Mark have a similar effect to fast-penta? I seem to recall something about that. Or at least enough risk to not even try.
By all accounts, he could. Miles’s reaction isn’t induced, it’s inherent- but then, Mark is slightly less manic than Miles, so how much is epigenetic nurture rather than nature?
The intel chief gave Mark a patch test for fast-penta when Mark volunteered to undergo a fast-penta interrogation if it would relieve people’s doubt. According to the intel chief, the test showed a very strong allergic reaction and he suggested that Mark avoid fast-penta at all costs.
It was established that an induced allergy to fast-penta was standard for intelligence operatives (for obvious reasons). Miles didn’t get the treatment because of his proximity to the Imperial throne; he just has a well-and-truly screwed-up metabolism (both from the prenatal sol-toxin exposure, and what it took to save his life from the vile antidote). Mark, on the other hand, was cloned by a Komarran terrorist group, who wanted to keep secrets.
Yeah, that was my first thought as well. At least she hasn’t started quoting shakespeare yet.
Shakespeare, in Klingon or Romulan?
Everyone expects it to be in Klingon, so Sydney would throw a fastballs by using another made up language only half a dozen shut-ins would know
My brain needed a break about after the 1st panel
Ve haf vays to make you STOP talking!
Apparently not…
Weeeelllll……Dabbler DID mention gags earlier but no one here in this scene could have overheard that…
Noob Q… what is the purpose of rendering an image with the text instead of having empty bubbles and adding the text on top of the image after the GPU intensive part?
The point is that at some point you have to composite the two, and being able to adjust both the bubble and the words in the same place makes it highly desirable to have the same tool do everything, rather than switch back and forth and perform an export/import with every change.
How would you know how big the bubbles need to be until you attempt to fit text in them?
Truth serum does not work properly on ADHD/Autistics. It just makes them jabber blabber because their brains go into hyperdrive.
*laugh*
No on the second sentence. Not in my experience at least.
As someone with HFA and severe ADHD… my brain is ALWAYS in hyperdrive. (As tends to be true with many others I know with one or both diagnoses.) It never shuts down and never shuts up. I’m the guy whose brain is already five miles further down the road than most people I’m talking with in under ten minutes of conversation because my brain is constantly going at high speed. Even if I’m doing something like playing a video game, half my brain is working on things like a book I’m writing or household budget issues or figuring out some other problem or plan.
It’s why I have to fall asleep with the TV on playing movies or shows I have seen often enough that I won’t focus on them, but still like enough that the hyperactive 4 year old inside my head will sit down and be quiet for long enough for me to fall asleep. (And even then, I still have to take meds to calm my mind before bed.)
The sedatives like sodium pentothal just open the flood gates from brain to mouth and initiate a full stream of consciousness data dump.
I’m similar (usually something like The Cinema Snob, AVGN, or early seasons of Nostalgia Critic) but I’ve found that another thing that works is turning on a noise generator and meditating myself to sleep… though I usually only do that when my sleep cycle is disrupted enough to have trouble getting my brain to shut down.
I’ve also been habituated to be incapable of sleeping in science. I’m very worried about what’s going to happen to the human race if we ever have a global EMP situation like in the old TV show “Dark Angel”. So many people will have entirely lost their survival skills without their technological crush.
Most people would adapt.
Some, not so much.
Use to be the same: needed the TV to be playing, and didn’t matter what, if wanted to be able to remain focused, and needed the radio to be on to sleep (also never went anywhere without an old mp3 player, but haven’t used that in a couple years)
If you’ve met one ADHD person then you’ve met one ADHD person. Seriously man, you know we’re all unique. I mean we’ve all got the hyperdrive brain thing going on (that’s sort of the core of what ADHD is after all), but how we respond to it varies so wildly that no two of us are the same.
Just as an example, you can tell when one of my friends’ meds are wearing off because all the sudden you can’t shut him up for 5 seconds. But when my control starts slipping my leg starts bouncing like a kid who needs to use the restroom. Also, meds don’t really work for me anymore since I was around 12. (Or, more accurately, at that point my resistance to Ritalin had gotten so high I’d have had to exceed the maximum legal dose and there really weren’t any other effective drug options at the time. Not that we didn’t try several, and I blame the blender my brain chemistry went through trying to find one that worked for a lot of the problems I had in middle school.) I have to manage it the hard way.
Anyway, I’ve gotten off point. What I’m trying to say is that these kinds of generalizations about how someone with ADHD is going to respond in any given situation are almost never accurate for any broad selection of ADHDs.
On the other side of that “truth serum” is a range of chemicals as well, so you have an A x B multiplier of different potential results.
Plus interactions with meds.
Which I note that they never asked her about.
Bastards!
Indeed, Siskulous.
For me, a previous therapist of mine realized I might be on the Autism Spectrum (and I am) when I described the effect of what being on Ritalin SR was like for me for about six months. I was 29 and when I took my meds I had had amazing focus. The problem was, I would focus to the point where even before I moved from near San Francisco to Alabama I would be talking with my (now) wife on the phone. She got to the point where the first thing she would do when I called that evening is make sure I had eaten since breakfast. About 2/3 of the time she would end up having to tell me to go get some food and eat, then call her back. (As it is even without the meds I have alarms set on my phone to remind me to eat three meals a day.) Basically, when I was on Ritalin, my Autism would become so dominant it would overwhelm almost everything else.
Part of the thing is, ADHD is also comorbid (aka: existing alongside) other diagnoses as well. It’s actually rather rare for ADHD to be the only diagnosis present. Many on the Spectrum also have mild to severe ADHD, which complicates diagnoses for those on the high end. Myself, for example… I have HFA, ADHD, OCD, Panic/Anxiety, Tourette’s, and Depression… along with overwhelming evidence for (but haven’t found how to get tested yet) for Sensory Processing Disorder.
So you take all other things being equal for someone else but only ADHD, Depession, and OCD (common enough together) and even though it’s half the diagnoses, it’s a lot less than half the problems because they’re often highly interactive in a dynamic that’s unique to the individual.
A diagnosis is just one aspect of a person. It’s not the definition of the person.
While I’ve never been injected with a truth serum to my knowledge, I imagine one would indeed have this effect on my autistic and adhd brain. I think at a rate of a million words a minute but voice close to none, the truth serum would remove the natural talking inhibitions I’d have, or so I theorize at least.
Only thing I think is that maybe your mouth doesn’t move as fast- so you’d end up literally blabbering.
>the truth serum would remove the natural talking inhibitions I’d have, or so I theorize at least.
That’s exactly what truth serum does, they don’t make you tell ‘the truth’, they just get you high as balls so you don’t see a good reason why you wouldn’t talk. Talk being the key word, there’s no evidence people are any more truthful, just more chatty.
It should be noted that most peoples perception of a ‘truth drug’ is pretty Hollywood. None of them have been proven to be reliable, in fact results are so poor there’s dispute that the studies done on them even count as studies.
We call that the Miles Vorkosigan Effect.
I’ve seen a similar scenario played out in a book – only the guy who was given the “truth serum” managed to start quoting poetry at the interrogator and really bitched up the plans…turned out he was known to have weird reactions to a lot of medications…and was hyperactive. Much like Sydney, come to think of it. Makes a great distraction if they’re telling the truth…but NOT about anything that the guy with the truth serum ever wanted to know…just every random thought going near their head comes out the mouth – at a high rate of speed… And I see someone else read the same book…
Holy wall of text Batman.
grab a rope and start climbing.
Will there be a window cameo?
Mikes Vorkosagan is on deck or it along with his 8 kids.
This made me laugh! It’s so relateable and I love the character info we get from her babble, poor Sydney though she’s scared and can’t breathe I hope one of her team rescues her soon!
This is why you do NOT knock over a fire hydrant when you all you want is a drink…
Bee-tee-dubs, having an ‘exception’ to your sexuality is totally a thing. However, I don’t think that’s Jab’s problem. She’s totally in bi denial.
So, Archon’s supposed to have a rule about dating, so I’m guessing that Dabs and Jazz aren’t technically ‘dating’. This is clearly some sort of immersive tantric therapy session being used to ‘cure’ Jazz’s deep-seated trauma (everybody has trauma, if look look closely enough…)
See, Dabbler’s not a member of ARCHON, technically. She’s an outside contractor. So there might be different rules there.
And she has been expressly informed by Maxi, “no feeding on colleagues”
Doesn’t matter if Dabbles is or is not a full member, Maxi doesn’t want to have to be in a bad position because one of her unit is still recovering (either still back at HQ or simply not focused properly on the situation they are in)
I suspect Xuriel is still trying to discover a bad position.
“Bad Xuriel. You have been a very naughty girl, and must be punished accordingly.”
I think you’re over thinking it.
Dabbler is literally a sex demon.
She’s an exception for everybody.
Actually, that’s how “truth serum” typically works. (It’s been called a “babble dose” for a reason.) With Sydney, it is working pretty much exactly as it should.
“Babble dose” [citation needed]
Considering the use of “truth serums” is generally considered illegal or inadmissible as evidence, I’m curious where you’ve had experience with it being routinely called “babble dose”?
Lie detectors are also inadmissible as evidence, doesn’t stop LEA from using them
Some general anasthetics (the memory blocking type) are close chemical cousins of sodium pentathol, and can have similar effects.
The first time I ever came out from under that stuff in the hospital I promptly tried to talk to the nurse about the odd experience – in WAY too much detail. So yeah, it makes you babble kinda like that.
Sydney’s obviously a ‘special case’, but it’s probably not all that unrealistic compared to, you know, super powers.
@Vastin. I’m sure. Just wanted to rib, lol.
What you got was probably not in the same family as sodium pentathol (barbiturates) for the reason that we tend to avoid those in general anesthesia nowadays given barbs don’t really have decent reversal agents in case of accidental overdose or if the anesthesiologist wants to go home and doesn’t feel like just waiting for you wake up if he accidentally snowed you, lol. And there’s just so many other better alternatives now.
Although, granted, it probably had mechanisms of action (MOA) very similar to barbs, and that it was likely a GABA agonist (EtOH, benzos, nitrous oxide, propofol, etc.).
Pretty much how it worked in Ant Man and the Wasp. They just start a stream of consciousness that immediately flows out of the mouth as soon as a question is asked.
Let’s hope Sydney won’t reveal too much,otherwise Archon security will be compromised…!
In that case, her Arc-SWAT career will be over before it has a chance to begin!
If she sticks to Dabbler’s convoluted love life and her own current emotional state until rescue, (which looks likely) no problem.
This is the best page in years. Was probably easy to draw too.
I am not a native English speaker, so forgive me i am weong but doesn’t Sydney mean “online dictionary” instead of “inline dictionary”.
Anyway I had to pause a second before reading it al cause I snorted first when seeing that wall of text.
And I even type something wrong in my response, probably because like Sydney I am drugged. Taking some heavy painkillers here.. and againI am impressed by this wall of text and errors are to be expected. I don’t think many artist dare to due it because of such risks.
I think she’s referring to the spell-checker built into a lot of word-processing programmes, that highlights words that it doesn’t recognise. A red zigzag line under the unknown word seems to be the conventional indication. Being only a minor part of the programme, its vocabulary is not as comprehensive as a ‘proper’ dictionary – which may be online or hard-copy. And of course, it is subject to the two great caveats of spell-checkers: it won’t recognise a valid word that isn’t on its list (e.g. a different language/dialect), and it won’t notice if you’ve used the wrong word but spelled it correctly.
Inline text dictionary is in word processing software and also kindle
and some browsers, for text entry fields (like Firefox and Chrome)
Mastermind“OK OK, now inject her with something to stop her talking!”
I have found out how Deus may have gotten his “X” facial scar!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC5ALiIahOU
I was thinking you were linking to Season 5 of Lucifer, where he carves an X on his twin brother’s face.
He draws it on? I agree.
I’m not sure what to think about the whole Jabberywocky diatribe in there. I know it was meant as the ‘You thought Dabbler was mind controlling her, but she actually isn’t, so it’s all good!’, but it kinda feels like ‘Sure, Dabbler raped her against her will, but it turns out she was REALLY good at rape, so Jabby liked it, and that makes it okay’. Sure, I’m exaggerating for effect, but at the heart of it, that’s kind of what it is. It’s not a take I think most people would use, but maybe it’s just me.
Sydney starts right out with “ethically questionable”, and the rest is just a download of what happened. The first event was an emotion-based kind of mind control, and it’s up to Jabber how she wants to respond to it.
Since there really wasn’t any sex caused by the thing, the “rape” interpretation brings in way too many false overtones, imho.
In addition to that, Jabber’s behavior has been quite far from stable regarding Dabbler. If she had a tendency toward unstable behavior in other situations not involving Vehemence, it wasn’t shown or hinted at IIRC. Makes it hard to shake the feeling that Dabbler broke something.
I also take this kind of stuff far more seriously than it was intended to be taken. Anything involving mental alterations pushes my existential horror buttons.
I bet this page was a bi**h and a half to actually type out, lol.
Welp Truth Serum + ADHD = wall of useless information.
You put the coin in, you gotta let the song play out. (Ant Man II)
Heh. I correctly guessed the punchline about 1 second after I saw the sheer size of the world bubbles next to Sidney on this page.
Still funny. :)
my inner monologue feels like its out of breath.
this is a new and strange …. sensation.
Trying to work out what these guys want to know.
Concretia mentioned they were interested in studying supers but the first thing we find Sydney talking about is Dabbler so together with the hint from Concretia that it wasn’t governments or corporations, I thought some religious cult out to get demons, which would follow nicely from the last demon hunter encounter and she also wore a half mask.
Alternatively It’s mobsters either misleading with the cultist look or considering it part of their setup. They’re taking multiple angles here, Supposedly studying supers, hiring them, stealing alien technology and capturing Archon members for interrogation.
Someone else mentioned mobsters and we did
This is probably one of the funnier or a long list of really funny scenes from this comic. that last frame…god I fell out of my chair.
As Sydney proves here, there is truth in the phrase, “If you can’t beat them with fancy footwork, dazzle them with BS.”
After all, she can’t do much footwork, confined as she is…
First panel of Cora vs Villain Gang:
Sydney: So I says to Mabel, I says-
Cora: Show’s over, we’re going.
Villain Gang: My hero!
She used ant-man’s friend’s ability to beat truth serum.
Holy crap! Sydney is Luis from Antman!
The opponent was hurt in Sydney’s confusion
Really? None of you notice the way her eyes are …changing perspective?
Really? You never noticed what page of the comments you are on?
Her eyes were mentioned on the first page
“Truth Serum” is a total misnomer.
Apparently it kills certain inhibitions and filters, and is somewhat difficult to get much of use from the recipients.
I’ve heard it’s the mental/verbal version of trying to herd cats.
Some people, especially those with certain mental/brain issues are even worse for any kind of meaningful interrogation. Sydney fitting that profile is of at least a -230% surprise value. Remember the muppet Maxima?
(Hollywood gets things wrong again, as usual.)
Just like there is no “Universal Power Inhibitor” doesn’t mean there are no “Power Inhibitors” (they just have to be creative and customize them, like with Kevin and Opal
It’s called a ‘Truth Serum’ because you can not tell a lie or obfuscate when asked a question. Sydney is demonstrating how you can’t blab unwanted answers if you don’t give them the chance to ask the question(s)
gish gallup, sydney. gish gallop for all you are worth. gish gallop until help arrives or they give up and mark you as not worth being “truth serum”ed as it just causes you to start babbling at mach speed
If they keep listening much longer and Cora arrives, they will have (in an important sense) been talked to death
LMAO at how many other people remember Miles Vorkosigan – and the first time he got dosed with Fast Penta, he beat the interrogation. The second time, when he volunteered to go under (with proper supervision from someone with a high enough security clearance to keep it on the topic), they discovered that apparently that first application triggered an allergy. He has a LOT of allergies – not always to meds. There are native plants on his planet that he is kept away from…and meds that his physicians know to keep him away from and any related meds…as he is important. He’s the main character in really fun series by Lois McMasters Bujold AND is written to be from an important family…not so much plot armor (as he gets hurt a lot) as it is too many ideas in the writer’s head…I think.
Is that what happened? I don’t remember Miles going under a second time.
I remember that MARK had a DELIBERATLY INDUCED lethal allergy.
Since most “truth serums” are some kind of barbiturate, or other depressant, it basically just “turns off” the stimulant used to counter the ADHD. What was really fun was back in the “bad old days” they used tranquilizers to treat ADHD, in an ethanol base. You can imagine how well that worked. I never stopped talking… like today’s comic.
Ah, the Miles Vorkosigan defense! Truth serum is useless if they can’t get a word in edgewise!
Ah! Someone else read the Vorkorsigan saga! I loved his reaction to fast penta. And almost everything else about him.
My favorite line-
‘Oh, they didn’t issue you a reset button for your honor? Mine is right here.’ *points at his belly button*
WHO UNLEASHED HER STREAM OF CONCIOUSNESS?!
the same guy who let the dogs out. some men just want to see the world burn.
The question of ‘whomst among us let the dogs’ out is actually much harder to answer than one would suppose.
I to loved that episode of get smart