Grrl Power #1368 – Reasonably petition it up the chain
When Max shows up at Faulk’s office in her dress purps outside of “the usual times,” he knows there’s going to be an ask. And in this case, the ask is “me fight big danger, friend gets paid.” I’m sure there’s officially military rules about gambling, certainly in uniform, though I’m not sure about while on leave. I imagine it’s probably fine as long as it doesn’t ultimately bring disgrace to your branch, or missing going back on duty because the Thailand version of Fat Guido broke your knees backwards over gambling debts. Come to think of it, I don’t think I know a single Thai name off the top of my head. Except for… Sagat. Which I assume is about as typically Thai as Guile is an American name. Technically Max herself wouldn’t be gambling, though, so… it’s probably fine?
Any sensory organ is technically a scanning device. Although to me “device” implies something that is either detachable or self-contained. And yes, a tongue is technically detachable. But usually “detachable” implies “retachable.”
I had Cora call out the galaxy/universe thing, not because I think Faulk and Max would confuse them. Well, Faulk obviously doesn’t care about the distinction. It’s not relevant for his purposes – especially as Cora points out, intergalactic travel is uncommon at best. I guess I drew attention to it because, as I’ve said before, I watch a lot of MST3K, and a lot of old sci-fi movies do one of two things. One, space consists of the solar system. Attack of the Neptune Men. Mars, mars, mars, martians, Attack from Mars, Santa Clause Conquers the Martians. First Spaceship on Venus, etc. Two, space consists of the entire universe. Which, yes, is correct, but old movies treated it too casually, like “The zabvronians have invented a bomb that can blow up the universe!” or “Let’s fly to my starbase, it’s just on the other side of the universe!”
Anyway, Faulk is incorrect in saying that the universe (or even just the galaxy) has only seen that one demonstration of Max’s power. You can bet they’ve scoured Earth’s media for every single scrap of information about Max and Supers in general. So they know what the public knows, and if we’re being honest, Terran information security probably isn’t up to defeating determined alien hackers, so quite a bit of classified stuff in in their hands as well. But not everything. Early on in the information age, several nerds working with classified information about Supers realized that the breadth of powers meant that electronic systems probably had some unforeseeable vulnerabilities, and now, most of the most super-duper classified stuff was never committed to computer. And then someone saw Read or Die, and decided to transfer most of that stuff to sheets of plastic, because weirdly, no one has discovered a Superpower that directly manipulates plastic. Unless it’s being worn as clothing, and then someone like Ashly the clothing-kinetic. Or if it’s being used as armor or a weapon. There are powers that can manipulate categorized things like that. But just sheets of plastic sitting in a filing cabinet? Not saying the Power doesn’t exist, just that it’s not been discovered yet.
Oh, and I’m sure very few people noticed, but the pictures in the frames aren’t my art, so credit where credit is due: The Ship, The Horse.
The vote incentive is finally done!
The update to the TWC image is pretty minor, but the Patreon version has the bonus comic as well as nude versions. I will strive to make the next one more timely.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
You know, we still haven’t seen the revised icons on Halo’s JUMP DRIVE history tab.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-637-beware-the-history-tab/
So Yomiko Readman’s one true weakness is Tyvek?
Plastikinesis, manipulation of plastic,
papyrikinesis, manipulation of paper
Related to necroflorakinesis, control of dead plant matter
Some really weirdly specific ones
Fibrakinesis, control of anything with a fiber quality to it, which can be really lose depending on what the person perceives of as fiber.
I kind of like the Storm from the X-Men explanation that some powers are just low grade reality warping that is limited to a single concept in A person’s mind like a key term control but is further limited or expanded based on their perception and understanding of that concept. So storm is atmokinesis but she controls not just weather but anything she regards as atmosphere and weather even on small scales that don’t make sense like tiny cartoonish thunder clouds with tiny lightning bolts, and weird stuff like clothes transform or alien and space weather.
Kind of like the explanation in Frieren where they’re magic is a mix of mana based and whimsical based where yeah mana and natural forces and training is a big part of it but so is belief, understanding, and visualization. Where despite how much power someone has if someone just believes or perceives something hard enough they can break through those defenses…being crazy and powerful is a dangerous mix in that world. Or like water control required being able to visualize the water and how it’s spread so they couldn’t just mindlessly force the water out of a human body.
Kinda like how Iceman thought he could just make snow and slippery-ice stuff (and walked around like a fluffy snowman with legs)… until Mystique ‘co-opted’ his body and showed him what he could really do
Wait… is that… is that Puff the Magic Dragon about to join into a fisticuffs match?? I have literally just avoided breaking into a literal fit of audible giggles.
Oh, you should really dive into thai names.
Officially thai have long names, like “Sapha Phuthaen Ratsadon”(current MP) which sound like a motorcycle that refuses to start. In practice, they all have short name, nickname that are used among friends.
Name like things they like to eat “Cola, Ice, Cake” are not uncommon. or things they like to do “guitar, slap”. Also “porn” is popular(or Pon) , but that comes from the thai word of “desisire, wished”
Yeah, ‘Ice’ is the name of an actress from a company that does a series of (almost) daily PSA’s (usually about how not to be a bully or an arsehole… or a bullying arsehole, another actress, by the name of ‘Toey’, tends to get cast as the bullying arsehole, even though she’s really nice in RL)
They do mostly the PSA’s but have also done some GL series
For “It’s probably ok if you’re not betting”- Max would still be involved.
When Pete Rose was banned due to betting, he did insist that it was for his team to win (so no throwing games). But a comment on the issue (as seen on TV Tropes) pointed out that it could lead to scheduling better players more often, with less rest time between games, leading to being worn out later in the season when they may be needed.
The same thing could presumably happen to Max; I haven’t seen anything that suggests she doesn’t sleep anymore, or need down time (in fact, we saw her go out on a date, which is down time).