Grrl Power #1390 – Space Street Fight
Some of the stuff pulling Max’s attention there in panel 2 might be explained… eh, no, probably not. I mean, maybe way down the line, but I’m not going to detour this encounter into a Stygan culture crash course. I feel most of what Max is looking at probably isn’t self explanatory, but should be enough for you guys to guess at reasonably well. None of it is critical to the scene, I wanted to show that Max isn’t jumping into a fight without having some idea of what she’s doing.
The “shimmering crystal shield” on Max’s arms is just an effect Cora programmed into her Glowbod in case there was a need for Max to explain away her ability to take a hit. Max didn’t rove out looking to get into a duel, but she understands serendipitous comic book tropes well enough to not have put some preparation into her disguise.
The glowbods the team is wearing are solid projections, for reasons previously explained, but they’re not like Cora’s hard light rig. Cora’s is properly battle ready and requires quite a bit more power and computer cycles to run. The glowbods do offer some actual protection, but it’s about like motorcycle “armor.” It’s not going to stop a bullet or blade with any real skill behind it, but the illusion won’t shatter if someone trips on a curb or bumps into a lot of people in a crowd. Maxima’s personal fortitude field actually protects the parts of the glowbod that are nearly skintight, so probably not the pauldrons, horns or the leather vest she has over the cuirass. Or the hair. All the girls are wearing their hair pinned up, because trying to track and cover the movement of hair with the hologram is just asking a little too much of the glowbods. It’s fine if the hair is mostly just hanging there, but if someone gets caught in a windstorm or starts headbanging, it’s just not going to be able to keep up.
But for Max, if she’s deflecting hits on her arms, then her disguise should be able to weather almost anything she’s likely to encounter on the station.
BTW, I don’t know what happened to Max’s funnel cake in panel 7. I guess she dropped it into her left hand so she could pinch the bridge of her nose, or rather, of her glowbod’s mask’s nose, which would probably be odd looking behavior among always-wearing-masks-Stygans, but then she transferred it back to her right had to toss to Sydney. Look, if I’d drawn her doing the nose pinch with her other hand, it would have covered up too much of her face, making her expression harder to convey. Don’t think about it too hard.
Ooh, look! A new vote incentive! And it’s updated with color!
Well, in progress, obviously. I have another one that’s actually a bit further along, but everyone was all, “Sydney Kobold vote incentive!” So I switched to this one. Plus the other one was a multi-character picture so it will actually take me longer to finish. I hope to have an update for this one each week, so stay tuned. There is a slightly higher res version on Patreon.
By the way, this gunmetal blue-ish background and teal pencils are how I draw the comic. I set it up this way so I don’t have to spend all day staring into a bright white blank page.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Question: is there anywhere we can find a Stygan culture crash course?
Short side horns, singular. The emblem may mean he’s from a noble house.
Junior wants to make his bones, but he’s a rank novice, is my guess. He’s using bravado to make up for a lack of experience. Teenagers…
I’m guessing the two in back are nannies, there to make sure the kid doesn’t actually die of overconfidence. They won’t mind if Maxima wallops some sense into him, but they’ll stop her if it looks like she’ll actually kill him.
The shrug was definitely a cringing “What can you do?” I would not be shocked if they were parents rolling their eyes.
Only two panels, but I’m not getting “parent” vibes. I agree with NLGS and think they are guards/nannies. The male looks aggravated because he’s about to have to jump in and save the kid, the female looks resigned to the same fate.
A father would probably be more proud his son was brave enough to make such a challenge. A mother in such a culture would be even more proud.
Instead, the male is counting the days till his retirement; both guards/nannies feel they are not being paid enough for this nonsense.
To add. The woman on the left has a singular tick on the emblem while the guy has three. Perhaps an indication of the rank or generation within said house? Like a first child and third child?
I agree that the short horns and cocky smile probably mean he is just posturing or flirting well above his station.
The emblem might even be aomething like a learner’s permit.
‘Our little boy is allowed to wear big boy trousers and bear arms, but please don’t kill him.’
I think emblems are related to “earning the honor”. Mix of stars on the warplane fuselage/duellist ELO rating visualisation.
I think the zoom in on the horn was to show how short it was which told her his age. And the pips around the central symbol is probably his or his families rank within the clan. The guards don’t seem to have any and the female behind him who is probably is personal bodyguard or servant only has one.
My read is that the two adults behind him are bodyguards, but the young lady beside him is a girl he’s trying to impress.
They all have the same “clan” mark on their brow (note that he mocks Maxima’s unmarked brow as “clanless”) but the extra marks on his imply higher social rank in the clan (he’s the sone of somebody who’s actually important). That makes more sense to me than them being achievement based. Short horns are the young age Max calls him out on, matching his testosterony teenagers behaviour.
Note also that “same clan” is not the same thing as “same family”, so this girl he’s trying to impress could genuinely be a girl he’d like to sleep with, as opposed to say, a sibling.
I checked out the high-res version on Patreon, and the guards have a whole line of something across the top of their emblems. Not sure if it’s a singular mark or a bunch of additional markings. They also have markings on their arm bands. And their horns are certainly much longer than the boys.
I notice differences in the emblems, little tick marks, the girl had one, and the boy had three. Perhaps some form of fighting ranking indicators, like belt colors in martial arts classes.
It might even be something like a learner’s permit.
Thumbtack symbol with one and three owies. He’s won three battles, she’s won one. He’s showing off to his girlfriend.
And the adult guards with no ticks never won a fight?
I am sure that it denotes rank. The guards are just grunts and he is of noble rank. Their task is likely to help in regular fights (not duels), make sure he does not die or at least bring back the body.
Probably not, I mean the guards don’t seem to have the pips. But also what do you do when you have won a dozen duels. Most likely it signifies his families rank within the clan the person behind him is probably still considered a noble in the clan but a lesser one while the guards are commoners.
honor easly gained lmao
…Now I’m wondering if this guy is an adolescent who saw Maxima in her disguise, started crushing hard, and this is his way of trying to get her to notice him.
Is the guards’ armor really formed to simulate muscles, complete with boobs for the female? The kid with the oversized codpiece is shirtless, but the guards definitely have a somewhat thick layer over their upper torso.
I mean, the ancient Romans literally had stuff like Muscle Cuirass, and other cultures had stuff like it well into the Iron ages too.
So if your tech is good enough, I can see a warrior culture “reverting” back to similar aesthetics.
Let’s not forget the prominence of the Cod Piece as a fashion statement back in the day as well.
I noticed it on the last page but it’s more obvious here, that knifes guard is backwards to the blade. If that’s intentional that’s fitting in a way.
On funnelcake: while reading, I assumed Maxi had finished eating her cake before tossing Sydney the empty wrapper and accepting the duel. Don’t agonize too much, Dave, it’s fine.
On Stygans: 1 horned challenger and three clanmates with 2 horns each, while Maxi chose to have 3 horns. If horns indicate age, Maxi is senior to the real Stygans. Does anyone remember how many horns Detka has?
Re the clan symbols, the two youngest (?) Stygans have extra little tic marks, 1 on the grrl, 3 on the challenger. Perhaps these marks indicate inexperience or youth, and the grrl is more experienced? I theorize that the challenger got a new sword for his birthday, and is anxious to show his big sister how quickly he can earn off his tic marks by dueling the first adult he sees? He’s gritting his teeth because he is nervous & about to wet himself?
The only reason you can’t see the kid’s right horn is because of the way his head is turned. He’s almost certainly got two.
I think this will be an extremely one-sided “battle and if the loser is to pay for the next round of funnel cakes the kid will end up having to buy Max a funnel cake factory. ;)
Funnel cake thrown to Sydny to be held and finished later. Sheesh, watch it. Happen in real time. Also, by the visual cues. Max ranks everyone there. The guards, everyone nailed it. They are just hoping he gets educated and humbled a bit. Dead, please, no, the paperwork is a real pain, besides he’s the baby of the family. p.s. bunker still having issues, IT hasn’t fixed email yet so.
Well, one thing we *do* know about this culture is that the losers apparently follow the winners around to learn from them. So maybe Max is about to acquire an annoying hanger-on.
The best outcome would be to fight the challenger to a draw but make him work really hard for it. Max should have enough experience sparring to make it look good.
One of Dave’s best sound effects thus far.
…Warp Cake and Glorpberries? And various other berries as well I guess? Sorry, I’m one of those people who sees text in the background and has to try and read it. Even with the pseudo-Greek it’s almost legible…
Guitar-shaped emblem, shared by all four, is clan insignia; the additional marks indicate rank, so the bodyguards are low-rank, the kid is probably a son, but not the eldest, of the ruling family, and the woman a member of an allied family. The eldest son is probably kept closer, and wouldn’t feel like he has anything to prove. The kid’s short horns are definitely a sign of youth; everyone else’s horns are much more significant. For armor, the bodyguards are just wearing pauldrons, indicating they don’t expect serious trouble. That’s a lot of exposed skin.
I’m appreciating the use of Unifon in the signs. I don’t recognize the pixelated script.
The pixel-like one is Ancient from the Stargate-verse
Given Max’s strength and near invulnerability I surmise she could grab the blade when he thrusts at her, bend and snap it. Fight over.
Hey, that’s a clever use of the hologram. Reminds me of Cyborg’s villain disguise from Teen Titans.