Grrl Power #1399 – When offers of pampered luxury raised its ugly head…
I probably could have left this page to the imagination, but uh… I didn’t.
Max hasn’t been in a lot of situations where she has to run away from a situation. I mean, she doesn’t have to run away, but it would be pretty ridiculous for her to beat up a mob of overly enthusiastic munchkin mole-wolf things. Of course, Max understands a tactical retreat. Though like this time, nearly all of her retreats are diplomatic retreats. You know, the kind that don’t escalate a situation. Womping a bunch of shorties would definitely be off-mission.
It would make tomorrow’s Fracture Station Gazette. Probably not the front page. It’s largely a trade publication, featuring big shipments coming in and going for sale in the many, many bazaars on the station. Also there’s a section for Station politics, galactic politics, sports… like a huge sports section, because there are so many sports across all the races. Also the comic strip section is humongous and 90% of them make no sense to 90% of the population because a lot of humor is pretty culturally dependent. Slapstick and fart jokes are the closest things to universal humor there is, even if a lot of races are super verklempt about bodily functions.
Then there’s the culture section. There’s a lot of cultural festivals. There’s a “New Year’s” celebration almost every day somewhere on the station, because there’s so many races there and everyone’s homeworld orbits are not synchronized.
And don’t forget the personal’s section. “Hey, saw you looking weird at the Zimblim New Year’s party with too many orifices in your head, but I was into it. I was the tall cyclops at the psychic’s table foretelling everyone’s death. Hit me up on FractureNet.”
Stuff like that. What I’m saying is that The Fracture Station Gazette is like eight inches thick and is physically impossible to neatly fold. Or it would be if it wasn’t distributed electronically, because printing 80 million of those every week would be a ridiculous waste of paper.
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.
Congrats, Sid: you’re a status symbol.
I think this one’s more on Max honestly. She’s the one who drew the crowd by flexing on a scrub and then trouncing an entire group of trained warriors. Sydney just brushed her hair aside. What happened to keeping a low profile?
It’s actually more on Sydney. Max explained why she had to fight, it would actually be weird if her species did not fight. And people are gonna show up to a fight in public that’s just how things are. However for Sydney, she designed her disguise to be problematic. And the thing is based on her reaction she KNOWS this. She knew what the gem on her forehead meant. Maybe she didn’t know what the reaction was going to be, but it’d be like if on earth having to have a disguise and not be suspicious, and intentionally going “Make me as physically pretty as possible, and give me all the designer clothes” and then just going to a normal random mall, not in a place where celebrities visit. You know you’re gonna draw attention.
I’m guessing she thought the reaction would be “occasional squeeing recognition by one or two of her supposed species” rather than “beset by a flash mob of her supposed species”. That said, yeah, she really should have forgone the squeeing recognition in order to keep a low profile.
When ‘reviewing outfits’, please put some trousers on Tsraratal. =_=
And I don’rmt care if that turns out to be culturally insensitive.
Sydney’s breaking so many hearts today, so many corsages and dance cards going to waste, et cetera et cetera.
It’s hard to be this popular, isn’t it?
One thing is for sure: these guys are NOT in the middle of their equivalent of the French revolution. In fact, the monarchy appears to be very popular with the commoners!
“It’s the only time in her life that Sydney has advocated for more running.”
OBJECTION!
The Doctor Who series(s) is known to Sydney, and so she would know that “running” and indeed “more running” are indeed a trope.
‘Hello I’m the Doctor, basically, Run!”
If she’s read Terry Pratchett, she might also be familiar with the creed of Rincewind: “It doesn’t matter so much where you’re running TO, as what you’re running AWAY FROM.”
Maxima will also be familiar with the precept that the normal military chain of command changes in the context of running. “An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.”
That’s from Schlock Mercenary. No less valid though.
And a Sargent in motion out ranks everyone.
And never look back. It only slow you down.
Well, yes, but it’s still probably the first time she’s advocated more running *for herself*…
TIL the meaning of sybartic
Darnit. Now I really want to read fanfic about a star sapphire princess who said nope to all the mollycoddling and ran away to become a freelancer in space. The bounty hunters who inevitably follow would be wildly uncomfortable with the requirements of the job.
“I am not being paid enough to hug you into submission and read you bedtime stories on the way to pickup… or am I? Am I?”
If the Fracture Gazette was a thing, would the front page of it be totally filled with adverts, like an old newspaper or some news sites I could name?
I’m guessing that the cut and color not only indicate Tzerki is royalty, but also that she’s unattached to any den/warren and is “available”. That sounds exactly like something a polyamorous space boyfriend would code into a holo disguise as a joke, but not smart for keeping a low profile.
In a world where super advanced disguise technology exists (also a knockoff blue crystal thing could be enough), why would everyone immediately assume she is the actual princess? It’s like seeing an hold guy with a crown and assuming he is the king of England.
Maybe princesses are really THAT much of a status symbol — and most people aren’t crazy enough to risk the wrath of a deceived warren. Not after the last time…
I think these gems are PART of their body and so would likely not be easy to fake, and once the disguise falters, I don’t think those guys would see the humor in the joke, hence the incessant request to LEAVE.
A graboïd reference ! My day is done !