Grrl Power #492 – Don’t tell her spots are gauche
I did way too much research to try and figure out how to write Sydney’s squee word bubble. Ok, not “too much” but given how little I know about how to write music, it took longer than it should have. As it is I doubt I put enough of those horizontal bar things to make the note actually ultrasonic. I just stopped when I ran out of room, so hopefully it doesn’t bug the people who can actually read music too much. Ideally it’d be a very very high “e” if I knew what I was doing. I was shooting for 57va, also apparently known as cinquantisettesimo.
Pixel happens to be a gigantic were-jaguar, a fact that will surely come up on the next page, so I’m not sure what else to day about it here. This is something that is fairly incidental to her job as one of Arc-LIGHT’s artifact experts. It doesn’t hurt, obviously, than she can defend herself when the artifact she’s studying decides to summon a gaggle of zombie vikings or whatever the day to day of her job entails. Zombie vikings are definitely on the table though.
Oh, I don’t know what her collar is made out of (that bell doesn’t have a ringer in it in case you were wondering. That would drive her and everyone around her mad.) but it’s probably got a slat in the back that lets in expand. It’s probably a fair bet she’s not wearing a bra though, cause it would have to literally be magic to accommodate that change in volume. Of course, if magic was real and there were people living in the world who could radically change their size or dimensions at will, it’s kind of unrealistic to think there wouldn’t be magic clothes out there.
Edit: BTW, Pixel being a were-cat has nothing to do with Heinlein’s story, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, which involves a cat named Pixel. I was totally unaware of it until this post on the previous page. Weird.
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Check out Wearing the Cape: Team-Ups & Crossovers. Sydney’s first Crossover! I’ve made a dedicated blog post for it, please comment there.
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I suppose that if Captain Jean-Luc Picard, or another equallyfollicly-challenged individual, were to become a lycanthrope, he would find his transformation to be ENBOLDENED.
You may now envisage Captain Jean-Luc Picard as a huge naked bold panther.
If anyone could make that look awesome Patrick Stewart could. There is no baldness more awesome than his.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard does top the IMDB poll, for best bald character. With Prof X being in 2nd place. The non-reboot flavour, for some reason. Mmm, I wonder if there is a connection?
Mind you, Riddick does get a high coolness rating, in my book.
Saitama?
Does not even get a mention, I am afraid. Personally I think the cartoons that made it to the list are way out. I would put Gru above most of the others, although Homer does rate a high position. Although not for awesome coolness.
Only a few men can pull off that special kind of shiny.
Two of the very few white guys who can pull off such a bald look
Nobody has beaten Yul Brynner yet.
Who Loves ya, Baby?
*hangs head* He’s not white though, is he? o_O
That was Telly Savalas (Kojak) :)
Yul was this guy:
https://static.socialitelife.com/uploads/2015/08/20/yul-brynner-lead.jpg
https://es.web.img3.acsta.net/r_640_600/b_1_d6d6d6/medias/nmedia/18/36/23/68/18889808.jpg
White? Well, they both had kinda fair skin, Telly was born in the USA and was of Greek descent, while Yuri was born in Russia and was of Russian, Swiss and German descent, if that answer the question.
Yuri -> Yul
Damn! Know both of them (Yul was in “The King and I” and the original “Westworld”, Telly was in “The Dirty Dozen”), absolutely no reason to have mixed them up like that :(
Yeah, but they have a heavy tan-complexion (at least, Yul does, that’s why he got to play the King of Siam)
I have an advantage in remembering Yul, as one of my schoolmates played alongside him, in The King and I.
*wags tail proudly*
*SWATS YORP ON NOSE* Bad pun. Bad pun, Yorp! Bad!
Here’s a question for all you deep thinkers. If a were- in human form gets a full Brazilian bikini wax, does she keep it when she transforms (and would that be more naked than naked?)? If not, does she get it back when she transforms back to human? Because if not, that could get both expensive and irritating.
Related question: What about after removal via electrolysis or laser treatment? Would the effects be truly permanent?
I’m going to beseech you to stop trying to break my brain.
It depends on their regeneration factor. Under conventional understanding of lycanthropic regeneration any damage to the follicle would be healed, so electrolysis would be futile. However the hair itself may need to regrow, whether naturally or supernaturally.
Thaaaattts if its not the whole “they have 2 bodies idea” where they really have 2 forms that are (for lack of a better term) stored in one another when one is in use, so if they get a sun tan or something in one it would just have no effect on their were form because its only loosely effect but even large change(but in the cases of things that effect how much or their body is lost to damage like bloody loss or missing arm)
A brazilian isn’t a lasting change, so I’m guessing it’s not going to stick in transformed-mode, no matter what the process is. Whether a brazilian will “be back” post transformation is trickier, and the answer is entirely based on how the transformation works. Short answer – the more science you can quantify the change with, the more likely you’re going to be buying another brazilian.
Magic can inexplicably make things not be, or be as they were before, including the fuzz on your undercarriage. If your transformation makes your hair grow as an extension of a [semi]natural process, and causes you to shed excess hair when you turn back, you’ll have (potentially) the thickest hair you can physically grow when you revert, or some genetically preset length/shape, down there or up top, when you revert; if you needed a brazilian, you’ll need it again.
In Pixel’s case, there seems to be a lot of magic involved* . Ergo, I’m assuming she’ll revert to her original specs, no problem
*(mass acquisition, odd color, the transformation is very much in the “Things are Being Done to my body” as opposed to “my body is Do Things” flavor (her bones aren’t re-growing, cracking, and/or twisting – they are just taking on a new shape; her muscles aren’t unattaching/reattaching, latching onto different bone/joint locations, compositing or dividing to accommodate new physiology – they’re just suddenly made to fit; her skin isn’t stretching or growing, it’s just the right size for her new body; etc)
Dave has stated that weres can control how their hair/fur manifests, when in their hybrid form. Which is how Kat has human hair, even when in bunny form. As such it should have no effect, in the example given, as the were can override what is done to their human form.
One exception that stands out is for a lycanthrope who does not know such can be controlled. In which case they may subconsciously mirror their human state, even if that results in a weird look!
Incidentally, this is why I suspect that Pixel’s hybrid form is so different. If she has discovered how to apply this control to other aspects, such as body and breast size.
Although, as an artefact expert, she may just be doing it artificially. Perhaps using the bell, as suggested on one of the earlier comment pages.
Given the ability to control hair changes during the transformation it is possible that the were back to human form means that the person in question could control what grows back. So they could use the transformation affect for personal grooming so a were man transforming every morning to get the fresh shaved face look or a were woman transforming before they plan to were (lol thank dyslexia for the punage) a skirt or get lucky ;-P
Ps this discussion reminded me of the scene in e x-man everlution cartoon when Rogue used her powers to subdue Sabertooth and went fuzzy and complained she’d only shaved this morning. Lol
Research seems to suggest that no “permanent” form of hair removal actually is. Yes, I’m that bad at shaving that I checked.
Same that with male weres that shave.
I’m glad the collar and non-bra got addressed – the first is a potentially lethal issue, and the second is just pain and suffering any other way. I’m curious what her pants and shirt are made of, though. I assume it’s something non-thread based? just because it’s containing 3 to 5 times the volume, and if you stretch a warp and weft that hard, even if it doesn’t break, it ends up see-through, in the “fine fishnet” sense (shirts generally have a thread count of ranging from 50 to 200 – double the dimensions, and the 200 drops to 50, and any lesser standard gets indecent). I suppose a double or triple layered shirt with a series of different warp/weft patterns might translate into a single effective layer when stretched…but that would make Pixel’s clothes very thick…which I suppose they could be…HMMM
That is not something I am going to be examining too closely myself. Pixel has a different target audience to me.
Elastic fabrics, the greatest fashion invention ever.
Yes, but even they have a limit
If Purple Pants can survive The Hulk, think we can give Pixels were-ware a pass. We have flying people who can toss tanks and shoot death rays from their palm, extra stretchy yoga pants could possible be the most believable part of this comic.
I already gave the stretchiness a pass – I’m still curious how a 100 thread count shirt doesn’t become a 25 thread count (which, as a reminder, means 12 threads in one direction, and 13 in the other, in each inch), and thus as concealing as fine fishnet. Assuming that that shirt is 100 thread count. most are closer to 50. the main shirts that get 200 are high end dress shirts and very expensive custom tees. ARC could afford to outfit her with one, or even a higher count, explicitly for these sorts of situations, but it seems like a lot of trouble, when you could do a single pour vest made of a high elasticity rubber-like material instead, as an alternative.
Balam’s or wear-jaguars are rather interesting too. I treat them as any were-creature. Regeneration and can change forward and back as they please. Oh they can die, just very hard to make them dead and stay dead is all. If their head is cut off you can place it back and it will heal. Depends on how long of course. And if you use silver, or fire could interrupt the regeneration process of those cells. Like controlled cancer. The turning on and off of the cells happens. One can make it more scientific than magical.
Fun fact: the American Panther is a type of Jaguar so you could say Pixel is a Pink Panther.
Oops, 100 people already made that joke. Sorry, over 600 comments is allot puns to browse through.
That’s like saying the mountain lion is a kind of house cat. It isn’t. Tough they are related they aren’t interchangeable. The jaguara as the local language calls it would not mistake it for a North American Mountain lion no would the reverse happen.
Sorry, I guess I should have said ‘Panthera Onca’
The term Panther comes from a mythical creature and us used very freely regarding big cats with dark fur, including the ‘Panthera Onca’ Jaguar of South America, ‘Puma Concolor’ of North America as you just mentioned, the ‘Panthera Pardus’ Leopard of Asia and Africa that most associate the Panther with thanks to the Jungle Book.
The other cats I have forgot to mention can be found on Wikipedia when you google Panther.
Oh, it was a pun not meant to be taken seriously :P
Dang. Dang! Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!
I did not see that coming! I probably should have… but at the same time… wow. Amazing. Terrifying and beautiful. Also still getting my ‘aww, kitty’ urge to just start petting her. Probably lose an arm.
An octave on the grand staff is 3 1/2 lines. Frequency doubles with each octave. Middle C (C4 or C in abc) is 261.63Hz. So the C in the treble cleff (C5 or c in abc) would be 523.26Hz.
Ultrasound starts above the upper range of human hearing, which is usually around 20kHz. Five (C10 or c””’ in abc) and six octaves (C11 or c””” in abc) above c would be 16.74kHz and 33.49kHz, respectively. So the first ultrasonic note would probably be halfway through there somewhere?
C10 is 17 lines above the top of the treble cleff. C11 is 20 1/2 lines above the top of the treble cleff.
Sydney’s note is 24 lines above the top of the treble cleff. Whatever the first ultrasonic note is,
Sydney’s note is roughly an octave and a half above that note — her note is 66.98kHz (easy to figure out for me since it’s a C), or definitely into the ultrasonic range.
I knew there’d be some awesome music nerd in the comments who would work it out.
A pity it overshot.
Dave was worried about undershooting the sheet music so it’s probably a pleasant surprise that he overshot instead.
My Calculations of Sydney’s note is at E12 about 70958.75 Hz.
using Middle C as start C4 … the note is one line (two notes) above the C12 line
the next space being D12 – the note is on the line of E12
The D12 note is at the 66976.14 Hz.
Magic collar? Maybe, or maybe it’s just something like, oh, I don’t know, elastic or one of those other stretchy materials. You know there are spider silks that are many times stretchier than elastic, and stronger too.
There are certain weaves or other things you can do with cloth or string that also can make it stretch.
Maybe it’s just got a slip connector of some type, so it slides when she changes, and maybe breaks away easily if some jerk has the nerve to try and grab her by it, err, like many cat collars. (Hey, it’s a thing, and it’s so apropos. I hadn’t heard of that until I heard about Kitty Convict, so I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone here hasn’t. Yes, Amazon sells Kitty Convict, and the Oatmeal also promotes it. So if you have an indoor cat, check it out. No, I didn’t mean to promote something, but I felt I had to explain myself, and it’s a good thing too. I’ll stop now. )
685 Comments! Congratulations on being so popular Dave.
…a cat named Pixel? Nice Heinlein reference.
Except Dave mentions in the after blog that he didn’t know about the book until after he planned this all out. When it was mentioned a couple of strips back in speculation.
And remember, Sydney, “not a lesbian, not a lesbian, not a lesbian”
Well, hellooooooo putty cat~
Even at the end of the month, I still let out a hearty laugh, when I see Sydney’s expression, in the final panel! Not to mention continuing when following the Eeeee and finally onto Pixel’s disheartened response.
How come she enboobened and the other female weres didn’t?
Keep reading on, all will become clear.
*awards self star for hidden pun*
The better question is… where do the boobs come from?
I mean animals in the wild are completely flat, only humans have boobs to speak of.
If you actually channeled a were (anything) the result would be flatter chest, flatter rear… so eh.
I will await this hidden pun that has been spoken for of ages past….
It stems from her super physique. So it comes from whatever grants any super those kinds of changes (like the Hulk or Vehemence gaining mass when enbiggening).
Not that Pixel is only super in her were form. Hence why her natural human form can be a member of the A-Team.
I also think that Sydney could sign up for a Bat opera.
Look at all those supersonic octaves she just passed.
Just so long as she does not try to sign up to be upgraded to a super-vampire bat. Enboobening would ruin her perfect physique. Plus bats… really ugly.* Note how Batman’s outfit emulates only the silhouette of a bat.
Try and replicate the facial features, and you will make babies scream, even when you try to comfort them!
* With exceptions for biologists with a relevant speciality. They always either end up abandoning it, because it is too revolting working with them, or love whatever spawn-from-hell they happen to be studying. Somehow they activate the ‘only a mother can love that’ part of the brain.
The last panel only shows 6 orbs around Sydney’s head, while the first two panels show 7. The pinkish lighthook/SnakeBall appears to be missing, and her fists are closed too tightly for her to be holding it, in that last panel. So, where is it?
The halo is partially out-of-frame, but that’s where Lighthook is.
No, the orbs are too regularly-spaced for one to be off-frame, so they form a nice hexagon (looking down on them from above). Only a distorted hexagon can accommodate an off-frame orb.
Jaguars are members of genus Panthera, which are pantherine cats, so she is, in fact, a pink panther. If she were a cheetah, she’d be in the feline subfamily, so then she wouldn’t be a panther.
Whee! Pink panther has a much nicer cadence, so I shall be sure to make use of that cunning logic, should it be required, thanks.
Jaguar are actually panthers, it’s applicable to any of the big cats from Panthera (Puma are not) namely P. Leo (Lion), P. Pardus (Leopard [of which the melanistic Leopard aka Black Panther usually belongs]), P. Onca (Jaguar), P. Tigris (Tiger), and P. Uncia (Snow Leopards which had their genetics assessed finally and are officially considered to be a member of the genus as of about 11 years ago).
You drew that as a quarter note,which is typically one beat long. This looks like an extended whole note, or more likely a multi-bar tied whole notes.
Dunno. She’s gained roughly 50% in height, so her clothes are much stretchier than the best elastic we (publicly) know how to build if she isn’t ruining them.
I’ve taken up powerlifting for a few years now. Finding clothes that fit is…difficult. I’ve actually done a Ferrigno on a couple of shirts (to be fair, they were not new). So I do know something about just how much give there is in clothes. Which is to say, not much.
I don’t think the choker is the sticking point here for clothes flexibility, is what I’m saying.