Grrl Power IV: Constantly Expanded Universe

[Traab]

She acquiesced to naming her daughter Sydney Scoville Jr. And she's very much second banana in the parenting department, because that's pretty much it. We know Senior is also a comic book geek who want autographed originals of the ARCHON collectibles, but that's about it for him

Oh, and since the subject never comes up, they seem to approve of Halo's new career choices.

But then we know squat about anybody else's families, so it's not like this is an unusual state of affairs.

We know varia is unaware of who her dad is, we know jiggawatt has a half brother who got married recently, and I think he has powers too, or at least someone else in her family does.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Varia's dad was a one off joke for the panel of the betting pool. Jiggawatt's brother came up with the mention that she'd left the wedding reception for the Vehemence fight. I think we know more about the family of the woman hired to work the counter at the comic shop than the rest put together, and I can't think of her name.

[Traab]

Varia's dad was a one off joke for the panel of the betting pool. Jiggawatt's brother came up with the mention that she'd left the wedding reception for the Vehemence fight. I think we know more about the family of the woman hired to work the counter at the comic shop than the rest put together, and I can't think of her name.

Her half brother also came up during the talk about varias dad in regards to powers being genetic. So we know he is both married and has powers, so thats about as much as we know about olivias family. (dad banged twins, knocked both up, mom loves the laugh track)

[Rogar Demonblud]

And the awkward conversation has been skipped, and we're on to the awkward welcome home party.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Well, we now know the name of the guy who wants to flay Xuriel's hide. Thothigoth.

[tyckspoon]

Well, we now know the name of the guy who wants to flay Xuriel's hide. Thothigoth.

*Thothogoth. I can't tell if that's supposed to be a parody name or if he's just trying to evoke the naming scheme of Lovecraftian Elder Things What Man Was Not Meant To Know Of and ended up landing on something that sounds kind of silly.

[Calemyr]

*Thothogoth. I can't tell if that's supposed to be a parody name or if he's just trying to evoke the naming scheme of Lovecraftian Elder Things What Man Was Not Meant To Know Of and ended up landing on something that sounds kind of silly.

The fusion of an Egyptian god of knowledge, a Lovecraftian horrorterror, and an angsty teen... The horror, the horror!

[Rogar Demonblud]

And after what Dabbler just did to Cora, I'm willing to feed her to him and call it even.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

*Thothogoth. I can't tell if that's supposed to be a parody name or if he's just trying to evoke the naming scheme of Lovecraftian Elder Things What Man Was Not Meant To Know Of and ended up landing on something that sounds kind of silly.

I'm not sure how it's supposed to sound... TO-thoh-goth? Thoh-TOH-goth? THOH-thoh-gowth? TOE-toh-goth? Toe-TOE-gowth? Thotto-GOT? The number of permutations is dizzying.

It does seem it sounds silly in all of them, however.

[Traab]

HAH! Poor max, she had no idea just what sydney had gone through to get back home. She probably figured sydney hid for a few hours then got picked up by cora. At best she might know that sydney was on the space station instead and assume that her orb had a greyed out space flight ability of some sort to work with and she ran. This is going to be insane. I honestly wonder about the reaction for her debrief because I can see it going several ways.

1) They concentrate on the positive, sydney is now ftl capable, she showed the ability to adapt and overcome a disgustingly powerful enemy and reach safety if not home, on her own.

2) They ream her out for possibly getting them into a war with a planet destroy alien armada force. Lets face it, she didnt HAVE to fight them off, she chose to slaughter a fleet of alien fighter craft and three or four giant super monster bot things. That would be like taking out the US Navy's third fleet. The rest of the military is going to want to find you for a... chat. Oh, you are a representative of this nation? Guess whos at war? WE ARE!

3) They are freaking out over how dangerous she has just shown herself to be. She basically handled a genocidal alien invasion fleet and won, its been more or less confirmed her orbs are such high tech that the entire galaxy is going to want it if they find out, and there are now records of her on the intergalactic youtube making tracking her down disturbingly possible.

[Radar]

3) They are freaking out over how dangerous she has just shown herself to be. She basically handled a genocidal alien invasion fleet and won, its been more or less confirmed her orbs are such high tech that the entire galaxy is going to want it if they find out, and there are now records of her on the intergalactic youtube making tracking her down disturbingly possible.

This seems to be exactly why the genocidal aliens attacked Sydney and friends: they detected the orbs or the very distinct void they leave in any artificial sensor displays. Not sure if their goal was to take the orbs or just turn them into a fine mist of subatomic particles expanding uniformly in all direction though.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yeah, I'm surprised it's only ten grand.

[The Glyphstone]

Do we know what the going rate is for one swear? A dollar each would get 10,000 swears, but a quarter-per-swear would net 40,000. Could get 200,000 swears from that stack at a nickel each.

[DataNinja]

Do we know what the going rate is for one swear? A dollar each would get 10,000 swears, but a quarter-per-swear would net 40,000. Could get 200,000 swears from that stack at a nickel each.

According to the commentary here, it's not per-swear.

She doesn’t put a dollar in the swear jar (AKA “The Vault”) for every bad word she says, instead she sticks a five in for each tirade. It’s quite a bit cheaper that way. While this system was initially designed by her mother a punitive measure, she uses it now as a sort of savings account that she cashes out once a year, the way some people use their tax return. She can always tell when she’s had a frustrating month because she’s reduced to eating ramen the last week of the month as her discretionary monies swell The Vault. At least that used to be the case. She’ll probably keep it up now that she has a considerable superheroing income, but she might up the penalty payment a bit.

So, 2000 tirades.

[The Glyphstone]

You forget once in a while how long this comic runs, then you see that one compared to the current and notice how drastic the art has shifted.

https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/...rse-of-course/

https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/...lthy-boogaloo/

[HandofShadows]

You forget once in a while how long this comic runs, then you see that one compared to the current and notice how drastic the art has shifted.

https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/...rse-of-course/

https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/...lthy-boogaloo/

He did say that one reason he decided to do this comic was to get better at his art.

[Traab]

You know, I realize much has been made of how well off arcswat members are, but its never been actually spelled out. But good lord, "Hey, can I borrow ten grand from you for a reason I dont want to say?" "Yeah sure, lets go pick up the cash" She literally tossed 10 grand into a swear jar as a joke, getting the money from someone who can casually give away 10 grand and isnt objecting to it being used like this. Im pretty sure thats millionaire rich levels. It was one thing when they were shrugging at 40 dollar lunches as no big deal, this is a few steps beyond that.

[Calemyr]

You know, I realize much has been made of how well off arcswat members are, but its never been actually spelled out. But good lord, "Hey, can I borrow ten grand from you for a reason I dont want to say?" "Yeah sure, lets go pick up the cash" She literally tossed 10 grand into a swear jar as a joke, getting the money from someone who can casually give away 10 grand and isnt objecting to it being used like this. Im pretty sure thats millionaire rich levels. It was one thing when they were shrugging at 40 dollar lunches as no big deal, this is a few steps beyond that.

Well, it was established that ArcSWAT was intended to pay its supers what they'd be making in the open market. Supers are... well... super. We're talking completely absurd individuals, one in a million chance to have one of a kind abilities. We're talking the ability to render a company's long distance transportation of goods a non-issue, the ability to treat work that would take millions of dollars of heavy equipment to do normally as a day off, or the ability to do things that are fundamentally impossible otherwise (in Achilles's case). These guys make sports superstars look mundane, and with charisma that would make Hollywood celebrities look nondescript... Of course they'd be millionaires on the open market. And Halo my not have the charm or the rank, but the girl's got the wits and a host of powers to make the Golden Girl green with envy.

[tyckspoon]

You know, I realize much has been made of how well off arcswat members are, but its never been actually spelled out. But good lord, "Hey, can I borrow ten grand from you for a reason I dont want to say?" "Yeah sure, lets go pick up the cash" She literally tossed 10 grand into a swear jar as a joke, getting the money from someone who can casually give away 10 grand and isnt objecting to it being used like this. Im pretty sure thats millionaire rich levels. It was one thing when they were shrugging at 40 dollar lunches as no big deal, this is a few steps beyond that.

She probably just asked for an advance against that 3 months of back pay they agreed to pay for her lost-in-time adventure; that's going to be a pretty hefty lump sum, and in her current situation it's pretty much all.. I don't want to say 'free', exactly, but 'uncommitted' funds? All of her living expenses are still at the level of a mostly-broke person, she doesn't have a lifestyle commensurate with her new pay rate yet, so the great majority of what she makes can still be applied to pretty frivolous things. (And she uses the swear jar as a sort of alternate savings account anyway, so it's not like she's even actually spending the money.)

There's probably a bank in-building (ARC-CU?) that could explain why there's that much cash laying around.. although even then 10k may represent a pretty large chunk of their actual physical cash reserve. Or.. maybe not, if they regularly service ARC members - at least a few of them seem to be used to doing the flashy celebrity thing, which means sometimes they're going to go out and splash around a large amount of cash at bars/clubs/events/etc, so it would make sense for their primary bank to keep a larger-than-usual supply of paper money for that kind of demand. ARC may also have a liquid operations fund in case they need to rapidly purchase something for/on a mission, but that would theoretically require some actual urgent mission need and/or command authorization to tap - I doubt 'I wanna pay off my swear jar' would get Sydney access to that money.

[Traab]

Well, it was established that ArcSWAT was intended to pay its supers what they'd be making in the open market. Supers are... well... super. We're talking completely absurd individuals, one in a million chance to have one of a kind abilities. We're talking the ability to render a company's long distance transportation of goods a non-issue, the ability to treat work that would take millions of dollars of heavy equipment to do normally as a day off, or the ability to do things that are fundamentally impossible otherwise (in Achilles's case). These guys make sports superstars look mundane, and with charisma that would make Hollywood celebrities look nondescript... Of course they'd be millionaires on the open market. And Halo my not have the charm or the rank, but the girl's got the wits and a host of powers to make the Golden Girl green with envy.

Oh I fully agree, im just curious as to exactly HOW MUCH they get paid. Like, clearly its enough that she thought her first paycheck was an annual thing and enough even then to make her foam at the mouth. I would have easily seen her making a quarter mil to a couple mil a year. But the casual treatment of 10k like its just 10 bucks shot my estimates way up. I doubt we will ever get a hard figure though, as for one thing, that would likely just create a reason for arguments about appropriate payments, and for another, this way he can throw out gags like this where they do something fiscally ludicrous and nobody can say, "Hey, it doesnt make sense they would throw away enough money to turn an olympic pool into a jello pit"

[tyckspoon]

... "Hey, it doesnt make sense they would throw away enough money to turn an olympic pool into a jello pit"

While an amusing image this is probably cheaper than you would think, to the point where the water to fill the pool probably costs more than the gelatin, and the energy to heat/cool the gelling agent so it melts and then sets up is more than either. If you can get an industrial rate on the water instead of residential I bet you could do it for a few hundred dollars

[Radar]

While an amusing image this is probably cheaper than you would think, to the point where the water to fill the pool probably costs more than the gelatin, and the energy to heat/cool the gelling agent so it melts and then sets up is more than either. If you can get an industrial rate on the water instead of residential I bet you could do it for a few hundred dollars

I think the biggest cost would come from cleaning the pool afterwards honestly. Since inbuilt pumping systems could not be used, it could cost a bit more and I would add one zero to the estimate. Olympic pools are big.

[Agi Hammerthief]

why does „Marinate in the raw power“ sound so much like „radiation poisoning“?

[BannedInSchool]

why does „Marinate in the raw power“ sound so much like „radiation poisoning“?

Wrong starts-with-a-G*rl comic.

[Lapak]

Oh I fully agree, im just curious as to exactly HOW MUCH they get paid. Like, clearly its enough that she thought her first paycheck was an annual thing and enough even then to make her foam at the mouth. I would have easily seen her making a quarter mil to a couple mil a year. But the casual treatment of 10k like its just 10 bucks shot my estimates way up. I doubt we will ever get a hard figure though, as for one thing, that would likely just create a reason for arguments about appropriate payments, and for another, this way he can throw out gags like this where they do something fiscally ludicrous and nobody can say, "Hey, it doesnt make sense they would throw away enough money to turn an olympic pool into a jello pit"

I think this comes from how hard it is to conceptualize large amounts of money. Let's say she makes $5M a year, around the average for an NFL quarterback and way, WAY less than top-tier athletes, CEOS, etc. Slightly above where you were, but very possible for one of the big name celebrities which she now explicitly is.

In that case she just dropped 0.2% of her salary in a swear jar. For comparison, let's take someone who makes a comfortable $60K a year. The equivalent for them would be dropping $120 in a swear jar to commemorate almost dying several times and being stranded at the far edge of the galaxy. [EDIT: With this assumption,] she's basically celebrating with 'a nice dinner out' level of money put into a container meant to fund exactly that kind of activity.

[Calemyr]

While an amusing image this is probably cheaper than you would think, to the point where the water to fill the pool probably costs more than the gelatin, and the energy to heat/cool the gelling agent so it melts and then sets up is more than either. If you can get an industrial rate on the water instead of residential I bet you could do it for a few hundred dollars

Amusingly, I think Heatwave could solve the warming issue. Cooling issue, too, though you'd have to really sweet-talk her into it because she doesn't like "eating heat", particularly her own.

I think this comes from how hard it is to conceptualize large amounts of money. Let's say she makes $5M a year, around the average for an NFL quarterback and way, WAY less than top-tier athletes, CEOS, etc. Slightly above where you were, but very possible for one of the big name celebrities which she now explicitly is.

In that case she just dropped 0.2% of her salary in a swear jar. For comparison, let's take someone who makes a comfortable $60K a year. The equivalent for them would be dropping $120 in a swear jar to commemorate almost dying several times and being stranded at the far edge of the galaxy. [EDIT: With this assumption,] she's basically celebrating with 'a nice dinner out' level of money put into a container meant to fund exactly that kind of activity.

While mathematically, correct, I'd point out there's an issue of excess as well - someone with $60k is much more likely to use most of their paycheck to get by, while someone with $5M is less likely to use all of it. This is even more the case with ArcSWAT, which employs Shrapnel to teach fiscal responsibility. Sydney's business may need a little propping up, but her her lifestyle hasn't really increased in expense since she was merely the co-owner of a struggling shop - the only addition to her lifestyle is the barracks, which isn't an expense on her behalf. Syd's got money to burn.

[Lapak]

While mathematically, correct, I'd point out there's an issue of excess as well - someone with $60k is much more likely to use most of their paycheck to get by, while someone with $5M is less likely to use all of it. This is even more the case with ArcSWAT, which employs Shrapnel to teach fiscal responsibility. Sydney's business may need a little propping up, but her her lifestyle hasn't really increased in expense since she was merely the co-owner of a struggling shop - the only addition to her lifestyle is the barracks, which isn't an expense on her behalf. Syd's got money to burn.

This is very true. Her income is probably darn close to 99% discretionary right now.

[Traab]

This is very true. Her income is probably darn close to 99% discretionary right now.

Which just makes it stranger that she had to borrow ten grand from max to do this. Also, I dont think the shop is currently in need of propping up. Im pretty sure that at the very least for the short term, they are making money hand over fist considering her first day post reveal stripped the shelves bare. It will likely calm down, but there is no telling what the long term effects of a super hero celebrity owning a comic shop will be for its popularity. Especially if they keep to the model of "Want to talk to me? Buy something" which only makes good sense. Dont want loiterers filling up the place buying nothing after all.

[Yuki Akuma]

Which just makes it stranger that she had to borrow ten grand from max to do this. Also, I dont think the shop is currently in need of propping up. Im pretty sure that at the very least for the short term, they are making money hand over fist considering her first day post reveal stripped the shelves bare. It will likely calm down, but there is no telling what the long term effects of a super hero celebrity owning a comic shop will be for its popularity. Especially if they keep to the model of "Want to talk to me? Buy something" which only makes good sense. Dont want loiterers filling up the place buying nothing after all.

She only had to borrow the money because she doesn't carry cash on her.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Who does anymore, really? Her checks are all direct deposited and she likely uses a debit/credit card like the rest of us.