Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Content

Thank you for the support! You guys and grrls are awesome!

In case you can't read it, the security screen in panel 2 says "EROPASS" at the top, and the screen says "Think about your favorite orgy, you dirty space trollop. -X,xox" and there's a little heart there too. This first X is for Xuriel, the rest are the usual hugs and kisses, which, uh... Well, I guess that panel would probably not be written in English. Probably that sexy space French-ish sounding language they usually speak with each other. I know I wrote down the name the language in the post under a comic, but I don't really have a way to search that, so I don't remember what I called it. I thought it was a good name too, like "Exhora" or something. A lot of times when I make up words in my head, I seem to go a little consonant heavy, coming up with words like "flerng," or "himlrrg." Oh, look, I invented Welsh. Hah. Seriously though, sometimes I get stuck in that mode and it's like, "No alien words for you today."

The thing I wanted to bring up is that the security system Dabbler created for her "not good enough to be her primary weapon, but still it was super cool, so she didn't sell them to vendors and kept them in her stash inventory." Literally anyone who's played an RPG knows that exact category of equipment. The "almost good enough or was my best weapon but doesn't synergize with that cool unique shield I got, or just looks rad" stuff. That's what this vault is.

So anyway, the security system basically scans (in a future space tech MRI way) for specific, uh, orgasms? Recollections of orgasms. Erotic memories. You don't have to reenact them. Not that Dabbler didn't consider that option. Maybe if you fail the scan three times. You have to train it with a bunch of specific memories, but that does seem like it'd be a pretty hard thing to fake, and it's not something someone's going to socially hack by causally asking about your first pet or something.

Doors that slide into the surrounding walls/floor are really not good for vaults. You have to have a vault door sized gap in your wall, meaning your vault wall has to take up a lot more depth, and leaves a big hollow space, which might be exploitable somehow? I don't know, like an employee stick gum that isn't really gum but is actually remotely activated acid to part of the door that slides into the hollow space and lets it build up over a long time until you have enough to do detrimental acid stuff. How often does the door hollow get checked for gum-acid?

So, there was a whole docking the ship, seeing another ship in dry dock... is it called dry dock in space? More like a freeze-dry dock, am I right? The point is the StarForge has a ship construction hangar. Then they go though security, decon, Sydney makes a joke about War of the Worlds, Cora says hi to a bunch of people, etc. The vault isn't just accessible via an external airlock or anything. I just didn't want to spend like 4-6 pages on all that stuff. I'll get to a little "establishing the interior scenery" stuff later, though this base isn't intended to a long visit.

The signs under Sydney's word bubbles are for a gun and a hammer. The chain-whips and boomerangs and other miscellaneous weapons are in the corner of the armor vault, which is on the other side of the central elevator, not so much for balance. Mostly just for symmetry.

Files

Comments

Miyaa

I’m surprised Dabbler wouldn’t have the Thundercats sword that could give Max sight beyond sight.

codesurfer

can't wait to see what weapons Max choses as her magic drinker. The sword already looks cool, but isn't her aesthetic. I think she'll probably go for either twin daggers/tonfa to accentuate her CQC or a polearm because if she's going to use a weapon it might as well be the king of weapons

Tie Toter

Oh yeah! Pokey-sharp, cutty stuff!

Steve Brinich

"it's not something someone's going to socially hack by causally asking about your first pet or something" Actually, it sounds like the sort of thing Dabbler *would* casually ask about.

Thomas Dorner

Those are some really cool looking weapons!

Michael Obert

Swords are more dangerous with proper technique, but when you're Max, well, swing away, Merill! Pretty sure it all comes out in the wash 😆

Aclys

Honestly, if she doesn't have the training her best bet is something hefty and durable enough to handle being used by her. In fact given her disguise showing off poor technique with a sword or whatnot would possibly poke holes in her fake identity since those guys seem pretty proud of their martial prowess and the like. Ultimately when she needs to hit as hard as she can she'd be using her particle blasts anyhow, no?

Aclys

I do not see her stealing a weapon like that from a gang of what are pretty objectively good people or, in this case, cat folk.

Sir Butcher

They will use different disgues, this is just a temporary one for the travells (and stops).

codesurfer

i like your thoughts. Definitely not going to use a rapier for sure. Her hyper reflexes are however going to cover her lack of training if nothing else than as an excuse as to why she isn't as polished.

Nematrec

I see Sydney hasn't learned her lesson from the minigun incident

Nematrec

A dry dock is a place you go for maintenance that can't be completed in a wet dock. Wet docks are where you're in water (or in this case space) for and available for immadiate use and allows for routine maintenance. If you're in a dry dock, you're probably planning on staying there for some deep maintenance over the course of weeks or months.

Torabi

Several of those weapons look vaguely familiar, but I can't place any of them. The first appearance I can remember of "sexy, alien french" is page 749, but the name of the language isn't mentioned there, and I can't find any pages where they've spoken it since. Hopefully somebody else with a better memory can address either of those!

Justaguy

Max with a sword in her left hand dancing around an opponent: "There is something I should let you know. I, am not left handed!" *Proceeds to punch them very hard with her right hand.

Andrew Denton

One of those oni clubs (whose name I can't seem to remember)?

Torabi

Ah, someone going by Icarus commented on the website that the language is Exultia, which is named on page 1201. I should have thought to check that page, but I figured they'd be speaking Infernal, which was previously described as Xuriel's native language.

Town Crier

Stick to the fancy swords. Avoid any plain swords, as they are working weapons. Working weapons are what true warriors use to kill the enemy. These blades tend to advance in power alongside their masters. These blades have no sense of humor, but a serious sense of honor.

Town Crier

Nope. Particle blasts would be a dead give-away of her true identity for any aliens who have viewed Earth video footage. I think that that particular situation had been discussed a dozen pages, or so, previous.

Stephen Gilberg

Should Cora's penultimate sentence include "than"?

Mark Magagna

I think he meant that the ship in "dry dock" was supposed to be under construction. I'm not sure what you call the place where a ship under construction is if it isn't a dry dock.

Jared

I'd go for literally "air dock", if you have a place you can do work on a ship and also maintain a shirt sleeve environment. But I think for most ship work, that would actually be detrimental.

Cley Faye

Who needs sword proficiency when you can just hit very hard, very fast with them.

Madcat6204

While I recognize the comedic value of the situation, I feel the need to point out that Sydney has completed basic training at this point. She's not the same weak nerd who was unable to even move a minigun and passed out from trying. It feels like these jokes about her having trouble lifting swords and whatnot are ignoring her character development.

Otoger

to be fair most high lvl weapons have min stat requirements which could result in that issue, also

Hugh Eckert

And once again, Sydney is a danger to herself and others...

Hugh Eckert

Also to be fair, that's a ginormous axe head on a shaft maybe 8 feet long? Just physics makes it unwieldy for someone her size...

Josh Nakamoto

Love the lighting in this room and specifically from the sword Max is wielding

Chimera80

Logically, a "dry dock" for a space environment would actually be an enclosed hangar with breathable atmosphere. In the sense that it’s a facility where you can work on the exterior of the vessel without needing environmental protection equipment, and where you can make opening in the hull without it being an immediate and urgent problem.

Ian Brown

WOW... A "Signs" reference. I haven't watched an M. Night Shama-lama-ding-dong movie in AGES! I need to add that one to the playlist for another watch. I really enjoyed it.

Ian Brown

Xuri's first pet was probably a cute little hentai tentacle monster she could keep in a handbag like a Beverly Hills Chihuahua!

Michael Obert

Glad I could spark some inspiration.

Steve Brinich

Now I'm imagining that the "describe your favorite orgy" prompt was trained to recognize as the correct answer memories of an intended orgy that got derailed by a confluence of sitcom / 80s sex comedy hijinks, creating an incident that was frustrating at the time but memorably hilarious in hindsight. That's the sort of logic I use to enter "1313 Mockingbird Lane" as my childhood address (well, not that specifically, but something memorable that isn't my actual childhood address) for sites that insist on using (in)security questions.

Anton Schleef

@Mark Magagna: In most of the sci-fi works I've read over the past couple of decades (and had copyright dates going back to at least the 1970s) they vary between calling it a hangar or a dry dock, mostly depending on the size of ships the space is designed to have built in it. A TIE fighter is would get advanced maintenance in a hangar. A Victory Class Star Destroyer Mark I would get advanced maintenance in a dry dock. If you switch to Star Trek a runabout gets a hangar while a both Defiant-class and Galaxy-class ships get dry docks. I can't really name an author who has significantly deviated from those standards, regardless of the setting. Even Anne McCaffrey, who had at least 3 distinct sci-fi settings, and maybe 4, used those terms in a similar manner. Small craft get hangars and large craft get dry docks. The biggest difference is that not all sci-fi settings have dry docks that maintain an environment. They are fully enclosed, but that's to protect from random debris getting into the work space, or escaping from it, rather than so that it can be pressurized. Mostly because of the difficulty of either removing the environment latter or making a large enough air lock to do the same so that you don't lose all of that air when one ship leaves and the next arrives.

eddi_TBH

Sydney is about to ground herself. All they have to do is let the polearm lock her in place until they finish the errand.

eddi_TBH

Remember these are tech and/or magic based items. Normal manipulation rules may not apply. Hidden on switches and magic trigger words do. Think of the sword and pole arm as having partly collapsed matter cores or linkages to extradimensional mass to to give a swing that extra 'oomph'

eddi_TBH

Expecting LARP mass, getting Uru metal mass.

eddi_TBH

She will be adopting another disguise for the arena. I'm afraid Max spoiled the one she would be comfortable with on Fracture Station. For the same reason, so should Sydney.

Teksura

Every single person present plus Dabbler thought "yeah, let's allow Sydney access to the vault of real life super powerful magic weapons. This is fine" Granted, none of them are nearly as dangerous as the orbs. But also everyone should know there is a 0% chance that Sydney won't try and mess with something she doesn't understand.

Teksura

You're not wrong. Max doesn't need to know how to parry or block or good form or anything. she's fast and strong enough to brute force it. Even if her attack is blocked, she can just press through the block.

Themew

Zorro..."Yeah, the pointy end goes into the other man...."

eddi_TBH

Xuriel would do it for the LOLs. The rest are both strong enough and fast enough to avoid being collateral damage to Sydney's whimsies.

eddi_TBH

Get her one that can survive when it shatters another magic blade.

eddi_TBH

Tetsubo = Iron staff.

Adam Bell

I recognize that Axe Sydney picked up, though I can't name it... And really, that sword to the far right... Have you been watching Reincarnated as a Sword?