Grrl Power

Things of alien value.

This gonna be awkward if the crash into each other.

Eh, I think food would be a potential bargaining chip. It's kind of like how, in Star Trek, replicators produce food the same every time, but if you really want to elevate things, you prepare them by hand (note how, in DS9, Sisko is always praised when he cooks). Maybe Deus brought cookies.

Actually, in a slightly more realistic scenario, if they have matter replicators but there are hard blocks against replicating something particularly dangerous, he might be providing that, especially if it turns out to be common on Earth. For example, let's say that chocolate was a particularly deadly poison to several alien species (it's pretty bad for quite a few Earth species, after all), and as such the replicators won't make chocolate outside of certain levels of access (like galactic leaders or high-up researchers). Deus could easily get some on Earth, and he waltzes in with something that's otherwise not easily available (plus, probably untraceable due to its origins). Of course, it doesn't have to be chocolate - it could be any number of items that are common and cheap.

As for the chances he'll run into Sydney... oh, I think the Theory of Narrative Causality guarantees it.

Aluminum was actually more expensive than gold until cheap electricity made it much easier to recycle and refine. I guess that makes it similar to diamonds, in a way, except the diamond industry has managed to hold onto their value at least for the moment.

Anyhow, new strip. Vale is happy about something.

Probably a weapon

Looks like the artifact from Dead Space. That probably would make Vale all giddy.

...that face creeps me out more than her powers did.

I thought the sign above the item was a sound effect and assumed it was a vibrator.

Can Sydney even communicate with people here? Does she have any way of translating? Let alone, does she know how to navigate to earth? Like, I got bored one night and memorised how to locate earth on an unmarked map of the milky way, but I give it low odds that she has. (not impossible odds though)

Edited by Whowho on Nov 1st 2018 at 9:23:45 AM

New strip is up. Some of the above questions partially answered for us, if not for Sydney.

And I could swear that there are two Dr Who? references here and nothing Cthulhoid. But I guess that there are only so many ways to depict squidgy aliens.

Sydney will no doubt remember that at least some aliens visit English speaking Earth, so it's not unreasonable that English is a known language. But then there's the issue of if this society has any connection with the sex tourist industry that frequents earth.

It seems Sciona's people are still alive, but at least some seem to be in hard times.

Some of them are still alive (and a lot of them were in that soul storage thing, remember), but that looks a lot like a pair of traumatised refugees. Which makes perfect sense for a spacefaring race who've just had their homeworld devastated.

I feel exposition coming.

Sydney makes a decision.

It's okay, Sydney, you can be irrational later, when you're in more familiar surroundings.

Finding food.

Personally, I have fond memories of the Otyugh because I owned the bendy toy. I believe we also had the chimera, the goblin with bow-and-arrow, two skeleton warriors, two human warriors, and the troglodyte. I suspect we inherited them from our Uncle Tim along with the other D&D materials.

I have a fond otyugh memory too, because of an interesting clash between an ability's name and its effect, but it's way off-topic.

It makes a lot of sense for a food stall servicing many different species to have a reader that can tell customers what's safe to eat.

I'm just wondering if she's going to get banned from the concourse.

Because... if that thing picks up on what she'd like to eat...

New strip. Good interface design.

The Rant reminds me of something that's discussed under Schmuck Bait - it's practically impossible to create a symbol that will be always understood across time and culture to be a "this will kill you, do not touch" indicator. There is a related problem in creating a "this is fine, go for it" indicator. Before Sydney orders something that she thinks translates as "super spicy," she should see if she can get him to mime out what some of the other dishes are, to establish some level of understanding the symbols.

Of course, this is Sydney, so I do not anticipate her doing this.

Sidney, no!

Sidney, yes!

And she goes viral

Reading the rant — does the author know that even Terran birds aren't worried by capsicin?