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Grrl Power #1322 - Headboard room dealings
🕑 Added 2025-01-16 11:00:10 +0000 UTCThank you for the support! You guys are awesome!
Sciona's bootynm might be "Vaguely Threatening Platinum Latina"
Platina? Yeah, I'm a sucker for a portmanteau. "Vaguely Threatening Platina."
Honestly, I think Sciona might be just a little bit sweet on 6x Guy. She as much as said there would be a second time. Also she didn't take all his blood. The fact that she was conspicuously "the last one seen with him" usually isn't a factor for her, but she's managed to position herself fairly high and somewhat publically in Earth society instead of lurking in the shadows like she used to. Granted, her half-an-Alari-head on top of a Troll body look was not optimal for the public sector. (Actually it was an orc body but had a slurry of blood in it that had useful properties.)
As I was writing this page, I was trying to think how Alari culture would function, given Sciona's derision of the "extant administration." So the Alari don't have a president or king or emperor. They have houses that more or less declare their own nobility when they have sufficient political, military, or fiscal power to make it a hassle for other houses to reject their claims. Houses then ally with each other on various issues, but those alliances swing wildly depending on matter. Several houses might form a mutual defense pact on one continent of a given planet, but could be at each other's throats on a different world, or agree on limiting a trade deficit with one species but disagree on mineral rights for an asteroid. It makes for convoluted politics, but importantly, most of the negotiating takes place privately, and by negotiating I mean bribes and favors and assassinations and political marriages and all that. To Sciona's sensibilities, all this lobbying out in public is crass and lacks wit and subterfuge. But she's appreciative of the unlimited dark money certain governments (not naming names) allow for. Only because it enables her agendas, not because it allows for any level of sophisticated intrigue.
Comments
tsukiouji
Platina is just the Latin word for Platinum
eddi_TBH
There would be banners and parades marking the occasion of the final victory... 🤦🤬 Oh #$@%!
Marc Vun Kannon
Maybe someone already did?
CD Bingham
I have so much trouble seeing Sciona as a "villain". Sure she's an alien blood mage whose moral compass - from an Earther's perspective - is considerably skewed, but she's just so damn personable when she wants to be. Oh and hot, so damn hot!
Person
Does anyone else want to see the Succ-Off between the new-and-improved Sciona and Dabbler? I'm guessing Sciona is basically a tantric energy geyser at this point.
Philip Masters
Xuriel is an exceptional case. We’ve seen plenty of other demons, some of them definitely into the world-conquest thing, but they seemed to go for good old-fashioned military power. Of course, the point is that these demons aren’t after people’s souls, whereas Sciona, in a metaphorical but definite sense, is.
Kevin Wright
The fourth panel from his POV would be nice...
eddi_TBH
This is how to take over a country with nobody noticing.
eddi_TBH
Xuriel is under official orders to keep it in her pants. Except under limited circumstances.
eddi_TBH
She has closed that door by offering a sweetheart deal involving off the book money and sex.
Stefan J Neylon
It might be easier to convince people she's an alien now that aliens are public knowledge and a large settlement of them are living here on Earth.
Hugh Eckert
"Bootynym" has just been added to my vocabulary. Thank you. Alari sound a bit like pre-Chinggis (Ghengis) Central Asian steppe nomads. Constantly shifting alliances, occasional larger groups, potential for consolidation under a strong leader, potential for being manipulated by more established nearby empires...
Hugh Eckert
Yeah, in kleptocracies your ability to bribe is more connected to who you know and how dangerous it would be to just take your money. And in America, there are lots of levels of government officials to bribe. You don't have to be rich to bribe the local selectman or whatever...
Erin Palette
He no longer has a bleeding scratch across his chest. Either Dave forgot to add it, or Sciona healed him. If the latter, she REALLY likes him.
Philip Masters
It's noticeable that, while demons in this setting are mostly played for laughs, Sciona is actually quite good at temptation and corruption.
Jacob Bissey
Assuming you have an amount of money with which to bribe them and they don't just take it from you because they can. Not saying the assessment is necessarily wrong, just that there are still SOME barriers to bribing officials, lol
Jacob Bissey
I'm not sufficiently versed in real history, let alone real historical politics, to know of examples of historical cultures they could be compared to, but to me the Alari have always read as Space Drow, and this description of their internal political structure largely fits in well with that. Matriarchal, imperialistic, treat being power hungry, cunning, and backstabbing as a virtue (when done competently), engage in magics that are generally considered evil-coder, are culturally a race of starscreams, have pointy ears, silver hair, blue, purple, grey, and black skin tones. And now we see they are largely divided into houses constantly scheming, jockeying, and vying for power and influence, authority is almost always a direct result of power, the fact that betrayal is an inherent part of their culture actually makes them more likely to cooperate with their enemies when it is convenient or advantageous, if only because they are already scheming to betray them and are prepared to counter such schemes from the other party. Personally, I like it when a writer manages to make a culture that encourages and perpetuates what we would consider evil as realistically as possible, putting actual thought into how it might work and how they might have gotten there, rather than simply making them evil for the sake of evil, but also without trying to make them seem misunderstood or like the heroes of their own story, they are the bad guys, they aspire to be the bad guys, and they do it because it works well for them.
Thisguy
Pretty much.
Anton Schleef
I like her reasoning for agreeing to his bootynm suggestion.
Anton Schleef
Fed up with the chaos and creating his own empire with via the splinter group that wants more solidarity and less back-stabbing. At least, if I'm remembering what Drizzt is like correctly, it has been a looooooong time since I ready any of those books and I only read a few of them.
Anton Schleef
That depends a great deal on how well they can unite to fight off threats from outside general Alari territory. If they're like a 'good' rambunctious family, where they constantly fight with each other but as soon as an outsider messes with one of them the rest defend without any need for negotiation, then they'd be viewed by their collective strength, which could be fairly high.
Mark Magagna
That view of Alari society does seem to share some common ground with pre-Prussian Germany, or pre-reunification Italy. Though both of those were seen not being particularly powerful by other more unified countries at the time. I get the possibly mistaken impression that Alari are seen as somewhat more powerful than that within space society. Although that could also be a past thing since at least one of their worlds has been taken over by space-Cthulhu.
Czarzhan
Funny thought: "Yeah, no need to tell people about the crazy alien lady since they won't believe me. They didn't with the other four, so why should they with you?"
Chris Giesy
It's mission prep, Max calls him a hostage, Anvil and Dabbler have a whispered conversation and Sydney spends the rest of the month with bugged eyes.
Carlos
I like the idea of "Six Shooter", it's shorter and it has double entendres.
You_With_The_Face
In America, only the rich can bribe a government official. In Eastern Bloc nations, ANYONE can bribe a government official. Ergo, Eastern Bloc nations have more freedom than Americans.
Czarzhan
In one of Spider Robinson's Callahan"s Lady books, one of the clients (who soon became an employee) at Lady Sally's bordello had experimented on himself and accidentally made himself continually horny with no refractory period. His nickname, since he multiplied his sex drive by six, was Colt.
Julian
"Yeah sure bro, she was a magic sex alien"
James C
Dabbled refers to him as "Is that all?"...
Brittany Huckey
Please don't kill me. My friend will be insufferable
Thisguy
I like to think he goes and tells his friend she’s an alien anyway. With the full knowledge that she won’t believe him.
Justaguy
So basically feudal oligarchy.
Thomas Dorner
Alien Drow society, but where is Drizzt? ;-)
Chris Giesy
Please . . . Please, PLEASE let Sydney meet and know him as "Six Times Guy".
