Topic: Alice Grove MCDLT - February 2016 (Read 21780 times)

Kugai · « **on:** 31 Jan 2016, 12:07 »

.......... On to the fun and games for this month

DSL · « **Reply #1 on:** 31 Jan 2016, 19:42 »

This won't end until Malice has attacked Alice with passionfruit, oranges, apples, grapefruit (whole and segmented), pomegranates, greengages, grapes, lemons, plums, mangoes in syrup, and cherries (red and black) -- and perhaps even the bah-NAH-nah.

anahata · « **Reply #2 on:** 01 Feb 2016, 02:06 »

No more attacking, please, not even with soft fruit.
I want to know whether Malice, once totally disarmed, will suddenly turn helpful with whatever it is that Alice wants, and even more I want to know what Alice wants from her.

I'm also wondering how Gavia and Ardent are doing, though I suppose there's not much to report as the Alice/Malice gunfight has actually only been going on for a few seconds.

BenRG · « **Reply #3 on:** 01 Feb 2016, 02:16 »

Quote from: anahata on 01 Feb 2016, 02:06

I want to know whether Malice, once totally disarmed, will suddenly turn helpful with whatever it is that Alice wants, and even more I want to know what Alice wants from her.

I think that she will try hand-to-hand, fail and proceed to be a grumpy and highly-unreliable informant. Their conversation will probably imply strongly that they were comrades-in-arms once but had gone their separate ways when it became clear that the war was never going to start again, something for which the character I'm thinking of as 'Alicia' never forgave Alice.

I'm also expecting her to be very unpleasant to the Vicissitudes and whisper poisoned words to them about the monster with which they are travelling. The worrying thing, for Ardent and Gavia, will be that Alice will emotionlessly agree with her adversary that she is a monster by all the criteria that matter. She was, after all, carefully engineered to be such.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4 on:** 01 Feb 2016, 12:36 »

I just want Alice's current foe to get a fucking name. Also I know Benergy's theory that Alice was designed is no less valid than my theory that she's simply an immortal superpowered metahuman, but it's still weird every time I see it.

improvnerd · « **Reply #5 on:** 01 Feb 2016, 19:08 »

Quote from: DSL on 31 Jan 2016, 19:42

This won't end until Malice has attacked Alice with passionfruit, oranges, apples, grapefruit (whole and segmented), pomegranates, greengages, grapes, lemons, plums, mangoes in syrup, and cherries (red and black) -- and perhaps even the bah-NAH-nah.

What about pointed sticks?

Kugai · « **Reply #6 on:** 01 Feb 2016, 19:48 »

Just have to make sure Alice doesn't let her drag out ........

THE COMFY CHAIR!!!!!!!

ThePerilsOfDan · « **Reply #7 on:** 01 Feb 2016, 21:00 »

Quote from: Kugai on 01 Feb 2016, 19:48

Just have to make sure Alice doesn't let her drag out ........

THE COMFY CHAIR!!!!!!!

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Nobody.

DSL · « **Reply #8 on:** 02 Feb 2016, 08:26 »

I never wanted to be a Spanish Inquisitor. I ... I wanted to be ...

TinPenguin · « **Reply #9 on:** 02 Feb 2016, 12:28 »

...a wind turbine repairman?

DSL · « **Reply #10 on:** 02 Feb 2016, 18:27 »

I re-align blades, I eat my lunch, I like to press wild-fla'rs ...

Loki · « **Reply #11 on:** 03 Feb 2016, 00:14 »

Honestly, I find this action sequence tiring. It has fulfilled it's narrative purpose and I wish we would move on.

BenRG · « **Reply #12 on:** 03 Feb 2016, 08:07 »

New strip up!

Yeah... I remember that, when this fight started, waaay back in December, I pointed out that 'Malice' seemed to be initially shooting at Gavia, not Alice. Here we are reminded that she doesn't like the space kids for some reason.

Now everything depends on just how fast Alice is and just how quick Ardent and Gavia are to dodge a clearly very bitter and homicidal combat unit.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #13 on:** 03 Feb 2016, 09:58 »

That's right -- they are in hand-to-hand range. Gavia's shield can stop bullets but it can't stop Alice. If Malice has the same abilities and if Alice can't distract her this could get ugly.

Kugai · « **Reply #14 on:** 03 Feb 2016, 13:05 »

Oh shit

cesium133 · « **Reply #15 on:** 03 Feb 2016, 13:10 »

Watch your language. When Malice is around, it's "Oh shoot."

Method of Madness · « **Reply #16 on:** 03 Feb 2016, 14:10 »

No, Alice said not to shoot.

And for fuck's sake, Jeph, give her a name.

Wildroses · « **Reply #17 on:** 04 Feb 2016, 00:56 »

Quote from: Loki on 03 Feb 2016, 00:14

Honestly, I find this action sequence tiring. It has fulfilled it's narrative purpose and I wish we would move on.

Well you got your wish. Malice is now moving on to the kids. Now I suppose it is Gavia's turn to show what she can do.

Skewbrow · « **Reply #18 on:** 04 Feb 2016, 05:49 »

I may be wrong, but somehow I get a vibe that the "oh, crap" means the Vicissitudes and Malice have met before?

Neko_Ali · « **Reply #19 on:** 04 Feb 2016, 06:27 »

No, the 'oh crap' is the Angry Shooty Lady has noticed them and is shooting angry looks at them now.

cesium133 · « **Reply #20 on:** 04 Feb 2016, 06:32 »

I just noticed that both Gavia and Malice (or is she Angry Shooty Lady now?) have red eyes. Though Malice/Angry Shooty Lady used to have green eyes.

Wildroses · « **Reply #21 on:** 04 Feb 2016, 22:39 »

Maybe red eyes are a sign of a person who has enhanced themselves with or is using nanobots.

Welu · « **Reply #22 on:** 05 Feb 2016, 04:27 »

I thought their eyes were light brown. Jeph uses a similar colour for Tai, Sven, Marigold and Angus in QC based on the cast page.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #23 on:** 05 Feb 2016, 04:32 »

Definitely red.

BenRG · « **Reply #24 on:** 05 Feb 2016, 04:40 »

Quote from: cesium133 on 04 Feb 2016, 06:32

I just noticed that both Gavia and Malice (or is she Angry Shooty Lady now?) have red eyes. Though Malice/Angry Shooty Lady used to have green eyes.

Jeph has occasionally had characters eyes go red, irrespective of their natural colour, a few times in QC. It's his way of showing really extreme rage. To me, it emphasises just how much she hates people from Gavia and Ardent's civilisation.

I strongly suspect that Alice is going to go all-out to stop her. We're going to find out just how much you have to work over someone like Alice to render them unconscious. I'm talking dropping boulders on their head, banging their heads into rock surfaces with bone-shattering force dozens of times (and the rock surface visibly coming out worse off) and the like. At the end of this violence, Alice is going to be puffing and panting something like: "For... for the... the last time 'Licia... stay... stay down!"

Prediction: 'Malice' is going to regain consciousness a few minutes later, tied to her bed with titanium tubing that Alice had torn off one of her guns with no long-term damage or even visible injuries because they're just that tough.

BenRG · « **Reply #25 on:** 09 Feb 2016, 14:10 »

Three key learnings from today's comic (2/9):

"Malice's" eye colour changes with her mood;
Alice's threat to 'make' molten rock is credible enough to use on someone who knows her;
If the two women are, in fact, the same model of super soldier/android, they're tough enough to handle being dipped in molten rock and then left buried inside it after it cools; that, by the way, is very tough.

Why do I say they're sisters? Their "I'm going to hurt you lots before I decide whether or not to kill you" slasher smile is disturbingly similar.

hedgie · « **Reply #26 on:** 09 Feb 2016, 14:15 »

The molten rock thing also disproves the Jones (Gunnerkrigg Court) theory if Alice can just leave her in there. Jones has no such limitations. Jeph's comment about being able to melt rock with her glare seems to support the Weatherwax speculation, however.

Pilchard123 · « **Reply #27 on:** 09 Feb 2016, 14:25 »

Really? I thought that Jones just sat there until it had all been eroded away.

hedgie · « **Reply #28 on:** 09 Feb 2016, 14:36 »

She did. But there was really fuck all else to do. She did tell Antimony that there was nothing aside from her own body that she couldn't break, bend, or manipulate as wet clay. She could easily have broken through the stone, but what's the point if there won't be anything to do but sit there for a few æons anyhow?

Kugai · « **Reply #29 on:** 09 Feb 2016, 14:43 »

Scary Alice is scary Alice - even in a Battlesuit and behind a helmet

I had a sudden thought, what if Alice is the 'Superior Model' of the two of them?

mandyk89 · « **Reply #30 on:** 09 Feb 2016, 17:18 »

Malice with red eyes...

A_S00 · « **Reply #31 on:** 09 Feb 2016, 23:59 »

Malice is the second person whose eyes have been seen to change color. The first was Jack (whose eyes are brown in every other strip).

Both people have been looking at Alice when it happened, but since most of the strip is Alice interacting with people, that might not mean much.

Wildroses · « **Reply #32 on:** 10 Feb 2016, 04:34 »

Quote from: BenRG on 03 Feb 2016, 08:07

Here we are reminded that she doesn't like the space kids for some reason.

Back when this quote was first made, I didn't actually agree with it. I thought there was no evidence yet that Malice didn't like the space kids, she had merely noticed them and possibly just hated them for their association with Alice.

I have now changed my mind with the latest strip on the basis of the first panel, specifically Malice's expression. There wasn't just hatred in that expression, there was excited anticipation in causing pain. I also think it significant that after that singleminded and sustained attack on Alice (whom she clearly loathes) with progressively stronger guns, one look at the space kids was enough to make her forget all about Alice and instantly try to move on to more exciting and deserving prey.

Not that I think she recognises and hates them personally, as Gavia and Ardent. I think she just recognises them as belonging to the Praeses society, which she hates. Ardent being blue with a tail is a dead give away.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #33 on:** 10 Feb 2016, 04:38 »

I think she just hates everyone.

BenRG · « **Reply #34 on:** 10 Feb 2016, 05:06 »

Quote from: Method of Madness on 10 Feb 2016, 04:38

I think she just hates everyone.

FWIW, I think that she's still fighting the Great War. Thousands of years after The Blink forcibly separated the factions and ended the fighting, she's criss-crossing the world looking for weapons that she can restore to working order so she can fight the war. The fact that there hasn't been so much as a spark of hostility in longer than humanity has had writing up to our present day doesn't seem to matter to her. She's a soldier and she's going to be prepared to fight.

I'm pretty sure that Ardent and Gavia's native culture are the distant descendants of the faction that hers were at war with. The fact that they're kids doesn't matter. They're the enemy; the first sight she's had of them for an unimaginable length of time. She is obviously eager and overjoyed at the opportunity to get back to the struggle for which she was created and bring pain, reckoning and death to the foul Tech Faction.

Insane? Yes but no-one ever said that she wasn't.

anahata · « **Reply #35 on:** 10 Feb 2016, 05:16 »

Quote from: BenRG on 09 Feb 2016, 14:10

If the two women are, in fact, the same model of super soldier/android, they're tough enough to handle being dipped in molten rock and then left buried inside it after it cools; that, by the way, is very tough.

I don't think they are. Angry Lady says "there isn't any molten rock around here"; she doesn't seem to be aware that Alice can make some, and anyway if she had the sort of powers that Alice has, why would she need guns?

BenRG · « **Reply #36 on:** 10 Feb 2016, 05:24 »

Quote from: anahata on 10 Feb 2016, 05:16

Quote from: BenRG on 09 Feb 2016, 14:10
If the two women are, in fact, the same model of super soldier/android, they're tough enough to handle being dipped in molten rock and then left buried inside it after it cools; that, by the way, is very tough.

I don't think they are. Angry Lady says "there isn't any molten rock around here"; she doesn't seem to be aware that Alice can make some, and anyway if she had the sort of powers that Alice has, why would she need guns?

I think that you're missing the point I'm trying to make. The point I'm making is that they're tough enough to be immersed in lava and then survive to be buried alive in the cooled basalt that results from it. No, I don't think that Alice can easily make molten rock. The point she's making to Alicia is that, if she continues to piss her off, she'll find a way to make molten lava to do the whole 'I Must Scream' immortal buried alive under thousands of tonnes of solid rock thing to her.

It will be interesting to see if Jeph has her treat that as a plausible threat.

osaka · « **Reply #37 on:** 10 Feb 2016, 05:28 »

If anything, you can always make a ~100 mile deep hole to get to molten rocks. Which, even if it sounds collosal at first, is probably the size of the hole Alice would make by slam-dunking her foe into the ground hard. Not only because they're both extremely strong, but also because it'd be very convenient

mandyk89 · « **Reply #38 on:** 10 Feb 2016, 17:15 »

I voted "butts" at the top, btw, obviously.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #39 on:** 10 Feb 2016, 21:41 »

Obviously.

anahata · « **Reply #40 on:** 11 Feb 2016, 00:43 »

Quote from: BenRG on 10 Feb 2016, 05:24

to do the whole 'I Must Scream' immortal buried alive under thousands of tonnes of solid rock thing

OK, that's apparently a cultural reference I'm missing, but I get the general idea now.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #41 on:** 11 Feb 2016, 04:17 »

Look up "I have no mouth, but I must scream".

BenRG · « **Reply #42 on:** 12 Feb 2016, 13:33 »

Hmm... Alice has a new hairdo and I'm thinking that this may be indicative that her entire external appearance may be something that she can shape and sculpt into various forms by force of will. This is actually something I discounted before but, if it's true, any remaining possibility of her not being some kind of AI is straight out of the window.

Meanwhile... Ardent is a naturist, isn't he?

Kugai · « **Reply #43 on:** 12 Feb 2016, 13:50 »

I think Alice is warming up to Ardent

Method of Madness · « **Reply #44 on:** 12 Feb 2016, 13:51 »

I'm so disappointed Ardent didn't reply with "what happened to your hair?"

Quote from: BenRG on 12 Feb 2016, 13:33

if it's true, any remaining possibility of her not being some kind of AI is straight out of the window.

Since when does shapeshifter = AI?

BenRG · « **Reply #45 on:** 12 Feb 2016, 14:07 »

Quote from: Method of Madness on 12 Feb 2016, 13:51

I'm so disappointed Ardent didn't reply with "what happened to your hair?"

Quote from: BenRG on 12 Feb 2016, 13:33
if it's true, any remaining possibility of her not being some kind of AI is straight out of the window.
Since when does shapeshifter = AI?

When shapeshifter = extraordinary durable body that can be radically reshaped at will. Unless you want to invoke biological superpowers in a universe where, to date, all superpowers have had some technological explanation.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #46 on:** 12 Feb 2016, 14:19 »

...what other tech superpowers have we seen beside's Gavia's? And you know I'm going under the assumption of biological superpowers, at least for Alice, until proven otherwise.

Kugai · « **Reply #47 on:** 12 Feb 2016, 14:20 »

I''m starting to think that that armor of hers is kinda like the armor Voyager deployed. It's hidden within the normal overalls she wears.

Point of reference Vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFzufch254k

hedgie · « **Reply #48 on:** 12 Feb 2016, 14:39 »

I'm rather doubting AI here, but some sort of cyborg would certainly make sense.

Neko_Ali · « **Reply #49 on:** 12 Feb 2016, 15:11 »

You're all missing the obvious answer! Alice and her sisters are actually Crystal Gems!

... I'll just show myself out now...

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Author Topic: Alice Grove MCDLT - February 2016 (Read 21780 times)