SFP

KatherineMW

The return of plot!

Very interested to see where this goes.

Insanenoodlyguy

Oh for fuck’s sake. Violet, please tell me that at least wasn’t your phone. Also that’s a lot of dislikes :(.

Markus

Allison was facing Violet while she asked the question she’s asking in panel 7 here. The person recording was facing behind her.
Potatamoto

I’m not sure if the dislikes are a good sign or a bad sign…I might have disliked the video because I like Mega Girl, and I don’t like what the video is obviously trying to do.
Matt Trinh

Violet might be more than willing to take advantage of her friendship with Allison when it suits her, but I don’t think she’d go that far.

John Smith

Oh, crap. 🙁

Josh Jasper

… wait, Alison has a crush on Paladin now? I mean, unless the cab happens to have a heart sticker on the window, that’s what that means, right?

Brent

Well yeah. But I don’t think (and I doubt) that means romantic affection. Just that she thinks highly of her and enjoys her company. I don’t know what the female equivalent of a “bromance” would be called but something like that. That would be my guess.
- Dean
  
  Just curious- when was the last time you saw floaty hearts used to denote anything other than romantic affection?
  - Ryan .
    
    never in real life
  - Sabe Jones
    
    About a month ago! It came up in another Webcomic I follow, in which the meaning was more “thank you!” than “I love you!”
    
    It’s not uncommon as a marker of a happy warm feeling, even when said feeling isn’t romantic in nature. When was the last time you saw someone write “<3" online in a non-romantic way?
  - Shellshocked Lepidopterist
    
    I thought I saw floaty hearts IRL once. I thought it was just a bunch of people in love at first, but it turned out to be an invasion from a race of intelligent crimson butterflies.
    
    We lost a lot of good people in that war.
  - Brent
    
    I don’t know the answer to that question. Its isn’t a visual cue that I would commit to memory. What I can say is that its use as an indicator of non-romantic feeling is common enough that that is the way that I intuitively interpreted it in this comic. I could, of course, be entirely incorrect although, as I said already, I doubt it. But time will tell.
JerkBender

Yes indeed, I am hopping on this ship. 🙂
Johan

I think she’s just very happy that the day went so well. I mean I totally ship those two, but that’s just my head-canon XD
The nice day won’t last though. Ah well, you had your relaxing moment Alison, time to soldier on 🙂
- Josh Jasper
  
  I dunno. The heart and the wistful look just ring that “crush” bell for me.
  - Johan
    
    Ah well, maybe you’re right. Let’s hope and keep reading 🙂
    - danny in canada
      
      Alison told Feral that she doesn’t like girls.
    - Johan
      
      Yeah but that was a long time ago. A lot has changed since. Also she might not be into girls, and still be into Paladin. Not saying Paladin isn’t a girl, just that it’s a thing. Paladin isn’t a thing, the thing I wrote earlier is. Gosh this is too early, I need coffee (-_-)

Markus

You can tell this is fiction because the Youtube related videos section actually had related videos.

Anon

It could be that those videos are so popular, they’re always in the related videos whether you’re looking at Mega Girl or cute cats.
Ryan

Also, a video this new would always say 301 views.
https://xkcd.com/1224/

Charles M. Hagmaier

So, I don’t generally do big college parties, or social media in general. Do people recording these things usually cut ’em off after thirty seconds, or let ’em run for a couple minutes? Because she totally didn’t toss the ass who couldn’t identify his “girlfriend” off the roof, or really do anything particularly violent other than simple assault. Maybe technical battery, but really, when you can pop a guy’s head like a grape, hoisting them by the neck is basically a superhero handshake.

Not to mention the bit with her picking up the drunk girl and jumping off the roof is much more impressive in viral terms. And I’d think her having straight-up slaughtered a terrorist the other week and then displayed his pulped corpse to a crowd of complicit protesters while likewise demanding his co-conspirators would have been much more toxic. Unless somehow all of that footage got “disappeared” by Patrick…

Moddey Dhoo

It is entirely possible the person who videotaped it clipped it to try to make Alison look bad. I don’t know why someone would do that. Most people can probably agree that what that guy was doing was horrible, and I’m even willing to bet the participants of that party who wanted her to ‘be cool’ can look back on it retrospectively and agree that they were in the wrong. That, or the person filming had been filming her for awhile and the clip is like 14 minutes long – long enough for her to chat with the one dude, notice the attempted rape, stop it, interrogate everyone, and run off with the chick.
- Nightsbridge
  
  You have a lot of faith in humanity. I think the opposite. The reason they wanted her to be cool was that what the guy did was expected and what she did was ‘disruptive.’
Ryan Thompson

The YouTube account is “Air Network”, which sounds like news organization (or worse, a tabloid), so it’s in their interest to stir up as much controversy as possible. So it’s safe to assume the video has been cut to paint MG in as bad a light as possible.
Some guy

You and I think a lot alike. Does this make us friends, or enemies?

This isn’t a rhetorical question. It’s a test. But you should already know that.
Ganurath

The footage of the hospital blowout didn’t get disappeared by Patrick. It got disappeared by the culprits, who don’t want any attention drawn to their actions. Feral had kept her organ donation thing on the down low, to a degree, which was why they could risk overt action. If the media circulated Mega Girl’s response, that would draw attention to Feral, her sacrifice, and most importantly that someone hired an assassin to prevent humanity from getting an unlimited supply of vital organs.

Pol Subanajouy

Oh yeah, that happened. 😛

Some guy

A: How many hits does the “Guardians destroy hospital” video have?
B: Why is Alison still friends with Violet?
C: Is her dorm really at 14th and What the hell! ave.?

3-I

Why IS Alison still friends with Violet? Seems like Violet tolerates a whole lot of complete bullshit in her life.
- AlpineBob
  
  I think because it is best to stay on good terms with your roomate if at all possible.
  Also, we’ve only seen tiny snips of their total relationship – it is quite possible a positive overall, with us just seeing the worst bits.
  But yeah, I’m not a Violet fan either.
  - That same guy
    
    We only see the worst bits. All we’ve seen so far is someone that likes having a super powered friend, not someone who is a friend.
    
    “Protect me at this protest I’m going to misbehave at!”
    “Be a prop at my party!”
    
    Well, I guess that’s not really enough to judge a whole relationship on, but she seems to be written self-centered. “I specifically told these guys to BE COOL! Why didn’t they listen to me? I was very clear about it!”
    
    I’m really curious as to if she is written as a stereotypical faux-rebellious college student on purpose, or if she just came out that way. Or maybe she’s based off of someone the writer(s) know, that would be great.
    - Ryan Thompson
      
      Don’t forget, she also used all of Alison’s printer ink and didn’t replace it.
    - That same guy
      
      That monster!
      
      She’s the most aggressively unlikable character in the comic outside of the sex offenders. But at least they died hilariously.
      
      Come on Alison, casually mention that you are mildly irritated by her in front of the college president. Violet will be in a shallow, unmarked grave within the hour.
    - Ryan Thompson
      
      Actually, now that I think of it, I believe Violet has taken advantage of Alison not just most of the time, but every single time she’s appeared in the comic, no exceptions. It’s literally the only thing we’ve seen her do.
      
      I’ll bet she pays her half of the rent late.
  - Insanenoodlyguy
    
    We know from Alt text comment that Allison is staying because she’s nice, not because she has to.

Ryan Thompson

Unless someone comes forward with additional video giving context or the victim herself comes forward, Alison is in a really tough spot. In order to explain why she did this, she’s going to have to finger Miles as a rapist. And we all know that accusing a man of rape (attempted or actual) never backfires on a girl.

Some guy

Alison threatened to kill a bunch of protesters and assaulted a police officer on live TV immediately after killing Biggot McFlamethrower with no actual repercussions. Alison gets away with so much that should at least result in a police interview, that the next panel could be her saying “Who cares about that? I told you to stay off my bed!” with big angry lines and coffee spilling everywhere, and it would be believable.

I’m not criticizing the comic at all in this (especially if she eventually did have to atone for her behavior with something more than a heart to hear with batboy). I am just pointing out that lifting Miles Von Daterape with one hand and dropping him instead of both hands and making a wish probably isn’t going to result in any meaningful consequences for her.
- Guest
  
  [Deleted. I thought you were talking about a different event.]
- motorfirebox
  
  It depends. For a long time, Alison has had the express approval of the government for her activities, and that certainly includes helping spin the media around her activities. As I recall, Feral contracted with the government to help with her donation program. So between Big Brother’s spin and Patrick being on the scene and directly involved, it’s reasonable to assume that the media surrounding the hospital event was spun and/or suppressed.
  
  This event is more Jerry Springer, and neither the government nor Patrick are involved. It could, on its own, turn into a black mark on Alison’s public image.
  
  And in addition to that, we already know that someone has a vested interest in keeping supers from really changing the world on a fundamental level—the murder of the kids with actually useful powers (disease communication, etc.) makes that clear. Alison has begun trying to figure out how to make some real changes; interested parties could easily spin this event against Alison intentionally, to start chipping away at her public goodwill before she decides to try to use it for something They don’t approve of.
  - That same guy
    
    Alison having the express approval of the government works in my argument’s favor. She probably still enjoys that protection officially or not, given that she can get a professor fired unintentionally by complaining about him, and she can visit one of the most dangerous criminals in the world unsupervised.
    
    I don’t know what if anything Patrick did other than gather everyone’s information, but everyone at the party saw what she did at the hospital, so any spin was horribly ineffective. Alison could probably end the whole thing with a 30 second video reply of her own, assuming she runs the speech by someone that can tell her how not to make it worse. “Yeah I did that. Dude’s a raper, but I let him live. This time.” *drops microphone, moonwalks out the door* would cover it. Any libel/slander case against her for it would fail spectacularly and destroy Miles’ future. Unless he’s really good at sports. Even then, Alison would still be fine.
    
    Alison doesn’t seem that concerned about her public image anyway though, so she could probably just ignore it. I’ll give you this though, the ‘unseen forces trying to ruin her reputation’ angle is interesting. It’s not like they can kill her like the others.
    - motorfirebox
      
      Alison has a lot going for her in the spin department, both inherently and because she’s got people in her corner whether she knows about it (or wants them) or not. Don’t underestimate the desire of the common man to see someone brought down, though. I don’t think it’s likely that this could go badly for Alison on its own; she’s got a lot of goodwill. But I think it’s a realistic possibility.
      
      As far as the conspiracy stuff goes, though, man—Alison better hope her conversation at the prison wasn’t recorded.
    - Charles M. Hagmaier
      
      I can’t imagine why her conversation at the prison *wouldn’t* have been recorded. She isn’t Cleaver’s lawyer, isn’t even related to him, and is a de facto (if not, enragingly, de jure) agent of the state. He’s in custody, and alone in her presence. The liability issues inherent in just leaving her alone with him without any recordings are… significant.
    - Ryan Thompson
      
      To be fair, Cleaver “visited” her first.
      
      Also, I just realized that if Alison did out Miles in a video reply, it would almost certainly result in Moonblade killing him. Not that Alison knows this, but it could backfire pretty hard if she said “I let him live” only to have him turn up dead a day later.
    - That same guy
      
      “Fair”?
      
      When Cleaver “visited” Alison, the government responded by sending a tiny attack plane to ‘help’. Though really, they did that because he was attacking a college. Had it happened in a slum or the dockyard to begin with, they would have just sent a truck after Alison called it in.
      
      When Alison visited Cleaver, he was in a super villain supermax prison, that in reality would probably forbid any visitors outside of medical and legal professionals. I’m fairly certain that if some dude broke into my house and I beat him unconscious, they don’t let me visit him in prison, and if they do, it’s either with glass between us or a guard right there.
      
      Admittedly, a guard couldn’t protect Alison from Cleaver, or Cleaver from Alison, do the absence of such could just be a nod to practicality.
      
      Moonshadow killing Miles would be an obvious route for the plot to follow, I hope they do a good job if they go that way.
    - Ryan Thompson
      
      Yes, Alison is definitely getting some manner of special treatment, being allowed to visit Cleaver. As you say, it’s not routine for victims to confront their attackers in an ordinary prison, much less a special super-prision. The comic didn’t show how much trouble it was for Alison to get permission for the visit (indeed, repeated visits, since she says she’d like to come back). Perhaps someone allowed these visits because they are hoping that either Cleaver or Alison will reveal something interesting in their conversations (they’d be insane not to have 24/7 monitoring in Cleaver’s cell). Or maybe it really is just as simple as not antagonizing her so long as she’s not violent.

Lawrence

Um… I’m getting an error message instead of today’s page.

Virtue

This seems to relate to the moonshadow plot. maybe it will directly relate (moonshadow will try to kill the would be rapist) or maybe this is to show that moonshadow and megagirl aren’t so different- just one kills and the other doesn’t.

iarei

There’s that “be cool” again.

funnyasinhaha

I wonder if her “friend” was the one who posted the video

Shjade

Man.

I want to say this hits too close to home, but that’s unfair: it doesn’t really hit too close to home for ME; I’ve only seen it happening as an observer.

Instead, I’ll say this is probably close to how it would actually go down if it happened in the real world. Focus on the narrowly-averted rape? OF COURSE NOT. >.<

Jill

would it be possible to find the douche that recorded this by going back to the event and looking to see who was standing in that position and could of possibly recorded it from this perspective?

Jonathon Side

Not necessarily ‘expected’, but nobody wanted to think too deeply about it.

Timothy O’Brien

12 million hits?! Wow. And there’s not even a cat in the video.

Mystery girl

Am I the first one to mention the heart floating above Alison’s head? I haven’t investigated the comments closely, so I might not be.