SFP

sfp 6 137 for web

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  • Lysiuj

    Yeah, and she wants to have the bike so she has an excuse to ask you to come around.

    • Kid Chaos

      Paladin WILL return! 😍

      • Lysiuj

        …in: The Femmevengers.

        • Kid Chaos

          Also starring: Mega-Girl and Feral! 😎

          • Izo

            Also starring: Threatens to murder people, Feels bad that she used to murder people, and Still out there murderin’ people.

          • Lostman

            Along with: can’t tell what he thinking, helpmate, and the cute nerd.

          • Izo

            I prefer to call those three ‘Murders thousands like a terrorist,’ ‘Murdered one person now teaches that murder can be okay,’ and ‘Never murdered anyone, what a nerd.’

          • Lostman

            No, your off with helpmate, aka Max.

          • Izo

            Ohhhhh…. ‘Scared of Getting Murdered’

  • zellgato

    bwahaha. brain blocked.

  • Arkone Axon

    I love Feral’s words in the last panel. “I know THAT! I just want to have the bike so I have an excuse to ask her to come around!” Translation: “I am perfectly aware of the obvious situation that other, presumably better educated individuals might have failed to notice, but I was hoping to use the offered present as bait to manipulate my socially awkward romantic interest into continued social interactions while putting her at her ease.”

    A nice little reminder that Feral might be limited to about a fourth grade education, but being uneducated is NOT the same thing as stupid.

    (Hell, look at some of the anecdotes she’s shared in casual conversations. Feral is very, very good at practical problem-solving. Not to mention that she spent a year or two traveling the planet and not only making a lot of friends, but doing so in places that U.S. citizens aren’t even supposed to travel to)

    • Weatherheight

      That is a good question – how much “classroom” education has she had, and how has her world traveling impacted her “practical” education?

      I for one would like to see more “on camera” exploration of this.

      • Freemage

        Okay, author, you’ve now got a charge: Spin-off series, “The Feral Traveling Roadshow, co-starring Lisa”. Every week is a wacky adventure in a new town as they travel the highways and byways of North America.

        • palmvos

          you do realize you’ve asked a donkey to do a webcomic…. who also has a perfectionist streak…. who’s going to tell him that’s good enough post it!

        • Merle

          I would totally read this. Hell, I’d watch a TV series of it.

  • Weatherheight

    “Sorry! Sorry! Not perfect! Be back soon!”

    As someone who suffers from this sort of perfectionism, Tara, let me warn you that this is going to make Lisa someone with whom it’s hard to get along well. It infects everything we do and usually not in a fun way.

    Hang in there.

    • Crow

      I’d be surprised if it gets written that way. So far this has just been fan service without substance, and to get into the nitty-gritty would make this comic more about them than it would about Alison at this point.

    • ChattaStarhawk

      Better is the enemy of good (enough). Or in other words, there comes a time when you have to bash the engineer over the head with a clue-by-four.

      • Weatherheight

        This is a thing in construction inspection and materials testing.

        • palmvos

          its one of the good reasons for project managers. Now I need a shower.

      • JeffH

        One of my favorite Engineering mottos! A friend has a corollary: “Done is better than better.”

      • “It’s time to shoot the engineers and ship it.”

        • palmvos

          I object to this idea. shoot the lawyers first.
          (that’ll keep you busy long enough for me to finish my countermeasures……)

          • Izo

            Gee, thanks 🙂

  • Markus

    I like that we actually Lisa is actually showing off a part of her power that’s deeply maladaptive here. She’s built in a way where she has a hard time turning off that inclination to tinker, and a romantically nerve wracking experience like this only worsens her existing habit of working on something in pursuit of the ‘perfect’ thing that doesn’t actually exist.

    The bike’s already sweet as hell. Just give it to feral so you have an excuse to come over and touch butts.

    I swear if they don’t touch butts in like 4 pages I’m gonna write a strongly worded comment.

    • SmilingCorpse

      Seconded. 14 point font, arial, bold. Firm, but not too overwhelming.

      • That’s horrible! How could you be so cruel? How can one even visualize inflicting so much pain??

        Use Helvetica…

        • SmilingCorpse

          Helvetica? I’m not a hipster. Arial is the standard font for most businesses and that’s what this is, serious business. I want to be taken seriously, man. Not listen to a vinyl of a obscure band and complain how they never got a break, but be secretly glad they didn’t so that I can complain how they didn’t. I have half a mind to use underline as well!

          • Weatherheight

            What? No Comic Sans to maximize the irony?

            ::flees into the hills to avoid the just lynching::

          • Kid Chaos

            You’re all a bunch of idiots; Copperplate Gothic Bold FTW. 😜

          • palmvos

            *is laughing..so… hard…. *
            this….. is…. a … wonderful …. argument… ow…thank… you…
            *rolls on the ground laughing*
            *needs a medic*
            (this should have been in calibre- 12 point)

          • Jimbotherisenclown

            Georgia is the best font and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. With strongly worded e-mails. Using Georgia. Because it’s the best.

          • cphoenix

            Georgia may be the best. But for this relationship? With all the wacky hijinks that will surely ensue?

            It’s got to be Dingbats.

          • Kid Chaos
          • Jimbotherisenclown

            I wish that Georgia Fan was me; I’d love to be anywhere near that skinny.

          • Jared Rosenberg

            There are also amphetamines in the white paint.

          • Kid Chaos

            Nice! 😎

          • Come to think – you can download RansomNote.ttf and 021517.ttf {the handwriting font, which is my own handwriting} here – feel free to use them for anything

          • butting

            … hey, imagine meeting you two here!

            *waves*

            Arial is a cheap bastardised knockoff clone, how could anyone even CONSIDER using that instead of Papyrus?

          • I remember a typography site that said “The only people who should consider using Papyrus are people making menus for Egyptian restaurants.”

            I use it occasionally, anyway.

          • butting

            Occasional use can mebbe get a rule-of-cole free pass, like Serenity did. Tthough, that was under the same exclusion rule that Iain Banks’ cover designers got away with Copporplate Gothic.

            What really killed Papyrus for me was that bloody awful James Cameron film. Ugh. The memories. Yick.

          • Izo

            Ok… gotta admit, I’m impressed about the fonts 🙂

          • Waaayyyy too much time on my hands.

          • Izo

            You’re talking to people who post (and argue) a lot on a webcomic forum. We are likely aware of the condition of having too much time on one’s hands 🙂 Still… really nice font 🙂

          • Jimbotherisenclown

            I’m not sure if you should be upvoted for contributing to the discussion or downvoted for even suggesting Comic Sans. At least you didn’t go completely insane and suggest we should use Papyrus.

          • Kid Chaos

            Don’t make me sic Times New Roman on you. 😜

          • Jimbotherisenclown

            Times New Roman is fine, I guess, but who really wants to go with such a boring choice? Times New Roman is for people who think Monopoly is the only board game worth mentioning, never try anything other than their go-to dish at restaurants, insist on plain vanilla ice cream, and haven’t figured out it’s possible to go with something other than the missionary position. There’s nothing wrong with it, persay, but can you actually say you’re really living at that point?

          • Weatherheight

            But I like Papyrus….

            Put a little sugar and cinnamon on it and it’s delicious.

          • Markus

            If you’re really mad I recommend courier. Monospaced fonts just look angrier.

          • SmilingCorpse

            I wouldn’t be mad so much as disappointed. I want a font that would look like how a dad talks to a kid that wants a career in music despite never picking up an instrument.

          • Izo
    • CanuckAmuck

      Right with you there, buddy – I will call upon the full power of my fearsome Canadian wrath to sniff disapprovingly!

    • Balthazar

      Or she’s too shy to talk to Feral for more than a few minutes at a time so instead diverts her attention to the bike. 😛

  • Carl

    There’s also the “different types of smart” thing going on here. Tara is the quick-thinking tactician, who even when flustered can quickly come up with the right thing to do. Lisa is more of a deep thinker, but not always prone to react the right way in the moment.

    • Tsapki

      In D&D, we call it the Intelligence vs. Wisdom comparison.

      Someone with high Intelligence knows a huge amount, often in various fields, but if their Wisdom is low, they can miss details and simple, practical answers because they are prone to over thinking.

      Meanwhile high Wisdom people notice important minor details, react faster and possess good instincts, but should they have low Intelligence they may need complex words or ideas simplified to easier understand them.

  • Abel Undercity

    Feral’s face in panel 2 is just so darn adorable…

  • Walter

    “I think she likes you.” says Alison.

    I wonder what gave it away?

    • Guilherme Carvalho

      Alison must be psychic or something. No other way she could know.

      • Dean

        Obviously it’s some new biodynamic power.

      • Loranna

        *Gasp* Are Patrick’s powers rubbing off on Alison? Could this be his actual, deep-laid plan?

        Calling it now: Every event since Patrick’s break-up-with-me-PLEASE speech has been carefully orchestrated to subtly encourage the latent powers that rubbed off on Alison, up to and including giving Alison Max’s file to allow Feral a chance at a normal life so that Feral and Lisa could meet and develop the hots for one another, all so that we could reach THIS MOMENT!!!

        It’s BRILLIANT, I tell you! o/

        . . .Oh, and I love the contrast between Feral’s eyes and the shades of purple-pink used for the backgrounds. Especially in panels 2 and 3; those facial expressions Feral makes REALLY bring out the contrast ^_^

        ::waves to the burro, leaving a plate of carrots, then vanishes back into the dark shadows of shaded umbral ambience from which she vanished into in the first place::

        Loranna

        • Weatherheight

          ::happily munches the carrots::

          I’m wondering if the pinkish nature of these last few pages will return to a more typical shading now that the infatuation haze has reason to fade.

          • AshlaBoga

            Save me some carrots.

          • Weatherheight

            ::crunches carrots faster while mumbling something about no mine between bites::

    • Crow

      It’s almost like there’s no reason Feral and Paladin are in the comic nowadays except to be a quirky sitcom “squee machine”.

      Nothing makes me cringe harder than people typing out “omgomg so cute i cant even! squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”

      • Walter

        That’s kind of harsh. Feral and Paladin seem core to the narrative to me. Alison compromised her ethics for Feral in this issue’s central action point, what kind of life she has going forward strikes me as extremely pertinent to how that decision is evaluated.

        Going forward, its not hard to imagine future plots where these two could be extremely significant characters. The one that comes most easily to mind is what happens if Max’s power wears off and Feral’s power returns to its previous level.

      • Mechwarrior

        What would you prefer, that the comic focused exclusively on Alison’s existential angst with nothing to balance it out?

        • Crow

          I’d rather the story go somewhere instead of have so much fluff. So, yes? Paladin and Feral have never had any meaningful crossover, no shared experiences, its just taking two characters that the community likes and going “Now kiss, but do it in an awkward way that’s semi-relatable and draws out the page count.”

          • Mechwarrior

            This is the second time they’ve met. They’re still in the awkward attraction stage.

          • Dogwood

            “so much fluff”

            There’s been four pages total with them and we just left a nearly 30 pages long philosophical dialogue.

          • Abel Undercity

            Romance is getting somewhere!

      • Zorae42

        Weird, nothing makes me cringe harder than people putting down others for getting excited over harmless things.

      • Jaja

        haha, just let us enjoy our queer burgeoning romance already

  • No dammit Paladin, bikes should NOT be loud! No!

    • RDW0409

      It needs to be switchable- but I don’t know how you’re going to make it that loud while still getting the proper resonance, unless you’re just going to have a sidecar which is secretly a giant subwoofer

    • Weatherheight

      Since motorcycles are often overlooked by drivers in cars, loud is a good thing – it helps keep the rider(s) alive. That said, RDW0409 hits the nil on the head. Switchable is better.

      • Stephanie

        I guess Feral doesn’t really have to worry about being killed by a car either way.

        • Elaine Lee

          But her bike won’t be able to generate. Unless…

          • Sendaz

            I am pretty certain Lisa can make a bike tough enough to take more than a few hits, PLUS any damage means Lisa has to come around to fix it.

        • Weatherheight

          Point to Stephanie. 😀

      • Seer of Trope

        That’s actually one of the concerns about switching from fossil fuel cars to electric cars, that electric cars are relatively silenced thus more prone to accident. An audio system could be installed, but with oil cars, there is absolute guarantee that there will be noise when the engine is on.

      • By that logic, all bicyclists, who are also often overlooked by drivers in cars, should carry speakers that constantly emit loud sounds. For safety!

        • Weatherheight

          Well, it would help.

          Motorist should be far more aware of motorcyclists and cyclists than they are, but human nature being what it is, there are going to be incidents.
          Motorcyclists and cyclists should be more cautious, since they are far less defended and are basically high velocity meat sticks, but, again, human nature being what it is, there are going to be incidents.

          My point was there is a valid reason for motorcycles to be loud. That said, there’s probably an upper limit on what should be socially acceptable.

          My mother has a neighbor with a totally sweet ride, but he gets off work and comes home at around 3 AM. Not such a fan of that ride then since it pretty much always wakes me up. Mom’s gotten deaf enough that it no longer wakes her.

    • Izo

      In this case, I’ll have to agree with Paladin. Motorcycles should be loud.

      • Walter

        Yes, obviously.

  • Rugains Fleuridor

    Lisa is the best flirt. She makes it look like she’s getting in the swing of it, then runs away in a complete buzzkill.

  • Philip Bourque

    Okay, now that it’s been confirmed all around that there’s mutual interest, why don’t you visit her, Feral?

  • David Brown

    Lovely, lovely Feral… she probably wants you to chase her.

    • Rugains Fleuridor

      That’s where the thrill is

    • Weatherheight

      Sooner or later, you get Murtaugh’s disease…
      Namely, being too old for that shit.

    • Mechwarrior

      But Feral is a cat. She’d rather slowly stalk her prey before pouncing when it’s not looking, not run it down.

      • palmvos

        no… cats play with their prey….. they feed on the fear in their little hearts. (mice anyways)

        • Mechwarrior

          That mostly happens after the pouncing.

    • Kid Chaos
      • Abel Undercity

        And once again it is proven that everything goes better with Jaegermonsters.

  • Lika Boss

    Aside from the page, I hope everyone is having a good spring, and a good Easter, if you celebrate it!

  • Izo

    To the person who argued with me that the motorcycle is hard to create….

    … she has tons.

    • Tsapki

      I think I disagreed on that point, but I know the threads often contain a half dozen people discussing various view points and I unfortunately do not read through the entirety of lengthy conversations every time. My apologies for that.

      I think Arkone actually made this point for me. He misquoted the line but it was still simple enough. I’ll even add the response to it, as it drives home the point.

      “Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scrap!”

      “Well I’m sorry. I’m not Tony Stark.”

      I’ll add the link in here in case anyone for some reason wants to see it.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9foB2z_OVHc

      Now I’m not massively familiar with the Iron Man franchise, but as I understand it, Tony Stark has dozens of suits and for some reason it’s unusual when someone else has a suit that is similar in design unless the person in question is another tech genius, stole or received as a gift one of the suits from Tony Stark, or from an advanced alien race. As such it seems the fact that Tony Stark has tons of suits doesn’t mean they aren’t difficult for people who aren’t Tony Stark to manufacture.

      In fact in that particular clip shown, a team of professional scientist working with Stark technology and employed by Tony Stark can’t even properly replicate the power source for the suit. Admittedly, they did manager to get a clunker version of the suit built but it was useless until Mr. Stane literally ripped the power source out of Mr. Stark.

      I have a strange feeling like I miscommunicated something about the inventor literally having a superhuman understanding of machines to the point she can figure out a combustion engine by just handling it for a few minutes, but that’s on me.

      On a tangent though, do you think she meant literal metric tons of those bikes or just the usual vernacular? The concept seemed amusing to consider how it could be one or both.

      EDIT: Misspelled Stane.

      • Izo

        Funny thing, because I read this in an interview. Tony Stark has not patented the miniaturization of the arc reactor. Stark Enterprises patented the Arc Reactor itself, but not how he made it small enough to power a suit via the battery in his chest. That’s a ‘trade secret.’

        So he doesn’t have to tell anyone how he made it. In a case. With a box of scrap…. and some palladium.

        Too bad all the terrorists there didnt know what he was doing, and the only other person who did know was killed by the terrorists.

        Even when the army steals a suit with an arc reactor in it (Iron Man 2, they effectively stole the War Machine unit, aka Iron Patriot), it’s apparently too complex for them to backwards engineer. Which is another reason he hasn’t patented it. If he patented it, he’d have to explain how he did it, then in 20 years others would be able to copy it.

        Essentially, the miniature arc reactor is like teflon, which was another example of a trade secret that the inventors decided was so complex that they’d hold onto the secret longer by keeping it a trade secret, instead of a patent.

        And when Whiplash figured it out, Tony wasn’t going to be able to sue him either. IF he didn’t go all supervillain and try to murder him.

  • Amanda

    every page that feral appears in doubles my love for her

  • JohnTomato

    Perfect is the mortal enemy of outstanding.

    • deebles

      Truth

  • Arklyte

    Eh, who the hell creates a gift and then when they’re forced to present it due to the situation despite their hesitation only to run away with it next moment? What had just happened?!

    • Filthy Liar

      She’s a genius, that doesn’t mean she’s any good with people.

    • Danygalw

      Lisa does. Because she is a nervous perfectionist.

  • Ack

    Lisa missed a trick.
    “Why don’t you come back with me and we can talk while I upgrade your bike.”

    • cphoenix

      I know, right? I really thought she was doing this on purpose for exactly that reason.

    • Weatherheight

      “Upgrade your bike…”

      Nudge nudge wink wink, say no more!

  • MartynW

    The downside of gifts from a super genius. Endless tweaking.

  • Darkoneko Hellsing

    No, please keep it relatively silent. Well, just loud enough for pedestrian to hear you coming.

  • LISA, YOU FUCKING NERD

  • Izo

    Just to give a compliment on this page, since it IS cute and I’ve been on the hypocrisy patrol lately …. I really like the third panel – in particular Feral’s look as she’s peering over the bike. She’s adorable.

    In fairness, Feral is pretty adorable in general.

  • Jac

    I can totally see Feral getting a cool helmet. Not for safety, just for Cool.

    • Well there’s an entire industry of motorcycle helmets that look very cool but don’t actually protect you. Feral might have just justified the existence of those helmets.

  • SO everybody knows what game they’re all playing, but feels the need to play it out…

  • Merle

    Darn it, Lisa, tinkering together is a PERFECT flirty activity! Take Feral with you to play with the shiny toy and make it run better!

  • Ack

    Lisa is a classic Tinker as found in the Worm web-serial. If you’ve never read it, go to https://parahumans.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/ and prepare to lose a month of your life.