Grrl Power #740 – Predebrief
Max decided her sports bra-ish top wasn’t appropriate while on the clock.
Okay so I clearly have no idea how an actual debrief goes down, and I apologize to people looking forward to a revisit of Sydney’s interview where she had to stand in front of half the senior Archon personnel.
Actually, the way I assume a debrief probably works is that you just report up the chain. NCO’s probably report to their sergeants, who pass the information up to the CO’s, who file it or follow up if needed. I don’t know who Sydney’s actual direct commander is, come to think of it. Anvil is a sergeant, but I usually have her getting trained by Peggy, who is a 1st Lt. Considering Sydney is not technically even an NCO yet, literally everyone else in Arc-SWAT outranks her. Even the other recruits at this point, since she was behind them when she joined, and now she’s fallen an additional 2 months behind.
Let’s assume that Maxima is just doing a ‘high level let’s make sure nothing super classified comes out’ pre-debrief. I guess the actual debrief (considering Archon’s small team size and overall atypical would include Arianna and Dabbler, possibly Hiro, as he’s a Major. They’d probably want to interview Cora and her crew as well, separately I’d guess.
So I’m moving on Wednesday… or I guess I’ve already moved by the time this page posts. I don’t know when I’ll be online again. Hopefully later today. I kind of left sorting out all the utilities till the last minute, then it was Memorial Day weekend and half of them were closed. Oy. Anyway, assume the next time I’m able to get online (phones don’t count) I’ll be surrounded by boxes to the ceiling, having scavenged just enough cords and cables to get my computer working again.
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Maxima is about to get a swear jar.
Maxima is about to add a fifty to the incredibly expensive swear jar. Or another bundle of cash.
She should just say:
“I….. fiinally figured out what that pip I spent during the press test does. Apparently it lets me teleport.”
Then quickly show herself do a teleport, and hope she doesn’t ask when she figured this out.
If she DOES get asked that, tell the truth, but explain that she was really shaken from the near death experience, then froze up, then the bladder alarm went off before she could tell Maxima and it got forgotten.
All true information, in the right order, no lying to your C.O.
It really is question on how long (hours, days, weeks) it was between different story Arcs.
Some kind of Timeline page may be worth it.
IIRC Dave mentions about 51 days, plus about 2 days from the time the portal closed to when Syd touches down on earth again.
That was why Harem was having problems from her perceptive – she had gained 51 days of info all at once, plus 5 ‘bodies’
Big question is: Is Harem still linked to her future self?
Harem was her future self two days ago, when Sydney fought the Cthulu-oids and was picked up by Cora at the Fracture.
So, I have a little experience with debriefings. I hope the way I illustrate this helps you imagine what it’s like.
To my knowledge, a debriefing can be from any NCO rank higher than the enlisted in question or anyone of Officer standings to any enlisted regardless of enlisted rank, very special/specific circumstances where people under rank (who are specially designated to that station) may debrief with authority individuals whom outrank them. Having Maxima, who has just been informed of the situation, debrief Sidney immediately is perfectly fine. Sometimes you jump several chains of command to get the information where you need it as soon as possible. If it is scheduled, the persons in question will knock once loudly and wait for permission to enter, afterwards they will enter the room with proper facing movements to efficiently make it front-and-center of the desk of the Officer, salute and hold salute until reciprocated, and begin the report with, “Sir/Ma’am, (List Rank) (Last name) reports as ordered.” then will say what they need to say with professionalism and respect, standing at attention for the duration of the debriefing (while the officer is seated at their desk, also giving their full attention) until the conclusion OR UNTIL given permission to either stand at ease, or even sit. At the end of the debriefing they will be dismissed, return to attention, salute until reciprocated, take one step back, and make the appropriate facing movements to efficiently leave the room.
Thanks for the info! I suspect you guys will find the way Maxima handles this one a little less, uh… dry than that.
Hah, I swear, if there was a new draft, I think I’d last all of 15 seconds before being jailed for rolling my eyes at every little procedure in the military. I’d be thinking “Oh, what, will the enemies of… well, not freedom, but the enemies of American political interests win if I don’t enter the room in the exact right way?” Not that I’d last long enough to ever be in a position to need to be debriefed.
I’m not sure Sydney has quite my level of pathological aversion to authority, but it’d be interesting to see what would happen if she got seconded to a proper military unit for a mission. She might last more than 15 seconds, but boy, it wouldn’t go well.
Believe me, we have to use a lot of willpower not to roll our eyes too. This stuff gets drilled into you at Basic, along with the obligatory marksmanship and physical training. Most other subjects covered only get a couple days, but marksmanship, PT and Drill&Ceremony(which the stances, salutes and all the little procedures all fall under) are pretty much constant the entire time. Sydney’s in for a lot of work when she actually gets down to her training. Also, I hope they’ve got some better ways of helping her mitigate her ADD, cause the sheer volume of info thrown at recruits can be overwhelming to someone that doesn’t have issues with attention. Still, she’s not full military, so the workload will likely be spread more and in smaller chunks
Expert, is Superior, to Marksman. I am an expert.
Marksmanship is the term for the discipline of shooting.
Evaluation of relative expertise wasn’t the point of the post, which described bootcamp memories about relative time spent at various engagements.
I like your username. Very… apt.
I like your username. It’s very easy to spell.
I like your username. Very… apt.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I implore you….
*dissolves into nearly silent storm of giggles*
These ceremonies and procedures are all about discipline. If they can get you to follow these inane and dry ceremonies then they an get you to charge at the enemy when you know your going to die. It’s all about instilling a sense of obedience and professionalism.
So, um, I think they don’t need to worry about Halo on that note:
1. She’s been through this “you know you’re going to die” bit, and she’s managed it. I mean, she’s just come back from one of these.
2. Shield: she’s not gonna die.
3. Tropes: DeathIsCheap plus GenreSavvy
There’s also in the Army at least an AAR, which is more what this seems to be, sort of. An AAR is an “After Action Review.” It used to be semi formalized as to exactly What was supposed to happen, What did happen, 3 sustains and 3 improves.
Though really there should be no limit or minimum on the Sustains or improves.
And typically an AAR is supposed to happen after EVERY mission, and EVERY training (field) exercise.
Civilians attached have to do AAR’s too.
Mine always got rewritten because I’d tell the bald absolute truth. Colonels and Generals pretty much loved me, my boss, not so much. Efforts were made to avoid too much contact between me and the higher ups.
So, basically, there’s a formalized DEBRIEFING of a large scale mission…
And there is an AAR, where after everything that happened, people get together to go “Okay, WTF happened?”
Dad told me about the debereifs they had with the transport crews for the Minuetmans, including antything odd that the may have spited, then he was reassigned and got to do the debreifs for other transport crews, and found out that one of the things they did was set up one or two “friendly” crews doing something odd, like a couple of people out “hunting” or out “ plinking” out of season or with unusual weapons. Or taking pictures from inside vans/houses, or a utility worker taking gardening equipment up a utility pole.
He found out there was always something the security crew should have noticed. The ones who did the most noticing got promotions, the ones who didn’t found themselves at less sensitive postings.
It does tend to vary within units, services… and then there are other military outfits in other countries that handle things completely differently. But I would think that Archon is taking a relatively relaxed attitude regarding such things with their civilian contractors, specifically because they are possessed of unique abilities, and it’s better to keep them happy than to piss them off and encourage them to go work for someone else. (And yes, I know I’m addressing this to the writer of the comic. I’m just giving you my two cents as to why I see this as being fairly realistic)
It reminds me of the novel “Starship Troopers,” where the psychics were given high military rank and allowed to do pretty much anything they wanted to… and the mobile infantry officers who had worked so hard to earn their ranks were perfectly okay with that. If an esper wanted to be called a colonel and saluted as the price of walking around, looking contemplative, and then handing over a completely accurate map of an underground enemy stronghold before going to sleep off his migraine… then the cap troopers were completely okay with calling him “sir.”
Ever watch Sumo matches? I’ve found a predictor that is 100% when it fires (which is almost always). Watch the contestants during the ceremony before the start. The one that is more crisp & focused during the ceremony wins. No exceptions.
The reason for the rules is to drill compliance itself. Yeah, not the civilian way. Keeps folks alive, though.
In the Air Force it’s almost a race to salute before the Office tells you to go to ease.
You’d be surprised how quickly you get over most of the eye-rolling. It’s just code switching, same as how you might talk to your friends differently from your family differently from your PTA meeting. Some jagoffs get really anal about it as soon as they get any authority, and that’s pretty eyeroll-worthy, but for the most part it’s just how you talk in certain company.
At few reasons for high levels of discipline and strict procedures:
1. Stand and fight – imagine standing in a line of musketmen firing on another line 50 yards away. Or charging a machinegun nest.
2. Hygiene – Sharing a barracks with a lot of other people. Possibly even hotbunking – even worse in 1743 or whatever but still relevant.
3. Efficient communications – Important for high pressure situations, but useful always.
4. Social awkwardness – Clear rules so you don’t even have to worry about it.
5. Decision making – 20 people debating what to do while it’s raining bullets and shells…
And you always do the same thing so it becomes a question of habit, not something you have to think about.
Still no sign of Harem, or what her big news was when we last saw her.
She is pregnant and there is the possibility of duplicating them every time she appears or disappears one of her selves, which could potentially populate a platoon of children if she isn’t careful.
Her ‘big news’ was that they had gone to the future, that is now ‘old news’
I don’t see how everyone is so confident that they were in the future, rather than just Sydney experiencing time passing differently in space than the rest. And all that we really knew about Harem is that there were “too many of her.” My personal theory, based on absolutely nothing, is that the increased distance Harem gained from her other multi-bodies allowed her to generate a sixth.
Again, this theory is not founded on ANY evidence.
Really? No evidence? So not only is Harem revealing it in-world, but Dave confirming it repeatedly in the little “blog” sections under the comics isn’t evidence?
*dons Tzeentch mask* What IS evidence, really?
…clearly I need to make it practice to read the blog posts under the comic more consistently.
And I simply meant there was no evidence to support my theory. Which there clearly wasn’t.
Um…. they literally state, both in the comic and by DaveB, that they were in the future. Which we now see is true because what was only two days for Sydney was 53 days for the rest of the team that went back through the portal.
I took the bit from the comics differently. Not that they had traveled to the future, but that that time passed differently for Sydney than it did on Earth. That whole relativity thing. I admittedly missed DaveB’s post, which by itself proves me wrong, but I really would like to see where in the comic you’re finding this. I haven’t been able to find that yet.
Fairly sure it was stated Sydney went 51 days in to the future when she got back (and Daphne or Dabbles was teasing her that it was 51 years)
51 days into the future + 2 days to get home via ship + Fracture
Also I think Daphne teased about it being 57 years because of some Aliens movie reference.
I’m still a bit disappointed that Harem’s confusion turned out to be because of plain boring time travel instead of a parallel dimension.
(You KNOW Halo would have been horrified/ecstatic to come home only to discover an “Evil” twin, and if you could establish a portal between dimensions permanently, there would be some significant changes to Earth’s entire economy…)
Okay I need to again compliment DaveB’s artwork. It’s always been really good, but lately his faces and bodies are just on a whole other level. Especially with Maxima (and Cora, but I don’t have anything to compare Cora with from earlier in the comic).
Especially how expressive the faces are now. Like how Maxima’s eyes widen or narrow or relax, like you can actually tell what sort of emotion she’s having during what she’s saying. Amazing work.
Thanks! I’ve been pleased with my recent Maximas. It’s always kind of a crapshoot. I honestly don’t know how other artists maintain consistent art from one panel to the next.
Three words, practice, practice, practice.
Most of them… don’t
The great ones don’t let it be a problem (and by that, mean they don’t get hung up if the character doesn’t look exactly like they did on the previous page let alone six months ago when they were last featured
That said, and while consider you one of the greats, please don’t let what happened to Math and co on that near-naked apron-wearing Dabbles-baking-cookies page happen again (Math and Anvil and the others looked really bad)
Also, please return Hiro back to his original look (this, of course, is POO and you have no obligation to even pay any attention to it)
The real question is, was she debriefed after the warehouse fight? If no, I think she’s in the clear, “Just forgot to mention it because of the shock.” works.
If she did get debriefed, the fecal matter hits the rotor,because it’s absolutely something she should have brought up. Though being a recruit without proper training yet I doubt she gets more than a lot of laps.
Actually, thinking about it, if she had been debriefed after that fight, laps won’t cover it, because there’s no honest account of the events that doesn’t lead to the teleportation being exposed. And lying during a debrief would get her in some deep trouble indeed.
Have mentioned this before: not mentioning something that wasn’t asked is not lying
When you are being debriefed, they are explicitly asking for everything that occurred, not everything you thought was important. This is expressly the case because a detail you find unimportant, may provide a correlation with other information that you would otherwise not know.
Personally i consider this more a report.To get the main information. A debrief requires paperwork.
As for the omission, this one time pt could be employed as punishment, future infractions would have greater consequences
Well, then the pressing questions are:
‘Was Sydney debriefed about the warehouse fight where she experienced death as well as discovering her new power?’
‘If she was debriefed, did they suspend it due to finding out Krona’s power and/or that Sydney underwent a traumatic event, yet before she could inform them of her new power, and they’ve yet to resume that debriefing?’
Because either not debriefing Sydney, or suspending that debrief before she could tell them about her new power, are the only reasons I can think of that won’t get her into trouble.
Zack Tilly: if they don’t ask, she can’t lie or omit details
The phrase, “lying by omission” exists. If someone asks you a question and you intentionally leave out information that pertains to the question, you’re lying.
Yes, butt if they don’t ask a question, if you don’t say anything: it’s not fucking lying!!
it is lying and any system that requires the questioner to have perfect knowledge is in the least ignorant, opposed to innovation and adaptation and in the worst just like most of the world governments/legel systems and rotten to the core. situational ethics is simply choosing how you justify your lies
But just how much training as far as Military Protocol has Sydney had?
Debrief was forgotten because of the potential “end of Existence” effect of Krona toying with time, quite understandably, so Sydney likely forgot to tell Max about it.
No, Sydney didn’t ‘forget’, she was temporarily stuck in a Choice Lock abut whether to tell Maxi or keep it ‘secret’ in case Maxi goes ‘Evil Golden Goddess of Doom’, and then Kronachrome’s abilities became a focus of Maxi’s attention and it simply wasn’t brought up again
I don’t think there was any debriefing, actually. People were more concerned about Krona’s time loop, and it got forgotten.
And Sydney’s good at forgetting to mention things, without it being malicious. She might have not taken her meds after a near death (or actual death) experience.
I think DaveB left out a ‘to’ in one of Maxima’s speech bubbles.
‘we need to have’ not ‘we need have’
Oops, I’ll get that fixed.
If space is a consideration, WE MUST HAVE takes up about the same space as WE NEED HAVE and conveys the same intent.
Well if you are being picky you could also remove ‘to have’ and it would still make sense. However; that also gets down to speech patterns. We tend to use looser rules of language in speech (and chat) vs writing
My mom is a writer and she had a thing about ‘useles words’ eg words that could be removed without changing meanigs. I can say its also a poetry and music thing when you are trying to match up to rhythms.
They say never to use a big word when a diminutive one suffice. ;-p
end that with suffices, or would suffice :}
Meh, personally had no problems with it, Maxi was speaking informally like most normal people who are not pedantic English Majors who sucked down a gallon of Grammar-juice on a daily basis
Which is not appropriate for an officer performing a command function, even if not in uniform.
Speaking informally? Like a normal person?
Normal people don’t have the benefit of having a grammar book shoved up their arze, or the ability to edit what they said, and most times don’t have a pre-written script to read from
Normal persons generally know correct grammar, even if they don’t always use it.
They learn it in Grammar School , which is one of the names given to the first six grades of public education.
Professionals use correct grammar because it makes communication more precise.
Military personnel are expected to be professional in the performance of their duties because when they are not personnel can die or be injured in preventable ways.
I’ve been through Grammar School, and know a variety of other people who have also. Not all primary schools teach the right rules. Not all secondary schools teach the right rules. Basically, all schools are made up of teachers, and each of those teachers is a unique person with different knowledge, talents, and skills, and sometimes the grammar school teachers and language teachers either don’t know the right rules, choose not to teach the right rules, or are otherwise incapable of teaching the rules correctly.
Also, just because someone went through a class does not mean that they learned the lessons of that class. This is especially true in schools that are known to socially promote, because the incentive isn’t there.
Sorry.
I’m old now.
At the time I went through school not learning the material actually did mean repeating a grade, and some of the tests were given and ggraded by monitors other than the teachers.
It’s easy to forget that standards in education which were once rigidly enforced no longer are.
None the less, within the officer ranks someone who was never taught correct grammar is unlikely to successfully complete OCS.
Unless you are a Golden Elf of Doom, and they promote you to Lieutenant Colonel in your low 30’s
An Officer out of uniform, cannot give orders.
Try asserting that in the field, when something happens at night and the brass run out of their hootches shirtless or even in their skivies.
An Officer out of uniform is still an Officer
Yes, Sydney can’t maintain continuous flight while using having Mr Buble deployed and shooting, butt she can still shoot while bubbled, and that, to me, is still a power (knowledge is power afterall)
Technically speaking, for Sydney, knowledge IS a power from the orbs. Because the center ‘circle’ seems to give her additional knowledge in how the orbs work. At least, that’s the running theory that Sydney has about it.
So, who here also needs to go back and reread the entire arc to double check Sydney’s accounting skills?
My report should include: New powers and combos…
Teleport
Shield + Teleport
Shield + PPO (Through Shield)
Speed Increase
Causeway
And the Alari that taxied to Earth in Cora’s ship. Oh and don’t forget the whole thing about the orbs being sufficiently advanced technology, and how that could mean unintentionally drawing attention to Earth that Earth can’t afford to have, especially since there’s a viral video of a certain Earth girl wearing something that nobody in their right mind can eat, and how the orbs were in said video.
Peace on Earth is all kinds of compromised right now if that video is seen by the wrong aliens.
Also multi-fire PPO.
For background- I’m active duty Navy, hopefully I can assist with the scope of realism you’re looking for.
A debriefing is going to coincide/supercede with any after-action report depending on who is receiving or handling the end data. If the report was ultimately going to the OIC(officer in charge), than it is not unusual in the slightest for subject matter expert(usually cut to SME) to be directly briefing them. This applies to combat, program management, and even minor taskings. The CO’s know the benefit being that they receive direct information without playing a game of telephone, especially because your senior personnel often will omit or “forget” aspects that may paint them in a bad light, while your more junior personnel are likely to talk about obstacles making it harder for them to do their job. In the end though, how a debriefing goes will really depend on people- hands-on leadership will try to do it at the lowest level possible (the performers), while regulation sticklers will work through a CoC.
Hope this was helpful, and feel free to ping me (assuming this gives you contact info) for any future stuffs, I’ve certainly enjoyed the comic soo far!
Thanks! Sometimes I can get a feel for some military stuff through google, but nothing beats firsthand accounts. On this page I admit I just wanted it to go down a certain way, so I didn’t fret too hard about getting it just right.
You’ve already established that ArcSwat is a bit of the odd man out in terms of being military, but only kinda sorta.
Supers can make obscene amounts of money in private industry easily enough, Archon can’t be too hard assed or they won’t get any recruits.
While their job does demand a certain amount of serious business, the relatively unique nature of supers means they are going to have to operate with a lot more of a ‘eh, as long as it works.’ Approach than say the Marines would tolerate.
Honestly, I would put it at closer to an Air Force/police hybrid in terms of discipline. Even in basic you could see how relaxed most of the people were with each other outside of specifically official business. Officers and NCOs talking to each other as casual acquaintances, playing jokes on each other. They were regular coworkers unless there was a specific need to be formal. Then the spit and polish comes out, but otherwise “Hey frank” “Oh hey jim” is the standard greeting between two people who know each other regardless of relative ranks.
So personally I would think ARCSWAT is run in that it has enough rules and regulations to keep things under control, but also is relaxed enough that you can be yourself most of the time and not have problems. Even when sydney started her “basic” and had that awful attempt at attention, god help me I winced at the idea of what my TI would have done to anyone standing like that, I cant imagine what a marine would have done. But instead she was quietly told the right way to do it and they moved on. Much more relaxed than anything military would ever be. So yes this is a debriefing/AAR, but its not military, so its more relaxed, as it should be. It makes sense to include these in their organization, because knowledge is power, but it also makes sense to relax it a bit because she isnt being called to the carpet here, she is just being asked to give a full accounting of events now that maxima is aware that some seriously important stuff took place beyond “She hid till cora got her” Now, depending on how ticked maxima gets over not being informed that sydney can do short to mid range teleports her not being called to the carpet may change, but for now, this seems a good balance to me.
Maxi getting pissed (or ‘ticked’) because Sydney kept one of her abilities secret would be a great way for Sydney to tell them to shove it and walk out
I can see that.
Sydney: “You know what? In the words of Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth-”
Maxima: “No, wait, what I meant was-”
Sydney: “I don’t wanna live on this planet anymore.”
Maxima: “Please, no, Miss Scov-…”
Sydney already used the Shield to keep from being caught, and the Flight to go back to Fracture Station.
Theory: the PPO is a destructive scanner and the powers gotten are based on what it hit to get the level up, where the pip is put doesn’t change the power, it just defines how it’s activated, like a permanent keybinding set when you install a new key in a slot.
Interesting thought. However, something doesn’t mesh with it:
– Dave said he has each orb slot labeled and they do a specific thing. This could mean that ‘later in the story this kind of weapon will be attacked with the PPO, which would add a socket. However, it’s a god-level item, so it looks at its own history, and it doesn’t change based on when it is in its own timeline. At least something about it exists outside of linear time. So its like “plasma cone such as flamethrower” would add this socket here, but the orb already knows that and adds it itself before Sydney lives in the spacetime that would add it. Everything it might to, it already has the option for. So I guess you could still be right.
Thinking about it, maybe the points she gets aren’t from leveling. They’re from living in the spacetime that that socket got filled in, so instead of it just advancing itself, it makes her go through the tedium? of seeming like she’s leveling up, whereas she’s really just an unnecessary middleman.
Maybe reality is a video game created by a god, and the orbs count as a Sim’s green crystal. The best games don’t let you control your characters, but the tasks they have the chance to perform. (I’ve got well over 1200 hours in RimWorld.) More fun for the game designer to never know what will happen, even in a game they made on their own.
Max is gonna be PISSED. Pretty sure withholding a power in Archon is, or at least should be, a massive breach of trust.
If your friends don’t know it, then the enemy won’t know it.
Thats… not always true.
No she won’t actually be angry that is. Shocked yes but not angry, the amount of time that Sydney had the teleport to the attack on Sciona was about twenty four hours. Having it slip her mind in the heat of battle she did die after all when she discovered it, and then the reset hit is both easily believable and not uncommon among those with ADHD. While it has been a little under two months for everyone else Sydney has only been away a couple of days from the fight.
With Maxima being the most powerful super on Earth, she should be cognizant that
even her military superiors would worry that she might go off.
Sydney holding back some attributes is at least understandable.
Quick suggestion!
I would be nice to have links to relevant past pages when needed.
For example, here, I would have really liked a link to the page where the untold power is revealed =).
I think this could help in a lot of situations!
Like what Dan does over at EGS, where the commentary has links to related pages?
(See http://egscomics.com/comic/party-015 for example)
Elfguy, your avatar, is a Pervect.
Aahz gonna say it was Skeevey.
Perhaps I was mythtaken.
Nope, asked him years ago (or feels like years) and he admitted that that is who his gravvy is
-Military Debriefing Techniques
Military personnel rely on debriefing sessions to gather information from soldiers as well as to emphasize unit cohesion and help unit members adjust to stressful incidents. Therefore, in addition to serving as educational sessions, military debriefings also aim to aid the cognitive functioning of the soldiers.
Military debriefings take place within the week following a military operation. This gives the troops ample time to recuperate. Military unit leaders are usually the individuals who lead the debriefing sessions. However, troops of any rank may participate in the session as long as they were involved in the operation. A typical group involved in a debriefing session usually has around 10 members. Larger groups may be broken down into smaller groups after introductory information is supplied by the unit leader.
During the course of the debriefing, soldiers introduce themselves or participate in icebreakers, a timeline of events is constructed to review experiences, potential anxiety symptoms are addressed and normalized, and then closing remarks are made. Information discussed in these debriefings is confidential.
-Debriefings originated in the military. This type of debriefing is used to receive information from a pilot or soldier after a mission, and to instruct the individual as to what information can be released to the public and what information is classified. Another purpose of the military debriefing is to assess the individual and return him or her to regular duties as soon as possible.
Sauce: https://debriefing.com/debriefing-techniques/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debriefing#Military_debriefing
If you are ever worried about not doing something right, just do a quick google. Learning new things is awesome. ^^
“Within the week of”?
At least where I was it was “within three days of.” And a couple of times our CO got his butt chewed if it took that long. Basically if people weren’t actually hurt we had to come in pretty much immediately after action. Our procedures weren’t all that formal but they wanted to know what we’d seen and could report on, immediately.
Cavalry scout we never debrief, sure we do an after action. But and actual debrief the information we have would be to stale by then, live updates as we move. We used a thing called SALT or SALUTE to report Size Activity Location Time or Size Activity Location Unit Time Equipment. Which allows scouts to report back quickly what they see, that is life as the sharp end of the stick. See the rear never okay only if your get hurt time off maybe when your dead. If you want a good idea on how scouts actually operate watch Blackhawk Down the Cavalry company in that does a fair job of surviving a really bad day.
Between panels 7-9 Sydney manages to age Maxima from “Youthful Golden Perfection” to “Gettin’ Too Old for This Shit.”
Max is at this magical age of mid thirties where you are still young enough and at the same time old enough to be just tiered of semi adults and unprofessionalism.
the blurb below the script your missing a ) in the last paragraph.
Why does Max think Sydney’s shield needs “recharging” ??? She knows it drops the second Sydney let’s go of it why would she think Sydney would do that in a firefight and not assume she would trade out the flight orb and let inertia work it’s magic?
When they took that massive hit from the eldritch horror, the shield turned red, and Sydney recognized it wasn’t completely invincible.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-647-no-healthpack-needed/
Right, thanks.
Maybe she’s thinking of when the shield is damaged, and takes time to “heal” back to full status.
There is this in 525
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-525-tropelock/
Where Maxima asks Sydney directly what exactly happened and she froze up replying. However, she was also under considerable stress, having just “died”, so it probably would not be held against her.
I agree with your conclusion, as per my comment posted further below. But, just to play Devil’s advocate, for a moment, we must bear in mind that we did not get to see the conclusion of that discussion. Maxima did not look like she would get distracted, on the page you linked. Which means that Sydney would have had to come up with something, once her brain lock had resolved itself.
Some options are:
1) Sydney outright lied (with potentially severe repercussions)
2) Halo made her report but simply omitted any mention of the teleport power (which could have involved ‘tweaking’ the details, to explain away some of it). How much she lied vs evaded the truth (a fine line) affects how badly this may play.
3) Sydney had a massive nose bleed, or other chronic attack, every time she was pressed for a detailed debrief. Given the near-death experience she had, it is entirely possible that Maxima decided not to press her for further details, for fear of provoking a breakdown.
The only point to bear in mind is that Sydney is a TERRIBLE liar. See her trying to avoid telling Leon about the orbs, as the prime example. For Maxima not to already be suspicious, I suspect that Halo must have kept pretty close to the truth, or she would have easily been seen through. So my Yorpie snax go on Sydney having increased her bluff skill above default minimum, through the experiences she has been surviving.
Except, we do see that Sydney remembers she possibly maybe almost died, and freaks out over the maybe-memory, gets consoled by Golden Sister, then her bladder wakes up and she zooms behind a building, and then we have Maxi ‘inviting’ Kronachrome back to ARC-HQ for an examination about her abilities
Okay, going further from that page, we get to where Sydney discovers what her Green Ball does, and Maxi tells her to keep that a secret, specifically “No need to advertise this new power”
That may have happened after discovering the Light-port ability, butt still believe Maxi will understand Sydney keeping it secret until now
Plus after the bladder incident Sydney might have simply forgotten to tell Maxima about the new power. ADD might be a good excuse there. She has a notoriously short attention span sometimes, and flits from thought to thought.
Which means that it falls on Maxi who should have followed up and re-requested the AAR :D
Yep. A good lawyer knows how to shift the blame.
Really, Maxima? I hope Sydney makes the point in the debrief she did try hiding as well, only they were actively searching for her. Only their means of “search” is “Recon by Fire” -With kiloton yield detonations…
Before this brief debriefing I remember Maxima had Sydney’s ring tone on her phone set to ‘They’re coming to take me away’ https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-356-ring-tone-deaf/
After this meeting I hope Max earns enough respect to reset it to the refrain from a particular Queen song.
She’s a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime
+1
Just don’t loose your head. Not if you want to live for ever.
So this is a bit late, but I was reading through some of the older comics in the archives again, and it occurred to me when I got to the part with Krona in action. I believe it was mentioned how the Vampires in Grrl Power are sorta-kinda based off a combination of Vampire:the Masquerade and Requiem traits(along with other forms of media but if I recall right those were mentioned in particular). With that in mind, I’m wondering if Krona is-at least in part-based off the Virtual Adepts of Mage:the Ascension? Her power is very similar to how their Paradigms can work and I’m interested if they were.
Good question, and agreed. I would be interested to see if DaveB gives an answer on that one. Although he may choose to keep that card close to his chest, if it involves any spoilers.
And that is going to go down even more than “What”, when Sydney reveals, “I had to keep it secret, just in case you turned evil!”
Mind you, although most other commanders might be rather alarmed that their subordinate was concealing a secret weapon that could kill them, I suspect that that Maxima may be fine with it. In terms of it having been an appropriately thought out tactic, on Sydney’s behalf.
May not sleep well mind.
If she wants to go full Batman, then she will need a strategy to disable but not kill each individual member of the team. https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/161678/what-were-batmans-contingency-plans-to-immobilize-the-justice-league
To complete the process, she would need to come up with a strategy to disable herself as well.
Like Vector said in the Resteruant Rumble: someone distract Sydney with something shiny.
You could, in theory, do this with an high value figurine, like a Saitam action doll, which she mentioned when she was being measured for her ARC-SWAT Field dress, AFDs if I remember correctly. Or give an all access pass to SDCC, or the small ECC, or any PAX event.
No reason for this to feel like a betrayal, Sydney. It is a new power, and the reason you haven’t talked about it is very valid. I’m sure Maxima will be cool if you tell her why you kept it hidden:
1. Archon has a dossier on all it’s supers and their powers.
2. This whole fiasco, from before that power until literally wrapping up right now has been all a result of facing Sciona.
3. The Twilight council was caught unawares because Sciona had full intel, and the Council didn’t.
4. One reason for the intel situation was the distinct possibility that Sciona had spies.
5. The ONLY reason the Twilight Council didn’t fall was because an unexpected X-Factor was there. Specifically, Maxima and Sydney.
6. Point 5 highlights that the best way to beat Sciona, who was an active threat, is to have intel that wasn’t spied out.
7. Sydney literally DIED because Sciona was good at being adequately prepared.
8. Sydney had good reasoning to keep a newly aquired power on the DL: as an ace-in-the-hole so she doesn’t die again
9. This is literally the first time Sydney has seen Maxima since sciona was defeated. This is a perfectly legitimate first time to be telling Maxima about the new power.
For point 7, I’m not sure if her death triggered the reset, or extreme stress right before death that trigger the reset. Which means that she might not of died.
I’m actually expecting (hoping?) that Sydney somehow gets to talk to General Faulk instead. Some of it (most?) Maxima just plain shouldn’t know about. She’s a human. Therefore, not allowed to know certain things.
But Sydney is too, and I’m sure Xuriel Tantalis is there for such an eventuality. Multiple planets could have Watchers. Scoville, Tantalis, Faulk, and her lawyer (we know her last name?) with the General and Dabbler in the front, but Arianna off to the side, behind Sydney, so she can’t gauge her agent’s facial expressions.
I mean, Dabbler already knows more than she told (I can’t imagine anything else) but she’s also able to keep her shock/terror from showing if needed, which is important.
“Well General, I have this power that I didn’t want Colonel Leander to know about in case I have to kill her at some point in the future.”
“Good informational restraint. Tell me everything.”
+5
The General, thinking: “Give me all the details, all your strengths and weaknesses. When my secret Power Armour finally works properly and I get to really cut loose, it will be designed to effortlessly withstand your attacks and cut through your defences. {Evil laugh, lightning effect optional}
‘Informational Restraint in case your superiors turn evil’ is a very, very deep and slippery rabbit-hole to start down.
So unless the other recruits made it through basic training already they don’t outrank her just because they’re ahead in training. Don’t get me wrong some recruits would certainly act like they were better, and more entitled, but if Archon works anything like the military I know, you don’t get rank until the end of basic and being a ‘1st phase recruit’ vs a ‘3rd phase recruit’ is a joke. Even once they were out of training and all had their first rank, 50 days ahead is nothing significant and those first three to four ranks all get treat the same anyway. Yes, a Lance Corporal (E-3) technically outranks a Private First Class (E-2) but the most power that usually means is is the E-3 might delegate a little and say “I’ll mop this half, you mop that half”.
There are exceptions and those exceptions aren’t rare, but certainly not the norm. In the infantry being an E-3 who had been deployed at least once turned you into a ‘Senior Lance’. Not a real title but a useful one when the infantry famously doesn’t promote and has a lack of NCO’s.
Generally speaking, the Marines essentially treated the enlisted like they were divided into three groups: E-1 to E-3 were the junior marines, E-4 to E-6 were the NCOs who got most of the day to day shit done, and E-7 to E-9 were the Staff NCOs who usually focused on the big picture. Even that is a rough division and you could move up and down it frequently based on your job and billets. For instance an E-6 (Staff Sergeant) often found themselves on the bottom of the totem pole for Staff NCOs or, more often, some weird bridge between the two. As I mentioned earlier ‘Senior Lances’ often found themselves doing the work of NCOs.
Turned into a much longer explanation than I meant it to be. You’re doing great Dave, keep it up. Also what I’ve described is only a rough description of the Marines. Other branches worked differently and since yours is an entirely new branch it can work differently still. The major point of ranks in the first place is authority and accountability, so just keep that in mind as you move forward.
Obviously they won’t ‘outrank’ her, seeing how they are all the same rank, butt they will be more advanced than Sydney, due to having had more training (and not just the physical stuff)
And any amount of advantage over someone else is exploited to it’s fullest, no matter how minor or petty
Sydney, has had “kill or be killed” combat training, which the other recruits have not.
I think I found Sydney.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejevtpbyTEM
Sammy is a boy
Not convinced. No Adams Apple at the self-reported age of 16-17-ish. Reeeeeeal late puberty, or a girl.
Good singer, either way. I think the My Boy cover shows the voice better than the Queen one though- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2CD8tMgUFE
I didn’t enter puberty until two weeks before the start of my senior year of high school.
I was seventeen.
Didn’t have my voice change until eighteen, didn’t reach my full height until my early twenties, didn’t have to shave until twenty three.
Kid’s probably the age he says.
On one of his other videos, he actually states that he is a boy
His glasses, forehead, and hair does look very Scoville-esque!
Something just clicked in my head. I realized something… Frix reminds me a LOT of Tiger, the horned wolf from Monster Rancher. Bought a video editor the other day, so I’m making a Grrl Power fan video right this minute. Will reply to this comment with a link once it’s done.
Didn’t take me long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqvpjIuMeTM
You sir are Epic. I had a feeling ia h=ad seen something lik fix at some point, but being a DM I could not remember where in my “search for monsters” I had seen him. THat vidio is great.
As former military, I actually like when mt fantasy stories are not 100% accurate. If they were true to life I would not read them. Super on point military stuff triggers a small amount of ptsd
I figured out what ability it is she’s referring to. She’s got Jimmy Neutron’s “Brain Blast” from the time she had that huge conversation with herself and kept getting side tracked to batman. At least, I hope she goes down a road like that. Or maybe some other thing that is rather normal but works in her favor slightly.
The only option I don’t like for this to go down is the idea of her lying or pulling a prank on Maxima…if she does, she will likely get her shit pushed in by an understandably irate Max, and I don’t think that it would play on Sydney’s character very well either. Sydney should at this rate understand the seriousness of this talk, and even if she’s off her meds, this isn’t like her normal ‘side tracked’ mind she gets sometimes, this would be seen as a direct attempt to subvert the debriefing, and would get her fined or possibly even canned for a while.
Note: Definitely not a big enough move to get her fired/dismissed from the military/organization. But definitely grounds for some serious punishments. The military wouldn’t give up even the lowest recruits for something like this as a first time offense.
There’s a saying in the Navy, “You can’t become a Chief if you haven’t gone to DRB at least once.” DRB being an in between board for Chiefs to question you/berate you/break you down, in order to determine if the offense is worth going to XOI/Captains Mast. XOI being another inbetween, where you talk to the XO to determine if it is necessary to go to Captains Mast (basically last chance to make your case, and to see if there was something missed during DRB) and then Captain’s Mast is just you getting the punishment (or demanding it to go to court if you’ve got a case there—seriously not suggested as the military punishment is generally lower than court, unless you have grounds for something like corruption going on).
Explanations so that Dave has a better understanding of the going ons about the military as some others have already provided-more info will hopefully lead to more ideas :)
Keep in mind that one of the reasons they hired her, despite AHDH and personality quirks, is that she’s powerful enough that they want to be sure she’s in the tent, pissing out.
That she’s now powerful enough to qualify as a strategic weapons system on her own, (Imagine a pissed off Halo loitering in orbit raining down city destroying blasts.) only increases that motive.
In the first message, I wanted to hammer home the idea that Max would be FORCED to go down that route. If she did something that idiotic it would go up the chain of command and the come back down it with a vengeance.
The second message was to point out that despite a punishment coming, even a lowly normal human in an everyday situation would get a rather light sentencing, especially since its a “first time offense” (note: debatable second time offense, depending on whether you count her barging into the President conference as insubordinate enough-though, she did only get verbally reprimanded, and it probably wasn’t put in her record even though it definitely would have in normal military).
Well, one way it doesn’t go down is before the debriefing. ;-D I mean, the comic is actually called “Predebrief,” and there would at least be a couple more people there, because recording might be (is almost certainly) involved, and the debriefing team probably wants to get their ducks in a row and have a pile of questions prepared that they cover before exploring any other avenues of inquiry which are raised while those questions were being answered.
And yeah, Sydney isn’t going to make any friends at all with what can only be taken as “I kept one or more abilities as a hole card in case you all turned evil on me” or whatever equivalent might apply.
We also still need some kind of rationale to explain why Harem can’t teleport inside/through Sydney’s shields but Sydney can teleport inside/through bad guy shields. I guess pointing to a filled in dot in the force field orb and saying “This one prevents teleporters from getting in” might do the trick.
Squidly didn’t have any shields, Sydney (and half the readers) simply assumed it did because a beam was diverted and missed
The shields are what diverted it.
Also, don’t forget that it was implied that there are different types/levels of shields from when Halo asked Dabbler about why she could see through the shield/why lasers wouldn’t pass through. Different shield levels protect against different types of capabilities. Apparently those ships shields didn’t come with a warranty against teleportation users.
It’s more likely that what diverted the beam was Squiddly looking at it
It is always more likely that you are simply wrong. Again.
At this point even you ought to be aware that this is the most likely conclusion.
Page #662 in the author’s dialogue DaveB refers to it as “their shield technology”. If DaveB says it’s a shield, then it’s a shield.
No where in that blurb did it state they had personal shields
And again: Light-bee is a solid object, it can’t pass through a glass window, so seeing how it is solid it should not have been able to pass through any shields allowing Holo-Halo to port right next to its foot
If Light-bee had moved close to the leg, Holo-Halo pops up and then manually moves closer, yes, would accept that, butt not as shown on page #662
I can only assume that you are a politician IRL. I know of no other occupation where you can have reality smack you in the face like a ton of bricks, and you still refuse to acknowledge it.
Politicians and idiots share some qualities in common, and a failure to understand reality is one of them. Guesticus isn’t a politician, and that leaves only idiot.
Oh really?
Show us someone holding the Light-bee.
And then explain why Sydney referred to it as “non threatening light in #662.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-662-interstellar-proctologist/
I think you might be getting the whip thing (which is physical) mixed up with the lightbee (“probably” not). The lightbee was shown to have no physical interaction when she shoved her projections hand through Arianna’s head during her initial interview. Also, while it might be assumable that Sydney’s teleportation wouldn’t work if someone else had the same shield she does (due to Harem’s inability to teleport into the shield) that doesn’t mean that the enemies shield has the same capability. It could be a lesser shield that blocks attacks but maybe doesn’t have the tech to stop her super OP teleportation ability (because all of her abilities are super OP in some way–seriously, laser can kills space ships, shield can block nuclear sized blasts, flight can create wormholes, whip can lift tons which is considered rather weak lol…its all rather insane).
No, that was Holo-Halo that had no physical interaction with Ari’s head
If you go back to the Wars Warehouse, when Sydney attempts to sneak in, rather than going through the glass sky-light she goes looking for an opening that the Light-bee can go through
This page shows the Light-bee looking for another way in rather than just going through the glass sky-light
Holo-Halo can pass through transparent barriers, Light-bee can not
Maxima is going to FINALLY learn about Sydney’s two new powers to her orbs, was wondering when this would happen.
Okay, I’ve noticed two things from previous chapters. One, in chapter #641 her green orb showed it as active when the alien space ship was observing her. We can infer this based on the fact that all the other orbs were blank, with the exception of the one in her hand at the time. Maybe it has some sort of safety mechanism when on planets different than the hosts originating, causing it to auto-output breathable oxygen in a short radius (not enough to terraform I’d think). This is assuming that not all species planets utilize a similar oxygen % atmosphere, but maybe are capable of breathing other atmospheres (i.e. our planets atmosphere is 20% oxygen, but if another is say 10%, we would need the oxygen, but the other species would potentially be fine on our planet).
The other thing I found was that Sydney didn’t tell Max about her teleportation ability after she learned about it (#525). This is highly likely what she was talking about, since it was used in the fight….the funny part is that the whole reason she didn’t tell Max is because of the potential of her becoming “Dark Maxima” lol
all of the orbs have a single orphaned double lined point on the skill tree but green orb is the only orb with that filled in. it seems to be an A.I./forced hint/auto function system which is why the Green orb forced itself into Syd’s hand when her mask got knocked off in the pool.
all orbs likely have the same function tho
Of course this is where I catch up.
Potentially unsafe from trying to post? Something’s going on.
I like Max’s expression in the last panel. It’s a mixture of curiosity at what she has to say, disappointment, building rage, and just dumbfoundedness that Sydney would withhold important information.
Even though the military does have a strict chain of command thing going on, there are exceptions.
Usually it’s with the oddballs.
In the USAF there is Ammo (Official title, Munitions Systems Specialists). Because of their bombs and things, they are always on the far end of the flightline away from everything else, except possibly the range and the canines.
They are, and always have been, a bunch of oddballs. Where most military are taught if someone of higher rank says jump, you jump and then ask how high. Ammo is taught that if you don’t know why you’re doing something, ask, and if they don’t answer or it’s not right, don’t do it, period. Also, if you aren’t Ammo, if it’s anything to do with our work or areas, you count less than the lowest ammo slick sleeve.
There’s a reason for this, everything that goes boom belongs to Ammo. Ammo is super professional with their stuff, and are rated as having one of the most stressful jobs in the military. It’s best not to F too much with the guys that can make the base loose mass acreage if one goes over the deep end. So it’s work hard, and play hard, and screw everything else.
A side effect of this is despite what the organization chart may say, Ammo connects directly with the base commander, and the base commander mostly doesn’t want anything to do with us. If we cause trouble in our area, our 1st Shirt and OIC deal with it. If something happens somewhere else, they have to go up the chain of command to the base commander, and only if they can get that far and he doesn’t chew their asses out for it, it comes back down to us. So basically we probably get away with a ton of minor stuff on base, but don’t even realize it most of the time.
I figure Sydney is something like our situation, but rather because of her personality and mental issues. She’s a super valuable asset they want and need, but nobody higher up wants to deal with her. She unintentionally causes migraines just by being her, and worse yet, none of it is malicious so you can’t even bring her up on charges without feeling super guilty about it, like kicking a puppy.
Maxima has unexpectedly gotten herself into the position of being Sydneys handler. She found and recruited her, and is training her, and is her supervisor, and all the other higher ups have realized Sydney is the unconscious equivalent of a “Happy Fun Ball” that’s on their side. Definitely don’t let this one get away, but handle with extreme care.
Fortunately Maxima is more in synch with Sydney than she’d ever let on to anyone.
Link to a clip of the Happy Fun Ball thing. https://youtu.be/7gzDC-2ZO8I
Ok, the clip isn’t that good of quality, but it’s the one I could find without getting sucked in.
Sorry about the typos and general lousy writing.
Sydney had time to tell Maxima about her new power, by the way. The time from when she discovered her teleportation power to the day of testing the green orb in the pool was “a few nights”, as per https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-533-super-generic-debrief/
What is this power Sydney speaks of!???
she can teleport using the lightbee found out right before she nearly died to sciona
I’d it just me, or does Max’s face look just like Cora’s from some of the previous pages? Like literal same expression and even features, just gold and purple instead of blue and pink.
VOTE,move GRRL POWER to num 1