Grrl Power #947 – Mass Spec…ulation
I thought it’d be amusing to show Sydney moon-jumping around and for some reason I thought that would be best illustrated from the foot up. So, a slightly odd page. I regret not being able to make it all feet – not because I’m trying to satisfy some foot fetish checklist or anything, but it would have been a nice touch thematically.
Really, they should have done this with the orbs straight away. They did scan them for radiation, but it didn’t occur to them that they might be outgassing. I don’t know how fast Mass Spectrometers are, or if they have to scan for one thing at a time, or do everything at once. I guess whatever the answer is, this particular Mass Spec is going to take a few hours because someone took it apart to see how it worked and maybe had a few extra bits and bobs left over when they put it back together.
No, I don’t have a Who’s Who entry for “The List.” Yes, I have considered doing that.
I was going to post that since Dabbler is normally digitigrade, (yes, technically unguligrade, but I think Dabbler would agree that word is insufficiently sexy) walking around on super high heels wouldn’t present much of a challenge for her. But that’s because I momentarily forgot that she only looks like a beach bunny because of her glamor, not because she’s a shapeshifter. So, she’s still just walking around on her hooves. Even though her glamor is like a fully realized illusion with full tactile components, so you could give her a foot rub, and you would feel a foot while doing it. She would feel the contact being mapped to the correct part of her foot, which would be important if she was going to react correctly – and since succubi glamors are pretty hard core, it would be dumb if there was such an easy way to detect them.
Not that all succubi have digitigrade legs and hooves. As with most other demons, there’s a lot of morphological variety, but since their glamors will usually have to deal with hiding horns, and occasionally have to hide wings or tails, they are extensible to cover things like hooves and extra arms.
Note that when Dabbler is glamored as a plantigrade human wearing heels, she tends to stand slightly pigeon-toed, but in her “natural” guise, she stands duck-footed, which is evidently the opposite of pigeon-toed.
The new vote incentive is up! Some of you got sort of invested in Lapha and Garamm, so here she is testing out her new duds. I don’t know if or when they’ll show up in the comic again, (probably more a question of ‘when’) but we’ll have to see if she got any other options besides the tail. Personally I’d go for retractable, venomous fangs, but presumably if you get those, you also have to get a special upgraded pancreas or liver or something, in case you accidentally bite the inside of your own cheek with your fang.
As usual, there are a few variants over at Patreon, and as is becoming more common, a little follow-on comic.
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Wouldn’t the Spectromotor just tell you what elements its made out of?
If the orb is passively making a gas it will them the elements of that gas. Not the orb though as it can’t be damaged which is required for this to scan that.
The orbs themselves have never responded to any scan, and Dabbler has tried quite a few. As far as many devices are concerned, they may as well not exist, which has prompted speculation among the commenters that the orbs are not actually physical, but hard-light constructs or something even more weirdly esoteric. It is notable that the scan of the alien probe on Alar WAS able to detect the orbs, but the one POV-image we got from them showed the orbs almost as pure data of some sort, which is really hard to explain.
But what they’re trying here as I understand it is rather than scanning the orb itself, seeing if any chemicals are being released from it.
Only if its a Mass spectrometer as far as we know it. Who knows what a “Mr. Mass Spec” made by a mad scientist type super would actually do?
Mass spectrum could actually mean a device that scans all spectrums to her.
Technically, the scan revealed an orb-shaped nothing surrounded by regular objects. I believe those red squares are basically error messages and the red text is maybe a list of possible reasons for the sensor glitch. One line in green does indicate that whoever went Exterminatus on Alari homeworld did encounter technology similar to the orbs before.
Yep and it sent the alien invaders able to wreck a planet into overkill alert.
Man I had totally forgotten that image… that Scan is very telling, specially Sidney’s connection, and what appears to be 2 active spheres, being the green the one still floating in the apparent position of that scan…. It could be the Green being active…
we assume it is scanning for any gas it may be creating, as it likely can’t damage the orb to scan for it.
given what may have created these orbs they could well be multi-dimensional machinery curved axis points of unreal connections producing an impossible light construct as a casing; which also makes them visible to lower dimensional beings *in a way*, the glow, the colors, being spheres even may all just be down to an aesthetic choice and maybe also to protect fragile elements of lower dimensions like the chemical reactive dimension that everything you know and can personally experience exists in, from the “machinery” its self and contain it.
Depends what type of MS it is, how much energy it puts into ionising the gas for analysis. Some are built to hit it hard for elemental analysis, some deliberately hit softer so as to leave bigger bits that (usually) give you clues about how the elements go together.
Note that, as noted above, they’re probably only getting any gases given off rather than the Orb itself. MS depends on being able to knock bits off and measure their mass, so a sufficiently hard Orb could just return a spectrum of ‘nope’ (technical term!).
Spectrometer.
In 1999 I did a search for a helium mass spec for sale and the first thing that “popped up” in the results was the NMBLA website. WTF!!
In the early years of the internets, traffic to a site meant revenue so porn sites would put entire dictionaries of terms in their meta data to hijack searches such that later search engines had to learn to filter out these false mega positives. I remember getting questioned about my searches at work back then and demonstrated that any five programming terms you could mention would also generate porn hits that I didn’t open. That was the death knell for Altavista as a search tool.
I recall once a customer specified an alloy for a part that included “DD” as part of the specification.
It was really, really difficult to find anything on that alloy.
Well, that basically confirms Sydney can turn it off and on at will, regardless of whether or not she’s falling.
how so? she could be just jumping and slowly falling. i believe her next task is to see how much weight her feather fall can handle. can she grab someone else and share the spell?
Anything *good* has come from being added to ‘The List.’
Even Maxima is leery of it…
Seemed like it had potential to work out well for Leon.
Leon was added to the BACK of the list, and they MIGHT be dating…
Sydney should get a bed next to Mr. Mass Spec if it is going to take hours. The boredom would be killing her if she was just stuck setting there.
I doubt it’s a standard mass spectrometer; more like an NCIS one that somehow performs analysis using magic.
You… do realise NCIS (and, before that, CSI) was not like “24” in which each episode was mostly spread over a couple days (if not longer), right? And not in 60 minutes (not counting the 25 minutes of ads), right?
… but… Zoom in, Enhance :D
Unguligrade is not an unsexy word. It sounds like someone swallowing. Something I’m sure Dabbler is very good at doing.
I see they still didn’t take the time to put a warning specific to Sydney on the wall… They’ll regret it.
Its about time they actually started looking seriously at the do anything orbs that grant a justice leagues worth of superpowers to a single person.Youd think theyd at least be keen to find out if theyre damaged in some way or not since the previous owner apparently died dispite how overpowered they are,For all they know levelling up to a certain point might cause an accidental detonation of energy killing everyone within a mile because the orbs are too damaged to hold more energy than that anymore.
One thing Ive learned from the foot fetish page is that those shoes must be agony if actually worn by an actual human x_x.
You do note that she is standing on the balls of her feet, right? Not the tips of the toes? It is possible to walk like that for extended periods of time with no discomfort, right? Most discomfort actually comes from standing around flat footed
I had a nasty case of plantar fascitis once and the only relief I could get aside from not standing on my feet at all, was to stand on the balls of my feet since for some reason, planting my feet put enough extra stress on the tendons that it caused ow ow ow ow fuck that burns pain.
You do note that shes not actually wearing the shoes right? Actual humans will have to totter along on those and Ive seen more than a few faceplant or worse on nights out,while possible to wear those very few people do it often enough to actually get used to walking like that.Sometimes I think you just try to find excuses to contact me like some kinda tsundere lol.
Actual humans have been known to faceplant while wearing flat shoes after a night of drinking, whats your point?
And yes, did read the notes saying that her footwear is just an illusion and that is how she walks normally, the point being, it’s showing how a normal human would wear them
The trick to wearing high heels is to not walk the normal ‘heel-toe’ rolling motion, the heel is simply for stability when not walking
Sydney needs to be carefull getting into lifts now. Going down might leave her squished against the roof.
Good point – she needs to be able to disable or enable passives. Otherwise they could become potentially dangerous to her – for example if she tries to dive out of the way of an attack she has reason to fear (for example the last one breached her shield) and the hover passive kicks in. She’ll be a very nearly literal pinata..
Why hasn’t the Treasure Hunter Bug bitten Sydney yet? If the comm ball can scan for things underwater…like GOLD and treasure (or even big cannons, cause you know Sydney, she’s gonna have a use for cannons. Especially at the Comic book shop. Once cleaned and refurbished (Cora and her BF might help with that) she would surely place them just behind the Complaint box or at the return desk. If naught but for intimidation. That would be her line and she’d stick to it.)
What else might Sydney be “asked” to salvage, or want to salvage herself? I believe there’s an apolo capsule on bottom of ocean (Shepherd and 2 others were in it when it started to leak and sink right as they were pulled from water).
Imagine her using that refurbished and upgraded by her BF and the Crew of Cora’s ship. She of course would wear a Major Tom outfit for that.
Be great for everyone to sit in while she bubble flies them around.
1. she’s still in training. they would put the kibosh on that.
2. most of the salvage you are talking about is from military vessels. military vessels are not covered under normal rules of salvage. that stuff still belongs to the host country. you can bet that Spain will find the money to make your life miserable if you try to salvage any of the galleons. and if its on a pirate vessel it still belongs to the host country.
3. its amazing what governments will do in this area. I think it was South Carolina declared the copyrights on the Queen Anne photographs to be free for their use and got away with it.
4. Sydney being a military asset per international law means that there are sensitivities about her presence. she can’t just get on a plane and fly to another country.
5. she’s at least nominally running that comic shop. that takes time too. (she has a pot to piss in, but she probably does not have time to.)
If this comic didnt have a wikifeet entry before it will now
I’m not even gonna search for that, I’ll just take it on faith that it exists. Humanity is really weird sometimes …
Mr Mass Spec is right next to Mr Radar
Well, Sydney already has gone to Ludicrous speed, so… What is next?
I do wonder if she went to plaid.
Which if Digit doesn’t have rigged to leak fruit flavored paste when being jammed, I will be severely disappointed.
But… Um… who would be Dark Helmet in this?
I SO want to see someone get their Shwartz twisted. (That came out so wrong, didn’t it?)
Ooh, I just thought of something: Going with the notion that it really is a life support system, it could potentially contain a range of things that may increase chances of survival in hazardous environments. Like, say, resistance to poisons. …Capsaicin is categorised as a natural toxin, isn’t it? And Sydney does have a pretty high tolerance for spicy food…
Yup. Although she has always had that, therefore would not have noticed any difference. But if she happens to nibble on some arsenic or cyanide your theory can be put to the test.
Sydney, if you are reading this, don’t try this at home!
Was just thinking that we hadn’t seen THE LIST in too long. Glad to see it back.
So long… that she’s almost in the middle of the pages now!
Just came to think that slowfall is super stupid to have as a passive.
What if you actually need to fall fast (for instance to dodge bullets jumping of a bridge into the water) and then you just cant….. ez target!!
Which is why you would either grab the Sheild + PPO and fire back from a stable yet slowly descending platform or Shield + fly and book-it-dano
The orbs have a degree of thought control and may be able to distinguish between fall and jump.
However, this should be tested, and presumably would if they had not been distracted by trying to determine the other passive.
Carefully tested, yes. In a safe environment.
But um, this is Sydney we are talking about! ‘Careful’ and ‘safe’ are not words commonly used around her.
Sure they are… Just not in the way you intended them… they’re actually used as a warning to/for OTHERS in the area…
“Remember to be CAREFUL in this area, The Mighty Halo is nearby, y’all ain’t very SAFE if you ain’t paying attention!…”
Sydney’s gonna get REALLY bored sitting next to Mr. Mass-Spec for a few hours…
Hrm. If the AirBall IS exuding some sort of behavior-altering chemical, having it stuck in a mass-spec for a few hours means its effects may be blocked… what sort of effects might we see?
– Sydney starts to act less ADHD.
– Sydney starts to act MORE ADHD.
– Sydney becomes depressed.
– Sydney becomes hyper.
– Other people start liking Sydney less.
– Other people start liking Sydney MORE.
– Sydney starts craving spicy food.
– Sydney finds she detests spicy food.
If we guess enough of them, someone gets to say they called it, later!
or no effect as the orbs are still bonded to Sydney and the passive is not affected since there’s no need for contact
(maybe the massive is a very basic filter/gasmask keeping her safe from microscopic airborne dangers)
There are no detectable changes, but people become increasingly paranoid that the orbs are altering their behavior.
There is no method of mitigating this side effect.
Sydney, you’re already the Queen Of Salt, why would you need more?
But being in a science lab reveals so many more possibilities! Sydney was content to be Queen of Sodium Chloride, but that was before her eyes were opened to the vaster Empire of All Salts! The pure and only slightly toxic blue of copper sulphate, the power of potassium nitrate to both fertilise and explode, the exquisite self-assembled nanoengineering of zinc oxide 4,4′,4″-[benzene-1,3,5-triyl-tris(ethyne-2,1-diyl)]tribenzoate biphenyl-4,4′-dicarboxylate…
You can even give a blue finish to fine steel blades:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaw2X7pHGQU
If you have a workshop that is suitably isolated from humans who do not want the flesh stripped from their bones.
Let us not forget the unfortunate results of putting picric acid into a metal container. :)
My guess would be that it is providing a climate control benefit, protecting her from extremes of temperature rather than giving her control of it, or maintaining air pressure to counter explosive decompression in the same way the fly-orb now protects against falling. I’ve expended substantial character resources to give them a ring of climate control before, as it’s something I’d love to craft for myself out in meatspace.
Exactly! Maintain air pressure. My personal headcanon, is that the passive was purchased by the former owner. Immediately after giving them self the bends. By embiggening the shield to protect something/someone behind them. Thereby causing a partial vacuum inside the shield. The passive now compensates for that pressure change. By creating/absorbing atmosphere to maintain pressure inside the shield bubble. Unfortunately, this upgrade was made too late. The former user died from decompression sickness injuries.
For those of you wondering about Dabbler’s Foot Glamour, those shoes are sadly real!!!
https://www.sorbernstore.com/ankle-straps-open-toe-ultra-high-heels-18cm-women-sandals-p864299.html
So, if the life support orb is passing gas all the time…
If there’s a piece of metal the PPO can smelt it, while if there’s a card the hentorb is the one that dealt it.
Nice ‘NCIS’ reference – did they acquire Mr. Mass Spec after Abby retired from the show?
Nah, Cassie is still using it
This passive ability is more complicated then it looks given her flight orb manipulates her personal gravity.
given it is gravity manipulation as it has to be correcting the course of the feather fall to go straight down from her position, because even at a slow relative drift she should be moving East ward as she descends opposing the Earth’s rotation….which she is also descending to, so the feather fall is actively keeping the largest gravitational mass centered for the fall but reducing the effect enough to slow the descent but also correcting for any rotational drift.
it would be a little bit of a letdown if the support orb’s passive is what allows her to freely manipulate the orbs (and without the passive, they would just be a halo unless an orb was directly called into her hand)
Would that require fancy gravitic manipulation? Or would the lateral movement already be adequately provided by being part of a rotating reference frame? If it’s only the vertical component of motion that’s slowed, then the horizontal motion remains as constant as it is for normal motion – the ground is carrying her Eastwards at several hundred mph, and that rotational speed is maintained while she’s in the air. There may be some effect with really long airtime, but in that case it’s likely that other and larger effects would also become significant – wind, asymmetry in the jump, etc.
Must find out what is down the bleep bloop hallway!
*Whimpers in foot fetish*
…I have sensitive feet…
Sensation is weird.
For example, I’m pretty sure that shaving isn’t a level of pain comparable to slicing open your arms for most people.
I have a hard time telling whether I experience pain more or less than others, but either way I’ve got a very high tolerance for the sensation.
Sydney’s whisking fears are finally realised.
If the green orb is “life support” then wouldn’t the passive for it be something like helping keep her passively alive? Maybe with regards to what she puts inside her? Something of the spicy variety? Just a thought at least, we’re not really sure how long she’s been going at spicy food. To me that would make more sense. Maybe now you just test it to see if she can eat anything else that would be detriment to her health.
I’m not counting the grakz she had because that only had issues going OUT of her, not through her
Why are so many people insistent that her tolerance for spice must be a thing the orbs gave her, when she’s been known to adore ridiculously spicy food for longer than she’s had the orbs?
It’s ridiculous.
I’m wondering if the passive effect could be how the orbs are tethered to her..? That orb could be life support in a general sense, but also systems integration? In a sense, the orbs modify her to be a spaceship herself. The tether could easily count as integration and life support by making sure that they can’t be taken away from the host (thus depriving them of the abilities they provide and endangering the “ship”) So in that case, upgrades could be anything from further integration (say making the orbs internal or thought controlled) or other sorts of life support for the host, i.e. food, water, heating/cooling… All of which would be considered integral parts of any spaceship. Maybe I’m talking out my ass here, but I’m betting the effect is the tether.
Temperature, I would expect. Have we seen her get super cold yet? Or super hot?
“Neuroleptic agent” was my nickname in Spy School.
I’m sorry, but I can’t look at Dabbler’s Face in the last panel without thinking…
“It’s 1982, and you’re watching CBS.”
Time to reflect on my media choices.
It could be creating and storing something. Chlorine trifluoride is always amusing. Read Things I Won’t Work With for details. Safety precaution: Track shoes.
Spoiler Alert! I have found out what the Amazeballs emit!
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/305055664
Start packing your bags. We have another star on its way to visit us, and you may want to hitch a ride, when it does!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QOf8bMONuQ
Too many comments to go through all of them. Has anyone mentioned that the “life support” ball doesn’t have it’s “pie slice” and root node activated? Perhaps that has to happen before any “passive” is functional?
I don’t know either. But I do know that lacking an expensive piece of equipment such as a mass spectrometer, the way that I’d go about finding out of the green orb outgasses is to put it in a balloon. I mean, if you want to get all fancy about it you could use a substance that is non-porous to even low molecular weight gasses such as hydrogen and helium.
I was going to post that since Dabbler is normally digitigrade, (yes, technically unguligrade, but I think Dabbler would agree that word is insufficiently sexy) walking around on super high heels wouldn’t present much of a challenge for her
Story from the run of Buffy:
There was an episode where Giles was turned into a demon {physically – he was still Giles}. They made a VERY good demon costume for Anthony Stewart Head. He looked at it, and said that a demon like that REALLY needed hooves instead of humanoid feet, and why didn’t they design it that way.t.
They said that they could … but that he’d be walking around and running in REALLY high heels and they figured he might have trouble with that.
He just said to go ahead and do it.
He didn’t bother to tell them he had done two seasons in the 1990-91 West End revival of Rocky Horror
As Frank.
Check this out: https://youtu.be/9Uq2vaP2cLU
I was in London during that time and i considered trying to see if i could get tickets and see the ahow…}
Dammit. Used the wrong markup for the first paragraph quote’ i used BBCODE, not HTML
“So it could passively be generating what? Salt?”
Well, Sydney is, by her own admission, the queen of salt, so it would be fitting.