Grrl Power #1095 – Cooldown
A lot of you more or less guessed the same thing as Dabbler here. Using your weird artifacts with no detectable power source to output massive amounts of energy? Maybe you’re draining the batteries or wearing down the capacitors. Or heck, maybe they’re overheating? Only the heat is being dumped in some dimensional pocket or whatever. Or maybe it’s not heat, but human souls!
Actually, that would suggest that the byproduct of using the orbs is human souls, which would cause a lot of theistic hand wringing if that information ever came out. Actually most religions would just stick their fingers in their ears and go “N’ya n’ya n’ya! I am immune to new information!”
Wow that tangent has nothing to do with this page. So the reason they’re hanging out at “nondescript coastline” is as supers, they’re not allowed to just pop into other countries uninvited or unannounced. This is due to concerns about cross border super warfare, and the agreements hammered out during America’s extended wars in bits of the middle east. Not that Galytn pays those treaties any heed, and those same treaties probably have some stuff to say about the use of supers in off the books shenanigans, but every country with more than a few dozen supers has shapeshifters and telepaths all up in everyone else’s business, and everyone is equally on guard about it.
Eventually, once the world has had more time to get used to the idea of supers, travel restrictions will probably relax, and there will at some point likely be a more nuanced categorization that just “Super.” Everything from “Can blow up a city or otherwise massively compromise infrastructure” to “Smells good.” Not “Enhanced olfactory sense,” literally, they just smell nice. But like, super nice. Those people shouldn’t have any trouble getting on a plane.
The October Vote Incentive is actually up!
Why did it take so long? I couldn’t tell you. Well, I hand drew the lace on Lorlara’s body stocking, so that took about an hour by itself. Anyway, it’s likely the next one will be single character, and hopefully it won’t be so late. Usually with fewer characters I can do more outfit variants but we’ll see.
So I have enough “Blue Babes” to do a theme. Eventually I’ll be able to fill in the whole rainbow of my own characters. I did a rainbow lineup previously for those who hadn’t seen it. I’d love to revisit that one of these days.
Enjoy variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
I’d think creating wormholes (aetherium causeways or whatever) would be orders of magnitudes higher in terms of energy cost than what sydney did today, especially as it was called out as something that could normally only be done with massive capital ships.
It may be the Orbs either use a more precise method of doing it *thanks to a better understanding of how sub-dimensions work by their makers*, or the type of energy needed can be accessed directly by the Orbs while capital ships and death cult psykers need to first convert their power sources into that power which has a massive net loss of power in the process.
I believe once the causeway is open it’s easy to keep that way with the PPO it was a high energy blast maintained over 15 minutes plus her using the “air orb” also added to the drain. At least she knew enough to stop before the shield failed and they all dropped in the ocean! Sydney discovered a very advanced set of devices that no one knows anything about, so mistakes will be made. Like my 4 y/o granddaughter trying to use my gaming computer without help, sure she might get it to do something by mashing the keys, but hardly knows how to use it correctly. Yes, she could figure it out in time but the mind boggles at the damage she could do!
Sydney also didn’t use the orbs, at least in a very taxing manner, for a few days after opening said causeway. She hung around on the station after floating down to it, then spent a few days on Corra’s (sp?) ship without really using them, so the drain on the energy reserves wasn’t immediately apparent.
You know, I also call BS on this particular timing of the nerf.
Sydney has spent many hours in aerial dogfighter combat on the Alari homeworld even before opening the Aetherium Causeway; she constantly blasted these demonalien adversaries, aaaand she maintained her shield bubble as well.
We don’t know if they have been running on battery the whole time. Imagine if each had some energy stored for rapid consumption and the recharge mechanism is slow. It’s entirely possible that her past uses drained what was available in the shield/Ppo/flight orbs and this use was starting to demand energy from the source which is not available yet. That would describe the scenario where she didn’t run out before but now needs a refill.
Possibly the Orbs DON’T recharge automatically, meaning she’s been using up their energy all this time and now they’re running out! Meaning, if they don’t figure out how to recharge them, she won’t be able to use them anymore!
Every superhero needs his nerf for the story telling. Superhero with unlimited power need an enemy that can find their weakness, or some nerf that requires a team.
Or maybe she just needs to enable the next powerup.
The unknown orb is the power source and it needs some upgrades?
No they don’t. Nerfs and special weaknesses are proof you’re a hack author. Better opposition always trumps that in terms of storytelling.
She already has limits: only able to use two of her balls at a time
Could be the orbs are drawing from the same fundamental energy as superpowers, and there was more of it available scattered around on the Alari homeworld (where humans with superpowers are unknown, thus the source is pristine, untapped) than in a relatively small section of Galtyn (which has an unusual concentration of superpowered humans even by Earth standards).
Over the Alari homeworld, Sydney didn’t use the PPO on full blast over a longer time frame, she just flew around and occasionally dropped her flight orb to fire off a short burst. If the PPO is the biggest power drain, the batteries will last much longer like that, and since she didn’t fly at full speed (she wanted to keep close to shoot the drones), the batteries can recharge in between the bursts, which can be sustainable.
Going at sustained full blast for a quarter hour straight with a heavy weapon that is probably intended to be used in short bursts would be what sucked the batteries dry.
The power drain of the Aetherium Causeway raises an interesting question – did the orb CREATE the wormhole, or did it simply open the doorway to an existing network of tunnels like Voyager’s ‘Subspace Netweork’, or the ‘Wormhole Network’ in Farscape… I would imagine that one costs far more energy than the other.
As for the current scenario, I would imagine that as Sydney levels up the Orbs their ‘base’ abilities become more powerful and require more energy to use. I would also guess that the central area of the orbs represents either energy storage, energy regeneration, or reduced energy cost. Putting more points in those will help her energy last longer.
As for the Alari homeworld battle, she said it herself – she was using ‘hit-and-run’ tactics. It’s possible the rest period between attacks was enough to rechange the orbs. Not to mention the difference between carrying and providing air for a single entity compared to doing the same for larger numbers. There is also the fact that Sydney has daily training sessions which would presumably require the use of the orbs’ power as well. Maybe not a large amount of power, but if there is a waiting period between the point where using energy ends and recharging it begins, Sydney may simply not be leaving enough time for them to recharge between uses on Earth…
she also spent time using her Atmosphere Orb putting out fires just after the battle as well. Honestly that Orb seems like it would be most draining as it appears to generate gaseous elements from absolutely nothing.
Ya’know ghosts and souls aren’t that bad of a powersource, not as all powerful as shows like Supernatural or Little Demon make them out to be; but they are renewable power sources.
Ghosts and Souls naturally absorb ambient energy from the environment, and variants like wraiths will do it actively as well. They convert this energy internally into either necro energy or spiritual energy. Then all you have to do is drain that energy from the ghost or soul *special power siphons, or direct consumption for Nether Demons and some Celestial Beings for that matter*; then (release/expel) the core ghost or soul (which is effectively indestructible) which will then go back to absorbing that ambient or other energy to begin the process over.
the trick would just be to farm them. Keep them tagged like livestock or contained in specific areas as “your ghosts/souls” for you to farm for energy.
Hey, if Souls are good enough for the Foreclaimers to power giant mech dragons, they’re good enough for Nth tech power orbs, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqVQj9I-Ca4
Speaking as an atheist, if we are to first assume this set of principles in a fictional cosmos, we are compelled to immediately ask the following question: “Are souls sentient beings, roughly equivalent to ‘real’ human beings?”
If the answer to that question is _anything_ but an unequivocal, absolute, and demonstrable ‘no,’ then you are guilty of enslavement, and possibly worse.
Valid, unless the souls consent to it – very possible if you have a small-scale operation that needs only one or two souls.
So long as the souls arent burned through as a fuel source.
Get to become a mech dragon? Lots of voluteers would be likely, especialy if they had control over it.
Unless it’s a matter of the ghosts simply collecting and passing on energy as a profession. Ghosts could in theory be fairly paid just the same as any other workers.
Wow, this is a major Deja Vue for me. Someone said almost exactly that in A forum discussion ages ago about “fairness in Hell and Celestia” using soul power, or Necromantic Ghost Towers collecting energy from ghosts and then releasing them to gradually absorb more energy and convert it to ghost energy.
A distinction between soul batteries used by demonic and less than holy celestial beings and humans who don’t seem to always understand they are also a ghost/soul just one still wrapped in meat.
That is an interesting debate and varies by setting, some like the idea that a ghost is a soul trapped on Earth, or like stage 2 of the human spiriual evolution *after being alive* and will become something stronger either after several reincarnations or spending time as a spirit *think going up levels like ancestral spirit, house gods, land spirits, etc…on up*.
while others will go with the ghost is a cast off, the soul as this eternal reincarnating thing that has all your memories and those of the subconscious but the ghost is only some memories and the strongest Earthly emotions bundled up and wandering about…but it may think it is you…but is closer to an NPC or AI in intelligence than a living person was.
but then you also have an opposite version where the ghost is this shadow being made up of emotions but is the subconscious only, like the other “yous” in a dream running rampant (think about other people and characters in a dream and realize these are all still you, but like emotional bundles of you, and then the ghost or ghosts you make are these bundles cast off into the world when the soul splits free from its earthly binds.
I like this world-building, but please don’t use the word evolution like that. It hurts the fragments of biology student I have left in me.
Would those vestiges be the ‘lowly stamp of your origins?’ ^_^’
I see what you mean there, so substitute it with progression, or metamorphosis as the little baby souls scattered across the infinite gradually mature and move from one larval stage to the next before emerging as fully grown eldritch whatevers.
In “The Knight and the Necromancer” (https://shop.abigailhilton.com/b/ozPN, also available in other formats & on Amazon), necromantic energy comes from the state transition as souls fall from a high-potential-energy state (being alive & healthy) to a low one (not being alive).
If they are powered by human souls, then the last orb might be for automatically fluffing pillows.
call back spotted. Pun incoming.
I haven’t seen this brought up, mind you, I skimmed comments. What if the orbs have gigantic energy storage capacity and minimal power generation. Who knows how long they were buried before Sydney found them. They might have been full from the start and she has just been gradually draining a gigantic reserve. Each orb might be allocated a portion of the capacity so other orbs can continue to function. And the least drained chunk gets the bulk of the recharge.
The logical consequence of this train of thought is that Sydles is ultimately off the roster.
Which would be bad for the comic, so I doubt that.
It would also be bad for continuity… See page 4.
And it would be bad for ANY user of the orbs because it’d mean waiting eons to recharge, meanwhile being super f’n vulnerable and useless…
Not necessarily, that depends on how much the power is generated compared to how much power the different uses need. It’s entirely possible for her to still be able to fly, just not as fast, shield herself, but maybe not nuke-proof anymore, capture villains with the Molestorb, use truesight and telepresence to gather intel.
Even use the PPO, just in short bursts or at lower power or only once a month. But the PPO always has been a last resort option due to its incredible destructiveness, so that’s fine. She isn’t likely to need to remodel a desert again any time soon.
or just means there is a new mission to recharge the orbs (Im betting that they charge via exposure to the aethereal plane, which is why making an aetherium causeway isnt an issue for them: they are literally making a hole through/using a whole plane of power)
Remember that this is all technically a flashback, at least until Sydney achieves the rank of Corporal, since the entire webcomic has been told ‘in medias res.’
Oh no, not you too.
“One of us! One of us!”
This could also explain WHY the orbs have a skill tree. It would allow the user to reconfigure the various functions to make them more or less energy efficient to control power consumption in low power situations. Sydney’s just been picking power ups without knowing exactly what she’s doing, and thus has drained the orbs down to a point where performance has reduced noticeably.
Im pretty sure the “level ups and skill trees” are actually a built in safety given the absurd range of abilities and destructive power that the orbs have.Imagine if sydney had access to ALL the deus ex machina level functions from the get go-shed probably be hunted down by several world governments for levelling several cities and making a super volcano while in spazz mode.
Being able to re-spec would be super useful along the way though. Especially if the user ever had the luxury of knowing in advance what loadout they would need.
I’ve mentioned that before, it’s more like a learning curve than anything. I’m sure when they were created the orbs were for those in training with them to get instructions on “how to and not to” which Sydney has no hope in getting. Maybe the “nth” creators reached a point where they ascended like SG-1’s Ancients, they grew so advanced they no longer needed the orbs or bodies. Just left a set behind and waited to see if their last project, us, to find them? Would make an interesting closing to the comic if Dave ever wanted to.
On this, going back to Dave B’s civilization scale, the Ascended Ancients would be tier 3 civilization with “Nth” referring to Type 4 and above civilizations.
Which yeah if these were a type 3 I could see that, although those would be like elemental stones, NPM floating crystal interfaces and other stuff mentioned earlier in this comic. The Nth are supposedly something just shy of Q from Star Trek (who would either be a high 4 or a 5 on the civilization scale depending on which season or show of Star Trek you are looking at..retcons can really mess with how you see super advanced aliens).
This supposed ultra tech level and the Orbs limitations and such is why I keep suspecting they are less tools and more toys for like Nth child that got dropped on Earth. *the label clearly says not for children less than three million years old*…you know the type of beings whose language alone can warp reality as they are so far removed from reality, and so forth.
That might suggest that humans are the “children” of the Nth? It could explain a few things and if the orbs are just toys I shudder at what they were capable of once they were grown up.
And supers are becoming more and more common because, as a species, we are “growing up” hmmmm…
I kinda have my doubts but it is an interesting plot line. Maybe a lesson for mankind about misbehaving?
As far as level goes pre-ascention the Ancients were Type 3 after they were 4, almost god-like. The Nth are no doubt the same, it’s just as likely the orbs were pre-ascention and were discarded afterwards. (Sydney might of just been the first to find any) Like the Ancients they were no doubt aware of the change and were trying (with success obviously) to speed up the process, like what happened to Rodney (Atlantis) when he stepped up to the machine that reformed his DNA and was nearly ascended himself. Or just dead, I think Danial had that trope locked in lol.
On the Ancients, well, early on I’d agree they were a non-ascended type/tier 3…what with mass terraforming, intergalactic travel, casually setting up a worm hole network…or at least a high 2 like 2.7 or 2.8
-as a note I don’t use Kardashev scale as is, i find his metric lacking and indicative of his time and place. Using a combination of technology and capabilities not just energy usage, ”and thanks to the show nerfing Ancient tech *like they did the Asgard* to keep the (underdog) theme going, the Ancients suffered from a writing stand point so by the end of the series didn’t feel as advanced as they were when first introduced…and really dumb in a lot regards and their ascended versions really arrogant. But unfortunately we never saw how powerful they were or tech, although the wiping out the Wraith ships in one move to protect a planet definitely sets them fairly high.
But I always think of the Q as 4 as 5 are more universe level beings, so maybe 3.2. Like the Ancients moved from 2.9 to 3,2 after ascending to be really specific. It would have been nice to get more about them and WHY they felt it was okay to leave their dangerous civilizations altering junk lying around after ascending as if it wasn’t their fault and this whole (we protect you from stuff at our level…which they clearly didn’t completely when it came to the Ori and the loop hole on why they wouldn’t was just bad writing…the Ori gave their priors powers and those ships, so yes it is a direct move against the people in the Milky Way.
Although that said can imply I am not without bias rating the Ancients/Alterans on their tech and power alone and might just be demoting them a few points due to social development.
on the implied humans are Nth children, I should have said a toy for Nth children that was dropped by a Nth child on Earth by accident, Like a visiting family or parents working in the area had their kid with them and the kid accidentally left their toy behind, like leaving a slinky or stuffed toy behind by accident after a picknick or whatever as kids can be careless like that. Think that episode of Ben 10 with the higher dimension being’s shapeshifting box that caused so much trouble before the alien came by and remarked their child accidentally dropped their favorite toy while they were visiting and they came back to retrieve it.
There has been some talk in the comments like humans are being altered by the Nth to be the next big thing, like avatars for players of the simulation (Star Ocean concept), or pets or dolls for a darker concept about how these advanced being may regard life in general.
And here’s hoping the recharging procedure doesn’t involve starlifting power directly out of suns. Though if it does, I’m sure Dabbler could help her navigate to some uninhabited life-barren star systems that won’t miss a few hundred years of star energy output.
The Sun releases the 4.2 million tonnes of energy per second. Sydney’s entire energy expenditure since she got the orbs is probably about a nanosecond’s worth.
Sydney’s entire glassing-the-desert stunt has used less energy than the sun gives off in a nanosecond.
So, the thing that Dabbles was discussing is thermal saturation: https://www.punchlistzero.com/what-is-saturated-liquid/ and is a major component of a lot of energy generation engineering. Yay for the understanding of asymptotic differentials and such!
Problem is that direct sublimation and plasmafication will occur to organics and lower level metals in targeted area of beam especially at edges.
i.e. solid to gaseous in and instant then gas to plasma. As it cools rapid crystallization will occur. Surprise that the grounds there didn’t sprout crystals metallic growths like silver and sulfur would. Molybdenum silicate will rapid form crystals and sprouts.Nth tech that suppresses that is even scarier than the power of the beam itself. It’d involve melting nuclear bond which in effect could suppress some and enhance others allowing for some exotic effects and alloys or even new elements to be created.
Deus probably had samples in labs, being analyzed by his replicator 3d printers for content and usage with in seconds of some cooling enough for a super to snag.
Should there be even a modicum of value, I expect the land owners and farmers to suddenly become very rich.
Farmer suddenly has old brit colonial plantation gifted to him, house pimped out and 6 wheeled custom convertible caddy that is the envy of pimps in at least 12 sectors of the galactic union… farmer stands there same stare as he gave Halo. Thought bubble over his head, “yes, this was my dream…but it didn’t come with this much family. Mom really should have cut off Dad’s cojones/pelotas/ovos…” Turns to his new Overseer class android, “put them all to work. Our benefactor wants us to grow this plant he found. Humph like there’s any markets here for space peppers.”
When Sidney used her PPO, she claimed doing so was like touching the surface of a star. I don’t think the power is running low. Maybe Sidney herself is running up against a limit? Her battle with the giant planet-killing aliens should have consumed far more power, so this seems odd.
The orbs do seem to have a will. Maybe they’re throttling back because there is no longer a threat? Alternately, maybe they want to keep Sidney near where they were attacked because something important is going to happen?
There is an idea in there, what if there is a use-control. She violated the terms by destroying a chunk of land rather than the enemy directly and the contract she didn’t know she is being held accountable to as a user has to determine if the action is excusable or not.
there is also the game mechanic idea of she has to put points into the power gauge to be able to use more power within a given time frame. She has basically been buffing her ship without putting points into the fuel to power those buffs (like playing a wizard and learning the big spells but never upgrading your mana bar to actually use them repeatedly…or at all).
what if the orbs sense another orb down below and want to get together with it?
Or an entire set of orbs, or a companion nth artifact… :thinking:
I was thinking about the same thing – what if that was more literal than just “this is what it felt like?”
What if some planet-less star out there is the actual source of the orbs’ power? That would mean there is an absolute finite limit to what they can do, and failsafes would necessarily become part of the creation/programming of them as a tool, so the user doesn’t get themselves into a pickle by disregarding those limits…
Stars have much more power than Sydney could ever need unless she wanted to destroy a planet.
I think most stars could swallow most planets whole without burping.
People grossly overestimate the amount of energy available from the mass/energy equation.
And it’s also common to grossly underestimate the quantity of energy used in such things as warping space.
Checking the numbers for mass/energy conversion, a kilogram of matter turned completely to energy (which probably can’t be done sans very small black hole evaporation) yields 9×10^16 Joules.
For comparison, the world uses about 5×10^20 Joules of marketable energy per year.
We’re moving right on up the scale. Yes, it’s far less than the sun puts out, but we aren’t using really high energy devices as yet, you can’t do that on the surface of a planet unless you REALLY don’t care about the planet at all.
> People grossly overestimate the amount of energy available from the mass/energy equation.
In my experience, it’s the other way around, but I wasn’t actually talking about mass-energy conversion.
> And it’s also common to grossly underestimate the quantity of energy used in such things as warping space.
As far as I can tell, warping space is so heavily theoretical no one has any idea how much energy it would take in practice. I mean, if wormholes are created with negative mass matter, and the negative mass matter is created by negative mass/positive mass pair production, creating wormholes would be energy positive.
> Yes, it’s far less than the sun puts out, but we aren’t using really high energy devices as yet, you can’t do that on the surface of a planet unless you REALLY don’t care about the planet at all.
Yes, this was exactly my point: The power of the sun can supply anything Sydney needs, because if she were to put out that much energy, the planet, or at least the ecosphere, would be destroyed.
Maybe the life support orb creates gases by straight energy-matter conversion, which seems unlikely, but would take a lot of energy, but even then, Sydney would need to make a lof of matter to tax a star.
Sydney says herself that she has no idea what touching a star feels like – it’s flowery language. I don’t think we can derive any stats from that.
Last orb is the recharge orb?
Now that could work! We’ve been waiting to discover it’s function for years!
Too bad it is twilight, so her orbs’ ability to recharge from sunlight will be limited until the morning.
Sydney: But NOOOOOOOO!!! My all-fun-no-limits superpowers!! Now I have to, like, PLAN my energy usage?? That’s, like…. *shiver* ACCOUNTING.
Adrianna: MUAHAAHAHAAHAHAHA!!
Dr. Silver: Um, Adrianna? Are you… feeling OK?
*Adrianna blinks, looks at other ladies in Tea Party Social*
A: Oh, I’m fine! Just seemed… appropriate to laugh there, somehow. Carry on!
*smugly sips tea* Mua. Ha. Ha.
She is «Arianna» — without the D.
That’s why she is so grumpy all the time ;)
Hate to see the power bill when you plug in that USB-nth cable.
There is also the factor of control. Something has to regulate and safely direct all that energy without vaporizing the user. Eg sunlight not so dangerous until put in hru a magnifying glass. Just ask the ants.
Bear in mind also that the orbs are tied into the universe at a deeper level than most. Ala Kronas comment once about it being like the ‘universal source code’
there are 3 ladies in the middle of nowhere and 1 of them needs to recharge their power source, I’m just gona wait here for Dabbler to suggest an erotic encounter between them to see if that works since that’s how she recharges hers haha
She uses type T&A batteries
I would not complain. unless the black boxes of frustration show up. use rockets to cover!
Love Dabbler swapping to her lab coat for the explanations.
Totally in-character for her… we’ve seen her spontaneously change costume once or twice before, so I’d guess her tech includes something equivalent to Cora’s hard-light fields.
Fuck the tech(ie), Dabbles uses illusions
Uhhh… She’s a succubus. It’s her glamor ability. This has been discussed, repeatedly, in the comic. Like, more than once or twice. She doesn’t swap outfits on every single page she’s on… But maybe a quarter of them?
Even if Torabi’s not correct (& it’s completely within succubus style), Dabbler has the technological ability to summon equipment from her lab, as well as magic.
While I’d love for the last orb to be a cargo hold (or brig), narratively it feels like this might be leading in to it being a charging port, or at least a battery indicator. Either that, or they’re gonna sit here and play poker on one of my least favorite spots on Earth. (Sharp, slippery cliffs battered by waves. At least there’s sunlight; this would suck even more in the dark. I spent a lot of my childhood clambering across these and in retrospect it’s amazing how much I’ve put up with being afraid for my life.) I sure hope it’s not human souls. I don’t want Sydney to have an Eidolon moment here. She’s got more potential than that.
As said end previous comic’s comments.
BROWN ORB- “Feed me, Scoville. Feed me now.”
Halo immediately thinks that Supers might becoming common now to be harvested as food and power or the Nth civ her toys came from.
That or it just eats matter enmass.
Google Earth scientists, “Did the bay of Senegal just get 500 times bigger?” Stares at photos. “The beaches there are now perfect for surfing sailing and fishing. Too bad about that Tsunami coming in…”
Good news orbs might be able to feed itself if owner is incapacitated . Brown orb summons meteor rich in rare earth’s and iridium while owner swats at hundreds of carnivorous dino-chickens. The real reason orbs had no owner…maybe.
Or owner got “et” to try to stop meteor in a sacrifice move to super duper power the beam. Vapid most of it…. just not enough to stop that space rock named chili- sumtin.
Last orb, last orb. I am getting old, doc says just a few years left. Why in the heck is he saying that all the time? Anyhow, I am chomping at the bit to find out the last orb, haha.
I wasn’t thinking the orbs were having a power issue. I was thinking that maybe they were getting ready to give Sydney a skill point and they were trying to encourage her to land so she can open the menu without everyone falling out of the sky.
That’s a good point they do “shutdown” when it’s level up time. Maybe give ’em a flick and see what happens?
Yeah last page I saw the comments and put aside the *maybe its a Nth toy* idea and looked at the tech level they come from that “energy issues” would just be forcing the base quantum fields to express as energy* and be done with it. But a build in restriction on power seems to be the case, like the other skill point based limitations, hyping back up the (this is a Nth toy theory). Along with how this restriction works, like is it causing a low pressure welling effect from the dimension it draws power from requiring time for the “area” to replenish, or an intentionally set hard limit per period of use like a game mechanic (only so many units of power before needing rest or replenish to keep things challenging).
If the orbs do run out of energy, while flying over the Atlantic:
Sydney: MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY! This is Archon 4. 3 souls on board, ZERO fuel. Descending to the ocean, passing 7 000 feet.
Dabbler: Should we have brought parachutes, in case the force field goes away too?
Anvil: They don’t make those in my size.
Sydney: What are you talking about? Use one of the ones they use for dropping a tank into a war zone, or one used for landing spaceships like Apollo or Dragon. Those are both way heavier than you.
Anvil: Those don’t fit in a backpack. Mind you, if I am awake, I don’t need a parachute; I can just absorb the kinetic energy during my landing.
Actually all 3 of them should survive a fall into the ocean just fine, given their various abilities. It’s a boat and supplies they’d need, not a parachute.
From the commentary I’m going to speculate that DaveB never read Perfume by Patrick Suskind.
Actually, now that we can see a canon energy drain effect, I personally think that we might see that last unknown orb soon. Some kind of energy converter that is ultra efficient would both be an important object, and possibly an interesting power. (since it would need to be able to absorb all kinds of natural based energies to recharge with)
I, too, often find that the best commentary on any topic can be generated by making up a scenario then being smug about your insight into it.
Well yeah, if you think about it that way.
They are currently beside the ocean. Seawater contains about 1 part in 6000 of Deuterium oxide — a good fusion fuel. Water itself is a handy radiation shield, a few metres of water blocks most things and still lets you see the pretty blue glow.
The nice thing about using D2 for fuel is that is **everywhere**.
D2 -> He (Two deuterium becomes 1 helium atom, nuclear fusion, not chemical, reaction). All nuclei are stable, non-radioactive). Go for it!
Um, Nope.
An alpha particle jazzed up with 24MeV of juice is very likely to rip itself apart and produce either 3He+n or T+p (A fast neutron or tritium) so unless your pico-tech is absolutely perfect you really don’t want to skip the shielding.
What if the orb’s power source is the user? Maybe it absorbs excess energy the user’s body isn’t currently using?
wait….
When’s the last time Sydney had a super spicy meal?
Sydney was restricted to mach 6 on the way to Galytn for information security poses. Did she just leak classified performance data on her orbs by going mach 8 over foreign countries?
They weren’t in a hurry to get there, now they’re hustling back to respond to the attack on HQ.
I tkae it back, in #1092 Sydney gets the order to go Mach 10.
Rather, she uses T&E(verything)
Looking back at comic #181and seeing the orb mapping in full, I wonder if the center of the map, that all the orbs connect to, is the power source. Like a video game that you have to add points for your energy/mana to increase.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-181-power-up/
I’m surprised the power isn’t sourced dynamically, from whatever happens to be nearby with enough power surplus. Like say a planets’ core, a nearby star, or even extradimensionally. Though it could explain what the unknown orb covers.
She did dump gigajoules into about 25 km^2 of area. Thing is, the only way that energy’s gonna leave is conduction, convection and radiation. That’s gonna create a mass of superheated air, which is going to create a huge updraft, pulling in more air, etc. That should create a massive pseudotornado that would make Joplin look like a dust devil.
Tinyverse?
That’s stupid.
Microverse.
Nanoverse, picoverse.
Punyverse.
I’m imagining (for comedy purposes) the scenario where sydney herself is the power source. The good news: You can eat as much as you want and never gain weight. The bad news: Express a few gigajoules as calories and that’s your dietary requirement before you can do that stunt again? Or even the amount of energy you need for several hours of sustained mach-10 flight with a not-very-aerodynamic-bubble? How fast can you eat, girl?
Uh oh. DO they recharge? Or did she just expend half her total — one time — charge on that trick?
As this is still a flash back from which she is called a big guns, I would guess they either recharge or need rest periods.
Remember when Sydney nods of or powers down so do they orbs https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-293-zonked/
Something that people may be overlooking from one of the older comics from like what 2 years after the comic starts Sydney herself maybe the power source for the orbs. Seems weird but it’s no weirder than half the things that go on in the comic and it’s less weird than a lot of things that go on in Big Market comics.
Wow, folks gettin’ kinda butthurt over the “sudden nerf.” It’s not a nerf, unlimited energy doesn’t exist..
Oh no! The orbs happen to also rely on Syd’s kryptonite in order to function!
That of course being her ability to concentrate.
If Sydney is essentially an unknowing Green Lantern, do you suppose the orbs are sending in “after action reports”? Somewhere a squid is pausing the playback while talking to a turtle “So what does she do? She glasses the desert!”
You don’t make a power-up/pathing instruction matrix without explanations or directions. No engineer who is sane or Not Stupid would do such a thing. If you don’t need directions, than you don’t need the matrix itself! Ergo, if it has a matrix without directions, it is designed that way deliberately to confuse or test whoever is using the Orbs.
The odds are they were placed there for her (or someone) to find, and there are still active influences on the other ends of the technology watching everything she does.
She may just not know how to access or read the directions, or the orbs might be out of tutorial mode. And they almost certainly were never designed to allow for the possibility of being used by someone in a civilization orders of magnitude less advanced.
But even so, I disagree with your reasoning that not needing directions makes an interface flawed or irrelevant – established user interface patterns are so common they need no explanation, because everyone using the system already understands them implicitly. We humans don’t put diagrams on light switches, or play an audio recording on elevators to explain how to push the buttons and why. Those are things you demonstrate to a young child once or twice, and then they know how to use basically all switches and elevators across the world. The orb / skill tree interactions might based on use patterns so common to their creator’s cultural zeitgeist that it was unthinkable any user would ever need instructions. Cora’s crew for example immediately understood the causeway’s UI even though they come from a civilization far less advanced than the creators of the orbs.
That, I suppose, would be a major difference between engineers and “software engineers”. Most people who write software don’t like to write documentation.
We don’t know there are no/were no instructions. Maybe the instruction manual got lost – our civilisation tends to ship instruction manuals as separate booklets or links to online resources. If the original owner lost the orbs, they probably would have the instruction manual somewhere else, just like I don’t carry the instruction manual for my wristwatch with me.
Maybe it’s available but Sydney doesn’t know how to access it. Maybe it’s there but Sydney can’t perceive it, and she doesn’t know how to change the display options. For all we know, that’s what the last orb does.
yeah I was thinking the same thing. My computer doesn’t boot up and show me a user manual every time, or every device have its user manual stapled to it.
Heck the orbs could have a tutorial built in, but like some games and products you need to be able to understand the language or some “common knowledge” for the users like (look here for the tutorial, or somethings go without saying* that can throw off new users.
If there was a tutorial built in, the previous owner probably completed it and Sydney took over his savegame without explanation, and now [Repeat Tutorial] is hidden deep inside the UI.
1MT is 4184 terajoules not Gigajoules as dabblers says
Given the the story-lines dealing with Tantric and Vehement energy users, what if the orbs themselves linked to one of special forms of energy? I would imagine the energy of curiosity or ‘wonder’ might be a potent energy source, and maybe they bonded to Sydney because she was compatible with that particular aspect. Now she needs to learn to use her nature to actively recharge the batteries in the orbs instead of passively recharging them. That’s my hot take on the story as it goes anyways…
the problem with all the arguments is that this is a nerf or that this is basically her needing a recharge. there could be many different factors this could be a shared power source with other orb users. there could be a finite uses before reauthentication of users since she seems to have gotten her orbs from an accident. hell this could be mother realizing someone is playing with little bobby’s toy’s who is not him and decided to remove the batteries until they give it back to bobby. we will not know until it is shown otherwise stop arguing.
I like that last one, like a parental control feature sends the mother an alert of use, she hadn’t deleted this app yet after the toy was lost as it could work as a GPS..or MPS *multiverse positioning system* to locate where “bobby” actually dropped it.
Somebody needs to call shenannegans on Dabbler’s “gigajoules” comment, as if that’s a large amount of total energy. One gigajoule is roughly the enenrgy contained in 8 gallons of gasoline, or (if electric) 3 Tesla’s worth of battery packs. It’s really not much at all, and certainly not a number you’d be dramatically emphasizing “GIGAjoules” when describing, especially when surrounded by supers who can clearly use and/or generate energy without even trying.
Even if you take that to the limit of 999 GJ so it can’t be described as terrajoules, that’s a lot of energy, but still only on the rough scale of the fuel carried in a 737, which doesn’t seem like a super-impressive number on super-power scales. Also, I would bet, nowhere NEAR enough to glass square kM of sand.
I did. A 1MT nuke has 4184 terajoules or 4.184 petajoules
This comic is really good. Thank you
I love comics and this one having the best story. You are so talented to make it and shared it here for us.
hey guys, have u noticed that the unknow orb is getting increasingly orange (specially if you compare it to the who’s who entry) it started very brown(ish) now if bright orange.
well, the orb colors got a little different over the years, maybe its not a in universe difference, but maybe it is.