Grrl Power #182 – A little light dinner speculation
To be clear, Maxima never actually said the stuff about batman on any of the previous pages, but of course there’s been lots of off camera conversations. Obviously Sydney was the topic of a lot of those discussions. Also, don’t worry, what happened with the skilltree will be talked about on the next page.
Speaking of which, I have two versions of the skilltree panel up as wallpapers over at DeviantArt. The original version minus Achilles and the word bubble, and another one with Ding Sydney.
Also on this page, the return of tubey!
Thank you guys so much for all the support over at Patreon. (And Paypal and the Amazon referral link.) When I set up the account over there, I looked around at other comics on Patreon that were in relatively the same “webcomic weight class” and honestly I didn’t really expect I’d actually make it to the $1,000 goal for several months, if at all. In fact I thought it was pushing it a little to even include such a lofty goal, but the fact that we got there in under two weeks means one, I should re-evaluate my weight class I guess, and two, I need to add some more goals because why not. Also while hitting the goal allows me to do the comic full time for a little while, it’s still not enough to live on, but at least now I don’t have to scramble to find a job right away. I won’t bore you with financial planning stuff, but as promised I’ll definitely be doing two comics a week for at least the next several months. So again, thank you everyone for your support, from reading the comic, sharing it on the social network of your choice, to directly contributing financially.
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I say Dabbler’s starting to like the skin she’s in.
You know that POP sounded just like a wine bottle (though I was sure it was the green one).
I’d love to see Dabbler pull the eye thing on Sydney. :) I can see the two of them as being something like frenemies. :)
pretty sure sidney would go all, ”oooooohhhhhh!!!!”
lol ^-^
She’s probably played Shadowrun, and knows the amazing uses of the Sp-eye-der
The wonderful British actor Leo McKern had a glass eye. He’d used to go out to restaurants and call the waiter over, alerting them he’d found “something in his spaghetti.”
Nels C. Nelson, an archeologist attached to the 1922 Andrews Expedition to Outer Mongolia, frightened off a group of armed bandits by plucking out his glass eye and threatening them with it.
The skilltree wallpaper is beautiful. And clearly the fans will gladly speculate about the unknowns. Heck, even the active points in the tree aren’t clearly labeled, and thus ripe for speculation.
And the characters will be speculating too, once Dabbler draws things out for ’em, so I have that to look forward to, even more than fan speculation. But that may not even be necessary; I bet if Syd tells the Orbs to “Assume the Position” they’ll bring up the chart anytime she wants…
I notice some people wondering where Sydney will put her points, but think perhaps she just did. She alreadly got the level-up, that is, and the orbs were showing her the new abilities she’s got (although she doesn’t know what they are yet).
All the glowing points probably show areas where Sydney has been doing things that she can now do better.
It doesn’t really seem reasonable to me that Syd could choose to get better at flying if she has been only using the PPO, just as a hypothetical. After all, the way people get better at playing basketball, or football, or baseball, or skiing, or juggling, or pretty much anything. You practice. You analyze what your errors are and practice some more. And if you learn to throw a football well, it won’t do a thing to help your golf handicap.
Anyway, that is my thought; I wonder how Dabs and Max will illuminate things.
As an aside, pretty as the chart is (love how each orb has it’s own little phallus), I kinda wish DaveB hadn’t shown so much of it. I know I’m a minority of one, but I love slow reveals. Just seeing the active slots, with lines trailing off to indicate future possibilites,.. Ooh, that would have been tantalizing!
Ah, well, I notice there are some faint traces at the edges here and there that suggest there are some unknowns hiding at the periphery. And we really don’t know what any of this means anyway! I’m getting chills…
I think ‘skill-tree’ is a misnomer. My interpretation is that it is a power-tree. Skill is how good you are at doing a particular task. It is not how powerful you are at something, or whether you have some capability that others do not. You do not go from being a pedestrian to flying by improving your flying skill. You do it by gaining access to a tool which lets you fly. For normal folks it is an aircraft. For Halo it is her fly-ball.
Granted, once you have that tool, you then have to learn how to use it. And you can practice and perfect new tricks. Say learning how do do a loop-the-loop.
Possibly though it could be a combined power and skill tree, if it both grants powers and also artificially grants her skill at using them, without needing practice. I think we shall have to wait and see on that one.
Just as I hit the ‘submit comment’ button, I thought of a counter-argument. The tree could be thought of as akin to a driver’s or pilot’s licence. The orbs could grant her access to all powers and capabilities on being picked up. But we have already seen that they have certain safety features built in. And giving unrestricted access to a major weapons system is not a safe thing to do. Requiring that the user demonstrate competence at using the basic functions, before allowing them to access the more advanced and dangerous ones would make sense.
In which case it would be reasonable to refer to the grid as a skill-tree. It is essentially a certificate saying, “congratulations, you have shown proficiency at the following skills:… And now you have unlocked access to one of the following skills* of your choosing…”
* Which may need to be amended to read “powers and associated skills of your choosing” depending on whether a new capability is unlocked. For example, learning how to make a small hole in the force field for the tentacle to pass through and manipulate things on the other side is a skill. Whereas flying faster than a previously established maximum speed, making the PPO burn hotter or the force field capable of blocking greater damage are all power enhancements. A tank’s armour does not get thicker because the driver is more skilled, for example.
I noticed your updating more often than just Mondays now
Mondays and thursdays.
Yep, for now until Dave either finds another job or is getting enough from Paetron to not need to.
Something about the artist being short on employment and taking a shot at doing this full time… Which requires the artist to make income (hence the tip jar and a link to a recurring payment thing for patreon…)
Hum.,. Coulda swore I was looking at fresh comments, guess my list was still +4 hours old… Eep.
I noticed how you didn’t even bother to read any of the annoucements the artist makes
We know that is fairly common, and understandable, as those comments may well be off the bottom of the screen, depending on how folks view the comic. But it is still worth bearing in mind, next time a significant announcement needs to be made, that even putting a picture of Halo in the creator’s comments section does not catch all the readers’ attention.
I just realized something. If the cameras can not see the effects from the orbs, then did they see Sydney’s big ad using the pseudo-pod? I think not. All that effort wasted Sydney, but good writing skills Syndey.
You are not considering the possibility that some things are visible whilst others are not. I am working on the assumption that the orbs themselves are visible to cameras. If they were not, the various reporters at the event would have been getting very confused feed-back from their bosses in their control rooms asking “what orbs are you talking about?” Likewise, when Dabbler examined them, she surely would have mentioned if she could not see them with her cybernetic eye. Whereas she did say that the glowing light that was visible coming off them was otherwise undetectable. *
The skills grid clearly is related to that. The glowing sigils above the orbs and the glowing pattern of the grid are probably generated in the same manner and share similar properties. From the clues we have so far, anyhow. Why the builders would do this is clear. The user can look at her orbs glowing bits whenever needed (such as when ‘levelling-up’), whereas allowing them to be detectable by non-visual means would be of primary use to enemies. Thus it is a security risk that can be eliminated.
As to whether the blast from the PPO, the shield and the pseudo-pod tentacle would also be invisible, the only clue we have is that there has been no mention of press feedback (as regards the latter two anyhow) to the contrary. Yet. Likewise Leon and others back in Archon HQ will have been watching remotely and such a discrepancy would have been reported promptly, I am sure.
Whereas, I suspect that the projected image of Halo will be picked up by cameras. Simply because not having it show up would make the fact that it is an illusion stand out instantly to anyone with suitable equipment. And I think that the orbs are far too sophisticated for that to be a desired effect.
* This is one of the subtle clues that the orbs are from very skilled creators who can fine tune effects do do precisely what they want, and block unwanted side effects.
In fact there is corroboration for my assumption about the image. Dabbler saw it and did not mention that her cybernetic eye could not see it. It is not 100% conclusive, as she may simply have not noticed the discrepancy in that circumstance, but still a fairly convincing argument, I feel.
I do not expect Dabbler to mention everything she sees…. Or fails to see. If the story were based on that, it would quickly become boring. “yes, i saw Sydney deploy her shield. yes, it was visible to my cyborg eye. no, it did not reveal much about how the shield operates….’ Zzzzzzzzzz…. In fact, her mention of the orbs glowing but not giving off light was in response to the direct question of ‘what are these?’ from Arc, and again later in response to the specific concern of the skill-tree being broadcast to the world. Otherwise, Dabbler has not been open at all about what she’s seen from the orbs.
At the same time, she’s not had any apparent opportunity to hide what she knows about the orbs – her knowledge about them appears to be starting from zero. We don’t know what Dabbler has actually seen and where with the orbs.
That said: going back a few hours… what did scans find in the tube? Nothing.
Its 50/50 in my book that the orbs are real. It’s possible that the orbs are to the source of her power, simply it’s manifestation, and that magic detection skills will reveal as much about the orbs as any camera (or the reverse)
I would assume she would mention inconsistencies. If her cybereye can see something her normal eye can see, who cares? All that means is that it is working properly. Now, when it can’t see something her normal eye can see, or vice versa, that’s worth mentioning.
The pseudopod has some form of physical presence, being able to manipulate objects, so it’s probably safe to assume it’s visible to recording devices as though it were a mundane object. The visible beam of the PPO blast was most likely a result of either a physical particle beam or the interaction of the beam with the atmosphere. Functionally, beam weapons don’t need the beam to be visible, so it’s unlikely that there would be a visual projection that wasn’t a natural effect of the beam.
The glow and the skill-up projection are deliberate visual functions of the orbs (though I don’t know why they should glow when not dong anything), which for some reason is only visible to direct observation by natural organic eyes, though if that is by design or accident is unknown.
Her shield is also interacting with the environment (stopped maxes attacks) so that might be visible on camera. Her double from the telepresence orb may or may not be visible to cameras.
Now that she’s got these power ups, it may be that she can choose to make her remote presence visible to cameras & such (if she wants to appear completely there to remote viewers), or invisible to camera’s (if for some reason she doesn’t).
Hmm – it strikes me that much of our speculation about details of Sydney’s powers has just become, um, outdated. The basics are all good. But any limits we thought we’d figured? Pretty much not limits anymore….
PS Just downloaded the tree wallpaper from DaveB’s devart link. Oh, it is so gorgeous. The details are wonderful. The comic doesn’t do it justice people – go see for yourselves. Awesome!
Lots of fun to be had yet from training.
I expect standard weapon training and such as well as specific skills.
‘Sydney, what is this arcon and who is halo?. Our website crashed like a DOS attack and the shop has been crazy with people after things we don’t sell. I told you, you are no longer in charge of advertising. What did you do this time?’
That is what I expect from the return to the shop. Probably with police for crowd control and halo not being recognised until she is in the shop, either that or she flys there and the media is waiting as well as the crowd.
There can’t be many weeks till then now.
As funny as it would be, I doubt Joel would be completely ignorant of the situation. Him and Sydney probably have other friends, and at least one of them would be watching what is shaping up to be the biggest news things since the moon missions.
I guess you have not tried being the only person running a shop when it suddenly becomes overwhelmingly busy? He sure would not have time to kick back and watch the news. Doubtless he would be aware of something going on. But as for those comic nerds who are saying there has been a super hero press conference, they must be smoking some strong stuff!
I dunno. We have yet to see Sydney get and hold onto any meal…
And is it automatic that the next scene is with Sydney returning to the shop? What kind of hours does it keep? When will this dinner let out? Will the shop still be open?
Tho… With a big enough news crowd outside the shop, and inside the shop, a single shop keeper may be hard pressed to close on schedule. “we closed 2 hours ago! Shoo, scram, before I call the police AGAIN. Lieutenant, for the last time, her mug is NOT for sa….. How much?”
Err – where’s her globes in frame 2 there?
Tubey is hanging on the back of a chair just below her hands.
Remember when Sydney and Peggy went to Lufwaffles? Peggy said to put her balls away to stop all the gawkers. Probably the same thing here, hence the tube on the back of her chair.
I doubt she’d get to much attention even if she had the orbs out.
Remember, Maxima just put up a way more awesome show, so any fans are probably going to recognize her next.
And than run away from the entire group
There is also the waitresses to consider. Trying to serve past whirling balls would be very difficult.
Sydney is relaying the events of the day. Perhaps:
“And then there I was, dressed in this armoured suit, and that huge block of steel was over here. So I ask Maxima ‘what now?’ and she says ‘just survive‘! “
Wow, I must be sicker than I realised. First run through, I read the opening comment on the thread as it stands. The second time through I hallucinated it as reading “what’s going on in panel 2?”
Do you think that I can bring down my temperature from the dreaded manflu by diving into the 4′ snow drifts outside?
does anyone else think anvil looks a lot shorter (at least waist up) in the last panel. i understand the frame angle is low but it still looks weird.
Compared to if she was next to a normal height woman, yes. And our previous most noticeable height comparison was with Sydney who is a mere 5′.
But our point of reference above is Maxima, who is 6’1″. Whereas Anvil is listed on the cast list has being 6’7″. To my eye, Kenya looks about 3″ taller than her. Which would make sense if you assume that they are about half their respective heights because they are sitting down.
just had a thought about the mystery orbs since they seem to follow some rpg conventions in terms of magic types if not the shear range the at least the basic ideas behind the classes one of these orbs must be some kind of healing or resurrection orbs or maybe gives buffs/debuffs and another must be some kind of summoning or minion creation.
what do you guys think?
I think the tentacle orb is the summoning orb
One clue we do have is that the centres of various orbs hint as to their nature. The pseudopod tentacle orb has a writhing tentacle. The PPO has crackling energy. The Fly-Ball is a clear blue, reminiscent of a cloudless day. The telepresence orb has a small inner orb (which flies out on command).
Whereas all the remaining orbs (the Force Field Orb and both the mystery orbs) have got a cloud-like effect floating in the middle. Unlike the above, I cannot immediately see a connection between that image and it’s function. But that is not necessary, as we know that it is a defensive item.
Following that logic it implies that both mystery orbs are likewise protective items of some sort. I think buffing and healing are both means of protection, each in their own way, and as such would endorse your suggestion. I think both are strong contenders.
Previously I had reservations about that, as something like healing is easily tested. Anybody is bound to suffer a minor injury, such as a paper-cut, over the course of several months. At which point any avid gamer, like myself or Sydney, would immediately test the orbs to see if any could heal. In my mind this is corroborated by the fact that we have seen her suffer an injury here and has not attempted to heal it. Ergo it is something she has tested before and found it not to work.
But she has now indicated that the mystery orbs have got especially twinkly glowing things in them. Which I think is likely to show that they have just been unlocked. So any previous testing on them would have been pointless as they were inert at the time. So all possibilities are open now, and yours is a good suggestion.
not necessarily i mean the healing effect could be unnoticed when it happened or it could have certain criteria such as desiese or level of injury or it could just be an increase to the natural healing process but without enough points in it to make it really noticeable or it just provided general good health or needs some other requirements to be met. also i still feel summoning is a viable option because it covers a wide range from creatures, items to summoning yourself to other locations(teleporting) in which cases a strong visual image was probably needed when holding it and its possible though unlikely that shed didn’t do this. the other option of course is that they are support orbs that only work in conjection with other orbs to no dirictly visible effect unless your looking for them or know how/can accurately determine and or measure the amount such as an increase in power or accuracy.
and back to my previous point of situational uses maybe ones a resurrection orb or compass?
If one of her eyes is prosthetic, you’d think she’d match the color, otherwise it’s so tacky, and kind of reminds me of that awful Schwarzenegger movie Last Action Hero with the guy with all the glass eyes like the bullseye and whatnot.
It is more complex than it appears. Dabbler has three different species in her ancestry. A cybernetic eye built for any one of them is probably not going to match hers in some respect or another. Be it the size to fit in the eye socket, the actual means of viewing, the neurons used to transmit the input and so on. Given that the priority would have been functionality (ie being able to see well), colour mis-match may just have been the least of the problems.
That is without peeking at Wereworld for any of her backstory. I am happy to let it all be revealed here, as and when.
On the topic of cybernetics, does anyone here know of a good place to acquire high end servos? I find hobbyist shops only carry pathetically weak models that offer no advantage over the flesh and bone analog.
Actually there is a visual error in the 3rd panel of this page, because Xuriel’s eyes appear to nearly match color in that panel, while they very-obviously don’t match in all the other pages where I’ve paid attention to that detail.
If you zoom in, you’ll see that they don’t match.
Agreed. Her right (our left) eye is green, whilst the left (cybernetic) one is blue.
What’s she been doing that caused her to lose her arm and her eye?
Demon stuff.
She’s a daring adventurer and a scientist. You do the math. ;P
The point probably gave her +1 AC.
So that’s why her eye is a different colour! Unless it was already a different colour. >.>
There is a naturally occurring mutation (in human and other mammal populations) which does precisely that (one blue eye and one green). If the same is true for succubi, and Dabbler was one such, then she may just have replaced like-for-like.
But having to make use of whatever parts were available, at the time of loosing her eye, could account for the oddity in a more dramatic and interesting way.
I’m aware that can occur naturally, thus why I said “Unless it was already a different colour.”
squicking fans rejoice? (eww)