Grrl Power #229 – The loudening
Breakpoint appears courtesy of Avery Leckrone, one of the high roller Patreon supporters. When I asked for some cameo ideas, he handed me a slew of links to his characters. I chose Breakpoint because the team is poorly equipped to handle sonic attacks like this at the moment. As with most of Avery’s characters, she’s normally a hero, so we can assume extenuating circumstances, like this being her mirror universe twin. Also I’m sure her name has nothing to do with Keanu Reeves movies, but seriously sometimes the most difficult part of each page is the title and the little quip at the bottom. But who knows, maybe she’s a fan. Also, I’m not sure her name specifically has anything to do with the fact that she can do sonic blasts, she actually has an interesting mix of powers, but I wanted to get her name on the same page she debuted on.
Breakpoint doesn’t have to shout in order to do her sonic attack, she can just generate it. I had trouble getting my head around that for a few seconds, then realized it’s really no different than Jiggawatt being able to generate lightning or Maxima generating plasma or Cosmic Boom Booms or whatever energy that is. I wasn’t sure if “AAAAAA” was the right sound effect. I considered WUBWUBWUB to slip in a dubstep joke or at least something else throbby sounding but as long as you get “loud noise” from it then I guess it works.
Interestingly I learned from reading Breakpoint’s bio that the loudest sound under 1 Earth atmosphere of pressure is ~194 db. The fact that there might be a limit to the loudness of sound is something I had never thought about, but while you can have a shockwave that is many times louder, a sustainable sound requires the oscillation of a wave, meaning the maximum amplitude of the wave would be from 0 PSI to 2 atmospheres. In other words, 1 atmosphere, plus or minus 1 atmosphere. Apparently someone did the math and that works out to 194 decibels. Which by all accounts is pretty god damned loud, since the decibel scale is logarithmic. (20 db is 10 times louder than 10 db, 30 is 100 times louder than ten, 40 is 1,000 times louder, etc.)
Of course in a medium like water, sound could be much much louder. It’s weird to think that on different alien planets, sound would behave differently. The composition and density of the atmosphere would affect both the speed of sound and how loud sounds could be. Of course if the atmosphere could support human life, the atmosphere couldn’t be too different from Earth, but imagine an alien planet where visiting humans had to wear atmosphere sniffers like that dude from TNG . A concert on that planet might require repeater speakers or something. That would have to be a pretty thin atmosphere, but it’s interesting to think about.
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Sonics can kill. And at the right frequency can make you feel pain or a sudden attack of paranoia. Like what has happened in certain places around the globe. Some think they are sonic shields around black out sites.
I live in VA and work in DC. There are Metro stops where teens have formed hang out groups, mostly harmless but there have been some incidents, and the “No Loitering” signs are posted all over the place. The Metro installed sonic kid-repellents at those stops. They generate a sound kids can hear but which adults lose the ability to hear as a part of the sucky “lose cool stuff as you grow older” and/or “die slowly as you age” part of our human biology.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2010/09/01/DI2010090102543.html
I worked in Gallery Place for a few years and walked past that Metro stop several times a week going to restaurants and to and from parking. I never heard a thing.
I hate those mosquito devices when I encounter them, I’m 23 years old and have no problem hearing them and if I end up like my dad will still be hearing them well into my 50’s (he lost the ability to hear that sort of stuff about 2 years ago and he is now 61)
I’ve read about those. While I definitely notice the loss of higher and lower end frequencies in my hearing as I approach middle age (I’m 55), I was gratified that I could still hear that frequency in one ear.
Sonic is Scientistspeak for “Pressure Wave in Air”.
Incidentially, the “Pressure Waves in Air” caused by an explosive are very, very able to kill you. Or destroy buildings. Or cities.
Basically sonic attacks are just “punching a large area at range”. Make the punch hard enough, and stuff will break even if you only got one punch.
Of course based on how the shield worked so far, Sydney can propably provide Jiggy some protection there. We do know it blocks harmfull amounts of anything. Sound included.
Wait, so that annoying blue hedgehog is really “Pressure Wave in Air the Hedgehog”? Not as catchy :(
Sort of. Sound, (and thus sonic attacks) are pressure waves in air, but a vibration rather than the simple push of a blast wave.
Not to mention potentially having OTHER effects….
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrownNote
I honestly think the WUBWUBWUBWUB effect would have been hillarious, that being said im curious where you aubmit ideas for cameos for a few reasons the first and formost being i have no drawing tallent and might get lucky and the second being I have been using hero machine for years and no joke have 40 or so individual characters with unique powers and backstory
The Cameos are a reward for pledging a certain amount a month to Dave through Paetron
https://www.patreon.com/davebarrack
Heh. Just re-reread Dave’s comments and thought I’d clear something up: Breakpoint’s name actually comes from her ability to create and finely control her sonic powers- specifically, from her ability to intuitively sense and generate the resonant frequencies of most anything she can see or hear…
What system did you build her in?
And, can you share the bio link?
Hm. I never actually built her in a game system, although I probably would have used Champions if I had. Her bio is linked to in my name, but I’ll add it here: https://whisakedjak.deviantart.com/art/Villain-Bio-Breakpoint-189961421
Her muscles put her less in the superhuman but more in the human expert corner, for sombody with this kind of body probably could reach the described physical abilities without the “super” of it.
You list the ability to detect the “break point” and resonating frequencies of peoples and objects, the ability to sense and kind of vibration, and a keen sound projection skill specifically targeting even bones and organs.
Point is that this kind of skills, if combined, should also allow her some degree of sight in the dark, some degree of (medical) ultrasonography and the ability to cause other specifiy effects such as stunning, nausea and stuff.
I also am missing her own weaknesses, with there already being some obvious ones:
1. She can either go wide range, or one specific target, but probably is limited to one or the other at a time.
2. The time lag between emitting sound and hitting the target will make it harder to cause specific effects on moving targets the farther away they are.
3. If you go wide-range, the powers will decrease in comparison, so will the control over the effect.
4. If you have to rely on resonance to cause harm, the more mass the target has to more time you will need to get there.
5. Since you don’t list resistance or immunity to sonic-effects, she would have to watch her own echo.
I like the character idea because she is well balanced in her powerset and has a solid personality and background. :-)
With the obvious caveat that Dave may have changed/modified some of this to fit in with the Grrl Power universe…
1. I haven’t really given a great deal of thought to this- She is capable of generating fairly impressive amplitude and has extremely fine control of the frequency within that amplitude, but the actual size of the area affected? Something that I haven’t really messed with much. I know that she has blasted out of a hardened concrete structure in the past, though, so she’s at least got a fairly large area that she can generate.
2. Not necessarily true, although Breapoint hasn’t entirely worked this out. Breakpoint is not forced to generate sounds with herself as the origin point.
3. This is basically true.
4. This is also true, but bear in mind just what levels of amplitude Breakpoint is actually capable of generating in addition to frequencies.
5. Yup. Breakpoint is, theoretically, as vulnerable to her own powers as anybody else. Of course, she is capable of generating counter-frequencies and amplitudes, so echoes are unlikely to have any substantial effect on her.
I’ve always thought that listing weaknesses for people who are, basically, normals with added benefits was kind of silly, honestly- I mean, really, what are you going to say- “Breakpoint is vulnerable to getting shot in the heart by a silver bullet?” Big surprise, there- so are most people. For that matter, she’s also vulnerable to having a wooden stake shoved through her heart, being decapitated, and receiving a massive overdose of solar radiation…
I’d say don’t over-think it. Weaknesses are usually things that they are unexpectedly weak to, or do unexpected amounts of damage, either because of her powers or in spite of them. A bullet to the head does expected amounts of damage – the fact that she has to shield herself from her own powers is somewhat unexpected, as many supers don’t have to worry about it.
Basically, ‘weaknesses’ are the limits of their powers; they can do A, but only until B. A is the ability, B is the weakness/limit.
That is what I meant, yes: Weaknesses related to her power.
Or, so to say, her kryptonite.
It is important to list such weaknesses because it shows her limits, and it’s important to have limits to regain balance after having granted her an unbalancing level of super-powers.
The point is that if you can’t get some level of balance into a character somehow, you can’t get balance into a plot featuring that character either, making the outcomes of a fight etc. to obvious for there to be any surprise or arc of suspense.
Does Maxi have any weaknesses?
I am not sure.
But considering you just dared calling her Maxi, you may have forgotten that one of them probably is having a short temper … ?
Have been calling her ‘Maxi’ from the start, and it’s not a sign of disrespect
Her most basic one is that ‘full power’ for any of her powers takes preparation. She can catch a bullet mid-flight, but only if she’s prepared. She can survive an atomic blast (I’m guessing), but only if she’s prepared. ‘Normally’ she’s strong, tough, and fast, but if you gauge what she can do based on what you see, most of the time she can’t handle the extremes.
Added to that, she can’t fully max multiple of her abilities at once: She can ‘transfer’ power between them, but if she needs to be strong and fast and tough, she can’t do it. She could probably lift an oil tanker out of the ocean and get it to safety, but put in in the harbor with a nuke aboard and she’ll have to decide whether to get away, survive it, or move the tanker – she can’t do all three. She might not be able to do two.
+1
This is a hard concept for me to wrap my head around, I guess. I understand that when a character is massively powerful (ye olde Superman, for example), giving him or her a specific weakness is necessary so that the character can still face defeat.
For characters who aren’t that massively powerful, though, I don’t see why a specific weakness is needed or called for- such characters already have all sorts of perfectly normal weaknesses built in. A story I’m in the process of writing has Breakfall getting the snot beaten out of her by normal mooks, despite her being significantly stronger and faster and using her sonic powers to boot.
Basically, I guess what I think is that writing power-specific weaknesses that aren’t actually justified by the mechanics of the powers in question (or, I suppose, the history of the character) the doesn’t strike me as particularly good writing; it strikes me as a cop out.
True.
But a character in a story that features characters of potential at about the same level is not out of balance because he / she / it is not too far from the perceived norm.
Superman needs actual krytonite because he otherwise is far too strong compared to anybody else.
Most others need but little weaknesses.
Finding the right level of weaknesses which are “justified by the mechanics of the powers” is one of the challenges creating a character. :-)
I guess my response to this is pretty simple: read the stories I’ve written for her. Read the story I am writing for her (it’ll be up pretty soon- I’m waiting on the artist, and he’s motoring right along). Then, after you’ve read them, tell me if you think this character needs to have further weaknesses written into her bio. I’m not, in fact, against altering things I’ve written in order to add clarity- I just hate to add things that will potentially limit how I can (ab)use the character in the future.
It’s not so much giving her something that can hurt her, as enumerating what she (possibly surprisingly) can’t do.
To use the Superman example: Kryptonite is something specific that can hurt him, but ‘magic’ is usually listed as a weakness as well. The thing is, he doesn’t have any specific vulnerability to magic – he just doesn’t have any specific defense against it either. So he’s as vulnerable to magic as any normal human – which is a notable weakness because in most things he’s not as vulnerable as a normal human.
The question isn’t ‘what hurts her’, it’s ‘given the list of powers, what are the non-obvious limits’.
Assuming I’ve done my job well, the limits to the powers are inherent to the functionality of the powers. Writing further limitations or weaknesses really only makes sense if, for some reason, her powers don’t follow the relatively predictable rules of the physics they’re based upon.
Breakpoint is not Superman- her suite of powers is in no way similar nor is it even close to being on the same scale. If someone wrote Superman’s bio without enumerating his weaknesses, he would simply be stupidly overpowered. Even with his weaknesses, he’s frankly way too powerful for most stories. Breakpoint, because she is not that insanely powerful, really doesn’t need extra-special weaknesses. You want to nullify sonic powers? Set up a small area of vacuum around her target- no ‘special’ weakness needed, because sound cannot penetrate a vacuum, period.
(Replying to Wiskey Jack). Then think of ‘writing weaknesses’ as thinking it through, and making character notes. ‘Sonics don’t work in a vacuum – that didn’t take any thought, I don’t need a note on that. Is she immune to her own sounds? I haven’t mentioned it… Probably only if she sets up a nullification sound. Might be worth a note, so I remember to bring it up.’ Etc.
I don’t fundamentally have a problem with this- I do make character notes and update them frequently as I write (or play games, which is a substantially different process despite what I always wanted to believe). I just don’t feel the need to add them to her bio unless they would serve to clarify something that might be misperceived about a potentially common situation. The fact that Breakpoint is as vulnerable as anyone else to sonic attacks isn’t hard to intuit- she’s capable of hearing and it is in no way implied that she does so through some protected extra sense, therefor sound affects her. If sound affects her, she must, potentially, be vulnerable to it.
Think about it- it’s ludicrous to assume that possession of a skill or power would then make you immune to it- super-strong characters are not invulnerable to being punched in the face unless their powers also incorporate invulnerability- which, logically, ought to be written as a separate power.
If you’re gonna go physics with it, then consider the nature of interference. Shaping or steering a “sonic blast” is inherently an interference process: you form the waves in a manner that they add in one direction and cancel out in others. A caveat of this is that sidelobes will appear under certain circumstances, and since they’re frequency-dependent, it’s entirely possible to have several beams in different directions at different frequencies (or even at one frequency, if the distribution is suitable), even if you have the limitation of the configuration of emitters having to be the same for all frequencies (something that for Breakpoint doesn’t seem true).
Once you create a character for fiction, it’s hard to fit them in a RP stat-box.
That may be true in some cases, but it isn’t really an accurate blanket statement. I could write up all of the ARC-SWAT members using the Champions rules, and Breakpoint as well.
But… why do they have to be? o_O
Oftimes, by forcing them into an RPG setting, that makes them weaker, or lesser versions, of themselves
I’m not sure I agree. All it does is to define their powers with more granularity than the prose of a novel.
Which I suppose can allow people outside the setting (i.e. real people, not other characters within the setting) to more easily spot weaknesses. Especially if they take extra points for specific disadvantages, such as a weakness to fire, or ice, or electricity. You or I can look at a character sheet and say “Huh, it would sure be easy to beat this character using this attack type they are weak against.” The villains, no so much.
What it does do is to potentially put restrictions on the author of any tale involving them. But hell, Marvel Comics has a host of large, expensive, hardbound books containing all their characters written up in their Marvel PNP superhero gaming system, and their authors still don’t follow those write-ups. So perhaps it’s no disadvantage at all.
I think the fundamental flaw here is simple- writing is a different activity than role-playing. The best system I ever found for dealing with the way comic-book characters could sometimes stretch beyond the abilities listed on their character sheets was actually Superbabes*, wherein you could opt to risk bimbo events in order to do something not covered by the rules.
*Based on AC comics Fem Force comics. The game was at best so-so, but the bimbo points system was inspired.
Just on the subject of maximum loudness, the loudest recorded atmospheric noise was the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, and supposedly could be heard 4,800 miles away: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/how-krakatoa-made-the-biggest-bang-476616.html
However, it is possible to exceed the 194 decibel limit underwater, which is proven by the Tiger Pistol Shrimp, which hunts by firing a jet of water with its right claw so fast that when the bubbles it creates collapse it creates a noise up to 218 decibels. Loud does not necessarily mean “big”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC6I8iPiHT8
I especially like the fact that the collapse of the bubble causes a little tiny bit of plasma. Frikkin PLASMA!
That is one hardcore shrimp.
A mare badass shrimp is the Mantis Shrimp and The Oatmeal explains why.
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
When did I get a Scottish accent? mare should be more
During World War 2 the Germans noticed in the dark that when the bubbles imploded they produced light energy. They wanted to study it and harness its power through cavatation. It is still being studied as a power source today.
it just occurred to me, (and forgive me if this has already been said) couldn’t sydney fly around with her shield up and push people around? (with the shield) also in such a case, would the ability to push something like that depend on the shield or the flight power? since the shield is seemingly unbreakable and separate from sydney, would her moving towards something cause the shield to smash it to pieces (like walking into a wall) or would the shield stop while allowing sydney to move toward the point of impact? and if the latter, are there safeties in place to protect the user in such an occurrence?
We know that Sydney can fly with her shield up. We do know that the orbs can stop her from moving, under certain circumstances. Whether that effect, or a similar one, is used to keep her safely in the middle of the shield, in such a collision, we do not know. Yet.
But, it may not even be needed. The Fly Ball is a misnomer. It is actually an anti-gravity orb. At the very least. It may well be controlling more than just the gravity, perhaps her inertia too. Mind you, the latter is pure speculation. But even the control of gravity would mean she will suffer less problems, in the kind of maneuvers you are describing, than a flyer would.
If she finds she is being propelled towards the wall of the force field, due to an impact, she could flip the gravity away from that, to provide herself an instant air bag. And that is without any specific built-in safety measures. We have seen that the orbs do have several, so those are actually likely.
I doubt a mere crash will harm the shield in any way. A mini-nuke did not even scratch it. Halo’s one problem might be breaking people or causing other collateral damage.
But, as for the tactic of ramming enemies, with her shield, yea, I think that one is perfectly viable.
As an alternative to the “flying into people at high speed” technique, how about “watch the bouncing beach ball”?
“Bonce”
“Ugh”
“Bounce”
“Aargh!”
“Bounce”
“Yaaah”
“Bounce”
Well, you get the idea…
Halo does not just lift up, but can freely choose the direction of “flight”.
She also has free control over her spin and can rotate to and stop at any angle she wants.
Also, no matter what she does, her hair does follow her movement as if standing still instead of dangling as “g” would normally have it.
This means that her “flight” is not based on gravitational powers, but on some kind of reality manipulation field engulfing her body – the selective change of personal environmental settings.
Of course you could have a Trek-Moment and simply call it a limited personal warp field.
I think the agreed upon explanation of Sydney’s flight is that the orb causes her to become her own, personal gravitational centerpoint, which she is then able to manipulate in relation to the larger gravitational field of the earth, therefore she is always “down”. So her flight is indeed caused by gravitational powers.
so then, if she were to ram something with her shield up, her momentum would push her forward? (assuming the shield hits something it cant push) or would it be more likely that due to the shield’s centralization to her coupled with its strength, there would be nothing it couldn’t push basically allowing her to bore into things until she stopped trying to?
Obviously there has to be limits to her power, otherwise she would turn into a black hole when she activated the flight orb. Since her shield centers around her, if she ran into something she couldn’t push, I think she would merely stop, and since she is the center of her own gravity well, there wouldn’t be any adverse effects from momentum. Her flight power seems to work not so much in the “I’m moving” manner, as in “The world is moving around me” fashion.
You guys are forgetting one very important factor in all of this. The orbs have their own leveling system. What you guys are talking about may not be possible at the moment but that doesn’t mean that she won’t be able to do this kind of stuff in the future. The true and full extent of her powers are unknown and as of yet locked by that leveling system.
Gravitational forces implicate a vector towards the center of other relevant masses within the vicinity – such as towards the earth core. This means that manipulation gravity would either push you away from earth along that vector, or increasingly pull you towards it.
There essentially are but two ways to move in other directions as well:
1. Apply the principle of a sailboat by, for instance, moving up and down while wearing wings of sorts.
2. Pushing or pulling at other masses.
She obviously it nor wearing wings, but she also isn’t pushing of pulling things about which would be a side-effect of #2.
If you say that she has her own personal gravity field, you probably are right. But she ain’t moving about using it or other gravitational forces.
I do not follow your conclusion on that matter. If she is able to bend gravity to her will, she can pretty much do exactly as folks, including myself, are proposing. Instead of making her fall in “X” direction, she is making herself fall in “Y” direction.
Super powers mess around with the fundamental laws of nature. To say that a super cannot do something, because of a basic law, is flawed, when that super has power over that particular law. They are the ones dictating how it works, at that time, not mother nature.
I am arguing over this because the consequences for Halo would be severe.
1. She would be unable to move in any direction in outer space.
2. She would be able of Jedi force-wind like effects.
3. She would be able to summon things towards her.
4. She would not be able of free flight on a radius around the earth center.
You could, of course, twist the definition of “personal gravity” to fit her abilites, but that would be a strecht and clash with about 99% percent of supers which are classified as “gravity manipulators”.
Maybe I should give in at that point however, seeing that about nobody appears to agree with my arguments. Maybe I am just trying to hard to remain in the area of “almost inexplicable” and should just accept that some things are just not meant to be explained.
1. If she is able to create her own gravity field, and apply it in whatever direction she wants, I do not see how that stops her from moving? Clearly when she is floating upside down, in the ball-room, her personal gravity field has nothing to do with the Earth’s. So why would there be any difference in outer space?
Normally gravity applies as an interaction between two bodies with mass. Halo seems to bypass that, by whatever means. Perhaps she is creating a kinetic field that is pushing her in the direction she is oriented in? Thus simulating artificial gravity, precisely like a space ship spinning on it’s own axis can.
We see plenty of science-fiction films that assume that space ships can generate an artificial gravity field. Without the presence of a planet. So this concept is not without precedent.
Ok they usually do not use that force to propel the ships, but that is mainly because, on film, we like our space ships to have big glowing fires pushing them forwards, as they rumble majestically through the void. But a number of novels do make clever use of miniature singularities and other cunning techniques to either distort space time (like gravity wells do) or directly use gravity/anti-gravity, as part of the propulsion.
2. No idea what that is.
3. Maybe she can. But I think things will only fall towards her if they are in the bubble that is obeying her personal gravity (or directed inertia) field. So they would have to get that close by their own means. But once inside they will fall in the direction that she perceives as down, rather than whatever direction the planet had been fooling the objects into thinking was down.
4. See 1. above.
Don’t let weight of numbers dissuade you, if you still feel you are right. Personally her ‘personal reality bubble’ works fine for me. And describing it as gravity control is the simplest way to convey it to most people. Even though it would probably need a completely new lexicon to describe a force which is like gravity, but which does not require a second body to provide the attraction.
Would it help if I told you that what is actually happening is that Cthulhu is hovering in a nearby direction and towing her, by a tractor beam, in the direction she is thinking of as down?
What you just described is a ( personal ) separation from regular space, creating somewhat of her own pocket dimension in which she can effect herself but not the “outside world”.
Which means that she deploys something alike a personal ( warp-) field.
Apparently, we just used differnt names and models but were talking about the very same thing.
Now I feel silly. :-)
The trouble is that we are basing our speculation on the fact that her hair hangs down in a different direction to where normal gravity is pointing. There could be an enormous number of effects actually causing that, if you consider the gamut of super powers available and/or effects that they can be manipulating.
It may well turn out to be gravity manipulation, rather than a localised reality bubble. But we should not assume her version of gravity alteration is the same as other comic characters. D&D might only be able to reverse gravity, so that up becomes down. Halo appears to twiddle it on its side, or at an angle.
Which means she may also be able to make gravity function somewhere without a massive body present. Or nullify it completely. Whether she does this by altering the basic rules of the entire cosmos, or extending out her small personal reality bubble is another matter.
The fly ball has one of the bigger upgrade trees. I suspect we will be seeing a lot more of it’s functions. And so will get more hints as to the true operation.
But, yea, one of the biggest problems is terminology. What she is doing does not have exactly defined words to describe it, so there are bound to be misunderstandings and ambiguity when talking about it.
“hovering in a nearby
direction” = “hovering in a nearby dimension”Dear Jiggawatt, as much as I think you’re awesome, the movie was Point Break. Not Breakpoint. :)
I’m pretty sure she’s just being facetious…
What? I can’t believe you’re accusing her of holding right-wing authoritarian views.
I do not think that word means what you think it means….
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/facetious
Did you follow the link? =OP
Then sadly her second joke wasn’t as good as her back up joke :p
Isn’t she the Rev. Spooner’s wife?
Note that “Fascism” has nothing whatever to do with being “Facetious”, any more than thinking that you get Pork from Porcupines. – Also, the myth that Fascism is “right wing” is annoying…there are plenty of Fascistic socialists…it is also often used to refer to the Nazis, who were NOT the Fascists in WW 2. That was Italy…Musolini was the Fascist one.
Which is why I linked the definition to the word “malaprop”, which is “the unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar” (although in this case, it was intentional and meant for humorous effect) and then asked whether you had checked the link.
Oh, Germany was fascist as was Italy. The Idea was ‘formalized’ in Italy. The Nazis got it from Mussolini’s government. Stinking idea. You could say with some justification that our society was on the verge of giving that terrible idea a go. You do know what ‘fascism’ means don’t you?
Wasn’t Germany ‘Nationalist’?
What states declare as their ideology is often at odds with their actual state of affairs. The U.S.A. is technically as federal republic, which practices representative democracy. The U.K. is a unitary state under constitutional monarchy, which also practices representative democracy, but via a multi-party system.
On paper. In reality however, both are actually oligarchies.
The real definition, or the socialist-driven “re-imagining” of the word?
Originally, it meant strength in numbers…it was the literal interpretation of the “it’s easy to break one stick, but much harder to break a bundle of sticks” lesson used so often in martial arts fiction these days. The “Fasces” after which it gets its name is literally a bundle of sticks around an axe.
In modern times, it has become a buzzword, spewed out by socialists and liberals when they want to imply something is “right wing”, despite the fact that Fascism in the mid 20th century was an offshoot of Marxism and was anything BUT “right wing” during World War 2.
mwahaha! EAT STREET!
Well she did BEAT the street with his face…
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Street )
Grrlpower: Where the Elite Meet to Eat Street
Sheet! That was bad :P
That was not neat
So do not repeat
Welcome to poetry corner
Although some might prefer to be a mourner
Man, I wish I could afford $50 a month…Lucretia would be so much a great cameo…assuming there is ever a scene in a library.
Lucretia is an ex-con (she was a minor, got drunk, tried to see if she could break a bank vault…no theft intended) librarian, all she wants in her life is to live quietly as a librarian and never get involved anything ever again.
Hmm, ideal match up? Have Anvil clap.
Please don’t forget to vote. We are only in 3rd place, at the moment. And falling slowly!
I was just revisiting one of my favorite animes, Fairy Tail! eipsode 129. I just realized that Laxus reminds me of Math.
In my head I think of like a BMWUAAAAAAAUUUUGH Like from the inception trailer or when Korra fights Vaatu/what’s his bucket. I know you already got it so… it’s not like it MATTERS… but then, does anything REALLY matter? Ever?
If Breakpoint’s attack sounded like nails on a chalkboard. I wonder how distracting it would be or does the sound waves only affect the area she is targeting?
Well, it’s actual sound, so it behaves like actual sound. As to what it sounds like? That’s actually a function of frequency, I believe, so she could adjust it quite a bit as the fancy grabbed her.
So why doesn’t Jiggawatt simply change into an energy form, assuming there’s one that sound doesn’t affect?
We don’t know if she can change into an energy form at all, taking the form of energy (or when she was reforming back to ‘normal’) are not the same thing as being a form made out of energy
There’s also the distinct possibility that it requires a degree of concentration- something that might be physically impossible while being subjected to the auditory equivalent of standing at ground zero to a jet engine taking off…
Which raises the question: if Jiggs’ concentration was disturb enough, would she dissipate into lightning? Kinda like at one time, Kitty had to concentrate to stay corporeal, she had a tendency of ‘sinking’ through beds (and the floor) when she slept
Yeah she actually has to focus to interact with the world, which can cause issues when she was knocked out.
They didn’t change it? Remember reading that about 20 years ago
Huh, I heard it about 10 years ago myself.
Odd that gravity would interact with a non-corporal individual. Or, presumably not, as she would wake up in China, or the middle of the Earth.
But, if she is just floating around, and sometimes sinking below the physical surface, that would imply that she can do the reverse.
I cannot remember seeing her up in the air, but surely ground height would only have meaning to her as a subconscious impulse to ‘walk’ on the ground, rather than being an actual requirement? She should be able to fly through the air, as easily as she walks through walls.
I have a couple of 1969 Guardians of the Galaxy comics where Shadowcat’s powers seem to be selective phasing similar to Tyki Mikk from D-Gray Man. She was able to walk on air as if it was a staircase and called it “airstepping”.
Has it ever occurred to anyone that Jiggawatt is very similar to storm from X-Men in appearance and abilities?
Only the fact they are both African-American (personally, a stupid term), female, have white hair, and one aspect of their powers is as an imitation Tesla-coil
I live for the day when we stop sub-labeling ourselves as X-American.
Isn’t it enough to say “American” and be done with it?
Specially seeing the majority are 5th (or greater) Generation American
And that the label is just wrong if the parents/grandparents/whatever immigrated from, say, England…
I saw a stand up comic, can’t remember his name right now, but he said he was bi-racial: His father was African American and his mom was black.
I can count at least six European “races” just from my grandparents. I was born in the US so I only claim that though I do have interest in the cultures.
BTW, I hate the term “White” or Caucasian. I’m not Russian or an albino.
Agreed
There comes a time when you need a label and none will be liked by everyone. Blacks aren’t actually black either, typically ranging from a very close to black to a light brown. Asians aren’t ‘yellow’, but an Asian who was born in the US isn’t called an ‘Asian-American’, just an Asian. Hispanic runs a wide range of territory from Western Europe to North, Central, and South America.
And then there are the cases where someone who doesn’t have the common ancestry of one of these square holes but still identifies with it, such as my Uncle who calls himself Hispanic despite not having a drop of blood in him from any of the countries traditionally called Hispanic.
Of course it’d be nice not to need to have these square holes that all we round pegs don’t fit nicely in anyway, but any time I apply for a job with a company who does any kind of government contracting I have to pick one anyway due to the laws regulating those contractors.
Genetically speaking, Hispanics are indistinguishable from Caucasians. However, it was insisted by someone that they be listed separately. That’s why the racial label on many forms is “non-Hispanic Caucasian”.
Personally, unless you’re dealing with medical records, your genetic heritage shouldn’t be necessary to record. Our obsession with recording what everybody’s genetic heritage for is really part of the problem. We obviously care about the distinction still. I’ve tried in my novels to describe people as “dark-skinned” rather than “black” or “sub-saharan African” or some other such term. I’ve even had situations where I described people as having skin the color of smooth chocolate…..and the end result is a lot of readers (or artists if I’m commissioning a work) take that to mean a heavily tanned white person.
I had to correct at least two artists as to the skin color of Minaba from Divine Blood because I didn’t outright describe her as black or African…as I remember one asked my why I didn’t clarify she was African American?
The answer: “Because I said she had dark-chocolate skin and was from South Africa.”
Now that we are entering the genetic engineering age, I think that things are going to get very interesting. Obviously there will be a lot of conservatism, within the population. We are a very racist species, on the whole, if you look at how tolerance needs to be taught, formally or informally via exposure, rather than coming naturally. But when we are given the power to tinker, we do use it.
Look externally, at dogs, who’s variance comes due to our selective breeding. The wolves that they are descended from have only a fairly typical diversity amongst various groups. Yet dogs have the greatest variety of any animal, on the planet. For example compare a chiwawa to a great dane. No other species has that much size diversity. And that is a single characteristic.
And look what happened when hair dyes became available. Once we can pick and choose our individual looks, a whole host of variety will spring up. I suspect that elven or Vulcan looks will be a very strong choice. Some, like recent Star Trek, retaining other racial characteristics. Others, I suspect, taking very distinctive looks which will be disparate to any particular ethnic group extant.
Avatar will probably be credited with the popularity for blue people. Some nations will ban all such cosmetic tinkering, on religious, and other grounds. Others will ban all tampering, for similar reasons. Of course those which allow their populations to enhance their mental, physical and other characteristics will have a considerable advantage over those who do not.*
Mind you, the underlying problem of people only identifying with those folks they are familiar with will remain. The greater the diversity that we encounter, growing up, though, the broader the range we will identify with and be tolerant towards.
* But will run all the risks associated with mistakes or problems. And there will be the risk of diverging into separate species.
I once heard a DJ offer up a prize to a caller to his show if the caller could name any member of the Dave Mathews Band who was from Africa.
As it turns out, the band has* three black guys in it, but the only African is white bread Dave Mathews himself. The caller did not get it right, selecting one of the black guys, who were all born in the US. To which the DJ answered “wrong, sorry,” got off the call, explained the situation, and then whispered “racist” before starting up the next song. Not terribly customer friendly, but whatever.
* Had, until LeRoi died, RIP. But I don’t recall whether this was before or after his death.
No, it didn’t. Storm is eternally dignified and borderline overly-serious.
Jiggawat is a laid back geek.
Depends on which version of Storm you are talking about :P
The Goddess or the Car Thief?
I can’t see any version of Storm – including the alternate-future versions I’ve read, or even the more childish Astonishing version – making the entrance Jiggawatt made, even if she had the powerset for it.
Was thinking more “movie” and “comic” versions :P
Can I go with the “Raging One”‘s Storm? She stabs things. (completely different setting, I know…mutant weather controller not the same as a magical blade-dancer.
Not sure if familiar with that one, could you give me more info about her please?
Not referring to personality when I posted the, but seriously, it made me think enough to create a gravitar just to post this
And now that you have, I hope that you hang around. Welcome to the community.
By the way, for the odd folks who are interested in commenting, but put off by the thought of creating an avatar, that part is optional. All that is needed is a name and a valid email address (which is kept confidential, of course).
Err ‘odd’ as in ‘few’ rather than ‘peculiar’. Although we do welcome all sorts of strange folks here, so do not be put off if you feel you are eccentric. In fact, unusual is interesting, be proud of it! Do not hide in the closet, come out and wiggle your tentacles bravely!
You make it seem that being ‘peculiar’ is a bad thing, considering you are a talking puppy :P
You could argue she’s more similar to Static, Black Lightning, or Black Vulcan/SuperVolt.
I wonder how much reach Sydney has with Lighthook (tm, pat. pend.). Maybe she could help out by battering Breapoint with a bad guy or two. It looks like she smacked the asphalt with “Should-Have-Gone-To-The-Movies-Instead Guy”, fairly close to Jiggawatt.
Given she can spell out her company with it…. It’s possible it has no practical limit,
Mummy wrap her, hang her upside down, and if she doesn’t stop her antics, spin her fast enough she can’t hold a target with het powers. Not enough? Spin her faster, induce a redout.
Still not cutting it? Flip her end for end and aim for a blackout.
Or just slap on one of the watches Harem has, and hope breakpoint doesn’t find itrs breakpoint too fast.
I wonder if during this super fight that halo learns a new ability about one of the orbs she has. At some point she is going to find out.
You’re probably right about that
We know that it doesn’t require combat, since she got her first level-up after the demonstration. My guess would be that it requires stretching her abilities as in using the orbs in new ways. Just prior to the demo she flew faster than she ever had before and had her shield withstand more force than she had ever withstood before. And she probably used her PPO with the most power ever, given that it seems that she only used it once before, and then was afraid to again because it caused a forest fire and there was a distinct lack of super-villains attacking her to warrant a second use.
So my guess is that she only levels up when she stretches her abilities, which is pretty much like learning in real life. In this fight (so far) she has only really used her shield against light damage and then the lighthook twice*. I wouldn’t think that would be enough for a level-up, assuming of course that it does require Sydney to stretch her uses of the orbs in order to earn a level-up.
* I’m not going to count blocking with an orb itself nor physically attacking with the orbs. That may indeed count, but it’s enough different from holding an orb and invoking its power that I don’t think so.
INNOCENT VICTIM: Help!
HALO: Don’t worry, I am just about to rescue you!
SKILL TREE: Congratulations, you have levelled up, please pick a skill.
HALO: Oh get out of the way (WAVING HAND THROUGH SKILL TREE), I am busy!
SKILL TREE: Congratulations, you have chosen to upgrade the Particle Projection Orb to fire pink roses instead.
HALO: WHAT! Noooooooo! #!$¥£‡!&€%@# monkey shaving abstraction licking lampshade fornicating #!$¥£‡!&€%@# Where is the UNDO button?
INNOCENT VICTIM: Arrgh!
HALO: Oh shut up, you will be fine. This is serious! Where is the help menu?
Where’s Peter Townsend when you need him?
Was going to reply with “Who?”, but thought better of it :P
+2 lol
fyi i just received a notification from my firewall that an address got blocked on this page, it was cdn2[dot]movetoclarksville[dot]com possibly an ad? it was blocked due to eset’s internal blacklist apparently.
I did a fairly comprehensive scan of the site and it seems ok. I think it was probably a bad ad.
Another alien planet where sound would behave interestingly would be Star Wars’ Dorin, the home of the Kel Dor species; another rebreather-required species, since they’re used to an atmosphere of helium and a gas unique to Dorin.
Thanks for the good writeup. It if truth be told used to be a amusement account it.
Look complicated to more brought agreeable from you!
By the way, how can we keep in touch?
I recently learned there’s a thing called an arc furnace that’s used to melt thousands of tons of steel in minutes, using ridiculous amounts of energy and damaging the hearing of any workers that use it. Seems like something Jiggawatt would try to emulate, if panel 3 is any indication. Though she might be sensitive about losing her hearing. . .
Ooh, plasma, could idea! I have seen clips of scientists using Van der Graf generators as instruments to play music, same principle applied more simply…
Good idea not “could idea”!!!