Grrl Power #284 – Dogpile tactics
That guy is a tool but I kind of like him. He’s a guy who’s supremely confident in himself for no good reason. He’d probably either really get along with or mutually annoy Achilles.
I changed Maxima’s line in the flashback panel, originally she said “sewer line” but I didn’t want people to think Sydney’s plan was to drown Vehemence in sewage, so I’ll go back and change Maxima’s original line. Speaking of Sydney’s plan, her idea for Anvil’s contribution was mostly to create a crater for the water to flow into, and to hit close enough to him to loosen his grip on the ground. She didn’t know how his anchor worked, but she guessed it had to have something to hold onto as opposed to being a gravity thing or “unflight” or whatever. She thought creating the crater might snap a water line, what she didn’t count on was Maxima’s punch fucking up the whole parking lot. In this case it worked better because the area damaged increased the chance that something important broke under the ground. Originally I was going to put a fire hydrant over on the curb in the panels where we see the water leaking out, and Sydney guessed there was a line running between it and the restaurant. But that curb has been in a lot of panels and I’d have to add it to a ton of pages. Also a quick visit to google street view shows that fire hydrants aren’t usually located quite that close to parking spots, at least in the layout I based the steakhouse in the comic on, it would be on the far side of the hedges, so I don’t know how important it is to include that.
It looks like it’s just about over for Vehemence. We’ll see if he has any tricks left.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
…so after all, Vehemence IS Gogmagog… you read your Goffrey of Monmouth, didn’t you, Dave?
I know Gogmagog was a ancient giant but I’m not familiar with the reference beyond that.
Maybe they mean the comic book character Gog, who becomes resurrected as Magog (GogMagog) from Kingdom Come?
It’s always a good idea not to assume that the reference is that recent. You can always look it up before posting. As it happens, Gogmagog was a legendary giant in British folklore as early as the 12th century at least.
My advice is to always google something before making a statement of fact on the internet, just to be sure.
Last I checked, ending with a question mark and beginning with ‘maybe’ meant that it was… ya know, a QUESTION, not a statement of fact.
True enough at face value, but this was phrased and put forward as a suggestion, not an actual question.
Your point being that they weren’t actually making a statement of fact stands, however, and so I apologise.
I did some additional research on the interwebs and I found out some fascinating things.
1) I found out that I was asking a QUESTION…. since I used the word ‘maybe’ and ended it with a question mark, rather than a statement of fact.
2) I found out that you are a giant douche.
Oh wait, you probably will take that second statement of fact as a question since question marks confuse you… so I’ll re-state it.
Maybe I found out that you are a giant douche?
Gah, I didnt see you apologize.
Now I apologize for my snide comment in response.
Hug?
Wow, Vehemence’s agro aura extended all the way into the forums!
Way to break the 4th wall, Dave!
;-^
*beats you up*
Not my fault. I’m blaming Vehemence.
No hug, but I’ll accept your apology. No hard feelings, certainly. I would appreciate next time if you don’t insult people on the internet, whether they’ve apologised for their behaviour or not. It doesn’t achieve anything and it just starts/continues flame-wars.
Aww, come on, please give us a group hug. It is the only way to beat Vehemence!
If we clap afterwards, we might even be able to stop the cat girls from dying!
Nah. If you had not apologized I would have totally continued ragging on you for not understanding what a “question” or a “guess” is.
As for the flame war potential, again… Blame Vehemence
lol
internet reference guessing is serious fucking business bro
I am so ashamed. Verily.
How could I have known that people argue over meaningless stuff on the internet? Everyone knows the Internet is meant to be for educational value. And porn of course. Educational value and porn.
Porn is educational. I’ve seen things, man; seen things. (walks away mumbling)
one only needs look up octopus porn in google (with the filters off)
yeah. that just happended. your scared for life.
your welcome.
Don’t mind me. I’m going to be in my room for a while.
I thought that you were going to your bunk.
I would +1 the good Dr. but he’s at the bottom of the comment chain …
You’re scarred for life. You’re welcome.
Gog and Magog are names in the Bible, so it is a tad bit earlier than 12th century Britain. Though who they are have been reinterpreted probably a billion times in culture both ancient, old and modern. (Heroes of M&M 3 inferno town comes to mind and the Hungarian poem by Ady “I’m the son of Gog and Magog”)
I believe the reference is to Gogmagog drawing strength from a connection to the earth and losing it when he couldn’t keep at least one foot on the ground (if memory serves correctly) and the lifting foot here disrupting Vehemence’s magic deally around his foot. Which I think was him anchoring himself so Max couldn’t lift him as opposed to drawing in power Gogmagog style if I was following that sequence right. Regardless, power disruption as his feet leave the ground is I think what Roland was getting at.
I thought Gogmagog was thrown off a cliff.
So – the violence of the punch to the throat didn’t make him stronger? The violence of choking by the light hook didn’t make him stronger? The violence of simultaneous assaults by a dogpile’s worth of people (still force even if they are just holding him when he’s trying to move). I don’t see a reason this extra violence hasn’t given him an extra power – teleportation would be handy right now, or a repulsor field, or flight – other than that it hasn’t.
I’m not saying I want that to happen – I just struggle to find a “good”, non-arbitrary, reason this should work when, say, exploding his arm didn’t.
Here is the deal, Violence makes him stronger, but he burns his power by doing things like healing damage. That punch did goose his power level up a bit, but sydney blocked it from being healed. That means he has a still crushed throat he is trying to heal the damage on. That has to be burning power. By putting him face down in water, he is also drowning, another thing he needs to burn power to avoid. By restraining instead of pummeling him, he is taking in (hopefully) less power than he is wasting trying to stay alive. As for blasting everyone away, he possibly could, but keep in mind, he just got thrat punched and is suffocating/drowning. That makes it hard to focus, and its only been like 10 seconds since he got punched.
The violence itself doesnt make him randomly sprout new powers, he basically is able to take the energy he absorbs and choose to create a new one. These abilities also, by word of god, use up a lot of power. So while theoretically he could use a repulsor blast to blow everyone away, he has to think of it, make it happen, and concentrate on that while choking to death. Not easy. I am looking forward to the next comic or two just to find out how/if he will try to counter this, and if sydney has even more steps to go with her plan.
three main, already established reasons why this would work
1) the violence energy he gets is not exp – a permennt gain in power – but MP – a resource he can spend. healing himself reduces his energy, and since he only started healing when he was already at a point he could overpower max (in the setup she had at the time), one would assume it burns a lot of energy. since sydney’s indestructible, if moveable, lighthook is currently in the way of him healing his throat, one would assume hes burning a lot of energy. especially since right now he probably can’t fight back at full effectiveness and is going to be focuses on healing because, as established before, he still need to breathe so not being able too means hes going to be out like a light soon unless he fixes that*. so hes going to be burning the energy he gains from being grappled keeping himself alive, hence why hes not supercharging.
2) he requires a lot of energy to really charge up. consider that from the whole brawl before max vs him he didn’t gain a single level of glowyness. as such one can assume that since this is one of the least violent methods of restraining someone, he won;t be gaining much energy from it. furthermore sine anvil is involved, who’s kinetic energy absorbtion can help to nullify his movements by canceling the force hes putting out himself – violent intentions don’t charge him if the action dosen’t go ahead, only violent actions
3) vehemance can’t fly, nor is he going to develop that power, or any power during the fight, as he hasn;t developed any powers in this fight, just gained enough energy to use ones he had before. so far, vehemance has had to use each power consciously, and hes know about each one he’s used. he had no automatic reactions, no auto-use powers, and none that will surprise him since he knows his own power set. We already know from his own words, he can’t fly, or teleport, so hes not going to pick those up.
* as for why max didn’t blast his head off, shes smart enough to remember he needs to breathe, and also smart enough to know her blast has an area of effect and to take down V at this level required her to bring down her defences, meaning that using it would likely have killed herself and some of her alies as well at that range, when crushing his throat works too. add to that it seems to take time to fire, bringing down her defence to charge it would also have been sucidal
hope that helps :)
You need to read what Traab wrote for at least your point three.
While it’s possible that Max might be charging up for a blast in panel 1, I see that as a precautionary action. At this point, Max is aware that Sydney has a plan & it’s already involving other teammates (because Sydney gestured for Max to throat-punch V on the previous page). Even while charging up for a blast, Max’s normal baseline defense is still sufficient to handle the impact/shockwave when Anvil hits the ground, but Max probably didn’t have anything invested into Flight to stop from being pushed back, out of the way as shown in panel 2.
Max was pretty well preoccupied while Sydney was putting her plan out to the others, so Max probably wasn’t aware of any details. If Max is indeed charging up for a blast in panel 1, it’s only a precautionary measure (& a good precaution to take) until she could get a better idea of how the plan is unfolding. By the time Max can see Sydney’s lighthook taking V down, she’s a good enough strategist & tactician to see what the plan is supposed to accomplish, even if it requires some improvisation along the way.
Based on what we know of him there isn’t a good reason this would work/is working.
Well, other than some kind of panic/hysteria/etc… he’s supposedly human underneath all that maybe? So having Maxima blow his arm clearly disturbed him enough to change plans to lethality and then the whole world rose up to crush his throat, strangle him, and drown him like a rat may have gotten to him even more since he was already slightly shaken.
Perhaps some day when V returns or during an investigation into where the heck he came from by ARC-Light and or Dark we will gains some insight that would help but right now going by what we’ve seen and from the “he just has that much juice so presto” suggested by the author we currently have no real super solid reason to expect this to work other than that we have been told by the author that the fight will wrap up soon and no further full reversals are expected due to time constraints. (maybe a quick almost reversal that fails… )
But watching Sydney plan and then go to work on him is fun and at least HER actions make sense (for her character anyway). Me, Pander and the other ones who wonder what’s up with V (for slightly different reasons) are trying to get the maximum enjoyment out of that before we get sucked too far into V’s oddness again.
There is one thing that would suggest that this tactic would work. While tough, Veh is not immune to a pain response, injure him and he feels it and reacts accordingly.
Just like someone who is armed that suddenly is choked, they week grab at the arm/thing choking them, with clear thought it would be easy to resolve using their weapon, they can’t because of the panic. While Veh could easily get out of this, his mind would be full of the thoughts about his missing windpipe, and his inability to regenerate it because something is in the way, add to that water/drowning and the pile on he is going to be panicking.
He’d be more panicked than a normal human, as I doubt
he has felt mortal fear like this before.
His deal is simple. Violence gives him power. Violence targeted at others and violence targeted at him.
Before he joined the fight he absorbed the Vehemic energy of the entire fight.
He can make up shit as he goes. But those no powers are extremely energy inefficient (as opposed to the stock “do violence and survive violence being done to you”).
As far has we can tell, Syd’s Lighthook is currently chocking him and propably preventing him from properly regenerating his troath. So right now he uses power on “not suffucating”.
Even if that was not the case, his head is going underwater fast. So even if his troath regenerates and he can throw of the lighthook off, he will then need to avoid drowning.
Suffucation is generally considered a less “violent” form to defeat some. While still pretty violent, it is less violent then trying to perforate the body with knives/bullets, blowing up body parts and beating it with blunt objects (including fists).
So it is propably something he is not especially resistant against. Wich would also mean if he even can counter this with his powers, that will be a inefficient move. And he does not gain power from having it done to him.
Lack of resistance vs environmental effects is one of his weaknesses.
The hold in turn is not a proper energy source.
The hold blocks his ability to do violence unto others. Jiggawat in particular blocks his lightning arm, while the rest negates all his strenght.
At the same time nobody is punching, hitting or otherwise trying to harm him violently. In fact all they do is restraining him.
So right now he get’s little to no income and either has a big drain or will soon pass out. Either way he is loosing this battle.
He might still have some escape move left considering he has lots of excess energy from before. But if he does not use it soon, his power will be drained or he is knocked out.
I don’t think lack of air is going to slow him down much. I mean guy barely blinked after loosing an eye and a hand.
heh, “blinked”. That was totally unintentional
My interpretation isn’t that he gets “an extra power” from violence but it does two things. First it seems to passively make him stronger, tougher and somewhat faster and secondly it gives him ‘mana’. He can then spend this mana on spells and presumably there is also a constant drain powering the passive increases. His spells are relatively expensive since he’s basically winging it and appear to be limited to bricky or violent kind of things and the regeneration (which appears to require conscious effort).
The big difference here though and why this is working is that they’re not giving him time to react. Previously they’ve thumped him a bit then stood back. Even when she blew his arm off she then stood back and asked him to surrender. This time it’s been a matter of seconds between jiggawatt grabbing him and his head being submerged and the regeneration he did try was interrupted which was a further element of surprise.
In the next episode he grows gills.
Now that would make it somewhat easier if one of them wanted to fly him into the air.
To effectively use gills, you have to be moving though
or have enough oxygenated water moving past him
Of course gills are very easy to interfere with. Just press your hands against his gills and he still can’t get any air.
On one occasion, the entire roster of senior students form my aikido class happened to be out together to see the movies. We can out of the theater in loose clusters of 2-3 when a somewhat crazed individual decided to come up and start raving at one of the student who kept his head shaved for convenience claiming he was a skin head/Nazi/who know what-all. I say crazed because he kept getting louder and more agitated while ignoring that he was now completely surrounded by 8 of us…
I remember watching the fellow student who was being accosted for cues on how he wanted to handle it (he was being very patient and was mostly bemused by the whole encounter) and thinking to myself, “If this guy swings on John, he’s about to be the most pacified human being in recent history” – 8 skilled aikidoka is two per limb.
Believe me when I say you can decisively end someone’s ability to fight and not have it take the form of violence ;).
Think of V as a giant Violence battery. He started out with a charge of say 10, as the fight went on he went up and up in charge. Just to give it a number lets say he has reached a level of 100,000. Now max’s punch is pretty violent and it gives him a charge of 500. (that’s a really violent punch) A standard human punch is say a 1. Problem is that as far as pumping him up well its only a .5% charge hardly noticeable at this point. In addition to the fact that he is using that energy he has stored to make himself stronger tougher, electrified, healier (that’s a word right) … So if he is using a drain of 1% her punch doesn’t even keep him even with the drain he is putting on the system.
P.S. As for what to do with him after you beat him (and don’t kill him because the good guys almost never kill in superhero genre) The answer is Space Prison. (He can’t fly, can’t breath in a vacuum and getting violent in space is a bad bad bad idea)
dang it this was a reply to Magnetoo bugger.
This puts some numbers out there anyway. Even if you are an order of magnitude off it still comes down to V is suffering diminishing returns. And burning stored power fast. I have though before that he had lost control of the situation, but he kept coming back on a new wave of vehemic energy. This time, maybe not so lucky.
Don’t forget that DaveB is not running with the default genre tropes for superheroes. He is cherry picking which ones suit his setting, and discarding the rest. I have no doubt that, at some point, it will be necessary for a realistic setting S.W.A.T. unit to kill.
Of course, even a realistic S.W.A.T. team will be able to avoid killing a lot more, than they presently might have to, if they had access to super powers. But that is rather offset by the increased danger posed by villains having the same. Not to mention the fact that they usually have the more deadly and destructive varieties.
That said though, I would expect police to do their utmost to capture, rather than kill, any criminal. And the same applies to super villains. But S.W.A.T. rules of engagement are clear, if civilian (or police) lives are in clear and present danger, then deadly force is permissible. And has already been attempted, in this fight.
Personally, I could see it going either way, depending on how the last couple of pages pan out. The fact that he did not attempt to kill Halo, when she was exposed to his attack, does earn him empathy points. So I shall keep my fingers crossed for him. Long term danger though he would provide.
And, of course, rules of engagement do not operate by means of past behaviour. The situation has to be continually re-assessed. Before pulling the trigger (literally or metaphorically), the officer must ask “Is he presently a threat to life?” He was a threat previously. But, if he is no longer one, for whatever reason, then the death mandate no longer applies.
We don’t know what rules of engagement will be developed for Arc. Police rules of engagement, as you say, are not permitted to take past behavior into account. Military rules of engagement, although there is a default standard across entire branches of the service, authority to set rules of engagement of particular theaters or even individual engagements are often delegated to the discretion of the commanding officers.
And for a military unit (which ArcSwat IS, remember) it is often the case that past behavior (history, for exmple, of terroristic acts) DOES affect the rules of engagement if you can identify the enemy as an individual.
There is the additional complication that many, perhaps all, of the supers that ArcSwat will be engaging are american citizens – in which the authority of military chain of command over rules of engagement is of completely untested legality.
Fortunately most of the English-speaking countries share a common ancestry in their legal systems. Which means that it is acceptable practice that if there is no precedent in the jurisdiction in question, it can be sought in one of the other related jurisdictions.
As it would happen, Great Britain has plenty of legal precedent for how to deploy troops to pacify unruly American citizens. Although, technically they were British subjects at the time, so the pertinent legal point remains valid.
Mind you I have a teensy suspicion that local tribal customs might interfere with the normal legal process, if it is posed along those lines. You know, those weird practices, such as filling ‘gators with gun powder and dumping tea in rivers.
Slight clarification: Great Britain has limited successful precedent and an overwhelming failure of precedent when it comes to deploying military forces to pacify unruly American citizens. It would be an arguable legal point that, from the point they declared Independence to the point they actually successfully defended their claim, their status as British or American was undetermined.
I can be corrected easily if I am wrong about this, but, I thought the whole problem the reasonable * Founding Fathers had with the Crown, was they were not actually British Citizens?. In fact or practice?.
They were not allowed to vote in Parliament, had their own colonial Legislations . . . one that again, the average Lumberjack or Farmhand wasn’t allowed to vote in, and were not allowed to take up residence in the UK without written permission from the Home Office.
And they thought that at the very least, if the Crown was going to tax them like Englishmen, then they ought to have that same time honoured right of first voting FOR, then soundly abusing the performance OF, His Majesties Loyal Parliament.
:P
* as opposed to the ones like the S. Adams scumbag, who was motivated by personal gain and the rancor of his malignant soul. He was so vile, even Washington, who simply was too much a Gentleman to hate even his enemies, couldn’t bear to be in the same room as Adams.
You will notice that I used the terms “American citizens” but switched to “British subjects”. Subjects of the crown never loose that status. It cannot be renounced. It can only be lost at her Majesty’s pleasure.
I presently live in a country outside of Great Britain, and have done so long enough that I am entitled to become a citizen. However I will not do so, as they require the surrender of any other passports, in order to do so. Which is not something I would be willing to do.
But, even if I did, it would only be a pain in the bum explaining that, on my next entry to Britain, as I would not cease to be a British subject. That would only happen if Her Majesty’s Government declared me persona non grata for some heinous offence, that specifically threatened national security.
And an interesting quirk of present international law, is that even that cannot be done, unless the individual actually has another nationality as well. Due to the fact that a state cannot deliberately make an individual stateless. No matter how unpleasant the person is, nowadays they remain the responsibility of their present government.
Even should I (in some bizarre, unbelievable fantasy *) swear allegiance to the United States of America and renounce all other citizenship, I would still legally remain a British Subject.
That said though, the gist of your point is very well made, and I only escape on a technicality. The lack of representation of British Subjects, in the Americas, was one of the worst policy decisions made by the British Empire.
Likewise in the other parts of the world. Had the British Government been more enlightened, and less xenophobic, I think it would still be the super power, that it once was. See the results of the recent Scottish referendum, on independence, in support of that contention. Although it was a close run thing.
So it is possible that, even in an enlightened alternate Earth, America might have separated, by political means, rather than force of arms. I suspect that would still be a better world, mind. With a less gun-crazy U.S.A.
Personal peeve: that games, such as Colonisation, think the only inevitable result of colonies is rebellion and war against the mother country. They really aught to allow mechanics to explore the other paths that history might have taken.
* No slur intended. America, and Americans, are lovely. I would just rather not permanently live there**. Besides which, I enjoy teasing Americans far too much. So I would probably end up getting shot pretty fast, by somebody who did not see there was no malicious intent.
** I have done so on a temporary basis. And survived the experience, thanks to my local guides keeping me away from trouble spots and reminding me not to wind up rednecks, when I got a gleam in my eye. It is a wonderful place, to visit.
Just because I’m bored and this is interesting…
You partially escape on a technicality; certainly you do in Britain, but children who were born to the original colonists who were old enough to fight, while legally being British subjects, could reasonably make the argument that they never were, having never set foot inside the country.
Curiously, Americans can renounce their citizenship- there’s even a formal oath to do so; the government, on the other hand, cannot revoke citizenship as it is considered cruel and unusual punishment. It’s also pretty difficult, given that you can still legally be taxed for another 10 years- and, if your estate is large enough, you may also have a pretty impressive tax burden immediately as well.
As regards your footnotes: I concur almost entirely as well as believing the reverse is true, as well- that Britons are lovely, but I doubt I would want to live there* forever- although, admittedly, my reasons are different. I do enjoy twitting Britons, in much the same way you enjoy razzing us Yankees, though- it’s fun to do and helps keep the wits sharp.
* I also lived in Great Britain for a while; Bath was lovely and filled with a majority of lovely people, with the exception of a few yobs. I did not, unfortunately, have local guides who steered me clear of trouble; more the reverse, in point of fact, but that was okay. And fun.
Precedent only requires a single instance, so it does not matter how many were in the appropriate category, merely that some were. So it certainly could be cited in a court of law, should America actually face a problem like this.
But, my facetious angle of choosing to point to the American War for Independence aside, there are much more pertinent modern precedents that can be used.
Northern Ireland springs to mind as a prime example. One that actually had a successful conclusion. Any nation which needs to utilise troops in a police, or peace-keeping role, can learn many lessons from the mistakes that were made.
But the changes to training, practices, rules of engagement and the like, all helped to create an environment where political solutions could be sought, by the various parties involved.
So he’s over 9000?
The “who’s who” tab is missing the person who just got manipulated
That guy was never given a name. Only people who’s name is known get a spot there
You mean his name wasn’t “Little Baby”? Huh…
The superspidey tap on suction power would not be particular efficient VS this bunch. Considering the forces at play anyone of the stronger supers would be able to throw him into orbit. Asphalt is only as strong as it can hold together and from what we’re seen breaking asphalt is like breaking toothpicks for Max, Anvil and Stalvart for example.
No, his stay on the ground ability must be something more in the line of gravity, or supermassiveness (without the gravity influence) if he is supposed to be immovable by these guys. A little, but important flaw in thinking in this section.
You can’t ‘throw’ someone into orbit. Even if you could throw someone fast enough to get them to space (100km up), which is already extremely difficult because of air resistance slowing everything down again, they are still not in ORBIT. Once you get to space, you’ll just fall back down again.
In order to STAY in orbit, an object has to be moving sideways at a speed of 7Kilometer per SECOND (that’s 25200km/h, or 15658miles/hour)
There’s a reason it takes a 733.400kg rocket to get 28.790kg of payload to orbit. It is REALLY difficult
Actually, the speed required to stay in orbit varies with the altitude of the orbit.
Also, with enough strength, it would be hypothetically possible to throw someone into orbit, but it would require a throw with enough energy to instantly turn them into paste upon acceleration, and it would have to be at the right angle. I’m not going to run the math here because it depends on the weight of what’s being thrown, the desired orbital altitude, whether or not you want a stable orbit or an orbit that decays, and in what direction it decays, how quickly, etc.
You can never get a stable orbit by flinging something from the ground, unless you’re talking about full-on escape velocity where there is no orbit at all and the thing simply leaves the neighborhood of the planet from which you did your flinging.
At best you’ll get an orbit whose apogee passes exactly the point at which your flinging occurred – which will be a different location on the planet due to any planetary rotation that happened between the flinging and the reentry. Anyway, well inside the atmosphere, so “decaying” in a single orbit.
But, without a course correction on some tangent to a stable orbit, you’ll never get a stable orbit.
With apologies to the grieving family of the catgirl I’ve just killed, of course.
*pulls a black arm-band onto foreleg, and observes a minute’s silence*
You are of course assuming it is orbit of the surface being thrown from. Everything (in space or otherwise) is in orbit around something else. If it starts out in orbit it can end in orbit too (solar?).
Even if it does not quite make escape velocity it is in orbit, just so happens it is a single time around before it intersects another body.
“At best you’ll get an orbit whose apogee passes exactly the point at which your flinging occurred”
That’s not an orbit, that’s a balistic trajectory. If the apoaps (highest point in the orbit) is in space, it’s a sub-orbital trajectory
*deploys personal wormhole projector, to intercept flung object, ensuring that it exits the newly-created wormhole in a stable high-Earth orbit*
My sincerest apogees, I could not resist doing that.
afaik, it’s possible; the trick is, don’t throw up, throw at an angle.
that’s the point of these orbital canons people keep trying to build (including the US airforce, we tried about 20 years ago); in theory using a canon is much cheaper way to get a satellite into orbit, the problem is the sudden acceleration required pretty much tends to juice your satellite.
for more info, look up US project HARP
“We’re now in orbit weightless,
and your stomach is in doubt;
When there’s no down, you can’t throw up,
in space you just throw out.”
(Sorry, Ms. Duck. It was the part about “don’t throw up” that got me thinking about a filk song I heard at a convention once. It’s called “Blast Away Hi Ho” by Leslie Fish, and that’s one of the verses.)
*walks into the distance, singing*
“The hyperdrive is acting up,
an engineer’s delight;
If they don’t fix it, we’ll fly now,
and then come back last night.”
No, it’s possible, but the orbit would have a high eccentricity, and require a precise angle, precise timing, and precise amount of energy. It’s also highly impractical. The stability of the orbit I can’t really speak to, but I’m not going to say it’s impossible, just so difficult as to be nearly impossible.
Provided you can get a payload most of the way up to where you want it, then an on-board rocket can take over the final step. With far less fuel than necessary if going up from ground height.
Gradual acceleration, such as on a ramp (visualise the launch devices used on aircraft carries, but a lot longer), with force being applied steadily, over the entire launch deals with the issue of catastrophic failure that would come from applying all that force in one go.
It is also a fairly environmentally friendly approach, once we crack the energy problem (say when we have economic fusion or liquid thorium reactors).
It does take a second application of force to adjust the path into a true orbit, otherwise the perigee (lowest point) remains at the altitude from which the object was thrown or lower. Which, assuming you’re not launching from vacuum, means air resistance will drag you down to a rather solid landing. (Leaving aside the question of what speed that orbit would require, what acceleration it would take to reach it, and whether air resistance would in fact get you through friction heating first.)
Of course, there are probably potential trick shots to be had. Closing the orbit only requires an additional force after launch, it doesn’t rule out the use of external objects to obtain that force. I wouldn’t bet against being able to slingshot around the Moon into a semi-stable orbit. (semi-stable as it will eventually meet up with the Moon again, and be modified again.
He grabbed a lot of both ground and asphalt with that odd anchor (whatever it was). It was apparently enough to stop Maxima simply flying off with him at the power distribution she first tried it with. (probably needed a lot in Flight for lift as well as strength so he wouldn’t just break her hold and defense cause she was right there next to him… must have gotten stretched to thin. She wasn’t expecting an anchor of any kind) Going all into something popped that whole area up and out just fine though. Once it was popped loose Anvil had an easier time shattering the whole area that had popped free.
I was expecting something latched onto an energy field or something also but if we take into account her power distribution choices at the time its not THAT hard to believe.
Ok that’s it. the big guy’s new name is Simpo-ton
Joke thread!
Simpo-TON? Ok, he has a name now. That takes a LOAD off my mind! :D
Stop with the puns before I POUND you.
He’s not a heavy thinker. But he’s weighing in on how to deal with V.
Clearly you don’t have even an OUNCE of compassion or you would stop with the puns.
A MASS-ive thread always develops when the puns start piling up.
Besides we have to keep ourselves entertained until Monday morning.
I agree, but maybe we can SCALE it back just a little?
considering you just made a pun yourself I find that your words carry very little WEIGHT
Now I am CRUSHED.
We just WEIGHT patiently.
I was once sent to a hardware store for a long weight. A clerk asked me “can I help you find anything?” I said “Yes, I’m looking for a long weight”. He said “ok, just wait right here” and it was hours before anybody else spoke to me again.
“Pander
*beats you up*
Not my fault. I’m blaming Vehemence.”
@Pander you owe me an explanation , that i can give to my Collegues , as to why im snickering like mad
How do the rest of you mentally picture waiting for the newest update on update day?
To me its kind of like waiting for something you’ve ordered online to arrive, you’ve checked the tracking code and its is in your town/city/area its just not in your mailbox yet… not that that stops you from checking it every 10 minutes.
The comic updates right after lunch ends at work, so for me this comic is the dessert to my lunch break.
I’m in Thailand bro…. Lunch was 6 hours ago :P
DaveB (on the phone): Yes, but which orb does that? I need to make the change to that panel, and the comic is due to go live any moment!
Sydney: Reply indistinguishable
DaveB: Really? Oh, wow, now that will spark some debate in the comments. But how did you just use a spoon to do that?
Sydney: Laughter can be made out, in between inaudible reply.
DaveB (wiping a tear from his eye, after hysterical laughter) Thanks. That will need an extra page though, so I will leave that until next week.
4:04am
Zoddy need comic!
I know that feel bro.
Dave? can we pwees have update?
Dave?
Dave’s not here, man.
The first panel is not clear at all. It doesn’t show that Anvil is in the air, that she lept up and is about to get back down. It just shows her point of view, that she sees all that from above (maybe she’s on a building for some reason?), not getting across either her movement or position. Nor does the second panel clarify it, not showing her at all.
Visual storytelling fail.
That said, Sydney’s plan is awesome. And yes, it makes a lot of sense that it would work. Really, the main advantage the ArcSWAT has is that there are many of them. Vehemence simply can’t react fast enough to all of them doing stuff at the same time, especially given the elegant simplicity of throat punch+molestorb combo keeping him distracted AND having him burn off energy to just stay conscious at probably higher rate than he gets it back from what little violence there is in holding down.
(Non-zero, but not nearly enough to cover the expenditure of power that’s going on right now.)
Is the website a little slow for anyone else? I don’t mean the new comic being late, I mean the existing one taking a long time to load when I refresh.
And the heads at the top no longer change
a bit, but what do you expect with all the fans around the world smashing the refresh button for the new update.
That’s never been a problem in the past.
I suspect that has less to do with the server being slow and more with the strain everyone is putting the server under while wanting the page to update.
F5…
F5…
F5…
F5…
F5…
Last!
(Is that a thing? Looking forward to Monday’s strip. 0724 here in NY USA.)
Denied !
double denied
0635 on Monday morning. Where is the new strip. I’m starting to suffer withdrawal symptoms. *shudder shudder*
So cold. So cold. Everything is going dark.
Since we can’t wait any longer, I’ll tell everyone what happens next.
Vehemence is about to die, when he turns into a slug and slithers away, Halo asks Maxima what is happening, but Maxima’s an eggplant. Sydney wakes up and realises the entire comic has been a dream, and you were there, and you were there…
Can I be a tree?
can I be a chainsaw
Can I draw boobs?
Well, come inside during the winter, you dolt! No wonder you are cold.
11:33pm here, waiting for new strip (like waiting for Godot, but with a happy ending)
Buck Godot?
I was going for the Samuel Beckett play in which nothing happens (twice).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_Godot
Buck Godot would involve much less waiting I think :-)
11:56pm here and still waiting.
Okay I know what’s going on. Dave B has got us so hooked on his comic we are like crack addicts and he wants us to know he’s got us right where he wants us. Desperate for more!
Your comment made me picture Dave as fourth and fifth panel Arianna from page #108 https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/655
Well they say there is a part of the artist in everything they do so deep down he IS Arianna!
Maybe he just mixed up 6 AM with 6 PM on the release server again? Maybe DaveB will wake up and realize that he fell asleep on his art table and drooled all over the panels where Sydney’s plan to stop Vehemence actually allow the team to put him under arrest, before re-arresting the guys who did not automatically fall asleep when the Agro field was dropped.
I’ve got it! V’s latest power is making the comic not update!
.. now I hate him more than Pander hates him!
The scum!!!
prep the lych mob ;)
Torches! Pitchforks!
Get your torches and pitchforks here!
You can’t have a mob without em.
Honey-roasted rat on a stick, anybody? With the hairs singed off, of course.
Well, there used to be a mob with tommyguns… just sayin’ :)
They were wiped out by gangs with Mack’s, Uzis and AKs.
Heathen! It’s not a real mob until the people have torches and pitchforks
did anyone inform pander hed hate to miss the lynch mob
Get your rope here.
I’ve got hot coffee here.
So that’s how the aggro aura works…
Minnesota winters have never felt so cold. I downloaded a fireplace app, and I’m now burning old Wormy ecomics in an attempt to warm my soul.
“I changed Maxima’s line in the flashback panel, originally she said “sewer line” but I didn’t want people to think Sydney’s plan was to drown Vehemence in sewage, so I’ll go back and change Maxima’s original line.”
Don’t do it! This was seriously a Darwin award. Should totally keep it.
Does someone need to put a coin in the pay slot? Or forget to pay the comic bill? Not often the new page is late. Dave making some last minute updates or something I hope.
It looks like I had better do something to keep y’all entertained, until it does update.
*puts on gorilla suit, tu-tu and roller skates*
Mmm, now how does that dance go again? And where is that tray of cocktails?
“Puts out a tray of cocktail weenies.”
*makes some kettle corn and grabs a recliner to sit in*
No idea what’s goin on, but can’t wait to see something happen. Waiting for an accident.
Lego Movie anyone?
I think I’d be content with just the spaceship.
*hands you a bomb*
Go nuts. :)
In my day, you could leave your door unlocked, children respected their elders and webcomics updated on time, gosh dar n it! :)
Yeah, it just took 45 minutes for the comic to display fully. I think I still have a 28.8 external modem around here somewhere.
What? Get off my lawn!
Hey Dave, the free ice cream machine is broken. Dave? Dave?
Wow, an all-nude version of the vote incentive!
Ok, just wishful thinking, but click on the button, whilst you think of it. Hopefully the comic will refresh, and the new issue will be there, when you return.
Dabbler won’t object, but Maxima would. The others? Some would say sure, but others are definitely in the No Way category.
But how long could their resistance hold up under the effects of HYPNOBOOBS!
ALL HAIL!
That’s why the comic is late. Dave got distracted (lucky bastard).
Crap now I have to go to work without my fix. ): That’s gonna throw my whole day of gloating over my team’s victory into a slight decline. (:
Does anyone know whether DaveB has a german Amazon referral link as well as an american one?
Don’t know if he’s got a specifically german link or not, but maybe you could try replacing the com in the link with de? Not sure how well that’ll work, but worth a shot, no?
https://www.amazon.de/?tag=grrpow-20
Thanks for the ideas, I’ll try it out – worst case, it doesn’t work.
Not that I have heard of myself. But, when I wanted to order something from them, whilst in the UK, I used Dave’s link, which directs to the “.com” American version. And, within that I used their search facility to find “Amazon.co.uk” (as opposed to the Google bar).
That immediately directed me to the appropriate version of the website. But hopefully retaining Dave’s link as the original point of entry.
DAVE B WHERE IS MY FIX?!?!?! IM LIKE A CRACK ADDICT WHO’S BEEN ROBBED OF HIS SUPPLY AND NO COFFEE. WHARGABAHEFFORNDKSHFNS
Did Dave resume his doorknob licking hobby before we got him health insurance?
You know we’re forgetting one player…haven’t seen in in over five weeks now…
Mr Armorphous… if he was in view of Sydney you’d think he’d be in on the plan. You know to WRAP THINGS UP!!
I’ll leave it to yall to discuss how effective he’d be in ensuring that Mr V is tied up, airtight, muffled, and suffocating too.
panel 5 he shows back up
Technically Mr. A shows up in this strip. He’s in the background of the “please work” panel.
*shudder weep shudder* Whining coming from my fetal position, “DaveB, why have you forsaken us?”
Seriously, I hope he isn’t sick.
I thought he had the updates on a scheduled release time. Like they were already done and uploaded to the server, it just hadn’t been made public until a certain, predetermined time. Wonder if he accidentally scheduled 6 pm instead of 6 am (my local time at least)
As I’ve understood it, he doesn’t have a buffer, at least not always.
If it is a buffer problem, I am confident he would have posted an “apologies for the delay notice”. It is likely just some problem with the automatic scheduling. Either just a time/date typo as suggested, or possibly a bug or some hacker up to mischief.
All we can do is keep our fingers crossed (those who can, anyhow), that there is not a more serious problem. In which case, I would be more concerned about Dave’s well-being than the update itself.
Maybe not enough people have been donating so Dave had to cut back to once a week, so the only update will be on Thursdays.
Gah! Update the dammed thing, I’m suffering withdrawal already.
Man, the jitters are starting, I can’t take it anymore >.<
Come on I’ve got lab work in an hour I don’t need the extra adrenaline.
Oh no, resist the violent urges Peter! It’s just Vehemence’s aggro aura.
Real bad thought here.
What if Dave died since his last post.
I mean we would never find out what happens then.
I shall save many orphans in his name to make it not so.
Rasenfren dickhead archmage.
Take that back! Don’t even think about something that heinous! :(
It had crossed my mind.
When I was younger, the writer of a cartoon strip, called Angus Ogg, in The Daily Record (national Scottish newspaper) died mid story arc and no one knew what he had planned.
Now, every time an artist is late publishing, I worry. Partially that everything is ok with them, but also a bit selfishly that I want them to keep going so I may enjoy their work.
We did have some bad ice storm in North East… OMG you don’t think……
I think DaveB lives in Texas. I doubt your ice storm has hurt him.
More like bigoted assholes are so easy
God yes! A new page at last!
Why are you people still talking here? Why has nobody contacted missing people yet or reported potential murder/abduction to the police?
DaveB, since you are going to revisit older pages to edit some things, i think it is relevan to repost my question again:
During the press conference Sydney showed her orbs and made an advertisement of her shop with molestorb. Thing is,according to Dabbler’s comments, camera should not be able to see the orbs. Is tentacle tech-invisible too?
At very least her orbs should not be visible on camera during presentation and this picture on the phone. And at worst, her tentacle advertisement was invisible too.
Dave, what are you going to do about it? Will that be retconned/lampshaded/handwaved?
Ooh… that is definitely a continuity problem. Although… I don’t think I ever said the camera couldn’t see the orbs, just that it couldn’t see the projection of the skill tree, though why that one feature wouldn’t be visible to machine eyes when the lighthook and everything else would be is a little harder to explain.