Grrl Power #632 – The peg-legginator
Whoops, just realized I drew Harem firing left handed. Oh well. I won’t tell the boss if you don’t.
Seriously, that railgun would have like a +10 piercing in a D20 system. It’s one of those weapons that has so much penetration it actually does less damage than a comparable lead bullet because the projectile itself rips through everything before it has a chance to expand or disintegrate. It just ignores intervening armor, or engine blocks, hospitals, or whatever the target is hiding behind. On the other hand, it is moving so fast it’s dragging a bladestorm of supersonic wind behind it. It’s like having a fragmentation grenade go off inside the wound tract. If she hits someone in the torso with the thing, it basically ejects their head, limbs, and genitals in every direction.
Remember, Dabbler’s adventuring days basically makes her akin to a Diablo character. She has tens of thousands of kills under her belt, so she doesn’t consider limbing an enemy who can regenerate anyway antisocial behavior. At least she knows not to do it in front of a news crew.
The team went into this fight with instructions to bring Sciona in dead or alive, but with a strong preference for alive. Like don’t kill her unless her hand is hovering over the history eraser button. Turning her over to The Council would, as she points out, be a death sentence anyway, but at least a death sentence with some semblance of due process.
It’s probably nice to have a lot of bullet resistant teammates. It’s far less stressful to be able to shoot into a melee without worrying about friendly fire. It’s doubtful a 9mm round would do anything to Sciona while she’s jacked up on Super Juice, but you never know. Maybe hitting her in the eye would hurt. Or if you shot her right in an incisor. Ack! Can you imagine? Even if you were invulnerable, I think that would still give you a terminal case of the willies.
Edit: Yes, this is a little hypocritical of Max, considering she limbed Vehemence. Her reaction has more to do with just being surprised at her opponent suddenly coming apart in front of her.
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Sydney, in a crisis situation, you need to communicate things as directly as possible. Try something more on the lines of “Dabbler, we’re in a high-explosive death trap which might go off any time. Just FYI.”
Yup. Sadly, by the time someone thinks “I should have said …”, the crisis has already passed. One way or another.
I can remember, as a youngster, sitting in the passenger seat of our family car, with my mum driving. We got to a junction which was sharp enough that the road could not be seen, on one side, from the driver’s seat. So my mum asks:
“Can you see anything coming?”
The sun was in my eyes, so I was completely blinded. Naturally enough I told this to my mum.
“No …”
Mum steps on the accelerator and we shoot out across the road, only just ahead of an oncoming car.
“… I am blinded by … EEEEK!”
‘NoPrize’ territory re: Harem firing left-handed — ‘Actually, Harem has trained herself (because with five bodies, why wouldn’t you do something useful now and then) to shoot with her off-hand. She’s doing it here for a better angle on Sciona, Maxima being in the way and as good as a VERY bullet-resistant armored column …’
On another note with Harem’s gun, you drew it so Harem is aiming through her hand, not down the top of the gun. If you draw a line along the sights of the gun, it should go through the shooter’s eyeball. Then from the shooter’s perspective they’re looking down the sights. The current drawing has that line ending up on her forehead, which means unless she has an invisible third eye on her forehead, she’s not actually aiming. TL;DR if Harem’s aiming, the gun should be lower in the frame.
Dabbler is presumably not aiming, or at least not doing so in the normal human way given the way she’s holding her gun. Makes sense, though, with alien tech she’d have a way of telling where the projectile will go without having to look down the sights. Especially true for a railgun, which fires laser-straight at human distances due to its speed. (Some of the high-tech military contractors are already working on augmented reality aiming solutions that don’t require the soldier to aim down sights.)
Also don’t see much of an issue with Dabbler limbing a super-combatant, We already know it won’t be fatal and it’s a quick and easy way of reducing your opponent’s combat potential. Plus, given the scale of these conflicts and the stakes involved, we’re not playing by normal rules. We’re playing by either “We’re the police and the suspect has attempted to kill us” rules or “this is war and people die” rules. Max needs to loosen up, at least Dabbler didn’t spatter Sciona’s head across the back wall with that railgun and call it a day.
Dabbler does indeed have special ways of aiming. She interacts with her gadgets through her cybernetics. So she is probably getting a HUD in her cybernetic eye. Perhaps having a point of view from the barrel of the weapon, or otherwise projecting the projectile path and/or impact point.
That’s what I figured, though I forgot about Dabbler having cybernetics. Nothing like good old-fashioned advanced military technology. I bet she knows things that are pretty basic for her that the military would pay an arm and a leg for, though I know she doesn’t like sharing (or is bound by some form of Prime Directive for the littler races).
Well to use her techniques, they would literally need to pay an arm and an eye. ;-)
Per soldier. Although we know that there are those who would willingly volunteer for such, to gain those kinds of powers. As per Sydney being willing to sacrifice her arm, to gain hammerspace.
Although there are plenty of service personnel who had no choice and could do with the best upgrades possible.
But, yea, Dabbler does not share her technology. So even Peggy has to make do with Earth technology for her leg. Dabbler does not explain her reasons, although Dave has indicated it is because she feels that we should learn how to do such things ourselves.
However she is not shy about demonstrating them, even though that might give us clues on how to proceed.
Or she simply could be like my mother. A deadly accurate shoot-from-the-hip markswoman. She set rifle sites during WW2 (yes I’m that old my parents were around back then). When I was a kid, Dad’s gun buddies challenged her, … well after that competition they never came back to our house. They were far too embarrassed about being so soundly beaten by a woman. And I know on a few occasions she took out wild animals attacking our farm animals… shooting from the hip with a rifle. Cause if you took time to aim, you’d lose the shot. She never missed that I ever recall. Annie Oakley reborn. If not better.
Slide is back on Harem’s pistol, it is in the middle of recoil, thus the depiction is accurate. I imagine he was drawing from a photograph of someone at a target range.
^^^ This. Daphne’s in the middle of firing… several rounds. The recoil would force the pistol up most definitely. Insofar as aiming down the sights, I was taught a little trick when I was an MP… We had one of those computerized video screen trainers on post that electronically tracks hits and trajectories of the rounds fired. After going through the first scenario and completely missing the second perp off to my left (because I shoot right handed I invariably close my left eye when I aim) the instructor showed me a little trick. You hold the pistol extended directly in front of you at chest level but no higher than your shoulders. Instead of tracking only the pistol to aim, you move your whole body, pistol and all. The pistol, being in the center of your point of reference is almost automatically locked into your point of aim. When a target pops up, you have a clear line of sight around you, unhindered by your arms and the weapon, so all you have to do is pull the trigger. To my surprise, once I learned to shoot that way, my reaction times wen up and my simulator scores went way up.
Interesting.
Sounds like the point and shoot method, where the shooter simply aims with their pointer finger instead of the gun sights. This leverages their lifetime of hand-eye coordination and negates the need to have the weapon and the target in the same line of sight.
This approach has various pros and cons, and of course takes time to learn to use effectively, but I’ve personally seen people make some fantastics shots from the hip, including decent hit rates on clay pigeons. Even watched a teenager consistently taking 8/10 clay pigeons with a .22 rifle, though he said he was using a combination of pointing for quick lock-on and tracking, and the sights for precision.
Dabbler: still the only ‘main team good guys’ character I know of for whom the standard -handedness does not apply.
How would her handedness be described? Left-handed and right-handed only apply if she is /ambidextrously/ one or the other (but not completely ambidextrous, in which case she’d prefer all four arms equally). Even in these cases, specifics are probably wanted. Alternatively, she could be ambidextrously upper-handed; the comments in her fight with ‘Heavenly Sword’ support this, imo.
Upper arms would be dominate fine manipulaters, with the lower set gripping, strong arms. Upper arms with their extended range of motion and ease of access to touch, hold, reach for stuff would be used most often. Lower arms would be used for holding things steady, grabbing something from bag/belt, hanging onto cliff edge while she shoots bad guys….
Although Succubus evolution and genetic/magic tinkering may have placed greater emphasis on ‘stroking’, ‘fondling’ and other less generic priorities.
You don’t fire a gun at someone that you are not intending to kill. Both of those shots would have been lethal.
The team used lethal tactics against Sciona’s henchmen.
The team had to scramble to rescue people from the team leader’s actions.
The team leader used a lethal rather than capturing tactic on Sciona that lead to people being in danger of death.
Sydney is witnessing a near-helpless opponent being tortured.
The team leader used a lethal attack against Sciona. She was fortunate to not have been instantly killed.
The unit’s first encounter with Sciona was her constructs conducting a lethal attack intended to wipe out most of the Twilight Council leadership and those members of Archon present.
In this present situation Sciona has attempted lethal force, from the outset. Not to mention having lethal booby traps around her complex (something which is illegal and carries a 1st degree attempted homicide charge with it, in its own right).
Archon had every right to respond with intent to kill. Yet twice since then the team have offered Sciona the opportunity to surrender. Initially with Achilles, when he tried to read Sciona her Miranda rights. With everyone else ceasing attacks accordingly. To which Sciona then tried to kill most of the team.
Maxima is far softer than I am. In that situation, I would have gone for the GGGMFP, with the intent of turning Sciona into a greasy spot on the next mountain range over! On account of the fact that (as Dabbler has spotted) Sciona is attempting to use a mystical weapon of mass destruction, in addition to the ongoing risk of death that members of the team are facing.
Max is being a touchy-feely softie pulling her punch, as much as she has. Yes they would be lethal blows for squishy humans. At the moment though Sciona is buffed up so much with EIGHT extra super powers, over and above her already formidable capability, that she is probably more powerful than Maxima!
Which is why Dabbler is pointing out that Maxima is not attacking with lethal force, even though she could do so. Easily demonstrable by the fact that Sciona is still
walkinghopping around.I’m not so sure Sydney would care how tortured Sciona felt… Sciona KILLED Sydney, remember? If it hadn’t been for Pixel’s reset, Sydney wouldn’t be here. I’m sure that’s fresh in her ADD Addled mind…
Agreed. But, just to ensure balance, Jan Baer does have some powerful points, as regards Sydney. Firstly Sydney got very queasy when something similar happened to Vehemence. Secondly we have seen that she is emotionally fragile at the moment (the nosebleed incident at the pool).
So, whilst your conclusions are solid, from an intellectual viewpoint (and indeed an emotional aspect, in part) as we have seen Sydney bolstered by defeating someone in a life-or-death fight (Shadow Boxer), it is not all one-sided.
One mitigator though is that Halo knew Sciona to be a regenerator and oblivious to pain. She had broken Sciona’s arm bones herself, yet observed that she was still able to hold Halo up, at full arm’s length, with no difficulty or apparent discomfort.
But Sydney is likely to need some serious PTSD counselling, in due course. She has been going through a lot of highly traumatic stuff, which she is clearly emotionally invested in. And emotionally this is indeed like torture, to a more sensitive soul.
I think there I a small possibility dabbler will no longer be needed for the magical demolition consultation.
So. In the previous page, Sydney discovered that the room was setup with TNT blocks and redstone dust network … and in this one, Sciona is just about to trigger a block update via bleeding on it … If we follow minecraft logic, it means imminent base trolling.
Quick jump in water or put down some obsidian!
Just avoid jumping in water near to a bridge. That is where trolls live…
…
OMG, Sciona is a troll!
Well, she kinda looked like one, with that orc body.
But now we know what happens if you are a regular imbiber of troll blood. And it explains her instinct to fly towards the bridge. All those juicy innocent travellers, trying to travel over it, without sacrificing a goat to her. Not to mention that doing so trolled Maxima into attacking!
Military Operations in Urban Terrain… the operations manual assumes you to be able to shoot either-handed anyway. Shooting left handed is an important skill because that allows you to maximize your use of cover in many situations.
+1
SCENE: This present moment, in the Archon HQ common room. Various teammates gathered around pink-haired Harem.
HAREM: Ha ha ha. There I was just firing my pea shooter handgun at Sciona. She just bounces the bullets off, with her wings, of course. But Dabbler has just shot off Sciona’s leg! Blood everywhere. She can’t even stand up! Haw haw haw!
EVERYONE ELSE: ….
[tumble-weed rolls by]
HAREM: [gets a worried look on her face and gradually turns round, to see Peggy, looking stern, and Brook (Heatwave) looking sickened]
HEATWAVE: [tries to throw her arms around Peggy] Sister!
PEGGY: [Peggy rolls her eyes, and dodges. Then gives a contemptuous glance, towards Harem, as she walks out]
+1
Question – how did Dabbler know that a portal was being made? I don’t remember anyone actually telling Archon that was the plan, or even which artifacts Sciona personally had taken (aside from that body regenerator thing).
I don’t even recall Deus telling them which item she was after specifically.
I hope the answer isnt just ‘Well, Dabbler’s a genius so she figured it out offpanel.’ That feels like it would be sort of a copout. Not saying that is the answer, but I just hope it isn’t and that there was some better reason why Dabbler knew to stop Sciona before ‘the portal she’s been planning is active.’ It’s not even like they overheard Sciona say it.
Any opinions on how she knew?
Dabbler is the Sith Lord, and Sciona is actually her dark apprentice. Dabbler is, after all, a demon. Empirical evidence suggests that one should never trust a demon.
But Sciona is a Sicilian Alari, and death is on the line. So Dabbler is anticipating that Sciona will be using the artefact to create a portal to Asia, as the best way to wage her war.
When I read the dialogue, it did not bother me, because I know that we have only seen a small arc within this room. So I just took it that this is the room that Sciona was creating the portal in, rather than some other random room that happened to be in the vicinity. She clearly was close to the team, given the sequence of events, making it more likely than not.
Or it could simply be visible through a doorway.
One other possibility is that Dabbler is literally reading Sciona’s mind. Dabbler’s cast list does stipulate that she has psionic powers. Plus we have seen her reading General Faulk’s mind, to find out his sexual fantasy. Plus Dabbler is part doppleganger. I recall that you were sadly deprived of playing Dungeons and Dragons, other than one ill fated attempt …
*offers a hug of sympathy*
… so you need to know that one of their racial abilities is ESP (of the mind reading flava). Therefore, combined with the scene we saw with Dabbler duplicating the general’s dream girl, I think it very very likely that Dabbler can read minds. Even if she only normally uses it for her sexual obsession.
Here the urgency of buying time for Super Buster to complete her portal will be very much in the forefront of Sciona’s mind. So it is highly likely that an ESPer could pick up that information, with ease.
Sciona had an almost terminal case before. She found a cure.
If this makes no sense to you, you need to brush up on your English slang. ;-)
+1 Yorpie Snack for that comment, my Bulgarian (right?) friend!
Presently in Bulgaria. Although not for much longer. But Cornish, British and South African. And English, when it suits me. ;-)
Dabbler is more a demon from the Robert Asprin series (“Another fine myth”, “Mythconception”.…) and those kind of demons don’t work Disneyesk with dark lords and apprentices. They more work with mishaps and things that end up terrible, because the demon is actually a moron. Terrible for the mage that has summoned him, not for the demon himself, of course.
In a case of a serious Dabbler, it would most likely end up in orgies or at least schoolgirl shower incidents.
Although you could be mythtaken. What if her hobbies included making the M25 match the galactic symbol of
evilorgy? So that every vehicle using it would be akin torubbing a prayer wheeldriving a phallus.Then it would be a giant mythtake not to drive one of these on it.
She’s got the most advanced brain on the planet. Maybe she’s ambidextrous?
That would likely be Dabbler, of the folks we know. Harem just has five brains, wired together. But, as they all think the same thoughts, it is not that different to anybody else’s brain. She just gets to experience more things. So can cram five times the learning into the same amount of study time as a typical student.
Although she is fairly smart too.
Dave could upgrade Harem to also being ambidextrous, if he chose to. But it is not necessary as good training will allow anybody to fire well with either hand. They may have a slight edge with their favoured one, but there is an advantage when you want to fire around cover.
In this case Harem is getting a slightly better angle on Sciona. Thus reducing her risk of hitting Maxima (who is bullet-proof, but it is probably best to avoid shooting your boss in the back, when possible).
Whoops. For some reason I thought they said Dabbler was firing left-handed. That was entirely my boo-boo. Makes my comment about ‘the most advanced brain’ pretty silly, doesn’t it? :P
Oh, well….Harem could still work with that. Ambidextria is not actually tied to intelligence. I’m pretty average, & I’m borderline ambidextrous.
With Harem’s joint experience & her quantumly-entangled brains, I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch to think that she could have developed ambidextria if she wasn’t already.
Give a bit of pontificate while I go down the rabbithole….
….as I understand it, the right side of your body is mostly controlled by the left side of your brain, & vise-versa. Whether you are right-handed or left-handed determines which half of your brain is dominant. It’s a plausible explanation for why lefties tend to be more artistic & righties more scholarly.
Ambiextria, as I understand it, is basically having enough development in both halves of your brain to be able to function with either side with equal or near-equal skill. Though it is true that ambidextrous people do still have a ‘dominant’ hand, that’s more or less a subconscious preference rather than a physical handicap.
Being “the world’s best multi-tasker”, Harem has 5-brains linked in a single mind all performing different tasks simultaneously. In a round-about way, that *could* potentially help to develop both sides of all of her brains enough to let her use either hand (again, assuming she wasn’t already ambidextrous).
random thought rant over.
Eloquently argued.
Actually, Harem shooting left handed works well for a fan-theory I have for her powers.
She is not “One” person, but five, identical twins (x5). However, in the womb the five conciseness merged into one as a result of her powers. The best way to test this theory is to ask her mother how many babies came out when Harem was born.
Sciona shouldn’t be permitted to die. There are things worse than death. The best negotiator would not be able to offer them for her surrender, though. Better just to tell her, “Die now and we’ll go easy on you!”