Grrl Power #651 – Obtuse loop
Maxima probably needs to issue a standing order about not being cryptic in the field. She’s intelligent, but in a world of super powers and aliens and all that good stuff, your’re gonna get situations that even the most on-top-of-it commander will need help making sense of. That’s why you have specialists in the first place. Just need to make sure they’re not being cheeky at crucial moments.
I was trying to figure out how to word Harem’s “new information” without either spelling out what she’s trying to reveal, but also without being obnoxiously obtuse. I think quite a few of you will guess, and if you do, then I uh, invite you to buy yourself something nice, I guess. The prize budget over here is limited.
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I get a sneaking suspicion that Harem may have left a copy of herself on a certain planet….
Probably not, as Harem did not do any teleporting, which is her mechanism for creating duplicates. Far more likely is that the wormhole took the team somewhere (or possibly somewhen) that already had other Harems.
In other words an alternate universe with an identical Earth and a recently destroyed Alari homeworld. Being identical it, of course, also has identical Harems. Even down to their quantum linked mental state matching with the Harem we see above.
Possibly, in their native dimension, the Alari homeworld is untouched. Sciona had spoken with them before travelling and they were OK. Which would explain how it was destroyed, when they arrived, despite that. It was not the same planet that she had been communicating with. Rather it was an almost identical one, but where the Alari of that world had managed to bring destruction on themselves somehow (assuming that they have similar behaviour to the ones Dabber is used to).
Ooooh.
I like this theory. Covers all known facts and accounts for everything I can think of.
Have a snax!
Not sure how it makes things easier for Dabbler, though.
Unless Harem still has some sort of residual link to the Harem’s in that other universe, and Dabbler can use some sort of magic to follow the trace back to the correct universe, perhaps negating the need to recreate the exact portal Sciona created and instead use a simpler one she has easier access to…
Foodies!
*wags tail happily*
Do consider though that the Earth in that dimension may have had the events play out slightly differently, when dealing with Sciona. For example, the Dabbler in that world may have decided that her head was a better target, than her leg.
Which means that the can-opener would still be OK. Not only that but Super Buster had already been tasked with opening the wormhole to the Alari homeworld. With his boss being dead, and no fighting going on, they could have ended the process in a non-destructive manner.
Whilst the specifics could vary hugely, we do know that they did not open a gate to their Alari homeworld. The arrival point looked to be a specific facility designed for such a purpose. So, if that assumption is right, and there had been a second wormhole, it would have been apparent, as soon as the rogue one went walkabout.
So all Harem needs to do is speak to the Dabbler of that alternate Earth and get her to convince Super Buster to carry on opening the portal. Or use the can opener to do it herself. With it already set up to do precisely that it should be a lot simpler than having to figure it out from scratch.
I’m going for, since the portal was not activated in the planned method, there was some time-slippage involved, space/time being what it is, and the portal did not connect to the other planet/dimension in the “now” but rather in the “when”, this would also explain harem suddenly having more of herself then she was supposed to, as there would be the one from her in the earths “now” and the rest of her from the “when” they wound up in, thus meaning the one we all saw in the story would be the extra.
Time displacement is certainly viable. There are a few flaws with it (detailed in other threads). However none that can’t be bypassed, either with a little lateral thinking, or granting of artistic licence.
DUDE. I remember discussing a theory I had on magical thermodynamics in this comic back when (checks page number…) when they had the Steakhouse Battle Royale.
**Gives nod of approval**
Harem didnt do any INTENTIONAL teleporting. Going throught the gateway/rift/portal was teleporting. Perhaps what came out the other side of the rift was a new duplicate and the Harem that entered the cave had to vorp home because her clothes (and comm) went through the portal with the new Harem.
Very good argument.
If you’re right, then wouldn’t that mean the alari dead and living would have to fight each other eventually?
I see no reason why? Despite her otherwise psychotic nature, Sciona was extremely caring about her own people. Unless the Alari are so xenophobic that they consider Alari of another dimension not to be Alari but inferiors to be enslaved, they will probably assist them.
Clearly their soul battery was meant to be launched to some destination, as Sciona commented that it failed. The most logical assumption is that it was meant to go to some kind of facility where they could recreate their bodies, or otherwise carry on living in some form.
Meaning that, if the living Alari are able to gain access back to that other dimension, they could repair or replace the soul battery, pop the souls back in it, and send them on their way. Or directly do whatever it was that process was meant to achieve. Clone them new bodies or whatnot.
If they can’t do that, and fear the dead Alari might try to claim the homeworld of the living Alari, then it may come down to a fight. But I do not see that as being inevitable. Just one possible outcome.
I was thinking the dead ones would attack living humans (and others) and the living alari would have to save face, galactically speaking, by annhilating their transdimensional dupes.
That could happen, yea. And would be an interesting angle.
Although if Sciona’s comment about going to Earth ‘… as refugees’ is to be taken literally, then she probably realises that they will be far too vulnerable to go on the offensive. In fact she even went on to say ‘Guess we can still take it over eventually though.’ Which pretty much rules out her having any violent intent, at the moment.
But things can change. That was only her first thought. Plus Sciona has anger management and impulsive homicidal impulse issues.
So you could be on a viable path.
not if she ‘absorbs’ her other selves together first. She can do that too. What a way to cut in line too.
I’m thinking that Harem’s “too many of me” effect may have been caused by information carried between her selves FTL – most discussion of the physics involved have a thought experiment where the lightspeed delay screws up communication somehow.
Most military units, with or without super powers, aliens, etc., will have a standing order against being cryptic. The reasons why still apply. (Although maybe Archon’s unit culture will be less likely to quash the attitude that motivates it).
Trouble is that folks who were suggesting that there might be a lights peed delay were not understanding quantum entanglement. That is not subject to light speed delays. Quantumly entangled particles are always in an identical state. If there is anything which causes their states to diverge then the quantum entanglement has been broken.
So if a delay had occurred, then Harem would no longer be able to communicate at all, because her mind would no longer be linked to the rest of her bodies. Conversely it means that she can be separated from them, by any distance (even being on the other side of the Galaxy) and not experience any delays. She only has the one mind and it is always thinking the same things wherever her bodies are.
Although obviously there are parts of her brain which must follow different rules, otherwise her limbs would always be doing the same things, and they would all be saying the same things. But that is a different issue.
As regards Harem being cryptic, Maxima is wrong there. Harem has stated the facts that she is aware of. Whilst she will be able to elaborate on that, such as describing what circumstances her ‘extra’ selves are in, her basic statement is about as straight forward as she could make it. Plus anything else she might say, beyond that, would be speculative (but likely to be informed, as Harem is well read).
So it is just that Maxima has failed to intuit the probable reason, despite being aware of the key element (a faulty wormhole). Whereas Dabbler has figured it out, yet has not explained it. Hence Max is right that she is being cryptic.
No, Daphne is being cryptic by not explaining what she means by “there were too many of me”
She could give more details, like describing the conflicting senses that she was getting. Presumably things like seeing the same room from two different sets of eyes, yet knowing that it was Goth seeing from both those different vantage points.
However, even from that brief example you can see that it would take longer to elaborate, than it would for Dabbler to come to a working hypothesis based on what Harem already said.
In other words Harem knew that Dabbler would figure it out. And is far better qualified to make judgement calls about what is going on. So Harem was not being cryptic, she gave the specialist precisely the information she needed, in as concise a manner as possible.
But, sure, from Maxima’s perspective, it is cryptic. Because she could not figure out the implications.
She will give more details, once Ms Golden Panic calms the fuck down
I suspect that rather than lag from distance it is a matter of when they came out of the portal. Assuming that the portal functions like a theoretical wormhole it is connecting 2 points of timespace. The other end was likely not just on another world but in another time. Harem was disoriented because that body was trying to link with the other Harem of that time and finding the server full.
That is a plausible explanation.
Although it does not explain why it sounded like an ‘echo’ to her. Which strongly implies that a connection was established but double the normal number of sets of sensory data were coming in.
Something which should not be possible with Harems of different time periods. Their brains would no longer be identical (one set will have more memories than the other for example), so there would be no quantum link, and thereby no sharing of consciousness.
So I agree that an ‘engaged tone’ would be a possibility. But the dialogue implies something more.
Then we can look at panel 5 above. Harem is way too smug, to just be reporting a mental engaged tone. As confirmed with her “How cool is that?”
I am pretty confident that Harem currently has 10 bodies.
Memories are actually a problem for both time travel and alternate universes. If anything relevant diverged between timelines, then Harem would have different memories. For example, if they went to a universe where Dabbler shot Sciona in the head, that version of Harem would remember Sciona being splattered, and not getting pulled through a portal. At the very least, everything would have to remain consistent up to the point where the portal sucks everyone in, which means two sets of ARC-SWAT in the exact same predicament. That doesn’t make things easier.
Indeed. I had wondered if anyone would pick me up on that. I figured it was within the realms of ‘artistic licence’, so wasn’t too fussed myself.
Regardless though, there is a point at which divergence is possible, and it is a key one. When/where/if the unstable wormhole actually opens up. Because, provided everything is identical up to the point where Harem gets sucked through into that universe, once she arrives the connection is in instantly made.
All ten Harems are now experiencing exactly the same things. Four are on Earth and another four on alternate Earth, all in identical positions, in the same rooms, with everything they see being indistinguishable.
Whilst one blond one got sucked into the unstable wormhole and spat out, along with the team, saying ‘ow’ when she hits the ground. When she recovers she finds that she is still in the portal room, with the destroyed Buster. Their wormhole closed and their journey was aborted.
The other blonde Harem though (our one) made it through. But because they all experienced exactly the same things (even down to being sucked into and spat out of a wormhole) their quantum link was not broken. They just all simultaneously experienced one blonde bouncing back whilst the other made it through.
Something to consider: Supers are really weird.
“Quantum Entanglement” may not actually be the perfect descriptor for Harem’s connection. It’s just the closest approximation that exists in English. For all practical purposes, it seemed like Quantum Entanglement, until this very moment. Whether it’s the future, an alternate dimension, or both, any and all versions of Harem may be capable of forming a limited connection, and sharing information with each other. They just didn’t know it until now.
The 2 ends of the portal being in different times could explain the echo too. Just a few minutes into the past would create what would seem like an echo to her as it was the thoughts of the her from the past getting to her a second time.
I’m actually pretty sure that, following currently accepted science, faster-than-light communication is not considered possible even as a result of quantum nonlocality.
True, but this is conveniently neglected in Harem’s case, because powers.
Oh yeah, totally. I was just replying to Yorp’s statements about quantum entanglement and lightspeed delays.
When you look into the reasons why quantum entanglement is meant not to be able to do that it is because if you examine it, then it becomes disentangled. Ergo if you want to see if someone on the other side of the galaxy has signalled you by disentangling his corresponding half of your particle, you cannot tell if it is your action which did that or his. Thus it is not useful for communication.
Yet quantum entanglement is being used for encryption and secure communications purposes. The actual messages go by normal means (i.e. not faster than light). However the messages utilise quantum entanglement to check if anyone has been tampering with it. Which apparently is done by statistical analysis.
Somehow they are able to examine the message and tell whether the state is unchanged enough that it has not been intercepted on route. Or conversely that it has, because there is statistically significant deviation from the expected results.
So if they can do that with the latter technology, why not do the same for the former?
Send off a huge number of quantumly linked particles, travelling on a probe going a bit under light speed, until it gets to whatever place you want to have FTL communications. Then at the pre-arranged times the communicator starts interfering with batches of the particles, in a way that breaks their entanglement.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the recipients are statistically analysing the state of the corresponding batch. If they have not been tampered with, it is a “1”, if it has been, it is a “0”.
Light might take several years to travel between the two communicators, but those messages will have already been received and understood.
Bearing in mind that both the above technologies are things I rely on layman’s translations to follow. But I have yet to receive a good reason why that cannot work. Or what I may have gotten wrong in my understanding of those technologies, if that is the case.
Quantum Entanglement could be used for FTL communication, you just have to rely on the two QE’d instruments to do the communicating, kinda like what they have to do with the Daphne’s: they may be able to get the message instantly, butt then they have to process and relay it and then wait for the reply
While it may or may not be true FTL communication (because it depends on the speed of sound to receive the message) it should still be a viable form of inter-stellar communicating
My favourite version of that is to quantum entangle and entire LED (at the moment they can’t even do whole atoms) so if a change is made on the other side it blinks and you don’t have to “read” it to get information out.
Of course saying “just entangle an entire LED” is like saying you can build a space elevator by “building it up”.
Just to be clear: you can’t use QE to do FTL communication in the real world. It’s a good place for handwaving FTL in fictional universes, but it just doesn’t work in real life. Our universe is stubbornly (almost suspiciously!) resistant to any attempt to communicate information faster than the speed of light.
There are two problems with communicating information via QE. One is that, when you measure the system and it collapses into a random state, you can’t control which state it collapses into. You only get random noise. It’s the same random noise on both ends, but random noise is the opposite of information.
The other is that you have no way of determining, based solely on measurements of the particles themselves, whether a set of entangled particles has been measured yet. Any such measurement would constitute a measurement, so the answer would always be “yes”. This prevents you from using “have my particles been measured yet?” as an information channel.
(So, how do you detect MITM? There is a statistical step that can be performed to detect it, but it requires exchanging some information with the other side in order to work. So no, you can’t use deliberate MITM as an FTL communication channel either. You could use it to transfer information, but it would be limited to the speed of whatever communication channel you used for the MITM detection step.)
Entangling an entire LED doesn’t help either. The only way to determine if it’s emitted a photon or not is to measure the photon, so it doesn’t get around the need to do a measurement.
They can do that now – they have entangled two photons and have been able to send data across them
This is cutting edge stuff. IIRC they have used across a distance of 1km. China supposedly also has one from Earth surface to satellite in orbit.
actually Yorp.. quantum entanglement is not instantaneous.
https://www.nature.com/news/2008/080813/full/news.2008.1038.html
Err, I didn’t see anything in there which supported your rebuttal.
The only thing which quotes a speed is:
And that is qualified with ‘at least’, i.e. with no upper bound it may well be instantaneous. Which the earlier quote actually stipulates, in any event.
My theory is that they traveled into the future, hence there could be even more Harem, and since this one didn’t belong there, it was confusing. It makes Dabbler’s communication problematic because the events haven’t happened yet, but also makes it easier because they can just plan something out now to do in the future that would help Sydney.
Upon further review of the comic and other comments, I am pretty sure my guess is correct, and it is a future timeline. I liked the theory a couple people proposed about the distance causing a lag effect, except that Harem explicitly states on this page that “It wasn’t an issue of proximity…”
In my original idea, I was thinking Harem was not connected via the portal to the ones back home, but now I realize that the connection still occurring would compound the problem and create more of an “echo” effect.
Oh, I had forgot Harem could do that. She could just… Uh… It’s been explained. Think “she can teleport back home whenever she feels like but she can’t teleport to somewhere she has never been”.
Is Gravatar working? I use to many Usernames to keep them straight >_<.
I wasn’t logged in. So it should work… Maybe?
The gravatar is drawn from the email address you input. The name you choose is essentially a free field, so you can enter whatever you like there, without it affecting the gravatar. As per my example on this post.
Thanks. Turns out I was misspelling my Email. Single letter difference.
Yea, had the same experience myself once. I felt like I was fading away… vanishing … never to be seen again ….
…
ever …
Who said that?
Me me!
I’m still here!
*waves paws frantically, barking loudly*
Here, we see the native Yorp in his native habitat. He natively barks, across the native plains. Natively, he can be natively heard at a natively far distance away, almost inaudible, though he is natively still barking at you.
Clearly the natives are restless.
Also, for some reason (indistinct font?) I read that entire paragraph with “naïve” on the first pass; just as fun that way.
Lol. At both of your comments.
What? I thought her Teleportation was a lot more limited than that.
When was it properly explained?
Just peek in the archives list. It is Dabbler’s Science Corner #2. The thread’s opening comment’s paraphrasing is a bit loose, but approximately right.
A supplementary bit of information though, given in a blog, earlier this year, was that Harem’s teleport home is not unlimited range. Just a lot further than her other kinds of teleportation.
None of which though can handle interplanetary distances (not even as far as the Moon).
Oh, I had forgot Harem could do that. She could just… Uh… It’s been explained. Think “she can teleport back home whenever she feels like but she can’t teleport to somewhere she has never been”.
basically she need to have a good reference frame and understanding of where she wants to teleport
on earth, regardless of where her other selves are, they all more or less have a good idea of where “home” is, if you can get a good estimation of where it is from the point of view of one of them, she can teleport
but on another planet, or the moon, orbital momentum enter in consideration so she can’t triangulate and teleport to them, even if she was there in the past and studied the place well
basically, she would need to already have one of her on that other spacial body before she can teleport another self to it
she could probably teleport back and forth between earth and another planet/moon as long as she keep one of her instance constantly on that place first
Harem has never been off planet before, the information that passes between each of herselves, logically can’t travel faster than light, but with how small earth is, would appear to be instantaneous. Then again this is a fictional universe, perhaps her superpowers are quantum based and she her powers can process information faster than light between her 5 brains.
which leaves some interesting possible theories for what has happened.
clues
1. Harems mentions it feels like an echo
2. Can’t get bearings, feels scattered
3. confused because there were too many of her.
Theories
1. same time same universe [Quantum powers] but not perfectly instantaneous, information coming from 2 sources, the Long way from earth across many light years, and much faster through the portal, causing an echo, and feeling as if there was 9 or 10 of her all of a sudden.
2. Alternate universe, [Quantum powers], suddenly she and the other 4 on the other side of the portal, were in contact with 5 alternate versions from the other universe, the closer the alternate universe, the more alike they would think, and the more it would seem like an echo, especially given the distance involved.
3. Time travel, [not faster than light] if flung far enough into the future to match the distance in light years, the information reaching her through the wormhole, would arrive the same time it reaches her across space, which again would feel like there is too many of her and very echoy to her brain.
If the first theory is correct, Quantum powers, and it being the same universe, given Dabbler is a space traveler, and knowing the species of sciona, should also know what planet Sydney is currently on, and she should have a space ship that should be able to get them there within a reasonable time.
or alternatively, Harem having been there already, she should be able to teleport the team there one by one, or teleport there grab Sydney and teleport home within a few minutes.
if it’s the second or third theory, getting Sydney back home will be much harder.
Interesting hypotheses indeed. She may be getting reflections or back scatter from her “telepathy” between her doubles. Unless she has unaccountably formed more of her than thought possible.
“Harem having been there already, she should be able to teleport the team there one by one, or teleport there grab Sydney and teleport home within a few minutes.”
I thought Harem couldn’t teleport living things.
Nope, she can teleport whatever, but has a weight limit per body (I forget, but I think it was about 40 lbs).
There was a Dabbler science corner about Harem that went into this, but I forget how to find it.
It is believed she can increase that limit by decreasing the number of bodies she has active.
I don’t recall if that is canon, or fan-spec.
So perhaps she can’t decrease it – how do you teleport to nowhere?
But even if she can, and brought herself down to one body, she might have trouble with some of the heavier members of the team. Anyhow, my guess would be she doesn’t want to do that – she has personalized these bodies and might have to start over from scratch if she did.
Tracked down that Dabbler’s Science Corner.
So it is canon that she can decrease her active bodies to increase her individual body physical capability. Not that it matters, since per panel 4 she can only carry about !/4 of her body weight, so she can never *VORP* with someone unless they are fairly young.
However, she did not leave a body on the planet of Halo’s predicament, and the planet Earth in that dimension (where alt-Harem bodies are) [assuming my favorite theory is correct] is far enough away that Sciona was cooking up wormholes to get home.
So a Harem jumping to the other universe is not a viable solution to the problem of getting Halo home. Or she would have done it already…
No, it was mentioned she can’t *VORP* external living matter (not even a house plant), except for, and only, Vahriah
Slight correction. DaveB indicated, in one of his blogs, that he was considering Harem having a ‘no living things’ limit. As far as I know he never made up his mind on that one.
However there have been occasions when I have not been able to access the comic, for extended periods. Whilst I make a point to catch up on the blogs, I may well have missed individual comments or replies that he may have made, within the general comments section.
Either way though that has not made its way into canon. So it could go either way, as Dave reserves the right to change his mind about things he only mentions in blogs or comments.
Like said: “it was mentioned“, didn’t say “it was canon“, added the ‘external living matter’ to head off the “what about stomach bacteria or a flu virus” which was pedanticked at least once before
Funny thing is, I was actually going to append “…except herself and her gut flora” but decided to leave it out.
Simpler to just say ‘no external living matter’ (until DaveB decides one way or t’other)
Well I also kinda think that if Harem combined ed into just two of her, her weight limit would be increased. eg if one can carry 40 lbs(?) all five could carry 5 times that. This is just not described or shown yet
It was shown, and discussed in-comic, that if she ‘stores’ her other four selves, she is five times as strong, butt even then she is barely able to carry Peggy’s rifle
Yea, as Guesticus says.
Harem’s teleportation capacity, with five bodies out, has a very low limit on how much she can carry. Basically her clothing, worn equipment and only some lightweight item(s). Which does increase as she reduces the number of bodies she has operational.
There is an important distinction to be made though. Harem actually has super strength and super vigour as additional powers, over and above her teleportation. But she only gains those when she dismisses bodies into storage.
Without that she is just a fit young woman. Once she gets down to just a couple of bodies though she can take on super brawlers at their own game. And pretty tough ones at that.
However even though Harem may be able to lift a car, that does not change her teleportation limit. If she tried to teleport, whilst carrying a heavy load, either the teleport would fail, or the heavy load would stay behind. Or a potentially more gruesome, but less likely alternative.
Harem knows her limits though, so we have not seen what happens if she did try that.
I too thought it was stated that Harem can’t take other people with her. Can’t find the source for that restriction, but it’s supported by the fact that Syd assumed Varia was copying her teleport power rather than just riding along.
If she can take people though (going back to the start of this thread), it’s not clear if un-popping a body lets another Harem take an extra 1x her own weight, or only an extra 1/5, but either way un-popping 4 versions would probably let her carry at least her 1x own weight above her normal limit. Sydney is pretty small, I would think she’d be within the weight limit.
Your first paragraph is correct.
The second one though is not. When Harem was on supply duty, equipping the team in the Steak House fight, she had to cut down to just the two bodies. One at the Steak House and the other going to the Armoury (which is a familiar location that she can get to even without another body being there).
She had to reduce her numbers that drastically just to carry Peggy’s Barrett rifle. Which weighs far less than Sydney.
Quantum entanglement is not bound by the speed of light limit.
…and cannot be used to transmit information over distance (as you really don’t have control over either of the entangled particles)
Then how come quantum encryption works? If you cannot determine the state of something, or whether it has been changed, then it should be useless for such purposes. Yet banks are actually relying on it today.
Quantum entanglement will allow instant communication across distance. But time itself flows at different rates around the universes. Just going around the earth in a plane is enough to create measurable time difference, that has to be accounted for or GPS doesn’t work. Think about that across interstellar distances and you’ll get boggled.
if you will recall comic #640 we have sciona saying this “what? how? This . . . Impossible, I was in communication with them days ago”
It seams unlikely that a planet could be destroyed in only a few days. Plus her people managed to create the mana battery and store their souls in it to preserve their race. So based on this, I would say they are at least a little bit into the future. Going off of harem, they are not more than a couple decades in the future or she would have died of old age and not confused herself.
That is entirely plausible. The wormhole controlling mechanism/process was interrupted and it became unstable. Wormholes are just as capable of leading to different times as they are of different places.
My Theory is the portal travelled to an Alternate Universe. Harem essentially joined up with a whole other Harem. It would also help to explain how Sciona was able to talk to everyone on the planet one day, and have them all be dead the next.
Spot on.
*awards gold stars*
Well could be, but once you get to alternate universes/dimensions etc You also have to account for dissimilar choices
So the further forward or backward you go in time in those individual Universe/dimensions the more dissimilar it gets or can get.
Indeed. But differentiate it too much and Harem would not have been able to quantumly entangle with her other selves.
This is an aside. Who here expects that Sydney will have abs to match those of Harem if she were to let other people see them? She’s been gaining a *lot* of exp and her level ups probably have physical stat improvements.
Trouble is that translating experience into muscle building would require sufficient training time to justify that. Whereas Sydney has only just started her physical training. An exercise montage could only pull that off if it had represented the whole extent of her basic training, rather than just a few days worth.
I think they were speculating that the orbs’ “level up” has a physiological effect on Sydney, making her stronger as her powers get stronger. It’s a neat little idea, if highly unlikely.
Yea, I was just analysing it more in the table-top gaming angle. Which makes some effort to parallel real-life combat experience translating into improved skills. Which, for things that need muscles building up, typically assumes that the character has been working out, in between slaying monsters or going out on special operations missions.
However the orbs do seem to be more video game oriented, which further distances the concept from reality. So the point was fair. I was just (at a lower level) having a subtle dig, at the surreal nature of such a game mechanic.
Syd doesnt have innate powers, so she has no innate physical beauty bonuses. The orbs are gainjng the levels, not Syd. She can still get Peggy level of ripped, after she starts training Peggy level of intensity. I would guess Syd with only ever get to 1/3 that, because when she starts training hand to hand combat she will love it enough to forget that she is exercising.
In mmo’s, even mages gain strength with levels.
It would be pointless trying to apply ‘physical beauty bonuses’ to Sydney, because she started off perfect!
*stalks off, in a huff, nose in air*
Plus, her ‘powers’ come from her balls, not from herself
Unless they don’t…
It is possible the orbs are a manifestation created by Sidney’s psyche.
Whereas, in most other supers the psyche creates a physical manifestation of perceived body perfection.
Since Sidney is a bit weird (albeit in an amusing way for us readers) it should not be outside the realm of possible that her mind created exactly what she (subconsciously) wanted: cool powers, a plausible mystery of how she “found“ the orbs, and a user interface similar to her favorite gaming experience.
If this turns out to be how she is written, then theoretically her body, an abs, could start changing if that was what she really wanted. My opinion, based on how embarrassed she gets with the nudity of others and her kind of -meh- attitude about her sexual experiences, is that she would rather have a new skill from the unknown orb than increased physical “perfection.”
My two cents
Entirely plausible. In fact the Grrlverse grants supers an idealised physical image. Sydney may be manifesting the collective psyche of geeks, and others, who idealise a different physique to the one the other heroines are modelled on.
So she could be a natural-born super, who just has developed an unusual manifestation of inherent powers, as you indicate.
I expect her to have an tattoo that she is anxious to show, but proud to have.
This is an aside. Who here thinks that Sydney has abs that match Harem’s ones hidden under her shirt? She’s been gaining an awful lot of exp. Her level ups probably have physical enhancements. That would explain how she was able to one-punch Xuriel.
Well Sydney is a Gamer Geek extraordinaire so I am no so sure she will much , if any points in strength. As for Con, that is pretty high to start with. So that leaves Dex or Int … not sure if Wis or Chr is her dump stat though.
What am I thinking, if leveling up allowed a choice of feats then a few extra pairs of hands would be VERY useful for her
She has geek strength and the small size of her fists increase the joules per square inch. Oh wait I mean newtons. Or pounds.
The only people Sydney has punched was Daphne (after she demonstrated her *VORP*ing) and Math (and she knocked him down with one of her balls, not her fist, plus he was faking it until Pegs kicked him)
You are forgetting that Sydney is the current reigning champion of Archon!
Dabbler has beaten Maxima at sparring (when magic was allowed, which seems fair).
And Sydney has since taken down Dabbler, in the showers, by a tactical punch to her gazpovorium. In retribution for the casting of a sexually inappropriate spell on her.
I hope that someone will have prepared the champions belt, in Halo’s name, by now.
And they are going to have to work their butts off, if they want to be able to challenge her, for her world champion title!
Oh right, forgot about the shower back stab sneak attack
Are you implying that Marquis of Queensbury rules should be applied, in all fights?
Because Shadow Boxer didn’t get that memo.
The backstab didn’t stop Sydney winning that one too. And that was an earnest attempt to kill her!
No, was just describing what happened, not judging
:-)
Was there a separate source for Dabbler beating Max? The one I can remember classifies it as a tie – https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/989
Sydney might still need to find a way to show Max up.
Ahh, nope, that is the one I was thinking of. I forgot the ‘to a standstill’ bit.
Still Sydney beat the joint world champion :)
A lot of speculation here but the parrallel universe one seems more plausable for one overlooked data-point. Squidward recognized her off the bat and called in an orbital strike, which they may or may not have survived. What do you think are the odds that alt universe Syd has a better .. er … grasp of the spheres and is a major threat to their squidlyness?
Well it appeared to recognise either Sydney or the orbs. Of the two the orbs are the ones which are more likely to have a significant history beyond Earth. Given that they have no known history on Earth, despite being profoundly powerful and highly distinctive.
That said though the idea does have good merit. Alternate Halo could well be a galactic menace (or at least a major foe to the ones who attacked).
THEORY! It’s an alternate timeline caused by Krona’s checkpoint!
So my theory is that this alternate world/timeline is one continuing on from Krona’s checkpoint, without Sydney having been reset.
One of Harem’s clones was involved in it as well.
Sydney likely would have died
Sciona possibly would have gained the Orbs
Sciona possibly didn’t forget the artifact (due to Orbs or having her golem or such)
Sciona returns to her planet sooner.
It’s attacked and she uses the orbs to defend it which gives the squidwad aliens the recognition of the orbs (if they didn’t already recognise them).
Maybe Sciona even uses a function of the orbs that the aliens notice which brings them to her planet.
*paw print of approval*
*cries for the loss of alternate Earth Sydney*
Maybe now comes part where final orb is revealed
Oh I hope not. There could be much more interesting uses of the last orb.
My personal fav. is a door knob. I mean if you had all of those other abilities you crafted as tools what else could you want? – home. I mean you always have your keys with you.- all tucked in a subspace pocket
I mean the Orbs in general seem to say the user was a ship builder / researcher / crafter (mad or not)
Crafters in general tend to make thier own tools.
So the brown mystery orb could be the Orb-Making Ball?
Maybe she can grant mundane people powers that way? Each person may only be able to have one or two.
Let us say two, that way they can have a usable orb, with some basic power (say low-speed flight or a weak shield) as well as their own brown mystery orb. So that when they have gained enough experience, it can hatch a new orb for them.
Halo would be a very popular girl!
Hm. that’s an interesting idea – a ‘growable’ set of orbs. BIo-magic? Well the orb in general are interesting in that they seem to attach or bond to a person. They seem to be intelligent. If she pets them, will they purr?
When I say doorknob, I think there is another orb that acts as the ‘frame/shell’ that you don’t normally see. say it’s in a subspace pocket. It is always with Syd. The brown orb is a keychain and swaps the space around syd in normal space to the ‘airlock’ in pocket space.(maybe the area defined by the shield) Eg she could only use the brown orb once she saw in a protection shell.
it would also kinda be the reason why nobody can remove the orbs from syd too. the orbs are attached to the Orb core, and not necessarily Syd herself.
I also have another odder idea. What if Sydney is IN the brown orb, and what we are seeing is just a projection of her. that way she could take off or put on the orb set.
Yeah got lots of ideas about that.
Well really If you ahd all those abilities, what else could you want. eg ability to explore teh entire univr, defense, weapons, ability to study the underlying stuff around you. or that wierd magical flow on tau seti V. :)
but at the end of the day I would like a comfy safe place to sleep a way to grab a bite to eat etc. and my stuff with me where ever I go. eg a ‘home’
ok a couple of minor points.
Observed Time is relative to your location and its relative mass and speed as it travels compared to everything else, , Simple things like your location in a galaxy relative to others can induce enough of a time change in relative time between two observers over time to break Quantum entanglement. Maintaining Quantum entanglement over a distance takes a hell of a lot of energy, even using Photon laser effects similar to what a number of people have been experimenting with. (in fact someone pointed out that it would be a hell of a lot simpler to just use the lasers in standard communications than trying to use lasers to maintain synchronization to use quantum effects to try and provide secure communications) (the experiments to prove synchronization used a 100w laser over a distance of roughly 2000 nautical miles, to get a synchronization that was reportedly in the low kb/s range. Compared to a similar powered laser repeater on the moon that reportedly has a up and down stream of 622mb/s. I really don’t want to try and scale up that laser system to Harem, because Comic superhero phyics,
putting it another way, what may have been causing Harem to create clones may have been a feedback loop, of her powers “quantum synchronization” expending enough power for her to build up and overflow, triggering her to spawn a new her. but normally her short trips in local space may have kept things slowind down simply because the energy was shared. her going RIDICULOUSLY long distance this time may have resulted in so much energy being dumped that literally Millions if not Billions of her clones now exist in storage, (Because suddenly spawning china’s population in ARC tower would be difficult at best while making her theoretically the most powerfull super on the planet who is not a flying brick….
what is it so hard for folks to get the fractal universe. or what do they call it today the holographic universe.
it simply means that at every level the universe is exactly the same and it is accurate to render from such. hand in hand goes the thought that if we live in a multiplicity then stepping a half frequency right or left will change the channel slightly. in other words while our fractal universe can be rendered from the smallest possible energy bit in our frequency. each frequency would have a slightly different rendition. for instance the next one over might not have the letter c so that the spelling of nife never became nice.
the above is totally wrong in every particular but it us a useful lie.
ya i am commenting on a comment;
as for Sid’s supposed rank in profanity, she has yet to cuss and curse in 4 languages with no repetition as such she has barely passed novice. most trade sailors can manage at least two languages with no repetition. Lifers can usually do three and exceptional persons can do four and go on all day. at one time this was called cussing a blue streak……. just FYI
I think I’ve seen a passable characterization of a linguistics teacher cussing in 7 languages with no repetition, but if someone can pull a full 24hrs with no repetition in just English, you have to award a journeyman specialist clause; that’s surprisingly hard to do when compared to older more mature languages. It’s almost as hard as using every connotation of f*** in Polish without failure due to the tongue-twisting reputation of the language. (Depending on how you count tense there’s 11-18 different words)
Interestingly it is believed that English is the language which has the most number of words, in the world.
And quite a few of them are naughty. Or can be combined into similarly bad turns of phrase.
Then there are the nice ones, like ‘pussy’, which seems to confuse some American English users, who are unfamiliar with Mrs Slocombe’s pussy.
It is vague though, because new words are being added to the English language, so fast, that the actual total is only an estimate. And one with a vast margin for error. The last time I heard it quoted was to the nearest half million words!
yes it has lots of words but is not nearly as impressive as cussing in many much more guttural languages and english is missing some of the best cuss words going. even at sea we dont adopt the good ones fast enough to make it into the broader lexicon. then we have curses that mostly just sound stupid in english because they cant translate well enough. oh you g get the picture but not the substance.
Oh yea, totally agreed. I used to be fluent in Afrikaans. It was funny how you could read a food recipe out, in a harsh tone of voice, and it would sound like the most foul swearing!
“And then you whip the fondant …”
Just does not carry the same intimidation factor.
bingo
dont think it can be done in English. not enough tenses not enough words and English doesn’t use inflection to give new meaning. (well it does but the average English speaker is deaf and dumb to inflictive tenses if they are not coupled with an expletive). we also don’t do tone or sex in English puts a major limit on many of the best cussing and cursing. i have heard sailors on the lakes do a passable job of almost an hour of cussing but as noted we just dont have enough cuss words to not repeat.
No I think its more likely that because of energy needed to keep her in Quantum synchronization due to minor relativistic time shifts from being on earth is enough that over time she was able to bleed it off by simply creating new duplicates. Her ability to cover more and more of the planet with her duplicates may have inadvertently slowed down the need to create more and more clone… until she traveled hundreds of lightyears away from herself. She may literally now have millions if not billions(if not trillions) of herself… hopefully keeping most of her in storage…..granted comic book superhero physics but you know how THAT Works. It may turn out that all of those clones get snapped up by the souls, or it may be that she literally is now possessed and keeping in storage all of those clones….
Is it just me or does Harem look…different…in facial features, etc? I know the hairstyle isn’t a comonly seen one, but…she just doesn’t look very DeShantis-like to me.
Yeah, spotted that as well
There is an explanation. They need to call in a specialist!
Alright, I was going to suggest a theory of my own, but seeing some of the time travel theories, I’ll definitely say they’re more probable. Thus, a summary:
Time travel: The portal was broken, causing a temporal offset such that the Alari end of the connection was located X units of time in the future, relative to the Earth en of the connection. X is at least days, probably weeks or years. The destruction of the Alari homeworld occurred sometime in the weeks or years between Earth-now and whenever the Alari portal end appeared. Harem was debilitated because she was suddenly connected to her five (or more, if she grows more copies in the meantime) future selves as well.
There’s other options, like a single Harem having gone back in time or something, but that’s not nearly as elegant a plot twist. The theory as presented is simple, and promises a lot of interesting means of exploiting it (as others have already discussed), whereas alternative time travel theories require more previously-unheard of time machines and whatnot to explain.
This was my initial assumption.
If it is only a few weeks or months then Archon can arrive in some small stealth ship to rescue Halo at the point she was just seen without a lot of time passing on earth which might wreck Sydney’s comic book store nerd life.
I gotta say though, that Sydney having a series of solo adventures as she wanders across the galaxy would be more fun to read. I read a lot of Adam Warlock, Captain Mar-Vell, Nova, and Silver Surfer comics in the seventies and eighties. Plus the A-lister Guardians of the Galaxy comics from back when they were overpowered.
Humanity doesn’t have spaceships, so Archon can’t go to get her.
Dabbler might though.
It would be very funny if the aliens who showed up and attacked were in fact the alien space corps rescue party waiting for them to show up at the behest of Dabbler who was very emphatic – “you HAVE to shoot us with a giant disruption cannon, otherwise we will break the timeline!”
Passing raw, unenfleshed souls thru an unstable wormhole is probably going to have a different effect than doing so with enfleshed souls. They may be on Earth now, they may be almost anywhere, almost anywhen.
But, milady DeShantis is a single mind and soul operating multiple bodies. If there’s anyone unlikely to be possessed, it’s her. In fact, I’d postulate that the limiting factor on her numbers isn’t just the energy level of the entanglement needed to maintain another existance, but the mental and soul strength to actually live in yet another body. As has been pointed out, they all move and act independently; even the personalities are slightly at variance. They are effectively a self-collective, not a multiply-incarnate singular self.
Harem getting a new duplicate wouldn’t make getting Sydney back easier (Dabbler, last panel). Same for the alternate universe possible explanation. That leaves time travel as the most likely explanation.
My guess: The Alari world (spell?) was in the future. Assuming paradox’s aren’t possible, that means Dabbler can start planning the gate back now and have plenty of time make it before the event actually happens. Harem preps for her future mission. Future-Harem waits nearby until the gate closes, then reveals herself to Halo. “Hi, this is the future, which is great, because it gave us plenty of time to prepare a gate back for you. I’m here to set up the gate, send you back, and thereby close the loop.” Gate. Back. Loop closed, no paradox (except someone had to tell causality to shut up and take it).
I feel like the giant, glowing crater Sydney is currently hovering far above may cause a bit of a problem for Harem’s teleportation attempt, if that is the case.
I got it.
Two sets of Halo.
That’s going to be dangerous if they ever meet up.
Ultimate hero teamup, with yourself.
…
a set of orbs, in the very VERY wrong hands, of planet destroying aliens…
…. oh, oh no…
2 Halos + 2 Varias = 8 orbs in simultaneous use
OTOH, the other hand may have to be in contact with Halo instead of holding an Orb. That’d mean six orbs in use, not eight.
The palm of the hands are needed for the orbs, but not Varia’s power: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2029
I Have A Theory!
The wormhole went to the future, the aliens are the relatives of (or just actually) that tentacled golem thing that vorped Maxima into the buff.
We saw it scampering off, so my guess is that it was enslaved by sciona, and possibly it’s whole race was enslaved by the Alari. The wormhole was to the point in the future where those tentacled aliens had gotten their revenge!
And that’s why it reacted so strongly to Sydney! It wasn’t the mystery balls, it was Sydney herself that triggered the alarm. We know that the tentacled thing has very powerful scanning abilities (can copy super powers from blood), and that probe also had very powerful scans.
Perhaps it’s from a future where Sydney has gotten very powerful (or got into a big fight with their mother ship), and so it’s really really afraid of her (maybe she PPOed the mother ship in half or something, hence “the big guns”. Could be with an upgrade the PPO has better penn than Maxima, so she’s bouncing off the shields but Sydney is punching through (more joules per square millimeter, after all))
Well that started off in a fairly common fashion. As god explains.
But it went somewhere totally new.
Nice angle.
EXTRA THEORY!
The wormhole leading to the future makes this easier because it means they have lots of time to work with (an amount of time that harem is about to tell them about). This way they can get to Sydney before 11 of those doom ray bots can spam cast Sydney into oblivion.
This is also why harem and dabbler are being a bit cheeky, they now realize they have more time than they thought.
My thoughts too! And of course Dabbler would say it makes things easier, because future Dabbler & past (current time) Dabbler can BOTH cast to create the space-time link. I guess future Maxima & future Dabbler (and future Halo???) might make an appearance to save past (current time) Halo?!?!?
I actually think that right now, Sydney doesn’t technically exist. I think there might be a break in her personal timeline, and she won’t come back into being until (X units of time) from now.
Most likely we won’t get the galactic adventures of Sydney (a shame, imo. Maybe next time), but instead we’ll just pop in a rescue her)
I have a theory –
It doesn’t matter
what can’t they face
when they’re together.
(Grrl Power, the singing and dancing episode.)
[music changes to rock]
I’ve got a theory, it could be squirrels!
Squirrels aren’t just cute like everyone supposes. They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses, and what’s with all the nuts? What do they do with them, without nut-crackers, anyway!?
Squirrels, squirrels, it must be squirrels!!
“I have the…”
Erm… Can Opener?
She is assuredly at Russian levels for sure. As my friend pointed out to me, they tend to go on and on.
VITALLY IMPORTANT SURVEY:
Please reply with what you think Dabbler smells like.
potatoes
honey, vanilla, chocolate undertones, coconut, and sex, as described by flowers and bees
Yes.
You have a remarkably acute nose.
Remarkably you have a cute nose.
I have a question for you all. It’s based on the wormhole timejumping them.
If you had prior knowledge that a race is going to be the target of a Genocide, but other than a single individual having caused issues, they have not harmed your world… would you warn them?
Yes
All other things being equal?
Yes.
If they were, incontrovertibly, going to invade Earth, enslave its people, and I had only that one option available to me (i.e. call/don’t call)?
No.
With all this talk about Daphne and her abilities, just thought of something (possibly an idea DaveB might want to revisit in the future): she is all about ‘the experience’, right? Trying different things and all that? One thing she hasn’t experienced (yet, that we know of), what it’s like to be a guy, and with a spare body she could undergo full gender reassignment and have one of her literally become male
Only thing is, would ‘he’ be effeminate like stereotypical gay men from the 80’s? Or go the opposite extreme (like the stereotypical ‘woman pretending to be a guy’)?
Or maybe she already has and Leon is the 6th Daphne!!!!
She would be traumatized. Because Harem is not a man.
Why would she be traumatized? Said “gender reassignment”, which means that ‘he’ would have started out as ‘she’, that Jenner woman didn’t become traumatized after they changed from male to female
Agreed.
If I had five bodies I would want a couple of them to be female. For reasons.
:-)
Yes, was thinking that as well, they will want to ‘road-test’ the Male Daphne (a few dozen times, a day, for a month) to make sure everything is ‘working’ properly ;)
Okay you are being… very, very rude towards transgender people here. People who are transgender are born with their brains effectively “set” to think that their bodies are different than what they actually are. Essentially, every time they look in the mirror, they get a horrific sense of WRONGNESS, because their genitals do not match up with what their brain is telling them is normal. Gender reassignment (making the body match what the brain says it should be) is the only treatment that allows them to be mentally healthy. Katelyn Jenner wasn’t traumatized by their gender reassignment surgery because it was being in a man’s body that was traumatic for them.
Harem, however, is a woman. And as far as I can tell, she is not trans. She is not a man. Therefore, gender reassignment surgery would be traumatic for her.
Hardly. The world is not just split into “male”, “female” and “individuals who’s gender identity does not match the one they were born with”. There are plenty of other flavours. Check out EGS, for a comic dealing extensively with these issues. Using supernatural means of temporarily (or permanently) changing gender.
Including ways to ‘try out the opposite gender’ for a while, to see what it is like. It is something that many people may be curious enough to try. And we have even seen mainstream films exploring such gender swapping (such as one where Mel Gibson becomes a female, due to trying to understand how they think, and a bit of cinema magic).
But, even looking at the real world there are plenty of exceptions to the roles you are attempting assign as the only correct ones. Even in these forums we have had a couple of individuals who identify as ‘neither’. Likewise Taiwan springs to mind as having a large community of individuals who are perfectly happy in an intermediate state, with sexual characteristics from both genders.
Whilst there are very many individuals who strongly identify as one gender or the other (regardless of how they were born), you are excluding those who are in touch with both genders, and comfortable with that.
Guesticus‘s speculation implicitly assumed that Harem was one such individual, in predicating it on her liking new experiences. If she is heavily heterosexual, she would not contemplate that, for the reasons you state. However if she is of a more fluid gender, then she may well choose to experiment, in the way indicated, if it were a possibility.
In fact I have no doubt that as technology matures (sometime in the future) and gender reassignment becomes routine, safe and easily reversible, that there will be some people who will choose to alternate their gender, at various points in their lives.
Whilst others would find the prospect horrifying, and would never contemplate it for themselves. And others who would leap at the chance to correct their gender identity, and never wish to return. However speculating about the more fluid types of people does not offer insult to others, who have fixed gender identity.
Well (with artistic licence) there is no reason why she might not already be a man. We have not seen her other bodies yet. That alternate universe might be a gender-swapped parallel of ours.
Sydney —> Sydney
Maxima —> Max
Joel —> Joella
Peggy —> Paul
Harem —> Studmuffin
is it just me, or does Harem’s collar say ‘Milf’ today?
It’s just you
Middle one kinda does look like that
(in Harem’s case, MILF stands for Multiple Instance Life Form)
It doesn’t have to be the same universe. It doesn’t have to be the same universe.
(Battlefield Earth, by L. Ron Hubbard, may be horrible science fiction to other people, but it does point out that relative motions need to be accounted for in teleports between alien worlds and universes. As, to a more limited degree, does Larry Niven’s teleportation booth technology.)
If it is the same universe, then the universe is very warped. It is warped to the degree that the Alari home system moves exactly as Earth’s system but along a mirrored path. Let’s assume it is the same galaxy. Then, the Alari sun is moving at the same speed and along a mirrored duplicate of the path of Earth’s sun. Also, Earth is moving at the same speed and along a mirrored path of the Alari world. And, both the Alari world and Earth have the same rotation, but mirrored, and polar inclination. Sciona’s home system, therefore, must be on the other side of the Milky Way, opposite of Earth, and between the two locations, the Milky Way is folded in half through the center. Hyperspace* (the 4th spatial dimension) or superspace* (the 5th spatial dimension), ya know?
Why? Because that mountain maps to a fixed location on the Alari world. All that needed to be done to travel was to cut a 4-space or 5-space hole between two 3-space locations. No adjustment was needed to not land deep underground nor high in the sky. Just cut and step through.
An alternate Milky Way is so much easier than same universe and same galaxy. (And less alignment needs to be justified.)
* – “Hyper-” is a common prefix for 4D (4-dimension) platonic solids. During some reading about 4D, 5D, and 6D shapes and topology, “super-” was mentioned as a prefix for 5D spheres and cubes. (I’ve since forgotten the 6D prefix.)
I liked Battlefield Earth. The book sparked much imaginative thinking, so was extremely enjoyable, and it stayed in my permanent collection.
The movie did not do it justice, mind. It was a big, in-depth, book and needed more than one movie to capture it properly. However, as a condensed version, it did a credible job.
The rest of the comment is well argued, but does not prove its point decisively. Simply because it is an artificial wormhole. So its properties are those defined by the process of making it. If a wormhole is opened on a planet and does not go shooting off over the horizon, then we know that the velocity of its entrance is matched to that of the planet (including its spin and other complexities).
The other end can appear anywhere in timespace. So that is totally independent of what is going on at the entrance. And if the artificial creation process can set the entrance velocity, it do the same with the exit one too.
If using the analogy of folding a sheet of paper over (representing space) and punching a hole through, where the two parts touch, I can see why you insist that the movement of one must match the movement of the other. That is not a very flexible model though.
Whereas if you visualise it like a hosepipe, connecting the two points, then you have an analogy which allows for flexibility. The two planes can be moving around without it disrupting the connection.
So the folded paper analogy would fit for a natural wormhole (otherwise why would physicists bother making it?), whilst the hosepipe one would work well for an artefact created artificial wormhole.
To propose an alternative that allows the portals to be in the same universe easily – the Sigil on Earth had a companion device/magic mark on the Alari world and both served to anchor the wormhole ends.
Or, alternatively, all velocities and positions are relative and arbitrarily, including for wormholes and time travel.
The Earth is as equally a valid choice for 0 as the sun or the center of the galaxy or, in fact, literally any other point imaginable.
The fixed reference space time meme really ought to die already. It’s been almost a century now.
Damn you, Dave! Look what you´ve done! You´ve made everyone go crazy!
Nah, most of us were crazy to start with, DaveB just gave us a place to hang out and giggle maniacally together :D
Damn you, Dave! Look what you´ve done! You´ve made everyone go crazier!
Well, I’m not crazy! It’s everyone else who’s crazy!! You’re all crazy!! ALL of YOU!!! Everyone says you’re figments of my imagination but I KNOW BETTER!!!!!
I KNOW BUTTER! It whispers to me, from the fridge…
… in the night.
… … it tells me about the aliens! …
… in the morning it is all over my snout!
Dave, you should stop feeding Yorp with Butlers. They cause indigestibility.
*Later, while Yorp is still in denial after finds out a roommate has been playing pranks with a wireless speaker:* “I can’t believe it’s not butter!”
Wow, I knew my kitties were smart, but was not aware they were so technically competent, and holding out on their ability to speak.
They should be helping me with my work!
Hay, DaveB, do you need a kitty technician, to help you work on the cast list?
It’s probably as good as issuing an order to not play the pronoun game.
I mean, s/he really needs to issue an order to not play the pronoun game, amiright?
I just realized what may be the single most important point in favor of the time travel theory: It could be used as an excuse to update the world of Grrl Power to a more modern setting. I don’t particularly like the idea of Sydney missing several years on Earth, but it would help DaveB to actually be capable of using modern references and jokes. I don’t think the comic’s own timeline has even reached 2012 yet.
At the moment Sydney does not need time-travel to account for taking years to get back on duty. Simply flying back would take that!
The Alari Homeworld would just need to be placed on whatever nearby star system would take seven years (Earth perspective) to get back, at 95% light-speed. Sydney may have a mach 4 limit in air and gravity, but that indicates a significant acceleration potential in deep space. And the orbs don’t need fuel. So that acceleration can continue indefinitely until optimum speed is reached.
Sydney does not want to go 99% the speed of light. She needs a bit of (artistic-licence) margin for error to dodge stuff. :)
This of course assuming that the green orb does actually provide full life support facilities. And that Sydney can keep orbs duct taped to her hands, yet operational, whilst asleep. And that her childhood passion was amateur astronomy.
It will get lonely though. Sydney needs a pet.
*puppy dog eyes*
Nah, I say we keep ol Borok as president for a while longer, and we can switch to Mr. Turnip sometime after the next president is elected.
This way everything is real easy to keep apolitical (because I don’t know what your political leanings are, but I’m sure they’re terrible (because they are all terrible. Yes, all of them, even yours Mr “I’m a special blend of 17 contradictory adjectives
“))
…
y u no have edit button
Next episode, we’re suddenly back with Sydney, and still in the dark about what Dabbler was talking about… right? ;)
That would be DaveB’s style.
Dave lives in Dallas, right? Someone should go visit him with a cat of nine tails… whip.
Wait, Dave lives in Dallas? Hey, I live in Dallas, cool! :)
(Who here can lend me a whip :p)
here borrow my chaos reins *runs for cover*
New theory!
It’s time travel, but it’s not time travel due to an unstable wormhole. It’s time-travel due to the reality-bending squee from Sydney when she discovers she’s a time-traveler.
Really? Am I the only person that is going to comment on how he gets her ‘ new information ‘ from looking at her PHONE?
Either the other 4 texted her reporting her disappearance, or more likely her phone now shows the wrong time.
Nope, noticed that as well, and mentioned it (somewhere)
Does make me wonder though – does Harem qualify for a family phone plan? And would she even use a phone per body, given she never needs to call herself? I suspect she does, it would be inconvenient to have a ‘dedicated phoner’ playing switchboard all the time, and it’s not like she can’t afford a couple extra lines. Plus we’ve see her delivering popcorn to herself more than once while recording hijinks with the phone.
It seems like darned good error checking to me.
Harem is in touch with other selves either from another universe or another time. The echo from which had been causing her so much disorientation that she needed to be carried. So even though she can normally tell ‘I am close enough to teleport to one of my other bodies’, and has recovered somewhat, it is still wise to check her cell phone, to see if it gives any clues about whether they have returned to her native Earth or another time or universe!
If she can contact her own service provider it helps narrow down the options considerably.
Okay, apparently that gate did not only bridge only space, but also time. Most likely into the future:
– For Harem it was disorienting because there were already 5 other Harems at that time. Resulting in a total count of 6, wich is not a normal state for her. As she could not recall having ever felt this particular way, it was propably into the future
– Scionia had mentioned how she had “just called home a few days ago” and everything was fine then. While a sudden apokalypse is possible, it could also be the time discrepancy
– the whole gate was unstable as heck. Blood got on it way to early. Then a sconia. Then the event Horizon was way to big. etc. I guess a bit of time warp was the least possible worry
– there might even be some effect on the cellphone. Asuming the time discrepancy between the wormhole endpoints was not static and the phone did not resync it’s time yet (computers do that regulary)
– there should be overall no issues with causality and information escape. They were not only in the future, but in the future on another planet. Way out of range of any human communications. Any signal they might ahve gotten was propably comming through the gate. Harem was propably the only receiver that could reach the future earth and that ones operator was out of order