Grrl Power #1007 – On the origin of MacGuffins
Okay. If I was reading some comic and it took 1,000 pages for them to get around to “where did you get your amazing MacGuffins,” that would strike me as an oversight both on the characters’ part, and the authors. This is definitely something that should have been tackled within an hour of Sydney revealing them. I mean, they should have had her tell them exactly where she got them, and within an hour there should have been surveyors and researchers and archeologists on a plane.
So that’s on me Arc-LIGHT.
In my defense, I kept thinking of other funny stuff and kept forgetting to get around to this.
I’d like to point out that the third “cough” doesn’t have the little splash marks around it, meaning she’s actually saying the word “cough,” which is funny to me and also definitely a sign of innocence.
As many of you pointed out under the previous page, Wearing the Cape 9 is actually out. I’m a dumbass and had the wrong tab open last week when I went to post. So… yay! Another WtC novel!
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update: Getting Proofed!
Still getting proofed. God damned hyphens. Or is it ‘God-damned hyphens.’ Because the word ‘hyphens’ is adjectivically modified by ‘damned’ but the damned is modified by ‘god’ and ‘hyphens’ isn’t modified by ‘god.’ Or maybe it is? I honestly don’t know. And if I type ‘a hundred and twenty five’ instead of ‘a hundred and twenty-five’ then surely no one can crack my code. LOOK UPON MY CYPHER YE MIGHTY ENIGMA AND WEEP!
This month’s vote incentive guest stars Lana of Spying with Lana. One of my own secret agents, Pixel, is trying to assist, with various levels of success and… nudity. Well, in the Patreon versions. The Vote Incentive will give you a pretty good idea of what might go down. Here’s a dedicated post in case you want to comment.
Check out Spying with Lana. Their current vote incentive features a certain gold-plated glamazon. Also it’s a funny comic with tons of skin.
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The ‘Found while diving’ story is a little sus as she should have had a diving partner for safety.
If you found gold coins in your backyard, taking them with you diving gives you the “Look what I found” alibi so that people won’t ruin your lawn.
…As someone who does not know diving, I did not know that. So…plausible that they did not know that either.
I would imagine that considering basically everyone who would have the clearance to access the information from that meeting probably has extensive military experience, *somebody* would have known at least basic diving safety and pointed that out, however, given that I’m sure there are loads and loads of people who ignore the rules and guidelines anyway, and it isn’t really a crime per se to do so, the most that would have come of it would be someone would ask Sydney why she didn’t have a diving buddy, to which she’d probably pretty easily play it off as just wanting privacy or whatever and not really thinking through the potential risks of going alone.
Also, we don’t necessarily know that she lied about finding them off the coast of the florida keys, just that she didn’t mention that she was on vacation with her parents at the time, the rest of the story could pretty easily be true, or true enough.
*Parent. Singular.
Mum’s giving the squinty eyes too.
Father/Daughter are in so much trouble right now. hehehe
Mom didn’t know about that vacation…
…to the Florida keys… in Florida.
Calling it, Sydney and her dad are secretely Atlantians.
I had a brief idea (not even a story plot) that the reason for the sqiggle for Earth in the jump map was that the jumps napped to a spot in the Yucatan that was flat until the last time. Some saurian race had built a temple hill. That it was 65-ish million years ago is just happenstance.
So the Chicxulub crater could be from the ancient Xevoarchy attempting to wipe out the previous owner of the orbs… I like this theory, and I think it can even still fit with the Bermuda Triangle angle.
Nice. Perhaps that strange ‘geode’ that gave Max her golden skin was from the same person? They’re both similarly ‘invisible’ to normal tech.
And let’s face it, ignoring basic safety rules is something everyone in that meeting would have believed Sydney would do at the time.
Do you really think Sydney, of all people, was likely to remember a safety reg like that?
For all we know she’s using others’ assumptions of her to eek that story past Arc-Light.
As a former life guard and diving instructor, I will admit to having broken the buddy system on more occasions than not… But I’m also not the kind of person you want to imitate… Learn from, sure, imitate no.
I’d like to take this opportunity to point out a few other plot hooks that have fallen to the side. Marble girl who they were suppose to try and track down. The radiation in the forest they were going to investigate that came up when Sydney was asked if/where she had tested the orbs. The various vigilante heroes they were going to track down. Harem having an extra body after going to another planet.
I have forgotten all of these…so the author probably has too. EVERYONE, COMMENT ONVTHE PLOTLINES AND HOOKS DAVE FORGOT ABOUT. MAKE THIS THE “REMINDER CHAPTER”
Sydney’s been too busy to watch TV.
She’s has five episodes of ‘The Sentinels’ on DVR but hasn’t watched any episodes yet.
She’ll binge when an opportunity presents itself.
There was that one mob boss who may have hired a Super, and they were going to go look into it (and likely have done so during Sydney’s time skip). There was a small matter of what Vance’s powers actually were, but that can pretty much wait until they are useful. Varia’s power w/ Sydney. Deus’ possible ability to make supers/the trip to visit his country. The Dudes In The Hoods need to be dealt with (related, where the two goons went after getting ALLL the sanitizer they could find). what the devil is up with Cthillia and are they the super that could match Max and was presumed dead.
Oh, and the mexican town/mafia getting taken over by alien ghosts.
And Lapha & Garamm’s next supernapping attempt, and the gaming sessions at the shop which has been infiltrated by one of Deus’s operatives, and the Council members who are allied with Sciona, and who’s going to win this round of Make Max Say Bingo, and the NYC tour guide family, and the rest of Henchwench’s crew who stole alien tech, and the space detective investigating Archon/Halo that may or may not be 2 days away from retirement, and…
Basically Dave needs to hire people to ghost-write some side stories.
Oh and the stasis pod Sydney accidentally abandoned when the Cloaks took her, which bothered me for several pages, but I assume ArcCleanup probably found it while they were containing the scene later that evening. And a dozen other things I’ve no doubt forgotten.
Body found
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-918-ghost-fight/
Sorry, cat was getting in the way. So, that link is tracking down Marble’s body
That is Concretia, Marbele Maiden is a different character brought up early in the comic as a vigilante hero who likes to take selfies as she fights crime.
Concretia is her villain/antihero identity and Marble is her hero identity. That was made clear when Sydney was rescued, and they were getting ready to rescue Concretia’s meat body.
no it wasn’t, that was speculation in the comments, this was never confirmed in comic, and while Sydney speculated this to Concretia is was basically denied, in fact stating she has a hard time working with marble. So no, the implication is that Concretia and Marble Maiden are separate individuals.
As far as we know. If I’m not mistaken, all evidence one way or the other comes from characters in the comic, who are all fallible and have the ability to lie if it suits them.
To me that means we don’t know.
It feels like the circumstantial evidence is pretty firm, but, well, circumstantial.
No, Rhuen is correct. They are not the same people. They don’t even look the same. They don’t have remotely the same M.O. They don’t behave the same way.
“But Pander, you remarkable rapscallion,” you ask, “Could this not just be clever acting to throw us off track, much like how Batman acts like a flamboyant playboy even though he’s the gruff and grim Dark Knight?”
No, and thank you for the alliteration. I don’t think so. Among other reasons, even Marble Maiden’s eyes color is different. With Concretia, her eyes have NO pupils whatsoever. With Marble Maiden, it’s blue on white. And this stuff with Marble Maiden happened before Concretia was able to do a lot of stuff she did when she kidnapped Sydney even, during which she still can’t change her eyes. Let alone her hair.
I mean we can argue that she actually can and hasnt been up until now, but that seems like a leap in order to force a theory to be true.
Point of disagreement, but Concretia actually _can_ change her hair. She confirmed as much during Sydney’s rambling/time stalling when Sydney asked if Concretia could “become a boy golem” and she said that she didn’t see why not. See:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-911-the-luxurious-backhand/
Furthermore, the fact that she _hasn’t_ changed her eyes doesn’t mean that she _cannot_ change her eyes. You’re attempting to prove a negative there, and you simply can’t do that with what we know.
Counter counter-argument.
She never confirmed anything about color.
She confirmed that she has some degree of control over her stone form, but it was never specified to which degree, beyond that, in theory, she could assume masculine appearing form should she choose to do so, but sees no point.
Now, I have no horse in this race.
I just like pouring fuel upon interesting arguments.
“I just like pouring fuel upon interesting arguments.”
I like you lol :)
And I sort of meant the color of the hair is different, not the style of the hair. When Concretia does her thing, it seems to have her hair be the same material as the rest of her body. With Marble Maiden, her hair does NOT seem to be made of marble (even if invulnerable also, it’s not the same type of stone as the rest of her).
Generally speaking I agree that at this time it seems relatively clear that Concretia is *not* Marble Maiden, however purely for the sake of argument, she could, in theory, have a statue made of various materials that she specifically animates to be Marble Maiden, which would explain the color differences, like if the eyes and hair were deliberately made to have those colors prior to animation. Do I think that’s likely? No. Do I think that’s where Dave is gonna go with it? Also no. Is it possible given what we know of how Concretia’s powers work while also explaining the seeming discrepancy? I think so. Do we know if she can control multiple different materials at once if they are worked into the same “body”? Would it make a difference if it was a case of said “body” being a result of sedimentary formation that got carved to be like that vs if it was a result of inlaying different stones after carving? I think the theory is plausible enough to solve the discrepancies, but unlikely enough to not really be a counter-argument to them.
it should also be noted that it wasn’t until Concretia saw Hench Wench doing it that she even tried to remotely control her stone avatar body, she has to be inside it, however her astral form also follows the shape of her natural form so if she made a statue and then hopped inside it (as she would have to with the timing* part of her *like the Jessie from team rocket hair* would be sticking out.
Probability suiggests Marble Maiden is someone else, who may not even be a petra/geokinetic or even a petramorph and the “marble” is just how her texture looks and she chose the name because of that. Like how Maxima isn’t actually gold or any metal.
Psychie:
” she could, in theory, have a statue made of various materials that she specifically animates to be Marble Maiden,”
Yes, but that would be ignoring that she didnt even know she COULD do that until it was explained to her, by Sydney, how Hench Wench did that.
Yes, she could have been playing dumb. But that doesn’t seem narratively consistent.
Rhuen:
“it should also be noted that it wasn’t until Concretia saw Hench Wench doing it that she even tried to remotely control her stone avatar body”
My thoughts exactly. :)
“it should also be noted that it wasn’t until Concretia saw Hench Wench doing it that she even tried to remotely control her stone avatar body”
Yes. I’m also sort of stuck on how Marble Maiden’s eyes look like… regular eyes… with irises. And she has hair that doesnt seem to also be made of marble, while Concretia’s hair seems to be made of the samething as the rest of her body. I’m thinking Marble Maiden is most likely a super who just can turn into something that looks like marble, like you suggested.
“She never confirmed anything about color.”
While I never said she did do that, so it’s not really a counter to anything I said, she actually kind of has confirmed that as well. Her black hair, purple and white outfit, and blue eyes certainly aren’t “concrete” colored like the rest of her body. That would require that she has the ability to control the color, at least to some degree.
And yes, the outfit is something she forms. Her body/outfit got hit by a bunch of blood and guts here:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-912-maximum-trauma/
But in the next page she reforms her body from a “clean spot”, and bam, no bloody outfit:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-913-the-purge/
That only makes sense if she’s able to control the color of the parts she forms, at least to some degree.
Also, she can change the shape of her hair, which was what I was talking about above.
Thus, she can change the shape and color of the body she forms out of concrete, though to what extent is unknown. However, it’s still a mistake to treat “hasn’t done X” as though it’s somehow evidence of “can’t do X”, so that point wasn’t countered either.
Nothing is set in stone when it comes to shapeshifters like Concretia so it’s difficult to find hard evidence for anything.
Cree is not a shapeshifter, she simply creates a form out of whatever material is available
The Harem thing was explained already. The portal sent them months into the future. Harem was talking about sharing her quantum brain with future Harem and all her bodies. She went back with everyone else (minus Syd) so future and past have the correct number of bodies again.
I was sad we didn’t get to see the moment where all 5 Harems suddenly became discombobulated because a 6th Harem appeared in space. I imagine they were all ready and waiting for it since Cora knew EXACTLY when they were supposed to show up (even though they were delayed), it’s possible that past Harem managed to somehow get the time and date from future Harem, but that’s not important.
Of course we didn’t. To properly show that, Dave would need to reveal that, true to the curve he’d shown for Daphne’s progression, it’s all *6* Harems suddenly becoming discombobulated because there’s a 7th Harem. But that’s a secret that Harem’s keeping so tight she’s not even letting the audience know.
Why would Harem keep that a secret you ask? Simple: Archon tagged all five of her bodies they knew about so they’d know where she was. Sure, I can understand why. When you have someone like her, you want to keep tabs on them, because it just feels like the double-cross is inevitable. But the thing is, that just makes it *more* inevitable. It would’ve been better to let her get her jollies with some “safe” double-crossing, but now when it really happens, it’ll really happen.
If you want to get technical, 7 bodies minus one from the past equals 6 bodies. She might not have grown.
I honestly figured the mysterious radiation might have been from Jiggawat, we saw in the parkinglot fight she was proud of a new feat, black lightning which can annihilate regular electricity, however she didn’t know and Dabbler had to step to inform and negate it, that doing this released a lot of dangerous radiation.
so yeah, just figured this mysterious radiation had been Jiggawat practicing her new feat away from people without realizing what she was really doing.
We do also still have a few remaining ‘boss level’ characters from the splash page, plus that ‘mysterious energy reading’ from when the Council and Archon were joint searching for Sciona.
‘Mysterious radiation’ would be more commonly applied in a super-hero setting to radiation that they don’t know what it is, Jiggawatt’s anti-matter attack generates the very well known gamma radiation which is bog standard not mysterious. However that does generate the side-question: Has she been checked out for injuries brought about by exposure to gamma radiation? Since as you note she had to have practice generating anti-matter previously and at the time because of her ignorance had no idea she was generating high-energy gamma rays where she could have a ‘nice’ radiation bath.
mysterious as in source unknown not unknown type of radiation, not sure they covered what type in comic when it was brought up.
Because it was essentially a “time-travel” event, there was probably a whole extra set of Harems at the “time”.
I just figured the specific details were told to Arc light off panel.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-190-newhart-phonecall/
telling mom the details would be declassified someday would imply you figured correctly…maybe
I am going to laugh if it turns out her diversion in the conversation had actually been a confession, that she actually did buy them.
Like some little store that didn’t know what they were, or some Nth level alien was pulling a *little magic shop* scenario and directed her to these *interesting items…oh it has bonded with you when you touched them? Well I’ll be, they are now yours child* (all said in mock surprise).
and after typing that I am imagining Q running a seaside/board walk kiosk selling random baubles and handing an orb to Sydney to check out only for it to bond with her as he smirks.
Sound a lot like the premise to ‘Needful Things’ actually :)
it is, it is a trope. Heck Sidney referenced this trope when asked where she got them,
Needful Things, Friday the 13th the series, some episodes of Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Nigh Gallery, Tales from the Crypt, Goosebumps, Are you Afraid of the Dark, ect…
it is also the Monkey’s Paw, mysterious shop shop owner may or may not also be mysterious, find mysterious item (shop keeper may suggest it is the thing dreams are made of, some warning, ect…) so many variations.
Honestly just as some demons, gods, wizards, may do this to unload dangerous items (either for mischief or to get rid of the item in such a way that it can’t be traced back to them because the paranormal police are on their trails, whatever…) I can easily see some higher dimension being setting up such a shop as well (like playing those weird sim games where you are also a merchant), and end up slipping in something *fun* like maybe after talking with a customer who is a total comics and games nerd about the rumors of real super heroes existing and she’d like to be one, realizing that you have some options for them and indirectly…but really directly, coax them to some item that relative to Earth *and maybe a good chunk of known space* standards could do just that for them.
-oh you’d love to be a superhero, that’s neat…hey totally maybe as far as you know unrelated would you like to check out these glass balls for a second as you look around around?
“it is also the Monkey’s Paw, mysterious shop shop owner may or may not also be mysterious, find mysterious item (shop keeper may suggest it is the thing dreams are made of, some warning, ect…) so many variations.”
Sydney did mention something like that, although she mentioned it as a ‘This definitely was not how I got them’ way.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-94-the-step-mother-of-all-origins/
(last panel)
Q should make a cameo in this comic. He would fit right in. John Delancie should play Deus if there will ever be a cartoon based on this comic.
Ooh, Sydney Senior. There were promises made to Junior about whisking and nerve weasels, but to you…
Busted
I greatly appreciate how much Max and Sydney’s Mom’s eyes are equally narrowed with the full resting “You have some explaining to do” face.
one its syds mom is probly glareing at husband. and maxima glareing at sydney XD
Nope, look again… Mom and Dad are BOTH in the SAME frame (panels 6 & 7), and nobody is looking at Dad, they are ALL Clearly looking at Sydney..
um…dad…
circling back to the orbs and possible Nth tech stuff.
I’d like to share this, been working with some individuals offline on a civilization tier list, inspired by the one DaveB had that put different types of sci-fi aliens at different tiers, which while inspired by the Kardashev scale use very differently criteria.
-also that determining what an ultra tech civilization would be like can be tricky.
(the basic raw form of the Civilization tier list)
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/Civilization-tier-list-in-relation-to-Earth-899666074
however yesterday offline an interesting question was proposed to me that I had to write out my thoughts, where do the Amana *naturally a higher dimensional species that had to work backwards to interact with “lower dimensions” fit into a scale like this, which also brings up how these various kinds of civilization tiers really relate to civilizations which while super advanced prefer to seem less so (Oraganians from Star Trek and Nox from Star Gate for example),as well as those that are more advanced at their core than outlying colonies, or else while naturally powerful don’t operate as a whole but as family groups or even individuals *think the theory that the Hyrule goddesses are really a trio of “energy being” aliens experimenting on their world; but there could be others of their kind out there not involved at all.
so a thought out on how this complex species (Amana) relates to the tier list…kind of breaks it a little.
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/Civilization-tier-of-the-Amana-901335083
What am I missing here? I thought that she found the orbs while diving in Florida. I had assumed that the specific coordinates were discussed and investigated off-camera.
Also, there was an earlier comment about dropped plot hooks and they mentioned Marble Maiden and the mysterious radiation. That’s not really a dropped plot so much as just some stuff that may be worth exploring or may just be dealt with off-camera. Not everything is worth an entire story. Some of this stuff is just there to flesh out the world these characters are in. And the harem extra body thing was explained immediately as her being discombobulated from time travel. Dabbler even understands what Harem is implying in the very next panel.
They seem to be upset about Sydney lying about her origin story.
Or at a minimum excluding a key point. I don’t recall she ever clarified that she was *alone* when she found them. It’s possible, given her father, that he was her diving partner and temporarily distracted.
That said, knowing that she wasn’t alone was a bit that they would have been very interested to know.
Of course, I get why she wouldn’t have mentioned it. She would have been just as worried about them whisking off her parents as she was about them whisking off herself.
She was clearly concealing something about the origin. Now we know that she and her geeky dad went on vacation somewhere that her mom didn’t know about.
Hilarity ensues.
Speaking of really old plot points, the flying rescue guy would now either be filmed by GoPro or drone cameras, which means that the helicopter issue is no longer an issue.
oh man, of all the panels to catch up and be left on a cliffhanger with!!!
Would you look at that, Sydney CAN actually tell a lie convincing enough for everyone to believe it AND maintain it with sufficient believability that no one around her suspected she’d actually lied about her origin.
not really, look at the expressions between Max and Zephan on page 129.. they KNOW somethings not right from the way she’s waffling on how she says “The Keys” when she describes how she got them to the rest of the gang, but they’re just going with the flow right then, and Zephan DID say he’d be looking into it… it’s just that WE hadn’t heard back from him in-comic yet so we don’t know what he found… but as the squinty-glares show, whatever he DID find was not good enough, and there will be a severe discussion/interrogation happening within a few strips of now, both from a parental unit AND from your MILITARY COMMANDERS point of view
There’s been no suggestion that anyone’s had trouble with the story she told UNTIL right now when her father blew her cover. Therefor she’s done just fine telling and maintaining a believable lie that was not revealed through any fault of her own but by a third party who was also privy to when and where it really happened.
To be fair, Sydney would qualify as a Weapon of Mass Distraction even without the mysterious orbs. Also, they could have a spell or something on them that would subtly keep most people from trying or being too curious about how their owner got them. For all we know, they choose Sydney for one reason or another and that’s how she ever found them in the first place once she had gotten in range of them.
For something to be really terrified about what if after the right selection of pips are unlocked she actually can merge with the orbs? Imagine her having full access to everything instantly because they’re not a part of her, she’d be even more terrifying than Maxima and perhaps even more indestructible and powerful.
Does Olivia’s attractive half-brother/cousin Tony and what Vance’s powers really are count as plot hooks that have yet to be resolved? I wondered why she was all into Leon when there was Tony around.
Because Frix, of course. If they’re not official, why not keep looking?
Didn’t Syndey already say she found them while diving in the Florida Keys on page #94, then again on page #129? Or is the implication she’s been hiding something about that part?
Also, why are we calling the orbs “mcguffins”? Last I checked, “mcguffin” refers to an object that drives the plot because people want it – a bag of diamonds, the Rabbit’s foot of MI:3, the Silmarils (mostly) and the Arkenstone – but that never actually do anything by themselves – excluding both the One Ring and the orbs rather by definition.
Everybody calm down, that’s a dad smirk! I’d know that grin anywhere!
So I haven’t seen anyone comment on this yet, so I have to ask
Is it just a stylistic choice? or are the buttons on Sydney Senior’s collar being especially shiny foreshadowing?
Did he also get a souvenir/souvenirs during their vacation?
I went back and read through the early part of the story…. Sydney has really (sadly) cleaned up her language.
Arianna did say they’d work on that, didn’t she? I may have to reread again. Yay!
I think the big “problem” here is Dad blabbing about the location publicly. There are people around who are NOT CLEARED TO KNOW where Syd found her orbs. ARC has a team on location looking for more artifacts.
Everyone is looking at him with a “you need to be QUIET” glare.
Next installment is Syd-Dad in an office being lectured on security and the need to keep speculation and such to an absolute MINIMUM.
…and his spectacular failure to do so is both comedic and drama-bomb GOLD.
they all appear to be looking at Sidney.
I like how her mother is giving her the same stink-eye along with Max and Arianna.
They must have had a secret “Father/Daughter” vacation without telling mom. They just wanted to get up to wacky hijinks, mother wants them to not-go-to-jail/get injured/die. Not having at least one near-death experience makes for a boring vacation.
They really had a lot of fun on that trip.
Uh oh, the cat is out of the bag.
And has run across the road.
Gotten a passport.
Boarded a plane to …
*cough cough* Cough
Doesn’t matter where the plane was to, because just like D.B. Cooper, the cat jumped from the plan at a time when nobody’s looking.
Unlike D.B. Cooper, the cat is a cat and so almost certainly survived the landing.
…
Then dug up the money and made off with it. The cat’s now living it up in some third world country off of the money acquired by laundering D.B. Cooper’s ill gotten loot.
“Uh oh, the cat is out of the bag.”
I think what you meant to say is “Uh oh, the genitals are unveiled.”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-719-idiomatic-planetary/
Wouldn’t a quasi military group that’s actively recruiting people people with Super powers do their homework on every one who is going to be a member?
probably would not be hard to track where she or her family of normal’s has been in the last year or so? and exactly where they vacationed with diving area.
I mean, we didn’t find out the origin of Luffy for a long ass time in One Piece. Several years until we found out we’ve seen both his dad and granddad, and even more years before we learned about his thought-to-be-dead sworn brother from his childhood. So this is fine. Or the whole reveal of Naruto’s father and mother held off for like, 8 years.
Heck, even in comics, it took a bunch of people writing in to let Marvel know that they had not told the origin of Doctor Strange after he had already had several adventures. So it’s not unheard of.
wait, didn’t dave even made a picture of the moment she got the orbs…. let me see if if can find it in D.A.
here, found it! https://www.deviantart.com/davebarrack/art/Aquapirate-348429237
So… does it mean that it was not around the keys?
hmm,…it was Hawaii by the looks of the beach.
I suspect she lied.
I believe it was in a foreign country.
Laws may have been broken.
omg i just noticed that the picture says aqua*PIRATE*
HA! I have always thought that Sydney was obfuscating the truth about where she found the orbs. Big Reveal Tiem!!
An additional possibility from the “too many Harems” issue. I don’t think we have been given an absolute range for Harems teleports, all we know is that she needs to have had one of her sight the target location.
Could she jump direct to the Alari homeworld now that she has been there?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-dabblers-science-corner-2/
That page says she couldn’t teleport to the moon even with a giant telescope. While there is no hard limit given to her range, it seems safe to say that anything outside of our solar system is well beyond her abilities even if she has already been there.
okay the comic where she originally told the origin.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-94-the-step-mother-of-all-origins/
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-95-harem-sometimes-spelled-njp/
So apparently then after this point after distractions, and events, and at no point during training did Zephan or Arc Light think to re-ask the question Zephan did there..,
So, bets are it actually was some Chinese guy in an antique shop…which she found on her vacation with her father…
*snickers*
Now that I take a moment to look and think on it, Sidney Sr. looks strikingly like a certain Daedric god of Chaos.
I love the expressions in the last two panels. Your art has greatly improved since the early days (and it was pretty damned good then).
Oh dear. She obtained them illegally.
Well, in many countries, any finds must be declared, even when it’s perfectly obvious that the previous owner is not going to make a claim.
And even then, there’s the question of how she got them home (especially if she found them abroad).
“Extra squirrely.”
She did not declare.
That goes without saying.
My point was about how illegal her acquisition was.
Looting and potentially smuggling at the very least.
What if Sydney actually is a super and her powers subconsciously created the orbs to reign in her powers and let her slowly get used to them before turning over full control. And the planets in the aethereal causeways are simply places she went with the telepresence orb in her dreams while her mind wandered. Or even more troublesome, Sydney is a god level super, and she created all other supers because she craves the comic book world so much, and that’s why Archon is actually so feminist based since that what she secretly wants in a super world. Also adds the body dysphoria since Shes self-conscious of her body and makes her idols all perfect to show that.
Now, that is an interesting, conjecture!
Given that there have been documented supers dating back before Sydney’s birth… albeit not well-understood…
…. obviously Sydney’s burgeoning god powers include history-alteration.
Haruhi Suzimiya.
that said, doubt it, at least the last part, the they are actually her own power manifested oddly is a theory been going around for a while, along side there is an alien in the unknown orb or Sidney is a baby Nth level being and these are training wheels, ect…
Maybe where Sydney was diving and found her orbs,perhaps not far from an old abandoned research facility,which was under the auspices of the organization that later became Archon???
Sydney was on fire on the last few panels. She should’ve seen this coming.
“It was at the last pic Sydney knew. She darn f**ked up.” :D
“Let’s see…we have her father’s name, so we can look up his credit cards, find out where he went…”
Okay, having thought about this a bit…
Most of the comments are focusing on the key point being WHERE the orbs were found being the key element of the lie, and I think that’s likely. But I don’t think it’s an international-waters or other-nations-waters equals international-property-lawyer-time problem… because I question whether Sydney’s legally savvy enough to have realized that was a problem. Maybe the sunken-ship scuba tour group she was with got given a pre-dive lecture about not taking any treasure from the wreck they were diving in because it’s technically another nation’s property? I dunno. Possible, but I don’t think that’s something that Sydney would fixate on.
I’m playing with an alternate theory: it’s less a where and more a who. She found them diving… at a pond… on her grandpa’s property… which she doesn’t want swarming with government agents. Maybe not that specific, but it might be about shielding a person? (Also, just realizing, it they’re linked to a blood relative that MIGHT be a factor in why the orbs work for her and no one else.) I’m not committing to this theory over the Cuba theory, but I’m contrarian enough to champion it until proven otherwise.
I honestly don’t think she was lying about it being in Florida.
Or they would have found out her lie already.
1. They know approximately when she got them.
2. They did a background check on her (and after seeing the orbs, everyone she has any time to whatsoever)
3. Foreign travel would be flagged on the background check.
4. They would have financial and other information to tie back to being in Florida at the given time. If the Florida vacation was a lie, they’d have interrogated her.
5. They would have grilled her to get as exact a location as possible of where she was when diving. If the diving was a lie, they’d probably have figured it out here.
6. Even if she did all those things but found the orbs somewhere else, I don’t think she could have kept her cool about lieing to not get caught.
I like the idea that all 3 of them are glaring for a different reason.
Mom: what vacation?!
Max: you never mentioned that your dad was there!
Ariana: don’t do that “cough, cough” gag! (Okay, I’m honestly not sure what on this page has got her glaring)
Am just now noticing, and off topic, is Dad wearing a MCU Starlord jacket, or am I imagining things?
I thought the same! :D
I assumed that they had sent a team to where she found the balls and didn’t find anything plot-worthy.
This is neither the time nor the place to be discussing classified information, or information that should be classified.
They have broached the subject of the location here.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-94-the-step-mother-of-all-origins/
Zephon actually was in the process of asking about it, when he was interrupted by Harem, I would be surprised they didn’t follow up on it “off-camera” at a later time.