Grrl Power #1019 – Rosetta brain
The important thing to take away from this page is that, yes, the Alari have ass-sculpting technology.
A hundred and thirty languages is a lot. It’s one of those figures I could probably justify by reminding everyone that she’s a super-genius and also 187 years old, but even so, that’s basically a language every year and a half. She probably only learned 3-5 by the time she got into demon middle school. Her demon elementary school was diverse, sure, but you don’t want to learn languages from people who barely speak it themselves. Besides, she didn’t even learn she could do this until late demon middle school.
By the time she got into demon high, she’d learned connecting to others’ brains like this has a lot of other benefits, especially when making out. Let’s just say it made all parties involved extra invested in getting to second base and beyond. Succubi have more bases than other females. Well, maybe not, but more innings, anyway.
This is one of those things I’m surprised I wasn’t able to work into the comic before now, but Xhosa is a pretty cool sounding language. She’s not going keep her brain tentacles in their ear sheaths in a target rich environment like that.
What a perfectly normal sentence to type.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update: It’s done!
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January’s vote incentive is titled “The Origin of The Might Halo.” Hopefully the reason is evident.
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Bhahahahaha! “Cheater” made me laugh so hard!
The cheater is calling the cheater a cheater! Mwahahahahahaha! Glasses cheat vs succubus cheat!
It’s only cheating if you get caught.
I wouldn’t say Sydney is cheating, because she doesn’t actually know the languages, she just has subtitles, so she isn’t cheating any more than I am when I watch anime. Dabbler is cheating because she is directly downloading language skills into her brain enabling her to be (I would assume) effectively a native speaker.
Has to be a new ability of the Com ball.
This is just part of the tech glasses Cora gave her like the targeting stuff and ability to receive messages from her ship.. I also assume there’s a destress beacon in there that she triggered when Concreta had her.
It’s not a distress beacon so much as it lets her send out messages to Cora and her crew like Frix. She sent Cora a message – it wasn’t an automatic beacon.
But she DID use those same glasses to cheat on her sidearm qualification.
… I assume. Archon might need to update their rules for it to count as cheating, but I’m guessing given how “people with super-power-equivalent special gear” is part of their intended recruiting base, and they seem to have thought a lot of this stuff through, they probably had a “qualify with the weapon WITHOUT help from your bat-gadgets” clause somewhere in the rules.
It’s not cheating if the range master says it’s okay and you don’t complain about catching brass in your eye.
It is cheating if you don’t tell the range master that the glasses are giving you an assist
Well, not really cheating, more ‘withholding vital information’
Rangemaster: “Why do you need to wear the glasses?”
Sydney: “It makes it easier for me to hit the target, obviously?”
Rangemaster: “Fair enough. Proceed.”
:)
To be fair, Sydney hasn’t actually claimed to ‘know’ any languages other than English. Plus maybe any others that she’d picked up pre-Orbs, but that would be unusual for “stereotypically middle-class white American”. Cheating implies a false claim of competence; if no such claim is made, is it really cheating?
she isn’t cheating in learning languages, she simply has a translator. Downloading the language is cheating. At least, that’s how someone could see it…
I feel like this’ll devolve into someone saying, “Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater!”
Cheater cheater grey matter eater?
I assume it’s a cyberpunk cheat rather than a succubus cheat. (I wasn’t sure about saying “cyberpunk” then I thought about Dabbler’s politics and… yeah probably)
Well dabbler is cyber succubus. We’ve been out on that since she pulled out her eye and told Sydney about her mccanna hand
Technically, it’s a Doppelganger cheat, not a Succubus cheat.
Says the girl with an inbuilt translation app on her glasses.
Sydney doesn’t call a language her glasses translate for her a language she speaks – Dabbler goes around tacitly implying she knows 130 languages because she’s just that smart.
No, Dabbles never implied that, she never even mentioned how she knew the languages
And if those brain-tentacles are a natural part of her body, is it really any different than using her eyes to read or her ears to listen?
Exactly, she never mentioned the real reason she knew them, leaving people to think she learned them the classic way.
When using your eyes or ears you still have to use your brain to get language understanding out of it – as opposed to sucking it out of someone else brain predigested.
You don’t think she is using her brain to control the brain-tentacles? o_O
She still has to process the information, and file the security-breaching information away for later
> You don’t think she is using her brain to control the brain-tentacles?
Only in the same way that someone cheating at a math exam is using their own brain to operate the hidden calculator.
> She still has to process the information
That’s the point, she doesn’t. There’s no way she just explicitly decoded that woman’s entire brain. This looks more like a Matrix-style “I know Xhosa” download, in which case it has nothing to do with the way normal people use their brain to learn languages.
Which orb is that? I had hopped the unknown orb about be the translation one…
Wait – those are her space glasses….. Just figured that out…
Do they just… all speak their own language and understand each other?
What is this, a comic? I demand realism!
Considering that they just hand out translators at information kiosks on Fracture Station, Deus has probably equipped any personnel he expects will need them.
Isn’t that pretty much how the Star Wars universe operates
Only as far as Galactic Basic=English.
Not necessarily as literal as ‘Basic = English’. It’s fairly common that the scriptwriters simply make the translation automatically, from the dominant language of the setting to the dominant language of the audience.
And Technically “Galactic Basic” isn’t English in the written format…
The prelude to Azimov’s “Nightfall” gives a really good explination of this.
pretty much, and Yoda’s translator was busted due to use on a swamp planet, that’s why he sounded the way he did.
No English translation for Panel 9?
“Stop! What are you doing?”
“So this is Xhosa? Neat!”
…would be my wild, uneducated guess.
Thank you
Have I already posted here?
clearly not:
my dictionary search translation:
What’s happening?
language(could not find the word, so this is an educated guess) upload, success.
Google Translate tells me it’s:
Local: Stand up! What are you doing?
Dabbler: Is this Xhosa? Interesting!
I suspect that “stand up” is a mistranslation.
I honestly don’t remember what I typed into google translate, but it was probably something like “Wait! What are you doing?” Maybe it was “hold up” but either way.
I think Dabbler’s line was “This is Xosha? Neat!”
The gang are starting to get suspicious about Halo.
Max is mostly pissed at Sydney giving away secrets in front of Deus’s minions. Then again Max might also be wondering how all of Deus’s troops are interlingual. If Sydney spots the translator tech and realises it is from Fracture, then things might start getting a bit sticky.
Too late for Fracture-tech to be an issue, not once the Alari landed and revealed themselves to the world
Could easily be passed off as they bringing it with them
STARTING to? *cough*KeyMexico*cough*
Starting? That young woman has been raising red flags since a couple of guys tried to rob a bank in her presence.
I think it was her breath. that was causing most of the disturbances.
i keep forgetting that halo had some hacks installed :D
She has A LOT of hacks installed. Some sit in front of her eyes, some circle around her head.
Random thought: How do glasses like those hide the text/images from beging visible from the other side?
Alien tech, don’t question it XD
Possibly even magic.
By just shining the light in directions where it would enter her pupils, rather than in all directions?
Control of light emission differently in different directions would inherently be necessary if you were going to display text on the inside surface of glasses, and have it in focus while looking at distant objects. Not wasting light in directions where other people would see it is just an incidental privacy feature.
This does raise a question: Universal translators are available on Fracture station, which Halo can visit any time she feels like it; Shouldn’t the team be outfitted with them by now? I mean, like you’d blow off having direct access to a shopping mall full of super-advanced technology, and the ability to bypass customs?
> I mean, like you’d blow off having direct access to a shopping mall full of super-advanced technology, and the ability to bypass customs?
I think this may be about to happen now :)
I feel like ARCHON hasn’t quite come around to he point of sending a not yet graduated recruit (she literately JUST graduated) on a clandestine mission circumventing galactic technology restrictions quite yet. ARC-dark, maybe, but she’s not a member of them… yet… as far as we know…
She can bring people along.
Not to rain on your parade, but why on earth would she? Now that she has one? That (so far) hasn’t cost her anything?
Obviously Deus has done so, but he has access to both Fracture tech and Alari tech (and presumably Demonic tech) so getting translation microbes or whatever is easy for him. Dabbler doesn’t need it obviously. (though why SHE hasn’t provided the team with it is worth asking)
But as a US military organization, getting that advanced alien translation gear requires procurement through committees and budget hearings and all the other political red tape that Deus can straight up bypass.
Dabbler has made it very clear that she has no interest in sharing any of her technology with anyone on Earth.
She’s only taking that stance so she doesn’t get in trouble with the xevoarchy.
She made that clear at the party when talking about Max’s new choaker.
Nah, she doesn’t give a flying shit-cycle about the Xenoarchaeologists, she’s studied the Dirticans long enough to know what sort of shit they will get up to with her tech
As for the chokers, the tech for them has been around for years, SpecOps use the throat mics all the time, she suggested the choker design because of what they mean to succubae
The light source would more or less need to be coherent, and would not be letters on the glasses, because those would be totally out of focus *; instead, they source generating those words is projecting into Sydney’s eyes a hologram that appears to her to have the words on her glasses.
*try reading a book pressed up against your nose
“and would not be letters on the glasses, because those would be totally out of focus”
Ahh, no? If two images are being projected onto the lenses independently they can be placed at any apparent focal length, because they aren’t physical objects with one instance of physical lettering like, say, a book.
Actually, when I was Halo’s age, I COULD have read a book pressed up against my nose; 20-450 one eye, 20-375 the other. I could literally read microfilm unassisted, given good lighting, and being able to clearly see the dust on the coke bottle glasses I wore was a real distraction.
What I couldn’t do was focus on the end of my nose, AND clearly see my surroundings, at the same time. Which is something you really want for a heads up display.
Thanks to cataract surgery, I know see well enough to get by without glasses, at the expense of being fixed focus, and not having really clear vision at any range. If you ever get the surgery, spring for the premium lenses!
Yes, but with sufficient tech, it should be possible to project the image from the glasses as if it’s at whatever your current focal distance is, thus not requiring you to refocus on the glasses. I mean, the light from stuff you’re reading passes through your glasses already. The tech just needs to emulate how that works.
Best part: This already exists, although purely as a prototype: https://www.cc.gatech.edu/home/thad/
Google Glass isnt a prototype anymore. :) It’s already available for sale and has been for a while.
Neither is the Microsoft Hololens.
There’s actually a pretty wide variety of commercially-available AR glasses. Sadly they all still look ridiculous and have very limited functionality as a smartphone analogue, but for certain use cases the full Hololens-style headsets are super useful.
Glass is available for retail sale? Where? The only things I can find are “contact us” pages.
I wasn’t familiar with the Hololens — thanks for pointing it out. Sadly, it has the issue as all other AR headsets that I know of: it’s very high-profile. The thing that was great about the Glass was that you could wear it out and about without looking like you were cosplaying as a Borg.
Google Glass has been available for sale for years now. It costs about $1000 for Enterprise Edition 2.
It just never really took off.
https://www.insight.com/en_US/shop/product/GA4A00108A01Z06/GOOGLE/GA4A00108A01Z06/Google-Glass-Enterprise-Edition-2-Development-Kit-smart-glasses—32-GB/
https://www.aztekcomputers.com/GA4A00108A01Z06-GOOGLE-1CLUZDGG3PM.html
My understanding is that those are development platforms, not actual ready-to-go devices. You can use them to build applications that will run on the device but I don’t think they are useful out of the box. The docs say that they don’t include Google Play, meaning that you can’t simply download apps for them straightforwardly, although you might be able to get them through apt-get or whatever the Android equivalent is.
Her visit to the Fracture station was filled with distractions and then a big fight. So she never got to go to the tourist kiosk to pick up her free translator, apparently.
She may have had the idea to go back there to get one multiple times, but ended up doing something else each time. Because Sydney.
This problem of Archon not using translators goes back way further than Sydney.
Archon already knew there were aliens on earth, both living and visiting. They also had contact with theTwilight Council which also contained aliens (as well as others who do not speak English).
And Dabbler at least has equal access to the translator technology and likely would be able to magic up something (and if not Dabbler then there are several mages known to Archon who could).
Archon simply has not needed the ability yet, but may begin to become aware of the fact that they can no longer rely on the fact that everybody speaks English (and will not use their native language to have private conversations)
It’s not impossible to only emit light on one side of a transparent material. Ever seen a teleprompter? Basically pepper’s ghost applied to a camera.
I imagine embedding the properties of a beam splitting prism in a pair of glasses that was matter-fabbed on a near molecular level would not be that difficult, combine with some high precision miters in the glass frame to send in the image from the sides, and you are done.
It’s like the HUD of a Gunstar-only visible if you look dead ahead. :)
It’s not hard to figure out it’s on the same lines as those “holographic” pictures or polarized glass viewing only in one angle shows everything
Quite possibly for the same reason that the reticule on a reflex/dot sight is invisible from the front (ie: the wrong end), to do with the optical properties of reflecting an image of a surface. There might be a very slight glow where some of the light from the display is absorbed and transmitted forwards, but considering the Clarke-tech in Sydney’s glasses, I very much doubt that.
Would that be Dabbler’s Doppleganger genes? Or is that a Succubus trick?
Since it’s both really useful in a sexual and military context and compatible with vastly different organisms I would guess succubi.
She learned she could do this in demon middle school. This means it’s an uncommon and probably not a purely genetic feature or unknown feature from one of her more obscure ancestors implying that it comes from one of her ancestors of non-demonic and preferably non-alien origin.
Doppleganger is now more realistic, but it would imply that dopplegangers are wide spread and mostly secret, which fits their average depiction.
It could be magic.
In Powers and Perils, there’s a ‘Tongues’ spell which you can use to learn spells this way. In normal usage, it just lets you speak the person’s native language for the duration, but if you pay something like 10x the cost and touch the person, you basically get their mastery of their native language.
Apart from the bit where one doesn’t always have that much mana to spare… why wouldn’t you basically always cast it that way?
In “Wake of the Ravager” there’s an ability called Tongues which lets you attain fluency in any person’s language by eating that person’s tongue.
You might be right, since the Succubus version of Tongues would work very, very differently.
Oh? If you could force a Mage or whatever to speak English >only<
their magic powers that require spellcasting would be temporarily neutralized.
(Because there's no English word for "{Vector's ass generated password}".
Doppelgangers are basically shapeshifter or mimic for RPG fans but since her glamor is almost perfect why use that ability plus I’d bet shapeshifting is more manna demanding than her glamor.
It is not a standard succubus power, according to Dave’s comments in the first Dabbler’s Science Corner.
O damn, I completely forgot that she did this trick before.
Wait, did Sydney never tell them about her glasses being a communication device?
Nope. They’re also an aimbot, interstellar smartphone and probably close to indestructible.
What I’m hoping is that at one point, Maxima or Dabbler is going to casually ask Sydney to provide a translation, she will instinctively do so, only to do a double take when she realizes her mistake, followed by Max saying something along the lines of “Did you really expect us to not notice your sudden improvements?”
They were a gift from her boyfriend. They don’t interfere with her duties. She’s under no obligation to tell them.
Neither her comm-ball’s teleport ability. She got yelled at regardless. Because holding out on the team with regards to potentially-mission-critical abilities DOES interfere with her duties, even if having those abilities does not.
Also, they could be a potential security risk too. We dont know how they work, but what if they were hackable?
Actually, they were fixed by Cora, who was the one to “upgrade” them. Frix never actually worked on her glasses, that I can find…
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-712-turn-on-your-fart-light/
“It’s a Surprise Tool That Will Help Us Later.”
Not going to lie, I was half-expecting Dabs to learn languages the Starfire way.
I was expecting her to learn it with throughout full body osmosis – as is the cubi way
Don’t you mean the Ami-Dixie way?
those tendrils were shown before, here:https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-dabblers-science-corner-1/
So, less Starfire and more Vulcan/Prothean.
Oh good call, I had always interpreted that panel as the wire for some electrical sensor, so this page was creeping me out. Still is actually, but at least it’s not completely out of left field.
OK, who besides Dave knows what sesquipedalian means? I mean I can figure it out from its parts, but who knows what it means?
Is one of dem long fancy words folks like me ain’t good at.
I cheated. It’s a LONG word, a very long word and or someone prone to using overly long words. To paraphrase. But, I don’t know nuttin’ I R a maROON.
Of course the word used to describe that words or phrasing is overly long and complicated is itself overly long and complicated.
It’s an adjective, applied to words, meaning “long”.
It’s sort of a linguistics in-joke.
Literally, it means “a foot and a half long”, for the record.
Now it makes sense – I was wondering all the time why long words would have one and a half feet.
Too poor to afford the full second foot… You could call them “half-feets”…
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
“A predilection by the intelligentsia to engage in the manifestation of prolix exposition through a buzzword disposition form of communication notwithstanding the availability of more comprehensible, punctiliously applicable, diminutive alternatives. Also known as “gross verbosity”. Related to this is the use of inkhorn terms, loanwords from a foreign origin that are pretentious to an average speaker.”
Via TV Tropes.
I’ve heard it used time to time, mostly on the podcast “A Way with Words”
Dabbler is part displacer beast?
We know from the cast page she’s 1/2 Succubus, 1/3 Doppleganger, and 1/6 miscellaneous.
Nah, she’s part Uryuom. ;)
Good to see another EGS reader
3 of us so far?
Probably a lot more than that, also includes me.
Plenty more, including Dave (He referenced EGS in Dabbler’s Science Corner)
I think by now there’s enough EGS to warrant another G
:)
boo. hiss.
Nah. She’s trouble, spelt with a capital W. Or F.
So Dabs has brain tentacles. I wonder what other types of interesting tentacles she has hidden away.
All of them.
And they even go “nom nom nom” when grabbiong languages.
Is anyone really surprised that Dabs has tentacles?
I kinda expect she also has retractable Centari male tentacles. We know she has extra muscles down there.
I was just wondering if anybody else was going to catch that.
“Nom, nom, nom.”
And knowing Dabs those are multi functional ear tentacles in all the best and/or worst ways you can imagine!
She hides away tentacles of other people suring sex.
She has a whole closet full of them on Cora’s ship. It’s super intense.
I can tell you it’s nothing related to pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
“Antidisestablishmentarianism, I forgot how to spell this, it’s from the 1960’s!! :) Yes, I am that old. :), well; older!
I remember when I first heard that word I had a bad studder back then it wasn’t a word I could repeat LOL. dates back to the flower children era circa 1965-7 nothing funnier that asking someone stoned to say it LOL. After a couple of times they’d pretty much forget why they were trying and take another hit.
“Succubi have more bases than other females. Well, maybe not, but more innings, anyway.”
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Having a bit of trouble figuring out the off-camera path of that tentacle in frame 8. No plausible path comes to mind.
But you gotta look closely at frame 9 and then 10. It looks a bit like Dabbles needs to interrogate both hemispheres simultaneously.
Must do reasrch to see how common split brains are.
How interesting. From https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/42/4/743/659098?login=false
“The recent discovery of two Lower Cambrian chordates, ‘Yunnanozoon’ and ‘Haikouella’ from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte do provide some information.
“…
“… it is possible that ‘Haikouella’ may also have had cerebral hemispheres, although this would be particularly surprising based on the absence of olfactory organs, as most comparative neurobiologists have argued that the cerebral hemispheres arose primarily as olfactory centers.”
So Earth-chordates ALL have cerebral hemispheres. One must wonder about non-Earth chordates, but I’m willing to accept extra-solar convergent evolution.
You’re right, I missed that!
Which tentacle? I can’t see how either one would be confusing.
You’re right: a totally normal, legit sentence to write.
A bit disturbing that she didnt ask permission before jamming a plug into someone else’s brain.
But it doesnt seem to be physically invadive and Dabbler doing it to DaveB seemed a lot more violent. :)
Btw yes… she has used this before. On a Dabbler science corner.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-dabblers-science-corner-1/comment-page-1/
Invasive not invadive. Stupid virtual keyboard.
Ooh, I’d forgotten about that.
The language donor was still admiring DAT ASS!
What was that about Alar houses?
Sounds like Deus may have divisive elements to contend with in the future.
My impression of Alari society is that there was a house prime but among the refugees on earth there are several houses vying for control. They are a hierarchical society with a prime house at the top and subordinate houses arrayed underneath. They minor houses close to the bottom of the pyramid would be jockeying for power and prestige and as such always on the hunt for new recruits. A low ranking house might even be willing to accept the fealty of mere human to boost their numbers.
Think Drow Society as presented in fantasy books (Based on R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt Do’Urden books) and you’d have it about right. Have a sneaking suspicion that is why the Alari are portrayed as Dark Elf look-alikes in the first place.
Lorlana was from a prestigious house and she swore fealty to Deus as well because she knows a winner when she sees one.
She technically did (“May I?”), assuming those three were able to understand each other despite speaking 3 different languages. Besides, it wasn’t invasive since she burrow. At most, it would’ve been intrusive, depending on how her powers work. There were no marks where her… tendrils? had touched the Xhosan and the Xhosan made no comment aside from the initial touch, so I think it’s a more deliberate version of Prodigy’s (X-Men) power where Dabbler’s picking up what the other person’s putting down.
Normally I might agree but… she didnt wait for a yes. The first response was Ah! in alarm. Followed by Stop! What are you doing? in Xhosa. It is sort of like asking a stranger if I can borrow their car then getting in the drivers seat like I am impersonating Grand Theft Auto 5 before they can say yes or no, or if they say Stop! What are you doing? As I drive off with their sweet ride. :)
Agreed, this is definitely an nonconsensual invasion of not only personal space, but someone’s mind. I can’t imagine this being acceptable in any galactic culture. One more mark against Dabbler’s (and Cora’s) approach to life.
But they have so many good marks about their approach to life too! Like sex and being funny and…. uh
Thinking… thinking…
Wow, I’m kinda stumped. Even when Cora took in all those refuges it was only because Sidney asked her too. Cora’s reaction was seemed like she had forgotten helping others for the sake of being kind was a thing you should do.
And I while I am not 100% on this, part I don’t think Dabbler actually respects non super powered humans very much at all. Sorry to ramble but I thought I was going to prove your comment wrong at first. Turns out you’ve got a very good point, while I wouldn’t call them evil, they aren’t exactly good either.
Thinking about it, Dabbler and Cora approach life like it’s a video game. Who cares about the life or consent of people whose names you don’t know? They’re just NPCs. Only the named and sympathetic NPCs like Sydney occasionally manage to talk them into heroic sidequests, otherwise they just go around murderhoboing. They only avoid killing indiscriminately because it lowers their reputation with Archon.
Dabbler explicitly has some sort of multiclass adventurer build going on, and Cora would also fit well as the protagonist of a space-based open-world shooter.
Did you forget how Sydney treated her time on Prima Alari? And how she justified grinding for points?
First off, note I didn’t say anything about Sydney’s mindset, so you’d need to expand your argument a bit to make the connection.
However, doing the comparison, she justified it by seeing no other way to survive her situation, like a hunter who kills in order to not starve, except the enemies she attacked were also responsible for her situation by attacking her first. And she still was somewhat hesitant about it, until they attacked her again, resolving her moral qualms.
It’s also unclear whether the enemies she blew up were people or simply drones.
I’d say that Sydney still showed a tendency to treat her life like a videogame in this situation, and exposed her moral weakness a bit, however her enemies were actually behaving like enemies in a videogame. Cora doesn’t have that excuse when she kills people who act and look like people.
One small point: Her reaction was: ‘I hate grinding!’ I don’t remember her having any moral or other qualms about killing the pilots of those fighters they sent after her. She treated it just like a space shooter. (And she never found out if the fighters were remote-controlled, automated or crewed – she never even thought about it. Now I could see that as a coping mechanism, but she never had any second thoughts afterwards either. That… well, from somebody as powerful as Sydney, that attitude would seriously scare me in real life.)
She had a near breakdown with the therapist while reviewing the fight with the squiddies. Yes, she kind of blows them off, but admits on the next page that she’s deflecting and worried about being permanently traumatized.
I’m referring to “Thanks for making my decision that much easier” in page 655. I’m taking this to mean that she’s aware she shouldn’t just attack people, and them attacking her first resolves this.
Yes, she’s not considering it as much as we’d want, but she is aware of, and respecting, some “rules of engagement”, unlike Cora, who considers those pesky murder laws a nuiance to maneuver around to get what she wants.
We are modeling what is acceptable in “galactic culture” on what is currently acceptable in human culture. Why should that work? We’re not even consistent across our own cultures, nor within our own over the timespan of 100 years. Dabbler’s or Cora’s norms are not going to look anything like ours.
Perhaps to Dabbler, throwing sexual energy at her is already implied consent for her to do what is necessary to learn to communicate with that person. She does have “porn sense.”
Ummm. NO.
ONE. It is OUR planet, WE make our rules. Youse don’t like it, leave.
TWO. Consistency across time is not that important. However, across time, most cultures have developed or adopted a basic common set of mores.
THREE. On our planet, if we require consent, that consent must be given BEFORE the action in question, it CANNOT be assumed, no matter what customs may apply on some other planet.
If — using Xuriel’s or Cora’s mores — refusal is indicated by a fist in the mouth, that is still counted as battery on this — OUR — planet.
This. Also, individual autonomy is a globally recognized right – even slavers claim it for themselves. Even if the rest of the Grrlverse galaxy consisted of hive minds (which we’ve seen it definitely doesn’t), those groups would have to recognize each other’s boundaries to coexist.
Lol. So in summary, my point is that there is more than one point of view to consider here. Your point is that there is not, end of conversation.
We know that Cora’s behaviour is frowned upon by the authorities on Fracture Station.
An ‘implied consent’ model wouldn’t necessarily be bad, but there’s no way the woman was even implicitly consenting. If Dabbler thought that, that’s at least a failure to learn about humans – especially considering there have been multiple attempts to teach her.
“One more mark against Dabbler’s (and Cora’s) approach to life.”
And one more in favor of Deus. Deus does not violate your mind. He just changes it like a normal person with incredible win-win deals. :)
Oh is *that* what she said? I didn’t have a chance to use a translator. Fair point.
Eh… if you were nearly 190 years old would you waste time waiting for an answer? Besides she didn’t effect that lady’s mind just scanned her language center only took a minute. Let’s face it Dabs is a “good” person just feels like she’s surrounded by children and like a lot of teachers they stop asking a student things like that.
Doesn’t look like she’s about to drop dead if a leaf falls on her. And I’ve never yet met a teacher who asked if I minded being taught, or if I minded *having to* read this book. Or if I minded having to take this test…
World of difference between a teacher presenting material to a willing student who signed up for their class, and a teacher that mugs random people on the street with a knowledge bat.
But Dabbler isn’t even teaching this person a new language, she’s mind-ripping a victim. And if she really does feel like she’s superior and therefore not bound to civilized behavior just because she’s smarter and more experienced, that makes her a textbook sociopath.
I totally understand the vast majority of kids have what can only be classed as “a whale of a time” at school. However, please tell me which of those kids is “a willing student who signed up for their class”?
More importantly, adults at night school are one thing, but kids in primary/secondary and maybe tertiary are there under compulsion. No permission is required by the teacher to force material into their minds. I am prepared to accept, however, that any such permission is either assumed to have been given by the parents or the state, or may be inferred by the presence of the children in class.
Fair points, but my contention is that the term “teacher” has no part in any analogy about what Dabbler just did to this woman. There is neither authority nor consent, whether implicit or implied (and let alone informed), that would permit Dabbler to suck information out of her head.
You gottit.
“Eh… if you were nearly 190 years old would you waste time waiting for an answer?”
Yes, because I’d want to present a good example to the children of how they are supposed to behave.
“Besides she didn’t effect that lady’s mind just scanned her language center only took a minute.”
If a guy is to peep through a woman’s window with binoculars and climbing up a tree (see Back to the Future) while they are changing their clothes, it’s still wrong even if they didn’t break into the house.
If a police officer taps someone’s phone without first obtaining a warrant, it’s wrong.
You ask permission before invading someone’s privacy.
“Let’s face it Dabs is a “good” person”
Debatable, but I will agree that she is generally a good person. Or at least, she’s not an evil person. But if we agree that she is a good person, then surely there’s NO question that Deus is a VERY good person. Deus has never invaded someone’s mind without asking permission.
“just feels like she’s surrounded by children”
Then she should set a good example on proper manners as the adult in the room.
“and like a lot of teachers they stop asking a student things like that.”
If a teacher asked for my homework assignment, and before I could get it out of my bookbag, he or she grabbed my bookbag and started rummaging through it to find it, I would not take that behavior particularly well.
Similar happened in “TMI”: the bodyguard of the MC mentioned how he panties chafed under the special suit she was given when they accidentally ended up onboard the ship of his Orion friends, and his half-Orion daughter asked if she could have them (because her uncle made gliders out of them) and didn’t wait for the answer before ordering the suit to retract allowing her access to the panties (the fact she could order someone elses suit to do that seemed to have been more of a surprise than her not waiting for permission to do so)
Huh.
That invites an interesting ethical debate regarding that sort of superpower. At what point should consent become a factor? It seems like the subject doesn’t feel/notice anything going on in her own brain — it seems like a read-only ability, not even altering thought patterns or emotions. Nor does it feel like the sort of privacy-invasion that, say, scanning someone’s memories, thoughts, emotions, or sexual proclivities might be. Is the problem that Dabbler’s acquiring someone else’s skills, or that the tentacles-probes are making physical contact? If the tentacles worked by just hovered six inches away from the temples, would that fix it? If this power only required Dabbler to glance at the subject and pick up on some sort of telepathic “skill rays” that the subject was unconsciously broadcasting every time they used the skill (speaking), would that require consent? Where exactly is the consent line?
… I’d insert a pun here about succubi and consent lines, but I’m pretty sure that they’ve already had it inserted.
The tentacles definitely make physical contact, and I am guessing that prolonged contact is draining from Dabblers Science Corner #1, but the tentacles are not “physically invasive” -ie, they toich the temples on the surface- they dont drill into the head or sonething like that.
Still seems off for a hero to not wait for consent first, since Dabbler presumably already knows Alar and Chiktr since she is already familiar with the Alari and demons and could have had them ask for her. But that would admittedly slow down the story.
It would admittedly not be unique in comics, considering how Tamaraneans learn languages by kissing the other person and Starfire didnt ask Dick Grayson for permission first. She did apologize and explain after when she learned English… And Dick definitely did not mind after the fact, getting smooched by an incredibly sexy alien in a skimpy barely monokini-type costume. :) But I am wondering if the reading audience would have been less forgiving if it was a male Tamaranean in a speedo grabbing and kissing Barbara Gordon or Bumblebee or something.
The BIG problem here is LACK OF INFORMATION. Did Xuriel Shahara Tantalis explain exactly WHAT she was about to do? Did the Xhosa lady have any chance to protest? What guarantees were given/available to ensure that ONLY a language would be downloaded? And NO secrest would be pilfered?
In short, I have HUGE PROBLEMS with this kind of cavalier behaviour. Behaviour which Tantalis has continuously displayed through the life of the comic.
My personal reaction to this action would be to tie the tentacles in a very permanent knot. I spent time on fishing boats, and it’s amazing what you can learn.
“Did Xuriel Shahara Tantalis explain exactly WHAT she was about to do?”
We can see that she did not. :)
“Did the Xhosa lady have any chance to protest?”
She did not. She only had a chance to yell ‘Ah!’ then while it was actually happening, she said ‘Stop! What are you doing?!’
“What guarantees were given/available to ensure that ONLY a language would be downloaded?”
There are no guarantees to this. Those things apparently can suck out all sorts of information, not just languages, based on the time it was used in Dabbler’s Science Corner #1.
“And NO secrest would be pilfered?”
Again, no way to ensure this either.
“In short, I have HUGE PROBLEMS with this kind of cavalier behaviour. ”
Yes, it’s problematic for sure.
“Behaviour which Tantalis has continuously displayed through the life of the comic.”
I think most of Dabbler’s history is about asking forgiveness instead of asking permission. Sexy women get a lot of leeway on this aspect of life. I’m just pointing it out because of people talking about how Deus is a villain. But he doesnt do stuff like that. :)
About that “How do we know it was *only* language being copied?”
We don’t.
Maybe that woman’s security clearance should be revoked.
“Have you ever had your mind read or in any way accessed by an alien and/or demon?”
After WWII Stalin sent former prisoners of war to the gulags. No telling what sort of anti-communist propaganda they heard in the POW camps.
The USA helped.
“Move out, soldier!!”
“Can’t do that, sir. Succubus nom’in’ my brain.”
“…?”
“It’s actually quite… relaxing, sir. I suspect that’s how they ‘getcha’.”
oh dear, so that was canon? We did see that power, but in a mini comic, so no proof that it was really a power, but dang, I agree with Sydney, that’s cheating.
Also: that language is really amazing, it’s really fluid and melodic.
Gee, Sydney, you can keep a secret almost as well as GeekLeaks.
The Alari seem to have latched onto Smoking with both hands as a down time activity. I’m going to assume they have the medical tech to make it harmless. Of course I’m just assuming it is tobacco in that big ass pipe she is holding.
I’d like to think maybe “intsangu”, but OTOH Deus may have boring old rules on the use of intoxicating weeds while on duty… Oh well, the lesser of the evils then. BUUUT, the risk of lung cancer is NOT reduced if you smoke the weed. It just betrays its presence more intensely.
I’ll not go any where regarding demonic or extra-solar biologies here.
Who says these three are on duty?
Three soldiers in uniform. Most soldiers like to dress up in civvies while off-duty. Unless, of course, Deus don’t pay his military too well so they don’t got nice civvies… And no, they don’t need much in the way of firepower, this is Deustown, it’s well behaved and a simple radio call will bring the swatsquad.
Soldiers don’t get lunch breaks?
I’d like to say “No, whose army d’you think this is?”, but…
Soldiers on duty do get breaks, especially for lunch, assuming they’re not in battle at the time. But when on lunch break you are still on duty, and let’s face it: no soldier is going to change to civvies (during the lunch break) run and have a shortened lunch, run and change back to uniform, getting back just as lunch break ends…
I’m mildly surprised that Dabbler doesn’t use the Starfire school of language study: a quick snogging session
Knowing both Dabs and Max it would trigger Max and Dabs would start to enjoy it too much ;) The tentacles are fast and minimal contact. I’m just glad that covid isn’t in the sydneyverse there’s enough drama lol.
Sydney is hiding something, again, and it’s amazing that Max can still trust her. Seriously, Sydney should tell someone about her glasses. Though they may think it has something to do with the Orbs currently, but still, keeping secrets isn’t a good idea.
Especially when you’re prone to showing off like Sydney apparently is.
I don’t think she’s prone to showing off so much as that a lot of what she says and does never passes through that filter that everyone seems to have (or has injected by society) that says “Is this acceptable/right/need-to-know/polite/prudent to say/do?”. Some people never acquire one. Some of us actively ignore it a lot of the time. Some can’t be given one due to the way their brains is wired. (I think Syddles is one of the last types, personally)
I would be surprised it Dabbler did not already know.
Well, Sydney can get away with murder – okay, not literally, but she definitely gets away with stuff Max normally doesn’t tolerate.
What I find interesting is that the locals already seem accustomed enough to the Chiktr and Alari to be doing the Hans-and-Chewie thing.
It’s three professionals who can all relate to the others’ experience. And can tolerate vast quantities of ibhiya on a hot night. Not to mention that sorghum beer, endemic across the entire region, is actually not a bad drink once you civilise the brewing process. And nutritious as well.
It seems like the Chiktr is taking the human literally and wondering why she would want to carry a lump of Dabbler’s behind around.
I knew it! It all makes sense now! Dabbler is part Uryuom!
(See https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2003-09-24)
I take it those three are supposed to be wearing translators then? Because even if they knew each other’s languages, you wouldn’t have a German, an Italian, and Frenchman speak in their own languages while having a conversation with each other.
Well Fracture station had them at a kiosk so chances are Deus grabbed up a bunch while there.
Sydney has her enhanced glasses thanks to Kora…
I wonder if MAx and the others know about them!?
They don’t, and this is a most Sydney-esque time to reveal that she’s been hiding information
If Max has the integrity she needs for her role, Dabbler just got fired and handed over to Galytn Police. She did not get permission before grabbing the language knowledge (I checked the translation) which is an absolute violation of personal autonomy, and a little rapey given the context in DaveB’s comment.
Now, add the context that the other person is an agent of Galytn while they are in that State and that there’s no way they can prove that she didn’t take other (potentially confidential) knowledge, both State-level and personal. There is now way her actions can go unpunished.
+1
That’s ridiculous. Why would they give up Dabbler’s knowledge and power, and hand her over to an enemy, for a single incident? Even if it was something major, that would be an incredibly stupid and short-sighted thing to do.
I quite agree. Xuriel Tantalis should be courtmartialled by an American JAG and tried in America. I don’t htink there would much of a problem taking evidence from the Xhosa lady. Especially remembering military courts do things differently to civilian courts. Also, remember the Twilight Council may want a few words in Xuriel’s ear…
First, she’s a civilian consultant. I don’t think they can court-martial her. And again, why would they even want to? As far as we know, she did something completely harmless. Without further information, why the outrage?
And also Erianaiel below.
Correct, Xuriel is not a member of the US military. She is, however, “attached” to Archon which IS a US military establishment.
Harmless? Like Syddles’ new specs? Whatever she did was done without express permisson by the Xhosa lady. That starts to look very much like rape, which may have a criminal aspect to it.
“… she does not think like a human.” Not important, and would dissolve like the mist in the morning. She’s on Earth, accepting Earth hospitality, in Galytn accepting Galytn hospitality: she obeys Earth laws and mores.
“It has been shown again and again that consent is a concept she has at best a nodding acquaintance with.” The only assistance this offers Miss Tantalis is the probability some Archon members could be prosecuted for failing to impress on her that ONLY Earth mores are tolerated. Actually, this gets worse. The Twilight Council does not take kindly to its members stuffing up relations with the human OWNERS of the planet, and they could well threaten non-cooperation with Archon. Or take their own direct action against Miss Tantalis.
“… she did not … take something from her.” We do not know this, nor does the soldier. Miss Tantalis can deny all she wants, but this very much looks like she would actually have to PROVE her innocence — and there’s no way she can do that.
“But the only person who can press charges is the soldier”. Wrong. Any officer in the Galytn Army can press charges without consulting with the Xhosa soldier, on security grounds.
“Which of course assumes that Galytn actually has a similar legal system to the USA.” At base, there only two legal systems in all Earth: adversarial and investigatory. The important question is, given the history of Galytn, would it have an investigatory legal system? These legal systems do not have a jury, and both the prosecutor and the defending lawyer are considered assistants to the Investigating Magistrate rather than representing the accused and the State.
“Concepts like Assault and Battery may not exist in that form in that jurisdiction.” Concepts of Assault and Battery are common across all jurisdictions, they are fundamental to all crimes of violence.
But she is not an American soldier. She is a civilian consultant with Archon.
She is also most definitely not a human and while laws apply to her while on Earth, she does not think like a human. Not remotely. It has been shown again and again that consent is a concept she has at best a nodding acquaintance with.
Does that make it right what she did? That is actually a surprisingly difficult question to answer. She invaded that soldier’s personal space in a major way and initiated physical contact without even bothering to explain what she wanted to do. On the other hand, she did not harm the soldier nor take something from her. Knowledge of a language is not privileged information, nor is it valuable (as everybody who lives in that region will start to absorb that knowledge simply by overhearing it. Dabbler simply condensed years of effort into a few seconds of physical contact). It is hard to say if any particular judge would convict her of battery given that there was no threat and no indication that the soldier could reasonably feel threatened. Some would and some wouldn’t. But the only person who can press charges is the soldier and she would have to do it in a Galytn court (which Dabbler’s status with Archon would not protect her against). Which of course assumes that Galytn actually has a similar legal system to the USA. Concepts like Assault and Battery may not exist in that form in that jurisdiction.
Not actually disagreeing with your post – just elaborating on it.
“But she is not an American soldier. She is a civilian consultant with Archon.”
Yes, but an American citizen. She said she was a legal citizen (somehow, despite how she would have HAD to lie on her documents in order to become an American citizen). Citizens who are contractors for the armed forces still have to follow rules. They just can’t be court martialed. They can be arrested or sued instead.
Not that I’m suggesting she should be.
“She is also most definitely not a human and while laws apply to her while on Earth, she does not think like a human.”
That’s not really a good excuse. If you’re from a country where you’re allowed to have sex with 13 year olds, and you come to the US and become an American citizen, you can’t have sex with 13 year olds. You have to follow the laws of the country of which you are a citizen, and claiming ignorance because you were brought up differently does not really fly in a court or with the police.
“It has been shown again and again that consent is a concept she has at best a nodding acquaintance with.”
It’s more that she never has a lack of willing partners. But that’s for sex so it’s not surprising, given she’s literally built to drive guys (and girls) wild with sexual desire. But yeah, as seen from what she tried with Maxima once before getting put through a wall, she has, or at least had, a problem with boundaries. She doesnt seem as respectful of them as some other succubi, who are better about it.
But the whole using powers to invade privacy is another thing entirely.
“On the other hand, she did not harm the soldier nor take something from her.”
It’s still technically assault, if not assault and battery. But like I said, Dabbler tends to prefer to ask for forgiveness than permission and it seems unlikely the Galytn soldier is going to complain about it after the fact. She’s more surprised than anything.
“Knowledge of a language is not privileged information, nor is it valuable”
Actually it is technically privileged information, since it was residing in her brain and it should be up to her whether to share that info or not. And it is valuable, because Dabbler wanted it. That gives it value. :)
“It is hard to say if any particular judge would convict her of battery given that there was no threat and no indication that the soldier could reasonably feel threatened.”
Okay just to clear things up. There’s assault, and there’s battery.
Assault is intentionally putting another person in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. The reasonable apprehension is based on the soldier’s view of if it’s offensive or not, or if she’s in apprehension or not. It’s not dependent on Dabbler’s view of it. What Dabbler did IS clearly assault. The soldier was apprehensive based on he body language and exclamation made. If the soldier considered it an invasion of privacy (which it was) then if she thinks it’s offensive, then it’s offensive. And it was definitely contact. It’s also very reasonable to not expect someone to put a probe on your head and copy your language from your brain without waiting for an answer.
Battery, on the other hand, is a physical act that results in harmful or offensive contact with another person without that person’s consent. Again, offensive contact is based on reasonableness on the part of the plaintiff’s view, not the defendant’s view. It was a physical act. The probe things clearly do touch her. There was no consent given yet when she did it. And invasion of privacy of ones mind can be considered offensive.
Soooo yeah, it was assault and battery, most likely.
But like you said, if the soldier doesnt want to do anything about it, it’s not a problem. A judge WOULD find her guilty though if the soldier sued, assuming Galytn laws are similar to US laws when it comes to assault and battery, like you aptly suggested.
Dabbler would certainly appreciate the Tamaraneans method of learning languages.
Would that be considered a violation of mental autonomy?/s
Xhosa is a pretty cool language, but notoriously difficult to learn as an adult because it depends on throat-clicks that physically change your throat over time. If you can absolutely, perfectly memorize everything about the vocabulary and grammar, you would still sound off because you haven’t been making those clicks since childhood.
So the only reason the big takeaway here is about Alari body-sculpting is because we ALREADY knew the succubus would have a talented throat.
Hee hee… that ass could be within your grasp. I see what you did there.
Faster than a Vulcan mind meld, I’ll give her that.
Someone needs the Polyglot Feat from 3e, but I’m doubting anyone is smart enough to get it, and I doubt Dabbler would want to spend an hour learning a language when she can steal it in seconds.
seriously, I figured she learned a language like a Tamaranian and would just kiss them, this is a missed opportunity lol
Except this is arguably funnier, and forcing a kiss on somebody is a fair bit over the line of sexual assault. Dave almost certainly would not (or did not) feel comfortable with the implications such a scene would have.
Panel #1 is making me wince in pain at what Dabbler’s spine is doing. I mean, sure, that’s a pose that humans are physically capable of performing but it will hurt after less than a minute. It’s probably easier for succubi, although I don’t think she does it normally
Sticking her ass out may very well be the default Succubus spinal position.
I mean, yes, but…
(a) Pretty much all supers and super-adjascent people seem to have that power in addition to all others, without even the need for a lampshade, and…
(b) given that she has four arms, I think we shouldn’t be assuming things about her skeleton based on the human baseline.
honestly given her biological heritage it could be presumptuous to assume she even has bones in the Earthly sense, it could all be flexible hydraulic rods and woven structural support fibers, Would give her than “anime” elasticity if you know what I mean.
Sydney, you’re ALREADY IN THE DOGHOUSE over having lied about the orbs’ origin… and now this?
Archon’s next step is going to be to sit Sydney down with an Archon telepath and have her brain scanned to confirm she’s not hiding anything else, and then implant a subconscious imperative not to hold out on her bosses like this ever again.
And that’s where you find out the Com orb makes her completely immune to telepathic scans. She’s even resistant to Deus’ uncanny capacity to know things he shouldn’t, or else he would have realized it was her on Fracture station.
The orbs’ stealth function extends to her to some extent.
its like the Oldest House- you can’t find it without its permission. the stealth field even affects the appropriations committees. they appropriate the money without knowing or caring for what.
We don’t know how Deus’ ability works – maybe it doesn’t give him random useful information unprompted, but rather answers to specific questions in some way.
Or he doesn’t have a power and the thinker is an employee.
We can’t expect his ability to normally show him that kind of thing.
It’s funny to see people complaining that what Dabbler just did was inappropriate, and then to see people suggest even worse things be done to Dabbler and Sydney both.
There’s a difference between Xuriel Tantalis and Syddles. Dabbler is supposed to be a LOT more mature, where Syddles does require mild doses of meth to function “properly”. Worse, magic or no, Xuriel’s equipment is centuries more advanced than anything on Earth. Strong people don’t rape and pillage, only the weak-as-piss louts do that.
Now I’m an atheist, but I see the moral value taught in churches and mosques. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, visiting Australia some decades ago was asked on ABC News about “forgiving”. “Forgiveness is predicated on repentance. Repentance is predicated on restitution.” Pander made the point that Xuriel spends most of her time asking for forgiveness instead of asking for permission: “Sexy women get a lot of leeway on this aspect of life.” Remember what Syddles did to Xuriel after a night of getting past the sex-spell Xuriel used to warm her up? Xuriel Tantalis is nothing more than a spoilt brat. She needs, desperately, to make restitution to many people, including some of her own kind.
—-
I do agree, Syddles needs to work on doing things for herself. Those specs? Wear them by all means. But when she’s doing weapons practice? Take the bloody specs OFF. Aim the bloody gun the hard way like we all had to. Maybe she should consider having her script rebuilt by her optometrist, so she can tuck Cora’s gift someplace where she can reach it quickly when she really does need a trick up her sleeve.
Love your post a TON. Disagree a bit with the last paragraph though. Hear me out on my argument on this, I know it’s a bit of an iffy argument I’m making but…
“Those specs? Wear them by all means. But when she’s doing weapons practice? Take the bloody specs OFF. ”
Sydney is on a team with people who, as part of their basic genetic makeup, will often never get tired, are naturally many times stronger and have better eyesight and athletics than a peak olympian, and they CAN’T just turn it off when, for example, running on the track or climbing the wall. Sydney is naturally nearsighted. She needs glasses to see. Sure, the glasses she now has also helps with he aiming, but how is that really that much different than the idea of glasses in general helping with her vision to begin with? If we are going to say ‘she needs to be able to start at the same level that other archon members are at, not above it, then very often that might be simply possible because it would REQUIRE her to be superhuman in the first place, or have years of training already under her belt.
It would be similar to saying that Peggy should not be allowed to take advantage of not only the genetically reproduced leg from Cora, but even her artificial leg made on Earth. In the case of the artificial leg, it actually does give her an advantage over other people (see the story about the Blade Runner a few years ago), where there was a legitimate question about if high tech prostheses gave runners an unfair advantage in races or long jumps (see Markus Rehm during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics). If we’re talking about the Gene Forge leg, how do we know that it isnt vastly superior to Peggy’s original leg? We don’t. But either way, she should be allowed to have it and be tested while using it.
“Aim the bloody gun the hard way like we all had to.”
Do they all really have to do it the hard way though in the first place? Supers are already basically at LEAST peak human physicality, which probably includes eyesight and hand-eye coordination (with the exception of Ren, whos power actually works against him on having a steady aim). But if they could give Ren something which helped counter that, why would it not be fair to let him use that when testing? Or to help him train in how to use his adrenaline powers to take BETTER shots (time slows down for him when using his powers, it means he can have a much longer time to aim at a target properly before taking the shot – the obstacle course would be a LOT less of a problem for Ren than for Sydney or almost any other newbie.
“Maybe she should consider having her script rebuilt by her optometrist, so she can tuck Cora’s gift someplace where she can reach it quickly when she really does need a trick up her sleeve.”
I don’t know. Have you ever played The Last of Us? There’s a feature that’s a normal part of the game where Joel basically has ‘super hearing powers’ where, if he concentrates on listening, you are able to see where others are behind walls, in the dark, etc. It’s meant to show how good his sense of hearing is but it makes the game a LOT more playable, even though it comes off as a superpower.
Now you can play on ‘Grounded’ level, where you don’t have that ability, but it makes the game insanely difficult as a result. Even at hard level, you can have the ‘echo location’ feature. Why play on the absolute hardest level though if it seems that the game is saying ‘this is fine with echolocation’?
And before anyone says ‘but no one else has the advantage of Sydney’s glasses’ – well… most don’t have Anvil’s advantage of how every footfall she makes while jogging actually makes her stronger and faster. Most don’t have Achilles’ ability to NEVER get fatigued. Most are not naturally many many many times stronger than a peak level human. Most don’t have the possibly naturally occurring non-Super genetic gifts of Mathias when it comes to fighting or Peggy when it comes to aimingg or Duke when it comes to just looking like a badass who can trade wounds with a speedster and still live and give some wounds back.
To quote Mr. Burns, although I’m not so sure how what Sydney is doing is cheating in this PARTICULAR instance:
“If you can take advantage of a situation in some way, it’s your duty as an American to do it! Why should the race always be to the swift, or the jumble to the quick-witted? Should they be allowed to win merely because of the gifts that GOD gave them? Well I say… ‘Cheating is the gift man gives himself!'”
:)
I would think it’s good practice for Sydney to learn her weapons technique without these glasses as well. If these break, she’d be next to useless in any firefight unless she learned to aim (I believe Sydney is far-sighted so at least she’d be able to shoot at more distant targets without her specs).
The whole Velma ‘m-my glasses’ thing during the restaurant fight made me assume that she is nearsighted.
Near-sighted is more likely, but if I remember correctly the ‘Velma’ act at the Restaurant Rumble was just that – an act, in order to fool
Mister Homerunthe Shadow Boxer into a false sense of security. “No-one is that blind.”Without her glasses in general, Sydney is next to useless in any firefight
If Sydney is reduced to using her sidearm in a fight, then the fight has already gone fifty shades brown (including that shade only babies can produce)
True, it would be better if she learned properly, but this work-around does the job. Sydney will rarely use her gun anyway, and if her glasses break, she’ll probably have trouble aiming anyway due to her nearsightedness, so it will rarely matter.
It would be nice to have, but there so much important stuff that Sydney actually needs to learn that the time investment is better spent other things. There already cutting loads of corners to get Sydney ready, and this is a pretty minor one.
I was more referring to Sydney having to get replacement glasses without these options, in which case she’d be screwed in a firefight regardless of whether she can see her target.
Also, regarding her sight problem, I went by the details in the bishounen deck poker game page with Krona and Harem. Sydney’s distant view outside her glasses was clear, her distance view through the lenses was blurry, and her close-by view through the lenses was clear. I’m near-sighted myself and everything is pretty much the reverse for me, hence why I felt Sydney would be far-sighted.
Depends, those glasses are probably doing a great job of teaching her to point shoot.
Agreed. Her weapons training isn’t a sports competition where fairness matters. Her gun is a tool she needs for her job, and all Archon cares about is that job being done well.
Thank you for the praise :)
I do appreciate your take on Syddles’ needs and relatively lower physical attributes. It is a truism that she will never be in the same class as the Supers.
But that is (in my book) the very reason she needs to do the hard yards, all the time, all nine of them. Syddles *is* far-sighted, I forget the reference, I’m pretty sure DaveB mentioned it in a blog. And, as KFox says, “If these break…” Have you ever participated in competion shooting, or archery? They are the very peak of human competitive endeavour, where every attribute you have is brought into play: concentration, physical fitness, patience, observation…
Syddles CANNOT afford to take ANY easy path, simply because she. is. NOT. a. Super. She’s “only” a human, and that’s the cost of playing with the big kids. The same applies to Ren: he needs to learn how to use his powers to slow himself down, make time work for him in a new and terrifying fashion.
And for Guesticules: we have already seen the reason why Syddles’ sidearm could well be the solution to an ugly problem. Go back to Maxi pointing her finger… Her sight is only a problem if she cannot focus on her wrist-band.
Said used in a fight, not used to prevent a fight, which is the reason Maxi has one
Sydney is a tool-using hero, like say, Iron Man. Her using the glasses for various things isn’t all that different from her using her orbs.
Yes thats a large point of my argument. Totally agree. :)
Honestly surprised the whole area doesn’t have some translator field or translation spell in effect using either tech Deus got from Fracture or Demonic magic.
and a non-painful, despite tentacles, language acquiring method,
*eyeballs the Amana practically giving people seizures as they probe their brains and acquire their languages*.
(also most demons, the language acuisitiion psionic spell…let’s just say I went the painful and invasive path this type of thing can go*, like an overpowering energy field pulsating the brain to read the different pathways and determine which ones relate to language and then recode this so the user can understand.
and Dabbler is just, painless blip blip. Although being a bio-mechanical sex doll in origin one supposes (learn the language of sexual partner) comes across much better in the form of rubbing tentacles on their head as opposed to (behold my oiverwhelming presence as I rip what I need to convey this from your soft ephemeral thought core_
There may be an intermediate design between individual/one-to-one and area-effect/all-to-all translator spells. Consider a spell that hears the words of anyone within the given area, but only gives the translation to a few individuals (for some selection criteria: designated at spell start, carrying the right token, wearing the right tech, etc.). That would be especially useful for security situations such as this, where the guards could understand anything that the subjects say without having their own discussions broadcast.
the funny thing with Sidney is, either she comes out with the glasses…which are a security breach…and she really should have told Maxima WAY before now.
or they will start to suspect she is some kind of alien masquerading as a human.
There’s a long, long list of things she should have told Maxima before now, and by now Maxima undoubtedly knows it.
The Archon crew get extremely lenient treatment for military, because they’re all unique and basically irreplaceable people who could pull down mega salaries elsewhere if they wanted. And Halo is at this point arguably the 2nd most powerful super on Earth, (I say 2nd because Maxima could probably take her in a pinch, especially if she didn’t know it was coming.) and still growing.
As long as she demonstrates acceptable motivations, and obeys orders, Maxima is going to give her time to spill the beans at her own pace. Not because that makes Maxima happy, just because Halo doesn’t have to work for them, and is really useful.
> I say 2nd because Maxima could probably take her in a pinch, especially if she didn’t know it was coming.
If Halo gets her shield up it comes down to if Max can hit it harder than the squidwards. Which is an open question.
Sydny really needs to take that Shield Orb passive already.
I have been wondering if, instead of the shield passive literally being a ‘passive lower level shield’, that the shield orb passive might instead be like… an early warning detection like a ‘spidey sense’ of when she SHOULD put the shield up before she actually has to? Yknow, something that might help her to know that she has to put her shield up before it’s actually necessary, sort of like how the featherfall lets her know she needs to grab her fly orb before it’s actually necessary.
or a combination of the two, link a smaller defense aura shield to a reflex action when detecting a potential threat.
Sydney can probably flee faster than Maxima, and certainly has a higher operational ceiling. So she could, at the least, run away like nobody’s business.
I think it’s a toss up whether her shield would take Maxima’s top end blast. I think it’s pretty clear that Maxima is fast enough to dodge anything Halo sent her way.
And without her shield up she’s just your average squishy human.
So, if Sydney knows it’s coming, she just runs away. If she doesn’t know it’s coming, she’s toast.
But, in terms of alternate employment? Just how much do you think Halo could pull down from various space agencies? Her horses would have their own infinity pools! Certainly, Deus wouldn’t mind having her on the payroll.
So, yeah, they have to treat her with kid gloves in a way they wouldn’t a regular recruit.
“either she comes out with the glasses…which are a security breach…”
I am confused about why it would be a security breach.
“and she really should have told Maxima WAY before now”
Sydney does very much want to have an ‘ace in the hole’ just in case. The eyeglasses have already come in useful in this respect once, when Sydney was captured and unable to use her orbs by people who had an active understanding of how her powers work. If Sydney did not have her glasses and her glasses were not ‘secret’…. she would probably be dead by now.
How is it not a security breach for Sydney to constantly wear a 2-way intergalactic commset that broadcasts her location (and possibly POV), analyzes her environment to provide a HUD, lets her send and receive untraceable messages, and monitors and translates everything she hears? O_o
Sure, the glasses have already been super useful for her and the team, and doubtless will be again. But who knows what Cora the cold-blooded mercenary could or would do with that data (current and historic) given the proper motivation? I don’t think she’d ever want to betray Sydney, but what if she / her crew is being tortured, or even if her ship is captured/hacked, say by the Xevoarchy as part of a campaign to lock down Earth’s power?
Archon/Light/Dark should all have had a proper debriefing with the team after the Times Square fight(s), including exactly how Cora recovered Sydney – not just left it at Max asking ‘what happened’). It doesn’t matter that they were a present from a new friend, all 3 branches should be thoroughly freaked out about the glasses until they get some very specific, independently verifiable answers about their capabilities.
“How is it not a security breach for Sydney to constantly wear a 2-way intergalactic commset that broadcasts her location (and possibly POV), analyzes her environment to provide a HUD, lets her send and receive untraceable messages, and monitors and translates everything she hears? ”
With the exception of ‘intergalactic’ I think i can do most of that on my smartphone using the proper apps. :)
Still not sure how it’s a security breach though. We havent seen anything showing that it can do anything that would actually be a communications breach at all. Also there’s nothing that says it can broadcast her location without her first allowing her location to be sent, like she did when she was taken hostage. And NOTHING saying that it can show her POV at all, and even if it did, I’m suspecting it would be like Google Glass where you have to allow that first. In any case, I don’t see the security breach yet.
“But who knows what Cora the cold-blooded mercenary could or would do with that data (current and historic) given the proper motivation?”
I suspect anything Cora could do could be countered by Dabbler. Dabbler is a lot smarter than Cora.
“I don’t think she’d ever want to betray Sydney, but what if she / her crew is being tortured, or even if her ship is captured/hacked, say by the Xevoarchy as part of a campaign to lock down Earth’s power?”
This seems like an odd scenario that you’re presupposing. Also not that good a plan by the Xevoarchy should it occur. Not to mention Cora isnt exactly on the Xevoarchy’s side. She bypassed Xevoarchy rules already more than a few times, including getting Sydney back to Earth in the first place.
“Archon/Light/Dark should all have had a proper debriefing with the team after the Times Square fight(s), including exactly how Cora recovered Sydney”
Fair point, I guess. Seems like a missed opportunity for them to explain about the glasses.
“all 3 branches should be thoroughly freaked out about the glasses until they get some very specific, independently verifiable answers about their capabilities.”
Somehow I suspect Dabbler already knows about them and trusts Cora not to be using them to spy on ARCHON. She dida thorough scan of the barette even, remember.
Rhuen already mentioned most of my counterpoints below, but I will add that smartphones are also a security nightmare and the comparison only support my stance. One of the first things Leon did, on her very first day on the team, was take Sydney’s phone, reset all her passwords, and install a password manager, with a promise of more security measures to follow the next day. Max got a new phone directly from Leon just minutes after crushing hers, so we can safely assume the entire team’s phones are typically issued and tightly controlled by Archon IT.
“One of the first things Leon did, on her very first day on the team, was take Sydney’s phone, reset all her passwords, and install a password manager, with a promise of more security measures to follow the next day.”
Those were for HER security of not getting hacked due to all the additional attention on her. Not because of a security threat to ARCHON.
Nevertheless, you and Rhuen made some excellent points and I’m convinced. I just don’t think she did someting illegal, but I can see how it could be considered a potential security breach now.
Oh sure, nothing illegal about Sydney having the glasses, although there may be some team policies that address it (or there will be when they find out). But definitely ill-advised for her to not put any shiny new toys directly into a lead-lined box and have ArcLight/Dark/IT check them out before using them.
Fair enough. :) Good points made.
Just like how they know everything about her orbs, or the powers of any of the other supers on the team. They rely on a bunch of unknowns. They rely on Dabbler and her tech as well, despite her refusing to allow them to examine it.
what Brichins said for the most part.
Archon needs to know about them and analyze what they can do.
Pander, you can’t take any unauthorized communication, recording, or detection equipment into a secure government building…you can’t even take a fircken toy like a Furby into such buildings.
Sidney may be a potential Omega level super…hell that’s MORE reason to be certain other parties aren’t and Can’t collect information from within Archon, especially where Sidney is concerned.
Honestly the fact Cora suspected Sidney is walking around with Nth tech *even if just tier 4* (Multi Galaxy level civilizations), this is reason enough for Cora to want to collect more information just in case Sidney leads them to more “buried treasure”. Sidney has her orbs, monitor her, suspect there is more too her, and see if she leads you back to a treasure chest of Nth tech.
this may be some high suspicions, but it is the kind of thing to consider when third parties are involved. Not to mention just general security issues.
Hell Maxima sent a rebreather from Deus (who has a contract with them for tech) to be analyzed before field use. Cora is not above this level of concern.
And, when was the last time we saw Sydney wearing that headband from the other succubus?
I guess those are all good points.
Sydney’s orbs are also a security breach, I would think
the only one that is, is the true sight and that scenario already played out. When she saw through Dabbler’s beauty is in the eye of the beholder glamour, and X’s ilussion based camo.
also why she had to be briefed on all the veil stuff anyway as she was able to see through it, so they covered their butts quickly to let her know and let her know it was all classified.
however other on-site issues, since they know they will likely due the smart thing and implement (closing doors) rather than put up illusions for anything she isn’t supposed to see.
if she was hanging around the twilight council guys who rely more on magic solutions it would be more of a problem, like how she noticed and investigated out of curiosity that hidey hole full of magic trinkets.
“the only one that is, is the true sight and that scenario already played out”
A few others might be as well.
The unknown one, for example.
Also they were not sure if the life support one was, which is why she had to be by the mass spectrometer. :)
> Sydney does very much want to have an ‘ace in the hole’ just in case. The eyeglasses have already come in useful in this respect once, when Sydney was captured and unable to use her orbs by people who had an active understanding of how her powers work. If Sydney did not have her glasses and her glasses were not ‘secret’…. she would probably be dead by now.
There’s a difference between keeping secret from the public and hiding from your allies. The LLC has never been shown to have any intel about the orbs that wasn’t publicly available. While one can always imagine a situation where hiding information from your allies just in case might be beneficial, but it’s more likely to backfire.
“There’s a difference between keeping secret from the public and hiding from your allies.”
Sydney’s just trying to be secure in case of Dark Maxima. :)
“The LLC has never been shown to have any intel about the orbs that wasn’t publicly available. While one can always imagine a situation where hiding information from your allies just in case might be beneficial, but it’s more likely to backfire.”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-741-high-level-meeting/
(panels 1, 2, 3, and 4)
Sydney: “So, to someone with the resources to legitimately plan ourdemise, would SOME information about us being ‘classified’ present ANY sort of obstacle?”
Maxima: “I get it, Sydney. You think having some truly off-the-books abilities could be clutch against a well prepared adversary.”
There are additional possible levels of secrecy. I’m not saying put in her dossier, but telling her CO at least will be beneficial and barely increase risk. As Maxima correctly points out, someone who can gleam secret information from Maxima’s mind can also likely take it from Sydney’s mind, so keeping her abilities secret is preparing for a very specific situation – in all other situations, all you’re doing is putting your allies at an information disadvantage, and also yourself, because you’re depriving yourself of their optimal assistance and advice.
If wanting to be prepared for a fairly unlikely situation involves being at a disadvantage in more likely situations, the tradeoff’s probably not worth it.
In this case it’s even worse, because there’s no way to keep the information contained to Sydney – Cora at least knows about it, likely her crew too, and a bunch of other people with background in Clarketech should be able to get that kind of information too.
> Sydney’s just trying to be secure in case of Dark Maxima. :)
Okay, but what about Maxima being secure in case of Dark Halo*? Again we see, you can’t prepare against every eventuality, you have to make tradeoffs at some point.
*A badass villain name if I’ve ever seen one.
And if Dark Maxima is as competent as normal Maxima, she will take out Halo first, and Halo can’t defend against an ambush from Maxima.
“I’m not saying put in her dossier, but telling her CO at least will be beneficial and barely increase risk.”
I know. And it’s a good point which Maxima did say on that same page. I’m just arguing Sydney’s probable mindset about it. :)
“Okay, but what about Maxima being secure in case of Dark Halo*? ”
That reminds me of a back-and-forth between Batman and Superman in Justice League: Doom.
https://youtu.be/Vxqq83_okxs?t=71
Superman: “With all that talk about unchecked power, you are so arrogant that you didn’t bother to come up with a plan to stop yourself?”
Batman: [after a pause] “I do have a plan. It’s called the Justice League.”
Superman: “Just wanted to be sure.” (then he gives Batman the Kryptonite bullet – Superman doesnt know that Batman actually has a TON of kryptonite in the Batcave, as well as every variable color of it, just in case he needs it)