Grrl Power #1097 – Completionist
Sydney didn’t read ahead in the script or anything, she just guessed that if a smaller country is going to have some supers passing through, they might have a task or two they could use help with. She didn’t consider most places would be fairly prideful and not want to admit they need help with anything, or would at least want to keep the assistance off the record, but sometimes you’ve got a to do list and you can never quite seem to get to the items that are like 7th or 8th from the top and then your big strong neighbor wanders by asking for a favor and you think “I have been meaning to break down that heavy ass swingset in the backyard that the kids haven’t played on in 5 years and it’s starting to rust…” So yeah, it’s like that.
Once America outed Supers and were like “They’re real and by the way we’ve got the first super cops,” most other countries followed suit. Many of them already had Supers working for the government in one capacity or another, but now most of them can actually attribute that line item in their budget to something tangible. Now many countries have a prominent Super Team of some flavor, usually at least one of whom is branded with a modicum of national identity. Some countries have split the load, putting out a highly prominent “PR” team of flashy-but-less-trained-for-crisis Supers that spend a lot of time on public appearances, and another team of certified low-key bad-asses. Obviously the working lunches when the two teams meet can be a little awkward. America is trying to have it both ways with a single team, but while Maxima is fine with delivering a poignant speech to the graduating class of the USAF Academy or other relevant and significant events, she has little patience for answering “Who are you wearing?” at red carpet events or movie premieres. As she is largely the face of the team, alongside Sydney, which was unplanned, and Harem (planned, but has proven to be undisciplined) and Dabbler (unpredictable), the PR team is still trying to ease Maxima into a mindset where she could go on late night talk shows without too much eye-rolling. Actually, the most reliable PR workhorse has been Hiro, though we haven’t seen much of that in the comic.
The October Vote Incentive is up!
Why did it take so long? I couldn’t tell you. Well, I hand drew the lace on Lorlara’s body stocking, so that took about an hour by itself. Anyway, it’s likely the next one will be single character, and hopefully it won’t be so late. Usually with fewer characters I can do more outfit variants but we’ll see.
So I have enough “Blue Babes” to do a theme. Eventually I’ll be able to fill in the whole rainbow of my own characters. I did a rainbow lineup previously for those who hadn’t seen it. I’d love to revisit that one of these days.
Enjoy variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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The comment regarding being uninvited in a foreign nation had me think of the question: Did Sydney have an overflight permit for all countries she was passing over?
Most likely not, but if they fly high enough it doesn’t really matter – and they could easily fly at 30-40km or higher (especially a good idea if you set your cruise speed at Mach 10)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1094-exodont/ seems to me to be within the “needs permit” range. Shure they could outrun all immediate pursuers. But not political issues.
They regularly violate the laws of physics, do you think international treaties mean anything to them?
If international treaties can be enforced by supers that also violate the laws of physics? Yes.
Yes it’s like with Schlock Mercenary where I thought the lawyer guy was superfluous to requirements, turns out he’s the reason that they’re not being chased by the Navy. He’s REALLY IMPORTANT…
Yes. Firstly we’ve seen that they’re not sociopaths, but even villains have to land and play nicely with others at some point. Unless they make/grow all their own needs on a private island, but even then it’s just impractical to blow off everyone you want to trade with.
“High enough” means at least 100 km. Although there are no treaties defining the point where airspace (owned by the country) becomes outer space (owned by nobody), the FAI (about as authoritative a non-government body as you can get) puts the boundary at the Karman line.
Probably, since we have established that they have comms & IFF on Sydney’s bracelet. However they may well be “Unspecified Military Flight 42”. Also if they fly above flight level 600, they don’t need to. Air traffic control only goes so far.
honestly depends on their flight corridor and I.F.F. …. and if the places want to be put on the US’s Unfriendly list ….. this is africa after all ……
… Why does he look familiar?
Meaning, he looks like an actor or someone
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Can kinda see that, but DaveB has already had the real NDGT make an in-world appearance
I thought he looked like the “I’m getting too old for this” partner in the Lethal Weapon movies. Go-to grizzled but good-hearted cop image.
Danny Glover
Okay and I’m not the only one.
Mr Goldenfold the maths teacher from Rick and Morty maybe?
Uncle Phil.
Not the original, and refused to watch that bullshit remake
He looks a bit like a young Danny glover to me, but the chin is wrong.
I’d say Robert DoQui.
Paul Winfield?
Or maybe Keith David when he used to sport that moustache like he dud in The Quick and The Dead?
Frederick Robert Williamson, is my bet. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm0004365%2F&psig=AOvVaw08m0N5Nvkh7hWUtecfNOBE&ust=1667393746805000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=2ahUKEwjA_4zxg437AhVmg2oFHZoqBVQQr4kDegUIARDsAQ
That looks like the guy (your linkage broke by the way)
My guess would be, his inspiration is Bubba Smith (Moses Hightower – Police Accademy Movies).
Dakar? Weren’t they in Saint-Louis?
The airport is in Dakar though
Oh no, this is going to turn into one of those “As usual…I have something else for you” sinks where turning in the sidequest triggers a new one, isn’t it? As a (slightly obsessive) completionist I find that quite annoying.
Yeah I’ve played enough RPG’s and JRPG’s to know the “One More Thing” will kick in sooner than later. You complete the side quest, return to claim the prize to discover the quest giver was either robbed or murdered and you have to track down those responsible etc…
Gotta pad the play-time! That got started because many players got sick of “grinding” for XP (myself included) but side quests rarely give as much XP as grinding would.
If your side quests give lower EXP rewards than just grinding would, your XP reward system is broken. Because you need to keep in mind that doing side quests also means defeating the enemies for those side quests, even if they’re just in the way when getting to the main objective. And if you’re going to kill 100 lions as part of your grinding, why not accept the quest from Uthgar loincloth maker asking you to bring back 20 pristine lion pelts, which have a 1 in 5 drop chance from the lions you’re killing.
Worse! One of them will be an… escort duty, with a suicidal snail, and you are NOT allowed to pick them up and carry them, and most specially not toss them five miles down the road!
And better still, you can’t sweep the path in advance because the enemies spawn is triggered by the suicidal snails proximity, AND you have to /emote at them every 20 feet to get them to keep moving. >_<
Hah, I have done several of the FF14 quests you’re referencing here and they are unbearable.
Try doing that with zombies, and while you are dealing with the spawns, that’s when they remember their legs can move fast (there is also a tether, if they get too far away, you have to start all over again)
and those escort morons are like villagers from minecraft, who you can’t push pull leash ot tie them up , stuff them in a box and fedex them cause it’s quicker.
It’s almost like we all speak the same language as Sydney.
The same horrible, horrible language of frustration and face-smashed keyboards…
If you want a game that will really case face smashing on keyboards, I recommend Project Zomboid. :)
Oh yeah, that’s a good game. Most of the face smashing is making a bad choice.
this is when you use google-fu and notepad++ or something better. I of course know nothing about that.
in my head, the song ‘Suicidal’ plays, but the word is replaced by sui-snail-dal
Please add that when you stop to deal with the spawn. The snail only stops if they are directly targeted and a fail point if they are killed. Other wise, while you are stuck they continue up their path triggering more stuff ahead of you now. . .
And to top it all off, the suicidal snail DOES have a ranged attack it can defend itself with… that does piss-all damage… and usually misses… and hits bystanders… and agros NPC villagers you would prefer to keep alive.
YES I’M STILL SALTY THANK YOU SKYRIM!
*twitches*
*patpat*
Taking people alive? How un-American can you get?????
(Well, at least according to many people who WANT to country to run that way, anyway)
As for permits? As SR-71 pilots how many of those they got. Speed is a hell of a permit in the air. On the ground, it gets you in trouble because it is VERY hard to outrun radios (or bullets, depending on location), but in the air, it solves all kinds of problems when no one can catch you.
In Sydney’s case, it’s normally “when nobody can catch you, or hurt you even if they did catch you.”
But at the speed she was moving, even towards the end, it’s generally impossible to even make a decision to do something before it’s too late; She comes over their border, two minutes later she’s left their airspace. You would literally have to have known she was coming, and pre-planned a response, to have done anything. The only way they could even have splashed a missile against her force field was to have launched it from somewhere ahead of her the instant they detected her.
Add to that, that she’d have a tiny radar cross section even assuming the force field reflects radar rather than just absorbing it. So they likely wouldn’t know she’d been up there.
ATC: [ To supervisor ] Hey, I just got a small flock of geese entering our airspace, moving at Mach 8.
that just made me giggle a lot
though to be fair…that size is usually filtered out by air traffic radar, because they would be getting a lot of false positives and noise on their radar screen
Yeah, was gonna mention how pilots don’t usually have to worry about permits if they are flying over, only need a permit if you plan on spending time in one place
Depends on how hostile the super is. If they’re somewhat potentially manageable, then the gov would like them turned over. If they’re someone that that requires super-max because of powers and/or personality, then having them killed during capture is not only fine but expected.
A real life Joker or other super powered serial mass murderer would be killed by the authorities because they’re very likely to do their thing again. A real life Superman would be authorized (and encouraged) to use deadly force just like the cops are. If he’s unable or unwilling to use deadly force then someone else will play executioner later.
it always amazes me the tripping hazards that come up in custody. honestly I have no idea how that one managed to trip and fall down 5 flights of stairs. well, gotta write reports. paperwork never ends.
Some of the most ludicrous tripping hazards are true.
I just took my mother grocery shopping and she tripped on one of the painted lines in the parking lot. If I had not seen it I would not have believed it.
Yes she is fine. More annoyed because she knows I will mention it.
I’ve actually seen someone trip over their own shadow, once. No, it wasn’t me. Honest.
Dogs. I swear I have seen dogs trip on the most absurd things.
The boundary between the dining area and the living room. Just, trip. . .
Floor change from wood to carpet, trip.
This probably does not count. But dog (or cat) racing on any surface, then reaching linoleum. F1 and Nascar combined wince at some of those crashes.
Sydney’s glasses, can translate for her.
Graffiti in tiny letters on the bottom floor of that staircase: Shlepstein didn’t kill himself.
> On the ground, it gets you in trouble because it is VERY hard to outrun radios (or bullets, depending on location), but in the air, it solves all kinds of problems when no one can catch you.
The fastest bullets go about Mach 2. Sydney was keeping the speed down by flying at Mach 10.
One simple question does anyone – except Dabbler – in the team Speaks French ?
In Dakar it’s very handy to speak French and in lesser extend Wolof.. Na nga def ? phonetics nan͜gadɛf…
If Keya is french speaking it will be an asset because in the team , she is not a toubab -white – or a weird and sexy alien…
Why do you think the official is looking at Kenya (with a goofy grin)?
Kenya is the Commanding Officer for the group. So she does the talking and makes the decision.
She is a gift from the heavens. Three world powerful supers have dropped in and need his help, he’s going to use them to solve a problem he can’t otherwise solve.
Dabbler can look however she wants to look though
Maybe Sydney’s brown orb is a translator and they haven’t found out yet…
That’d be the territory of her com ball. And she has smart glasses to handle the rest. She’s gonna find things reading signs before Dabbler can cast magic.
The ship is missing a computer and translator at the moment. We’d expect translation (at least) to be in the comm orb, though.
Another possibility, it is missing a cloaking, or disguise option, then again it may already be by default just small grab convenient dots with most of them positioned in a parallel dimensional space.
But why they call it Comm Orb? It allows you to see things ‘invisible’, auras and through illusions and to see at a distance via hologram (and teleport). It does more sensors than communications.
Because the sensors and communications are the aspects of the comm orb that are not classified, and narjeting needs to name the orbs so kids can collect them all for their birthdays and christmas/hannukah, etc. :)
Narjeting = marketing. Stupid virtual keyboards
The ship is missing engineering (power core) and a medical bay (Healing) along with entertainment (illusions/hard light constructs?). Don’t mention the whip, now…
Her glasses are a translator… that only works one way…. okay, that might be a problem.
Depending on her focus here options she might get the glasses to list reply phrases for her to read out.
Genre savvy Sydney strikes again!
Sometimes “genre savvy” amounts to “real-world-politics-savvy”. It was an even-money bet.
Whaaaaa? Games prepare you for real-world situations?? I disbelieve.
you fail. you are now required to rp out believing that. might I recommend Control as a disaster preparedness class?
Control the video game? Same universe as Quantum Break?
No, this Control.
Control is basically how I play the Idealist faction of the Technocracy.
Which Convention? I’m partial to Iteration X and Void Engineers.
no same universe as Alan Wake. Remedy put Quantum break references in it, but as said they are not part of the same universe.
https://control.fandom.com/wiki/Remedy_Connected_Universe#:~:text=The%20Remedy%20Connected%20Universe%20is%20known%20to%20include%20Alan%20Wake,universe%20is%20not%20yet%20known.
I thought Quantum Break, Control and Alan Wake are all in the same shared universe.
they are building an Alan wake 2 which after the encounter with Alan in the dlc is likely to be very very weird. I’m wondering how Control 2 is gonna work, and if I’ll still be young enough to pretend to play it when it comes out.
I’m looking forward to Quantum Break 2. The end of that game definitely left an opening for a sequel.
I havent finished Control yet so don’t tell me what happens. :)
buy the DLC. the *redacted* and the *redacted* are fun. though what you have to do to get the Cat Ears is *REALLY REDACTED*
sorry for all the spoilers.
why yes I read the files I found. why do you ask?
… didn’t tabletop gaming begin with Kriegsspiel?
I play Project Zomboid as a preparedness tool for when the inevitable zombie apocalypse happens. :)
Once the orbs are charged up,they resume their journey home and along the way, Anvil spots a ship and convinces Sydney and Dabbler to board it.
Once onboard,they encounter a crew of modern pirates who bear an uncanny resemblance to the pirates from the Asterix comics-right down to their lookout!
Nah, Hagar the Horrible and his Vikings :)
no a bunch of sentient vegetables and fruits who are even more ineffective than Pander’s Ninja services. exactly how they ended up a sea is a long story involving a three headed monkey.
And the ship’s captain is Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate!
They are hard working honest ninja folks who are admittedly not great at brutally assassinating you all!
You could say they’re hard Li working.
Li works hardest of them all!
I see you’re Wi Ling to provide them with job opportunities.
*goes to buy Ninja repellent*
Better buy a truckload of that repellent after that pun!
I would pay good money to see Sydney drop in on Hagar and crew! :)
Who can imagine how Anvil would react when one of those pirates would refer to her as “that fat Gaul”….?!?
Someday all the “real” supers will come to trust Sydney’s innate ability to spot the common tropes that plague super heroes. But what’s the comedy in that? ;)
Before cartoons had their own channels Saturday cartoons were the norm for decades and I recall my sons watched a Jackie Chan toon where his Uncle(?) was his sensi and his task master. His trademark line was “One more thing” in a heavy accent.
And that’s what we might see happen here, for every successful “side quest” there will be 2 more. WoW and Baldor’s Gate were very bad about that!
I just love how much casual gambling they do.
Sydney should have made it 5 each.
She lost the bet though
the sequence of those two panels makes it seem like Sidney is paying up, however the context of the page implies the comical outcome of Sidney being right.
suggestion, maybe DaveB could put a little arrow to describe the direction of the transaction.
Am I the only one who’s a little unclear on whether or not Sydney won or lost the bet?
… With a grin like that? Totally lost
Nope, she won.
Yes, it’s just you.
Definitely not just you. I headed down into the comments to look for an explanation of what’s going on. The tapping on the arm that says “pay up!” on the one hand, and Sydney’s smug expression on the other.
I think the tapping is supposed to communicate “Don’t you dare say a word. I’m thinking.”, but I can see how it could easily be interpreted otherwise.
Sydney is still thinking with her “Average Salary” not poor but not rich brain for bets it seems.
At that pay level it’s all about who won, the $5 is just symbolic of that.
It’s not always about the money.
I remember hearing someone point out that money has mass. so its also about how much she has in her wallet. the distance from here to an ATM that spits out dollars is not a minor number when one can no longer just go mach 5 on command.
Early days of EverQuest II, money did have weight, and it didn’t auto-upscale to the next value coin, so you could end up with a couple thousand pieces of copper, and barely move because your encumbrance was trashed
Fortunately, they first made a way to convert cash by using mailboxes out in the wilds, and then by removing encumbrance entirely (early EQII was a ‘special’ time: the Number One killer of players was… trapped loot boxes :D )
“ Early days of EverQuest II, money did have weight”
Same as with Asheron’s Call
Anvil really should have stopped doubting Sydney by this point.
@DaveB:
I’d suggest that the lack of scenes with Hiro giving interviews is precisely **BECAUSE** he’s doing such a good job with it.
No wacky hijinks.
Nothing off script.
Nothing worthy of inclusion in these pages.
Was thinking with the similar thoughts
… I still think it would be hilarious if, when they’re at the markets, Sydney eats something super-spicy… and all of a sudden VROOOP! “Um, guys…? My ‘fuel tank’ on the orbs just shot up to ‘full’…”
She’ll be delighted to promote “spicy food consumption” to one of her superpowers.
That is one super clear straight arm tatoo with way to clear colors.
Looks more like an armband insignia. If you look closely at the sides, you can see the band.
If you zoom way in you can see that it’s an arm band.
Maybe it’s an adhesive patch.
From what I’ve seen, I’m surprised Anvil wasn’t drafted for PR duty over both Harem and Dabbler…. I guess it’s down to the image issues she used to have?
She was drafted… once
I’d bet she still does her fair share of PR work. At this point in the story I think she is a sergeant and she eventually makes lieutenant. As such, she is someone who can manage some responsibility. She is also attractive and she doesn’t hate talking to people. She is probably more entertaining than Hiro and a little more relaxed without too much worry of going off script.
Anvil’s powers are largely more classified than Hiro’s powers, making PR easier for Hiro since he doesn’t have to say “that’s classified” in interviews as often. :)
Weren’t they in Saint-Louis in the last update?
There is no Embassy nor International Airport (both mentioned by Anvil) in Missouri
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis,_Senegal
Was joke
If they were in Missouri, they could have walked home, or had Peggy go pick them up in the Osprey
I’m laughing like a loon here, you *nailed* the facial expressions!
5 more bucks for the spice splurge at the market. She better get dabbler to put it in her hammerspace else comedy rules say they’ll end up wearing the spices.
Achievement unlocked:
5 bu-ucks~!
“She didn’t consider most places would be fairly prideful and not want to admit they need help with anything, or would at least want to keep the assistance off the record”
Actually, What about “we can demand Favors from the US – we are that important”?
thing is, it’s probably not done officially since they aren’t there on official business.
it seems to me like an under the table type of deal ” you scratch my back, I scratch yours” or ” deal with our little inconvenience while we tolerate your intrusion on our land and we’ll you have your shopping spree”
You can see proof that Halo was in Galtyn from Orbit.
It is not going to be a secret they were there.
So them passing by Senegal to do a favor is not going to be hard to explain. Or even easy to hide.
Wait a second – what country was Sconia active in again?
Africa or Latin America?
And what are the chances she expanded?
Somewhere, they spoke Spanish.
Pretty sure it was Mexico.
Careful not to get suckered into trying for a 100% completion bonus.
Makes me miss City of Heroes.
Always!
Virtue/People’s Vanguard/@Bland
(Also, there are CoH servers up. Someone did some magic and as long as the actual owners don’t complain…)
@Tolrick/Virtue/All Star Teen Sentinels (and hordes of others)
Major altaholic here.
Yes, yes, it’s back and rolling along nicely. Different servers are even putting new toys into play.
Speaking as a former NCO, you don’t want most of the enlisted to be the “Face”
Wait, was Sydney trolling Anvil and made her expect the Side-Quest (that never came)?
Is that why Anvil is so pissed and Sydney grinning like… well that?
Why do you think there is a chief of police at his chief of police desk with his right hand smiling at these uppity foreigners? Because he knows he is getting some use out of them.
I admit, the schlip sound combined with the drawing is a bit ambiguous, so I can see how you could read this your way, but I am pretty sure Sydney won the bet.
Look who he is looking at
If Sydney won, why was Anvil tapping her arm impatiently until Sydney paid up?
I’m pretty sure the guy in the suit is looking at Anvil, hoping that she’ll accept their request. And that Anvil is just waiting for Sydney to say something, while trying to decide whether to go along or to resist the flow of events, whether accepting will just reinforce and validate Sydney’s behavior. The tapping is a way of showing irritation, and that she’s thinking, to discourage Sydney from jumping in.
I can see how someone could interpret the last two panels as Anvil indicating that Sydney should pay up, and Sydney sheepishly doing so. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening.
Was implying he was smiling because, well, if you need that to be explained… (hint Anvil is a very attractive woman in some places, and this looks to be one of them)
That isn’t a sheepish grin, it’s a Trollish Grin (Sydney doesn’t mind paying, because she got to, safely, troll Anvil)
The criminal super gang is called “Garcons d’Or” (Gold Boys)!? LOL
technically, a more appropriate translation would be “golden boys” or “boys of (the) gold”? as Gold in this case would be used as an adjective or descriptive.
My French is rusty, but Garçons D’Or = Waiters of Gold, no? Looks like Sydney lost that bet. Pretty much universally, nations do not like or appreciate foreign military personnel or LEOs conducting operations on their soil. It happens but, for the most part, they don’t like it.
As a native French-speaker (Belgian, not French, but I’m very bad at the two other nationnal languages here), you’re both right and wrong.
A “Garçon” (with the capitalized letter) is often a waiter, parking valet, or a work title, but without that capital is just means “a human male that has not yet reached puberty” (boy), it can also be just “my son” (mon garçon), an affective term between friends (from whatever biological gender and/or orientation), or just a generic term for anything with human male parts that identifies as a human male, or anything with human female parts that identifies as a human female, plus everything in between and outside those lines.
The French language is nasty like that, without context and subtext, the same word can mean dozens of different things … there’s even the shortest word in the language (two letters, os, meaning “bone”) that changes from single to plural if you DON’T pronounce the final “s” (un os = a bone, des o(silent s), bones).
And all that, of course, is before words being pilfered from other languages …
Welcome to Linguistics, a study and research field that evolves almost every day and drives both students and teachers to stark raving madness within a couple of months.
“Garcon” means “boy” in french
Waiter is translated as “serveur” (or servant)
the difference in translation part is due to cultural effect. i assume the closest equivalent would be to call over a ” bus boy” and that would be where the translation got a side shift.
Yeah, probably started from when young male hyu-mons were forced to serve adults, but as the boys remained in their post even when they got older, the name stuck and became a job-title
Y’know, something that’s honestly surprising to me at this point is that Sydney hasn’t been given some really really serious back up protection. Especially considering all that’s happened to her and the fact that her orbs could be stolen if she were killed. Yes her bubble is an absurdly powerful shield, but she can’t keep it up at all times and her backup without the shield is just a bullet resistant BDU. I feel like Dabber or Cora should have given her a personal energy shield or some other kind of device at this point considering just how Vulnerable Sydney is. Plus seeing now that the orbs can be fluxed out from sufficient use; it would seem even more pertinent to make sure Sydney has something protecting her that would be effective against even supers. Sydney is just human after all, even if the powers provided to her by the orbs are literally beyond comprehension.
The not giving humans control of technology they don’t already have developed themselves limitation is likely followed by Dabbler, and mostly kind of rationalized line blurred by Cora (In exchange for a crashed ship hulk of doom, negotiation. A working FTL ship is less likely to cause significant change than leaving that evil mess.)
It is not an issue about Sydney being human. Cora is mostly human. Sydney is Terran.
She was accompanying Max, Anvil, and Dabbler, 3 of the team’s heaviest hitters. What more protection could be given than that?
All of them, apart from Maxi & Hiro and maybe Wart and Anvil are squishy hyu-mons with powers
Just remember: salvaging abandoned tech has been accepted for aeons (usually because the former owners went somewhere they didn’t belong, and already paid the price), the restriction is on giving the crap to them (which is why what SmugD did is beyond levels of wrong, and nothing Pander can bleat can change that fact)
“All of them, apart from Maxi & Hiro and maybe Wart and Anvil are squishy hyu-mons with powers”
Do you mean Stalwart?
Also Harem is 16x the strength and toughness of a normal human being when she’s un-teleported into 5 different bodies.
Also Dabbler is not a human.
Also Mr Amorphous is not squishy. He’s stretchy, and probably just as resilient, just in a different way.
Also Achilles is definitely not ‘squishy.’
“salvaging abandoned tech has been accepted for aeons (usually because the former owners went somewhere they didn’t belong, and already paid the price),”
Where in the comic does it say that salvaging is acceptable? The rule is to prevent technological shifts by aliens to pre-FTL civilizations. It doesn’t say in the comic anything about that one way or another.
“the restriction is on giving the crap to them (which is why what SmugD did is beyond levels of wrong, and nothing Pander can bleat can change that fact)”
Deus is not subject to the rules of the Xevoarchy, because Earth is not a member of the Xevoarchy. Also Deus was the recipient of the technology. He didnt GIVE it. He RECIEVED it. So it’s not only not beyond levels of wrong – it’s not wrong at all. Arguably the person who SOLD him the technology was in the wrong, but that doesnt translate to Deus being in the wrong. Again – the alien merchant lives under the rules of the Xevoarchy, whereas Deus does not.
What you’re saying would be like, a person in Germany being arrested for selling beer to a 16 year old in Germany (where it’s legal), because it’s illegal in the US for a merchant to sell beer to anyone under 21.
What you’re saying would be like, prior to June 2018, a woman in the US being arrested for driving a car because it was illegal for her to drive a car in Saudi Arabia.
Deus literally did nothing wrong in gaining the technology. Also, as I think Torabi had mentioned on a previous page… technically speaking, the merchant probably has a POSSIBLE defense as well, as Deus clearly had shown that he had FTL capabilities in order to get to Fracture Station in the first place.
The way Cora describes it, I really don’t think there are any laws on selling technology that the merchant would have theoretically violated. There are restrictions on the technology that they will allow through the travel gates. There are some cultural agreements that it’s best if species make their way into space on their own. But there’s no implication that there’s any laws or enforcement on the matter.
The merchant was perhaps worried that Deus would purchase some tech, and come back angry that he was refused at the travel gate to Earth, or told he had to leave his purchases behind. He wasn’t worried about being reported to any authorities. He thinks he might have done something underhanded, but not illegal.
DaveB does go into some more detail in his notes for page 700.
Torabi is correct here as well.
The way it all sounded to me, and I am probably repeating what you and Pander are saying and what was discussed on previous pages directly involved here.
As there are no current real world equivalents outside of censorship and classified items, but not to same degree.
Merchants are middle men, not manufacturers. So they bought the items from the source worlds. The source worlds are likely members of the Xevoarchy, being an empire or federation doesn’t matter; with the understanding that the technology would be sold to member worlds of appropriate technological levels. With the implication there are somehow member worlds or member adjacent who can still interact at different tech levels. Making technology a “controlled materials” sistuation.
However as was stated the merchant can feign ignorance that because the buyer was on Fracture station that logically the buyer had to have come through the port *by a gate or ship*, only warning the buyer that customs may confiscate or refuse the items to pass if the world they are going to is too low tech. A warning given because A: the tech being bought was high end and thus only really meant for the higher end members and B: No refunds. Pushing the responsibility on the buyer to make smart shopping choices.
So the merchant has this legal out “How was I supposed to know they weren’t from a member world, humans are living on member worlds and he WAS on Fracture station”
Now with Earth this is a sticky situation. Earth is not a member world, the sources of that technology and the Xevoarchy over-government may take issues and make claims of smuggling. However this wasn’t a case of a member world individual smuggling advanced tech to a lower tech world, this was a member of said world circumventing their methods to obtain the tech, not by stealing or salvage (see Star Trek butting heads with salvaging species trying to take old Federation tech), but did so in the expected manner.
We assume given the talk the Alari are also not a member world of the Xevoarchy either, viewed as an outsider expansionist empire the Xevoarchy may have had in their cross-hairs to “put in their place”
Which does circle back around to this, the Xevoarchy threat here isn’t a legal one, its a if we think you can’t push back, we will push you down because our ideology tells us to not “let” you have this tech until we say so/personally believe you are ready for it.
Which they can claim as the source of that technology is their right to deny anyone they feel shouldn’t have it from having it regardless of how they got it…another sticky situation.
But the Orbs are a whole other situation. If the Xevoarchy tried to claim them, or say Earth isn’t advanced enough to have them per their own rules and remove them etc… one can easily just say they are overstepping their bounds. As this tech above them, and not only that…they are not the source of that technology and thus don’t have even a rudimentary claim to it.
So yeah, the Xevoarchy should have exactly zero authority over who owns those Orbs, coming down only to their ideological views on the matter pressuring them to push the matter with no other real rational that doesn’t circle back to that..
So yeah, they come after what Deus has, its a legal back and forth, difference of opinion.
But if they come after the Orbs its just the bully on the playground wanting the fancy toy and thinking they can take it from the weaker kid type of situation. (No, you can’t have this because I said so, and because I am bigger and stronger I am taking it and you can’t stop me).
-they obviously wouldn’t admit this reasoning and make up the above ideological excuses, but this what it really is in a nut shell trying to claim something that was never theirs to begin with.
Has Daphne’s skin resilience been tested to see just how resilient it is to, say, piercing or cutting damage?
For a lawyer, you royally screwed up those defense claims: SmugD went off-world, deliberately bypassing established means (including Fracture’s border control) to get technology he knows he should not have (and you know damn well why not) and then take them back and imply he developed it himself, either though his own scientists or through Alari assistance
What he did, was the equivalent of someone from the US, where it’s legal to possess and carry narcotics, travelling to Russia, where it’s not legal, and expecting to be protected by US laws
The merchant is the one who did nothing wrong, because there is no restriction on selling those items on Fracture (or they wouldn’t be there!)
What SmugD did, knowingly, was smuggle contraband tech
He has shown, repeatedly, that he doesn’t give a shit what other people think, as long as he can get away with it
“Has Daphne’s skin resilience been tested to see just how resilient it is to, say, piercing or cutting damage?”
I have no idea but she was specifically stated as being 16x stronger AND tougher when one person in Dabbler’s Science Corner.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-dabblers-science-corner-2/
(Panel 5 and 6)
Dabbler: “The Energy of the ‘un-teed’ body is distributed among the remaining selves, increasing her strength and GENERAL TOUGHNESS.”
Toughness implies resiliency, not just strength, or Dabbler would not have said strength AND general toughness.
“For a lawyer, you royally screwed up those defense claims:”
I did not screw up any defense claims. The fact that there are more defense claims than I mentioned doesn’t mean I screwed up the defense claims that I did make.
“SmugD went off-world, deliberately bypassing established means (including Fracture’s border control) to get technology he knows he should not have”
As you mention later in the same post, The Xevoarchy just doesnt help to facilitate these trades by not allowing passage through their ships and ports of entry. There’s nothing to say he can’t have his own port of entry, which he does have.
” imply he developed it himself, either though his own scientists or through Alari assistance”
He did develop the method by which he got to the Fracture, both through his own scientists and through Alari assistance (the power is from his own scientists, the modification of the Sky Ripper is from Alari assistance).
If you’re meaning he implied that he created the Mass Fabs on his own, he not only made no such implication, he invited people who he KNEW would know that he did not to his factory to SEE the Mass Fabs. Dabbler would obviously know that Mass Fabs were not made by himself. Deus didnt even remove the ‘Mass Fab’ labels on the machines, and they activate call them Mass Fabs.
“The merchant is the one who did nothing wrong,”
I’m fine with agreeing that the merchant did nothing wrong. But Deus also did nothing wrong. Neither of them did anything wrong then. :)
“because there is no restriction on selling those items on Fracture (or they wouldn’t be there!)”
There was an implication that you shouldnt sell those items to pre-FTL races, but yes – there doesnt seem to be a restriction on the actual selling of them. Just aliens under the Xevoarchy helping transport them back to a pre-FTL civilizaiton.
Fortunately, Deus doesnt need that help. He can do it on his own.
“What SmugD did, knowingly, was smuggle contraband tech”
1) It was not contraband. Contraband are goods that have bene imported or exported illegally. And like I’ve said, Deus is not subject to the laws of the Xevoarchy. And like you said, the merchant is not under any law to not sell the goods, as long as he does not help transport them. And by that same implication, Deus is under no restriction from buying those goods, but cannot use the Fracture or Xevoarchy-related personnel to bring it back to Earth.
2) He did not smuggle anything. He had his own method of shipping it and there is no law on Fracture station about HAVING to use their ports of entry. Just like Cora did with Sydney.
“What he did, was the equivalent of someone from the US, where it’s legal to possess and carry narcotics,”
1) The Xevoarchy’s rules on aiding technological shifts is not the same as any nation’s rules on preventing drug trafficking. Russia’s laws on the subject are not ‘You can sell this person drugs, but if you buy some and want to take them home with you, you can’t use our planes and ships to do it.’ Also the US would also be against drug trafficking, plus there are international treaties to prevent drug trafficking that would be violated by the trafficker, while there are no inter-world treaties between Earth and the Xevoarchy.
2) Lets assume, for the moment, to steelman your argument, that Deus did smuggle the goods. He didn’t. But I’m going to make the assumption that he did to make your argument as strong as possible, before I explain its meaninglessness. :) The Xevoarchy has no extradition treaty with the USA, let alone Earth, LET ALONE GALYTN. So how are they going to enforce it on Deus? By invading Earth? I’m pretty sure they’re not going to do that for multiple reasons, including Earth just took down a Fel Hive ship with a handful of soldiers, their goal is not to invade pre-FTL planets that arent even part of the Xevoarchy, and technically speaking, Earth is no longer a pre-FTL world, and hasnt been from the moment that Deus got to Fracture station.
Smuggle also means by transporting items without going through any sort of border control, which SmugD deliberately did
You have big words, but you are still wrong
I feel like this is apropos, one way or another:
https://xkcd.com/169/
Each of the definitions I found with a quick, but not exhaustive, search specifically mentions “illegal” or “in violation of the law”. I see no reason to believe that what Deus was morally wrong or illegal, or at least any more so than Cora transporting Sydney and her orbs to Earth on her ship.
1) What big words did I use? I’m pretty sure I didn’t say anything overly complicated.
2) Smuggling requires illegality, no matter what definition you are using. Merely transporting something without border patrol is not smuggling by itself. Btw, you are not implying that the word “illegal” or “illegality ” is a big word, right?
The kicker is if Sydney weren’t there to attract side-quests like this, the girls would be out shopping right now.
If Sydney wasn’t there, they would be back home because they used a conventional form of transport from the get-go
When you’ve got a resource like those three at your disposal, why not take advantage of it?
I am getting a “Spiderman falls mid swing” vibe from this. Sidney’s Orbs are still on the fritz so…oh no, malfunction when she needs them to work when facing low level goons that shouldn’t have been a threat.
*and for those that take words way too literally, this also applies to moments like Spiderman’s powers not working and having to hide behind a car or run away on foot from ordinary guys with guns*
*Mystery Orb floats down in front of her, Sydney cups hands around it*
And now, I, Syndey Scoville, practitioner of the arcane arts, perceiver through time and space, initiate of the Greater Secrets, shall attempt to pierce the Veil of Time, and…
*raven from last comic alights on her shoulder*
PREDICT… THE FUTURE!!!! *ooooooOOOOOOOoooooooh*
Is it just me; is the lady in the background in Panel 5 Sheva from Biohazzard/Resident Evil 5?
ALWAYS side quest before shopping.
Gotta get those golds first in order to buy new shinies, unless they brought their credit cards on this trip.
Are we sure that Halo isn’t a reality warper who created the orbs to hide her powers from herself?
If that were the case, I’m sure that reality would be far more warped than it actually….
…
…. OMG SYDNEY IS THE REASON THAT SUPERS EXIST!
Hmm, if this theory is true it would make Sidney a Haruhi Suzamiya type. Supposed to be a mundane avatar, but the sub conscious taps into their higher form power and sets about warping reality around their wants
Heh. They got sidequested.
So we’ve got one person whose powers have gone unpredictably wonky… one person whose only offensive power is to hit things with super-strength that can level buildings… and one person with access to a wide array of high-powered ordinance and very little respect for the concept of restraint in place of lethal force.
… doing low-level police work.
…. this is going to cause an international incident, isn’t it?
This is a street level adventure, even with reduced battery, Sidney should be fine. If this gang had stronger supers, there would be the army involved or something like that. I’d guess they are just some street thugs with low level super strength, some TK, intangibility, things like just enough to make them hard to handle for the normal cop.
Yeah, this doesn’t need to be a knock-down drag-out slugfest that tears up city infrastructure. Odds are good that this is a classic “if you handle this, I’ll sign whatever you want” style deal that shouldn’t be a problem for our main characters.
I’m not worried about the assignment having too high a challenge rating for our trio. I’m worried about PR-unfriendly overkill, with a side dish of collateral damage.
… eh… I guess it should be fine… probably…
They’re gonna need a good PR to counter this PR :P
Ari is getting a headache already :)
Ari’s PR skills are already fully dedicated to the task of promoting Varia.
the side-quests are inevitable, but who the hell avoid side-quests?
Arseholes who rush to MEG, and then bitch that they have nothing to do, even though they bypassed 90% of the game
Speed Runners.
Heathens. No speed running until you’ve explored every area of the game and found all the endings.
I’m admittedly a completionist as well so speed running is anathema to me. But I’m also pretty sure most speed runners already completed every single part of the game to know every single spot where fractions of a second can be shaved off and every exploit that can be used.
: playing a good character and keeping them good, but still kicking chickens in Fable: