Grrl Power #1142 – Genius bar none
See? I didn’t forget that Sydney had glasses with a built in translator. >cough<
So, panel 7, I almost added “CYBERNETIC EYE NOISES” as a nonomatopoeia, but honestly, I really wanted to also add “THAT WOULD DRIVE YOU CRAZY IF YOUR EYE MADE NOSIES EVERYTIME IT DID ANYTHING” but the panel was too small.
It’s one of those weird things we accept in movies and TV. Every time there’s a closeup of a cybernetic eye, there’s some camera zoom whine or something, but I don’t think there’d be a way of shielding that noise that’s coming from inside your skull from your ears. Well, unless your ears were also cybernetic and were linked so it could mute the eye noise.
Don’t forget that Dabbler’s lower, uh… left arm… Yeah, lower left arm is cybernetic from just below the elbow. She keeps her teleporter in it, which is really just another way around to a Bag of Holding effect, but of course she also has a variety of multitools built in, because why wouldn’t she? Of course, since the teleporter links to her workshop/armory, it’s like having a really large bag of holding that also has access to a 3D Printer that’s so sophisticated that it might as well be a matter replicator. Come to think of it, it’s a little weird that Dabbler hasn’t exploited that little piece of tech more in the comic. I mean, she can just summon a burrito whenever she wants, and it’s not like succubi get fat. Well, if they live in… when was that time, like the Renaissance? Then a succubus might go rubenesque if she wanted. Really, they can look like whatever the general consensus leans toward since being sexy is their primary method of acquiring tantric energy. Succubi more skilled that Dabbler at glamors can look like specific crushes or do the “heart’s desire” spell. Dabbler can do a very convincing personal glamor, but isn’t great at using it for targeted seduction. I guess I should say, caloric and tantric energy input doesn’t effect a succubus’s body the way it would with most of us meatbags.
The “U” in USB-W stands for “Universal (For Real Tho)” but really means “Galactic” since travelling between galaxies is a big pain in the butt and no ISO has really dealt with cross-Galactic standardizations yet. By the way, just as I was posting this I found out that “ISO” stands for “International Organization for Standardization” and not “International Standardization Organization” and that really bothers me now.
The March Vote Incentive is up! The thumbnail is weird because the picture doesn’t have anyone’s face in it. It’s an odd incentive, admittedly. Trying something new. But hopefully you all still enjoy it.
Variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon, as well as the semi-usual bonus incentive related comic.
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Am I the only one getting Ikkked about Dabbler’s fingernail opening up like that?
It’s a press on.
Cybernetic hand (and forearm). Still looks squicky though.
I note she used a little decorum and didn’t do the Ghost in the Shell multi-split finger thing.
I’m frankly curious why Sydney didn’t get one of the fracture stations translation module. Maybe it was out of juice?
Yeah, so? She popped her eye out at dinner. Dabbler is not that concerned about that kind of thing, or maybe she just doesn’t notice the effect on others.
Having already exited one plane full of screaming passengers, perhaps she did not want to produce another?
It’s cybernetic
That’s her cyber-hand, she’s just updating Sydney’s translation program. And USB-W is probably going to be a real thing one day, we already have 4-5 types already.
The implementation is not really logical however. in such a tiny form factor it is just extremely impractical to use a mechanical plug. A a glass fiber does not seem practical for the same reason as the shown plug – why bother fiddling with such a tiny plug into a similarly small socket? the bandwidth/wire length would be pathetic too. The semi realistic depiction would probably be something as dabbler simply “touching” there, but in actuality it is a wireless/optical link which automatically aligns itself if her fingertip just touches the proper area
What’s worse, it’s controlled like a tail. that’s so far out of this world the mind boggles as to that level of tech needed. as far as why it’s so small, Sydney’s “normal” glasses were wire, so there’s a lot of tech built into the current frames that you’d need a microscope to see everything. Massfab does that fine of work, which is why Deus having so many was shocking and worrysome. He could print out a huge, ready-to-fly, fleet of planes in a few weeks rather than years. As it is it’ll take an army of trained supers to have a hope of taking the one he has now out.
I think the prehensile tail effect, like the automated Tesla vaporware connector, is mostly just cool. Although it would be convenient, and she might also have a magical integration at play too.
I imagine Dabbler has an impractical custom setup for tinkering, so an illogical implementation actually works best for her. Fiber optic is great for a simple form factor and bandwidth, but the extra parallel connectivity actually helps simplify things by providing a) connectivity awareness without constant monitoring, which improves power consumption and capacitance safety, and b) help negotiate the protocols being used by providing multiple channels for metadata exchange, which also increases speed and simplifies the overall complexity.
Sure, if everything used the exact same standards and protocols you could eliminate all of that, but a truly universal setup is unlikely to exist in a galactic community.
Some time has passed between panels 1 and 3.
Kenya has a pillow now. Her headrest isn’t high enough.
she scootched down in her seat, which given her height means they must have some impressive leg room on this flight.
It has been decades since I last flew commercial but doesn’t the very first row have NBA grade legroom?
She has to sit by a door which has extra room to allow people to get out in the case of an emergency. It also gives her room to put her legs without having her knees in her chest.
I know it’s an artist’s tool for keeping characters straight, but one would think that Dab’s glamour would give her the same eye color in both eyes.
I mean, I suppose it could… but why? Dichromia for that extra bit of exotic flair!
I think Dabbler would keep the dichromia just to mess with people. It also makes for a secret tell for her team mates when she is in disguise.
I think Dabbler would take it as a personal insult if someone tries to keep her straight.
I think, Dabbler would take it as an insult if someone would notice her Dichromia before being transfixed by the hypnotic cleavage. Both in disguise or out of it.
Hey you walked right into that one Sydney.
If I were Dabbler I’d be kind of bitter about that hot sauce thing too.
Anvil was the one insulting her, though.
Yeah I know. Typed the wrong name by accident.
Plus I can’t go back and edit these comments haha. Damn.
Hey you walked right into that one Sydney.
If I were Dabbler I’d be kind of bitter about that hot sauce thing too.
What is Anvil listening to? Blind Melon Chitlin????
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAw-3ERSIIY&t=138s
–or–
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seTgNCb-NiI
It is not a flaw that it can not translate French. Even in futurama with a machine to translate any language they can not translate french!
Which by chance the machine translate every language to.
In Futurama French is a dead language. That was my favorite, subtle joke in the show. In the very first episode, the New Year countdown goes around the world, and in 2000, there’s a shot of Paris and the people saying “trois,” but when they do it again in 3000, the people in Paris say “three.”
The French are extremely protective of their language, so it was a brilliant little dig.
Also French is garbage.
C’mon, Sydney. Accept the burn. You know you deserve it.
“But it wasn’t my f-“Zsh, zsh, zsh. Accept. The burn.
If ISO’s full name irks you, then UTC probably does or will, too.
Coordinated Universal Time (Temps Universel Coordonné in French) are the full names. “UTC” was chosen to not offend English or French speakers.
So rather than offend one group, it offends both!
Well done! ‘golf clap’
A true compromise leaves everyone unhappy, after all.
Wait, is panel 7 wrong? Maybe she’s just looking at the glasses normally, not cyberly, because that is clearly the right eye (check the tearduct)
Check the variable aperture leaves inside the iris.
you would be amazed at how many of the exact same sound effects get used over and over in TV and movies.
Rain,lightning, farts, traffic noise, sirens, birds. a local radio show did a segment about it recently and said they only use about 8-10 fart noises for every thing.
It’s a time-honored Hollywood tradition.
If the ISO thing is a real niggle – how about an Air France aircrews obsession with an ocean current? Why do they think it may help them make up time? When was the captains last psych eval? Is he planning on ditching?
Air current, not ocean
Fun fact; while the jump from planetary to interplanetary and interplanetary to interstellar are both massive leaps in distance scale, the distance to the nearby major galaxies is only a few dozen times the distance to cross the galaxy, with tons of dwarf galaxies closer to us. Only the moon, at about 30x earth’s diameter away, is really compatible, and you probably don’t need to invent a whole new field of science and engineering this time.
If you can hyperdrive across the galaxy in, for sake of easy math because tired, a day, then going with the 100,000 lightyear estimate for the milkyway’s size Andromeda is only 25 days away and Triangulum 32 days.
took a while but caught reread entire comic; feels somewhat short though oddly considering this been running since august of 2010 (so …12.5 years ago)
That’s because it IS short. 2 pages a week is 600-some pages, which is somewhere between 30-40 comic books in size. So, yeah, Marvel puts out more in a month than Dave has since the start of the strips, so of course it seems light. Don’t knock it, he does a very good job with clean lines. While I’d happily see him take down the quality a notch to get out three pages, I’m satisfied with the progress. He’s not gonna run out of story soon.
Yh, I know; but mostly why it feels short is due how long some events in comic go real word time wise (on comparison some biweekly updating comics that have run less feels much longer after reread, mostly due in comic events make it feel such long span of time happened since start of story)
or if look on another perspective, if we dont account Sydney getting 2 months time skip in space, shes been in archon group …what week or is it already 2nd week
If your own eye made a noise every time you focused on something you would become deaf to it VERY quickly. Stuff you do is hardly ever annoying to you (in my experience). Heavan help anyone ELSE with a cyber eye tho because that noise would be deafening.
My mother had an artificial heart valve, the click-clack over and over used to drive her nuts when trying to sleep. A faint buzz that would stop when the eye was closed is minor, trust me. If you leaned in close to her chest you could hear it.
Dabbler’s blue eye was the one she pulled out at the group dinner back after the show of powers
I also noticed this when this page went up. I am so glad I wasn’t the only one. It bothers me so very much that he switched the eyes
I really, really hope the canon reason they don’t work on French is because it’s a garbage language that makes no sense.
Because it is.
Giving you one free, non transferrable ‘get out of ninja assassin hit squad’ card for your post.
Related, though — since the acronym would differ country to country, ISO was chosen *not* as an acronym. From their website:
It’s all in the name
Because “International Organization for Standardization” would have different acronyms in different languages (IOS in English, OIN in French for Organisation internationale de normalisation), our founders decided to give it the short form ISO. ISO is derived from the Greek “isos”, meaning equal. Whatever the country, whatever the language, we are always ISO.
Why do you want good evening cheese before a lot of bomb?
Sydney, I suggest a HUGE box of milk chocolate and a heart-felt apology is needed there, might take weeks for Anvil to get over her screw up… It was Anvil’s mistake assuming it was liquor in that flask, but it was also Sydney’s for not warning her. Sydney still doesn’t get that few think the same as she does as far as drinks on the go ;).
I’m just a little surprised they’re in MY usual seat. I’d have thought they’d at least spring for business class.
(Yes, that really is my usual location, I don’t like sitting near the doors. Or used to be anyhow. I’ve gotten too old for the expat life.)
The choices might not be as luxurious in Senegal?
I’ve probably said this before but I still adore how your monologues in episode descriptions read exactly like Sydney’s, it’s like, really fun to read every time