Grrl Power #1342 – I’ll show you yours
Did you know it’s only been 3 days since the last comic? Because it feels like it’s been 3 weeks to me. Every time I move it makes me want to get rid of 90% of my stuff, but I usually only get rid of like 10-15%. I have a box that has nothing but little boxes in it. Little boxes that some of my fancier dice came in. They’re pretty nice boxes. Not cheap cardboard, but like that thick posterboard stuff sealed in… contact paper, I don’t know. And they have foam inserts to keep the dice nice and snug. Some of those boxes are actually carved wood or die cast metal. I’m never going to put the dice back in those boxes, but I still stared at that box filled with boxes and debated if I should just chuck it all. Why would I keep that? Why wouldn’t I keep that. I’m not going to tell you if I decided to keep it. I like dice though. For my birthday last year I splurged and bought myself a 25mm solid Tungsten D20. It was… very expensive. Was it worth it? The day I got it, my wife got home and saw the stupid grin on my face and was like, “What did you buy?” Apparently I have a tell. And yes, it was worth it.
Confession time. I did mess up slightly when I wrote this page, because in my mind, I had shown what the Skybreaker’s portal looks like. (The Skybreaker is the thing Sciona cobbled together from that sickle from the underwater vault that she used to hop to her homeworld.) But in fact, I didn’t actually show it in the comic, just the reverse shot of lights playing over Deus and Vale. I don’t recall why I made that choice at the time, but it messes up this page, where Sciona is supposed to be recognizing her handywork and realizing Deus is profiting from all her efforts. Maxima, however, wouldn’t recognize the portal, because here it’s functioning correctly, whereas the first time it opened, things went squiffy.
Sciona’s last line “…for the senator.” has the same energy as “They’re waiting for you, Gordon… in the test chamber…” I think we all remember that line as a little more dangerous and a lot more arch than it was actually spoken. “…in the tesssst chamber…” In reality it sounds like someone who wasn’t specifically cast for a voice full of gravitas just clearly enunciating his line. For some reason, in my mind, it was spoken by the G-Man, and like everything he says, it’s in a vaguely threatening register, and the “in the test chamber…” has him on the cusp of sexual gratification, with his voice barely cracking, like he was trying to do an impression of WOPR. (God, that movie was so good. If you haven’t seen it, rectify your transgression.) Of course if Sciona suddenly went all gravel and ice, Maxima might just stop the byplay and demand to know who Sciona, er, Isabella really is. So instead Sciona is just grinding her teeth so hard that powdered enamel is puffing out of her mouth with each breath.
Okay, not really, but close.
I’m going to try something with this new vote incentive.
This month, I’m closing on a new house, selling my Mom’s house, finishing packing Mom’s house, moving city to city to the new house, forwarding mail, canceling utilities, all that. And after that’s done, I get to start the process of selling my old house, which needs a little work before it can realistically go on the market.
SO. I’m going to try and do this vote incentive in stages. Currently it’s just pencils. The TopWebcomics one will update with colors and detail until we get to the no clothes versions, then that will continue over at Patreon. Also there will be a comic or two in between each version to fill out the story.
I know it’s hard to tell from just the pencils, but this is Heatwave and Jiggawatt. The comics will explain why they’re doing what they’re doing. Although I feel like even saying that much makes it easy to guess, but hopefully the journey will still amuse.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Oh, I do love the expressiveness on Sciona’s face as she sees the portal, and recognises exactly what “new tech” he’s talking about. That’s gold.
Deus reminds me of one of a pair of characters I’d created ages back; one could ‘do’ anything, one could ‘know’ anything (via two rival entities). The all knowing one basically learned how to ‘do’ everything by treating it’s entity as the ultimate search engine and pestering it with increasingly specific questions; “How do I become immortal. How do I make this body immortal. How do I become impervious. How do I become selectively impervious. How do I become impervious to aging. How do I regress aging. How do I regress aging with the tools available to me. How do I painlessly regress aging and become selectively impervious with the tools available to me.”
The trick to getting around “infinite knowledge = infinite power” in a character is just acknowledging that sometimes, something is actually impossible.
Just make the answer to, “How do I do [thing]?” be, “Be [other guy who can do anything].”
“Ask [other guy who can do anything] to do it for you.”
Oooh, even better.
Doesn’t “can do anything” include the verb “to know”?
I’m not sure, but it should include “write down the correct answer to this question on this piece of paper”.
sciona: “that’s MY skybreaker, you little! what is that about cooperation? i never gave you permission for anything!”
“YOUR Skybreaker? The one made of things you forgot to steal from the council vault, that I helped you to locate in exchange for sexual favors, that I had to recover from under a LITERAL mountain of rubbles after your attempt exploded in your face, that I had to extensively modify in order to properly work without dozens gallons of blood from several assorted sentient species? That Skybreaker?
Ah, I can never get enough of Deus trolling the crap out of Sciona.
“A collaboration between myself and an ambitious and brilliant Alari inventor.” also known as Sciona.
Although she didn’t invent the core tech, she just tried to use it.
Deus never did get around to giving Maxima her present
I believe the reveal IS her present.
I got a tawny that says Big D arranged the day’s events in order to ensure that Archon not only becomes aware of Sciona, but also puts her on a super predictable trajectory to a known location,while simultaneously getting her so spun up that she doesn’t slow down long enough to realize it. It looks like all the most likely possible outcomes are all situations that will play to his advantage in one way or another.
“They don’t have a trademark on the circle, Vale. Give it a rest!”
He said with a straight face knowing what’s to the right of him.
Grrl Power #678 for those not wanting to search.
Does the exit portal look different than the source portal? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-700-too-bad-hes-not-getting-miles-on-that-trip/
Dave’s comment section covers that.
Sorry Maxima. While I’m sure that revealing the portal to yourself is all part of Deus’ plan, it appears the reveal was far less casual and intended for the other audience
Oh the joy of showing you could copy what someone else did… But better.
Right in front of that person too as an added bonus.
Sometimes I wonder if Dues is part ‘troll’.
I’m vaguely amazed that he didn’t have the thunderclap clicker fixed and the mechanism transported secretly to this site.
But then maybe he thought it would be overused by now.
I would more put it on that was just a early bit to make people think he was a bad guy to control how they reacted to him. Dues has quickly shown that at least at it looks like his goal is the ultimate betterment of humanity so using the clicker is not really beneficial at this point.
There are some definite Dr. Doom vibes to him. He’s a dictator and megalomaniac, no doubt about it, but he’s not your standard brand of evil.
She’s really should have stayed quiter in Max’s presence. Maxima is already aware that this ‘Senator’s Aide’ looks like she has far more going on that a ‘normal human’ would.
Ford and Chevy have been doing that forever, and China is just doing cheap knock-offs and out-right stealing designs. My son had bought a motor from Harbor Freight to replace a blown gas motor for our corn grinder. It was the exact same motor as the Honda motor we had, right down to the bolt patterns. The new motor was “Made in China” … Yeah.
Yeah, the second the patent expires they are tooling up production. I appreciate well made tools. I have stuff in my tool cabinet that is 80 or 90 years old. But I also hit Harbor Freight on a regular basis. I’ve worn out several of their angle grinders but things like sockets and breakover bars seem to hold up well. My working theory is that they save money on things like manufacturing tolerances and quality of bearings.
Man, that off-planet arc was so awesome! I hope we can get something intense like that again eventually.
In regards to keeping old boxes … I’m right there with you. I have a internal debate every time I get a real nice box for something and justify it like this; “well that’s a real nice box, I might move again at some time in the future, and it would be nice to have the original box to safely pack that so it doesn’t get damaged. Yeah … let’s keep that box in a nice safe place out of the sun so it doesn’t fade and maybe a closet so it doesn’t get dusty too.”
Me now starting at a storage closet filled to the brim with very nice boxes to things I no longer have because of either breaking or losing … but still can’t bring myself to toss / recycle them … cause you never know … you just might need a real nice box.
You could always donate at least some of those boxes to a charity shop.
They’re usually really appreciative to get stuff like that, because it sells.
If you are willing to spend $$$ on dice, I suggest a D20 made of meteorite or tektite. That will give you Fire and Air (actually, one made of tektite would give you Earth, Air, and Fire). I have a D20 made of fossilized coral, which gives me Water and Earth. I doubt I’ll ever get one made of meteorite.
One of my son’s friends was using metal dice during a D&D party and rolling directly on the table. Not tungsten, but still heavy and pointy. We know exactly where he was sitting thanks to all the tiny divots in the wood table. All dice must now be rolled using a tray or tower at our house.
And of course, Dave mentions not at all that on the other side of the portal Deus has ‘spared no expense’ making a 1 to 1 copy of the SG1 gate room. That huge nerd. If he wasn’t so ambiguously evil he and Sydney would be best friends.
Sydney would be doing her high-pitched “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…” right about now lol. I’m be sure that it’s just a mat painting or a mock-up, just to tease Max, she is a “bit of a nerd” herself. I suspect after her blasting a hole in her house when her brother popped that bag on her was incentive enough to join the military, even if it was to protect her family.
Deus, famously, doesn’t do…. knockoffs…
He’d have the original series set, and worked whatever is necessary to actually fire it up into it. Nothing less would do.
In this case, he would probably have HIS gateroom, built with real materials (not plywood set pieces) from the original set plans. He could afford to use real concrete and steel and everything for it. Heck he could even afford to put it several levels under ground if he wanted to go that far.
No, he would not have the original series set. He could hire the set designers, but would actually have it built to actually fully functional, down to the armored glass. Turning imagination into reality. The series and the fandom have already gamed out theoretical tactical scenarios of the given layout. Given his budget, it does have advantages.
He owns the actual non-prop gateroom from cheyenne mountain which the movie and tv show was secretly based on as a misinformation campaign.
So who else actually heard the classic StarGate wormhole engaged sound effects seeing this page?
Hi Kayana,
on second look – yes!
And the wall visible through the portal is 1-to-1 the gate room. :-D
Greetings
Juy Juka
The gate room set pretty much filled a sound stage in Vancouver, in particular, vertically. The ceiling of the upstairs conference room that showed up sometimes was actually the underside of the soundstage’s roof.
My enthusiasm for dice trends less to exotic materials and more towards unusual shapes. MathArtFun dot com is my source for all sorts of weird varieties, including the least useful die of all, the d48. I also have a d120, a d60, a d30, both useful types of d24s (there’s another d24 but when you roll it a tilted edge comes up on top), and a set of rhomboid d12s. They also have smoothly-rolling orbiform d4s, and what looks interesting is a set of five go-first dice. Rolling any subset of those dice will result in no ties, and every possible order is equally likely. Check them out.
Foxtrot.com is selling a D20 with 20 set into each of the 20 sides. Don’t let the DM notice you swapped dice before your to-hit roll.
Siona has a horrible poker face.
She’s lucky Max didn’t spot her obvious, and (non-legally) incriminating facial expressions.
At first I thought that Cthillia was pulling Lorlara away from the portal but looking more closely you can see she is just jumping back. Now I wonder, would Cthillia have bothered?
No, no she wouldn’t :P
Dr. Jackson: This technology connects the space between this gate and another gate somewhere else.
Deus: Why would I need another gate somewhere else?
Deus: I guess I DID just reveal my ace in the hole to… *significant side-eye* you.
Anyone else getting the messed up font?
Okay, not just this page, must be something screwy on this end :(
And honestly, isn’t English WONDERFULLY vague? He uses “new tech”, meaning “new to him”, although the Skybreaker is probably centuries old…. You couldn’t be that vague in French, they have two different words for “brand new” and “new to me”.
IIRC, Sciona actually used multiple artifacts together (alongside some technology to manipulate them) to create the wormhole to her homeworld, which would indeed make it new tech – a combination of artifacts never designed to work together. It’s presumably a “collaboration” because, while she was the one to invent it, he has improved on the design, probably making it more stable or similar.
Not to mention, drastically reducing the amount of blood required…
The Skybreaker calls for a decent amount of power – the page before Deus activated his version for the first time (in the comic, at least), it was noted the power input was holding at 108 MW, which is fairly substantial (a bit less than a tenth of the 1.21 GW of Doc Brown’s time machine, and we don’t know how long it needed to be maintained to actually open the portal). Sciona is a blood mage, so her using blood for powering it follows naturally. Deus just needed some way to turn mundane electricity into whatever form of power the Skybreaker calls for (probably mana), just like Sciona needed some way to produce said power from blood (which she already had). I don’t think it was really something that needed blood itself, just power.
Honestly, looking back at the pages where Deus used the Stormbreaker, he appears to have changed it very, very little. The destination is still dialed-in the same way, and it’s still used to slice open a hole in space time, but instead of an automaton using it like a can-opener, it’s attached to a small cart on a circular vertical track that moves it in a perfect circle to slice things open (so more like an electric can-opener than a manual one). But we’ve really only seen glimpses of how they function – both Sciona’s original and Deus’ adaptation – so it’s impossible to say what requirements it really has/had, how Deus modified it, etc (maybe it’s almost completely different, just looks the same; maybe it’s exactly the same, just using a different power source and a better automaton for slicing open the portal; maybe it’s somewhere in-between).
It’s a decent amount of power, but it’s hardly huge.
I spent a couple of summers working in a coal power station. There were 8 units, each capable of supplying 300MW.
This was a pretty big place; twelve stories high and I occasionally wished we could use bicycles to get around. The generator for each unit was set halfway into the floor and was still much taller than me.
Generating that amount of power in the space of an automobile for more than a couple of seconds using today’s tech would be impossible. All the means we have are too inefficient, so the waste heat would be impossible to get rid of fast enough.
The link to “things went squiffy” reminded me that its been ages since we had some leveling up!
Sydney needs to get back to the grind
But she hates grinding!
Unless it’s Frix.
Is it just me or does Dues plan seem a lot like the way that Peter Wiggin from card shadow series unified the world? as well as having a lot of similar traits, he is super smart no one can tell if he is good or bad but he is absolutely full of himself, and he brings about world peace by fixing a 3 world country and then using that nations prosperity to democratically get all the other nations to slowly join in a single world hegemony.
Speaking of all of the refreshers Dave linked for us… did we ever get closure/details on the “World Bosses” that Sydney was fighting on the Alari homeworld? Corra said she was concerned with how powerful they were (when they showed up to look for Sydney). There’s apparently an intergalactic peace keeping force that Dabbler referenced… and then there is a cadre (now with less cards) of super-bio-motor-unitron-Cuthulu-cousins running around that can wipe out planets of advanced civilians in less than two days (per Sciona’s exclamation when they found the planet wrecked).
That seems like something that deserved a “Meanwhile….” cut-scene-… arc… thing.
This series is a lot of fun, but DaveB doesn’t really seem to do “closure”. There’s so many abandoned/dangling plot threads that it’s starting to resemble a shag carpet.
The references remind me, we ever hear what attacked xenocided Sciona? Who attacked Sydney with the giant techno-organic bots?
Deus know many rich people practice speaking with “gravitas.”
Deus practices “Agravatatas.”
breast gravity aggravation?
Anti-gravity tatas?
Okay, so how does Galytn not get turned into a smoking, irradiated crater at this point? The primary explanation for the Western Powers not taking decisive and irrevocable action against Deus’ little rule-the-world scheme has been that he’s only mucking about in a part of the world most of them don’t care about.
Now, however, he’s just informed both Maxima and the senator’s aide that, hey, he can have troops on the ground in D.C. in a heartbeat. That’s a threat, and historically, that sort of threat tends to provoke extreme over-reactions by the Great Powers.
Because that would involve immediate and extreme retaliation. Deus undoubtedly has contigencies and counter-contingency-contingencies galore.
Plus, he’s got some extremely loyal and well motivated subordinates. His super intelligence includes emotional intelligence. To put it bluntly: he not only knows how to make all his supers (and non-super) people love him, he also knows how invaluable such love is. You can tell he read Machiavelli, laughed at the satire, and then laughed even harder at all the political leaders throughout history who thought “the Prince” was good advice.
Imagine if Putin revealed he could teleport a live nuke anywhere on Earth in an instant. No warning, no chance to reach shelter, no opportunity to shoot it down in flight. Regardless of how much you hated him, you wouldn’t be firing on Russia, you’d be lining up to kiss his arse. Now replace “Putin” with “Deus”, and “live nuke” with “super-powered individual who’s probably equally as devastating as a nuke”.
Okay, I’ll acknowledge that the choices are “nuke him immediately” and “bend the knee”. But I don’t buy just dithering about any longer.
And you might be right about that being the smarter option–but just because Deus is super-intelligent, doesn’t mean that the leaders of the other nations are.
The Alari colony certainly has shields as least as good, or better than Cora’s, after all, they’ve got an entire colony created by a monster mother ship, she’s got one ship which is nice, but nothing like as large as a colony ship with full equipment. And they’ve had quite of bit of Deus’s support in exchange for them supporting him.
I doubt he’d have revealed any such thing without knowing he and his were perfectly safe from anything the members of the OECD can do to him.
He’s just letting them know not to try to push him around. That’s a fight he doesn’t want – yet.
The basic premise of the comic is society choosing not to respond immediately and violently to that kind of escalation in power. Governments welcoming and hiring super-powered individuals, rather than hunting them down. “Our society doesn’t operate without some level of trust“.
See, that works fine for ARCHON, etc. The governments are, as you say, accepting of super-powered individuals in their employ, or even as normal citizens being productive within the bounds of society. But Deus’ stated goal is the upending of that society, or at least putting himself on top of that order. He’s outside their structures, and that’s something the Big Boys do not, in fact, like. Or respond to kindly.
Also, while Galytn has a higher rate of superheroes, it’s not established that they have more than the US overall. The thing about Deus is that in the end, he’s only one man. Sure, he’s probably got lots of contingencies accounted for, but being super-intelligent, in the end, means that you’re the only one who really understands your own plans. If he’s taken out, the whole thing will come down in short order. (Note that we’ve already seen Vicky, his most loyal non-Alari follower, exceed the bounds of her instructions during her ‘rehabilitation’ of the captured soldiers.)
Big D sticks his neck out all the time. And if the assassination is successful, well, none of his minions are likely to be smart enough to see through the cover story pointing the finger at some other nation (say, one of his African neighbors). Retaliation would go against the scapegoated nation, and the internal bickering that arises when you have a whole shitload of very powerful people who suddenly have no central figure to follow would very possibly leave Galytn a smoking crater in no time.
I think we’re analyzing the comic from different perspectives. Your assumption is that, despite all the supernatural elements, the comic’s universe is otherwise like our own, and that the people will think and feel and respond like those in our world. That those fundamental differences don’t actually have far-reaching social consequences. And sure, I think the references to real-life places and people, such as Barrack Obama or Neil DeGrasse Tyson, tend to ground it in our history, and inform the audience that it’s safe to assume that it’s the same unless explicitly demonstrated otherwise.
But even if it’s intended to be just like our own world, it’s from the subjective perspective of the author, and the characters will act like he thinks people will or should act. And I think there’s a great deal of evidence that he’s pretty optimistic about the world and its people, that they can overcome their differences and get along, that they won’t decide to annihilate each other out of fear. At least not as long as our heroes and villains are there to do something about it.
He dabbles in cynicism, and yet things tend to turn out ok, because it’s a lighthearted sort of comic, even when it deals with some unsettling subject matter. And some in the audience seem to feel some tonal whiplash as a result, feeling that serious matters aren’t taken seriously enough, or that the characters have wildly overstepped the bounds of acceptable behavior. Consider if Krona had, despite her good intentions, actually done serious damage to the universe with her unique powers. Some of the audience thought Maxima’s response beyond the pale, and that it was unreasonable to treat Krona as potentially dangerous, because that’s not the sort of thing that would happen, and she’s one of the good guys and cooperating with them. And while I would agree that it’s probably not the sort of comic in which characters are going to present an uncontrollable risk to others that puts other characters in a moral quandary about how to address it… And then we get the Parfait Lust Aura storyline.
I think most people’s understanding of the universe and morality and other people isn’t nearly as accurate as they think, and that people are more different from each other than they realize. I think DaveB is a little further out there than most people, and again, probably doesn’t realize it. I try to approach stories from the perspective that the author can’t be “wrong” about their own story, and that if they appear to contradict themselves, either it’s more complex than it appears, or they forgot, or they changed their minds. But arguing that something is “unrealistic” only carries weight if it’s actually supposed to be realistic, and we only have the material to guide us on that.
The chance that Galytn *doesn’t* have nuclear weapons and worse (and people fully capable of delivering them) is zero.
The “nuclear balance of terror” never really went away.
They also have force field technology.
I like the gate room from Stargate which you can see through the portal.
This is either the best opportunity ARC will ever get to go through the portal and “evaluate the situation on the other side”. Or it’s the worst trap to stumble into.
If I were Max, I’d go through the portal, hope someone is dumb enough to start shooting at me, and wreck the place in the name of self-defense.
I would like to make a bit of a point here. Deus is not building a country. A country is a group of people with similar ideals and a more or less common heritage moving along more or less peacefully under one government.
Deus is building an empire. An empire is made of diverse people forced to move towards the goals of the Imperium and forced to get along because the Imperium makes them get along – or else.
The US is not an empire, it’s the leader of a trading federation not unlike the Hanseatic League. Though the leadership position seems a bit shaky at the moment.
You’ve never taken a Poli-Sci course.
Not really. A country is a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory. It does not necessarily mean similar ideals. People by their very nature tend to have different ideals, especially when the population increases. The more people, the more likely there are going to be differing ideals.
An empire is an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority. The United States is not (technically) an empire, because of the 10th Amendment, although a lot of people tend to treat the Federal Government as if they’re living in an empire because they don’t understand the 10th Amendment or the concept of states rights.
Wait, you are saying the only reason the US is not an empire… is because they say so? o_O
No. The US is not an empire because it doesnt mean the definition of an empire.
The 10 Amendment may limit the powers of the Federal Government but when one has to argue points of legality and semantics then yes, your country probably is an empire.
Its not though. Much as some people might want to claim it is because they dont understand what an empire is.
If the people act as though it’s an empire, rather than a federation of states, then does it matter if it’s a federal republic on paper? If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, swims like a duck…
As long as a majority of the nation understands the point of the government, then it’s not an empire. Or at the very least it hasnt gone to the no man’s point beyond which the American Experiment fails. But if people have a complete ignorance of history and understanding about how the government is meant to work, then yes – it’s a slippery slope towards becoming an empire.
Only the fact I can’t see Deus doing anything humble makes me say that this is not an attempt at a humble brag
So he’s a super-genius manipulator who can predict how everyone will react to everything all the time with greater than 99.999% accuracy so noone will do anything to stop him unless it’s a futile gesture to demonstrate his superiority and how he predicted they’d do that all along and never had a chance because he’s successfully manipulating everyone all the time flawlessly.
Did you write yourself into a corner with this character or do you actually have a plan here that isn’t just Deus Always Wins Easily?
Unforeseen circumstances have in the past cause Deus to have to speed up his timetables. It’s not his fault, but others do not play on his level though.
So… I don’t recall exactly how expansive Sciona’s command to forget her is, so does Sydney even remember the entire adventure, or what? Like, if the local portal gate is gone from her memory, that’s going to be some serious alarm bells. And Max can, presumably, request security footage of who was where, as that seems like something that the very first scientific experimental Dungeon on Earth within living memory.
Also! I did find some stuff for you Dave, if you’re interested in things where the author is playing with tropes relating to the world struggling to deal with sudden intrusion of magic and supers.
1) All I Got Was This Stat Menu: https://www.amazon.com/Homicidal-Aliens-Invading-This-Stat-ebook/dp/B0BCMG6SK4 You seem like you would enjoy one where the MC turns herself into an amazonian fire-monk. I think it did… an okay job of mixing Superhero and LitRPG.
2) Industrial Strength Magic: https://www.amazon.com/Homicidal-Aliens-Invading-This-Stat-ebook/dp/B0BCMG6SK4 MC goes super science applied to magic in a world that has gotten some serious world altering stuff caused by 60 years of super shenanigans.
3) Apocalypse Redux: https://www.amazon.com/Apocalypse-Redux-LitRPG-Regression-Adventure-ebook/dp/B0BFTLZGCS I know you said you don’t care for LitRPG apocalypse, but MC is regressor to before and he’s trying to prevent it, but not by becoming OP himself, but by releasing a wiki so everyone can make intelligent build decisions (a common theme of Apocalypse Regressor is that the first go round saw the MC fuck their build out of ignorance). Also, the series is complete.
Anyway, I’m still somewhat looking for more LitRPG and superhero stuff. The closest I’ve found is Wish Upon a Star ( https://www.amazon.com/Wish-Upon-Stars-Cultivation-Adventure-ebook/dp/B0CCV3MZ81 ), but… something about it doesn’t appeal to me as much even if it has a decent approach to trying to mix level ups, super powers, and the general public having some degree of access to the upgrades. But, I’m still somewhat looking for more stuff mixing LitRPG and superpowers.
Best way to deal with an underblownup troll like SmugD? Ignore him (people do it to me all the time)
psst, hey Pander, did you notice someone here was replaced by an owl?
Are my tootsie roll pops in danger of being bitten in 3 licks?
The world may never know.
Who?
Oh stop that you.
And stay away from my tootsie roll pops.
I think the existence of portals (interstellar yet) makes the station’s “We’ll check what they load on the ships” control pretty much a fig leaf “Yes we’re doing something about tech transfer”.
Portals seem to be a common thing, e.g. Tom, Dabbler’s master is able to use them without AFAIK any tech at all. Maybe that’s limited to powerful demons, or he can only port to someone sworn to him or some other limit.
But if you don’t need FTL to create portals (just sufficient knowledge of magic), your tech tree becomes a matrix. Possibly in ten or twenty-six dimensions (riffing off string theory there).
Or the fact that Earth has portals means we should be reclassified and the bureaucrats just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Yes, “Earth” has portals. Both Deus and Halo can do it “publicly” e.g. seen in the comic. So there’s likely at least ten other capes who can do it and haven’t publicized it yet. Not to mention Council members – maybe not solo, but with a circle of mages? How did Sciona get here in the first place, on an Alari starship? If so, why aren’t we already under an Alari House?
Who?
Oh stop that you.
Why do I get the feeling Sciona will end up siding with ARC purely out of spite for this?
The comic overall treats most of the characters, hero, villain, civilian, whatever, pretty sympathetically. I’d say there’s an underlying message that most people are fundamentally good, or are capable of redemption. The only exceptions that I can think of are the Fel, who were explicitly called out as being beyond saving, and “Dr. Has Issues with Women.
Deus is angling to get Max and Sciona both on his side, so I do think it would be particularly funny if they ended up uniting against him.
Yes, but not out of spite
Vindictiveness, sure, but not spite
I must admit that in my mind it looks like Sciona went through at least 4 mental murder scenarios on Dues, probably with some torture thrown in, in the last 4 panels. :D
Sciona seems a teensy bit upset.