Grrl Power #189 – A few details were bound to slip through the cracks
Remember how last page I called myself a a big dummy who likes spending an inordinate amount of time on a single panel… I think this is everyone I’ve introduced over at Archon so far. Achilles is behind Max, Jiggawatt is absent though that’s intentional. It feels like there should be a lot more though. Of course the base isn’t left empty, there’s tons of support staff and lower level people manning the fort. I guess Maxima is getting them a Fajita Friday or something.
Links ahoy!
The Valentines Day Sex Drive thingy is up. Check it out, throw me a vote over at TWC then hit the DeviantArt page for the regular and the “sans camo” version in wallpaper size.
DeviantArt user WWJDTD posted a cleaned up diagram of Sydney’s skilltree. He posted it in the comments for that page but I thought I’d top level it.
And speaking of linking things from DeviantArt, I only realized recently that Fred Perry of Gold Digger (and Action Time Buddies) drew a thank you Maxima for me linking to his webcomics, the aforementioned Action time Buddies. If you haven’t already, check it out. The best way to describe it is Adventure Time meets My Little Pony.
Kyle Maxwell does a slacker superhero webcomic called Honey Badger and Friends and is a long time fan of Grrl Power. Maxima guest stars in his Valentines Day strip, and it doesn’t go well.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
It’s almost as if there should be a lightbulb above Syd’s head in panel 7.
Or a lightning bolt to the temple
Hey Dave I just spotted an easter egg: In panel 2 “by diner” should be “buy diner.”
“Buy dinner” or “buy a diner?” :)
Oh my god that’s such an amateur mistake. I’ll get it fixed.
Hey, it’s no worst than writing “diner” when you meant “dinner.”
Or than writing “worst” when you mean “worse” :P
Ah good, you caught on to my little joke. ;)
Looks to me like it says “by dinner” now.
Coolness. Who’s the gal with the target on her shirt?
What target?
Dark hair, far right with no sleeves (of either variety).
I think you mean the gal standing on the ramp here. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/385
It’s probably a good sign that Sydney’s antics on that page still make me laugh.
Going back and clicking that page and then just now realizing. Maxima should be saying “Give me my hat back!” instead of “Give my hat back” while I doubt I am the first person to notice it. How I have missed noticing it all this time is shocking…..
wait… you know what never mind It does technically work, it just sounds weird….sort of…. you know what forget I said anything at all…. I’m shutting up now.
I guess that’s where blnodie in the red shirt is from too… but I was more interested in who the guy in the blue shirt is… he’s the only male in the room wearing a collar. (what did Dabbler find a leash for her favorite one or something?)
That is Mr Amorphous, Heatwave’s boyfriend, he is wearing his choker as a few of them do.
I’ma just call red-shirt-guy “Duke” for now.
I wonder if Dabbler had to pay for busting up his ride?
Could be why she needed a job :P
Busting up what ride?
I think I cracked it. 1) She is ‘of ARC’. 2) She is a warrior that fights in armor. 3) It was pointed out that in the background there is a picture of new ORLEANS. Those must all be mysterious clues that her name is Joan! (Dan Brown, eat your heart out)
He he. +2
Oh and a couple of other supporting pieces of ‘evidence’ (and, for the latter one, assuming that Guesticus has better eyesight/monitor resolution than me, which seems to be the case):
4) Her hairstyle very much reminds me of Joan of Arc. The one that sprang to mind (albeit being blonde, rather than as depicted above) being as portrayed byMilla Jovovich. Admittedly this is probably a function of wearing a helmet, so just co-incidence. But google Joan of Arc images and you will see most have that style or something similar.
5) She is wearing the Arc logo on her shirt.
If so, and her name genuinely turns out to be Joan, then I already like her. Despite the fact that she will doubtless have been teased about being ‘Joan of Arc’, she still has the strength of character to voluntarily wear something that will draw that connection to peoples’, attention whilst they are being introduced to her. Today being subject to that happening more than any other.
Takes me awhile to catch on, but if you are talking about the female Space Marine, then yes, it looks like her hairstyle resembles the ‘bowl-cut’
So, until she is officially introduced, propose that her name shall be ‘Joan’
Motion seconded and carried.
Oh, and the blonde with her? His name is ‘Colin’, not ‘Duke’
That’s not a target, looks like the ARC symbol/motto thing Maxi has on her top, just in the sleeveless design
So, who will she call first? Her parents or her business partner?
My guess would be her business partner.
Unless DaveB wants to introduce more characters.
Though I would like to see Sidney Scoville Senior.
Probably Joel. He should be very confused by now as to where she went, even if he saw her on TV
hi, Joel sorry I’m late back from the bank, I’ve got a little side tracked
Little?! She signed up for the military, flew around the most powerful super going, and protected a bunch of people from instant incineration. That is not side-tracked. That is totally derailed!
That’s what we call a good time!
This is SYDNEY we’re talking about; that IS a little for her :v
Sydney doesn’t just derail issues. She drowns them.
(stolen from the comments on )
Ha! Knew I’d do it wrong! https://www.tigerknight.com/cc/2001-03-03
An illusion of reality is better than no reality at all.
No harm in experimenting by the way. Nor with bare links, they do the job.
Reality needed more time in beta testing before it could handle Sydney
I think “Reality needs more time in beta testing” will become my new motto.
Tim Burton once said
“One person’s craziness is another person’s reality.”
Wonder what her parents are like.
Also wonder which side of the family she gets her mouth from. I know we are assuming that it’s her dad, but it could just as well be her mom.
No idea but this does make me wonder:
Not only will her parents reactions be interesting, but what about any siblings or extended family( Grandparents, Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, etc.) and their reactions?
Not to mention old school classmates.
If I were one of her parents, we probably would have quit at one. Sydney is easily as much work as having a dozen children IMO. ^_~
As far as I remember, this https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/456 is the only time her parents were mentioned. So a slight hint about what her farther is like.
I do remember this one; https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/554
I don’t think we can trust Sydney’s in-character monologue that her parents are a Navy S.E.A.L. and a Lady Pirate. Unreliable narrator, and all that.
Or it could be THE TRUTH!
Well, it doesn’t need to be the whole truth. It could just be an exaggeration: Maybe her father did serve in the Navy in some role.
Maybe her dad was a dentist and her mum a lawyer? She was a patient, when they first met, and she made him swear to “pull the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth”.
You went a long way for that joke.
After the 3rd time of trying to zoom in on panel 1, I realise that I should be get the ball rolling. Any chance of a wallpaper version of that? Lovely to see all of the gang in one shot.
Although, you do have me wondering what Jiggawatt is doing. Security detail for the Arc HQ?
Jiggawatt will coming back from the washroom in the next page, just in time for Sydney to ask her to charge her phone. That is why she has not heard from Joel, who has been calling every couple of hours, since she left the bank. Jiggawatt would then explain that her power isn’t that refined yet.
Did Peg lost her leg in last panel?
Yes.
No, it is still there.
Just not attached to her…
That’s generally what people mean whey they say ‘lost a leg’
she did not lose it, she dropped it ;)
Actually it flew off in a Charlie Brownish shockwave.
May be she bought something in a sale that would of cost her an arm and leg
No, she lost her leg in Iraq. In the last panel, her prosthetic just came off.
Sydney has temporarily de-feeted her.
oh, the agony of de-feet.
Let us hope that nobody gets defenestrated.
Well she is close to the window!
Is it still called the same if they enter a building through a window (not an open one either)? Or is that just called ‘breaking and entering’?
He he. Yea, it is the latter. Unless you are a fireman, policeman or other person doing so with good justification, such as seeing smoke coming from the window.
Mind you, you are still breaking and entering, but just not in an illegal context. Whereas, defenestration is specifically sending a body out of a window, not in.
And she doesn’t even get mentioned in the “Who’s Who” :(
Last panel, poor Peg.
Also, in my head I’m seeing the next panel: The domino effect – Syd has knocked over Peg and a Harem, Peg knocks over Gwen, who falls into Zephan, who hits… etc.
Same thing on the other side.
Ha ha ha! Another Harem chain reaction!
Teleporting domino effect! 4 of them manage to port to other points in the room to land on various hunks –after all Harem’s are all seat-seeking missiles– and cause fresh domino runs from there. The original lands on her tush and the others screech in time to land on laps –hilarity ensues.
HAHAHAHAHA! That sounds EPIC!
DaveB, you have to draw this! Please…..
Only Maxima and Steadfast were able to resist being thrown down by Sydneys shockwave,everyone else is on the floor.
We don’t have a character named steadfast here
I think he meant Stalwart
Steadfast is the overseas knockoff version of Stalwart done using cheaper artists.
On a streaming media service I actually saw a listing for a children’s video called “Punch Kick Panda”.
Lol! You’d think if there was at least one person she would tell it should be her parents. Then Again… A lot of heroes don’t tell their parents. Still gotta love Sydney. You come for maxina’s awesomeness, you come back for Sidney’s antics! ^_^
“####!!!! I ^KNEW^ I had forgotten something.”
I foresee at least one and probably more very interesting phone calls in Sydney’s immediate future. Wonder how Joel is doing?
Joel: Event Horizon Comics. How can I help you? … Sydney? The place is swamped. I need you back here now! Everybody’s talking about some ad of ours they saw on TV. I didn’t think we had that kind of budget. What the hell did you do?! … What do you mean, you are still tied up?
Halo: C’mon Harem, I don’t weigh that much; have you tried carrying something as big as me before? … I guess if you haven’t been to my store before, that could be a problem. I guess I will have to wing it. Light-bulb moment! Of course, I could fly back there!
She needs to be talking to Arianna about getting the first run of ARC Action figures into the comic shop.
That could help Joel and the store out. :P
Maybe that was her condition to sing in: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/755
sing in! when did Sydney burst into song?
Dances by singing “We can do it!” from “the Producers”.
Followed by “How did we go so Right?”
Halo action figures sold by Halo herself.
Doubt that stock would last longer than a few hours
Event Horizon comics, exclusive supplier of all liscened and certified autographed ARCHON collectables.
Go to our website for complete details.
Due to unexpectedly high demand, some items are out of stock and orders will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis when new supply becomes available.
Halo 10″: Currently Sold Out. Shipping in 6-8 weeks.
Halo accessory pack (replacement orb set): 14 available. Leave 2 weeks for delivery.
Peggy 10″: Currently Sold Out: Shipping in 6-8 weeks.
Peggy accessory pack (firearm & prosthetic collection): 2 available. Leave 2 weeks for delivery.
Anvil 14″: 3 available. Leave 2 weeks for delivery.
Maxima 12″: Currently Sold Out. Shipping in 6-8 weeks.
Harem 11″ (5 pack): 4 sets available: Leave 3 weeks for delivery.
Get your exclusive talking action figures, with authentic quotes, recorded directly from the person represented.
Talking Maxima 12″
Talking Ariana 11″ (Sorry, “If I was twenty years younger, I mean if I was ten years younger …” is not included in the sound samples)
Talking Achilles 12″ (Please note that the original is indestructible, not the
dollaction figure. Not for small children.)Talking Dabbler 11″ (We are still not sure how the talks on quantum physics and mana energy flows got in there. Not for undergrads.)
Sorry, Talking Halo 10″ is not currently available due to a quality control recall. We can’t let the kids hear that, can we? We really tried to get a Talking Heatwave, but she didn’t say anything that made that much sense.
Action Halo 10″, with authentic SnapGrip hands and Equalizer Shot kick.
Action Maxima 12″, with authentic Daisy Cutter toss (explosives not included)
Action Anvil 14″, with authentic long standing-up action.
Action Math 12″, with authentic MMA action, designed and approved by Math himself.
We are sorry, but we have had to withdraw the Mr. Amorphous 12″ action figure until we get that lawsuit resolved with the Stretch Armstrong folks.
We are sorry but the Women/Men of ARC swimsuit calendar is on back order.
We will post when we have some in.
Please feel free to browse our on-line auction for those special and hard to find items.
But where is the kungfu grip? If there’s anything I learned from action figures from the 80s is you advertise the kungfu grip.
Sydney’s action figure can hold on to her orbs; they just snap in and out of her hands (usually followed by immediately rolling under the sofa). As for Math’s figure, all the other moves that are building meant the hands had to be static in an open-palm-blade pose. Besides, Math threatened anyone who would bastardize the honour and name of Kung-Fu by naming a grasping hand after those fighting styles. Besides, the Kung-Fu Grip was developed in the 1970’s.
That reminds me of a scene from X2 X-Men United. ” Have you tried not being a mutant?”
That one infamous question sums up the entire jack-ass-ery of both the general Marvel universe and humanity
Despite her double-agent status, I still like Harem. Curiosity abound.
Remember that we don’t know for sure if she IS a double agent. Could just as wel be triple
actually we can be sure that she is at least a quintuple agent :P
i saw what you did there ^_^
I’d bet she is working with another arc branch unknown to the others. That is the only way she could be a double agent.
No, she’s possibly a Double Agent because she seems to be working for/with Deus while working for ARCHON
What Archon do not know is that the FBI recruited her to infiltrate the Arc-SWAT before the organisation was even formed. Her FBI handler is Vale. But Vale is unaware that whilst she was vetting Punk, Prime was studying at the Sorbonne, where she was approached by a deep-cover agent called Zephan Zoeng.
One of his artefacts prophecised that she would turn traitor to Arc-SWAT, unless he found a way of joining Archon and preventing it. He managed to convince her to join Her Majesty’s Secret Service. She is Deshantis, Daphne Deshantis, agent 001, 002, 003, 004 and 005.
Wasn’t it Schoolgirl who showed up at Deus’ HQ?
I can’t remember their names, and I do not have anywhere to look them up. But, once recruited, she would use whatever body is able to get away without being spotted, so that is not a continuity problem.
Schoolgirl has white hair and typically wears glasses (sitting in the middle of the Harems)
Well, I usually call them: Prime (or Thingie), Gothie, Withey, Blondie and Punky, left to right as they are at the table now :)
Came up for ‘real’ names for them once, but didn’t think to write them down and can’t even remember what page they were mentioned on so can’t go back and trawl the comments :(
Could it be this one? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/748#comment-32131
Probably, thank you, made external note this time :P
Okay, so it’s Berry (as in ‘strawberry’), Gothette, Abbey, Blondini & Bodie, and if you want all or any it’s “Daphne” :D
But there is no this or that harem. There is only Harem
Even Daphne has said that when they are ‘out’ they are individual enough to be unique personas, the different hairstyles and clothing choices aren’t just for show
IIRC, their original designators were Prime/Farmer’s Daughter, Goth, Schoolgirl, Vogue, and Punk
Ahh, thanks. That was the list that my defective brain could not retrieve.
True, but there is a difference between a ‘designator’ and a ‘name’, a name makes them ‘real’ (just read Namesake to see the importance of having a name {or the significance of not having one})
Agreed, Guesticus, but as far as we’ve all been told, all 5 iterations of Harem only have one name: Daphne Deshantis…
Laughed out loud. I love this comic so much xD
Since she’s contacting people, I wonder if we’re gonna soon see Joel again for the first time since 2011
An embarrassed extrovert. Sydney sure makes an interesting character. A bit too interesting for Peggy, going flying there.
Slight typo in panel 2: “by dinner” should read “buy dinner”.
Should be updated now.
Sydney will do more than just knock your socks off if you’re not prepared.
You can’t prepare for Sydney, you can only prepare to mitigate the inevitable damage from Sydney…
You mean hope to prepare
to paraphrase zack’s saying in the doa movie: stop? you cant stop sydney, you can only hope to contain her a little!
If you’re REALLY lucky, you might just barely manage to point her in the right direction…
Here Sydney, here. Good girl! *
* And before you think that is insulting, take a look at my avatar. :-P
I take sanctuary in the tradition of self-depreciating satire.
Hands Yorp a box of SydneySnax to use as bait.
starts unspooling biohazard tape and looking for evac routes to direct personnel to
Mitigate? Who would want to mitigate or flee? Much more fun to join in and bring it to new heights!
I wonder if ARC can ad a Sydney rider to their insurance.
Insurance companies rely on being able to mathematically predict how likely an event is. Sydney, in pure chaos mode, defies any logical analysis.
She is like Vash the Stampede in that respect.
you find her that predictable?
I dunno… She still drives a car, which implies:
She hasn’t wrecked nearly often enough to get insurance revoked and to simultaneously wreck her car. That’s not to say she hasn’t totaled a car or three, but…
As we actually do have a bunch of ADHD sufferers * in our community, that gives me the opportunity to ask. Do you feel that you are a better or worse driver than a typical driver as a result of having ADHD?
Ignoring whether you have other factors that change your personal circumstances, such as particularly good or bad training. And I am hoping that at least one sufferer * is amongst those of us who keep up to date with the comments, and spots it before tomorrow’s post goes live and this page gradually dies.
* Can anyone think of a word to use which does not imply that the condition is a negative one? Subject does not fit contextually at all. And I do not fancy using some politically correct piece of nonsense like ‘disadvantaged person’. Especially as the point has been made that the condition can be advantageous under certain circumstances! Currently my best alternative seems to be to say ‘person with the condition’, which seems a bit of a mouthful if there is a suitable alternative.
How about just “ADHDer”?
Interesting, but again not really what I am after. Ideally it would need to be generic enough to apply to any condition. For example ‘condition’ is neutral enough. Granted mostly we apply it for something that is bad, like a disease, so it has its baggage. But it does not explicitly imply that the condition is undesirable. And in contract terms a condition can be a good thing. For the person demanding the condition, anyhow.
My ulterior motive is that if there is not a suitable word, I may be inclined to invent one and seriously promote it’s use. Simply because I do have the genuine fear that we will wipe out something useful to the gene-pool if we label all conditions as a disease and refer to anyone with a condition as a ‘sufferer’. Not that I am loosing sleep over the matter, but the words we use do shape how we think. So that one simple act, followed by a sustained campaign could change the attitudes that society has towards that issue.
I would say that I am a little above average when it comes to driving. I tend to avoid accidents because I see them coming quicker but I lose focus when dealing with speed. Especially when a song I like comes on the radio and I just want to rock out to it.
Also I consider my ADHD very much like a permanent status buff, not a condition.
Understood, but some ‘labels’ can’t be generic and have to be specific
Hmmm, just thinking, the second ‘D’ in ‘ADHD’ stands for ‘disorder’, so, unless you plan on changing the whole name, you are going to have to stick with ‘disorder’ or ‘ADHDer’ ;)
I don’t believe we can accurately account for that based on anecdotal evidence… As the wise philosopher, Dave Barry, said: “…we all believe we are above-average drivers”
Well, to answer the question of driving, a friend commented that he trusts me driving drunk more than he trusts his other friends driving sober. So I believe I’m either a great driver, or they’re just really bad. I don’t know if the ADHD has anything to do with it, but I do know that in all my years, I haven’t had any accidents save one and that was due to inexperience, a patch of black ice and a ditch.
I would say my ADHD has helped me drive.
Statistically, most actually do. Having seen survey results showing that more than 60% of respondents* believe just that. Which shows that idiocy trumps mathematics. I, however, can see through delusions and know myself to be a below-average driver.
* Admittedly the survey pool is restricted to those folks too dumb to dodge a bloke with a clipboard, when they could be doing something better.
Thanks K. Drakor and Nick Manly for kindly responding. Obviously too small a sample set to be statistically significant. But revealing in that it lacked phrases like “I find driving incredibly hard and risky” or “I tried to pass my test many times, but could not overcome my condition”.
I am a very good driver during the day and a very bad one at night. There’s just not enough to hold my focus when it’s all just…black. My mind then begins to wander.
‘course, not sure if this applies, I’m not ADHD just something often mistaken for it. What exactly I’m not going to say because it has even more negative connotations -.-() Though for much the same reasons. And I would prefer a future employer not google me, see it, and not hire me because of it.
Fascinating. Thank you too Kalietha. It is always interesting to get a glimpse of how the world looks to other peoples’ eyes.
I often wonder if people really see the same things…Is what I call blue the same thing you call blue? Or do we interpret the same wavelengths differently?
Sorry, you sent my brain off on a tangent XD One of those awful we-can-never-know ones.
And I admit I’m getting a kick out of your posts for similar reasons.
I find it funny that a lot of people with ADHD or ADD were talking about stuff other than the question and only two answered straight. Quite fitting. :D
I’ve got OCD with my ADHD like I’ve mentioned so when I can actually concentrate, I tend to do it obsessively, and it’s always about the same things or rituals in my life. This is how it always is I guess.
@Kalietha, people do not all see the same colors. Some, I am told even see into the UV spectrum some (replacement lenses that do not filter UV). Color perception has a number of variables, some of which vary enough between individuals as to produce a condition called ‘Color Blindness’ where what I call ‘Green’ you might instead call brown. Or what I call Brown, you call Purple. (To this day, I swear those were brown pants!)
For me, a strong blue without any other light frequencies mixed in, is a vibrant color, more brilliant to my mind than any shade of any other color.
I am aware of partial and complete colorblindness XD I was referring to people who theoretically see all the standard colors. I often run into situations where I can differentiate color between two things that no-one else seems to see a difference in. Particularly with greens.
That kind of difference is fairly common Kalietha. It is well documented in scientific literature because of scientists working for paint manufacturers and other industries. But the underlying differences can go much further than that. In the past, we have talked about synesthesiahere. I am sure you will be interested by the examples in there, if you have not come across it before.
A good friend of mine does not mind me mentioning her condition, which shows a fascinating variation to the typical manifestations. She literally sees subtitles when people talk! And, in order to understand them, reads the text rather than ‘hears’ the words (which she does not hear at all).
It is so pronounced, that if something interferes with the sub-titling process she can no longer understand speech! Which can happen if there is something slightly noisy, like office machinery, that causes the text to judder and flicker, it becoming illegible. Despite the fact that the volume of the interfering noise is low enough that other people involved in the conversation have no difficulty whatsoever.
Bear in mind this is what she actually sees, she is not drawing an analogy. So is very much is in response to your initial comment. Yet she is otherwise a perfectly normal person. Of significant intelligence actually. I consider her smarter than myself and the school for the gifted she attended agrees.
But until it happened to be mentioned in a conversation one day, she had no way to know that what she saw was not normal. Her default assumption was that everyone read speech as subtitles. She knew nothing else.
Every time I see the ticker-tape screen in on Grrl Power TV screens it reminds me of her.
We know that they do not. Not always, anyhow. But, so long as we can agree that the background colour of this website is pale blue, it does not matter if, when we get to peek into other peoples brains, we see the image looks pink to some of them. So long as they call that pale blue, we can communicate.
Of course, it would confuse the ancient Greeks as they had no colour blue. In their part of the world, the sky was bronze. As recorded throughout Greek literature. Naturally, modern scholars try to rationalise it as them comparing the hue of the sky to that of bronze. But how come they had a name for green and other colours and yet not one for the colour of the sky? Needless to say, when a bug is found in the beta program called Reality, scholars prefer to assume historical records are wrong, rather than have the bug investigated.
Oops, replied to the wrong comment, and forgot to quote the relevant line, on my last:
How about Unrestricted Hyper-Cognitive functioning.
:) Nice I am looking for a word to replace “sufferer”, not to rename “ADHD”.
Enjoyer. Bearer. Posserer.
Thanks. ‘Bearer’ and ‘possessor’ can certainly be used to construct a phrase that works, and are the best suggestions to date. But alone are not direct substitutes as the words do not imply ‘bearers of a condition’ on their own.
‘Enjoyer is clever, but slips too far towards good associations this time. We know that when applied to ADHD, and based on the attitudes expressed in these comments, that it is right to have strong positive connotations to the word. But I also want to be able to use it to describe conditions that have either negative associations or are of an unknown/neutral nature.
Ideally we should use a neutral vocabulary to describe all conditions (which we can with that very word) and the people associated with them (which we cannot, yet). That way when doctors say that they can now “cure sufferers of all conditions by using gene therapy”, we can stand up and say “They are not sufferers, they are X. Only some are sufferers.”
To me, ADHD is just the way I think, which is not like how most other people think. I understand that most people can only think of one thing at a time and get confused when trying to handle multiple things at once. Even people who “multi-task” are doing so like a single-threaded UNIX kernel: Do a little of this task; stop; do a little of another task; stop; do a little of yet another task; stop, etc. A one-track mind, but they can switch between tracks easily enough, most of the time.
I often think of more than one thing at a time. I will think of two distinct and unrelated things at the same time. I multi-task like a multi-core processor. Most people have one-track minds; my mind looks more like a switching yard, with lots of things going all over the place. The problem is that I sometimes lose track of where things are.
I was at my cousin’s place a few years ago; he had the words to a song I wanted to have, so I logged on to my email and started typing it in, transcribing from the sheet music he had. I then started singing another song that I had made up, while still continuing to type the song that I was reading. He later told me that he was expecting me to starting sing the song I was typing or start typing the song I was singing, but that did not happen.
As far as driving goes, I tend to keep track of everything around me. I know where all the other cars were when I last saw them and how they were moving, so I can easily keep track of where they are now, if nothing changes, but I keep refreshing and updating my view. My eyes may only see 160 degrees or so, but my mind lets me see 360 degrees, which I understand is different from most people. At the same time as all this, I will be carrying on conversations with the people in the car, most of the time. Apparently, other don’t think like this, but it is what works for me.
Similar for me. I go bonkers if I’m NOT doing more than one thing at once, unless I am truly fried. I also find it much harder to drive without someone to talk to or singable music on, to split my focus.
Same here: don’t go bonkers though, but do get bored very very quickly if only doing one thing too long
Oh gods yes. That is a lot of how I describe things. I have a map of everything around me at all times, which I attribute to anxiety and paranoia actually, but is only possible seemingly because I’m constantly monitoring everything. I totally have to be doing like half a dozen things or I get twitchy, or bored, even though sometimes I end up forgetting that I was doing one of them and have to go back and figure out what I was trying to do. Also, I’ve discovered that I can listen to three or four songs at once and enjoy them all separately, following each one. I do that at work when I’m exceptionally tired or something. Apparently most people hear that as noise, but as long as the volumes are comparable, it helps me focus on what I’m doing a bit better.
As far as driving… I have issues with falling asleep because driving is just so bloody boring. I have to be doing other things and if I’m left to just imagine things eventually I’ll start closing my eyes to see it better and … yeah, stuff. A lot of times I end up calling someone and talking on the phone. Having that conversation actually keeps me focused better than if I had no distractions. The spacing out thing worries me though. I have also been incredibly lucky a few times apparently. The accidents I’ve been involved in were ice related, but one of them involved going 70 mph and still managing enough control to avoid the guy suddenly slowing down in front of me and only ending up in the median needing a slight pull to get out of the snow.
Nice breaking of the fourth wall in Honey Badger. And the first, and second, and third…
Yea, cool strip that. Err, panel, not strip. Well, strip would be appropriate for Valentines, but Maxima might… no not in the face!
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Yup, that pretty much describes what is left of Yorp after pissing off Maxima.
Do not worry I can clone him.
Don’t worry Yorp there will be no tinkerings.
At least not until the discussions are finished.
Telepaths might pick up:
“I wonder which one of me he thinks he could clone?”
Sorry, did not know you are a meber of The Order of Clone Masters.
Here is your DNA sample back.
Different technique, but not dissimilar result.
Ah you are one of those
Is that all of them? I miss Jiggawatt.
And how many salaries does Harem get? She has to eat and buy clothes for five. Living space should not be a problem, with a hive mind there is no need for privacy.
Sleep is another thing to wonder about, IMO.
I’m pritty sure all supers get a very healthy salary, and Harem would probably be able to live of a single one 5 times
yeah! where is jiggawatt?maybe she has comicawareness in adition to electric power so she is hiding behind one of the speach bubble
And I am too stupid to read. The author mentioned her absence in the commentary.
Probably about to get plowed down while exiting the bathrooms. That’s both where payphones tend to be located and at least one other person took a private call there on here cell phone.
…on her cell phone.
Its probably been asked, but did she ever actually get around to banking the money for the shop?
The general asumption is that the police has it as evidence
Or the HazMat team is still trying to decontaminate it.
Either way there were no survivors.
Thats why they are called Dead Presidents.
Benny Franklin was never the president of the United States.
If Harem feels everything her other clones do does that mean she gets drunk 5x as fast as well…and for that matter since each harem has her own ‘style’ would that mean each has her own tolerance level to that sort of thing or is it a set amount across the group?
Well getting drunk is restricted to a single body. So probably not 5 times as fast.
A better question would be: What happends if 1 of her gets drunk, but the rest not? How would the rest behave
I’m betting all five would feel the hangover.
This was covered in yesterdays’ comments, and I lost several hours to a Foglio comic I’d not read.
Thank you.
:) You is most welcome. :)
Shameless plug day 2: Psmith by P Phoglio – excellent read, and extremely amusing answer to questions of inebriation and group minds.
We have not figured out the answer to that one yet. But we do now know that if one behaves so badly that she has to be unteleported and kept out of sight, when she is called back, even if it is days later, she will still be drunk!
We do? Reference please.
Yorp is assuming this due to the persistent effect of customisation on the other Harems
Comments from last week. The “Double” that is “Deconstructed” is basicly in stasis and is “reconstructed” in exactly the same condition (Including any damage to that body)
In the previous issue’s comments, Dave gave us a couple of replies clarifying how Harem’s powers work. Including this one: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1195/comment-page-1#comment-56558
The other reply being: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1195/comment-page-1#comment-56568
This is how I figure it works:
Harem is not a hive-mind. She is up to five separate consciousnesses all of which share the same memory. Each of her is able to think, experience, and learn on her own. What any of them commits to memory, they all know.
Cross-contamination between her selves can happen. Strong sensations can end up experienced by all of them, in particular if she is caught by surprise. Pain tends to be shared at the time of injury. When more than one of her is present she tends to become consciously aware of her multiple sensory streams and this can cause them to mix. In addition, any of her can consciously choose to experience what any of the others is experiencing.
So what happens if one of her becomes intoxicated?
Only one of her bodies actually becomes physically impaired. As the event progresses, all of them share the memory of what it felt like. If more than one of her is present, she may have trouble keeping things separate, and even if her intoxicated self is somewhere off by herself, any of Harem could choose to experience the effect.
Only the one actually intoxicated remains that way. The others may become impaired due to cross-contamination, intentional or not, but it wouldn’t last. All she would need to do is choose to stop experiencing it, forget to keep sharing it, or move to a separate room, and the effect would vanish.
Hate to disagree with you but alcohol* is a poison that affects the brain. Since this is 5 bodies 1 brain, yes, Harem should get drunker faster than the others and would be more prone to alcohol poisoning if all 5 went on a tear.
* My use of poison is the definition that it is an artificial substance that causes physical and mental changes. In this definition caffeine is a poison, or any over the counter medication. Not a soapbox speech use of the word poison.
Actually it’s 5 BRAINS, 1 MIND. Bit of a difference there
Both your arguments are valid. The weird thing about quantum entanglement though is that what happens to one also happens to the other. If you poke it, both get affected. So in essence there is only one brain, in that they all are exactly alike and respond to stimulus the same regardless of which one gets poked. Despite the fact that there are indeed physically five.
The mind issue is a bit more complicated because each body can operate individually of each other, think separate thoughts and have their own (artificially induced) personalities. So in terms of their interaction with the world, they operate as if they had different minds. But all the time sharing all experiences with each other and thinking of themselves, and also being, as just the one individual. Rather like some quantum properties they are both one mind and several simultaneously.
Technically, you can say that about the vast majority of the planetary population (and not just the humans), not counting the poor souls who don’t feel external stimulus :(
Man, I always suspected that everyone else is sharing a global consciousness, and just pretended that they did not, so that those of us who were excluded did not feel inadequate. :-(
They keep us unique people out of the loop so that its mental balance is stable. Also in case the gestalt implodes thede will be a chance for repopulation of the planet.
AHH So the Psi-virus I introduced was successful in splitting off enough of the humanoid population to establish a self-sustaining population.
Could be or they read Joe Haldermans “The Forever War”
By the way your virus has some side effects.
Increased imagination/creativity
Increased I.Q.
and quite possibly ADHD
Have to remember: Daphne is only 19 physically, so no talk about getting her drunk unless you are sure you are in a State that allows that age to drink
But, if she is, and one of her does, only that one will physically be drunk, but the rest will share the effects (to a lesser degree: slightly slurred speach{spelt that wrong, always do}, slight impairment in motion, etc)
O right, this is america with theyr alcohol laws
That’s why she was eyeing the sangria while ordering the lingonberry soda.
And there is nothing wrong with eyeing something, as long as that is all you intend on doing
yes, because making it a law means nobody will violate it ever… just like prohibition, gun-free zones, speed limits, adultery, etc ad infinitum…
as to Harem’s concerning drinking: Arc is classified as military. If in the U.S. Military you can drink so long as have military I.D. & earliest age you can sign up for is 18.
Interesting bit of info, and resolves a social paradox that I had almost commented on earlier.
–If you are in a locale where that is the minimum drinking age. While INCONUS, all US military personnel under 21 should not drink.
I remember that at one point out of Whiteman they got so fed up with Dependants and underage service members buying booze for beer runs to CMSU that they actualy started confiscating it from anyone underage who drove with it off base.
And yes. They got warrants. If you made the get one they hit you with possession and tax evasion. If you admitted you had it they just confiscated.
The three rightmost people in panel 1- goggles blonde dude, bald African-American dude, girl with short hair- they haven’t been introduced yet.
And we still don’t know what’s up with Sydney’s mystery order for the last update!
they have,, they are the guys in armor fromhttps://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/385
O right, the space marines
Her order will arrive while she is gone and harem will try it.
Then she downs a pound of sour creme trying to dull the “flavour” of Sydney’s Ghost Pepper Poppers.
i FREAKING LOVE the way the prosthetic leg flies up independant hehe
and god sydney, it would be my parents my dad would be thoaming in shock and my mom histeric. CALL THEM FAST. also with sydney being sydney… it might be genetic to be like herself hehe
Duke Nukem is part of the team too.
Spotted the spelling mistake in panel 2 … “Yeah, Yeah, just don’t expect my to by (shouldn’t it be buy) dinner every time I blow something up.”
Yup that should probably be Buy
Is it just me or is Sidney’s chair stuck to her backside. That’s her getting up, not leaning forward
Just you, it’s the same height/position as poor flying Peggy’s chair
Don’t forget to keep voting using the Top Webcomic link. We managed to get up to number 2 in the ratings. I doubt we can close the gap on 1st place, but it would be nice to maintain 2nd to the end of the month.
+10
I *still* want to see Joel’s reaction to all this.
You and about 2/3 of the GP reader community. The other 1/3 are still waiting for male super cheesecake.
I see no Jiggawatt. :(
I see you do not read the author’s notes :)
I went to the V.D. incentive page, but all there was, was a picture of a rocky hillside, a neat sniper rifle, a notebook, and some expended brass. WTF?
*Jots down note: “Highly suggestible, can get Scooby snax from this one”*
*”hee, hee, hee, hee, heeeee!”* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uSTOHa4Im4
Looks at Yorp. Gets out box of Sydneysnax.
Executes a clone for bad spelling “BLAM”.
What bad spelling? ‘Snax’ is a brand of cracker over here
No space between Sydney and snax.
Tho on the other had the single word Sydneysnax does work good to.
O well, the clones are there for a reason.
*holds up an 8×10 glossy b&w picture of a Bavarian creme-puff dressed only in lederhosen and hat and checks for response
(Star Trek TOS) computer voice ” Threat requognized, Orbital nuclear bombardment comencecing.
Have a nice day.”
wrong comic ;)
Any and all talk about renegade clones needs to be tested for DubDubSeeness
Hey I have to place the blame somewhere. And as I am the leader it can’t be my fault, so bang goes another clone. They are replaceable after all.
There are no wrong comics. There is only homages to greatness.
Not sure if you are aware, but Adamas was refering to the fact the Bavarian creme-puff is a character in a different comic (they had to switch comment-programme which has forced me from commenting :()
Well if he has a problem with crossing the streams, he should stay out of the flow.
*Surfs by on a wave of miniature Sydney (Department of Redundancy Dept. anyone?) action figures*
Just pray the Arch-Dean doesn’t see you
Love how Max is rocking those low-riders.
BUNS OF TITANIUM
Max being a responsible leader is my new favourite thing! <3<3<3
Oh Syd… never change :3
Just wondering about Harem, she’s 19 that makes her over legal drinking age in most non-US jurisdictions, she sends one body drinking where she’s legal could her bodies stateside be arrested or fined for underage drinking since she is both drinking and in the US. what about DUI when an other body is chemically drunk but an other is doing the driving?
I love Meta-Reality and the Law prepsitions
I don’t know that there is a law against BEING drunk as a minor, rather against providing alcohol TO a minor, SELLING alcohol to a minor, and using dangerous equipment WHILE IMPAIRED. I think a cop, if they can show you’ve had one hour of sleep too few the night before, can ticket you for driving impaired on that alone. The same would go for using a firearm, I think.
There are also, typically, laws against being drunk in public.
The real issue is, can she travel there legally in order to get a drink? What are the procedures for processing a teleporter through border security? Presumably she still needs a passport and the proper visas in order to leave the US for anywhere else, including Canada and Mexico.
Not sure of other states because I haven’t researched them, but in NY, TX, and CA any detectable level of blood alcohol is DUI Minor under 21. At the moment TX and CA are still misdemeanors but there is moves afoot to make it a felony in both states, in TX mostly to be able to ramp up charges when someone drives drunk and kills people. In TX a death committed even inadvertently during the commission of a felony can be charged as Capital Murder eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Is it me or is TX just looking for reasons to kill people?
yes. yes they are.
Texas! Come for the chili cookoffs! Stay because we killed you for farting in public.
To enter Canada, an American citizen just needs valid ID that indicates their US citizenship, such as birth certificate or naturalization certificate, along with photo ID. But when you enter Canada, Border Services will ask you for your US passport, because you will not be allowed back into the States without a valid US passport, and uh we don’t want to keep you.
I can travel anywhere in Europe with nothing more than a library card. I have done so it in practically all of them with no problem. The only country I skipped trying it was Germany, and then only because I was woken up in the middle of the night by a couple of guys with machine guns, when on a sleeper train.
The one nation that refused me crossing the border, even when I upgraded to offering my national ID card (for Bulgaria), was England. Quite ironic that the only country I have to get my UK passport out, in order to enter, is the UK.
Given what little is needed to get a library card and how many I have had and lost, I fully understand how no one recognises them in the uk as ID. When you loose them officially you are not supposed to be able to replace them. They are as easy to get as registering a new SIM card for a phone.
Aliases are legal in the uk. The only restriction is so long as you are not trying to break the law or evade tax.
It would be far to easy to get official ID with someone else’s name, address but your photo.
The general principle is that if a crime is committed against a citizen of a country, that country’s courts could prosecute the perpetrators of the crime. Although it is normally left to the legal system of the country where the crime occurred. However, because of the impracticality of trying a crime committed in another country’s jurisdiction, if no extradition treaty is in place, such trials are normally only conducted for very serious cases such as murder.
I recall one such case where a British member of a group of travellers had been murdered in a South American country and the rest returned to the UK. Where the culprits were successfully prosecuted, despite the crime having been committed in another jurisdiction.
Oddly enough, the UK passed a law that means if British subjects commit an act that is legal in the country they conduct it in, but illegal in the UK then they can be tried for it by UK courts. The idea was to stop sex tourism with minors. But when enacted there was no restriction on which laws it could be applied to. So going to Amsterdam to buy drugs that are legal in the Netherlands could result in a conviction in a UK court, even if the individual had no intentions of returning to the UK with them. I am not aware of a similar law in the US. Or any other country in the world for that matter.
Not that it matters because, as somebody else pointed out. under-age drinking is not illegal, just supplying a minor with alcohol. So it is possible that the seller of the alcohol might be prosecuted by US courts, but extremely unlikely. And the country in question is unlikely to accept a request for extradition for an act that is legal in their country. So even if convicted in absentia, the bartender would only be worried if he planned to go to the US someday.
Teleporting whilst under the influence of alcohol should carry a stiff sentence. But somehow, I doubt that any statute book covers that. Yet.
There is still the problem of whether she would be considered driving under the influence, and whether that could be proven. The first would depend on how the effects of alcohol transmit through her bodies. The second might not be possible, because while Harem might act drunk from one body drinking, only that body would fail a breathalizer test, this could be gotten around (by the police, if they recognize her) by requiring the test on all five of her bodies. If caught because the cops thought she was drunk she could probably still be arrested under another heading, such as reckless endagerment or some other legal term I’m not familiar with.
I skipped that part because there are equally valid arguments for the alcohol affecting all of her or just one of her (with a lesser effect on the other bodies due to distracting sensory data and confusing behaviour). As such the reply would have been over-long.
But, ignoring the reasons for brevity, if the former turns out to be the case, and all are affected equally, then proving her to be guilty of driving under the influence should be pretty easy. Assuming that she does it in a state where police are allowed to test her reactions to see if she is under the influence. Such as putting the tips of her finger on her nose. Or walking in a straight line. She would fail it just as much as anybody else.
Further, one of her bodies will be over the limit. Since that press conference everybody in the country will likely know her, and her fame will only grow. So all the police need to do is require that she teleport all her bodies for testing. If she refuses for one of them, then that can be taken the same as anybody else refusing to take a breathalyser test at all.
Different jurisdictions probably handle the details differently, but the long and the short of it is that you weaken your presumption of innocence by attempting to evade such tests and are more likely to face conviction. Otherwise any drunk could refuse and get away with it.
If only the one that drinks is affected normally by alcohol, and that is the one who is caught, then that one can be dealt with as any normal person, so we need not address that issue.
But, in the circumstances drop bear describes, the police and/or courts can test reaction times and co-ordination for non-drinking bodies suspected of being under the influence of alcohol. If the distraction, for whatever reason, is sufficient to impair driving abilities then there the case is likely to go to court. Even if a breathalyser test shows her not to have alcohol in her blood. The crime is not “having alcohol in your system” it is “being influenced by alcohol”. For normal people you cannot have one without the other. In her case it would have to be argued in court.
The defence will argue that such distractions are no worse than having a drunk person in the car as a passenger. The prosecution will contest that and say that the distractions are being fed directly into her brain so cannot be ignored.
Likely one side or the other will require that medical tests be run. Which would need to be custom designed by an expert. But, I could envisage something like hooking up the offending body to monitors and getting her to drive a car simulator, whilst the body known to have been under the influence has the same amount of alcohol in her system that she was caught with. Assuming that the judge is happy to allow a minor to take alcohol under such controlled circumstances. Although that would be no hindrance in a couple of years time and onwards.
Comparing that to her baseline skills and contrasting it to other typical drivers, plus taking into account mitigating circumstances in the specific incident, would allow the judge and jury to decide if she was driving under the influence of alcohol or if an alternate charge, such as driving without due care and attention, would be more appropriate. Or may show that it has no effect on her at all, and that she has no case to answer.
That may be the way it does work, but it’s not the way it’s supposed to work.
In the US, we have “Innocent until proven guilty”, and the fifth amendment, which basically says you can’t be compelled to incriminate yourself. I am to understand that juries have actually been instructed NOT to consider the refusal of the accused to do something, which would seem to either condemn or exonerate, into account.
I may certainly be wrong. I just live here. My training is in computer codes, not legal ones.
The UK and all of its former colonies have the same basic principle. But I phrased my comments very carefully to take that into account. Note the term “you weaken your presumption of innocence”.
Regarding ‘taking the fifth’ that is unique to the US constitution. But the principle that it enshrines is taken into consideration in other jurisdictions, yet is not over-emphasised as it is in the US. For instance the UK police caution used to read “you have the right to remain silent”, but was changed a few years back to reads, in part “You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something which you later rely on in court”.
Which explicitly states that weakened presumption of innocence I mentioned. But the change was merely to make the underlying principle clear to the lay-person, it was not an amendment to any laws or their implementation in court. Basically in any court a jury will be suspicious of the motivations of somebody who refuses to justify their behaviour. This is true regardless of the country involved. It is a matter of human nature.
Hence why, in circumstances, where there is good reason for the person not to say something or conduct a test, then the judge will point this out and rule that the jury should not take their refusal to do so as an indication of guilt.
For instance lie detector tests are inadmissible in UK courts, because they are both unreliable and can be tricked. Whereas in the US, certain states do allow them, subject to the agreement of the individual involved. But because of those good reasons for not using them, it is reasonable to refuse, and the judge should instruct the jury not to take that as an admission of guilt.
Contrast that with breathalysers and blood alcohol tests. The former can give false positives under specific circumstances. For instance if someone has just gargled with a mouthwash, it can read as them being over the limit if they are not. Provided it is an alcohol-based mouthwash and not an anti-bacterial one. Refusing to take a breathalyser test under those conditions is reasonable, and the jury will be told so.
But, before you go dashing to the put your mouthwash in your glove compartment, the police and courts are not dumb. If you do that, all they will do is insist that you return with them to the police station for blood testing. Which is much more reliable.
As such, certain jurisdictions allow the police to take the test without consent. Whereas others may not. But under those circumstances, it is perfectly reasonable for the legal justice system (US and UK) to take a refusal, or evasion (such as running off and hiding) as a sign of guilt. You have the opportunity to use a reliable test to prove your innocence. You refused, and could not offer a reasonable excuse for doing so. We, society, gave you the benefit of doubt and presumed your innocence. We now have good reason not to do so any more.
Actually, Yorp. Point of order.
There was a ‘Mythbusters’ episode quite a while back where they were trying to ‘fool the breathalyser’. With, I might add, the full cooperation of their buddies in the Oakland Police. Various dodges were tried – including mouthfuls of breath mints, eating raw onions and, yes, using mouthwash. None worked. Period.
Now, this does not equate with an in-depth scientific examination of the process. I agree. Also, like any other test, breathalysers have never been “perfect”. Earlier models probably were much easier to fool, plus there are always the possibilities of operator error or technical problems (again, as with any other test). But the mouthwash dodge you mention is, on the face of it, *NOT* going to get anyone offf the hook if the test was administered correctly.
Probably do better hoping that the arresting officer fails to lock your handcuffs properl;y, so you can make a run for it. Better odds, I’d say.
BTW, ‘Mythbusters’ have also tried to ‘fool the Lie Detector’.
The best that could be said, after a revisit, was that it “could” happen but is rare IF the test is being run properly – sheer luck and/or a lot of effort plays a part. But dodges like that seen in ‘Oceans (Whichever Number)’, where a guy self-inflcts pain via a tack in his shoe, do not work.
I love Mythbusters, and have not seen that episode. But the lie-detector test has been carefully scientifically examined and has been proven to have an unreliable success rate (the standards of ‘success’ are set pretty high in UK courts). Likewise special forces members, spies and the like are all given intensive training in how to counter the test. I repeatedly hear it cited from professionals, who should know, that they can do so well enough that the test is fooled.
Although, I am happy to be pointed at credible evidence to the contrary. But do not feel that the Mythbusters should be taken as an authority for anything other than an being representative of a novice attempting to do it. Somebody accused of murder, for example, may go to the trouble of finding a special forces retiree, or other expert, to give them extensive coaching in fooling the test. More than I envisage happening in a typical Mythbusters episode. Yes, they may wheel on an expert for a sound-byte or piece of advice. But I cannot recall them going off for a month or two to train for a specific task.
So long as the possibility of that being done exists, then the courts are right to consider it unsafe. Over and above the fact that the test is crap at telling if someone is anxious because they are under extreme stress or because they are lying. Let alone questions such as, is the person feeling guilty about something (not necessarily the question being asked openly, but perhaps something else that it reminded them about) and therefore physiologically responding in the same manner as if they were lying. Even though they are actually telling the truth.
Lie detectors aren’t as difficult to fool as people would have you believe: majority of them rely on your body’s chemical reactions to ‘falsehoods’, that’s why they tend to have ‘test questions’ before the testing actually begins, why else would they ask you about your name and address and stuff like that
As long as you believe what you are saying, then it will pass, it takes some practice but it is possible (a similar ‘trick’ is typing something other than what you are thinking, very handy when it comes to entering passwords: any potential mindreader would end up with the wrong password :P)
Hell, in the US, Lie Detector findings are not admissible in court. Doesn’t matter if it finds you 100% dishonest or honest, because of the fact that they are just not reliable they aren’t allowed period. The police use them to determine if you feel guilty of anything which means you might be their man or woman. The keyword there is might. You can refuse to take one and no matter how much fuss they bring up, you refused, they can’t really do anything without a warrant. Mind you, they can try spinning that against you in court and the prosecution will. But lie detector tests are voluntary.
I’ve always wanted to get my hands on a lie detector and someone who knows how to read it so I can see if being thoroughly enough in the mindset of one of my OC’s would be enough to fool it…
US law is horribly complicated, given that every state makes its own and the conflicts that can arise between those and federal law. So even though you may be familiar with a categoric ruling of inadmissibility in a particular state, you may be interested to read what Wikipedia has to say on the matter.
Mythbusters are good enough, that I will assume they used an alcohol-based mouthwash, rather than a bacterial one, without having seen the episode. Sadly I do not think that the courts will consider a Mythbuster to be a credible enough scientific expert to call in order to refute that defence. So a scientific study would definitely be in order.
All it takes is the shadow of a doubt to have a test thrown out of consideration in court. Unless a credible paper can be provided to refute it, the mere statement that “this brand of mouthwash contains alcohol and was used immediately prior to the test” very much does raise the shadow of a doubt.
Yes, they used a proper mouthwash… Which caused the initial breathalyzer test to score out-of-range, or (if I recall) fatal levels of intoxication. A second test administered shrtly after gave a more representative score, which i think might have been elevated. Using alcohol to fool alcohol tests only lets you fool them into thinking you drank *more*.
But that is what can get the test invalidated. If you had a small amount of alcohol, but within the legal limit and get breathalysed then no action is taken. If you did the same, but did not want the cop to notice your stinky breath, and had a gargle whilst he was walking up to your car, you may read as being over the limit when you were not.
Which means that the test gave a false result. Argue that case successfully and the test is thrown out and you can drive home with your licence and reputation intact.
I shall not comment on how the points you mention can be exploited to cheat the test, as that would be aiding and abetting criminal activity. Which would subject anyone who did it to the possibility of prosecution. This being an open forum, anyone could see the information. And there is a big readership. Plus drink diving is a common offence. So it is likely that one or more people reading this would abuse such information.
What I will point out, in proper Mythbusters tradition, in the interests of protecting the readership, is that drink drive laws are there to protect you the driver, as well as your loved ones and the general public.
Far better to use your brainpower to find a way of getting a lift home, or staying overnight somewhere in walking distance of where you drink, than to try and find a way to evade the tests. If you succeed, you are increasing your chances of killing or maiming somebody. And mathematically the person you are most likely to kill is yourself. Followed by those you associate with the most when drinking, which is likely to be your friends and family, all other things being equal.
Do not fool yourself into thinking that you drive fine when drunk. It may appear that way, and I have known a number of people who think likewise. But they and and you are mistaken as it is incontrovertibly scientifically provable. You can get away with a small level of alcohol, which is factored into where the legal limit is set. Above that and unacceptable risk begins.
‘Course, there is also the whole seperate issue of how exactly would you enforce a jail sentence on someone who can teleport – and whether all of her bodies and their differentiable personalities would get punished because one got wild.
Her different personalities are emulations/affectations. She herself states that there is “just the one me”. All the court needs to do is wheel out credible witnesses to her having made that claim and the issue of punishing one body, but not others, goes away. If guilty, all bodies go to jail, regardless of which were actually involved.
To do anything else would be like arguing “only the right side of my brain should be put in the cell, as the left hand committed the crime without being abetted by the other hand or half of the brain”. Just a bit less fatal if put into practice.
There are numerous ways of imprisoning teleporters. Most of which would need to be customised according to the capabilities and limitations that a particular super had. One example of which can be found in my post in the thread at the bottom of the page, beginning “Mmm, I think you are missing my point somewhat.” You can’t miss it. It is the incredibly long one. *cries*
Good point.
And which incredibly long one? j/k *goes to look*
(After reading the aforementioned post)
While that would work with a kidnapper potentially, for jail you’re dealing with the cruel-and-unusual bit. Being bound and gagged and blinded for months would definitely qualify. Unless basic human rights as applied by the Constitution don’t apply to supers – in which case we have other problems.
The kidnapper was being extreme. True, she would need to be blindfolded any time she went to or from the prison (and possibly sedated), but not within it. The prison area would have neither windows showing the outside world, nor live TV feeds. But that would not be an inhumane restraint, provided it was more than just a single cell. For example, she should have access to an exercise area. Such provision is mandatory in many jurisdictions.
Likewise, a caring society, with enough budget, would ensure that there was a suitably enclosed communal eating area, where she could socialise. But the costs of making it teleporter-proof, whilst allowing many inmates in, would be prohibitive. In practice, I suspect that she would just be allowed some visitors to socialise with in her restricted area.
As a side note, I do not think that she would be capable of teleporting to ‘the other side of that wall’, as was suggested below, without TV feed or some way of visualising it. Even if she could lay hands on the wall. Simply because she would have no way of knowing whether there was an obstacle of some sort there and her power does not seem to work that way.
Dragonsmith, you are officially evil. Every time I see your username I get art ideas that I don’t yet have the skill to actually pull off.
actually in my part of the world if your under 18 and consuming Alcohol the penalty can range from a Good Behavior Bond up to Six Months on top of the Fine for Possession (IIRC $325 per drink) and if you get done for supply the fine can run in to the Hundreds of Thousands for an individual.
Oh crap she knocked peggy’s foot off.
I hope it is the one that already comes off.
Now that you mention it: this is the day Peggy became a double amputee
Yeah, I’ll be honest. Only reason that I came out to my parents is because I had attracted attention in public as an asexual advocate and educator. Someone who knows my family saw me come out at a conference, and took it on herself to tell my family. -_- So I can kinda understand Halo’s situation.
Besides that, is that Duke Nukem on the right of the first panel? Sweet!
That first panel must have taken some time to draw…
Love the comic Dave, and the new vote incentive is awesome I did notice something though. Between today strip and the incentive (and it could be the perspective of it) but it looks like her left lower leg is off, while the vote pic has it showing her right lower leg is false.
The final panel looks like the prosthetic came off the right leg to me. But as neither leg obscures any part of the other, and Maxima blocks any other clues, I can see how it looks that way to you.
Personally, I hope that Sydney gets out of the room to phone before spotting what she has done to Peggy. After the ‘lets hop to it’ incident, if she sees that she has actually knocked Peggy’s prosthetic off, she might fall on her sword. Or, at least, freak out for half the evening.
Parents: “Oh God! Our slightly unhinged little girl has super powers! How much money do we have saved up? I think we need to invest in a comic shop now.”
Or her aura of confusion surrounded the bank manager when he was deciding on her loan application.
Oh yeah, there’s true parental love: seeing her as only ‘slightly’ unhinged (but they still love her :D)
I doubt her parents are completly sane
Yes, but was that before or after Sydney came along? ;)
Lot of pink hair on the female side.
Out of 14 females (counting all 5 Daphnes), only 3 have pink hair (4 if you count Military Punks ‘tuft’)
I stand corrected. :)
I guess it is more of a perceptions thing. Of those who /chose/ to make their hair an inhuman color, and therefore jump out to me, a large proportion went with pink. It kind of stood out in my mind and made me wonder is all.
Dave, I have a whole theory about Harem that ended up being realy comprehensive and sort of possible. I want to post it but I am afraid of risk spoiling something important.
Is it ok or do you want me to send it to you before?
…I just know that her family’s reactions are going to send me into another gigglefit.
I don’t think I’ve posted before, so thank you for sharing this comic with us! This is the ONE comic I can always be sure will give me a laugh when I need it.
Also. I keep getting disturbed by just how much Sydney is like my hyperactive side. Spicy stuff, not so much, but scatterbrained and hissing at the sun? That’s me all over.
We get many people who confess to having ‘lurked in the shadows as a silent reader’, before making their first comment. Usually I like to greet them with the phrase “welcome out of the shadows”. But as we would not want you to start hissing at the sun, I think I will stick with:
Any girl who is akin to Sydney is more than welcome here.
*bows theatrically* I thank you for the welcome.
drops a Hershey’s kiss the size of a bed pillow in front of kali. nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too! *eyes giant chocolate* Mind if I pass that on to my chocoholic friend? If I tackle that, I am liable to get….mean.
Don’t worry, there is a special area for devouring food, no one will go near you while you feed :D
In that case…*pounces on the chocolate* Where precisely is this room of which you speak? *evil grin*
*points, and hurriedly steps aside
Oh, forgot to mention: it’s your responsibility to clean up after yourself
There won’t even be a crumb TO clean up! *laughs maniacally and scampers off*
Phew! Not being from Earth, no problem. Possibly not being human? Meh, who cares? Most of the best people are not. Not liking chocolate? It would be simply impossible to establish meaningful communication with such a bizarre mind set!
But an artistic Sydney-alike, who enjoys chocolate and grew up on science fiction? This comment board has a Kalietha-shaped hole that you fit perfectly.
That chain appears to have hit the reply limit O_o() Thanks, glad to hear it XD Though actually, up until a few years ago I really didn’t get the whole chocolate thing. I still don’t really like the dark stuff, too bitter.
And fair warning, Sydney’s only like my HYPER side XD Unless she too has a tendency to hide away in corners with books periodically that we just haven’t seen yet.
Well, comics count as books ;)
Did someone say not liking choco?
Cause that’s my superpower
Good point, Guesticus *eyes manga collection*
@RobK: Not liking something is a superpower?
Dark chocolate is deadly for dogs. I do not eat it. Except for, in moderation, in the form of a few specific confectioneries such as After Eight mints.
In and of itself, no. But the ability to grant or withhold such, especially if combined with intensification of the emotion very much would be. For instance:
* Reducing an opponent’s desire for money when haggling.
* Creating and/or increasing their liking of the product if you are selling (reverse if buying).
* Raising craving for a gift (unethical, as most of these uses are, but it does make the gift more appreciated).
* Creating desire for you in a sexually attractive partner and elevating that to love and/or lust.
* Eliminating enemies’ desire to breathe.
More ethical uses of the power would be:
* Eliminating cravings for illegal substances (narcotics for example)
* ‘Curing’ illegal and/or anti-social behaviours (eg. paedophilia or rage).
* Creating liking of edible, if unappetising, foods in a survival situation.
* Reducing an enemies liking of searching the area you are hiding in, whilst increasing their desire to search ‘over that way somewhere’.
In that sense, true, but it seems like a subset of the empath power. Or maybe a refinement of it?
Either or both would be reasonable statements. Or seeing it as an alternative way of describing the empath power, if you extended it to being able to sense the current degree of desires. Although viewing all emotions as being ‘likes’ is a bit of a stretch, it is not an untenable point of view.
Where does somebody’s affinity to rage lie on a scale of not liking it through to totally enjoying it? As a way of illustrating that argument. An empath would simply sense all of the various categories at once: rage, happiness, irritation, frustration etc etc. And even phrases such as “he is not happy unless he has something to moan about” provide anecdotal support to that line of thinking. Such an individual has their ‘liking’ of moaning set high on the scale.
Running with your ‘refinement of the empath’ angle, it can be viewed as adding an expanded grammar to the more basic, traditional, empathy. A basic empath can detect rage, love, hate, envy and so on. Implicitly including detecting the degree. Something most of us can do, by reading body language, facial expressions and listening to the tone of voice. A more advanced empath can also alter those states. Super powers simply reducing the need for a psychology degree and a series of therapy sessions.
But what we have done is also added to the grammar. By including a noun or pronoun in the ability. So that said empath can also detect and alter what the focus of the desire is. Be it chocolate or a particular person, as examples.
Hmm. True. Though since an empath’s power is in the ‘psychic’ category, it also has a range – it’s not just an add-on to bodylanguage/therapy. In most of the books I read empaths can also use it to detect where people are (next room maybe, or several miles away if they’re really strong) and to pick up thoughts/images with strong emotional overtones. On the projection side, I’d like to see a therapist stop a mob in full cry *grin*
Give him a megaphone and put his back against a wall, and he will probably give it a try. And a good one might pull it off. But I would prefer to observe the experiment from the top of the wall, rather than standing next to him!
Eliminating enemies’ desire to breathe.
Yorp please remember that breathing is an automatic function of the body. While it may be suppressed voluntarily for a short time it will resume very quickly,
“reducing the enemies desire to breathe” could be another way to say “makes enemy kill himself*
That ‘automatic function to breath’ can be blocked (not talking about simply blocking the air-way, but the body’s ability to breath, both drawing and expelling)
Happens to me every now and then: will take a pause in breathing, and then for a few seconds forget how to start again (the ‘motion’ to breath is still there:
lung inflates/deflates but the intake valve {for lack of better terminology} doesn’t worklet’s try again: there is nothing blocking the ‘pipes’, but whatever is required to draw in the air is ‘offline’)Okay, the short of it is: someone who is able to get into someone’s mind and control body functions could shut down the body’s natural instinct to breath (they won’t even have the typical ‘struggling for breath’ as that entire system will be shut down) A truly evil mind manipulator will remove even the knowledge that one should be breathing
Nope soon as he goes unconscious breathing WILL resume automaticly
Actually I had recalled that. But it does not stop you from using the power in the way I described. Whilst I appreciate Guesticus‘s argument, if I were games mastering the use I would rule in your favour. For balance if nothing else.
The use I had in mind, but deliberately withheld to avoid another over-long post was to interfere with the enemies breathing in key situations. Such as if you are being pursued by them or in hand-to-hand combat. Yes, it will not kill them. But going a minute or so with no air, until autonomic responses kick in, will give you a significant edge over them.
And you could maintain it. It would be akin to keeping them on the brink of drowning. In the wrong hands it could be used similarly to water-boarding.
Breathing is a function of the body, if you remove the functionality then it doesn’t matter if they are conscious or not, they won’t even struggle or gasp
Ahh, but the power, as described, is over the mind, not the body. That said though, we know that the mind does have power over the body. For instance being able to emulate the use of medicine by nothing more than the placebo effect.
Likewise allowing somebody to walk on hot coals. Mentally prepare yourself right, and you can do it. Fail to do so, and you get severe burns. Yet we do not consciously control the cardiovascular system and other changes that are happening in the feet to prevent the burning. So your point has supporting evidence.
Sadly though, having been within a couple of heartbeats of death by drowning, twice in my life, I know that there are some autonomic responses of the body that we cannot override with our minds. And breathing is one of them. Autopsy results confirm this. When they cut open bodies of drowning victims, water is found in the lungs. We do not choose to breathe water, but the body takes over in the final moments.
Yessss…..and then leave him surrounded and watch him get torn apart….
XD Sorry. Evil side got loose. *squashes*
No need to quash your Evil Side, let it free!
XD Last time I did that, people thought I was serious and started accusing me of sociopathy.
Nothing wrong with being a sociopath (being an anti-social sociopath is the tough one)
He he. Not here. At least not in anything other than jest. I have a running gag about enjoying clubbing baby seals, but nobody has ever taken it the wrong way. Well, if they have, they did not mention it. But I think most of the regulars here can pick up on the difference.
Be advised Yorp does not club baby seals.
He goes clubbing with them, and what happens afterwards is a crime against sentiant life and good taste everywhere.
Pictures on sale in the gift shop as you leave.
Actually this girl from PETA bought all of the picture, saying something about posting it on her blog, “I love all animals”…
I know. when the gift shop is getting s negative cash flow going I let her know a new batch just got in.
I love my laser printer.
Halo knocks harem who knocks harem, first harem hits the floor. All harems fall of chairs, face desk etc.
Regarding the relativistic potential problem pointed here
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1195 # comment- 56484
Harem’s mind is unique, bodies can basically be considered a source of sensory “input”. The relativistic displacement of a body does NOT affect the one mind, just “speed up” the perceptional pace of that body. If we read and listen to music, speed up the music just increases the rate of uptake of the notes but does not affect our mental activity or the reading .
If mind’s processing power is enough, then there’s no consecuences. If the accelerated “input” becomes incomprehensible, could makes that body “blind” and unmanageable. That copy could freeze or behave erratically. The other ones would be normal.
When relativistic effect ceases and the input normalizes everything continues as before, one mind and several bodies, just now one of them is different in age, but the same happen when a body enter in “stasis” by being “resorbed”.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1195#comment-56484
Makes sense.
Now try to wrap your mind around this one. Harem looks in a telescope at a planet on the far side of our galaxy*. Spectral analysis indicates that it has an Earth-like atmosphere. So Punk teleports to the planet, finds she can survive there and settles down.
Earth then sends a space ship, pushed by a super at close to the speed of light, with white-haired Daphne onboard. The rest of the Harems stay on Earth. Let us assume that Prime is able to put herself into storage and only gets called out to replace copies when they get old, so dying of old age is not a problem.
First problem: Would Punk be unable to teleport to the target, despite being able to see the planet? It is in line of sight, so presumably she can? But she is seeing the planet as it was 50,000 years ago. Would she arrive at the planet 50,000 years in the past? If so, would her mental link to the others be severed, until their time arrived, or would they continue to be linked despite being in different time periods?
Or would she arrive instantaneously, only to potentially see a very different planet below, compared her to the one shown in the telescope (maybe it got hit by a meteor which wiped out the eco-system, or the inhabitants had an industrial revolution and changed their atmosphere in the process)?
Second problem, time dilation increases when travelling close to the speed of light (using whatever speed is convenient for calculation purposes or due to physics problems). Assuming Daphne chooses to decant a fresh body every 50 working years, how often would Whitey have to get a fresh body compared to the other Harems?
Third problem. Daphne took along one of the mega-telescopes (a super miniaturises it for her to unpack later), so that she can look at Earth. If she arrived at the destination planet 50,000 years ago, the Earth she is seeing is the Earth of 100,000 years ago. What happens if she teleports back?
Or, if she arrived at the planet in the present, she is seeing the Earth as it was 50,000 years ago She can settle down to watch the course of human history since prehistoric times. Would the bookies allow bets on the existence of biblical events? If she learns how to lip-read in ancient languages, would she eventually be able to see Moses looking up at her and saying “Wow, so you are telling me that there is a woman more than two thousand years in the future who is looking at me, right now, through some kind of viewing device? How is that possible God?”
* A bit beyond our current capability, but I am sure we will get a way of seeing a planet within her lifespan. All the sooner with Reed Richards level help or with the aid of super-powers. Or, if you prefer, she can put on a space suit and use the star as a point of reference instead of the planet, then teleport towards its orbit until she is close enough to see the planet directly.
I believe Harem’s teleport ability works along the principles of the Transporter from Star Trek. If I am correct, then she teleports at the speed of light. You will notice that in Star Trek the Transporter is used for short range travel only.
My bet is that she does not have sufficient power to teleport distances measured in light years, or even light minutes. Possibly not even light seconds. She might not be able to reach the moon. Very few teleporters in the comics have that kind of range.
Very few teleporters would have even tried (at least, the ones that are still alive), because, you know, the moon having no atmosphere: if you didn’t suffocate immediately, there is still the chance your body would explode (what with your internal pressure being greater than the surrounding lack-of-atmosphere)
All very valid points. And the speed of light one is particularly interesting. Of course, until proven otherwise, I shall keep speculating that she has unlimited teleport range. Mind you, I do recall that she had to catch a taxi in one of the explanation pages. Was that because of a range limitation? Or simply to get to a destination she had not seen before?
As brought up in #60 the implied restricton on her porting is she must either know the location or be able to see it to get there.
Are you running a contest? :)
Ok, keep it simple.
Once Harem jumped into an ambulance using her know of the area and the TV footage. But, what if she look at the same footage one week later and does the same? Ie jump using an image from the past to a place no longer there (ambulance inside).
I think she use all the information to spot a three dimensional point of the space and jump there in the present moment (Occam).
She will end at the parking lot al the present half meter in the air. Most probably she will presense the situation is not the expected and do not jump.
IE she will not jump to the ambulance which was taken apart and sold in pieces, making her feet end in Nebraska and her head in Alburquerque. Neither she will jump to the last week making Harem have six bodies, Archon realize what her most useful function is and Dave mention it in the cast.
If the telescope can actually allow her to spot the space position then she will jump to a (highly probable) vaccum in the present.
Harem can not communicate with her past (or future) beings, so if a copy manage to travel in time she will lost communication. The body could became mindless, independient or ruled by the Harem at the time.
Hey, maybe Harem real power is networking with herself and actually has no copies, just future Harems traveling in time and falling into de net :)
How often? Come on, that is just calculator work, do not waste my time :)
The history witness is actualy a very interesting situation.
“de net” = “the net”
The moving ambulance argument is a good one. One counter being that Harem can teleport to a number of familiar locations, such as her bedroom*. But those locations are on a moving object (the Earth) and there has been no mention that she needs to sit down and calculate their relative distances, compass bearing and altitude. Subconsciously or otherwise her super-power accommodates for the fact that the destination is moving and in an unknown bearing relative to her current location.
I totally empathise with your position as regards question 2. The maths prompt was simply to allow somebody more capable than me to point out the mind-boggling weirdness that happens when somebody goes close to the speed of light. Plus I had a couple of vague points that would follow on from any solution, regarding perception, memory and the like. But much interestingness has flowed from the other replies, so I am more than satisfied.
* Not being able to find the relevant pages that detail Harem’s capabilities means I am relying on memories which may be inaccurate and certainly are incomplete.
That is an easy one :) Relative places on Earth do not change. Even we normal people can always address home from work, can’t we? :)
About this there are many examples in comic, Harem teleported away from Maxima, in and out the closed Ball Room, at least out of Deus office, everytime without any help.
Anyway with the ambulance she knowed “where the bank was” and use the camera view just to pin down it. I do not think that she could teleport to Bin Laden’s hideout just seeing the videos.
I am working on memory too, also I did not read all the comments but I think that was never stated this point. However I am pretty sure that she can’t teleport to a totally unknown place, whether it is stationary or moving.
In short: I think that she can teleport to a place if and only if she can point a finger to it.
Just remember: she was able to *vorp* into the ambulance when she only had the spatial location of the outside off of a live TV-feed to go by
Mmm, I think you are missing my point somewhat. Let me emphasise it in another way.
The waiter at today’s event is actually in the employ of one of the villains now plotting against Archon. He has slipped drugs into each of Daphne’s drinks. When they start to kick in and the woozy Harem staggers off to the toilets, thinking she is just a bit poorly, he and/or the mastermind villain stand ready to kidnap her. Waiting until she is alone and the drug finishes off rendering her unconscious (successfully dealing with anybody who insists on helping her).
When Harem wakes up, she is tied up, blindfolded and in a pitch-black room. Worse, all of her bodies are there. This is a dire situation. She cannot see anything, so cannot use her default method of teleportation. And her bonds are very securely tied. But surely she can teleport to one of her familiar locations (let us pick her own room, for argument’s sake). Or can she?
She has no idea where she is at the moment. Therefore she has no way to tell where her room is in relationship to her current location. It could be two miles away or two hundred. And in any direction. Although she knows that her room has a specific location, that location is moving. And she has no proof that she is moving the same way as it. Currently she might not even be on Earth. Something seems a bit odd, if she could get out of her bonds to test the gravity, it may turn out that she is in some base on the Moon. Or on Mars.
All journeys have two key points. The place you are at when you start it, and the spot you want to be in when you finish it. Provided you know both you can find your way there. As a teleporter anyhow. Everyone else has to also factor such irritations as mountains getting in the way.
My original scenario had the destination being uncertain. But she know where it was 50,000 years ago, and what forces are acting on it (assuming either an astronomer is helping or her super-power factors such things in automatically) so can predict where it will be now, all other things being consistent.
Whereas, in the current situation, it is the start point is the unknown, but even more so. She cannot even extrapolate where the bedroom is compared to her current location.
As I see it, there are three options:
1) If Harem categorically has to know the relationship between start and end point, for her power to operate, then we have just found a way of securely imprisoning her, when her treachery is unmasked. She also cannot undertake interstellar travel safely.
2) Whereas if all she needs to do is provide an unmistakeable location as her intended destination, and her super power is flexible enough, then it can take her to it. The actual mechanics might vary. Say incorporating a specialised omniscience that simply provides the answer.
Or her subconsciousness being very good at extrapolating from known facts. Even down to things which a normal human mind might not notice. As such she might be able to keep track of her personal location by subtle clues, even whilst unconscious. Adjusting for every shift in momentum.
Or even drawing on the senses that migrating animals use to navigate around the globe. And if she can do that, why not apply the same principles to figuring out her destination? Observing all the details known about it to keep track of it. And super-powers tend to fudge the details, so 50,000 years worth of complicated astronomical interactions might be forgiven.
3) This is just a simple mechanism, which would save Harem from the cell, but still not resolve the planet-hopping question. Being that by ‘memorising’ a location, she is applying a locator beacon to it. Which means that no matter where it is, she will be able to find it. In which case she could actually memorise the ambulance as one of her chosen locations. And no matter where it was driven, even without her knowing, she could still teleport to it.
For this version we can assume that by looking at an object she is mentally placing a locator beacon on it as a way of saying ‘this is my current destination’ even if she is not technically ‘memorising’ it, City of Heroes took this more literally and had the players click on their intended destination, with their pointer.
So the question remains, will the locator beacon simply be placed at a spot 50,000 years away from its intended destination? This applies equally to the time lag for light to travel from the Moon, if she wants to go there, but does not want her foot to intersect the ground. Simply because the Moon moved ever so slightly in that time. Internet lag had similar problems in CoH, for that matter.
Or will it be able to compensate for the movement that the object has undertaken to its present location? The latter is just a version of 2) above with a specific mechanic.
Note that 3) might be a valid solution. She has never memorised the ambulance as a location, so would have to rely on identifying it by other means, such as using the live TV footage. Which raises an interesting point. Was she only able to do that because she is familiar with where the bank is and could see it on TV. Or can she go to any location she can see on live TV? Without any supporting information, that may allow her to pin point it better in her ‘minds eye’.
Assuming she has been to Washington, she could easily use the same technique to teleport there. She knows where Moscow is, so may be able to do the same with the Kremlin. Perhaps needing to look at its map location on Google to narrow it down? But could she go to a live feed from an unspecified location in the Sahara? If the latter then it strongly implies that she has an omniscience function built into her power. Hello alien planet.
I doubt that she could teleport to Bin Laden’s lair using a pre-recorded video. I think she would need more than just that, again unless the omniscience option is in play.
Gah, bang goes my attempt to keep things short. But I could not see a way of cutting out much without loosing key points. Sorry about hogging so much screen space. *hangs head*
…silent glance…
I am going to put you in a 500 words read limit.
Better than the 500 character limit of YouTube, so not unreasonable. Theirs is pretty damned restrictive at times mind, as you often see a lot of folks having to split replies over multiple comments to get around the restriction. But it is good at curbing ramblers… I’m rambling again arn’t I? …
*wanders off to look for a noose*
Offers selection in various styles, materials, and colors.
That had me laughing out loud. Up until something went down the wrong way and I started to choke. You and your murderous subliminal projections!
Actually, I understood you the first time :) and I keep my answer.
But lets play :)
The problem is not the Earth move (or any move) but not knowing where to go. Just blind them and spin them, voilà.
1) Yes, your plot success. (*)
Interestelar travel could be possible, depending on the technologie allowing her to place the destination accurately enough or not.
By the way, Dave stated that could be a range limit that he have not figured out yet.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/388
2) and 3) – Could be.
Personaly I do not think she has any special “gps capability”.
Note on 3) – No, live video do not make difference, she do not know where that is.
At the end I stand with it: If she has a way to manage pointing her destination with a finger then she can go there, else not.
Well, I am done, CU on another topic ;)
(*) Actually, maybe. She do not need see, just know so she still have options.
She can crawl until reach a wall and attemp to teleport to the other side, her presense will prevent her from jumping to a danger spot. Based on this, there is a couple ways to try and run away.
We do know for sure but If she have control over what she drag when teleport then she could jump out of her bondages. Ultimately even bare.
And I am pretty sure that there is more options ;)
I just realise, if note on 3) worked Angels and Demons would have 50 pages ;)
That’s a very nice theory.
My guess is she can’t possibly teleport that far in 1 jump, though that still leaves the question what happends if one of her copys goes on a space travel at a speed of a seizable percentage of the speed of light
Did not the start of this cover that? relativistic effect?
Ooh, I just thought of how she could see a planet even with our current level of technology. Albeit probably not so easily at that distance. She just has to do two things.
Firstly to test if she can teleport to something she can only see in silhouette. So trying to teleport into the basket a hot-air balloon, as it passes in front of the sun would be a practical experiment.
Secondly she needs to get the astronomers to predict when the planet will be passing in front of it’s star, from our perspective, and ensure that she is looking through a purpose-built telescope when that happens. Or a composite image from an array, provided it can be processed in real-time. Given that she can use TV images, the principle is the same.
And, today, humanity took one step closer to doing that, even without prompting from Harem.