Grrl Power #279 – High risk reversal
A bold and risky, even potentially foolish, but obviously very effective opener to Sydney’s plan. She’s obviously banking on the fact that Vehemence doesn’t seem like a total d-bag. Besides setting up the whole thing, causing massive destruction, beating the hell out of the team and trying to kill Maxima. But in a strangely polite way for the most part. Appealing to him via the scared puppy eyes may be part of her plan, but also may be genuine terror. Does the aggro aura affect Sydney? Well, it’s been like 1 second. We’ll see on the next page.
It was pointed out quite a few times in the comments, but in case you didn’t notice it, Sydney’s shield cut right through Vehemence’s aggro aura (which obviously had considerable range on it, considering it reached Arianna and the news crew all the way on the other side of the highway. I wonder how that part of the newscast will go.) Luckily, Sydney did notice.
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I still think V could be trying to rid himself of the vehemic curse. Notice how his markings are now a red-orange. I’ve got a theory that he wants ARC to fight him to the point the markings max out (colour change through to a red, dark red, black), and then they’ll dissipate (colour change to clear, then gone).
He can’t let ARC in on his plan, as they wouldn’t be using their full potential on him (in order to not risk killing him) and so he wouldn’t reach his full potential. All the evil mastermind talk is just to gear them up into attacking him more, ahem, vehemently.
I think that’s a pretty bold assumption. Both that he wants to get rid of it and that it would work like that.
Seems pretty far fetched.
Dabbler can dial down her lust powers, but she can’t turn them off completely. I reckon it’s the same deal with V’s powers. He probably had a blast when he first got them, but is now regretting the drawbacks (potential example: he wants to run a bath, but his wife-beating drunk of a neighbour decides to let of some steam, and suddenly he’s in dire need of a plumber), and so is looking for an out.
There’s nothing to say that Dabbler can’t turn them off completely. She just chooses not to. She never goes below a 10.
Hmm, that took balls. It was an almost reasonable move to make. After all, he has pretty openly stated his lack of homicidal urges here. He doesnt even WANT to kill Max, he just knows he has to or else max will kill him. However, that doesnt mean he wouldnt flick her like a booger. That being said, he cant let go of max, or else she will get up and whup him good, so he will have to use his vehemic energy to knock her out or whatever, and with him not having a steady source incoming, that may be a bad idea too.
As for the whole “Why doesnt the aura effect her?” thing. Thats tricky. At first I figured it was only effecting those that got knocked out. Dabbler was immune, I think harem got bypassed, Max wasnt effected, etc etc etc. But seeing suzie news and arriana slugging it out means that isnt true. (It also means that was one sickeningly HUGE aura attack) Either that, or to put it in D&D terms, it takes a will save, and as commoner npcs, their will saves suck, and so do unconscious people’s.
Now, we get to wait and see what the effects of blocking him from the violent outside world will be. Does he need a constant flow of energy to keep his current level going? Is he “just” stuck at this level till the shield drops? Or will he start weakening because its just his own violence feeding him, because that cant be perpetual energy or else he could sit there punching himself and reach godhood without bothering to involve the heroes at all!
Sydney has balls. 7 of them, to be precise. *g*
I think it´s apparent now that Syd has a few more.
And those are made of Iron.
steel
tungsten
I suppose next you’re gonna tell me she craps dark matter, in addition to having 7 adamantine balls the size of watermelons.
…She’s Dibbler? IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW.
(No it doesn’t.)
What are you guys talking about? Sydney’s balls are indestructible magical entities made of a previously unknown material.
How does one walk with seven-plus indestructible balls? Baseball is already wrong about walking with just four. ;p
You must have never met the Krognan people. Each male has 12! They can walk (and more importantly RUN) just fine.
So Sydney is a Krognan? Sweet. =3
Sorry to derail things a little here, but krogan have 4 testicles. That’s why they refer to tough people as having a “quad” on them.
The most amazing physiological feature of krogan biology is the multiple instances of major organs. These secondary (and where applicable, tertiary) systems are capable of serving as back-ups in the event of damage to the primary biological structures. They have, for example, two hearts, four lungs, and four testicles. This reflects in their slang, where they often speak about a “quad” where a human would use the words “balls” or “pair”
https://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Krogan
Sorry, I’m a bit like the Mass Effect version of a trekkie…
Actually we can’t judge yet if the aura effects Sydney. As DaveB stated under the comic, it’s been less than a second since she stepped in the effect. DaveB also stated that it HAS been effected Dabbler, Harem and Maxima (few pages ago).
Also I don’t agree with people stating that Vehemence doesn’t want to kill anyone. He’s not INTERESTED in killing anyone, but that’s a very different thing
Considering the state of her adhd mind when it’s not affected. Her mind may hit a whole new violently chaotic level never before conceived of by the most hyper adhd person on the planet.
Or the Violence Aura might not be able to “keep up” with the speed that her thoughts jump around at. since it seems to function by turning people’s thoughts towards random violence, it might not effect Sydney as quickly (if at all) since it would first have to shutdown all the other crap going on up there.
Which, when paired with Sydney’s genre savvy-ness and nonviolent abilities might make her at least a counter to V.
Sydney is random violence. She just doesn’t have the attention span to focus it on any one thing. Also right now she is trying really hard to focus on her plan and staying three steps ahead right now so I think that she will pass her will save for the next few rounds.
I expect her next words will be “if you let go of Max she will esplode your head and we don’t want that, but if you surrender then she won’t do that.” Or something along those lines.
Her ADHD might help with that. Also, she did re-program her brain in how it reacts, if you recall :)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/comics/2012-12-31-GP0122.jpg
RESET COMPLETE!
Sweet sweet sense of progress.
But even better is Arianna vs Suzie fight, especially that they both have bruised knuckles. Priceless little detail.
Agreed to both!
Kinda disappointed the clothes are still in proper place, the potential for a fight to undies was there.. Maybe in a parallel universe… Girls fighting girls is pulling hairs and clothes more then punching most of the time anyway. Atleast when lacking combat training.
There’s a little hair-pulling there, but from the look of them they were trading punches first. That suggests some training. But after they ran out of moves they were reverting to school girl tactics. We just missed the blouse ripping. Thank you Sydney. :P
Also, forgot to add. Not even V can predict the kind of unholy mess that is fight-tastic Sidney. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/226
She goes off like that even V may want to step back.
She may still go off like that. She only just now put herself in the bubble with the rage field so we will have to see on thursday. The arua could also be broken now that it is not complete or at least reduced in strength with its size.
If V casts spells using rage energy (Rage Mage?) I think that now would be a good time to surrender long enough to cast teleport self elsewhere (Bigby’s great escape?).
considering he started at white, it’s a good theory, but I don’t think you’re right…
he seems to be enjoying the power rush, and he’s basicly toying with ARC, by teaching them lessons.
lessons they would never learn.
It seems to me that Syd can actually be smarter then him, if she tries… but something tells me one of the unidentified orbs actually allows her to ‘cheat death’?
I’m wondering if Sydney is making good use of her telephone and is standing right behind V, and distracting him with an illusion. That would be a good gambit.
And it would last about 3 seconds once V tried to get his hands on her and went through her. At this stage, it’s a pretty sure bet that he’s faster than she is. True, she *IS* holding the Telepresence/Truesight Ball as well as the Shield Ball, but that doesn’t mean much. Other than the Lighthook, those are the 2 she’s been using the entire fight.
And that “TUMP” in the last panel is the sound of her backing into the shield. If she were elsewhere inside it’s radius, the sound coming from THAT spot would let V know exactly where she is, since the illusion in front of him wouldn’t make that sound. Then again, I don’t know if the Illusion Ball only transmits her voice or any sound in a certain area around it.
Still, the sound of her backing into the shield coming from 2 different spots would tell him one of them is a fake, and most likely the one he can see easier.
I wonder.
Sydney’s shield protects her from the rage aura. With her inside of the shield, it should be affecting her. We’ve never seen Sydney outside of her force field — but under most circumstances, wouldn’t anyone with such a power pretty instinctively keep it around herself? In other words, are we making an assumption about Sydney only being able to be inside her shield?
The fact that she can talk via telepresence implies that other sounds can also be transmitted. What if she’s outside of her shield?
Or…
She knows that Vehemence is aware of her telepresence, and is double-bluffing. He’ll think she’s using an illusion, when in fact she is not. Attacking her would require him to let go of Maxima, or else use more of his power to hurl a blast at her. That being the case, he’s going to have to finish off Maxima first, without feeding.
No, we aren’t assuming Sydney has to be inside the shield. DaveB had explicitly said that she does not know how to form the shield and not be inside.
V does not have the strength to defeat Max. Yet. He needs the aggro aura feeding him Vehemic energy to get that power level, and he can’t let go of Max or she’ll squash him like a bug. So, he needs to get that shield down without being distracted enough to lose his hold on Max. We know Sydney has to hold the orbs to activate their powers, but we don’t know how quickly she can blink that shield on and off. I’d wager fast, and she’s watching V. Any move on his part, and she reforms the shield with him outside of it. And, she has the senility, right now, to distract V, in any number of ways.
It’s game over now.
Sydney DID recently level up the com-ball. Perhaps she can now use her powers though her illusions?
We saw her new power, it was to identify magic. Also, Max can’t squash V right now either, he’s too powerful without some very, very, non-PR-happy force. He’s actually probably a little above her in terms of strength/speed/defense. The problem here was her, in this case. He was looking for a good throw down against the law, and was expecting, at most, incarceration should he lose. He planned for everything except Max being THAT kind of law enforcer (the one who believes in the last option being the go to.) When sydney covered his eyes, that was an immediate opening o do several things. Hell even if it’s violent, a brain rattling uppercut could’ve knocked him out at that stage. I can’t see this ending without V gettin iced, now that both parties are willing to use lethal force..
Identify Auras not Magic.
Was that ever confirmed to be what the point added? Note that it was started that a few different vision mode related jokes were cut (deferred) a couple of pages ago so did the point add all the extra vision modes or had it simply been that Sydney hadn’t experimented with that before. She wouldn’t have a reason to, she didn’t even seem to know about the default truesight until a few comic hours ago so little reason to experiment for other modes.
However there’s been no experimentation with any potential boosts to the illusion so it would be a bit deus ex for that to happen.
No, the point she added was not for this. That point was ‘greyed out’
That’s not confirmed either. The greyed function could be related to the greyed out lines on the skill tree (there are a couple in the comm balls section)
I thought the shield had to be centered on Sydney. I only just now noticed that she was at the edge of the shield and was holding the comm ball meaning that the Sydney that V sees is an illusion intended to keep V’s attention away from her.
or to allow her to continue seeing auras we’ve seen back when Sydney first talked to V that the shield is also projected during her illusion it’s also immaterial as an illusion.
Pretty sure the comm ball DOES transmit sound as well, or her illusions wouldnt make any noise.
Sure, but if Vehemence did let go off Maxima for even half a second, he’d be dead
Would have to be a ranged attack. If its energy based it may take him another second to realize it wasn’t just absorbed or diverted around by a new power. Dumb of her to wave her illusion in his unknown face earlier though…
I know Sydney is going to survive this because of the whole ‘flashback’ thing. But, that doesn’t mean she won’t be seriously injured in the process. So we can rule out vehemence not laying a finger on her (though at his current power level that still could be lethal). I wonder how this’ll play out and how the aggro aura will affect Sydney and her plan.
What flashback thing?
Look at the first five comics and you’ll understand
I think her plan is to hit him in the eye with one of her spheres … that’s been coated in something ridiculously spicy.
At his current power level on The Unmaker plus a smidge of extra pure cap could possibly effect him at all. Harem please be fast enough! (lol though I would actually think it more than strange if anything she could EAT hurt him at this point.)
Heh, His Agro aura will most likely affect her and she’s banking on it as her third step in case “puppy dog eyes fails” because like she totally kicked a few super guys assets in the most insane puggiest way ever.
With Sydney holding the yellow ball still, my guess is that is a illusion she made. Her position compared to V was on otherside I think. So real Syd is hiding somewhere prob behind him or a bush.
She *HAS* to be INSIDE the shield, remember? She MIGHT be behind him at the moment, but she couldn’t be hiding behind a bush in the middle of a parking lot.
I am saying she is Inside the circle, i am not a person to forget that or to even suggest otherwise. But even this parking has some green spots, maybe a bush we missed is. All i am saying this might be a illusion of her. She said to plan a few steps ahead, so she has planned something in case he would attack. Otherwise i would have suggested she would use the hentai-orb as a improve armor/shield. The yellow orb must give her a edge, i would think.
When the Com-ball sends out it’s illusionary Halo, the little light ball inside of it leaves. It is still there. Therefore, this is the real Halo.
Yea but the illusion OF the comm ball still has the little center in it
the little light ball goes to the illusion.
also, by looking at the background and the overview a few pages ago, the Sydney we’re seeing is on the other side of V compared to where she was when she was making her plan, so unless she walked/ran right past him for some reason, it’s an illusion.
From what we saw in the aerial view, there really isn’t any concealing cover left in the immediate area.
If you want to bring trigonometry into it, you can see the aura circles almost exactly match the shield perimeter. This means that she was (probably) standing directly behind him when she (re)activated the shield orb. Since then she has either moved (likely), or is projecting a remote image (less likely. The mini ball is still in the orb, and she would have to be both behind him and facing away from him to get the holo-copy to be facing toward him.)
More likely, she still has the true sight orb in her hand since she needed to see if the shield actually cut off the aggro-aura outside the bubble. She is now free to proceed to ‘step two’. Roll for initiative.
Its V looking at the aura not Sydney…
Someone else (who’s name I have sadly forgotten but I’ve seen others saying it now too) the mini ball goes to the illusory Sydney’s illusory ball so it could still be an illusion that way.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/494
Based on the one demonstration we’ve seen so far she would have had to be on his right side, where he first looked, and facing away from him. This would be impossible because 1) He just looked there and 2) she couldn’t generate an illusion of her back hitting the energy lattice if her front is to the shield.
For this to be her illusory self she would have to be able to set both placement and orientation of the image relative to herself to different settings than what we have already seen via some sort of controls like the “embigginer” on the shield orb etc… This is possible and there is some small foreshadowing for it with her having been tinkering around with that orbs controls a second ago BUT not really enough foreshadowing so I couldn’t blame people if they said this was somewhat convenient writing. But it is within the realm of reasonable adjustment for that orb at least.
i doubt the violence aura will affect someone who is naturally always violent just like a lust aura won’t affect someone who is always horny.
The problem with that doubt is that neither violence nor lust are boolean states, in that they’re not just ‘on’ or ‘off’ like a light-bulb.
The violence aura could force a constantly violent person to greater acts of violence. For example, ‘kicking somebody in the gut’ when they’re down could become ‘breaking their major joints’ when they’re down. Both are undeniably violent acts, but clearly the second is more violent.
As to degrees of lust, the constantly horny person may engage in sexual fantasy about any attractive stranger they encounter, but under the influence of Dabbler’s aura, may either make the attempt to engage with her sexually, or possibly engage in public masturbation. Both are greater acts of lust than simple fantasizing.
So if someone is a 12/100 on the violent behavior scale that means they’ll go up 40 points in the aura. So they’ll be equally more violent than the person who went from 40/100 to 80/100.
Assuming it’s additive rather than multiplicative, you would still see a greater change in the 12/100 to 52/100 than in the 40/100 to the 80/100.
12/100 to 52/100 would be like a grocerie store worker suddenly becoming a thug
40/100 to 80/100 would be like a alchaholic becoming a full on street fighter of some kind.
Each one moves up to a new notch of aggressiveness equally above where they started.
There might even be differances in the “flavours” of violence or lust being induced versus those a person might normally have. Seems to me that these are not values set in stone – think comparing pillow fights with, say, football. In either case, a lot depends on the mindsets and inclinations of the parties involved.
I’m expecting that’s the telepresence Sydney there.
Except the shield can *only* be placed around her real body. shown in the previous comic when Sydney was talking with V he telepresence version of her’s shield is not really there (he was able to pass though it and her)
But maybe that’s what the point she spent did, allows her to use real powers through her illusiony self
It was implied that the point she got allowed her to see those aura’s. She just had to turn it on after acquiring the ability, this was shown 2 comics ago on 277.
Welp, those who suggested at least the shield idea, you get a big cookie. I really did not think she would be this ‘ballsy’, pun intended. Of course, I wanna know what her other moves will be, otherwise she will be an unconscious body at the minimum.
Also, first panel, complete with sparkles. I’m actually more frightened of THAT face than anything else.
That’s an addict who just got a hit of the really good stuff.
Or the possible result of using the equivalent of the hentacle…
She is trying to think three moves ahead like Math told her earlier so she might be preparing for him to attack even if she doesn’t believe he will.
I can just about guarantee he will want to hit her. I’m also under the impression, like many, that we are seeing an illusion. Afterall, in her super ADHD mode, BADGERS! :P But, yeah, I will want to see what the rest of that plan is to be willing to get inside the V aura there with a now leveled up Veh.
Clever move, Sydney.
Now assuming your awareness of the aggro aura can keep you from trying to maim Vehemence – to your own peril – you should be sort of safe since V will have to let Maxima go to deal with you. And he still thinks – I assume – that his electricity thing is weakening her, so he won’t likely just stand up and try to get you.
But it’s been established that the orbs are both unmovable and indestructible. Pushing them gently into various key joints could be an effective way to restrain Vehemence without actually being violent.
Neither they or Sydney can be moved beyond a certain distance limit from the other. Within that limit they can be moved and so can she. They have a certain ability to move and generate momentum at her mental command and that needs further testing but they are not immovable within the limit.
Indestructibility has not been truly tested either. Other than Sydney liking to hit squishies with them.
Don’t forget that Math was able to knock one of the orbs out of orbit and knock her in the shin with it.
He attacked her with a finger or two pointed at her. It was an obvious feint but he knew Sydney had no skills whatsoever. She blocked the obvious feint with an orb (he didn’t move it). While she was distracted by this feint he then used his leg to nudge her leg into a different position. She had too much going on to be aware of everything she had set in motion PLUS blocking the feint so one of her own balls then hit her in the lower leg.
In that scene Math never moved one of her orbs. He just moved her cause it was easier.
It’s my theory that touching two active balls to each other enables an advanced mode,
allowing them to share information.
Comm + Shield = Customized Shield?
Probably, but she hasn’t put any glowy thingies in the slot on the skill tree that looks like it’s for that.
As I said on the previous page, a 5-ball shield inside her super shield. Something she can activate by thought and is (for all we know at this point) as indestructible as her outer shield.
Balls aren’t immovable within a certain distance limit from Sydney and we don’t know how tough they really are at all (she’s just been attacking squishies with them). V’s already proven he has what it takes to move the Light Hook orb with Sydney attached an that is the one orb probably does have secondary powers, beyond the other orbs, to anchor itself so it has leverage for its super strength tentacles movement. So if he can move the Light Hook the others are probably no sweat at all (well maybe the flight orb if she’s holding it… )
Oh and also he would probably use an energy or ranged attack (flick a pebble at the squishy Sydney) cause letting Maxima up is suicide. heh
To be frank, Sydney’s only defense from being killed is the plot armor from the fact we know this is a flashback. She’s still up for serious, non-permanent, maiming right now.
Well, on many occasions Dave has responded to or mentioned our by now hundreds of back and forth comments about how lethal it would be for Sydney to be in that shield with him so likely it IS part of the plan. So I have to see what she had in mind when she walked in there knowing she was setting herself up for imminent death before I pass judgement on the level of her “plot armor”. I’ve never seen a show or book that didn’t have a little of this so that’s inevitable but whether its an inappropriate amount of plot armor to this comic’s nature is the question.
Of course one of the balls she is holding is the telepresence one, so Vs first punch will miss. Might release Maxima in the process though.
The second orb should be the shield orb, but it has the wrong colour.
dangerous move sydney but great idea now…hmmm tentacle orb shield around you or something? or pray the something comes up fast
Hah, called it again!
Since the violence aura has has just condense from the size of a few city blocks to about a 5-10m wide circle wouldn’t it make Sydney go crazy within the next few seconds?
It’s Sydney, she’s allready crazy.
You would think soon. OF course if her next move is planned to be seriously violent it might help her hold off for a second as a distraction cause she knows its all just so she can shoot him. Not that I really am sure of that just Devil’s advocate.
That’s not exactly how auras work.
If it’s simply X effect everywhere, than blocking it’s reach will do nothing to strenghten it
Oh. So my D&D Dm was apparently using the wrong damage calculations to see what a 30′ blast radius fireball trap would do to a sorcerer stuck in a 5’x5′ closet, or is that completely unrelated?
I was assuming that the aggro aura was a type of magic energy. Since it was shrunk from the massive size and all that energy was put into a smaller space it should have a greater concetration of Magical effects on the smaller area.
A fireball is a shockwave. Shockwaves get amplified by tight corners.
An aura is not the same as a shockwave.
Also, a D&D Fireball is also 30′ radius in total volume, so if it’s cast in a hallway for example, then it would still follow the contours of the surrounding obstacles until it’s filled out the equal volume of space. The Fireball would still do the same damage to everything inside of that volume though; I’m still working from AD&D 1st Edition rules though…They may have changed the rules in later editions, which would not be within my knowledge.
Am I the only one interested in the fact that Sydney’s shield is two-way? I.E., nothing gets out, nothing gets in – yet she’s been using the tentacle orb and the telepresence orb through it all along (??)
About the only thing I can think of Sydney can do right now is give Vehemence a great big ol’ group hug. Kumbaya his rage power away.
If you noticed that the odds have a small gap between the orb and the power. Like the one foot wide nap between the lighthook and the actual orb. Like how there was a foot distance between the PPO and the PPO’s laser beam.
The shield is projected by the orbs. So it’d make sense that the orb’s powers are able to interact with it
Each orb has a core two of the orbs that we know if have the cores move out when using a power, the telepresence orb and the Lighthook. The PPO probably can as well so my theory is that these orb cores can move though the shield unhindered then deploy their powers.
All the observations and guesses not withstanding, the most important thing Sydney has done is to knock V off his game. So far everything has gone his way, according to his plan with only a few bumps and burbles. This is V’s first unexpected “WTF” moment which does two very important things:
First, it Does interrupt his game plan which throws him off stride and starts him thinking on how to counter what Halo has done, leading to –
Important thing 2 which has him not thinking about steps two and three of her (Dave’s) plan.
I’m thinking Math would be very proud of his Padawan.
Well, Math did get awakened recently. Even though he might have been distracted momentarily by V’s Aggro-Aura, he could very well be likely to see Sydney’s plan in action momentarily.
A part of me really expected V to burst into song there for moment with the first panel. :D
Hah, with all the comments Dave has been twisting into the comic proper I was waiting for Sydney to put herself in the shield but I mostly said it jokingly because other than a new use of the telepresence or a beautiful distraction of some kind (at one point given her cartoony nature I privately wondered if V would be trying to figure out the shield around him when suddenly he noticed a odd bush inside the shield with him LOL) : How could she not die? Love it anyway! XD
What was happening back at the news crew was a part of my discussions. It almost makes you feel like we are all writing this comic together sometimes. *teary eyed* Peggy must have been far enough back not to want to start popping people I guess that goes double for whatever Gwen can do offensively. I wonder if we will get some uncomfortable looks exchanged between ARCLIGHT members (and other support personnel on scene) later on.
So he’s willing to kill Maxima because she is willing to maim or kill a threat of his magnitude, Sydney is helping prevent his plan to kill Maxima and keep himself safe, obviously he would be willing to kill one more if he has to but he may try to intimidate her away first or something. He’s gathered more magic mojo so he could just knock the orb out of her hand (unless one of the orbs fail safes we don’t know about prevents the unwilling removal of an orb from her hands operation… ) or just remove the hand… But anyway you look at it this is a pretty suicidal move even if there is a chance of survival cause there is an even higher chance of maiming or death.
I’m assuming she has either compensated for being suddenly filled with vehemence battle rage in her plan or its just part of being OK with dying in this plan. Of course she’s already gotten everybody back online and distracted V’s attention so its possible that she set it up so the plan could be successfully executed even if she dies in the next panel or two. We know that doesn’t happen but that doesn’t make her creating a very likely suicide play that works either way any less awesome.
So I assume after they all get over their odd new bruises and such they will be able to read Sydney’s furiously typed text messages and the plan can swing into action.
I’m sure she may be mildly criticized in whatever debrief we have (not as much as Maxima should be though!) but whether she gets burned for being saved by the greenie or not Maxi herself, from what I’ve seen of her personality, should love her forever after this!
I bet Dave was highly amused every time the “shield V” comment came up. Now that the thing that most commenters said wasn’t going to happen, happened, how does Sidney survive?
—Move the orbs in front of his punch. If they stopped Maxima then they might stop him.
—Quickly reform the shield smaller (problem: V’s aura gets released).
—Ask nicely (in progress, likely only a delaying tactic).
—Trick him with the comm ball (possibly in progress).
So, with four possible ways out, there is a chance she will survive the first round of aggression by V, which gives the next stage time to work. But the next stage better be really good.
Nah, we just said she couldn’t do it without being in there with him. Which as a suicidal move made it much less likely you have to admit. Even now the comments rage with mentions of the telepresence illusion possibly explaining her willingness to throw herself into the lions den.
Orb thing only stops them or her from getting a certain distance from each other (like a tether) its not a part of their normal telekinetic floaty strengths. (someone is gonna call me out for repeating this so much but I keep seeing it so often for multiple updates so its time for a bombardment of knowledge campaign! XD )
2nd one works better if she quickly reforms the shield bigger and off center (if she has the controls figured out that well cause its default is centered on her) so it covers key players with it when she restructures it.
4rth one has some likelihood though it would require her having more finesse with the telepresence image than we have previously seen. Otherwise V should have seen her to his right when he looked and she should have not been able to have her back to the shield so as to reproduce the “stress” pattern on it as an image.
V-man has seen the comm-ball in action. Ya’ll should note the lack of double shield if Sydney was telepresence-ing with it. That’s Sydney standing there just out of arms reach. But does V-Man know this? He wasn’t paying large amounts of attention to her when she chatted him up, but he likley saw her holding the yellow ball, then “vanish” in a yellow blink as the comm-ball point zipped back to Halo.
It seems she doesn’t need to be centered in her shield. Come to think of to she was moved off center when the shadow boxer guy clocker with the shadow. But this is a rare situation she hasn’t really demonstrated before, and not in V-man’s view.
So she’s off center, truely in front of him, but everything V-Man knows would suggest she’s actually right behind him trying to misdirect him. Intentional misdirected direction, or 3 moves ahead?
DavidB is playing this so well. So many small things.
So, will V-Man throw a punch at Sydney or throw a spell?
She could have lined up the curves of the two shields fairly quickly. The real question is does she have enough mastery of the telepresence illusions controls to project herself in a different relative orientation to her true self’s so that she could reproduce an image of herself backing against the shield producing “stress” patterns and noise on the shield. I don’t believe we have any foreshadowing of her experimenting with this and previously her demonstration had them both with the same orientation (True Sydney faces south then fake Sydney faces south etc… )
Her ability to affect the shield behind her, seemingly, will go a long way to convince him she’s really there. That and the fear is probably real. (the best acting is not acting!)
Spell, energy burst or a pebble (he’s pretty strong and she’s pretty squishy!) cause he can’t let Maxima up adn she is just far enough away he’s have to move a bit.
he he he! That’s the telepresence orb; she’s not actually right there…
She’s using that to see his aura, her back went thump when she touched the shield wall.
V is looking at his own aura. She already knows what her shield does to it.
but the telepresence also copies the shield and is and exact replica of what she is doing as far as we have been shown.
I’m a little lost on what you are asking me or trying to say?
trying to say
That’s probably not an illusion since it would mimic what the real Sydney says.
Which means V would have heard her voice from two sources.
Also, the telepresence core is still in the ball.
Which means she isn’t projecting anything.
Core goes with the illusion and appears in the illusion’s ball. (credit for that goes to earlier commenters)
Sound thing is possible but requires a listen check and wisdom check simultaneously. All while dealing with a sudden unexpected opposition to his plans and holding the deadly Maxima down safely. So he has a definite chance to have noticed both but if he didn’t parse that fact on the first try then we wouldn’t be noticing it here since this is his point of view. And just to be silly I’ll say I bet Sydney knows how to throw her voice cause she likes playing with do-er super hero action figures! LOL
Doesn’t explain the way the shield has visually reacted to her bumping into it though, also the illusionary Sydney has an illusionary shield and there doesn’t appear to be a second shield crossing the real one.
Using an illusion would be the logical option mind. Or perhaps double bluffing.
It all depend on whether she can changer her orientation relative to the illusion or not? I’ve been reminded that there is no visual evidence that she can but there isn’t any that she does’t have a control or know of it. Admittedly there should be more foreshadowing for this if it was true and Dave was planning to use it here so soon. So I admit that the illusion Sydney theory is weakening.
Anyway assuming she COULD find and use the controls she could be behind him against a similar part of the shield and projecting an image of having bumped into that segment of the shield over the one that its overlapping. Oh yes and that would also allow for her to overlap the shields visually from behind him.
Well hopefully that give Max the opening she need to kick him off her. But that begs the questions is v still sticking to ground and if he goes air born will be just hit the inside of the shield or will he keep going up. the aura can’t seem to get out so its at lest partly 2 way..
OMG.
I can’t believe everyone who said ‘Have Halo put Vehemence in the forcefield to cut him off from vehemic energy…
WERE RIGHT!!!!!!!
I actually think this is brilliant.
Does make me wonder a few things though. Aside from why V won’t just squish her.
Wouldnt the violence wave now affect Halo? Maybe it doesnt affect her because when he did the initial ‘violence wave’ she was protected.
Why is Vehemence levelling up if Halo just cut him off from most of the vehemic energy in the area? This one I can’t figure out a reason for.
Well, as Dave said, this is a mere ‘1 second’ or so since she trapped herself inside, so we’re seeing nothing for now.
Also, safe bet would be V leveled up before Sydney put the shield up.
We’re overlooking something here — the violence orb makes people be violent, but it doesn’t prevent them from thinking clearly (which makes sense; violence perpetrated by people who are thinking clearly is probably much more effective, and therefore more useful to V, than that done in a blind rage). Syd is now thinking as clearly as she ever can, because adrenaline, and knows that she can’t do anything violent to V directly. Probably not even with the PPO. So her plan, whatever it may be, is probably the best way to do violence to him, meaning she’ll still follow it.
You think Stalwart and Hiro were thinking clearly?
Clear enough to make shuttle and Apollo 13 jokes at least.
SOME people seem to be able to think clearly still. Maxima and Dabbler seem to be thinking clearly even when violent.
Stalwart, Hiro, Arianna, Ms. News, they seem to be distinctly NOT thinking clearly.
Possibly because Dabbler is more capable of dealing with a violence aura and directing it, and Maxima…. I don’t know. Maybe because she’s trained to think tactically and Vehemence being there is the only person she COULD focus on anyway, and is having to be on the defensive right now?
If Halo isnt affected, it’s probably either because of her ADHD or because the effect only affected people from the initial ‘violence wave – which Sydney wasnt affected by in the first place. Or maybe while holding the shield orb, even when in the shield, she gets some special protections? OR maybe some special protection from the aggro aura since she can see it with the yellow orb?
They were both thinking very clearly about how exactly to murder the guy infront of them. It was just that all thoughts that would scream ‘WTF ARE YOU DOING, THAT’S YOUR FRIEND’ got silenced
Just that no one thought She’d do it and get herself trapped in there with him.
I still find it brilliant.
Also, what would happen if Sydney makes five of her orbs go right around Vehemence’s neck, under his chin? Would he be able to move? It’s not like it would be ‘violent’
Yes he can move. Those things aren’t immovable, I’m not sure what their telekinetic ability to hold their floaty ground is without Sydney holding them but V has already moved the Light Hook orb while Sydney was holding it. They just become immovable when an attempt to take them outside of Sydney’s range and the same goes for Sydney getting outside theirs.
I’m spamming this cause the many occasional posts I have done on may previous updates are clearly being ignored. I can probably find a word of god supporting this but I’m not sure where Dave felt the need to remind folk of what they saw in the comic and I don’t want to do the massive archive/comment dive that would take.
Please forgive spam. :/
Actually they ARE still possibly unmovable by anyone other than Halo. When Sydney was dragged, it was because V was pulling the lighthook, not pulling the ORB.
Math was able to move one or at least alter it’s course and Maxima was able to pickup and move the tube with them inside, she could not however move them away from sydney beyond a certain distance.
Clever money now that she has earned her “Hero does stupid to save everyone badge” Will she follow through with the next obvious step. She has the guts for this one the next two are the harder ones.
I’m betting she bribed the squirrel. :P
Wrong character if it was Squirrel Girl sure she would have beaten V three ways to sunday with Max having to actually do anything. But this is Sydney she is really innocent and a gamer girl which means she doesn’t think like SG or fight like her.
I’m talking about our overlord. :P
You are wise to not underestimate what even an ordinary squirrel is capable of doing. Who else do you know can run full speed up or down a tree with his nuts in his mouth?…
Imagine the amount of nuts the all-squirrel gets…
All of the nut of course.
Not sure if anyone else has noticed, but in the last panel, look at the aura/shield border, I see Pac-Man, one of the Ghosts, and the Batman insignia.
yeah, back on the 25th i posted what “I” found, there may be others that I’m not up to date on…
So this is something I just noticed when rereading some of the comic. but I think the comm orb makes or gives some immunity to powers that control how you think, act, and feel. see this page where everyone is focused on dabbler and Sydney is ignoring it. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/660
Um, no…she’s just using an illusion in that strip; she’s not using her lust aura…any more than usual.
While the page you’re showing demonstrates Sydney being able to see through Dabbler’s glamor, and not the lust aura ‘dialed up’… why do I get the feeling you might be on to something anyway?
everyone is focused on the fact that the general finds she-hulk attractive, she’s just focused on whether or not she can see through the illusion
You forgot to add suicidal to those descriptions of Wonder Spaz’s latest move.
There is no doubt about it… Vehemence is totally going to kill her.
He could just cut her hands off with a spell effect. Or burn them off if he’s not feeling to gentlemanly about it.
Horribly maim is on the table too, but I’m still going with kill.
“V kills Sydney” + “this is Sydney’s flashback” = “reality-destroying paradox“.
Just take her to Miracle Max.
That sounds like a wizards and sorcerer’s version of wal-mart
Its more of a Ma and Pa shop.
…Some kids would love to find replacements for their parents…
Unfortunately, the trade-in value on parents is terrible.
So, you never heard about the story flashback of how a person dies in there own flashback? It happens.
Of course. But with the narrator as a disembodied voice – not a living, breathing, game-playing person 8-)
In the background of panel three under the pile of bricks Achilles is thinking, “Huh, I was feeling really angry there for a minute, and then it went away.”
He may be immune. Hard to say. Too bad Sydney didn’t think to check but I guess she was short on time what with V just about ready to off Maxima and all. Would have been fun to use him.
Maybe he was gnawing on one of the bricks that he could reach, just to do something to something
LOL, that’s true! He can’t damage himself so he could just nibble swallow and poop his way out like an earthworm! LOLOLOL XD
Apologies if I’m repeating prior, just gaming this out in my head…
V drops M.
V punches Halo.
Halo blocks with a ball.
Max performs an amputation at the neck on V.
I doubt it actually. Sydney has thought off an entire plan, including an end game that should solve the situation. She was pritty sure it’d work, so I doubt she’s relying on Maxima to finish him off. She has her own plan to end this
Especially considering how dejected Sydney felt just for being instrumental to Max blowing off his arm; she’s already aware that, if her plan is going to rely on Maxima, then V will wind up without a head. I think Sydney’s got a plan to take Vehemence down *without* killing him.
Exactly what that plan is, I don’t know, but I’m enjoying all of the conjecturing going on here. :)
And this is where she has planned another move ahead and uses the confined space to mace him with her namesake?
Which namesake? Halo… or Scovile? (a mesure of he spicyness of hot food)
You might say that Sydney is the original Spice Grrl…
Then again, you might not.
;)
I was referring to Scoville, I’m quite certain that the alternative would have ended badly for all within the bubble. Especially Sydney, being the squichy one.
Force field up check. Telepresence ball in hand and image over there. Unknown ball deployed to image and smacks into the force field to make a “tump” sound. Sydney is right now directly behind V. When she forms the image she can be in any orientation, and it reproduces anything of hers in the _immediate_ vicinity. The forecfield is not close enough to project.
She is counting on V having to move to there image’s site because nothing he’s done is a ranged attack (even the lightning on Max was short range). She is not effected by the spell as she is in the “eye”, the calm center of the spell which works outward. V himself wasn’t enraged, he is too much a control freak to allow his own spell to anger him, and he doesn’t need Maxima pumped to fight her.
Once he is off center of the spell, Sydney brings the force field in close and keeps him out of the focus, disrupting the spell use, but not necessarily the spell. Max can then act. Because once he starts walking he ain’t glued to the ground anymore is he?
People have been reminding me, as I had a similar theory, that we have no solid evidence that she can bring the illusion up in any orientation but the one that her true self has. We have no evidence that she can’t.
If you have an idea of where to find a word of god on this that would help prove “our” theory I’d love it cause it looks like the telepresence theory is weakening a bit.
All seven orbs are visible so I guess one isn’t hitting the shield behind her though that was brilliant!
I also have to reiterate what I said on FB, which is how I love Vehemence’s beatific expression and SparkleBeard(TM) which is pushing him towards the Bishonen Line despite his musclebound physique.
I’m thinking the feels good meme without the hands on his face. :p
From the look of that blue line limiting the aura’s reach… Sidney may have surrounded V in a huge shield… It’s a shame she happens to be inside it with him.
Sydney is still holding the comm-ball, even though she doesn’t still need to see the glyphs, so it’s likely still part of her plan. I don’t think she is using the illusion function of the yellow orb yet, seeing as the central dot is still inside it, and we’ve seen that it’s no longer there when she’s using it. I do think that it’s part of her plan, and I don’t know how many of those illusions she can make, so she might be able to play the “Which one’s the real Sydney?” game long enough for Maxima to take care of him. If she can only make one, then her options are more limited. She could still be a distraction, but a less effective and more prone one.
This is super dangerous for Sydney, beyond the obvious trapped-in-a bubble-with-a-hulking-powerhouse. Right now, she’s being super timid and asking him not to hurt her. This should actually work on V, since he’s mentioned he views her as a nice kid, and wouldn’t want to kill her. However, Sydney is now in the rage aura, and she and Maxima are the only ones in there, which may focus all of the rage on them. We’ve seen that Sydney does not hold back when aggro’d, and all of her planning may go out the window once the rage sets in. If in her rage she grabs the PPO, all bets may be off on how V would respond, and that’s IF she doesn’t get herself caught in her own blast, what with the shield concentrating the blast. And then there’s Maxima. We’ve already seen that the rage aura makes them attack both friend and foe alike, and Maxima would be the only other person in the affected range. There’s a fifty-fifty chance that Maxima, once released, would attack Sydney instead of V.
the yellow dot represents the illusion, it leaves the *real* orb and manifests an illusion around it. illusion Sydney would still have a dot within the comm-ball. this also means that she’s limited to only a single illusion.
Horribly maim is on the table too, but I’m still going with kill.
Look at the first five comics and you know she is in a flashback right now. So I’m gonna say that she is up for severe maiming and injury that has no permanent damage. Unless psychological trauma is permanent.
Sydney is using telepresence and probably a real ball floating there.
She can then use the balls against math tactic as a distraction as he wont suspect the switch between real and fake ball. The plan is to distract him to free maxima.
I still want to know how she adjusted the pentagon on the floor as it was part of his aura.
All seven balls are visible so I guess you are saying one of the visible balls is a real ball masquerading as an illusion of itself? That’s something I didn’t consider when someone above suggested it. I guess she could hit the shield with it and send it back up into orbit fast enough to look innocent when V turns around. Cool idea.
Still doesn’t fully explain why V didn’t see the real Sydney on his right with her back to him though some of us have been batting around the idea that she might be able to alter the orientation setting on her mirror image.
He has to actually get up to free Maxima or at least get so horribly distracted that he stops the lightning. Since he can just use a mid ranged attack to get her or just start throwing pebbles she had better have something else up her sleeve.
I’m not sure what you mean by that last part but maybe you mean the way her shield is acting as a wall to his aura? (not really a pentagon… but anyway) That was foreshadowed two posts ago when her shield cut a “shadow” out of his aura.
she had to move closer to him to leave everyone else outside the shield, she could be behind him facing his right.
I guess once you add in something solid to the illusion like an “real” orb to thump the field she no longer needs to have her back against it elsewhere. Good point. Thanks.
I was also digging in the archives for a word of god (to make Pander happy the cruel bastard… TT ) and read again the part where the little mini ball that comes out of the main ball which then creates the illusion where Sydney directs it is like the “Light Bee” or projector thingie from Red Dwarf which would mean its solid I think? So while it isn’t in the right position to thump the shield in this shot it could maybe do so? Just some more food for thought.
Though seeing this again reminds me that this goes back and leaves the issue of lining up the two shields undone again… *sigh*