Grrl Power #280 – An inauspicious start
Sydney knows about the aura which is the first step in resisting it. It’s like disbelieving an illusion. We’ve seen that her ADHD can be an asset in some cases, but here it’s working against her, as we see her slip from active resistance to “yeah and so’s you’re mom!” in about 4 seconds.
I always knew this step of the plan would fail, in fact I’m not even sure what Sydney had planned for the lighthook. There’s a lot of options; wrap it around his arm to see if that will block the lightning, try and choke him, shove it down or up certain orifices, even make a spring to try and push him off Max. Sydney doesn’t even know if it works that way yet. She’s not the Green Lantern after all. Well, hopefully she can turn it around on the next page.
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Happy new year!
Happy new year!!! Bonne année!!
Joyous New Year, to all of you-&-yours!
…In Fact…
HMM-m-m-m…
I propose the filling-up of this 1st page with NewYear Wishes…
…but only one such message per person – no “spamming”, you see.
By “nesting” them in previous entries, I believe that we can prevent them from spilling over into the 2nd page.
What say you, folks – can we show Our Esteemed Author a little extra love, to help start his 2015 on a good note?
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
Happy new year!
Happy New Year.
Awesome artwork and comic Dave.
Still don’t know what Halo is going to do / was planning.
But definitely smart to use the shield to block V from all the violence that he had been engendering (not sure I’m right about using that word in this context)
Happy 2015! :)
Happy New Year! May your hangovers be light or non-existent! If you do have a hangover, may it pass quickly & quietly into the realm of “Bad Memory – Easy to Get Over.”
Indeed, my hangovers were non-existant, so good start for me. :D
Happy 2015. May we never grow up, even when my back tells me otherwise!
What your back is telling you is that you’re growing old, even if you never really grew up…
;)
Harry New Year to one and all.
happy new year.
Happy new year and may it be filled with much Pake!
So, she was planning to just tie him up? Somehow I doubt that would have worked.
Depends on how strong the lighthook is. If we’re talking Wonder Woman unbreakable lasso o’ truth levels a good hog tie might work. If she can execute on it that is.
He has already easily flung her around by the lighthook and untangled himself, and that was BEFORE he got super juiced. Then she tried to yank him off maxima while he was jolting her and she couldnt do squat. And considering he is in exactly the position he wants to be, ie, ready to kill maxima, wrapping the lighthook around him wont serve any purpose.
yet she cant leave her shield and her back was against the shield. So that confines her and his movement to the shield. Making it a different situation.
He dropped the aura, so she can drop the shield.
She drops the shield, the aura goes back up
And shield goes back up.
And then he cuts the aura.
Rinse and repeat.
I was thinking more of binding his arms and legs together like a rodeo calf so he could only flop around like a fish ouf of water but yeah the lighthook doesn’t seem strong enough and it would be hard to do anyway.
I am thinking she wanted to grab Max from under Vehemence’s grasp.
Maybe she was planning to give him the mother of all wedgies.
She’d have to do that with his newly-generated pants because his underwear shredded the same time as his original pants did…
They’re probably immovable pants. Sucks when you have to take a leak.
My first instinct is misdirection on Sydneys part. V is expecting Halo to do ‘something’ other than watch him kill Maxima, so she tossed out a power she knew was useless against him in an ‘epic fail’ to get him to think she epic failed.
Happy New Year! Oh dear Sydney… not a great way to follow up “Don’t be so sure of that!”.
Happy New Year. And the appropriate word for Sydney here is “oops.” Besides, the lighthook wouldn’t do squat to restrain Vehemence anyway. It’s been 0 for 2 already, and he wasn’t anywhere near this strong.
Isn’t his eye supposed to be gold? And don’t forget the teeth.
Gold, and NOT bleeding after the regeneration. Cutting him from his power source seems to have done way more than anticipated…
No I just forgot. I was pleased with myself for remembering Sydney’s bruise. The blood on his cheek is from when it was bleeding. Regeneration doesn’t clean up old blood.
I’ll have an updated version posted in a minute.
Shouldn’t 2 of his teeth also be an odd collour?
Seems like I didn’t check archive deep enough. In that case it’s an error on previous page, where he doesn’t have the blood (both level up and “hmm” panels). And on page #275, it’s a weird angle but should be visible in the last two panels IMHO. And last panel of #274.
Sorry, “hmm” panel is showing his other cheek, so only level up. I made the same error with other pages mentioned.
Pretty much what I noticed, but it took last page to even remember he had blood on his face.
… and I hate to be the one, but what’s “Marmite and puss”?
Perhaps that should have been “pus”.
“Marmite and pus” sounds much better…
*runs to fetch the brain bleach*
Thank you for your contribution. Don’t hog the bleach.
Maybe it should have been “Marmite and Piss”
Marmite is lije some sort of spreadable food product. Pus is pus
Alleged food product. I think the Aussies have been messing with us by claiming brewery leftovers as a condiment.
HOW DARE YOU! Marmite originally was British!
But yeah, brewery scrapings is right. Concentrated dead yeast.
half a sec, quick look at the wiki
Marmite is the brand name for two similar food spreads: the original British version, since 2000 a Unilever product; and a modified version produced in New Zealand by Sanitarium Health Food Company and distributed in Australasia and the Pacific.
Marmite is made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing. Other similar products include the Australian Vegemite (saltier in taste), the Swiss Cenovis and the German Vitam-R.
The image on the front of the British jar shows a “marmite”, a French term for a large, covered earthenware or metal cooking pot.British Marmite was originally supplied in earthenware pots, but since the 1920s has been sold in distinctively-shaped glass jars.
I had an inspiration (or suffered further brain damage, I can never tell). Craft Brewery Vegemite. Special labels on half-sized jars sold at double the price. The hipster/foodie crowd would make them rich.
Yup, and the Kiwi Marmite almost went extinct a couple years ago when the big brewery in Christchurch suffered during the terrible series of earthquakes
Hmmm…Is Marmite what’s left over when the “active cultures” in yoghurt die off?
O.o
Vegemite is the Aussie version.
The internet is edumacational!
Vegemite isn’t food though; It’s dropbear repellant.
will it work against the Northwest Tree Octopus, too?
Close, it is dropbear excrement
Yes! More satisfied customers for Brain Bleach ™ !
Don’t forget the patented “GrrlPower Monitor Wipes” for those days you forget not to drink fluids while reading the comic. Guaranteed to re move stubborn coffee stains.
Hmmm…I wonder if there’s already a franchise for that, like the one I’ve got in Brain Bleach™?
I do believe Gamesman beat you to it.
No one can effectively utilize every single opportunity that comes around. For when those missed oportunities occur, that’s why I also have a franchise in Dammitol.
I get my supply of Dammitol and Fuckitol directly from the manufacturer .
Given the very many times details such as battle damage have been dropped and then had to be retroactively re-added, you need to think about making yourself a checklist.
Sydney’s face injuries: Check
Vehemence’s metallic replacements: Check
Maxima’s broken nose: Check
And there have been other injuries here and there which aren’t going to heal themselves naturally until about August, so you may as well add them to the list as well.
With an actively-powered healer/doctor on the Archon staff, some injuries wouldn’t be showing any more, as of the past-flashback part of the comic anyway. Somehow, I doubt Vehemence would get his arm, eye & two teeth back into a natural condition though…
Sidney’s body (and neck) are a little shrunk in proportion to her head in the last panel ;-0 Looks a bit creepy.
Great comic, love every single page!
No, the second last panel has her neck wider than normal
I knew exactly what I was going to type, had a coughing fit, and lost my train of thought
(Damn Cold)
Any way
Happy new yea
Gesundheit!
You and me both, buddy. Just now getting over mine. Wish you the best of luck.
Now if only computer-based anti-viral software could actually work on human wetware…
In the… *counts*… 12th panel, is it just me or does Dabbler look a bit odd standing on her hooves like that? I know it’s based on horses, but the method seems to work for quad-pedals. Shouldn’t Dabbler fall if she’s in that pose? Is she halfway through a movement?
I just find myself staring at it and trying to figure out if it’s really possible. Though I realise that the leg support equipment used in the Portal games follows a similar theory (but they extend to the heel as well).
I think you could compare it to standing on just your toes
Or wearing highheels (which is pretty much the same thing, just with added support)
Biologically speaking, digitigrade leg structure (like Dabbler’s) ARE effectively standing on their toes at all times. You’ve got the hip joint, connecting legs to hips. Then you’ve got a knee joint below that. The next-lower joint is the ankle joint to the heel of the foot…The lowest part of the leg is the functional equivalent of an elongated foot structure. For padded-foot animals (dogs, cats, etc), the padded part is equivalent of the human’s ball of the foot & toe-joints…Hoofed creatures (like deer, cows, & Dabbler again) have the hoof instead of the toe-joints you see in humans/primates.
Actually I believe the hoof itself has evolved from the nails on the toes
On a horse, the hoof is the middle toe. the hoof is the keratin nail backed by a complex cushion of protective padding. I’m sure Dabbler’s hoof is similar. I have seen movie and cosplay props designed to give a person hooved feet. They can walk and even run with some practice. So Dabbler probably has no trouble with balance.
I had to use a square to check, but her right hoof looks far enough back to support her weight.
Yeah, at first glance she looks like she’s about to topple over backwards. But she has the weight of those four arms to counterbalance, so IMHO it works out OK.
Oh, and they’re cloven hooves, goat-style.
I think the real question is how does she get those pants on past her feet? Either they are really stretchy or there is some magic involved.
Plus, I’m surprised that with her level of vanity that she does not have her ‘toenails’ painted.
Teleportation Tech. Linked to her wardrobe as well as her workshop.
I should imagination it’s similar to the same way Vehemence got his underwear on
there again she is 1/2 succubus, so maybe her clothes are just an illusion and she’s naked
If Dabb’s clothing was illusional, then Sydney would have noticed that since they first met in Archon HQ…The same way that Sydney breathed a sigh of relief that V’s newly-generated pants aren’t illusional.
This outfit, at least, is real. It didn’t change when Dabbler shifted to her normal form. I suspact something as simple as laces or zippers explains how to get tight pants past the hooves.
The top is not real, because the band around the top rotates like a ticker tape
Looks fine to me. That’s the same way that the satyrs in the Chronicles of Narnia movies stand. It just looks kinda odd because her legs don’t have goat fur on them, so you expect them to look like human legs, despite the cloven hooves.
Also, it looks like she is leaning one of her hands on the shield for extra support, but I think that Dabbler is very used to walking on her narrow supports.
Happy New Year! Looking forward to another year of Halo and crew.
Pfffftt HA! I sure hope that wasn’t her ace in the hole!
There are three more aces (in different suits), so I’m sure Sydney will be able to pull out something else.
:)
Don’t forget that all decks come with 2 jokers also
And Sydney is one of them. ;p
Only one? o_O
Well, there goes the telepresence theory.
And, ironically, when first introduced, we all wondered if Sydney could project the Lighthook through the shield.
It was fairly clear from an informed reader POV that Sydney wasn’t Comm-balling. Signs included: telepresence node still inside the comm-ball, no double image overlap from illusion of the shield. It was In her hand to see the aura size and to expand the shield to cover.
in informed reader would note that the telepresence node is only absent in the real comm-ball, the illusion has always contained the telepresence node.
there was actually no reason to still be using the comm-ball, she had already seen that the shield blocks the aggro aura, which was the whole point of putting a shield around them.
*an*, not in >.< curse this lack of an Edit button -.-
the detail to which you refer to is (if you mean this comic as what you’re talking about) something that only looks like the inner orb due to the fact it’s a lower detail version of the same “inner orb-less” orb.
Just making an observation.
I agree – I think the so-called ‘mini-ball’ in panel 10 is just a reflection. Enlarging the page, there is no inked line there.
Also, in panels 4 & 5 the mini-ball hovers where fake Sydney’s head appears. Not the fake comm-ball, which is in her right hand a few inches lower down.
if it’s a reflection of the true comm-ball, then why does the true comm-ball not reflect the fake comm-ball since they are both facing each other?
also, the curtain in panel 5 extends a bit further to the right than it does in panel 4, Maxima’s head is also a bit lower in panel 5 vs. panel 4 when compared to the decorative wooden line thing ( i have no idea what that’s called in english) despite Maxima’s head and shoulder taking up the same amount of space.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. By “reflection”, I meant a reflection of the ambient light in the ballroom, not anything else. Something all shiny spheres do, not just magical ones.
On your next point, about the background shifting between panels 4 & 5: either the mini-ball stays where it is (no change), or it moves with the background (and moves even farther from the fake comm-ball). That doesn’t support your argument.
Forgive me for including an English saying here: “clutching at straws”. 8-)
why doesn’t the real shiny sphere reflect said light then, when the fake shiny sphere does?
my point was that it wasn’t perfectly accurate, so Dave didn’t just do some copy/paste trick, but actually drew both panels manually, therefore there is a possibility for slight errors, such as the precise location of the telepresence orb.
forgive me for including an english saying here: “don’t be an asshole”.
So I apologise for being unclear, take time to clarify my point, give you some very mild snark (with attached smiley, as well) and I get called an asshole?
Incredible.
…and at this point Maxima says, “You do know I’m right here, don’t you?”
My thoughts exactly. Right about now she’s considering taking his head off manually.
But Vehemence (& Sydney too) don’t know that Max has to “allocate” her powers around…HE thinks that the electricity is what saps her strength. It’s possible that V got enough power from the first few seconds of Aggro-Aura fighting (for his “level up”) to kill Max, before Sydney put up HER shield…But I somehow doubt it. It seems to me that V is going to be draining power in TRYING to kill Max, which is only going to make HIM weaker as he keeps trying. I still see the Maxima/Vehemence situation staying at a stand-off situation…Until something happens to break them apart.
‘Sydney’s plans never survive contact with Sydney’. I get the feeling that NOTHING survives contact with Sydney. Even without the orbs. It seems to be an innate talent.
Next thing to not survive Sydney: Vehemence’s plans. I get the feeling he is going to get away. Too much has been invested into his character to be disposed of this ‘early’ in the comic.
Every hero needs a nemesis, and I kinda hope he is it. The idea of an ‘evil’ version of Sydney is too horrifying to contemplate.
You mean like deadpool?
you mean zenpool
Well, now that Sydney has learned that old military-maxim, she’s going to have to learn how to go past the “three moves ahead” strategy & start working in the idea of “contingency planning.”
:D
I believe you are referring to Daphne’s nose (do not teleport in front of an ADHD person) or Max’s boots (see the bank robbery).
Remembered my trig stuff and wouldn’t ArcSwat be a good name for a villain team? Being the inverse of swat?
Except, the parent organisation is “Archon” and every sub-group starts with ‘Arc’
I know that, but they’re still using a prefix that has an actual meaning.
I think you are just going off on a tangent.
Maybe that’s the point?
I think it’s a sine that everyone’s out of puns. They can’t find a good angle.
These conversations always end up going around in a circle.
to much Pi over Christmas?
We really need to develop a resistance to pun threads showing up in webcomic comments.
We must meditate to consider a means to develop our resistance. Everyone start your mantra-chanting:
“Ohm. Ohm.”
Or, if you want to be more hip about it, you can use “coulomb.”
Just a sec I need my Gamma to cosine for me.
Yup – they often get drawn out and protractored.
Yeah, you have to be sure to keep on your moral compass.
Then we’re square…
That’s enough of the morality puns. Let’s circle back to geometry — that, after all, was the original point of the thread. Besides, geometry puns are much more conical…er, comical.
You guys have already taken this to a completely ridiculous, not to mention unexpected, degree.
I don’t think we’re out of line. ;)
And the devil said “Let’s put the alphabet in math.”
Damn, I had completely forgotten about this. To be more specific, I had forgotten what day it was.
Yeay
On the plus side it appeared next to the one humanoid who can probably make use of it.
Except Sydney promptly retracted the whip (not that it would have done much good even if Dabbles did manage to grab hold of it and tug)
wrong, the lighthook isn’t present in the ball in the last 2 panels, so it’s still out there, unless she retracts it either in the first panel of the next page or off-screen between pages.
Guys, I think that was an “I’ve seen enough hentai…” joke
I think the answer is “there’s never enough hentai”
“…especially inside Sydney’s shield.”
Or she just resets the shield since he dropped his aura. Unless keeping him feeling safe in the shield is important to step 3 after she figures out how to make up for her whoopsie with step 2 of The Plan.
fun fact: the shield orb isn’t present in any of the panels in this page, it’s in her left hand and is still in use, as shown in panel 12.
That was a future prediction which I see is kind of confusing when posted to this conversation. My bad. Sometimes I get in a hurry to join some conversations while everybody is on and active but my schedule really needs me somewhere else. ^_^’
Dabbler’s expression with the Lighthook appearing over her head is definitely worth a giggle
“That’s not supposed to happen.”
/Urkle-voice “Did I do that?”
Since the Hentai Orb didn’t go where Sydney wanted it, she’ll have to pull something else outta her @$$.
Haha, Dabbler’s expression is like “wait…this happens in real life too? I thought it was only in hentai!”
With the first haymaker he damaged a full defense Maxima.
Of course now, after the big fight and losing an arm (that must be really violent), he’s powerful enough to kill her.
Why is she still alive?
Either: he wants to maximize the encounter (stalling Maxima like that sure is gaining him a strong power up);
He’s lying on his power level (but seeing the first part of my comment, he either is strong enough to kill Maxima, or almost there);
He will kill Maxima in the next few strips, but one of the unknown orbs has some kind of revival power.
I don’t belive the last one to be plausible, but still he should be able to kill her…
Probably he’s just lying to trow off Sidney: the PPO is scary even for him, and he turned off the aggro aura just in time.
Having high defense on does not make Maxima invulnerable to damage, it means said damage does not kill her. Hurt, bleed, pain –all happen. Internal damage or life threatening level of bleeding, nope.
It would actually be to her benefit t “go limp” and let him get cocky while she preps for a “paint-the-walls” hit.
she wasn’t going full defense back then, it’s not shown in the comic but Dave said that: “You can see her visualizing her power distribution there on the page, but she wasn’t quite able to max out her armor like she’d planned. She needed to keep some of her power pool reserved for flight so she didn’t get knocked back, and strength so her head didn’t snap back.”
now she *is* going full defense which means it’s much harder to kill her, he also mention that she could increase her defense even further by drawing on the other 4 attributes, though that would give her the mobility of a statue :P
I think that he wanted to give the team more time to destroy him. Remember, he is doing this because he enjoys violence, and he wanted to let others see/ see for himself what the team could do. He’s pausing because he wants to let others on the team have a chance to kick his ass, but he doesn’t really think that it’ll ever happen at any time.
If you read Dave’s comment on that panel, she wasn’t truly full defense. She had to put some in strength and fly to remain in place
Well, that’s some new info. I wonder if the PPO would have done the same thing and all her other orbs, trusight excluded, only work outside the shield. And really, with the rage aura down, syd can lower her shield. That’s the whole reason she had it up in the first place. Lower the shield, put it right back up in a smaller area around her for protection, and do whatever she was going to do with the lighthook.
No, the Rage Aura isn’t down
See panel 7 vs. 8.
But it faded while she was looking at it holding the true sight orb?
She then comments on how having only one power that simply now benefits only her is pointless. This is referring to the truesight power allowing her to see the aura. Basically it’s an excuse to not continue drawing the aura from here on.
Oh wait, no, scratch that. After reading it again, the aura is what goes down, her comment is directed at him putting it away.
she was about to blast him with the PPO, but stopped when the aura went away.
What I like is how Dave shows that merely thinking about the PPO brings it right to her hand, but it stops just short because she’s already holding another orb. Even as the V’s Aggro-Aura is still up, Sydney is reaching for the PPO…It’s right there, at her fingertips & soooo tempting…But when Vehemence drops his Aura & Sydney pulls her fingers back.
;)
she has telekinetic control over the orbs, remember her second fight with math and how she beat Shadow Boxer (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1286 and https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1290), so it might be that she brought the orb down to her hand herself, not that the orb moved there reflexively.
Yes it is down. Sydney even says its down
With V still powered up he can restore the Aggro Aura before Sydney could stop him. He’s neutralized right now but that could change if Step 2 of her plan flops.
Apparently, step 2 of Syd’s plan flopped. It flopped about ineffectively just outside of her shield for a moment…
what is dabblr doing near the shield and why is her expression about the light hook akin to someone who was just got caught trying to get a peek inside the secret place of passwords for arcswat secret file series
Dabbler has a spell up and ready. But until Sydney drops the shield, she can’t use it. And until V is in no position to restart the Aggro Aura, Sydney cannot drop the shield. The wheels just came off her cunning plan.
She just needs something to replace the effect she was going for with the light hook. If it was merely a distraction she was going for then it may be possible to improvise.
I had first thought she was preparing a spell to use ON the shield itself (maybe she thinks she can cut a hole / portal through it?). I think your idea of being ready to intervene the moment the shield goes down, especially if it’s going down because of V harming Sydney, is much more plausible.
“… and there’s nothing you can do to stop me”?
Oh, Vehemence, you just fell victim to one of the classic blunders!
And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for that Medling little ADHD overexcited little girl
Sydney is Sicilian?
No she’s Velma!
No, she is a land war in Asia!
Yes. Yes, she is.
Strange…I thought Sydney was a city in Australia…
;)
Ooops! I meant this as a direct reply for Minion’s comment, not Oberon’s.
others include:-
“what could possible go wrong”
“I know what I’m doing”
“whats the worse that can happen?”
My personal favourite: “Hold my beer and watch this!”.
I’m a fan of “I’m INVINCIBLE!” myself.
“I don’t think that means what you think it means.”
Anybody want a peanut?
I’d prefer a jelly-baby…
I am allergic to peanuts. :(
If you’re into anime, “B…BAKANA!” or “MASAKA!” is always a good signal that someone’s about to get pwned.
Don’t forget that there’s also “Nobody could survive THAT!”
How about ” I didn’t see that coming.”
I also liked:
“…That’s not good…?”
…from a short-lived cable sitcom, “The War Next Door”:
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247108]
And the classic “oops”
A Bomb already used that one earlier. Sydney really told her off.
We know that she has tried various things with her balls to figure out what they do. This proves she has not gone through all the permutations of trying out those same uses while the other powers are up. Flight + PPO check, Flight + shield check, Shield + Light hook err minimum safe distance imposed. I bet the Shield + PPO has a similar “not-for-inside-use” policy.
And that could (probably not in this situation) lead to finding out how the two unknowns work –they may require the safety of the shield to go active at all. Example: If there is a “healing” orb, it makes sense she should not be doing anything else while actively healing someone else, so it only works inside the force shield. There could even be a logical usage reasoning here –the shield could also be how her orbs power up by absorbing energy for use of all the balls.
One bit of orb research I would suggest trying at a later time is for Syd to try writing down all the glyphs on each orb. First, maybe Dabbler, Gwen, or Zeph might recognize the script. Second, I would check to see if there is one specific glyph that appears on every one of the orbs. In my opinion this would probably be the equivalent of ‘menu’ or ‘help’. Hitting that one might bring up additional information, although unfortunately in the same unreadable language. However this may provide a big enough sample size of the script to begin standard cryptographic analysis.
If it turns out that one of those Orbs is an [INSTRUCTION MANUAL] on how to use the other Orbs, we are, as a group, going to all yell “D’OH!!!?!” with a vigor that will be heard world-wide!
:P
I’m just sayin’…
She will then promptly lose that orb.
“Here’s the scenario, Ralph…”
No, she will not lose the orb, just the use of the manual.
“What do you mean? One-time use only!?”
One time only? That’s what can happen if you use a “disintegrating script” when coding for a video game.
Something to add to this list.
Do people (and objects) inside them shield also benefit from the Flight orb’s acceleration compensation. Or will they get the full speed press against the shield as Sydney accelerates? If she flies real fast in a circle can she pin someone to the inside of her shield with centripetal force?
Given that during the ppo tank explosion she ended up with a load of sand inside the shield that appeared to be affected by gravity still (pooling at the bottom of the shield) I’m going to say other objects may not get the benefit of her compensation. Bonus points for adding an ‘unmaker’ effect to anyone inside the shield with her if said flying in circles causes Sydney to lose her lunch.
Happy New Year!
Tbh, probably the best part of the whole page is panel 12, just, the following reactions and wdf of both parties…
Loving the “N’YOP” sound effect (in case others don’t get it “N’YOP” sounds like ‘NOPE’ :p )
i love dabberl’s fae on the small panel
sincerely i wonder what she is planning next
happy new year
Sydney is about to start improvising. I’m going to go nuts before Monday waiting to see what’s going to happen. Frankly, I have no idea what she might do. Maybe I’ll latch on to some commenters idea later.
personally SO CAN’T WAIT hehe
And now I really want to see a vote incentive artwork of dabbler sitting in a field of flowers with a bunch of fairies and nymphs flying about. :)
I’m certainly a little vague on what the heck she thought she was going to do with the tentaorb. She’s used the lighthook on him earlier, when he was a little weaker (see #274), and he seemed to be pretty much ignoring it. Sure, she was trying to lift him off her, but if his ‘root’ power is enough to resist it, simply wrapping him up like a mummy or trying to spring him off her with some kind of coil attack probably wouldn’t be of much use either.
Dropping his aura is probably more to just pump power into attacking Maxima than it is because he is concerned with Sydney. Sure, the PPO could be dangerous, but she seems to have… tenuous control over it. It takes her a few moments to activate it, so he’d see it coming. He could just pick up Maxima and use her as a shield if he wanted to, thus most likely that’s less of an option. Now, if she figured out how to use her telepresence ball as a ‘mirror image’ spell, making multiple Sydneys and moving them around all over so he can’t tell which direction she’s REALLY in… THEN she might have a chance with lopping off bits with the PPO. Of course, that would mean dropping the shield entirely too…
I get a feeling Sydney was a little vague herself beyond “get his attention and don’t get killed doing it.”
I think Sidney was dealing with the aura very well…
I have a friend whose 12-year old’s ADHD is responding spectacularly poorly to treatment. He can go from smiles to a screaming tantrum in 5 seconds, from the application of the single word: “No!”
The interesting part is that he’s beginning to verge from orange into red… Once he’s red, where does he go from there? He’s run the spectrum from blue to the end at that point and at that point should be open to overload… The question is: does he know this? Or is he power-drunk? I have a feeling this fight is about over…
Humm… Should have set the comment on Vehemence separately.
Oh well… Happy New Year!
Well, we’ve still got Black, Actively-drinking-nearby-light, It’s-full-of-stars, and Plaid to go I’d wager.
Can’t…
Do…
PLAID!!!!
Nobody can blend in with plaid…Either wearing it or trying to hid in front of it.
:/
Hide behind it. No one will ever look for you there.
Besides plaid, there is pin stripe, zebra stripe,polka-dot , tie-dye , Arianna’s vest, and many other patterns.
spaceballs really the schwartz is with you
There’s infra-red (heat), darkening to BLACK since we started as pale white, and other options. Vehemence has shown an *IMPRESSIVE* level of think-ahead; it would be low slapstick comedy for him to have misunderstood his own limits, and I don’t think he has.
Word of God in prior strips is that Vehemence is meant to fill something of the same role as characters like The Hulk, which means that he probably is quite literally unlimited in his power upgrade.
I think V may have just gained a little respect for Sydney. I mean, he certainly isn’t worried about her, but getting inside there with him is a truly brave move. After the night is over, I expect he will have significantly more respect for her and her powers :)
Really, he should already be worried; she must have known that the shield would contain his aura, but how could she possibly know that? If she knew that, what else does she know? If she found that out, how, and what else could she find out? We know, but V doesn’t.
Now we know the lighthook also has those little glyphs, along with the shield and the comm ball. What could all those be, I wonder? Of course, we don’t even know what more than 1 or two of the glyphs on the other balls do.
I wonder what Dabbler is casting outside the shield there?
Are Hiro, Stalwart, and the other previously unconscious heroes being brought up to speed?
Just what is Sydney going to do now?
Monday seems so very far away…
Also, Happy New Year to everyone!
I feel that V in a way, is like a big brother to Sydney, all cool and everything. I don’t know how to describe it, but I guess it feels nice to be spared by V? I never had a big brother, but V just feels big brotherly. :)
Then again I wonder if this is something like the Stockholm Syndrome (or similar)?
Yes he was very big brotherly when he was trying to cave her head in through the shield…
It’s called sibling rivalry. :B
Anyone who has siblings knows that’s only a small part of it. When you spend as much time with anyone as you do with siblings little things that annoy you can become much more annoying plus you KNOW just how much of an asshole (or angel) they really are. This is why family fights can be bloodier and nastier than any others. Ask any cop about domestic disturbances.
Oh, I know how rough it can get, potentially or otherwise, since I do have a sibling. Believe me, the things we do especially when young were quite terrible. :P
Geez. My brother and I must be incredibly subdued. I don’t think we’ve ever tried killing each other. More than like… two times. Three tops.
she knew the shield would block the aura because it was blocking the aura, just looking down while having that truesight active would clearly show the shield cutting through the aura.
If the Lighthook doesn’t work, could she use her flight orb to take him and Maxima into the air? He’s inside her shield and her shield moves with her. It may take a chunk of ground, but it may upset his footing and release Maxima. I don’t recall comments on a weight limit to her flight, but I haven’t read all the comments.
If the flight orb is strong enough to break his anchor then yes I guess. Definitely will increase his desire to be done with her though.
I wonder if he is still a bit scared of a head shot by the PPO or her unknown orbs attack potential?(he doesn’t know that she also doesn’t know about how the other two work. After all he saw her use the telepresence in this fight when in the conference she said it was classified just like the other two FOR THE SAME REASON! LOL )
Cause he lowered the aura affecting HER and now he’s acting all reasonable, dismissive of her powers and polite to calm her down further… It could be a distraction or whatever or he could actually be afraid of a violent Sydney. She’s probably the most oddball of the group to him. He’s studied magic. He’s been around tons of supers. But her orbs are a rarer category he can’t of had as much of a chance to get comfortable with and he hasn’t seen them all work in the fight. People fear the unknown.
The shield probably can separate his foot anchoring from the ground
It might. I guess that would mean it thrust its energies between his anchor and the ground as soon as it was activated. Breaking a already active supers strong energy based bond to the earth/plane.(I suppose its not really the dirt its connected too or Maxima would have ripped that spot of concrete right up!) Damn powerful thing that shield then.
Her shield was already proven to be able to cut off his violence aura from everywhere else. No reason why it wouldnt be able to cut off his ‘foot anchoring’ glyph from the ground as well.
No, I’m sure its possible. Cutting off an established energy bond might be different from blocking an energy flow or energy rays though.
The question is whether Sydney floating in the air will cause the shield to adjust and get between the concrete and V’s feet, given said shield is certainly not covering the ground they’re standing on. It most certainly will not cut through concrete as Dave indicates said shield automatically adjusts itself to prevent anything getting even as so much a trim.
I’m amazed that the one team member with the greatest anger issues is staying in control (for now). That’s some willpower.
Yeah, but Sydney’s willpower was not holding up well while the Aggro Aura was still in effect; Note her mental cursing & how close she came to grabbing the PPO, hanging there soooo close to her fingertips.
Note that Dave basically gave Sydney a mere ‘four seconds later’ before she started cursing which lead to reaching for the PPO. That’s not very long.
HOLD ON! If Sydney isn’t touching it, why is the PPO reacting?
The ppo wants to slice off V’s head :)
All of the orbs are under telekinetic control, she doesn’t have to reach up and grab them. It’s normally a fairly quick process however. It’s taking longer here as she’s having an aggro aura influenced mental battle between taking V’s head off and continuing with the actual plan.
That mental battle also included Sydney’s intent to hang onto the Comm Orb…But the PPO (being mentally controlled) was right there waiting for her to let go of the Comm Orb.
I see my mistake, after looking at the other panels, what I thought was some kind of “wisp” from the PPO was actually the afterimage of it moving down. The other orbs do the same thing when they move around. Can’t believe I missed it.
How are the knockout drugs taking effect again when the handcuffs injecting them are off btw? Maybe from the drugs still temporarily in their systems?
Also are the ppl knocked out but not injected with drugs still unconscious, like math? Stalwart isnt so im guessing not
That’s right, the drugs never left their bloodstreams, the people were just so “juiced” by V’s aggro-aura that they could “shake it off”. Blocking the aura allowed the drugs to re-assert their effect.
Also, Math & the other allies were never drugged, so I believe that they’d only return to sleep if their injuries were severe enough to make them pass out again. Hiro & Stalwart stayed awake, but we don’t yet know about Math & the others. We’ll just have to wait-&-see.
Math: Oh, my aching mose. [Walks unsteadily over to Hiro and Stalwart] So guys, did I miss amything?
Hiro: Easy there buddy. I got you.
the drugs would be effective even without the handcuffs, that’s only a safety precaution so that those that have a high resistance/tolerance/metabolism, etc. will receive the right dosage and/or get constantly injected so they won’t wake up too soon.
so i’m guessing that either harem will re-cuff them all, or people like that speedster will try to make a break for it.
I think without constant dosing some bad guys like mach the knife will recover pretty quickly
Well, hopefully the dosage was very strong.
“so i’m guessing that either harem will re-cuff them all, or people like that speedster will try to make a break for it.” thank you for agreeing with me ^_^
Weeell, that makes all the telepresence speculation a waste of time. Other than giving Dave some ideas I guess.
So now we know “appear outside the shield” is the probable default on most of the orbs? Tools for use in space theory goes up a bit in strength.
I’m with everyone else on what exactly she thought the Light Hook could do as it has been easily resisted. Perhaps she just thought the serious attempt to violate him would be enough to hold his attention when she dropped the shield so someone else she texted could get a shot in?
None of this frees me from having to go through all of the archives worth of comments looking for possible wog hints on the orbs abilities as far as locking their locations in the air while being touched by another but being touched by Sydney. Kind of feel like there was something but I can’t ask Dave he is probably keeping that to himself if it has anything to do with upcoming updates. *sigh*
OH! Forgot.
Happy New Year! :)
The orbs themselves can be used as weapons from within the shield tho. Like with shadow boxer
Definitely. I have no idea how she would use them in this case. If he was a mad scientist type and there were buttons to be pressed or if she had built gadgetized cases to put around them. Maybe a brilliant bluff of some kind as V can’t really, for sure, understand them totally from just observing this and the conference.
Position them ariund and against vehemence’s neck so he cant move
Yes, yes. You got me on that until I can finish looking through the entirety of the comments with the “find on this page” option set to DaveB… and I still got holidaying to do! :-P
But knowing Dave and his desire to keep things vaguely balanced strength/weakness wise I am pretty sure there is no way she has the ability to lock any creature of his current power down so easily just cause she isn’t touching the orbs. All future super fights would then start out with Sydney shielding and the other orb of her choice while the other five reduce the enemy to long range attacks. For a majority this would effectively end the fight right there.(its the villains who are supposed to be that difficult. ;) ) And while I actually DO believe they are nearly indestructible it would be foolish for a being new to their use, no lab test being done and with no knowledge of their design to continually risk their destruction like that. Not that Sydney is exactly all that forward thinking all the time… OK she probably would.
Quick question, did you mean “puss” as in “pussycat” or “pus” as in “disgusting stuff oozing from, oh, say, an infected wound, or that gross gunk that comes out of a busted pimple”…? Because if it’s the latter, 1 S is all that’s needed. If it’s the former…that poor, poor kitty, mixed up with marmite and zebra turds!
“Puss” is the proper American/Canadian spelling for the viscous fluid sometimes found at the site of injury or infection. It is usually white and it is mostly made of white blood cells (macrophages) that died in the battle against the invaders. Other colours usually indicate the presence of other crap in there too, such as the waste products of bacteria. Yukky stuff.
Wait, Americans actually adding a letter when they are more famous for dropping them? And Canadia is more likely to spell it like the rest of the world: pus
Spoiler alert:
Of course Vehemence doesn’t want to kill Sydney. After all, he is her son, from the FUTURE!
Dun ,Dun, DUNNN!
Vehemence is more like the Terminator than Reese winding up as John’s father.
I’ll bet Vehemence is consuming air at a higher rate than Sydney. Just sayin’
Either way, they’re sharing the same air, & if Syd passes-out, it’s all over.
I see no point to whether one consumes more air than the other.
Does this mean that I’m missing something?
Bigger guy needs more air so he’ll pass out first?
You all fail physics and biology forever
Yes, actually. But it’s Oxygen rather that just the air quality- V probably can’t hold his breath as long as Sydney, unless he uses magic BS to oxygenate himself.
Actually, big guy like him? If he takes a big deep breath, there isn’t going to be as much left for Sydney or Maxi: the bigger you are, the bigger the lungs you got, which means the bigger storage and less need to breath as often
You forgot that the bigger they are the more oxygen is needed to keep’em going.
Actually it looks like Sydney is just distracting V long enough for Dabbler to pull off whatever magical BS she’s casting. I seem to recall that Sydney knows American Sign Language, and Dabbler’s signing something to Sydney in panel 4 behind V’s back. The Lighthook is just the signal to Dabbler: “Yes, I’m about to drop the shield, hit him with the ‘sexy fun time till you pass out’ spell.”
I wish I had more confidence in that idea, but Dabbler needs several levels more “Chutzpah” before she can influence him, as stated here:
[https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1504]
That was in reference to Dabbler’s Sleep spell…Which is NOT dependent upon her level of collected Tantric energy to use. Dabbler can use regular magic with regular “mana” energy ambient in the world. But if she has some extra Tantric energy to pump into it, then it would be more powerful…Like the way Vehemence is pumping Vehemic energy into HIS powers.
Too bad there isn’t an orgy nearby to give Dabbler the power boost.
Vehemence is totally using that word wrong btw.
Chutzpah is yiddish for ‘guts’ or ‘courage’ – read that in what V says – it makes no sense. :)
The correct yiddish word would have been ‘makht’
So we know V doesn’t know Yiddish. At last, a weakness!!! 8^)
Dabbler isn’t signing anything to Sydney in panel 4, she has three hands pressed flat against the shield and her fourth hand his holding her sword or something. Don’t believe me? Enlarge the image to get a better look.
Looks like Dabbler is putting the sword back in it’s pocket dimension.
I could imagine she was going to use the LIghthook, maybe to see if he could be tickled.