Grrl Power #297 – Morning errant
This page is exists almost entirely due to the fact that when I’m descending in an airplane, I have enormous trouble telling where I am. Mind you this is on the return trip – when I’m coming home to the city I’ve lived in for ~20 years. Obviously I know I’m near and/or heading toward the airport, and sometime I can pick out a massive landmark like a huge mall, but if I’m high enough and can’t read the store names, I’m not positive which mall it is. Also, you’d think one of those big mix masters on the highway would clue you in to which road you’re above, but a sufficiently large city has one every 5-10 miles, so you can guess but you still might be off by quite a bit.
This is mostly my own fault. I mean besides the fact that everything looks different from above when you’re used to seeing it from 6 feet off the ground, but for all the time I’ve spent living in Dallas, I really don’t know it very well. 90% of my haunts are probably within 10 miles of where I live. Once every 3-4 months I’ll wander down into Dallas proper for one reason or another but considering the size of the DFW metroplex I really don’t go exploring a lot. That’s why when I spot a mall from the air “near the airport” I still rarely have any idea where I really am. Sydney’s probably the same way, most of her regular destinations are ~10 miles from where she lives, with the odd trip out further to the specialty game store or a small comic convention in a satellite city. If she wanders too far off her beaten path without a working GPS she can get lost real quick.
That top panel took like six hours. :…..( While I have a functional understanding of perspective, a city scape like that is more or less beyond me, at least making it look convincing. So my solution was to take several photos and stitch them together, then use that as a base to paint from. That’s harder to do than it sounds cause finding aerial photos taken at roughly the same altitude can be tedious, plus most of the pictures I found were either taken smack in the middle of the downtown area, were suburbs with nothing but residential housing, or they were countryside and farmland. Maybe I’m bad at Google but industrial urban sprawl aerial shots all in the right perspective were few and far between. Once I have the reference pictures melded together I wind up fudging a lot of details anyway, but it’s useful to have the base to work from. I do that partially cause I don’t want to just plop a photo in there, even with attribution and permission I’d still want to paint over it, and partially because I want to be vague about what city they’re based in, at least until I decide it’s relevant to the story to establish it. The point is the characters may fly over this exact spot a lot. :)
It occurs to me that I didn’t draw Sydney with a purse. I gave her a little blue one in some of the early pages when she was at the bank but then I completely forgot about it for the next 250 pages. Even though she doesn’t carry cosmetics around with her, it seems unlikely she’d be able to get by with just a phone and wallet in one pocket and keys in the other. (And The List in her back pocket) Yes, if she was only running to a grocery store and back maybe, but she’s leaving her apartment for the day. Very few women are so minimalist. I don’t blame them. If I could carry around a purse like thing that was acceptable for a man, I would fill it with all kinds of garbage. The perfect example is a shoulder bag I bought for carrying stuff around conventions. It’s exactly the right height and width to fit an iPad, but obviously it’s deeper than that with three separate zippable compartments. Now it has, in addition to a small sketchpad, some pencils, a phone charger with 4 separate USB outlets on it and the appropriate cables attached, and a small stack of the postcards I use to pimp the comic (perfect for a convention naturally), it has every adapter known to mankind so I can hook the iPad up to any video display, with the possible exception of UHF. The bag is now weighs 18 pounds. Oh, also one of those very small screwdrivers with all the interchangeable heads stored in the handle. Because I’m a guy.
March snuck the hell up on me. :P I seriously thought there was like a week left in February. :/ Edit: The vote incentive is finished finally!
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*reads earlier comments*
Well, I’m glad I don’t just see things, occasionally I see things that are what they’re supposed to be as well.
Yerp… ahem… *clears throat* Yep. And well spotted.
*wags tail*
Shouldn’t that be “yorp” instead of “yerp”?
He was trying to say “yep” when his mother tongue took over.
I’m a minimalist lady, and an artist. I loose purses with rediculous effeciency… I can’t even keep track of a wallet. But a wad of cards has stuck with me for years. *shrugs* Since She’s already carrying about the tube and she’s no longer on the down-low as a super, she could concivably decide to stick a couple of extra things in the bottom of her tube instead of lugging around another bag.
Actually that wasn’t a purse, it was a banking bag from her comic shop. If you recall you had her take in the cash from the shop to the bank, that’s what that blue purse was. At least that’s what I thought it was and the only thing I saw as a purse, her being more of a tomboy though I’d expect she’d use a man wallet more than a purse.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/184
It never makes it to the bank but here it is about half the size of the bank bag, same color, different opening and a strap.
I knew I wasn’t imagining it. I guess she just has one she leaves in the car because she takes it into the restaurant: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/184
Maybe she shoves her extra stuff in Tubey under the orbs.
Can you explain why in that comic Sydney is stopped dead by her immovable tube, but in the bank it follows along behind her when she walks? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/226
The tube probably got caught on the dashboard or something in the car, while in the bank, it had nothing obstructing it, thereby allowing it to move freely.
Agreed. DaveB has always been consistent in his depiction of the tube’s properties (and the underlying orbs, within it, of course). I think Observer draws very sound conclusions of these properties, in his comment (the one further down the chain, with the time stamp 8:30 pm *).
* The earlier one is interesting, but deals with another aspect.
In general it seems that if the orbs are somehow prevented from moving, they stop Sydney, but otherwise they will follow HER.
Think of it as a fixed length rope tied between Sydney and the orbs.
Once the rope is stretched, she will have to apply enough strength the pull the tube with the orbs along. If it gets stuck badly enough, she gets stuck.
That rope is kind of special, though, because while Sydney can pull the orbs along, you can’t use the orbs to pull Syndey along. A vector rope maybe ? A Maxima rail up ? A failsafe in case someone tries to steal Tuby and drive away in a car ? Man do I want to see his face once he finds the Tuby sized hole in the trunk … ;-)
Probably because when it’s in the car, Sydney’s not able to move the entire CAR with her, but when its on its own, it’s just the weight of the tube.
I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I have a good mind for locations and I basically memorize the whole city map of any place I regularly visit.
I might get a bit lost going across the whole state, but not just going to work.
I’m the same way. When I visit a new town sometimes I only have to look the map over well once & I can find anyplace. Of course sometimes still the GPS comes in handy… (it was a house on timberline way, street, avenue or road?)… but generally if I’ve seen a map I can get around.
I envy your ability. I’ve lived in the same smallish town for about 15 of my 20 odd years and yet still can barely give coherent directions around the place.
But people keep on insisting that it’s mostly because I don’t drive.
Where did you live during your even years? =OP
No, no, you misunderstand completely. Ryuu798 clearly had one score strange years!
Which is understandable. Weird things happen in small towns. Just look at Smallville, as an example. But even in others, you can see strange sights, when walking around, rather than just driving by. A talking dog would be completely missed by those driving by. Mainly because he is smart enough to dodge, mind.
Been a while since I last commented; but I have to say I love this, and know the feeling. Once you get up there you realize just how much you used landmarks to travel about rather than absolute directions and lose track of which way you were actually traveling from your house or other locations at times because of how the roads wind around. This is why your navigational equipment is so important and also if you don’t have those, learning to read maps before heading out might be a good idea.
The problem is that the world doesn’t orient itself north like it’s supposed to going by maps.
LOL! Yeah. DFW is kinda way too big. I mean, according to Wikipedia, it’s larger than Rhode Island and Connecticut combined… so yeah…
But… that’s what Google Maps/GPS is for! :P
And I dunno… I think all she’d need to see is see a major highway that she normally travels on and she’d be good. I think I would… But then, one of the highways near by house has this characteristic bend in it that pretty unique…
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Now that we are in a new month, it has all re-set and the comic is way down!
And I just finished the piece from last month, so it’s all nice and colored now.
I noticed that. Excellent work. I’ve always admired how you get the lighting effects from the glowing orbs.
Actually you’re third now at TWC. The Goblins/Twokinds war is probably back on now that Tarol is updating again, so you’re doing impressively well.
As of my posting, he is at #1!
Excellent work, Dave. The X-men comic is the perfect touch!
Yea, I just spotted that myself. If it was in the sketch version, I had not noticed it. But now it throws the entire scene into a different light. ADHD Halo cannot quite manage peaceful meditation. Not without her fix of Wolverine, to break the monotony!
I like the Dr Fate T-shirt with coordinated color scheme. Of course you would think of him (or Doctor Strange) if you were trying to meditate.
When the pic was still just a sketch, I made a comment somewhere in the previous comic comments that I think Sydney should’ve had her right eye open instead of her left eye because Vehemence is definitely someone you have to “keep an eye on” at all times. But now that I can see that Sydney’s reading an X-Men comic (she’s only cheating herself & her own spiritual enlightenment though), I respectfully retract that earlier opinion.
Apparently the FAA hasn’t figured out the rules for flight capable humans yet. Also unless you actually train at navigating on a flat surface with no easy points of reference it is really easy to get lost. My Drill Sargent wondered why land navigation was so easy for me and than I explained I had training in water navigation. Everything is minutes traveled and direction when the nearest point of reference is over the horizon. It is very similar to flying since you navigate by compass and speed.
They will…You can bet your sweet bippy, they will.
Say hello to another 1000 pages of regulations.
I heard the Flash once got a ticket from an irate cop for speeding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4aMWSl1SX0
but cops only have legal jurisdiction to give traffic tickets to motor vehicles…Flash isn’t registered as a vehicle, so he could easily get it thrown out by the court.
;)
Unless Sydney attaches one of her orbs to the traffic ticket, and remains within the court herself.
To quote the cop in that film…
I don’t care if you were crawling! 300 miles per hour in a 25 mile per hour zone is illegal!
I remember back in the old Lois and Clark series a city official with a grudge against Superman once gave him a citation for flying without a license. (I think he also called him an ‘illegal alien’ too.)
And that too is an illegal over-extension of Police jurisdiction & FCC regulations concerning flying vehicles. Clark Kent was also as a Citizen back when he was still an infant so he is, for all practical purposes & in accordance with the documentation, a Natural Born US Citizen…Although he couldn’t reveal that without compromising his secret identity.
Even so, in his Superman identity, he’s documented as a Naturalized Citizen, but that might not be well-known at the time of the episode that you cited. Alien, yes…Illegal, no.
Actually Superman recently renounced his American citizenship in the comics, much to Amanda Waller’s displeasure (and to the displeasure of most comic book readers who don’t like seeing political correctness gone awry in their comics).
Ever since DC’s reboot from the Crisis on Infinite Worlds series, I never liked the politicizing they’ve done.
Now for a lass that was screaming away while being carried by Max not so long ago, our girl is adapting to flight pretty quick, tho she does seem quite adaptable, in fact a good deal quicker than is safe.
But a more serious point is that one can’t grip a ball for very long. Flying by holding a ball eventually means letting go, and falling. So our balls need some sort of velcro factor, so Sidney can’t let go unless she deliberately wants to. [Of course, given Sidney, she will “find” a way to let go by accident anyway.]
She has complete mental control over the positions of the balls so, minus spaz attacks where she uses them as battering rams, if she wants them in her hands they stay there ignoring gravity so she just needs the minimal amount of muscle power to keep her hands connected. I’m not sure HOW connected they need to be actually. Touching palms good enough? Another test or flashback coming for that?
I wonder. She can mentally control them. What happens if she orders a couple to sit under her rear and legs in order to free up use of other orbs in a pinch.
Aka can she sit on them in midair
…Somehow, I’m not too comfortable with the idea that someone can sit on their own balls…
:/
Yeah… it kinda hurts, doesn’t it?
…I wouldn’t know. Mine aren’t as “loosely attached” as Sydney’s are.
Your comment appeared (due to the associated refresh), after I posted my comment below. But with none of the thread above visible. So the topic was not apparent.
I came to the conclusion it was “marbles”.
Some have accused me of having “lost my marbles”…Would that be related to what you were thinking?
I may have been alluding to that. However, I cannot confirm such, or else I would risk getting a slap from Sydney!
But Sydney can’t loose her marbles, no matter how had she may try…
;)
Hard to say.
If her link to them is so strong its like they are an extension then maybe it would come under the, “it would be like trying to grab your own arm in order to yank yourself into the air” rule.
One thing she could do though is if she was afraid of falling is lodge a ball inside something up high and then if she fell she would be stopped in midair by the invisible tether between her and the orbs. She could also conceivably cheat by lodging a ball deep inside something that weighs many tons and it would be unable to fall more than a certain distance away from her while, other than not being able to move farther away from it than that, she would be unaffected by its weight and could use her other orbs in her hands on something else besides keeping the thing aloft.
I mean so far its been shown that she can’t drag them and they can’t drag her they just both get STOPPED when they try to get beyond a certain distance apart. She will eventually find a way to niggle some strategy out of that unexpected unyielding power.
+1
Ahh, the old classic, using an immovable object to hold an infinite weight.
The tube stopped her at the restaurant https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/184.
However, in this comic the tube is following along as Sydney moves. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/226. This situation does have the one difference that Sydney is being dragged by another person, not moving of her own volition. Maybe there is a built in safeguard to prevent the user from being ripped in half in this type of situation.
It might be that orbs were too ‘asleep’ at the restaurant to follow, but they were ‘awake’ enough at the bank due to Sydney’s elevated emotional state.
Possibly the safeguards are there, the orbs clearly do have some sophisticated capabilities, which would not preclude that option.
But do note the simpler explanation posed by Solbet (at about the same time you were writing yours, so you may not have seen it then).
For objects which respond to mental commands, there will always be room for the possibility that Sydney’s own thought, or subconscious thoughts, may be influencing the situation. Likewise the orb’s default behaviour is to follow their mistress. Either of which could account for the movement.
Whilst we have no observable upper limit on their capacity to stop moving (Maxima is in the highest strength category on Earth, and failed to throw them), the highest strength they have been demonstrated to have, whilst moving, is no more than that of a punching human fist.
So the orbs are easily strong enough to move tubey, but would be incapable of moving a car. So the theory stated holds true to the observable facts. And, unless your safety suggestion turns out to be correct, gives us confirmation as to the limited strength, of the orbs, when under their own propulsion.
“The tube stopped her at the restaurant https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/184.”
Yup, that’s what I was referring to in my comment about how they STOP her and she STOPS them. The tube was hung up on something so Sydney was the one who got STOP’ped. So we agree there? Kind of? (While possible from what we’ve seen so far, I am actually kind of surprised the orbs movement/lift capability is so weak that they can’t rip out of tubey when attempting to follow but that might be this “rule of funny” everyone goes on about.
In your second example I have always believed that she was having to stop herself from mentally summoning them in her stressed out moment aaaand being really upset she failed to completely quell the instinctive summons. I don’t think I am alone in this.
It would be nice if there was some kind of safeguard to protect Sydney from being ripped in half by the STOP’ing affect but we have yet to see it I think.
Oh you were probably referring to the dragging part. See the tube in the car did STOP Sydney but it didn’t drag her. Had someone jumped in the car and attempted to drive away the strap and then probably a window or other parts of the car would have been broken as the tube refused to move any farther from Sydney. Or if it got lodged against a particularly stubborn part of the car then the car would have stopped.
So far the most unexpected and intriguing thing you have brought up is the possibility that Sydney might get ripped in half by someone attempting to move her too far away from the orbs. If that is something that Dave will allow to be canon then lets hope someone brings up the possibility in testing them and her on the training field or whatever cause she desperately needs to be aware of this horrible shortcoming of this unusual feature.
How about using Google Earth, turn on 3D Models? Then use the ‘up’ arrow on that compass with the eye on it to tilt the camera upwards?
I just looked at that, looks like it could make for a pretty good reference.
One step better when she get into the office someone needs to hand her new glasses with the heads-up AR built into it.That combined with her “arc-girl” would make flight navigation a breeze. That an actually teaching her navigation takes about thirty minutes even with someone with ADD and lasts a lifetime.
Lol I’m so lame. I just came to say the art and story is amazing as always, and I live in the DFW area too. Never flown, so I can’t entirely relate, but DFW is confusing enough on the ground as it is. ♡
If that makes you lame, then you’re in good company with a lot of other lame people who have the same trouble.
:D
Bridges are always useful when orientating yourself in the air.
Just saying
I’ll have to go back and check, but the little blue bag she had with her in the bank, I had thought was the Deposit satchel she was bringing to drop off from work.
I’m one of those annoying persons who have developed a cartographic memory from spending hours reading maps and looking at Google Earth so I pretty much know where I am all the time (survival skill from when I was a military brat and constantly getting moved around the world, you have to know how to find home or spend all your time at home). I found the skill useful when I started taking flying lessons, as I could quickly identify landmarks from the air. I am quite happy this was a skill my children never had to learn. But it looks like Sydney really needs to learn it now, or rather yesterday.
I really want that first panel as a poster/print!
Or even a wallpaper without the speech bubbles would do nicely.
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This begins our campaign for the first panel as wallpaper and/or poster/print.
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Those who’d also like one, comment below!
The thing I most want to do, every time I look at panel 1? Give Sydney my coat, to stop her shivering!
Having a fur coat, it would definitely be enough to keep her warm, but I’d think that would be quite painful for you.
:/
“Starts sharpening the skinning knives”
For Sydney.
*Closes eyes and grits teeth.*
“Drops the satin lined cashmere trench coat on Yorp to give to Sydney.”
That just moves the problem one step down the line. Now we have a chilly goat instead of a chilly dog. And now I want chili dogs for lunch.
Do you KNOW what’s in hot dogs?
Ask Gwen to scan one for you.
She won’t scan another hot dog. She already scanned one…Once. That’s her limit.
Yup.
I believe I already started that campaign a page earlier, but sure. :)
Dave, I really enjoy your comic. I stumbled across you a couple of years ago link-hopping from another web comic (Girl Genius or xkcd, I forget which). Watching your art improve has been great, but the story has kept me hooked from the beginning.
I thought you might be a Dallas / Fort Worth resident before, but when you said “Metroplex” in the comments, that sealed it. Nobody calls DFW that unless they’re from or lived here. The term (a mashup of “metropolitan complex”) was coined in the 1970 to describe our fair north TX sprawl. That being said, I’ll accept that Sidney lives in ambiguous to-be-named-later (maybe) city.
Remember Sydney: Never Eat Soggy Waffles (North-East-South-West) if you get turned around.
The problem I’ve found with the city that Sydney lives in being DFW is that, while I’ve found a “Hickory Street” in both Dallas and Fort Worth and while Dallas has a Wescott Lane and Fort Worth a Wescott Road (see panel 4 for reference), neither of the “Wescotts” intersects with either Hickory Street as far as I can tell.
That intersection can only be seen with somebody using true sight.
He’s got headphones on…. Can he even hear her question?
You wouldn’t be able to hear much of anything choppers are loud when you are on the inside even with headphones.
It is the Texan accent that does it. That and the fact that the place is so big, that they have to shout to each other, to get heard. Chefs in other places just sound angry. Or prissy and French.
Not quite sure about the headphones bit? Is that because you are a cunning linguist? Or do you have some kind of miniaturisation headphones? And, presumably, some legal reason for going inside chefs?
You remember the moon landings. Mission Control all had those thick Texas accents talking to the crew. This came from the little know research at the time that showed that particular accent is audible at ranges over a quarter million miles.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hear her over the helicopter noise and his headphones.
Who cares if she is lot. She can actually fly around for once without worrying about government sponsored vivicetions. And with her top speed go back and forth, do loops, zizag, divebomb, eventually youll see something you know.
Or do the unthinkable: Land and check the horizon for Archon’s skyscraper.
There’s no way that pilot could hear her. The blades of the helicopter are WAY too loud to have a conversation inside the plane, let alone outside. This is also incredibly dangerous. The wind is whipping every direction next to the airplane, and Sydney could get diced to ribbons by they blades.
Seriously, why would Sydney think this is a good id – never mind, I just answered my question.
Wow, that must be an awful radio show to listen to. Not being able to make out a word.
Certain types of helicopter are designed to minimise the sound. Be it for noise pollution laws, in certain countries, or to allow things like radio broadcasts to be made. Additional sound baffling, can be added, to minimise the noise in the cockpit itself, for the latter applications.
Sydney appears to be using conductivity, to allow the sound waves to propagate, by touching her force field to the cockpit.
I just wonder if he is savvy enough to say Sure, just say hi to the folks at home and we can give you an escort”… while frantically typing to the studio control tech to tape from his webcams and turning it to face _her_. It isn’t often the traffic guy scoops the main news team.
+1 :-D
Hum. Traffic crew getting the scoop? Some years ago, the news chopper crew out here made the news by flying their chopper underneath some power lines to land a skid on a pickup truck. This is from the era before cellphones were popular, and the police were doing a manhunt for someone the chopper had eyes on… And the police knew the chopper could see the guy… But there was no communication channel between the news crew and the police. So simplest solution was to practically land on the getaway vehicle, letting the police know who to point guns at… Unfortunately, I’m having trouble finding any reference to the event. If memory serves, the skid touched the hood of the pickup, shots were fired at the chopper, and, I think, the suspect wound up with twenty odd bullets in him. Or was he simply caught? It was quite some time ago… Back when a portable video Camera could comfortably fit in a backpack.
In any event, the FAA doesn’t like it when you fly under powerlines, but admitted there were extenuating circumstances and let it go. Camera footage of a chopper acting decisively to stop a violent criminal from escaping? The news station made bank on that footage for some years.
The microphone next to his mouth is allows him to communicate with the tower. If you ever watch a morning news show where they have their own helicopter, then you’ll notice that there’s always a buzz behind the the voice of the pilot.
Have you noticed Grizzly Barry’s tinted beard streaks? I think that Super Hairdresser will be keen to hook him, as a celebrity customer, for when he opens his Archon mall salon.
Mine is nothing so regular as that but men’s beards often go grey/white in those two spots just as the head hair does at the temples. And this happens much earlier as well. If you can’t beat it, go with it appears to be the rallying cry there. I had mixed dark and red in the beard (basic black in the hair) and it was the red that went white on me in two patches –and yes it is mostly from the corners of the mouth downward. My kids swear my saliva contains bleach.
It does make one wonder about ones mouth wash.
In real life if I saw a multicolored beard (or hairdo) with such sharp and regular divisions I would assume it was artificial.
In drawn comics, I’m quite prepared to be tolerant of “unnatural” regularity being officially natural. Because to make it look more natural – and *the same every time* – would be a royal pain. (The comics that use modeling software don’t get the full benefit, by the way, because they only have to do it once.)
True. I even know somebody with a ‘salt and pepper’ beard, which incorporates that, amongst other features. But you are missing the shade. That don’t look like grey to me.
“My kids swear my saliva contains bleach.”
Well, saliva IS a mild corrosive, but just not as strong as bleach. It’s that “enzyme action” in your saliva (in conjunction with chewing action with teeth) that starts the digestion process.
Wait wait wait. You mean there are still geeks who DON’T use google maps satellite view for all of their navigational needs? Goggle maps street and satellite view virtuality cured my terriblesense of direction. I’ll admit my sense of direction can still be pretty bad, particularly at night or when severely overcast (because I use the sun for reference) but still…
A few years back, I was shopping with a friend. We had just been to my bank, when she suggested we visit a friend of hers, saying “but she lives miles away, in the old quarter, it will take us most of the rest of the morning to get there, on foot, and I do not know a bus route there”. I was in no rush, and love walkies, with nice ladies, so was fine with that.
We followed the main boulevard West, for a considerable distance, to get to the major square, which marks the most well-known entrance to the old quarter. Which is a warren of inter-connecting roads at random angles, which even I can get lost in, in short order.
However she had wisely chosen to one of the few straight roads. One which, I noted, ran due East. Eventually we reached our destination, which lay in an alley at right angles to that. At which point I made a request “lets walk to the end of this alley, before we go in”. A distance of no more than eight paces. From that vantage, where it joined the main boulevard, it was simple to point at my bank, our starting point, just the other side of the road.
Sooo, if she is cold, why isnt she using her shield to protect from the wind?
Well, just her Flight Orb alone offers some protection from wind speed, but even if she traps some air inside her forcefield, it’s still the same temperature as the outside air, even if the wind doesn’t get through it.
If Sydney was thinking ahead far enough, she could have put up her forcefield with warmer air at ground level & it might retain that warmth for some time, but since the colder air up high doesn’t seem to be “damaging-level” of cold, the force field might not prevent a gradual “bleed-off” of the warmth from inside.
She really needs to find a way to unlock the ultra-low power setting on the PPO in order to use it as a hand warmer.
+1
Star Trek has taught us so many things, down through the years.
Actually I don’t think Sydney is thinking about the possibility of using the shield that way yet. This is only the second day she has felt safe to really get out and fly openly. before, she was worried about attracting attention from the wrong types and ending up on an exam table lie a bug.
Aerial photo interpretation is a difficult skill at times. Although in the past it was a skill that was hard and costly to practice since access to such imagery was limited and expensive.
I suspect there will be an interesting generational difference with the raise of pubic “satellite” imagery avaliable on things like Google Maps. Where current children are often encouraged to use Google earth to explore the world around them, including their own neighborhoods.
Even still is a very visual/spatial task. Which doesn’t always equate to “artist”. Talk to any serious and trained person with a Geograohy degree. Its a very… different way of looking at the world that most “general” eduction doesn’t cover very well.
wouldn’t it have been better to use the yellow sphere
and telepresence inside the helicopter?
he’s wearing head phones and the sound of the wind
would drown out anything she says outside the helicopter.
with telepresence she’d be able to talk to him inside the cockpit.
also who doesn’t memorize the basic ariel view of their city from google maps?
I live in a metropolis and if I was up that high
I can guarantee I could triangulate my basic position based on the view of downtown
all you need is three tall landmarks and you can tell what quadrant of the city
you are in and how close to downtown you are.
The telepresence orb is still marked as “classified”, officially Halo ‘only’ has flight, shield, PPO, and lighthook powers. Anyway, she can only knock on the window politely in person. Good manners don’t cost nothing, hey?
+1
Well reasoned kuraimizu, although most folks may think of the telepresence as being best for a diversion, it is actually a powerful communications tool too. Which I also noticed would be invaluable in these circumstances. Remembering that it is classified though is important, if she wishes to get her promotion, on schedule.
I understand it is classified, but that only means she can’t talk about it.
as far as anyone looking would know she could just phase through objects.
besides she was using the tele-presence when she was talking with vehemence
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1422
during the battle royal, which might very well have been broadcast on the news.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1386
so technically the secrets already out, just not confirmed.
all she would have to do is land in an alley, and send her tele-self up to the helicopter.
the other alternative would be to use her tele-self to broaden her field of vision and increase her search radius by flying low altitude along the main highways.
Ok, you make good points there, and could be correct. Although Halo’s first usage was fairly subtle, and there was a lot of more exiting stuff for the media to be pointing cameras at. So she could well have gotten away with it. One quibble though, and not an important one, is that your latter link points to a page that I do not think has Halo using the image.
Whilst you may be right, I see it as her obeying Maxima’s orders to “provide cover“. In that scene, if she were using an illusion to provide a diversion, she would not be standing close to a squishy team-mate. Doing that just means that he would get hit by the fire aimed at her!
Rather, I think she is actually there, and her shield is deflecting the incoming fire. Looking at the incoming fire, objectively, there is one deflection which could be the result of an optical refraction, but that would only occur if passing through a medium of differing density, such as a liquid. I do not think that an illusion would cause a similar effect. So I interpret that, and the other less ambiguous deflections, as being the presence of a shielded Halo.
But, until she knows that her illusion has been blown, for sure, she would be wisest avoiding exposing it for trivial purposes. Interrogating a suspect, on the battlefield, is one thing. But using it to ask directions? Especially choosing a media helicopter, such as the one above. That would blow her cover for sure.
All that said though, if it is funny, I am sure Sydney will do it!
And possibly she is an illusion at the moment. Consider, she may have made the “TUMP TUMP” noise by banging the two orbs together. Giving the impression of having knocked on the glass is the only thing which makes us assume she is there in person. It would also explain how the conversation could be heard inside the helicopter. That could simply be attributed to how the illusion works.
Your concluding points are solid suggestions, and well worth doing, as they would be unlikely to expose the truesight orb, whilst reducing the risk of an untrained flyer getting herself killed, or injured, in a rookie mistake.
Although flying too low over a freeway is likely to endanger the public, which Sydney needs to be wary of. Using the same trick to fly her telepresence really high though, would prevent her suffering from the cold.
actually in the second link
I was referencing the News Crew and their van
while it didn’t show the camera man, the camera is seen to the left of Arianna. I was referencing the possibility Sydney using her tele-presence might have already been on the news, which it probably is.
which leads me to think, that though it is “classified” she can use it as long as she doesn’t actually tell anyone what it is, or what she is doing.
obviously she is outside the helicopter, she is holding the shield and flight orbs
and your idea of high altitude tele-presence is a good improvement on my wide track idea
Gotcha. And rookie mistake of mine, not considering which orbs in hand! Well countered, on all parts.
One possible way I could wiggle out of the situation is to view this from the point of view of the makers of an illusionary projection device. If they intended that it could be used for decoy or deception purposes, they would recognise a critical flaw. Anyone who knew the properties of the orb would suspect the illusion, if the yellow orb was in hand.
So it is possible (and, yea, I am very much stretching things here, unlike your argument), that the illusion can camouflage which orb is in hand. In this case we can see the shield, so that one is clearly in use. However, given that the illusion can be projected in mid-air, there would not actually be a need to have the Fly-ball in hand, for her to appear to be flying.
So, whilst her real body would need to be holding the Forb and the True Sight Orb, the projection could mask that by making it appear to be the Forb and the Fly Ball. Not that I have anything to support that supposition, so it is an outside possibility, at best. But not, I feel, too implausible.
actually they already stated that the yellow orb can’t create a custom image
only project what she actually looks like.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/494
That is a different issue. Disguising the yellow orb itself (for the purposes I described) is one thing. Altering Sydney’s image is another. They need not be connected.
I am still happy with your earlier case. But, for the sake of defending this hypothesis, to the hilt, please consider the following. Practically every time we have seen Sydney using the orbs, since that occasion, they have been plainly visible. The orbs are large enough that they show up clearly in Sydney’s hands.
Now have another look at the image you just linked and tell me what colour orb she is holding in her hand?
If the yellow orb can make itself invisible, then there is no reason why it could not just make itself blue. That is actually a much simpler trick.
Ok we can just put it down to artistic licence, and assume it was, this once, smaller than her hand, and thus hidden behind it. But it does leave the possibility of disguised orbs being viable, none the less.
In panel 5, that is. The later panels just go to show how readily it does stand up normally.
This reminds me of a TNG episode that had Picard back on Earth in Paris having dinner with an old friend. When the camera showed them from the right you could see the Eiffel Tower in the background. A few minutes later the camera showed them from the left and you could ALSO see the Eiffel Tower in the background.
Why would you want to look out across a boring skyline, when the restaurant can show the interesting feature on their window-sized viewscreen? Have you never been into such an establishment, even today, which has either a fire burning, or fish swimming, in a tank, only to realise that it is actually just a well-positioned television or monitor?
Traffic Guy got [SOILED UNDERWEAR]!
Which keeps to tradition, if he named his helicopter “The Woods”.
Ok – that’s a sleeper and a Groaner 5 Stars…
Crazily enough this is damn similar to what the hero in my novel once almost did.
Her problem was of a bit wider area though.
Lesson learned:
If you got flying or other wide-range transportation ability, always have a charged GPS or at least a phone on you to help you out. A map and money won’t hurt either.
So I am starting to wonder things. For instance we know that if she tries to move out of range of the orbs she gets stopped and no force is exerted on the orbs (e.g. when she forgot the orbs in her car when entering King of Siam) and the same goes for the orbs being moved away from her (e.g. Max trying to get her out from under the ambulance). So theoretically if she lets go of the fly ball, but forces the orbs to stay where they are, she should drop to the edge of the range and stop and she can just hang underneath the orbs.
That may be an idea worth testing for, during her training.
So, I think you deserve a +1 for the suggestion.
The balls are forced to her not the other way around. With the restaurant the balls were stopped by the car and as such they could no longer move toward her, halting her movement away from them. In the case of Maxima the balls will not move out of range of her if she is immobile.
Essentially the balls can’t move her but they can prevent her movement, away from them, if they can not move toward her.
Actually Tubey is seems to just be sitting on the seat not attached to anything. If it had been pulled it would be on the dash or floor. Also Max would have been able to pull her out from under the ambulance.
From the angle of one of the shots – Tubey appeared to be belted in in the car. At the very least, the car would restrain them.
I think simply that the Orbs can only be X distance away.
Tubey seems to be totally free to move in the car when she goes to (first) lunch, if they had been stopped by the car they wouldn’t have been leaning against the chair like that.
I am a woman, and even when I’m not with my regular 24l backpack, I carry around a small sack, in which I store: a multitool, an adjustable wrench, 15000 mAh battery for my phone, documents, 4 stones and 1 wooden stick. Money and keys(+15 keyrings), along with my phone – in my pockets.
Your surreally low-tech “4 stones and 1 wooden stick”, casually thrown in, had me in stitches.
I am now envisaging a shaman, from a tribe, in one of the most remote corners of the world. “In my medicine bag, I store an obsidian knife, my reed, for sucking grubs out of holes, my counting beads, plus my Android and solar recharger.”
Nice vote incentive! Does anyone know what’s on Sydney’s shirt?
A little splash of milk, from her Cornflakes.
Oh, you mean the slogan? It reads “W W (Character-who-looks-like-Spiderman, but is not Spidey) D?” Which, hip and trendy young meme followers (such as myself *) will happily tell you, translates as “What Would Deadpool Do?”
* Shhh, don’t spoil the cool!
Her shirt on the vote incentive
Doh! You did say as much, sorry. The hip and trendy youngsters are informing me it is associated with Dr Fate.
Actually, Dr. Fate is a pretty old character in DC comics…and Dr. Fate isn’t the person, it’s the helmet!
Don’t be silly, everybody knows that headwear are people and wear bodies as vehicles. Next you will be implying that I do not know how to carry out a rabid fleeb test! :-P
And you can blame Marvel for old comics now being the ‘in thing’ for youth culture.
In Dr. Fate’s case, yes. Dr. Fate is a Lord of Order, which manifests itself in the Earth dimension as that helmet. The spirit of the Order Lord possesses whoever puts it on & grants the magical powers.
In the Mansion of E there is an entire, secretive and manipulative, race who look like hats. Not to be confused with other hats, such as the Earl of E, or his companion Rosmary, often wear. Sometimes hats are just hats.
*pokes own hat suspiciously*
Oddly enough, Dr. Fate, mildly creepy good guy who is a hat that possesses people, has a lot in common with another DC character, The Fisherman, who is also a hat that possesses people. The Fisherman isn’t a good guy though, and he’s a really tacky looking hat. Not all stylish and shiny like Dr. Fate.
On an (somewhat) unrelated note, I WANT THIS T-SHIRT!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_Ia1SeVEAEpwHg.jpg
That’s an awesome shirt!
Oh, wow, I missed the link before. Thanks for drawing attention to it. Really clever.
Well, Sydney, next time spend half an hour looking at Google Maps :)
Heh, heh…”left turn at Alberqueque Drive”…heh…
Remember kids, you shouldn’t fly up and ask a helicopter pilot directions. They probably can’t hear you due to the wind and the sound of the turbine. That, and you’ll probably have to buy them a new pair of pants.
Wow, all the way up to 1st place, on the TWC rankings, already! Congratulations Dave, and thanks for everybody who voted.
Please do not forget to keep up the voting, when you can. It is nice to keep within the top three, so that the comic keeps high recognition, and the extra traffic that comes from it.
I’m a girl, and I actually do have a purse now, but the temptation to just stuff minimum necessities in pockets and go that way is immense. Especially if you have actually working deep pockets with zippers and not the ridiculous ones that even a handkerchief wants to fall out of *glares at the winter coat*
The biggest problem is if you change coats/jackets, but if the weather is stable enough that you can just stick to one, it’s awesome!
And heh, I guess I belong to the crows who would easily find their way home. I roughly remember the map of my city, and while it’s not exactly 3d reference, the river and the forest at least are good landmarks – and close enough to the city center, amazingly! I have basic training in orienting myself in the forest, too, but this is more about my city being kind of really convenient to orient myself in.
Oh, and of course there are churches. Those have pretty unique silhouettes, and they are disproportionately in the same area (historical center) where I can find my way pretty easily.
Of course, I don’t have any experience with /aerial/ navigation in practice other than finding stuff on google maps with satellite view turned on, but hey, at least I have that!
* to the… crowd. I don’t identify as a crow o.0
Mind you, a giant crow might well view you as a ‘pretty’ to be picked up and displayed in it’s nest! At which time you would get a crows-eye view of the area, and appreciate the orienteering skills you have gained yourself. If you can get out of the immediate predicament of belonging to a crow!
Your observation, about churches, is a good one, amongst others. In addition to the good points you raise, they usually sit on high ground, so can stand out even amongst other buildings, which may be taller, but sit on lower ground. It is why the sport steeplechasing got it’s name. Due to the ease of orienting, by using the steeples of churches.
As for coats, yesterday I had my first afternoon’s worth of sun-bathing, beside a local lake. We may yet get some snow here. But it will not be too long before the nice, deep-pocketed winter coats, cease to be practical. And bang goes my impromptu hand bag.
I then have to revert to actively paying attention to protocols of where to stash things, in what little pocket space remains. To minimise the chance of my stuff coming out of my pockets. Be that unintentionally, or aided and abetted by those who seek my pretties.
Something even more critical when I wander into tourist areas, and other potential criminal hot-spots. But, under those circumstances, I always have a small backpack, to help spread the load (and, simultaneously, distribute the risk, whilst also reducing it).
Oh, and as an alternative tactic to finding the river (there’s more than one, although they all flow into one so it’s navigable) is flying around the city edges until I find the area I’m familiar with, and from there it’s familiar roads (and the forest edge)
And of course there’s the airport that I know where it is relative to places I’d want to find…
yeah this is a very interesting topic/task to me
Sydney is going to cause an plane-crash or something and bring about (one of) the first major superhero PR disasters, isn’t she?
I doubt that planes usually fly higher than traffic helicopters and i don’t see any airport in the overview,which would explain a lower flying plane.
A lot of people would have no problem navigating in their hometown from the air, particularly if they’ve studied maps of it. If not, yeah, you could get disoriented if you can’t spot any major landmarks…but there’s a major bridge right there in the first panel, wouldn’t anyone know at least where the bridges are in their home town?
I must disagree with the former. I will agree that a lot of people think they can, however. As demonstrated by the comments here. But, the only ones who’s judgement I trust are those who state their skills from actually having put it into practice. It is always easy to be confident about theory. Very often there is a big gap between that and practical application of it.
However, you are perfectly correct about the bridge. Here though, we should extend some leeway for artistic licence. DaveB has endeavoured to stitch together a variety of source shots, to provide us with a masterpiece of comic art.
The drawback to that is that the backdrop is actually a lot richer than he should have picked, in order to maximise the point about getting lost. The other consideration we must not forget though, that this is Sydney’s first solo flight. Her previous, under Maxima’s protective wing, allowed her to revel in the sheer joy of being in the air.
This, on the other paw, is her first chance to see the world from a birds-eye-view. A powerful moment, that will remain in her memory, for life. And, in ours, when thinking of her. Dave made absolutely the right choice in going for the more detailed background, when choosing how to balance these two contradictory story-telling goals.
Whilst it makes it harder to justify, it does not require any stretch to do so. Whilst some people may be natural aerial navigators, it is not a natural skill set that humans are born with. As I am sure you will find that any instructor, from flight school, will tell you, with much gnashing of teeth.
In this case, Sydney will head, from home, towards her places of work and interest. If those happen to be in the opposite direction (hers is a big city, so the features we see may well not include the ones she wants), then it is entirely possible that she is not familiar with them. Take a peek on Google Earth, at Dallas, it has a lot of water features on it.
Ok, throw in the bridge, and if you know it, you will be able to place yourself. She simply does not, so it is of no use to her. I am sure that there are distinctive landmarks near to many people reading this, which they may not know by sight. Unless they have a passion for actually checking out their entire local area. Be that in person, or by Google Maps.
And I always think of an adage that my grandfather used to say. You can live your entire life in London, and never get to see all of it. This is not an idle comment, it is the absolute truth. Big cities are constantly changing. New buildings going up, others being re-decorated and so on. Unless you work as a taxi driver, or eye-in-the-sky reporter, you simply cannot know all of a big city.
“However, you are perfectly correct about the bridge.”
Maybe not so correct. In a city the size of Dallas (or any other big city) located on both sides of any river, there are bound to be more than one bridge to navigate with. If Sydney doesn’t know which particular bridge that is, she would still be just as lost.
…and then from high, she spots either:
1- the lost blue purse (ADHD people lose stuff, deal with it) because something blue reminded her of it.
2- a purse snatcher (its a super hero thing to run into these and wonder if they should let the police get these instead)
3- spot a super she does not know by magical aura or something. Omnious faux latin chant starting in 3… 2… 1…
Finding Crime isn’t as easy as they make it look:
https://ultraguy-joepower.com/VA.html
Someone else probably caught this already, but nice color-coordination on the sneakers and the shirt. Does that mean Sydney has (other) superhero sneakers?
And if she is anywhere close to the comic store, what she should look for is the line outside (or out the door, if it is open), and what she should listen for is Joel screaming at her to get her butt there to help.
Nice catch, on a small detail. No one else has mentioned that, unless I overlooked their comment.
Yea, I think that queue would correspond to being a geographical feature, which would be easily observable from high altitude!
The Great Line of Customers?