Grrl Power #306 – Hiring and conspiring
Good luck never doing anything dangerous now that you’re a superhero, Sydney.
Harem has lived with questions about how her powers work all her life, but never at such volume. I imagine by the end of the week she’ll have a shirt printed with a bulleted list of answers to the most common ones on it. Actually if she’s smart she’ll start her own youtube channel. Ask Harem
Fun fact: Joel is wearing red shoes because I forgot to color them in the first panel they appear in. (so you’re just seeing the carpet though them) Speaking of coloring, on Monday I’ll have a video of me doing a little coloring of this page and the next. Just some skin and hair to show how I do it.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Sydney uses Efficency… its Super Effective! :D
Joel is stunned
…followed by swamped, overwhelmed, and finally buried. Olivia doesn’t start for 2 weeks. Oh well, he won’t bite the regulars… the reporters can take their chances.
Still, they’ve been in this a while; they’ve probably both had to do “new comic day” solo. Sidney will not be surprised at the steam coming out of his ears tomorrow morning… And the regulars will probably forgive a blown “pull”, under the circumstances. Because, he IS going to screw-up someone holds from being interrupted in the middle…
Not necessarily, because that is not what she actually said. She is working mornings “slinging coffee”. Which implies that her afternoons may be free. Which is the time that Sydney is not.
Possibly she was only working mornings because she has other commitments, so you could be right. But the fact that she then goes on to happily start getting trained, right now gives us hope that the former interpretation is the case.
If so, then Olivia was just saying “I can’t work here full time, for the next two weeks, as I am committed in the mornings”. But she seems keen enough to start now. And, as she was obviously not that keen on the coffee job, but clearly has found a new interest in comics, she would be well advised to help out now.
Not to mention that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Miss it and she is just the girl who “once had the offer of working with a super hero”. *
Given that there may well be more suitable candidates out there (with actual knowledge of comics and retail experience, for instance), she has to make a snap call. “Do I want this job?” If the answer is “yes” then she is wisest to behave as if she is on the clock as of now. Which she is giving the impression of doing.
* Rather like my mum once turned down proof reading a (subsequently) world famous novelist’s fist novel. I won’t name him, however, as it might embarrass him to learn that she did so “because he was rather boring”.
Oh, hang on, she does have that “until I go to class”. Well, let us hope that today is a gap in her class, and why she was hanging around reading comics. :-D
Or, even better, that she is currently on break.
Ultimately they will need more than one extra member of staff anyhow, for the levels of increased custom they are likely to get. So it will be nice to have Olivia and Sydney being the morning crew. Joel can get to pick whoever helps him out in the afternoons.
i think she means yoga class but i may be wrong
She can always work out to that exercise video made by Johnny Depp while he was in Jamaica “Pilates of the Caribbean”.
Well she mentioned when she walked in that she hadn’t seen the news due to doing homework the previous night so he might be in College or University etc. I am sure if she started some yoga classes at the shop their might be a bit of interest.
your point on homework is valid i retract my previous statement
Unless of course she was doing yoga homework, also known as “101 ways to wrap ones legs around ones head” :P
“Harem has lived with questions about how her powers work all her life, but never at such volume.”
Or such frequency, I’d imagine. After all, joining Archon would’ve brought up questions like that but now that Archon went public, the questions will be asked again…repeatedly.
“…she’ll start her own youtube channel. Ask Harem.”
At least she won’t be struggling for personel to keep tabs on it. ;)
“…wearing red shoes because I forgot to color them in the first panel…”
No problem from this point of view. Red sneakers do exist on the open market & if some people get away with wearing Crocs or Ughs, then Joel can certainly slide by with red sneakers.
Yeah, Sydney ias being efficient, considering that business is going to expand greatly very suddenly. Joel’s ben gone 10 minutes & she’s already managed to do some training! Not to mention that business insurance is already getting covered & Joel won’t have to muck about with that too much, other than getting some details on how the coverage is going to work.
Hey Joel, take a chill pill & relax a bit…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo4OnQpwjkc
:D
Good, I am glad I am not the only one reading it that way. Had Harem said that immediately after “I buy my own”, then it would be clear she only meant Sydney herself. But Harem did wait until after “But maybe we can get ‘company healthcare’ if we are going to have employees”.
Which is totally logical. Sydney has stipulated that in order to work for Archon, she must be allowed to continue to work, part time, at the comic shop. However Arianna knows that people at that shop (and the shop itself) are being placed in higher danger due to an Archon super working there.
And would also know that no regular insurance company will continue to offer them insurance. It takes a specialist company to do that. No such exist, other than whichever one has (covertly) made a scheme available to Archon. Arianna would have just added the name of her shop to the schedule of insured premises The extra premium is just factored in as part of the cost of employing Sydney.
Archon most likely is capable of providing most medical care themselves. They do have a superpowered doctor after all.
True. But she only speeds up natural healing. So there will be a heck of a lot that Super Doc can’t treat on her own. Doubtless they do have a lot of capability, but even a military hospital has to outsource the specialist stuff to appropriate civilian facilities.
Plus if Archon are covering all their insurance needs comprehensively, that will be a lot more than just medical. The most expensive part of which would probably be the public liability. The increased risk of having an Archon super in residence would sky-rocket the risks and corresponding premiums.
If Halo has an oopsy with the PPO, even here, she now knows that she is covered.
Was that specified? I kind of figured it was just some sort of heal-over-time spell-like thing. It’s not instantaneous, but it’s not natural either. If it was it would leave patients pretty darn exhausted.
DaveB confirmed in comments that is how her powers work. But it should be read as ‘allows natural healing in a shorter space of time’ as opposed to ‘speeds up the metabolism to allow healing faster’. Perhaps it just makes the process more efficient?
Story mechanics wise it is doubtless there to allow our heroines to get knocked seriously about but, despite that, once they have had treatment with the Doc they will be up and running in short order.
However, there is no miracle healing or regeneration involved. Heatwave may have permanently lost her toe to her injury in the last fight. And Peggy will never get her leg back.
Real life SWAT members face the risk of both permanent injury and death in their job. Dave is not trivialising that in his setting. The heroes may be super-tough, but get through that and they face the same consequences that we do.
Only if they survive can Super Doc speed up the recovery.
“Speaking of coloring, on Monday I’ll have a video of me doing a little coloring of this page and the next. Just some skin and hair to show how I do it.”
I thought you were hiring people to do that for you?
They must be on absolute tenterhooks. But looking forward to seeing how it goes.
*holding breath, in sympathy*
Yorp. We have spoken about your holding breath before. How is the practice coming? Able to breath through your ears yet? I am sure Dabbler would be interested if you could ;) hehe
You don’t need to breathe though your ears for that. Not getting weirded out that you are breathing through whomever’s nose isn’t smooshed flat is a great place to start.
Just as long as he doesn’t exhale through the other end it will be ok.
There’s a frog that actually does that. Breathes through that end.
;-)
I have a neat trick I can pull using a mini wormhole. You just need to ensure the pressure remains compatible, or else you can have some very unfortunate side-effects!
The side effects involve a LOT of sucking……and not in a good way :P
Nature does indeed abhor a vacuum. and when Nature decides to fill that vacuum is when everything REALLY starts to suck.
Why then did she make so much of it?
*points paw ‘out there’, into the vastness of interstellar space*
Even outer space isn’t a total vacuum. There’s so much gasses, chunks of rocks & metals flying around out there that there’s pretty much NO place that doesn’t have at least sub-atomic sized particles. The closest thing to a “vacuum” in space would be the black holes & how much they suck in. Most of space is “neutral,” not vacuum.
*extends paw further, 13.798 billion light years away*
Not a lot out there. And that is a big big volume!
*swishes paw around, barely even batting a photon away*
And in about 7.6 billion years, we’ll ALL be turning into sub-atomic particles & join those photons you just casually swatted away.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-sun-will-eventually-engulf-earth-maybe/
;)
Have you not noticed another Big Bang intruding into our sphere? We do not have to stay in the cold one. Follow the heat. Avoid the entropy. And all that nasty vacuum.
*runs away from hoover*
actually it’s been scientifically proven that nothing sucks it all just blows (from high pressure to low).
How frequently do people actually say “blow” when what they really mean is “suck” anyway? Regardless of how unscientifically inaccurate that is, I’m sure Dabbler is familiar with that inconsistency with our language use.
O.o
Gravity sucks even in an airless void.
Unless you are mega maid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7aeWQCF1jM . Remember, in space no one can hear you clean :D
Not much use if she ‘grips’ the wrong place. But, certain amphibians can breathe through their skin – the real reason Mystique kept Toad around?
I’m hiring someone to color two pages a month, they won’t be taking over entirely. I can’t afford a full timer yet, but I need to free up some time so I can start working on putting the book together.
So them:you::Olivia:Sydney? =OP
If “putting the book together”:”military super hero training”.
Note to nitpickers: “Not doing anything dangerous anyway” is Sydney’s hobby, i.e. what she does on her free time. This in no way conflicts with her current day-job of mixing it up with size-changing super-hunks.
given the whole bank robbery and skuba diving thing, I don’t believe her anyway
Comparing the scuba diving with the bank robbery is like comparing oranges to apples. Sydney didn’t have anything to do with who did what to get that bank robbery started. However, her choice to scuba dive does pose some risk…Even then, she got certified for doing it as efficiently & safely as possible. What would have been dangerous would be to just strap on some tanks & go diving alone without any training.
The fight at the restaurant last night was sort of a mixture of the two situations: The ARCSwat team chose to rent the place exclusively, but they really had no choice when the villains attacked. Granted, Max was aware of the possibility that they would be attacked, just due to the public reveal earlier in that afternoon, but at least took steps to minimize public endangerment by “exclusive renting.
https://askharem.tumblr.com/ ?
Poor insecure Sydney, we love you with or without a “V” top!
with syd’s hight she would look weird with an Olivia sized chest anyway
Women come in all shapes and sizes and so do their most obvious charms why limit yourself. But I guess the it can be a blow to the ego how some sizes seem to get more attention.
It’s not always – in fact, pretty rarely – wholly positive and welcome attention. I’ll keep&treasure my A-cups, thank u.
*politely averts gaze*
We will treasure them too.
That’s understandable. A lot of guys tend to think big breasts=small brains too. A friend of mine used to complain about that. Not that she didn’t take some advantage of the attention at times.
I’ve found the opposite is generally true: the larger the breasts, the dumber the person speaking to her becomes…
Hmmm…I seem to recall a line from the second MIB movie. How does it go? Something like:
“I’ve heard that you can rule to world if you have the right set of mammaries.”
~Selena
It’s been researched…
Study: Interacting with women can impair men’s cognitive functioning
I don’t have access to the actual study but it’s mentioned in an article on the site Scientific American: Why Interacting with a Woman Can Leave Men “Cognitively Impaired”
Dang that second link is hard to read, on my screen anyhow. The text runs flush to the left side of the window. At first I was having to examine every word to see if it had been cut in half. Odd feeling, from such an otherwise professional environment.
Interesting read. And way down the end there is something very ironic, on another topic. But I will forebear mentioning it, to avoid agitating any dormant discontent.
However, rabid feminists do please take note of this article. Whilst you only lower my IQ and simply make me a less eloquent feminist, whilst I am debating with you, just think what you are doing to any regular guy!
You are turning someone who is probably indifferent, to the issue of feminism, into a low IQ indifferent person. So please make a little bit of an adjustment when judging blokes.
We do appear to think with our cocks, but only do so, at our best, if they are flaccid.
“It’s been researched…”
Let’s be open & honest about that here: Men have always been mentally befuddled by big boobs & don’t think that women haven’t noticed & taken advantage of it for a very long time…
I didn’t need any kind of “clinical study” to tell me that!
O.O
Sydney would just require the Magic 8-ball Shirt in that case…
I get that reference.
One thing I would like to mention regarding this “Wear a V top remark” (and I am a guy) is that what Sydney came out could be constituted as sexism in the workplace. She says to an attractive lady about wearing a V top to obviously show off more cleavage to a prospective employee and no one bats an eyelid, now imagine Joel says this, especially with press and cameras in earshot, he would be lynched by the feminist mob, the press to use him as a ratings item for PC in the workplace and so on. Cant have it one way and not the other.
I agree with you when talking about sexist attitudes. But not when contextualising it to sexual harassment in the workplace. You confligated the two as if they were one. The former is just a matter of political correctness and as far as I am concerned anybody in society is free to comment on the blatantly obvious. Be it males talking about females or vice vesa. Whether that treads into politically incorrect territory or not.
The latter though has very specific definitions. In that it occurs when the victim feels they are being harassed. Which would be hard in this instance. Not because it is a girl speaking, but because the issue was only raised in the context of boosting Olivia’s confidence.
Where it could be contested is if the individual claims she felt pressured into dressing in a way she felt uncomfortable with. So, for instance, it would be wholly inappropriate for Sydney to suggest that to one of these ladies. Should she choose to change her calling.
Whereas Sydney has seen first hand that Olivia is comfortable in dressing in a similar way. Ergo she is giving her member of staff an optional tactic, which she can choose to employ, if she wishes.
Of course, should Sydney (or Joel) ever complain about Olivia turning up in more modest clothing, then it ceases to be optional, and she would have reasonable grounds to raise a complaint. At which point the nuances of state law would come into play.
And her part time speed racer moments don’t count as dangerous anymore, because she is flying to work. Oh, how the life of a super hero changes things.
No, it just changes the severity of the crash…
when she drove to work, she could get into a car wreck and say 3-5 cars could pile up… ok, while Yes, that’s bad… it’s not as bad as it would be for the body count she’d rack up if she flew into an oncoming JET’S flightpath!… even a smallish turbo-prop carry’s 35+ people and crew, and if it were to be a 747… yikes! a few HUNDRED people, and that’s JUST those on the plane, that’s not counting all the people and property it would take out as it hit the ground……
its true though we do ask about what if one of the harem’s dies a lot
Now I feel bad for suggesting that she could offer a body as a snack. If she does not know if she can replace it, that would not be a good solution, even in a life-or-death scenario.
*slinks around, looking agitated and gloomy*
Worst case scenario:The Harems will suffer a mental breakdown over who is the ‘real’ one and end up going after each other in a Highlander situation. ‘There can be only one!”
Sorry O.B… there already IS only one!… what you are describing is as nonsensical as the fingers on your right hand acting on their own to cut off the fingers on your left hand without those fingers knowing it… not gonna happen… YOU are the controlling mind behind ALL your fingers and you can’t separate your mind from your fingers like that… it’s the same for Harem, she IS only one mind already, with her different bodies playing the part of your fingers… one mind controlling ALL the bodies…
now, if you had said that maybe the MIND of Harem would undergo a severe case of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) with each body taking over one of the personalities, then i would have been much more receptive to that idea, as it could plausibly* happen. instead of the multiple personalities having to “share” ONE physical body (like they do in Real Life) EACH body could have one personality all to themselves… or maybe even they rotate amongst them!
* well, just as plausible as having a world with the existence of supers being a REAL thing is!
I suggest you check out the comic Spinnerette and look for references to ‘lower lefty’.
P.S. Spinny is based in Columbus Ohio and in today’s comic is doing battle atop the Leveque Tower downtown (look up images for that, then check out the page). About ten years ago I worked in another tall building only a block away from there. If the author had managed to set up this fight back then, I could have seen it for myself.
Nope, no good. If Pac Man can’t see it, then it can’t be real! Try lucky dip instead.
it’s “Bottom Lefty”, O.B., she has six arms. ;) “lower” (at least to me) feels more of a half to go with “upper”.
I would label that theory as highly improbable rather than nonsensical as there is a condition where a person can have one hand acting apparently with a will of its own. It’s called ‘Alien hand syndrome‘.
tl;dr:
One hand acting without the user making any conscious effort or having any reason to do so. Reflex actions such as grabbing something to stop a fall does not count.
It can be limited to simple things such as touching something or someone or grabbing hold of something in passing. It can also be more complex such as your off hand autonomously picking clothes out of the closet against your will.
In extreme cases some afflicted has expressed a will to amputate the afflicted hand as they feels it’s now ‘Alien’ to them, there by giving name to the phenomena.
…which means that Harem could never get any Quickening that wasn’t her own in the first place…
You realize since Harem is into new experiences sooner or later she might become curious about near death experiences…. This could lead to her experimenting with the thought especially since it keeps coming up, and maybe even getting hooked on the rush there in if it doesn’t actually kill her and she can revitalize her copies. Keep in mind though that in cases where you have someone who can make copies on themselves if the original dies it does kill off all the others. So she may be able to survive the death of one of her copies but the original dying would kill them all as it would be the “Main Brain”
it has already bean established that each is a separate brain. i would be more concerned with the potenchel of going in to an extreme for of shock from experiencing death
What? No, it hasn’t. Their minds are quantum entangled into one. Thus the chain reactions of, say, pain. Harem’s already said: “There is no this one or that one. There is only one of me.”
its 5 separate brains one mind https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1302
I am with l0wten on the argument up until this point. But those very quantum entangled brains are the problem. Just not through the pain transmission side. Rather the fact that quantum entanglement requires that what happens to one also happens to the others.
Put a bullet through one brain and they will all physically react in the same way. Resulting in having their grey matter splattered around. Even though only one will have metal passing through, or being embedded in, it.
On one extreme it might be that, if any body dies then (no matter the cause of death) the brain will also die. From lack of oxygen, if nothing else. And that could affect all the other brains.
However, these are super powers, so such strict interpretations need not apply. So if one body dies, though damage to the heart, for example, the super power may reflexively cut the quantum entanglement, before the subsequent brain death, precisely to avoid that.
And, possibly, a similar mechanism might kick in for the bullet in the brain scenario too. Although that is harder to visualise, in practical terms. How could she detect a cut off point between the normal day-to-day shocks we all get to the brain (say from coming to a sudden stop, or being punched). Versus an injury that will (but has not yet) result in death?
But, if we accept the hypothesis that Harem’s ability, to tell if an arrival point is safe, is in fact due to ESP (in the sense of glimpsing a moment into the future) then such becomes plausible. She could sense that a brain is about to die, and sever the link.
Well maybe. So far quantum entangling seems to only effect the quantum spin of a particle but also so far they’ve only been able to entangle single particles not whole atoms or molecules.
It could also go the opposite way, too. If one brain were to be stuck in a ‘dead’ body (no oxygen, no bloodflow), then wouldn’t the Oxygenation of the other brains also mean that the ‘dead’ brain is still being oxygenized?
It’s possible that her brain has a form of invulnurability due to that- it can only be damaged if the same exact thing happens to all at once, or only takes 1/5 of the damage, or whatever.
From what I gather of what Dave’s said about “5 brains, 1 mind,” I don’t think any physical damage would affect any of her bodies or brains that don’t actually take damage…but the “crossover effect” would be entirely psychological, not pathological.
In the big battle one Harem got a broken wrist. It was felt by the others but they were not injured by it.
Basically, I thought that’s what I just said.
;)
As I’ve said, a good example is 5 computer terminals linked into a single supercomputer, with each terminal sending data to and receiving data from every OTHER terminal instantiously.
Mmm. There is a flaw. Unless you are proposing that the mind can operate independently of the brain (which is not an unreasonable analogy, but depends more on theology or philosophy than computing). Unless Harem does actually have a big super brain sitting in a vat somewhere.
The much closer analogy is five quantum processor PCs linked up. She does have five brains. And each of those are the units doing the processing.
Not that she need be limited to the equivalent processing power of one PC (which would be the case if they all only did identical things in each mundane CPU). Because these PCs can use quantum tricks.
So my modifier to your analogy means that she creates the equivalent of your supercomputer, but only by emulating it with quantum processing techniques. So it works well for visualising how one mind controls the five units. But it still means that damaging one of those units will cause a problem for the network.
As a super soldier for Archon, Harem is going to get plenty of near-death opportunities. She’ll get over that kick really fast, if she ever has it.
Or to be more precise, she’s going to get plenty of it and only ever face the possibility of doing some crazy things herself if she’s ever fired or retired or something
It was 5 minutes longer than Maxima would have liked.
Oh god. Incredibly evil thought… Maxima and Joel }:D
I don’t think he could handle it. The stress and the “Why is she with HIM!” would be worse than dealing with Sydney.
Hence evil
So, sydney doesn’t like licking doorknobs like her creator? :O
See? Sydney isn’t even gone and Joel is upset. Which he has every right to be. Sydney just obligated the store to pay a new employee without bothering to discuss it with Joel. As co-owner he shouldn’t have to put up with things like that. Sydney might be legitimately upset if Joel suddenly decided to stock Games Workshop products* and placed a huge order without bothering to tell her, right?
* Feel free to replace the GW example with any other. Bonus points if it’s something Sydney really despises.
in all fairness he has already agreed that they need to higher someone https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1669
and he would be well within his rights to fire her if she dusent work out plus Sydney just got the store a few hundred millions worth of advertising. plus just the money made from autographs today looks like it would cover her first few weeks of pay.
add to that sydney can take a pay cut equal to the cost of her health care and not even notise it with archon picking up the tab.
Not to mention she will also be paid to work for Archon.
well i thought that went without saying
.
Nice! A truly appropriate comment to the previous statement.
Thumbs up
l0wten took the words right out of Dr. Revenge’s mouth. First time I’ve seen him rendered utterly speechless.
…A day worthy of marking on the calendar…
:)
?
I am never speechless.
I just wait till the time is right.
Like any good sniper.
Or any good ninja…
Granted.
Or lawyer.
Nah, a lawyer is quite verbose. A Mafioso Godfather may make you an offer you can’t refuse, but a lawyer will make an offer you can’t understand.
A true Lawyer (an invention by Satan the lord of lies) will wait till you are at your most desperate to offer help at 40% of course.
Sure, Sydney will have a second income. And sure, Archon is now paying for her health insurance.
But since when does that mean that she should have to take a pay cut to match the money she is paying out of pocket, completely unconnected with the store, for her health insurance, just because someone else is now paying for it for her?
She and Joel should negotiate something around her new half-day schedule, but since it is her absence which is requiring the hiring of additional help their salary and any benefits should be included in that negotiation.
there was no should this is a hypothetical brake down of points if the books require rebalencing after hiring someone. if anything most of us would say she deserves a pay raise for the millions in advertising she was able to generate (note millions is based on paying for air time not expected revenue)
In all fairness “I suppose” isn’t exactly agreement. Nor does it mean “And you can feel free to hire someone without consulting with me.”
Why you no like eye candy, Joel?
Man up, Joel. This is what happens when you miss important staff meetings. ;)
And he did just walk out on her when the shop was full of press, fans and maybe even customers. I worked retail and the least you can do is wait for a lull in the crowd.
You’ve got things way backwards. He only left because Sydney informed him at the very last minute that she was going to leave for the rest of the day. He wanted to get lunch before she left and had to go immediately in order to facilitate her absence. His actions are not only completely fair, but he is basically bending over backwards to accommodate her.
She isn’t his employee, but there is a certain amount of respect which should accompany co-ownership, and a no-notice announcement of a radical change in work schedules isn’t terribly respectful.
Still I have been in his shoes and yet I waited till the crowd thinned out a bit. Now it might be they only have one register and that he couldn’t help her anyway but she is the reason for the sudden influx of cash. And she did spend most of last night trashing supervillians. A little leeway is in order.
You’re still not getting it. She’s leaving at noon! He needs lunch and to make the bank deposit! There’s not going to be a lull on “new comic day”… Even in normal circumstances. As it is, he’s likely not getting dinner until after closing.
I just hope the comics were early, the shelves are already stocked, and the regulars holds pulled. if this isn’t already done, and it’s now past noon… Joel is gonna have a really bad day…
Yea, Joel is having a tough day. But Olivia did reveal, in her rather hasty interview, that she is already experienced in a shop environment. So her training is not going to be as bad as grabbing a random person off the street.
Plus she only works mornings. And looks like she is up for helping out right now, given how she is going along with the training.
So, hopefully, Joel’s afternoon is going to be a lot easier. If Olivia settles in fast, and the crowds thin after the heroes go, he can even contemplate making that bank run. Which he could no even think of doing without the hiring.
So his day did just get better, after all. It is gonna be a tough one, none the less. But when he goes to bed tonight, it will not be with that sinking feeling, in the pit of the stomach due to worrying “will I be lining up at the Soup Kitchen queue in a few months’ time?”
They have taken enough just today to guarantee that will not happen. And the publicity alone, that Sydney has earnt, will secure their joint incomes for the foreseeable future. So, tough day or not, it will be a very good day, even for Joel.
“I just hope the comics were early, the shelves are already stocked, and the regulars holds pulled.”
That would have to have been accomplished yesterday…Sydney was late getting into work this morning. Fat chance it would have been all done before opening today.
8-/
Okay let me explain. One bad day should not mean Sydney is persona non grata. I worked in a small retail store for 15 years. Regardless of how bad or good a fellow employee acts you should treat them with respect. It’s about YOU not them. Obviously this is not a Typical Day for Sydney. I’m sure she’s been there every other time he needed her. Yes it’s a problem for him to deal with but I’m sure there were times in the past she bailed him out. No one is perfect. And Yes there are lulls in the busiest days. Other people eat lunch or work or whatever it might be short but there are always lulls it’s the chaos theory at it’s best. So yes Sydney is dumping a lot on him but that is part of working with people eventually you have to deal with that sort of thing. And you will probably do it to them. It happens.
Nicely said Gamesman.
Heh. I appreciate both sides of the thread to date. Trouble is, although Sydney has a heck of a lot of mitigating circumstances, she is the one who is, ultimately, at fault.
Sadly she has let down both Maxima and Joel, by loosing track of the time (or not appreciating that “midday” is polite for “12:00 at the very latest”). So he is justifiable in being surprised or even angry.
But, they did indeed just agree on the solution to it, and time is critical. When viewed in those terms, she is simply being very efficient in implementing their joint decision so fast. Therefore hopefully this is just him venting because of the lack of decorum in consulting him on the actual choice.
However, if they do not have an agreement, already in place, on their hiring and firing policy, then he just needs to man up on this one. A decision needed to be made on the spot, and Sydney was the command officer on duty at the time. Her call. Move on to the next crisis.
>“midday” is polite for “12:00 at the very latest”
News to me. I hear, “midday”, I think 1-3 PM. Nine to noon is morning.
Civilian. How about trying that theory on this guy?
Mind you Maxima was already trying to speak civilian, as Sydney is an untrained recruit. So how about looking at it this way. If there was a local law preventing loud noises after midnight, would you be happy having your neighbours disturbing you at 3:00 am? Or would you be phoning up the cops at 00:01 am?*
Which is why I’d say 12 noon rather than midday. The former leaves a lot less room for differing interpretations.
I’m thinking Max will be lenient on the time lapse, considering that this is the first morning after some of the biggest events in history and Sydney was in the middle of it. It would be unreasonable to expect everything to run like clockwork. More like nothing would.
“…thinking Max will be lenient…
I’d think that’s pretty likely. After all, military level discipline takes time to be trained into someone & Sydney hasn’t had any yet.
Agreed. Maxima is not going to be harsh about it. Peggy has already made her aware of the issue, and they are clearly accommodating Sydney doing the hiring. You can be sure that Maxima has been appraised of what is going on.
If Sydney starts getting distracted and drifting off at a tangent, rather than winding things up as swiftly as possible though, that might get Harem poking her back on course.
The main mitigatory that Halo has is that recruits are normally given weeks to set their affairs in order. She is just having to fast-track getting it started, but gets the advantage that she can carry on in the morning. So she is getting slack because of that. And possibly nothing more will be said about being late today.
But you can bet, one way or another, they will not want her making a habit of this. Although Maxima may find an unconventional way of getting the point across to Sydney, if she does not get it of her own accord.
well sincerely joel be glad she hired a beautiful lady to work with you…not a psycho freak or something hehe
Technically those are not mutually exclusive..
I’m pretty sure they’re actually linked in some manner. At least, the ones I’ve come across..
well there is the fact that ‘beautiful’ people tend to get away with more in our sociality’s that could lead to more excessive behaver being reinforced
I have a friend who pretty much equates “beautiful” to “psycho freak”. Given that she feels most tend to go down the route of being pampered and expecting everything to go their way. And freaking out when it does not.
Well it also depends if Joel actually likes working with a beautiful women. For all we know he might have preferred Tony working there.
i dont know he has bean playing Sydney strait man for a wile now
We have had no hint as to his preferences. Or his libido, for that matter – he may not even be particularly interested. We can assume that he has no family at home or else he would have been unlikely to get through the routine he described (when explaining how he knew nothing about Archon or the press conference).
If he was particularly keen, you might have expected it to have involved hanging out at a bar or a singles club, for instance.
But one thing we can tell is that he is not interested in Tony. However no inferences should be made from that alone. He may just be respecting that Sydney has claimed the guy. Or he might know that Tony is straight. Or he might not fancy Tony. Or he may be a heterosexual and not swing that way.
Whatever the reason though, he showed not the slightest interest in the guy.
so i gotta ask when is the cast page going to be updated?
Whenevah. Err that being the technical date.
If you check DaveB‘s blog, you can tell that he has been working at capacity. And earlier blogs will reveal that includes a lot of late nights. Given that results in continual improvement in the quality of the comic it is all good. Provided he avoids keeling over from stress, of course!
But it does also reveal that he will be freeing up some time for some other things, due to hiring a colourist part-time. And he has check list of things, such as changing the early art insignia (and/or dialogue) so that their ranks match what he has finally settled on.
However there are a lot of priorities he will have to be juggling. Such as possible merchandising (like T-shirt), the massive work involved in converting the comic to make it suitable for publishing in book form, and so on.
Doubtless the cast details are on the ‘to do list’, but I doubt it is particularly high priority.
As a general reminder, to the more affluent readers, if y’all do have some spare cash sloshing around, please don’t forget about the Patreon scheme that Dave operates under. If you can help out to increase the funding of the comic, then Dave can afford to take on the colourist full time.
Which will speed the process of us seeing extras. That would, in turn, doubtless also bring forward the time that Dave could start the work on the book. Although that will be specifically funded by a separate Kickstarter campaign, he will need to find the time to get that all set up.
In addition to the karmic, and more tangible rewards, it would earn the appreciation of all us broke readers, who lack the means.
Some Minutes gone and the reporters found another superhero that maybe is more cooperative or cheaper than Sydney and Sydney found a reserve Sydney for the shop.
she also can probably answer some of the questions that they just payed Sydney to ask
she defiantly knows the answer to two of them as one was about her dating habits and anther was on her dating habits
Ahh, if there are no other party members present, then Sydney’s initiative check alawys succeeds. While Olivia is not an npc, she was not yet part of the Comic store Staff raiding party.
Sydney will now use her fly spell to elude the Grumpy Co-Owner and the Evil Press Spawns.
Panel 3, harem’s collar is white for some reason.
Whoops.
So do you have a big giant list of all those little “go back and fix them later” things that you now have to go through now that you’re making a book?
Personally I thought all the Harems had different flavoured collars.
If any of the Harems have different “flavors,” it’s probably due to her “customizing” jobs with each of her bodies. Figuratively speaking, Harem is like a “full buffet” all by herself.
Mmmm ….Harem Buffett. Yorp can you bring the BBQ sauce?
I think I will skip thanks. She really is not to my taste. The morals leave a bitter after-taste, sadly. But knock yourself out, if she lets you catch her.
*throws over the BBQ sauce*
Discussed in Panel 1: a pretty similar situation to this. Granted, in my example, she doesn’t actually work for the comic shop, but…
ah back when egs was all zainy fun
We all get older and a little more staid. Sad, but true.
We may have to grow old, but growing up is optional.
“Back when EGS was all zany fun”? Painted Black, one of the most serious parts of the comic, was quite an early storyline, y’know.
“Ducktales! Woo Ooh!”
Sorry, drifted a bit off topic. I just love the mental imagery of their smiles (and the juxtaposed frown) which accompany that.
And no zany fun? There is a girl who can have endless fun virtually tousling peoples’ hair or similarly possessing them and making them do whatever she wants. All without actually interfering with or harming them, in any way.
it was still no were near as serous as that same story would be now
Ahem…
proves my point first panel references a joke about coffee
your fun fact does mean he changed shoes since he’s shown with black/brown shoes in page #298
I’d never have noticed if it wasn’t pointed out though.
you obviously didn’t actually understand what you read in Dave’s Fun Fact about Joel…
he says he forgot to color the shoes previously, and we see the CARPET showing through instead of the actual RED of the shoe…
Dave’s blog implies that he is running with the error as it makes no difference. What Robin was doing is pointing out that this makes a continuity error. In that the shades do not match between the two comics.
However, I get the impression* that is simply because exactly the same thing is happening in that comic. As such, the difference in shades are just down to the fact that the carpet looks different in each scene.
Given that in one he is by the door, in good illumination, and in the other he is standing in shadow, behind the counter, that does make sense. This can be rationalised by saying Joel chose the carpet for the store, and accordingly, it fell in line with his tastes.
Or Sydney did, and the shoes were a gift she gave him. :-)
* I do not pretend to have a good eye for the nuances of shade. And this could just be an optical illusion I am suffering from anyhow.
While morbid I always did wonder what would happen if “a Harem” died. Rather then ask about it why not a discussion of what we think would happen? (Without getting too dark I hope. )
I think she would live, but minus a part of her, sort of like losing a limb (only in an extreme way.) Her powers do sound like something that could be “explained” using the quantum buzzword though, and if all bodies are differing instances of the same matter it could also be a “one and done” thing. Admittedly I would love to hear someone more science like voice their own thoughts.
Surely I’m not the only one to have had the late bronze/early silver age “Legion of super heroes” (from either the 30th or the 31st century) inflicted apon them?
Triplicate girl could split into 3 identical forms, and then one of them got killed by a rogue computer (a VERY rare event in those days of strict comic code), and she was down to 2 forms and subsequently renamed herself “Duplicate Damsel”. I’d imagine the same would be true for Harem, unless she managed to “unteleport” (to use her term) in time.
Duo Damsel, but otherwise quite correct. It wasn’t until the late 1990’s early 2000’s that DC dealt with the psychological consequences of that “death.” Brainiac 5 had just defeated Computo, yet again, but this time managed to imprison him into the Legion Clubhouse, reprogrammed as the resident AI. At the same time he managed to blow up said clubhouse and reconstruct it as a bigger, improved version in the same action (don’t ask me how). Anyway Duo Damsel went through a lot of pain and soul searching as she finally confronted the death of her duplicate.
From what we’ve been explained in past comics it likely wouldn’t kill all of hers, she’s doesn’t exactly fit into how quantum entanglement works. Its close enough for good speculative science fiction (super hero power). Here is some Science QA. In comic context she’d “feel” all of the things that go along with death across her other selves. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced any form of physiological issue (and hope have not/will not), but it would be an experience that would be seriously terrifying.
I would suspect she’d even fully pass out in symptomatic response.
I’d speculate that no-one really knows how the consciousness Harem really works, and that saying her brain(s) are quantum entangled is a way to describe what they think might be going on. Those who just watches the news now and then will probably have heard about quantum entanglement and knows that it does very funky sciency stuff to particles on a level that scientists have a hard time understanding. And that fine with most people.
Mention quantum mechanics and the large majority either go slack jawed or starts mumbling about God not playing dice. The former will accept the description and go on with their lives while the later won’t believe anything they can’t see, and a recurring theme with superpowers are they the mechanics behind them tends to be incredibly hard to study.
Those who knows just enough to realize that quantum entanglement doesn’t seem it could be the whole explanation will be discussing this on various web sites, guessing and coming up with wild theories of their own as well as conducting flame wars defending and attacking conflicting theories. This lot is mostly harmless as they’re just in it for the fun.
A small minority will latch on to the fact that the term doesn’t seem to fit and see that as evidence of a big conspiracy, probably set up by the lizard people that secretly has subverted the Illuminati…
no, no no… it’s the Hairdressers that are controlling the Illuminati via Mind -Control Lasers in Orbit… Not the Vrill.
So the convenience store clerks want you to think.
And that’s how the Evil Squirrel Overlord likes it.
we siblings to the wind need to co-ordinate conspiracy theories that distract from our control of the world better, some of them are just redunculise. I mean illuminati, really, and mind control lasers in orbit, maybe sonic modules in all common electronics, but that’s just a bad joke started around the time of the Apollo missions.
Which was a distraction from the truth of a secret that should be kept secret.l
The “fact” that this thread is essentially turning “conspiracy theory” into “conspiracy parody” is just another tactic they use against us…
Or is it?
Every time I see a conversation going this way it reminds me of a Mel Gibson movie. One where he played a paranoid conspiracy nut, signed up to every hair-brained theory going. Then, one day, some seriously powerful organisation starts to covertly try to kill him!
He quickly figures out that it must be because one of his theories is actually true. The beautiful irony being that he has so many, that there is no clue which is the real one! An absolutely awesome movie premise.
All the people asking “what happens if a Harem dies” are asking the wrong question. The question to ask is “what happens if a Harem dies and it’s the only one manifested at the time?”
Because, sure, it might be rough to feel your other self die, but that’s got to be nothing compared to being in permanent limbo because there’s no living portion to summon you back out. It might be just as much a true death as that suffered by any other person who doesn’t have 5 separate portions of themselves. Or it might be possible for some tech/magic/whatever to draw them out of Harem limbo, because death is almost never permanent in the comic books.
Or maybe they are only staying in Limbo because the power is actively keeping them there? Without the external body keeping them pushed out of the time/space continuum, they simply return to their natural place.
Whether that be the place they were stored from, or the deep lava pit that the crispy fried body is in, would remain to be seen. Although, even in the latter case, her safe-teleport ESP should allow her to reappear in a clear spot nearby.
If I was a publicly know Super with clearly known public powers I’d just keep a set of business cards with a Web address linking to some website or other. I’d actually keep two sets, one for people who were polite (they get the nice site) and one for people who seemed rude or evil (this would redirect to a video of “Never Gonna Give You Up”).
Hah hah, that’s a good idea.
God bless this idea.
Heh. I like it. I would refine it though. Make them identacle sites. That way the bad uns will be occupied irritating other trolls, without it being readily drawn to their attention they were on the evil site.
Though with the evil ones, the tentacle sites might give them ideas, or leak to the press that a certain public super has “interesting habits”.
Hey, if a super wants to cross-dress as a nun, that is a personal lifestyle choice, which is not merit worthy of press intrusion.
Dammit! I forgot to give the BBC a good slapping for a point they slipped down on. They did a piece on how some celebrities are now resorting to extreme measures, to conceal their identity from the paparazzi. Which is all perfectly fine.
Up until they then decided to mention one celebrity by name, and say that she has taken to walking out of venues backwards. And, to top it all off, including a photo.
No, no. Bad BBC! If that is not a cry for privacy, what is?
And bad me, for not giving them a good kicking on the spot. Way too late, now though. *sigh*
How would that work out financially? I assume as co-owners Joel and Sydney get even parts of what’s left after expenditures. Hiring Olivia is an expenditure, but it’s only necessary because Sydney hasn’t much time left anymore, so she should get less out of it. It’s probably fine for her because she gets paid by Archon (and health insurance). Now the increased traffic is only because Sydney is there. People will go there to meet her, not Olivia or Joel. If she’s at Archon no help is needed. Joel’s anger is quite understandable.
it may only be necessary because Sydney hasn’t much time left any more but you also need to account for the extra money from the advertising Sydney brings in. pluse the new free product that sydney provides with $50 autographs (though i suspect they will be replaced with a stack of glossy’s before to long)
It’s more of a $50 markup on already existing item prices that come with an autograph.
she was also sinning paper https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1675
Living in sin with paper? Bad Sydney!
What ios she rally trying to write there?
O.oi
I knew the pun would be irresistible to us.
*sticks paper charms, with wards against evil spells and spirits, written on them, on MidnightDStroyer and l0wten‘s foreheads.*
hey it wasent an evil spirit it was a typo demon
They are nice folks so will probably just let things carry on with their existing arrangement. Presumably giving each a 50/50 split of the profits (assuming they both invested equally in the company or otherwise felt that was equitable). Although they might also draw a base salary, before doing that. Which would be especially true if Joel was a trained, experienced manager, say, and Sydney was not.
The other alternative is that Joel will need to start paying Sydney tens of thousands of dollars per day (minimum) extra over and above their previous deal. This being her “A-list” celebrity appearance fee. Obviously this will be slightly offset by her having her base salary (for being a manager/worker in the shop) reduced to account for her only working a half day.
I suspect that Joel will not wish to quibble too much on the point, once he thinks about it. He will get a much better deal by letting things stand, rather than arguing the toss.
I love how Olivia is pretty much: Sure, why not. To just randomly switching jobs without warning.
yh but she is only slinging coffee its a dead end job with no fucher. i doubt she intended to keep it for to long anyway. ow the work at the comic shop may appear to be the same however she has the chance to get a reference for later in life from what will be a very well-known public figure.
I’m sorry but that unbelievable mangling of “future” is hurting my brain.
Better get used to it. l0wten is dislecxiyk, but does argue points eloquently despite that. And I concur with the points made. Plus add that Olivia has just gotten into comics, so may well find this job much more enjoyable.
In quiet moments, she will be able to catch up on what she has been missing all these years. Olivia will get a staff discount, for her and her brother.* And she may well come to enjoy arguing super hero points with the customers.
Before long, she may be converted into a fully accredited nerd, and love the lifestyle!
* Sydney will have already factored this into her offer. Olivia will not need to hide doing this. It would only discourage him from coming to the store in person, if he had to place his orders with Olivia. And that would reduce the chances of him making impulse purchases. Sydney and Tony will just consider it to be a ‘dedicated customer’ discount and go with the flow.
Also, if the business keeps being successful, they might expand, hire more people, and promote Olivia as their first employee with the most experience. This is not nearly as much of a dead end.
Franchise. Arianna would be proud. :)
And there are always two.
Indeed, Olivia might wind up being the Personnel Manager once there’s enough business to warrant having someone specifically in charge of hiring & firing. If there’s eventually enough business to justify expansion into multiple stores, or even a franchise, they’ll need someone for that position.
There seems to be something odd about comment timestamps, namely that they are timed several hours before the page exists. I have 2 theories:
1) The most unlikely, and only here because modern technology can develop some weird glitches, there is an inexplicable delay between the posting of the page and it appearing in my region. Again, this is almost impossible, but the universe, and especially the internet, is a strange place.
2) Comments are timestamped according to the host server’s timezone and do not autoconvert when viewed from other timezones, possibly due to it being an almost totally useless piece of information good for nothing more than monitoring when a random collection of nerds happen to think of something they want to share here.
Neither of these is even close to a mild inconvenience, I’m just curious to find out which it is; this comment’s primary (and sole) purpose is to confirm or deny theory 2.
Aaand its reason 2: 7 hour time difference.
Got to love science.
If Harem just suddenly was able to generate all five separate bodies, then one body dying would probably reduce her by 1/5th, plus it would be very traumatic physically and psychologically.
HOWEVER:
If Harem has been able to add duplicates as the years have gone by, there is a strong probability that she will be able to continue doing so, until she passes her prime and then the number of duplicates should begin to reduce as her aging body can no longer sustain the strain. In this case, a duplicate’s death would be less traumatic (but still damned icky), and there remains the probability that she would be reduced by 1/5th until she had strengthened her duplicate ability in order to generate a sixth duplicate, at which time she could be considered to be back to where she was with her original 5 personalities.
Are you bulletproof if you’re shot 57 times?
Hard to answer that question unless it actually happens. I mean… sure, other people who have been shot 57 times die horribly usually, but maybe you’re different! :)
But Pander, I’ve been cut before, and I bled, so surely a bullet would kill me!
Now now, wait a minute, maybe you have invulnerability based upon the speed of an oncoming impact at bullet-speeds! TEST IT!
Sorta the same thing with people asking ‘what happens if one of your bodies die’ – the only way to find out would be for it to actually happen, and a person would have to be crazy to try to test something like that out :)
PS – I’m not actually threatening your life, Town Crier – please don’t call the police or FBI on me.
Don’t worry Pander, from what I understand the NSA/FBI/CIA all watch all of you regardless if you threaten someone :D ……..for your own “safety” of course!
Don’t need to call them, they had already texted a threat assessment, to me, before you had hit [Submit Comment]. I mostly delete before reading, otherwise I would never get any lolly-gagging done.
I’d conjecture that you’re bullet proof after the actual moment of death, regardless of the number of bullets. YOU would be bullet proof, even if the body you’ve just vacated isn’t.
The only real exception I see to this is that the death has to occur quickly. If she has enough time to un-summon that body it wouldn’t die. Re-summoning it with trained medical staff ready to operate immediately, providing she doesn’t re-create it without wounds, would give her a decent chance of surviving.
Combined with their healing power doctor that would make her able to survive anything short of having a brain destroyed.
An assumption based on an unknown. The doctor at Archon was said to have “healing powers” but that can mean just about anything.
What we do know is that she was able to fix Sydneys eye, but it took several hours at the least before she could take off the eye patch.
That means her “healing powers” can be anything from ordinary medical training and that getting Unmaker in your eye just requires having it flushed clean and letting it rest for a while, or the doctor does have SuperPower level healing capabilities and could have regenerated the eyeball instantaneously but chose to conserve power and just caused it to heal over a few hours.
Both are a possibility as is anything between, and I’m not anxious to initiate any experimenting to discover the limits of her powers.
I’m fairly certain DaveB stated earlier that the healing power of the doctor is to simply accelerate the natural healing rate. He said this when Heatwave was stabbed in the foot: “She’s gonna lose that toe.”
Joel and Sydney! Such wacky hijinks! They’re like the brain and the heart. Anyone else read that webcomic?
I’ve read Freefall. Does that count?
For a second I thought you were going to say the Brain and Pinky.
Under Harem’s health care policy, does she count as her own next of kin?
And Daphne, it is a little hard to get people to value your thoughts on serious subjects when you are standing there in a crop top duck T-shirt.
He he. I guess she could. Boy Arianna must have had fun negotiating that particular clause with the insurance company!
Of course, it would also need to specify a next next of kin. Just in case of a TPK.
On the subject of Harem’s death, is it theoretically possible for her to unteleport all 5 of herself? There’s probably some survival mechanism stopping it from happening, like the gasp reflex, but a sufficiently skilled mind-controller might be able to pull it off.
Which brings up another question: How would telepathy/mind control work on someone whose mind is tethered to 5 separate corporeal bodies?
At a guess, one body would remain physical. That’s only a guess though.
This leads to some interesting questions:
Which one was the original?
The others appeared in what sequence and under what circumstances?
Was she young enough the first time that her parents discovered their daughter’s imaginary playmate was actually another of their daughter?
Umm, Dave, if the last one actually works for story, feel free to use it…
She is the only one who has no tatoos. Although she does vary her outfits. On the previous page, she was the one appearing in the selfie, with the cowgirl hat and double entendre t-shirt. I know her by the name ‘Harem’ (until or unless the Who’s Who gets updated to help me remember).
I had envisaged Harem’s first use to be quite kinky. But DaveB disillusioned that when he revealed that her first power usage was about thirteen* (from memory, young girl anyhow). She gradually gained more bodies over the years. Possibly she may get another, possibly not. It has not yet been revealed why she is at a five body limit.
Assuming that I am right in remembering thirteen, that does seem to fit the possible age bracket albeit less common than with younger children, so it could well have played out that way.
And I would absolutely love it if it did. Not that it would last too long, given that she could walk or teleport into the room to dispel the illusion. But those moments would be precious.
Mind you, I do love running with imaginative ideas, and seeing where they lead me. So thank you for suggesting the idea, even if Dave does not run with it,** as I did find it inspiring.
In this case, it may be that as an even younger girl, she actually did have an imaginary friend. And had to put up with the usual stick for it. Only in this world, such things need not be imaginary! Doubtless her early-onset-invisible super friend will have sworn her to secrecy, so it would have infuriated her not to be able to just throw a blanket over her and prove her existence.
So she may well have been amused when, years later, others assumed that this latest incarnation was just more of the same. Possibly playing along with it for the laughs. But doubtless revelling in eventually revealing her dual (or possibly by then multiple) nature.
* Not that thirteen year old girls can’t be kinky, it is the envisaging which he disillusioned.
** Although who knows either your idea (or my variant) might actually be close to what he has already envisaged.
Or… possibly Harem did have a normal invisible friend when younger. Or at age thirteen would have developed one. But the yearning to have a friend was what actually drove her super power to manifest. Although it stems from teleportation, it may have actually been the act of creating a duplicate which first manifested the power.
That could well contradict what DaveB may have said before though. Use of brain bleach in that part of my brain has made the memories all a bit fuzzy there.
Sometimes, a teenager can be one of the most lonely of age-brackets…
(sadface)
Loneliness can even strike when surrounded by friends.
She can unteleport extra bodies to be able to teleport more weight. If she unteleported all but one body can that final body still teleport? If so it would cease to exist for a moment during the teleport.
yes it can vorp the issue is can someone get her to not reform/arrive somewhere for a longer period.
C’mon Joel. You should now by now that that was 10 minutes too long!
He was entirely unsurprised by her joining a superhero team, followed by a superhero brawl, all within the span of less than 24 hours. Hire his cousister in under 10 minutes, though? Somehow THAT crosses the line!
…I wonder if it’s because he now has to pay his cousister to do stuff.
Wrong guy. Joel is simply Sydney’s friend, and has no relation to Olivia. Tony is her brousin.
“by the end of the week [ Harem will ] have a shirt printed with a bulleted list of answers to the most common [ questions ]”
You realize, of course, that Ariana could make a fortune selling T-shirts like these for every member of her team, and simultaneously conduct a sweeping, viral PR campaign by getting millions of people to actually wear the
propaganda,,,,uhhrrrrm, information she needs to get out to the public ubiquitously throughout the world.She could GIVE away the first million to the first 1,000,000 people to register at their website and recoup the entire investment the following week with purchases beyond the first million. Plus harvesting all that sweet, sweet consumer data for the instant fanclub.
Nothing like Archon hosting the main, official forums in which people discuss & speculate upon their favorite superpowered heroes, superpowers in general, superpowers they observe in other people around them, their own superpowers, discuss and seek advice on identifying and using their own superpowers ….
Etc.
It looks like the custom t-shirt company has been hired and is now in full production mode:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/60
The web serial Curveball over at http://www.eviscerati.org has a male character with what sounds like a very similar power to Harem and that character just went through a death-of-self scene. I recommend starting the whole series from the beginning, it’s a really good superhero web serial, but if you really want to jump directly to what happens for that character, here it is.
I mentioned Harem to Curveball’s author (Christopher B. Wright) already.
Dude, I’m tired enough as it is. Stop trying to make me read awesome things.
So many awesome things not enough time?
Don’t you wish you were Harem now?
Stop trying to make me imagine awesome things.
Imagining awesome things is awesome.
“My God! It’s full of Awesome!”
~Paraphrased from 2001: A Space Odyssey
No it makes me wish I were Harem’s twin brother!
Bah. No imagination. If you are going to play around with the genders, then have at least one female in the mix. You would get to experience something that no human has ever done. To experience the same situation from both the male and female perspective.
And, yup, I am including transgender folk in this. They may have experienced similar situations, but there will have been a gulf of time between the two. And, even then, presumably their earlier gender would be misaligned and they would be both yearning for and associating as the opposite gender.
Whereas someone with multiple bodies need not have that problem (if they can cope with that of course, doubtless some folks and maybe even many would find the concept too shocking, and the practice too traumatic). But if you have someone who is comfortable in both genders simultaneously then it would be fascinating.
Experiencing how one body with testosterone impinging the IQ deals with a situation, when contrasted to how the oestrogen influenced body does. And that is just dealing with what lies between the ears. Let alone the changes in interacting with society.
I would probably even opt for a neuter body. A news item caught my eye, some time back, where a court had allowed a woman to be gender re-assigned to neuter. And she reported being far happier and no longer depressed. I hope that things worked out well for her.
With that many bodies to play around with though, I would very happily have one of them in such a liberated state. In fact, go for it. Sign me up for 2 male, 2 female and 1 Vulcan.
Well Vulcans did have that certain time every 7(?) years when the needle went from .1 to 1000.
:-D
Pointy ears are optional.
I actually agree with Syd, you don’t need to know anything about comics(or any product in retail for that matter) to sell it. And combining a deep vee with a rockin’ body will help sell comics.
Also, how does Sydney purchase her own health insurance on a comic store salary? The store can’t be doing that bad if she makes enough to do that!
Not a matter of how, a matter of ‘have to’. In the US you are required to have health insurance now, even if you have to pay for it out-of-pocket.
Or get subsidized in an “exchange.” GOOD LUCK getting the government site to work correctly. Three years to get it ready, and still insecure, glitchy and broken.
It’s not that bad anymore. Still not that good but not that bad.
In some states you STILL can’t get covered because they refused to expand Medicare even though it wouldn’t cost the state a dime.
Looks like Round 1 of the Mix March Madness voting went live a week ago, without us noticing!
Please VOTE NOW.
Fortunately we are allowed to vote for all our favourites. It only comes down to a tough choice if two of them happen to go head-to-head. In this round we are up against “Between Failures”.
Joel you don’t understand. Olivia had a really great interview.
I am glad to see that Joel did not make the Elton John faux pas, of carrying his lunch in a Dolce and Gabbana bag.
is that a….superbitch poster i spot in panel 1 and 3
I’d like to think Super Bitch exists in this universe as some sort of licensed super but maybe she’s just a comicbook.
Yup. But don’t all rush to look at their comic simultaneously. We don’t want to make it run slow or crash. Again.
What is the poster behind Syd and Olivia in panel 2?
There is a better look in panel 1 of https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1675
i cant quite tell but it looks familiar like a old scene from this strip?
Pretty sure that there is no panel with that scene in Grrl Power. But I can see what will be making it seem familiar. It is reminiscent of the Steak House scene, when Nose Boop jumped in through the ceiling, and we look up to see the figures beyond.
It is not that, as the characters and positions do not match. But the point of view and some elements, such as darkness beyond, do give it a similar feel.
Today at work i realised something: Syd cheated.
Well maybe not exactly.
When the comic began (a long LONG time ago) Syd was RPGing with her Group, which was actually in the future from todays point of view. That means all the crap she gave her GM about transparent forcefields not being able to deflect lasers was a smokescreen.
She already knew better!
Bad form Syd. You don´t play RPG´s like that.
Her’s has a special added perk. That perk being that her shield is transitory and appears to become opaque to block harmful light.
That depends on the particular forcefield tho. She specifically asked the DM if the forcefield would have been enough for a vampire to not get damaged; my guess is that hers yes, would protect one.
I would conjecture that a vampire in Sydney’s shield would NOT be protected from sunlight. It might if the shield (& the other orbs) belonged to the vampire, but Sydney isn’t a vampire so the shield wouldn’t block normal levels of sunlight.
Actually, Sydney declared that she was “rules-lawyering” at the RPG session. At this point Reality is put aside, and game mechanics come to the fore. And, as the GM said, “…that shit’s gonna roll both ways.” Which is a proper GM response.
Actually, in the process, Sydney has become one of the world’s foremost authorities on force fields. And she knows that they do work as she describes. Except the most powerful one known in the world. Hers. A basic force field, under the games system they are using, would not.
Which the GM appreciated. And he was pointing out that for every ruling that goes in a players favour, it can also be turned against them, under other circumstances. And GMs can manipulate the circumstances so they do come up that way. When it is most inconvenient, needless to say.
Now I kind of what to see Sydney trying to dress as a booth-babe or something similar. Not for the fanservice but because I think she could find new and hilarious ways to fail at it.
Yeppers. If the shop attends a convention and they keep to their clear staff policy of cos-play themed work outfits, then Sydney would be obliged to have a matching outfit to go with Olivia’s. And she has encouraged Olivia to go with a deep V.
“That shit cuts both ways” ;-)
Ten minutes? TEN MINUTES?! All this over Maxima being so utterly freaking insane she couldnt give Halo like, 2 minutes to wait for joel to get back with his lunch before taking off for the day? I mean, even with a half hour lunch break I thought it was a bit much, but he was literally only gone long enough to grab lunch and bring it back to the store!
Also, come on man! You are telling me that in the ten minutes he was gone, harem showed up, took a selfie with a fan and halo, passed on the “GTF OVER HERE NOW!” message, and got halo to hire someone, and even partially train her? They literally saved less than zero time here. Just dealing with the brief explanation to joel is taking more time than “Ok joel, im out, see ya tomorrow!” would have if maxima had just been less pushy about this (and harem hadnt gotten halo to try to hire someone.)
Joel may also be prone to exaggeration. People are like that, you know. Especially when dealing with a lot of stress in a short period of time, such as Joel has been doing.
What if it’s not a bug, but a feature. Joel does have a super power … just a high limited and arguably useless one … chameleon shoes…
That got half a chuckle.
COL.
But then…wouldn’t that mean that it’s a power of the shoes, not Joel? Or can Joel change the color of any shoes he wears?
??
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And it appears to be more of a transparency thing. Mmm. And it may not just be a shoes. Perhaps it is any clothing?
Man, talk about bad super powers!
“So what is your power?”
“Something that can get me arrested.”
Oh, I guess that variant only works if the foot is being made transparent too. Which is actually a useul power. But chameleon calls it better, without needing that extra bit. Mind you giving collegues chameleon clothing is actually very useful.
Less useful if it only works on shoes though. True enough.
Can we get a link to a copy of that shirt cause Pander is forcing us to look through thousands of comments looking for W.O.G. gold nuggest! OK, other people are to I just like picking on Pander for… reasons…
1) I think on the front side of the shirt should be can she teleport living matter that weighs less than her restriction?
Anybody else been looking for w.o.g. gold in the old comments need something about Harem on her shirt?
Reply with it here. Lets not make it hard for Dave to find. (I don’t really expect him to do it but he’s just crazy enough he MIGHT. So lets give him all the excuse he needs to rationalize it!)