Grrl Power #308 – Harem’s got some ‘splainin to do
This page is a little retread from one of the Dabbler’s Science Corners, but it’s the first time Sydney’s actually discussed this with Harem at length, as evidenced by the fact she didn’t even know her real name. Harem probably said it at the press conference, but Sydney was kind of fading in and out during it. Unrelated, but I am pleased that Sydney is rocking the “Imperious hands behind back” pose, but she’s still fidgeting and trying to scratch her foot through her shoe.
Harem can bring a battle rifle to her teammates, so she could obviously pilfer jewels and hard drives, USB drives, documents, even moderately large piles of cash, and there’d be nothing preventing her from making multiple trips. She’s also make a hell of an assassin, as would anyone who could wholly circumvent any detection, security, and even physical barriers. Of course she’s thought about all this stuff, anyone growing up with powers would. Many of us without those powers would. It’s almost surprising that the worst thing she gets up to (that we know about) is being a double (?) agent with Deus and the occasional prank.
Of course the problem with being able to teleport is alibi. Once it’s known you can do that, every case of something going missing from an otherwise secure location with no evidence of ingress or tampering with the security or vault, people would have trouble not considering you for the crime. Same thing with any locked door murder mystery. Unless you’ve got Johnathan Creek on hand to solve it, suspicion would naturally come your way. Really, it would be a bad idea to use any super power during the commission of a crime (ignoring the fact that it would make it an automatic felony and prompt the involvement of Archon) But if you can rip the doors off a bank vault, it’s a really bad idea to do that, because even assuming you didn’t leave your fingerprints in the steel, it still instantly winnows the lists of suspects down from 7 billion to a few hundred, tops. You can disintegrate stuff with your eyebeams? Guess who we think left this perfectly smooth hole in the side of Fort Knox, dummy.
Actually if you were a criminal with superpowers, keeping them a secret would almost be more important than if you were a hero with a secret identity – Assuming of course that you’re the kind of criminal that likes getting away with stuff and not the kind that likes to instigate brawls in parking lots. You couldn’t tell your crew about them cause they’d flip on you the minute they’re nicked, which means you couldn’t plan any heists that relied on those powers. Obviously there are exceptions. If you could telekinetically feel the position of the tumblers inside a lock, or see them with your N-Ray vision or whatever, you could get away with people just thinking you were a master safecracker, but if your powers left any physical evidence at all, you’d basically only be able to use them as a last resort.
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Actually, don’t they say that the only part of the new law that specifically targets superpowers is the part about vigilantism? I don’t remember anything in the comic about crimes with powers being an automatic felony upgrade.
I think it’s covered by the clause for “committing a crime while in possession of a firearm.”
In most states, the penalties that would normally apply to a crime increase when you commit the same crime while in possession of a firearm. This is often the case whether or not you actually use the weapon, and sometimes merely possessing it incurs the additional punishment. For example, the District of Columbia imposes up to 30 additional years in prison if you commit specified dangerous crimes while in possession of a firearm (in addition to the normal fines and prison time for the underlying crime).
Having super power could be seen as like carrying a weapon.
So any super committing just about any crime would instantly be up for felony charges?
I think even those super’s working for ARCHON would see the wisdom in getting that narrowed down to actually using said power either directly or as a threat. Otherwise they and their descendants will have to walk a very straight line and still live in fear of misunderstandings…
I think it would only be if the superpower was used in the crime.
And not every crime at that. It’s unlikely you’ll go to jail for the crime of jaywalking – whether you’re in possession of a firearm or not.
Only if is a stolen weapon, or you are in a jurisdiction where carrying said weapon is illegal, for whatever reason.
Yes, but that’s a separate offense, not an upgrade to the jay walking itself.
But you still get busted for the jaywalking
In NYC if you were jaywalking and had a pair of nun-chucks in your backpack, you would had a minimum sentence of 5 years. Don’t count on the laws to have any semblance to reason.
Well then, people should either not be jaywalking (which is a sensible thing) or not carry a weapon with you when you break the law (breaking the law, even jaywalking, gives the police cause to search you)
I need my nunchucks when I’m jaywalking in New York. It’s the only protection I have against cars and bike messengers. The police surely understand this fact.
Anything in the category of crimes that is subject to enhancement — most of which are already felonies.
I’m pretty sure this would have to be handled on a case-to-case basis. The prosecution would probably need to make an argument for why the given superpower would need to be considered the equivalent of carrying a firearm.
An obvious example would be someone like Stalwart mugging or coercing another person: super strength and toughness are clearly at least the equivalent of a firearm. If your power consist of perfect memory, then that’s a lot less relevant.
Studying law has probably gotten a lot more complex now that supers are an everyday occurrance :)
Not if you use your perfect memory to … um… count cards at a Las Vegas Casino! There! Found an example!
Oh… oh or to blackmail people, like that guy did on the BBC Sherlock show with the whole ‘Mind Temple’ thing.
Card counting is very hard to prove, and the casinos normally just kick people out and black list them if they are suspected.
Heck, even people proven to be card counting are just evicted since the question of if it counts as cheating is still in the air
While frowned upon by casinos, card counting is perfectly legal – getting booted is based on the old “we reserve the right to refuse service to anybody for any reason” rule, and revoking that individual’s invitation to enter their privately owned property.
I like your blackmailing idea though
Another example might be stealing lists of personal information for identity theft
But, then the prosecution would have to prove that they used their perfect memory ability to help with the identity theft, something that is very difficult to prove
It’s very difficult to prove someone has perfect memory if they don’t want to cooperate. They could simply pretend to forget things.
Besides card-counting becomes pretty useless after 6-8 decks used in the game. Which is standard around here. Super speed/supernaturally good reflexes with other forms of cheating on the other-hand…
I’m surprised there aren’t more instances of corrupt police carrying unloaded handguns in order to frame a criminal with exaggerated charges.
Dropping a gun to fake gun possession would be a risky trick. Guns can generally be traced and the forensics team might pull your prints off the gun.
For the cops it is safer to claim the perp grabbed their gun or taser whether or not it is true. The case in North Carolina recently looks like an example of that.
Except you can’t really say such a blanket statement, not every power is identical and certainly they can’t all be equated to having a gun and using it to facilitate a crime. It would be quite inherently unfair to give someone a far worse punishment for a crime simply for having a super-power while committing a crime or used a power to commit a crime that could be equally covered by someone not using a power. Teleporting someone’s wallet into your pocket shouldn’t get you an extra 10+ years over a standard pick-pocket if caught.
It depends on how scared normal people are of superpowers.
Being tough on “supervillainy” could get you elected in a world with superpowers. Just lump them all together and let people think you’re preventing world domination by adding ten years to a sentence just for having the ability to levitate 1 foot off the ground.
One would hope such fear wouldn’t be allowed to win out (then again the Patriot Act…), since not only would it be inherently wrong but counter-productive. It would make a super committing a crime more willing to create worse crimes since he’d know he would be getting screwed over anyway. It’d also make would-be conquerors of the world much better off in recruiting when they can point to such laws and go ‘see, you can’t depend on them to do right by you, you need to join me in taking over to save yourself from the normals’.
Which would make the normals even more resentful and fearful of supers leading to more dumb laws and restrictions, leading to more angry and disgruntled supers ripe for recruit by the real nasty ones, leading to….
In the Wildcard series of books, a man was put on trial for being an unregistered Ace (someone with powers). His power was he could change the colour of his bath water.
He said that if he counts as an Ace, he would hate to be a Duffer.
Now imagine someone with that power mugging someone without a weapon.
Loved that series, what I was able to read of it.
from my understanding, what is specifically illegal is using your powers to be a vigilante. using superpowers is not a crime in and of itself. ( so, for example, that superpowered logger implied in Ariana’s press conference? if he misjudges the way the tree is going to fall, he may or may not be up on negligence charges, but hisa superpowers don’t actually matter. ( except he may be told to knock it off- it’s actually extremely dangerous to fell a tree in one hit, since you don’t know where the tree will fall. that cut at the front of the tree isn’t because the chainsaw can’t fit through the entire tree, it’s to direct where the tree will fall.)
In the section they were talking about vigilantism was where they were talking about would be Super Heros, and they mentioned that unless they were cops, it would be vigilantism
I am pretty sure (without going back to check) that there actually wasn’t anything that was specifically directed at people with super powers. Instead it seemed to simply be emphasizing the fact that vigilantism is still illegal, even if you have powers.
And then I read a page-long legal discussion on the margin of a superhero comic :D
Enjoying the break from the action for some exposition. Thank you!
I’m curious about the ‘key parts’ part of that explanation, if there’s possibility for enough separation to create some interesting ‘splits’ if left on ‘minimal bandwidth’ for a certain period of time.
Parts of her brain are quantum entangled, which to my understanding means there’s effectively only one set of those parts and it happens to be in multiple places at once (and yes, I’m aware that every time that’s said a quantum fairy dies), so bandwidth wouldn’t be an issue. The question would be, is all of her personality contained in these parts.
Of course, if she ever takes a bullet in those parts of her brain, she’ll die, no questions asked. Anything else, the rest of her bodies should be able to keep the brain oxygenated, although how her body survives with x times as much blood being pumped into those veins is a requisite secondary power.
Point of fact, leaving jewels in a underground vault is not the same as leaving them on a desk for her. We’ve established that she can only teleport to locations she can see. Unless she has x ray vision, I’m not sure how she would teleport into a vault.
Well… she was able to teleport INTO the ambulance, when she couldnt see the inside of the ambulance (just the outside from the TV), so there’s obviously some wiggle room there
I have a feeling it works along the same lines as Apparition in Harry Potter- she needs to be able to picture where she wants to go. Ambulances are pretty similar on the inside, so she could easily have looked up the model of ambulance on Google, then pictured the ambulance with her co-workers in it.
There is some really vague “familiarity” factor she has to fulfill in order to teleport to a location. Her meat eyes, video and simply having spent time at a place all work.
As Pander says she got into an ambulance she hadn’t seen the inside off just the outside. Perhaps she is familiar enough with ambulances to fill in the blanks in her familiarity of the scene from the video and her complimentary ability to feel out places she is going for safety did the rest. I bet she can teleport onto a rooftop with her feet on the surface of that roof even if the viewing angle only lets her see the air above the roof parapet.
Sooo… *ignorance* is the best vault you can have against her. She can’t steal your jewels if she doesn’t know where you keep them. (OK that sounds weird when I read it aloud)
That said, I wonder how much more of Archon’s resources are classified for *her* when compared to any other member of her team, for exactly that reason.
@Torn Archon classifying resources for her so she can get her hands on people’s jewels? *smiles innocently*
No, so she can’t get her hand on stuff. There’s no risk in showing Achilles the vault in which the amulet of eternal youth, immortality and perfect luck is kept, because he can’t get in. Show Harem, and you might discover a paper-mache duplicate stored there next time you check.
So Harem has one mind. I understood that from get go. Question I have is more body related. Say she has had one or more bodies been doing lots of labor/physical activities. Those bodies would have muscle fatigue & lactic acid build up, thus being physically tired. How would that affect Harem as she controls her other bodies?
Guess:
If several of her bodies were tired, she would mentally perceive the fatigue several times, which would affect her concentration
But she doesn’t really need to concentrate to do several *different* things at once, and each body would have it’s own level of tiredness, so she would not usually be affected more than five different ordinary people.
So for instance, one body lifting weights would not adversely affect her ability to use a different body to shop for groceries.
However, if most of her bodies were exhausted, she might not want to drive a car (not that she would need to).
She would need to drive a car if most of her bodies were exhausted and the rested one was going to get groceries. Can’t TP with the ingredients to cook dinner for 5.
I am trying to figure out what would happen when one copy gets drunk. There is the immediate effect on the others to think about. And then what happens to her memories of the event? Will the impaired memories of the experience be lost since the affected one wasn’t able to store them in her own mind, or do the other brains act as a cloud backup memory of what she did? Does the later sober copy regain the memories she missed?
The owners of the Carbonite cloud backup company really need to hire Daphne as their spokesperson.
I haven’t quite figured out what happens when she gets drunk. The alcohol would affect the brain of the one drinking, but I think the overall affect would be that she’d only act one fifth as drunk as you’d expect, since one of her 5 processors is being underclocked. So really, the only way she could really get drunk would be if all 5 of her was drinking… or I suppose if she put 3 of her in unteleport limbo, two of her could get drunk then she could stagger the hangovers.
Staggering hangovers. comedy gold, Dave.
hangovers that make you stagger have been known to happen after stag dos
Harem would be quite welcome as the only female at my stag party…
Buck Godot, zap gun for hire.
Depends on the specific symptom of intoxication. Her decision-making skills would likely be (as you surmise) only one fifth as impaired… but her equilibrium is likely hit full force. Same with the perception issues. In short, she might move drunk, and talk drunk, but not ACT drunk.
Like a sore/exhausted muscle affects the rest of your function? You would have difficulty using that muscle and that might annoy or amuse you depending on your overall mood. In Harem’s case she would have difficulty getting that body to perform and she would loose part of the processing speed that brain could produce.
IF all the other bodies are awake and bushy tailed the affected body might still be able to answer questions and do calculations surprisingly well as far as outside observers were concerned because she could “outsource” complex thinking to more awake bodies. This wouldn’t improve her physical reflexes, visual acuity, or anything like that as the on site meat brain parts that handle such functions are not entangled according to this comic’s conversation.
So Harem might have an “overall” awakeness rating based on how many of her are fully awake to take the load form those that aren’t when it comes to problem solving, answering questions, etc… but things more about the physical, like combat, would be dependent on that actual bodies rested level.
Fingerprints in steel – Scott McCloud reference? :)
Sorry – just feelin’ my age…
…1st thing I connect to when I hear that name is a cartoon that I watched as a boy when it 1st came out:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Angel]
It could also be a reference to “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex”, an essay by Larry Niven that was published in “All the Myriad Ways”.
…it reminds me of a Lon Chaney jr. movie, “The Indestructible Man”…
I remember that film!
Typical lying Hollywood – at film’s end, the “indestructible” man is destroyed.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indestructible_Man]
I think the first time I saw it was an old Superman comic where he lost his memory, forgot he was Supes, went to work as a construction worker where he quickly discovered he was a lot stronger than a regular guy. One thing he did by accident was to fuze two i-beams together by just smushing the steel with his hand. I don’t recall if the comic mentioned him leaving his fingerprints in the steel of if I thought of it at the time.
They had it happen in Gen 13 also with Fairchild accidentally gripping steel so hard that she left fingerprints in the metal.
and antimony did it to the moon.
Not quite the same, I realise, but its what keeps running through my head :D
admitedly if I took a pair of sneakers to the moon you could see the manufacturer’s mark on the ground a million years from now unless a meteorite hit the area
…Or a meteorite hit close enough nearby to cover it with dust it flung out…
hence “area” =P
I was thinking of Gargoyles.
Gargoyles is less ‘fingerprint indentations in steel’ and more ‘clawing the steel and masonry’
I need a Dabbler explanation of how Sidney’s hair never falls when she is flowing upside down. XD maybe it’s just a side effect of her flight orb, it not only let’s you fly but keeps you looking stylish.
Well… if the flight orb negates gravity, it would prevent stuff like her hair flopping upside-down or her clothes doing that.
I think the going theory is that it manipulates Gravity, thus when she flies/spins she deceits where her down is.
I think the theory is that it makes every cell in her body fly at the same time so her hair won’t flop and the blood won’t rush to her head.
…and so that veering sharply at high speed won’t kill her?
Yep since it would move her brain at the same speed as her skull and her blood so no concussion or blackouts.
The currently running therory is that the flight orb basically lets Sydney control how gravity effects her. Or it was mine until she started doing a Magneto in her flying.
Everbody is talking about Harem’s powers, Sydney’s hair, and all I want to say is:
I absolutely love that you have the tracer lights of the orbs twirling, indicating that they’re orbiting in a static plane around Sydney’s head. You may have mentioned, once or twice, that they spin around her head but that’s not something you can easily picture while she’s relatively motionless herself. Given the paths the orbs seem to take, it’s obvious that they have some motion to them.
It’s a small but awesome detail that I applaud you for incorporating. Kudos!
I noticed :) Awesome indeed.
the page where she’s flying with Maxima have them as well just not as visible.
Panel 1+2 : Sidney practicing Darkseid pose?
suits her fine. :)
I’ve got to disagree with your Supervillain secret ID theory. Stupid criminals never think about what will happen if they get caught. “Smart” criminals think they won’t get caught, for example Dread Pirate Roberts. Either way, they’ll be using their powers.
Now, if/when they get out of super-jail they might give a little more thought to covering their tracks, but probably not.
And the really smart ones don’t get caught.
Read the Stainless Steel Rat. Kid on a planet with almost no crime wants to be a Master Criminal, so he purposely gets arrested and after talking with the guys on the inside, he realizes that they’re literally (compared to him, we’re talking a teenager with beyond Einstein intelligence) all idiots.
“Slippery” Jim Degriz, loved yoke books.
Same here, and his Kids are just as good at their jobs.
Actually there ARE some superpowers that allow you to easily get away with just about anything you want.
Examples:
Being able to turn into a spectral entity like a ghost, cause anything you touch to be both invisible AND intangible… thus making ANY attempt at arresting you kind of impossible if your a spectral being and leave no evidence behind.
The ability to stop time for indefinite amounts of time… As you could actually pull your heist off without a plan and TAKE YOUR TIME to make sure you leave no physical evidence behind to link you to it. If no one can pin the crime on you then it’s nigh impossible to actually GET caught and you.
Being able to create warp reality via means of manipulating the theoretical quantum String Theory of the universe or some bullshit that NO ONE without a Doctorate in Theoretical Quantum Physics can explain… if the cops can’t LINK you to the crime or describe HOW YOU DID IT… no one would be able to convince a jury that you did this.
Having the powers of Harem… if you DON’T go around boasting you have 5 bodies… she’s the ULTIMATE thief as she can walk around somewhere and ALWAYS have an alibi.
FLASH level Super Speed… if your going so fast that not even a camera can pick you up… you could leave all the evidence in THE WORLD and still be in 2 places at once, thus alibi.
Mind Control … this one is just too easy.
Also… FUCKING MAGIC!
No one will EVER take anything involving magic seriously even IN this comic as … well first you HAVE TO PROVE TO THE SCIENTIFIC Community that Magic is in fact real and does exist… which will be NOOOO small feat.
THEN you have to get a SOMEONE high up on the Judicial Branch of the government to fully allow someone to be arrested for the use of magic in crimes…. which will take a LOOOOOOOOOONG ass time to get done and everything.
So by the time that’s all done and they come for you… the clock may have passed and the cased closed forever without any chance of you being tried or brought in.
“…the clock may have passed and the cased closed forever…”
That only happens on crimes which have a Statute of Limitations on them…Some crimes can be persued forever, like murder for example.
Magic in most systems obeys certain laws, and can be detected by other mages. All you’d really need is one of those mages, particularly one who specializes in detecting magic and it’s effects. And we’ve seen that is possible in this universe, since we know that Sydney’s Orbs don’t ‘scan’ as magic.
Sydney’s orbs don’t “Scan” as ANYTHING. Gwen’s magic doesn’t even detect them and Dabbler’s Tech couldn’t detect the fact that they freaking GLOW.
Dabbler’s cybereye could see the orbs glowing, what she said was that it couldn’t detect the source of the glow. It would be like you seeing the room is lit up, but you couldn’t see the lightbulbs providing the light.
do we know if they glowed for the News Cameras? That might be an interesting bit of info.
I think there were Velociraptor-riding banditos in Dr McNinja. The reason they rode velociraptors was because nobody could ever report that they were robbed by guys riding dinosaurs and expect to be taken seriously.
That’s because the were obviously not velociraptors really.
They were deinonychuses, Which is far more believable.
Common mistake. :)
Depends. Some systems have mind-control leave traces behind in the mind of the person controlled, often ‘visible’ to telepaths. Teleporting can still leave traces, since you likely stepped on something or left some skin samples or DNA, which you’ll need to be careful of. Phasing powers tend to require the user to become solid to come into contact with the object in question, in order to then phase themselves and the object.
But all of that goes out the window if psychometry is a power. That’s also called ‘object reading’ or something similar. Basically, the ability to read the ‘history’ of an object you touch, such as details about whoever owned it, what they were thinking, etc. It is one of the best powers for crime-scene investigation, though it tends to have various limitations. Still, a good psychometer pretty much ruins most of those plans.
One downside to committing the perfect crime is that you can never be seen enjoying any of your ill gotten gains. One blatant example – Superman III. Ricard Prior is a programmer who writes a financial program to gather all the rounding down calculations and then deposit all the ‘half cents’ into a secret bank account. Which is not noticeable. However, showing up at work a few weeks later driving a brand new luxury car is definitely noticeable.
The movie’s second crime: casting him in that role.
. . . . Someone actually did a program like that.
They opened an account with a name like Zuwom or something like that, and the program put all the part cents into it as the last name on the alphabetical list
It worked fine until a Mrs Zuz-something opened an account . . . .
Sure there are a lot of superpowers that have subtle or indirect effects, I was just saying trying to keep your powers a secret excludes a lot of them from casual use.
Heatwave = master chef, foods always prepared at optimum temp.
Jiggawatt expert electrician
Harem research assistant/secretary/P.I. from hell
Shapeshifting and illusion powers would also be useful.
Shape shifting: you could be anyone – the perfect disguise! Even if they worked out that it was a shapeshifter, they’d never be able to find you! With some fake documents, you could easily live a comfortable life. Although you’d probably never need to do something as obvious as bank robbery.
Illusions: Nobody would even notice the crime until you’d got away with it.
Except for those meddling kids.
I really love the simple fact that she is sliding oddly on the bottom of the force-field, as it is a rounded surface.
She doesnt seem to be sliding, just relaxing.
I read “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex”, actually.
Presumably Niven wrote that in the days before Supes was established as being solar powered, as in the modern era he was temporarily depowered any number of times by exposure to (real or synthetic) red sunlight, something that would make Lois and Clark’s date nights fairly simple to prepare for.
But as far as I understand it, before Supes was solar, his powers were just what any Kryptonian could do, and that’s a problem for Niven’s more extreme conclusions. Jor-el is explicitly referred to as Kal-el’s father, not his uncle or his guardian. At no point is sharing a name with your father or even knowing who he is ever remarked upon as unusual–so it is safe to conclude that Kryptonians don’t reproduce by spawning, which is what would happen if Supes’ sperm were as super as the rest of him. Even if we assume that calling Jor-el Kal-el’s father is a translation convention meant to get the point across to the reader, Kryptonians do not behave as spawners should. They form romantic attachments to one another and raise children in nuclear family-like environments.
Furthermore, if we assume that a naked Kryptonian looks like a naked human (and really, it’s more fun that way), then they really don’t look like spawners any more than they think like spawners. Ergo, it is safe to assume they are not. Ergo, Kryptonian sperm is not “super.”
Niven wrote that after a party where a number of sci-fi authors were present, and they got into a big discussion on the subject. He sort of pulled together the threads of that conversation into that vignette. And that party was *decades* ago, so no modern age super-rules.
Being able to do what any Kryptonian can do doesn’t seem like it interferes with Niven’s conclusions at all.
In order for a breeding species to continue, the male and female of the species need to be capable of copulating or otherwise mixing their genes. So, if Superman’s abilities are “just what any Kryptonian could do,” then a female Kryptonian would have absolutely no problem having sex with him because they would be at the same level of physical toughness/etc.
Humans are decidedly more delicate.
I’m pretty sure (but unwilling to research because I’m lazy) that early on in the Superman mythos they established that Superman was stronger on Earth than he would be on Krypton, due to the different stellar types of Sol and Krypton.
So, Jor-El was NOT super-powered, back on Krypton; Kal-El’s mom was safe.
Yeah, that’s a long way to go to make a “safe sex” innuendo. I leave, now.
Right on. Any species in its normal environment is “normal” in relationship to any other thing within the same species. what made Kal-el different from Jor-el is that he was moved to a different environment.
We see that effect even in the normal, real world here: The proliferation of kudzu plants when brought to America, the prickley pear cactus taken from Europe & set in Australia, etc, etc.
Haven’t read it, but have heard about it often enough, and do believe they were not referring to Kryptonian women, but Earth women, Lois Lane to be exact
I can only assume that certain fanboys started on The Naked Thief as soon as this page was posted. The placement of the title (text suggestion) only helps to spur the idea.
Of course they did. This is the internet we’re on.
I wouldn’t complain. :)
It’s been done. In the Wildcards book series there was a female phasing thief known for stealing things while wearing only a string bikini. I can’t remember whether she wore a mask or not. Mild spoiler: She had a hard time phasing things besides her body, which resulted in significant mass limits (and other issues), so she wore minimal clothing and only stole smaller items. Kind of like Harem with phasing instead of teleportation, and worse external mass limits.
The Wraith, yep.
It seems to me that I vaguely remember a thing where she tried to steal an important document, and the writer of the document had used gold in the ink, which had rendered the -ink- too heavy to go with her. (leaving her with a blank sheet of paper, less than useful)
Haven’t read any of those in ages.
While our super villain has to be more discreet than in the comics, the disintegrated wall of the bank is not enough for a conviction, just for arrest and questioning. clam up and call for a lawyer and you might yet be golden.
Now just because they need more evidence doesn’t mean they can’t find it. So SV has got to be careful or inside a week he may have a new home for the next several years, But he is not hopeless.
I find it interesting that even though Sydney is doing the ‘I can be at any angle’ flying upside-down thing, Harem (sitting on the shield) is remaining in place with (apparently) no sign of sliding around. Presumably she might, but she’d be shifting around at least on the bottom of the bubble, and going by the way Sydney is rotating (to her right), Harem would be going in the same direction until the whole ‘gravity overcomes the resistance level’ thing.
Unless, of course, the barrier is simply ‘in place’ and not set specifically to Halo’s current alignment …
Sydney can move independently of the shield, her Flight Orb only affects her
Kryptonians of that era weren’t super on their home planet so Jor-El doesn’t tell you anything about super sperm.
However, there are (in the pre-Crisis era again) examples of Kryptonian-human pairings, not just Superman specifically. Van-Zee (Kryptonian) and Sylvia (Earth human) had children, so they are obviously physically and genetically compatible. Also, Superman was shown to have had a descendant in the 30th Century (Laurel Kent) who inherited partial powers (retconned only post-Crisis).
I do love this page. From a distance it would actually be pretty cool/intimidating to see Sydney zipping around in that pose, cool as a cucumber within her indestructible power sphere. But as Dave said, then you get close and see her fidgeting around like that and realize ah wait, it’s actually sort of adorable.
But jeez Sydney, I love physical determinism as much as anyone, but the existence of demons and magic and who knows what all else would suggest, at least to me, some alternate points of view on the whole ‘from whence consciousness’ question.
We are not talking about how a potato can be sentient, but about how it works with Daphne specifically: one person but at least (for now) up to five bodies
I am saddened that nobody commented on how the ad billboard had been improved in the previous strip. Don’t buy her diamonds….
Umm… pretty much *everybody* commented on that, or else commented on other people’s comments on that. It was a big hit. There was even lots of discussion about the rings on the billboard.
Oh good, thought I had dreamed all those comments up or something. Thanks for saving me an incredulous trip back in time. o.0′
It’s not that big of a trip…Just a few days of time travel. But then again, how long you spend in the past means that you may be missing something else going on in the present…
DaveB said:
“Of course the problem with being able to teleport is alibi. Once it’s known you can do that, every case of something going missing from an otherwise secure location with no evidence of ingress or tampering with the security or vault, people would have trouble not considering you for the crime. Same thing with any locked door murder mystery.”
Well, if you’re powers leave a certain fingerprint that’s a serious problem for your alibi. Say if there were plenty of strong men/women in the world along with inventor types with robots and robo suits but YOU lucked out and leave trace evidence of gamma radiation every time you rip a bank vault door off its frame. Then yeah, you’re screwed until you find a way to mop that up as you go which will likely leave its own special fingerprint once they figure that out so in the long term mostly screwed if they are looking hard enough.
However, if you are like Harem and your supposed power “fingerprint” is the fact that you have no fingerprint, absolutely no evidence of any interference other than the thing being changed/missing/dead/whatever, NOW you have options. Since you leave no power fingerprint of your own that they can currently detect (or have to be already considering to have a chance to detect ) the thing to do is create one.
Pick someone out of the known villains if you’re cocky or make one up if you’re smart. Now is the best time for Harem to go rogue cause powers are still being found, tested, and defined. Put on a suit that makes you look like a tech guy then blast the vault door with a ray gun that’s only purpose is to contaminate the area in general and that door specifically with enough random trace energies/particles (whatever me no scientist) to have ARClight or whoever chasing wild geese till their legs give out! You teleport in and perform your task, blast everything in the area with more rays/particles/whatever then vorp out while your body in the archvillain suit postures for the cameras. Assuming you dealt with or avoided internal cameras they are not looking for a mad genius type with a penchant for messy energy guns that teleports objects.
Rig a setup so that it looks like this mad scientist teleports more than Harem’s limit in public view. First things on the list to be stolen are techno items that will assist in bulking up the mad genius persona and eventually move away from teleporting at all. Or just steal anything that gives you powers but dress their looks and usage up to make them look like you crafted them technologically. Eventually the only memory people will have about this villain and porting is that that’s how “He” started out.
That’s if you are stealing things. As others have said smuggling small sensitive materials would be a good one. Just take the item and get somewhere no one can see then teleport to location. Take your sweet time about it if you want to reduce the likelyhood of them automatically assuming you are a teleporter.
IF you are killing people its sort of like above except you need a similar ray gun that actually kills people with the chosen radiation/particles/whatever. You fire the dirty one outside the protected room while your other self vorps inside and kills the target with the actual gun and shoots the opposite side of the wall with it as well. They will assume they have come across a new misunderstood tech.
At this point in this worlds development of super knowledge I bet it would work great. Only problem is Dabbler. She has advanced knowledge in several different fields magical and technology based. IF not for her Harem could have a field day but with her… might be safer to operate in other countries (non-allies if possible) until gathering enough toys to go without teleporting for a mission if she wanted to. That’s not too bad. She draws a legitimate paycheck in one country and a few allied ones then draws a larger illegal “paycheck” in the rest of the world.
That’s what one person is capable of. A person that actually needs to hide, or police will get him/her.
what is the “criminal” was a secretly sheltered super soldier with no identity, and no record of previously existing?
My comment to posts about abuse of superpowers or ‘untracable’ crimes:
No plan survives first contact with the enemy, which in this case consists of Reality and the demon known as Murphy. These are formidable opponents indeed. Random Chance is neutral and affects both sides of the conflict equally, as well.
But a truly intelligent villain will plan to minimize their effects on said plan, and to try and redirect those forces to his/her adversary.
Example: Dr. Doom.
actually I always figured that if I could teleport based of memory instead of line of sight then I’d open a travel agency 50 bucks per head major city to major city domestic only(dealing with customs would be way to much of a pain in the ass). knock t down to 40 per head if it’s a group of 5 or more. start working out of public parks till I could afford office rental. Given it’s a minimal $150 and and 1 – 3 hours flight plus check n times to travel by air where I live I feel I could probably get good business
You want to be able to create portals not teleport.
Customs would be easyish, just make sure they have valid passports and visas, then arrange a safe exit point at a major airport (like an empty room).
They get there go through customs no problem.
I love that instead of mocking the amount of thought I’d put into ths silly idea(I get bored a lot) or complaining that that harems power wouldn’t allow her to carry that much(never said it was harems ability kinda thinking more nightcrawler type) you responded with a constructive suggestion to the self imposed limitation I had placed within my BS idea.
That said assuming this to be a solo gig I could only really efficiently cover 3-4 departure points(again assuming single form teleportation not the Harem shadow clone technique) and wouldn’t feel comfortable offering to take folks places I wouldn’t be regularly offering returns from, that being said however if a client requested a destination that I could get to in full awareness that I didn’t offer return service I would probably do it
I am a gamer of 35+ years I see no reason to mock most people’s ideas.
Except the real stupid ones.
It wouldn’t be too difficult to prevent Harem from stealing if you knew about her power. Just put your valuables in a safe to heavy to be teleported but with an inner area to small for her to fit inside. Stuffing it with lethal counter measures like the Archon armory seems to be an effective if expensive alternative.
Or you could secretly provide for the air inside the vault to be highly poisonous (never tell ANYBODY about that extra “safety feature”). If you ever need to open the vault for yourself, never let anyone know that you have to ventilate the gas out before you open the door, then pump in more gas after you’re done & close the door again.
In basic theory, pumping out all of the air (making the inside into a vacuum) would do much the same job as filling it with gas. But using gas leaves the “evidence” intact. Using a vacuum poses some cleanup problems, unless you have the stomach to see what explosive decompression does to a person…
Daphne’s teleportation capabilities and limitations can actually have a simple explanation when you look at it quantum mechanically. Well, as simple as quantum mechanics go.
She actually can control quantum tunneling of all matter currently interacting with her body (possible requirements include that the matter be interacting electromagnetically, but I don’t want to drag this too much).
It explains all of the following:
1 – Safety switch that doesn’t let her accidentaly teleport into things/people: The ability to control quantum tunneling of particles does not mean she can force it to happen. Just as an electron can “sense” whether or not he can tunnel through a finite potential barrier, Harem’s molecules can “sense” they cannot tunnel to a given location, and the tunneling won’t take place. It’s the same reason you can’t walk through a closed door: electromagnetics stops you. If you force it, you may get hurt, but if you try slow enough, you just won’t get anywhere. Think of this as you being blind and trying to teleport an inch further, the door is in your way. You can’t see it, but you have a sense that tells you something is in there.
2 – She has to see where she teleports/there’s a range limit: It explains it if we stretch a little bit in the sense she can “tag” somewhere with quantum information she can retrieve. If she knows it’s safe to teleport, she will do it (would you jump into a pool without knowing there’s water/how deep it is?). It’s an extension of #1. The diminishing returns from the distance she can see is because of the added uncertainty after a certain distance. Your measurement error is usually fixed in, say, 1%. But if you’re teleporting a yard, that’s not even half an inch. Now if you’re teleporting hundreds of miles, things get sketchy, unless you are really familiar with where everything usually is and you’re dead sure nothing will be in your way. Remember getting up to pee in the dark: You can navigate pretty easy in your own house without seeing, but if you try to do it in a friend’s house, you’ll probably end up crashing his/her ming vase).
3 (I saved the best for last) – She can’t teleport through Halo’s shied: Now, we remember quantum tunneling happens because of the exponentially decaying wavefunction because of a finite potential well. What happens if we switch to an infinite potential well? Tunneling becomes physically impossible. So the easy explanation is that whatever composes Halo’s shield, it has an infinite potential barrier (which would explain a few other things and raise a few other questions). Mind you, that does not mean Halo’s shield is unbreakable . It’s just a physical property of the potential well the material (or whatever it is) creates.
Science, biatch.
That was awesome, and enlightening, thank you.
Thanks! I actually also remembered it explains her weight carrying limit. Because of the decreased tunneling proability for objects of large mass, she probably has a hard time tunneling a lot of added mass. You could also go about explaining in another way depending on the mechanism she uses to cause matter to tunnel.
It even (sort of) explains why there’s only one mind (you’d expect control over quantum properties stretches easily to control over quantum entanglement).
The one thing it does not explain is why this would cause her to have new bodies or be stronger when she unteleport copies. Maybe I need to hit the Hyperphysics book.
but what if the source is magic not science? Dabbler is proof the Grrlpower universe has magic
Magic is simply technology we do not understand yet :)
More precisely it is normally manipulations of a energy spectrum commonly reffered to as arcania.
El Goonish Shive has a nice example of what is commonly called magic being studied scientifically. (warning, if you are not into TG, Anthro transformations, magic, mad science, aliens, aliens using magic based mad science to gain TG and anthro forms, body swapping and other related fun things, please don’t read. Good, I’ve just made sure you will all read it)
It’s just the other side of the coin from Arthur C. Clarke’s celebrated quote: A sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Odd question relating to Harem and Halo’s shield;
If One of Harem’s bodies are inside the shield, could she swap with one of her bodies that are outside it?
I can’t think of how this would be of use or hindrance off hand, other than if she were to dismiss her other four bodies, would she still gain all their strength, or would that extra be trapped outside of the shield bubble?
Also, if she can switch bodies out, could she bring something in with the other body?
/random speculation
No that would involve traversing the shield. I think she couldn’t even un-teleport the one inside, unless all of her were inside it.
Sydney is going to have to learn how to cycle her shield really quickly.
Especially with the whole, not even passing air problem.
Pretty OT, but an interesting challenge for Math would be training Achilles since the arts are high on avoiding taking hits and Achilles doesn’t NEED to avoid being hit. Also with no need to avoid hits, motivating him to watch his opponents moves in order to attack them would be……….damn hard.
Unless he could convince him it would be aggravating for his adversary – like how he learned to block swords with his eyeball.
You are assuming that Les is too arrogant to bother learning how to avoid taking hits: just because he can survive getting smashed in the face by Strong Guy doesn’t mean he won’t still wind up flying, which would still put him out of the fight until he manages to run back
Actually, Achilles would do well to learn how to avoid being hit…Especially by a foe who’s strong enough to knock him flying into the next county. Achilles would still lose the fight by being removed from it; he would no longer be effective for taking down the foe or even aiding his teammates if he’s no longer there!
As being buried in a pile of bricks showed pretty conclusively.
Ooh, Transitions. Nice detail.
How does Sydney turn upside down without the shield reorienting around her and tumbling Harem? She seems to do somethings through will/visualization naturally.
Something about watching Sydney fly in this scene makes me hungry for a Pop-Tart??
Flyball does the turn, Forb centers effect on Sydney and doesn’t need to adjust for minor shifts in position.
So can she make the shield move with her cause that might be useful at some point?
The shield is moving with her o_O
Dr. Revenge was suggesting the shield only concerns itself with staying centered on Sydney and would not bother rotating with her when she goes upside down, for instance, as that would be unnecessary to staying centered on Sydney.
I wondered aloud if Sydney could set the shield to reproduce ALL of her changes in orientation position, etc… and not just the ones that would cause the shield to not be centered on Sydney if it didn’t adjust as I could see situations where that would be useful.
It clearly doesn’t do that now or Harem would be tumbling around as the “floor” kept rotating around with Sydney as she say: Flips upside down… o_0) :-P
I, personally, see no use in a spherical impervious shield reorienting itself in any direction. I mean, it’s round. What difference does it make? Turn it upside down, still round. Turn it sideways, still round.
There could be some advantages to being able to change the shield’s orientation. If an undesired non flier hitches a ride on top, in flight, then all she would have to do is rotate the shield until they tire themselves running to stay on or they fall. Another scenario would be, on the ground, where making the shield larger was not a viable option and she was being “dog piled” as they wait for a to run out of air or drop the shield. All she would have to do is “spin” her shield until they go flying. I’m sure that there are other scenarios where this could come into play.
Now I have a lovely image of Halo running in her shield as though it were a hamster ball and a cartoonish villain on top running to keep from falling.
Villain hitches a ride up top? Fly him to jail. Or Max.
Dogpile? Fly out of it. Or have fun with the Hentorb.
Actually depending on how quickly the shield can expand she could just expand the shield fast enough to throw a dog-pile off.
The shield still does show the ability to shape itself, to a limited degree. For instance, when Sydney was flying fast while following Maxima out to the testing range, the shield became more oval, more aerodynamic than just a regular sphere.
From the way Dave showed it though, I get the impression that it was the shield shaping itself, not Sydney “mentally commanding” it to do so.
When she gets around to playing with its toggles like she did with the truesight orb I bet altering its shape, at least to certain degree, will be one of the options.
That would probably be an unlock.
Assuming the shield even have ANY friction.
That’s another possibility that would have worked as an answer to my original post. If so that would explain why she instantly fell down when shielded and lifted. (I thought it was just the change in shape and all at the time)
So maybe she isn’t resting comfortably at the bottom of the shield because she is super casual, or not only that, but because she can’t stand up in a frictionless environment.
It’s totally frictionless, ‘cos Sydney’s one mother of a mover…
Getting back the Scooby Doo reference discussion:
Shaggy: “Zoinks”
Velma: “Jinkies”
Fred: Doesn’t really have one, unless “Let’s split up, gang” qualifies.
Scooby: “Ruh-Roh,” or “Raggy.”
and most relevent to this page:
Daphne: “Jeepers!”
How does sleep work for Harem? Assuming she needs sleep at all (rather than segments getting rest while unsummoned or something), do all of her segments sleep at once, or can she stay awake indefinitely by staggering sleep? Does she have multiple dreams at once, or experience one or more dreams while other segments are still awake?
I believe that we have Word of Dave on this: she sleeps in shifts. So yes, I think she can stay awake indefinitely sort of.
Also her unsummoned segments are effectively timestopped, so no rest there.
Presumably her sleeping selves dream normally, thus staving off psychosis. Which has to be weird for the one of her that is awake. However, I am thinking sleeping dreams are probably not usually more overwhelming than, well, daydreams in her case.
if her sleeping selves dream normally then it wouldn’t be too weird since it would be no worse than day-dreaming. she just needs to concentrate and block out the sleeping one’s dreams to keep it from interfering with the others’ day to day activities.
though i do have to wonder how her dreams go when more than one is asleep at the same time.
Since she only has one mind, I presume that if multiple bodies were asleep at once, they would all have the same dreams.
1) Knowing her, probably wet wet dreams.
2) Since her sleeping forms would be getting impressions from her awake minds, then she would most likely have dreams based on what is happening around her.
Combined these equal
3) She is likely to be having wet dreams about the people around her.
4) Her awake minds might be getting impressions back from her sleeping minds
3+4= awkwardness!
Professor Moriarty is what all villainous master minds aspire to… except the diving over a water fall to your seeming death, locked in mortal combat with your nemesis… although as ways to go out go, that’s not half-bad.
Rules to learn from Moriarty
1) Never do the crime yourself, always have a lesser accomplice do it.
2) Always have an exit plan if the main plain even has a hit of going bad, and use it, and encourage your accomplices to use it.
3) Never be afraid or egomaniacal enough to NOT walk way from criminal plan, there will always be others.
4) Always respect your enemy’s intelligence and competence.
How would Moriarty use a teleporter that can be in 5 places at once…. Misdirection. Get everyone thinking about teleportion based theft while a more mundane confederate does the actual heist.
“Always better to overestimate an enemy’s ability than to underestimate.”
Despite being a bad girl and not for me, Harem does have lovely freckles. Not that she could compete with Sydney anyhow, just look at how well she pulls off her Imperious pose!
Just in case you were wondering why I had fallen silent, it is not due to injury, illness or a fatal case of death. One of our number tempted me to check out Flight Rising, and I have been immersed in breeding up a small army of dragons!
ROAR!
Well that answers the other on the list (besides injury etc) that you were immersed in “breeding”.
We are all now picturing Yorp / Dragon hybrids similar to the Dronkeys from Shrek
He he. Just before server down-time, I saw an incoming contact, from what could only be someone intimately familiar with this comic. :)
Because I love villians (almost equally to 1.75 X more). I have to say that any villian worth their salt doesn’t nescessarilly need to hide their powers. Simply find other uses for them so they look like something else. This is even better if A) you have more than one power, or B) the wealth / ability to buy / make some Applied Phlebotinum / McGuffin.
I mean you have Lex Luthor, basically a villian version of batman that’s for human rights. Has the intelligence and wealth to make up for now powers and win most universes / timelines. Jake Martinez from Tiger and Bunny had two powers. Telepathy and Force Fields. But he could use those force fields like bullets, burn stuff (simulated), and enhance attacks. And best Swiss Army power is Cole MacGraph with his Electrokinesis (well hero, or villian. But why would anyone give up bio-leech? Like I’d not sucker punch a civy to suck their lifeforce for a pick me up … or boredom.)
https://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/03/17/episode-1106-from-a-certain-point-of-view/
[Lex Luthor talk. Although it probably doesn’t help that canonically Superman made Lex bald when he was a kid.]
* no powers
Actually the best swiss army power i can think of is control over the electromagnetic spectrum, with the required secondary power of being able to “sense” the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
This gives you at least these abilities if my science knowledge is correct(it probably isn’t but still)
1. ability to fire rays of microwave radiation, like Heatwave.
2. ability to create illusions through manipulation of visible light.
(here is where my science knowledge gets a little flimsy)
3. ability to (dangerously) see through flesh and clothing, with x-ray vision
4. ability to broadcast and receive radio signals/transmissions.
5. ability to access the internet with your mind.
the list goes on.
when you say “control”, do you mean redirect, and focus the radiation, or to create it as well?
1. assuming you have enough juice
2. ability =/= skill. you can create an outline, but it will most likely never be the exact right brightness and color. size of the illusion, and the amount of your attention it require to maintain, will also be a problem.
3. uh… there it is https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/868
4+5. assuming you know the “language” and can translate with that kind of speed.
i sure as hell can read german but there is no way i would ever understand what it actually means…
With #3 I said flesh AND clothing. implying you only see bones and normal x-ray stuff, as the comic says.
Best swiss army power steal/duplicate the other guys power, but watch out for power stunts.
there was a certain guy in a manga, with power of a “dark fire”
this power was absolutely and utterly useless.
except for one aspect. when “second lvl” of this power is awakened, it hurts its user and cannot be extinguished by any means (like amateratsu from naruto, except didn’t spread). so think again before you copy someone’s powers.
Copy power, find out it is useless, drop power.
So, I was wondering has DaveB chosen powers for the other two orbs, and is just waiting to reveal them? Or what is the deal with that?
Yes, he has and yes, he is. Although he has reserved the right to change his mind should better options present themselves.
He has also fully mapped out the Orb Skill Wheel
Argh, Dave, you are evil, evil person. Link to other pages in description? I read whole comic from that point;/ again;/
Another +10 to his evil genius score.
Ability to teleport anywhere? I would start a rediculously expensive courier service. Anything you want anywhere for ten thousand a delivery. You wouldn’t have to steal. Also, imagine the vacations. *pop* Hey, I’m in Maui. Now to find a cheap motel and hit the beach. Oh, NASA wants to set up a moonbase? Hey, for half your moonbase budget, I’ll get you there and back.
“Ability to teleport anywhere?”
Well, I wouldn’t want to have the ability to teleport to inside a solid object (or another person!). That would just ruin my whole day! Let’s just say that the ability to teleport “anywhere” is really not all it’s cracked up to be…
Admittedly the ability to ‘port into someone WITHOUT killing YOU would be an effective weapon for a Super-assassin.
Steven Gould’s series that starts with “Jumper” gets into the practical uses of teleportation, and by the fourth book, its implications for space travel. Awesome series, although be prepared for the first two books to get a bit dark at times.
Make it so!!!!!!! The doujin of Harem.
So to think about it like this Harem is a multi-core processor running a single personality program.
Good analogy; or like a single player playing five different characters in an MMO at once in split screen/multiple monitors.
She’s like a processor with 5 dumb terminals
Well, each of them does have only a 5th of a mind . . .
Guess she’s not all there most of the time.
More like 5 AI computers running with the same “personality” program at the same time, but each are in constant communication with each other & multitasking with their own individual “subroutines.”
Harem: Daemon.
Dabbler: Demon.
Albarn: Damon.
The thing about Harem’s comments that really bothers me is that she makes a GREAT thief- the most valuable things you can possibly steal weigh nothing: information, secrets, ideas, locations, names.
Secret A-bomb design? Got it.
Planning an attack? We know already.
What’s in a Coke? Deshantis already told Pepsi.
Crap you actually have to physically carry isn’t worth a fraction of what pure information is worth to the right person. The Gov would be popping her into places left and right for crap no one can even imagine is worth anything, and she could name her price to any corporation who had a competitor.
Also, good luck on proving anything. A simple disguise on one duplicate and hey, presto! Musta been some other guy, like Master lockpick or Xerox girl….
She’s already playing double agent.
I would like to break my lurking to point out something; this has probably been mentioned before, but apparently, Sydney’s shield, while moving centered on her, doesn’t rotate with her, otherwise Harem would be rolling around in that last panel.
That’s because Sydney is using her Flight Orb to rotate (which does so by producing a local gravity wll centered on Sydney, that’s why whatever she is wearing or carrying, including her hair, doesn’t ‘flop’ down when she is upside down: she is not upside down, every thing else is)