Grrl Power #324 – She should put all those answers on a shirt
So yeah, they missed something fairly obvious there, but they didn’t have much time to experiment. And when Sydney was saying “no whammy” she was hoping that Varia didn’t get feces-kinesis powers from her, projectile mucus, super miasma, or something else awful. Feces-kinesis would be a pretty awful power to have to fight against though. I’m pretty sure I’d surrender right away instead of facing some sort of poopocalypse.
Varia obviously answered some but not all questions about how her powers work, notably whether or not it’s always on when she’s touching someone and if it lasts after she breaks contact, but like I’ve said before, I’d like to get out of the habit of making sure everything gets explained right as it’s introduced. It’s fine to leave stuff for later, and that includes Vance’s introduction for the moment, what with the team leader popping in.
My original draft of panel 3 had Varia just saying “you’re adopted” and the girl with a surprised look on her face, but Xochitl isn’t a dick like that, so I changed it so she’s saying it to a kid who obviously already knows. That said, using her powers to tell if a child is related to their parents is trickier than telling if a brother and sister really are brother and sister since they would have fairly similar DNA, whereas their parents (hopefully) don’t. (Insert joke about the American deep south here. Or European royalty I guess.)
I’ll be at A-kon starting in the late morning. There’s not much going on Thursday, but I work with guest relations and help bus guests in from the airport and all that sort of stuff. The plans for a meetup this year besides trying to bump into each other at one of the webcomic panels is 8pm Friday in front of Media, which is a bar and grill in Atrium II (the main… well, atrium.) Follow me on Twitter if you aren’t already as it’s the easiest way to keep up while I’m at the con, assuming T-Mobile gets reception there. Sprint was mostly no bueno but I’ve switched now. I think I’m going to actually wear my battle pie chart shirt on Friday as the one Grrl Power shirt I have isn’t in good shape. I usually think about getting a new one made when it’s only 3 days to the next event when I’d want to wear it.
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HELL(O THE AFRICANS HAVE READ THIS!!!
I …am from South Africa… and I have no idea what that is supposed to mean…..
Well, it is true, I am too, so more than one African has read it. But nice to know how globally popular Girl Power is, whatever the intent was.
I’m also South African. I certainly don;t get the point of the original message.
Could be wrong, but I’m guessing it’s ANOTHER of those “Yay! I posted first, so I must be awesome even if I had nothing worth saying …” types.
Spain, Europe. And a friend of mine is in Japan reading this to XD
As have the New Yorkers!
The Amish, however, have not read this. And never will.
Poor webcomic-deprived Amish…
You don’t know many Amish do you? I live in Amish country And you would be surprised how many loopholes in the rules. Or just out and out rules breaking there could be for them.
same thing with some Buddhist’s, you get the traditionalists ofc, but I was shocked the first time I walked into a temple of theirs only to see a monk sitting behind a PC blasting away at some random Beewing style game, turns out if the ancient texts don’t actually say “you cant use computers” some take that to mean its perfectly okay to use computers. kinda awesome if you ask me xD
The Amish traditions I am well aware of. Likewise know of problems for various conservative monetarists, who contest that even flipping a light switch breaks prohibitions on when work is disallowed.
Not really up to speed with why there would be a problem for Buddhists though?
I can honestly say no, I do not know many Amish.
Actually I don’t know any Amish.
Though I did think they were luddites who eschew modern technology. And…. I’m pretty certain the internet is modern technology?
That was secular in nature, rather than religious. And they were freaked out about weaving looms stealing their jobs. Those kinds of sentiments exist in society to the present day.
Mind you it is kind of silly. Once we have clean unlimited energy* and make enough robots to do all of the boring jobs for us, we can kick back and do the ones we enjoy most ourselves.
Be it art, entertainment, science or even debating philosophy, with like-minded souls, on the internet.
* Perhaps nuclear fusion, if manage to do more than the snails pace development we have on that at the moment. Although I personally favour liquid thorium, given that the former is having difficulty even getting past the break even point.
I’m waiting on Microwave Broadcast power collection.
Shame that Tesla’s ideas and inventions, regarding broadcast power, did not get sufficient support, early on. Mind you he probably was ahead of his times. But I do note various steps that show broadcast power is on it’s way.
Quite topically there is a low-powered development, in the news, using WiFi.
Mind you, such things are just for the convenience of delivery of energy. It is not actually generating it in the first place. That is the area where we can fundamentally change quality of life on the planet.
Maybe that first lonely parenthesis wasn’t a typo?
(O
^Ominous cyclopean smiley
Hell, cyclops! The Africans have read this!
Uh, I don’t know what happened there apparently my South African friend saw i was first so she wrote.
Anyway is Sydney a power blank? No past Genome, She is a robot?
the orbs are now orbeting (halo-ing? whatever) around the both of them.
OOOOOOO! Bet that allows a third orb to be held, possibly a fourth if only skin contact is needed, so they both wear short sleeve shirts and hook arms at the elbow…
The ‘usually I have some clue’ can be read one of two ways.
That Varia is adept at spotting minor changes (about herself or things she might be interacting with) that give her such a clue.
Or that the power itself gives her some clue. “Mind powers” or “flight” as examples. Even if it does not give precise knowledge of how to use them, or their scope.
Given that she clearly can and has used it extensively, down through the years, yet has only discovered two people who give her no powers, I am very much putting my money on the latter.
There are way too many non-obvious powers that a super might have, which she simply would not stumble on, in a short space of time. If in your adolescence you developed the power to animate, command and control Black Forest Gateaux, you would have a reasonable chance to discover your power during your life. If somebody asked you to pass them a slice of cake for instance.
But there are way too many powers that she could have where there might not be any way to spot clues in her local environment. There will be no clues to spot that you can walk through ice if she got such a power in Boston for a few hours on a July afternoon, for instance.
So for her to be able to positively confirm she has had powers from everyone other than those two, means she must be getting hints from her power, rather than just via observation.
Maxima’s reason is obvious, for anyone who has read Dabbler’s Science Corner. She is surrounded by a force-field, generated by her telekinetic power. Varia did not get to actually touch her.
And Sydney’s orbs are immune to scanning. Looks like that extends to Halo herself too.
I just now realized the sadness of the fact that Maxima cannot really touch anyone else.
Aww, poor Max.
What are you talking about? Maxi touches people all the time
She touches Sydney right here,
*thumping paw on chest, above the heart*
Have you not seen how much they care for each other!
Maxima’s forcefield should include tactile feedback, up to the point of discomfort at least, or else she’d have a hard time juggling eggs.
Wait.. what?
Beats becoming a mime as her fallback profession. Although she could use her flight power to do a wicked ‘walking against the wind’ sketch.
No, no. I’m trying to figure out the ‘juggling eggs’ thing.
Oh, it is just a perfectly valid comment actually. If we assume that the force fields around Maxima are inflexible, it would be like wearing a suit of armour. Which means that Maxima would be unable to use her sense of touch. Which would make many tasks difficult, or even impossible. Such as juggling eggs.
Clearly though she does not have any problems handling things. Ergo the force fields are not interfering with it. There are several ways that could work though. But, to pick one, it may be that the force field has some give in it. So that, like wearing rubber gloves, when washing dishes, you can feel through them.
Presumably becoming stiffer the more pressure that is applied, or perhaps instantly if something fast attempts to penetrate the field. Thus not significantly compromising the defence.
But Maxima would need to beware the Eventual Eviscerator.
I don’t understand what you said and still don’t understand the eggs reference,but I’m just going to smile and nod.
Don’t worry, I will not give up! Let me rephrase it from basic principles.
Maxima appears simply to be tough. But, in actuality she does that by having force fields protecting her, at a cellular level. See panel 10, in that link.
Possibly these are only integral to the cells, in which case this hypothesis is invalid. However, the fact that Varia could not use her power on Maxima implies that the force field extends beyond the cells, and thereby surround Maxima’s body.
The sense of touch requires that sufficient pressure is applied, somewhere on our body, for the receptors in our dermis to pick it up. If nothing can actually get close enough to even touch our skin, then that cannot happen.
If the force fields do surround Maxima, and they do not have any give in them at all, but completely stop anything (short of a blow by Vehemence) from ever touching her skin, then Maxima would never feel anything. Neither the wind against her face, nor somebody shaking her hand.
The latter would be a critically serious problem. Maxima can crush steel with her bare hands. If she has no sense of touch, she has no way to tell how much pressure to apply, when grasping somebody’s hand. The most she could do is guess, but sooner or later, having no feedback, would get it wrong, and hospitalise someone.
It is one of the challenges when building robots. To give their manipulators a good enough sense of touch, that they can handle things, without breaking them. The classic test being to get them to pick up an egg, without shattering it.
Obviously this is even more impressive if a robot could juggle eggs, as the judgements have to be made very swiftly. The same applies to Maxima. However, the very fact that she only crushes things when she gets mad, means that Maxima has got a sense of touch.
Therefore, if her force field extends beyond her body, it must be flexible enough, one way or another, to allow her to feel things through it. Maxima would make a very good juggler.
Back from YEARS in the future… I think there’s a decent chance how Sydney doesn’t have any powers except pseudo-psychokinesis over the orbs themselves UNLESS she’s touching them. Varia touches Sydney and the orbs start to orbit her, too, which might imply she could control them, BUT ALSO, if she were to touch them, she might have powers that even Halo wouldn’t have (?)
Currently Varia’s usual hints that she gets are being blocked. Because Sydney’s orbs prevent scanning. Which includes Varia’s power giving her hints. Assuming my chain of thought remains sound.
But the visual clues remain, in panels seven and eight, despite that. So I concur.
However only to a degree. Whilst the hooking arms at the elbow is the ideal solution, freeing up four hands, to hold four orbs, that might not work.
Currently we have consistent examples of Varia having to hold hands to use her power. But no exceptions yet. However she does not wear protective gear to stop others touching her bare skin. So mere skin contact does not seem to do it. Rather I think it is Varia touching someone else that is the key.
My bet is Varia will still need to grasp Sydney’s arm (for example), so that Sydney’s hands are both free to hold an orb each. Allowing Varia to bring one extra orb into play, rather than two.
But your option is certainly a viable one, so I am not discounting it.
Yep – good catch. Varia’s not getting ANY clues about the orbs (because it’s essentially like the orbs are not there), and aside from the orbs orbitting her as well as Halo, I don’t tink there’s anything else. Maybe she’lll be able to use one while she’s touching Halo though – the idea being ‘Halo is tethered to the orbs, which don’t seem to exist in reality, so now Varia’s tethered to Halo as well, but since she’s not directly tethered to the orbs, she can’t sense them in the same way Halo can’
Mmm, one interesting thought following on from yours, is the mental control of the orbs. If Varia cannot sense the orbs, she might not be able to mentally command them either. This is as regards remote command, to tell them to fly in a particular direction. As opposed to holding one and controlling that.
Note that this has convenience of use implications. Halo would have to command whichever orb was desired to fly into Varia’s hand. Or, if Sysney was otherwise engaged, Varia would have to try and stick her hand into their orbit and try to snag the one she wants.
On the plus side, if the orbs behaviour is the same when Sydney falls unconscious, as to when she falls asleep, it will be easy to grab one under those circumstances.
I suspect telepathic command will be tried next comic, so will find out promptly.
Unless nobody happens to notice the orbs behaviour, before they get on with the lesson!
-D
“This is as regards remote command, to tell them to fly in a particular direction.” – I suspect it might be a Kopy Kraut problem: Maybe Sydney doesn’t sense the orbs very precisely and needs to concentrate a little bit on one to move it (away from its usual orbiting) – and since Sydney doesn’t (need to) concentrate on the orbs right now, and both of them are looking in the wrong direction, Varia has got no hint about them yet, I mean, Varia might be able to sense the orbs and control them (probably unless wants to control the same orb herself) if she knew what to “look” for.
>_ “unless Sydney wants”
Also, “Sysney” – I had to correct this particular typo nearly every time I typed the name today, no idea why. Glad to see that that I’m apparently not the only one with a challenge here…
I think this is a sound guess.
One has her eyes closed and the other is looking down. Ideal situation(s) for missing what is directly in front of you.
Also, the orbs seem to be a little above their usual orbit height, almost as though they were splitting the difference. As soon as Varia looks strait ahead, she should see the ones orbiting her forehead.
Actually with Sydney, control of the orbs doesnt seem to require all that much concentration from what I’ve seen. She’s pretty easily able to make them go wherever she wants, and in some cases it’s practically instinctual, like outside of the bank (“Jedi in the hizz-ouse?”)
Honestly, if not for her ADHD she’d probably be constantly aware of where they were.
+1
Perhaps the orbs are more sentient than that . Sydney does talk to them at times. I think the orbs maybe be more like an excellent dance partner that responds to Sydney’s cues with perfect fluidity.
Possible.:)
But I wouldnt bank on the orbs sentience based on how Sydney reacts to them.
You know… given that it’s Sydney.
Oh – right. Or? Thinking about it… if Sydney could sense the orbs, she’d knew that their orbiting now includes Varia as well. Sydney seems to have not noticed that (yet?), so I rather think that the orbs orbit around Sydney “by default” once they are out of the tube, without needing an order to do so. And on top of that, Sydney can willfully call one into a position or a flight path once she spends a thought on it.
That seems to be the case as Sydney doesn’t always know what the orbs are doing!
Sort of forgetting that Sydney is not generally the most observant person in the first place, especially with her ADHD.
She didnt even realize there were other people in the room for quite a while. And forgot that the guard was in the hallway while eating the cheetos. Sydney not realizing the orbs are orbiting both of them could just be… well… Sydney being herself.
Maybe she gets no hint of a power because she didn’t get a power from reconfiguring to Sydney’s genetic structure “key”. She simply became a “key” herself by having similar markers in her body and possibly mind (especially if Sydney’s origin story is partially bogus and the orbs chose her cause she was unique in some way) now that the orbs recognize. So if her power automatically does a basic analysis of the structures she gained and gives her limited knowledge it would probably be at a loss here or at best would tell her she gained super ADD or something hard to define.
Its such lovely writing, where the multilock in search of keys was transformed into a key herself that I want it to be true.
Sydney’s mental awareness and control of the orbs seems to be a growing/evolving thing that at first mostly she only got feedback when holding them or attempting to activate them. Now, after unlocking the PPO’s “safety” purely mentally, I think she will slowly develop more ability to control them purely mentally and be more receptive to the feed back they can give. But Varia is probably now like Sydney at the very beginning. (we don’t even know how great the two way bond was at the very beginning due to very limited flashbacks)
Eh, but it does make more sense that she would have some starter idea to what powers she got if the power she got wasn’t directly related to the orbs and if it wasn’t directly related then she would have gotten a separate super power with the orb control as a “bonus”, considering the way her powers work, if my theory were true.
So yeah, evidence is against the wonderful symbology of lock becoming key. But it was a nice dream…
NICE CATCH! Ooooooooooooooo!
Serenais and Gus got there too. And a bit earlier, albeit further down the page.
The clever bit that I am enjoying the most? The misdirection of Varia and Sydney both looking down, at themselves, to see if there is any change. Missing the seven clues above their heads.
That has me chuckling away big time!
bah i think Sidney just needs to hold an orb then BAM Varia’s gestalt power starts working. witch now that i think wold allow for multiple different variations?
Varia’s gestalt power has already worked. They just do not realise it. All they need to do is get an orb into Varia’s hand and try it. Preferably not the PPO though.
Though what if a different gestalt power was triggered with each orb… Or each COMBO of orbs! The possibilities are… technically finite, but still awesome.
As soon as I read Dave’s comment about missing something obvious I looked back over the panels. For everyone else in the room, that should be instantly obvious. Since the orbs are normally floating in what I’m assuming are slow circles. The second their movement shifted to a larger circle around both of them, everyone else in the room should have noticed, the human brain processes movement changes very well. Someone better preemptively point it out or ask Sydney if she meant to change the orbit, or I’m going to be worried everyone in the room needs to have their vision checked.
Something more subtle to ponder:
If Varia’s power is based on the genetic code of the person she’s touching, then this has implications for Sydney’s relationship with the orbs.
They could by their nature supersede Varia’s “Sequencer” and she would get a different power if Sydney never found the orbs.
Sydney’s genes are somehow linked to the orbs. If anyone watches Agent’s of Shield, something like the Inhumans, where certain genetic lineages have powers that can be unlocked.Or she might have a mutation that allows her to use them. Or something.
The last possibility I can think of is that, in “bonding” with Sydney, the orbs themselves have directly tampered with her DNA, so Varia is getting a “true” reading off her.
I know from a meta standpoint that this is happening out of narrative convenience. If it were rule of funny, she’d be getting super speed, or some sort of hyper focus ability.
Still, I enjoy speculating on the “why” even if I know the answer is “The author did it.” I also have a fairly low amount of suspension of disbelief, and having consistent logical behavior (or an explanation for odd behavior) helps me stay with the story.
True. But…
Apologies I do play devil’s advocate a lot, however, it is not for the sake of being argumentative. I just like to explore the options and alternatives.
Whilst humans (and all animals) are good at noticing movement, they are also good at filtering out things which have been identified as safe and normal. We do not flinch every time someone walks by for instance.
Note that they have all been in the presence of the orbs, for a few minutes, so have been getting used to them. The orbs are in constant motion, and when Sydney walks around they move too. So their change in behaviour is only very subtly different to normal.
And now the unit’s commanding officer has just walked into the room. All of them (except Sydney) will have been heavily drilled as to what you do when that happens. Even if Archon are waaaay more relaxed than other branches of the military, and do not require saluting and standing to attention, this is not something that recruits take casually.
Further holding of hands is not part of the usual response either! So (unless the behaviour of the orbs is spotted), that will probably stop immediately. At which point the orbs will likely go back to their normal behaviour. So only have a few seconds total (including the above panels), before they look away to Maxima.
I did not spot the orbit, during that amount of time, in my first read through.
Albeit I was looking at static images. But, had I been watching the live action or animated Grrl Power cartoon I would have been just as familiar with the orbs going around as Maxima is. So, although she is best positioned to notice it, if she is focussed on training she may well not.
All that said, yea, someone could well twig at any moment. So it can go either way. But Dave is quite well known for cliff hangers…
There are few things I value more than a well thought out counter point.
I would suggest that the orbs’ change in movement would be quite noticeable, since it appears the diameter of the orbit is increasing and that is a pattern that I’m not sure we’ve seen before, or at least seen much of. While humans do adapt to the familiar, there is still the uncanny valley, which is where things are almost but not quite similar. This seems like it could be one of those times.
Personally, I would expect that everyone would be watching with curiosity to see what happened, and out of all the people in the room someone should have noticed.
If no one else, I’d expect Maxima, who is professional and seems the likely to stay vigilant, would notice.
Of course, your are probably right about everyone else’s attention shifting to her, and given the “camera” work we don’t actually know when that was, and it could have been at just the right time to distract everyone from the change.
Ultimately, I’m just tired of the “everyone in the story fails to notice object of significance.” It’s not impossible to do well, it’s just so over used. I like consistently competent characters.
It could just be carry over from watching the last Agent’s of Shield episode; the very end had me face-palming so hard.
Discount anybody who has already had time to get to know Sydney and her orbs behavior a little.
Maxima would be the least likely to notice the orbs odd behavior because she has been with Sydney the longest and seen the orbs react to Sydney’s subconscious and conscious commands to do some damn odd things. Reflexive attacks, conscious attacks, the infamous martial artist defense “atomic” arrangement vs. Math. The way they jump into the tube and hide then spring forth when desired.
For convenience Dave, now that he has established that they respond to Sydney’s mental whims and subconscious quirks at least a little, mostly draws them in a basic orbit when a visual joke doesn’t need their movements emphasis cause its easier. But its safe to assume they are still doing little jiggs and jaggs when Sydney suddenly “almost” focuses on one enough to summon it (we’ve seen her have to consciously take herself in hand to stop them from coming at times).
And now to the obvious. They don’t hit things unless Sydney wants them to. They don’t run into walls, door frames, equipment that hangs or juts out, Sydney’s or other people’s crazy over the top hand gestures, etc… They obviously, when not being forced into a path by Sydney’s direct control, dodge or alter their orbit a bit to compensate for these possible collisions. When Sydney moves about near things or people then folks are seeing this behavior all the time and getting used to it.
Everybody who has spent time with Sydney has seen those orbs move a bit odd and are probably actively trying to ignore their distraction most of the time. Those with the most exposure are probably getting pretty automatic at it (Maxima, the fact most things can’t hurt her and she spends all her time dealing with odd phenomenon as group field leader probably helps)
The new recruits have had a small amount of time with Sydney and some, who are we kidding ALL, of them have watched the conference and fight footage as well. The way they are talking about powers even though many of them have limited experience with any powers outside their own shows they have gotten past the “OMG I work at a Willy Wonka’s Chocalate facotory!” reaction and are now, like Sydney is starting to do, trying to act like its all normal. With some excitement when showing off their own powers for the first time because as Peggy indicated that is a sickness of the super breed.
Except for Maxima, most of these people aren’t involved in recruit power testing and studying. Its more something I would expect the studious Zeph to notice (or any of the conference room big wigs for different reasons) when not actively trying to. And Maxima just walked into the room possibly missing the initial movement entirely.
Short version is: There are only two people in that room with a low enough resistance to the orbs antics in person (assuming they weren’t in the “unseen” portion of the room in earlier comic shots of HQ) that they would have a high chance of noticing that course adjustment and wonder if its odd AND one of those two is holding Sydney’s hand and looking down with her eyes closed most of the time.
______________________________________
I did the best I could for your suspension of disbelief. (how you got past the fight with V if THIS scene is a problem is beyond me ;D )
… The orbs.
Dude I was just gonna say that.. looks like they are rotating… revolving…? …. orbiting….. ? …(screw it, someone puzzle out the right word please) flying around both of them.
Orbiting is correct; they are in an elliptical/circular path around her/their head/s and following that path in the same way the planets* orbit the sun.
* Pluto says ‘Weak’ and gives scientist the cold shoulder.
Nicely spotted, both of you. Looks like Varia might be able to use one or two of the orbs, at the same time as Sydney.
Sounds like somebody else was channelling DaveB, in addition to Pander (as regards non detection, in her case), as they said that would be a cool power.
And it does fit very nicely. Harem’s power has a limit (no passengers), which Varia’s gestalt power overcomes. And Halo’s big limit is the two orbs.
I think these two gals could become the best of buddies.
:-)
3 orb combo:- sheld, fly and light-hook = epic retrivile tactic
Or shield, Fly, and ppo for combat or tank disposal without getting sand in… places.
we still dont know if ppo can be fired from behind her sheald
Very true. And very dangerous to test. That is one thing that Sydney may not have tried yet, given her disaster in burning down the forest.
But the fact that the tentacle can work outside the shield (and Sydney does not even know how to manifest it inside for that matter) does leave it as being entirely possible. If the orb creators have the capability to manifest effects beyond the shield but chose not to do that with the PPO, it would be strange.
Technical concerns could have prevented it of course. Or ethical ones, if they did not design the orbs with the intent of creating a weapon of war. However I feel the former is unlikely, as the orbs appear to be so sophisticated that such issues would not be a problem. But the latter is very much a possibility.
So we do very much need to wait and see on that one.
i dont know how dangerus it whould be to fire the ppo i whould think you could at least make a large sheald and if technical concerns mean in sheald only then i whould expect a safty feacher of some kind
The next time you, personally, encounter a safety-critical issue, with a technological device, where you face a possibility of injury or death, please do not assume that the makers have built in a safety feature. Even if they are well known for doing so, in other circumstances (which the orbs do feature, so I am not arguing).
And don’t forget that Sydney almost burnt to death from misuse of the orbs. They have safety features, but there are limits to them.
Safety protocol subcommittee budget meeting (extract):
What idiot would fire off a tank-destroying weapon inside a confined space?
Absolutely, we would admit personnel with that low an IQ into the program.
Plus we have clearly marked the issue in the user guide!
And the training program covers that from day one.
So we all feel that the delayed activation protocol is sufficient safety, to allow the user time to reconsider a hasty action, and remember their training?
Seconded.
Agreed
Agreed, motion carried. Next item on the agenda…
sweet catch bro
All future theories this round will stand on the shoulders of giants like you. :)
I’m guessing it has something to do with how Halo’s halo expanded to float around both of their heads?
WHOA I DID NOT NOTICE THAT!
I guess she can use them too?
That sounds like the beast tag team.
Only one question remaining, can they both use the same orb?
Also is she tethered to the orbs too?
The tethering is a moot point as from the looks of how quickly she reverted back to herself after getting powers from Ren she’s lose connection to the orbs before tethering became a problem.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that Varia loses her power as soon as she “disconnects” from someone…Perhaps the new power functions for a while unless she either touches someone else or maybe she can willfully turn it off anytime she wants, regardless of its normal duration.
True, but ForceUser is also correct to point out that it did stop immediately (not that you were saying otherwise). If I had a crackly Emperor Palpetine type thing going on, I would have carried on my speech with that to add emphasis to my gesturing!
I wonder if having a power feels very “odd” to her since unlike everybody else she doesn’t have years of constantly being empowered to get used to the feelings and body alterations that come with it.
In that case turning it off as soon as its no longer useful or fun anymore to have it makes sense from a comfort standpoint.
Good point.
And probably something she gets used to doing from a safety point of view too. Electrocuting your audience once probably encourages you not to mess around idly too often.
Conceded.
I read the strip pretty fast, and actually missed it until reading Dave’s text post. Then I looked back at the strip and got it.
well, maybe not. sindy has to hold an orb in her hand yo use it, and they are holding hands to let vaira’s power work, so they sill have only 2 free hands.
Check out my comment in the thread above, for how they can use three (or possibly four, if Town Crier‘s implication is correct).
However, you are very right in saying that if they do have to hold hands then they can only hold one orb each, in their free hands. But even that does open up tactical uses. Halo can only concentrate on one thing at a time. So one could be blasting stuff with the PPO, whilst the other uses the tentacle to clear a route, or rescue hostages or whatever.
Likewise Sydney often just uses the orbs to whack stuff. So she could be the pilot, using the Fly Ball, whilst Varia is the gunner. And Sydney can still defend herself, by commanding the other orbs.
I am sure the fly ball would extend it’s capability to include Varia too. They are responding to Varia and Sydney as a team.
Another possibility is that she’ll gain powers when Halo uses hers.
True.
And a fun thing is if each of the orbs do not do the same things for Varia that they do for Sydney. Her gestalt power might change the effect that is granted, in the same way as it does for any other.
Not likely, I think. As the gestalt power is already in effect, by making the orbs recognise Varia as friendly. So it probably would not then operate a second time. But an interesting possibility, nonetheless.
And justifiable (at a stretch) if each is treated as a separate gestalt. Sydney being one herself, and each of the orbs, as different individuals, in their own right.
Looking at the comics, she needs skin-to-skin. That would make any non-ranged abilities a challenge in combat, and with her current method, it would limit them to a total of two orbs (same as Halo on her own).
However, alternative contact forms (playing footsy, halter tops so they can stand back-to-back, &c.) might allow them four. Quick, non-prepared method could get them three (if Varia puts her hand on Halo’s neck). That could at least get a shield and two attacks (force field, PPO, and Lighthook).
Piss Halo off: put her in a baby belly pack and strap her to Varia for missions. :)
Evil thoughts: certain activities must get verrrrryyyyy interesting for Varia. I mean, think about dinner parties where she’s being introduced to lots of non-military people.
Solution to evil thoughts: Gloves.
Just imagine if she’d fought Concretia or Heavenly Sword last night? She might’ve wound up with Geo-kinesis from Concretia or an energy shield from Heavenly Sword.
Concretia might have a similar problem as Maxima, with Varia not being able to properly touch her. Maxima’s skin is some gold colored material, with potential force field preventing true touch. Concretia was animating the material she dove into. A second step might be that Concretia is astral projecting into the materials and her body is elsewhere. Either way, Varia would most likely not be able to get a power.
For Heavenly Sword, this enemy was highly skilled in sword fighting, and would likely prevent any skin-to-skin contact, depending on Varia’s fighting skills. If she even touched her once, the result would likely cause Heavenly sword to realize how bad an idea (for herself) it was, and do that much more to prevent a reoccurence.
Varia’s power does truly invite speculation on combos with everyone, but then we need to think on what the reactions might be.
Death Toll and Varia, that would be an awesome scene, with Death Toll’s power trying to counter Varia, and Varia with what she gets from him, maybe an offencive version of Death Tolls ability? She does indeed seem to get a power that complements the existing power of supers. Maybe she’d get the ability to nullify powers (with whatever limits on which powers she negates is decided).
Very well thought through.
look at the orbs, they were expanding to include Varia. I bet that when she is touching Sydney she can also use the orbs.
Yeah, seems likely. The interesting question it raises is if this means that Sydney’s powers are genetic in some way/to some extent. If it were purely a mystical bond between her and the orbs then Varia should just get some random power like she does with everyone else.
I’ve had this idea that the powers actually *do* come from Sydney herself, and that the orbs merely act as a trigger.
I think orbs are illusions. That is why they are undetected as power sources by many in the team and they are just easier way to make Sydney categorize her Powers. Thinking abbbout it the level diagram was not captured y camera2s according to Dabbler which supports they are iluusions as well. One of the secret orb is actually always on and actually related to sydney’s telekinesis power over orbs. Second mysterious orb is what gives illusions to orbs so Sydney can categorize them unconciously they don’y use too much brain power to keep so they are not needed to be hold to work which actually makes hhat Sydney can use four orbs at same time.
These are all my possiblity scenerio ofcourse :P
To support my idea in level up diagram there was no three or more orbs connections. If these orbs were made to use by an ancient race that has two hands too than it is an oversight for something can be done better but if diagram is showing Sydney’s subconciousness about her Powers it makes sense since there are dots that were filled before. (another possibility is orbs are heritary and Sydney got them from her parents whom filled some of dots on their own either knowingly or unknowingly) LEts not forget Varia said she gets similar Powers from family members so there is a posibilty that she will get Powers related to orbs if she touches sydney’s father or mother.
Except Sydney has used the orbs to clobber both Math and the shadow assassin.
and dabbler when they first met.
one problem with your theory. the orbs can, and have physically battered someone without Sydney touching them. Pretty sure Shadow Boxer can attest they’re physically there… what’s left of his balls, anyways.
actualy no!
thats just kinetic force, and as we know, with super power it doesn’t require matter or momentum to be appied!
I was too lazy to write proper explanation. When I said orbs are illusions I knew people were going to misunderstand. Let me rephrase it. Light show and insignia over orbs are illusions orbs themselves are just plain spheres that are controlled by Sydneys telekinetic power
Close, but it could be completely the opposite way around…
Halo, everyone and everything else are all the illusions in a holodeck. The orbs are the only real things. Being the players running the holodeck program. Sydney is just the character that they are controlling.
Her ADHD is just a reflection of what happens when seven players try to do that.
Man, what a mindf**k! For a moment there I had you imagining that Archon was not real!
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1655
here, the orbs are visibly.
MYTH BUSTED!!!
while i agree it may be hereditary, i don’t think her parents have anything to do with it.
if you remember, she found her balls on the reef, and they were “bound on pickup”.
it has to go WAAAAAAAYYYY back.
Why would an illusion be defeated by simply using a TV Camera?
If that were the case, every camera would have seen True Dabbler, as opposed to Blonde “These clothes cannot possibly contain” Dabbler
that depends on whether it is mind based, or light based illusion.
mind based illusion cannot be detected by camera, while light ..
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/479
no shadow…
actually, can someone find a page in which the balls cast a shadow?
i know they glow, but there should still be a shadow if there is a stronger source of light, right?
The Balls also bust balls. So… not illusions. Not sure where one would even come up with that idea. Sydney has even been take out by her own orbs.
i dont like repeating myself but
“actualy no!
thats just kinetic force, and as we know, with super power it doesn’t require matter or momentum to be applied!”
to short, if you fuse a small force field, with an ilusion, you get something that you can both touch AND see, and yet not contain any matter.
So to create and maintain the solid and pretty “fakes” as real seeming objects all the time would require the low powered use of ALL of Sydney’s known powers plus telekinesis simultaneously meaning that if she figured this out and unraveled the mental symbolism that makes her manifest them this way she would then be able to use all of her powers simultaneously possibly in a power pool like Maxima does.
It would also mean that All of Sydney’s powers are somehow hiding themselves from scans that would have detected more normally known, in this world, examples of everything used to maintain that illusion.
And on that glorious day of realization and actualization Sydney gets a prerecorded spell message that tells her that mommy and daddy elder gods had to leave Sydney hidden on earth for safety while they dealt with a coup of the lesser gods in another dimension but now that she has ascended to godling status this message was set to tell her the truth and send a beacon to her parents who frankly could use the help with the fight but first they will send her a fluffy intelligent animal spirit guide to lead her on 7 epic quests to finish her training. (the beacon could be detected by the more sensitive and alert of watching enemies so it could only used once Sydney had reached this point and had a chance to defend herself… )
_________________________________
Nother’ desperate attempt at the funny. (crosses fingers-maybe this time they will laugh… TT ) Not meant to be insulting.
I actually like this theory in some ways but if you follow it to its conclusion it seems a bit much. (unless V is around and powered up then this is a go!)
as there are clues for, and not much against, i have no problem accepting the possibility of “illusory force field”, but i am still not accepting her being the source.
after all SHE FOUND THEM!
yes she is a part of the equation, and she might have inherited some affinity, but i am sure that she does not contain the power…
…
actually scratch that.
maybe she has the “mana” but she is not able to use it by herself, so the “ancient artifacts” are able to tap it.
If you think about it, though, all ‘mass’ is basically Illusions (or Holograms) combined with Force Fields.
After all, the only reason we see things is because the composite atoms/molecules are bending/reflecting/producing photons at certain wavelenths. And the only reason we can ‘touch’ anything is because the atomic forces at work with every atom either attracts or repels everything else- and those Forces are present in Fields, because they couldn’t be anything else.
and here it is… the “reality is a lie” comment has finally appeared…
@R: in response to your second post in this thread, the nest limit won’t let me reply directly… “she found them!”… um, MAYBE… i agree that what we currently know, is that that IS what she TOLD them in the ballroom, but did you notice her hesitation in telling the rest of the gang in the lounge? i know that both Maxima and Zoeng caught it… that probably means she wasn’t telling the truth about where/how she got them and had a bit of trouble remembering her cover story…
Observer , it had me laughing.
Mind you, in running with it (even if only for purposes of leading it off the cliff, for your gag), you were actually exploring the hypothesis in interesting ways.
Whilst the premise might not seem that likely, it can hold together.
one problem with these theories….the empowered are all tall fit and excedingly beautiful, and that is not sydney
+1
For intent. However one quibble. Sydney is exceedingly beautiful. More so than the others. But you are correct that it is not the same type of look that the natural born supers have. They lack ‘geek is chic’.
I suspect we are going to meet some supers who’s bodies fit other ideals as well. Well, if He Who Has Face of Woman is any indication we already have been seeing some variety.
PWAAHAHA! Oh, poor Vance.
I’d actually like to see this, though- maybe a Reubanesque Super, or a sort of Fat Buddha super would be interesting to see.
i agree with the fact that she is beautiful…however the description i was talking about was the “normal” definition of extreme beauty as you no doubt know.
Yup. The intent was clear and fairly spoken. But a lady must be defended, none the less.
:-)
Maybe Varia will get a random power from Sydney, and the orbs starting to circle them both is just because Varia’s power involves “synching” with the other person’s aura/genetic algorithm/whatever it is the orbs use to identify their owner.
Which would give her a random power PLUS a likely ability to use the orbs in some way.
Agreed.
But Varia’s Who’s Who does indicate that she ‘gains a power or set of powers’. So an argument could be constructed. And this suggestion is actually only a lesser version of the more often voiced one. Namely that she gains the power over the orbs and each of the orbs give her a random power too.
Yeah but in this orphaned chain I thought we were going with the “Orbs are not a part of Sydney” and so can’t be included in her scan/imprint (trying to replace the word “copy” in my description of Varia’s powers… Imprint doesn’t seem quite right either… ).
So with that in mind she would only gain control of the orbs if it was a primary or unintended secondary effect of her power attempting to mimic parts of Sydney or how Sydney “works”. If Sydney is uniquely gifted to control the orbs than that would be all that Varia gets a portion of most likely. If Sydney is not uniquely gifted to do so but whatever Varia’s power mimics reads to the orbs as being like unto how they identify Sydney for some purposes then she would probably gain a power AND some interface with the orbs.
Very sneaky. I wonder if any one in comic noticed that. Also does this mean the orbs altered Sydney.
Maxima’s TK Force Field explains why touching her doesn’t work.
I wonder does this mean she’s tried Dabbler and it worked.
I think Dabbler would like to try it, if she hasn’t already…Dabbs is really fond of the touching part.
Spotted the orbs too. Lets them use three at once. Or four if Varia’s power works on touch other than her hand. Although, if you are flying, you want contact that’s more secure than standing shoulder to shoulder.
Wonder what power she would have gotten if she touched Sydney before she got the orbs.
The power to use the orbs. ;P
A desire for, and partial immunity from, Carolina Reapers and other peppers of that nature.
Super luck or super intuition?
Sydney is gifted in both of those. Variant powers might be more blatant than Sydney’s though. Say to always have random events go her way, so foes might always trip, before hitting. Or she might lean on a wall and find the secret passage.
And full-blown precognition might have been a possibility (aka Spidey Sense). Or the ability to see, or hear, things at remote locations (clairvoyance and clairaudience). Or just always making the right call when guessing something. Which is not what Sydney does, albeit she borders on it. As Sydney has various clues and is adept at putting them together the right way.
Just had a thought. What if no one notices right now. But later, in the heat of battle when she wishes she could use three orbs at once, her ADHD power kicks in again and she remembers the orbit.
Honestly, I find this slightly disappointing. I always liked that the orbs had a set of “absolutes” reinforcing their mystery. Absolutely inseparable from Sydney, absolutely unscannable, absolutely exclusive to their owner. And here we have a slightly-above-average super who can copy her ability to use the orbs. Oh well, Dave has overcome my expectations before, let’s see how he does it this time.
The thing is that Varia cannot EXACTLY copy the superpowers she taps into, just gets limited or “altered” versions of them. I would also suggest that she does not get the skillsets to go with these powers.
So even if Varia tries to use an orb:
(a) it will react “differently” to how it works for Sydney;
(b).how effectively she can use it, without practice, will be …. debatable.
Interesting Side-Thought 1: Wonder what the Mystery Orbs would do in Varia’s hands?
Interesting Side-Thought 2: What happened when Varia touched Math? Besides him getting ideas AND getting clobbered for them, of course.
When she touched Math, she temporarily became male.
You could be right. But note that there is another way to look at it. The gestalt power has already been used. That power is to share command of the orbs. There is no guarantee that it will do anything more than that.
To support that bear in mind that Varia gains the ability to share Harem’s teleportation but not her thoughts. Or create new bodies. I think it is likely that they would have experimented with stuff like that. And if they could it is significantly important enough that it would have been mentioned.
So for it to operate the way you are suggesting would require that a gestalt be formed with Sydney. Then a new one would be formed when she grabbed an orb…
at which point the new gestalt replaces the old one. Do the other orbs now stop orbiting Varia? She is no longer in a gestalt with Sydney. Will the one in her hand even accept her now? Probably, but you can see that there are complications that would need to be thought through.
Of course I am all in favour of there being different powers (or slight variants at least). The graphical potential alone makes that interesting.
But we should not jump to conclusions just yet.
I can understand that. And I would have been very disappointed myself if Sydney found a way to do this with anybody, in general (or even worse just by herself), through unlocking it on her skill tree.
However I rather like this, personally. Sydney is not always going to have Varia around, so it is not ruining her limitations. Rather it will allow them to explore the three orb combinations together. Whilst heightening just how limiting the two orb limit is at other times.
Plus bear in mind that there are not a huge number of circumstances under which Halo ceases to be useful with the two orb limit. So even if Varia and Sydney are on a team together, Varia may well be better off using one of the other team to form her gestalt. That will be adding an extra power to the team. Whereas pairing with Halo just makes Halo’s power more flexible.
Finally it gives an especially good reason for Sydney and Varia to team up and practice together. Their combinations are going to be more complex than most. Which will give them a good opportunity to bond and become good buddies.
Not that Sydney is at all lacking in this front. But have a look at the other members that she has had significant contact with (all friends, or potential friends, but in different ways):
Maxima. Her commanding officer. A big sister or surrogate mom.
Peggy. Career military and not a geek. Not many common interests.
Dabbler. 187 years old, an alien and tends to freak even Sydney out, at times.
Harem. Has already seriously betrayed Sydney’s confidence. And has been Listed.
Varia. Human. Similar age. Also a new recruit. And that is a biggie which will form a bond. And they are both big city American girls. So, even if they were into different things in civilian life, it will make little difference now that they are in training together.
Not that I think this will diminish Sydney’s budding relationships with those above, or the others on the team. But there is potential for a particularly close bond to form between them.
Possibly they might even be inseparable…
;-)
Hey, Peggy’s on the A Team with Sydney!
Yea, intentionally, as Maxima could see that Peggy would be a good mentor for her, whilst Maxima herself is not available. But there is a big gap between the two, none the less. Peggy is older, must train intensively to maintain her sharpshooter skills. And likewise her helicopter pilot rating.
She probably works out a heck of a lot too, having to keep up with supers in the front line. Along with being a health-food nut and pretty drole, in comparison to Sydney. Plus Peggy has, quite literally, been through the wars.
Very different life experiences and lifestyles. But, you are right, they are the A-team :-)
Mind you, here is a thought. They are sharing orbs at the moment…
Perhaps Sydney will not be a member of the A-team, for much longer?
*examines panel 8 intently*
Who’s to say that she’s gained the ability to USE the orbs? It’s possible that the ‘power’ is simply that she’s counted as part of Halo’s ‘body’ for purposes of them- so when Halo goes ‘Orbit my head’, it includes Varia in the bodymass. And Halo might be able to use the Commball to include Varia in the hologram, but Varia may be unable to actually ‘drive’ any of the powers, or otherwise benefit from them in any way that isn’t passive. How she described her ‘tagalong’ with Harem wasn’t that she gained her own teleporting power, but rather that she could ‘ride along’ with Harem- a very specific loophole to a specific power, rather than a broad new ability.
Rather anti-climactic though, in comparison to the alternatives that spring to mind.
Especially when contrasted to sharing Harem’s teleport, which is a major capability. One which shares a significant proportion of Harem’s total capability, as a hero.
More than is obvious, given the potential that Harem could (potentially) teach Varia how to use the teleportation to create duplicates of herself. Which would likely have telepathic contact with each other too.
So next questions are pretty obvious. What happens if Sydney is holding an orb? Maybe the Orbs have an inbuilt copyright control that blocks power copying/gestalt attempts?
if there were, they wouldn’t be orbiting her :(
Yeah totally missed that the orbs seemed to expand to encompass Varia as well. :-/
Though it does look like the “three orb” theory may be incorrect. Varia’s grip seems to deprive Sydney of one usable hand.
you still believe that it require a hand?
pretty sure “she can touch her anywhere”.
Esier solution just hold the orb between their hands and voila they have third orb
Interesting solution (if it works, but I am willing to run with it).
Tactically interesting. One choice that springs to mind is to use their non-shared capability for things which require constant direction or specific targeting. So one controlling the PPO and the other the tentacle, for example.
Allowing the shared orb to be something that they can just turn on and leave running. So the fly ball or the Forb.
The downside to that is the latter two are survival critical. And if they both try to control one, but give different commands, it might cause serious problems. The last thing you want to do, if hovering 200 foot above something sharp and spiky, is to have conflicting, and possibly negating, commands issued to your means of avoiding said spikes!
Sydney’s true power is her GI tract’s immunity to Capsaium.
Well, that would have been obvious! Dave had to throw in a swerve.
One of the curves that Dave suggested was: “Feces-kinesis would be a pretty awful power to have to fight against though.”
Yeah, every superfight would go all shitty, real quick, wouldn’t it?
Would that control extend to the contents of one’s colon?
Ewww. The implications of THAT are, at best, downright disgusting.
Personally I have good control of the contents of my own colon.
But consider the eew factor of being in control of somebody else’s!
SPOILER (51st State, with Samuel Jackson)
Someone would have to warn the politicians.
So they seems to be sharing the orbs now. Question is, who has control over them? Do they both? What happens if they try to manipulate the same orb? Ooohh! Does Varia have to hold hands or can she touch any part of the person? If Varia and Sydney go back to back that’s potentially four orbs active at once! So many questions!
He he. You are the first to imply that Sydney might not have control now.
I think that unlikely though, as they are sharing orbits. As opposed to just circling Varia. Plus Varia’s power is to (sort of) copy other people’s power. Rather than to steal it.
We just don’t know enough yet, which is entirely Dave’s fault, and by fault I mean intention.
It could be that the orbs just see them as one person now and so they orbit the new total mass, but can we even call that a “powah”? Honestly there are too many possibilities to really even speculate. Not to say that will stop us from doing so even slightly.
i would suggest they try while sydney hold one of the orbs…and hold tight to their belts lol
hm now looking at the orbs adding their into their “sattellite run” that could mean she can use the orbs too as long as in contact with sydney
I’m sorry I was distracted by her jumping up and down to see if she got any powers…..
[insert Man Show / trampoline reference here]
DaveB is a master at misdirection. I bet he would be brilliant at pulling a rabbit out of a hat!
Mind you, it would probably say “What’s up doc?”
But that trick never works!!
Loving the new supers. God I love this comic!
Hmm, I guess she could grab an orb, though only one because her other hand is occupied holding Syd’s. Wonder if it has to be hand-to-hand? If they linked elbows or something, could they operate 4 orbs at once?
Hopefully she knows to ask before grabbing Sydney’s Orbs.
Notice that after she grabs Sidney’s hand the balls made a bigger halo around the two…
“It was cool…Cause I has ice powers? Anyone? Bueller? Okay.”
Tough crowd, huh?
“Hopefully I don’t find out by getting hit with someon’es arterial spray, huh?”
Yeah, that would be sooo inconvenient, especially for the one who’s doing the spraying & the one who’s doing the laundry.
“The only person who gets to call my skin screwy is Bugs Bunny.”
Well, Sydney did get in with an imitation of the Road Runner during last night’s fight in the cah pahk. Anyone care to lay a claim on doing Daffy Duck? Or Elmer Fudd?
Panel 4 & 7: I see DaveB has utilized his research in boobykinetics some more…First example was Dabbler’s distraction for Vehemence, now Varia. It’s nice to see the results of hard-earned research, isn’t it?
Okay, I’m not going to belabour the obvious, since someone in last comic’s comments that Sydney’s orbs might block Varia’s power. The orbs certainly prefer their anonymity & I can’t blame them; they are on the internet, after all. So Varia’s got 7 billion potential powahs, minus one.
If Varia is going to begin carrying around genetic samples donated on a (hopefully) volunteer basis (as someone suggested in last comic’s comments), I hope is doesn’t have to be fresh or still living DNA…Just toting around the equipment necessary to preserve the samples could be a logistical problem in itself.
Oh, I forgot to add something that’s connected to my comment about panels 4 & 7, up above:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPVgKoruWdA
Do you mean panels 5&8?
If she hadn’t been looking down south her eyes closed, she might have noticed the orbs move…
Yeah, 5 & 8…My bad. I just woke up & it takes a while for me to get my brain wrapped around difficult tasks quickly. Like counting or 2+2, for example.
what?… 100 is easy to count to.
.
.there are just 10 kinds of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don’t :D
Varia: I need a sample…
Math: ME! ME!
Varia: …of someone’s blood.
Math: *growling*
When asked for a genetic sample, that’s not quite what Math would have in mind…
He’d probably be cool if it was by anime nose bleed.
Hopefully she doesn’t find out what works by being captured by an enemy organization grafted with super body parts in an attempt to not only give her those powers but a choice of gestalts avoiding the need for hand holding. (graft with nerves involved has to be equal to a handshake?)
That’s how the human centipede got started right?
The duration will be easy to see next page: how long will the orbs orbit both of them?
And yeah. Totally didn’t spot that until I read the comments.
At least it would also make some sense as to why Varia doesn’t realize it right away too…After all, Sydney had to work at it to learn anything (by trial & error) about the orbs too.
I was hoping to see some spicy related powers seeing as Sydney managed to down radioactive chilis and survive.
We with a name like Varia, that’d only make sense.
^ This. Love the Metroid reference!
Actually, assuming no incest, a child shares 50% of their DNA with either parent, and _also_ shares 50% of their DNA with a sibling. See also this graph: https://www.isogg.org/wiki/File:Cousin_tree_(with_genetic_kinship).png
So it would be just as easy to tell a parent/child relationship as a sibling relationship.
Fixed link, I hope
Fixed link.
Format as follows:
<a href=”https://www.isogg.org/wiki/File:Cousin_tree_(with_genetic_kinship).png”>Fixed link</a>
Shares, on average, 50% of their DNA with siblings. Identical twins share 100%, and a quirk of chance could mean that you get the half from each parent that your sibling didn’t get.
We share even more then 50% of our DNA with our parents / siblings / other humans (some of it even with mice or apes ) – most of it is coding for proteins / cells / organs and so on. Only a smal part is not the same. That stuff that can be changed without killing essential functions to survive. That gene tree is for one selectet non essential gene (like haircolor for example) and the propability it survives down the chain.
He he. One day Varia is going to touch someone familiar and get a weird power, that she did not before. Naturally she will alert Arc-SWAT and a full anti-impostor squad will be sent to deal with the situation. The natural conclusion to draw, if she does not get the normal power that she expects.
Only it will turn out that Varia happened to form her gestalt with the first thing she touched. Which could have been a fly, or some other bug.
Probably not a bacteria though, or she would be getting problems all the time, with all the millions/billions teeming on us.
And, of course, I say this all tongue in cheek. Everything points at her only being able to bond with humans, rather than other animals.
*sniff*
Even though some of us are people.
DNA testing claims that 27% of the children aren’t related to the mothers husband. While the accuracy of this claim is questioned. No one has refuted it
Research tracking genetic diseases in a large region was voluntarily stopped by doctors due to a small amount if incest discovered.
Let the paternal lawsuits & messy divorce hearings fly!
I a person has had a a bone marrow transplant due to leukemia their blood DNA will not match their reproductive DNA.
One could also be a chimera.
chimera are cool, when they don’t have autoimmune disease, they actually have stronger immune system, cause they have two sets of different white cells defending them.
Someone who can say they have two adn in them without being pregnant/just had sex, is cool in my book
Or an In Utero disorder could cause expression of different genetic traits in “identical” twins.
It turns out that virgin births are being discovered in a wider range of species than has been thought possible before. Which is confirmed by the offspring having 100% of the dna of the mother.
Previously such had only been possible to detect in captivity. Where a female might have been raised in isolation. But now population testing in the wild is capable of picking it up. And dwindling population numbers for the species where it is happening might be contributing to the situation.
No hint of it happening in mammals mind. But thought I would throw that in, for interests sake.
Aw the thing I wondered is if she is holding onto Adrian and Vance both does she get a mix of Lightning Golem and Metalman? And if so do they both get immunities to the other’s powers?
On topic: With Harem, her power is to be included in the mass equation. With Sydney Varia is included in the control (not override but able to initiate or maintain on her own). Would suggest it be a single orb on her free hand, but that is GM kneejerk. So Sydney has a key to use the orbs that V shares while touching. She’s a USB cable.
Re. your first paragraph, I suspect not. It would have been very easy to demonstrate that as part of what she has already done. Given how close everyone is standing. Plus she is repeatedly talking about getting specific powers from each person, which just emphases that impression.
For those who believed Dave on the “No Whammy” thing. It’s actually from an old game show called Test Your Lucky which has apparently been retitled to “Whammy! The New Test Your Luck”.
Damn you autocomplete.
Test Your Luck
It’s actually “Press Your Luck.”
Thanks never been morning person but 2 weeks in a face down chair obviously designed by Dr Mengele doesn’t help matters.
Back in the ’80s a contestant on Press Your Luck found a way to beat the game. He had recorded prior episodes and watched the game board in slow motion. He noticed that the pattern was not actually random but repeated itself in one of five patterns. Once on the show and testing his theory in the first round he got started. In the second round he managed to get into a pattern of landing on the cash+free spin spot repeatedly until he racked up over $110,000. He eventually got tired and feared he would make a mistake, so passed his turn to the next player. He won the game but CBS initially refused to pay him, saying he was cheating. They eventually paid him, but revised the game board from 5 to 32 patterns. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Larson
First known use: 1940.
Since Dave didn’t make a statement on the original source of the phrase but rather why Sydney was using it I’m a little lost on the language here (for those who believed Dave) and in the similar comment just below (DaveB is wrong). Seems like both you guys and Dave can be “right” here simultaneously.
I’m just gonna assume you two are being humorous.
DaveB is wrong. Sydney is obviously a fan of the Game Show Network on cable, and her “No Whammy.” chant is from a ’70’s game show. BTW, any of you want to get a taste of the Way-Back machine, that is the channel to watch. You will be amazed at the styles and the lack of Politically Correct humor.
“Match Game” for instance.
Check just above you…
Heh. I’m at work, so I commented earlier, and now that I have a brief break, I am catching up on the reading, and see that you beat me to the punch, which also shows that you are at least middle-aged, or addicted to the Game Show Network, or both…
Whereas I am not, never having watched either the show, or the network. Yet the word ‘whamy’ is still familiar to me. Mind you, sometimes things I am familiar with do turn to have reached me, via cultural osmosis, from an American TV show. But, checking it out (as linked above) the show just appropriated a pre-existing word.
Of course Sydney (or Dave) might be subconsciously thinking of the show. But need not have seen it either.
And I think Peggy does have a power, the ability to control winds at really long distances. Say control down to nothing… (Snipe!)
Oh and Max accidentally lets slip another hint of her nerd cred.
What? Bugs Bunny isn’t ‘nerd cred’, he is simply part of a well-balanced childhood
To be honest I didn’t get what Maxima skin has to do with George Washington.
Whereas I don’t even get what it has to do with Bugs Bunny. But that is probably just because I did not watch the particular cartoon where the reference was made.
Or am not joining the dots, if I did. That would not be a first.
Maybe that was “nerdier” than I thought. The real name of “Bugs” Bunny is George Washington Bunny.
Also I just learned that in his very early appearances he was credited as “Bugs Bunny the screwy rabbit”, but I’m not sure if that’s what Max means with the joke.
Daffy often refers to Bugs as ‘the screwy rabbit’, actually, believe it’s not just Daffy who calls him that
Oh, thank you. I saw them as a child and thus mostly in Spanish, I think they called him “chiflado” which means “nuts” rather than “odd”.
well, Halo picked up the same idea I had last page: Varia might be able to use a tissue sample for her ability.
Anyone else imagining that Varia’s hair is developing crazy bangs now? we all know it’s a power; they can’t all be aces.
Back when Mark Gruenwald was writing Captain America, he had Cap go up against someone named the Dead Ringer, who (as the name suggests) could turn himself into a duplicate of any deceased superbeing by touching the corpse.
… he kept souvenirs, so he could recharge. Severed fingers. In a cigar box. Hopefully Varia doesn’t do anything similar.
It’s not imagination – in the next-to-last panel her hair is clearly fluffing up. Compare it versus her hair in every other panel. It would be so ~!@#$%^&*()_+ cool if she did develop bangs like Sidney as a visual cue.
That is because she’s jumping up and down, and her hair and breasts are bouncing in reaction.
Oh come on, rule of funny here- even if she’s jumping up and down, I totally want those to be crazy bangs. Cuz F@$% them.
Hm. The hair moved one frame BEFORE she jumped.
Hm….
Well observed. Mind you Varia was tilting her head down, and hair does move when you do things like that.
But …
I want bangs too!
before i looked at the comic i was thinking.. “hmm i was earlier talking about how her balls have a f*** tone of security on them, maybe they also protect from interactions like that?”
seems i was right.
“…with harem, i get to tag along wherever she goes.”
AHA! i knew it! people were saying she just gains ability to teleport but NO!
she simply extends her teleport effect area to include herself!
also, maxima cannot be scanned either, because of “screwy skin”.
if dave haven’t confirmed the “sheath of force” before, now it is.
after reading some comments:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
STUPID BALLS!!! you are not supposed to do that!!!
I think you need to get back to drawing board for ideas now :P
“her balls have a f*** tone of security”
“f*** tone”? Is that like the “brown note”? I’m not sure if that would keep ones balls secure though…
while the theory that the Orbs maybe are insulating Sydney
from the powers of other supers is possible, as already mentioned by others.
there are two other theories just as plausible.
1. Sydney’s power is that only she can use the power of the Orbs
Varia already said that sometimes the gestalt
is related to the power of who she is touching.
meaning Dependant on which Orbs Sydney is touching
touching Sydney could unlock 7 to 42 different gestalts
2. if similar to Harem the Gestalt is shared across both
meaning Varia might be able to use the orbs too
meaning 3 orbs could be used in tandem
looks like it will be number 2 as the halo expands to cover both Varia and Sydney
Glad to see that Pander‘s wish came true, about Sydney not generating a gestalt power. It does add mystery, and is entirely in keeping with the orbs preventing scans. We have no idea as to the nature of it, but clearly there is some interference from that which extends to the owner.
Perhaps that explains one of the mystery orbs? Protection from scanning, scrying and the like. Maybe even extending to hostile telepathy and similar attacks, even without the shield.
Or it could just be a secondary effect from the orbs. Like their telekinetic properties, when they circle Halo’s head. Clearly such interact with her, even to the extent that she can control their paths. So there is no reason why their non-detection could not apply to her too.
Come on Dabbler, cast some detections on Sydney herself!
umm yorb did you pay attention to frames that she is otuching to Sydney? Because there is something very interesting happeneing at there :P
Heh. Yea, I missed that on first pass. Although I am in good company as Sydney did not either. So I am cool with that.
But Pander did get part of her wish. The non-detection bit see my comments in the very first thread above.
I am satisfied with the outcome, yes :)
“to hostile telepathy”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1575 that’s the shield’s job, which is currently down.
why would 2 orbs share an ability?
There is actually precedent for the orbs sharing ability. The fly ball provides limited protection versus the inconveniences of air travel (as per word of god, from DaveB). Such as bug strikes, wind buffeting and so on. Which is something that the Forb can do too, only much better.
What I proposed is actually identical in nature. Something that would be of use at times even when the force field is down. However it is way more useful than just a ‘required secondary ability’ for flying. Mental attacks, being scryed upon by malevolent extra-planar beings and so on are all invisible and things that Sydney would not guess are happening. So would not think to raise the shield to provide protection.
By no means is it a redundant power. Yes, it does duplicate something that the Forb can do. But Sydney would be much stronger with it, even so. Her new armour can help versus bullets, but it cannot help versus unseen powers.
But, to argue the case against my own suggestion, I must point out that it would break a theme of the orbs. That they need to be held. However Sydney can command them mentally, even without holding them. And there is nothing to say that holding the orb cannot grant her things beyond that ‘passive use’ power.
For example being able to trace back an attempted scrying attack, to it’s source, and sense who is attempting it. Further unlocking might allow reverse scrying to actually see them.
The basic grasping power might actually not even need unlocking, but just require Sydney to figure out that she can do it. Which is to lower the protection (hopefully selectively) to allow, for example, a friendly telepath to make contact. Or let Dabbler use her detection powers on the orbs.
well…
“power that does x”
“power that can be used for x”
bubble orb is a “absolute protection”, its just what it does.
somehow, it doesn’t seem to detach one of harem from the rest of them.
flight orb create a field of force, that is strong enough to deflect whatever may hit her.
or does it?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1034
the tags have popped…
and no, i am not accepting “because it only protect her, and not whatever she nay be wearing”
the tele-presence keeps her clothes on.
I was pretty much accurate, except there is ONE thing that happens – the orbs start rotating around BOTH of them. But it doesnt actually give Varia powers – it might just give Varia the ability to use the orbs – ie, tethers her to Sydney, who herself is tethered to the orbs. Although that still assumes that she can use the orbs – it seems a little more problematic in any case, since…. well… they’d each only have one hand free to do so.
She started talking and I stated wondering about the sample thing, guess it was answered pretty quick ^_^
could you imagine Varia extending the use of her gestalts
by painting blood on her as if it was war paint?
Yes. Cool image.
With these new characters,isn’t time to update the cast page???
Offering to do that? Or maybe pay DaveB so he has the time and still be able to feed himself?
Go update the wiki y-o-u-r-s-e-l-f.
We are rather protective of Dave. Thing is we know how hard he works, and that it chews up a massive amount of his time. Way more than most of us devote to a regular nine-’til-five job.
Dave has now gotten the aid of a colourist, to help take some of the load. But he still has a lot of things which are competing for his attention. Often forgotten is that he is his own systems admin, as one example.
But, most importantly, we know that he is also turning his attention to things like turning the first chapter into a paper book. Which, given the odd shape of many of the pages, is going to be a lot more complicated than it sounds.
And part of that process is doing any tweaks that he has on his to-do list. Such as correcting the ranks on the uniforms, and making Jiggawatt blonde from her first appearance.
The cast list update would be nice. But all things come to those who wait.
Overprotective? I’m just too lazy to go fix the undead wiki so I thought I could get all these people interested in having the information posted somewhere convenient… go post the information somewhere convenient… (build it and Dave will link… build it and Dave will link…………..)
One more scenario to add to the plethora of power-ups Varia has shown. If she touches someone who has had a heart or kidney transplant, does she get the effect of the recipient, the organ donor, or both? Also, if she is ever injured and has to get a blood transfusion, do they need to screen the blood to make sure it does not cause some unusual effect?
Blood transfusion probably won’t be an issue for Varia. I’d be surprised if they haven’t already found someone who gives her, at minimum, internal regenerative powers.
Interesting, her powers extending immunity to her contact was something I didn’t consider. It seems that most of my questions from Tuesday were either answered or we’re given enough info to make assumptions.
I am, however, conflicted on whether or not Varia’s a risk in the field. Her lack of concern about having any precautions before testing Sydney combined with the childhood trauma comment gives the impression that she has no worries about collateral damage. On the other hand, her base power doesn’t tell her what she’s unlocked from contact which means the possibility for touching someone and immediately generating mass amounts of radiation or something equally dangerous may have just not happened to her yet.
Now, the orbs extending the halo raises a few more questions though and leaves my, “is it possible for someone to give Varia a new power” question open. While it seems that mental state wouldn’t cause a change, it may still be possible for someone who’s, somehow, experienced massive DNA mutation to end up offering Varia a different power. Granted, for most cases post-mutation power would probably be similar to pre-mutation power.
The orb situation also raises an obvious question concerning Sydney’s link to the orbs. Could anyone else have activated the orbs or is there something about Sydney that allowed her to activate them?
Less obvious orb question: What happens when the comm-ball’s used to generate a double while they’re together? Does it only make a copy of the one holding the orb or does it copy both?
As for anyone trying to figure out how Varia and Sydney could handle multiple orbs: Bare arms crossed over each other’s shoulder’s would allow for four orbs to be used while maintaining skin contact and potential grip for use during flight.
That aside, managing both a Ferris Beuller AND Press Your Luck reference within the same comic makes me quite happy.
“usually I have some clue”
Maybe its unwise for me to read too much into that but it seems she was expecting to be able to immediately be able to figure out how to activate the power.
The fact her new power form even has safeties probably means she is subconsciously putting them in place which is a very good thing. Suggests it might be running other types of safety overwatch. The other possibility is that all humans in this world have the potential to be supers (cusp of the next evolution thing) and have “required secondary powers” to their potential power. That seems unlikely though.
Indicates to me that Archon is unconcerned about her doing it. She has clearly been there long enough to test multiple people. If they felt it was a problem, they would have already given her strict instructions on it. *
Note that Varia says “Hmm. Nothing obvious. Normally I have some sort of a clue.” This can be read the way you are taking it. Or it may be taken as MY POWER gives me a clue, but this time it has not. And that might be because of the orbs blocking detection powers from working on them.
You and I both worry about nasty unintended side effects. But we have not seen that being an issue yet. It may well be a universal thing, much like the good looks package. If so it would be consistent with all Archon’s other experience.
Maxima may have just been extra cautious with Sydney, because she is not a natural born super. So she could not tell if the usual ‘super powers have safeties’ rule applied.
* That is not to say that if I were their health and safety officer I would be so unconcerned, but we have already seen how careful Maxima was testing Sydney’s shield. I imagine they will have extensively interviewed her, her friends and family, and may have, initially, been cautious even with that.
But, once they have confirmed that she has used the power safely a couple of thousand times, before she was recruited, they would probably conclude that her gestalt’s built in safeties are comprehensive enough that they do not need to be concerned.
Plus Arc-SPARK, Dabbler and Zephan’s artefacts might have provide confirmation through advanced technomagic.
Or, possibly she is being reckless here, as you say. The above is just me reading between the lines. But it is informed by the knowledge that Dave likes powers to work as they are intended. Which is distinct from more pedantic authors who might say:
‘Aha she gains lightning powers, but lightning does not go to a directed target, rather it follows the path of least resistance – so her ally gets hit instead!’
The basic use of powers works how it is intended. Which, albeit vast in scope, is what we are talking about for Varia. Ill-considered situational use though, that we know can be played with. See Glowbug using her powers in water. Plus Jiggawatt’s close call on irradiating everybody, were it not for Dabbler.
So… she doesn’t copy powers. You might be tempted to say she compliments them. “You have electricity. I have magnetism. Together we have electro-magnetism…”
BUT.
If you rephrase “I can ride along with Harem” as “Harem cannot escape from me.” and recognize that having Ice powers when standing next to a Firecaster it become a bit more likely that she has a breed of Nemesis power much like for Whom the Death Tolls. She gets the tools to fight who she’s touching.
…The counter to Sydney being she can contest Sydney for control of the orbs…
Excluding the scenario where Varia manages to grab onto all five copies of Harem, she can only follow if Harem wills it. All Daphne would have to do is poof any copy Varia’s touching and reform it elsewhere.
That aside, the natural immunity Varia grants those she touches to her unlocked powers makes very unlikely that her base power is a form of nemesis.
“All Daphne would have to do is poof any copy…”
…
what would happen to Varia if harem did that?
Is a good question. Most likely the same thing that would happen to anyone else when Harem poofs a copy, they find themselves grasping air. Now, if Varia also gained the ability to make copies in addition to being able to vorp with Harem one would really have to start wondering.
the problem with that, is that she has to touch the person she is fighting, to obtain the counter.
and how that goes… well… not to mention the person she is touching gets the immunity to her power.
Yeah, the immunity rules out direct beat down… But you can still do a LOT of stymieing with ice powers against a firecaster even if you aren’t directly beating on them. Stop them from hurting other people for example.
Now, if Varia gets ‘changed’ even with ‘normals’ and she got nothing from Sydney, does that mean Sydney is related to Maxi? o_O
Another possibility: Sydney’s Balls have locked her DNA so that no one but them can use her (or to ensure that no one else can use them)
I suggest giving the last row of panels another once over. She got something from Sydney, they just didn’t notice it.
I think it’s that Sydney is tied to the orbs, and the orbs arent affected by anything, so when Varia touches Sydney…. her powers act as if Sydney isnt there even, just like all attempts to detect or alter the orbs act like the orbs arent there. :) Called it! :)
look at panel 5…
now look at panel 6…
did something change? are you seeing it?
Yes, I know that the orbs are rotating around both of them. It’s still not changing what I said.
Sydney is not really giving Varia anything – other than sharing her tie to the orbs. Case in point – if Sydney had NEVER been tied to the orbs, Varia would not get the power of ‘being tied to the orbs’.
Therefore it’s almost like whatever there there was with ‘pre-orb Sydney’ no longer exists in the ‘post-orb Sydney’
Capisce?
So, I’m a fan, and judging from the comments a lot of readers *don’t* share my opinion, but for a little while now the comic has felt more like reading the rules to a trading card game than like, you know, a comic.
It also strikes me that introducing Varia sets us up for the kind of random “wait, I have another power” debacle that plagued the Vehemence story line.
But still a fan – just some feedback.
I think you’re completely wrong. But we shall see.
Keep in mind this is a “slice of life” story, where copious amounts of super powers are new, and everyone is still getting a grasp on what they (and everything else) does. To take a quote from Cell in latest Dragon Ball Z Abridged. “I blew a hole in [Piccolo]! How durable is he!? How durable am I? Questions for later.” Keeping in mind that Cell shares Piccolo’s regeneration abilities.
So what you’re getting is a lot of “How durable is he!? How durable am I?” discussion but with more “Questions [and answers] now!”
This isn’t <a href="https://ps238.nodwick.com/"PS 238 The School for Metaprodigy Children, where they mostly have a full handle on the range of super powers.
Info dumps are common whenever Dave has had to introduce a new character with powers or awesome abilities. Dave has said in the above blog and last update, I think, that he wants to start doing less of this explaining everything about their powers (both in comic and below) and leave some mystery. He fell into that pattern early on with the joy of explaining his creations to folks who were interested but now has realized that, as a writer, that’s a bad thing. So to an extent he agrees with you. (though at some point peppered through out the comic these things will have to be said eventually)
That said I think the explosion of comments speculating on her powers swayed him closer to old “telling instead of showing” powers habits than he should have. Since all too many of us eat that stuff up it must be reaaally hard to resist when your more vocal fans are clamoring for the information but people don’t always know whats good for them. They just want stuff.
In an entirely text story I wouldn’t even notice that amount of explaining. It has been established in comic that supers simply can’t resist telling you about their powers. ;)
Since the next bit is all about testing and training he probably could have spaced the exposition out over many different areas of training/testing and even shown more of what is being said here. That’s what you want right? Too see how their powers work as much as be told?
Well said.
As regards your final point, I think that is likely the intent. But, whether realised or not, it probably goes deeper than that. Because, even though Dave will be ‘showing not telling’, it will still be in a training environment. And our media culture has given us more expectation than that.
We have grown up knowing that we have under two hours (for film) or, say, half an hour (for TV) to SAVE THE WORLD. Or something equally dramatic. Especially when dealing with the super genre.
But the same has happened in other genres. And it creates farcical situations, as a result. Such as the UK tv series, set in a small village. Where the hero is a detective who solves murders. Typically two or three a week. And the series has been running for a long time.
There are now more corpses in the graveyard, than the total population of the community!
Fortunately Dave is actually ahead of the curve, in recognising that you can keep things entertaining, even when progressing things at a normal day-to-day pace. As an example (and keeping on topic), I have more than once heard US cops commenting that they have not had to draw their weapon, in earnest, more than once or twice in their entire career.
Yet I bet they can still tell interesting tales about the things they have gotten up to.
UK TV has cottoned onto this and now broadcast lengthy detective shows, where you might only have the one murder to investigate, in the entire season. And it has proven to be immensely popular!
Magnetoo‘s comment was worth making mind. Although I actually like reading the rules to trading card games. But not in a sterile environment. Rather in the company of friends, and talking over the implications. And going back and forth with “ooh, so that means we are allowed to do this…” and “aha, here is an interesting thing…”
Which is something that Dave taps into, through the characters doing just that. And, of course, that then gets those of us who enjoy commenting jumping on the bandwagon.
I find that an evening spent, playing a new game with friends, can be just as entertaining in the learning the rules stage, as in playing the game. Unless someone gets impatient. But, in those instances where you skip past the learning and understanding part, and get straight into the game, you can get problems.
Somebody could invest a significant amount of time in preparing for a particular strategy, only to find out, when they try to deploy it, that there is an objection, that it must be illegal. Now, rather than having fun, you have an argument, have to go back to re-reading the rules. And, no matter who is right, somebody (and possibly everybody’s) enjoyment is ruined!
The same can happen in comics. People can invest a lot of their empathy in thinking that things work one way. Only to have the carpet yanked out from under them when they find that it does not. And, worse, that the way it has played out seems totally ludicrous. They have lost their suspension of disbelief and likely lost interest in continuing the story.
Regardless of that, there are still great benefits to just getting on with the action. Or else Hollywood would not exist. But there are also advantages to bringing the audience along with the story, at the same pace as the characters actually living it.
Yorp, that show you mentioned where the hero solves two or three murders a week in a small town, reminds me of an American series called “Murder, She Wrote”. Ruthlessly formulaic, it features Angela Lansbury as a mystery writer in a small town called Cabot Cove. She ends up solving at least one murder every episode. It ran for 12 seasons (remember that we’re talking Hollywood seasons of 22 to 24 episodes each, not the shorter British seasons) plus four made-for-TV movies and a short-lived spinoff show. They even debated rebooting the series in 2013 but after a lukewarm reception from fans, the idea was shelved.
Anyway, someone actually did the math and determined that Cabot Cove would top the FBI national crime statistics by several orders of magnitude, roughly 86 times the homicide rate of the most murderous city in the world. (A fact which actually got lampshaded in the series itself once or twice.) In fact, in the 8th season, the season began with Jessica moving to New York to allow for more varied storylines and less Cabot Cove Death Syndrome, which was getting a little absurd.
The “one murder that takes the whole season to solve” works well in the shorter British seasons (often 13 episodes or less, sometimes as few as 6 episodes), but likely would not work as well in a full-length Hollywood season. That’s probably the reason why American police procedurals like “Law & Order” or “CSI” are usually set in larger cities like New York (population: over 8 million), Las Vegas, or Miami, where one murder a week would not seem unusual. (In fact, 54 murders were committed in New York in just a three-month period this year.)
Regarding having fun spending an evening with friends learning the rules: I agree; my gaming friends and I have found the same thing. The learning process can be almost as fun as the game itself. I do have a solution to rules-lawyers who drag the game down by insisting that I’m doing something wrong. (I love playing a character in someone else’s game, but more often than not end up as the storyteller.)
This solution is called “Two minutes from then“. In other words, when a rules-lawyer insists that the rules say I’m doing it wrong, he has exactly “two minutes from then” to find it. If he can’t find the rule in two minutes, then we assume that I’m right. In games with more than a few sourcebooks, it can be amusing to watch the hapless rules-lawyer desperately flipping through dozens of books trying to find one obscure rule in two minutes.
Yea, most UK crime dramas are in settings where the numbers do not jump out as being ridiculous.
Academic study has shown that they actually are though. Given that it turns out there are significantly more fictional murders portrayed per year, in contemporary UK settings, than there are actual murders! They comment that it gives the public a grossly distorted perception of potential risks.
Likewise there have been serious complaints raised, by the legal system, that juries are having their expectations seriously distorted by NCIS and similar programs. Because of the solving one murder per episode format, and the race against the clock. Which makes it seem that modern forensics and investigative techniques can solve such crimes in an unrealistically short space of time.
Whilst I appreciate that a one murder per 24 episode season would not make for good entertainment, you could still capture the slow-paced feel for the entertainment, by having the crimes and the investigations proceed at a more realistic pace.
Bear in mind that the figures you quote are themselves very misleading. No one individual handles all the crimes in a city, they are split up into precincts. And those departments which may deal with specialist crime (such as homicide) on a city-wide basis, are sub-divided into various teams.
Simply because some murders take months, or years. And, as you say, murders can happen at a faster pace than that. But a great many of those will be domestic crimes that are fairly obvious in nature and relatively easy to resolve.
The ones that do genuinely require forensics, to give clues as to the identity of a suspect, who may not be associated with the victim, are the ones that take a long time. Hence the problems with juries, not appreciating such. That and the fact that nowadays juries place far less weight on cases which do not have forensic evidence supporting them. Which is again an unrealistic expectation.
A US drama though, could have 3-4 murders, over a 24 week season though, for much the same effect. Maybe having one that covers the first half of the season. Another the concluding half. And the others overlapping.
Which would help to highlight that a cop often does not have the luxury of just concentrating on the one case. They may have several files on their desk at any one time. Each representing a case that has been going on for months or years.
While people might assume that the one-murder-per-show format is the side effect of a short American attention span, it really is not. It’s more of a problem with the mindset of upper management, who seem to believe that viewers are morons who need everything wrapped up within 43 minutes (which is the actual length of a 1-hour episode after commercials are removed).
Star Trek: The Next Generation is a good example. Except for a few two-show (and one three-show) storylines, every episode was self-contained. Nothing was ever left on a cliffhanger. Meanwhile, Babylon 5 was designed from the start to have a 5-year story arc. Sure, some plotlines were resolved in a single episode, and some had to be changed and/or shortened due to actors leaving the show, but other plots were introduced and not resolved for an entire season or longer. And we LIKED it that way. Too bad upper management doesn’t understand that. Upper management tried to meddle multiple times with Babylon 5, and they are directly responsible for the spin-off, “Crusade”, only lasting one season.
Long story short: J. Michael Stracynski wanted another 5-year story arc. The management wanted “wrestling IN SPACE”, even at one point telling him (paraphrased) “look to professional wrestling for how the characters should behave”. When JMS told them “not just no, but HELL no”, they told him to make just the one season and that would be it.
You’re correct about police procedurals like NCIS having an effect on juries. There’s even a trope for it. To use just one example, they have started to expect DNA evidence to be readily available, because NCIS and CSI seem to be able to complete a DNA profile in less than 24 hours. In reality, it can take 4 to 6 months for a DNA analysis to be done, because the labs that perform the analysis have a waiting list of other cases that have to be done first.
There’s two pieces of good news, though. First, the producers of the shows have been made aware of the effect that it’s having on juries. All three CSI shows have been cancelled (though they will continue to run in sydication for a long time), and NCIS: New Orleans and NCIS: Los Angeles have shifted their focus away from the forensics, though they still do it from time to time. The other good news is that (surprisingly) there are still people on those juries who have never seen CSI or NCIS, and sometimes there are people like me who can properly inform the other jurors that their expectations are unrealistic.
Having said all that, the idea of having a show where they only solve 3 or 4 cases over a 24-week season is actually realistic and doable, if only we could convince management that people would actually watch it…
Sounds like we have very similar views on the matters. Especially as I loved Babylon 5. One of my fondest memories, of it, was that the first showing of a climactic episode, on UK TV happened to fall during GenCon.
Despite it being populated by rabid gamers, who would happily play through the night, non-stop, everything wound to a halt come show time. Every bar, with a television, was packed to the brim.
As you say, the story progressed over a long time. Yet everybody, thousands of them, across the convention campus, knew the back story. So there was an Earth-shattering cheer for one particular moment!
I love that scene, it’s so beautifully done.
Also: B5 is one of my favourite TV shows. If there were more like it I might still watch television.
I agree. I came to the conclusion long ago that it is NOT the viewers that are morons, it is the managers that are morons. Have you seen the movie The Core (2003)? I won’t go into all the bad science here (there’s a LOT of it), but on top of that, one of the executive producers wanted dinosaurs. And he wanted the Virgil to have a windshield. On this forum, where there might actually be some readers who are geologists and/or physicists who know the forces and temperatures involved, I don’t need to tell you how stupid those ideas are. Thankfully the screenwriter stuck to his guns.
But… there are dinosaurs down there.
And they clean windshields!
“There are now more corpses in the graveyard, than the total population of the community!”
Tourists?
They probably have very capable estate agents. And the local community must have a code not to spill the beans, until a sale has been concluded.
“Ooh, dearies, do you know you are the third family to move into that house this year? Such dreadful goings on! Here, come round my house and I will tell you all about it. Don’t worry, I havn’t poisoned the tea! Hang, on, I have the test kit here, so you can check it yourself.”
Come the zombie apocalypse, it would not be a healthy place to be!
Called it!
Oh wait, but I see one difference…
The orbs start orbiting BOTH of them.
I shall relish the shared moment, where you, I, many (but not all) other readers, plus our room full of heroes, all missed the the elephant in the room.
It is a Wile E Coyote, hanging in mid-air moment. With the dawning realisation that gravity will notice any moment now…
Yep – it was a full 2 minutes before I realized it, as you can see from the time marker of my comments :)
Well, you would have to keep your wits about you, in a cross-examination. I would expect no less from a professional, such as yourself. You will need to spot inconsistent testimony and expose the truth.
Maybe this will give Varia the power to figure out what the last two orbs do.
Thing is, whatever powers Varia gets work “differently” to how they do for the source person. But it is still an interesting idea.
Since all she probably gained was the ability to control the orbs (the orbs she probably can’t read or “copy” altered or not) then she would get the ability to control them differently then Sydney? Or to a lesser extent…
Yes.
:
I think many of us would like to see Varia using the orb’s powers differently to Sydney. It would have much more character that way. But that necessitates having the gestalt power work twice. Once to grant the ability to use the orbs, and a second (or second to eighth time) to alter the powers. Which seems to be at odds with how her power use is stated.
But if the way Varia uses the powers is changed, in some clever way, then that could feel more natural.
By example, Varia reaches up to grasp the Forb. When she touches it, it turns into a giant, prehistoric armadillo! She can command it, and it proves to be just as invulnerable to damage as the force field. But it refuses any orders to do anything other than interpose itself, to shield people from danger.
And the flyball turns into a huge pterodactyl. The PPO into a fire-breathing velociraptor, and so on.
I’m assuming they were assuming (probably just making an ass out of u and ming… wait? Who’s Ming?) that Sydney was born unique in some fashion that allowed her to control the orbs (lottery odds put to shame on that one) and that is what Varia mimicked and then twisted juuuust enough that her control was either different or weaker than Sydney’s but not so different she can’t have some affect on them as surrogate Sydney.
So the orbs wouldn’t be changed but how they are controlled might be. Assuming the difference isn’t just poor or wonky control it could be something actually improved like now the orbs can get farther away from them both. Maybe she temporarily unlocks part of Sydney’s/Varia’s combined skill tree. Stuff that the orbs could already do but now the its like somebody put in cheat codes in this here video game. (could even be something friggin’ scary like all the orbs default “safeties” are now OFF! Maxima insists they never buddy up again. Until this time in the future where they can’t figure out anyway to defeat the big bad…. )
Damnit, I’m not actually sure whether this answered my question of “Does she automatically know how to use each new power she gets?” or not.
On one hand, she didn’t notice the orbs changing their orbit at all, on the other hand, Sydney’s a bit of a special case (hurr hurr) even among Supers.
Its like Harem only getting enough precog or farsight (or whatever) to tell if her target location is safe to port to. She gets just the barest version necessary to make her power usable and no more.
So if Varia is getting her “clue” from her power then it must be just enough to get started. I think she just gets a feel for how to activate the power so then she just flips that switch and sees what power she got by activating it. Maybe with training and experience she will get a little better at feeling out those feelings?
Apparently that is one of her strongest limiting weaknesses.
The other being that she can’t affect an enemy super directly with the power they helped her unlock. Which just means she would have to come at them sideways like throwing something heavy at them or using the fire power to make the concrete in front of them explode. But still it would definitely make her want a friendly “partner” available at all times.
A very important conclusion, with profound implications for Varia.
Some people have drinking problems. Others might have attention problems. Stay focussed, this bit is important!
Varia has a maths problem. One is a problem for her. If she encounters a solo villain, she cannot turn his own power on him. Unless it happens to buff her, or she can use it against him indirectly, by turning the environment on the villain, as he is immune to that power.
But if she opposes two villains Varia may be able to directly turn either of their powers on the other!
Of course two minus one is a maths problem.
One she she has problems with.
That could depend on if she can get a power from an unconcious person.
In that case, she uses one villain’s gifted power against the oher, then the now unconcious/disabled/otherwise out of the fight gives her another power that she uses against the first.
She also has to get lucky in that the power she gets from both of them needs to be helpful against each other, her tagging along with Harem doesn’t help against any other opponent (assuming Harem is an “enemy” in this situation). It actually does help against Harem though, because Harem can’t teleport the touched body away. Interesting things could happen if Harem tries to “unteleport” the touched body. Harem also has the advantage that any serious fight against her is 5v1 with the 5 all being teleporters.
Varia definitely does not want to go solo. Too many variables in such a situation.
Good points. Mind you, if enemies powers cannot be turned against their allies then there is a good chance that they are not a danger to Varia anyhow. You would expect at least one of a pair of villains to have some nasty power or other. And, if they do not, then she can always resort to mundane equipment and weapons, if they pose no threat.
Does answer your question.Observer‘s points are all well made.
But, to reiterate in my own way, firstly it is clearly stating that whatever she does know is normally extremely limited in nature. Nothing more than a hint.
Any conclusions beyond that requires some deduction. Elsewhere she indicates that Maxima is the only person who she could not gain a power from. And we can discount Maxima, as Varia would not have gotten past the force field which surrounds her, to actually touch her real skin.
Which given that she has clearly been using it, successfully, on big chunks of the population, means that she must have been able to figure out the presence of every power. Even those which had no visible manifestations, to give an idea what it does.
Ergo the clue she gets must come from the power itself, rather than just via observation. Unlike someone living with an obscure power, who might eventually stumble on the thing they can do (“Oh, I can detect magic!”), Varia only has each power for a short time.
Especially true for powers gained from non-supers. As there would not even be a way to guess what they could be, from observing the individual (see the kid granting ice powers above as an example).
This quoted comment is also pointing out the exception to this power-granted clue. It is not happening in this case. But we know that the orbs can fool even the extraordinary detection powers that Dabbler has.
Thus it is reasonable to conclude that Varia would be getting a clue, from her power (presumably that she now can control the orbs). Were it not for the fact that the orbs are blocking that aspect of her ability.
Looks like, the way they are holding hands, only two orbs could be used by them, one each, unless Varia could just has to touch, then three orbs could be used at once.
I had one complaint about the bench seating in the back of the room. There is no aisle to walk through. People have to step on or over the front benches to get to the back ones. This does not pass ADA accessibility requirements. What if a new ARC recruit was some (possibly bald) guy in a wheelchair?
Then he sits in the front, or on the other side of town, (it’s all the same to him.)
not acceptable just because there is a logical and sensible solution doesnt mean we shouldnt rant about lack of accessability to the area
OUTRAGE I SAY OUTRAGE
Projecting the perspective lines there’s a pretty good possibility for a narrow aisle in our left side.
This is a super powered organisation. With plenty of very capable individuals. I am sure they will think of something.