Grrl Power #325 – Four out of ten hut
Maxima doesn’t have super hearing, but the team has decided that her hearing is pretty good at least.
This page was just the natural progression from the previous one. I rarely have anyone doing anything particularly military in the comic, but I figure if a Lieutenant and a Lt. Colonel walk into a room full of recruits, there should be some reaction. That reaction might be subdued if the Lt. Colonel is in street clothes (which will be explained) but Peggy’s still an officer.
Also while writing this page I learned that “ten hut” is just drill-sergeant-ese for “attention” I didn’t know that. Harem is sort of splitting the difference.
In panel 7, Peggy’s original comment to Sydney was “Stop sticking your chest out like you’re modeling your first training bra”, but my wife convinced me the first date thing was more universal. Though I suppose a lot of that depends on when you started dating, and who you were on a date with.
So A-kon was the usual good times. I didn’t get any commissions unfortunately as I didn’t have the forethought to print out any reference sheets, but I went to some of the webcomic panels and better yet got to talk some webcomic shop with some folks, primarily The Devil’s Panties and the writer of Spinnerette. I think it helped me formulate some plans regarding the book. I may make a separate post about that. Also I got a chance to sit down and have some dinner with some readers. Here’s some photographic evidence taken with my crappy Galaxy S5 camera. I’m in the back in the green shirt, continuing my streak of being chronically bad about not smiling in pictures. I’m not sure what’s up with that, but it was good times. I didn’t spoil much, mostly we recommended animes, talked about other webcomics, the usual nerd stuff.
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Would Maxima really say “all stances and salutes” or “basic drill”, I wonder.
It sounds like she is giving a realistic limitation on what could be achieved in one day. There being a difference between the stances (‘at ease’, ‘attention’ and so on), as opposed to the much more complex manurers involved in military parade.
For instance what Maxima has specified would not necessarily involve putting a rifle into Sydney’s hands. Which would be necessary for rifle drill. So gives Peggy discretion, depending on Sydney’s competence and progress. Probably best not attempted on day one.
Definitely. And besides, there are only so many stances and salutes. It’s something they can probably cover in less than an hour, a reasonable amount of time for private training when most of the day will probably be group training.
Covered in less tan an hour. Which translates in Sydney training to all day :)
…But Sydney only has the afternoon to learn it, not a whole day.
;)
Gotcha. One afternoon.
Or in Sydney time, 23 1/2 days.
Sydney time is exponential
More accurately, Sydney time is relative. In the beginning pages (several months after the current flashback-in-progress), the parking validation sticker on the windshield of Sydney’s car indicates May, 2011. So the time frame of this flashback would be sometime in the earliest months of 2011, or maybe the last couple of months of 2010.
So far during the flashback, it’s taken something like 4 years real-time to recount less than 48 hours of Sydney time.
Maybe sydney time exists in a state of quantum uncertainty until viewed by an outside observer.
Sydney caught on quick about what was happening, she just needs to be taught, or shown, the proper stance (including with her face :P)
Oh please. That was just fighting a virtual army of supervillains and one mega-super villain. That was nothing..
This is STANDING STILL. That’s far more difficult to understand.
For Sydney.
Actually, it’s not. The big reason why folks with ADHD have problems standing still is that we can’t actually focus our attention cleanly–it more sort of cycles than concentrates. While this makes multi-tasking a lot harder, it also means that we pick up things faster, and can draw connections that aren’t really available to other people–which is part of why Sydney is so…well…weird. It’s not that she’s actually nuts, or even not right in the head, it’s that her brain is wired to make connections that the rest of us cannot easily follow. Generally, the stronger the ADHD, the faster those connections can be made, and the more steps might exist between the two points being connected.
My personal theory is that this was originally intended to be something like an invention gene, if you will–it is a mechanism that helps people with ADHD adapt to their surroundings and learn the basics of new skills faster, but at the price of never being able to adapt quite as well. A tribe with ADHD would have members able to quickly pick up new skills as needed–it usually takes me minutes to learn the fundamentals of things that others can take hours to understand–but the price to this is that it also makes it much harder to really master a skill. So basically Sydney should be able to learn Attention, At Ease, etc quickly…but will have real problems if Max is going to insist that they be parade-ground perfect.
And by the way, it’s probably not a case of Max having good hearing, as knowing her people. Harem is exactly the sort of person who would mutter a sarcastic response to an order she didn’t like, and Max is exactly the sort of person who would know she’d do it.
The trick–and Sydney will have learned this, because she can function in combat–is to make it cycle fast enough to be useful, and not a distraction. That makes it somewhat harder to
Way to take a joke post and make it serious.
It was funny. :-)
But, we are prone to look at the serious aspects of a comment too. There is many a true word, spoken in jest. And, being one of the few havens, on the net, for ADHD, it has attracted a large number of folks who have it. So such comments do get picked up upon.
Fortunately the nature of the comic does encourage flipping between serious and comedic, and vice versa. I find it quite entertaining when one thread can have aspects of both. Sometimes folks want to explore the serious issues. Other times they want to let their hair down. All is good here.
Yea, I like to think of it along those lines. It is an evolutionary adaptation which is good for problem solving and tracking.
Nobody with ADD/ADHD has suggested this, but I would guess it is also good for standing guard. In a potentially hostile area, anyhow. I can see that the constantly shifting attention would allow them to spot subtle anomalies much better.
Although probably best paired with somebody who keeps their attention focussed on the less subtle, boring things, that also form part of the job. But I think that is true for most of their roles. You would not want an entire team or community to be ADD heavy. But would benefit from having representation.
Which is supported by the incidence of ADD/ADHD in the genepool. It is common enough that I feel evolution has found that there are advantages which offset the more obvious disadvantages. But not so much that it dominates. Every community can benifit from lateral thinkers, inventors, trackers, scouts, guards. But they also need the mundane thinkers, who are better suited to the more boring roles society needs.
Being social animals, I think human evolution incorporates a big element of community needs in its evolutionary mechanisms.
“manurers involved in military parade” Only if there are going to be horses in the parade.
Being assigned to the follow-up detail behind a parade with horses is the real shit job.
Reminds me of the 4th of July parade through our town last year. It included horses & yes, they left some messes in the street behind them. After the parade was done, I spoke to one of the cops who was assigned to public security, mentioning that I was glad to NOT be on the clean up detail…
Let’s try this again.
Lately, the last “float” in our local parades has been the city’s street sweeper.
Reminds me of being in marching band in high school, at one of the annual parades. You can imagine how overjoyed we were when we were told that we would be in front of the horses, and our rivals, Liberty Eylau, would be right behind them.
That’s the way to take advantage of Home Ground territory…
;)
It’s hard to be mad at the horses. They were just doing their doody. (Ba dum bum TSSH)
The problem with marching behind the horses… well, let’s just say our lines were often less than straight, as we endeavored to avoid bringing home anything that we didn’t take with us.
at least horses are herbivores. now, if they had been riding, say pigs (or better tyrannosaurus rexes, um… tyrannosaurus regēs??) then that would have been a real chore
I think I would vote to be in the furthest part of the parade behind them. Assuming the option of not being in the parade, at all, was unavailable. Having to walk around big piles of dino crap, beats being a component part of same.
Pretty sure it would just start with Position of Attention and salutes. We can get into at ease and carry on after you’ve got POA down.
Head erect, eyes straight ahead, chin in shoulders back, chest out, stomach in, weight evenly distributed on both feet, heels together, feet forming a 45 degree angle, arms hanging naturally at their sides, thumbs along trouser seam with fingers joined in a natural curl is literally day one just off the bus stuff.
Dont forget the eyes front!
or a gaze resting at a point 6 inches above the head of whomever your at attention for.when they are standing in front of you. Because eye contact is bad.
To say nothing of all the boobs every where.
It would make matters of discipline even harder for any right thinking mammal.
Oooh, Syd’s gonna get a cric in her neck if she does that, though. I’m pretty sure 6 inches above anyone else in ARC is gonna be a good 45 degree minimum angle for her.
Guess she will just have to learn how to unfocus here eyes so she isnt Actually looking at you . Rather she is just looking “though” you at some random point behind you.
(Only an Instructor that has their hat strapped on too tight would shit on a recruit for “eyefucking” with a thousand yard stare)
“…make matters of discipline even harder…”
In more ways that one, to belabor the obvious.
This is why, in American boot camps, female recruit training is segregated from male training. Oh, and there’s also the rumors (?…Or reality?) that the galley would liberally season the food with saltpeter, too…
The saltpeter is a rumor (fortunately).
The inability to troop the morning colors is a side-effect of the powerful combination of anxiety to succeed, physical exhaustion, and a radical change of lifestyle. Barracks life also contributes to this suppression, because there’s so many other guys around.
Most recruits are probably afraid that they would sound like a wimp if they said “I’m dead tired,” “I don’t yet feel like this is my home,” or “There are all these other guys around”, so it is comforting to be able to cling to the belief that the Army, in its all-knowing wisdom, must be slipping something into the food.
This need to believe that an outside force is deliberately working to keep things down fuels the saltpeter myth. The myth works to reassure the woodless recruit that there’s nothing wrong with him — it’s all the sneaky doings of those in charge. The myth is every bit as empowering as it is reassuring; it says “We are such rampantly virile men that those in command fear us and what we might do if left unchecked.”
The hard truth is that there’s no saltpeter hidden in Army chow. Potassium nitrate (saltpeter) has no effect on libido, plus or minus, so there’s nothing to be gained from doctoring the food. Also, it’s actually dangerous to use. In large quantities, it can cause anemia, methemoglobinemia (a blood condition in which the hemiglobin in your blood continues to carry oxygen but is unable to release it effectively), headache, stomach upset, dizziness, and kidney damage.
Given the possibility of severe health effects (and the resulting cost of treatment at taxpayer expense) like anemia and kidney damage, it would be negligent at best for the military to dose the food with it.
I do wish, however, they could do something about the MRE’s. They’ve gotten much better since the first generation, but they still tend towards low dietary fiber, which can lead to constipation, which is why the crackers have a higher-than-normal vegetable content (and may even be why the chewing gum is sweetened with xylitol, which has a mild laxative effect). Even so, comedian Al Franken commented (during a USO tour) that he “[had] eaten five MRE’s, and so far none of them have an exit strategy.”
Army always says D&C. which is short for Drill and ceremony.
” Hey you need to work on your D&C. “
both Maxima and Peggy are?/were? Air Force.
not sure if they will be re-branding themselves as “Archon” as their answer to “What branch of service are you in?” type of questions, or if they will stay with “I’m Air Force, but I’m currently assigned to Archon for duty”… kinda like the Medics in the Marine units… they are actually Navy Corpsmen, but are assigned to duty with the Marines… so when asked by a civilian, usually that’s how they would answer.
I’m pretty sure that because of the Posse Comitatus Act and how Arianna has described Archon being able to get around that, that they are NOT part of the Air Force anymore, and won’t be describing themselves as ‘Air Force but…’ – they’ll be describing themselves as Archon – it’s a new military branch not subject to in posse comitatus. Posse Comitatus Act only applied originally to the army, and was amended around 1956 to include the Air Force (it doesnt include the Navy, Marines, National Guard, or Coast Guard – although the Navy and Marines have internal regulations which give that Act legal force upon those branches).
I agree 100%.
I had not actually considered this angle before, when the topic came up. So in that instance I indicated that what scantrontb is proposing would be a valid option. Albeit that it is more likely that they have permanently changed service to Archon, rather than being on detached duty.
Historically both options have been used. The first commando units, formed in the UK, during WW2, even mixed and matched, at first. Using whichever model suited an individual’s circumstances best. They borrowed the best, wherever they came from. But tried to keep them, where possible.
However, when you factor in that Archon is specifically a US military force, that brings Posse Comitatus into it. If Maxima is still a member of the airforce, and is now conducting police duties, she and Archon, would be in breach of the act. The same is true of any of their personnel in similar circumstances, such as Peggy, the General, and Super Hiro.
The new laws enabled Archon to conduct policing duties. No mention was made, or implied, that the Posse Comitatus Act had been overturned. As such any army, navy, marine or air force personnel who are assisting Archon for some reason, but are not members, will still have to abide by it. They could not conduct any policing services, other than under circumstances which present day US military can.
These are points which DaveB should bear in mind. The fact that they have been given the right (perhaps temporarily only) to wear their old uniforms, should be viewed as purely a courtesy. One almost certainly restricted to formal, or social, events and specifically precluding whilst conducting any policing role.
If asked directly, on this point, Arianna will have instructed them to say “I was formerly [former_service_name] but am now Archon”.
But do they give ARCHON the ability to act as police, or as an emergency response team? As I understand it, the military cannot act in as police within United States territory unless it is on a designated military base…or unless they belong to or have been seconded to the US Coast Guard, because that was part of what the Coast Guard was created to do. But the rest of the military is not empowered to act in a police role. They ARE, however, empowered to act in a support role–that is, if the police can’t handle something, the military (usually in the form of the National Guard) can be called in to lend a hand. Since this does not involve the military performing law enforcement duties so much as breaking heads (and bones) to get things to quiet down, this does not violate Posse Comitatus…and this seems to be largely how ARCHON operates, although it may also be something much closer to the FBI in nature than an actual dedicated response team. I would expect ARC-SWAT to get deployed for certain types of natural (or not) disasters, for instance, whether a super-villain is involved or not (and, just to screw with readers’ minds, I would expect certain super-villains to lend their assistance in such circumstances as well…for any of a variety of reasons).
But…yeah, ARCHON is not, to my mind, big enough to be an actual police organization. If it was, Sydney would not be able to keep her interest in her comic shop, as that would both create a potential conflict of interest, and it would put her in a position where she is vulnerable to bribery, blackmail, extortion, and a whole host of other problems. However, if she is essentially working as part of an emergency response team…that is a different matter.
Okay – speaking with my attorney hat on right now.
Just to be clear…
It’s not that the US military can’t act on U.S. soil – it’s that in posse comitatus (it’s an actual federal law on the books, called the Posse Comitatus Act, first passed waaaaay back in 1878, and amended in 1956), specifically says the U.S. Army (and amended to include the Air Force) is limited in its ability to act as domestic law enforcement. The Act itself only covers the Army and Air Force, but internal regulations for the Navy and Marines basically duplicate the federal law. The National Guard and the Coast Guard do not have internal regulations like the Act, and CAN act as domestic law enforcement within the United States. In fact, that’s pretty much most of what the Coast Guard does to begin with. And the National Guard can do so if the state’s governmental authority (ie, the governor) invites them to do so. Which also has happened quite a bit throughout the history of the National Guard.
Archon may be a new military branch, but it’s clearly not covered under the act, and it doesnt seem like there’s going to be any amendments to Posse Comitatus to make it applicable. It seems like it’s similar to the Coast Guard, except where the Coast Guard is used for Homeland Security and maritime law enforcement, Archon would be used primarily for superhuman threats and disaster relief (judging from how Arianna described it during the press conference).
So most of what you said is pretty much correct, except for one thing – it’s not that the Coast Guard was made an exception. That’s now how the law works. The law only covers the Army and Air Force to begin with. If the Marines or Navy ever rescinded their regulations which duplicate the law, Congress would have to amend the law to include the Marines and Navy if they wanted it to cover the Marines and Navy. :)
‘that’s now how the law works’ – I meant ‘that’s NOT how the law works’ :)
Yes they do. The press conference explained that, in detail, starting here. They will also respond to natural disasters. And form the backbone of any super response to extraordinary foreign threats. Whilst there will doubtless be some supers still in the other arms of the military, Archon is now the greatest concentration of supers, available to defend the country.
You are right that their numbers are low. But only because there are few supers in general. So their smaller numbers are proportionate to the community they are policing. But their capability should not be underestimated.
Maxima has more power than a battleship, and no conventional unit can emulate things like teleportation. Give Harem a rifle, and point her at an enemy dictator, making a live TV broadcast, from a location she knows, and she can demonstrate the point.
Targeted assassination is a role that Arc Dark are more likely to be involved in. But, in wartime, it is a valid military option. And Arc-SWAT personnel will be on the frontline. But could be seconded to assist black operations too.
Whilst, under ideal circumstances you would not want to have police involved in military operations (the reverse of what you were talking about, but it does actually come into the equation too), such does happen. Look at the present day fighting in Iraq. When I.S. troops attack a city, the police are in the forefront of the defence. Whether the city falls, or not, can depend on how well they work with the military.
Countries which have gendarmes simply acknowledge that suitably trained military forces can perfectly adequately act as police. Whilst the USA has a paranoia, that the state would use such a force for oppression, that need not be the case.
And, even if the state is a corrupt one, which might attempt that, it is far better that the troops used are properly trained for police work. That will reduce the risk of atrocities that you would get, if placing troops, untrained in such roles, into such situations.
Finally, of course, we would expect any decent personnel, be they police, military or gendarme to refuse any order which would oppress the public they are sworn to protect. That is the way to protect society, by having a force you can trust to stand up against tyranny. Heroes do that.
I was in a HQ squadron in the Air Force and we had officers coming and going in the Orderly Room all the time. The only time we were called to attention was when the base commander (a Colonel) walked in. Usually it was the First Sergeant calling “Ten-Hut!” if the old man showed up. Sarge was former Army Air Corps and still did things the Army way.
Sounds very similar to my experience while doing my compulsory military service in the Royal Norwegian Air Force at the HQ squad at Rygge Air Station back in 1991 and 1992 (and I just realized that’s more than 20 years ago and now I feel oooold). The only person we were supposed to always salute was the base commander (a colonel), the reasoning being (as it was explained to us grunts anyway) that if we were to go around saluting every damn officer on an airbase we’d never get any actual work done since that’s all we’d be doing.
… And I now have some very amusing visuals in my head… XD
In the navy we start calling attention at commander (silver leaf) or lieutenant colonel in other branches. Basically the O level at which people could command a ship warrants the call to attention on deck.
Good news for Sydney; it looks like here basic training is going to be incredibly informal if Harem has any part of it.
Also I thought Max was a Colonel.
Given her age and experience, Dave was advised, by those in the know, that she would more realistically be a Lt Colonel. So he has implemented that. And all of the old references/art need to be changed to reflect that, in due course. Along with other rank tweaks.
It does feel more appropriate in the traditional sense.
I was willing to accept colonel based on her abilities and that they’d probably have meritoriously promoted her at least once given that she’s probably gone above and beyond the call at least once due to said abilities.
There is always the possibility of a ‘brevet’ rank – ie. a person gets to wear the insignia and be addressed as if of higher rank, on the clear understanding that this is a temporary thing. Done when someone is of sufficient ability to fill a specific post but “technically” does not qualify for it.
Classic example of this is Bernard Freyberg, one of the Commonwealth’s ablest military officers of BOTH World Wars. During ww1, he was a Captain in the British Army, but was breveted four steps in rank to Brigadier-General (incidentally making him one of the youngest generals in the history of the British Army).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Freyberg,_1st_Baron_Freyberg
Lovely to read about Kiwi Brigadier’s :D
While Freyberg was good, another Brigadier, James Hargest, was the highest ranked Commonwealth POW to successfully escape from an Italian POW Camp
A Dubliner, rather than a Kiwi, but William Manley does have a relevance to your point, in that he earnt his Victoria Cross in action in New Zealand.
The thing that most appeals to me though, about that guy, is that he is the one person in history to both hold a VC and an Iron Cross. Yup, the German one.
But, as if that is not enough, he was also decorated by France, Bavaria and Turkey!
I may be cray cray, but if we’re talking Air Force, then Peggy’s rank insignia is captain, not 1st Lt. First Lieutenant should be a silver bar. So that should be noted as well. (same as Lt. J.G. in the Navy).
You are crazy. Well, to be fair, the images are small. But if you check it out, you will find she has two gold bars, whereas captain is two silver bars. The previous page has a larger image.
I am guessing that Dave was subconsciously expecting some kind of logical pattern. If logic had been on the committee designing insignia (and history had been shown the exit) then it might go one silver bar, two silver bars, one gold bar, two gold bars and then moving onto the more decorative things for higher ranks.
But, of course, it does not work anything like that. Especially as the gold and silver are the opposite way round to how we treat them normally in society.
From reading other posts, it may be that the bars are actually defined as brass and silver. And silver outranks brass. (Giving us the term ‘top brass’)
Sounded like butter was also a contender. ;-)
And, of course, butter is spread by a knife, so silverwear would outrank a butter bar.
Then in EITHER case it is incorrect, unless Dave is making up rank insignia specifically for ArcSWAT, which seems somewhat unlikely given it is part of a US Military (or paramilitary) organization. There is uniformity for a reason. Police, fire, National Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps all use the same insignia and general ranking structure for easy comprehension and immediate recognition. And if you look at pretty much all prior depictions of the ArcSWAT uniforms (regardless of the myriad different styles), the rank insignia are all consistent with current US Military guidelines. Two gold bars is nonsensical as it is neither a Lieutenant nor a Captain rank insignia. It’s basically two 2nd Lieutenant bars side-by-side, then. Also, silver is not automatically higher than brass. All general ranks are gold stars. The coloration of the rank insignia was designed to allow for maximum visibility at range while using a minimum number of molds (going back to the early days when stuff like this had to be struck in smaller quantities and not mass-produced). So, with the exception of Colonel, the ranks pretty evenly divide back and forth between gold and silver. The term “top brass” comes from literally where you would expect it to: the highest ranks wore a ton of brass colored insignia, including piping and service stripes.
If you check around on the other threads (on this page and the previous), you will find that DaveB has confirmed that it was a mistake, and has been added to the ‘to be fixed list’.
Peggy will be depicted with a one silver bar insignia in future.
Still interesting to talk about subjects that spring from the insignia’s though. The fact that ‘top brass’ referred to generals did belatedly come back to me, and I had been intending to say much the same myself. But you beat me to it.
This iAd actually a reply to MacePaladino:
Officer insignia are uniform across all branches, but enlisted insignia are Anything but uniform. Army and marines are the most similar, but the only good measure is that the bigger the insignia, the higher their pay grade.
In some police forces captains do wear gold rather than silver bars. The NYPD, for instance.
Unless they want to be violating US federal law as passed by Congress, we’re not talking Air Force. Or Army. Or Navy or Marines (because their internal regulations give the Posse Comitatus Act authority over them even though the act itself does not).
And you were both airforce, not ground forces. Can’t speak to the RAF, but the US airforce has a long-standing and deserved reputation as the least disciplined of our armed forces. I think in part that’s because when you’re in the air you may have a commander but are largely in charge of your own flight and fighting. Thus they encourage pilots to develop that bulldog mentality because it helps them succeed and survive. Groundpounders have to jump to attention whenever an officer shows up although that attitude is more relaxed in the special forces and commanders may develop different discipline rules within their own unit as long as anyone outside their unit is still accorded an appropriate level of respect.
Air Force Officer Candidate School is also referred to as, “Business School” by the other forces, and they own it!
“Secure that building!”
Army: occupy it.
Marines: level it.
Navy: make sure the doors are locked.
Air Force: sign a 5-year lease.
He he.
Yeah, so the Israeli army is notorious for its lack of formality. The last time I ever stood up from what I was doing because an officer walked in was basic training or official ceremonies. During actual service, Lieutenant Colonel walking in was, more or less, everyday occurrence, and nobody treated it with anything more than “hello”.
Shachar
The Israeli army makes up for its lack of formality with its supreme badassedness.
And so I’ve come to believe, based on your post, that soldiers are inversely proportional in badassedness to formality.
Thus, since we’re talking about superhumans here, who have extremely badass powers….
They’re going to be extremely informal. I’m pretty certain there will be at least one person running around with pants on their head.
HEY!!!! THAT’S CLASSIFIED!!!… these others here are NOT cleared for that!
I’ll get to work on wiping their memories about any pants-on-head related unauthorized knowledge.
I’m well-stocked in Brain Bleach™ for precisely that purpose…
Or maybe 5 people. Or maybe both at once.
I really like Maxima in the fifth panel. :)
Maxima looks cute in panel 5. I didn’t think that was possible
There’s actually a couple different ways to say “attention” in drill sergeantese (or instructorese, I think, if you’re a squiddie or a roughneck). With my drills it was always “HUH teeeeeeen SHUN”.
From what I understand, a lot of drill serginstruceantor behavior isn’t really mandated anywhere. Drills learn to drill by going through a course that is essentially basic training++. Most of the attitude seems to be something that’s passed down in what is essentially a modern oral tradition.
Panel 7, Sydney is looking at Peggy instead of directing her eyes ahead and level. Pardon my language, but in the vernacular of the military, this is known as eye fucking. As in… “WHY ARE YOU EYE FUCKING ME, PRIVATE? COULDN’T YOU GET A REACH AROUND FROM ONE OF YOUR BUDDIES IN THE SHOWER THIS MORNING? WELL, I’M NOT YOUR BUDDY, SO KEEP YOUR EYES WHERE THEY BELONG. PERVERT!”
I like the idea of Archon deliberately being above such behavioral modification techniques, but still. Eye fucking is taboo in the military.
But since Sydney has been a recruit for literally less than 24 hours, the only things she knows are from movies/TV shows. Most of which get it wrong. She’s naturally going to look at who’s speaking to her, especially if it’s someone she already knows and considers a friend. I know that you know that’s one of the harder habits to break when you’re at attention.
Yup, and I know it’s going to come up soon. Look at all the others. They all have their eyes on right, so DaveB knows the drill. Judging by the last panel, Max would prefer to run a tighter ship than the current policy allows. Syd would do well to master basic military etiquette and close order drill as quickly as possible. The idea of Daphne doing the teaching is perfect. She could use a refresher course herself. ; )
What ‘all others’? The only others we see are Jiggs (in her own panel, with no way of knowing if she is not staring directly into Maxi’s eyes or not) and Abbey (who could be attempting to give Maxi a new pierced ear)
Well, all two others in evidence. If the rest are making faces, they haven’t been caught yet.
Peggy does swing both ways. Allow her this little private moment.
;-)
+1
Also while Archon may seek to instill a level of military discipline they are not going to need the standard indoctrination of stripping down the recruits’ personalities to turn them into cogs in a machine. They need them to maintain more individuality because they all will have unique fighting styles suited to their powers.
Also because attempting to “indoctrinate” supers would be insanely hazardous.
Ha, well, Peggy’s also a commissioned officer. She doesn’t get any private moments, not until she musters out! She’ll have to make do with civilian moments or fellow officer moments.
See, because Sydney’s a private. Get it? Get it?
Brain bleach failure. Sydney and Peggy. My eyes. My eyes!
“Brain Bleach”??? I think you misspelled: “Vote Incentive”
The only thing that’s gonna need bleach are these sheets…
Well, just last night, Sydney fell asleep on white sheets & woke up this morning on the Japanese flag…
O.o
Excuse me, I have to go stick a finger in my mind’s eye…. : D
Yea, sales of ‘brain bleach’ have gone through the ceiling today.
I’m quite practiced in the Art of Marketing, ya’ know…
;)
Yeah, I’m interested to see if Archon engages in any kind of getting-yelled-at-for-two-months basic training course, to instill military discipline.
It’s always seemed to me that the overall point of basic training is to form a sort of secondary social order. Like, most days in the military, a unit works like any group of civilians on the same job: there’s guys who are in charge and guys who do the work and guys in between, and they try to get along. Various factors—stress, whether you got laid last night, how well you know the person you’re working with, whatever—can make getting along easier or harder.
But, when certain actions need to be performed to a very exacting standard in very quickly (or when someone’s being an asshole), the secondary social order takes over. In the secondary order, I don’t know you and you don’t know me; we’re both just two cogs, and the smaller cog performs as instructed by the larger cog. Other factors are immaterial.
It’s useful in a military organization, but it’s also moderately difficult to achieve. When recruits wash out of basic (at least nowadays), it’s at least as often due to mental factors as physical. Sydney, despite her severe ADD, is together enough to pass SCUBA cert, co-run her own business, and so on—odds are, she’s together enough to pass through a modern basic training course with no serious issues. Someone who washes out of basic due to stress is likely to wash out of a lot of other things in life.
Of course, recruits aren’t armed with lethal weapons 24/7, either, which adds a whole other level to Archon’s training standards. If a recruit loses his shit in basic, he’s only as much of a danger to others as he can manage with his own two hands, unless he happens to lose his shit during the… oh, let’s say six hours, total, out of a nine-week course, when he’s on the shooting range about to shoot. There’s no other time when a recruit has access to weapons and ammunition. An Archon recruit isn’t so limited.
One other consideration here is there are severe ramifications for a super washing out. Firstly they are very rare in this world. So Archon do not want to loose any who would be capable of useful service. So washing out due to being incompetent is one thing. But having one drop out just because they had been pushed too far too fast would be needlessly loosing capabilities that might never be replaced.
Normal armed forces can simply hire someone else. Or as many as it takes, to replace all the drop outs. However, both Halo and Varia are very likely unique in the world, and literally irreplaceable.
Then consider the more dire implications too. I bet basic camps keep a close watch on the live ammunition storage. To limit the risks for anyone who gets pushed too far. That way, hopefully you only get a recruit taking a swing at whoever is getting in their face.
Push Sydney too far, and that person could end up being tossed into the air, for use as target practice by the PPO! And then, having gone completely off the rails, Archon would get to find out that office-blocks are not as useful as hardened bunkers, when trying to avoid tank-melting attacks from cutting it in half!
I dunno, one of the interesting factoids is, they still currently have the more or less #1 meta human on their side, so even if halo DID flip out and snap under the pressure, maxima is more than capable of restraining her or taking her out. Just as one example, we see clearly that her shield is not locked in place when vehemence tows her and the lighthook during the fight. Remember the comic where maxima tries to fly vehemence into outer space? Yeah, sydney has no way to really block that, and her shield can only hold so much oxygen. By the time she even reacts to maxima taking her into the air, she is several miles into the upper atmosphere and in danger of dying from lack of oxygen.
Anyways, point being, a snapped super would suck, but aside from losing a valuable resource, its manageable. And would you really want to risk a super who might snap in a tough situation out in the field?
Nope. But that is why you rely more on keeping a very close eye on her, than the more traditional methods the military deploys. Make sure you push her hard enough so that she keeps improving. But not so hard that she looses it.
Mind you, unlike many of the cast, who have dire images of her darker side, I have every faith in Sydney. Her heart is in the right place. So the worst they would do is make her decide that she did not want to remain in the military.
That though would lake some serious mismanagement, at this point. She is clearly popular and loving it here. But, when talking about the super hero training regime in general, I think Dave has a lot of flexibility in how he wants to handle it.
Oddly, the greatest risks are are actually for reader expectations. Too relaxed and it will sit poorly with those who have familiarity with real boot camp experience. Too strict and it will raise objections from those who expect super heroes to dangle villains off roof-tops, by their feet, as a legitimate interrogation technique.
We have seen shades of both camps, responding from just this one comic.
So not an easy path to walk. M*A*S*H* showed how a harshly realistic setting can produce great comedy though. So that path is an option. Albeit harder for Dave, not having the military experience himself to draw upon.
But, even in that setting they did have a very ill-disciplined group, who got away with a lot, because their skills were very much needed. So, despite their zany antics, it still had a ring of authenticity.
By having Archon as a new arm of the military, Dave can get away with various details simply because ‘that is the way they do it in Archon’. But setting the right tone is the most critical issue. If he can convince our numerous military readers that it ‘feels credible’, despite the unorthodox discipline techniques (read ‘super wedgie’), then he is onto a winner.
Dang, that deserves +2 just for the excellent MASH reference.
I think going down that road is most logical, like you said before Supers are rare and their skills are in high need.
Where a lot of military command personnel mes up big time is when they fail to strike a balance between Discipline & Morale. If you can’t keep Morale pretty high, discipline goes down the drain pretty quickly.
In the last command where I was stationed, that was a significant problem in the upper ranks structure…
If I can hijack this a little (its related). When are we gonna see the “Super Shrink”, Counselor Man, or whatever? Cause having some permanent staff in charge of keeping tabs on their past, present, and possible future mental well being is extremely logical for this group. And I would think we should see this being soon. What better time that after the crazy and potentially traumatic events of the last day for Sydney? Possibly Jiggy too depending on how new she is to this type of combat?
Sydney would need to have a basic evaluation anyway… maybe its coming up in the testing phase so soon that they saw no reason to reschedule?
I’m pretty stoked to see what Dave has thought up for the counselor of military police superheroes. (I mean if they have a fabric version of a paper master for their teams on call Edna Mode… )
Putting aside the genuine need for PTSD counselling, and just dealing with the entertainment side of things, having a counsellor does sound very Star Trek The Next Generation. Which, although not damning is rather… bleh.
Yeah, but THIS is also a cop show of sorts and cop shows also use psychobable types. Not just for therapy. They also use them to do make up psychological profiles based on evidence to narrow down the list of suspects or if they already have a suspect they can analyse them to judge their next moves, etc… Have you ever seen the show “Bones”? I haven’t seen that many of them but they have two very different examples of shrink types in two different career paths interacting with the “cops” and “squints” (forensic scientist team) in interesting ways.
There are lots of ways a small staff of such professionals could be used PTSD etc…counselling is just how they should be acting right now. (that and basic entry evaluations) ARCDARK and ARCLIGHT should also make quite a bit of use of them. (especially if some of them have powers related to their work)
You argue your case well. And, given how broad a mandate Arianna has for her post(s), for justifiable story reasons (ie we don’t want five faces for ancillary roles, when one will do) then I could see how that would work.
Although, keeping it strictly real world, I would be surprised to find that any individual’s practice actually covered both PTSD counselling and psychological profiling. That is just going by my gut feeling that this is Hollywood inspired thinking (as you note in your comment).
But I would, equally, not be surprised if I were proven wrong. As my brain likes to juggle up the names of the various shrink occupations, so I have a dreadful time correctly noting who does what.
But those still seem at odds, despite that. Even if the same training would qualify someone to go into either field. Or that a professional might choose to switch career path from one to the other. But both at the same time? mmm.
Well, when I said a “small staff of such professionals” (see above comment) I meant a mini “floating” department (shared human resource? I don’t know, too small a group to get a branch anyway.) of uniquely qualified psychologist/chiatrist/counseling/profiling individuals.
However given how Dave’s been doing things so far I think if he only has one shot at showing that staff evaluating Sydney he would go with the powered one. Its more fun. It may be a cliche but its a very effective one that such a gent/lady would have mental powers of some kind. This was the individual I was looking forward to seeing.
That said, if his/her mental power was something even more expected like mind reading he/she might have advanced very quickly in learning and degrees.
Not sure about the military, but in the police Sydney would have been assigned mandatory counseling after the battle (Mandatory so you can complain to your mates about how you’re being forced to be all open and touchy feely with the shrinks, while privately finding it cathartic and helpful). I’d imagine this should extend to Archon as supers are a limited resource and loosing one to trauma (or worse one breaking down in combat potentially costing innocent lives) be a non-trivial matter.
Mind you, how do you make comedy out of that without invoking Bladerunner (for the nth +1 times)?
Sydney would sure qualify. Having woken up a civilian and ended up close to having her internal organs decorating Shadow Boxer’s claws.
I think the biggest reason for skipping this is that it would necessarily drag the comic into the doom and gloom areas. Although I am bearing in mind that these are very real issues, that do deserve to be aired.
But Dave is trying to avoid the angsty storylines that the super genre has spawned. It would be all too easy to slip into the same kind of thing though, if going this route, and getting too close to a strictly realistic police or military drama.
So my gut instincts are to just, at most to mention it in dialogue, in much the same way as you have indicated. Sydney would be likely to put a brave, comedic face on it publicly. But, with her confidants, be honest enough to admit it was helping her.
It is worth airing the issue though. Even I can see that putting Sydney in a counsellor’s office could spawn some hilarious antics. But it would not be an easy balance, whilst trying to also maintain a realistic feel and still be sensitive to the issues.
DaveB managed to very confidently cover Peggy’s lost leg though. And with side-splittingly hilarious results too. But I can see that every time he works on a sensitive scene, like that, it probably chews up a lot of planning time. Get it wrong, and it can seriously offend folks. So I would be hesitant about encouraging him down that path, unless he feels inspired.
I wonder if Archon does Voight-Kampff screening on new recruits? You never know when a replicant might try to sneak in.
I see it as extra recycle opportunities for trainees that don’t manage the training. in us army you can be reset to day one once and set back to the start of a training phase up to twice (but only once if day one’d). psych evals are normally required before the contract can be signed too.
I bet Maxima is a biker girl!
Considering she could literally set her head on fire and not be bothered with it, she could do some really good cosplay as Ghost Rider. Maybe Sydney could talk her into attending a convention like that.
Real flames wouldn’t be allowed in a convention… Safety hazard.
Party pooper….
Are we talking about the feces kinetic from last update again?
When you say that, I read it as if Arnold Swartzenegger is saying it for some reason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6RoygmHURY
Exactly
Thank you :)
What about a telekenetically controlled fire ball?
If I were a flyer I’d just put on all the gear plus gloves and helmet to conceal identity and then mime getting on an invisible motorcycle in an empty parking spot, finally making child like motorcycle mimicking noises as I revved it up and rode away like the mouse (Ralph) and the motorcycle but without the motorcycle.
+1
you mean, like THIS?
Why did they neuter the Crazy Frog? Can remember when that first came out and you saw everything
because the PC hacks got to it?… either that or that was just the link that i clicked on, and another one would have been the Full Monty?
Pretty much to appease the Moral Guardians, of course. Besides, aside from one breed, frogs don’t even have external genitalia. So making him anatomically correct was a coincidental side-effect of dealing with the Moral Guardians.
Yes, but he annoys me. (thanks to Guesticus I could confirm what you were referring too without clicking. :) )
He annoys a lot of people :D
That is his super power :P
Oddly enough I found him quite endearing. The boring repetitive music though? I will avoid watching it again.
WHAT? That’s the Axel F theme, from Beverly Hills Cop! It’s a classic! … well, okay, maybe not THAT particular remix of it. ;)
Check some of the others, like Safety Dance (which in this case sounds like a mashup of the original song by Men Without Hats combined with something the Black Eyed Peas might do), We Are the Champions, Popcorn, or In The House. Much less repetitive.
At least on the official VEVO channel. You can still find ’em, though… re-uploaded by some other user.
Related to an earlier comment by Guesticus, it looks like YouTube deleted *all* of the Crazy Frog videos that didn’t neuter him. Those all seem to be “unavailable”.
Is that what that is?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3oaRulKTXw
I think he was just as well of neutered…
Hmm, Peggy’s left hand in the 7th panel looks wonky, her middle finger bends backwards in the middle.
So… just going to say, it’s going to sound more like “tench-hut” when actually used.
He he. Call me slow on the uptake. But I had never noticed, before, that your avatar is a bunny making a hand shadow, rather than the other way around.
It reminds me of one of the Beau Peep cartoons, where two legionnaires are drinking in a bar, and one does a hand shadow, of a bunny, on the wall.
“Top that!”
So the other one makes a hand shadow of a woman’s silhouette. Then gets her to take her bra off!
“Wow, can you do any more?”
His companion then twiddles his fingers energetically and the shadows look like a chorus line of girls dancing at the folies bergere!
Gods balls, but that is funny. I’m military, so I’ll be watching you closely on this bit.
Expect that I’ll get a lot of little details wrong, like apparently I messed up Peggy’s rank chevrons. It’s supposed to be one silver bar. I’ll correct that on this page and the previous one eventually.
Funny I was looking for a place to comment on the discussion. I was looking at Peggy’s rank and it seems to me to be a single bar with a stripe in the middle –maybe a color to depict service of origin…
As a “former” soldier, I can forgive the minor details.
Archon is a new branch of the military. Obviously, there are going to be so minor changes that will happen to distinguish themselves. So it is to be expected to be slightly different in regs and protocol.
I will enjoy seeing your take on ARC-Basic though ;)
Sadly, Sydney is going to be immune to the gas chamber. Best comedy show ever is watching people come out.
Mmm, she would only be immune with the shield up. Which she does not always have up. And she may need to lower it to allow allies and innocent bystanders in, to give them the benefit of it. So she needs the training just as much as anyone else does.
Unless you were implying that one of the mystery orbs provides her protection? Which is a distinct possibility. She would have had no practical way to test that, at home. Maybe she could have improvised the effect, say by using pepper spray, in a room.
However she might have felt that to be too risky to have attempted it yet. We do still see the occasional death being reported, even from trained, responsible use. Rather than the much more risky implementation she would be attempting.
So putting her in such conditions, under controlled circumstances, would actually serve the dual purposes of training her and exploring her power capabilities. Possibly the mystery orbs might protect her passively (whilst still flying around her) or she may need to hold them.
Or they do nothing. In which case that air tank will be particularly handy. Especially if it comes with a face mask. She could just as easily trap some contaminated air in the shield, as she may block the nastier concentrations from entering.
We have seen Sydney be vulnerable to chemical agents in her eyes. For her mouth however, I think she uses pepper spray as a breath freshener.
It’s what keeps her ammunition stocked for the Pepper Bees Attack…”We sting your eyes!”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/241
So Sydney has a media relations class and has to learn all the salutes and stances?
This is shaping out to be a very long day, and one that’s probably going to be more tedious to slog through than the previous day.
If this were animated, I’d be praying it’ll all be a montage right about now…
Every time Dave does a montage we get a bunch of people saying “I don’t understand what is happening”.
It all stems from the lack of montage music you see. Or.. ahem… you don’t hear. Without that cue they do not realise that time compression is going on.
Just out of curiosity, if you find it so tedious, why are you still here?
Ha, he just needs to put a sign at the top of the page that says “MONTAGE”, then in small type ” play team America world police montage song here.” ;)
Well… some of us (like me) are here cause we have been promised a comic that is more about “slice of life” of our superwomenfolk. But then, fairly quickly if you got here after the archive was plumped up a bit, we dived directly into a big action sequence of free-for-all battle ending in big bad. It may have confused some of the incoming citizens as to the nature of the comic… (who reads writer’s blogs on an archive dive besides me? )
I’m not going to show every minute of this day, unlike the previous one, especially the two things you mentioned. I don’t know how many more ways I can write Sydney butting heads with Arianna about how to act around the press and keep it entertaining.
Aaaaw, I was actually looking forward to the media one. I figured they would have to dumb it down soooo much for resistant Sydney (who has happily spent her life encouraging that part of herself to develop to its fullest free of fetters of lesser nerds!) that it would be a little like telling a shark that “Fish are friends. Not food.”
No need to show it. Just a few scenes of (other) Harems laughing her ass off for no obvious reasons. Maybe a whispered comment to Max who smirks while covering her eyes. Arianna heard shouting at a receding Sydney…
Bonus points if someone drops by the media class when it’s supposed to be over, to find Sydney teaching her version of media relations while the actual teacher is curled up in a fetal position, sobbing in hopelessness and despair.
He he.
I think it wise to skip the mundane stuff, unless things like that spring to mind. The important thing is that we we are experiencing things as Sydney does. And Peggy’s initial instruction here more than adequately lets us know what kind of things she is being taught.
The interesting things come about from either Sydney’s quirky personality (such as her face pulling above, albeit in all earnest) or from how super powers might throw a spin on the training. Not much more scope for that in learning how to stand to attention. And, as Dave says, less so in media awareness courses.
But the firing range? That has more potential, and I imagine we will see some of that.
I think the biggest things for day one in a new job* are to do with getting a feel for what the new job entails (which we get a good flavour of above) and finding out what your workmates are like. Which, likewise, we have been seeing a lot of. Plus, of course, there are the noob mistakes…
* Yes, she was doing important stuff yesterday, but this is the day Sydney woke up and realised “I am going to work as a super hero cop!”
Although I bet the manual does not state the correct orientation to assume if your personal gravity is not aligned the same as the rest of the room’s.
;-)
Between all the casualness of this team and now the sudden military stiffness, this page just seems forced to make things more military. All of witch just seems rather pointless to me. I mean really, the hole “ten hut,” proper salute, speaking like you’re a robot and ending it all with sir or mam. It all just looks hooky now.
It’s like knowing which fork to use. In case the situation comes up.
Yeah, but how many forks dose a person really need?
Interestingly not many. All the different cutlery, for different courses? That is mostly pretentiousness at work. Apart from a few specialist things, such as if you are eating snails out of their shells.
The Queen (Liz, in case you are wondering which one), politely tolerates all the pretentious behaviour of folks putting on banquets with lots of unnecessary cutlery. Perhaps thinking it will impress her that things are being done ‘the right way’.
But, at home, eating with the family She does not put up with all that nonsense.
Specifically just talking about the cutlery here mind. There is still the bagpipe player, providing entertainment at breakfast, plus the butlers and other serving folk. But those… are just necessities!
Although my tastes would be to instead have Katie Melua, with an acoustic guitar. And YouTube can provide a reasonable feel for that, even if she is not available for private hire.
Bagpipes for breakfast does sound good.
Maybe so. But I actually think that this page is meant more to have that sort of jarring difference in it- this is a transitional day, going from ‘whoohoo Superfight! Comic References! Wolverine in a Chippendales getup!” to ‘oh, right, Military Superheroes”. In a way, it’s going to be an eye-opener for Syd as well. Even if ARCHON is the most relaxed military branch, discipline-wise, it’s still going to be a significant paradigm shift for her, going from thinking of Superheroes as vigilantes or privately funded groups, to full-on military. We’re getting a little taste of that ‘first day off the streets’ vibe here as well- most recruits (I imagine) would get it through a Drill Whatever raining spittle on their face, talking about ‘not your mama’- we’re getting it from Sydney reacting improperly based on what everyone else is doing.
+1
As I said before, getting super powered people under the government and in the military for that matter is always a plan for disaster. Especially since especially since the military itself doesn’t always cover for it’s own or accept responsibility. Bombing and killing innocent civilians in foreign countries(all for some politicians political scheme.), leaving so many of there own soldiers without a job so they end up homeless, and also the increase in mental disorders that of course the government isn’t gonna cover because to them mental illness is a joke.
So yeah don’t see how putting super powered individuals in with that group is gonna help things than just have them privatized or letting them go vigilante.
That is because you are cynical. Which is not meant to be derogatory. Some people are naturally more cynical than others. And many have good cause to be cynical. Plus governments do enough underhand nastiness to make everyone cynical about them, to some degree or another.
But there is also the other side of human nature to consider. Societies do like to do great things, such as send man to the Moon. Police are there to protect us from criminals. The military, likewise, from hostile nations. People do like to help.
Dave is creating a situation where a team have come together, in a spirit of co-operation, to protect society from the threat of super-villains. They are not letting their cynicism of police corruption stopping them from trying. Nor are they dwelling on historical abuses by the military.
This is a new leaf being turned, and they are the ones who can make sure that it works the way it is intended. They are willing to submit to normal military discipline. Even if they are allowed to play pranks, unless they push it too far. Where corruption is attempted they can fight it. Red tape they can cut through. They can struggle against their own temptations to use their power for selfish ends.
They are heroes and they can make the story have a happy
endingnever ending!It’s nice how you think so positively about people, it truly is. But at the end of the day, the ones people most like to help are themselves.
Just because there ignoring the corruption and abuses of established military, government, and police it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. As long as there are people that hold power over others there will always be those that abuse it. Power corrupts after all.
And it’s only a matter of time before the Arch’s themselves are abused. Maybe there forced to go and fight some war that there country has no business even being in. Maybe there sent to harshly put down some political protests, or maybe they can’t even do anything to right the wrongs because of so much red tape. Ether way, there less heroes than gust cogs in a system that has become more and more corrupt as the years go by. A system that assures there will never be a happy ending.
File update
Cynic —->Incorrigible Cynic
Cynicism versus faith in humanity is a subjective assessment. So it is perfectly reasonable that we have differing views on such.
Where I have absolute faith though is that Dave will not allow the story to degenerate the way you fear. Individual heroes might falter (see Harem as a possible example), but our protagonists are there to exemplify what is good and heroic in humanity. They will win through the adversity. And keep us laughing, whilst they do!
*writes prescription*
“Two chill pills to be administered every Monday and Thursday, prior to reading GirlPower.”
There may be more than one who falters. Less we forget about Dabblers premonition of Max going all evil superman on us.
Well, they always make the military look fun, fluffy, good for your resume, etc… when they are hungry for recruits don’t they? Frankly, leading Sydney through a bunch of off duty relaxed super soldier/police and exposing her to the team members with the worst discipline (Harem and Dabs, though Dabs is just a “consultant”.) is how I would bait the trap meant to get the best of the very rare super citizens to sign on that dotted line!
I guess Dave will have to learn to live with your disapproval. Just as with the many other times you have expressed it.
*nods*
The previous comment provoked some discussion about the sense of touch. Plus we have Peggy back in the scene, so it seems appropriate to mention a new development which provides a sense of touch when using prosthetics.
*sigh*
I garbled that a bit. It should have started:
“The previous comic…”
At least that part of the world is coming along as scheduled. BUT WHERE IS MY DAMN JET PACK?!?
You like burning legs?
Here’s your jet pack! In real life! With no burning legs!
https://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/3-real-life-jetpacks-that-actually-work
Harley Quinn used a jet pack once, it didn’t burn her legs but it did toast her tasty tush (before it blew up and vaporized her entire body :( )
I have terrible, TERRIBLE, tragic news.
Those jet packs in my link are real
And sadly – and I say this with great lament – Harley Quinn is not (plus Harley Quinn has enhanced healing thanks to Poison Ivy)
Hey, no teasing Guesticus now. He is a valued member of the community. Even though your comments are valid. :-)
I am just playing it safe mind, as I take it as being said with straight-faced humour. But it might not be received in that fashion. What with the internet lacking facial and tonal cues to give a hint as to intent. :-/
Do bear in mind that Guesticus lives in New Zealand. Which means he can really walk into a Hobbit Hole, should he choose to! And could follow the footsteps of Frodo, on his scenic routes, shown in the
documentariesmovies.I know you’re exxagerating, because everyone knows that no one lives in New Zealand except for sheep and extras for Xena: Warrior Princess and The Lord of the Rings movies. :)
At least Sydney didn’t do a Sergeant Detritus…
Party pooper…
Gah,.,., that’s what I get forgetting scripts weren’t allowed on this page (recently re-added No-Script).
I feel your pain ;-) At the moment I’m switching to “allow scripts globally” before I enter a reply here (and turning off asap after) to make sure it gets get added to the right thread.. Damned noscript.. If only it wasn’t so useful..
I kinda want to know what that sign in panel 7 says. The one between Syd and Peggy.
Firearms gun safety notice, such as you would see at any gun range. Various links were posted on the first couple of comics, when Sydney first entered this room.
Only in the US Forces are drill commands given in any inarticulate fashion. In the Commonwealth, drill commands are given clearly and enunciated carefully. “Attent-shun.” Drill commands are given as a preliminary command, and an executed to be acted upon. The preliminary for the command Attention is Attent, the executive is shun. There is a pause between the preliminary and executive.
Also the command to bring a room of recruits to attention upon an officer entering is “Room!” At least in the Canadian Forces.
The command varies with the different branches of the military, but “Officer present!” Is a common one. The navy frequently uses “Officer on deck!” As for attention pronunciations those vary based not only on which branch of the military you’re talking about but what fort or base you were trained at.
Yea, I kind of blame it more on Daves lack of experience. In the US Army, the commands were very clear.
Shouldn’t Harem be in the same style of uniform like Sydney and Peggy,or does the ARC have a very lax uniform code?
The new grey uniforms are still being custom-fitted and priorities got ta go somewhere.
Also, Harem might well claim that at least one of her is in full uniform. (Do they have to make five sets for her?)
Yup, all her clothing has to be provided for her, so the tailor has five times the work for Harem. Daphne cannot just make copies of whatever she is wearing. Her duplicates are naked the first time she creates them. They then use whatever clothing is to hand, from then on.
Whatever a body is wearing (or not wearing) when she puts it into storage is what it is wearing when it is recalled. Likewise she cannot just grab a handful of diamonds and duplicate them when she teleports.
I bet one of her first power stunts was to have an instance of her grab a full set of clothing and port into them, rearranging the clothes she was wearing into hand. She envisions where to go so this would just be child’s play. Being able to Vorp-draw handguns would be a nice variation…
“Her duplicates are naked the first time she creates them.”
Except for tastefully placed steam.
so it’s going to be a while till they realize that when Varia “syncs” with Sydney she can use the orbs too….okay
*leans over to examine xero‘s ears*
Mmm, you seem so calm about that…
I was expecting more steam, I must be honest.
Oooh. So with Varia’s help, Halo could deploy up to four orbs at a time?
There was some debate on this below the comic where she touched Sydney. My guess is yes, 4 orbs, but it depends on whether she needs to maintain contact and whether said contact must be with her hands. Just as Sydney tried holding the orbs with various body parts some experimentation may be called for. What if she can activate orbs but only with her feet?
Doubt it. Maxima noticed all kinds of things reviewing video footage of Sydney. She probably has Leon making a script to “follow” her on all cameras with highlite notes. If not Max, then Arianna. Maybe both, but Arianna would want the tracking function for damage control primarily. “Alert! Miss Havoc is off the reservation! … No wait, she is just stopping in Ling’s for lunch… Better issue respirators just in case.”
Cameras can’t see the orbs, though.
Did we have wog on that?
Better than that, we have photographic evidence that they can.
Thanks! That jogged my memory. I knew he was wrong but couldn’t remember why I thought that anymore.
Cameras can’t see the skill tree.
No proof of that either, I am afraid. Whilst it can be argued as a possibility, the counter-arguments are also available, and are somewhat stronger.
you dont take Dabblers word for it ?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1167
My apologies Here Comes Honey Badger. I had actually looked it up the other day too! But must have skipped the relevant panel.
Dabbler’s testimony is, of course sufficient.
Here now. Everyone knows alien/demon tech is just plain weird. Chips probably use HEXadecimal spell circles too contain the little demons that do all the work!
Rick Cook fan I take it?
Or possibly the late great T Pratchett. (Whenever I hear of a computing environment creating demons to run potions of code I go to Cook first. Fun books, but a lot of the jokes fall flat unless you’re an old style programmer :-) )
Pratchett’s Hex computer has the advantage of being funny without needing to understand coding..
No they aren’t. In fact it is explicitly stated by Dabbler at the restaurant that the cameras didn’t pick up the skill tree at all and neither did her cybereye.
AAAaaaaaand I finally caught up…
(He announced)
Welcome to several months before sometime in 2011, the next morning.
Nice to have you on-board.
Hey, there I am! I was at the A-Kon meetup, the one in the suit(right side, middle of the table)! It was awesome getting to meet you!
Yeah it was fun. I don’t get to spend a lot of time nerding out these days.
Somebody made an interesting point up a ways on the page. How common do you think video surveillance is inside the Archon building?
If there is a camera in the room there is a very good chance somebody will spot the shift in how Halo’s orbs were acting – and I can see tons of reasons for having lots of cameras in this place… such as keeping an eye on the less stable members of the team.
After all these years it still makes me feel suspicious to see someone called “Nephandus” asking about the security aspects of a super being compound. ¬_¬
heheheheeheeeee… (runs off into the outer dark giggling madly)
You actually did that the right way…The “giggling madly” is for when you still want to retain some subtlety, & the full-throated “Mhua-ha-ha-ha” is when you want to demand everyone’s attention.
Feh. Mhua-ha-ha is for those Malfean posers. Get them laughing and you have a great target for straws and spitwads if you are quick about it.
They’re also highly vulnerable to rubber bands & paperclips.
I do find the more military side of Archeron to be an interesting one, and one we don’t usually see with other super-groups, even on the side of various “government endorsed” ones.
I mean, with the Avengers, you have Tony teasing “Captain on deck,” and Hawkeye making faces behind Cap’s back, to the antics of Guy, Beetle, and Booster in the JLI. Not a lot of discipline in most super-hero groups.
Which makes sense. Anyone who puts on a costume, even one who later joins a group, generally has to be of the presence of mind to be a) very independent and b) of the opinion traditional groups like police and military aren’t getting the job done.
In your picture from A-kon, I really want to know what the guy in white on the left is holding. It looks like he got Sydney’s PPO (am I hip enough to call it that?).
I’m hoping this is about as ‘militaristic’ as it gets.
I don’t LIKE the ‘individuality-destroying’ aspect of the military.
It’s safer than letting the soldiers run around disorganized, yes, but it’s still maddening for me to think about.
If this turns into a ‘true’ military organization, with the ‘if I tell you to walk into enemy fire, you say yes sir and start walking!’ attitude I keep seeing implied in people’s stories about how ‘hard’ real-life drill-people are with their discipline, I’ll lose any interest in it.
If it just has just enough ‘discipline’ to make it realistic that people would trust them (rather than enough to make them efficient weapons under pressure, like soldiers need to be), well, there will be some days I can’t look at it without wanting to yell at Sydney for being an idiot (like walking in on the bloody president!) but otherwise I’ll probably be impressed in the long-run.
Ummm maxima has already told Sydney to walk into enemy fire. That’s what the shield is for.
I think I’ve said this before. “Military indoctrination” carries a negative connotation, and is vastly misused. The military is *not* about “destroying individuality”; far from it!
The core values that you are taught in the military are:
(1) Duty. Specifically, the mission requirements come above any personal consideration. (Simply put, if you need to piss, but if you move you’ll give away the unit’s position, then you piss in your pants. You can’t put the entire unit and the mission at risk just because your bladder is full.)
(2) Loyalty. This is both your personal allegiance to your country and faithfulness to your comrades-in-arms. It also dictates loyalty to the chain of command and therefore respect for its hierarchical authority.
(3) Integrity. This solidifies the personal altruistic commitment of soldiers to their “moral principles and obligations.” To put this another way, you are obligated to disobey any illegal order. For example, if you slaughter an entire village because you were “just following orders”, you’ll be lucky if a dishonorable discharge is the worst thing they do to you.
(4) Courage, to ensure these altruistic principals and obligations are carried out in practice, enabling the soldier to “disregard the potential risks of an action in the interests of the broader good”.
In what is called the “indoctrination period”, the tight regulations are to facilitate “integration to the military life and develop team spirit among the members”. What this means is that you learn that what the person next to you does, matters. In other words, “In the Army, everyone sinks together or swims together”.
Unlimited liability is unique to the military profession, requiring members to accept potentially giving up their lives in lawful duty to complete the mission and protect one’s fellow service members. This legal duty is a social fact indicating the extremely high degree of altruistic integration required by the military.
Whether or not the individual supported the politics of a war or the decisions of superiors, the altruistic concern for the immediate group primarily fuels the sense of solidarity. To quote one of the soldiers who went to Afghanistan: “… my main motivation was to keep my guys strong, get them home alive, and take care of my guys.”
Going beyond “just following orders,” those who risk their lives in combat do so out of an intense familial bond with those they fight alongside. What ultimately matters to you most are the guys in your section. The thing that people forget when they watch World War II footage… YOU only see these faceless soldiers in black and white and in uniform, but what you’ve got to remember is that these guys are friends. These guys know every detail about each other’s lives… what keeps you going is that you’re there to look after each other.
TL;DR: What the military teaches you is NOT meant to destroy individuality. It is meant to make you realize that in battle, everybody has to have everybody else’s backs. Rather than erasing one’s sense of identity, it gives members a collective identity (they’re more than a unit; they’re friends and family). Rather than diminishing one’s sense of individual significance, the collective identity increases one’s sense of significance. Everyone in the unit is important. Not just to the mission, but to each other.
” In other words, “In the Army, everyone sinks together or swims together”.”
That’s even more true in the Navy than it is in the Army…
Part of that discipline also involves putting the ship’s structural integrity above your own. If an individual’s body falls apart, it’s only the individual…If the ship’s body falls apart, EVERYBODY has to swim home.
The discussion over the proper pronunciation of drill commands here is fascinating and hilarious. Imma stick to the basic ‘Attention’ command as an example. “Ten-HUT”, “Atten-SHUN”, “Rhah’ren-HRUN”(Scooby-Dooese, but I actually heard a Sergeant use it), etc. etc. There’s probably as many variations as there are DIs going as far back as the Roman Legion. The deal is, it’s up to the poor bloody ‘Boot’ to interpret the command and God help him if he doesn’t get it right. That said I’ve seen one Sergeant go eyeball to eyeball with another over his “Gahdayum, stupid, fukinmush-mouth, drill commands.”
Anybody else notice that Max was having bangs issues in panel 8? Looks like Sydney’s hair style is infectious.
Sydney isn’t the only one with ‘bangs’, Gothamer and Abbey Harem tend to have bangs as well
Sydney doesn’t have ‘bangs’, she has floppy rabbit ears :P
looks like bed head on max….and more accuratly fun in bed head
Max’s hair is slippery and doesn’t stay put a lot of the time. Plus drawing her brushing her hair out of her face gives me something new to do on occasion.
Plus, it looks cute (and makes her seem more relatable :D )
“Hey, Sydney, what’s with the bangs?”
“What bangs?”
“…”
Thank you, Marty Feldman in “Young Frankenstein”
Yeah, I remember my first training bra. Meeeeem-rieeesss…
Shouldn’t that be, “Mammm-are-ees”? ;)
True, true…
Hey, at least you’re not like me. Mine would probably still fit!
There are perks to that. :-)
Cue up the music!
*sings Thanks for the Mammaries*
Be careful. Some people might get a little testes about that sort of post.
It can take balls to speak out. Especially where humour is bound up, in the situation. Whilst indecency might be contained, there could be a malfunction at any moment.
Yorp, sorry to bust your bubble, but you’ve clearly gone nuts,
People attempting to change someone elses speech pattern is on the same level (if not worse) than complaining about grammar, not just that, but you are also insulting the Author
Also, just like Varia says ‘powah’, Jiggs may pronounce ‘oo’ as ‘ue’, depends on how she says ‘to’
Personally, can’t pronounce ‘one’ properly, it always comes out as ‘wung’ :(
Also have trouble with certain ‘w’ and ‘r’ words, specially they are together (like ‘write’)
am i the only one noticing the sultry look max has in panel 5…followed by pretty much bed head in panel 8
I hope she is off for a salon session with super hair stylist.
One more rule Archon may want to add to their list for newbies.
“Do not take selfies in front of recognizable landmarks while on duty”
Around June 1st of this year a member of ISIS took such a selfie and posted it to social media with the caption “Here I am standing in front of ISIS headquarters”. A US intelligence officer whose job it is to scan such postings said “Hey, I know where that building is.” Within 24 hours an airstrike was called in and leveled the building.
and now they are gonna try doing that to get the USA to bomb the wrong place
Attention, parade rest, rest, at easy
Attention: Feet together with your toes pointing forward knees unlocked back straight hands cuffed in partial fist on the seam of you pants. Looking forward and you aren’t allowed to move unless you sneeze or something similar. Really knees unlocked you will pass out otherwise.
Parade rest: Feet shoulder width apart hand clasped behind your back looking forward. Still not allowed to move.
Rest: right foot firmly planted you can move your left stretch and relax smoke talk so on just don’t move from that spot.
At easy: Freedom go eat smoke shower whatever you need to get done.
The salute has a bunch of rules with it and it is easier to actually just Bing or Google it.
parade rest hands crossed at the small of the back fingers extended and joined. at ease hands stay crossed behind back but can be curled up and moved around weight can be shifted off center discretely and ones head turns to face person in charge or look around again discretely. alternate attention holding rifle or flag and multiple other stances go with those conditions that is before the modified attention (or modified rest position depending on NCO/officer) know as the front leaning rest ( push up position)
DaveB, about the smiling in photographs. I am not one to automatically smile. Or as Mr. Spock said, “humans smile with so little provocation.”
Spock, you green-blooded vulcan hypocrite!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV_B9bhCHtg
Well he sure made me smile many times. And probably will again, watching re-runs. Albeit with a mournful twist.
“The needs of the many have been deprived by the loss of the one.”
+1
I would like to point out, since we’re getting into the military aspect of this comic, that Max would be extremely insulted by being called “ma’am”. In the army at least, ALL superiors are referred to as sir, even women. Being called ma’am implies that you consider them as not equal to the men officers and is a HUGE insult.
That differs, depending on the conventions. For instance it is the correct form of address in various U.K. roles. As an example female police officers, of sufficiently high rank are correctly addressed in that manner. Likewise certain members of the armed forces. Maxima is cosmopolitan, so may be aware of that, and could have found that appealed to her feminist sensibilities.
It is in no way considered insulting (for those countries who use it anyhow). To the contrary, failing to do so (for people who should know better, such as those who serve under their command) can be taken as a marked sign of disrespect.
The term can be confusing for members of the general public though. Obviously it can be an issue for Americans. But it is generally considered polite to refer to a woman as “ma’am”, and, for civilians, addressing members of the police or armed forces, a female officer would be unlikely to take offence at such. To the contrary, you might be implying that they are of senior rank than they actually hold!
Of note, it is the correct form of address for the commander in chief of our armed forces. The Queen is correctly addressed as “ma’am”. Albeit that it is pronounced slightly differently, to every day usage, if you really brush up on your etiquette. Sounding more like “mam”.
Sometimes even Brits can take offence mind. For instance if they think that they are being referred to as a ‘madam’ (of a brothel). Even though madam is, itself, a perfectly respectable form of address. Albeit usually used in more stuff circles.
Of note though, such conventions are established on a force-by-force (and possibly rank-by-rank) basis. Whilst it may be unusual in America, this can be yet another thing which Maxima felt was a reasonable option to adopt for Archon. If their rulebook says, for example, “female officers may be referred to as ‘Sir’ or ‘Ma’am’, then Harem is behaving correctly.
Mind you, do please keep pointing out such issues. DaveB may well choose to correct some of them. But he has the easy escape route, outlined above, that he can use for any such point, if he wants to.
I suspect that such changes would only happen if there were a lot of readers (especially of a military background) being very vocal that something was utterly wrong. A clash with the traditional way that other, existing, branches of the armed forces do things, is one matter. Something that leaps out as being ‘no way would any military person, in the world, ever do this’, now that is another.
Sorry, Delta Fidelias, but I have to say you’re wrong on that one.
When addressing a male superior (e.g. Officer or Warrant Officer, but not usually a non-commissioned officer, in the military), “sir” is used as a short form of address. Despite its use in many fictional works, this is not a term used for female superiors, who are addressed as “ma’am”.
I’m not in the Navy, but I know someone who is (he’s a submariner), so I asked him about it. He says, “I can assure you that calling a female superior officer “sir” would quickly get your ass handed to you. “Ma’am” is correct, I assure you.”
Now, having said that, a female superior may insist on being called “sir”; or at the very least, as long you were not being disrespectful, may not object to it.
wow my commit wnet5 to the wrong area will do it aging maxiam ero triping much and all so the millitry never did a hero goo captian America such a good example I allways felt he was out of touch with his team due to dam military reulationg and fyi I was in the military for 17 years ya it make it hard to work with civails and hard for civilasn to trust us vets fyi all vets in amerce are on wach list if that tell you any thing true story
A large reason why Cap was ‘out of touch’ with his team (guessing you mean The Avengers), is not because of his military background, but because he was from, literally, another era
Alright, Scoville, let me see your war face!! AAAAAAAGH!!
Followed by “Oh my God, what did you eat today? My face is melting! AAAAAAAGH!!!
Lately, the last “float” in our parades is the city’s street sweeper.
That comment did NOT go where I intended it to.
Heh. Thanks for clarifying. Although I had been taking it as a very elegant solution to any horse-drawn floats, and the need to clean up afterwards. I figured he would opt to go larger-than-life and have a really flamboyant outfit and float.
Envisaging him promoting the city and it’s amenities, along with joining in the fun, as best he can whilst doing his job. Better than having to fight the crowds afterwards, or leave the route dirty, until they dispersed.
*passes around bottles of brain bleach*
I avoided any thoughts of ‘floaters’, up until now.
I can only imagine what the term “milk float” means to you…
8-)
a slow-moving electric delivery vehicle, used for the traditional way of delivering milk: left on the doorstep at dawn
If you’ve ever had an Ice Cream float before, then you might be familiar with its alternate name of “Black Cow.”
My family always refers to coke and milk (with vanilla ice cream as an optional extra) as a brown cow. When I asked why it was called that, my dad used to joke that it was because it came from brown cows.
Very yummy though. Just be careful how you mix it. Get it wrong and the milk will split. That mistake is best pored straight down the drain!
As in Peabodys improbable histories?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lvmeCHYyZI
And due to noscript, this reply didn’t go quite where I wanted it to either.. Mind you, it did go close enough to make sense (sort of)
An interesting thought popped up in my head just recently. What about supers/people with magical object(s) bound to them, that get regularly attacked by supernatural creatures & don’t want to join archon?
Fairly sure if they only react in defence, there shouldn’t be any problems
Archon isn’t going to force people to join them, or any other regulated unit slash force, they will leave them alone as long as they don’t try and use their gifts
They would be legally free to defend themselves, like any civilian, but barred from going on the offensive, again like any other civilian.
Their biggest problem is not Archon, but the courts. If they are in possession of something which is provoking supernatural attacks, then it is reasonable for civilian authorities to demand some kind of action be taken to mitigate the risk to the general public, from that.
Options might range from banning the individual from entering crowded public areas, or using public transport. If the day to day risk was not significant to justify more. All the way up to demanding permanent incarceration, for the protection of society at large, if the risk was overwhelming. For instance if it risked causing an apocalypse.
Any options towards the latter extreme might well involve Archon in enforcing the law. But, notably, it would not be their call. The police obey the dictates of the laws that have been passed. So if there is no existing law that would allow such detention, then one would have to be enacted. Although I feel it likely that the courts would be very flexible, until such could be done, if there was a significant public risk.
If the nature of the attacks does not pose any threat to others though, then that individual can do whatever they want to. Provided they are of sound mind of course. If they are unable to make reasoned judgements themselves (say if under a curse), then the courts would have just reason to interfere and try to act in the person’s best interests.
I doubt the person would like being incarcerated for something he/she can’t control.
Try telling that to the grieving relatives of those who have been killed.
Sadly this is reminiscent of the moral dilemma faced with those mentally ill individuals who’s condition is severe enough to endanger the lives of others. Yes incarcerating them will make them feel unhappy. But allowing other people to die, to preserve their rights, is not a good solution to that.
What society can, and should do, though, for people incarcerated for reasons beyond their control, is to do everything possible to find a cure or solution, which will allow them to regain their freedom. Curing or treating the mental illness for the analogy. Or researching how to break the curse, for the example.
Plus they should be held in conditions suitable for their problem. Some patients require padded cells for their own safety. The demon summoning might require something creative, such as holy water in the sprinkler system.
And, where possible, they should be allowed the maximum freedom possible, that their condition allows. For instance, if the demon summoning person is co-operative, and trustworthy, the solution might be for them to agree to house-arrest. With the location being chosen subject to whether neighbours would remain at risk or not.
Both the individual’s and societies needs might be best met by providing them with a wilderness retreat. The initial outlay being offset by not requiring the staffing costs needed in a prison or mental hospital like environment. Plus staff would not be put at risk.
Further precautions could be taken if there was a risk that the person might abscond. Such as only allowing them that option if they submitted to ankle tagging and random checks by law enforcement.
Or, to paraphrase a famous person: “Your right to swing your arm ends where my right to not be hit in the nose begins.” (I’m not really sure who said that. It’s been attributed to at least six different people, including: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.; John B. Finch; John Stuart Mill; Abraham Lincoln; and Zechariah Chafee, Jr.)
P.S., excuse me for correcting “who’s” to “whose”. You would not say “individuals to who is condition”, so “whose” is the correct form. I don’t like being a grammar Nazi, but it’s an OCD thing with me.
Thanks for pointing it out. Most of my grammar is derived from observation of usage, rather than having been specifically taught it. I had not really noticed that distinction before. Mind you, how well it sticks in the grey matter? That remains to be seen.
A good rule of thumb is, before using a contraction, think about how it would sound if you spelled out the words instead of using a contraction. It most commonly happens with it’s/its and who’s/whose.
For example: “In its place is a general sense that the United States and its allies have limited leverage.” You would not say “In it is place” or “United States and it is allies”, so “its” is the correct form in both places.
I also avoid saying things like “It’s not [x]” because to me, it always sounds like you’re talking about snot. “It’s snot” (eww) Instead, I use “It isn’t”.
Actually I was not intending it as a contraction, I’m fairly up to speed on those. And “who is” would make no sense there. Rather I was attempting to indicate the possessive. I was probably starting out with “Individual’s condition” and then modifying it for putting “whos” in there.
Looking at it though “whos” clearly is not a valid word, thus highlighting my bad spelling as well as poor grammar. So what you say makes sense.
*sigh*
*bats “whos” into trashcan with paw*
That’s probably it. I can’t say with 100% certainty that I haven’t done the exact same thing before. I definitely can’t say that there’s never been a time where I was writing one thing while thinking about another, causing me to write the wrong word.
I’m glad that the userbase on this forum is so much more civilized than many other forums on the Internet. At least nobody’s jumping on me for being a Grammar Nazi. (Is it just me, or are webcomic forums like that in general? Out of curiosity I visited some of DaveB‘s recommended webcomics, and most of them seemed far more civil than I’ve gotten used to. Or maybe it has more to do with the fact that everyone shares an interest in the comic.)
There are various dynamics involved. The biggest one, that has me concerned, is community size. A ten-fold increase in readership could draw in a lot of people with anti-social behaviours. Hopefully a slow, but steady, increase will allow the community to encourage them, by example in a more enjoyable way of participating in online discussions.
However a jump beyond even that, overnight (say due to being mentioned by an A-list celebrity or on national TV) could overwhelm the regulars, through sheer weight of numbers. How the community would cope with that we would have to wait and see.
Protective custody is a thing. Quarantine is another.
“What the hell heck can we hold him on? Sure those demons keep popping up, but he is not summoning them, and he can’t put down that cursed sword!”
“The demons are all slimy. That is potentially a public health risk. We can detain him under laws covering that. It will take weeks, or months, for that to be analysed. Which will give the government time to figure out what to do.”
“Unless the courts let him out on bail.”
“Have you seen what they did to the Judge’s car? I doubt any of his colleagues will be sympathetic!”
I could be wrong about this (in which case, please correct me), but I remember when I was in the Navy, if someone suffered from a loud noise of some kind that could damage hearing, they were sequestered to a quiet room for a while. I could be wrong because I only heard about it from a second or third hand source. The reason that was given was that you would try to limit the amount of additional noise to the ear to give it time to recover. Also if there were permanent hearing loss, you would have some tinnitus.
It’s a very good point, now that you mention it. Jig’s taken severe damage to her hearing, which is still under treatment – and here she is at the frickin’ GUN RANGE?!?!?
Jig does say that, thanks to the Doc, her hearing is back to about fifty percent right now – which probably equates to several days or even weeks of “normal” healing / rehab. It also seems plausible that she is currently wearing earplugs for protection, but still … WTH?
She might not be within what is considered the “defined boundaries of the range”.
If she was actually on the line when the range is “hot”, by law she is required to wear safety glasses or goggles, as well as hearing protection: Either ear muffs or ear plugs (and I know some shooters that wear both, especially at an indoor firing range.)
So, either the range wasn’t hot, or maybe she was far enough away to not be required to wear earplugs, or… well, there’s other explanations for why she might not have hearing protection. Aside from that, though, if I had lost half my hearing, I would certainly be protecting what’s left of it! (In other words, I agree with you; I’m just pointing out possible situations where she might not feel it’s required.)
Become handicapped in first real fight – that’s REALLY sucks. And don’t tell me no frigging words about alternative.
Oh. Ohhhhhhhh… I get it now! *wink-wink*
“Real” time heroes in “real” world and “real” consequences of their battles.
*Rolls eyes* Yeah but kinda meh.
Whenever we picture ourselves with superpowers it is easy to think that just because I can do “X” it means I will avoid all other consequences. So it is a bit ‘meh’ to have it pointed out that being able to shoot lightning bolts does not render you invulnerable to harm.
But, yup, if trying to keep a realistic feel to things, then such things do happen. On the plus side, Dave clearly does not want to create a downer for readers. Had either Joss Wheldon, or myself, had a hand in the story, I can guarantee that there would have been some fatalities, on both sides.
To have that amount of firepower used and not have any does stretch suspension of disbelief. Fortunately, it remained entertaining, despite that. And, Dave did offer a plausible explanation. Which was that most of the combatants were actually decent everyday folk, who had been pushed by the aggro aura.
Thus their natural instincts were to avoid killing. So, consciously or not, they were pulling their blows.
Whilst this works well to explain why nobody died, it does not do the same for injuries. But there were plenty of those, so a sense of realism is thereby retained, and Super Doc, was available to help speed recovery.
What is not ‘meh’ though, is Dave choosing to limit her capabilities in doing that. If the heroes take risks that result in them taking crippling injuries, they will face the consequences of that. And this is a very necessary reminder of that. Both to them and to us.
Although the loss is permanent, it is not crippling, so Jiggawatt will still be able to live a fulling life, and it should not impact her job, to such a degree that she would be relieved from active duty.
It is we, the readers, who benefit the most. In that, from now on, it will not take a life-or-death situation for us to feel that the protagonists are being put in peril. Anything which could harm us, in those circumstances, could affect them too. Unless they can find some clever way to turn the situation to their advantage, or their powers do provide protection versus that particular danger.
Long term, Jiggs suffering this injury is very good for the story.