Grrl Power #332 – Guns and no nos
I wrote this page after a few people expressed… concerned with Maxima’s demonstration a few pages back. I think it’s kind of unnecessary now after the fact, not that it’s a bad page. I think it’s a fun bit of insight into Ren and Peggy, and a little call back to the bank. In any case this is the last we’ll see of the gun range for a while. I should note, Ren’s paper target is a bit small, that’s cause their range isn’t quite full length, so they compensate with smaller targets. They have a proper range outdoors somewhere not so near by for the actual certification tests.
I can’t help but image in a relatively low discipline outfit like Arc-SWAT, walking around with the “punishment gun” wouldn’t be all that much of a punishment… well, Sydney might not enjoy it. But like Peggy implies, that’s probably on top of whatever else they decide to pile on the careless and/or gung ho.
There is a new vote incentive, it’s just pencils at the moment but I’m hoping to get it colored by the time the next page goes up. (Maybe the one after, we’ll see how quickly the current pages I’m working on get done.)
There’s a chance I’ll be switching hosting this weekend. Godaddy has been pretty solid overall, but with the traffic I get now their prices are pretty crazy, so Saturday or Sunday the page might act a little wonky, or I might lock the comments so nothing gets lost while all the databases get ported. It shouldn’t be too traumatic, just FYI.
This page colored by Keith.
Ooh, just noticed Sydney’s glasses are missing in the last panel, I’ll get that fixed at some point.
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Pink latex gum
Gun
Latex gum sounds like it would be bad in your holster too, for entirely different reasons
Spinnerette carries her gum in one of her leg canisters (she uses another one to hold her cell-phone)
YEs, but she doesn’t have a gun…and most of the time she doesn’t kill people.
Thought we were talking about latex gum, not killing o_O
Umm, didn’t Spinny kill Glass-hole?
Art did say “most of the time.”
I think it’s fair to say that nobody in the history of the world has managed to spend enough time time killing people that it wouldn’t be true that they don’t kill people most of the time.
In today’s context of modern warfare, it’s possible to press a button & kill people by the thousands…I don’t think that the amount of time-per-body count has much of a factor anymore…
8/
Unfortunately you are absolutely right.
Without cost it’s easy to spend..
I immediatly picured a pink latex “Love gun” IE a dildo…
Well, that would be suitably embarrassing, no? Can you imagine what Dabbler would say (or do) to whoever carries around the pink “gun”?
Panels 3 and 7: Behold, the rare and elusive Sincere Sydney.
And acting calmly too, not less! This is indeed a rare find… [/David Attenborough voice]
Just looks like she is one that reads the manuals of everything front to back no matter the size…
I want a pink latex gun!
If NERF doesn’t already have you covered, I’m sure you could make your own with a can of spraypaint.
Pink color is just fine. My mother recently bought herself a pink glock 18 for home defense.
Just remember that, if the villains are rolling around on the floor, laughing, you are not legally entitled to shoot them.
Just remember that the line under the page says “It’s pink and latex. It’s not actually a gun.” So, what’s pink, latex, not actually a gun, and something you don’t want to be seen carrying around in your holster?
A dildo.
I have seen pistol shaped dildos, I think in pink too. You Humans are a wierd lot, but that’s why I love you meat-sacks…
Who are you calling human? Please note the “ai” in my name.
Fair enough, my bad. Most sentient beings on this rock are Human, so I’ve learnt to use that as my default. No desk-headbutting/Demon-banishing required tho…
I think you mean Glock 17 or 19. The 18 is a fully-automatic pistol, and not generally available to the public without a LOT of paperwork and a very hefty asking price. The 17 and 19 are both semi-automatic 9mm pistols, and very good weapons in their own right. And yes, as the frames are polymer, they can be pink if the manufacturer so desires.
Sorry. Must have been a mistype. It’s the 17
a couple of the “Kidi Gun” companies in the US make guns in all kinds of colours, Pink is very popular, some come with Rubberised/latex coatings on the furniture, just in case your three year old drops it.
you can even have it toy or pop culture themed thanks to them having licensing agreements with a number of IP holders.
https://andysgunthoughts.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/img_1934.jpg
Here. Pink gun, pink clip, and matching pink knife.
magazine not clip nitpicks the dragon
Shouldn’t it be, “That being said,…”
Nope, both are correct.
BTW, check the comments in the previous page to see how I gots my OCD on this morning.
6
7
8
9?
Apparently there are at least some people you can count on…
O.o
O.o= 1O.o.
.
.
11.o
12
13
(Never been superstitious – it blows my mind that someone could, for example, actually number some apartments as 12, 12a, 14. For real.)
now take a look at High-Rise buildings that don’t have a 13th floor… they usually go right from 12 to 14. or the 12th floor is designed to be double tall so they can fake us out by saying that the 13th floor is occupied by the “extra” height of 12…
Or, in the case of hotels that abide by the same superstition, the 13th floor is occupied by administrative offices and/or storage, so guests are never made to stay there.
And it’s not just the number 13. Other superstitions are available.
15.a
There is a very sound basis behind it. Any business run by superstitious managers, who do not place faith in that, tend to go out of business. Thus confirming that it was unlucky.
Similarly to people who contemptuously walk under a ladder, only to have their skills smashed by a falling hammer.
Y\all need to pay attention to the realities of the world. High rise buildings (in western countries) which have a 13th floor can find the units going unlet for years after the rest of the building has been fully occupied.
Likewise hotels can, and do, see paying guests turn around and choose to find another hotel, rather than stay in the 13th room on a floor, or anywhere on the 13th floor.
If you choose to restrict your customers to just people who are not superstitious, you are making yourself unlucky.
*holding four-leaf clover, lucky rabbits shoe and wearing a horses shoe, hung the right way up, so that the luck does not run out*
Can’t take too many precautions to ensure your bad luck does not rub off onto me!
(Not that those are likely to help me directly, but I do not want other folks to consider me a pariah, for hanging out with anti-superstitious hexed folk.)
15c
Gah! A ninja electron plotting to throw the numbering sequence out!
How unlucky was that, at this time of day?
Clearly I really was not taking sufficient precautions!
*touches wood, rubs a ginger-haired dog and crosses claws*
Myself, I would prefer not to perpetuate such ideas, because – make no mistake – that’s the result of ‘accommodating’ them.
I suppose I should count myself lucky(!) that nobody has ever made such a thing a requirement, so I’ve never had to choose whether or not to pander to such silliness.
For example, back in 2013 the serial numbers I attached to our products all started with ’13’. Nobody ever hinted that that could be a problem. Looking back, the failure rate of those products is no higher than normal. Funny that.
Unfortunately, whenever people rely on luck (and that’s most of us, with so many national lotteries offering the dream of financial freedom for life) there are bound to be others that offer assurance that they can improve their luck by some little, harmless, action (and who wouldn’t ‘play safe’ and do it, ‘just in case’?).
But don’t worry Yorp, if it means that much to you, I’ll change my avatar to a magpie. Then you can salute me every time I post a comment. 8-)
It isn’t just floor 13.
In Japan, you dont get floors 4 or 9 as they are homophones of “death” and “suffering”.
Interestingly enough, the word for 4 is part of word for the number 7 as well, though they don’t avoid 7th floors.
In addition to that, they often don’t have a 13th floor. Unlike the lower floors, it does actually exist (it isn’t just skipped) but it isn’t used, or at least not by people. It is often used to house counterweights used to help stabilise the building in the event of an earthquake. Turns out that the “11th” floor is just about right for it.
The first place I lived in in Japan was apartment 52. It was on the actual 4 th floor, but the real reason I got it so cheep for the location was that no one Japanese would tent because a suicide in room 54. Basicaly it was roughly 300 USD less than all of the buildings for the same price next door because of that back in the 90s
The numbers 4 and 9 are considered unlucky. Because one reading of four is death, ( shi) and 9 sounds like torture.
Ok to clarify, no one Japanese would rent in that building. At all.
Sydney’s glasses are missing in the last pa… Wait a second… Oh. Damn you fine print!
Didn’t notice them missing, just figured with the thinness of the lens’ and the angle they just couldn’t be seen (thought the black bit of her lashes were the nose-piece, but then remembered that her nose-piece is typically Kiwi-like: ie at the end of her nose)
Depending on the browser you’re using, you can “zoom in or out” on the page content. Firefox, for example, control-plus will make that small print bigger, whereas control-minus will make the large print smaller.
BTW, did you guys know that you can enter comments too fast? I learned that at 4:54 a.m. Central Time.
Third, new record! (Also my first comment, so I’m quite proud) Also a pink latex gun sounds cool… not a punishment in my mind :)
I meant fourth. And then 5 people commented while my page loaded. Oops
This is why no one start their comment with “First!” any more on this site.
Actually, it would be pink latex for the boys to carry, blue latex for the girls to carry…
;)
So, if the pink latex gun doesn’t work, I’m guessing that the next step is a Cone of Shame imprinted with the words, “Ask me about gun safety!”
The pink gun is probably about 30 pounds and a very LARGE parody of a gun. Things like that are VERY visible marks of shame.
I think what DaveB was hinting at is the the ‘gun’ is somewhat gun shaped but is something that is sold at, shall we say, “adult entertainment” stores. (Ask Dabbler, I’m sure she could explain it, and possibly offer a demonstration)
It’s gun in the “this is my rifle, this is my gun; one is for killing, one is for fun” sense. ;)
Where the heck is Yorp?
I took him for a walk and he got a little tuckered out. He’ll be back soon.
+1 for having the correct name to answer that question.
Oh, so that’s where Waldo went…
:P
Here I am :)
I was indeed on a long walkies. We had some nice cloud cover and a cooling breeze, so it allowed us to go for an extended countryside walk. It had been too hot recently for my companion, who is 105 (in traditional dog years). Fortunately, for a Jack Russell, 15 is actually not as bad as tradition would have.
But I do need to make the most of any ideal walking days. Buffy loves walkies even more than salami!
Not sure where she stands on pink latex ‘guns’ though. I think she would just wee on it.
I FOUND YORP! HEY, EVERYBODY! OVER HERE!
Your username lives up to your comment…
+1
We can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Yorp is safe and not down a storm drain unlike poor John Noaks.
Good choice on pooch by the way. I have a Stuffle myself which is a Half Staffordshire bull terrier and half Jack Russell (she looks like a giant Russell lol). As for her and the latex pink gun, I think mine would probably throw it around the garden like a chew toy.
Heh. Whenever I am away, mine boards with friends, who own a Sfaff. So I… well I can picture the parents, put it that way. And I bet she has a superb temperament. Even if my imagination falls short on picturing what she looks like!
A friend of my parents has apparently gotten a Jack Russell / Chihuahua cross. I am looking forward to seeing it, the next time I visit them. Apparently it does not realise that it is really small, and stands up for itself admirably. As I would expect of any Russell.
But I would love to see how it reacted to meeting your one!
it has long been said it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog.
I like the nice reminder Peggy is doing about military discipline. Technically though, the pink latex gun is not “non-judicial punishment,” it’s “remedial training.”
Non-Judicial punishment is any disciplinary action that a court of law does not have a say in. ‘Technically’, you could argue either way.
In the military, “non-judicial punishment” refers proceedings under Article 15, UCMJ. Think “misdemeanors.” Company commanders and above do that. Anything outside of that isn’t “officially” punishment (NJP or other), but “remedial training.” Which can just look like punishment.
And they can be VERY creative when it comes to “remedial training”.
In addition to what you said, NJP is also used when the “charges” aren’t serious enough for a full Court Martial; ie: misdemeanors, as you said.
In a civilian court, the equivalent would be if the “defendant” accepted a judge’s sentence during the Hearing Stage of the Due Process, instead of taking it to a full-fledged trial with jury.
Is the pink latex gun a dildo? I feel like that would be the best way to reach maximum humiliation. lol
Horrifyingly enough, I was just wondering if that’s where the pink latex gun came from in the first place.
More likely it is just oversized so nobody misses it.
Probably a rubber M16 dummy painted hot pink.
People don’t typically carry an M16 in a holster though
Dildo or multi-speed vibrator
I very strongly suspect not or, if so, it is W-A-Y beyond all possible recognition.
Main reason being that one never knows when Arianna might give reporters or civvie V.I.P.s a tour of the base, or even an ARC-SWAT member showing their family where they work. Either way, you don’t want those people seeing something like that – it would only lead to trouble on a WMD scale. I still recall how idiotic some US polliticians got about their military being able to get girlie mags whilst overseas.
Honestly? Is there any reason to withhold girly mags from people? I mean come on, its a legal form of entertainment.
I’m sure sexy activities rise through the roof when military is deployed away from home.
They need something to work with! Better girly magazines than they turn towards each other, I’d say.
I say the opposite.
Gotta build those “Bonds of brotherhood” somehow, eh? ;)
Just wanted to make the point that, while girly mags might be illegal in some jurisdictions (as drop bear pointed out), there is a myth that soldiers are not allowed to masturbate on the grounds that you’re “damaging military property”.
Trust me, that is only a myth… although getting caught doing it might lead to embarrassing callsigns, as BANJO learned. (BANJO = Busted Arse-Naked Jacking Off.)
Girly mags are illegal in some US jurisdictions? As in get a fine and / or go to jail for it? Wow. So much for freedom of expression!
I thought that kind of censorship was only in non-democratic countries dominated by religious extremists, where there is rampant intolerance of sexual behaviour.
Hang on, I just did the venn diagram, in my head. I can see where I was going wrong.
Oh well, at least the US is making progress on LGBT issues. :-)
No, it’s not illegal in U.S. jurisdictions.
But as drop bear pointed out, some of those magazines are illegal overseas. For example, if you took an issue of “Playboy” or “Jugs” into Australia, it would be illegal because it’s “pornography without content warnings”.
Oh, damn it. StumpyDaPaladin beat me to it. It still bears repeating, so I’m going to submit it anyway.
Phew! I thought that the US had gotten over most of their ‘one foot on the ground’ hang up, in parallel with similar progress being made in the UK. But I would entertain first hand testimony to the contrary, from a credible source, such as yourself.
Thanks for clarifying that it was just a misunderstanding.
You’re welcome. It basically boils down to “we don’t want our soldiers getting arrested in a foreign country because they got caught off-base with a girly mag in their duffle bag”. It reflects badly on the unit. (In some countries, it would reflect SO badly on the unit that we might have to give up our military base(s) in that country.)
Freedom and expression?? We don’t like that kind of thinking here in a Free country! You will express exactly what the media tells you to or else you liberal you! :P
Ever notice how self-professed “liberals” keep advocating for more control, instead of more liberty?…
As a hipster might say, “Ironically enough.”
As for me, I call it hypocrisy.
Yep, I’ve noticed that. Most of the time, I’ve noticed when any group gets too much power without a counterbalance, they almost invariably tend to become fascist in their mentality – conservative or liberal, it doesnt matter. It’s sadly just how people tend to be. Many liberals (liberals, not libertarians – significant difference) today do tend to be a lot more hypocritical about it though.
No, pornography is not illegal anywhere in the U.S. anymore. More specifically, obscenity is illegal because legally obscene speech is not considered to be protected speech under the First Amendment, but pornography is no longer considered ‘obscenity’ based on a 1957 case called Roth vs. the United States.
Basically, the rule what is legally obscene is “whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards and the dominant theme of the material, taken as a whole, appeals to to the prurient interest.” And prurient means ‘encouraging an excesive interest in sex.’ So in modern times, almost nothing is actually considered ‘legally obscene’ (and thus illegal) – except for one thing, which would be child pornography. Fortunately, that’s still considered to fall under obscenity laws and you can be prosecuted for selling, trading, or giving away that without it being a violation of the First Amendment.
A very important, and fair, distinction to make. Most notably when talking about other societies and cultures, who have a different views. We must remember that such matters are decided based on their values, not ours. Further we should not be arrogant and assume that our values are better than theirs.
Of course it is fair to debate the merits of each. Thus, perhaps, encouraging them to change their opinions. But this should be limited to making them aware of the issues. It should not be elevated to forcing our judgement values on them.
This is, of course, just a general observation, for its own sake. Which I only raised as the thread did involve other countries. Living outside my own country makes me consider such aspects, in any conversation on values. They are variable over time and place. Not to mention within any given society too.
Honestly I was just pointing out the law on why pornography used to be illegal without being counter to the first amendment, and now is considered legal without being counter to the first amendment – all without being inconsistent. The reason being that it’s not about pornography, but rather it’s about the definition of ‘obscenity’ – obscenity is never protected speech, but what’s defined AS obscenity changes with different generations :)
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On a different note, I want to first mention that I agree with you about most of what you said in your second paragraph. And I do agree that ‘encouraging the other side to change their opinion’ is generally preferable to any sort of forcing of our judgment upon others. Generally. But I’m honestly fine with thinking my values are better than another person’s values though. I’m not going to ‘bully’ someone who has a differing opinion generally, but I can see some points where I’d find someone else’s belief structure so offensive that I’d say blanket statement fashion that my opinions are right and theirs are wrong – case in point … child pornography, female mutilation, slavery, genocide, etc. I have a hard time listening to people defend any of those things because I see consider them to be largely defined ‘evil’ acts, regardless of the reasoning behind it by the perpetrator.
I’ve never been much of a proponent of absolute moral equivalency – sometimes one group is in the right, while another group is in the wrong. It’s not always ‘both sides are right and both sides are wrong.’ To take a few extreme examples:
The nazis were wrong, and our country’s viewpoints against genocide are morally superior.
NAMBLA is wrong, and the majority of people’s viewpoints against sex with children is morally superior
I won’t go into how many examples I could use about sharia law and female subjugation or religious inequality, because that’s probably going to cause a bit more of an uproar.
Of course, the other side usually thinks the same thing about us, though.
Upon re-reading the thread, I think I understand what you might be getting at, about not trying to push the first amendment issues on other foreign cultures. I still think our view on first amendment issues are vastly superior though from a moral and ethical standpoint, but it’s also an issue that does require quite a fair deal of evolution of a society to be able to deal with having as a standard in law.
Your list of evil things would fall within my own. However that is not surprising. We have similar values, due to living in a common culture. Simply saying ‘I agree with all your points’ would fail to show how we should think very carefully, even on such core values.
And that last is very important. Because if another country, or culture, does have a different core value, then they are going to feel as strongly about it as we do. Each feeling that their viewpoint is superior. And core values are the ones we are potentially willing to kill for, or risk dying, to protect. And so are they.
In actuality I can see a potential (if highly selective) angle, that could progress debate, on most of the points you raised. But shall just pick one, to avoid the post going too long. And any of them would be controversial, so I shall settle for the first one on your list.
• child pornography – Paedophiles have a mental condition that needs lifelong monitoring and treatment. This has many parallels with full-blown heroin addiction, and could be treated in a similar manner. Methadone and clean needles being provided, in conjunction with medical monitoring and treatment, for drug addiction.
Similar to the analogy, a victimless source of porn could be found. For instance artificial digital ‘actors’ (provided they are not directly modelled on specific individuals). Although still debatable, majority scientific opinion is that violent films do not make people become violent. Likewise, with the same caveats, porn does not increase sexual deviancy.
However, what it can do is provide a useful warning. Being drawn to certain types of porn can be associated with particular crimes (for instance predatory paedophilia). And as such can provide an early warning that an individual should be prevented from doing so.
Those gaining access to their ‘free clinical porn’, would do so under the condition that they agree their use is monitored, and that they consent to being referred for counselling, and such other treatment as may be needed, if their usage indicates they are at risk of falling into criminal behaviour.
Obviously those refusing to participate in such schemes would be no different to heroin addicts who likewise refuse, for their own condition. However, for those who do participate, they can indulge their urges, but without the fear (for them or the rest of society) that it would lead to children being harmed.
Importantly, both for the purposes of our debate and for the scheme to work, victimless child porn would need to be de-criminalised, for those participating in such a monitored scheme.
Our society currently views child porn as being evil, in and of itself. But that is only the case if there is either a victim or a potential victim. However should some country introduce such a change in their laws, they should not assume that their morals are better.
Only time would tell if the changes in their society are actually successful. And other countries, where the populace are not happy with the concept, should not be pushed into passing similar legislation. Not until or unless, they can be convinced of the merits.
Although, ironically, those countries might have significantly higher statutory rape, in addition to criminalising non-predatory paedophiles.
Please note that I am not advocating this. Simply pointing out that our society and morals are not necessarily a pinnacle, for others to aspire to. We have peaks and troughs. As do other countries. And other societies may be badly harmed by forcing some of our morals on them.
That is a mistake we have continually made, and continue to do so, even within our lifetimes. Such as forced adoptions. Be it catholic communities targeting single mums. Or indigenous peoples within the Americas and Australia. One was forcing moral judgements on individuals. The other was committing cultural genocide.
As we agree, genocide is wrong.
Less that girlie mags were illegal is “some few” US jurisdictions and more that they were illegal in the country they were deployed in at the time. Just one one more thing to love about the Sandbox.
problem is when they are not legal in your host country, to explicit, not carrying appropriate classification markings, what’s “Barely Legal” one place is “Jail Bait” an other. EG some Grunt brings a copy of Jugs or US Playboy on to OZ, that’s an offence (Pornography without content warnings). some parts of Europe “Glamour” models as young as 16 can work topless (with parental permission) but bring that on base.
Simple solution, No Naughty Pictures wile O.S.
Or, have them be Base Commander issued, and not allowed to leave the base (if they can train dogs to sniff out money, fairly sure they could train them to sniff out cum-flavoured magazines)
For the US pollies I referred to earlier, my understanding is that the problem they had was all about ‘pornography’ and ‘Decency’ and ‘Correct Moral Attitudes’ and so forth.
I seriously doubt if the attitudes of the host country was ever any sort of a thing for them.
Think again the US has bases in Morally Conservative Nations all over the world and the US PTB’s don’t want to lose basing rights because some cleric or parents group is all up in arms over some Grunt trading Girly Mags to some kid for smokes that haven’t had the “GI Mark-up” by the local merchants, or to see Service Men (and women) locked up or thrown out for smuggling Porn for walking around with a copy of Hustler XXX Confidential in their duffel bag.
If you say so. My own reading of the situation sounded much more like the Religious Reich trying to control what other people read / think (again), than worries about local sensibilities, but I could be wrong.
Its a bit of both. Though usually more the latter than the former
But.. but that implies that Maxima’s perception is ALWAYS in the “so fast, she can catch bullets” mode.
Which totally runs her ito the Ballad of Barry Allen Problem. She should not be able to function in the normal world if she’s like that!
Yeah, I was gonna say, that only works if she’s in speed-mode. Fear vomit says she isnt, and in any case if you can screw up and fire a gun you didnt intend to fire and didnt think was loaded in the first place then you can forget to engage speed-mode first before trying the demo…. Not a good plan I think.
perhaps one can assume though, that if Maxima is going to chose to flaunt that safety rule then she will also be ready for using speed and catching the bullet if need be. I would surmise that she can’t be taken by fear-vomit style surprise by her own deliberate and considered actions.
—
tag change: i am the creeping transmutation into spiderflesh that was once the Darksea
Not to mention “Surprise vomiting” as in after the staged bank robbery. Max is not 100% unsurprisable.
It´s easier to go with the military/law enforcement need to sometimes use a real though “safe” (As in unloaded, firing pin removed, other) firearm for training in approaching certain situations.
For example, when i was doing my tour in the Swedish army, we used our issue weapons with bolt removed (or with blank fire adapter and blank rounds) when simulating guard duty situations and problems. Technically this violates the “All guns loaded” and “Never point” rules, but it was needed at the time due to time and equipment constraints and was performed under super-strict supervision.
No, it just means that she is trusted to enter max speed mode during such demonstrations.
Max has, after all is said & done, proven her control with her powers…Even in combat conditions & for quite a few years. It’s all on her record.
Yeah she would even age with that speed…
About Barry Allen, I always thought that he could decide about any increase in speed he’s going. So would be a normal human most of the time until he deliberately goes into speeder mode… Maybe I’m wrong but this was my imagination of his powers.
With Max… I’m unsure. In the bank, she had the time to shout “Not the boots!” or something, she should have been able to dodge instead of shouting, at the very least, or even, shout and dodge in addition. I guess she did it the way she did for creating a comical moment in the comic :p
Exactly. As both Dave and others have mentioned before, the Rule of Funny supersedes all other rules and logic, internal or external, as required.
Even in real life.
‘Cause I don’t car who ya’ are, that shit right there was funny! – Larry the cable guy
Max might have even yelled “Not the boots” AS it happened. More of an “Oh, no” than a “Don’t do that”, in other words.
No, that just means that whenever Max points her gun at something or body, she automatically turns super speed/reflexes on.
This would make a large amount of sense. It would allow her extra (perceived) time to determine the exact movement speed of her target and correct her aim for things normal folk wouldn’t be able to AS she fires. It would give her the ability to correct for shaky hands (if she even has that problem) and allow her to judge exactly when she can fire again. Most people have to wait for the weapon to return to normal position after firing before they can even begin to stabilize and re-aim; Maxima only needs to wait for the action to complete and she can start adjusting her aim even before that. With the extra (perceived) time, she could probably even estimate the effect on the target from her last shot and correct her aim for it. She could probably head-shot and double-tap before the body hits the ground.
So yeah: I think it makes sense for her to boost her speed while firing her weapon.
In fact, this would be a good reason to use her sidearm rather than her powers: if she allocates power to her beam, that takes away from the pool of power available for her speed, thereby potentially reducing her capacity for precise shooting.
I was going to make the same comment.
The comic and commentary have made clear that Maxima would only be able to catch the bullet if she expected it to be fired, which makes her just as susceptible to accidental firing as the rest of the team. Thus she should be expected to follow good gun safety along with everyone else.
Ironically, I was unaware of the controversy until this explanation was given, but now that it’s here, Maxima should be toting around a pink gun.
Dave did mention in his comments under the first comic dealing with this, that Maxima would have her reflexes at maximum, for the demonstration. So, no, there would be zero risk.
Actually there are SO many problems with catching bullets, that it’s just easier not to ask.
Maxima can do it though. We have seen it. However they do it, her power allows Maxima to overcome those issues.
I suspect that the force fields, which surround her body, at a molecular level, grab hold of any air molecules Maxima bumps into, and passes them around her body, until they are behind her. Then holds them still momentarily, until they have leached off any excess momentum. And finally releases them.
That excess energy being passed into her force field, which does whatever super powers do with energy that is not required. Presumably shunting it off into Maxima’s obscenely large energy pool.
Although the air molecule has been on a Maxima-merry-go-round-of-fun it ends up roughly where it started, before she passed by. With about the same amount of energy. The technique is not perfect though, so hair and clothes will flap.
But the worst effects can be overcome, in that, or some other, manner.
Isn’t that what Kenya’s ability does with kinetic energy?
Bad Guy 1: Shoot her! Shoot her!
Bad Guy 2: I am! But she is just standing there, taking it. Look around her feet; you can see all the slugs that have hit her.
Kenya: [Thought bubble] Oh, man! My new blouse is getting shredded! I had that custom tailored. This is getting expensive.
Kenya: Will you guys cut that out already? It isn’t going to work. Why don’t you just surrender before my partners get here?
Maxima is essentially saying, “It’s okay because I’m very alert, you can trust me.” Which is what everyone else says as well. The difference between Max and everyone else is that some of the time, Maxima can guarantee this to be the case. The problem is all the other times.
Thus, if proper gun safety is going to be advocated it still isn’t safe for Maxima to do it. A point could be made that since most of Max’s powers are top secret, the rest of the team may not know about her power pool, and thus to them Max will always be able to catch the bullet. That still doesn’t say much flattering about Max though.
Maxima’s bullet-catching speed is not a state secret. It was demonstrated in public, at the bank. The TV have been gabbing on about it for the past 24 hours and were probably showing CCTV footage, round the clock. Up until the car park battle grabbed the headlines, anyhow.
Maxima will need to do this demonstration once per super-hero-who-has-non-threatening-looking-deadly-powers. And then only to those who have attention deficit issues, who would necessitate extreme teaching techniques, to guarantee retention of the lesson.
These are very rare exceptions, where Maxima makes a case-by-case judgement call. There are no other times. Maxima must follow proper gun safety protocol. And does.
I fear that you’ve misunderstood me. The webcomic audience has been informed of how Max’s power works, that she has a power pool and can choose to boost various attributes. We have also been informed that the nature of her abilities is still kept a secret, possibly even to other members of the team (Dabbler apparently figured it out, but I seem to recall she’s not one to share information). Thus, while we, the audience, know that Maxima is not always capable of catching the bullet (since to do so she would always have to have a significant amount of resourced devoted to both speed and durability), the rest of the team may not. Thus, in universe, their reaction would make sense.
As for the rest of your comment, I’m not really sure what you’re getting at. I was talking about gun safety and how Maxima’s “special rules apply to me” essentially mirrors most people’s belief that they won’t screw up. Which is why (I posit) the rules should be the rules without exception.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but you appear to be saying that Max always follows gun safety protocol, except when she doesn’t, but at those times she’s always justified. Is that correct?
Your first paragraph was not conveyed in your earlier message. Thank you for clarifying your intent. Ignoring the earlier posting, and reading that paragraph in isolation, I concur with your analysis. Provided you restrict it to the recruits’ acceptance of her abilities, as opposed to reading any implications, from that, as to Maxima’s capabilities.
As regards your second paragraph, ALL gun safety protocols have exceptions. One being that if you intend to kill someone you disregard the ‘keep your finger off the trigger rule’. Likewise disregarding the ‘never pointing it at someone rule.
Another exception is when undertaking certain training. Military (and some security services) conduct maneuvers, and other exercises, where guns have to be pointed at each other. Not only that but the guns are loaded, with blanks. So they are ignoring the ‘never point a loaded gun at someone unless you intend to kill them’ rule. Blanks are not safe, they are simply less-lethal.
And all of these rules are framed with the assumption that the guns are being used by fallible humans. If there is no chance of fallibility none of the rules are necessary. Therefore when analysing if the rules make sense, you must reassess them when dealing with individuals who have capabilities which extend far beyond those of normal humans.
I do not consider Maxima to be infallible. Ergo the rules are necessary. But she does not have to restrict herself to the assumption that she is a normal human. She is not. Maxima has relevant capabilities which exceed the default.
Further (and independent of that, or including it) she is capable of exercising her judgement, in order to decide when they can be modified. This is vital in any member of the security forces. And is especially important for those of command rank.
However we do not give any of them carte blanche. We allow them to decide if an exception is necessary. Then we analyse the circumstances, and decide if it is justified. If it is, we back their call.
F**k the rules. If following rules costs lives, and ignoring them saves lives, she made the RIGHT call!
This is backed by law. Below this is how this works under the laws of England and Wales. Other jurisdictions may do it slightly differently, but they find a way, or else the rule of law breaks down. Common sense has to override petty rules-lawyering.
It is illegal for anybody to exceed the speed limit. This applies equally to police cars in high speed pursuit, or a member of the public transporting someone, in a medical emergency, to hospital. Cops do not have a ‘licence to speed’.
So whenever this is done, the individuals are breaking the law. Every action that they take, whilst doing so is then subjected to scrutiny. Is the individual’s skill level such that they could do this safely, in the conditions present at the time? Did they act recklessly, at any point, in addition to speeding? Was any member of the public endangered, or potentially endangered? And so on.
Provided the result is that the individual acted responsibly, the danger was sufficient to justify taking the action, in the first place, and they did not create more of a danger, than they were trying to avert, then society accepts they were doing the right thing.
Either there will be no charges made or, if it is necessary to proceed to trial, then they will have a judgement rendered against them, which does not involve them being punished. The law was broken, but no prison sentence will be involved, nor penalty points put on licences, nor will they gain a criminal record.
Maxima was conducting necessary military and police training, in order to save lives. Yes she is justified in doing that. I can do a detailed risk analysis, if you really want.
Other circumstances may require her to make a similar judgement call. If she gets it wrong, she will face repercussions. If she gets it right, she will be justified.
My apologies if my comments caused confusion. I referenced Max’s powerpool and its implications in both of the comments previous to the one you felt introduced new intent.
Regardless, the reason given, in the comic, for Max’s allowed exemption to this particular rule, is that she can catch the bullet, presumably always. As you have agreed with (sort of), this is not in fact the case. The other members of the team appear to have been mislead, either willfully or by omission to come to this conclusion. Thus for violating the shared rules of this particular group, Max should suffer the terrifying consequences of carrying a pink gun.
Peggy even reinforces the matter by stating that the rules apply to everyone, and Max’s presumed infallibility in this aspect is the only reason she’s allowed to do it.
Ahh, see, now there is the implication that I was countering earlier. You are wrong. Maxima had her power up to maximum. DaveB has confirmed this in one of his replies, on the original page. Therefore there was no danger.
Furthermore, there is no misleading going on. Maxima behaved safely. Peggy is not obliged to clarify that Maxima can only do this under specific circumstances. The recruits do not have sufficient security clearance. Nor do they need to know.
Nor, even doing that, is Peggy lying by omission. She has known Maxima for many years. Peggy understands that if Maxima cannot use her super speed, at bullet-catching level, she does not do anything which would rely on this.
Maxima took many-layered precautions (no bullet in gun, finger off the trigger, gaining the range-master’s permission, super-speed to maximum and more), so was acting responsibly and does not require punishment.
I fear we are at an impasse then, a not uncommon occurrence for internet discussions. We have successfully gone full circle.
You state that Max is exempt from the rules because in this case there was no danger. Peggy’s statement, however is that there is always no danger. As she puts it, even if some sequence of events resulted in her gun firing, Maxima could catch the bullet. As previously discussed, and agreed on, this is not actually the case. In fact, the extremely unlikely confluence of events which results in Max’s gun going off will probably not be something she can catch the bullet from, since it must almost by necessity catch her by surprise.
In the system as presented, Max is allowed to do something only because of an ability she does not have. Thus she should not be allowed to do the thing.
As you note, Max apparently took precautions in this case. However, presumably so do most people (which I’ve brought up before, hence my comment regarding going in circles). Max’s abilities in this case are not infallible nor is her stance on the matter unique, which is why the rules exist, and why she is in violation of them.
You argued, at length, as to why rule breaking might be justified. However, implicit in that argument is that rules were broken. In the system presented, there is no explicit exemption for “I had my reasons”, only one for an ability Max doesn’t possess.
Incorrect. The agreement was purely as regards the recruits belief.
You keep ignoring the fact that Maxima does have this ability. The potential that she has to turn it off is irrelevant, as it was turned on.
Your argument makes as much sense as saying “Ren should be punished, despite not pointing his gun at Peggy. Because he has the capability to point it at her.”
Ren followed correct protocol. So did Maxima.*
Under those circumstances the bullet leaving the gun would not take her by surprise, as it would be moving so slowly Maxima could lean over and pick it up before it even left the barrel.
A point explicitly made, by Peggy, in her comment under the comic.
Should Maxima ever do something like this, and fail to follow correct protocol, such as not having her reflexes turned up to maximum, then she will be punished accordingly.
Correct.
* Somebody could simulate Maxima’s power by attaching a device, to the end of the barrel, which prevents any bullet from leaving the gun. Then they too could conduct this vital life-saving training.
Provided it was tested extensively, in advance, and found to be reliable enough to use safely in a life-or-death circumstance.
And they would need to actually attached the device. like Maxima actually turned on her power. And they would need to take all the other precautions that Maxima did. Like making sure there was no bullet in the gun anyhow.
Should they fail to follow those procedures, they too must wear the pink latex ‘gun’ in their holster. Assuming they are not under court-martial for actually killing someone.
“Maxima’s bullet-catching speed is not a state secret.”
Yep. It was caught on the security cameras at the bank & was “leaked” to the internet. Even before the press conference, it was already widely known that Max can catch bullets.
I made up a universe a while back that has a lot of RPG mechanics like leveling up (maybe not in discrete chunks, but people can basically get stronger without limit). Two things that improve are speed and time perception, generally at the same proportion, so you always see yourself at the same speed while everything else would seem slower. Since there are people so ridiculous that everyone else would appear to be stopped in time, people are able to switch down their perception in order to interact with weaker people normally, but their reflexes are still going full-tilt and sets them to full alert instantly when a threat is sensed.
Maybe Max can do a similar thing, where she can put points in speed while tuning out the passage of time until it’s necessary to go full concentration, but still able to react to an unexpected event instantly. Regardless, it could also be simply “she’s always in super speed mode when she points guns at people”.
Correct. DaveB confirmed this is the case. It is why she keeps her weapon unloaded. She simply loads it as she draws it, and reloads on demand. The only time a bullet enters her gun is immediately prior to it being fired.
She would just have to be careful that she doesn’t try to fire at super speed. As the Mythbusters discovered, you can actually cause the mechanisms to seize, even in a revolver, if you try to fire too fast.
Would it not be easier for her to throw said bullet?????
It’s a combination of speed and rotation that keep a bullet on a ballistic path. She could certainly throw it fast enough, but I doubt that even she could put enough spin on it so that it had any accuracy beyond a few yards.
I don’t think having superspeed requires that everything appear slower. We’re used to that presentation because it’s the only way to really show superspeed in a movie, but someone who could actually move that fast should have a brain adapted to it, capable of processing both extremely quick and normal movement in it’s proper reference frame.
+1
Certainly in a universe like the one DaveB has written. The super powers here (or at least the ones that make it into ArcSWAT) work the way they are intended. They have whatever flexible implementation of a power, or even secondary super powers, as are necessary, in order to do that.
Yeah some people with powers probably would but probably not all
Marshmallows wants to know if Vance is actually full of spiders. :P
Also, yey, I made a spider. —-> *
#
Spider unmade.
I dunno, yours actually has eight legs. You just fixed his spider.
Fixed it flatter (the flatter the better :P)
Fair enough. Now just come Down Under, where the spiders are so big they have health bars… :P
And the snakes have boss-level health-bars.
Nope, going to stay this side of the Ditch thankyouverymuchly
…and Armor Ratings…
And some are even armor-piercing.
No thanks! Spiders are bad enough that you don’t need to ad kale and juicers.
I killed a huntsman once with my Mum’s platform shoe. Got it in the mid-section. It was only after a minute that the fear struck and I started trembling.
‘Hers’ actually. But we all sound the same on the Internet, so meh.
Octothorp-man, Octothorp-man, doing things an octothorp can.
Can he link within a page? Yes he can, for minimum wage.
Now there are two spiders. * *
And a tarantula. #
Yes. Yes there is. @ @
But not anymore.
Aaaaaagh! You missed the tarantula, and now it is mad!
*backs rapidly through wormhole, keeping tarantula firmly in sight, and closes it as soon as through to safety.*
The poor tarantula starves… It’s brethen shall seek revenge…
keys in return command for the robotic scooby treat delivery tarantula and wonders why it would scare anyone.
I like this page very much!
A question about the violation of a principle was asked, an exception was declared, the exception was explained, all in a way that is perfect going with the flow of the story and even, apparently, the question had not come up before, since at least Harem and Vance answered it wrongly.
Oh, yeah. This exception to the “don’t point a gun, ever” rule has been around for centuries. Pre-American Revolution, I believe. Military history geeks, back me up here.
More like 非利不動，非得不用，非危不戰 “Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.”
But “Draw not unless you will shoot” is much in that vein.
NO! NO! NO! I mean back me up on the exception to the rule, that’s only been around about as long as the gun has been in common use and people have been able to catch bullets and such. You guys are just plain silly with you “Sunny Side” talk and all that.
Sun Tzu (of “The Art of War” fame), lived about 500 B.C., that is, about 1900 years prior to the invention of Chinese firearms. I would say whoever sold you that quote, Yorp, is yanking your chain.
When did they invent fireworks? They had been using ‘rockets’ long before ‘firearms’
Actually, they’d been using black powder for fireworks for quite a while before they thought to use it in in warfare…
A bit of trivia is that some scholarly debate is arguing that gunpowder was actually invented in the region of the Indian-sub continent, long before it made its way to China. Falling out of common use in its original area, before later being reintroduced.
As I can’t recall where I picked that factoid up, please feel free to consider that it is me initiating that debate, in a scholarly fashion. ;-)
Much more reliably though, rockets were being used, in warfare, for centuries before the first guns were made. Used en masse, they were of some value as projectiles. Albeit not being as easy to deploy, nor as effective, in that role, as other weapons such as bows.
Their usefulness, in other respects, was highly variable, being dependent on many factors. Such as prevailing conditions, number of munitions, experience and training of both friendly and enemy forces and their mounts, etc.
But, when deployed to effect, they could create the fog of war, cause distractions, plus demoralise and panic enemy forces. And even more so when used on troops which had never encountered them before.
Which significantly aided the Mongol hordes, in their defeat the assembled knights of all Europe. Long before the gun was invented.
Of course my point about Sun Tzu was in jest. However, something that we are becoming increasingly aware, of is instances of inventions having been made long before their first officially recorded use. Had an early gun been developed, during his era, Sun Tzu would have been the man that the inventor would have taken it to.
However it was made though, metallurgy would not have been sufficient in that era to render the weapon either safe or reliable enough for open warfare. Likewise tree-trunk and bamboo cannons have … issues.
So it would not have progressed beyond experimental prototypes. And Sun Tzu’s comment would probably have been about ‘the gun wielder being more likely to kill himself, than the enemy.’
On the other paw though, if he has been reincarnated today, and has a similar mindset to his original self, then my earlier jest may well be an accidental quotation of his.
Alternatively he might say (translated from his waggle dance):
Hover your pointer over the “~” in my comment above.
Wow, cool! Secret message!
*extends paw to offer secret pawshake*
Welcome to the club.
*lowers voice to a whisper*
Follow the link to our secret training camp.
Nothing important, really not worth clicking on this link.
That, of course, was just a ruse, to throw any eves-droppers off the scent. The genuine link is below. Remember, what happens in secret training camp stays in secret training camp!
No, no really, you will not be interested in this.
Someone who “can teleport bullets into your gun without you knowing”.
…
If we lived in a world where teleportation of whole objects was possible, that would be a very, very, very scary thought. Think of how little you could truly be ‘certain’ of in… just about every situation. This is far more thought provoking than I thought it would be.
Weirder powers have already been shown in the story. Jiggawat can generate ANTIMATTER, and Harem can teleport into enclosed places she’s never visited before, and out again in fractions of a second with perfect accuracy.
Yeah those two need to stop fighting crime and instead get some Physics and Engineering degrees.
Once they figure out how and why their powers happen and can explain and duplicate it without using the phase “because of mah superpowers” …
you have a space-time folding device powered by an antimatter reactor.
This “Azarin-deShantis Drive” would be remembered as one of the top 5 best ideas any Hominid ever Had . Shared with how to reliably make tools, abstract language, fire, and growing food.
See, that’s what Dabbler is actually there for- to distract Harem (and Jiggawatt) sufficiently that they don’t band together to figure out how to replicate their powers- because that would allow humans to travel between stars really quickly and efficiently, and humanity isn’t quite ready yet to join with the greater galactic community.
Something I just thought about.
If Dabbler could put up illusions, does that mean that she could make herself appear as a really hot guy? If so, I want to see said hot guy.
I am sure she could.
In fact, by legend (depending on which you pick), a succubus can actually turn into an incubus (their male equivalent) and vice versa. No illusion necessary.
Joy! :)
Now to spend some time imagining what male Dabbler would look like. :P
Ahh, clearly I would have to slip role-playing mode.
[composes self and takes on a feminine mind-set]
Ooh, such a vision! Very much like this, but standing upright and purple.
Woof, woof!
Err Yorp, can you stop humping the table leg now please?
Nyoooo~ My sexy incubi memories…! =o
Aww, now I feel bad.
*hangs head*
Maybe this thread might inspire a fellow reader, of more of an artistic bent than me, to do a boy-Dabbler fan pic?
…
Do I sense an example of impending fanart for Rule 63 on this topic?…
Shame that even people with physics and engineering degrees have not figured out how to understand their powers. Is there any point in the heroes wasting years training up, to likewise fail? Harem might be smarter than an average person, but she is not smarter than 5 physicists and 5 engineers. And there are a lot more than that working on unlocking super powers.
On the other side of the equation, none of those physicists and engineers can teleport. So the invaluable services that the pair of heroes could provide would be lost, for no gain.
While its true enough that there are scientists aplenty that are studying that matter in labs and out, i imagine that being the ones that are actually manipulating these forces (even if they dont understand how) provides an important perspective on the matter that is difficult to duplicate.
Having an understanding of the laws of physics that are being bent by their will goes a long way toward good and bad power stunts. (Harem can fall any distance without worry of impact, Jiggawatt almost ended the super fight though hard radiation poisoning via an unshielded Gamma burst)
Just as useful is a strong talent for meditation. Imagine younger Jigawatt recharging her dads car battery one day (slowly and carefully this time because the last one blew up) and telling herself “ok azar, You got this. Just Feel the flow. Not to little. Not too much. get it Juuuust right. dont just feel the electrons go into place but see it through. You are the Electons. Be the electrons going into the battery just so. ….
Oh crap im stuck in this battery?
Well argued sir.
If you mean the ambulance, once you have seen the inside of one, you have seen the inside of most, plus she could see the ambulance on TV
If not that, have no idea what event you are talking about
The concept of offensive teleportation has always squicked me out. So what if someone like Maxima is impervious to trauma if your enemy can simply teleport a chunk of concrete the exact shape of the interior of your lungs into your lungs. Or simply teleport the middle third of your torso 10 feet to the right. ::shudder:: How about teleporting the myelin sheathing off all of your nerves for an instant case of multiple sclerosis and friends?
…what the hell is wrong with me?
In Worm there is something called the Manton Effect: basically, whatever you do either only affects people, or is limited by people. I believe this is common, yet unnamed, in most superhero or magic stories. (In essence, none of your stuff mentioned above would be possible, unless they flat out could not teleport anything except parts of people, in which case there would be a large number of people who would kill them very quickly. Not even big bads would be likely to tolerate that power.)
I remember back when Marvel trading cards were a thing there was a card with some villain on it that could teleport parts of people’s bodies. Don’t remember her name, though, but the ability really seemed terrifying.
There was a guy in “Powers” who could do that – grab someones head and teleport away with it.
Forget someone ‘porting a bullet into a gun, fear the one who can ‘port a grenade into your stomach cavity!
depending on what a teleporter can do, teleporting an opponents brain somewhere else would be more dangerous…
That implies the victim had a brain to start with :P
But a truly evil ‘porter could come up with some fun things to do with their powers :D
The novel ‘Jumper’ (from which the so-so movie of the same name was derived) has good ideas. Even if the T-port is ‘locked’ to places that have to be physically visited and memorized first, there are some very interesting tricks and ploys that can be used.
and its sequels!
They can teleport to a sequel? Wow. Do they have to wait until it is published, or do they gain time travel too?
Mind you even I can time travel in that direction. The most important question is can they teleport back again? Or even better, go to the prequel?
Why not? Some of the main cast of Star Wars did that.
You meant StarTrek.
R2 D2 and C3 PO are main cast!
And no trying to bring the greatest violators of the time space continuum into the argument. There are good reasons why James T. Kirk is the time cop’s enemy number one!
When C3PO timeported back, he arrived naked & with no memory of his future self. Strangely enough, in the main sequence of movies, C3PO didn’t even seem to recognize Princess Leia when R2D2 mistakenly showed the holograph to Luke & he mentioned nothing about Anakin Skywalker as his Maker…Did he get a memory wipe sometime between Episodes 3 & 4?
Also, Darth Vader timeported back into the prequels as Anakin Skywalker & Obi Wan Kenobi timeported back as himself…It’s just that the time-jump factor had an effect on their age too.
:P
Na in most comic worlds there would be a rule about a aura of a living thing like a human blocks things from porting something inside of it.
There was some short-lived Marvel mutant, whose power was that kind of idea turned up to 11. She could tear reality apart at her target. Unfortunately, it affected her too, and resulted in her death/obliteration.
You talking about Blink? o_O
Yup.
Sydney wouldn’t want the pink gun? I’m surprised. Figured she would love the toy :P
Yes, but not in public
If someone could teleport a bullet without you knowing, what would stop this Super from teleporting the bullet after it was fired ? :) (like they did in the Star Trek DS9 Field of Fire episode)
This kind of super could be a really deadly oponnent :)
Go back and look at Opal prior to Vehemence showing his hand to get an idea of the utility of any power that let’s you move things.
I don’t know if that came up during the scenes with Opal – if she can open a portal and talk through it, she can similarly open one next to someone’s head and fire a bullet through it. Lucky no-one thought of that… 8-)
It was kinda hinted at when Wart ended up groping Maxi’s head in the middle of the fight :P
My technique is to open one next to the enemy’s head, connecting the other end to the surface of a star.
Usually I do this whilst on another planet. That limits any collateral damage to enemies and those who might be compromised by them.
And yourself
o_O Oh, you mean the collateral damage is limited to the enemies and friends of enemies
I am incorruptible! :-)
Offer me a million dollars and I prove that, by turning it down.
(Mind you, offer me a million in real money and we might be able to come to a deal. Provided that it does not compromise my morals.)
So these “morals” Mr Yorp? Can we offer you another million to borrow them from you while you accept the other million perhaps?
Ahh, the perks of being happy to live within my means, and not feeling the urge to indulge in things which I cannot afford, is that such offers do not temp me, in the least.
Of course the world is not black and white. So there is bound to be a grey area, where I felt that relaxing my morals, would be less harmful than the good I could do with money. Especially if I had an overriding need, such as a loved one in a state of desperation. So we never can tell until tested in such a way.
But, without such a hypothetical need, I am comfortable that the money would remain untouched, for even a minor compromise of my core principles.
As for dropping them completely, such as ‘turning a blind eye,’ to something I felt was anathema to my morals, money would be a total non-issue. Given that I would, quite literally, rather die, than stoop to doing that.
And it isn’t just teleporting. We KNOW that the pew-pew orb causes its missiles (or energy bolts or whatever) to appear some distance away (because otherwise it would be a really poor combo with the shield orb). We aren’t sure about Max’s fireballs, but let’s say she can do likewise.
Now imagine really small ones. About the size of what a stove burner can do in a couple of seconds.
Sounds almost harmless?
Cause them to appear inside people’s skulls, or inside their hearts.
a slightly cagier and more malicious thing to teleport would be a plug into the barrel of a gun someone was about to shoot, causing a blowback. This person would be absolutely no fun if on the opposing side.
I believe the proper term in a range is “Cease Fire”, even in civilian gun ranges if the range master wants everyone’s attention, the cease fire order is given and everyone is to make their firearms safe. Clear the weapon, and set it on the bench with the barrel pointed down range.
Yup. I’ve heard “check fire”, but that’s like “hold fire”, meaning temporary. “Cease fire” usually means you’re done.
If you’re artillery, “repeat” means fire at the same target again. That’s why you keep hearing military using the phrase “say again”. In case anyone was wondering. ; )
The above is correct, and saying the word ‘repeat’ for ANY reason, over a radio, is one of the fastest ways to get your butt kicked so hard by your sergeant that they have to issue you and your shadow different punishment details, cause the shadow is lagging so far behind!
Also the reason every veteran in a movie theater either flinches or rolls their eyes when someone military says repeat on a radio when not talking to artillery. You never know if some poor artillery radio grunt is on the channel.
And only ever say “Fire at Will”. if you have a personal dislike of a William.
This is why Ryker had so many problems in Star Trek: TNG…
Lursa and B’etor tried to “fire at Will“, but it was the last thing they ever did…
And that was a veeeerrrrrry long 2 seconds
Yessss!
I prefer a more science-fiction based reply. When I was in the Air Force, one rookie pilot landed with his parking brakes set. The jet almost skidded off the runway, the brakes caught on fire, and the tires blew out. When I went to chew him out, the first words out of my mouth were:
“If I ever see you do something like that again, I will have you reassigned to a desk job at a post so distant that the first light of creation has yet to reach that far.”
I prefer “don’t aim your weapon at anything you don’t intend to shoot” cuz no one with a gun pointed at them thinks that you don’t intend to shoot them.
Well, that’s probably true in most cases but don’t bet your life on it. Also, you don’t know what’s going on in the head of your opponent regarding “your intent”.
–
1. Depending on lighting conditions and distance, the hostile may not even see your gun. Consider too, a handgun has a very low profile when pointed right between your eyes.
2. Your intent doesn’t matter to the:
a. Suicidal
b. Insane.
c. Drug addled.
d. Enraged.
–
I’m sure there are several other conditions which apply.
Actually, that’s the point, if someone intends to kill me I intend to take his ass with me, pointing a gun at me while i’m armed in particular is more likely to result in me shooting you first than it is in making me calm. Even when I’m not armed there’s a chance I’ll just throw humanity out the window and attempt to take you out fists and fangs.
I don’t think this is redundant. I think it addresses a quite serious issue about gun safety, and I’m glad it was done. Far too many accidents happen because far too many people treat those very specialized, extremely dangerous tools whose only true purpose is killing people like toys, and they lose respect for what they can do. That is ALWAYS when something goes wrong.
That’s why a gun is always loaded (especially when it’s not), Sydney. Has nothing to do with crazy supers with bullet-teleporting powers, we have that rule here in the Real World. But people forget about it because people are idiots. Irresponsible idiots.
I would agree. Which also brings up why Max pulled her stunt and why Sydney has her first firearm in pieces and is reading a 300+ page manual.
Also going back to the ‘gun is always loaded rule’, if Max had that in mind then we can assume in her professionalism that she would be ready at that moment for an oops if something did go wrong with her’s.
Another factor, her age and experience with firearms and probably her special far exceeds the others in the class.
add to that if you look, Max was showing proper trigger discipline. her finger was nowhere near the trigger.
I would argue with your statement, “whose only true purpose is killing people.” They are also designed to kill other things, from food to predatory animals.
Okay, yes. It’s not always killing people, but there are definitely certain firearms that are not used by hunters. Handguns and revolvers, for instance. Assault rifles and carbines. Submachine guns. Those are not weapons originally designed for hunting. To say nothing of specialized ammunition that can very swiftly turn rifles and shotguns from “hunting tool” into “dangerous weapon used to kill other human beings.”
If we’re going to be specific and pedantic, then I suppose I should have just said “very specialized, extremely dangerous tools whose only true purpose is killing,” full-stop.
Back to the original point I was trying to make: kudos to DaveB, because this whole sequence feels like something Sydney would (and should) ask while learning about gun safety.
Depends on what you define as ‘hunting’
Just here to also add to the collection of “thank you for this page.” I am a gun hobbyist who trains with firearms from a former SWAT trainer on a monthly basis. Specifically defensive firearm training with handguns.
We do all kinds of training from hauling cars on to our range to shoot through them (and yes the round from a common .40 cal pistol WILL penetrate both car doors when shot through a car) to doing moving drills like jumping over barrels and firing. (The trick they don’t show in the movies? You don’t shoot while in the air. You dive for cover, plant yourself, then fire from behind that cover you dived for.)
But thank you for coming up with a plausible explanation and doing your research on firearm safety. It means a lot to us hobbyists who see guns demonized in most media. I appreciate people taking time out to show some proper firearm safety and acknowledging when someone, even if they can catch a bullet, had broken a cardinal rule.
For some of our videos and and proof that I know a bit of what I am talking about, visit my trainers page at https://625guns.com/.
P.S. For some advanced, “super-hero” type weapons, like training with Class 3 full automatic Glock pistol in a civilian’s hands, check out one of our advanced videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMtD653jPHY
Seems to me a world where bullets can get teleported into a gun is also one where a safety can get undone and a trigger pulled by remote control (Telekinesis?) and have it fire inside the holster. This could make guns even more complex than in this world, real fast.
With those sorts of capabilities around, the opposite could also be true. The best counter might be to make firearms SO simple that a lot of these tricks are, at least, reduced in their effectiveness.
If the safety setting involves the gun actually being incapable of firing due to being, say, semi-dismantled (a kind of ‘break-open’ variant firearm, maybe?), then that pretty much negates fun and games with ammo or fooling around with switches.
I don’t think it is an issue. Supers are too rare to be of major statistical impact and too powerful to concern themselves with petty pranks. Mind control or morphing is more of an issue with framing for crimes.
That’s what ARCHON thought, right before they got jumped by 30+ villains during their celebratory dinner
Gathered by a teleporter and a guy with mind control from all over the country.
Damn prankster teleporters putting bullets in unloaded guns. Too many lives have been lost in games of Russian roulette because some joker teleported bullets into all six chambers. The mafia is very pissed off! Legislation needs to be passed!
If there where no gun rules and Halo got some…would she just turn into the female Yosemite Sam?
For a military branch of anything the level interaction is quite nice and friendly.
…and the punishments are laughable…
…and don’t use “because they’re supers” or another variation of the same.
Most military operations, dialog is unidirectional and if you peel badly the potatoes, you’re in for a world of pain…
That depends on the situation and the unit. During my first enlistment we had times where my platoon would appear to be a very relaxed group with us privates chatting away with our platoon and Sergent and squad leader. Yes when things need to get done pronto and orders need to be issued and carried out, it becomes very unidirectional. When the task is done, we drop back into a more relaxed mode. That being said, we never forgot thier rank or to address them appropriately when speaking to them.
As to punishments, our platoon Sergent once had a soldier walking around for a week with one of those large 9in diameter wall clocks which he had to carry around with him every where. He had a problem getting to formation and work on-time. So he was given a time piece that was a little hard to miss. And if he were to show up without it, then the punishment would escalate.
One of the things to remember is that there will be a difference between training environments and regular duty environments. For example, in training we had to do all the stuff like “only address NCO’s and officers by their rank,” jump to attention or parade rest when they entered a room, and a whole host of strictly disciplined things. In our regular duty stations, all that crap went out the window for the most part. Once in a while, sure, as I told my troops at my last station: “Usually I’m just another guy working here. Please, please don’t make me remember I have these stripes on, because you really won’t like Sergeant Norbrook.”
Thus why a work detail doesnt stop working just to throw around salutes. They keep working and the person in charge of said detail does the saluting and speaking for said detail.
or keeping a concrete block with him at all times with his name painted on it and a poorly drawn picture as a replacement ID card, he still needed the proper ID card for any task that called for one, after losing his twice in 3 months. the soldier also lost rank and paid for the second replacement card, then being confined to company area when a sargent saw him at mcd’s without the block at 9 pm.
Seems legit. The best forged id’s are the ones that are real just with a different picture. Thus a “lost or stolen ” ID is a security risk. Keep losing them and eventually someone else will find them.
He he.
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened, if I had not been rebuffed, on trying to sign up. Or if I had persisted, more forcefully, despite that. Or somehow managed to overcome the issue they legitimately complained about.
Then, other times, I am just glad that I have never had to order a Big Mac, whilst wearing a pavement slab around my neck!
This “military” branch seems to be rather informal, and it’s justified by the story taking place in peace-time. If this was a war-footing situation, the rules would be far more unforgiving.
I can agree with Krahazik.
There are moments in any outfit that you relax and goof around but “it’s justified by the story taking place in peace-time” is bs, no offense implied.
The term “Military discipline” isn’t haphazard.
It exist for a very specific reason and the mantra nowadays known “train hard, fight easy”, is actually from a very successful general.
Military consider peace time prelude to war, and taking in to account that a Bizarro Maxima (or a really nasty Vehemence) could level a couple of cities, training in this specific unit should be deadly serious.
Serious but fun.
Your points are very good. But do miss one aspect, and that is the military need these troops more than they need to be here. Any one of these supers could earn ten times as much in the private sector, without even straining themselves. And possibly far more than that, if their powers have unique, useful, applications.
Even worse, there would be nobody to fill their position. Perhaps a new super might be found, but not with the same capabilities. And no guarantee of any, given the shortage of supers. Plus if the unit has a bad reputation, it is even less likely to attract them.
Think of if you had to set up a military unit, in our world, composed of nothing but A-list movie stars. If you wanted to keep them on the payroll, for more than one tour of duty, you had better have something more in mind than just standard military discipline.
None of this is meant to weaken the need for that discipline mind. That is a must in any unit. But there is more than one way to achieve that. Archon faces an unique situation, and is having to wing it, until they see if their ‘fun, but disciplined’ approach works. If it does, that will set a model, for the rest of the world’s super units to replicate.
Maybe it might even inspire a re-think for conventional militaries too. ;-)
Part of that “relaxed” discipline is for that very reason…None of these “recruits” actually need to be here. This is Archon’s equivalent of Boot Camp, but the recruits are not kept here, virtually like prisoners.
This is why Peggy (excuse me, the Lieutenant) is talking to him as if they were both at a civilian shooting range; reasonably polite in voicing her judgment on his shooting & letting him know that improvement is something that takes time to achieve, and yet still reminding him to keep in mind the differences in rank & the proper way to address it.
This is a comic, not a documentary. Whenever anyone gets too militant about military ways, it just makes me laugh even more. : )
The reason for the unofficial-type corrective action, is so that nothing has to go on paper. this is done when a good soldier does a minor screw-up, and you don’t want to hose his/her entire career with a stupid note in their file. Plus it teaches the other soldiers as well.
Agreed.
Some of the worst punishments are routinely given to the best soldiers.
There are a few biographies of successful commanders that attest to that.
Yes, they are supers and it does matter.
They are volunteers: you press them too hard- they leave and your new shiny agency has no staff anymore.
And since there are only so many supers, you can’t just lure more grunts that can’t find a decent job.
Just paint the pink latex gun black if that happens. It might even fool people that its real.
That is a felony and could get somebody killed.
Except your punishment was to carry the pink latex gun for a week, and if you paint it black it’s no longer a pink latex gun. Therefore you are evading your punishment and disciplinary issues need to escalate.
Yep. “Out-smarting” your Sgt. is not a smart thing to do. Especially if it is really obvious.
Plus, while it is pink and latex, it is not actually a gun. having a black dildo in your holster isn’t much better than a pink one.
Just FYI, pistol qualifications are usually 25 meters [most people’s practical maximum range for use of a sidearm]. They should not have any problem with having a full sized 25 meter range at that facility. Now, RIFLE ranges on the other hand…yaaaah
I could see them using half sized targets for skill improvement or working up to basic qualifications purposes…after all, center mass, tight grouping is the key, and if you can do it on a half sized target, a full sized one will be cake.
Also, generally, the military and police use a “construction paper” grade target paper, which would preclude seeing the silouette through the paper [I know, I have a whole stack of them at home…benifit of having a 25/50 meter range in my back yard]
OK, others have said it, but I’d still repeat that the “vomit incident” shows that Max can be surprised, and that was from someone standing about a meter away, not a gun pressed at point blank range at someone’s forehead. I’d say that Max was still way out of line, and as Peggy suggested in the final panel, setting a terrible example to someone with similar powers.
Max’s major flaw is her overconfidence. I’d have hoped that the battle with Vehemence would have taken her down a notch, but clearly it hasn’t.
Well, her overconfidence and her temper. Actually, those two combined seem like a disaster in the making to me. Funny how much she herself fails to take to heart the lessons she’s trying to teach Sydney.
Okay peacenick, how would you do that scene ‘better’?
I never said that I would do it “better.” I just saw it as an insight into Max’s character. If anything, it’s today’s page that I feel is unneccessary, since it seems to be all about excusing Max’s behaviour. And telling that Peggy won’t criticize Max in front of the recruits.
And having written this and then being reminded of the “Han shot first” controversy, I realize that that’s a perfect analogy. The page with Max pointing her gun at Sydney is Han shooting Greedo right away. Today’s page is the insertion of Greedo getting a shot in first.
Peggy countermanded an order in front of the recruits. This carries with it an implicit implication that she felt Maxima’s judgement was in error. However Peggy did so respectfully, in order to minimise the risk of undermining Maxima’s authority.
Thus I imagine she would be discreet, when circumstances allowed it. In this case though Peggy was both the range master, and in the process of conducting a lesson. She had several points she wished to convey to Sydney, by allowing her to learn from her errors. Maxima was interfering with her duty, so she acted appropriately in countermanding Maxima’s order.
Peggy is not a “yes man”.
As regards the training in ‘how to convey a threat to kill’, Peggy is satisfied that Maxima behaved correctly. As am I. And I am not saying this as a “yes man” myself. DaveB had envisaged that scene since the earliest days of the comic, but wisely did not give any spoilers.
Independently of him I have, for months (or very possibly years), been saying that Halo must be taught not to use her “Christmas tree ornaments” to back up an official police warning. Done inappropriately there is every chance she will just be laughed at, or ignored. And lives could be lost.
Halo can say “I am about to demonstrate my capability of killing you” proceed to do that with her orbs. Then going on to indicate she will do the same, to the criminals, if they do not comply with her orders. But this takes time. A gun is faster, and (in the right circumstances) just as effective.
Maxima’s lesson was very effective in getting this life-saving message across and did so safely. There are many points supporting this stance, stated elsewhere, in these comments, and on the original page. Peggy is aware of all of them. However she is a teacher. So she is keeping her response brief, in order to move on with the rest of her training. They have a tight schedule.
So Peggy is limiting her arguments to the points she believes the recruits will understand and accept.
Most importantly though she is comfortable that Maxima acted correctly. Peggy was aware of Maxima’s way of doing this, and gave permission (in an informal way) by means of their ‘rock, paper, scissors’, to decide whether to do it her way or Maxima’s way.
I can guarantee that if Peggy felt that basic gun protocol was being violated, she would have spoken up, at that time. Ensuring that lives are not endangered is central to the function of a range-master, and it cannot wait until after the event. Such was her duty, and Peggy already did just that, for a far lesser need.
I’d assume surprise gunshot automatically triggers superspeed mode.
let’s see, her finger was nowhere near the trigger, it was empty (not that it would matter), and she would have been in speed mode for this demonstration anyway, just in case something went wrong somehow; there is literally no other way to do this scene ‘better’, I am thinking you’re just biased and not really paying attention, Yngvar
+1
+1
I figured Dave just decided to up her speed even more so she could catch the bullet fired from her own gun, that far away, instead of just going with “Max did something she wasn’t supposed to do” or go with the line “She’s the boss” because that was only about 5 inches away from Sydney’s face.
Max has already demonstrated the ability to move at literally supersonic speed in an instant…Dave had no need to “retcon” for this page.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/388
Not about retcon. It’s about being fast enough to pull a trigger and catch a bullet that was just shot 5 inches away from someone’s face, and have the ability (I would think) to not only make her self fast enough to catch it but also durable enough for it not to go through her hand (unless she’s just normally bullet resistant to a very high degree that it wouldn’t go through).
I really do not know why you are querying this? We have seen Maxima grab a bullet. And there is even a reminder of it, on this page! Plus Peggy has known Maxima for years. And tells us that Maxima is so fast the bullet would not even get out the end of the barrel! Let alone go one inch!
Further, as we can see above, it stopped dead. Maxiama was not hurt, let alone injured. The answer to your question is that she is unequivocally capable of having both reflexes high enough and defences strong enough, to stop bullets.
It is worth remembering that Maxima always has a fairly capable minimum level, in all of her attributes. Even at her weakest Achilles (minimum super strength) will never be able to beat Maxima at arm wrestling. Normal humans are no match for Maxima, even if assuming that she can choose to not allocate her variable capability to any attribute.
That almost certainly includes being able to dodge any mundane attack, like a punch, or a thrown knife. Excluding any by someone with mystical martial arts, like Math. And even a sneak mundane attack, that Maxima did not detect,* would be very unlikely to hurt her.
Which probably makes Maxima bullet resistant, to low calibre rounds, even without upping her defence. But I doubt that includes armour piercing rounds or Peggy’s Barrett.
Don’t forget that Maxima is this world’s equivalent of Super Man. Bullets are trivial to her. All she has to do is be prepared for them.
But also realise that, although she is the most powerful super, judging by victories, unlike Super Man, she does have limitations, that can make her vulnerable. Just not to the normal every day risks squishy humans face. It takes a top-tier super, such as Dabbler, or Vehemence, to spread her capabilities too thin, and expose the weakness, of having to balance her powers.
Nor is Maxima unique in these capabilities. Many supers, in this world, are outright bullet immune. And one on the team is even billed as ‘Super Man Lite’, namely Super Hiro. He IS more powerful than Maxima would be, at her weakest. As shown by the fact that she is capable of lowering her capabilities enough, to give him a sporting chance at sparring.
But he did realise that Maxima had been holding back, when he saw her taking on Vehemence.
Do not underestimate Hiro mind. At the present time he is still rated as being more powerful than Halo, even with her host of capabilities. One notable absence though, is he lacks super reflexes/ super speed. He has to follow all normal gun protocols. Even if the only risk of pointing a gun at him, is to other people, from being hurt by ricochets!
* Maxima is fast but does not have enhanced senses, other than, presumably having faster sensory processing, to match her reflexes,
I didn’t want to say anything about the aiming at Sydney thing earlier, but that’s a great point on why that was actually ‘ok’. TY for the explanation ^_^
In a scion game we were having a marksmanship duel with Kaguya Hime and nobody realized my mangaka scion had Marksmanship 0 and lent me an automatic weapon to compete with. One combat round and cry of “Hey! Look I hit stuff!” later, and one of the other players’ Amazon followers was getting out of cover to go drag her off to teach her gun safety.
/me volunteers to be Anvil’s towel :D
Concerning the new invotive (if you haven’t voted, get to it!!)
Grrl Power is currently numba one. Yay!
Seriously for some reason the first thought that crossed my mind when I saw it was “Yabba Dabba DOOO!!”. I have no idea why but I really like it.
Is it just me, or is Ren considering other objectives with that comment. I think he’s a bit sweet on the lt. :)
So he may be seeking ‘potential boyfriend certification’? :)
It definitely could be considered flirting, or just banter. With that workplace it’s not always clear.
Its just you.
Its an interesting ship, but this ship is sunk before its built.
Officers do not fraternize with the Enlisted. Period.
Even if nothing goes wrong.
Its bad for unit discipline and morale.
And calls into question that officer’s judgement.
Good point. The Royal Navy’s most promising female officer lost her command through a similar issue. Namely fraternising with one of her crew.* Particularly sad, as she was the only female in command of a warship, at the time. And that was recently enough that I doubt there are any others, even now.
“Ren, get yourself transferred to Officer Cadet training!”
* Apparently not totally forbidden, in the navy. Although, in that instance the relationship may have been with a fellow officer. The press announcement spared their privacy by not detailing it.
But any shipboard relationship must not compromise operational efficiency, in any way. Which that incident did. And we know that such fraternisations very often do, in any kind of organisation. And even worse if between an officer and one of the enlisted ranks. Hence it being such a big no no.
And now I just noticed the title of the comic.
With the latter being in the plural. A little clue that DaveB might be ahead of us, on this. Again. :-D
Actually, that’s not strictly true. The rule is not to fraternize if they are in the same chain of command. For enlisted to fraternize with an officer, if they are in a different chain of command, is generally accepted. The military has this rule specifically to avoid possible Conflict of Interest… for example, an officer treating a sergeant under his command differently because the sergeant is his girlfriend.
So, as Stumpy pointed out, this ship has sunk before it’s sailed. Ren is in the same chain of command, so fraternization with Peggy would not be allowed.
Ren would have gotten more hits if he had gone for center mass instead of head shots. Such a rookie.
No kidding. Heads, Arms, legs, etc. move around far too much to be reliably hit.
Even Elite Snipers will still go for a Center of Body Mass Shot the vast majority of the time. really the only way to confirm a kill.
Most practice should indeed be for torso shots. But it is wise to get in some head shot practice too. Archon might not be the only organisation with Kevlar+. Making the face the most likely kill shot.
Plus of all the people who might need to make a “trick shot” of hitting some artifact or something, Arc Swat would be that group.
Yorp, you literally cannot practice fine control techniques until your motor skills are up to the task. Until then, it’s just luck.
Oh I was not trying to undermine Peggy’s lesson. Ren must master the basics. I am in complete agreement with you on that. Only if Ren manages that, should he move on to more complex tasks.
As for my comment, I was purely responding to the point where you had elevated it to including ‘elite snipers’.
From the sounds of it Ren does not have the natural skill that will put him in Peggy’s class, and being capable of shooting a weapon out of someone’s hand. Not unless he overcomes his adrenalin shakes.
The fact that he can freeze the world counts for nothing, if his hands are shaking too much to reliably aim!
But, if he can mitigate the handicap enough, he could well reach the point where a head shot is viable. If he never reaches that capability, then he will need to find some alternative solution to such a situation.
well, i just mean that nailing someone in the head is pretty hard to do, despite what CoD players made think, and even professionals go for center of body mass more often than not (Also, Kevlar+ is still probably only bullet resistant, i doubt someone firing a .50cal [or god forbid, one of those South African Anti-Materiel Rifles] at it will make it useful for long, hence the earlier comment about “acceptable cover” from Peggy).
and for those of you wondering just what rifle, the Denel NTW-20. it fires 20 x 82mm shells. there’s also variants that fire 20 x 110mm Hispano (a shell meant for fighter cannons) and 14 x 114mm. This was also the gun used in District 9 to disable the Prawn Exo-Suit, and is literally impossible for any normal person to fire unless they’re prone without being knocked over and/or severely injuring themselves.
Yep. All very good comments.
Mind you, the fact that it is hard to do is why this team needs practice. And, in a super-hero world there is a good chance that they will need to make use of that training.
Whilst, in our world, the need is reduced, to the point that most forces indeed do not practice head shots, I would still argue* it is not negligible. For instance consider someone who is firing from behind cover, with only their head and weapon visible. Using a side-arm, even their hand need not be exposed, just the barrel.
If all you can see is their eyes and forehead, you will benefit from having head-shot practice.
Of course, if the calibre of weapon being used is sufficient to render the armour, or cover, to be worthless, then there is no argument. Centre of mass every time.
* With my full credibility, as an armchair warrior. :-D
Another way to get round Sidney’s “Maxima’s breaking the ruuuuuuuules!” complaint would be to point out that Maxima doesn’t even carry a real gun – just a very, very good fake. Why carry a real gun if a fake will intimidate just as well?
Her gun is very much real
Definitely not a fake. It’s custom made. A few more details are in Dave’s Deviant Art gallery:
https://davebarrack.deviantart.com/art/Rex-Machina-254074351
No credible tactician would force themselves into a corner, which required a bluff, that could not be carried out. Outside of training, Maxima will only point her gun at someone, as a precursor to killing them. As the law requires, she will hold off doing that, long enough to allow the criminal time to surrender, or cease their hostile actions. But only provided there is time for that.
In the fight against Vehemence, Maxima very clearly demonstrated that she has the necessary ruthlessness, that any armed police officer or soldier must have. Obviously though Vehemence is bullet-proof, so she would not use a gun against him. I only mention him to illustrate Maxima’s resolve.
If the situation warrants it, Maxima will use the gun to kill the criminal. It is not a bluff.
The same goes for anyone in real life. If you think that pointing the gun will result in the person targeted surrendering, you should not own a gun. You have not been properly trained and are putting your own life in danger.
Of course you hope they will surrender, that is the point of issuing a ‘comply or die’ threat. But you must be prepared to kill them, if they do not.
I definitely like the ‘Pink Latex Gun’ punishment. It strongly reminds me of ‘The Hubcap Of Shame’ from ‘Knights Of the Dinner Table’.
For anyone not up on KODT, it is a very funny comic about a bunch of tabletop RPGers. The ‘Hubcap’ is a punishment occasionally inflicted upon those who have brought shame and disrepute upon the gaming community as a whole. Basically, the guilty person has a hubcap hung around the neck, and has to publicly wear this until told otherwise. Note that there is also a very specific song-and-dance routine the wearer MUST do whenever anyone asks about the hubcap.
The “hubcap of shame” reminds me of the Toilet seat of shame that one of my teachers had in Middle School. (That’s Year 7 and 8 for some of you.)
If you had to go to the toilet in the middle of class, my chemistry teacher made you wear a bright orange toilet seat around your neck, with “McPherson’s Potty Pass” in white lettering on it.
That was literally 30 years ago; I don’t think that the “Toilet Seat of Shame” would fly in most schools today.
What is that in ‘age’?
Having to wear a toilet seat because you had to use the bathroom? Yeah, can see that not being allowed, surprised it was allowed even back then, sounds like your teacher was one of those overly strict arseholes, the kind that locks the door right on the hour so anyone even a minute late is locked outside
Age-wise, middle school would be between 13 and 14 years old.
The American school system breaks down as follows:
Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K): 5 years old
Kindergarten: 6 years old
Elementary School: 7 thru 12
Middle School: 13 and 14
High School: 15 thru 18
There’s some variance between school districts. For example, in some districts, Elementary is only 7 thru 11, and Middle School is 12 thru 14. Other districts stick to an older system, where Elementary is 7 thru 12, Junior High is 13 thru 15, and High School is 16 thru 18.
The toilet seat was mostly because you’re not supposed to be walking in the halls during class, so the teachers had to issue some sort of hall pass. The problem with a slip of paper is that some students took advantage of it to loiter in the halls (trying to skip as much of the class as they could). Mr. McPherson just made damn sure you wouldn’t loiter, because who wants to skip class while wearing a bright orange toilet seat around your neck? And you couldn’t just leave it somewhere and wander the halls without it…
These days it wouldn’t be allowed; it’d probably be seen as “attempting to shame the student for needing to perform a natural bodily function” and “harmful to his psyche.” And in this particular case, they have a point.
I’ve seen kids in Pre-K as young as three in my district. I know they don’t get passed up to Kinder until the year they turn 6, though. My only quibble.
Oh, by the way, the teachers in school don’t lock their students out. If you’re late to class, you have to go to the office and get a tardy slip, which means staying in detention hall after school (only happened to me one time). It isn’t until you get to university that you get teachers who lock students out…
So, if getting something special for Peggy, obviously a cutting edge gun accessory would be appreciated. But wrapped in a nice pink ribbon. And laid on a bed of pink carnations, with petals scattered around.
That falls under the category of “what do you get the girl who has every thing?”
I think some tasteful dancing shoes would score more points.
And a tuned cybernetic Limb from Dabbler’s lab.
I would check whether she enjoyed dancing first. Clearly Peggy is capable enough to overcome her prosthetic and dance. Even if she might need to modify her choice of dance styles, to accommodate any limitations.
But not everyone is into it. I have never been any good at dancing myself, despite taking salsa lessons. I figured that, with a lot of intensive training, I would be able to make less of a fool of myself on the dance floor. However I found I was not enjoying the process.
Contrast that to martial arts lessons,* which were a lot sweatier and more painful. Yet much more satisfying, when any progress was made. I don’t enjoy dancing. Nor might Peggy.
Even if she used to, she may well find that the pain of wearing the prosthetic takes away that enjoyment. I have seen a retired professional dancer crying because he was incapable of dancing. Peggy at least would be able to. But, if she has to grit her teeth and put up with any pain or discomfort, during her working day, at home, she might just want to throw off the prosthetic and chill.
But, yea, if she does enjoy dancing, then that would be a superb gift idea! And much more imaginative than going for ‘tools of the trade’. Clearly Peggy would not be as good as she is, if she did not enjoy her work. Yet she may very much want to keep her private life different.
So pink ** dance shoes are very much on the approved list. Subject to confirmation as being desirable.
The Dabbler limb suggestion would be worth attempting, and if successful would be the ultimate gift. But, in my opinion, very unlikely to succeed. A plan B would be vital to ensure no disappointment.
* Although, admittedly I did make faster progress. But here I am talking about the concluding point, where you have mastered a move. And I am a patient person, so am willing to take as long as is necessary to achieve something I want.
** This is the most important bit.
And because dabbler made it it should probably have a gun in it somewhere (like that grindhouse move https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_0wX9RK37I )
Maybe every once in a while the LT likes to dress up and enjoy being a girl?
A classy outfit that accentuates her unique characteristics goes along way for that sort of thing.
Example: A dress that matches her eye color with accent colors matching her leg tats (im thinking birds of paradise in flight) and split to the hip to show them off. Shoes and a hand bag (with a fast access gun holster) that match whatever her hair color is at that point in time.
Perfect for an evening Luau party on a nice beach.
If thats not in the cards… hmm that area the comic exists in just gives me an Ohio kind of vibe.
Day trip to Cedar Point!
A roller coaster mecca seems great/terrifying for for a pilot. (gatekeeper ride +best)
But if i just wanted to just do something nice for the LT, I imagine one cant go wrong with a case of match grade ammo for her favorite carry piece.
(with pink balistic caps because it is the most important bit :)
Maybe a high-quality gun rack? I figure that more weapon storage is one thing Peggy always needs.
“Don’t aim your weapon at anything you don’t plan on shooting” awww didn’t think Sydney bugged Maxima THAT much….
There is another reason Max was allowed to point her gun at Sydney’s head. Remember the conditions the manual allowed . . .
DaveB, your paper target is actually a commonly used size, especially for zeroing one’s weapon. That being said (see what I did there?), there would not have been a human silhouette on the paper, but black concentric rings, with a white center bullseye, and a vertical and horizontal cross over the circles to aid in the zeroing in process.
most targets like that I saw as a soldier had a white circle at center mass that was the grouping-zeroing point 5/6 in your good. also the targets would have a grid around/over the silhouette so a decent grouping could guide sights adjustments in zeroing, grouping is 3 round set, check group, then 3 round set, check group, adjust sights or firing habits as needed, 3 rounds and continue till range close or out of rounds or completed the task.