Grrl Power #371 – Dabbler is like a hammer; she’s out to nail everyone
Yeah that Harem’s a real party girl, or so she would have you believe! She actually has done far more than her fair share of it, as she has done far more than her fair share of most things as one might expect from someone who can do 5 things at once. At the very least, one of her is actually at the club now, one is talking with the brass, and another one is helping a 4th get ready. What, like only one of her is going to the club? None of that means she never embellishes any of her stories though.
Sydney’s question in the mini comic is legit, and really the only way to find out is to find out.
Dabbler takes sex pretty seriously, no surprise there, but not so seriously that she’d be offended by a shirt which suggested that “all I got was ████ by Dabbler” like that’s some sort of consolation prize instead of the reason the whole fight went down in the first place. Neither Arianna nor Maxima are have seen that shirt by the way.
And a random artist thought for you; Drawing someone sitting in someone else’s lap is surprisingly difficult. Getting all the parts in the right place is trickier than you’d think.
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I have to wonder just how happy a real life police department or military would be to have some of their people be given money just to make an appearance somewhere. Having people throw money and gifts at law enforcement types seems like a good starting point for corruption and allegations of bribery. Even if our heroines don’t actually do anything wrong, it will probably look bad to some folks.
That’s why it was ‘suggested’ they donate a large portion of it to charity.
And remember Arianna’s goal of turning them super famous. This is probably a big aspect of that side of their new life
Honestly, I think Arianas goal is to make everyone with superpowers so rich that none of them are tempted to commit crimes.
That is an achievable social goal. As per my standard thinking though, I would apply it without discrimination. So omit the “with super-powers” bit.
Personally I would focus on the goals of unlimited free energy and stabilising both population size and climate. Everything else would follow, with that. Especially as, to achieve the latter two, would require effective world-wide co-operation and reasonable harmony. Which is about as close as we can get to an idealistic, but unachievable, wish for world peace. Which would otherwise be a separate target, in its own right.
Of the above, the easiest is actually the free energy! The catch being that it would take time. We have devoted far too much time into researching the wrong energy branches, and precious little in the most viable one. Namely liquid thorium reactors. But, even saying that, I feel we could get viable worldwide energy far quicker that way, than through our present snails-pace progress in fusion research and development.
The other two can be achieved with known, relatively easy to implement and non-draconian policies. Thus only require humans to learn how to get along with each other and work effectively towards common goals…
So they get classed as fantasy.
*sigh*
Arianna’s goals are achievable however, given the intrinsic advantages supers have. But they could lead to a backlash, through jealousy and resentment at preferential treatment, for an already privileged minority.
A genuine problem with eliminating crime by eliminating poverty is that some.people are motivated by social climbing and the acquisition of personal power. Granted, that’s a small percentage of people, but they are out there. Wealth, and the comfort that comes with it is not the end goal for these folks. They want to impose their will on others and will go to extraordinary means to do so. And of course there are the psychopaths who enjoy inflicting pain for the fun of it. Vehemence is a mild example. Given his ability, he could have cleaned up as a Pro Wrestler, or any kind of professional fighter. Instead, he decided to go around starting fights and feeding on the energy, just because he felt like it and enjoyed beating the scrap out of people, or watching others beat the crap out of each other. Somehow, I doubt making him rich would have changed that.
It would not eliminate crime. But if you look at prison populations, you can see the vast majority are from deprived backgrounds. From which we can infer that a lot of criminality can be avoided by either directly meeting the needs of those individuals (ie no need to steal when you can just have a widget just like it, for free) or by having the time and resources for specialists to deal with the remaining problems.
For instance there will always be crimes of passion and people who are intrinsically anti-social or simply clinically insane. Likewise there are unique things which cannot be replicated, that will still attract theft. However the latter is a rarer problem, given that it is typically limited to the super-rich, and collectors, rather than the bulk of society.
But with unlimited resources (which you get as a result of unlimited energy and a stable co-operative society) you can train up a greater proportion of sociologists, care workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, cops, lawyers and so on. Hopefully society will focus on prevention primarily, thus reducing even the remaining proportion. But, where that fails, they will be able to minimise the effects of unavoidable criminality.
All of which would be easier with supers helping to speed up the processes I described (and possibly finding ways of solving the insoluble ones). Provided Archon can prevent the super villains in society from negating the advantage that humanity would otherwise gain from such extraordinary powers.
I.don’t disagree. Poverty and a society that refuses to deal honestly with the root causes are the main causes of crime. I was just pointing out that while unlimited energy would likely eliminate a good portion of crime, you’d still have people who would commit crimes for other reasons. In some ways they’d be more dangerous than someone simply committing crimes to get by. Add in superpowers and you get some truly dangerous individuals.
True.
Oh, I forgot to mention teachers in the above list. Having sufficient of those (and other juvenile care specialists) to ensure that everyone gets a good education, and has any problems recognised and help provided, should act to counter many other problems, before they might enter the criminal realm.
Not that I feel humanity is destined to live in an utopian society. It would still have humans in it, after all! And super-humans, as you say, just super-size any human problems.
But unlimited energy allows a decent shot at living in a golden age. So one far better than we presently have, even if remaining far short of being perfect.
I would like to point out that looking at the prison population tells you more about the prejudices of the system than it does about the criminal population of any given country. It is well documented that people of color go to jail for crimes that white people get a slap on the wrist for. And white collar crime is treated as a lesser offense even though it has a far reaching impact. Then there is the fact that the government funded asylums have been shut down by Regan, and the people who would be getting help there are now shunted into the criminal justice system.
Eliminating poverty will reduce a certain type of crime, but it would require cracking down on the rich and influential criminals.
When you examine demographics you look at those which have a bearing to the issue. Which, in this case, was establishing whether there was a correlation between poverty and crime.
A key scientific principle is to isolate a particular determinant. Race does have bearing on prison populations, but you must examine those issues separately, and in their own context. Introducing unnecessary elements needlessly complicates the issue.
Therefore you only look at the financial circumstances of the prisoners and the economic aspects of their backgrounds, when resolving the question under examination.
Once that is resolved, then you can then turn to other related issues, but not until then.
Notably there is considerable overlap, in prison demographics, between poor/deprived backgrounds and racial minorities. Clearly racial inequality is indeed a significant social issue, that is also affecting this.
Note that prejudice and inequality need to be addressed separately at this point. Because the latter can be solved by the methods I indicated. If we have unlimited energy, resources, economic stability and harmonious politics, the inequality will vanish. Unless prejudice prevents that.
However I did stipulate that my solution only addressed material needs. It does not cure the human condition. What it does do though is free up time and resources to find ways to deal with the other problems, in society.
As stated though, prejudice does become less of a factor in plentiful times. We are seeing the reverse of that equation, at the moment, mind. When resources are stretched any prejudices come to the surface.
And, at the end of the day, only so much can be done to ‘cure prejudice’. Not unless you cure the concept of family too.
“If my family’s lives are at stake, they take precedence over others” —–> “If my ethnic (/religious /cultural) group is at risk, then they take precedence over others”.
Combating hatred of difference is a separate (if interconnected) issue to division of scarce resources. Stopping resources being scarce resolves a very big part of the problem though.
Liquid thorium reactors … The wiki page paints a rosy picture of them.
My first observation is that the claim about them not being able to melt down only makes sense if you consider the fact that their fuel starts in a molten form. Saying they can’t melt down is much like saying you can’t pop a balloon that’s already been cut in half.
Liquid fuel reactors are scary to me. It’s hard to leak a uranium pellet, but in a pressurized system it’s trivial to leak gallons of self-heating liquid fuel. And if it’s possible for a critical mass of liquid thorium to be acquired?
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Oh, that’s a molten salt reactor. The salt fuel will, like any good salt, dissolve in water. Three words would quickly apply to any such reactor that looses any quantity of fuel to any cause: ‘contaminated water supply’
Pass.
‘Melt down’ is not referring to whether a substance is liquid or solid, not in this context anyhow. It is short-hand for the process which leads to a nuclear explosion. Regular nuclear reactors need energy (to power the coolants and other machinery) and active control, to avoid this. Loose power or enter a state of anarchy and meltdown is unavoidable.
Whereas liquid thorium reactors are designed to fail safe. Remove the power, or active control of the plant, and they cannot keep operating, let alone run the risk of entering an out-of-control state.
As a society we have plenty of experience with pressurised systems, having had hundreds of years of practice, working with them. Yes, such things can go wrong, but the results are a very localised problem, rather than a city-wide, national or international disaster.
The self-heating aspect is an extra complication, but nothing particularly frightening. Fire-fighters and other first responders will be given training in how to cope with that. And specialists can handle any clean up safely (far far more safely than a leak from a corresponding traditional nuclear plant).
Uranium is deadly. Want to know how dangerous and where the nearest thorium is, to you? In your garden. Dig up a cubic meter of soil, and you have enough of it, in there, to provide you all your power needs for the rest of your life!
That is not a risk. It is impossible to make nuclear weapons from thorium.* Of particular note is the fact that we already have thousands of tons of it stockpiled! It is presently an unused waste-product from other mining and refining processes.
The closest weapon which could be formed from it’s by-products is a dirty bomb. But such can be made with present-day radioactive waste from hospitals (as one example). Importantly a thorium plant produces far less dangerous substances than a traditional nuclear plant, so even those risks are minimised.
Yes. However this is the scale of risk we are familiar with for any modern industrial process. It is not the ‘this bit of planet is now uninhabitable for 10,000 years’ as associated with a traditional nuclear plant accident.
It is worth noting that the quantities of fuel required are trivial. Plus the plants can be made really small. Tiny enough that each community can have their own. The amount of fuel required for the needs of a town (or smaller) would not pose a significant threat to the water supply, even if it did leak out. Just put on your safety gear, get a bucket, and mop it up! **
* One of the by-products could theoretically be altered to a fissionable state. But, when you examine the processes required, they could not be implemented in practice. It would require facilities more complex than those needed to make traditional nuclear plants. Plus, even if such a science-fiction plant could be built, it would produce enough radiation, in the process, to kill anyone making the attempt.
** Do not try this at home until you have read your safety manual. I have simplified the process for comedic purposes.
The term for nuclear material causing an explosion is ‘Supecriticality’, that is you have a runaway nuclear reaction.
A nuclear melt down refers not to any explosion, but to the reactor and or its fuel melting. No explosion necessary. Don’t go thinking Chernobyl (steam explosion that deformed the reactor), think three mile island. (Granted, after the steam explosion, the Chernobyl reactor did melt).
Just thinking here… You’ve got enough of a reaction going to melt the salt, and draw off sufficient power to run a steam turbine. It’s a nuclear reaction, so you’re talking radioactive particles. in the case of Thorium, that’s alpha and beta particles. Mostly alpha particles, which are close to harmless – as long as you don’t ingest the radioactive materials. Then they turn nasty.
Sure, you may have thorium in your soil. Woo. The stuffs not especially dangerous until you refine it in the direction of a nuclear fuel or other purposes.
Speaking of… Thorium salts. There was a fad a few years back involving them. The sales pitch was “Perpetual Sunshine”, the news headline was “The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off”.
Nasty stuff, nuclear reactor fuel. Especially the water dissolving liquid kind. Thanks, but pass.
Urk , I clearly am not entirely coherent at this hour… Point is, thorium salts are bad mojo. The first few paragraphs of the wiki page for the reactor sounds like asales advert for something incredibly dangerous. Don’t be treating thorium salts as harmless, people who did that previously died as a direct result. Don’t go looking for a reactor in every community, that’s playing with fire.
A few details to correct here:
1) “Supercriticality” should be a condition for the standard nuke type explosion, since it is the state where the amount of new nuclear reactions accelerate (exponentially). This would cause the amount of energy release to rise very rapidly, typically leading to an explosion.
2) “Nuclear Meltdown” does not just refer to a situation where the fuel of a nuclear reactor melts, but instead to a type of containment breach of the nuclear reactor caused by the fuel melting its way through (the bottom of) its container.
These details are ofcause somewhat pedandic, and it is common to refere to these phenomenon in a more casual way like you have.
About thorium reactors, then they mainly are a variation of standard nuclear (fission) reactors, with some improvements compared to other variations. While the safety and waste problems are reduced, they are not entirely removed. Thorium reactors still use fission processes, which has the intristic problem of generating many different types of waste products, though in different amounts. This comes from the nucleai being broken somewhat randomly (I could go onto a long discussion about quantum mechanics and randomness here, but I will spare you and just say that you cannot entirely prevent it with fission processes), which makes it able to most of the isotopes for most of the elements in the pariodic tabel.
While the probability distribution for thorium reactors might favor less problematic decay routes, it would still not account for all of it, and in practice a large part of the problem with nuclear waste is not the core fuel, but all the possible decay and fission products, which behave chemically in ways that make their radiation much more poisoness (for instance by giving it paths into the human body).
Futhermore the amount of energy generate from thorium reactors is not significantly more than standard nuclear reactors, and they still require other expensive plants, so the cost of energy would not fall significantly below the current level of nuclear power cost. The cheapest deployed energy systems I am aware of at the moment is ground themal reactors (see Iceland) and giant water dams.
Personally I predict that the future’s main source of energy for standard distribution would be fussion reactors.
Fussion reactors have many significant advantages over fission reactors. First of all, the fussion process and its very steep requirements ensures that the products are very well defined, and those that are unstable decay extremely fast, meaning that they pose no real long term threat (though you still might not want to stand next to it while it is on. This means that it generate no waste of notice, probably less than a standard fire pit with wood would do.
Secondly the steep requirements for fussion to occure ensures that even in a containment breach or pratically any other malfunction the fussion process would stop, and the small amount of super hot plasma would create some local problems at the power plant.
Thirdly the amount of power generated should be orders of magnitude larger than current nuclear power plants. There is a reason that fission based bombs are measured in kT and fussion based bombs in MT. Note that fussion based bomb still used fission as the “ignition”, which is why they too generate radiactive waste. This large increase in output allows much more energy to be generated pr cost, which therefor leads to significantly cheaper energy (assuming we ignore the distribution cost).
Lastly, the fuel needed for these reactors is extremely insignificant and widely available. We are talking “glass of water to power a city” level (the exact amount depends on which process, so I wouldnt bother with running through the calculations, but just take this as the low end), or atleast significantly less than practically any other type of fuel (the main reason it might require more, is the use of the rare heavy water).
All in all, then fussion power plant should be vastly superior to all excisting power plant types, when power gain gets any significant advantage over the ignition cost.
Currently only one type of fussion reactor have a slight positive net energy production, while the others have not exactly reached this point. Given that this point have already been reached, it seems fairly likely that further improvements can be made over the years, such that it will become effective for industrial deployment.
Personally I expect fussion power plants to be deployed within the next 50 years, and if we are lucky then within the next 10 to 20 years (it takes some time to build the facilities).
Your final paragraph is why I favour liquid thorium reactors. Their technological issues could be overcome a lot quicker, if the same kind of resources were allocated to their research and development.
Although I agree with you, for the long term. If we can overcome the difficulties with fusion. It does have higher technological hurdles, to overcome, so the risks in the unknown are the greater.
It is undeniable that fusion has incredibly slow rates of development, despite being the primary focus of huge international effort. Yet, as you say, it has barely achieved break-even level.
Whereas thorium reactors are actually viable and in use today. Please though, do not confuse this with liquid thorium reactors. They are two different beasties, with the latter being a great improvement on the former.
I am not in the mood to detail it all though, so instead here is TED talk about liquid thorium reactors.
But to address Torrenal‘s “Pass” I assume that stems from not presently suffering from a significant shortage of resources. Whereas I and my neighbours find difficulty in remaining warm in winter. I see some dying of hypothermia every year, just in my village.
Let alone children regularly going hungry and people dying from curable conditions, for lack of modest amounts of money. I know a number of families who have to eat stray dogs, because they have no other way of getting meat.
Personally I would be fine with storing small amounts of industrial waste, in my locality, to ensure that is never an issue for humanity again.
However that is not actually required. You have both failed to grasp the significance of having unlimited free energy. Safe disposal of such waste suddenly becomes viable. Burying it on the Moon being one option (as we are past 1999 now, and no longer fear that). Or dumping it in the Sun, being another.
These being even more economic given the small quantities involved.
Oh, and I forgot one detail, from earlier. Liquid thorium reactors do not need to operate at high pressure. So risks from that do not actually enter into the equation. It is also why (unlike the alternatives) the reactors can be built at very small sizes. And do not require vast quantities of water coolant.
Making them suitable for community use (with appropriate precautions for disposal of waste) and vehicles (notably including space craft).
Brilliant. Let’s load tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste onto rockets an launch them into the sun!
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Oops, launch failure, we now have tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste spread all over our launch facility.
Thus why we opt for solar panels on most space probes. Our comet mission could have used a nuclear energy source for the lander, but that would risk contamination on earth from a launch failure. Whether disposing waste on the moon or in the sun, this applies.
Oh, one more detail, landing a ton of nuclear waste in the sun isn’t possible. Why?
Two reasons.
First, The sun is inconviently located at the bottom of a gravity well, good luck getting any real mass of waste onto a trajectory into the sun. Load up Kerbal Space a
(A space flight program) and give it a try, if you don’t believe me – just get one full fuel tank into the sun. And remember that in Kerbal land, they fudge values to make it easy – smaller gravity wells, shallow atmosphere, etc.
Second, the sun is just over 9900 degrees Fahrenheit. Which melts most things. But that’s only if you get your waste that far. As far as solar navigation is concerned, that’s cold. The Corona (solar atmospheres) gets up to two million degrees hot. I’m unaware of any material that can withstand that long enough to get a probe to the relatively(!!) cold surface. And once your waste transport vaporizes in that heat, you’ve got a radioactive cloud being blown back at us. ‘EPÀ waste disposal rocket vaporizes while in route, contaminates all of space and several planets’. Expect the public to overreact.
You seem to be ignoring the point that, when talking in terms of nuclear waste, the by-products from liquid thorium reactors are not highly radioactive. This calls your objectivity into doubt.
They are mildly radioactive, with very short half lives (compared to conventional nuclear waste) and the nature of their radioactivity means that it poses considerably less risk to human health.
Clearly, even taking that into account, it would not be responsible to conduct launches of such material, in close proximity to population centres. But the existing launch facilities do not anyhow. So that really is not a problem
Especially when you factor in that catastrophic failure is not a frequent occurrence in modern launches. Even if a payload crashed into the ocean, the environmental risk would be minimal. The mild radiation would be far less harmful, in the vastness of the ocean, than the leaks from Fukushima.
Occasional accidental loss, on land, could easily be cleaned up. Using specialist teams, as I indicated previously. It is toxic but entirely within the realms of normal hazardous industrial waste. Which, incidentally, can include radioactive material. And many types are routinely disposed of at sea.
Clearly this is not something I would advocate as a deliberate policy, I am just pointing out that the occasional accidental loss is not the catastrophe that you are painting it to be. Clean-up costs would just be factored into the operational costs of switching to this energy source.
Notably to get a payload of tons of waste, which could not be disposed of by conventional means, would require the output of many plants, operating for a considerable period. So the frequency of launches, with the corresponding risks involved, would not significantly outweigh the considerable benefits of (nearly) free unlimited energy.
If Sun disposal is impractical, then we just use the Moon option.
Hopefully the problems with getting fusion power to economical levels will eventually be overcome, and we can then switch to that. However we cannot predict when that will be, with any certainty. Whereas the lack of energy is causing us problems here and now.
Liquid thorium power is a solution which can be implemented a lot easier than fusion. And all lesser alternatives have their own considerable problems, which prevent them from meeting our energy needs. And those needs are growing daily!
Oh, and I should emphasise one other thing. I am just talking about any unusable waste. There will not be much of that, given the primary radioactive isotope produced actually is useful to us. For example, in order to start a liquid thorium reactor, you need to give it a bit of a boost, which requires a radioactive isotope.
Nice and conveniently, you can use precisely the one that you can get as a result of running a liquid thorium reactor. Yup. Build one, and you have the necessary ingredients to start others. Or re-start them after routine maintenance. And industry has other uses for it too.
This doesn’t really describe the current technology. The early generations of reactor did need active cooling, but we’ve been making passive-cooling designs for decades now. Those don’t need power input to maintain circulation of the coolant, because natural convection is enough for a safe backup level if you aren’t actively driving the reactor to extract power.
Ironically, one could argue that the anti-nuclear lobby is at least partially responsible for creating and/or exacerbating incidents! When the real failings of old designs become apparent, they are used to block the deployment of new reactor designs which would resolve the safety concerns. This leaves the network reliant on the older reactors, in some cases operating well beyond their original design life, rather than replacing them with newer and safer capacity.
The Fukushima incident is a good example. The nuclear aspect to an otherwise ‘normal’ natural disaster was caused by an old active-cooling design losing its main power supply when the grid connection was lost to earthquake, and then losing the backup diesels to flooding. Had it been a newer design with passive cooling, that double failure would have left the reactor in a safe state – probably really awkward to restart, but safe. Of course, in that case, we wouldn’t have heard about it because – to the outside world, at least – nothing significant had happened.
With the current options available I am pro nuclear, and recognise that modern reactors are safer than older ones.
Mind you every generation we get told that they are safe. And yet we still get problems. And, of course, when that happens it is always with an older design (these things take 20 years to build so they are likely to be obsolete by the time they are operational) so experts can say ‘newer designs would not have done this’.
This being a key issue. Nuclear reactors are complex systems, and they have people involved. The former meaning that things can go wrong, the latter introducing a whole host of extra ways that can happen. And sod’s law indicates that when something does go wrong, it will be at the worst possible moment.
Such as whilst the reactor is actively extracting power. Kind of what they are designed to do most of their working lives.
So an unexpected incident has occurred, be that a natural disaster, terrorist attack or the zombie apocolype and there is no one to push the button that changes the reactor from “active extraction mode”.
Contrast that to an inherently safe system . It too can have contingencies against unexpected things going wrong. But they do not have to be so complicated. And operating at a lower temperature means that there are loads more options in the event that there are problems. And even if all control is lost, the system is not inherently inclined to meltdown.
Whereas sooner or later the conventional reactor will evaporate all of its coolant, passive or not. Then the zombies will have a bad day.
It is a fuzzy and slippery line. Generally it comes down to scale. An occasional free meal or discount is not a problem. Major money, gifts, or services would be a problem. Also if the gifter has financial or personal ties to Archon, the military, or any government, that could be a red flag. Given the implied rate of pay the money is good but not over the top. Likewise, no appearance of a conflict of intrest. So not worried there.
The optics are a slight issue. Giving half to charity helps, a lot. As long as they spread their clubbing around so as not to create an implied endorsement. And, not employ their celeb status too often they should be okay. Also remaining professional will be an absolute requirement.
Personally, I am curious as to why the club decided it was a good idea to request a bunch of supers hang out in their establishment in the first place. Have they not been watching the news? Have they gotten a chance to see the pictures of the restaurant these guys were at last night (or what’s left of it)? I hope their insurance policy has a clause that deals with ‘acts of super’.
A couple of reasons. First one is if anything happens they can always sue military or individual super for it. Second reali live supers with bodies of super models will pull more than just super models. Third after a big event like last night it will be stupid to make a scene in a place which had a couple of these supers in so it acts better than any security you can hire.
The thrill of the perception of danger would probably be inflating the price, at the moment. Combined with the newness of supers, it will have their venue packed out! And will keep thrill seekers coming back. Any fracas will just inflate the effect, so long as nobody dies, or is seriously injured.
Insurance can be negotiated, for a price. Insurance companies will probably be asking a higher premium, per super, than the heroes are being offered. For the time being, anyhow. Until actuarial figures can establish that the risks are not as high as the first day (since supers were officially recognised, as being real) would statistically imply.
it may also have differences because archon dont investigate everyday crime. there is no paying them off to smuggle a boatload of drugs. because they aren’t the ones looking into it
Although there could be paying them off to smuggle a boatload of drugs because some of them could easily do so undetected and some might be detected but really really hard to catch.
The other thing though… it being open fact that they are taking money for “guest appearances”. Much different from under-the-table payments. And donating half the money to ARC-approved charities, at ARC’s recommendation, implicitly says that ARC is okay with it in principle and (should be) monitoring it for corruption.
Again, Arianna doesn’t want to play the fun police. She’s trying to media manage a massive social change and is off to a good start. I think the next thing Archon should publicize is that they are creating a jobs website for supers. People can post things they want doing (after being vetted by Archon) and supers can pick whatever high paying gig they like. It will be great publicity, put a lot of supers who don’t want to go military into useful positions, and provide Archon with a voluntary list of supers they can track so they don’t disappear, get kidnapped, or otherwise end up in trouble whether of their own make or another’s. It’s doubly important since supers who can’t keep a job are more likely to turn to crime. Someone whose power dissolves metals and plastics all the time for instance couldn’t work any kind of normal job anywhere but might get a major league gig cleaning up oil spills.
Now I think about it they could even add a page on the site where you describe what you want to do, using your powers or not, and Archon will try to find a best fit or create that job for you if it’s feasible.
Knowing typical government policies nowadays, they would probably want the private sector to take that role. But it would take a while for trustworthy companies to gain competency in such a role. Long run it would be best to offer a certification program, for any company willing to submit to initial inspection and (low key) monitoring by Archon.
Something worth DaveB bearing in mind, if he wants to do a behind the scenes peak at the non-police side of the changes in the world. The sheer concentration of supers and super expertise, in Archon, would justify that.
But even if regulation is outsourced completely, to a stand-alone organisation, they will still need to call on expert opinion. So some of our heroes might be employed, part-time, as private contractors, on that basis.
However, that will take time to implement. So the fix you suggest, would be perfectly viable. Especially given the low number of supers. Until dedicated companies are up and running. They will be able to justify greater time and money on the role, than Archon could divert out of budgets for their core policing mandate.
In the genre of GURPS Supers RPG, there’s a privately-owned/operated service called Super Temps. A clearing house for non-military/non-criminal supers to take calls to use their powers in specific temporary jobs. Super Temps operates just like an ordinary Temp Employment Agency, but they focus on people with super powers as their clients.
You should meet their Research Director sometime…
“That’s DOCTOR Rockman to you.”
I think it really depends on who owns the club and who that person associates with. This has legal and political shitstorm written all over it.
Not legal, as that totally depends on the regulations of the organisation involved. Clearly Archon’s permit that, or else their lawyer would not be giving it the green-light.
Politically though, yea, you are being realistic. Jealousy and feelings of resentment, due to social injustice, will aggravate this, but those have been covered further up in this thread, so do not need re-iterating. But these kind of sums do expose the cops to a serious conflict of interest.
For example drug taking is endemic in clubbing culture. To a certain degree we tolerate some things, such as someone having a discreet joint. Which puts cops in an awkward situation when off-duty in social situations. In private they can freely turn a blind-eye. As a society we cannot expect cops to turn in a pot-smoking sibling for instance.
The call gets a lot more blurred in public social situations though. Even if wanting to ignore any clues about drug taking, at some point, if folks are too indiscreet, cops have to take some kind of action. Even if it is just giving them an off-the-record warning, or dropping a pointed reminder that there is a cop in the room, before anything too incriminating happens openly.
But, if the latter kind of options are taken, and it turns out that major drug abuse routinely takes place, at venues frequented by Archon staff, then there will be serious questions about conflicts of interest. That kind of money (no matter how good their base pay) is sufficient to bias their professional judgement.
So such complaints are indeed inevitable, with this policy. And Archon personnel will need to be extremely vigilant, anytime they are being paid to appear, in order to avoid any compromising situation.
They need to choose venues that have spotless reputations. And make it very clear to the management that they need to ensure their own staff policing of the venue is rigorous. With the warning that any signs of laxity will result in them being black-listed permanently.
When I worked at the Seven Eleven, I was instructed to give coffee to the police officers if they came by to get some coffee. I didn’t have to be told twice. The logic was these guys risk life and limb to protect people, and seeing a uniformed officer in the store helped deter crime. Crooks at 3 in the morning just won’t try to hold up a store where there’s a very visible armed man inside.
Yes, the newspaper’s editors went on a tear calling such behavior a step towards corruption and while none of the officers wrote in response to the article (They kept trying to pay me for the coffee and tried paying for every gift they got in the stores) the community got into a rage about the article.
So yeah, there would be some people angry about it. But think of it as Archon providing PR and protection to the clubs while there. No simple ordinary crook would even think of holding up a bartender with someone with death rays standing there.
We did it when I worked for 7-11 too… And that was nearly 40 years ago.
Don’t know what the fuss is about. Personally, in addition to providing the night clerk with a little more piece-of-mind, I thought it was a great idea to make sure the officers on the night shift were wide awake, slightly caffeinated, and working with a mild sugar buzz.
As opposed to sleepy, tired, droopy, and a little bummed from dealing with the stuff they deal with on a nightly basis on that shift.
*shrug* An Italian couple I know who talks about their youth at times .
(Diverse Italian. The wife grew up with a mining Italian family in Virginia. The husband grew up on ‘his words’ the wrong side of the wrong side of the tracks in New York)
He and his buddies were stealing at 12, smoked at 10, started drinking at 13.
Yet, there was a sub shop that let them hang out there because they tended to keep the bad sort from causing trouble there as a result. In return, the owner would let them hide behind the counter whenever the police ran by chasing them.
Giving a legitimate organization incentives to protect is a little better though lol
side humor story. The husband also remembers gathering with a large number one night to drink and party. The police decided to raid. He took off running in the darkwith a case of beer in each hand, without a light. He wound up doing a belly flop off a small ledge into a giant mud puddle.
The office who wound up running up on him tended to look the other way. So he just told said Italian to leave the beer and go home. While the other officers were chasing everyone else
the way i see it coffee/tea is fine to give to cops free but sandwiches and donuts ect should be payed for. to me the line is non alcoholic drinks for person use are fine.
and no im not having a go at cops for donuts “Cops do a lot of running around in their cars, and they don’t always get to control their hours. Lots of times they can’t leave a crime scene to hit a drive-through. So they need food that can sit in a car for hours and hours without tasting foul or giving them food poisoning. Doughnuts are good for that.”
respect if you know the quote without looking it up
Dresden all the way, baby.
He needed the doughnut in order to bribe a bluebell fairy named Toot-Toot.
Who didn’t give him the answers he asked for, but uncharacteristically told him to RUN!
And in the end, the oldest goat wasn’t all that big, but he carried a rather large stick.
you my friends have earned my respect
I was gonna say: Seems like someone is a Dresden Files Fan. And the goat did bring him a nice donut in the end.
and help dresden by telling titana that dresden not such a bad guy so she dusent kill him when she gets a chance
Yep, leaves it on his car’s dash IIRC. Apparently it took a long time to find one with the proper sprinkles in the middle of the night. (It’s been awhile since I read…Changes I think? so I might not have all the details right in my head)
it was small favor
Thought Toot-toot preferred Pizza. It was the Big Billy Goat Gruff that he needed the doughnut for.
toot dus prefer pizza but the first doughnut in the book was stolen from rawlings, merphs partner by dresden to get toot to look for info the second was from eldest gruff to dresden and was a work around to a fight to the death. the quote i gave was from the first.
for reference toot never got dresden the info nor get the doughnut as he abandoned the mission to tell dresden to run from gruffs. the fat of the first doughnut is still unknown
Also, back before patrol cars were common, you’ve got late night/early morning cops walking around all night, and needing somewhere to refuel.
The 24 hour diner was often one of the only places to stop in, and thus could become an unofficial meeting point even for the patrols in cars to stop in and touch base with the folks on foot.
The issue there is that you MIGHT, without knowing it be slightly altering patrol lines.
Politicians see no conflict of interest with speaking for a fake gold mining operation just after getting out of politics as mining minister, just as their brother takes the mining ministry. It’s been that ways for bloody ages.
As for cops, they do accept donuts at donut places in america at least. I don’t know more. (-:
And I don’t care. As Vimes once put it there’s graft and then there’s just being neighborly. I see no problem in a store having a policy of free coffee to encourage cops to stop by. As long as they don’t start expecting free stuff everywhere a little neighborlyness can go a long way. You wanna solve all this anger black people in America have toward cops? Hire a couple retired cops to hang out in high traffic areas and just talk to people.
i’m genuinely curious as to how on a humanoid you need a extra limb set to have a different positioning since most places just require firm gr- ಠ_ಠ NO.
*limb set
*position set
She’s probably talking about the more obscure positions in the Kama sutra
i would imagine (and enjoy the imagining immensely) extra limbs offer greater leverage for some more athletic positions
not to mention that you can be in a position that ties up or requires the support of two arms and still have two free for… stuff
AAAAAANNND We have a Connection!
“Sydney’s question in the mini comic is legit” – does this mean she actually asked it? How’d she transition from “STOP SHARING!” to that?
The small comics generally aren’t cannon, but the question itself is a good question in that noone in the universe actually knows
The Zonking part refers to Dabbler modifying her meals memory so that they can still enjoy normal sex after she’s done feeding. So Sydney asking how zapping the brain of one Harem will affect the rest of Harem isn’t that strange. I’d say it’s something she had to think of sooner or later, and with the current conversation it’s a relatively safe subject to use as a distraction.
it is more likely they mean the energy drain since memory modification would mean targeting the mind of which harem only has one. It depends on whether dabbler’s magic works on a mystical bend of tampering in a purely magical sense which would probably work the same on Harem as it would on any mono-bodied human. Or in a more mechanical sense of making physical (but not entirely permanent) alterations to the brain, in which case the spell would need to be modified to target not just one brain… huh
that actually does raise an important question, we know that Harem’s brains are entangled so as to always have a shared/identical set of memories and experiences that create the sum total of what makes Harem who she is mentally. Rather than go the drastic route of asking “what happens if one of you dies”. I’d rather ask “what happens when one of you Sleeps? Is that even possible or do all 5 need to nap at the same time for it to work? If she can keep some awake and others dreaming… Do they all have the same dreams? Does the awake Harem have the ability to influence or control the dreams of her unconscious bodies ala lucid dreaming? Could she use this to enter dream-experiences into memory and thus not forget things when she wakes up? (aught to be able to write things down at least).
Depending on the answers of this, we could form further theories as to how the mind would react to having one brain tampered with, aka, would an effect that alters the memories stored in the brain of one Harem cause her mind to be changed, would it not affect her or perhaps even leave her with the normal and altered memories all accessible at the same time?
I can see her curiosity over heroes winning out over her shyness at least long enough to blurt something out.
Phew, glad to see that Barberian was not looking for any deeper kind of relationship! I guess I was needlessly concerned about that. Dabbler is a few hundred years old and very experienced at picking out suitable partners, after all.
Part of which, as she clearly factors in ethical considerations (turning Sydney’s gaze from the Hypnoboobs and not using her powers to overwhelm people’s basic choices), would be to choose individuals who are only after casual sex. Obviously, from Barberian’s comment, Dabbler also took pains to make sure he knew, up-front, that there was no prospect of anything more than that.
I like her more, for knowing that. She does have to satisfy a constant need for sex. But works to make sure people are not emotionally hurt, in the process.
Not so keen on the amnesia hammer. But that is a separate issue, with its own pro’s and con’s.
I believe DaveB explained that the amnesia hammer had a very important purpose, in allowing the target to still enjoy regular sex after having experienced it with a Succubus. I ALSO believe he said that the subject would still remember the general feelings (and, no doubt, joy), just not the details that would spoil him.
^
I
That. Plus, Amnesia Hammer is awesome.
But yea, I like the “I take care of my actions” part of her personallity. She could easly start a gloval destruction war here on earth if she please. But she is not that kind of person.
If Dabbler had an evil streak she could use the hammer for more nefarious purposes.
At the club:
Dabbler: I’m here to collect my fee for the evening.
Manager: Here you are. (hands over money)
Dabbler – THWACK!
Dabbler: I’m here to collect my fee for the evening.
Manager: Here you are. (hands over money)
Dabbler – THWACK!
etc.
I think I figured out what happened to Mat Damon in ‘The Bourne Identity’.
1) We have a person with highly trained espionage and fighting skills; almost ‘superhuman’.
2) He is extremely good looking and in peak physical shape.
3) He wakes up one day and can’t remember anything about himself
I think he was an agent on mission to track down a sighting of a reported alien. He caught up with Dabbler, she seduced him, and after having her way with him she hit him on the head a little too hard.
In the movie ‘Hancock’ Will Smith is an actual super suffering from amnesia.
In ‘Total Recall’ Arnold plays a person who fits Dabbler’s personal preferences and is also missing his memories.
In ‘The Hangover’ all the guys are missing their memories after a wild night.
It looks like Dabbler really gets around.
I love your scenario, believe me, its a great setup, and I wish it were true, hmm….. We’ll set it up as a behind the scenes look for each movie, the real reason which the Men in Black are hiding from the rest of us…
I guess she gave the MiB some of her tech then, but in small pocket pen form rather than bonky hammer form.
And has A-list taste buds.
“glad to see that Barberian was not looking for any deeper kind of relationship!”
What do you mean, Yorp? He was probably in as deep as he can get…More than once!
But not deep enough to reach her heart.
Now THAT would take an ULTRA-level of super ability. Probably along the lines of Mel Brooks’ version of the Frankenstein Monster…
Igor: “He’s going to be very popular.”
To steal a line from Teri Garr and our own Yorp: Woof!
Poor Sydney got information overload :P
Everyone reaches he heart, just in a different way than with humans.
Just avoid anyone who wants to use a bonesaw and snippers.
But I do find Sydney’s shyness and awkwardness to be endearing. Providing a nice counterbalance, to the overbearing blustering that she can get up to, at other times.
I love how Dabbler can catch even Harem off guard.
Sorry, Harem, you may be an expert perv, but Dabbler is a grandmaster pervert.
One has 5 times the posiblity of a perv human. The other comes from a entire race of sex devouring monsters
…Who also happen to be so long-lived that literally centuries worth of practical experience are available.
yeah I can see Harem as a drip under pressure…. Then you have Dabbler, that’s even better….
Also Harem’s only 19. She might be able to do 5 things at once but that’s still less time than Dabbler’s life.
187 years, to be precise. Cradle-robber!
Presuming that this stuff kicked in some time during puberty… Harem is a 19 yo Teenaged girl … with 5 years experience at being a 19 yo girl. Sure she will pick up “how to adult” 5x faster than others her age… but in the end we are still talking about a person who has spent all of her life having to do “adult” things on the sly.
Hence her joy in being able to talk about going clubbing without the hassle of “Not till your older little girl”.
Although I imagine her joy will be muted a bit when things get to “famous people” levels of Clubbing.
And in 2 years she wont have to “hide/Justify” just how exactly she got hungover in the first place. Until then its still 2 years (with 5 different points of view) of “drinking on the sly”.
And then there is the (canon?) Playboy shoot. Wherein it occurs to the population at large that she is in fact at the prime age for a remarkable Porn career. (though I imagine Archon pays MUCH better, And Leon is probably doing overtime defecting the bulk of the offers)
And that blush… Ive seen that look before.
Its the classic “teenager that talks a good game to cover up any percieved lack of actual experience is finally confronted with the reality that the time for ‘just’ talking is almost over” look.
Honestly I think that Syd and Daphne are more alike than they realize when it comes to the topic of “How much sex they (don’t actually) have” Their reactions to such talk are to either Bluff your way through it [CHA check] or Change the conversation! [INT check]
As opposed to Dabbler. Who talks about Sex like the rest of us humans talk about Food.
20 bucks says she’s a virgin. All five of her.
Not if lesbian sex counts. We have seen her, whilst she was up to that.
Ok it might count as masturbation, but she was conducting it with another body.
We have? I don’t remember…
By the way, haven’t been babysitting lately, have you?
This is what I say about keeping an eye open on the hidden details in the comic. That occurred in the restaurant, before the fight, in one of the mini-comics.
It is more common than you might think..
Found the minicomic. And it’s implied, not stated, let alone shown – It wasn’t even clear to me that it was with herself, but now that I look closely, “like you wouldn’t” has to end with an unspoken “if you had my powers” for it to make any sense. And it can’t have been happening during the comic, because I checked and, although not all of her is shown on that page, all five of her were at the table in the shots before and after. Unless she vanished to the bathroom for literally two pages just to have a quickie (which I guess is possible because, well, Harem but you’d think someone would notice the… side effects).
Link for reference: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1238
Yup.
Ayup. However they are used to Harem making an abrupt exit, in such circumstances, so it would not need reiterating again, this time. The comic sticks to the implied, rather than the explicit, after all.
I mean, she finds time to work for Deus. Pretty clear she can get some privacy when she wants it.
Clones that sex each other counts as masturbation. This has been determined elsewhen.
What odds you giving for
“the Original is saving itself for that one twue luv, one that just doesn’t play that game, two others that may have ‘dabbled’, and one that “gave up the V card” to see what it was like and was a bit underwhelmed by it all.
?
“And that blush… Ive seen that look before.
Its the classic “teenager that talks a good game to cover up any percieved lack of actual experience is finally confronted with the reality that the time for ‘just’ talking is almost over” look.”
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too, Talking the talk, but now to walk the walk…
Damn, a ninja stuck in the Dark… :p
So it’s “Grandmaster Perv and Floosiest Five”?
^Brilliant^
*slow clap*
Apparently you can get a cream for that. I guess it is to ease burning sensations. Still it is best to see a doctor, even if you think it is progressing slowly.
Yeah and while I’m at it some aloe for this fresh burn I just developed.
Clean with a bit of liquid hydrocortisone first, then apply a topical cream with antibiotics to prevent infection from occurring or worsening. Don’t leave the burn exposed to open air for any extended length of time, by also applying a sterile bandage to help prevent the topical cream from getting rubbed off & to protect the affected area from accidental brushes or scapes.
… well. I thought that dabbler and Harem had allready aproached that cuestion and conclusion… I mean… Is Xuriel and Harem. They are just like two friends of mine that love banging with every one that presents voluntear. When they knew each other, two hours later they were in bed
We already know what would happen if Dabbler had sex with one of Harem.
If one Harem stubs her toe, then they’d all feel it. So since they share a quantum mind…
That…would make things interesting for the others, & anyone around them…
Also, I’m still curious to find out if Dabbler’s powers work on either a gay man, or an ace.
They worked on sidney. Who is no homo. I think that gay man are les chalenging.
The seduction ones? I think that got answered with Sydney and the hypnoboobs, and Jabberwocky with that kiss. Induced lust is induced lust. Which is a combination of hormone production and state of mind. All of which a succubus can warp magically, to the point of amoral domination if they didn’t care about their target.
Think about super seduction like you’d think about… let’s see, demonic possession for example. In most media someone possessed will do things entirely out of character, until they’re confronted with doing something like killing their husband or offspring or whatever, then they have that climactic moment of resistance that allows the main character to break the possession. Obviously this varies hugely depending on the type of media that story is presented in. In a horror movie, all bets are off really, and in something like X-files, if they’re not a main character, then it can go either way, but if they’re a main character, they almost always marshal their will and come out on top.
Dabbler’s (and other succubi’s) supernatural lust powers which use everything from hypnotic body language to pheromones and lust auras works like that. Against many people (not most, I’ll explain in a second), if she wanted to, she could override their natural preferences. If we take sexuality as a spectrum, she could certainly arouse pretty much anyone, but if people are a 1, or a 2, or a 9 or 10 on that scale, she probably couldn’t get them to flip.
Dabbler, however is not a supremely skilled succubus. Like everything else in her life, she is a perpetual purple or brown belt. She went to Succubus finishing classes after school, but she’s a few credits short of her Masters. She just got distracted by combat spellcrafting or metallurgy or something along those lines. There are succubi out there who are like Professor X level power when it comes to seduction.
So you’re saying that Dabbler is to the average succubus about what Sydney is to Harem? (In terms of both sexual enthusiasm and nerd-ness.)
That’s what I read. … and that is awesomely(ish…) terrifying
[sorry for my english. I’m from Spain]
Your English is good. Do not worry.
Okay, good stuff. Thanks Dave!
And that scale you were talking about? Is it the Kinsey Scale? (Because I’m the black “X” in the corner ^_~♥)
I think Dave was reaching for a Kinsey-analogous scale, yeah. Kinsey runs zero to six, Dave runs 1 to 10, but it looks like the theory was the same.
Does Sydney seem a little too Prudish? She may not be as “Hot” as the other female Supers, but it won’t be long before … oh, yeah, a Swimsuit calendar! Arc-SWAT needs to put out a Swim Suit Calendar!
120% approval.
And I don’t think that she is a little too prudish. I think she is simply overwelmed.
It’s mainly for ‘rule of funny’ but Sydney is the resident (and literal) comic book nerd who is expected to be less experienced in the subject at hand (or 6 hands).
Dabbler likes pushing people’s buttons, as she has demonstrated with Max. The best way for Sydney to get her to stop is to quick reacting to Dabbler’s obvious goading (or is that ‘goating’, since she has horns and hooves?).
Wait, your just now realizing that Sydney is sexually confined or repressed? This came out a long time ago. Their were several hints leading that way earlier on, like the changing room scene, or even after that first major fight when Sydney was chatting with Dabbler over the phone after she got home from the fight. In both moments their were massive signs that Sydney not only had little to no sexual experience but that she was intimidated by others who obviously had that experience and that were much less sexually repressed than she happens to be.
I wouldn’t call Sydney “sexually confined or repressed” she just doesn’t like to talk about it in public. Some people like that are the wildest in private ;)
Also there might be a bit of feeling obligated to complain. She joins in on the joking in the shower after all.
At least she’s not pointing & screaming “Premarital Hanky-Panky!! PREMARITAL HANKY-PANKY!!!!”
Sure Syd is sexually confined/repressed. Just like all teens everywhere. While at this point she is old enough to not still be held to those “your not experienced enough to make those decisions on your own” standards; she really hasn’t fully come to grips with this.
Thus when she doesn’t know how to respond in these situations she resorts to pre conditioned responses like TMI!, Ewwwww cooties…, and NotaLesbianNotaLesbianNotaLesbian.
I am sure that as she watches adults interacting with each other as equals… she will learn appropriate adult responses like ” two steps back unless you want Two cybernetic eyes …” (thanks Maxima!) or
this https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1803
As opposed to just complaining about it till the subject gets changed.
Two editions annually. None of which include Maxima. Or maybe a little picture after the last day of the month, glaring at you to make up you feel guilty for objectifying the female (and male) body.
No, too prudish would be lambasting for non-martial coitus. Some people just aren’t interested in the detailed accounts of their friends’ hobbies. Outside of beefcake drool, Sydney doesn’t strike me as a voyeur. Sydney is more along the lines of “please stop shairing the details of the colposcopy you performed my doctor friend.” It also doesn’t help when you have as… active… an imagination as Sydeny does.
You mean like this?
Take that back! Sydney is by far the hottest!
I don’t think Sydney is prudish, by the way. She was quite happy to enlighten Arianna about tentacle porn. And her colourful language is testimony to the contrary too. She is however emotionally sensitive and/or sexually inexperienced.
Which is not to be taken as code for ‘virgin’. But do recall her shyness about the customer she fancies. She is clearly very embarrassed talking about such matters, let alone acting upon them. Sydney has mechanisms to cope with talking about sex, in the abstract. But gets flustered, very easily, if it gets out of that controllable comfort zone.
It’s a start, but I’d like to see all of them. Even one month having Harem playing Beach Volleyball with herself.
I was going to say that, now that she is famous, there are going to be guys wanting to use the sexiest image they can find of her as their computer Wallpaper.
Her reaction is actually cute, almost childlike, in a tomboyish sort of way. Which makes it even cuter when you consider that Harem is several years younger than Sydney.
She’ll be doing…. It…. for science….. yes…….
Re_”Neither Arianna nor Maxima are have seen that shirt by the way.”:
Neither have we – not in its entirety.
I do hope that changes before he walks off-panel.
:)
I also fully expect that Dabbler has concocted a plausible set of “fillers” to explain those “redacted”-panels to Max & Ari…
…for the sole purpose of ticking them off, of course.
Well, basically all you’re missing is a few ████’s and prepositions. There’s another shot of it on the next page anyway.
“…concocted a plausible set of “fillers” to explain those “redacted”-panels to Max & Ari”
Quite possibly, Dabbler has figured out particular “fillers” that would entice Max to say something listed on the Bingo Card…
;)
Want bet there’s another word or two from the “Make Maxima Say, Bingo List”?
actually i’m kinda curious what happens there myself theoretically it might force the Harem that she is with to have to discorperate for a bit or in an extreme case force harem to be one person for a bit
I wonder of the Barberian powers include magic resistance? He thew off Vs suggestion to find arcswap as soon as the battle started and Dablers mind wipe dos’t seem to be completely effective.
Probably a more generic ‘mind/emotion attack resistance’. There are various subtle indicators which show that Vehemence’s power is super based, rather than magical in nature. Magic resistance being different, in a couple of ways.
For instance a magic-resistant individual might prevent a spell turning him into a frog. But would not provide protection versus telepathic attack (unless psionic powers are considered to be a type of magic).
Barberian seemed weak-willed in allowing friends to convince him to come out (presumably against his better judgement). So I would not extend it to having generally strong will. But he clearly was minimally affected by the Aggro aura, in addition to the points you raised. Patiently waiting, when asked, rather than brawling with Dabbler. So supernatural resistance seems the most likely.
Plot twist, he’s an oracle. He went along with the attack in order to meet Dabbler and get into ArcSwat! Double plot twist, this isn’t for a nefarious purpose, he just wants to be their barber.
Is anybody going to comment on how there is inconsistent glowing among the orbs in the last panel? Is there any possible significance? … I forgot, which orb is Yellow, the standout glower, again?
Ooh, well spotted! Possibly just a technical drawing hitch. But maybe not. It is worth pointing out that panel 3 has the yellow, green and brown orbs all glowing like that, but the others not.
Yellow = Truesight orb
Brown = Mystery orb
Green = Mystery orb
Most mysterious.
The powers we know about are the Active ones. Who knows what sort of Passive Effects are in play?
I have been going on the theory that these things are the end result of generations of a spacefaring race of Artist/Engineer Cephalopods attempt to make a perfect EVA tool set.
They hover in place without floating away.
Ideal for multi taskers with a cerebellum for each appendage.
And the orbs themselves should be no larger than the users beak. (for getting in and out of tight spaces)
Functionally inert unless in use.
With enough practice you can use all of them at once (given 7 tentacles and one sex organ that polite Cephalopods keep to themselves.
Each tool takes a simple concept. Then packs in as many related options as possible. And then operates at what ever scale the user can perceive. Be it manipulating sub atomic matter/energy fields
to towing asteroids. to tapping into the energy reserves of entire stars.
Each tool remembers how it is used (and in what combinations) and learns the patterns of its particular user. Thus allowing for each tool to specialize towards the tastes of its user. The more you use it in a certain way the better it gets at doing so
A source of fire/energy manipulation that could go from micro soldering to welding Ship Hull metal to mining asteroids (ask john ringo how its done) to duplicating what CERN is doing to (powering a FTL drive in a pinch?) To say nothing of providing the power for the entire tool system to run on.
An instant environmental shield that can withstand Loss of habitat structural integrity due to sudden lab accidents, a misfired energy source, Micro (and not so micro) Impacts (moving through dust clouds at .01c are lethal let alone a field of asteroids. Cosmic Radiation (class X solar storms? A near miss from a galactic event? ) Extreme Pressure variations (vacuum to ocean depths to Atmospheric reentry (?) (within a Gas Giant?) Additional bonus. You can go anywhere on a planet and take your bubble of water/air with you.
Light hook seems like the ultimate prehensile grab and/or hold in place manipulator multi tool. Or just a force tentacle for use outside the shell wall. With enough practice it could do all manner of fine motor control. Or break down and assemble something a s complex as an internal combustion engine. Or a stardrive.
From opening a stuck pickle jar to towing a space rock without breaking it.
(what happens when Syd can actually “feel” with that thing? “oh there’s the problem . Your timing chain is off due to a misfire within your number 5 cylinder. better change your plug” )
Flight orb (or Device for Gravitic manipulation?). Perfect for personally getting around from point A to point B within inter-planetary distances. Also great at applied use of thrust and velocity to get your stuff into and outside of a gravity well.
TrueSight seems to be some kind of Active Sensor Suite.(because its hard to see where you are going inside a gas giant you are mining for exotic materials)
The real trick appears to be understanding what data it can gather and then interpreting the data it gathers. And it seems to SEE ALL as long as you know what to look for. Nothing yet to indicate whether it can adjust the scale of viewing the sensor data from micro to macro scales…
It also seems to facilitate communication. by making an image of the person that can project not only voice but infection and tone and body posture as well. Some species can communicate with light displays on their skin (see octopi)
THe Green ball is glowing while the conversation is happening but when Syd REALLY wants TO STOP HEARING it the ball goes dim. Perhaps its use is for the manipulation of pressure waves (sound). Useful within a liquid medium. Convenient for non lethal means of distraction/dispersion of threats when the PPO is just too much. (fishing is easy-peasy)
Maybe as a side effect it also works as a translator for those pesky species that talk with sound. (those pesky mammals)
And because (hopefully) Music is a thing that all species can appreciate it also works as an equivalent of an IPod
Perhaps it needs to be underwater to really work well. Syd needs to go diving again.
I got nothing on the brown one … but maybe it has more to due with maintaining/manipulating the mind/body health of the user. Perhaps this is the orb that focused on micro manipulation. (as opposed to macro manipulation w/Lighthook)
Go ahead and look at “Octopi doing weird stuff” videos on youtube. And while you are doing so imagine them with Halo’s tool set. And a will to use em.
This is a good start :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5DyBkYKqnM
with a direct view of what it looks like to get “lighthooked” right out the gate.
Its not at all any kind of Nightmare Fuel.
No really.
Just because whenever we gene-type the damn things they just don’t match up with anything else on this planet, …
and their bodies just don’t leave much in the way of fossil evidence…
… and then there is that annoying cthulu meme that was completely made up by an insane author that just Wont Leave Our Collective Sub-Consciousness even generations later.
Yep there are aliens and they are Octopi. I’m calling it.
Interesting reasoning.
Thanks!
Spoiler shows my work For those curious as to how I came up with this just all of a sudden…
[The octopi thing came to me when I was thinking about how this Omni tool set is used. i.e. only with appendages that are evolved into tool use. Which made sense. Lots of useful stuff done especially when used in combinations. Too bad that humans only have 2 arms. …Unless the toolset is not for upright bipeds but for a thing with more arms. What thing has more arms?
bugs get 6+antenna/feelers (though 4 are legs)
Spiders have 8-10 but those extra 2 are mouth parts and only 4 are used for manipulation (rear 2 web, front 2 for getting food to the mouth parts)
Octopi have 8 arms that’s one to many. Until one realizes that one of the tentacles is a sex organ. Then it seems to fit. Then one realizes these things were found in water (yeah 70% of the planet is covered in it so what are the odds) And the more I thought about Octopi using these things the more it made sense. Watching how octopi in lab settings and the wild do problem solving tasks just sealed it for me.]
for some strange reason, when you said this: “With enough practice you can use all of them at once (given 7 tentacles and one sex organ that polite Cephalopods keep to themselves.”
And then I read all the way down to this: “…look at “Octopi doing weird stuff” videos…”
I wind up remembering an old joke about the amorous octopus who finally got the opportunity to get between his reluctant girlfriend’s legs…Only to discover that he picked the wrong pair.
Even so, your mention of how octopi are capable of some pretty amazing things, I’ve seen videos where an octopus can get into a fisherman’s crab trap, grab a crab (who can’t get out of the trap by itself), and bring the crab out of the trap to eat it.
Another video I saw involved how an octopus has demonstrated enough intelligence to figure out how to unscrew the lid of a jar, to get to a crab that was put inside of it…
Maybe it’s telling her it’s detected something she needs to see?
“What is it Old Yellah? Are the aliens in the comment section again?”
*Lurks back into shadows…*
Woof!
And when is Barberian’s shirt going to be up for sale? I’d love having that design.
Hmmm, anyone else ever realize that Harem is suicidal? She kills herself every time she ports. If her clones were independent she’d be a murderer.
More like cutting her hair since it grows back.
Only if you follow the Star Trek point of view regarding ‘transporter technology’
We need full words from the T-shirt, except of course the ========= ones who shall stay ======== for comedic effect.
I can make out:
————
I fought ARC-SWAT
[and] all I got was
_____ and [redacted]
____ and my [redacted]
___ [b]y Dabbler.
————
The redacted word after ‘my’, is quite short…maybe about four letters…and I would guess it rhymes with ‘block’. If so, the following word is probably the past tense of what a vacuum cleaner does.
Okay, while I do like how sex doesn’t make everyone (in fact barely anyone) stutter in embarrasment and most sex-jokes so far are quite amusing, this is reaching “Until Dawn”-levels of “WE GET IT!”
So in the kindest way possible to
– dear SWAT Archon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgsEdU4l8XQ
– dear Dave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1YmS_VDvMY
You better get used to it. Simply because an ongoing aspect of the comic is exploring different attitudes to sex, and sexuality. Part of which has involved imbuing various characters with extreme personifications of various roles.
This is literally a classical technique. Given that the ancient Greek gods were similar embodiments of the extremes of emotions or concepts. Aphrodite (goddess of love) and Hera (goddess of marriage) being two prime examples.
So anytime Harem and Dabbler are talking about their passions (and even more so when together like this), their extreme personalities will naturally flavour their talk. Yet our primary protagonist is, and remains, extremely shy. Her nature is not going to change overnight (not unless she has a very good night).
Hence this kind of reaction will be an ongoing thing, until Sydney develops mechanisms to cope with this. Whilst she is an intellectually fast learner, clearly she is not as emotionally adaptive.
Plus I find it super cute when she behaves like that. Rather than irritating me, it just makes me want to hug Sydney! Which would probably make her squirm even more.
“it just makes me want to hug Sydney! Which would probably make her squirm even more.”
Which would make you want to hug her more. Sounds like that could be a never ending circle.
Part of the formula for eternal bliss. If used in moderation.
Yeah, unfortunately you just went by the point I so carefully laid out. It’s not ‘that’ they interact that way and I’m pretty sure I made that clear with the very first sentence. It’s that in the last several pages, they interacted in ‘no other way’ than that.
It’s moving away from being an “ongoing aspect”, as you put it, and being the core part of this comic. The ‘plot’ is becoming an “ongoing aspect”. It’s like “Penis (literal or metaphorical) enters vagina (same)! Also, something about super powers.”
And there’s only so many times in a row you can make Dabbler/Harem say something about bodily fluids and Sydney going “Nnng”/Maxima going “Raargh!” before it becomes repetetive and grating. Moderation is the key.
To put it in an adequate metaphor: I don’t care how much you love giving blowjobs, occasionally you have to get up for some air or you’ll pass out on a dick.
Fair point.
It’s what, two or three pages out of 1913? o_O
Very good night indeed. Which Dabbler is offering. (-:
Along with a clubbing, on the head, to blur the memories. Whilst that might be necessary, to prevent PTSD, amnesia dulled experience may not be sufficient to alter Sydney’s behaviour.
Although she probably would be a bit more cocky and somewhat less insecure.
“Getting all the parts in the right place is trickier than you’d think.” – That’s what Dabbler would say!
This may have been asked already but does the Barberian see Dabbler in her natural form or is she using a glamour spell on him?
Her glamours are optical not psychic (ie cameras will see the glamour not her hidden form) and we see what everyone else sees (or at least what Syd sees and she doesn’t have the comm ball in hand).
Agreed.
Although Succubus illusions are considered to be the most powerful in the galaxy. So we should not assume that they are limited to just that. For example, we have seen Dabbler groping Maxima with invisible hands. So, in that instance the illusion did not provide a tactile component, to prevent accidental identification of concealed body parts.
Yet you would expect illusions primarily used to enable sex to do just that. Which implies that they not only have different types of illusions, but can customise them, on demand. And Dabbler probably has a wider range of capabilities than most, having racial, technological, magical and psionic capabilities. All of which potentially have their own types of illusions.
Does he still think that her normal form is her “war form” per the briefing, or has she told him that she’s an alien? Part of a larger question which is generally…what is up with him in this situation?
The former. Even the low-security clearance team-mates are still being told that. A point which was subtly conveyed to Sydney, by Maxima. And confirmed, at the end of their meeting just now, by one of the team asking Dabbler why she was still in battle-form. To which she replied (paraphrasing) “why not? It has four arms.”
In this situation, he is regaining his lucidity, having been bonked on the head by Dabbler’s memory hammer. Legally speaking, he was recognised as the most clear-cut example of ‘no case to answer’, so was fast-tracked to take his statement and release him, without charge.
Had he been charged, or still been under suspicion, it would be unethical for Dabbler to date him. However, as his innocence has been determined (along with others and publicly declared, by the unit commander) it frees her up from such professional obligations as may be imposed on civilian specialists, working in the military, in co-operation with police.
Clearly the consensus of opinion is that he will take up hairdressing full-time. Be that privately employed (hopefully in the Archon shopping maul) or within Archon itself, similarly to Iron-Cloth.
Please tell me that shirt is eventually gonna be IRL merch!
The sooner DaveB has his own fashion label, the better. Although he can use it to promote Girl Power, he would be advised to choose a separate gender-less name for his fashion house though.
• House DaveB
• Dave Barrack (for the Calvin Klein flavour)
• Barrack Fashion – rather military
• Ninja Couture – ‘Stealthily staying ahead of fashion’
power apperal
Grrrrrrly Stuff
My thought exactly. ;^)
“Are you sure he’s not gay?”
“…
…
…
CERTAIN.”
Found this Wallpaper of Sydney on DaveB’s Deviant Site. I think it’s very cool.
That is amongst my favourites.
Have you seen this one?
Yup. That is linked in my favourites list, after all. :-D
You don’t think there is another fan obsessive enough, about Sydney, to create a Deviant Art account dedicated to her? Although Peggy and Dabbler get some attention too.
And now I am getting the urge to create compilation wallpapers, featuring my favourite shots, for the three of them.
Oops, actually that is just the way that it appears on my screen. Given that it has “in favourites” in glowing green. However your link does not actually point there, as I assumed. But my earlier link was to my favourites list, which does indeed include that. You have good taste.
Getting ████ed by Dabbler isn’t a consolation prize.
Panel five is probably the best picture of Dabbler. In my opinion, anyway.
I wonder if she’s ticklish.
I wonder if she purrs? (I have no idea where that thought came from, honestly!)
Panel 6 should be entitled “Operation Sneak Peek” or “Lets check if Dabbler is wearing any knickers”.
Fairly sure that that is part of the hem of her window-sweater, and not a ‘panty shot’
Try checking out the view from Harem’s new vantage point, instead. Once she breaks eye-contact, and glances down.
Where can I order this t-shirt?
At least two outlets have sounded out Dave, here in the comments, in the past. So it is not just the fans who recognise that he has a talent for these things.
Keep your post crossed, that it will go into production. I suspect that the paper book will take priority, for the moment though.
Whilst some may say Sydney reacts as the prude,
The day’s start does her thoughts intrude
It’s hard to wax poetic about great intercourse
With your loins a’pounding by menstrual force
+1
Poor Sydney. She is going to have to put up with this state for years! If yesterday is anything to go by.
Years?
Wow, that would be one long period…
*nods*
Yesterday was years-long after all. Even with super-doctor enhanced healing, her bruise took months to heal. Whilst today will doubtless be over rather sooner, that is off-set by a period lasting more than that. Just as well it has been determined (for the observers of small details) that Sydney is on the pill. So that will reduce the duration.
However there is indeed still the potential that the readers will be seeing Sydney behaving unusually, for years yet. If they can tell the difference…
Speaking of science questions and Harem…
I notice that one of her elements wears glasses. Are they cosmetic, or does she actually need them? Does this mean that her vision is poor in all her elemnts (presumably wearing contacts in the other hers’ eyes) or are there different physical capabilities for her different elements? What determines the look of the elements — are they “born” a particular way? When did Harem’s multiple versions manifest — was therre an “original” single-body Harem?
Really, Harem’ss power is extremely fascinating, from a sheer scientific implications point of view.
They are all identacle. Either they all need corrected vision, or none do. If the latter is the case, you are right about the glasses just being cosmetic. I can’t think of a particular clue for which is the true, for Harem. But we do have the generalisation that supers get fit and healthy bodies for free, as a side-effect of being super.
Combined with Harem’s general personality, I would guess the cosmetic is the correct option. Either that or she has good enough eyesight, for military purposes, that she does not have to wear glasses. But can get a slight improvement. With vanity being the deciding factor, on which option to choose.
Harem creates duplicates initially by teleporting, but keeping the departing body, rather than disintegrating it. Thus the two bodies are exactly the same at that point. She then tattoos and gives makeovers to the different bodies (keeping one unchanged). These differentiations remain permanently.
Harem did indeed just had the single body originally. I seem to recall Dave saying she learnt how to adapt her teleportation, to create her first duplicate, at about age 13.
Considering supers are apparently physically perfect, I doubt there are any of them that’d need glasses
Maybe Daphne actually needed glasses before the powers kicked in. Perhaps as a means of figuring out what is original and what is the duplicate the original still wears the frames. then duplicate #2 shows up. so that one gets a unique body mod (a piercing most likely). or specialty wardrobe options (Thing#1 and Thing#2 shirts) By the time the 4th iteration of Daphne is made… Hair Color seems the way to go to make sure you can check a mirror on the fly and know through what set of eyes you are looking through and can act accordingly
I imagine that on turning 18 she just went for unique tattoos.
Except, Berry isn’t the one wearing glasses, and Berry is assumed to be either the ‘original’ or at least the one with the least ‘modifications’
The glasses are more than likely plain glass and simply part of the ‘nerdy schoolgirl’ look for Abbey
Six arms? Four is frequently one too many—when in bed, it seems there’s always one arm that’s uncomfortably under someone or bent in a funny way or that you can’t quite figure out where to put it. We call it the “Farber” arm, in honor of its discoverer…
That’s OK, one of Dabbler’s is detachable.
Where does it go then?
Wherever it gets put, at the time that she finds it to be inconvenient. Be that in the rack, next to Peggy’s leg, or on the floor, next to a bed or on the kitchen table or on the shelf in the stationary cupboard.
Although Dabbler would need to be very careful not to take it off anywhere that someone with low security clearance is present. Technologically superior indistinguishable cybernetic limbs are not part of her cover story. Especially not if also having to explain how it could shapechange with her. Even if she could try to wing that the same way she did with the clothes explanation.
Another awesome avatar, of yours, by the way.
Oh, and no implications should be taken about Peggy breaking any no-Zonking Dabbler rules. Her sexual preferences do include women, but Peggy is both a career soldier and a friend to Maxima. So I doubt she would break a rule set by her, unless swept away by the moment (or by Dabbler’s dial being set above ten).
Peggy though would be more likely to take off her artificial leg, for sex, as they tend to chafe and be uncomfortable even under normal circumstances. Unless she felt that it would make things to awkward for her partner, of course. Peggy certainly seems fully at ease with it herself.
However Dabbler’s is made with super science and/or technomagic, so I doubt it would ever be intrinsically uncomfortable. But the point was well-made that even a second arm can be inconvenient, at times. Whilst we have never seen a canon example of Dabbler removing her arm, I seriously doubt her technology would be inferior to ours, in this regard.
so constantly as xurial never goes below ten
Ten is just top notch human pretty. Only above that do you start getting supernaturally attractive. Peggy is pretty level-headed, I doubt she will find a ten irresistible.
Hammered Space!
Get it?
Sounds like you are confusing limbs there: it’s her tail that is detachable, and only her bottom left hand that is cybernetic
Not having read Were-world, I can only go by the comments, in our archives. Which fairly consistently refer to a cybernetic arm. Which happened even just the other day. Not to mention the earliest comments regarding it.
So no confusion on my behalf, I have just been accepting the spoilers, as written. And am equally OK with taking it as being her hand. Even if it makes it less likely that she would find it inconvenient enough to want to remove it in bed, it does expand the scope for jokes about ‘Dabbler lending a hand’.
All the above aside though, there are differences between Dabbler in Were-world versus in Grrl Power. For example only having two breasts here, rather than four. Where there are contradictions, Grrl Power takes precedence. Notwithstanding the fact that Were-world otherwise remains canon. An extract from Dabbler’s entry, on the cast list:
“…it does expand the scope for jokes about ‘Dabbler lending a hand’.”
As does another phrase like ‘keeping her eye on something’ could also be accomplished.
Woo hoo! I haz protection from taunting.
Mmm, but I guess that would not apply whilst working under-cover. Not until I was identified as a police dog, anyhow.
I guess every dog has his day.
This might be old news to some readers, but it’s something I’ve just been thinking about. The Orbs are bonded to Sydney, but why her? I think it’s simply because she picked one up. If they were lying on the sea floor for who knows how long, then they probably were inactive until someone came along and picked it up.
Which means that, almost anyone could have gotten the power of the Orbs. It was just chance that she happened to swim in that location just when the sands of the sea floor moved enough to uncover them.
Just so. It is perfectly reasonable and a likely explanation.
There has been speculation, however, that they might have only accepted her because of her unique qualities. Be that her ADHD mind, being more like the creator or former owners, or her ability to withstand super spicy food (why the latter was proposed was … less clear). There was the unspoken implication that their mobility would allow them to avoid her, if they did not recognise her as being suitable.
Another option is that she could have been drawn there. Her business was failing. Whilst she may not have been aware of just how serious it was, Sydney must have known that the problems were serious. Scuba diving courses, and a holiday in the Florida keys do not come cheap. Whilst it is not unreasonable to say that she just saved up for it, over time, it could have also been her responding to either the call of destiny, or a subliminal urge being imposed on her by the orbs’ technomagic.
SPOILER ALERT
You might be interested to note some subtle points relating to this. Sydney speaks distinctively when talking about their discovery. Once could be put down to her hesitation, due to having withheld the information, in fear, for months. Thus she would feel awkward in discussing it with anybody. However Halo behaves exactly the same again later. A point not lost on either Maxima or Zephan.
hmmm … food for thought.
TMI? More like Need More Information.
There was a (very) brief segment on local late night ‘news’ last night about some guy in China making money from eating hot peppers, the preview clip seemed to show him eating nothing more than garden variety red chilli peppers, but had changed channels (because the rest of the show was boring crap) and turned back too late to see the actual piece to find out if he ate the really hot stuff
Why would Dabbler only “Zoink” ONE Harem?
She has four arms
She can do at least five things.
Why Harem? Because then she can go looking for a super built set of sextuplets….
After all, when asked what she wants out of life and is shown the variety to choose from her answer is:
“YES PLEASE!” followed shortly by a request for “seconds!”
prometheus asked why only one harem body as I read the question. daphne would likely offer to provide the full set as you suggested.
RE: Your Drawing Dabs in Barb’s Lap..
You did amazingly awesomely well. Better n’like, 90% of comics I’ve read that I can remember in the past 10 years or so. And yes, ungodly incredibly hard to get it just right. Still learning here. >.>
About the gold thing a few pages ago. Dirt cheap gold wouldn’t be a problem for anyone other than gold miners and a few investors. Aluminum used to be more valuable than platinum, then a clever young fellow figured out electrochemical refining of bauxite, and now we make beer cans out of the stuff. No global economic crisis involved, quite the opposite. Cheap Aluminum in airplanes and drink cans is worth a lot more than expensive aluminum in a set of silverware at the Versailles ever was.
If geodude decides to sell gold for five cents a ton you’d get things like trying gold alloy coatings on steel items that you don’t want rusting, “Buy today, and never repaint again! Ask about discounts on orders of three or more!” Gold is pretty dense and soft, so it might not be worth as much as aluminum, but you’d still get a lot of creative uses out of it that would be more practical than jewelry or spending years locked away in a vault.
Also a technical note on Kevlar socks. Kevlar fabric has very poor cut and puncture resistance, stab resistant armor requires special reinforcement compared to a soft ballistic vest. Typically hard plates, a layer of chain mail(they still use it for stab resistant vests, but light aluminum or titanium alloys, modern mithril as it were) or metal wire/thread weave. If you ever check out a law enforcement supply catalog you’ll see this in the body armor descriptions. They market Kevlar and other ballistic fibers to cops for bullet resistance and have entirely different lines of stab resistant armor marketed for prison guards.
Correct.
Incorrect.
That is actually one of its strengths. Hence why Kevlar gloves are actually manufactured, and sold, as protective wear, for folks using knives (such as in a kitchen).
Incorrect. The example you did cite (and every one you could cite) had a phased steady introduction. The invention was discovered (or in other cases a plentiful supply of a scarce resource has been located) this has then been announced and the markets given time to adjust. Then infrastructure has to be built (factories or mines and refineries, as examples). Finally production starts. Notably the output is sold as soon as buyers are found.
As opposed to extracting the resource, at a globally significant scale, in secret, for ten years. If that were to be dumped on the market, in one day, it would have a catastrophic effect on both the price of gold and confidence in it as a long-term investment.
Which in all likelihood includes you, whether you realise it or not. A number of governments (significantly including the UK, which is the biggest banking nation in the world) use it as a part of their national reserves. So your taxes have been invested in gold. This is true regardless of whether your particular country maintains a gold reserve, given the fact that we have globally interconnected economies.
Taxes on products and services you buy are being invested, if nothing else. And you do gain benefit from those investments. In the last global financial crisis, the UK had to bail out key banks, to keep them from failing. Partly using your invested tax.
That proportion, which was invested in gold, being used as a key surety that the UK would be able to repay the (mind-bogglingly huge) debt that it incurred in making the bail-out. Had they failed to that, then the run on the banks would have continued, throughout the UK, Europe and then the rest of the world.
Now we get another factor. Gold is treated like a currency, in its own right. At that time, like every other occasion, when there are global problems affecting multiple currencies, markets turn to gold. It is pivotal in the world economy!
And you are also likely an investor via the private sector. If you have a pension, part of the investment funds (be it directly or indirectly) may well feature gold. For instance it would not be uncommon to have shares in one or two banks. Who, like governments, use gold in their reserves.
Which, in this future, hypothetical, financial crisis would suddenly become “worth five cents a ton”. Confidence in banks which rely heavily on that (and some do) would be shaken and a run bound to start.
Trouble is, the UK is still paying for the last bail out. Every UK household, since then, had a massively increased tax burden, in order to repay that debt. Which will remain for generations. It cannot afford to conduct another bail out, on that scale. So a global banking crash could be triggered.
Archon need to ensure that the gold is safe. The present owner appears to be a responsible, modest spender, who pays his taxes and has a vested interest in protecting the price of gold and world economic stability. Others do not.
Beyond that though, your comments are perfectly correct. Cheap gold would have lots of good effects for the economy, once the problems, detailed above, have been resolved.
Speaking of odd questions… Harem shares a single mind between all of her. What happens when she gets one or two of her drunk?
Chemical and biochemical reactions would be isolated in each body. But purely mental effects could be shared (and magnified, if more than one is intoxicated). See the atomic wedgie incident, and also her discussion, at the restaurant, about the flavours of food being mixed, when she eats, for confirmation of my opinion on that.
So wait, does Dabbler have two tongues?
It’s slightly forked
Does this mean we shouldn’t trust what she says because “Dabbler speak with forked tongue” ?
FYI, this was not meant to be racist, just a dig at bad ’50s TV and movie writing.
The turn of phrase might not be co-incidental. If a writer had a bad incident with a deceitful succubus. It is not like he could talk about it openly (not in that era). But he could have waged a subtle propaganda war, to ensure that future generations were given a warning.
Our minds have been drawn to the potential, and are thus examining if the warning bears merit. He succeeded.
actually it was a statement made based on the bible story of the serpent tempting eve as literary groups have independently tracked and confirmed to the limits of human records.
One does not negate the other. The Nazis borrowed symbology (such as the eagle decoration on architecture) from Imperial Rome. They desired to draw upon society’s pre-existing admiration of Roman spectacle, and military achievements, to enhance their own.
A clever writer can deploy similar tricks.
Just wondering – Has anyone ever called Maxima “Maxi-Pad”? It seems exactly in character for Omar – “You should all be in burkhas!”
Considering that she’s his superior officer and that he surely doesn’t want to spend time in traction, Omar is probably of the opinion that this would be going a little too far.
She is not his Superior Officer. She is in charge of Arc-SWAT. Omar is a part of Arc-SPARQ a seperate division.