Grrl Power #458 – The Super enigma
To head off the comments about “but the government has known about supers for a long time,” yes that’s true, but I can only fit so much on one page. :) But think about a world in which there is no Superhero archetype, but there is other super-y stuff. Figuring out that these wildly disparate individuals are part of the same group would be really difficult, especially if you only ever got to study a handful of them in your lifetime.
I imagine Sydney will go through many iterations of her utility belt load out. Luckily she figured out the encumbrance issue early on, but I know if it was me, I’d be apoplectic (/me double checks what apoplectic means… nope, not the right word) I’d have extreme indecisiveness and anxiety (there should be a word which means that) about my gear load out. I probably wouldn’t carry arts and crafts with me, but, hmm, maybe a needle and thread? Well, if I could fix the hem of my cape and also sew shut a knife wound.
I have a hard enough time picking my load out in video games. Though with a game’s finite rule set I usually settle in to a few favorites, but for my utility belt in the real world? I’d want some epipens, even though I’m not allergic to anything, probably some spare batteries (but they’re so heavy) multi-tools, a mirror, video cable adapters… I don’t know why I would need those, I just know if I left them out the world would be at risk! Gah! It would be physically stressful trying to decide what to include.
This page colored by Keith.
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Why does she even need a Utility Belt?
Carrying spare ADHD-b-gone generics?
And I hope that tag works…
…Where else would she keep gold star stickers?
Spare Capsules for the rebreather. ADHD Medicine. First Aid Kit. Tools.
There was like 2 page detailing how she filled her’s. The material was provided by Archon/it was mandatory she made one.
What more reason do you need?
:-O
You take that back!
A utility belt is absolutely core to Sydney’s self-identification.
Plus it does provide her very useful diversity. The medical kit alone is something anybody, routinely going into dangerous situations, should consider. If someone is inside her shield, Sydney has much reduced combat options. If whacking them with an orb, or punching them, is futile, having some mace would give her an alternative, for instance.
Or she could put up her shield while she or an official medic patches someone else up inside it
I want to know why gold stars are supposedly NOT batman Approved!!
They would be bat-shaped, if they were.
At which point, they’d no longer be gold STARS.
Batman approved gold stars would either be actual metallic gold throwing stars for some obscure enemy (cybermen, perhaps?), or gold stars with a little bat symbol in the middle.
Granted.
Why wouldn’t/couldn’t they just be five winged batarangs?
At that point you’re leaving Batman behind for Elderthingman.
Here is a documented case of Batman handing out his equivalent of a ‘gold star.’ To King Joffrey, of all people. He was less of a prick in his younger years.
BAT STAR!
Obviously, because they’re gold. They should be gloss black (so they stand out from the matte black).
Is that why Matt LeBlanc stands out?
It’s because of his history of battling Giant Space Cockroaches!
and Matt Green (Finding Neverland (2004)),
and Matt Brown (Alaskan Bush People (2014)),
and Matt Black (The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012))
I think it’s the cameras.
Yorp how long have you been following this webcomic? It seems you always have a comment on something someone else has said so you must’ve found DaveB’s webcomic fairly early on. If I read through all the comments of each page before advancing to the next page it would take me the same amount of time of reading Homestuck as it would to reach the latest page of Grrl Power.
From very early on, indeed. Although I was a silent reader for a long time. But the community is so interesting that it was impossible to resist joining in!
Which also explains why I comment so much. Being surrounded by interesting people, making insightful comments (or others deserving a reply) inspires me to respond.
Keeping up with the comments is hugely time-consuming, true enough. Which is why I champion people who are unable to do that. If folks only have time to make one or two comments, but do not want to wade through pages of such, to find if it has already been said before, then I would rather they spoke up, than felt intimidated and chose not to.
Every contribution is welcome. Especially so if accompanied by a stylish avatar, such as your own.
With Batman, they would more likely be demerits.
Personally if I was putting together a utility belt in Sydney’s situation, based on what I carried when I was a Cub Scout leader I’d be looking at:
Small first aid kit
Multitool or Swiss army knife
Torch (Maglite mini perhaps, bright, small, and come with a spare bulb integrated into it)
Small (palm size) notebook & a couple of small pencils
My Asthma inhaler & a couple of spare doses of my hayfeaver medication
USB powerbank (For charging phone, GPS etc)
Mini Sewing kit (Matchbox size)
Remove the watertight bag containing a list of the kids emergency medical and contact details, add a pepper spray or similar and I think you have a reasonably flexible, not too heavy or encumbering set of kit that you could use as a decent default.
modern mini-tacticals use 3-6 LEDs and wouldn’t need a spare bulb, they also work as a light weapon (painfully blinding).
Since you mentioned ‘spare bulb’ I would like to point out that LED bulbs have a lifespan of about 50,000 hours, so don’t need a replacement. And since they are 10 times as energy efficient as incandescent a 5 hour run time goes to 50 hours at the same brightness. Also, many USB powerbanks now come with a built in emergency LED light.
Also tougher.
My school backpack:
Pens and pencils, a vial of alcohol, ID cards, backup phone charger, backup phone, bear grills survival kit, bubble gum, a pin, a notebook, salt, cinamon, school binder, ducktape, backup glasses, emergency money, secret emergency money, non-emergency money, candy, an USB, a razor, lost-and-found pouch, a stapler, my passport, medical charcoal, anti alergy pills, antiacid, a firestarter rod, a lighter, clockwork screwdrivers, my keys, chalk (i dunno why), headphones, a few plastic vials and a Leatherman Rev.
Also usually my laptop, but I don’t carry it everywhere, because it’s heavy-
And a silver pendant with some neodimium magnets on it and my phone, but I don’t keep them in the backpack.
That’s your school backpack? Where did you go to school, a war zone?
And why are you carrying your passport around with you? With all that stuff, you need a second backpack to carry your school books.
That and the passport were not the only ones that had me wondering. Here are my solutions:
• a vial of alcohol – yes, this is a warzone. That is playground currency, for the kids too doped up to recognise real money.
• cinamon – you never know when you might find a cinnamon bear in your class room and have to tempt it out.
• emergency money – sensible.
• secret emergency money – warzone hypothesis confirmed.
• non-emergency money – OCD suspected.
• candy – a must in case any Time lords pop in.
• lost-and-found pouch – yep, anyone picking stuff up, without one of those to put it in, in any warzone / borstal, will be suspected of stealing it. Lots of sensible stuff on this list.
• a stapler – OCD confirmed and upgraded to CDO.
• passport – clearly vital to escape school, if chemical, biological or nuclear weapons start to be deployed during lunch
• medical charcoal – …. *blink* *blink* …
• a firestarter rod, a lighter – lock up the library before he gets there!
• chalk (i dunno why) – Severe CDO
• a few plastic vials – these used to contain trading alcohol, but you got thirsty.
I completely understand absolutely everything in that backpack. (And I presume the alcohol is wood/rubbing, not drinkable, alcohol.) Having assembled such before, it’s clearly a BOB – bug-out bag – without most of the major bulky stuff in it.
I would personally suggest the addition of a 3-day supply of emergency biscuits; there’s one that’s in my own BOB (I don’t recall the brand) that basically tastes like a really rich shortbread, has 3 sections (one for each meal), and supplies something like 3500 calories per day. Put those in the bottom or back of the bag.
And while pens and pencils are great for writing notes, chalk is about the only thing that’ll be able to write a note on the landscape. Also good for keeping track of which way you went in a labyrinth, so long as the pixies don’t change things around on you.
As DaveB mentioned under the bottom row of art panels, I think Batman would approve of having a glue stick but I’m not so sure about the googly eyes. After all, Batman doesn’t normally plan ahead on his belt-loadout to embarrass a foe, just beat the crap out of them if they resist arrest.
Aaaaand we also have another dissenting vote for googly eyes, speaking up from that Battle Royale from the Steak House; Mr. Portmanteau-For-A-Villain-Name. But his vote against them is only because Sydney herself had precedence for using them in the first place…She made it work out okay, so Max shouldn’t really complain about it.
Indeed. The googly eyes are a proven tactical asset.
“The googly eyes are a proven tactical asset!” Sydney has to say this soon!
+1
+100,000.
Absolutely has to say this. Dave, take note!! (Could be the very first line in the next comic. Or at the bottom of it – ‘And the googly eyes are a proven tactical asset!!’)
Max also shouldn’t be at all surprised by what is in Sydney’s utility belt. She is the team leader, after all. She should either have made an inspection or had a report from a NCO who made an inspection. You just don’t let a new recruit, even if they aren’t as dizzy as Sydney has constantly demonstrated, put together something like that without any kind of oversight.
And really, even if she is an incompetent leader who exercises zero oversight on the new recruit, Max’s utter astonishment came across as forced and plastic.
I disagree with you here, except for the last bit on forced astonishment.
A good leader needs to know the strengths and weaknesses of the people serving under her (or him). What a good leader does NOT need is an itemized list of everything the soldiers under their command are carrying. Trying to know and control every detail of the those under you is micromanaging, which most agree is a poor management style.
Controlling your troops’ inventory is something you get to do in video games. And even then, there are sometimes items you have no access to (coughSkyrimcough).
As far as supervision while putting the kit together, wasn’t Anvil watching (filling the NCO requirement that you mentioned)? Anvil’s exact words were: “Some is required but the rest you can choose as you like.” They did not just let her put together an ultimate-ADHD-belt-of-shiny-objects.
And one more thing: It’s been what? 5 hours since the utility belt was first brought up? If there was a report on the subject (as you unequivocally hold there should be) it wouldn’t have reached Maxima’s desk yet.
And I disagree with your disagreement. Because it does not hold up at all when compared against actual practice. Every military commander does indeed have a very good idea of what his troops are carrying, because it is both uniform and itemized. Things that are more unique, such as communications equipment, are still known quantities. Things that fluctuate under use, such as the amount of ammunition, grenades, etc. are most definitely kept track of by a NCO and reported to the officers.
So when a military organization implements a “utility belt” practice, you can not only expect but put safe money on the wager that the officers will be informed exactly what their people have access to in any given situation. And for the exact same reasons that officers in militarys the world over will have the knowledge of exactly what equipment their units have access to: Because knowing this is what makes for a competent leader, and not knowing this is what makes for an incompetent leader.
If Maxima didn’t know what Sydney had in her “utility belt” within a few hours of that “utility belt” being populated, someone is doing an incompetent job.
Far too sweeping, and therefore blatantly incorrect. You consider that a micromanagement style is essential, then assume that every competent commander in the world agrees with you.
Not every competent commander, in the world, will demand an itemised list of every non-standard item every trooper is carrying.
Your argument has merit, but only up to a point, then you take it to an impractical and unbelievable degree.
Even if a specific military unit has such a specific micro-managing policy in place, it’s not practical in practice. Sure, the major stuff (uniform issue, equipment & such) is more like what the military demands that a soldier musthave, not as a checklist of everything they will have. In some cases, the military can also put an effective ban on what soldiers be allowed to have, but this is not the same as dictating everything.
It’s not micromanagement, and it is you who are making the sweeping assumption that the commanding officer is handling all of these details themselves.
Depending on the unit size involved, the ‘micromanagement’ is handled by lower ranking officers and/or by NCOs. But it is micromanaged. Do you think that any commanding officer of a unit will not be made aware of how many days ammunition they have on hand? Without having to count it personally? Or food? Or any consumable? The CO who manages to run out of ammo will not be a CO for long, I guarantee you that. Likewise, if a small unit suffers the breakage of their only radio, that fact will be reported either immediately or nearly immediately to the CO, whether they are an officer or an NCO. Who will then report that fact up their chain of command. This happens, and it is not micromanagement. It is the smart management of resources, and the maintaining of a readiness stance.
And yes, there have been plenty of situation where military units have had to deal with shortfalls, bad supply situations, or poor logistics. But that doesn’t mean that the COs were not well aware of those shortfalls, and had already made reports about and requests to alleviate those shortfalls up their chains of command, regardless of the responsiveness of their superiors to assist them. Sometimes the job means doing what you can with what you have. It never means doing what you can because you don’t know what you have.
COs who manage to remain unaware of their readiness state are not going to be long in their positions. The US military has for a great number of years had an ‘up or out’ philosophy. If you do not receive excellent reviews, every single time, you’re out. A single review that is less than filled with details of how you actually walk on water and can simultaneously turn that water into the finest vintage wine will see you fall behind your peers who are receiving that kind of review. And I am only very slightly exaggerating here. And something like failing to be aware of the status of the unit you are in command of, be it a large or a small unit, will not be earning you an excellent review.
I only referred to the commander demanding an itemised list, which is what you stipulated yourself. My mention of micromanagement was as regards the ‘style of command’. Insisting that your subordinates micromanage is a ‘micromanagement style of command’. Not all officers do that. And some competent ones consider that taking it too far to be a bad practice.
And there you have the reason why Maxima was surprised. She had delegated the supervision of Sydney, customising her utility belt, to her subordinates. Be that Anvil directly or Peggy, who then re-delegated it to Anvil.
“Arts and crafts” is not the result Maxima expected from that. Had that been all that was in the utility belt, then she would need to reassess Anvil’s competency. Far more worrying than Sydney’s role, as she still has civilian ways being trained out of her. Not to mention her known eccentricities.
Had there been a serious problem, with outfitting Halo, Maxima would have expected that to be drawn to her attention.* Well before she was allowed off-base, in such a state. That clearly did not happen.
So, personally, I feel Maxima’s surprise was justifiable, but not a sign of incompetence on her behalf. As borne out by Sydney having a sensible combat-oriented load, with one pouch having items with utility in a public-relations role. Not to mention the proven ‘googly-eyes’ combat tactic. :-)
* Regardless of whether an itemised list has been created or not (depending on how anal Maxima was in have demanding one or not).
Well, you’re just wrong. I can’t say it any more simply than that.
The scenario your laissez faire attitude would allow is not ever going to happen in any military unit which is not in a comic book and/or written by someone with no military background:
Military branch mandate – Everyone must have a utility belt. You get to decide what it contains. And we don’t care, don’t even want to know, what is in it.
The simple fact of Maxima expressing her surprise over the contents she did see means that she does indeed care. It is, whether you choose to accept it as such or not, proof that the contents do matter to her as the combat commander. And in the military, once you care about something, you really care about something. No, sticks of gum and pocket change aren’t going to be counted. But anything held within something with the formal designation of “utility belt” is certainly going to be managed in the exact same way that all other formal equipment is managed. Which is to say, closely.
It was managed closely. By the duly appointed individual. Who was not Maxima.
Here and here are where Sydney got started on building her utility belt. Apparently Anvil drew the short straw and had to be the one who was keeping The Mighty Halo in check.
I should clarify, as I paraphrased in saying ‘you demanded a list’. It was my way of abbreviating your comments such as: “She should either have made an inspection or had a report from a NCO who made an inspection.” and “…the officers will be informed exactly what their people have access to in any given situation”.
In most military units the officers know what the troops should be carrying. But troops actualy in the feild tend to add to that.
My uncle used to talk about the new lt finding out that everyone packed lots of rubbers(AKA condoms, it was a stopgap early in the service use if the M16, The Rubbers were used to help keep the barrel clear on patrol or when in the field) and in his unit, Everyone, including people who did not smoke carried cigarets.
Maxima would need at least a basic idea of what Sydney has in her utility belt, even if it’s just a report from Anvil saying what it seems to be geared towards and how much (or, in Sydney’s case, how little) she has her head together. She might have heard “some arts and crafts supplies”.
i’ve never had a chain of command that wasn’t surprised at some of the things i would pull out of my gear. whether it be civilian GPS gear because the unit didn’t have any yet, adaptors they didn’t even know could be gotten, or just expendables that everyone else forgot to bring(“what you didn’t bring extra trip wire with you sir?”). it’s not that they didn’t do inspections it’s just they didn’t care beyond that i had everything on the packing list.
Mace/Pepper Spray is overrated. I’ve eaten hotter which inevitably means Sydney has too. She’d do better to just pack snacks.
Ahh but have you actually eaten the real stuff? Hotter is just a number.
Pepper spray curry, washed down with a mace chaser, now that has hardcore street-cred!
Don’t try this at home kids, it can kill you (literally and seriously). Whereas Spicefreak is a professional, who I would expect to know how to judge the risks and take suitable precautions.
Meh. I agree with Spicefreak, it is overrated. In Basic we all got dire warnings about how we were going to have huge strands of mucus sliding out of our noses and moths during the part of training where we were all herded into a concrete bunker, told to put on our gas masks, watched as a few gas ‘grenades’ (they just smoked out the gas in a fairly rapid stream, no explosions. The drills just did whatever it took to activate them, like popping the tab on a beer, and then set them down on the ground) and then we each had to crack the seal and answer a couple questions the drill instructors asked us, which of course involved some breathing of unfiltered air.
After being unimpressed and unaffected I took a few extra breaths and was still unaffected. No eye irritation, either. And since all the drills were just walking around in the stuff without any gas masks I figured that it was either just a bunch of horror stories meant to scare us or just a lot less effective than they let on.
What kind of gas was it that makes moths?
The reason the instructors could do that was because they had done it enough that they were used to it, I assume you were using CS gas, and you can develop a tolerance to it. You were lucky, some (most) people react quite strongly to exposure to CS.
And a small percentage have no reaction whatsoever to CS…
I think Oberon is one of the lucky few.
During basic (which I did in a European country) one officer, for reasons unknown, got stupid with a gas canister. He came walking with the canister in one hand and an axe over his shoulder, said something to the effect that he sure hoped we had our masks, dropped the canister on the ground and swung his axe at it. Surprise surprise, a jet of gas blew straight back in his face…
He spent the rest of that day in a tent naked as his skin was bright red and felt like it was burning, except where something touched him and it felt like someone was flaying him alive.
Nasty stuff. By the way, he was the only casualty as all us grunts actually got our masks on in time.
This was also the only time I saw one of those large canisters, the rest of the time we used small “torches” or gas hand grenades. And as this wasn’t in the US I don’t think it was CS. Don’t know if CS is worse or better, and I’m not volunteering to find out.
I was one of the lucky few. CS mainly just made my skin prickle and itch, and my eyes water slightly.
Meanwhile some others in the same squad had things like mucus ropes streaming out of misc orifices and reactions up to and including panic attacks.
The stuff is just inconsistent in the reaction it provokes. I live in a rural area with next to no pollution so I don’t even have possible irritant acclimatization as an excuse.
Went through that in US Navy basic, my eyes were watering and my nose was running something fierce after taking my mask off.
There were a few people who weren’t affected, and I think most of those came from places like LA, where their exposure to smog likely made the gas ineffective.
Dunno about getting acclimated to it via exposure to smog. I grew up mainly in the suburbs and not in an area with any kind of smog issues or heavy industry, and spent decent portions of my life on farms and ranches where the aroma of the barn or driving past the local pig farm might be the worst thing you encounter during the day.
Also, no one else (and we filed in as a group of 4 squads, so ~40-50 people at a time) seemed to be having any issues either, but I don’t know if they had just done what I originally did, which was to take a good breath before cracking the seal and answer the questions using that breath. Before I got stupid and curious and found out that it just didn’t seem to be too terrible a thing after all.
I don’t know whether acclimatisation to smog affects exposure to such gasses but I do know that part of your drills was to build up a degree of tollerance just incase. Clearly you didn’t need it, for whatever reason, but I’ve seen video evidence of the difference between day 1 exposure and exposure once your used to it and it is wild.
Also worth noting is that Sydney’s chilli tollerance is quite localised to her mouth and digestive tract so, while her food might double as pepper spray in some cases, that doesn’t mean she’d be any better off with it in her face than any standard civillian.
Nice Grrl Power review, on your blog, by the way.
*wags tail contentedly*
Thanks. Wasn’t sure if I did it justice or not but, having gotten way to into it while on holiday, it felt only right to share.
Lol.
Pepper spray curry you say? Would that be police or civillian grade? I can’t say I’ve actually tried either and washing up after extract sauces has made it clear I’d rather not inhale them but they could make for an interesting meal.
Heh, that all depends on the bragging rights you fancy?
But don’t let me tease you into doing something rash. I only said it, for the banter. I certainly would not want to even take a sip, from a tea-spoon, of either. Or even hold it under my nose, for that matter!
I enjoy hot foots myself (but doubtless not to the degree you do, and certainly not a patch on Sydney). But I rate flavour far more than heat. And dislike too much inconvenience, in appreciating the flavour, if the heat is causing side-effects, like eyes watering, or the nose running.
Pepper spray does not sound tasty to me.
In a litteral sense, I rate heat but that’s largely because it’s far less subjective and therefore easier to put a number on. I also try to make it clear what the heat level is so that people know what does and doesn’t constitute “too much inconvenience” for them.
Personally I can handle a lot but, just because I can handle the entire natural sauce scale (and a lot higher if I shrink the tasting quantities) doesn’t mean I’d actually use all of it as condiments. 5-8 on my scale tends to be my preferred range for putting on food and, while I do quite enjoy a vindaloo from time to time, it’s not my go to curry (Phaals really aren’t all they’re cracked up to be and tend not to taste great).
I get a lot of “what’s the hottest?” in my daily life and, while it looks pretty cool in sign language, it’s never been what I’m about. I like some serious heat but, even among the natural sauces, some of the very hottest just taste like a wall of sour and I don’t see why I’d want to eat that.
Only twice have I even delved into extract sauces on my blog and there’s a pretty simple reason for that. Unless I have a damn good reason (piece of history or a company requested review), I don’t really want to bother with things that, by their very nature, do not taste good.
You can, of course, find sauces that overcome the unpleasantness of their extract content so I’m not completely against reviewing them in future but good taste becomes a lot harder to find and, aside from in Hell Unleashed, has never really been worked into the flavour in a non-negative way.
Challenges interest me, especially when they’re a little unusual like yours, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll do them. Just that they pique my scientific curiousity.
hot foots = hot foods
Heh. I’ve a sister whose 4 kids are all pepper freaks. I like spicy foods, and they all go way beyond my tolerance level (which is about habanero, and even those can be too hot for me to just eat raw or pickled or otherwise undiluted with other foodstuffs). It’s interesting because my father also likes very spicy foods but neither of my sisters enjoy the heat nearly as much, and the sister in questions husband is also not a spice head. So the genetics of the situation intrigues me a bit. Two of the 4 kids are also left handed, and both my father and I are left handed, while neither of my sisters is left handed and the brother-in-law is also not left handed. So there is at least some correlation between left handedness and enjoying high heat levels.
Anyway, a friend with a farm gave them a freaking garbage bag full of habaneros (I don’t know the exact weight, but it was probably around 5-10 lbs worth), and they borrowed a food drier from another friend and proceeded to make their home uninhabitable for a few hours after the oils permeated the atmosphere enough. It was all windows open and then move the drying operation to the outdoors for the remainder of the habs. :-P
I still have about 4 tbsp of the powder they made after drying and grinding them all. And that was a good number of years ago.
Sounds like they may want to see if they can lower the temperature next time if that much heat is being lost to the air.
Fresh habaneros are a lot purer than any sauce and about the top of what I can eat fresh pepper-wise. The fact that they have flowing chilli juice inside them makes them a completely different experience IMO.
I’m not sure how or even if chilli preferrence works on a genetic level, let alone how it connects to handedness but tolerance is far more learned than innate.
That said, while it tends to be more men who get big into spice, women do apparently have a natural advantage in that their bodies tend to be better at producing endorphins and thus the women who do get overly into chilli tend to out-eat their male counterparts.
[scribbled notations on a chalkboard, in the background]
• Right handed amino acids.
• (Weak) observed correlation between left-handedness and spicy food tolerance.
• Sugars do not use right-handed amino acids. (Sugar
sinisternice).• Sugar and spice and all things nice. EUREKA! *streaks around laboratory*
• Spicy foods often have sugar in them too. *does naked doggy dance*
Only kidding. I kept my hat on.
• [Complex correlations, formulae and conclusions, in doggy notation and paw prints]
You don’t actually eat mace slash or ‘pepper spray’ (unless you are Just Ace and spray it on chilli-dogs), you have it sprayed into your eyes!!! And not even Sydney’s eyes are immune to the hot stuff directly applied
You’re asking the wrong question.
The correct question is “Why shouldn’t she have a utility belt?”
I’ve had one in the past – very useful. If you have the means, I highly recommend you get one.
Because utility suspenders would look silly.
I guess I should scratch my idea of a grenade garter-belt then.
Maybe not. I have seen pictures of people wearing suspenders – or braces, if you prefer – with pouches and packs arranged on them.
Good lord, I hope so! 😖
Those are sometimes referred to as bandoleers.
Except that a bandolier is generally used for ammunition . . . and sometimes foraction figures.
Then again, even if they did look silly, if I were in that profession and had to choose between fashion sense and possibly being better prepared for a potential battle, it wouldn’t even be a contest in favor of the latter.
I’d never be able to get a proper utility belt. Even knowing about the encumbrance I’d still want to take everything I could.
That’s the thing, it’s a “utility” belt. You’re supposed to carry the things you might need in the course of a nights work, plus a few extras, luxuries if you will. In Syd’s case, her luxuries include gold stars…
…and gum…
ask MacGuyver how useful gum can be
I think this is from the pilot episode…
Woman: “Don’t tell me you know how to make a bomb from a stick of chewing gum!”
MacGuyver: “Why? Got some?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFNDzAg6pKc
Yes, it is, almost verbatim actually.
Funny fact: he used the wrapper twice (different episodes) but never the actual gum.
For a while, I had a photographer’s vest that I would wear to gaming sessions. It was an extremely effective way of carrying most of the odds’n’ends a tabletop gamer might need – dice, snacks, writing implements, calculator, notebook, etc., etc..
Besides, Sydney could easily end up working with or near small children, so filling one pouch with extremely lightweight craft supplies isn’t the worst idea anyway.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Especially given her day job is running a comic book shop. That specific situation has probably come up on multiple occasions before.
And even so, her “other” day job (with Archon) is going to have her in the public spotlight…Where kids might start to flock around.
That is what the force field orb is for! ;)
If everything I need is too heavy then I clearly need to buffen up. I’m not getting rid of potentially useful items just ’cause I’m weak.
Just remember that it’s a good thing if you are still able to go through a normal door opening without having to empty your belt first or redesigning the door frame…
True. But, in combat situations you do have the option of going through the wall. Hence the need to buff up, so you can carry the shaped charges, detonators, and other gear, needed to help you do that safely.
Vehemence is one of those fortunate few who can make their own doors without the need for any explosives or other kind of gear…
So can Sydney. She has the PPD. On one of its lower settings, if makes doors. On one of its higher settings, it makes rubble piles.
To be fair, if the fight with Death Toll was any indication, she carried googly eyes one her before she was an official super.
Harem was doing teleportation runs to pick up any gear needed. Especially useful for on-demand items. Nobody was carrying that. She will have nipped into whatever arts-and-craft shop she knew. Or grabbed them from a kid-sister or cousin’s place.
Even so, that moment proved to Sydney that googly eyes were a good thing to have, I think. ☺
At some point Sydney is going to have a tough choice to make. Such as: Batarang tracker or arts and craft pouch? I can imagine the heartbreak that could cause her.
Why can’t she have both? After all, she does say that the rest of her utility belt gear is “Batman approved.”
and if the art ‘n crafts gold stars are made out of an easily traceable material (not necessarily a radioactive material, but sci-fi shows always seem to be able to track/detect all kinds of “stuff” at extreme distances…), or an maybe it’s an electronic RFID tag at the same time… then it’s a win/win situation! they replace the Batarang, AND it’s still “Art’s ‘N Crafts”…
she just needs some way to get it attached to the bad guy so that they don’t immediately get rid of it… OOH! maybe she can give them out for every super villain that she encounters as a “souvenir” for being thwarted by The Mighty HALO”… they may just keep it around as a reminder to get better at whatever it was that got them caught…
…I am somehow not remembering this….Methinks it’s time for another archive dive.
:-D
Try “flustered”
That’s fairly mild though.
It is a good one though. Somebody who is flustered is clearly nervous. And very likely to be indecisive. So not quite what Dr Dave ordered, but very close. And certainly would fit in the sentence in question:
*showers MechaBill in gold stars*
Even if the supers shared some genetic marker that could be singled out by the vale, Sydney wouldn’t qualify because she’s not a genetic super, and Max probably wouldn’t either because alien geode goo made her super. Also probably other examples I’m forgetting because it’s late…
Magical GREP searches, even more confusing than the ‘normal’ kind!
I dont know how many supers there are in the grrl-verse but if its like a program maybe its possible to write in individual exceptions for some supers. If some of them have monstrous appearances for example. You might need to have a few magicians on stand by to work out unforseen consequences of adding new rows of magicode, but surely they have some resources allocated to having The Veil up and running smoothly.
That depends. If it’s compiled, then I think you’d be out of luck. You can change the source all you want, but you’d need to recompile and restart the whole system. An interpreted language could probably be written in such a way that it would reflect real-time changes to the source without having to restart the interpreter.
define is_angel(Person person);
return has_wings(person) and has_divine_blood(person);
end;
define is_supernatural(Person person);
if is_angel(person) then return true;
elif is_vampire(person) then return true;
elif is_werewolf(person) then return true;
…
else return false;
end;
while true do;
for person in world[0].population do;
if is_supernatural(person) then apply_veil(person);
end;
end;
If you’re looking for supers, maybe re-writing the whole thing to check for individual features rather than identifying groups could be easier and ultimately more efficient?
define is_supernatural(Person person);
if can_breathe_fire(person) then return true;
if has_wings(person) then return true;
if can_turn_into_water(person) then return true;
…
else return false;
end;
Yes and no. With the proper tools, such as the Gnome DeScarab’er, you’d be able to modify even a compiled enchantment while running, as long as you had the source. This wouldn’t be easy, and you may still wind up with a hiccup as you apply the change, but theoretically you could go without any real downtime.
“a hiccup”? What you mean is a déjà vu.
Hm, rememner how Ingsol mentioned they had trouble defining supers compared to supernatural beings? Maybe the defining differance is that NO super is born with their power ingrained in their dna but instead gets it from a outside source?
Good one.
Wait.
What about Dabbler? As a succubus shes a kind of demon, so they Veil’s protection/camouflage/whatever-the-correct-word-may-be should apply to her. And, since there most likely exist supernaturals who have no means of turning a camouflage on/off by their own means, the Veil should operate independently from any such abilities, as in, it would keep the camouflage always on, no matter what.
Sydney can see through such camouflages, fine. But nobody else can.
So, how is Dabbler able to drop her glamor?
Is she somehow excluded from the operation of the Veil?
Dabbler wants to be seen, and has many options to that end.
Most obvious of which is her succubus illusions are more powerful than any other kind, which would include the Veil. So when she assumes her normal purple four-armed alien form, she can just reinforce that with an identacle illusion. Overriding whatever the Veil is attempting to show.
Ooh right, like her disguising her disguised self with a disguise of herself that disguise her being disguised herself…what did I just say?
But try to consider how it would look when Sydney grasps her golden orb.
It would be peeling apart the false illusion, of purple Dabbler, then the false illusion of the blonde-haired Dabbler, which the Veil is trying to impose, then show the real purple Dabbler, underneath.
Now that you mentioned it I guess it’s actually worse :)
I don’t think the blonde form is the Veil’s illusion. Dabbler didn’t correct Zephan’s criticism about her dropping her spell, then she should have done so. But if the blonde form were the Veil’s disguise, to show her purple form she should cast spell (on top of the Veil) not to drop one. Even more, she has shown she can control her disguise (blonde or green) so that layer is not the Veil’s one.
Based on those clues, I conclude that the disguise of herself, the purple form, that disguise the Veil’s disguise she has it always active, a durable spell. Thus to disguise herself as what she want she puts that glamour on top of the always-on disguise of herself that disguise the always-on Veil’s disguise. This last layer is the one she changed to blonde or green.
If so it means that Syd pierced three layers of disguise to reach the real Dabbler. That’s something ;)
Maybe the veil was set up before aliens arrived?
Even if it was, they have been added since. As per Ingsol’s dialogue, about how they customised it to each race.
Also, dabbler may be more demon than anything else but still only works out at roughly half-demon. She’s a mixed race alien who might not be as easily identifiable.
The races protected by the sigils have to be properly specified in Lexica Arcanex (or someday in Arcanum++) code. Why would they update their sigils with code aimed at a race that possesses an inherent glamour that can easily hide them behind a fairly potent illusion? There’s zero benefit with the possibility of adding bugs.
TL;DR: Because succubus are not protected by The Veil, duh!
Did she really not expect that?
I’m a little disappointed here. -,-
Also, I could totally see Batman carrying arts and crafts (if not to mess with The Joker at times, then to mess with kids).
Except if Batman had arts and craft stuff it’d all be named stuff like bat-glue-stick, bat-googlyeyes, and bat-gold-star-stickers, or at least it would if we’re talking about 60s batman, everything would be black if it where a more recent incarnation…
Batman, despite Wertham’s opnion, doesn’t “mess with kids”!
Batman serves as a role-model to kids. I could well see him carrying gold stars, (or, yea, gold bat stickers) when out doing a promotional appearance, to support a charity or endorse something like “don’t do drugs”. That way he can award kids a gold sticker, if they have done something good.
Well, maybe pre-Crisis…
Even Pre-Crisis, Batman was already turning grittier…He even quit the Justice League once because somebody pointed out that people expected a JL member to set a good example to the public. Batman replied, “I never wanted to be admired or respected. I just wanted to be feared by criminals.”
I love that “probably hetrosexual” note on the checklist. I don’t know why but that just cracks me up
My edc is a leatherman wave, a folding knife (longer and tougher than LW blade though not as sharp due to constant use) ronson jet lighter, keys, knockoff surefire flashlight, wallet. Oh, and phone. As an engineer I’m totally fine with cargo shorts. On some adventures I’ve also added 6″ crescent wrench and vise grips. Some napkins and a roll of electrical tape work for first aid.
I carry a lightweight bright yellow dog jacket, with luminous strips.* Which, when worn, always elicits smiles and cries of “politzi couche” (police dog). Plus a paw-cranked torch.** Dog passport.* Dog medicines.* Two pens and a couple of pieces of folded up paper. Electric bill (saves me having to remember the account number, and harder to loose than a small note with the same). Waterproofing for my rucksack. A bit of spare cash. If going anywhere that has dog-leash laws, I also take one of those.*
And, if on anything other than a moderate walk, also adding dog water bottle* (complete with fold out drinking-tray), two-1.5 litre water bottles and a small first-aid kit. Plus snax.
* Yes, really.
** OK technically this was made as a hand-cranked one.
You wouldn’t happen to know a Kommissar Rex, would you?
Ah, memories.
No. And that video is blocked, in this country. :-(
Try this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWul0sSwOts
:-(
Beta Film GmbH hate me.
And me :(
Fuck youtube. These at least have brief descriptions. Good luck.
https://www.tv.com/shows/kommissar-rex/
https://www.watchseries.ac/serie/kommissar_rex
https://www.watchfree.to/watch-29aa61-Kommissar-Rex-tv-show-online-free-putlocker.html#close-modal
Fuck youtube.
https://www.watchseries.ac/serie/kommissar_rex
https://www.ovguide.com/tv/inspector_rex.htm
https://www.tv.com/shows/kommissar-rex/
Oh cool. Thanks. :)
I had never even heard of that before.
Oh, wasn’t it your secret past? Pity.
It was enjoyable, also being German it was uncommon in style and dynamic, at least to here in South America.
What about “Run,
ForrestJoe, Run”?https://www.tv.com/shows/run-joe-run/
Oh I am glad it was not me. I could not speak German. Nobody would be able to understand me!
Ich bin ein Berliner. So mich beißen.
Nah, Yorp use to be the littlest hobo
A bit off topic, but I’m guessing your s/n is supposed to be translated “sociopath elf”?
Tolkien’s elf absolutely no, Santa’s elf so so.
“Duende” has not a direct translation into English since it belongs to a local mythology. Is like to try and find an African animal that corresponds to a platypus. There is not, although it shares traits with several. Hobs, brownies and even goblins have common points with duendes.
Basic traits: very short, humanoid, plain clothed, look like weird childs, masculine (or genderless), elusive, and have magic mainly at low level. Most live hidden in human houses but there are nature ones too, both can behave helpful or mischievous in minor ways.
“Sociopath” is right :)
I found this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duende_(mythology)
Under a quick glance it seems accurate.
Ok, I tried and failed :) What’s the meaning of yours?
You can tell, just by looking, at him.
Cheeky monkey.
* looks along the thread *
I can tell that he has multiple personality.
When I started using the s/n, I was tired of finding that the s/n I used on one forum would be already taken on another that I wanted to join. Thus, I was looking for one that would be easy to remember, yet very likely to be unique. Since I used to pass the DMV on my way to work everyday, I started to play around with the first two letters of every word and originally came up with “Deofmo Vestofca“. However, having the “mo” syllable hanging off the end of the “first name” just didn’t sound right so I decided to try tacking it on the beginning of the “last name”, which resulted in:
Department
of
Motor
vehicles
state
of
california
=OP
(Although Yorp’s “translation” works as well).
Whoops, placed the ending spoiler tag at the wrong place, I guess. C’est la vie!
Cool acronym. Or is that a bicronym?
You will likely have put the end tag in the right place. But the spoiler tag is weird. It does not like extending past the first page break it comes to. All I am surprised at is that you managed to convince it to go past one!
Sadly, as a result, if you want to have spoilers in multiple paragraphs or lines (and you use the ‘return’ key to start a new line) then you need to put each in their own pair of spoiler tags.
page break = paragraph break
Hah, very nice idea, I would never have guessed it :)
My school backpack:
Pens and pencils, a vial of alcohol, ID cards, backup phone charger, backup phone, bear grills survival kit, bubble gum, a pin, a notebook, salt, cinamon, school binder, ducktape, backup glasses, emergency money, secret emergency money, non-emergency money, candy, an USB, a razor, lost-and-found pouch, a stapler, my passport, medical charcoal, anti alergy pills, antiacid, a firestarter rod, a lighter, clockwork screwdrivers, my keys, chalk (i dunno why), a few plastic vials and usually my laptop (but I don’t carry it everywhere, because it’s heavy)
And a silver pendant with some neodimium magnets on it, headphones, a Leatherman Rev and my phone, but I don’t keep them in the backpack.
The electrical tape I know has terrible adhesion to skin.
Did she manage to escape?
but it DOES stick to ITSELF pretty good… i know, i use it at work as a temporary bandage when i get the equivalent of a paper-cut.. sometimes it’s just more hassle to get out of the area i’m working in and get to a sink/first-aid kit for a “real” one… then, by the time i DO get there, i just have to remove it carefully so as to not disturb the clot, carefully wash it, THEN put a band-aid on… works like a charm!
Yea, recently I was working in a garden and got wet enough, doing so, that the band-aid I had, on a cat-inflicted injury slid off. Fortunately the human I was working with had a full medical kit, so, very kindly, tried to patch me up. But I was too wet for anything to stick to me, even fully adhesive things designed for that purpose. And the wetness would persist, whilst working, so drying off was not a solution.
So I just suggested he wrap it all the way around my leg, and stick it to itself. Which he did. And a few more loops, to ensure that it would not shift, for the remainder of the day either. Fortunately the modern bandage resisted any wetness itself, so the plan worked.
So you’re weren’t able to sing “I am stuck on a band-aid, because band-aid’s stuck on me”?
You probably wouldn’t have the epi pens,since they’re generally dosed “by weight” and are prescription items. ;-) As someone who has had to use what might be called “utility belts” as part of his work, mostly what you do is think about what you’re actually going to need/use in the particular job, along with some general purpose items that are always useful. If you don’t do that, you generally learn the hard way (we all do) that carrying around a lot of “just in case” stuff ends up being a draining experience.
I think, rather than apoplectic, “analysis paralysis”.
“I’d have extreme indecisiveness and anxiety (there should be a word which means that)”
There is: “bi-polar disorder”.
:-) :-P
That is neither a word nor what Dave was after.
“Tripolar disorder” – the nagging feeling that, no matter where one is, one should instead be in Tripoli.
“That’s just normal paranoia. Everybody has that.”
~Slartibartfast
Whereas monopolar disorder can just be sad.
Whoever suffers from monopolar disorder does everything in their power to prevent anyone else from suffering from the same disorder.
I thought they just used blenders to mess with annoying scientists.
hey Phil, we went to the zoo an’ saw the bi-polar bears today
“Probably hetrosexual” – cracking me up! ‘Nope on all other points, but I am not going back without something to report.’
How an “incarnate sunbeam” looks like? Gwyneth Paltrow?
Well, considering that all the other options, I’d guess the guy turns into a pillar of fire, so something like that (seeing as it was considered as an option).
His archenemy would be a prism?
For the incarnate sunbeam? Depends on if you can defeat him if he’s weaker but spread over larger area.
Well, at least that would make the vampires on your team breathe a little easier…
Maybe it splits him into Power rangers?
His greatest fear is double-slits. Because he always ends up having to fight an evil twin!
And his mightiest weapon would be a magnifying glass.
Either \[T]/ Solaire \[T]/ or Exalted <>
First thing that came to mind is that the examinator is some lady werewolf (notice the furry thumb, and her two helpers are female too), and that she has other things on her mind than really finishing the report.
He he. Well spotted. I had missed that.
One of her assistants is Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Based on the movie, she is probably a magic user as her grandmother was a witch.
Googly eyes are a proven combat technique! Sydney has justification!
Yeah, Max is going to simply have to concede that one.
And don’t forget the gum! That is important!
If someone is using a death laser, just spit some gum into the machinery.
This is really funny.
Syd was equable after being the master mind and de facto team field commander in nothing less that Vehemence’s defeat, but she is giving herself a gold star for this.
Max has been unfazed about Syd social antics but became rabid when it involved the gear.
It surely outlines the characters :)
Hey, social antics, it creates a headache for Ariana.
Gear loadout? That might create issues for Maxima’s team! Rookie dang well better be taking this seriously!
So if there are gold stars in Sydney’s utility belt in chapter one, does that mean in the third or fourth chapter they must be used to defeat a super-villain? If so:
1) Sydney can smile at Maxima and tell her “See, I told you I would need them.”
2) It would be an interesting way to avoid Deus Ex Machina (the literary device, not the almost-certainly-evil industrialist).
Oops, that was supposed to be a separate comment.
It appears to be a high tech lock that can only be unlocked by gold star stickers, whatever shall we do?
whew!… i’m glad it wasn’t an old Atari 2600 lock… i don’t have one of THOSE controllers in my utility belt…
Fortunately, there is a company that actually still makes Atari 2600-style controllers. So if it were an Atari 2600 lock, it might take a few more days (and about $12 plus S&H), but you could still unlock it.
The catch is that they’re sort of flimsy… I’ve heard reports of them breaking in under a week (sometimes on the first game!). So you might be better off buying an arcade-quality microswitch controller, fire button, and some type of enclosure, and making your own.
Speaking for myself, I know I’d be more unnerved by a Bat-a-rang with googly eyes than one without.
I don’t have a utility belt, but I do have a backpack that I take with me pretty much any time I’m going far enough that I couldn’t walk back. In addition to my laptop (which is what I bought the backpack for), it contains, in addition to various odds and ends: The chargers for my phone and 3DS, pencils, pens, a small but thick spiral-bound notebook, flashlight that looks like a shotgun shell, comb, hand sanitizer, tissues, stomach medicine, headache medicine, Band-Aids, and two sets of polyhedral dice in case of gaming emergencies. Also a Lego brick separator.
(I want to see a story where Sydney’s arts and crafts supplies are critical to victory.)
Well Halo did already utilise arts and crafts in her solution for “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, but, yea it would be nice to see her use it justifiably someday.
I too used to carry emergency gaming dice. If only that would prove useful now still.
*sniff*
“Sympathy hug”
The 4 sided dice are great for emergency caltrops.
…and they pack better than Legos. A significant problem with Legos as caltrops is that you pretty much need to be fighting against barefooted crooks.
Said polyhedral dice should be made of solid metal for use as ammo in a slingshot if need be.
Question: Given the choice, would you have gold stars or banana stickers in your utility belt?
Skull and crossbones !
Angel outline. With a flaming sword.
Juicy bones.
I’ll just leave this here.
No convention visit is complete, without browsing all the dice vendors.
Unless you need at least two strong people to carry it, your dice collection is inadequate.
Gen-Con this year had at least 20 booths selling dice.
Oops, meant dealers not booths.
Because Chessex and Crystal Caste both had 3 booths each.
I’d seen Die Hard dice before but never thought of them as a reasonable investment. That scorched bronze set changes everything.
https://www.critsuccess.com/
For classy and discreet emergency dice.
banana stickers, bananarangs, bananabombs…instant banana smoothie kit… and I’d shop where Kim Possible shops… club banana
And this guy would be dying to team up with you!
https://thegenderblenderblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/the-banana-flasher/
this guy already applied to join the team, but Arianna had him rejected for being a PR nightmare.
there’s always this guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-DI5RIqMsQ
The Banana Man can because he mixes it with love and healthy fruit or whatever a banana is classified as and makes the world taste good.
(I want to see a story where Sydney’s arts and crafts supplies are critical to victory.)
There could easily be a situation where they are exploring an area and Sydney gets separated. If she leaves a trail of stickers in obvious locations they rest of the team could track her or she could find her way back. (Which seemed clever until I remembered they all are wearing GPS trackers)
GPS trackers are somewhat less effective underground or when there are multiple layers of concrete or metal between the tracker and the satellite.
Cell phones also often have difficulties in such places.
My school backpack:
Pens and pencils, a vial of alcohol, ID cards, backup phone charger, backup phone, bear grills survival kit, bubble gum, a pin, a notebook, salt, cinamon, school binder, ducktape, backup glasses, emergency money, secret emergency money, non-emergency money, candy, an USB, a razor, lost-and-found pouch, a stapler, my passport, medical charcoal, anti alergy pills, antiacid, a firestarter rod, a lighter, clockwork screwdrivers, my keys, chalk (i dunno why), a few plastic vials and usually my laptop (but I don’t carry it everywhere, because it’s heavy)
And a silver pendant with some neodimium magnets on it, headphones, a Leatherman Rev and my phone, but I don’t keep them in the backpack.
I carry a Swiss Army Knife, flashlight, large-jaw Vise-Grip pliers and a small self-adjusting wrench in an EMT pouch on my belt; in my pockets a tape measure (you’d be surprised how often it’s used), and a butane lighter. When I’m wearing my cargo vest I have a lot of other stuff, but no duct tape nor WD-40; silicone Emergency Tape actually is what people think duct tape is, and Break Free ditto for WD-40. Oh, and a glue stick, but it’s solid contact cement instead of essentially library paste in a tube. Never carried gold stars, though.
Speaking of halos, to whom, or what, does the one floating above sydney belong to in the bottom left panel?
It’s on one of the banners. You can see it better on this page. Some of the commenters here have suggested it is the banner of the Council’s angel group
Supported by the fact that the delegates, in the associated seats above it, are winged. And given even greater credence by the fact that we even get a clear look at the glowing halo of one. In panel one, of my link.
It looks like part of a flag.
Hey, don’t knock the googly eyes. They’ve come in handy before.
It seems that Maxima should give Sydney the standard “that’s against regulations” speech followed by “I’ll treat this as a court martial offense if you do that again” threat…!
What regulations? o_O
also, Sydney is a civilian
Sydney is NOT a civilian. She signed on with Archon and is now a recruit, remember. In the first few pages, before we started the flashback we are now in, she was described as a corporal.
Yup, Sydney is not a civilian, Math is though, and Dabbles
Except they specifically said she was allowed to choose her own load-out.
Still why is Maxima ripping Sydney about her belt’s contents anyway???
PR Nightmare if left unchecked…
Because she thought the gold stars were ALL that Sydney had in her belt, I think, rather than all the tools, medicine, and gear any self-respecting crime fighter should have.
“I’d have extreme indecisiveness and anxiety (there should be a word which means that)”
Perseverate – verb – repeat or prolong an action, thought, or utterance after the stimulus that prompted it has ceased.
Good suggestion, yet it looses the negative connotations of indecisiveness. Rather than indicating time is being lost, due to unproductive inability to make a decision, it actually has positive connotation. As in someone persevering with a difficult task, or making slow, but gradual, progress on solving a difficult dilemma.
I learned “perseverate” from when I was with the state of Oregon’s mental health department. When a client would start looping over and over again about obsessing about something (am I going to get a pop? When am I going to get a pop? OH MY GOD WHICH POP WILL I GET!? I’mma pee my pants because I don’t know!!) to the point it causes problems then we called it perseverating.
Linguistically I would go for “obsessing”, but I can see that, contextually, that is too close to clinical terms. So can see why the alternative would have been adopted, as specialist jargon.
Vacillate would be the nearest I can get. Sadly it pretty much means the same as indecisive. As such it too fails to address the anxiety side.
I think it does actually deserve a single word, as the two conditions do go hand in hand, very often. The anxiety feeding the indecisiveness, in an ever-deepening spiral.
If any of our foreign language speakers can suggest a word we can
stealadmiringly adopt, suggestions would be gratefully examined?Unsteady? Kinda trying to add a negative touch to “vacillate”, or it only applies to material things?
Conflicted?
Unsettled?
I submit “irresolute” for consideration.
I submit “indecixious” and “anxitant”.
High on ‘shrooms?
It hasn’t hit me every time, but I do recall one time I and a friend were at a party where everyone was indulging in magic mushrooms, and we stared at a boom box for about a half hour before deciding that changing the station was just too complex, and that the thing really, really had a very large number of knobs and dials and things to adjust and should just be left alone.
As a children’s librarian, my utility belt would DEFINITELY have an arts and crafts pouch, and Sydney already knows the value of the mighty googly eye. Plus, it’d be PR gold for her to give kids gold star stickers where cameras can see. I can also think of tons of situations where the sharpies I see in Sydney’s pouch could come in handy, even without paper.
For other crafty adds… A sewing kit would also be a good idea—although it could be used to sew skin together with silk embroidery thread in an absolute pinch, I was thinking more along the lines of dealing with any potentially-embarrassing battle damage to clothing. Finally, let’s not forget duct tape, which holds the world together (well, actually, it’s library book tape that does that, but the upside of duct tape is like it can be used to hold together severe lacerations—again, in a pinch).
+1*issues a gold star*
Don’t you mean:
* issues a BAT STAR!*
BAT STAR
Superglue is also usefull for fixing things, emergency wound sealing and as a weapon.
If only it didn’t dry out so quickly…
Why keep sharpies in a pouch when they fit perfectly into Nerf bandoliers?
Well. To be fair. The googly eyes did play a crucial role in defeating whatshisface..Nemesis was it?
For Whom The Death Bell Tolls… I think. He was a total wanker. He was also my favorite bad guy in that fight. I’m looking forward to seeing him return.
Yes: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1465
Neat! Also, is your name Ayla? :3
I only ask because that’s the name of my girlfriend, and she’d be happy to know there’s more Aylas out there.
Not a bad name. Personally, I prefer being almost unique in mine.
NO, No, no… he’s The Periwinkle Butt-Sniffer… get your villain’s names right… it’s the Least we can do for the right to be called by OUR proper Hero names… :D
They weren’t exactly crucial. They just had to piss him off to prove his powers were reactive in nature.
He couldn’t even see them. They were there to make the ARCHON team laugh at him for a few seconds instead of hitting him. Which did indeed piss him off, but that wasn’t the first effect in the chain of events.
The combined effect worked as intended though, which is the important thing. Any plan can fail when tested in action, including Halo’s.* I can see how she could have argued the ‘successful battlefield use’ angle, with Peggy, when selecting her utility belt fillers.
Plus the morale-boosting aspect was probably worth it, once Peggy realised that Sydney had learnt useful lessons for the other pouches. Such as keeping within sensible weight restraints, and choosing suitably versatile gear.
Diversity, in team gear, does have its strengths, in allowing unusual situations to be covered too.
“Oh my god, the Alpha Centauri ambasador’s environment suit has dozens of punctures in it!”
Sydney starts chewing gum, and calmly places gold stars over all the smaller ones. Then makes a chewing-gum patch over the biggest.
“All done! Let’s get him somewhere safe quick though, this is only temporary.”
* The Dabbler rope-skipping boob-distraction ended with Sydney concluding “I need to level-up my planning skill”. Likewise finding out that she could not use her tentacle, whilst on the inside of her shield.
As the saying goes, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” At least Sydney is good at improvising on-the-fly (even if she’s not flying at the time) when something just doesn’t work out the way she figured it.
That’s why you always carry ducktape and superglue.
Yes, but that does not get the Ambassador commended, by the Centauri Emperor, for all the awards he won, for surviving such a deadly situation!
Fan though I am, of duct tape, sometimes it is more appropriate to award gold stars.
Why not use cosmic patterned duct tape for the best of both worlds?
“To head off the comments about “but the government has known about supers for a long time,” yes that’s true, but I can only fit so much on one page. :)”
It’s mostly bewildering because, since the government has known about cryptids and supers for such a long time, that there’d be a conspiracy to obfuscate the existence of cryptids, but not supers. I’m guessing it’s because supers don’t feed on people, but many cryptids do.
Y’know, I reconciled a while ago that Maxima, and the majority of the government in this story, are the bad guys. Besides the massive conspiracy, there’s also that time that Maxima went all General MacArthur in the desert. That’s a thing.
So it’s not really that big of an issue. I’ve also predicted that Maxima eventually goes rogue and kills some beloved characters, because that trope is too irresistible for this comic.
No, it’s because Supers are still Human, hence the term “Superhuman”
But that still doesn’t explain why there’s a need for a conspiracy.
I mean, seriously, people already know that vampires, werewolves, etc, exist. So why try to cover it up?
Shhh! Most of the world is in denial.
Which is very hard, given how small the Nile is. So don’t make them examine it too closely.
The Nile isn’t really that small…It’s one of the longest rivers in the world.
;)
Also, a super is an isolated incident.
Cryptids have families. As commented last page, where you find one, you find more.
But supers also have families.
But not super families, normal-human families generate the occasional super-human member. Cryptids are/become part of a cryptid family. Doesn’t seem to be related to your comments, but it’s a veil thing that Hutt is referencing.
Do you recon that Jabba has hundreds of clones?
Clones are families. Even evil twins count, if their genetics are the same.
The story is completely contradicting itself. It would appear there are far fewer supers than there are cryptids, yet the cryptids are the ones most easily concealed.
Typically the more people you have involved in a conspiracy, the harder it is to keep it a secret. It’s been established that supers are a genetic anomaly, as it’s been observed to be a hereditary trait with the likelihood of super offspring coming from super parents. But emergence of such a child is less likely with supers as it is with cryptids, meaning there are more cryptids than there are supers.
Hence the complete headache of having to accept this massive conspiracy in the first place.
Also, with the existence of supers being public knowledge, and the positive reaction this has had in the media, there’s absolutely no reason to keep this conspiracy going.
Unless that would mean tipping your hand to your food supply.
We still don’t know what “policing our own” means. I imagine it’s like in Being Human. (The BBC version, not the American one.) Vampires have control over the government, and murders happen as a result of vampires feeding on people fairly commonly, and are soon covered up with help from The Veil.
I see no other reason why there’d need to be a conspiracy spanning literally BILLIONS of people. It’s because humans are the most renewable resource on the planet. Billions of little piggies plumped up for the slaughter.
There is a difference between something being counter-intuitive versus it being contradictory. Things can be the former, without being the latter. Which is the case here.
As the Veil covers the globe, it could hide everybody. So the numbers to be hidden make no difference at all. The only difficulty lies in specifying who is to be hidden, versus who is not.
If you have a group who share common characteristics it is easy to identify them. So this is easy for each group of cryptids. However supers are not a group. Each is practically unique. So just about every one to be classified separately. Barring the few who happen to overlap some other group. Which is what is complicating matters.
Only because you choose to blind yourself to the alternatives.
“As the Veil covers the globe, it could hide everybody.”
You completely missed the point. It’s not a case of whether or not The Veil can conceal everybody, but moreover whether or not it’s practical to expect that nobody would say anything.
“you choose to blind yourself to the alternatives.”
You going to elaborate on that? I can’t help but see you haven’t really addressed any of the points I’ve made.
True. If more than one person knows a secret it is not a secret anymore. The more who know a secret, the harder it is to keep. Sydney being a case in point. Will she feel that the conspiracy is justified, or will she do a Snowdon? If she did, and there were widespread deaths, amongst both humans and cryptids, how would she cope with that?
Presumably most cryptids feel that it is in their best interests not to be hunted down by torch-bearing mobs. Most of the sane ones, who disagree, will have been voicing their dissent in this Council. A few others would not feel that route is best and might try to go public. Likewise the insane, the generally chaotic, and various accidental exposures can all be envisaged.
But the Council has the technomagic of dozens of species to draw upon. Whilst no one individual will have Dabbler’s versatility, most of her capabilities are probably present in the populations represented in this room, in one form or another. So they probably have memory-loss hammer spells, amongst other resources.
The insane can be given treatment, if their condition is curable. Whereas the incurable, and uncooperative dissidents, who may be resistant to memory tampering, could be shipped off-world, to some location where they do not pose a threat to themselves or others.
I am sure there will be good mental health care on some of the planets represented. And Earth may even be twinned with a similar planet elsewhere. We get their ‘troubled children’ who will not fit into their society. And the Council send back their dissidents in return.
Basically there are lots of options. Some, or all, of the above, may be used. As may others not listed. Not to mention that even those who do blab to the papers or TV about ‘the world being full of invisible monsters’ will likely just end up being put into an insane asylum by human authorities! No conspiracy intervention necessary.
If my family was in a witness protection program, and somebody was attempting to expose us, and thereby risk all our lives, I most certainly would act to prevent that. But not including killing the person, threatening the leak. That would not be necessary, as there is always the option of relocating, and getting a new identity.
However if that was not an option (as would be the case if with the existence of the Veil being proven to the world), then I would certainly consider using lethal options. My family’s lives would take precedence over the person, who was directly putting them in that danger.
Britain certainly did, when protecting life-or-death secrets in WWII. We have declassified documents, and first-hand testimony, to that effect. Historically the Council will likely have done so too, if all the other options above were unavailable, for whatever reasons.
Whether they would still be willing to do that, in the present circumstances, remains to be seen.
“Will she feel that the conspiracy is justified, or will she do a Snowdon? If she did, and there were widespread deaths, amongst both humans and cryptids, how would she cope with that?”
And that would be a very interesting story, but not one that Dave will probably touch on.
“Presumably most cryptids feel that it is in their best interests not to be hunted down by torch-bearing mobs.”
The fact that supers have been public knowledge for hundreds of years, if not thousands, shows otherwise. Nobody is hunting down cryptids. If anything the reason why The Veil exists, and the implausible conspiracy, is to give them an overwhelming advantage over a food source.
Really, from what we’ve been shown (albeit through a Halo lense), it appears that most violence against cryptids has been from other cryptids. Cryptid on cryptid crime, if you will.
” Most of the sane ones, who disagree, will have been voicing their dissent in this Council…”
And subsequently put to death, yes? Because that seems to be the case.
“So they probably have memory-loss hammer spells, amongst other resources.”
I’m sure they do, but that doesn’t justify this mass scale oppression.
And I don’t use that word lightly. This is a form of systematic oppression, most likely to help cryptids that prey on humans.
“We get their ‘troubled children’ who will not fit into their society. And the Council send back their dissidents in return.”
Not likely. Deporting individuals that don’t fit into the culture they’ve immigrated to? Have you been watching the news at all? That’s not what’s happening in Europe. You have German politicians pressuring the rest of the EU to take in more and more refugees, despite rising tensions and culture shocks.
Besides this, I’m reading a lot of “I’m sure,” and, “could be…” as well as, “probably,” in your reply. This shows that you’re just making all this up, but doesn’t really add up with what’s been presented.
“Not to mention that even those who do blab to the papers or TV about ‘the world being full of invisible monsters’ will likely just end up being put into an insane asylum by human authorities!”
No, because in the real world they’ll end up on some YouTube interview or maybe even some wacky History Channel documentary and get 15 minutes of fame.
In Dave’s world, though, there would be people who would believe whoever would come forward with this information seeing as there’s precedent for people with superpowers all over the planet. Confirmation of vampires, werewolves, and aliens wouldn’t be that far of a stretch of the imagination.
“If my family was in a witness protection program, and somebody was attempting to expose us, and thereby risk all our lives, I most certainly would act to prevent that.”
This isn’t the same thing; you’re erroneously conflating the two.
The Witness Protection Program exists to protect witnesses of crimes. The Veil is a massive conspiracy used to dupe billions upon billions of unsuspecting humans of the existence of cryptids, including species that feed on humans.
The former exists for great justice, while the latter exists to allow one species to munch on another.
The only people in danger are the humans. That’s the situation.
“Britain certainly did, when protecting life-or-death secrets in WWII.”
Funny how you compare this to war time, but this isn’t a war. Billions of human lives wouldn’t be blinded from the fact that their entire population is under threat of several other species. If this is a war, then give the humans a fair chance.
“Historically the Council will likely have done so too, if all the other options above were unavailable, for whatever reasons.
Whether they would still be willing to do that, in the present circumstances, remains to be seen”
We’ve already been shown (again through the Halo’s perspective) that The Council has slaughtered many in order to protect The Veil. I know you’re smarter than this, please stop being vague in order to make the story fit your personal narrative.
Incorrect. But, if you fail to concede ground on that, then it is pointless debating the issue with you, as you have a closed mind, on this topic.
You are being both hypocritical and unjust in saying that. I speak for both sides in an argument. Showing balance, in weighing the issues, then indicating which I feel to have the greater weight. You only argue your blinkered case, and refuse to consider that there is even another side!
For the case in point Ingsol was speaking about council in-fighting. It was explicitly stated as being cryptid vs cryptid. Given that you only give a shit about the humans, that does not support your case.
Do you seriously think that super-police would collude in killing humans? Please remove your head from your butt.
Direct enough?
‘ “The only people in danger are the humans. That’s the situation.”
Incorrect. But, if you fail to concede ground on that, then it is pointless debating the issue with you, as you have a closed mind, on this topic.’
That’s not a proper rebuttal, Yorp.
“You are being both hypocritical and unjust in saying that. I speak for both sides in an argument. Showing balance, in weighing the issues, then indicating which I feel to have the greater weight. You only argue your blinkered case, and refuse to consider that there is even another side!”
I argue for truth and justice, Yorp. What’s being demonstrated here is a massive conspiracy spanning billions of people to protect the existence of species of predators that feed on humans. These are facts within the concept of the story presented.
“For the case in point Ingsol was speaking about council in-fighting. It was explicitly stated as being cryptid vs cryptid. Given that you only give a shit about the humans, that does not support your case.”
You got me there, Yorp. I only care about the billions of human lives that are not just being lied to, but having their perceptions tampered with in order for predatory species to live amongst them. I must seem like such a horrible person.
“Do you seriously think that super-police would collude in killing humans?”
Not all of ARC know about The Council, and the ones that do either haven’t been fleshed out, or have very questionable ethics.
“Please remove your head from your butt.”
Since you’ve devolved into making rude, immature, imperative statements, I’ll ask you to please calm down and stick to the facts.
I call it as I see it. But my apologies for being so blunt, and my thanks for not escalating matters further yourself.
However, if you cannot see that dropping the Veil overnight would result in cryptids dying, then
there is only one place your head can beplease remove your rose-tinted spectacles.You are right to argue the case for humanity. You are wrong to ignore the case for the cryptids.
Especially as it is more than just a case of morality. Practicality comes into it too. You have to figure out how to implement moral ideals, in a practical way.
I have invited you several times, in different threads, to offer a practical way to get from the current state to a better one. You have failed to offer one. Beyond the implication (from the types of replies you keep making) that the Veil should be dropped immediately.
Hence why I continue to point out that we have to factor in the deaths (both Cryptid and Human) which would result from that. And I am not the only one who considers that to be a clear danger.
I must clarify, that despite our heated debate, I do think you are a great guy. Having a dislike of government conspiracies, and cover-ups is good. Wanting to protect humanity is great. Fighting your corner doggedly is awesome.
It is just that there are other elements involved too.
I would not want our disagreement to get in the way of enjoying our conversations (and less-heated debates) or, even more importantly, of enjoying the comic.
I have faith that our heroes will be suitably heroic. I just hope that you give them the chance to prove that to you.
And I apologise for any offence I have given.
I have mentioned some in the past. But, am happy to both reiterate it here, and try a new angle. To save folks scrolling up and down, I will copy your question here:
I agree that cover-ups would be intrinsic in maintaining the secret of the veil. My previous reply covered varying degrees of ethical ways of doing that above. What we have seen, and heard, of the Council is that they do attempt to act in as ethical a way as they can. As such it is appropriate to assume they are using those, until we get more information to go on. Under our basic principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’.
As to your claims that humanity, at large, is being eaten by them, the author’s blog from the previous comic already covered this.
I added emphasis to (lots) of key points. Plus struck through one word there. Other ways of reading it made no sense, so I think the amended version is what DaveB meant.
So the way I read the last is that some know about vampires. A very few (like Thomas) know that there are also lots of other races too. Likewise we can assume that isolated individuals will know about, say faeries, or werewolves, but will likewise not know any more than that.
So some gormless girl might be having to choose between a werewolf boyfriend and a vampire one, as her boyfriend. But not suspecting that there are other races out there too. Let alone realising that there is an angel, watching over them, to make sure that the one she rejects does not go postal!
As regards the rest, it is self-explanatory, from what Dave said. Most are behaving in an ethical way, feeding off groups of volunteers. As to how they are conducting the policing, of those who are not behaving acceptably, doubtless that is something the story will come to. As it clearly falls right in the middle of Arc-SWAT’s reason to be here.
Whilst Arianna, Arc-Light, Arc-Dark, General Faulk, the President and the other world leaders, and their respective governments, will be the ones leading the work towards the political decisions of “is the Veil ethical, can we lower it, what would need to be done to do that?” Clearly that is unlikely to be resolved overnight!
Arc-SWAT will have their say towards such issues. But checking out what crimes vampires and others may be committing, and whether the Council are policing them to adequate standards, and determining if Arc-SWAT can take over the role in the USA, those are all issues that our heroines will be facing.
How quickly that happens, and how much of that Sydney is personally involved in, is a matter of how Dave wants to progress the story. We know that much of this book is focused on Sydney’s basic training. Plus these problems are not something she is professionally qualified to assess, at this point.
As such, I suspect that she is just being brought up to speed, that these subjects are being examined, but we are likely to return to her training. Although the possibility of intrigue, and faction discord over having Archon here at all, may well lead to her getting more involved now than that.
“What we have seen, and heard, of the Council is that they do attempt to act in as ethical a way as they can…”
Yeah, real ethical… https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/comics/2016-09-08-GP0456.jpg
I love the miles of bodies on pikes, stretching out to the horizon. Really ethical, don’t you agree?
” As such it is appropriate to assume they are using those, until we get more information to go on. Under our basic principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’.”
Not when it’s been shown that they’re ruthless, and feed on humans, and have already developed a massive conspiracy to spread ignorance to billions and billions of human lives. Now I may have dropped out of college due to failing math, but I think I can add up 1+1+1, Yorp.
“As to your claims that humanity, at large, is being eaten by them, the author’s blog from the previous comic already covered this.”
To which Dave posted:
“Most Vampires are just fine with willing victims…”
Can’t help but notice you’re deliberately ignoring the qualifier there, i.e. “most.”
There are vampires that do feed on human lives, and use The Veil to help facilitate their malicious intentions. Humans don’t see vampires as vampires, and don’t perceive supernatural events as supernatural events.
“So some gormless girl might be having to choose between a werewolf boyfriend and a vampire one, as her boyfriend. But not suspecting that there are other races out there too. Let alone realising that there is an angel, watching over them, to make sure that the one she rejects does not go postal!”
Did that actually happen in Twilight? I barely slogged through the first movie, and couldn’t be bothered to watch the others :-P
” As to how they are conducting the policing, of those who are not behaving acceptably, doubtless that is something the story will come to…”
I’m looking forward to it. Since they police themselves, that would mean that any and all cryptids exist outside the laws of man, and that said laws don’t apply to them.
Since the laws don’t apply to cryptids, then human rights (like voting, access to welfare, public education, etc.) shouldn’t be allowed to them, either.
“Whilst Arianna, Arc-Light, Arc-Dark, General Faulk, the President and the other world leaders, and their respective governments, will be the ones leading the work towards the political decisions of “is the Veil ethical, can we lower it, what would need to be done to do that?” Clearly that is unlikely to be resolved overnight!”
I fear, and am feeling disappointed, that it’s extremely unlikely that this will ever be brought up at all. Which is a shame, as the story has been so well written up until now.
“Arc-SWAT will have their say towards such issues…”
How do you know that? I’ll be honest, Yorp, I suspect you are either Dave using a pseudonym to interact with his audience, or you’re somehow involved with the story. If not, you don’t actually know that Arc-SWAT has any say in how The Council conducts themselves.
“We know that much of this book is focused on Sydney’s basic training. Plus these problems are not something she is professionally qualified to assess, at this point.”
100% agreed. Sydney is hardly qualified to possess the orbs, let alone tackle big issues like this.
“Although the possibility of intrigue, and faction discord over having Archon here at all, may well lead to her getting more involved now than that.”
Ahem…
CIVIL WAR! CIVIL WAR! CIVIL WAR!
It’s Sydney versus The Council! Who’s side are you on!? Which side will the supers, either hero or villain, fall on?
(Not particularly related, but I was all for Captain America until I saw the movie. It was weird seeing Tony being the reasonable one!)
Stop lying. I did not ignore it.
If you are not willing to accept “Innocent until proven guilty” then you are not behaving according to our standards of civilisation. Your barbaric assumptions are the greatest proof as to why the Veil would be needed. Failing to even consider a fair trial.
“If you are not willing to accept “Innocent until proven guilty” then you are not behaving according to our standards of civilisation. Your barbaric assumptions are the greatest proof as to why the Veil would be needed. Failing to even consider a fair trial.”
Yorp, I’m not the one making assumptions. You are. You’re the one using language like, “probably,” or “most likely.” You’re not confident in your responses because you don’t know. I’ve been scrutinizing the facts, and the facts are these.
There’s a massive conspiracy to obfuscate the existence of cryptids. Many of the leaders of this conspiracy belong to a species that have historically fed upon humans, and continue to feed upon humans, specifically vampires. It’s been shown that it’s other cryptids that have slaughtered many more cryptids than humans have, by at least the hundreds. What’s also been established is that humans know about the existence of super-humans, and have met this with enthusiasm and celebration.
These are facts, NOT speculation as you’ve been exhibiting.
Also, you’ve called me barbaric. How am I barbaric? Your argument fell apart under scrutiny, so now you’ve tried to turn the argument around on me by unjustly calling me names. That’s just rude.
You stated you are not willing to abide by “Innocent until proven guilty”, a central tenant of how we judge people in our civilisation. Refusing to abide by that means you defined yourself. I just pointed it out.
The rest of your counter-argument is just smoke and mirrors. When I am speculating about things we do not know, I put in the qualifiers, which you are objecting to. You are trying to imply that I have done that on the key points, which I have not.
You have no facts to support your contentions about humans being killed on a large scale. Note no qualifiers. Not on my part, nor on yours. You are speculating, and failing to qualify it, yet are stating your conclusions as definitive. Whereas I am stating fact.
So, whilst you continue to blatantly and willfully ignore that both cryptid and human lives have value, and both need to be protected, and both sides of the risks need to be examined, then there is little point in debating any specifics.
@Gray Phantom:
Sorry, I’m going to have to take Yorp’s side on this.
Pay close attention to the words “you don’t know”.
Neither do you.
You are making just as many assumptions. This is exactly why we have adopted the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”… to avoid sentencing people to death based on assumptions.
For example, the “miles of bodies on pikes, stretching out to the horizon”… considering that on that very panel, Ingsol is talking about how “when any strife within or between groups [of cryptids] threatens to expose us, the Council reacts with incisive troubleshooting.” You don’t know that those are human bodies on those pikes. You are assuming that they are. They could be vampire bodies.
(Vampires do not turn to ash when staked through the heart, not in every mythology. In some, they are simply immobilized until the stake is removed. So you cannot argue “all vampires turn to ash when they die”. Only when they’re caught by the sun… and even that doesn’t happen in every mythology.)
“I love the miles of bodies on pikes, stretching out to the horizon. Really ethical, don’t you agree?”
The implication you’re missing there is that the picture, being paired with a description of the Council’s self-policing practices, is depicting the bodies of CRYPTIDS who broke the law and had to be brought down. There isn’t a single human being, background, foreground, or middle, in that frame, unless one is willing to count cryptids AS human beings.
“There are vampires that do feed on human lives, and use The Veil to help facilitate their malicious intentions.”
You’re assuming that all feeding is malicious. By this measure, anyone in medical need of a blood transfusion is also malicious. We have word from Dave that the majority of vampires are content with willing victims, in his own terms. That implies 1) that they know they are being fed upon, and 2) that they have been given a choice as to whether or not that’s okay with them. There’s a somewhat less substantiated but still present third implication as well; that they come to no lasting harm from this process, and are able to walk away.
With that in mind, the majority of vampires are being no more immoral in their feeding habits than anyone else with a medical need for blood donations… and to top it off, the council is taking responsibility for containing those of their number who go beyond such practices, because trails of bodies lead places, and ergo represent a threat of exposure. Indications are that they consider engaging in immoral feeding practices to be reckless endangerment of all of the council members that’re playing by the rules. As such, violently bringing such renegades to heel isn’t unreasonable; cops don’t exactly leave the stops in when they’ve got violent individuals endangering the public either.
Either that, or Gray Phantom is just so stuck in his “vampires are evil” mindset that he is deliberately ignoring the implications, because it would sink the hateboat he’s built around himself.
Entirely possible, MSpears.
@MSpears:
“You are making just as many assumptions.”
I’m not making assumptions. There actually is a massive conspiracy. That’s a fact. The council is run by a species of cryptids that feeds on humans. That’s a fact. These are not assumptions.
“For example, the “miles of bodies on pikes, stretching out to the horizon”… considering that on that very panel, Ingsol is talking about how “when any strife within or between groups [of cryptids] threatens to expose us, the Council reacts with incisive troubleshooting.” You don’t know that those are human bodies on those pikes.”
I never said those are human bodies, I said that they are bodies. I was citing that as an example of cryptid on cryptid violence.
I was also citing it as an example of The Council as not being very ethical. Impaling someone on a pike doesn’t seem like a very dignified means of execution.
So I don’t understand why any of you thought I meant those were humans when that’s not at all what I said.
@Caffeinedelusions:
“You’re assuming that all feeding is malicious.”
No, I’m not. It’s been confirmed by the author that there are vampires who do feed on humans malevolently. This doesn’t mean all vampires do so, but that there are vampires that do, and use The Veil as a means to do so.
“By this measure, anyone in medical need of a blood transfusion is also malicious.”
That’s totally different. That’s blood that’s been donated for medical purposes.
What’s ironic is that I’ve personally met with vampires, both sanguine and psychic, up in Portland, Oregon. They’re a friendly bunch, and I shared some garlic hummus with them. They also had a help group called “Darkness Against Domestic Violence,” that helped victims of domestic abuse relocate to new homes.
But, as far as I know, none, as in 100% of them, never preyed upon anyone ever. But…
“We have word from Dave that the majority of vampires are content with willing victims”
The majority, but not all. (Let’s ignore that you’re using the word “victim.”) That confirms there are vampires that prey upon the innocent.
@MSpears:
“Gray Phantom is just so stuck in his “vampires are evil” mindset”
You’re not using quotation marks correctly. I never said that. What I said is that there’s a massive conspiracy that deliberately targets billions of people from being aware of the existence of cryptids and supernatural events. This conspiracy is being led by a species of cryptids that feeds on human, who are the target of this conspiracy.
@Yorp:
“You stated you are not willing to abide by “Innocent until proven guilty””
I stated that, did I? When. Give me a direct quote where I specifically stated, “I am not willing to abide by, “Innocent until proven guilty.”
But you can’t, because I never declared that.
“You have no facts to support your contentions about humans being killed on a large scale.”
There’s a massive conspiracy that is targeting billions of people, and preventing them from being aware of the existence of cryptids. This conspiracy is being led by vampires. These are facts. These are literal facts. This is what’s happening in the story right now.
“So, whilst you continue to blatantly and willfully ignore that both cryptid and human lives have value”
I never said that, either. Where are you getting this from? I think you’re upset, and that’s obfuscating your perceptions.
Okay, there’s no way I can make this clearer for you than either me or the author has here in text form. Please, if you wanna continue this discussion, call me on Skype. My user name is “agrayphantom”. Though I feel you’re too stubborn to reach out and contact me, so go on about your business. Call me names. Continue misquoting me.
Or you can throw your paws up in the air, say that I’m a hopeless cause, and that you won’t be wasting your time on me anymore. That was what your next step was going to be, right?
A Gray Phantom, I shall reiterate our biggest disagreement, with your argument, so that it is perfectly clear. You have made an accusation of human genocide.* You have no evidence to support this. Offering ‘miles of bodies on pikes’, which we know to be cryptids, does not support this.
Conspiracy does not equate to genocide. It is an irrelevant fact, which you are falsely assuming is proof.
It is an incorrect fact. The council is run by the entire membership, with each faction taking turns. The majority of whom clearly have nothing to gain from eating people. To the contrary all it would do, from their perspective, is create risk.
Further using it is completely spurious, when used to support an accusation of genocide. It is as absurd as this line of argument:
• Some humans are cannibals. Humans lead the United Nations. Therefore the United Nations intends to commit genocide, by eating people.
If you wish to withdraw this accusation, please feel free.
If you wish to downgrade this from “they are committing genocide” to “they have the potential to commit genocide”, that is fine too. But do bear in mind that so do humans. And very easily, in the case of nuclear weapons.
* As you are playing the ‘who said what when game’, your phrase “Billions of little piggies plumped up for the slaughter.” makes this intention very clear. Especially given your repeated insinuations, along these lines, in this thread and elsewhere.
Genocide (noun) – the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.
Please try to stop wriggling out of things you have said previously. This thread is already long enough as it is! You used it in the context you claim, but you have also used it as a counter, to my commentary on potential historical killing of humans.
You have not used this ‘in the context of cryptid on cryptid violence.’ You used it to insinuate that humans have been or will be killed.
Your argument is so weak that you can only support it with insinuations. Then object when we call you out on it.
Actually it is used perfectly correctly. In that context it is used to mark a phrase, as being under discussion, rather than being a quote. As clearly indicated by finishing with the word “mindset”.
Further his assessment is wholly accurate. You have become obsessed, with your pet theory, that the Veil’s sole purpose is to allow cryptids (and in particular vampires) to feast, to their hearts content, on humanity. And have closed your mind to any argument which goes contrary to that.
To the extent that it makes any rational discussion with you, on the subject, very hard.
*Pulling on stripey referees shirt, blowing on whistle*
Okay, everyone! That’s more than enough of that! Break clean and go to your neutral corners! This discussion has gotten far too heated and personal, so how about you just recognize that you’re not going to change each others minds, agree to disagree on this matter, and simply LET IT GO.
Please stop playing the ‘who said what game’. You are just using it to try and distract from the actual issues. It will not work after this, as I shall ignore all such in future. However I shall do as you request, in this instance:
This is the denial you made. You then cited reasons. But the very process you used, and the reasons you cited, were simply enacting your denial.
In other words you said “I will not allow them their rights” then proceeded to act on your presumption of guilt, veiled by the excuses, you offered, for doing so.
Good call, Ignoble. I had been working my way through the last post, a point at a time. But I see that A Gray Phantom also feels that it is best to end it, here, too.
Thank you for your kind offer to conclude the debate on Skype, A Gray Phantom. I will decline though. We do have entrenched views. Progress could be made though, as I do not view you as a lost cause. You are a good person, at heart, so I would never consider that!
However I think it would be too protracted a process, to be enjoyable, for either of us, and too likely to get overheated. Rendering the benefit to risk ratio unfavourable, to put it in dispassionate terms.
I did, admittedly, get irritated, but only at points. Overall I do enjoy debating things with you. Please do not feel that I am either upset, or hold a grudge. I shall finish, as you predicted though, both to show solidarity with you, and to celebrate the end.
*throws paws into the air*
“It’s been confirmed by the author that there are vampires who do feed on humans malevolently. This doesn’t mean all vampires do so, but that there are vampires that do, and use The Veil as a means to do so.”
Why, then, are you arguing that the governing body that actively seeks to restrain those vampires and their misuse of the Veil is evil? That’s been the core of your thesis since the Twilight Council came to light. You conflate the existence of a protective mechanism with an incitement to violence. That’s like claiming someone intends to drown people because they’re wearing a life vest; yeah, it can make a critical difference in a struggle between two people to keep one head under and one head over water, but that doesn’t indicate that there’s malice involved in wearing one.
“That’s blood that’s been donated for medical purposes.”
Volunteer blood dolls are also donating blood to a medical purpose. Nutrition is a medical need, and critical to the health of the vampiric species. The only distinctions are the novelty of the condition, the pace of the medical need, and the individual nature of the donation practices.
Okay, true.
Perhaps not, but it may be the only reliable way to restrain a vampire until the morning sun can finish them off. (A wooden stake through the heart… and one would assume, a pike with a wooden shaft would work equally well… immobilizes them. Whereas otherwise you would have to find a way to restrain a cryptid that likely has supernatural strength.)
As Yorp has already pointed out, the council is not “led by vampires”. The leadership is shared by all the factions.
I think Caffeinedelusions has said everything I need to say in the post above mine.
Caffeinedelusions you made good points there. If I were A Gray Phantom , I think I would be frustrated at the life-vest analogy though. Whilst it is true, I do not believe it properly conveys the situation. The Veil is suspicious, in and of itself. Whereas a life-vest is innocuous.
So I would like to offer a different analogy, which I think would encapsulate the situation better.
Two police women, on patrol, late at night, stop a man dressed in a stripy black-and-white jumper, wearing a black mask, over his eyes, and carrying a bulging bag, marked “SWAG”. Possibly someone returning from a fancy dress-party, but the bag does seem to be weighing him down a lot.
Whilst speaking to him, one notices that he has got a concealed handgun, in a holster. The laws of the state do allow concealed carry, but only with an appropriate license.
I think this is a rather fairer analogy. The individual does pose a credible threat (of being a burglar or maybe even a murderer), however he may also be acting perfectly legally.
This is a tricky situation for the cops, whichever way they make their call. And, if they get it wrong, it is going to make headline news. Plus possibly cause rioting, if they mishandle it too badly, and tensions are already high, about cops making bad judgement calls.
I’m under the impression that Ignoble has authority on this website, but as I’ve been slighted since the insistence of the close of the argument, I wish to make a closing statement.
The ad hominems and deliberate misunderstandings on your part, Yorp, only reveal how weak your argument; your attempt at cherry picking my dialogue to help suit your narrative is appalling. You keep saying things that are either blatant lies, or gross misunderstandings. I’ve never advocated for genocide, nor for the reversal of innocent until proven guilty. If you want to know what I meant rather than jumping to conclusions, please contact me. But do go ahead and continue falsely assuming what you think I meant.
Either way, I’ll forgive you for misunderstanding me ^_^
Caffeine, yes, nutrition is a need, however, I don’t think the Red Cross is using magical mind control to obfuscate why they’re asking for donations.
Unless you subscribe to Master Shake’s conspiracy theory that blood drives are a conspiracy to steal blood for Dracula ;-)
Either way, I never used the word “evil.” What they’re doing is very, very wrong. If The Council isn’t being led by vampires, then they sure as shootin’ have the most voice, as shown so far in the comic.
As for the story itself, this reveal has really twisted setting. I’d say it’s a plot twist, but I get the feeling it’s going to move on from this as it’s just Dave fleshing out his comic’s world. I won’t go so far to say the story’s jumped the shark, but this reveal is totally boggling @_@
Nope, none at all. Sorry I gave you that impression. Things seemed to have gotten a bit ugly between you and Yorp though and I was just hoping to prevent any hurt feelings.
“I don’t think the Red Cross is using magical mind control to obfuscate why they’re asking for donations.”
We don’t have any indication that the vampires of the Council are doing so either. Remember, we have Dave saying that those donors are willing, not dupes. That indicates (as I’ve previously said) that 1) that they know they are being fed upon, and 2) that they have been given a choice as to whether or not that’s okay with them. There’s a somewhat less substantiated but still present third implication as well; that they come to no lasting harm from this process, and are able to walk away.
This is why I turn to the Vampire: the Masquerade term ‘Blood Doll’. Blood Dolls are explicitly willing, explicitly know about the existence of vampires, and explicitly decide to allow themselves to be fed upon anyway because they enjoy the experience, or it feeds a masochistic impulse, or because they’ve established a personal relationship with a specific vampire and it’s part of their practice of intimacy, or because there’s an explicit exchange going on such as ‘blood prostitution’. Such individuals (who I will note are the ONLY form of vampiric feeding we’ve seen thus far in the comics, and thus other forms like ‘duplicitous feeding’ such as by conducting dishonest blood drives, or ‘malicious feeding’ such as feeding by force we either are intuiting the existence of, or deriving from logical analysis of the author’s notes) are explicitly preserved by the structures of the Veil, and while it might impact their ability to share their knowledge with the world, it’s not MAKING them come back to be fed upon. That remains a matter of free will.
Dave, some checklist boxes are filled in as “positive” by an X, so when I saw the checklist I was initially thinking “all of the above?” It would be clearer if there was an “Other” category or the list items had been crossed out.
*raises hand*
Ohh, I have a question! Dabbler is not a Super, but a succubus. In the past she’s made her natural form fully visible so she can better fight or… perform. Does the Veil not affect her and other succubi? Is it because they they have their own glamours?
She’s only part Succubi. She’s also part Doppleganger, Human, and Cyborg. I think she confuses the Veil Sigls, so they don’t cover her.
She made a point of telling the nation (nations?) on TV, etc… that her super powers included a “Battle Form” that… well, read for yourself.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1004
She made that announcement BEFORE dropping her glamour in the big fight. That’s PROBABLY (Only the Dave knows for sure) what makes it possible to drop her guise in front of the bulk of people as for the rest it seems that people who are let into the secret can see past the veil for at least that race/individual. Maybe they can mark them in some way or maybe the knowing does it by itself??
Or you can opt out by choice.
Oooor mages can shield themselves from the effect. (OOOOOoooooooor she has such messed up genetics [kinda a mutt isn’t she?] that the Sigil’s programming didn’t quite make heads or tails of her?)
As a rule of paw it is best to ignore Dabbler, where possible, if trying to figure out how things work generally. She is an exception, to so many rules, or situations, that any proper scientific analysis would need to exclude her.
In this case she could be excluded from the Veil’s coverage for many different reasons.
Wouldn’t a bottle of “Super Glue” be more useful for emergency knife wound suturing? Plus it has arts and craft applications, as well as prank use too!
It would not properly repair a cape though. And putting super glue on a cape creates even more of a health hazard than a plain cape!
Well if you dump enough of it on a cotton fabric it can catch fire, also a great weapon but dangerous to the user as well.
“No capes!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy2YhxXn7NY
But wouldn’t the lady be sucked into the plane engine even if she wasn’t wearing a cape? I don’t see how that example would help Edna’s argument against capes.
Come to think of it, just how does a cape get stuck on a rocket when (if one stops the clip at 0:25) it isn’t close enough to anything it could catch on? How would a lack of a cape have prevented the guy lifting what appears to be an elevator from getting squished when it stopped suddenly? How does a tornado manage to snag a cape and drag it and the person wearing it into the tornado?
Don’t know why the “no capes” thing applies. Any student of historical martial arts knows that a cape/cloak can be VERY handy in a fight. (aka – Cloak&Dagger) Or a suitably modified hat. You’d be surprised the kind of things you can hide in/under a hat!
Watch IHeartComics‘s link through. Edna Mode makes a compelling case.
Psst, don’t tell Edna this:
[spoiler] I ❤ capes. [spoiler]
Cloaks and capes are two different things, though capes that velcro to the back of one’s Tshirt like mine don’t carry the same health risks.
One of Glon’s wives in “YAFGC” defeated an army of giant ants using her cloak as a weapon (she sliced the head off at least one of the ants)
-Rashasa hands-
Oh dear. Have you been playing with poison ivy? Here, this may help.
*offers ‘rash-soothing ointment’*
But Poison Ivy would rather play with Batman…
;)
I’ve heard tell that Poison Ivy would rather play with Harley, actually.
https://17rg073sukbm1lmjk9jrehb643.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/harleyivy5.jpg
Harley had heard some rumors too.
https://pm1.narvii.com/6004/4a21d5bd951ecaa791bbd7ac63af48a47057e76b_hq.jpg
I need a shower.
I haz been near someone who may have toxins on their hands!
You should have asked for a shot first.
I feel I should note that it’s very likely the reason these guys under the veil didn’t move so fast when governments did is because they think in longer terms. I’m sure they’ve seen the rise and fall of other strange groups in the past, and when you play a game that’s centuries, if not millennia, long, something that’s only been around less than a century isn’t going to raise any red flags, at least initially. They were probably more concerned the supers might accidentally out them, or (in the case of Sydney) that some supers could actually pierce the veil and may out them intentionally. I mean, imagine if some super religious guy got powers to “see truth”… he’d have a mob waving pitchforks and torches in short order. I imagine they kinda want to avoid that outcome. Also likely is that the governments of the world already has dealings with these guys (even if they aren’t fully aware of it).
No one seems to have mentioned it yet, so I would like to say thank you to our special guest star Elvira for agreeing to appear in today’s comic. https://www.elvira.com/
*presents a gold star*
So, lets talk Sid’s shield…
How strong IS IT?
If she put the shield up, took pictures (Digital camera) of something VEIL protected… what happens?
Does she get a picture of what she took a picture of that way? Does it change the moment the shield comes down? Does it change when she tries to transfer the image? How persistent is the attempts of THE VEIL in trying to hide the image?
Since no one knows how the Veil does what it does exactly its kinda hard to speculate.
Very clever! It did block Vehemence’s aggro aura. So you may have hit on a good solution.
*awards a gold star*
*as an aside to Yorp*
Jeez! You got so many different types of those things that you’re risking your encumbrance limit, aren’t you?
Nope. I have found a way.
MY guess it that it would disguise the picture when outside the shield.
Is that Elvira? Lily? Morticia?
The answer is ‘grrrowl’ *eyebrow wiggle*
I’m so happy not to be the first person to comment on Elvira’s presence in this page (pretty sure it’s her – the hair-looking-like-the-back-part-of-an-Alien’s-head hairstyle clinched it for me).
I’m also very happy it got made on the first page of the comments. :D
Eye makeup and facial features don’t look right to me…
Yes, I get what you mean but still:
https://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/16300000/Elvira-Mistress-of-the-Dark-elvira-16395338-500-279.jpg
Yey stickers! (I love them). :) Um, sorry to be saying this, but the creases on Sydney’s arm seem a bit dark/thick. I’ve heard that they are one of the hardest things to get right. Am I just saying stuff that you guys are already aware of? If so, I’ll hide in my quiet corner. I’m not very good at doing things, but I tend to spend a lot of my time making small comparisons. *is embarrassed*
Don’t be embarrassed…It can be seen as a sign of weakness on the internet. Showing such weakness is a good way to get roasted in a flame war, ya’ know.
;)
P.S.
BTW, the side reference to “roasting Marshmallows” was, indeed, intentional.
I learned something new today. :)
Thanks – I’ll step up my game and try to be more confident.
If MacGyver had a utility belt, it would probably have an Arts and Crafts pouch as well as a variety of common office supplies.
All he’d need, aside from a Swiss Army Knife, would be rubber bands and paper-clips.
I wonder if MacGuyver ever had to cobble together a MacGuffin for a plot device in any of his episodes?…
If so, was he able to improvise with a McMuffin?
Which, incidentally, you cannot get at any McDonalds in my corner of Bulgaria. Nor any of the breakfast meals! Michael Douglas is advised never to come here. He would go postal, on day one!
Such a shame mind. I used to, quite happily, go twenty minutes out of my way, to get a McD breakfast, if I was in the mood.
I was just thinking that the frame of reference for time measurement is different for vamipres than it is for the government. The government tends to be a bit short-sighted.
I… can’t hold back my questions anymore. Sydney’s sphere grid (thank you Final Fantasy X) skill tree and orb behavior brings up too many questions to me.
1: Her orbs orbit her. Is this a reference to the elemental protective orbs that orbit Final Fantasy characters when protected with Mighty Guard?
2: There are a lot of filled-in circles in the skill tree. That suggests to me one of two things. Possibly a combination. A) someone else had them before and leveled them up, but then how were all of them dumped? Halo can’t get rid of them, so…? Even if you say the previous user died, there wasn’t a corpse that was present when they were looted from the sea. B) The fact that Sydney got to choose how to spend a point is unrelated to anything; they level themselves up over time and if they don’t have an owner, then a choice is made randomly after enough time passes.
3: Our friendly gestalt did try to gain power from Syd, but got nothing. She didn’t try to touch an orb, though. What would happen if someone ELSE touched it? Would they change loyalty, short-circuit, auto-attack, or it make no difference?
4: Personal note: When I first saw the skill tree, I thought “It looks like some are missing.” Then when Dabbler said the same thing, I got excited.
5: I think one of the Fuck You Orbs has the power to mask the power and details of the set.
1. I doubt it, but Dave has a lot wider cultural experience than me, in such areas, so maybe.
2. Well thought through.
3. I suspect that nobody has touched them on Maxima’s orders. Specifically when she told Peggy the details of her Sydney mentoring role. Most likely nobody, other than Varia, will be able to make use of them. But it is wise not to assume that without testing.
4. :-)
5. Agreed. I think broad-spectrum detection immunity is most likely one of the mystery orb’s powers.
***for you**
Maybe the previous user belonged to a type of being whose remains were entirely water-soluble, hence had dissolved away before Sydney found the orbs?
#3: when gestalt girl touched Sydney, Sydney was not holding any of the orbs so had no superpowers in effect other than having the orbs orbit her (which may not even count). The orbs proceeded to orbit the two young ladies simultaneously – but that could have been simply because gestalt girl would otherwise have been hit in the head.
Getting no apparent superpower is, I would think, the expected result of gestalting someone with no superpowers.
Actually any human hives her suprpowers, possibly hinting that every human has an affinity for certain powrrs.
Reasonable argument. Up until you look through the comic, for similar behaviour, and see that they behaved totally uniquely there. For the best example, find the scene where Sydney is holding onto Maxima’s leg, on the roof. You will see that the orbs move to ensure they are orbiting Sydney only, even though Maxima’s leg actually fits within their normal orbit.
Incorrect. Varia can form a gestalt with everybody, be they human or superhuman.
For information, the only exception she has ever found is Maxima. And we know that Maxima is surrounded by force-fields, at a molecular level. So they never actually made skin contact. Which would make Sydney the sole exception. However the welcoming behaviour of the orbs (even going up to Varia’s head height) points very strongly to Halo not being excluded.
This is, in fact, similar to Harem’s gestalt. In that it allows Varia to share Harem’s teleportation power. So it does all tie together neatly.
1. I think it’s just handy to have them at arm’s reach.
2. He could have died here eons ago, so his body decomposed, or he burned up on reentry
3. Probably refuse to budge, like when Maxima tried to take her tube.
4. Maybe it’s a progressive tree, or it will be a DLC.
5. Or it’s a manual. I mean the shield orb has modifiers, maybe the other is a manual in an alien language, try hitting buttons untill you get language select menu.
We have seen Math touch her orbs and it screwed up their orbit but that was all.
I thought that too once. But, if you check it out, he very wisely, avoided doing that. He nudged Sydney into their path instead.
You sure? Coulda sword he poked one of Sydney’s balls to divert orbit into her leg
Yorp is right, Math never touched an orb just pushed her leg, although a ball touched him in similar fashion as with Dabbler.
Math was thinking three steps ahead.
• Touch orb.
• Orb’s self-defence mechanism* frazzles Math.
• Move leg, into path of orbs, instead.
* This would not have been activated when they were used offensively, in the initial incident.
In regards to your second question, here are a few other possibilities I haven’t seen mentioned:
a) the orbs came with a few skills pre-filled as examples. This would be especially helpful since the orb doesn’t seem to have come with a manual.
b) the orbs do have a command that allow them to separate that the previous owner found, but Sydney has not.
c) the orbs passed through a barrier (for example, a dimensional rift) that, for some reason, the previous owner could not.
d) Th orbs inability to separate from Sydney isn’t due to a property of the orbs themselves, but something Sydney is doing. For example, the orbs are responding to an unconscious command from Sydney not to allow separation. Or maybe there’s something about Sydney that attracts a stronger bond to the orbs that wasn’t present in the previous owner.
e) Someone found the orbs after their previous owner died (or was killed), but either couldn’t or didn’t want to activate them. This would be especially true if the orbs are unique (or even extremely rare) and their possession might be seen as evidence of foul play on the part of their possessor. That would also explain why the orbs were somewhere where they could be found (to draw attention away from the theoretical killer), but not too quickly (to allow his/her/its trail to grow cold first).
Sorry, but gtg. I might continue this later,.
c) E.g. the Bermuda Triangle.
d) Sydney wants to be a super-hero more than anything. Which could well explain this. That subconscious desire would be far stronger than her conscious irritation, at the inconvenience which resulted in her Listing the Orbs.
e) The scuba-diving instructor is a bad-un? :-O
*opens the Cluedo murder envelope*
It was… “Silver, the Scuba-diver, in the marina, with the harpoon gun”!
Vhat happened to Inggies white side-patches in his hair? Vhere did they go? o_O
They are still there. A bit less prominent admittedly, on the last couple of pages, but within normal artistic variability.
They, they have shrunk!! Is it colder in that meeting room than in the tunnel? o_O
… so his hair shrinks when it gets cold? Good thing my hair doesn’t do that, or I’d be bald in temperatures below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. And there’s the other problem… once there’s no more hair to shrink, I sincerely hope nothing else starts to shrink.
xD
His hair, like his pronunciation of the letter “w”, is variable… erm.. wariable..? no, no, variable..
Hmmmmm.
::sits down so he can think better::
Or maybe it is because he is sitting on those shape-shifting chairs? It probably has some side-effects if you stay there too long.
Be cautious Sydney. You might find your breasts getting unwelcomely larger!
Past comments suggest she might not find it that unwelcome.
She might not true. I am being selfish.
Re-coloured as a side-effect of his feeding [offstage] between panels?
If there isn’t, then we can always make one up. How about “nervosity?”
Never mind. Nervosity is an actual word, apparently.
Have to ponder a moment to come up with something else . . .
Fair effort.
*award*
“My God! He’s full of stars!”
~paraphrased from 2001; A Space Odyssy
Not to mention Yorpy Snax™ . . . 😉
Better stop feeding him so many then >_>
No, no, I think he is actually using the snacks to produce the stars.
Wait, that means…. ewww.
hey, at least it isn’t Soft-Serve Ice-cream cones…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbYWhdLO43Q
and before you ask… this IS a REAL commercial advertisement. NOT a SNL parody of one…
I was living so blissfully unaware…
ACTOR: “So, I have to eat unicorn crap?”
AGENT: “And look like you are enjoying it.”
ACTOR: “Will it at least taste nice?”
AGENT: “I doubt it, the company makes crapping accessories.”
So it’s basically a product you could replace with a just a regular stool (the first McMillan Dictionary definition, rather than the second)?
There is an old phrase that isn’t used much that goes, “Gee willikers!”
The Gee part is actually a censored way of saying ‘Jesus,’ but the Willikers part is apparently only a nonsensical, made up word. Thus, I vote to appropriate it!
My new word for someone who is extremely indecisive and anxious then is now that they are willikered! I look forward to seeing it in the dictionary next time they decide to update it. ☺
Except the phrase is used to express astonishment or delight rather than indecisiveness and/or anxiety.
I submit “irresolute” for consideration.
I think that is the closest contender we have had so far. It does not explicitly include nervousness, but it does readily allow it to be inferred. I would be surprised if we found better!
*special award*
And an honorable mention to WLU below but earlier.
Were-deer in the headlights?
Cue years of Dave forgetting the gold star on Sydney’s arm pip-boy
They peel off. She replaces them. No problem.
Dave has been making it tougher on himself with the Sydney checklist.
How many variables are we up to now?
Hair: Hairband Y/N, ponytail Y/N.
Injury: Nose tape, Hand-bandage, Cheek bruise
Pip-Boy: Wearing Y/N, PB damage, PB star
Gear: Utility Belt Y/N, Sidearm Y/N, Rebreather Y/N
Clothing: Choker, Shirt color/design, undershirt color.
Misc: Random loss of a shoe, etc. in surprise/excitement.
Kind of makes an artist long for the days when characters wore the same thing all day every day.
(plus the benefit of walking off screen then back on screen fixes all dirt, damage, or personal injury)
Eyepatch Y/N
Cue years of commenters compiling obsessive lists of what each star represents and the exact count, including flame wars when DaveB leaves one off or accidentally adds an extra.
Admit it, you know we’ll be doing this. :D
The word you’re looking for is ambivalent. You’d be ambivalent about your gear load.
Dam, can’t edit the comment to fix the broken bolding.
No, not ‘ambivalent’, that’s basically ‘meh! whatever!’ which is the complete opposite of what DaveB is looking for
He sounds irresolute, vacillating between options, to the point of faltering in his ability to decide.
Thesaurused!
flummoxed? bemused?
Those imply being confused by the choices, when s/he is more overwhelmed by them.
Seems like English needs to steal once more from the vocabulary of another language.