Grrl Power #491 – Leading a double… er, quintuple life
When I first wrote this page, I lowballed Harem’s age at 27, which is closer to her age plus just her first dupe. I was surprised when I added them all up, so I went back and changed her original “a few months” to “a few years.”
This might be a slight reversal to thoughts I had expressed earlier, in that Harem used to have to get on a plane like everyone else to traverse the country. Once she’s there, she can use that body as an anchor to teleport her other dupes between them, effectively extending her range infinitely, at least as far as she knows.
For narrative reasons, I decided I needed her to be able to get places quickly so I didn’t have to hold a story up for 3 hours while people transported themselves around. I realized it would be a recurring problem since Sydney and Max can traverse the country in very short order, so I’d be stuck with whoever I’d already established was there or ferried along in Sydney’s bubble bus. So now Harem can at least make her way up each coast, and to cities around the great lakes with only a few hops. The center of the country is still largely inaccessible to her, at least without more conventional transportation.
I’ve always said Harem has a lot of life experiences and skills from jobs she’s held. I probably have to expand my mental list because she’s been around for like twice as long as I had though. Sure, some people make it to 50 without developing any significant skills, or they become quite good at one or two things, but Harem spends a year or two at a job then switches with the intention of building a raft of skills. More than a raft actually. A uh, cutter? A corsair of skills? I don’t know ship sizes.
Also I should say Harem didn’t spend a lot of time working at Starbucks or Wal-Mart (she did some of that for the experience of it) but mostly she’d get jobs working at a locksmith or an auto repair shop or a place making confectionery or a kitchen. Trade skills, Dirty Jobs stuff. Harem can make a meringue, crack a safe, rebuild your transmission, deliver a calf, then build a dresser. Actually, she can do it all at once.
Check out Wearing the Cape: Team-Ups & Crossovers. Sydney’s first Crossover! I’ve made a dedicated blog post for it, please comment there.
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Hold her beer.
Yep…Famous last words that rank right up there with “Hold my beer & watch this,” “This’ll be a piece of cake,” & the ever-notorious “What could possibly go wrong?”
Personally I like the reply Baron Munchausen gave, at his execution:
SULTAN: Have you any famous last words?
BARON MUNCHHAUSEN: Not yet.
“They don’t look so tough.” “Eh, I’ll wing it.” “I saw this in a movie once.” Etc..
“How hard could it be?”
“Don’t say that!”
“That has not gone well”
“As you expected I’ve done this properly.”
Only surpassed by “Ooops”
“I meant to do that”…
Let us not forget Secret Agent Oso’s catch phrase: All part of the plan, more or less.
– What do you mean, “Oops?” Bomb techs do not get to do “Oops!”
– Remember that part I said that if I start running away, you need to run faster than me? Well now is the time to RUN!
“You will learn that ‘opps’ have a minimum safe distance”
If you can hear it, you have not yet reached that distance :P
So you are suggesting they go to the opps-sight? Extreme, but if a bomb is about to go off, I imagine the bosses will have positioned themselves in a safe location.
my boss loves “what could possibly go wrong” 2 months in and i still wince every time
“It can’t get any worse.”
From Stargate Universe:
Eli: Well at least things can’t get worse!
Rush: I think that is a failure of imagination!
“They couldn’t hit an elephant from this dist…”
Poor John Sedgwick. To be fair, he wasn’t an elephant, and there were most likely no elephants present, so you could say he was correct.
“Eh, i can take her.”
“She doesn’t look so tough.”
“You needed worthy opponents.”
“What is that ticking sound?.”
“Why is there smoke coming out of this thing?.”
“Just one more drink.”
Admit it, that last one was only his last words because the only other word he ever spoke was his own name.
From the long-ago TV comedy ‘Sledge Hammer’ (remember that, anyone?)”
“Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
It’s just a cute fluffy bunny rabbit!
FIRS…
Aw, fuck!
You could’ve tried what I just did…I wasn’t the first, but I attached myself TO the first. As Ma Bell used to advertise, “It’s the next best thing to being there.”
:D
Lightbee does sound like the safest option, since it can’t be killed by the automatic magical security that’s sure to surround the place.
I suggested that Sydney do this in the previous comic, but Pixel had to ruin it. Bad Pixel! Now there will have to be a spanking. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2367#comment-495505
Stop encouraging her!
So Harem’s the perfect Batman (The british version A batman is a soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant. … ) or Butler…a sexy sexy butler…
That means that Alfred is Batmans Batman!
Except that Batman in that context is a term used solely in the military.
Alfred’s prior military service may have included being a batman at one point or another but, as far as I am aware, Mr Bruce Wayne neither is nor has ever been an officer in the British military.
Bruce Wayne is quite good at disguises so it wouldn’t suprise me if he have played the role of a brittish officer some time.
I like to think that every time Alfred hears the name “Batman”, he chuckles a little. Inside. Without changing his expression.
And if Bruce is close he will snark about how silly Batman is. Without changing his expression.
Careful, Pixel – remember the words of wisdom: Never precede any action by a comment more predictive than “Watch this!”
Granted, the warning is more apropos if the person saying it has a few beers in them, but still…
nurse (noun) – person you see when you open your eyes after shouting ‘watch this!’ or ‘hold my beer!’.
Better a nurse than a taxidermist
If you are the subject of the taxidermist, then you are probably not choosing to open your eyes.
Well, yeah…Most morticians would make sure that your eyes stayed closed. Otherwise, friends & relatives during the viewing phase of your funeral would tend to get freaked out.
New addendum to my will: make sure my eyes stay open. And if possible add a smarmy grin.
And holding a sign that shows a picture of a common housefly with a human face that says, “Help me!”
Now we get to see Pixelicious in action! Looking forward to it!! :D
*rubs hands and bounces in antici… pation*
Wait, I thought Ingsol was the one from Transylvania.
(and now I just got a mental image of him in a certain outfit. Bring in the brain bleach)
Oops, all out of bleach, how about some Naruto?
split the difference with One Piece
Swimsuit or negligee? ;)
Panel 4 Harem’s left eye is going a bit crazy or cross eyed… if it’s cause math well she’s got a quint-quantum brain so I don’t think that minor addition would be a problem.
It looks like lazy or crazy eye…needs to be aimed a bit more to left vs at reader. :P
I think she’s doing the eyes rolled back because she’s thinking thing. I do it sometimes when I’m trying to recall something specific and have gotten laughs about it because it looks kind of funny. My eyes roll up and sometimes to one side of the other and then come right bsck down the second I figure out what I needed to and start talking. So sometimes it’s a really quick up/down
We all guessed Pixel could walk through walls, but why is she taking her jacket off? Does she have to be naked to do it?
Might be a favourite jacket that she doesn’t want to get messed up by whatever is about to jump out at them.
She knows anime rules. You show how bad-ass you are by taking your coat off before going into combat. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCoatsAreOff
Well how else would you show off your buff, if wiry, muscles?
Shhh…
https://shotgunshuffle.com/comic/xo/#.WHSq_9QrIrg
Thank you very much for introducing me to another cool webic, was supposed to have an early night but ended up reading that until 5am (and only managed to read to chapter 5, still have the pages prior to the one you posted as well)
You are welcome :) It’s VERY good and kinda in a slow pace currently, it’s your chance to catch up :)
Yeah, if didn’t have this pesky need to ‘sleep’ :P
Or maybe Pixel thinks that she’s an old Italian man.
When Pixel said that she’s got this, she just wants to make sure her jacket doesn’t also get it…
I wonder if we’re going to see Pixel use some crazy magic
In this group “crazy” is relative…
The only relative we have seen so far, is Maxi’s younger brother (Clover, Scarlett and Crimson don’t exactly count as they aren’t part of ARCHON)
“Experienced with artifacts”. This is going to end well. Or “well”. I hope for explosions and wry comments next page.
AYY RED DWARF REFERENCE SYDNEY.
Now I’m hoping her lightbee has a level-up to a hard-light form.
Only time will tell…With all of the celebrities that died off during the last year, I would wish DaveB a long & prosperous life that he may actually finish this story some decade.
What? You want the story to end!? o_O
If this story doesn’t come to some kind of an end, there can’t be a sequel, can there?
:)
Spin-offs are better than a sequel (too many sequels end up worse than the original?)
Pixel with her jacket off.
Hubba hubba… :-)
Buff women come in all sizes.
Now Sydney gets thinking, “How can a woman shorter than me make me feel smaller than her?”
same way i’ve made guys taller than me feel smaller. when you’re 6’6″, there aren’t a lot of people taller than you. when you meet one, and you outweigh him by a good 35 lbs, and it’s not fat, the feeling is there.
i almost feel sorry for the skinny bastards…
I know exactly how you feel. I’m 6’7″ and my least favorite question is “you play football?”.
Especially in a military outfit.
If you’re tired of hearing that question, you can eventually stop people from asking it: Just say, “Sure! You want to be the ball?” with a sly grin.
Hey, how did this happen? This was supposed to be a reply to Nethobo, just above.
Is it just me, or is Krona making longing eyes at Halo?
LesYay anyone?
Have anyone made a list of HoYay and LesYay in this comic yet? I mean people do that about everything so Grrl Power should not be a exception.
I’m pretty sure her power interface just isn’t at quite the angle it first appears but I could buy some possible envy being there too. Actual attract, not yet but we may get more hints.
*attraction, stupid auto-errect.
I’m pretty sure that would be a list of all characters with lines connecting to every other character.
That must be how Dabbler sees the world.
It’s the reason why Dabbler’s Porno Sense is so acute.
Nah, I took it as more of a side glance from whatever bit of reality she is currently hacking. But still, sydney is setting up her miniavengers team. Earths Mightiest Midgets!
Dabbler would be “OhYay!” or “AllYay?”
Nah, Dabbles will be “AllLay!” :wink:
Dabbler would be more along the lines of Extreme Omnisexual.
This is what I was thinking… glad someone else noticed and mentioned.
Pixel, more ripped then id have thought. looking back this makes more sense then when my brain thought up… for reasons..
Dave sure likes to draw musclewomen. I’m not complaining.
Looking at Bodie closerer in panels three and four, and… she’s kinda looking older than she use to, probably just that different art style you were talking about
Wait, does that mean she was born in the sixties? Or that she has experienced the equivalent of fifty years?
Daphne herself is 19, as she stated, so the cumulative time the different bodies have lived would be 50 years. According to the chart, she made the first dupe when she was 8, which makes 19 + 11 = 30 years of life experience for her first two bodies alone. Her other bodies appeared at Daphne age 9, 13, and 15, adding 10, 6, and 4 years, for a total of 50 years of experiences.
That chart is telling – as I suspected, Daphne didn’t manifest all of her bodies at once. This means her power has been getting stronger as she’s gotten older. It may also mean that the distance she can teleport has been growing, as well, and may grow in the future, as she develops. (Also, as the chart suggests, she may eventually develop more bodies! We may get to see what an ‘au naturel’ Daphne looks like!) her powers may develop like a muscle – the more she uses it, and ‘pushes’ her boundaries, the stronger it will get!
And yes, please reply about how Daphne doesn’t need to ‘develop’ any further, please! I’m all for innuendo!
Realistically, she’s probably nearing the peak of her development, if normal human growth patterns apply. She might have a few more years though, which would be kinda interesting.
Early 20’s, then you hold till you begin the long slide downhill…
Oh perish forbid, no. If this is any indication (NSFW version, you’ll have to log in to see it), I’d say Daphne can take up all the room she wants for more development.
:P
Berry is the au naturel (though not necessarily the first body, even she cannot remember which was the first).
Well, she’s the closest to original flavour, but, as you said, not even she can tell which was the one who was born the ‘normal’ way
Ages 8, 9, 11 y 14 actually. Total cumulative years is 53.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/997#comment-42739
An abandoned warehouse in an (apparently) isolated location makes sense for where to send a team with Syndey as their heavy hitter as it minimizes the risk of property damage should she have to cut loose with the PPO given her demonstrated poor control of it
Don’t do it Pixel…Its a Trap!!!
So long as she isn’t one then it’s all good.
Speak for yourself
It not a fetish of mine but if she is it’s fine and part of the story. The only story I ever was offended or pissed off by was the first book of GOT when suddenly they killed Eddard Stark. The betrayal was much more sudden in the book.
Well, yeah. It wasn’t Sean Bean in the book.
I would have thought emergency room nurse or ambulance driver would be up her ally.
She’s only nineteen. She can’t possibly have the qualifications.
Why not? Now if you said she’d have to be a certain age that would have credibility. Remember she has a governments resources behind her and 5 pairs of eyes and hands to learn with.
College takes time. Being able to attend 5 classes at once has limited usefulness when you need to finish class A before you can understand class B.
Now, that’s a valid point. Though she might be able to get through all the standard requirements (history, English, maths, etc.) a lot more quickly… as long as the university treated her as a single entity, not five.
If nobody at the university was “in the know”, she’d have the problem of having to take all the basics five times. I suppose if she used the same name and social security number at each, she could take them at different universities, then “drop out” of all five universities and transfer the credits to a single account at a sixth university… who, hopefully, will either be “in the know”, or not notice that she somehow attended all those classes at the same time at five different universities.
Point is that while each one can learn a different thing, it isn’t as easy as just taking five classes at once, unless special precautions have been taken first.
More to the point are classes that assume you know the material from a previous level of the class. Imagine Harem simultaneously attending Bio 101 and Bio 201 lectures, and she’s constantly either disrupting her 201 class to say they haven’t covered that in 101, or she’s disrupting her 101 class to ask about what their saying in 201.
I have to agree. You do not learn to crack safes at a locksmith, btw. Open doors, replace locks and similar, yes. Safes are a rare thing for most locksmiths. And you do not only need the time, you need the skill, the interest and an opportunity to learn said skills. Some of them you also need to be over a certain age to learn. Meringues can be learned early, the chance to work with transmissions in a garage, well… Unless you have child labor where she grew up (Midwest?) she would have to learn most of the skills after her 16th birthday. That leaves her with a few years per char, let’s say a total of 20. Even if she had the interest, the opportunity to learn and a good teacher every time, she still would have to practice every skill to be good at it, and continue to do so to stay good at it.
Nice Willy Wonka reference in panel 2.
Foreshadowing with the Mars logo turned into ‘Wars’ with the upside down M ? :)
+1
nah… Harem hasn’t broken out the SODA CAN yet…
+12 oz
Guess I have to say Pew Pew Orb now, since I did not get the light bee thing. Going to look it up in a bit.
Here’s a helpful hint:
Check Red Dwarf! ☺
Don’t forget the vindaloo! Gotta have that vindaloo!
Only if it’s REAL vindaloo… ;-)
Don’t forget the beer gun for when it mutates and goes feral
I’d be more impressed if Sydney called it ‘her doodlebug’. THAT’S a reference worth knowing!
I have a feeling that “Wars” sign is kind of like soda brands and means thing are gonna get interesting.
Also what is the range on the illusion orb?
Mars is a UK brand of chocolate bars :) it’s sold worldwide – except in USA. (It’s similar to Us made milky way bars, they in fact share the recipe)
They tried to sell the brand in US, but it got quickly discontinued each time (which could explain the abandonned warehouse)
Bah, Mars is a god of war anyway, so it kinda fits ^^
M&Ms and snickers are actually made by the Mars company in the US and in the early 2000s and I thought earlier they made a Mar bar but the one I’m familiar with in the US was like a Snickers made with almonds. Then they discontinued the Mars bar and shortly afterwards came out with Snicker Almond. Have no idea why they did that.
Actually, the Mars Bar and the Milky Way Bars (and the Moro Bar) are not the same, unless you count Coca Cola and Pepsi as ‘being the same’
Mars and Moro both have a layer of caramel over a nougat ‘base’, the Milky Way did not have the caramel and it was more of a ‘fluffier’ nougat
https://golondon.about.com/od/chocolateinlondon/ss/Uk-Chocolate-Bars-Vs-Us-Chocolate-Bars.htm#step2
US milky way and worldwide mars bars still look quite close :) including the caramel topping :)
Then the US Milky Way is not the true Milky Way (which is on the right)
A proper comparison would be between the Mars Bar and the Moro Bar
@DaveB it would still be called a raft of light skills no matter how many skills are how long the life because it refers to a life raft. These are the skills that one would fall back on to save their life. This isn’t a place where you would need to scale the container to hold the new experience. It wouldn’t be like saying that person has so much issues they have a lifetime subscription or that person has so many levels they are a parking garage. Both of which expressions I’ve heard my friends use to describe people that are really screwed up.
s/light/life
Here’s my theory: Pixel’s a werecat.
This was brought up when her character first appeared. It was decided that due to her hair color it is probably a panther.
Pixel: “You think you know me.”
Well, we know your name is Sooba…
;)
Poor Guenhwyvar. Nobody remembers you… TT
Oh, we remember her, it is her current companion/owner we try to forget about.
Wait, what? What happened to Drizzt? Did married life finally get too much for him?
I have a flat ruling in my games that drow player characters can not take dual wielding, have a name that starts with Dr or have any doubled letters that are not doubled in standard English.
They also have to put up with the fact that being a Drow is and of itself a capital crime in many places.
Poor guy. Just cause some role players can’t keep it in their pants…
Where as my habit of playing mmo’s with one of the allowed characters being a powerful sorceress who’s name starts with “L” and has at least one overpowered exploding spell is completely justified.
Table top RPG, just in case it matters.
Considering she admitted she likes to be spanked, she might be a were-monkey.
Thank you for that. I almost choked on my coffee.
+1
Her Hair colour? Pink? Pan-Oh I get it now…
So, if ever there were doubts who is the main character of this universe… Sydney “randomly” getting assigned to the one place the villain probably calls “secret base” should remove any doubters doubts, lol. As long as Dave does not subvert the trope >_>
No, this is simply Sydney’s back story, so, in a way, she could be considered ‘the main character’, but only in so-much as everyone feels they are the main character in their back story
More than just feeling like it, if it’s your story then you are the main character of it. Just not necessarily the bigger picture it fits into.
We all live in an ego-centric universe…
And so it will continue untill someone invents telepathy.
Do you really want to live in an Id-centric universe?
Not all of us, personally feel only exist because others are there to observe me, like a flawed lab experiment simply waiting for them to pull the plug
Reverse solipsism? Descartes would love it…
Have… no idea what either of those mean
With Descartes your better off not knowing. Unfortunately, I had Philosophy inflicted on me in college….
Hah. I had “Logic” inflicted on me in College. Apparently the guy who drew up the degree plan for Computer Science majors was not aware that the kind of logic they were talking about, had nothing to do with computer logic.
I stink, therefore I am not worthy.
Oh, that guy, than you
Just because its not being covered, doesnt mean it isnt important. Right now we have teams examining every sigil attack site, and wherever the ones still standing are probably, arclight is helping the council mages examine the heck out of the clues left behind, and attempting to track the culprit down, max is probably on a brute squad sent to take care of any attacks that are probably also taking place, etc etc etc. This is sydneys flashback, so of course it will focus on her and what she gets up to.
Okay, anyone else notice Harem has blank/open slots for a #6 and #7 “bodies”? I mean 19, super, obviously lots of room left for power growth/development…
to me, the curve looks like she’ll get another one at about 20, and the 7th at about 26-ish…
well, you beat me to that argument by ages. I should have read all the comments first!
If her powers develop like she does then she probably won’t still be on the rise at 26. People generally stop growing in early to mid twenties at the latest.
Don’t read too much into that
Sooo… she’s FAMILIAR ENOUGH with this location to TP here from apparently a quite far distance??
why do i get the feeling that the only reason that Harem could teleport to this location so fast was NOT because of her stated reason of living in various cities over the years, but the actual reason her being the triple agent that Deus and his body-guard were talking about…. meaning that she’s been here so many times as a bad-guy that she knows exactly what’s in there.
She probably TP’d directly to the city, and then hopped to where they are now.
This probably. She likely has worked in most major and mid sized cities, and once there she can teleport to the side of whoever she was sent to meet.
Yeah, popped to the city then met up with Sydney for bubble bus transit.
Shhh. Let the conspiracy theories happen. Then you can be all grandiose and shout ” AH Ha! I left the truth right in front t of you all along!”
but Sydney is implying that Harem vorped (see Guesticus, i can learn! :D ) into position, NOT having been carried by bubble-bus… otherwise why ask the question?
Simple. She didn’t have time to ask between rendevous and stakeout.
Wasn’t it established that she could see the ambulance at the bank on the TV and used that to TP into the ambulance? All that should need to happen is for Sydney to show her a picture of where Sydney is to teleport to her.
BUT, she already knew where the BANK was, all the TV did was to give her the mental picture needed to precisely locate the ambulance… Dave can correct me, but i’d assume that if somebody showed her the picture of oh, i don’t know, the War Room inside the Pentagon, i doubt that she’d be able to actually vorp into it even if she knew where the Pentagon was. because she DOESN’T know where the room is PRECISELY in relation to something that she DOES know like the HUGE building that makes up the Pentagon itself…
Just because she is feeding Deus information, does not mean she has been hiring herself out to every too-bit villain in country
And please, the verb is *VORP*, TP makes it sound like she Toilet Papered the city
I bet she could be pretty good at toilet papering a city.
Harem can’t carry enough weight to apply toilet paper to a single high-rise, let alone the entire city.
Well, no, but she can form a mean self-only bucket brigade to keep herself supplied with the TP for TP TP’ing.
Do they even make toilet rolls long enough to do skyscrapers?
Ah, here we go, now this is what you need to TP a city. I wonder if they sell them in 24 packs?
https://www.worldrecordacademy.com/biggest/largest_toilet_roll_Charmin_sets_world_record_112488.html
There will be TP for every man!
Hey! What about women (and puppies and donkey’s)?
Bamph, please!
Wrong continuity. She is not a fuzzy elf!
Unfortunately.
Was meaning for Daphne, Nightcrawler uses smelly *BAMF*, can’t recall off hand what they use in Wapsi Square
poit
That is it, can remember when there were discussions on how to pronounce it :D
The thing I don’t get though, is that Harem has no cooldown and apparently no mana/stamina drain on her teleport. Couldn’t she just chain-hop infinitely far? Just get a *very* accurate compass…
EDIT: And a map, of course.
She can, and has in the past, it still takes time (unless there is something in the middle of the country that is stopping her *VORP*s)
I’m not sure but I believe DaveB addressed this way earlier and said that continuous teleporting is like sprinting for harem.
I am reminded of the time nightcrawler escaped a ship in the middle of the ocean and teleported to the horizon over and over till he reached the shore and was just dead tired.
Yeah, I can imagine that a rapid & continuous violation of the Laws of Physics would tend to take a lot of endurance out of a person…
;)
She can but if she’s not familiar with a place, she can only go as far as line of sight. Even with a pair of binoculars, she’d only be able to pop about a mile at a time. On a clear day on flat ground you can see something like 17 miles to to horizon, but she needs to be able to visually resolve a landing spot.
Actually, on a clear day on flat ground, the horizon is just under 3 miles away. (Which means, if she pops 1/minute including reorienting time, that’s only 180 MPH. Chicago to New York would take about 4 hours, assuming she could keep up the pace.)
Though I wonder if she could get familiar enough with a place through satellite pictures (including the street views of some places available online) – or might this be something Sydney clues her into?
Or since altitude is effectively meaningless to her, couldn’t she could just port to arbitrary, distant points in midair and then use her trick from page 309? Maybe she should try building herself a glider or something, which would make it easy to do repeatedly.
Of course, too much of a sudden pressure difference can hurt your eardrums…
And, if she’s too tired to re*VORP* after going too high, she will find out if it’s possible for one of her bodies to die (unlike Shadowcat, she doesn’t simply ‘phase’ if she stops concentrating or falls asleep)
I had not relasied/forgotten that the later Harems popped one by one, not all at once. Makes me wonder. Lookng at the time distributions of when they arrived, I wonder if there might be more yet to come, if full maturity is reckoned as being somewhere in the twenties?
Or, of course, she could just keep popping more selfs throughout her entire life? Looking at the ages is quite exciting too:
#2 when she was eight years old,
#3 when she was nine years old, that is one year later,
#4 when she was eleven and a bit years old, call that another two (and a bit) years later, and
#5 when she was almost fifteen years old, so three (and a bit) years later.
She’s nineteen years old now, so that’s four years since the last one. If each one is taking a year longer than the one before to arrive then she could be due a sixth self soon (and then even a seventh when she’s twenty-four, etc).
However, my suspicion (hope, desperately pleasiding hope) is that *if* more are coming, then she is more likely to have to wait another year for the sixth (age 20). She’d then get the seventh self after another eight years (age 28), the eighth self after another thirteen years (age 43), the ninth self after another twenty-one years (age 64), and maybe a tenth self after another thirty-four years on top of that (age 98). Which, frankly, would make me incredibly happy, and I’d love to read a spin off comic ‘The Tenth Harem’ with the hers rocking out in their nineties :)
(Incidentally, do we know is the average life span of supers (barring accidents) the same as for ordinary people?)
For that last, I imagine that a great deal depends on the individual super, powers thereof, and origin story..
For one possibility, it would be natural to assume that a super with hopped-up self-healing capabilities might be more long-lived than a normal. But, that power COULD also be the metabolic equivalent of burning the candle at both ends.
IIRC all supers in universe have enhanced immune systems as part of their superior builds. Greater disease resistance would likely add a little to life expectancy before accounting for specific powers.
In genre, supers tend not to die of old age…
Because they tend to get themselves killed long before that happens
-nah, they don’t DIE, those are just cleverly faked “death scenes”… seeing as how many times that same superhero /supervillain comes BACK from the dead, i’d even go so far as to say they are immortal…
Depending on the story: “Kingdom Come” for example (haven’t actually read it, but believe everyone else is dead and that’s why Soups and Wonder Bewbs finally hooked up)
I’m guessing it works like a muscle – the harder you ‘push’ at your limits, the more they grow. There’s probably also some ‘natural’ growth that, at nineteen, is tapering off. Since she’s already a stimulus junkie, I imagine she pushes herself to teleport farther and carry more each time, so she probably has more room to grow.
Something I’ve been wondering about is relative age – DaveB has gone on record as saying that every new instance appears looking just like Harem Prime (strawberry blonde, often wearing a “Thing 1” shirt), but he’s been somewhat vague about how old she is – up to now, I’ve assumed the next instance will be the same age as Harem Prime is at the time the instance comes into being, but it might be interesting if it’s something different (for instance, if she popped out as newly pubescent, that would effectively become immortality). She’s currently young enough that the differences between each would be pretty minor, but over time, new instances would start to look pretty starkly different…
No, each Daphne was formed as an exact duplicate of the one being duplicated, which means if, for example, Abby was the one *VORP*ing and instead created a new Daphne, there would now be two Abby’s until one of them changed, and seeing they are the exact same ‘person’ the one doing the ‘changing’ could be the ‘original’ Abby (just remember, not even Daphne herselves can remember who is the ‘original’, Berry is simply the one who chose to remain as close to ‘original flavour’ as possible, and in fact could be the third Daphne, we simply don’t know when she decided to ‘individualize’ herself, could have only been in the last year or so when she no longer needed to ‘hide’)
Long story short: there is no “Harem Prime”
I don’t know how it works in this universe. Nearly all the supers’ bodies repair themselves. Consider Dabbler’s arm and eye, Peggy’s leg (and oh, God, I just got that pun) and the fact that Sydney bruises easily, so it’s only “Super” supers. Oh, and Heatwave lost a toe.
In Harmon’s world, Astra can take a lot of damage and heal (not always), and it turns out growth has stopped; she’s going to be a lilliputian 19 y.o. for hundreds of years, at least as far as the teatime anarchist time traveled.
@DAVE — It seems to me that Harem could port to places she’s never been … IF she somehow got a clear enough image or other experience of it.
So, perhaps a very detailed rendering using HD cameras. Maybe with appropriate high-quality sound resolution. As long as the technology is sufficiently advanced enough to give a virtual experience that approaches or equals the Real Thing.
But, apart from mere physical imagery, this story occurs in a universe with a wide-open spectrum of powers and technology. So, direct mind-to-mind transference of memories and/or experiences, or direct telepathic link that provides sufficient clarity of a target location, or just plain simply “magic” that can give her some sort of “homing beacon” of experience, virtual reality, etc.
To suggest a few possibilities. Just some thoughts. If I were Harem, or ARCHON, I would certainly be pursuing experiments along those lines. I can imagine such work-arounds might be difficult &/or rare &/or degrees of success … but it’s hard to imagine that she has to have physically been in a place to be able to return to it. I think we’ve already seen her port into spaces she’s not completely familiar with in updated, real time. I mean, how could she port to a place she was last at 7 or 10 years ago, not knowing at all what it really looks like at the moment? Or even changes in night/day?
You start facing a similar paradox as the dragon sin Anne McCaffrey’s Pern/Dragonrider books … if you’re vision of where you want to go is too specific and not current to real time, you may well become an accidental time traveler.
Just a couple thoughts.
And, Hell Yeah, I wanna see Pixel unleashed!
Jeez. Typing too fast and copy/pasta editing …
“dragons in” (although, that’s a fun typo)
And “if your vision” not “if you are vision.”
So anyway, to clarify with a quick example: What if Dabbler used some Very Advanced Alien Tech to project “herself” directly into Harem’s mind? Would Harem then not have “actually been there” in sufficient substance to teleport directly to a place Dabbler is? Or remembers at least as clearly as Harem remembers any of her other experiences?
Of course, substitute any of the various types of magic available via another character, or very powerful psionic/telepathy powers of any other person we’ve met or might yet meet, etc.
And yet another possibility occurs to me. Harem might be able to use a person as an “anchor” or “beacon” to teleport to. Example: Max calls Harem. Teleport to me right now. I’m dressed as usual, but holding my left hand chin high making a peace symbol. I’m standing with my back to a blank, white wall.
It would sort of be like using a green screen. If Harem shifts her focus to a person (or object?) that has no other out-of-place background or other peripheral objects to distract, she actually is porting to a “place” that she has been to … exactly 3 feet in front of and facing a person she knows intimately.
Yeah. I had to say “intimately.” For Reasons. Harem Reasons.
Like she did when she vorped from ARCHON Headquarters to the inside of an ambulance she could only see on the monitor? I think that is possible. Although DaveB might want to consider the possibility that ARCHON has setup certain “Teleport” rooms specifically for their use. Like how certain messenger pigeons were trained not to fly to a certain place but to a certain structure. I remember reading many years ago during World War One of messenger birds being trained to look for a specific sign painted on the roof of a vehicle or laid out as a pattern on the ground, then flying into a coop or specially marked cot.
Like I said above, they could have specific rooms or a way of setting up a room or even a specific item, that she could teleport to no matter what. Setup a room a specific way then take a picture of it and send it to her phone, then she could vorp to that room. Or there be a physical item, just be sure to place the item in a darkened room with a chair set a certain distance from it with a certain pattern printed on a piece of paper. As long as each room is setup in a different way if they have multiple rooms or if theitem is set up the EXACT same way every time and then taken down again so that that one way the room is setup is the ONLY room at the time setup that way, then she should only be able to vorp to that room.
It was also mentioned that she can teleport away from a known space but only a certain distance.
She has teleported using cameras. She used the news feed to teleport into the ambulance without being seen.
True, but she was able to jump to the bank because she already knew it. She used the vid just to know the exact place where the ambulance were inside the area, and then jumped there as to anywhere else. If someone would have told her “the ambulance is in the third parking spot from the left” she could have done it anyway.
I don’t think she can teleport to a place she has never been or seen with just a camera view.
Harem reminds me of a Heinlein quote: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
Good one. Harem would be the living mebodiment of that.
Speaking of Heinlein maybe Pixel is “The Cat Who Walked Through Walls”?
They are on top of at least a two story building, and she’s acting like she’s going to take the direct route. Since Heinlein’s cat was also named Pixel, something interesting is going to happen….
In theory, depending on how well she has to see a place to, er, hop to it… and as mentioned, depending on the cooldown time of her teleports… shouldn’t she be able to travel at roughly 200 miles per second, depending on terrain?
Yes, and feel like she just did that at the end
In regard to what was said about Krona making longing eyes to Sydney – here is a thought. If Sydney turned out to be completely not into girls, would Krona check if there is a switch for that?
I think she has to “build” a switch through experience and experimentation with her “sensors” and “tools”? Basically she can probably do anything but first she has to learn a lot about what she wants to do and the thing she wants to do it to even start figuring out which of her existing “programs” can help and what new tools she needs to code to finish the job.
So yes if she really wanted it enough to go to the dark side on Sydney.
She’d probably also have to alter her memory or mind control Sydney to keep from being destroyed painfully before Sydney joins Dabbler’s stable.
Depending on how her methods of discovery and switch building took place, Sydney might not even realise until she was too far into it to not want to hurt her. I really hope it’s a moot point though.
I read that as “go to the dark side OF Sydney”. That would be a whole other conversation
Would really depend on how much she respects Sydney (or anyone else) to change who they are: it’s one thing to give someone a chronic wedgie, but another to change them to enjoying a chronic wedgie
I doubt there is a switch for that.
It is slider representing the Kinsey scale.
True, we’ve been oversimplifying things somewhat.
Hum… Does Krona have like.. extra google spot on her googles in the last panel?
hacked herself extra vision sensor?
You think she’s using Google to help her hack reality??
You must be looking at a higher-resolution version of the page than I am, if you can see spots on Krona’s goggles in the last panel.
But, I think she’s in the right position that such (hypothetical) spots could be reflections of Sydney’s floaty spheres.
Her goggles are on her forehead. That is her bangs sticking out (I saw the same thing at first).
My heart goes out to Daphne’s immediate family. An eight-year-old who can appear and disappear at will, and be in two places at once… *shudder*
I wonder when she manifested the teleportation ability… did it show up at the same time as her first duplicate? Could she point-to-point jump even as a singleton? Or did she originally think she could only manifest a new body next to an existing one, and learn to appear in distant locations later on?
(I’m guessing the “enhanced strength in her consolidated form” rider came along with the duplicates, since it depends on how many bodies she’s consolidated…)
Although Krona could probably eventually learn to flip a sexuality switch on someone, I hope should would not choose to do so (although doing so would not inherently change someone’s behavior, just their reactions to various stimuli). Although it is important here that she is not a superhero; she is one of the enforcers that literal monsters fear. No telling what that says about her personal culture and morality.
…I am remembering that right? She’s a council enforcer as well as a member?
Don’t believe it was ever mentioned what her role is, certainly don’t recall her being mentioned as being a VI (oh, and believe you meant to reply to gwethlen above :D)
Krona herself said she was a VI.
She did? Okay
Yup: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2346 (first panel, first bubble)
That is a good question: which came first, the *VORP*ing or the duplication? Personally feel it was the *VORP*ing, until one day she *VORP*ed somewhere and then when she got back found she never left, then they re-enact this classic scene :D
What does Pixel have in mind??? What is she gonna do?
It strikes me that the telepresence orb would be greatly improved by some sort of output device, so that the user’s allies could directly receive the results of her remote recon as well. Maybe that’s somewhere on the upgrade tree? After all, it already generates some imagery, it’s just locked on “duplicate user”…
Leveling up is the tricky part, and the pesky things didn’t come with an instruction book…
But it already has some sort of output device. It’s (mostly) audio only, and may seem a bit rudimentary, but human beings have an amazing capacity for processing and interpreting information.
She doesn’t LOOK 19…
Too much sun and a life spent working hard and partying harder?
Though everybody looks older next to Team Loli
Plus the requisite super body all the powered gals have is a twenty-something standard.
Harem also uses pretty heavy make-up on many of her bodies, which can make her look older.
One of the reasons I hope Daphne develops another body is to see what an un-made-up Daphne looks like…
DaveB‘s style has changed over the years, already mentioned how Bodie looks much older on this page than the last time we saw her
Uh… shouldn’t Harem have her comms choker on her? Especially as she is in the field?
Yes, however-
Since she’s a living walkie talkie amongst herselves only one of her has to have one on for all of her to use it. Though it would certainly be more efficient for each of her to keep one available so they can report on separate events without having to wait for the one or two of them with chokers to finish up on a previous report before they get their turn in the “que”
I had to review the parking lot brawl to double check this, and it seems Harem had a choker on each of her necks back there. Interestingly enough, Checking the comics where ARC-Light are prominent, it seems Gwen and Pixel are the only members of that team to wear anything of the sort, and it seems like it could be a fashion choice for them. So I see three possibilities.
One: this is considered the equivalent of Black Ops due to the involvement of the Council, and Harem was told to leave the chokers at home. Halo either didn’t get the message or her, Maxima, and Dabbler didn’t have a safe place to dump them.
Two: Harem got the call for emergency deployment and didn’t have time to put it on because she was sleeping or something. Though she seems pretty put together for that. And now I find myself wondering what Harem’s sleep schedule is like, and if she sleeps all at once.
Three: It got lost behind the high-collared jacket and the artist forgot to put it in.
Pixel, being an artifacts expert, is probably one of Arc’s non-SWAT personnel who sees the most field time, including in-combat and just-after-combat field time. After all, sometimes you really want an artifact identified BEFORE someone touches it.
Gwen, similarly, is one of the closest things Arc has to a mage, and thus more qualified than most of ArcSWAT to deal with certain sorts of hazards in the field.
So it would make a lot of sense for them to be on ArcSWAT’s communications network.
Four) she’s NOT supposed to BE here… and therefore has PURPOSELY made sure to NOT wear it, as it is a known tracking device… especially considering she has ALREADY done this before: when she went to tell Deus about her true-sight orb.
If she’s not supposed to be there, how did she find out about it? o_O
And more importantly, Pixelicious wouldn’t have allowed her to ‘tag along’
It may be an art issue, but Dave can always explain it away with the current image. She is wearing one of the new Arc-Sparq ear-held communicators, a.k.a. the ‘cuff-comm’. The bad guys are less likely to take away something that just looks like jewelry if they are captured. (See various Bond watches for examples)
I like how “Mars” became “Wars.”
Of course that “linear time” reference got me thinking about that pre-recorded conversation by the Doctor in Blink. “People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect… but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly…. timey-wimey…. stuff.” That may not quite apply to Harem, but still my mind wanders.
Remember :wink: