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.
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I am undeserving.
*hangs head*
Although at least we now know that the truesight inner orb can scout, without having to also project the telepresence image.
But will it be able to pass through solid objects, or is Halo going to have to look for a gap big enough, for it to slip through?
Likely a gap, but a very small one…
Hmmm, the place is abandoned (found the right word this time :P), right? Just use the Orb to look around the outside for where the local teens have cracked it open…
…Sure, if the Big Bad IS in there, they wouldn’t make it out most likely, but you know they’re gonna try getting in…
I think Pixel is preparing her ‘local teen’ disguise…
Oh, finished already?
her telepresence image is intangible and could pass threw walls. it is not stated and has not been shown to be able to go threw anything yet, but it is likely as it has no substance to begin with.
Threw: Past tense throw
Through: adjective meaning “crossing something by going in one side and out another”
Just your daily dose of Vocabulary
She phases it through Arianna during the interview (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/494)
We also see Vehemence phase through the shield part of the illusion (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1422)
I suspect that as moonpatroll1‘s first sentence indicates that the image is intangible, the “it” in the second sentence is in relation the inner orb I mentioned, in my opening post. This is distinct from the image that it projects around itself.
For anyone not following, if they look at the first link you provided, and observe panel 1. In it we can see the truesight orb with an inner orb inside it. In panel 3 we can observe Halo sending the inner orb off in Arianna’s direction. In much the same manner as she is proposing doing in the above comic.
Finally, in panel 7, we can see another close up, of the true-sight orb, clearly showing the absence of the inner-orb.* What we do not see though is how the inner orb gets out. Does a hole open up, and it flies through that, or does it phase through the outer orb?
Interpreted the way I outlined, moonpatroll1‘s second sentence is true. Likewise the conclusion is not an unreasonable interpretation of the facts.
* For information, this is not the only orb to behave in that manner. For instance the tentacle we normally see inside the Lighthook orb exits, when the Lighthook is deployed.
yes
thank you Yorp.
I was trying to say that the telepresence has no substance and there for is intangible so it can go THROUGH… (ya forget to double check one time…) solid objects.
Sentinel posted the pages i was thinking of when i initially typed that.
There is a third possibility, mind. Besides just “tangible” or “intangible”. Which is that the inner orb itself is tangible (after all the normal orbs can be held and can hit people), but that it is able to phase through things.
As the tentacle normally manifests itself, in small form, inside the molestation orb, we could observe its behaviour, to see if it sheds any light on the telepresence inner-orb’s. One notable thing is that it is able to pass through the force field, without any hole being noticeable. In fact when it is in big form, the tentacle is always wholly outside the force field.
To the extent that Halo found one of her cunning plans fail, when she realised that she does not even know how to make it appear on the inside.
Which opens up a fourth possibility, that it ‘teleports’ outside the force field. Functionally much the same as phasing, in use, if not appearance, but subject to different countermeasures. And would provide a notable exception to the teleport-blocking capability that the shield demonstrated against Harem.
As a variant on the fourth option, perhaps the little tentacle is a template only, for the big one? And that it is incorporated into a tentacle that is created outside the force field (or near to the orb, under shieldless use).
Comparing these to the inner orb, the third option would allow the lightbee to phase through walls. But, unlike an intangible version, it could also (lightly) push things. Punching would only be a threat to pixies and similarly small things, like children. Although it could poke someone in an eye, or push a button.
The fourth would not be able to phase, but could do the poking, if it found a navigable route through to the target.
A lightbee is more or less a holocron under another name. It was a small pen sized device that would record a person and project them after they were dead for the comfort of the living.
Kinda like that little blue light attachment on the hazmat/space suits in Library of the Dead?
https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/reddwarf/images/0/08/Red_dwarf_light_bee_poster_by_p2pproductions-d64ep0b.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140603011719
Given her use of the Phrase light we,I’m deserving, I think she means he projection orb. The one she used to chat with Vehemence when she thought he was being suspiciously observant.
Not to mention, when she Badgered Ari in the ballroom :D
All this talk about the lightbee and not one mention of “goal post head”
Kind of frustrating, if everyone keeps skirting around the rim… err… assuming you are referring to some kind of American sport?
Actually, looking it up, those look more like a “Y”, than an “H”. Rugby it is.
*wags tail sportily*
Older American ones look like a ‘H’, particularly in less prosperous areas.
Actually, they’ve never gone into details officially on what Zero-G Football is like, except that ti’s played in Zero-G and is some sort of Football, and Jim Bexley Speed is the all-time champ, who played for the London Jets.
Zero G is better used for a different kind of ball game.
*has a lick*
Ok, time for the grand reveal of pixel power! Im thinking she can basically dematerialize like an old school vamp turning into a cloud, travel through the cracks, then reform wherever she can fit.
Idt she is powered I think she’ll just beast through batman style
Pixel isn’t a super, based on her build, right? And she isn’t Council, so probably not supernatural? Since she was the immediate go to for unknown artifacts, she is going to whip out some kind of cool magical tool.
Pixel is part of arc light so most likely magic privet eye stuff, like a supernatural skully from x files… I’m figuring she will whip up a spell that draws out ghosts or makes it uncomfortable for her target to remain where they are.
I agree with the former. And the latter is a distinct possibility, as Pixel is the artefact expert, who was brought in to examine Sydney’s orbs. Although, as a field agent, she is likely to be well-versed in mundane investigative techniques. Taking off her jacket tends to imply she is up to something physical.
Although Pixel may have done that either for style or because of the artefact she intends to use. For instance she may intend to put some kind of arm-band on, but could not with the jacket on. Much like Halo’s vulnerability to mittens.
‘something physical’ just reminded me that she could be about to do some sweet parkour.
I suspect no one ever told her she can’t walk through walls.
The name “Pixel” and the lines below the eyes suggest a powerset related to what people see. Perhaps some form of Seer or Illusionist? Being a seer could definitely help with finding and finding out about artefacts…
I know it doesn’t seem to match otherwise, but seeing the way she’s dressed under that jacket weirdly reminds me of the Animorphs and how, in the books, they could only morph tight-fitting and lightweight clothing, such as muscle shirts, leotards, and such. And no shoes.
Looks like H gets a new copy every few years. Wonder if we will see a comic where a new naked H will pop into existence? Or would it just copy of the the existsing ones (ie she tries to teleport and a new copy shows up in place but current one sticks around?
Daniel here. I’m pretty sure DaveB can correct me if I’m wrong, but if I understand it right her form of teleportation is “vorp-create a new body for Harem-X in the wanted location while previous body for Harem-X is vorp-destroyed” going off what’s written when you click on her icon on the cast page.. However, every now & again the previous body isn’t vorp-destroyed, adding a new member to Team Harem…
I’d imagine it would have been insanely disorientating the first few times it happened, suddenly being in a new place yet somehow still being where you last were. Mind you, I’d imagine she got somewhat used to it eventually, tho I’d guess it would still knock her around a bit if she got a Team Harem #6…
I believe it functions with the understanding that she can consciously choose not to eliminate the original body on teleport – allowing her to quantumly exist in multiple places at once while sharing one mind. sometimes an old body gets taken out by a port because she has a maximum number she can maintain at once but its unlikely she willingly does so as she seems to prize the development and individual flourishes shes attached to each body. Plus she only has one mind between each body, she can experience death but not die, and I highly doubt thats healthy for the mind.
Looking at the graph posted, if there is going to be a new body, I think she’s due one any moment. Maybe in the next 500 pages or so! ^_^
So, simple trade skills that you can learn in under a few years, it sounds like. Too bad one of her clones isn’t working to get a medical or some other professional degree that’d take forever, lol
I think if she got a few of her bodies onto it, she probably COULD study to be a doctor in about a year or so! Maybe when she’s older tho, she’s too…energetic(?) right now for something like that. I don’t think she’d be able to keep several of her bodies on the same thing for ages without getting bored…
Or for that matter, studying magic. Can you imagine the havoc that would be wrought if she could use Gwen’s tricks?
However, it might not work correctly for someone with her peculiar mental state anyway. Harem with long-range offensive capabilities would also be massively OP against almost everything because she already has “ultimate kiting” built in.
I suspect that Harem is the perfect candidate for “Jack (Jane) of all trades, master of none”. She seems a bit too inconstant to take the time it takes to truly become an expert. OTOH, her ability to literally multi-task means she can pick up a yeoman’s understanding of several subjects at once. Sure, she spends a couple years in a car repair place, knows all the basics involved, but then she can still be outdone by someone who has spent the last ten years in the job.
…wouldn’t that make her a Dabbler?
Well, she DID mention she can get quite adventurous when she’s “a little lubricated“..
I’m not sure she’s up to “Literally hypnotic” yet, but that’s probably only because she has to divide her cleavage 10-way instead of two-way like dear Dabs. :-p
Wait. Isn’t she only 19? How is she drinking? You know besides the typical methods minors get booze.
Plenty of places where it’s legal to drink while only 19
And Dabbler can travel to several of them instantly, I’m sure. (Along with knowing which bars don’t card in the American cities she lived in.)
You meant Daphne?
Wonder how many courses of Penicillin treatment she has had to have from being ‘adventurous’.
Likely none. She’s smart, and street-savvy in particular. So it’s unlikely that, even with ‘lubrication’, she’s actually going to fail to use condoms, etc, and use them properly.
(That said, the notion of how her powers would interact with pregnancy gets a bit… odd, to say the least.)
Since no one else seems to have mentioned it on the previous page, Krona no longer has her rainbow-hair, here…
…do we assume that she deliberately changed it back, or does this mean that her “reality hacks” wear-off over time?
I was thinking the same thing. Also, whatever it was that she was hacking, she seems to have finished with since she isn’t doing it a couple panels later.
In the first box, Pixel looks like Rory Gilmore.
The blurb about Harem immediately made me think of Jamie Madrox (aka the Multiple Man) while he was in X-Factor working as a private eye. Hes noted for making more dupes than he actually kept track of and sending them each out to MASTER a skill before despawning and passing the knowledge to Jamie Prime. More notably he’s seen using the coverage from his dupes to win Who Wants to be a Millionaire style game show – just have dupe watching the live show google the info and then instantly pass it to the Prime. I can see harem doing something like that prior to entry into arcswat – shes clearly used to a somewhat affluent lifestyle.
Where do you get Daphne is ‘clearly used to a somewhat affluent lifestyle’? o_O
5 wardrobes worth of clothing?
Maybe she just has two wardrobes, but that still doesn’t imply ‘a somewhat affluent lifestyle’
As far as I know, She’s still having to basically maintain 5 bodies, even if not all at once, they still eventually need to eat and drink, etc.
That’s not an ‘affluent lifestyle’, that’s basic survival
Maybe ”effluent” that’s five bodies worth of pooping.
Knew someone was going to use ‘effluent’, some dozy aussie ‘comedienne’ would insist on pronouncing ‘affluent’ as ‘effluent’
I’m actually an over-educated American, though I see how we can be confused for dozy Australians. The effect is about the same.
Not, didn’t mean you at all, meant actually an aussie ‘actress’, didn’t want to force this on anyone, but look up “Kath and Kim” on youtube
“I’m fine with boring” says the girl that gave a vampire viking a wedgie…
Yeah, but said vampire has no way of knowing that the girl who hacks reality is in any way involved with her granny panties becoming a thong. *snort*
But messing with Krona is likely not worth it over a minor prank – better not to react, so as to minimize incentive to escalate.
Speaking of Krona, probably she would be best choice for recon. Just pull out a snowglobe. Then edit so the view is not inside the globe, but of an actual place. Put a few presets for commonly viewed locations, plus three sliders (Longitude x Latitude x Altitude) for everything else, on one of her control boards and she’s set.
Maybe her goggles do virtual recon already, but she’s curious what Pixel is up to – Krona seems to take the path of least resistance.
I think you’re overestimating Krona’s powers a little bit. Now, keeping in mind I don’t really know programming or hacking, but I’m reasonably certain the further you get from a system’s(or in this case object’s) intended function, the more difficult and labour intensive it is. Looking at what we’ve seen her do, she’s disarmed grenades, changed underwear, and changed hair colour. All things a normal person could do given proper time, opportunity, and know-how.
What if Pixel is an expert on artifacts because she IS one? Perhaps a magical version of a holo-emiter from ST:Voyager.
Or something. They are 2+ stories up and she getting ready to do something to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’… quickly…
Tsk, wanted to add that’s just because you call them superhero etc, doesn’t mean there aren’t other possibilities…
why do I have a feeling Pixel’s gonna turn into a cat?
I take it that you are referring to this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_Who_Walks_Through_Walls
In the book it is explained that ‘Pixel is too young to know that such behavior is impossible.’
FYI, when the book was printed the cover showed the main character as a light skinned man.
https://pictures.abebooks.com/MWBOOKS1/4231356490.jpg
After people complained that the person in the story was described as a black man, they did some crude retouching on later releases.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/74/12/ae/7412ae1b22c78343fe61be08eadb74c4.jpg
didn’t even know such a book existed O.o
I still tend toward kitsune, and everybody should remember shape shifting is not the same as being a were animal…
D’OH!!!?!
:P
How did this double-post????
Could the Esteemed Author perhaps delete the upper (incomplete) copy, when he has a free moment, please?
I wonder if any of the various Harems spent time learning to play any musical instruments? She could form her own band and play all the instruments as well as singing lead. (kind of like Prince, without having to record all the parts separately).
+1
She’s 19 and she’s already spent several years living and working in different cities? How does that work out? Dropped out of school or graduated early, and started her training at a very young age?
Keep in mind that she also stated “cumulatively” after that. All of the iterations of Harem are capable of having their own experiences while still sharing a pool of experiences from each other instance of Harem. Harem herself is stating she is 19, but the chart shows she’s been making copies of herself since about the age of 8. And one of her favorite hobbies is sending her copies out to get new experiences. Harem #1 goes to school, does the normal thing (tho harem is also very intelligent, so it may be likely she was pushed forward some grades or likely treated as a child prodigy and allowed to skip high school and such) all while other harems are out and about and soaking up the xps.
I think the question is in relation to how, in “boring, linear time”, she’s only been a legal adult for a little over a year. If we assume “several years” to be 3-5, and we assume she stopped this year, that puts the start of this adventure at 14-16 years old…
Depends on country. I had a discussion with my friends in England and Canada (I’m American) and apparently ‘age of consent’ is 18 (USA), 16 (UK), and until 2008, 14 (Canada).
Child protection and labor laws are more the issue here. How old would Daphne have to be to get full-time work, while also not being declared a runaway and either sent back home or put into foster care?
If her guardians sign off on the employment (and I’m willing to bet her legal guardian was either Arianna or someone else in the hierarchy, if she wasn’t still with her parents), it’s fairly easy to get part-time work as young as 14, and full-time at 16.
For that matter, it’s possible the multi-Daphs were all living with a legal guardian in the city in question, in which case, she could be working FOR them with no legal issues at all. Again, since we’re talking pre-press-conference, this could readily have been something Arianna arranged covertly.
Or maybe it wasn’t Arianna at all. Maybe it was a certain benefactor whom she’s had lots of face-time with who is capable of skirting the rules on all sorts of things to get what he wants–and a more skilled Daphne certainly fits with Deus’ overall approach to things. If this is the case, it makes it more clear how she came to be working for him now–she’s been in his employ all along, and joined Archon when she got old enough to be able to really help him.
+1
Well, some people do graduate from high school at 17. (I did.) And some people drop out of high school even younger.
With the intervention of an aware entity, Harem could have gone through junior AND senior high school in as little as two years, which would hand her a diploma probably at age 15. If that aware entity is the US government (or, probably, Deus), having a court declare her emancipated wouldn’t be a difficult achievement.
G.A.T.E. is the test to let geniuses skip grades. It was offered to me but my mom wouldn’t let me because she was concerned about backpay totals from my deadbeat dad’s child support payments. Otherwise I would have graduated high school at 12.
Assume that she is 19, and started her out-living after leaving school at 18.
5 copies live a year each, totalling 5 years. 5 is several
“My name’s Daphne, and this is my job. And this is my job. And this is my job. And this is also my job.”
Her job resume is going to need a flow chart.
Heh :) HR : “You worked five jobs at the same time ?” Lot of small part-time jobs i see.
D: “Part-time… yeah, i did split my time between all…”
Well, her week does have 840 hours. By extrapolation, a 40 hour work week for her would be round 200 hours.
So, from the looks of that chart, Harem found out she can make copies when she was about 8? Then another at about 9, a third two or three years later, then the fourth at about the same years later and again with the fifth.
Working upwards of three jobs at once, she made bank and filled skills fast. I am impressed, Harem. Is that chart also a little teaser that she can make at least two more Harems?
I’m also wondering about food requirements. If she can collapse all her bodies into one and only need enough food for one, then expand out, that would significantly reduce her grocery bills.
Along the same line, she needs only a mailing address local to each city she’s working in – and one apartment somewhere with low rents. Saves on rent, as compared to maintaining multiple apartments.
One one-bedroom apartment and food for one, while holding five jobs – even if all the jobs are minimum wage, she could put away the money pretty quickly.
Despawning or “unteleporting” a body is effectively teleporting it into the future. That particular body will still be hungry, or tired, or have a broken arm.
I’m still waiting on her to say she has a lot of mouths to feed.
On a more serious note, DaveB could use it as a plot point. Say team Sydney enters the warehouse and finds a bomb about to detonate in 5 seconds and destroy a Sigil. Harem grabs it with one second to spare and sends that copy into temporal stasis (and yes, the bomb weighs less than 50 lbs). If she comes back, she goes boom. The group would have to figure out a way to separate her from the bomb in the allotted time.
No. But it is a teaser that she may be able to someday.
May very well be.
As far as I can see that chart, with 8 as start year, we have 8, 9, 11, 14, currently at 19.
This means a new every 1, 2, 3 years and so on. This could be a new one every n+1 year, or a fibonacci sequence, with 8 as a starting 1 in the sequence. If it is every n+1, there should be a new one very soon, allowed only since counting years does not show months and it’s likely not very exact, and then at approx. year 24, 30, 36, 43 etc. Fibonacci would mean 19, 27, 40, 61. If either of these, my bet would be the fibonacci.
Maybe Sydney misheard Daphne in panel 2. Are you sure the first ‘A’ in Daphne’s bubble shouldn’t be an ‘E’ ?
Episode 18 of The Knights of the Night, poor Tony.
https://kotnpodcast.blogspot.jp/p/pods-by-campaign.html
And of course as we are all genre savvy we know that the main character doesn’t go to check something out and it is a dead end. No instead all hell breaks loose.
Personally I thought Harem blind teleporting in was asking for trouble. Unless she can see the Frankenstein monster, scream like a 3 year old girl (for those unfamiliar, think air raid siren, but higher pitched) and teleport out again.
The scream is important.
I thought Harem had to see where she was going unless she had personally been there already – and what if there is now a crate where there wasn’t the last time she was there?
“So how did your legs come to be fused with a crate of stale chocolate bars?”
Sydney is not the main character, she is simply re-telling her story to the real main character
Fairly sure Daphne, like most ‘porters, intangibly appear in the location first to avoid ended up as Star Trek Transporter accident
Er… That would make the ‘real main character’ the AUDIENCE, rather than a main character.
The Dresden Files uses the same storytelling technique, but that doesn’t mean Harry Dresden isn’t the main character.
Aww, I thought I was the real main character.
*swishes tail listlessly*
You’re a dirty dwarfer Sydney, and thus I deserve to get it. You should take that H round your neck and stick it on your forehead.
She’s Sydney Sydney Sydney Schoville
and I can’t make this parody rhyme well
More reliable than a garden strimmer.
She’s never been mistaken for Yul Brynner.
She’s not bald, and her halo does glimmer.
At least she’s not a smeghead.
She was in the loop on this already? So was Maxima thinking of something specific that’s even more secrety when chewing her out on page 95? Considering Harem’s motivation of experiencing everything, keeping her shut out of cool new stuff has got to be just about the most frustrating thing you could do to her.
Knowing this, or before knowing it, did she ever notice Veil-induced discrepancies between her viewpoints? And would the Starfire method help her figure it out?
Well, now that she isn’t worried about government vivisectionists, and everyone knows there’s a member of ArcSWAT that has these floaty spheres, she’s using the things in public a LOT more than she used to.
Previously she wouldn’t have used the truesight orb where she might learn about stuff behind the Veil, because that would involve using her orbs someplace where someone might see her using them.
In the loop of what exactly? And which ‘she’ are you talking about?
Oops, I was referring to Harem knowing about the “supernatural” stuff, and thought it was self-explanatory given that her knowing about it was discussed in the comic itself.
At that time, and probably still, most of Sydnay’s balls are classified, Lt Colonel’s (or the equivalent) and above, so while Daphne may be cleared to know about the ‘upernaturalsay uffstay’ she still does not have the clearance to know about the ‘lightbee’
There’s a difference between knowing about something and knowing a lot about it. Need to know is variable. When I was a lieutenant I would get a basic overview and what my platoons goal was. I didn’t know what other units that weren’t working with us because I had no “need to know”…
Zack Tilly
Everyone thought Pixel was a cute little pixie. Then they found out she really *was* one. Literally.
There’s other groups without the word super in their name. I’m betting she is getting ready to do something extraordinary, and then we’ll how she identifies…
Given the techno aspect or her name I thought she would have been a Gremlin, or machine spirit.
Lightbee is a Red Dwarf reference, right?
Actually a lightbee is what is used to project a hard or soft light hologram, on the Jupiter mining ship Red Dwarf.
Sort of an autonomously mobile take on the mobile emitter.
It was established much earlier that Sydney, while holding her fly-ball, can be pushed around if she allows herself to be because she localizes her own gravity or something. Does this mean that if Max is inside Sydney’s shield she can push the whole thing, thus allowing Sydney to get a group to a spot faster?
Not sure if it is possible from the inside out, though it might be possible with Maxima on the outside of the shield doing the pushing. In the fight against Vehemence it showed Sydney got dragged forward via the lighthook while her shield was active so it is not like the shield locks her in place… but then it is curious how she wasn’t flung back and turned into an indestructible bowling ball when the shield was hit by Maxima or Vehemence? Does it detect the difference between being hit and being pushed/dragged?
Max is faster, but Sydney is good for mach 4 which takes you all the way across country in about 3 hours…fast enough….
“The center of the country is still largely inaccessible to her”
So in that regard she’s much like the rest of the US population.
Yeah, cost of travel and distance can be a problem to most people
In Texas 100 miles is a short trip, while in the northeast it’s a long way to go….
+1
Or as the rhyme goes:
“The sun has riz, the sun has set, and here we is, in Texas yet.”
Not strictly true anymore with modern vehicles (that rhyme was written in the late 1800s), but from one side of the state to the other can still easily be 12 hours of non-stop driving at 70 mph (~112 kph). That’s from where I live, in the northeast corner of Texas (on the border with Arkansas) to El Paso.
I always wondered why this sort of thing bothered me and I just realized.
Have you ever known someone to paint the underside of their nails?
No, I’ve never known anyone to do that. And I’m not sure how someone could do that, or why, but all the images in my mind are disturbing.
Thank you. :)
Sure, if the nail is long enough, use to do that but lately find long nails a hassle for typing (at one time {late 90’s, early 00’s} let middle and index left finger nails grow to around 2 1/2 cms and right pinkie to around 1 cm and would let the others grow a little and tended to paint the undersides of all)
But you notice that the undersides of Pixels nails are painted in the last panel, right?
Nails are translucent, and that shade of green is strong enough to be seen through them, with the light source behind it. Such as there is, anyhow.
I don’t think so. Besides, nails aren’t that translucent, especially when painted. I’m not sure how to draw them but it’s messing with my instincts and that usually means it’s wrong.
I agree that the shade would probably be darker, than displayed, especially under the already gloomy lighting. But they are a very minor feature, which probably would look odd, and hard to identify as Pixel’s finger nails, if the tone was too different, to the matching colours Pixel is wearing.
I think Dave made the right call here, as too dark a shade, in that particular panel, might make some readers misidentify the nails as being claws. Whereas we have seen that they are just normal nails, with green varnish.
Although, on the lighter side of things, Pixel does have those whisker-like marks, around her eyes, so if her nails do start turning into claws, I could envisage her continuing a transformation into a cute little pussy cat! Complete with pink fur and green claws. It would also explain why she is taking her jacket off.
Just as well that she is in an all-female team. We have seen that Pixel can get embarrassed so, if her shapechanging does risk wardrobe malfunctions, this would be the less socially awkward option.
Whilst we might expect a shapechanger to be a Twilight Council member, there is the precedent that Zephan is on the council, as a mage, despite being an Archon leader. Perhaps they did an exchange program, at one point, to promote better co-operation and team work?
*purr*
Meow meow meow. [just practising my foreign languages. trans-Atlantic pussy is easily mistranslated]
I liked Pixel as a shortie A-team member. Now the jacket has been undone and… https://cdn.meme.am/cache/instances/folder227/400x/64091227.jpg
Lookit all the petites.
Look at them? I am trying to figure out a way of getting them to sit on my sofa. I think Krona’s reality hacking ability could come in really pawy, on that front.
Your own personal rule 34?… :-)
I doubt that sitting on a sofa would have that result, in its own right. But it would allow me to entertain them, and I am sure we could become friends. Then, if there turned out to be ‘chemistry’, with any of them, I would then have a shot at winning a heart.
*claws crossed for Sydney*
More likely, specially going by her cheese-grin, it was a deliberate temporary thing and changed back within minutes, possibly because no one even noticed
When did Harem turn up,how did she arrive?
Pixel is looking very Narutish in that last panel.
Pixel taking her goggles off reminds me of Robin without his mask in Teen Titans Go.
Ugh, Krona. I mean Krona. Why does Pixel have the computery name?
Because her parents thought it was a nice sounding name? Pixies and the fey folk are a long-standing source of inspiration. But they can have negative connotations. So altering it to a similar, but less controversial name, retains the exotic feel but does not bring any baggage with it.
Or maybe it is a code name? As an Arc-Light operative their names would have a different priority to the hero call-signs, which are heavily associated with public relations and hence ease of public recognition. Whereas someone who may have to serve undercover would not want a name which would be associated with their capabilities.
Mind you I will probably make exactly the same name mix-up, in due course, so you have my sympathies.
Given the technology based name I thought she would be a Gremlin.
you thought she’d turn into a small car?
Just don’t get her wet, or feed her after midnight
“Harem can make a meringue, crack a safe, rebuild your transmission, deliver a calf, then build a dresser.”
Specialization is for insects, huh?
She might be able to cheat the safe by grabbing the door and teleporting it off its hinges. Guess it depends on how she handles objects with parts that interlock but aren’t fused together. Maybe she’s accidentally dumped a container’s contents by leaving them behind.
I can see her messing with people by taking their rings and teleporting them so they link together.
Members of the magic circle are already taught that spell. They usually do it with really big rings, so an entire audience can see it. They probably use a higher-level version to get themselves, or their assistant, into and out of boxes, such as when performing the ‘vanishing lady’ demonstration.
*wags tail excitedly*
Now you are that guy with the hat again! Who are you and what did you do with Yorp?
We are having some ‘time apart’.
Wait, that is a legitimate series? Like Teen Titans? Not a spoof like “Teen Titans GO!”?
Heh :) is due the full moon, he has been doing it ever since and it’s way too cool :)
Yorp is a werehuman – a dog that assumes many humanish features when the full moon rises. He is cursed with hucanthropy.
Harem is what Robert Heinlein wanted everyone to be. A talented amateur.
“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.” – Lazarus Long (Robert A. Heinlein)
Which is kind of silly, because individual specialization is how civilization diversifies its collective skillset.
And besides we got robots and computer programmes to specialise on things these days. The machines are much better at it than humans.
Missing my point. Heinlein was wrong. Civilization thrives not in spite of the practice of specialization but because of it. It is through specialization that we form individuals who are experts in their field, capable of doing things that no talented amateur could ever hope to be capable of. Specialization took us to the moon, created the internet, enabled brain surgery, crafted epic poetry, formed the foundation of cathedrals, charted the motion of the planets.
What he complained about wasn’t specialization, but exclusivation; sacrificing development of secondary and tertiary skills entirely for the sake of a primary skills. Humans don’t do that. Even a brain surgeon is still capable of driving a car, dabbling in poetry, building a wall, cooking for themselves, analyzing a new problem, balancing their checkbook, socialize with the people working with them in surgery. A lot of those secondary skills support the brain surgeon in living their life when they aren’t engaging in their specialization.
So, despite Heinlein’s objections, human civilization thrives for having specialists, primarily because Heinlein didn’t have a clear understanding of what specialization MEANT.
+1
All the quote means is humans should be able to do more then 1 thing in their life – for example, you were not born, bred, and can only do your job, since its the 1 you were assigned to do from birth right? Instead you learn differant skills & can do lots of differant things.
Its also not saying people shouldn’t use their talents or focus on them, just that humans should be able to use all facets as needed in their own individual lives.
I think you mean brig of skills. 2 masts and plenty of cannons sounds fitting.
So… Is it just me, or is the Graph off? Something is wrong with it…
Daphne DeShantis: My Life In Parallel
Okay, I just had a question about the legal aspects of the “deliver a calf” and “make a meringue” simultaneously bit. Obviously, she’s doing that with different bodies and so the unsanitary elements of delivering a calf don’t impact the sanitation of food preparation. Chef-Harem doesn’t have to worry about handwashing every second that Cowgirl Harem does something grody. But LEGALLY, she’s still one person, right? And I doubt the law is written to accommodate her special talents. So is she breaking food-preparation regulations if she does all of this simultaneously?
How it is phrased, and the subtleties of interpreting the law, depend on what jurisdiction Harem happened to be in, at the time. However the law is not blind, for the most part, so the basic principle of the appropriate legislation would be examined. Which is the prevention of the transmission of disease. As the two tasks are being performed by separate bodies, there would be no chance of transmission, other than by normal means.
In other words, provided that each body complied with the applicable rules, for the task in question, she should be both medically and legally safe.
Plus the regulation probably say things like, “after performing this task, you must wash your hands”, as she will comply with this, even an attempt to pervert the intentions of the law is likely to fail. Especially as the law will not say “you may not deliver a calf at the same time as you are conducting food preparation”!
Besides, Harem herself says that even though she considers herself 1 person mentally, she also agrees that she has 5 separate body parts that make up her body. While weird to us to grasp, the idea of each “body part” being separate is natural to Harem, and she just follows the laws intent for when its needed in those jobs. (so the Harem on a job doing fast food cooks & cleans the food properly then starts to need help, and the Harem part who was learning animal husbandry doesn’t teleport to her side to help, where as the one sitting at home could pop just outside then come in “to help her sister”)
The answer may depend on who you ask. While physically, there’s no chance of two separate bodies communicating disease or anything like that, there may be a SPIRITUAL issue. Orthodox Jews have lots of taboos about touching meat, and as all of Harem’s bodies have the same soul, they may consider it spiritually impure.
Clever angle and very true.
I can’t draw to save my life, so I really have no business saying this, by all the eyes, other than Sydney’s seem a bit wonky in all the panels of this strip.
Seem OK, other than Harem only looking at the person she’s speaking with in one panel. (maybe looking directly at Sydney makes her laugh? She seems weak vs. Sydney’s charms. )
Thinking of more ways to express “boatloads” of skills? Frigate-a-bout-it!
I have a carrier load of skills, myself. Boat I must not boast.