Grrl Power #496 – Bishōnen hold’em
I fully expect the majority of the comments to be about how a Bishōnen playing deck should be filled out. I intentionally didn’t show Sydney holding the Ace or Kind of Hearts, and I prefer to leave those high level decisions to experts more qualified than I. As it is, I think “L” might be a little low as the 8 of Hearts, but this all assumes the deck is making a value judgement based on the card face, which is totally valid given that Racoom is the 2 of Clubs. I doubt he’s high on anyone’s effeminate boys smooching on other effeminate boys ship list. And yes, obviously the deck came from Sydney’s utility belt.
I assume they’re playing Texas Hold’em, so the quality of Sydney’s hand depends entirely on what’s face up in the middle. Is that the river? I don’t know poker, but I’ve heard the term “river” before. I know there is some skill to playing poker, but you’ve got to admit there’s a shitload of luck involved. Those movies like Maverick and Casino Royale where the main character goes all in on the last hand and the right card happens to come up? That’s not skill. I mean, ignoring the part where it’s a movie and some guy in a coffee shop wrote that particular outcome. It’s luck, and anyone saying “Ooh, he’s the best at poker…” Yes, some skill was involved in actually getting to that last hand, but one card flip does not a skilled player make.
Sydney doesn’t quite seem to get the rank structure yet. Harem, for all her goofing around, does outrank Sydney. Harem hasn’t shown much in the way of leadership, and Sydney’s plan does seem sensible. Still, usually shouting “Nein!” at a superior… well, Harem’s not an officer… just shouting down your superior, probably not the way to go. If Arc-SWAT ever does a training exchange program with another branch of the military, Sydney will get in trouble real fast methinks.
I know there’s a shot at the news on the page – I really had to edit down what Harem said cause it was turning into an excoriation which was really digressive. That said if just can’t restrain your need to discuss the business of news and its role in a democracy that’s fine, but please no politics. You know. Current event stuff. There are other places online if you absolutely need to vent and nothing good will come from doing it here.
Edit: Made Sydney’s POV slightly blurry in the mid ground. Also, here’s panel 2 without the word bubbles so you too can experience full Sydney-vision. 
Edit 2: Fixed a typo, made Spike’s hair a bit bigger, so hopefully people will be better able to recognize him, and made his card the Ace of Spades since that comes up in Cowboy Beebop a few times. Been a long time since I’ve watched that show. :)
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
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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About time they put The Eye on it….
Give me sight beyond sight!
Well, with the Lightbee she can realy be besides herself sometimes…
She can also cheat at poker pretty easily.
At least she gave this one a good name! Lightbee is a good homage.
As in “Let there be Lightbee?”
It’s a Red Dwarf reference. A Lightbee is an insect-sized autonomous holoprojector capable of projecting a human-sized hologram around itself, allowing said hologram to roam free throughout an environment.
Most famously used by Captain Smeghead aka Goalpost Forehead
Second Technician Smeghead please. He resigned his brief promotion (as of the episodes I managed to catch up on over Christmas, anyhow).
That, wasn’t a formal ranking, merely his superhero name :P
Someone needs to make a card set like that asap.
I don’t care if she isn’t from the Grrlverse, but Aisha Clanclan has to be the queen of spades.
That sounds more like a good role for Revee from Black Lagoon.
Aisha should be Queen of Hearts.
Yes, I realize that Spike Speigal is already that card, I’m just saying that Aisha is a better fit and Spike should be a Jack.
What I can see of it (and being quite unfamiliar with anime/manga), this deck appears to be all-male. Granted, that’s based on a sample of only four cards, so it wouldn’t be particularly surprising if the deck is half-and-half – but seriously, what sort of deck would Syd want? She’s so far shown no great inclination to ogle other females.
“The Queen of Hearts was such a tart
On a hot & sultry day.
The Knave of Hearts, he sampled her tarts
Much to the Knig’s dismay.”
Not Holdem, players get two cards each. And I recognized Racoom…
Sephiroth from final fantasy vii right up front.
That’s Omaha…
Omaha is a holdem variant where you get 4 held cards and try to make the best 5 card hand using up to 2 of your held cards and the 5 communal cards. In both holdem and Omaha the communal cards come in a flop (3 cards), turn (1 card), and river (1 card). Betting occurs before the flop and after each time cards are added to the communal pool.
Thanks, I only know about the Texas Hold’em they show on TV, where you get 2 cards.
The other thing about Omaha is that you HAVE to use only 2 cards from your hand and 3 from the community. In Texas Holdem, if the community has a royal flush, everyone can have that royal flush.
Oh, the version of Omaha Hold’em I’ve played (Poker Night at the Inventory) you could use up to two from your hand but didn’t HAVE to use two (same as Texas).
I thought in Hold’em you get two cards, and the table gets one, everyone bets, then everyone plus the table gets another card, etc etc until… uh, I’m not sure. I guess I thought you’d be able to make a 5 card hand from 4 in your hand and the 4 on the table? I guess I should rewatch Casino Royale. Or any of a million videos about Hold’em on youtube. :P
You could just claim it’s 5 card stud. 1 card down 4 up. Or 5 card draw. Hell they could be playing go fish or gin.
Short on cards for Gin Rummy. Maybe another version of Rummy, but not Gin. In Gin Rummy, you keep all 10 cards until the end of the hand.
Nope, two in the hand and eventually 5 on the table for hold’em.
Hold ’em is 2 cards a player 5 in the middle (dealt 3, 1, 1 with rounds of betting). Omaha is 4 cards per player 5 in the middle, so if they are playing poker it could be that.
Casino Royale involves Baccarat, a game which nobody actually knows how to play. Or at least the book and the first movie called “Casino Royale” do; if they changed it in the more serious Casino Royale movie, I wouldn’t remember.
And while Baccarat is mostly a game of luck (especially if you have no idea how it works), poker is mostly skill if you know what you’re doing. There’s always the possibility of a lucky river, of course, but if you play according to the odds you’ll almost always beat somebody who does not play near the odds, and of course if you can read your opponents and they can’t read you that’s an even more valuable skill. If you’re really playing well you should only go all-in on hands you’ve already won, and even that only early in the game before you’ve got far more chips than anybody else.
The newer ‘Casino Royale’ movie (Daniel Craig bond) is Texas hold ’em, which they play correctly. This appears to be Omaha Hold ’em, described accurately elsewhere in these posts.
Baccarat is actually pretty easy to play. It’s like limited Black Jack, you can bet on the house, player, or a tie, and the strongest hand is a total of 9, as anything over 9 drops the 10s digit. Face cards are all worth 0, so are only good if you have an 8 or 9, and then you have a natural. Getting two 10s is the worst and is called a baccarat. The player may draw a card if under 8, and the banker must. Winner is the higher of two hands, and a push goes to the tie bet.
I really like Sydney’s POV panel, with the bangs and the glasses’ rims. Nice detail.
Oh wow i hadn’t even noticed. That’s cool.
Hadn’t noticed either, knew it was Sydney’s PoV (obviously) just didn’t spot the bangs and glasses
She seems to see pretty good without glasses.
Still “Bang Vision” does have a nice ring to it.
Thats ‘hat she said ;)
Is that related to Dabbler’s Porno Sense?
That must be the upgrade she bought.
is that like moogie vision from K-on
With Near-sightedness, there’s usually a bit of distance before things start getting fuzzy (current mission partners excluded of course)
But, it looks like she can see the brickwork across the street clearly. That level of near-sightedness is usually called doesn’t-require-corrective-lenses.
More likely, those blurry blue bands are reflections, and probably of her frames. There’s nothing like tricking your friends into thinking you’ve got eyes in the back of your head, when you see them sneaking up behind you in your ‘rear-view mirrors’.
It looks to me like she’s farsighted. Her glasses are corrective for close-up stuff like the cards, but mess up her vision for farther stuff (so they’re probably pretty cheap), which would result in above the glasses being clear and within the glasses being blurry, except for very close things. This might explain why she wears them so low, so that she can peer over them.
If I were Sydney, I’d use some of my new wealth from working for ARC to get a pair of nice bifocals.
Well, I also use glasses but just for long range. Short and medium range, my eyesight is almost 20/20. When I start looking at a distance, that’s when things start to get blurry.
I was going to try and slightly blur the midground elements in her glasses, basically Krona and Harem’s lower torsos and legs, but the filter wouldn’t let me do it to a layer folder all at once. It would be fairly trivial to do it though… maybe I’ll play with it if I decide to add Harem’s eyeshadow and Krona’s orange goggle lens, which I forgot.
I thought you were going for her being long-sighted. Clear focus on the cards through the lenses, clear focus on further-off stuff above them.
I use Paint and GIMP along with Photoshop, partially so I can do stuff like that. Make a copy of the flattened layer, erase everything except the parts you want to blur, blur it, re-erase the borders so it fits right again, then export the .png or whatever you use. Voila!
Thank you for your extra labors! :)
She looks to be slightly far-sighted. When she looks at the other ladies over her glasses they are clear, but through the glasses, they are fuzzy. The only thing clear through the glasses are her cards, which are much closer to her face. This is what happens with me too. She may not actually need them to drive, so long as she can see the dashboard in her car.
Along with one of her orbs just at the edge of her vision.
*Edit: two of her orbs
I count three. Nice to see that they’re in the same order as when you see the whole ring in panel 3 too.
With her ADD, having a group of glowing objects continually moving through her line of vision would make it very hard to concentrate long enough to finish…. Um, what was I saying?
Plus they will mess up her night vision adaptation, and her ability to spot moving objects against the background, since the background is also moving.
And this part about flight is just picky. If they move left to right from her view it will send a subconscious message to her brain that she is continually turning left. If she were flying without a compass at night or in poor daylight visibility (rain) she would find herself continually drifting right to try to compensate for the apparent turn.
One of the orbs counteracts such things. Also other stuff readers said. Dave, canon me!
Yeah they’re probably pretty distracting. As far as making her feel like she’s constantly turning, just focusing on something fixed would probably help with that. But yeah it’s probably an issue.
Depends on how low they orbit, but Sydney has probably gotten so used to auto-correcting herself she gets slightly disorientated when they are not there… that possibly explains her clumsiness (at least a little)
I would’ve chalked it up to them being “alhvuchia zhovaleh”. If controlling them is like controlling your arm, wouldn’t it make sense for watching them orbit to be something akin to counting how many times you blink?
Not… quite, because her balls glow rainbow, but she would still get use to them and feel like something is missing when she stores them in Mr Tubey
A pretty good analogy, as, when the orbs are orbiting, they are doing so autonomously. Where it breaks down though is that a blink is both brief and reduces the distractions, albeit momentarily. Whereas the orbs will languidly pass by her field of view, and (as Guesticus points out) they are all different colours. Not to mention the key bit about them glowing. So both the variation and the glow will be drawing her attention.
Plus, of course, she does interact with them, and has named each. Not to mention them having irritated her enough to List them. All of which makes them more like pets* rather than the normal easy-to-ignore autonimous functions.
* Although the analogy would break down, if taken fully.
If Halo is in a dark environment, near potential hostiles, she will stand out like an illuminated Christmas tree…
Oh, hang on, she is….
Dave thought “She’s a super? They’re supposed to be grand.
They have lots of muscles, and huge…tracks of land.”
C’mon, allow Dave a little artistic license here.
Awards certificate:
*Adds imperial seal*
You forgot to cue up the March (Imperial Orders dictate you don’t stop until the music ends)
In Texas Hold’em, the players only hold 2 cards, and in normal poker (5-card stud) they hold 5. River is a Texas Hold’em term though, it refers to the last of 5 communal cards turned over on the table. 3 form the flop, the 4th is the turn, and the final one is the river.
Also I’m relegated to using Pew Pew Orb, because I still don’t get the lightbee reference.
I believe LightBee is the ComBall’s telepresent mode.
Yes, but ‘lightbee’ is a Red Dwarf reference
I didn’t know either what it was when mentioned a few pages ago, but a quick google search told me it is some kind of portable hologram projection unit from the Red Dwarf series.
In normal 5 card stud they wouldn’t be holding 5 (or 4) either, since one card is face down and the next four are face up (everyone can see them).
My bad, I was thinking of conventional poker, which I thought was called 5-card stud.
I know it is kind of a nit pick but I wanted to point out that if they are playing hold’em then they have too many cards. In a standard hold’em game the player only has 2 cards.
DaveB did say he doesn’t know poker
That’s an interesting approach to the first person view you got there. Bangs and glasses rim?
So why does Sydney need glasses when nothing is blurry in panel 2?
Her vision might not be that bad that things seen in the panel are of a distance they are out of focus for Sydney. Has it somewhere been stated if she is near- or farsighted? If she is farsighted things at a distance (the wall, Krona and Harem) are sharp and things nearby (the cards) are fuzzy, though the cards are seen through the glasses.
Or it is just a shot from Sydney’s point of view, but not actually through her eyes.
She’s farsighted. She needs the glasses primarily for reading… and even then, she has a light prescription. Probably +1.00 to +2.00 diopter.
Maybe Sydney uses the same prescription as Kevin from Ghostbusters?
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ChHBNgAonr8/maxresdefault.jpg
Kevin?
Probably from the new Ghostbusters that I haven’t watched yet.
Yup. The new Ghostbusters is a *complete* genderswap of the original Ghostbusters. Instead of four guys and a female receptionist, it’s four women and a male receptionist… Kevin.
Who is played by Thor. This is the most important thing to remember.
Wasn’t he also a total moron? To oppose the incredibly intelligent Miss Melnitz?
… I don’t think that was intentional. It was just acted out that way.
No, every thing in that travesty was intentional
If Sydney is lucky, she might get the same “prescription” as Kevin in the Archon Holding Facility.
;)
If it’s Sydney’s view, she is almost definitely farsighted. The background is much too clear with details like the streetlight and brick patterns clearly visible – these are things I as a nearsighted person wouldn’t be able to make out that clearly from five meters, not to even mention whatever distance the comic has.
Or hey, maybe she’s extremely picky about her sight and decided that not being able to see a mosquito from a mile away is reason enough to get glasses?
…but wait. In the restaurant fight there was a scene where Sydney lost her glasses and pretended to be absolutely blind (which I feel would imply extreme nearsightedness.) Now, I do know she was just pretending in order to distract her opponent, and the scene doesn’t actually prove anything whatsoever. However, my question is “Wouldn’t it be more natural for someone nearsighted to pay more attention to the loss of glasses (especially in mortal peril after a punch to the face, that shit seems a touch chaotic to me) and therefore be more likely to come up with a plan revolving around them? After all, long range vision should be more important in such a situation.”
Then again, anyone farsighted should feel free to correct my misunderstandings of their very glass-centric culture if such is the case.
“However, my question is “Wouldn’t it be more natural for someone nearsighted to pay more attention to the loss of glasses (especially in mortal peril after a punch to the face, that shit seems a touch chaotic to me) and therefore be more likely to come up with a plan revolving around them?”
At that time, Sydney was lying belly-down on the floor…From that perspective, being far-sighted would be a bigger handicap than being near-sighted. So yeah, she might have been pretending blindness, but the floor is very close & extends across her entire field of vision. The floor would be blurry, but by looking up, other areas would be much more clear.
The page is updated with non-near blur within the glasses. (She’s farsighted)
Astigmatism? Without my glasses I sometimes have a hard time distinguishing capital N from capital H. And not just in excessively-ornate fonts.
I would hope Mikisugi Aikurō from Kill La Kill would be in there somewhere. I mean, a deck like that NEEDS the leader of Nudist Beach. Personally, I’d prefer a version of that deck tailored more towards Math’s interests, but that doesn’t mean I’m not versed in just what qualifies as “Bishi.”
Also, Papillon from Busou Renkin needs to be a King or Ace, either spades or clubs. It’s been a few years since I watched that, and the brain bleach still hasn’t fully purged his mankini from my memory of that show….
We know who the Ace of Hearts would be: “THIS VERSION OF POKER HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN THE ARMSTRONG FAMILY LINE FOR GENERATIONS!”
Perfect, just perfect. As if the general needed any other reasons to lose his shirt….
Perfect! Could also have Al (Alphonse Eric) in the role of the adorable Queen of Hearts (or perhaps a 10 of Hearts?). Girls just love to snuggle Al plushies, this has been proven time and time again – possibly because chibi sentient armors are adorable.
You know, we haven’t had a chance to figure out exactly what upgrade Sydney got for the Lightbee when she leveled up…
I thought aura vision was the upgrade.
It might have been, though it hasn’t been stated as such. It could’ve been an already existing option Sydney didn’t know about yet because of her lack of experience, like the truesight and the speedometer on the flight orb.
The new upgrade was greyed out. It was another thing on her orb that let her see Auras.
… I would hate to see what damage, both physically and mentally, Sydney could deal to any other branch of the military in just a couple of days… :o
… okay, I lied, I would love to see it :D
Depends on where she ended up. If in basic training for Army or Marines, I suspect that she would be the damaged one. Honey Badgers take notes on how drill [sergeants|instructors] don’t give frack.
Now in a line unit, yeah, it could go either way.
Sydney’s glasses do nothing? Odd.
https://www.awwwards.com/awards/gallery/2015/03/cinemagraph-7.gif
it depends on how bad her eyesight is, I CAN see perfectly fine without glasses, it just hurts my eyes alot to focus on things, something that does not happen when I am using glasses
Me too, well more or less, but if they are prescription glasses with them on things should show a change at the border: angle, focus, perspective, something. What the glasses are doing, if not?
This is a real picture: https://www.drleaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Progressive_Trifocal_Lens1.jpg
You probably have astigmatism.
He has bleeding from his hands? Oh, wait. That’s a stigmata.
It was probably left unblured for the sake of the reader. It might confuse the eff out of people, well it would atleast have for me because I saw the other two and Sydney’s cards and still didn’t realize the PoV perspective until seeing it mentioned in the comments xD
But then again, not everyone has such a broken brain <.<"
If she is farsighted it could be the wall, Krona and Harem are still within her focus range and the cards would’ve been blurry without the glasses.
Or as some have mentioned it is to not confuse us, the readers.
Ok, the blurred image was mostly artistic and maybe it was a bad example. As I replied above what I meant was that it should be a change, whatever change, between the image inside and outside the glasses, otherwise they are doing nothing (no prescription). A little smaller should work, for instance.
Depends upon how nearsighted you are. Before I had LASIK surgery, pretty much anything farther than arms length started to blur, and I wasn’t able to make out faces farther than ten feet away.
Fifteen years later, I’m still legal to drive, but I’m wearing glasses again because I’ve found not being able to easily read most signs to be annoying.
No, not the beeeees!
Slight risk of however distracted she gets back in her real body. I don’t think she has ever said how well she can multitask both sets of senses.
Levi as King of Spades. (we’re nominating cards right?)
If that’s Spike his hair isn’t out there enough for me to easily recognize him.
Yeah it’s maybe a little small.
Thanks, that helps him look more like himself. Shapes a little off (and the nature of the wavey almost tendril like nature of the “spikes”) but if it was the more classic shape it would probably interfere with the lines of the cards designation.
…Maybe Harem could help Sydney with dealing with the differences between different sources of visual input? Each of Harem’s bodies have their own senses, but it’s her single mind that has to deal with integrating it all.
I think that is a part of Harem’s superpower. It remains to be seen how well the orbs grant this type of ability to their user.
There’s still one major difference between Harem coordinating 5 bodies/brains into one mind & Sydney’s use of the projection ability: The projection will copy everything Sydney says or does because it’s only a hologram-like projection of her, but I think she see’s & hears things at the remote location through the Comm Orb itself (the part of it she still holds), through the external orb itself…I can’t say for sure whether or not Sydney uses it like a carnival psychic looking into a crystal ball, or if the orb feeds the visual & audio impressions directly into her mind.
The Lightbee is Cthulhu’s Eye, and Halo sees what he wants her to see.
They could be playing Cribbage (in which case, Sydney has an awful hand for the play, and 0 points for the show). Cribbage has a long history of being played by the Navy, and is the “official pastime” of American Submariners, so at least it’s suitably military even though Archon is more Army than Navy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cribbage
it could also be the closing part of a round of Hearts, althogh Sydney’s hand is equally abyssal if that is the case as she has 3 scoring cards in hand and in Hearts you try to NOT score cards, not only that but her cards, with exception of the 2 of clubs are all really high so chances are she will win the plays.
Ok, in that case I guess we could add Bridge, Eucre, 500, or gin rummy to the mix, maybe even Canasta (haven’t played canasta for so long I honestly can’t remember).
So comic is out for less than an hour and we have a rapidly increasing list of “plausible” games. Our mission here is done. :-)
Go Fish.
That’s what is seems everyone is doing here…Fishing for an answer.
;)
Bridge is unlikely, as v fiddly with three and usually played with four.
Further possible games:
– Many more whist variants (knock-out whist, German whist, Napoleon, oh hell, trumps, etc; not solo whist, though, for the same reason as bridge)
– Sevens (not a great game, though)
– Other rummy variants
– Seven-card stud, iirc, has four in hand plus three face up
I like the idea of Omaha best, though.
Two of clubs is always the first play in Hearts, so it can’t be that. It could be Spades.
Not everyone plays that rule, though.
Addendum: Just realised if they are playing Crib, we don’t know what the starter is. So Sydney’s hand may indeed be able to score for the show.
It’s still a crappy hand though.
The could also be play Omaha, which is another way to play poker and is closely related to Texas hold’em. For which she would still have a crappy hand.
Yeah, it seem no matter the game that hand is pretty dire.
Oh and just realised they can’t be playing 500, there’s no twos in the deck for a three player game.
Add one game, take another away..
Harem may well be Sydney’s superior, but she experienced Sydney’s combat nonce firsthand, so she will at least defer to Sydney first (she can always attempt to shut her down after hearing what she plans)
So, guessing that Harem has been briefed on the Lightbee? Considering Sydney’s initial comment a couple pages back
If I remember correctly, only the true-sight power is classified, I don’t think the recon/comm aspect is.
The comm ball is classified as a whole, but anyway the entire team, Harem included, were told all about the orbs, only that they did not see the demonstration so they likely do not know about the lightbee itself, unless they saw it at the restaurant battle or at an off screen event.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/793
That reminds me: Deus and Vale seem to be under the impression that almost no one on the planet is an illusionist.
Does that mean they don’t know about the Twilight Council?
Later when Sydney and Deus meet he not so subtle hints he knows about the aliens and magical creatures hiding among us, though if that includes knowledge about the Twilight Council itself is unknown.
Maybe they meant those that actively make use of illusions as part of their powerset, instead of just those hidden by it via the veil.
Here, Max specifically says that Deus already knows about what Maxima needed to discuss with Sydney, which presumably includes the T.C. as a whole.
I mean, here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2084
Goddamn can’t-be-edited comments.
I assumed it was a technically-accurate statement intended to make Harem think the orb isn’t that big a deal, but it turns out she already knew about that stuff anyway. Maybe they didn’t want to let on to her that they knew what it could reveal.
Yay Sephiroth and L!
Shouldn’t part of panel 2 be out of focus, depending on what the eyesight of that particular point of view is?
Yup, fixed now.
Is the Queen really Spike or is it someone else? The hair doesn’t look quite right, so I’m not sure. The others are easy, though in case of L I only recognized the eye shape.
To be fair to Maverick, he knows the deck is stacked. We can even read the final scene as winding up the opponents to ensure everything is decided on that hand, while at the same time avoiding any possibility of giving a tell that he got the card he needs.
Even if he can’t be sure about the mechanics of the scam and it’s a 50-50 shot whether his card was on the top or the bottom, taking the chance is probably a good bet.
I’m really rather certain that….
light bee is rather noticable.. albiet on the roof not so bad i guess
if Sydney just uses the orb without projecting her avatar, can she see the area she sends the ‘lightbee’ to?
what’s the range on it?
It seems very likely, from the way she is suggesting it. Plus we have seen that the Lightbee can travel on its own, without the image being projected (as per its initial demonstration, when it floated over to Arianna, before projecting Sydney’s image).
It managed to go across the car park, to speak to Kevin. Clearly we can assume that Sydney believes the Mars warehouse is also in range. Possibly it may have no upper range limit, beyond the time required for it to travel to a location. In which case the question becomes ‘what speed can it travel at?’
The two possibilities, for which, that spring to mind are ‘meander’ (going by the ball room scene) or 400+ mph, going by Halo’s own flight speed.
Finally I agree that its glowing nature does make it rather conspicuous. But, as other aspects of the orb are customization (such as the size and shape of the shield), there is a good chance that Halo can turn the glow off. Whether that will happen subconsciously, or if it requires pushing a sigil on it, remains to be seen
customization = customisable.
Damned spellchecker told me that the latter was misspelt, and I just clicked on its top suggestion, as my blurry vision made it look right.
*ears droop*
For Sydney, maybe. But what if Pixel the Pink is in a precarious place when a baddie sees the holo-Sydney and runs to set off the alarm? Sciona may end up with a pink fur coat!
Meanwhile, what’s up with Sydney? Has she been drinking? I ask because she clearly just said, “Why don’t they hold just their own press conference?”
Don’t see anything wrong with that sentence, so much so can’t explain how it sounds correct
So, Sydney is going to show off one of the “keep this secret” functions in front of Krona. The Twilight Council is an allied organization, but at best she is stretching the secrecy order and at worst she is outright breaking it.
IIRC only the true sight function is “really” classified. I suspect that the general function of the lightbee is just “For Official Use Only”, which Krona could be cleared for by default being a VI
Sydney was introduced to the Council specifically because the otherwise classified True Sight function of the orb allows her to pierce the Veil. So they were informed about it. As a member of the Council, Krona is aware of it as well, although Sydney is just talking about using the telepresence function at the moment.
I can understand giving her orbs nicknames, but “Lightbee” doesn’t sound as good as “Lightsee” which is what I thought was written. I had to look closely to tell if that was a B or an S.
If you know anything about “Red Dwarf”, then you know why ‘Lightbee’ is appropriate :D
Yeah, it’s purely a reference/homage to the incredibly funny (IMO) BBC series Red Dwarf. One of the crew members is a hologram (years before The Doctor on Voyager) and he’s projected by a little thing that buzzes around inside of him called the Lightbee. IIRC, they just made it up one episode, despite him having walked through a solid object in an earlier season, but I could be mis-remembering.
But you don’t watch Red Dwarf for the science fiction. I mean, they came up with positive viruses that give you luck, a holographic starship, crew and all, that can naturally travel at lightspeed, and the worst offender, “mutated” developing fluid that turns developed photos into time portals. But it’s all played for humor so it’s fine.
Early on he walked through a table and a couple of similar things. He also used a large remote projection cage to visit an asteroid. The lightbee was introduced in season 3 to give a better explanation of how he could leave the ship and walk around planets etc. I got the impression that the retcon idea after the lightbee was introduced was that the ship could project him without it but the bee was for away missions, with him later on just using it all the time rather that keeping swapping/uploading himself. Thats a personal idea though. Red Dwarf has always been more concerned with comedy than strict continuity.
Sounds about right, plus, introducing the Lightbee paved the way for Ace Rimmer(s), and what happens to them when they ‘die’
It also tastes delicious, if taken with curry and/or a beer chaser.
Also does the Council promotes and finances fantasy and horror fiction in order to maintain the Masquerade? As long it’s in several media, will ppl have more tendencies to rationalize it if they witness it?
Makes sense. Wait, does that mean the council was behind the whole “Twilight” phenomena? THE FIENDS!
Whether you like twilight or not, you have to admit it makes them seem less threatening.
No, if Inggie’s reaction to the idea that vamps ‘sparkle’, then no, doubt the Council was responsible for that used toilet paper of a series, just as they had nothing to do with “Hairy Pothead”
Anne Rice was an inside job. ~_^
Yup, can go with that :D
Anne Rice wrote the Vampire Chronoicles, not the Twilight series. You know, the books & movies with the vampires LeStat & Louis? Yeah, that was Anne Rice’s work. In HER books, sunlight burns them.
I figured that DarkVeghetta was just going with the flow of the thread, and indicating another franchise that the Council had there fingers in the pie. In this case being one that was portrayed much more accurately.* Not to mention foreshadowing the attitude that the Council themselves have towards members of the supernatural who break the silence.
* But firmly sowing the seeds, in the public mind, that there are good vampires, amongst the bad. Not to mention showing the advantages of living forever. Such as building up a kick-arse fine art and antiques collection.
Spike Spiegel should be on the ace of spades not the queen of hearts because his own series ties him to that specific playing card multiple times.
Speaking of Harem’s lack of leadership skills,supposed this happened???
Promotion Orders
Department of Defense
1. Pixel
2. Harem
3. Math
Promoted to Colonel
Active immediately
How disastrous would that be for Archon?
Pixel and Math would have to be enlisted first. Both of them are civilians, so can not be promoted quite that easily. They could however get a direct commission like Doctors do, but that still requires enlisting in the one of the DoD armed branches first. Archon would be my first guess as to which one.
Harem could be promoted from E-4 to O-6 by act of Congress, which is what your message would have meant any way. It also would put Harem as out ranking Max, Which Would Be Bad.
If this happens,Maxima should be a brigadier general…!
Only if Maxi got promoted as well
Well, Pixel is actually fairly responsible, which is why Max has her supervising Sydney. There’s not been much evidence of that in the comic yet, but just FYI to fill in some character bits.
I had those three pegged perfectly….!
Pixel has the ability to be an effective officer but not the desire
Harem has the desire but not the ability!
Math,he has neither the ability nor desire!!!!
I don’t recall seeing Harem showing interest in leadership, which makes total sense. She makes decisions for and (sometimes) deals with the responsibility for the equivalent of five people already, so taking on more decisions and responsibility for other people would logically feel like more of a hassle than a privilege.
She appears to have a bias for doing things herself, which fits her motivation for being there in the first place.
Actually trying to get her into a leadership role could be problematic. It could be difficult for her to reconcile having troops on the field that are her and always carry out her part of any plans to her exact idea, and then having to communicate verbally, or with codes or signals, to everyone else just what she wants from them. She does have the advantage of being able to talk one-on-one to several people at a time, but it could become a micromanagement mess if she tried to get everyone else to align to the plan perfectly the way her own bodies do.
Then you’ll agree that Harem,Pixel and Math would undermine the efficiency and morale of Archon?
Yes, barring Pixel (per Dave’s comment). In addition to the points you listed, Harem cannot read people or situations well, lacks discretion and appears to be a traitor. Having a higher rank would compound all of those problems considerably.
Math is too self-centered, and too focussed on becoming the best martial artist. If given command, he would neglect those duties. Although if he decided that excellence in all martial fields, including command, was necessary for him to achieve an enlightened martial arts state, then he could well turn out to have formidable potential.
Don’t forget that he has already demonstrated both tactical acuity in his fight against Halo and the desire to teach those to the unit newcomer. Both of which have strong use in a command role.
So, whilst I disagree that he lacks the capability, I do agree with your overall assessment, because he lacks the desire.
But, should she desire to take up the mantle, Harem could command four separate units, in the field, as well as having a body back at HQ commanding the overall battle, and getting all strategic information, as soon as it comes in. Bearing in mind that there would be no delay in relaying that to the unit commanders, as she automatically does that (by virtue of them all sharing the one mind).
Then, of course, in between battles, Harem can simultaneously attend a special forces training course, have advanced officer training, study the profiles of each significant commander that she may face in the field of battle, handle the routine administration of the overall unit and still have a body free to have a social life!
Yes her lack of empathy would impact severely on her command capability. But such skills can be learnt. Let alone the fact that any career officer, or megalomaniac, would kill to gain the above package of advantages.
Lack of empathy has never been an insurmountable problem for leaders in the past, doubt it will in the future
Point well made. But mine is not without merit despite that. If you have empathy (be it innately or as a learnt skill) then you can better inspire the troops to follow you. Knowing the moments when it is best to let them grumble, to let off steam, versus the times when you must step in and enforce discipline. Captain Bligh did not know the distinction, as a notable example.
WHAT? Current events stuff – coupled with – no politics? Dave, either you intended that to be a belly laugh, or you REALLY need to turn on CNN once in a while.
ROFLMAO! OMG!
I think Dave was referring to the ‘Current events’ as ‘no politics’, as in,
: No politics please, such as, you know, current events
Ok, that bit of LOL aside, the NEWS qua news is actually fairly decent on any of the news stations. The problem is that they have to fill 24 hours 7 days a week with something, and you can’t run the weather constantly on slow news days.
Plus, this being the USA (which I presume is the subject), running actual world news is generally a loser, people just don’t care unless we’re fighting, and then they don’t want to hear anything but rah! rah! noise.
(Tell you what, you guys go spend a decade in the middle east supporting the military and come back with the same attitude that world news is all stupid or the official administration line is always true – or the opposition line is. Too damn often it’s neither. BTDT, got a whole stack of t shirts and the jacket I’m wearing too. And feel quite the connection to Peggy, because I was on Speicher 18 APR 2010.)
The real problem is what they do to fill that blank space – and the most popular item is opinion pieces that tell you what to think. With no rebuttal or contrarian views allowed.
So the US news cycle is 5 minutes of news, weather as often as they can make you stand it, and a whole lot of opinion pieces that are often just political speeches disguised as “news opinions”.
Of course people don’t trust that crap.
A search shows that you can no longer find that item via google. Therefore : https://www.armyaircrews.com/blackhawk.html
Hate to be that guy, but it looks like no one else has mentioned the weird grammar in panel 1. I assume that’s a typo (of sorts)?
“don’t they hold just their own” should probably be “don’t they just hold their own”
While we’re at it, please include my “Apology-For-Nitpicking” as well, because I noticed in DaveB’s comment below the page that he says “KIND of Hearts”…
…not “KING”.
I sure don’t want anyone else holding mine!
Well, I’d say it depends on who she is before I let her hold mine…
;)
Whoops!
Personally, didn’t have any problems with that sentence
Please pardon my confusion…
…but why does the 2-of-Clubs seem to have a green monocle on his left eye?
Is it just my screen-res…?
D’OH!!!?!
Never-mind…
…I just found the link at the top of Pg.2, & answered my own question…
…sorry.
There is one drawback to Sydney using her holo-clone for recon in this situation. Once it materializes it is stuck in a fixed orientation and distance from the user. She would need to move her real body around in various directions to see what is in other areas. Not a good idea when on a rooftop.
I can think of another drawback: The lightclone can be seen by the bad guys.
We don’t know if it is fixed in orientation and distance, we have only seen it used twice: first time to BADGER Ari (and to give her brain cancer), the second was to go chat with the cool dude in the snazzy hat during the Restaurant Rumble
Haven’t we all been told recently by the New World Orders supreme being that the news is all lies, even if its live in front of us and we should only listen to his version of events to gain the truth? So of course we will naturally now disbelieve anything they show or print for us. :)
What part of “no politics” did you not understand? o_O
Being skilled at poker is very different from what you usually see in movies. As poker is indeed a game of luck, having the perfect hand is, well, lucky. It’s just pure dumb luck.
That’s why poker is actually not about having the best hand. During a game, you are bound to have good hands, crappy hands, and a lot of hands in between. What matters is whether your hand is better than the other players’, and your ability to determine that. A good player will not keep on winning with the best hands, and a bad player won’t keep on losing either: when you play, you will earn money with some hands and lose money with others. The real skill is in managing to earn more when you have a good hand than you lose when you have a bad hand. That means that you have to try to raise the stakes when you have a good hand and to fold when you have a bad hand. If your hand is in between, you can fold but then you will lose money more often, or you can play conservatively and try to see if other players have a good hand before choosing whether you fold or not.
And then there’s bluff. If people know you have a good hand, they’ll fold before stakes get high. But they can’t really know that, except for the way you are betting. If you bet in a way that lets hem think that they have a better hand than you, the stakes will rise and you’ll be able to earn more. Conversely, if you have a bad hand, you can let them believe that you have a good hand so that they’ll fold and you’ll not lose money. If people start to catch on, you can then pretend to be bluffing. If they still catch on, you can pretend that you are pretending to be bluffin. And if they catch on…
Sephiroth, Recoom, L, and… Spike Spiegel? I don’t know the general posture and looks are reminiscent of Spike, but the hair is just so short.
Oh that is definitely Spike Spiegel as the Queen of Hearts. The hair difference could just be artistic differences.
Also…does anyone else want there to be a full deck released like this…maybe another version with all women.
DAVE B GET ON THAT!
There probably is such a deck…But it’s the guys at Archon who use that one.
;)
That reference to the “news” drama War of the Worlds reminded me of a different one. Am I the only one who remembers Special Bulletin?
I am not sure if this is an art error or if Krona has been messing with her goggles. The lenses are blue in this comic and were yellow in the previous one.
And would you really want to play cards with a person who can change the appearance of any object around her?
DaveB mentioned above he forgot to properly colour Kronachrome’s goggles and Harem’s eyeshadow
Speaking of rank structure and Syd’s non-grokking thereof, I suspect there will be a *lot* of field-ops discussions after this — particularly if it goes south. Though, really, if things go south, that’s a pretty effective team. Syd’s non-stealthiness and learning curve involving military order notwithstanding, she’s smart and has a ridiculous power suite. Harem has (as she pointed out recently), despite her own discipline issues, a ton of person-hours of experience. Pixel is a ‘thrope *and* a spellcaster *and* a super. And Krona hacks reality (and, despite her protestations that she’s fine with things being boring, I’m sure that any member of Semper Vigilantis is overwhelmingly competent in almost any situation). So I’m a *little* worried (I don’t think we’d be spending so much time watching this squad if they were going to find nothing but an empty warehouse), but not that much.
No, Pixelicious is the Artefactioner, not the spellcaster
I’d add that they are NOT under great time pressure, and a smart commander takes sensible advice from knowledgeable subordinates into consideration when circumstances permit the giving of such advice. Syd has proven, in combat, that her genre savviness is a valuable asset.
(But the smart commander also makes sure there is no doubt about who makes the final decision. Since Harem hasn’t seen that particular orb being used much, she should ask for more details on what Halo plans and then say something on the order of “yes, do that, but stay as inconspicuous as you can”.)
There is only one appropriate King of Hearts, his hand must glow with awesome power! It’s burning grip telling him to defeat you! We must take his love, his hate, and all of his sorrow! His name is Domon Kasshu, the KING OF HEARTS! :D
Damn! Beat me to it. So i guess I will just have to settle on agreeing. It was the first thing I thought of too lol.
Guess I need to get up earlier if I want to post awesome comments.
As I’ve found out already, with this group of early-bird commenters I’m not the only ninja here…
Not entirely risk-free, Halo. Very low risk, true, as in a direct counter-attack is highly unlikely, but if the enemy sees the projection, it will tip them off that they’re being watched.
True though if she can use her lightbee to reach the skylight it lower risk of tipping them off than the other things.
Does the projection have to be her actual size? Can’t it be smaller, like a honeybee size? Or invisible?
Technically, it’s extremely tough to be a (literally) invisible observer. If light passes right through you unobstructed, then you can’t detect it – you’re blind. If you can detect it, at least some part of you is visible.
Being an extremely inconspicuous, or concealed, observer, is vastly easier.
But then, of course, magic… and superpowers… (the laws of physics those orbs routinely violate and permit Syd to violate… same with Max’s powers and several others…)
You couldn’t see me till I replied though I could see you. Does that count?
Sure, but that’s the same risk when Harem would teleport in.
Indeed. Plus seeing a glowing light, at night, does not immediately equate to ‘we are being watched’. Depending on the range it is sighted at, it may be taken for a firefly or, at the right angle, either a street light (if the viewer is above the Lightbee) or aircraft/Venus/star (if below it).
Not to mention the possibility that Halo may be able to turn off the glow, by pushing a glyph (or even subconsciously, such as with altering the shape of the force field, when in high-speed flight).
The skill isn’t in that one card flip. It’s in knowing your odds of making a good hand with that one card flip, plus the possibility of either 1) forcing other players to fold because they don’t have a strong hand or good odds to make a strong hand or 2) forcing other players to call because they have a lot invested and don’t want to piss it away by folding.
Of course there is luck involved, but the player who relies on the single card flip as a play style will never be sitting at the final table.
Except most Bond level ‘poker skill’ involves immense amounts of luck that turn a worthless hand into a winning hand on the last card. While the bad guy had a decent hand the entire round.
There’s no skill in going all in on an almost straight. That’s just stupid.
I’ve watched plenty of Poker After Dark and similar shows where the final hand did indeed rely on one player needing a specific card to turn a loss into a win. That’s high drama, but as I said before, the player who risks all their chips for a single card flip as a play style will never be sitting at the final table.
So it’s perfectly fine for a movie or TV show to show the final hand and have it be a lucky win. The skill was getting the table down to the hero against the villain in the first place.
Don’t forget that Bond is adept at slight of hand. You may recall that he substituted a deck consisting of just one type of card, to ensure that the fortune teller would take it as a sign that they should have a romantic liaison. If he can pull that trick with the tools of the trade for a fortune telller, he may be skillful enough to cheat even under the watchful eyes of the casino staff.
Well, no maybe about it, he is Bond, after all. part of his package is that he can perform any skill as well as the best trained specialist. Be that a pilot or an astronaut.
Plus a lot of the skill in cards is reading your opponent. If you can tell what kind of hand they are holding, from micro clues, then you can fold (or, more subtly) bet low. Minimising your losses when the cards are against you. Then, when you read that your opponent is confident, but not overwhelmingly so, but you do have a good hand, that is when you can push the bidding up high.
There are reasons why some poker players can earn a living at something which appears, on the face of it. to be purely random. It is not. Amongst the other trick that can, legitimately (if underhandedly), be pulled, is to throw your opponent. Say something designed to make them loose their cool or behave rashly. Again something that Bond is a master at.