Grrl Power #500 – Bravery in the faces of danger
Sydney’s rather collected attitude here surprised even me. When I sat down to write this page, I’d intended for her to be a lot more scared. Even though she knows less about Sciona than you guys do at this point, she just saw her cuddly jaguar buddy hanging ten in the corner, so she she should be a lot more concerned or angry, but sometimes characters write themselves.
That said, Sydney has literally no idea how to arrest someone other than telling them they’re under it. Maybe handcuffs are involved, and Miranda Rights (though do supernatural creatures get Miranda Rights? She doesn’t know.) And then what? Stuff her in an uber and drive all the way back to Archon headquarters? And what kind of tip do you leave for that? I mean, luckily she has a radio and can ask someone. (Also Harem and Pixel both know what to do) It’s just that she hasn’t thought through the steps at this point.
Sydney isn’t totally out of options here, but in the future she might reconsider the distribution of some of the stuff on her utility belt. Her wrist com doesn’t have an extendable blade for example. We know this because she definitely would have stabbed herself or someone else if it did. And not that such a thing would necessarily help in this particular situation, but who knows, maybe a taser would, or a jet of tear gas. Both of those would probably affect Sydney as much as it would her assailant, especially if their skin was touching the taser bits and her skin at the same time, but presumably if she was ready prepared, it could give her a slight edge. I’m sure Arc-SPARQ will have its hands full rejecting all her crazy requests.
So yeah. Page 500. Took 6 and a half years but here we are. Not an especially auspicious page to mark the occasion. There’s nothing wrong with it, but page 100 was Dabblers introduction… at least her introduction to Sydney. Not the first time she’d been in the comic up to that point though. Page 200 was the start of the fight at the restaurant. Book 2 almost started on page 300, but I thought if I try and hold myself to arbitrary page counts like that I’d wind up with odd filler here and there to pad stuff out, so I just went with the flow.
So I don’t say this enough (or hardly at all, cause I’m bad at the mushy stuff) but I want to thank everyone for reading, and sticking around when I take Sydney on some extended meet and greet scene. :) I will try and be better about that in the future, but like Sydney, this is all still new and exciting for me, and I get caught up in it.
Of course thank you so much to everyone who supports the comic on Patreon as well. If I still had a full time job we’d be only around page 300-350 now, which is a slightly depressing thought. I’d still love to take the comic to 3 pages a week, but I’m barely keeping up with it at 2 right now. Still, after three years of doing this full time now, I still think how amazing it is that I can buy a gallon of milk or some dumb thing on Amazon because I draw a comic about a super dork and her pals. So again, thank you all!
I asked around a few places online to see if anyone wanted to do some celebratory fan art for page 500, but I’m a terrible self promoter and I only got a few responses. They’re over at this post so check them out!
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Today’s milestone page is free for everyone!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
I thought orc but ok…
Orc, or ogre, but with troll blood
That’s a point!
The different coloured skin makes me think Golem (made up from Ork / Troll bits…
She is clearly a Frankenstein’s monster-like construct, indeed. Orc and her original head. Be that drow, vampire or whatnot. As a blood mage she simply is very good at making use of the blood of other races, to best effect in herself. She has simply made her new body compatible with troll blood (or vice versa more likely).
If her face is just now healing it might be an orc body but she left the room to go get some Troll blood.
Congrats on your 600th page.
I’m not recalling right now, but Sydney needs to fully grasp an orb to use it, right?
Does not work on butt contact, I remember that.
Shit. I meant 500th page. Sorry.
Woo! I got excited there for a minute.
And you thought you had managed to get soooo far ahead, huh?
;)
At 2 pages a week, 600 pages will be during January 2018.
I seem to recall her saying that it has to be in contact with her palm to activate. Something about mittens being kryptonite.
Depends what you mean by ‘use’. She needs to have full palm and finger contact to access an orb’s Function, but she has mental control over their movement and placement… and as she’s just demonstrated here, they’re 1) sturdy, 2) fast, and 3) capable of striking with sufficient force to do some damage.
If she weren’t dealing with a regenerator, she’d still be in a pretty good position to free herself from restraint.
She still is. She just has to keep it up – hit after hit after hit, preferably to the head (unless the first few hits demonstrate that this isn’t effective). Until she can get herself free and get the shield orb in hand.
Sydney just needs to go all out for it. If she pulls her punches, even slightly, then she will be crushed like a grape.
Either that or she needs to quit immediately, depending on how imminent the popping appears to be.
Sciona wants her alive, to extract her blood. But not if she feels seriously at risk herself. Halo needs to take her out before she decides that. If she does not feel capable of that (and Sydney has shown herself to be very squeamish, on such matters) then she should not provoke the monster holding her up, with one hand!
Then again, maybe Sciona doesn’t want her blood.
Hear me out. Sciona is a blood mage, and she seems to collect people with interesting blood types – and I’m not talking AB+ here, I’m talking demon and fairy blood. A Super may be interesting enough for her – Super blood may have interesting effects, for a blood mage – but, Syd’s not a super. She has fairly boring old human blood, which may not interest Sciona much.
Now, Sciona MAY care about Syd exposing her secret underground operation here, but that chicken’s already flown the coop. She may simply be entertained by Sydney’s verbal antics, but that won’t last.
No, Sciona will most likely simply try to kill Sydney – I’d like to see how that works out for her.
And Sydney’s blood might be so spicy it overloads the regeneration ability.
Good points.
Squish her Halo!
“Meats back on the menu!”
Also
‘Please check with your doctor to make sure Troll Blood is right for you”
Oh no! The troll lady is going to grind up Sydney into sausage and have her for breakfast! Although I will admit that is the wurst-case scenario.
If she wasn’t such a “hot dog” she wouldn’t be in this predicament!
I fear Sciona is going to ‘bang her’ and ‘mash’ her!
Is Sciona from Germany? I heard she was a Frankfurter.
And doesn’t she hold at least one doctorate? Which would make her Dr. Frankenfurter…
I don’t think she’s that much of a weiner.
Such a brat, eh?
that one was the wurst
Next to Sciona, Sydney is a mere chipolata, who Sciona will consider is behaving like a bratwurst. I fear Sciona will weckewerk on her, until she is totally knackwurst!
*gives Yorp some Snausages*
All of you are making me hungry, you bunch of turkeys, you. Your rye sense of humor has me hankering for a sandwich.
Time to make an appearance as your alter ego The Mountebank Of Crisco.
That’s a bunch of bologna don’t be such a ham! You need to be mustard out for a roll call. You are in a real pickle now.
…& a DILL-pickle at that!
(…I’ll just see myself out, now…)
Come-on PPO!
Sci-fright seems to know enough about Sydney to keep her hands together and to stop her touching her balls
*snerk*
I wonder if she was a nun, before she became a blood mage?
What, is she getting revenge for this encounter?
Is that the PPO or the pseudopod-orb?
The lighthook, I just want her to use the PPO.
She’s trying to grab the lighthook
I just want to see the PPO get more action.
At that close a range? Unwise.
I disagree, the only reason things went bad at the demo was because she aimed at the ground and a tank, at close range it should and aimed up it should cut through baddie with minimal blowback.
Molten bits of baddie, dripping down on her, probably would not be very good for Sydney’s complexion or skin integrity mind.
On the other paw though, a broken neck might be a bit more inconvenient, which is a distinct risk if the monster feels threatened. And a tank-melting blast should resolve any troll problems, in a permanent manner.
It does have a potential risk, but the price may be worth it.
…IF Sydney can get a grip on her PPO Orb, that is…
That will require a way to make Sciona reduce her grip first.
She is in a close space, and energy blast orb (not hip enought for ppo) with the tendency to make things go boom isn’t the wise option.
Not to mention, Sydney doesn’t know what is beyond Sci-fright and that room: won’t do the team much good if she fries Harem on the other side of the wall or the floor above
Ooh,
an unexpected bonus, that would be a bad thing. It would be naughty!One question that hasn’t been brought up here, how well can she control the power output of the PPO. If she has very precise control, then she might be able to take him out with minimum backlash and collateral damage. On the other hand, if her control is not yet refined, she may use more blast than needed and bring half the building down ontop of them as well as kill the bad guy.
Sydney has only experimented on two settings ‘burn forest down’ and ‘melt tank’. Both of which took extreme effort, and felt like she was ‘touching a star’, to even turn them on. None of which points to her having fine control, at this moment in time.
Well, guess that answers both questions: yes, Pixelicious did get her claws bloodied, and yes, Sydney’s balls are strong enough to break an ogres arm (shame the ogre cheats by mixing in some troll blood)
Oh, and guessing troll regener-cheating doesn’t extend to dental work
Unlike normal bones, teeth don’t heal. Perhaps if the tooth was entirely torn out it would regrow?
It looks like she re-grew a whole arm already. Maybe she’d giving priority to injuries, or maybe they have to be fresh injuries for it to work.
Are you telling the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth?
The Tooth? You can handle the Tooth! No Tooth handler you!, Bah! I deride your Tooth handling abilities!
Regeneration may come in handy, but unless I’m way off on my lore, troll’s can’t regenerate fire damage. So that still leaves Wolverine as being the best at what he does.
Given the context in which he usually says that, I’ve often thought that Logan is NOT saying that he’s the best FIGHTER…
…seems more like he’s saying that he’s the best KILLER.
(…which would be in keeping with the comic-writer’s level of discretion, I suppose…)
no, he’s saying he’s the best at what he does, which might just be regenerating.
Yes, & what does he do?
It seems like whenever he’s thinking this phrase, he never explicitly says what he’s in the midst of doing. This leaves it open to the reader to ‘fill-in the blanks’…
(…so he’s the best at…”fighting?” … “surviving?”…)
…& more often than not, when he’s thinking this phrase, people are dying.
(…Let me ask, on a side-note, has Logan ever said this trademark phrase out loud?)
I’ll grant you, there are MCU-supers who’ve totaled higher body-counts…
…but VERY few.
Also, his long life-span enables him to say that no other super has ever killed so many in one-on-one situations. He’s always made killing an extremely personal matter.
He is not a prize fighter, but he is a brawler, and even the ‘best’ of them never come out looking pretty, except in Logan’s case
I think O.B. Juan , correctly deduced that it was Pixel’s laser claws which took off Scionia’s arm. As a dungeon master I certainly would count that as being ‘fire damage’.
Clearly Scionia has been cheating and is not relying on normal fire-vulnerable troll blood. Or, more likely, she has used her magic to boost the normal capabilities of troll regeneration.
On the plus side her regeneration is gradual enough that they will not face the same problem, as with Vehemence, of the limb immediately popping back, at full strength (or stronger). Not unless Scionia does some other blood mage trickery.
hmm..she’s touchinh the … tenta-orb? is she gonna teleport or wrap her up? will she come with?
dammit got confused by the two things…that one cant teleport…but I still want to know if she can take people with her…maybe if they are in the bubble?
Fingertips (or any part other than full sweaty palms) don’t work
Yup, as revealed in her top secret interview, her weakness is mittens. She has to grip and handle the orbs to operate them. Real question is, does Sciona know that, and if so, how?
I have brought Geek Shame upon myself!
*Japanese sounding works!*
*stomach stabby die thing*
words…..
this is not a good day for me….
Warning! Mondays can pop up anytime.
If I had a bit more ambition, I’d set up a petition for the calendar publishers to label all of the days as Mondays, just to remove all doubt.
I support this product and/or service.
And then get a job that has Mondays off.
Sounds like my UGT watch idea. Hands circle round the outside pointing in towards a central image that reads “Good Morning” regardless of the actual time.
Perhaps the alarm could play the “Good Morning”-song from “Singing In The Rain”…?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu6–WBPBHo]
(…starts at about 1:05 or so…)
Or, for those really stubborn mornings, how about Good Morning Vietnam?
Honestly it’s not that hard to figure out. Equipment based super? Deprive her of the equipment. It’s not like Astra didn’t figure it out.
True enough. If Sydney can figure out stuff, based on a few clues and careful observation, then we must assume that the competent arch-villains will be similarly capable of deducing the basics. If not necessarily be as good as her at figuring out the more obscure things.
So… assuming those claw marks came from capturing Pixel, why is Sciona’s regeneration only starting now? Was an outside assist required to trigger it, or should we just not think about what she looked like earlier?
Also, how does regeneration and grafted upper skull even work? Is blood magery dealing with super tissue rejection issues?
Because the face is not troll.
Wait, wrong…
You’ll note the regeneration is ongoing, so presumably Pixel gouged Sciona’s eye out. Still ~10 mins from “lightsaber to the face” level head trauma to nearly faded scar is pretty impressive.
It’s quite possible that Sciona didn’t have troll blood before or during her fight with Pixel…She could had troll blood handy so she could use it as “first aid” right after the fight though. That could very well be why we see that scar looking so nasty at first, but quickly healing now.
I was thinking something like this. Pixel got a good hit on Sciona (and not only got and eye and part of a tooth, but took off Sciona’s arm, which is why she’s missing a sleeve and the arm under it is skinny and gamey looking) but still got the upper hand and after stringing Pixel up, stumbled off for a troll booster.
“…still got the upper hand…” Pun intended?
I have got to paw it to you.
Still talon-ing up the pun score, I see.
:)
Definitely claws for alarm!
I better paws for effect.
*pawses*
Don’t worry, I was just pulling your leg.
Consider the rate of regeneration and project backwards.
She has NO idea just how much trouble she is in.
I am referring, of course, to Sciona.
Yeah, she’s in trouble all right…It didn’t take Sydney long to go from “distracting verbal barrage” to “Screw it! You’re under arrest.” Looks like Sydney is starting to get pissed, so I think it will take little time for her to advance to “lengthy barrage of colorful metaphors.”
If troll’s blood doesn’t allow regeneration for burn damage, Sciona’s ears are about to turn to ash.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that Sydney has managed to go completely past fear and is now in some quiet state of utter panic. Terry Pratchett used the concept a couple of times:
“The Bursar was not technically insane. He had passed through the rapids of insanity some time previously, and was now sculling around in some peaceful pool on the other side. He was often quite coherent, although not by normal human standards.” – Interesting Times
“Astfgl had passed through the earlier stage of fury and was now in that calm lagoon of rage where the voice is steady, the manner is measured and polite, and only a faint trace of spittle at the corner of the mouth betrays the inner inferno.” – Eric
I support this theory, and given her surroundings and assailant, I think this might be entirely plausible.
On the other hand, Sydney has held it together fairly well during what has been an incredibly revelatory and action-packed night. She has so far been fairly competent in the serious fights we’ve seen, so I think it reasonable that she’s this composed.
Yup, have to agree: when someone who should be in a blind rage fury appears calm and collected, that’s when you should be filling your panties with brown and yellow
I think the Klingons say it best – “The sharpest weapons are usually the most silent.”
You give it to her, Sydney! If you can break that bone, you can break her wrists, long enough for you to get free!
…or not.
Irrelevant how strong you are, if you are holding weight above your shoulder and your forearm is broken in two places in a zig-zag pattern, you loosen the grip (no fixed bone to the muscle apply strength against), and even if you don’t let go, the weight will drop a bit.
Mind you, my knowledge of troll biomechanics is severely lacking.
So if that didn’t do it, a broken wrist shouldn’t do much more…
That said it’d be worth trying to break it in 7 places (or maybe try for some brain damage).
If the muscle itself is strong enough, it can hold anyway. Real-world human marathon runners have been able to go for miles with a broken leg
Congratulations on page 500! Thank you DaveB, for providing such steadfastly on time and superbly high quality work, for all that time.
*does the happy doggy dance*
As a treat I think we have a spare ogre arm lying around here somewhere if you want it.
Ooh, wriggly! Yum.
ooh, leftogres (leftovers)
In this case, it’s rightogres
No no, she is definately a wrongogres. She should not be hurting Sydney and will pay a terrible price!
She might be destroyed with an Earth-Shattering KA-BOOM!
What? Is the Illudium Space Explosive Modulator your guess about what one of Sydney’s “unknown” orbs can do?
Harem saves the day. Calling it now since Sciona mentioned teleporting being a way past her wards.
No, the wards don’t stop people entering, they simply alert Sci-fright when someone uninvited pops around for a cup of sugar, or selling girl scout cookies (the kind not made from real girl scouts)
But those are the best kind!
Yes, that’s why those sellers are welcome, the other kind? not so much
Why would Sydney need teargas?She just needs to eat before she goes on a mission.
Well, it was a short but colorful superhero career for Sydney. I’m gonna miss her!
Seriously, I really can’t figure out how she’s going to get out of this one.
Unless, of course, she has someone who could alter reality as a back up…
Oh, wait! She does!
I seem to recall Krona setting-up a “save-point” just 5 pages back…
…now then, how will she know when it’s time to *USE* it…?
Yep, Sciona has Sydney right where she wants her – – – which can only mean Sciona is DOOMED!
Instead of using the orbs to beat on Sciona, Sydney should shove one of them down her throat. Let’s see how well troll blood can keep you alive without oxygen.
You assume she still needs to breathe.
Valid point. Still, you could always put the orbs in there and then rip them out through the skin, or just bounce them around inside hard enough to rip her guts out. Often things with super toughness are less protected on the inside, and Sciona isn’t actually that tough if the blunt impact of the orbs can break her arm.
Smashing the orbs into her temples would also be a good plan.
Dave B;
I can’t be the first to think of Sydney arming herself with some extreme version of pepper spray, can I? One assumes she’d be mostly immune.
Congratulations on 500!
you can actually make your own pepper spray (and it can be used as a salad garnish)
No matter how much you train, no matter how high your level of spice-heat tolerance, nobody is totally immune…
…however much you enjoy it in the mouth, it’ll still hurt you when it gets in the eyes.
Which has been shown in universe.
Exactly – in the bank!
(…”We Sting Your Eyes!”tm…)
(…sorry, don’t know how to get the ‘Trademark’-symbol…)
Shown when Sydney accidentally flicked a spicy noodle into her own eye right before the press conference (thus her eye patch and “I’m not a pirate.” comments to the press).
And “we sting your eyes” is even more greatly applicable when it’s used with direct contact…As Sydney learned when Peggy took her to Fusion later.
I once pepper sprayed someone who tried to pee on me. He screamed mightily over his scalded wienie.
Hey! Tha’ts hitting below the belt!
“sorry, don’t know how to get the ‘Trademark’-symbol”
For a list of html numbers you can type in:
https://www.ascii.cl/htmlcodes.htm
In this case, the one you want is ™ *
Whereas the one I wanted was & **
* Just copy that in wherever you want ™ to appear. Obviously saving the bookmark, for future reference, would be handy too. If it is something you would enjoy using, like myself.
** So that I could replace the ampersand at the beginning of the trademark html code.
Then, needless to say, I needed to replace the ampersand at the beginning of the ampersand html number, so that I could display that, without it being converted into an ampersand. Err yea, that is right.
I may need to hold my head steady, to stop it spinning round.
I thank you for the link!
I regret that I’m all out of “Scooby-Snacks”™.
May I offer (as long as it’s not disrespectful or too forward) scratches behind the ear…?
DAG-Nabbit that Gar-flinkin’ Copy/Paste&8482!?!?!
:P
(…slinks off dispiritedly…)
Ahh you missed off the semi-colon, at the end, I am afraid.
*ears drooping*
I’ve found it much easier to copy/paste such things as they appear in use into a text file & save it on my Desktop. Then I copy/paste from the text file when I want to use it. That way, I don’t have to remember or use the text code itself.
;)
Technically you can build up immunity to it in the eyes, most people just don’t want to. For good reason.
Not to mention, police grade pepper spray, at least in the UK, isn’t actually capsaicin, so tolerance would only partially carry over.
Ah, mace, from the outer skin of the nutmeg.
I remember seeing on that Stan Lee Superpowers show a woman who actually is immune to pepper spray–even US military grade pepper spray. Was sprayed in the face with no effect…
Geeze Sydney, go for fingers, 6 orbs and only five of her fingers need to be smashed for you to be free..
Althou, breaking the forearm should have done it, the muscles that work the fingers are there, smash the fore are and the finger “should” go limp…
Those fingers are holding Sydney’s own hands. Kinetic transfer from hitting the fingers hard enough to break them would injure Sydney as well, possibly rendering her unable to hold her orbs.
Shhhh, thats Logic…. me and logic go wayyyyy back, I dont like him much…..
Sciona has now captured two Arc members in just a few minutes. She may be evil, but I must admit she really has her head together.
Yeah, well, you know how it is:
“Decapitate me once – Shame On You…
…Decapitate me twice – Shame On Me.”
Speaking of which, if troll-blood is such a potent healing-factor, why is Sciona’s head-scar (down near the crease of the mouth) still so livid & stitched?
Is there perhaps some ongoing tissue-incompatibility between the “Sciona”-Head & the “Not Sciona”-body? Could this be a weakness that Sydney might exploit?
Compare the earlier panels to the final panel, where the livid red has healed completely. Presumably Sciona has only just received that wound recently, and it has only just finished regenerating.
Possibly it may have been done in subduing Pixel, but she has since been strung up, and it seems likely that the wound would have healed during that process. Plus I would expect multiple claw marks, if Pixel had raked her face with a paw. Whereas that is a single wound, such as from a sword.
Depending on how long it has been there, it may have been caused by a flaming or acid-coated weapon, explaining why it had lingered as long as it had.
I totally understand that part. My question was concerning the scar that borders between the pale-skinned head & the less-pale lower jaw. It looks like it still has sewing-sutures.
That might be an idea. Instead of hitting the arm from two orbs going together, have Sydney force two orbs into Sciona’s mouth and have them go outward in two directions. The gore factor from this may be a little high for the general tone of this comic. (And if we want real gore, Sydney could force one down her throat and do the chest-burster scene from Alien.)
OHMIGAWD!
I’m so ashamed that I hadn’t thought of that!
Now I’m picturing 3-or-more of Sydney’s Orbs force-feeding themselves into Sciona’s mouth…
…making their way down to the guts…
…& then performing a VICIOUSLY-fast ‘spin-cycle’!
:S
Sydney needn’t even try for a ‘chest-burster’ attack – just use the internal Orbs to mash Sciona against either the ceiling or a stone wall!
And then remember that Sydney nearly fainted because she assisted Maxima, when she tore his arm off.
Sydney might go rabid weasel but I doubt that she will opt for the orc blender technique.
Agreed, but I *CAN* picture Sydney using her Orbs this way (internally) to suspend Sciona in mid-air until help arrives. I’m hard-pressed to imagine Sciona being experienced in countering a force that has her by an INTERNAL grip. While Syd might usually balk at doing this to someone, Sciona has just finished proving that she can survive an incredible level of physical abuse.
*nods*
Mind you it then becomes ‘what is the lift capacity of each orb individually, and combined?’
Given that they appear to have the punching strength of a normal person* we can guestimate that they also have a comparable lifting capability. So the equivalent of three and a half people (two orbs being the equivalent of two hands, or one person, with seven orbs in all).
So probably enough for your plan to work out. Albeit that it would be a visually hard scene to portray. The orbs going in the mouth would be easy to follow. But the remainder, well it can be done, but it may be confusing to those who have not inferred what she is trying to do.
Finally, in order to deform her flesh enough to visually carry the point, it will also look alarmingly like Sydney is trying to tear her apart, rather than just lift her.
I am not sure that would be the best route to go, entertainment wise, when Sydney has other options.
* They had the same effect you would expect, when hitting Math. They did not, for instance, crush his jaw, through being much more forceful than a human fist hitting.
[to Yorp]:
I concur with your well-reasoned analysis.
(with one exception – cracking the arm in 2 places seems just a bit stronger than baseline human)
Much of our problem here is that Sydney’s enthusiasm has led her into the “deep end of the pool” much sooner than I’d recommend for someone of her limited experience. There’s just such a frighteningly large amount we don’t yet know about her abilities & their limits.
P.S.:
For the record, I’d invest no more than 5 Orbs (at most) down the throat, leaving Shield+Lighthook for her hands. Spread the other 5 as far apart as the abdomen will permit, to prevent Sciona from pivoting around their anchoring influence…
…all the while, Sydney’s calling-in backup for poor Pixel!
P.P.S.:
It needn’t be a massive lift – just keep her off-balance, belly facing the roof, to prevent her gaining the leverage needed to attack/escape.
Well, at least it would be better than going in from the other end! Butt who knows? Scions might actually like that sort of
https://instantrimshot.com/
Well, Sydney is not strung up like meat to the slaughter quite yet. She may do something completely unexpected that wins the day yet.
That is some damned good stitching. Not aesthetically pleasing, but it does its job better than human surgeons have managed.
Oh my God! I have to buy that dumb thing!
Before you rush to buy it you might want to do some research. While the ones available are all counterfeits (the original was started on Kickstarter and is still busy delivering to all backers before becoming available to everyone) there is a big difference in quality between sellers. There are a bunch of reviews and comparisons on youtube if you look for it.
Jim Sterling did a review of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bko42gwu3cQ
DaveB needs to be careful about using that sort of toy around some people. My sister who has borderline ADD also has something that has come into the public eye lately, ‘Misophonia’. Certain types of ordinary sounds just drive her up the wall: pen clicking/tapping, gum chewing, slurping soup or drinks, silverware tapping on plates, crackling cellophane. That toy looks like it could make all kinds of trigger sounds. Use it around the wrong person and you might find yourself faced with a seriously enraged bystander.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/06/health/misophonia-sounds-brain-study/
While there are a few buttons that make a click much like a pen click on the toy, it was designed (the official one at least, the fakes less so) that some of the buttons are silent so that they could still be used in classrooms and such.
Of course one would have to know that there was someone being annoyed in the first place before using only the silent buttons.
All I see is the vote incentive thumbnail where the comic usually goes…
Try hitting F5, to refresh. Or, if that fails, CTRL F5 to force the refresh. Or whatever equivalents your browser uses, for the same functions.
If the problem persists, let us know. But I am sure that will fix it.
I just came back after a nap and it’s fixed.
Naps fix a lot of problems, both on the Internet and in meat space.
Ooh, your browser has a super power. “Regenerates, but only when not being observed”!
If today’s free comic does not appear your money will be cheerfully refunded.
Halo using her orbs as bludgeoning weapons worries me, even if she only does it as a desperation (or annoyance) move. I’m scared of them breaking.
Yes, they’ve shown themselves to be quite durable- breaking Sciona’s arm that way where it’s also reasonable to assume that she not only regenerates but has very tough flesh and bones- but it can still happen.
We just don’t know at what point what they hit will be hard and forceful enough to break them. For that matter, neither do we know if they can be repaired or replaced.
If it helps, it’s a last ditch escape attempt when her hands are out of comission, not anything more.
I would think there are safeguards implemented in the orbs where they can’t be slammed into something with enough force to endanger them. Also, as far as we know they could be super-compact liquid being held together by super-localised gravity and smashing them would just cause them to reform instantly.
Agreed. We have seen that the orbs have several safety features, such as the PPO being hard to fire, and the immovability, which stops them being separated from her. I am sure that the upper limit on how hard they can punch will be set lower than the force needed to break them if hitting them against an exceptionally tough object.
Also, based on the fact that their mere existence is impossible, I think they might be indestructible.
Do not think ‘how can I bend the spoon, there is no spoon’.
“You think that’s air you’re breathing?”
“Sydney’s rather collected attitude here surprised even me. When I sat down to write this page, I’d intended for her to be a lot more scared.”
I suspect that a.) fear has not completely set in yet, b.) she’s so afraid right now that it has come back around and she’s not afraid, or c.) her situation has not completely set in yet so she isn’t worried.
It just might be that Sydney’s adrenalin response is set on “Fight” rather than “Flight”. She’s hospitalized a mugger, for instance, before she even got her powers, not to mention her introduction to Maxima.
If that were the case there would be other examples, I dunno, maybe bank robbers or world-class martial artists she had defeated?
A part of her brain may be working out the plan “Help is coming. Keep the villain talking as long as possible.” There is the long-standing trope that all villains need to prove to everyone else how smart they are. Sydney’s next move would be to ask “So, you have a secret lab. What does all this equipment down here do, anyway?”
Noooo, don’t buy THAT from Amazon, that is a counterfeit. True, the original ones will take some time to hit the market but the ones on Amazon and everywhere not Kickstarter are still a stolen idea.
*is one of the Kickstarter backers for the original product*
The above aside. Congrats on making it to 500!
Color Me unsurprised that Amazon would be allowing Forge product to be sold through their website. They already allow rigged voting on their products. The star rating that Amazon provides for a given product is completely useless If the product is sold and sent from an Amazon location. Those items if voted with one star because the product arrived broken or did not meet its initial claims, Amazon will cancel those negative votes and say that because it shipped from their warehouse that it is their fault and they shouldn’t apply to the product rating which is a total falsification of the point of rating something. Shamamazon and their vendors regularly sell counterfeit product intel i350 network cards. Eww Egg sells these as well.
I have two from the Kickstarter. Buying forged knockoffs is like reading your webcomics from someone that scrapes the site and removes the watermark…
I’d stick 2 orbs into his eyes to surprise him, if he loosens her grip grab the hook to get some distance than shield.
Her eyes. That is a girl orc/dark elf/abomination construct.
But good plan.
I’d also wondered about that.
Sciona appears to be a female head grafted onto a male body.
Was the body decapitated for the explicit purpose of attaching her head?
Or perhaps it was a case of:
“…Gotta grab a body! Any body from the surrounding carnage – fast! My blood-magics will sustain me only a little more!”
the second thing, this is the person maxima and them thought was dead to decapitation
Orcs (/ogres) are much like dwarves, in this regard. There is not much to distinguish a male from a female (other than pretty ribbons in the beard, for the lady dwarves). That may actually be a female body. Clearly not a super one though, as it lacks key defining features.
depends which universe too. Warcraft fem dwarves don’t have ’em, and some D&D versions just have something akin to a light fuzz on the dwarf gal’s neck ;) (there’s also Dwarves in Dark Sun who don’t have hair. at all.)
You know, the main active ingredient in pepper sprays is capsaicin, so that probably *wouldn’t* affect Sydney as much as it would her assailant.
Not if she intercepted any going her way with her mouth.
*smiles, showing a full set of shiny teeth*
So, you’re saying that her best defense is to allow Sydney to … FEED her like a mommy-bird feeds her young?
:S
DUDE…
I don’t think the rating system will allow her to do it the human way. Not unless she snuck a bottle into her utility belt.
So very, very sorry.
Syd clearly doesn’t have a “spray/squirt”-type weapon with her just now, so the only way I could picture her launching a chemical attack at this point was from her mouth – as she did (twice) during the bank incident.
(1st she gasped in Mr.Amorphous’ face, then she puked on Max’s boots)
When I thought that this was what you were suggesting, I…
…nope. Never-mind. Not going there. I totally misunderstood. Please accept my apology.
Yeah, the ‘sauce in the eye’ bit showed that the non-digestive parts of Sydney are still sensitive to capsaicin.
Actually, police pepper spray, atleast in the UK, is an artificially created analogue called nonivamide.
Given how comparitively weak I am to black pepper, I don’t think we can assume Sydney has any resistance to that.
You have a sensitivity to black pepper? As in nose running, feeling an urge to sneeze? Or is it just that you find a small amount to taste very strong? Unless I am misunderstanding your intent?
A strong black pepper sauce will have me streaming more than any sensible chilli one. Urge to sneeze I’ve not had from it but, then again, I’ve never had black pepper vapourised in my vacinity like I have ghost and scorpion.
I have freshly ground black pepper with most meals. Plus love the sauce, when it is available. Interesting how people react differently to things.
I mean, theoretically troll blood wouldn’t unbreak her arm while healing, it would probably just heal it in place all fucked up like that.
But, that’s may be me being an ass to my Players, so…
That is the difference between a racially evolved (or possibly magically or divinely created) ability and some mad scientist inventing a ‘super regeneration’ device. The latter works the way your evil DM mind operates. But nature/arch-mages/gods have ways of supplementing a key survival feature with ancillary effects, to optimise its use.
For instance our blood does not just transport energy and oxygen around the body, it also has the side effect of clotting up, if it leaks out, thus helping to repair it. Plus it has various other features which help tissue to recover from damage. Our blood does not need to have features to straighten bones, as our healing is so slow that it would have never evolved. In less intelligent mammals they just stay as they broke. In the more intelligent ones, there is the option of pushing the bones back into place manually.
But in a race where wounds recover in minutes, ancillary features such as muscles positioned along the length of the bone, designed to pull broken parts back into position, would be a very useful feature. Which natural selection, mad magic and devious deities have ways and means of ensuring will come to pass.
Importantly troll’s regeneration is not limited to ‘flesh only’. They recover from all wounds, bar those caused by fire or acid. Broken bones included.
And apparently lasers don’t count as fire.
Sciona used troll blood! It was super effective!
If going for Bond-type gadgets, that thermite toothpaste would be useful. Flip open the utility belt, with an orb. Slide a bunch of them underneath the tube, and a couple on either side to keep it in place. Position it strategically (either above the villain’s wrists or head, depending on how homicidal Halo is feeling) then mash them together.
Traditional trolls have a problem regenerating burn damage.
Mind you I doubt Ms Frankenstein will quietly stand around whilst that is going on. So I think I would advise Sydney to stick with plan A… mash the villain’s wrists with her orbs, until they are broken enough to let her go!
Hey, it just occurred to me I have no idea what that symbol on Sydney’s shirt is.
It is Sydney’s symbol. A stylized “H” for Halo.
With the center ‘bar’ of the H wrapping around, to suggest a halo.
Which just goes to show that Sydney has “been there (Archon HQ), done that (signed up as a recruit to ARCSwat) & got the T-Shirt.” Literally.
And all she got was that lousy T-shirt? Sorry I just had to say it. I’m home sick today and my brain is effected, affected? I don’t know.
Affected.
*slides over a tray with a hot cup of Lemsip, a selection of over-the-counter remedies, for common ailments, and a plate of buttered hot golden toast*
Off to bed with you! You can take a laptop, or the like, with you. But keep yourself cosy.
Have you been breathing those Earth germs again? Didn’t that little invasion plan a century ago teach you anything? I guess Martians who fail to learn from their history are doomed to repeat it.
With all the powers that the orbs give Sydney, I tend to forget that they can be used as effective bludgeoning weapons.
…That’s something that the numbnuts, Shadow Boxer (from the fight at the Steak House) will never forget…
Got to say that I don’t like this page as much, my suspension of disbelief head been suspended. I don’t care how tough you are, how quickly you regenerate, what your pain threshold is, if you are holding someone aloft with one arm and it is broken like that, it is mechanically impossible to continue to hold them.
The other issue I have his while Dave’s pages are generally well choreographed I don’t know how you grab somebody from behind in your hand held out in front of you and then manage to turn them around to face you without changing the position of your hand and once you lift them off the ground you’re not going to be able to spend them around in your single hand still.
I agree that the choreography seems off here, but it could be explained as minor aspects/spells of her blood magic. She touches one hand and she gets limited control over your body, causing both hands to move together, essentially a capture spell. You break her arm, but as long as the spell lasts and she has contact with your body, you are caught.
If you were talking about a human arm, yes. In which that would have been the ulna which broke, and the remaining bone, the radius, is principally used in twisting the arm, rather than supporting the weight.
However that is not a human body. It is either an orc or an ogre. Whilst they are bipedal humanoids and will have similar bone structure, they are not humans. Plus both are notoriously tough. Which means their radius (and/or additional bones that may not even be present in a human body) could provide full redundancy, in the event of the ulna being broken.
It did not strike me as implausible that she could continue to hold up a lightweight, like Sydney, even with one bone broken.
Of course we each have our own threshold, at which we set our suspension of disbelief. But hopefully those thoughts might allow you some leeway in interpreting the scene yourself.
On a random thought mode I wonder how a troll would react to a face full of chlorine trifloride?
On a less random thought congratulations on reaching 500 pages! Definitely quite an achievement!
Does someone play ss13?
As chlorine triflouride is a more powerful oxidizer than oxygen, and burning is just rapid oxidation, I’d say that would count as fire damage.
I was about to question why the scar healed with the snapped bone, but I’m more concerned about how at least one half of his face looks stitched on.
This person is a vampire head sewn onto a troll body remember they said they mostly beheaded them before. This is not the first time this character has appeared.
We don’t know that Sciona is also a vampire; she was described as being a Blood Mage. But the stitched-together part is entirely accurate.
Go for the head Sydney! Regeneration or no, shaking up the brain or pulping the head should make Sciona unconscious for a while, that should allow you to take Pixel and skeedadle.
If Sydney knocks Sciona out and rummages through her stuff I think it would be interesting to find a set of car keys showing she drives a Toyota Scion.
So what do you guys think? I would bet a good hit to the face would disorientate our bad guy, especially if you are worried about the stitches. Yes, I know she can heal, but there are still stitches and scars on the upper part of her face for some reason. Which possibly means she can be damaged there, or at least hurt badly enough to let go.
I’m guessing Sydney is in trouble unless touching an orb with her fingertips can make it work, that or Maxima realizes something is wrong launches over to there then pulverizes the freak into many pieces.
Congratulations on page 500. Love, love, LOVE what you do here!
Interesting that Sciona was smart enough, or lucky enough to grab Sydney by her hands. The pretty much limits what Halo can do.
So, how does Sydney get out of this one?
If she does get out of this. I want to see Sydney kick ass, not get captured, but who knows. Cant wait for Monday.
While it would be nice to have Sydney kick arse, Sydney is not actually the physical kick-arse type: she is support and strategy, not front line fighting action
Your forgetting there was a news conference about the arc team – so its quite possible to guess grabbing her hands means no powers, or at least no ability to control / aim them.
“Interesting that Sciona was smart enough, or lucky enough to grab Sydney by her hands.”
I think luck had nothing to do with it.
Back on Pg.489 [2017/01/02] Sciona’s spy Zvonamir reported back to her, no doubt with details on how each fighter performed against the various ‘husks’.
why stop with just one attack? She has enough balls that she can have 3-4 hitting the target at all times neh?
Gatlin gun the orbs into the target head, face, eyes hands and yes Genitals (it worked for that shadow idiot and this is a supposed male body)
Orbs near teh eyes when rest of body is getting pummeled would mean a flinch and maybe hand or hands moving to protect…
dont stop until you’re out or they are.
My thoughts likewise.
My concerns though are that Sydney is already hurting, with just being held by one hand. Sciona is just as strong as she looks. Plus, if she felt her life was in danger, Sciona would be forced to respond with lethal force.
She can probably kill Sydney a lot more easily than vice versa. Primarily because Sydney lacks the killer instinct, to drive home her attack, hard and fast enough, and (most importantly) with the intent to kill, in order to win in that kind of engagement.
Sadly it might be a good way to get herself killed, rather than captured.
*ears drooping, tail curled under body*
If she can break a bone with ONE orb, imagine the pummeling she can do with SEVEN to the person’s head.
Wait, she already DID that to Mr. “He punched me with Nega-knuckles! In the faaace!”
Followed up by an obligatory “teabagging” comment.
It looks like she used the leverage of two orbs to do the bone break. Just like when she nutcrackered Mr. shadow knuckles. Good hit, someone’s been working with Math. That should have messed up the tendons controlling the hand… in a human. Too bad the body is non-human so there’s no guarantee vital areas are where they should be.
Something for Math to work on. Training for the team on identifying possible weak points and vital areas of non-human (or heavily altered super human) targets.
Personally, if it has noticeable ears, I’d go for those first. That’s going to be a weak point no matter how strange the anatomy or reenforced the skull.
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