Grrl Power #510 – Maybe it’s a cupcake beam
The title to this page is a joke, but how bizarre would it be if Sydney started shooting cupcakes out of the PPO? It might tell her something about the origin of the orbs though. She’d be popular with bachelorette parties. And at… well, lots of places. I mean, who doesn’t like cupcakes? Ooh, especially if someone made a coffee cake cupcake? That’d be… I guess that would be a muffin technically. Ooh! Unless there was cinnamon frosting on it. Oh boy that’d be good. Unless it was too much cinnamon. Do they make butter flavored frosting? Cause that’s something butter needs. 9 parts powdered sugar.
But I digress.
Well, Sydney might get in a little trouble for not spending her point in the agreed upon manner but on the other hand, she’s gotten two skill points in under a week. If that remains a constant she’ll have half the skilltree unlocked by the time she makes private. Hopefully Max and Zephan won’t be too upset with her, at least for that. Locking up while Pixel exited stage left is another story.
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Hehe “exited stage left”… heavens to murgatroyd!
Perfect. Yes.
And then the gender of the golem was switched! And the Golem controller!! And possibly the entire town!!!
Shortly before being incinerated of course.
Due to being superhero level hot?
Dabbler would have a field day.
If Dabbler also had Harem’s power…
cupcake beam? i thought it might have a muffin-button now! (DBZA reference. muffin-button solves everything!)
Well if it involves any baked goods, let’s at least hope it’s POUND cake… :P
*Runs off, Zoidberg-whooping…*
I dunno, as this is Sydney, I had kinda been hoping to see A CUPcake beam. Maybe it gives any target an A-cup and a cake bra? Icing optional.
I bet the upgrade allows Sydney to do something aggravating!
Or more likely, to be her usual aggravating self in an all new and unexpected way. :)
That’s no way to talk about the leader of the space cadets… ;-)
Its a clothing beam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1HBhdp_XR0 Then she will be able to start her own line of clothing.
Does that mean she is gonna draw aggro?
I think that is a bit too abstract for Sydney’s stick-figure level of artistic skill. Maybe she will paint the town red?
Most, thanks to Sydney’s own words, seem to be thinking a new kind of beam will be showing up. But what if she didn’t put the point into the ‘wheel’ (which I think are different beam types to cycle through) but instead put it into the straight line and instead of a new beam we get to see an even stronger version of her regular exploding beam? The mannequin will be lucky if his feet remain after that!
Yup, he looks tank-sized, which we know is meltable by the beam. Although clearly it is more powerful than such mundane technology as Sciona indicated that the manekillers were trivial in comparison to it.
So Halo may need that upgrade.
Max notices the small mushroom cloud where the roof used to be…
Maybe it’s Tree Grow Beam (think of how the boss of Fern Gully was defeated).
“I’ll save you! Tree Powers, Activate!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwJaELXadKo
I fought through the cheesy to the awesome. Thanks.
I am kinda conflicted. Less potential walkers. But lots more nice trees We need more trees, and less people, or we will all die eventually! But I am man’s best friend!
Ooh bright shiny object….
*cocks leg next to nearest tree*
Did you not see that freak turn that puppy into a bush? o_O
That skit was a bigger pile of trash than Plunder and Blight combined produce in a year!!
I intensely disliked it most of the way through.* Up until I twigged that it was a parody. Meaning that the poor production values were intentional. Then I had a good laugh.
Not the sort of thing I would go out of my way to watch mind. I am not a fan of ‘so bad it is good’. So I find no interest in Mystery Science Theater, for example. But found this particular video enjoyable, as a one-off.
As regards the puppy, dogs will share humanity’s fate. If humans go extinct, through destroying the atmosphere, so will dogs. They do not get a free pass, due to being cute.
* Even when I was a pup, and in the target audience of children’s entertainment, I hated programs that did not make an effort to do a good job ‘because kids won’t know the difference’. In that era you had to make an allowance for special effects, as it simply was not possible to make them look realistic. But there has never been an excuse for poor acting, bad makeup, crappy wardrobes and the like.
Unless, of course, it is the program’s intention to mock those series which do have poor production values. Provided it does it well. It is all too easy to slip into being just as lazy and crap as well. I think the change in tone, in this one, worked well, thus redeeming it.
My friend Jeff says I obsess over that show too much. I disagree.
What if you used:
Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Hate
Super Radiation, Deforestation, Toxics, Smog, Heart
You’d have a Captain Pollution that absorbs all the elements, sacrificing his summon but bettering the planet, and a Captain Planet that is nature’s rage destroying the sources of pollution.
Win.
But in the meanwhile keep planting those forests.
From the looks of this thread I’m the only person that thought of ASDFmovie when Pendrake said “Tree powers activate!” I’m surprised nobody mentioned it. Or is it assumed that everyone knows the reference so nothing needs to be said about it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYnsfV5N2n8
Never seen that before myself. Awesome power though.
Trapped and suffering from carbon dioxide poisoning? Tree powers activate!
Dying of dehydration and getting attacked by wolves? Tree powers activate!
Bored by having to sit and listen to some dull speech? Tree powers activate!
The point went into a PPO slot. One of those slots is the connection to Lighthook. I think of those links as ability to borrow properties of one Orb while using another. From the PPO side this would in my mind give it the ability to shoot in other directions than from Sydney-forward. Virtual turrets floating outside the Forcefield. Now consider Sydney’s cursing streak: Turrets -> Tourette’s syndrome.
I agree that would have good visuals. Mind you I think the logic of it would work better once Sydney has unlocked multiple tentacles. That way we could see each tentacle pointing in different directions, with beams coming out the ends.
But it clearly cannot be a pre-requisite to unlock the power you suggested. Or else it would have been greyed-out, on the skill-tree, as being unavailable, at the moment. So if my suggested modification were to remain workable, the present upgrade would simply be to allow the beam to fire out of the tentacle.
Not as exciting as your one, but it has one very important use, in that we know the tentacle can operate outside of the force-field. Which is not something that we can say about the PPO. Likely it can, but if not, this is a very useful power.
Presumably it would allow the option of holding either the PPO or the tentacle orb (in addition to the shield orb, if that is desired). The deadly beam coming out of the tentacle limiting its potential use for any other purpose, naturally enough. So this is a way of easing the ‘two-hand limit’ but only in a very specific way.
Of course it does also allow the option of shooting around corners. In this case best paired with either a mirror from the utility-belt, or using Halo’s telepresence option, for aiming purposes. Using the wall for cover negating the need for the shield, needless to say.
Sydney went on a random walk through the land of Karma, and it’ll either be awesome, or vastly disappointing…
Changeable Karma?
I guess that would mean part of Sydney’s flight speed (since the known connection is Flyball/Pewpew) is the flyball’s speed stat plus adding pewpew thrusters on top of it?
Thing Im wondering about is this, Sydney is about to fire a beam…inside her force bubble. Hope she isnt about to accidently nuke herself, or set of a bunch of ricochets!
She’s already done that safely
Nope. In the firing-range demo she fired the beam unshielded then, when molten bits of tank were heading towards her, she raised the shield.
Yup that is a very real concern at the moment. And one that could well happen, as (provided Sydney lucked out and avoided dying) it would provide hilarious visuals.
Although, logically, a tank-melting beam, in a confined space, is unlikely to have a happy result. Especially after having had an upgrade, to make it even more powerful than that.
*ears drooping*
Unless, of course, cupcake.
I dunno. the standard so far has been everythign appears outside her bubble when said bubble is up. The light hook for instance automatically expanded starting distance instead of starting directly from the orb.
The orbs are relatively idiot proof so far, as far as that sorta detail goes anyway.
You can’t make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious.
And there so many of them…
consider sydney using the light hook and the shield the hook appears outside of the barrier, using that as a precedent (along with the other como’s she has shown) im guessing the orbs do not interfere with each other but can rather all of them can be ‘dual weilded’
I am optimistic that is the case. Yet pessimistic of the potential consequences, should that not be so
Although this is a comedy comic, so we would be more likely to see Sydney wiggling round like crazy, trying to dodge the beam!
:-D
They were created as a single optimized set, so you can assume they they are made to work together in any combination since killing the operator would be considered sub-optimal…
Yup, but we do not know who or what the orb-creators are. So we could be making bad assumptions because they have a different world-view.
Let us propose that they are xenophobic pacifists. To them the PPO is simply a tool, for cutting or burning things. It is not a weapon. But the only extreme circumstance under which they would consider using it as an improvised one is to avoid capture by ‘outsiders’.
Net result they definitely would want to be able to use the PPO inside the shield. But would consider one that was usable outside of the shield to be an abhorrent weapon, of greatest use to deviants who wished to use it to kill others!
Whilst there could be situations where work might be needed in a dangerous environment, ethical concerns over potential abuses would ethically prohibit such an arrangement, in case it fell into the wrong tentacles.
These are simple characteristics that may well apply to an alien race (or other supernatural entity or faction), yet would end up with some fundamentally different design priorities. Yet remaining wholly consistent with everything that we have observed about the orbs.
I’m pretty sure it would be fine. When not using an orb, she doesn’t understand it, but when it’s in use, she has alhvuchia zhovaleh. Probably like Varia’s ability- other people aren’t affected even if she bursts into flames. It’s like Friendly Fire is turned off, which also counts for the user themselves.
Here’s a slightly left-field thought: Her PPO is touching her shield. IIRC, there’s been a point placed on the line connecting the shield orb and the PPO. What if whatever she’s about to do will charge the shield instead of firing a beam? Less impressive, until Mannekiller Mk2 smacks the shield and gets its tentacle vaporized for its trouble.
Now that would be a good idea: turn the Bubble into a firewall, literally
Ooh, very nice suggestion! Both Man in the Mists proposal and the visuals you provide. Plus may I add that the manekiller has its tentacle coiled ready for another attack. Which would give a spectacular demonstration of the power!
Melting a limb off is definitely something that Sydney would prefer to discover fighting an automaton, rather than a person!
Thinking about it, that would also provide a nice synergy for teaming up with Heatwave. Given that she is immune to heat. Perhaps Heatwave may even be able to walk through the force-field, if it is more heat-based or fiery, in that state, than a pure force-field?*
* I would visualise fire on the outside, with a semi-permeable field keeping the heat and flames away from those inside the bubble. Likewise any bits of molten shrapnel. But the tentacle could pass freely through it. Likewise anything being slowly pushed through it, provided that it did not get incinerated by the heat and flames.
After a long stare at the Deviant Art version of the original Orb to Point grid I have to wonder if Sydney has tried just having the Orbs fly into that position/arrangement to see if they display the current point set? That would be like hovering your mouse over a control… Then maybe something really simple that she could stumble across, like clapping, to activate a point reallocation. Just limit that to locking out any other change for a few days. And the main circle inside with two points spent that link to the only non dot marks in center (triangles) suggests that is why she can only activate 2. Drop a point in that ring to see if she can manipulate a third held under her chin (mentally controlled flying Orbs don’t get dropped). A way to do FFOrb and two others…
My usual comment on ‘ways to allow Halo to use an extra orb’ is that the restriction is there to make the character more interesting. Removing it just reduces the dilemmas that the protagonist might face and make solutions to any problem much too easy.
This is especially true as the author has already telegraphed how this could be accomplished, namely with Varia’s help. So there would be no need for yet another option, as it would remove any value to their potential collaboration. There would be very few circumstances where having four orb powers would be absolutely vital, compared to how frequently using three would be pivotal.
Once you can fly, with the shield up, you can swap around the third orb at your leisure. Sydney effectively then has use of all her powers as and when she needs them. Whilst cirumstances can be contrived to make that insufficient, doing so repeatedly, to keep interest going in the comic, would feel forced. Just like the way a piece of kryptonite has to crop up to give Superman any challenge. “Ho hum, here comes the green rock again.”
Whereas to stop Sydney from using the Varia gestalt, to gain her third (or possibly fourth) power, all Dave need do is make her unavailable to help. She can be more useful with many of her other gestalt combinations, and some of her unique powers may often be in demand. If a colleague will die elsewhere, without Varia’s help, Sydney will just have to make do with her usual two power limit, and no tail-gunner in the Halo mobile. Or practice teamwork and let one of her other teammates use their powers.
Many of these suggestions are creative mind, which is great that folks have such an interest. But personally I do not think that such will happen.
It’s also possible those slots which would unlock multiple orbs come with a prerequisite. Just because she’s been able to slot points in anything she’s tried to does not mean they won’t deny. Two points of data do not make a trend.
I think anything allowing multiples would be at the high end of the skill tree, along with whatever the center section does…
There’s also the fact that, so far, no one realizes that the orbs can be used by Varia when she’s touching Sydney. No one noticed, save for the webcomic audience :)
But I noticed. I could tell Sydney. Look:
“Bark bark bark bark bark!”
*wag tail*
Only if one of the orbs grants 4th wall breaking vision, which is doesn’t since Sydney doesn’t know which way to look to see the audience. Also if one of the orbs lets her talk to doggies.
I would think it’d be easy for her to use more then 2 balls. After all, when I messed around with the Ben Wah balls I had, those were two to a hand. So if she can use her orbs like Ben Wah’s, she should be able to use em 4 at a time. Unless she has hands that are to tiny. I suppose that could be a physical limitation.
Sydney has experimented with every possible way of using more than two at a time, over a period of months. Even down to trying to activate one wedged in her butt cheeks!
Holding them is not the issue. It is necessary to both do that and activate more than two powers, which has proven impossible despite, Sydney’s considerable resourcefulness.
Yep. Totally called the PPO: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2452/comment-page-1#comments
What Sydeny needed to do was upgrade her one natural superpower. So that she could melt the attacker’s armor under the devastating power of her Halo-tosis.
I still prefer to call it “pepper breath”.
“The Scoville Scorcher” might be a good name.
…
…
…
*Probe
*Attention Getter
*Measured Response
*Assured Destruction
*Overkill
*Maximum Capability
–>Measured Response
Confirmed
–>Confirmed
–>Confirmed
#BLAST#
Decline
–>Decline
–>Decline
Scan activated
…
…
Hostile detected
…
Hostile confirmed
Please choose level of violent response, [Sydney].
*Probe
*Attention Getter
*Measured Response
*Assured Destruction
*Overkill
*Maximum Capability
-Measured Response
Thank you [Sydney], Measured Response selected. Please confirm your selection-
-Confirmed
-Confirmed
-Confirmed
Selection Confirmed. Please enjoy your moment of aggression, [Sydney].
#BLAST#
Please take a moment to answer a brief survey regarding your satisfaction with the Orb Combat System. Confirm or Declin-
-Decline
-Decline
-Decline
Thank you [Sydney]. Would you like to scan another target?
Had to clean up the first one. Sorry about the double post.
-Decline
[HAL voice] I am sorry Sydney declining selecting a next target is not permissible.
Nearest mobile target locked onto.
-Probe
Negative Sydney options below maximum capacity are now disabled.
Maximum capability confirmed.
Have a nice day.
Heh.
Shades of ED-209!!!
ERROR: COMMAND (OVERKILL) NOT FOUND
PLEASE SELECT
*FIRE
*RELOAD
It would be nice is the PPO had a targetting system akin to the Fallout Vault-Tec Assissted Targetting System (V.A.T.S) which essentially pauses time to give her an idea of where to fire :) But that would probably be waaaay too OP.
Pixel would only end up falling in it anyhow.
why would they be upset. she was under attack. shit happens obvi she just needs to spend the skillpoint on the flight orb next time cause she will get another one.
Because both soldiers and cops need to be able to follow orders especially when under fire. They, their colleagues and the general public’s lives depend on that. But the fact that she is still untrained means that she will only be in a little trouble, as she still only has the skill-sets of a civilian, at the moment.
However she does need to learn how to function effectively under such circumstances. In particular for this issue as, due to the nature of how the upgrades operate, she may well be under fire the next time she has to make her selection.
Soldiers under fire have leeway.
For sure. But I bet that any who failed to obey a command, which could have been carried out, if acted on promptly, would still get a chewing out, regardless that the circumstances ultimately did not warrant more serious punishment.
Mind you Sydney does have some serious mitigators working in her favour, over and above being under fire. But having let Pixel get seriously injured will loose her a bunch of goodwill. Even more so if she dies!
That comes under the rules of engagement, and what the operational orders say. There have been recent courts martial on those very things…
Admittedly, Sydney’s been a cop/soldier for all of 2 days. During those two days, she’s managed to be integral in defeating two Maxima-beating-capable enemies and was able to uncover a MIB level coverup of aliens which is waaay above her paygrade :) She found that, in addition to her impenetrable shield and truesight and PPO and energy tentacle, and being the second fastest flier on the team, she also can now teleport. Oh she also gave advance warning to the Council about the attack, and did find Sciona.
I think they might cut her a teensy bit of slack until the first week is over on not picking the right upgrade due to civilian-level panic.
It is almost as if you do not want to see Pixel smacking Sydney’s bottom?
That don’t float my boat, sorry :)
Still untrained? She’s barely begun. They have no one to blame besides themselves (and the author) for her being in the field untrained and freezing when the shit flies.
It is not a matter of blame. There is a crisis and whatever assets are to hand had to be deployed. The manikillers are heavily equipped with anti-supernatural weapons, and Sydney is one of the very few individuals capable of countering them. On top of which one Sigil has already been destroyed, so there is very little margin for error!
So Archon had to choose to either let their allies die, and the Veil to be exposed, plunging the world into the chaos of monsters suddenly appearing all around the general public, and the likely mass carnage that will ensue. Or to make use of Sydney (and others) despite only just having started training.
Further dealing with these errors is part of Sydney’s training. By the end of basic she must be able to manage her meds, ensure that she gets enough sleep that she will be able to operate without being the worse for sleep deprivation, and, if she has failed to do so, communicate when she is suffering from the effects of that.
Whilst you are certainly right that her bosses must do their part too, operational necessity (such as in this crisis) may require Sydney to be deployed despite not being bright-eyed and bushy tailed. So Sydney needs to learn every trick going that an ADHD person might be able to do, to avoid such a freeze up.
In this instance she could have done that if she had ignored all of the other tempting options and obeyed the orders. It was only faced with a wall of choices that she locked up. So, whilst most of the ‘blame’ does fall upwards, Sydney has to acknowledge where her failings contributed to this and must learn from it.
Not that Sydney will ever be able to completely avoid ‘tunnel vision’, as that is an aspect of ADHD that she just has to live with, but she can minimise both the risk of it occurring and the severity, by various means.
I recon the upgrade could be one of the coolest powers in City of Heroes. The ability to hurl a selection of randomly created objects, such as a safe or a speed-boat!
Just think of how excited Arianna will get, at all of the optional extra attachments that will have to be purchased for the Halo action figurine!
Collect them all!
Green Kryptonite radiation beam?
Sorry, misplaced comment.
In restropect a skill tree that does not allow you to defer the choice until later is a terrible UI design. Especially in any realtime environment without pause.
There is a pause button.
It might be able to do it, just let me check the operators manual…oh wait…
Honestly she probably can, and probably ecven has a “hud stats ” display ability. Likely due to how she moves them.
honestly I half think that maybe she’s just ~too backlogged~ on upgrades that it is forcing her to choose when she gets another one.
She’s had it a year, and hasn’t practiced much indeed, but she has gotten these two level ups crazy fast, for relatively little usage. and really only somewhat outside of what she would play with at home (if you accrue all the usage and play time she did in secret compared to the few battles she’s had thus far)
It seems likely that the leve ups aren’t even bound to what she uses the most (unless of course her shield flight and viision are un-greying and we aren’t shown).
So rather than a usage proficiency it seems more like its a “bonding with the user” sort of thing. Which has been building upf or a year.
Part of the reason it was decided originally to upgrade the flight orb was to help determine how the tree operates. Oh well. maybe next time…maybe…
BTW, DaveB, much better job with illustrating Sydney’s bangs, and hair in general. Especially from alternate POV’s.
Yea, with those angles being challenging. Good job on making things work well, more generally, even with the extreme close-ups.
I’m getting the feeling that we’re going to get the Sydney version of “Let’s go into the dark basement and investigate that mysterious noise. After all, what could possibly go wrong.”…
PPO transmuter mode activated=> golem:= Cupkake(golem). Reminds me of that poor water elemental turned into beer by a dwarf cleric, back in DM days.
Pony transformation beam! With optional unicorn setting and automatic rainboom!
Pepper enhancement…
Denied! Too OP!
Pumpkin Spice Beam! It makes Everything taste like pumpkin spice, Forever!
Do you hear that? Like the whisper in the wind? Like the faint heart-beat of another? It sounds like Dave is getting ready soon (comic-day wise) to have Sydney start to montage her way through her training to catch her up to the current day.
What did you buy? Was it penguins?! I love penguins!
So do I. They make awesome minions. Especially once they have completed basic firearms training.
How can they have firearms when they have no arms to set on fire? o_O
Their upper flippers serve the role well enough. Feathers are flammable, after all, and there are always plenty of oil spills to be found, to help things along.
Watch. Turns out she bought the upgrade that alows breathable air through her shield.
Has anybody made mention yet of how Sydney said the word ‘grab’ in the third panel? Doesn’t that seem kinda weird? I mean, this is Sydney we’re talking about, so of course weird stuff is bound to happen from time to time, but actually saying ‘grab’ when you’re grabbing something? Come on, Dave!
Did you not notice Sydney saying “dramatic gasp”, when she saw Pixel hung naked upside down?
Besides which it is not unusual to say something like “OK I have to grab one of these, at random”. In this case though time is literally of the essence, so Sydney just abbreviated that to the max.
She also tried to say gulp… while swallowing, and almost choked on her antipasto.
Is it really that odd though, she’s in fear of dying, she can’t activate orbs without having picked an upgrade, so random grab and activate shield?
I say “yoink” when grabbing a something that doesn’t belong to me. Making her own sound effects seems perfectly normal to me.
TAKING ALL BETS!
Potential PPO shot results:
Lambfart, Baby’s First Kamehameha, Plasma Rife, Avada Kedavra, Wave Beam <ahref="https://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Baby" title"Baby’s“> LAST Kamehameha, Samus’ Delight, Spacebound Rail Driver, God’s Sneeze, and “You Crossed The Streams, Didn’t You?”
PLACE BETS NOW!
I’m betting on; initiate a genesis-wave effect (like Star Trek II) which eliminates the entire existing biosphere and replaces it with a new alien biosphere more to the liking of the Orb-makers. Sole survivor; the Mighty Halo, thanks to her shield.
All hail the Queen of Earth 1.2!
1.7, actually.
Given the situation, my money’s on an antimagic beam.
That is a cool one.
I think that this upgrade has actually allowed the fiery great old one to start to enter this plane, much like the tentacled dark god can, through its orb. So it is no longer has just a pinhole gateway, to restrict its power on Earth. Now its head can enter fully!
Whether it will choose to bite the construct in half, or melt it with its hellfire breath, is at its whim.
*Pulls out a pair of $5s*
I’ll apply one to “shrink ray” and another to “zero-point energy beam”.
My bets more on something like ‘super poke’ looks absolutely harmless but result isn’t.
personally, I’m thinking.. for maximum comedy…
A PPO power control rheostat, which was previously locked on Max,
is now adjustable from that…down to light stun.
and Sydney of course, will crank it all the way.
I’ve been thinking about something like that, since a single setting tends to be overkill. She needs to be able to able to go from peel a grape to nuke’em from orbit…
So many of ye are worrying that the laser will smash into the inside of the shield, but every power we’ve seen so far with the shield works nicely with it. Flight pulls the shield’s epicenter, telepresence’s ray is not blocked, and the lighthook forms outside whether you like it or not. I see no reason the PPO would fire from inside the shield, or even be able to considering the lighthook’s inability.
In all likelihood, yes.
But Sydney is staking her life on that assumption.
Further we know nothing about the orb makers, so they might have unexpected anomalies in their devices , if their mind-set or physiology is different to humans. If they are a race of fiery elementals, then the PPO may actually be the equivalent of a fizzy drinks dispenser, to them.
Of course you want your refreshments on the inside, of your hostile environment bubble, not outside!
Not that Sydney has a heck of a lot of options here. Allies are likely to die, if she does not defeat this enemy. So the small risk is the lesser of two weevils.
One other point, that nobody has raised yet, in support of camp optimistic, is that we only saw the aftermath of the forest fire. It is entirely possible though that Sydney did do shield and PPO combination testing, before things got out of control. In which case she presumably knows that it can be fired at targets on the outside.
Fair point…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0-sfgfmPVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcFw-BP8Ick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjILYkSzX-I
The collective subconscious of mankind cries out.
Muzzle loaded? Meh, I wants full-auto! Plus a mortar with cluster cupcake munitions!
Mind you the cupcake creator gun is awesome. If not the other production values.
I hope it has cheezeburger setting too!
“Full automatic. Because I’ve got a cupcake with your name on it, and I’m going to keep shooting until I figure out which one it is.” ;)
Doesn’t have quite the same ring of finality as “I’ve got a bullet with your name on it”, but it’ll do.
For some reason this keeps reminding me of Goku’s muffin-button:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJxmSqdwIeM
…and then I get hungry and annoyed because I can’t eat muffins and lose weight at the same time :(
I dunno. It reminds me of Fa’lina’s “Plan B”…
https://missmab.com/Comics/Vol_426.php
“Incubi”? Is there more than one in that body? And the fur patterns on the torso led me to assume that was a girl underneath all the fur.
In Dan & Mab’s Furry Adventure, Incubi and Succubi have two sets of wings, their main wings and their “headwings”. Three sets if they’re a clan leader. (Clan leaders are also normally about 50 feet tall, but can inhabit avatars to move around among normal-sized folks.)
Oh, and they feed on emotions, not on tantric energy like Dabbler. Different emotions, depending on which clan they’re from. For example, the Taun clan is affiliated with anger, the Hrienth clan with pain, and there are those who suspect that Abel’s clan is affiliated with fun, because he sucks all the fun out of everything:
https://missmab.com/Comics/Vol_1721.php
Oh, and yes, Abel has been mistaken for female. ‘Cubi are shapeshifters, too. They can’t actually change sex, but they can move body mass around to appear to be the opposite gender. Abel can, and has, done so on a few occasions.
Looks like I misunderstood your original question. In DMFA, the race is collectively referred to as “Cubi”. So there’s no difference between singular or plural; they’re all “Incubi” if male, or “Succubi” if female.
Other things they can do: Read thoughts and emotions, shapeshift their wings (sometimes deliberately, like the times Abel forms giant fists or other weapons, or uses part of his wing mass to make clothes when he accidentally loses his) and other times instinctively (Dan’s wings once tried to make him coffee). They can use shapeshifting to hide their wings when among “beings”, which is often a good idea because they do have a bad reputation. Abel does that a lot; Dan hides his headwings, but usually not his main wings (he was born thinking he was a being; his headwings didn’t grow in until his ‘cubi heritage kicked in). Oh, and they live for hundreds of years (clan leaders can live for tens of thousands of years).
If you decide to read DMFA, I suggest skipping the first few chapters and starting with Chapter 7. (Chapters 1-6 were sort of its “formative years”, and unless you were a roleplayer on Furcadia at the time, some of it won’t make a lot of sense.)
Cupcake Canon with a full auto Sprinkle Minigun mounted on the side and a Pure Capsasin squirt gun as a side arm.
I bet she hit the nub upgrade on the PPO. No way every one of the 6-upgrade tree adds that many buttons, and neither would upgrading the one that’s already been upgraded in the first place.
I feel like it is a bad idea to use the new power without knowing what it is. The last time she used a new power without knowing what it was, she got herself killed.
Yup. But such is in Sydney’s nature. She does have impulse control issues, at the best of times, and this is a panicked combat situation.
However it does make for fun story-telling, so all is good.
Your thinking like a normal human instead of a Sydney human. She is one of those people who, when told not to, will push the big red button just to see what happens…
In what way is that NOT how a “normal human” reacts? You need to read more Terry Pratchett. As he put it (more or less), if you put a button in the most distant cave in the world and painted a sign to put next to it saying “Pressing this button will end the world” the paint wouldn’t have time to dry before someone pushed it. Worse, they’d push it not to destroy the world, but to see what it would do.
And for good reason. Clearly somebody is trying to hide the real function of the button, by such obvious subterfuge. No button in the history of the world has ever done what the sign says!
*pushes button*
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I’m actually betting on she DOES get killed again. This seems like much the same “everyone’s down but me” scenario, and I doubt we’d get to see something as mind-boggling as the checkpoint only once.
Except that Krona has explicitly stated that the checkpoint has been undone and she has not set another one.
Plus I do not see Dave as being so lazy as to reuse the plot device immediately, on top of loosing credibility for contradicting the explicit statement above.
As for dying, yes, that part is actually possible. This is a superhero genre comic, so there are various means by which she could die, yet still have the opening scenes, with ‘Sydney’ happen later.
Krona did that because her manipulation of time did not act as she expected AT ALL. Maybe in addition to the localized effect its also not that easy a thing to undo once set in motion and actually triggered once.
That is plausible.
Sydney will have to wait until the next skill tree appearance to see on which part of the PPO the point went, LOL
This is going to make it very hard for our resident skill tree duplicators to keep their representations up to date.
I don’t know where else I can post this. https://www.gofundme.com/my-car-is-toast
I hope you manage it bud. Sadly you know my financial situation leaves me able to do nothing but offer moral support.
Thanks, I’m begging for money, so I don’t expect anything. I’ll take the good wishes. My family knows that car has been running off of good intentions and prayer for long enough!
take a look into government/police seized auctions, I’ve seen a quite usable vehicle sell for as low as 75 bucks
https://www.ejrogers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/toastercar.jpg
I’m in the same boat. In addition to being disabled.
Do you think the orphan node on the PPO is a sight upgrade
Heh, I misread that as “slight”, so was comparing the previous upgrade of the truesight orb, which likewise was an orphan node. Incidentally there are two types, one has a double ring loop forming it (the truesight orb one that got upgraded) and a single ring version (which the yellow orb also has, but has not been selected yet).
Fortunately that research does end up having some bearing, on your actual question, in that we can eliminate the teleportation example as giving a rule of claw on how powerful the upgrade might be. Given that the PPO orphan node is of the single ring variety, so is of a different type.
So the answer is ‘maybe’. A zoom mode would certainly be of utility for Sydney. Both in aiming and in reading street signs, without having to descend until they are within arm’s reach, the next time she gets lost.
Although, come to think of it, then I will have less chance to see Sydney in the neighbourhood. Other than flying high overhead.
I think Halo should avoid that node. Other far more interesting ones. Look two shiny mystery orbs with lots of unused slots!
Zoom mode is a neat idea, and actually springs to mind something else. What if she’s able to zoom in on a target, *view it from another angle* and fire the PPO beam from THAT direction? Instant sweet-spot accessibility, without making it overpowered.
Cool idea. I think that would be more likely tied in with the truesight orb though, given the ability of the projected image to offer that kind of vantage point.
NEXT: Sydney powers up the bot with electricity (or magic attacks?)!
Isn’t shooting lightning out her butt more Jiggawatt’s gig?
We have seen that the Fly Ball actually uses gravity to work. Maybe this upgrade also works using a fundamental force? Say removing the effect of friction? Point it at a human and all their clothes fall apart. Of course nothing so icky as to make any of their own bits do likewise. But disassembling a robot-like opponent, now that is another matter.
This way if Harem teleports up, and finds herself caught up in the effect, she will not be incinerated, rather she will just find herself unclothed.
Still you can’t have everything.Which would avert a dreadful tragedy.While I can think of a double dozen absolutely unique destructive “beams”, from a twelve foot long light saber to a shrink ray that results in a teeny tiny nanobot that can’t damage anything, I’m gonna root for CUPCAKE BEAMS! FROSTING EVERYWHERE!
To everyone that is wondering if she can fire inside of her shield or not: This is not the first time that she has been about to use it.
E.g.: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1575
All that tells us is that she either THINKS she can use it or, just as likely, has no idea but didn’t even think about possible ramifications in the heat of battle. Like when she ended up in a shield full of sand because it didn’t occur to her that she was standing close enough to the target to need protection till it was too late.
DaveB has been avoiding showing her use it in combo with the shield. Maybe creating the misconception that she couldn’t so there would be something for us to be surprised by later or maybe he was leading up to this moment. A moment where the PPO appears to act exactly the same as it ever did to Sydney but in reality has gained the ability to shoot through the shield. Sydney gets pissed cause she thinks she lost a point for no reason but savvier members of the watching audience has a good chuckle knowing that she has drastically increased her combat effectiveness with that single point and may never realize it! XD
More to the point was Vehemence was inside her shield at the time, so it does not help prove the case being argued. It is worth noting though that Sydney’s judgement was also being severely impaired by the aggro aura, in addition to the ‘heat of the battle’ cited.
Hmm how to upgrade a beam? Darkseid’s eyes come to mind.
I finally notice and report a typo before anyone else (on the first page of comments) and DaveB is busy.
How am I supposed to get my cookie and pat on the head now?! :(
From the Easter Bunny, of course.
two things, she put the pip on the PPO orb, but where? also, she’s not using the lighthook to it’s utmost efficiency. if it’s got a 15-ton lift, why doesn’t she pick it up by the leg and either hold it off the ground or beat it against the ground till all it’s stuffing comes out? heck even in the fight with Vehemence she could easily have kept him tripped and uncoordinated or hung up in the air like a speed bag. .
Nobody knows, not even Sydney. She had her eyes shut. Plus the tree cannot be seen by artificial means, so the construct and/or any controller would not be able to tell either.
Because it may well weigh more than that. The artist has apologised for varying its apparent size in the art. Some of the images (such as its first appearance) make it look far too big to lift.
That aside it is a tentacle user itself, if Sydney gets into a tug of war with it, its mass gives it an advantage, and it could be her that goes flying. With potentially fatal consequences. Until Sydney has experimented to see if this is possible it is wise to play it safe.
1) Because they are standing on a roof and doing that could collapse it. Potentially killing Halo, Krona, Harem and any innocent bystanders in the building.
2) Throwing it down to the ground risks killing Krona and Harem, down there. Or even punching through into basements and potential innocent bystanders there. We have already seen the Mars building does have such, so it is a known hazard, and that did have hostages underground. And Sydney does not know precisely where. So it could extend this far.
Vehemence had the ability to grow larger, and had a huge surplus of energy to play with. He would have easily been able to make himself too heavy for her to lift. With the added bonus of significantly increasing his own damage capability.
Could the PPO shoot more things than just fire???
It can shoot squirrels. Probably orphans and bunnies too. Oh, you mean the type of attack? Mmm, so far we have exclusively seen it doing fiery type attacks, so not at the moment. But it does have a load of upgrades, so there is a good chance that it may. Icy attacks would seem appropriate, if keeping to a similar feel.
Probably not lightning though, as that is Giggawatt’s turf. Sonic would make a good synergy with Super Hiro though, as he can absorb that, and would then be able to use a sonic attack on demand.
I hope that it does not gain the power to create and launch squirrels though.