Grrl Power #512 – Some assembly denied
Sydney hasn’t forgotten about Pixel, but I can only fit so much dialog on one page and it was getting a little crowded already. Harem’s checking on her in case you’re wondering.
I’m not sure how blood helps when making golems or other miscellaneous automata. I know in a lot of stories the blood is just a vehicle for life force, so I guess it’s used in place of a generator. I guess if the Stargate went to hell, they could use blood instead of a ZPM. That would suggest blood has a crazy amount of power in it. That’s less evident when making golems or enchanting stuff than when you’re using the blood to open portals to other realms, which seems like something that would normally take 16 power plants and/or a lens made from a slice of neutron star normally.
In this case Sciona is using the blood as a cheat, essentially a pre-written code base for programming behavior. Essentially she’s using the DNA for primitive survival and instinctual behavior, then enchanting her own code on top of it. She could do it with any piece of DNA, but something in a liquid state is easier to work with, give that she already has considerable experience as a blood mage. She’s hit the point in that school of magic where she’s realized that most of what the purists do is the hardest way to do it because they’re too dedicated to the art.
It’s like if you’re getting a weak wi-fi signal in one room, you could set up a signal booster, or hack an old router to function as a wi-fi extender, or you could rearrange the wiring in the building and move the wi-fi router… or if all you really care about is getting a better signal in one room, you could just cut a hole in the wall between you and the router. Ok, you could make it look nice if you wanted, like one of those… I think it’s called a pass-through? Like it’s a bar on one side? Anyway, Sciona’s like that. All the experts will give you the networking options cause they’re networking guys and Sciona will just kick down the wall.
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Hey Dave!
Do you ever live stream while you draw? I’m not an artist but I’m sure I’m not the only one who would like to watch you work a little bit.
I have on occasion. Usually I don’t because the comic is all spoilers, and when I’m working on a vote incentive, it’s over the weekend and my wife is in the room watching TV with me or something. I could stream more I guess, just have the mic muted. When I do it’s at https://picarto.tv/daveb
Is there any reason for it to be live? Surely we could see all the same stuff recorded and uploaded after the relevant panel(s) for at least most of the same effect?
Personally, I’d rather watch it sped up anyway, I find live art usually changes too slowly to keep my attention, regardless of how interested in the process I might be.
No, but that would require me to record it, then figure out how to speed it up and re-record it. Probably not all that difficult to do, but the few times I’ve messed with video editing software I found it incredibly unintuitive.
No offense meant, Dave, but I agree with you about editing the stream–it’s not worth the time & effort. That would be time that I & probably others would rather you used to draw & write the strip. Your work is outstanding.
Maybe not the actual comic, but maybe an invotive? That way you can take your time, in both drawing, recording and editing
I’ve been thinking about Krona’s “save-point” ability. (And haven’t been paying much attention to conversations here, so if I’m repeating someone else’s observation I’m sorry.) I think it’s not time-manipulation at all.
The obvious problem is memory; if Krona’s save-point was a true temporal reset then Sydney wouldn’t have carried any memory of the reset events back with her. Memory is a changing chemical/neural state laying down a second-by-second record of events, after all. The less obvious problem is the fact that the reset is apparently area-limited, but it seems a clue as to what is really happening.
I think what happened is this: Krona’s self-experimenting turned up the apparent “temporal reset” function, which absolutely looks like a jump back to a saved moment. Since it appears to involve manipulating temporal physics (which even she seemed to consider a dangerous thing to do), I’d bet she experimented only minimally with it. Thus she didn’t notice that the save-point only applies to a localized area. If she had noticed, then she would have figured out what’s really going on.
What’s really going on?
Rather than temporally de-linking a local area from the spacetime continuum while letting the triggerer of the reset keep a bunch of memories of events that now never happened, Krona’s save-point is, in fact, pulling the panty-switch “spell” on a massive scale. It is literally reorganizing material reality in the local area to recreate the conditions of the save-point right down to the sub-atomic level, with the exception of the triggerer’s memories. It essentially destroys and rewrites material reality within the area of effect, using the conditions of the save-point as the template for the rebuild.
So no temporal shenanigans are involved. Just localized ultimate cosmic power.
“Signs point to yes.”
Not to spoil anything but Krona hasn’t quite cracked the 4th dimension in the way she thinks.
So, that doesn’t rule out that she has, just not in the way she thinks she has
If you screw with time, time will screw back…
A retcon nerf?
Not a retcon if that was always the way it was
Agreed. We have plenty of evidence that Dave plans most of the super powers in great detail, well in advance of putting them in the story. With odd exceptions, where Dave has an inspiration during a scene. But we know about those because he tells us as much.
Clearly the latter exception was not the case with Krona’s, as we had clues about her powers for months before she even made an appearance!
Yeah, I think Dave has pretty complete outlines of cast capabilities, though I could be wrong… ;-)
Yeah, it’s not like we are dealing with Marvel or DC here. We have a real storyteller!
Ouch!XD.Im sure theres SOME good Marvel and DC writers out there its just I cant think of any…….err……Christopher Hastings of Dr Mcninja fame?
The problem with Marvel and DC is not with the writers but with the editors and the ones on the Board
Dave is ‘a’ story teller. He is not a group of storytellers who all think they can do it better than the rest. They all get together and the talent gets averaged out in every aspect.
I’ve seen great line work with varying thickness of line, hatching, and black spotting overlaid with great inking that was expertly shaded accompanied by great writing. However, the colored shading was done in a different direction than the inked lines and the text was poorly laid out in blocks over the page. I did not see that here!
Sooo…. too many chefs spoil the Yorpie Snax™?
Deep fried, bacon wrapped, and chocolate filled Yorpie Snax… :-)
Mmm.
*licks lips*
See, perfect at that stage! Other chefs should resist messing with that.
*sniffs sagely*
If this comment board had upvotes, I would give mine to Random Guy. The issue of writing by committee is also magnified over time, as a new lead/team comes in and seeks to make their own mark on the character’s themes and concepts. This isn’t always a bad thing–new blood can also invigorate and empower a character or title that has gotten into a rut. But when it involves forcibly undermining the established canon, you’re going to have to do a lot more heavy lifting to justify even a small change, and the result is usually pretty rough.
There have been several series, from both Marvel and DC, which have had a strong writer and told some really outstanding stories. Far beyond the “writing” comic books usually got in their infancy.
I have comics in my collection written by authors with a long string of successful novels to their name. And again, I’m pretty sure that the “Golden Age” of comics didn’t have that kind of talent. I have piles of comics from that era, and the number of comics that were not just a stand-alone story within the covers were very few and far between. And the writers tended to completely ignore continuity, either that of their predecessors or even their own, making even less of a “story” and more of a series of single episodes out of the comics.
Yes, but that doesn’t make those individual stories ‘bad’, does it?
Personally I would feel so yes. Things like that take me out of the moment and ruin my suspension of disbelief. Which means that I cannot enjoy the story anywhere near as much.
It is one reason why I look hard to see if there is a reasonable justification for something, in the relevant setting, even if it is not stated. If I can at least draw it back to being ‘plausible’ then I can proceed, without the urge to throw the comic/book/film straight into the bin.
Usually I do not give into that temptation mind. Not until I have gotten to the end, to ensure that there was not some unexplained mechanic at work, creating the anomaly. If there was not…
*bin*
Was simply meaning the lack of continuity, as long as the story is consistent with the character and the setting, that’s how they use to be (it’s also how thing use to screw up things like a ‘time line’), and some things still do it that way: take The Simpson’s for example, each week it’s mostly a stand-alone story and only occasionally do they refer back to something that has already happened, and yet they remain consistent with the characters if not continuity
And remember: did say “individual stories“
It doesn’t make them bad, but in the majority of the cases they were quite simply bad. The juvenile writing of a poor writer.
Yeah, and you get the same thing with ‘professional’ writers working with continuity
What you usually get with a professional writer is a good story with a continuity hole in it. Which is a whole different animal than a poor story with zero continuity.
I dunno,Though Daves a good writer some things in the comic sometimes feel thrown in for a Mr Torgue style “Oh cool!” factor.As is theres plenty of powers on the goodguy side which are gamebreakers(Mostly on the ladies-The comic is called grrrl power afterall) so Kronas reality/time hacking may have been one of those powers which sounded great until he realised its literally a god tier ability only limited by the wielder-much like Halos orbs.
Failure to understand what you are doing is a pretty big limitation to people with moral codes of behavior.
+1
Plus do not forget we have seen more of the good guys than bad guys. But of those baddies we have seen there are some with profound powers:
• Opal – portals (that one could destroy the world simply by opening a portal to the middle of the sun)
• Vehemence (even ignoring the comical ‘turning anger into pants’)
• Concretia (essentially undefeatable).
No hero had any means of beating her.* Every time a body was destroyed Concretia could simply form a new one. Of course Dave may have built in some kind of restriction. Or it may just turn out that she is an honest citizen, working as a bank clerk, and so no restriction is necessary. Her power will never interfere with the storyline if she keeps to her day job.
Further today’s allies could be tomorrow’s enemies. Especially if the Veil falls suddenly and the public turn on the ‘monsters’. They will, naturally enough, defend themselves. If it blows up into an all out war, then Krona, Gregor, Icon and Ingsol are all high-ranking enemy commanders!
Plus do not forget that they have the resources of galaxy-spanning civilisations to back them up, in addition to the vast capabilities they have under their direct command (such as armies of medusa!)
Finally, of course, if Concretia is drafted to help in that war, and finds herself up against Krona, she will be in trouble. Because Krona does have the potential to permanently defeat her. And Sydney.
* The only reason why Peggy managed it was because she had moved far away from Vehemence, so Concretia was out of the aggro aura range and will have gone ‘why the hell am I trying to kill cops?’ And have done whatever her normal civilian behaviour dictated.
Probably running home and contacting a shrink (to try and find out why she had suddenly turned homicidal) or a lawyer or sit in front of the TV to see how the battle plays out or packing her bags and heading for Mexico.
It is worth noting though that Dave never explained any of that. It is clear (with hindsight) that is what must have happened, but he had no mechanism to pass that information on to the readers, so it has gone unremarked.
We don’t know her range. But we can make some assumptions that will allow us to judge her world destroying capabilities. Or her world saving capabilities.
Let’s assume that Opal can make a long lasting portal that connects two points say, 10 miles apart.
This gives us two examples of potential uses for her power: Destructive demon queen from Hell, or benevolent friend to Humanity.
Up. Opal creates two connecting portals. One at sea level, and one 10 miles straight up.
The air pressure 10 miles up is 1.47 psi. At sea level it is 14.70 psi (at any reasonable temperature). The difference is 13.23 psi. That might seem like a small number, but it isn’t. That is about an 800 mile/hour wind, and could knock down almost any structure built by man. 5 psi can knock down a brick house.
The direction of travel will of course be from the low portal to the high, from the high pressure area at sea level to the low pressure area 10 miles up in the atmosphere. So Opal can’t just make a 800 mile/hour “wind beam” using the lower portal, but this is an almost irrelevant point. Anything in the immediate vicinity will be sucked into the portal and ejected 10 miles straight up. And the suction will create, over time as the air masses get moving (and I’m not going to calculate the time this will take, but I’d guess it will be in the area of hours rather than days) a massive hurricane around the low pressure point of the lower portal, and anything for miles around the portal will be destroyed. The upper portal will, of course, be a “wind beam,” and an enterprising Opal could use it for some fairly destructive purposes. Say, disrupting aviation, as an 800 mph beam of wind will probably have a decent range of operation. High cruising altitude for passenger airlines are typically around 6 miles, so she would need some practice to hit something 4 miles away. But she might not need a direct hit to just swat a plane out of the sky with that kind of wind.
She could carve stone with these winds, given enough time. 800 mph winds will strip all vegetation from the ground, and all topsoil, anything just sitting on the ground like a person or a car or truck or a plane or a locomotive will be thrown around like a toy, and the weather patterns surrounding this storm would be spectacular.
That was up.
Down. Opal creates two connecting portals. One at sea level, and one 10 miles straight down.
10 miles down into the crust of the Earth the temperature is about 1000f
(Source: https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/187291-to-the-core-how-can-we-travel-to-the-center-of-the-earth which states that 6 miles down the temp is 482f and that temps will go up 77f every .6 miles after that)
The rock should not be molten at that depth, but a portal opened to that depth would be radiating 1000f across its entire surface area, and it would not cool much at all over time since it is surrounded by a huge thermal mass of equal temperature stone (and the portal could be of course simply be moved to a new point if after months enough cooling took place to make the heat radiation less efficient than is needed for whatever application it was being put.)
That means that Opal could power vast steam turbines for an energy cost of what it takes to provide her with food, drink, and air. In other words, trivially free, limitless energy. Cut Opal a check!
Suddenly the US is completely free from dependence on foreign oil! Our entire fleet of passenger cars is converted into electric cars, and only heavy haul vehicles (tractor-trailers, construction equipment, and the like) will need to burn propane or gasoline.
Assuming that Opal survives the assassination attempts by Exxon-Mobil and other oil interests, and that the US survives the wars that will follow, she will have been responsible for ushering in a new era of clean, renewable energy. Global warming might actually be averted, and humanity will have enough cheap, clean power so that all people will be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Hunger may well be eliminated, since the costs associated with farming, harvesting, and transporting food will drop to the basement. Humanity will achieve its closest run at Utopia.
Until, eventually, Opal dies of old age or some illness, at which point the wars will begin anew. Or we can press Maxima into service turning the handle on the generator.
Comprehensively argued.
Regarding range, as with Sydney’s tentacle, or any other power for that matter, until we get some hint as to a restriction, I allow my imagination to run wild! You are perfectly correct to point that out as a likely limit though.
As with all of these ‘abusive’ powers, there are ways and means of keeping them under control, enough that the story can proceed on its path. One of which may be as simple as ‘Opal does not want to destroy the world’.
We do know that the portals can at least go across the U.S. I think they are intercontinental (they apparently take some serious focus to open, so I guess her burning to ashes puts a damper on your kill the world plans.)
We have no indication that Opal needs to be near to the portals she opens. So the hazards of pressure differentials and the like need not necessarily need to be overcome by her. Plus, who knows, she may be able to keep her portals open indefinitely.
Connect one portal to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, with the other end ten miles above New York.
Next open one in the deepest liquid magma, and position that counterpart nine miles above New York.
Open one at the lowest point in Washington with the other one continent’s distance straight up. I.e. in outer space! Then, once the New York portal results get boring, shift those to deep space too.
Or you could have real fun by carefully calculating pressure differentials, and setting them up in a circle, so that you cause a hurricane-like effect, with lava at one end, being drawn towards nearby vacuum. Repeat at lower altitudes, calculated to keep hot air and lava moving in a circle. A lava hurricane!
Perhaps throwing in a bit of arctic snow and ice, after a while, just for the hell of it?
Repeat for each city, in the world, starting with the most populous first.
Not quite as quick as the Sun option, but there would not be much habitable planet left, unless someone got to Opal quick. And then they better figure out how to block the portals, or turn them off. Or else, even without additional intervention by her, all of the ocean, atmosphere and magma core will be steadily dumped into deep space!
OK gravity might bring it all back down again. But that… causes problems of its own.
Perhaps that is how the Moon was originally formed, by a much earlier super villain. Or a time travelling Opal, chaining together a series of her portals, to get the required range. Albeit requiring something capable of keeping her alive in space, as she would need to stay within her maximum range, to establish each portal in the chain.
So that probably still rules out using the same trick for the Sun. I suspect that getting within a few thousand miles of it would still beyond anything she is likely to get hold of. But, if she is patient enough to chain together portals to the gas giants, she could create an extra-special high-pressure hurricane? Maybe one with a red spot?
Portals… you can do nasty things with them.
At the very least, we do know that Opal does not need to be anywhere near the far portal. So there is evidence right there that she can create portals which are very far away from herself. :-P
Making the ‘other’ portal near herself is completely understandable when she wants to use it herself or have someone with her use it, of course, but that convenience does not have to translate into a restriction.
No, Dave has a solid understanding of the potentials of powers. Read his blog on super-speeders, when Mach the Knife was introduced, to see the truth of that. As just one example. It is pertinent though as that is simply a person who can, to all in intents and purposes, manipulate the flow of time. But only in one specific way.
Yet Dave, correctly, considers that to be one the most overpowered, yet underestimated, abilities in the genre. Which he clearly understands intimately given the example of Maxima grasping the bullet, in the bank scene, and going into ‘bullet-time’ in the manikiller fight, to disarm the grenade.
All of which is manipulation of just one aspect of time. No way would he consider unlimited time-control to be anything less than god-like.
What you are doing is mistaking the beliefs of the characters for those of the author. Dave is extremely good at compartmentalizing character knowledge, to stop his author knowledge from giving them insight into things that they do not know.
One example being that Peggy, Arianna and the Twilight Council have no idea of what causes super powers. Whereas Varia is convinced that it is strongly associated with genetics. Now Varia does have an unique power, which may well have provided a Rosetta stone-like inspiration to her, thus justifying her view. She is intimately familiar with more super-powers than anyone else after all.
Or she could just be making assumptions that turn out to be wrong. Just as Krona has done. But either way Dave writes her dialogue based on her beliefs, even if that contradicts what is actually true. He is not purely using characters as mouth-pieces to give exposition about how his game world works. He creates the characters, complete with their own world-view, and that then dictates what they say and do.
Which is why Sydney sometimes goes off-script. Dave has an idea how a scene needs to play out. But when he walks through it, from Sydney’s point of view, her personality dictates that it needs to actually go a different way. Inconvenient though it may be to his overall aims!
Being true to the character obviously takes a very high priority in his writing. Which I very much admire.
honestly I’m looking at her “reset” as more of a reality stutter… like deja vu or the matrix changing a location. She never used it on the larger scale she is so didn’t know it was a local effect. she says that and is embarrassed about not knowing she is only a local effect.
Almost certainly.
In addition, Memory is what is limiting it as well. Consider how much ‘Reality’ you would need to store a snapshot of ‘Reality’- all of it, essentially. But a snapshot of a (Cosmologically) miniscule volume of space? Much more doable.
So basically her “Save point spell” is more like a magical variant of the transporter beams from star trek with a “Save matter” function. (Does this mean that Sydney’s been replaced with a magical clone?) Argh! Existential crap!!
It would mean that everyone in the area of effect was replaced with a magical clone, actually. So, lots of existential crap.
Not just everyone, but everything … quick question? … Do magically-replaced, existentially-questionable bacteria and viruses cause the zombie apocalypse?
Only if their souls are not replaced.
+2 pts
and a few yourpey snacks…
Yummy yummy!
Somebody is reading Savestate! https://www.savestatecomic.com
I see that Sydney is not the only one burnt by sunlight!
Why are they carrying around….lobsters? Kinda?
Pokemon. Apparently they are not virtual, in that world, but come in plushy form too!
Curse you (in a mildly good way) for showing me another great webic, spent most of yesterday reading the whole thing, and it was grr-eat!
Your welcome! Got any for me?
So in other words its like a save point in say Skyrim, when you play that game and do a save point and die things continue to happen, not only that but anything you killed stays dead and anything you plundered stays plundered. Not only that but monsters move around from the spots you led then, etc. So I’d say her save point is like a video gamer save point. Especially since the monsters keep a memory of where you are or were and continue to look for you if you had died.
it could well be some sort of atomic save state. end of story.
since memories are molecular, they wouldnt be removed. maybe a bit fuzzy, but not removed.
Molecules are made up of atoms, so I am afraid that the logic does not withstand scrutiny. If the atomic state is saved then the molecular state should be treated exactly the same. So if physically they are restored to their original atomic condition then so should the molecules, and thereby the memories dependant on them.
Plus any explanation offered should explain why Pixel and Krona do not remember, yet Sydney does.* On its own this does not.
* Harem’s dejá vu can be ignored, as she is both inside and outside the local area, so the reasons for her exception can be inferred from that.
molecules may be made of atoms, but that says nothing about the bonds between them. which can be jiggled around with surprising violence in many cases.
you dont need to give any kind of a damn to strict atomic state until you are trying to reconstruct something engineered at the atomic level.
this is why star treks transporters wouldnt need their “Heisenberg compensators” in real life, if they where just transporting people
only syd was subject to the trigger conditions, nothing has been said to imply that the save system was set up to include incidentals that could include civilians.
and its not like arc is really in a position to hand out class C, B or A amnesties to witnesses, nor does it seem to be their MO.
Although I should mention that Marion G. Harmon‘s original explanation does stipulate Sydney’s exception. Albeit that it does not explain why that would happen.
But we can infer that Krona specifically wrote her ‘time loop’ code with such a provision, to ensure that when ‘time was reset’ she would remember the previous events (otherwise the power would be utterly pointless). The fact that she was mistaken about being able to manipulate time would not prevent her code from working correctly as regards the memory aspect.
The way that would work is to keep the triggering person’s brain in its end state, rather than in its starting state. But presumably either resetting the rest of the body or (if she deemed it too risky that the parts might not connect properly) ensuring that the reset occurred before any harm happened (which would certainly match the sequence we saw).
The latter option would also be useful to avoid a bullet in the brain causing ‘complications’ (a.k.a. permanent death).
I’m wondering of it’s actually similar to the way that “snapshots” are handled in a virtual environment – the way that we can take an image of how a server is before making a change and being able to reset it back. The initial impression from most people familiar with “save points” in games is that these are the same – a copy of critical data at a given point in time. With a game, with limited variables, such save files can be quite small.
For a server, or by extension for reality, the list of variables is quite a bit larger and a snapshot would be large and take a looong time to generate. So what is done instead is effectively a change log – the hypervisor makes a point and records all changes made from that point on. This is quick to make on the fly – the trade-off is over time, as !ore variables change, the snapshot becomes increasingly large.
Its not unknown for someone to crash an entire service by making a snapshot and not managing the space it’s consumed.
When the time comes to revert to the snapshot, the system simply reverses the changes made to the system. You get all kinds of crunchy but solvable issues around integrating it into an existing environment though – the big one being what we’ve seen in this example, time frames being out of sync. Actually I’m surprised that the comma are working – if Sydney is outta sync with the others, the encryption on her comma might not be able to handshake with the Archon comma (assuming that time is part of the encryption algorithm, and that Krona overwrote that local variable).
If we apply this concept to Kronas ability – it explains how she can make a save point of reality so quickly, and why she’s limited it so strictly in time frame (so she doesn’t overwrite the local reference frame for reality). What it doesn’t explain is why its not obvious to her that its a local phenomenon only – if she’s specifying the variables or classes of variables to record and roll back she should by definition know exactly what’s being impacted.
Still, interesting as hell : )
Ok Sydney actually made me laugh,Shes kind of fun when shes not being a spaz XD.Midboss might be too dumb to talk but the last 4 panels have me almost certain its swearing more than her right now!
RE: The last 4 panels – I agree.
Sydney does pretty well if she isn’t distracted. The problem is, she’s distracted by pretty much everything….
Amen!Im glad that Sciona didnt ducttape a laser pointer to this thing or Sydney would be dead by now lol
If it could talk, all it would have to do is yell “Squirrel!”
Ahh, yes, summoning the boss’s boss would do that. But that would be nuts!
O.O……Uh….Halo needs a few level ups before she can face The Squirrel!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiAxEfbQHZs
Hmm, Krona can’t heal herself with those cosmic hacking powers? Then really, what good are they? :P
usually they prevent the event that caused the damage in the first place… or at least I would have hacked my own life with that form of contingency,
it is likely just a bruise and not broken or really hurt.
Can’t focus on healing yourself when the pain makes it too difficult to focus
isn’t the whole point of Krona’s power’s the amount of “machine level” programming that has to go into it beforehand? she CAN feasibly become immortal, but she has to make a macro for it, same way that she has a macro for the “save point” thing. it’s the same issue as making a complete OS from machine code. she runs her “code magic” at a machine code level, while normal mages run at an OS level, with a whole library’s worth of premade programs to play with and modify, that she doesn’t have.
And the second macro you wrote (after the first one blew up) wouldn’t be titled “Heal Light Wounds”?
Quite possibly. But we’ve already seen in this scene though that she’s not as good at this as she thinks, and that one of her party tricks is majorly defective code. So if I were her, I’d now be wary of using macros that act on her own body until she’s had an opportunity to review them…
Its less shes not as good as she thinks and more that her “savepoint” wasnt designed to handle a being that exist simultaneously in several places at once,Less be honest in even this universe shes not gonna get many chances to codecheck for something like that =)
Trouble is that if the first one you write blows you up, then you do not get a chance to write the second one. Which would be why Krona is not trying that particular stunt.
As for what use it is, it has the same functionality as any program, except this is one that can affect the real world directly, without the need for intermediary devices. But you still need to go through rigorous debugging before you try to use it in anything other than a safe sandbox.
Unless, of course, you are overconfident enough to try and loop time ‘because that is simple enough that you can skip straight to field trials’.
back when I played D&D, before it became Yu-Gi-Oh ( TSR vs wizards of the coast) blood magic for a golem let the caster control it. letting them see what it saw and hear (if it had ears) what it herd. The caster could give it simple commands that it could follow without the caster needing to be “linked”. However that doesn’t go well all the time. Miss worded commands like “Don’t let anyone take this item” have gotten the caster killed when they went to use the protected item.
My point is whoever created these ( the franken-oger in the basement ) can see and hear what is going on right now if this is done the same way.
It’s possible that Sciona directly controls this one, rather than just being autonomous. This one does seem to have a temper – that head swivel in Panel 8 definitely seems pissed-off.
I seem to recall that creating a golem in 1st and 2nd Ed involved conjuring and binding an elemental spirit to the body made, so while there was some programming to put in some restrictions on what the golem wasn’t allowed to do, the golem was relatively intelligent due to the presence of the spirit.
Given the givens in the strip so far, I really like this idea of yours and Deanatay’s. Very cool.
As that is true for the majority of golems made, there were ones made in the more Gothic D&D Adventure packs, and things like the “ravens claw or dragon lance” series that used blood as the catalyst and it would bind the caster to the golem rather than an elemental. Effectively its a cheep knock off of the real spell for vamps and litches to use…
Deanatay
I don’t think this is armor as “Sciona” seemed larger than it on the reset page, However it does seem pissed so i do think franken-oger has some form of control over it.
Efreeti on the cover era here, and I was just thinking the same thing as far as what this thing could be sending home to mama. And so glad to hear of an opinion on blood magic from the old school *chuckles*
^_^ I try and put my two cents in where i can… that reminds me i need more pennies…
[newspaper] BAD golem, BAD! No!
Ahahaha syndey demoralizes the golem and convinces max to let her keep it as a pet. “bad golem! no bleeding on the couch! we do that on the newspaper”
Feeding it could be troublesome…
*looks at name*
Well, I have been kind of tired of late. o.0)
*looks at avatar*
Feeling infinitely demonic too?
Ever read Off to be The Wizard by Scott Meyer? In his books, you can hack reality. But if you start making changes to your body without being really carful, you are in a lot of pain if you lucky. If your unlucky, your dead. Main charter nearly septated his spine when he added a couple inches of height to himself.
And this is why I suspect Krona hasn’t hacked herself to have the perfect amazonian body that most supers have. There are so many bodily functions and cross-dependencies on everything working just right that any big changes could result in the balance being disturbed and causing either short or long term damages.
*puts head to one side, with a quizzical look*
She has got a perfect body. Petite, but perfectly formed. Therefore your point seems to lack a basis.
Either she lucked out and was born that way, or she was careful in her modifications, or just happened to avoid any serious side effects by chance.
Female beauty comes in so many different flavours.
Ah, alas… earwax…
Don’t get me wrong, I share your taste on this and I agree that Krona is already very good looking, that is why I said it as “perfect amazonian body that most supers have“, referring to the tall and muscular bodies that all natural supers seem to have.
*wags tail contentedly*
Why would she want an amazonian body?Not every guy/girl is an amazon chaser and shes a great mix of cute and hot<3.
Those books are a lot of fun. Scott Meyer is obviously one of us.
Well, uh, Krona changed her hair color for one strip, if I remember, claiming it was an easy thing to change. So, not only did she casually give herself rainbow hair, she also set it back to blue in the same manner.
Blue might not be her true hair color, blue isn’t a natural hair color after all. That is just a tiny change though, very low risk as it doesn’t change anything but the color and hair is dead material anyway.
Hair isn’t a living part of the body. Any animal is very complex when you take account of all the various parts that have to work together. All systems must be upgraded together, since it won’t do you any good to make yourself ten times stronger if it causes your heart to give up from overwork…
This is why you always test dangerous things on idio- er I mean volunteers first!
And more than one hero gained their super-powers (and thereby means of defeating the mad-scientist) because of this practice. Be they idiot volunteers or having been ‘whisked away’ to a laboratory.
*looks at own modified body nostalgically*
Thats the beauty of testing on id-er volunteers,Theyll never see you as evil unless you tell them youre a Twilight fan lol.
Syd can add “golem wrangler” to her list of skilz.
Thanks for another fine page, DaveB!
“I remember the Great Golem Stampede of ’54…”
::stares off into the distance::
“Lost a lot of good friends in that. Uh still has nightmares aboot it. Poor Harold…”
Nothing worse than a golem stampede, damned unpredictable critters…
*nods*
It comes from the swarm reactions of a lot of critters responding to simple commands. “Do X task, but avoid any injury” for example can start a stampede if one golem accidentally stumbles and all the other ones in its path have to rapidly move to avoid its fall. Causing a domino effect, but one that accelerates, as they have legs and can keep going. But without intelligence, or specific commands to the contrary, they keep going, whilst the danger persists.
The ones at the back will gradually return to task X, of course, but with a big enough herd…
*sniffle*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCRae5mRoRE
Anything you can tentacle, I can tentacle better!
I can tentacle anything better than YOU!
Yes I can, Yes I can! YES I CAN!!
mmd.
+1
But tentacle fights are best when fought between giant octopi.
Just had an image pop into my head of an animated octopus slap fight. Just the brain sacs leaning away from each other and an unimaginable quantity of tentacles flapping at each other.
The head actuator is connected to the neck actuator,
The neck actuator is connected to the shoulder actuator,
The shoulder actuator is not connected to the arm actuator, because it is flying off into the forest!
Insert a “I have seen enough hentai to know where this is going” joke here.
I thought it was normally tentacles that got inserted?
While Sydney is taking time to ponder, I had a question of my own. Who exactly decided that putting a candy warehouse in the middle of a forest at the end of a dirt road was a good idea?
Maybe they need to supply one of their best rural customers a miss Ginger Bredwich.
I will potentially admit that it could be one of the other subdivisions of the MARS corporation. Their home site says that they have a ‘bioscience’ division. This could explain the equipment found onsite at this location. https://www.marssymbioscience.com/
It was on the outskirts of town where real estate was cheap, and the company thought the town would grow in that direction meaning that in a decade or two they could sell the land and building for several times what they spent on it.
And then the town not only didn’t grow in that direction, but shrank – and between that and improvements in transportation, the company no longer needs the building and nobody else wants the land bad enough to pay the company’s price.
This is absolutely the story of many a small town in rural America.
+3.14, I say (Have some pi).
So they were hoping their building on the outskirts would wind up on the ‘inskirts’ of town.
Years ago I worked for a large telecom company, and made several trips to a location they had in Columbus, Ohio. I didn’t see much of Columbus since the trips were all business and I just went from airport to job site and hotels and such, but the Columbus beltway seemed to me to be all croplands on the Northern side, with all the business areas along the Southern hemisphere.
But the beautiful, shiny, modern telecom and technology building I would report to was in the Northern side, surrounded by corn fields.
Taxes and land use rules tend to be a lot better in rural areas, and you’d be surprised at how many major warehouses out there in small towns. Just look at where Walmart puts theirs…
If their ‘biosciences’ division is like the Umbrella Corporation’s then a quiet site that is not likely to draw the attention of regulators and protesters would be preferred. Plus any escaping test subjects could be contained before witnesses would be likely to spot them or become contaminated.
But relative proximity to New York would allow ready access to test subjects and give the opportunity for mass covert trials.
Seems ideal to me.
*adjusts black hat to a jaunty angle*
Depends on if it is what it is identified or not. Now putting a nice shiny modern slaughter house in a green fields in the exurbs is fine. Just so you don’t tell anyone that it is made for humans. As when inter-dimensional creatures like say Shoggulu “the Devourers” are here and turning the govt for their own devices which is food first then luxury next. That and corporations they may run. (They can take on any shape of a living thing with memories just by brushing them. Oh and they have a sweet tooth for humans most especially. They do not like competitors nor how they taste from shape-shifters like werewolves to vampires, zombies etc. taste terrible to them. They are very hungry and think that 8 billion humans isn’t enough. So they not only find means of fattening them up, but curing cancer and other maladies and increase their health. Yes we get more healthy than ever then most of us are on their menu and served on bone china plates and gold or silver ware.
So out in the open but hidden or just hidden is the choice. The Shoggulu are worse than black mold and roaches if they ever get into your playpen. Plus they are rather smart especially their leaders which are few.
NO! BAD GOLEM! NO FIXING SELF!
And no picking up a potential weapon, either. Not that the tentacle isn’t a potent weapon on its own, but adding a bludgeoning head to it could just make a bad thing ever worse.
Worse for it though, if that is where it keeps its sensors. The way it swivelled its head around seemed to indicate that to be likely. It would be bound to be quite disorienting hitting things with its head, on a tentacle, even if it is more destructive.
It seems to me that sydney is better equiped that Peggy to fight that thing. Flying vehicules have a tendency to crash in super hero flicks.
she only needs visual, and then just deploys maximus…
plus shes a super in the way she handles guns and vehicles apparently?
Peggy does rate three stars. on the super scale. Compare that to five stars for Achilles, Anvil and Harem. So, yes.
By far the weakest on the team mind,* but she can use her skills to great effect, with the right equipment.
* As a rough rule of claw anybody one star above an opponent will consistently beat them. Provided that neither has any particular vulnerability or advantage to the enemy in question. So there is a whole tier of potential enemies stronger than Peggy, but still weaker than the five star heroes.
This differential would also provide a clue as to Peggy’s confidence. In addition to bringing her meagre three star capability to the fight, she indicated that “we’re almost there”. So Halo need only hold out until a nine star hero arrives!
Although Peggy may be able to swing this fight herself. I have confidence in her capabilities. After all Peggy did manage to take out Concretia, who would (despite that) earn a very high star rating.
I dont really like using the star system as a power level rater a la Dragon ball Z.In a real battle theres much more factors than whos Bankai er I mean powerlevel is bigger.In fact if you give Peggy a good enough gun she can pretty much kill anyone on her own team before they even know theyre fighting(For eg: theres are least 3 people with double or more her “star level” that she could easily kill with just a standard snipers loadout-One of thems Halo btw).
The star system indicates an average of the general utility of an individuals powers. There will always be exceptions and even typical situations would not guarantee beating a lower star rating. Just make it very likely.
Peggy only gets to beat Sydney if she takes her by surprise. Whereas, if Sydney gets surprise, then she is the one who beats Peggy. In a situation without surprise being involved Sydney will still be the one who wins, because her powers are vastly more versatile than Peggy’s.
Plus, if Sydney suspected that Peggy had become an enemy she need merely keep her shield up and Peggy could not harm her by any means.
Finally there are various other factors involved such as it being very hard to prevent Halo from using her powers, whereas there are many circumstances under which Peggy would not have access to either her guns or her osprey. And even on a level playing field, where Sydney had mittens on and Peggy did not have a gun, Sydney could still bludgeon her, risk free, with the orbs.
Ignoring the fact that Sydney couldnt sneak her way out of a wet paper bag youre missing the fact that a sniper doesnt fight in the open waving glowsticks to show their location.The first hint that youre fighting a sniper is the sudden hole that appeared explosively in your head or chest and its common knowledge that if Halos not playing with her balls shes wide open for an attack.
Fighting fair is for corpses and people with invulnerabilty,
I must agree with your comment in general though. But another aspect worth bearing in mind is that the star rating is dynamic. We know that Sydney will go up, as she both gets her training* and as she unlocks more upgrades.
Conversely Maxima’s rating (both overall and in specific powers) might get downgraded if more powerful individuals are discovered. If Krypton has not blown up, in the Grrlverse, then she will drop down a lot. As will everyone else, for that matter.
* Thus is able to use her abilities more effectively in combat, such as pausing to assess the situation, once she has her shield up, rather than the reactionary action she showed on the previous page.
Heheh hey if Krypton hasnt blown up then noone on earth will ever meet a Kryptonian so I think Maximas level is safe for now =).That said some relatively “weak” powers could be used to easily counter Maxima with creative use.
the issue with your explanation is that I’d put money on Peggy to beat Achilles.
his ability is powerful and pretty impressive but against someone smart and skilled (AKA Peggy) relatively easy to deal with, since it’s rather limited in the offense capacity.
The thing is that she does not. Arc-SWAT do sparring and the ratings are based on the results.
Normal martial artist vs normal sniper and your argument works fine. But check out Math’s speed rating. He has four stars, in that. In other words he can dodge bullets! Which is in keeping with top end cinematic martial artists capabilities. This totally negates Peggy’s sniper ability.
Incidentally, if anyone wants to spring the ‘but not if she attacks with surprise’ angle, just look at his defense rating. He has two stars in that. Three stars attacks allow folks to destroy tanks. So two stars means he is probably bullet proof too. Check out “Bullet Proof Monk” if you wonder why a martial artist might have such capabilities.
Not that surprising Math, in a serious fight, would be a simple task, even for a sniper. His martial skill is five star versus her four. By thinking three steps ahead , when Peggy gets into her sniper position, to take him out from a kilometer away, she would find him in the hidey hole, right next to her!
Sydney is vulnerable to sniper attack. Math much less so.
Blood is only used as a power source in some cases though, the way I understood it you basically need to bind an animating spirit into a lifeless vessel in order to create a bona fide golem, the original model used a devkit in the form of the true name of god on a piece of paper but this one looks like it has a lot better programming, which means that it probably contains the soul of something living, a reasonably well built proxy of the soul of something living, or an elemental spirit/equivalent entity.
The blood is likely used in the binding process of said animating spirit to its metal shell, or as a magical way to add additional properties to its natural powers or skillset, since all these automata have the capacity to self regenerate they either use a quick and dirty bypass enchantment to link their physical structure to the bits ‘o blood drinker sword used in their construction (which may also, in fact very likely, use copious amounts of blood to act as an adapter) or they use a quick and dirty thaumaturgical bypass enchantment by using pieces of something with an innate ability for self regeneration, like the blood of a troll for example.
Blood comes in many shapes and flavors, and in magic it’s pretty much duct tape and multitool all in one.
In White Wolf’s hold world of darkness, blood has an essence called vitae that can be used to feed vampires or fuel some thaumaturgic spells. Human blood has the most vitae so one person’s entire blood volume give around the same amount of essence as an entire cow.
Aha! I’m not alone! Zagreus Remembers It Too!
Question: Are your talking points a result of golems you’ve created yourself? Or is this a game system and, if so, which one? Multiple game systems? Novels?
::wiggles his ears in nervous anticipation::
I just tend to overthink things a lot and write a lot of random crap for fun that never pan out to anything XD
So yes, it’s a hodgepodge mixup of things I learned while playing DnD 3.5e and various fantasy novels I’ve read. Also a generous helping of magic errata from the campaign world I was working on for DnD back in the day.
I’ve never actually gotten a DM to agree to let me merge a ring of regeneration with a metal golem though, not even on my Artificers =p
Does it even have to be blood, or will plasma do the job? I’ve given both over the years, and plasma doesn’t have the issue of blood factors or rhesus factors. I mean, wouldn’t it be a bad thing for an O- vamp to suck my A+ blood?
Sucking blood means eating it. All the things get broken down in your stomach, never touching your blood stream. Thus it wouldn’t affect anything.
Actually plasma does have the issue with the blood factors – just in the reversed order.
Plasma contains the antibodies which are the reason for the reaction – so an O- Patient can receive any type of plasma but an A+ can only receive plasma from an A or an AB donor. O Plasma contains antibodies for both A and B and is therefor only good for a O receiver.
Regarding the bloodsucking? My guess is that it is a form of magic digestion – like blood magic it uses the magical properties of blood – but to sustain the Vampire and not to power an artifact.
Blood can be used to create a battery – But it is not as powerful as blood magi want to make you believe!
Russian artist uses his blood for batteries to power a synthesizer: until-I-die
Well, if there is a living soul in there we should have a clue in a moment if it is animal based: If it is a dog, it will fetch the thrown stick (the arm). If it is a cat, it will be unduly fascinated with the Lighthook. If it is parrot based it will raise it’s frill and posture at Sydney. Hamster, stuck something in it’s cheeks… Oh wait, sorry, got lost in that progression. Personally am hoping for the ‘cat’ and Sydney to start using the Telepresence to run it in circles.
Currently the lead contender is hamster. It does seem to be fascinated by the big ball Sydney is in.
One question: how did Sidney manifest her light hook outside the shield? As was established in the fight with the previous battle royale, her shield won’t let it through normally. When she pulled up her shield, she had her pew pew ball in hand and she hasn’t let the shield down since. I suppose she could have realized she could resize her shield around it or that it’ll manifest outside the shield when it’s at it’s smallest size, but thought I’d mention.
It’s always been outside. She has yet to bring it inside the shield.
During the Restaurant Rumble, she attempted to use it to bind Kevin, but it formed outside so she used it as a skipping rope for Dabbles’ hypno-bewbs to distract Kevin from throttling Maxi (who almost got distracted herself, along with everyone else on the ‘battle field’ :p)
Dang it. remembered it wrong. Move along, nothing to see here. :)
Hm? The hook is outside the shield. Always has been.
And you are afraid that a crocodile, with a ticking clock inside it, might swallow it down?
A hook might indeed be worse than a bludgeon. Oh noes.
It has been a long time since we saw Sydney update the list. Was there no place for it in her utility belt?
It’s been like, what, a couple HOURS?
Her wrist comp has eTheList.
This. ^ Most definitely this. ^
Disagree. It would mean Leon would have full access to it, among other people.
Yes. And he would be afraid, very afraid. :P
Of course. Because it won’t have reasons… only names.
And some have been crossed out.
And some will be recorded in two different places
I’m guessing that the first panel is actually the tail end of Sydney debriefing Peg & Max. By now they know everything we do, including what her new points do and Krona’s revelation of her skilltree being linked to the deep code of the universe. I’ll bet HQ is scratching their heads over that one – or pulling their hair out.
Bad golem! No touch!
Incidentally its always blood because it is so intimately associated with life. It isn’t power in the electrical sense, it is *life*. It can be merely a symbol (in which case only a small amount is needed), or a link (usually only a small amount again), but for outright power often needs all of it.
If you are using your own blood, it is to link something to your life, either to bind it, or to draw a bit of energy from you; which is sometimes your life force (which is more conventionally energy as you say, but disproportionate to how much motive power a human body has), or soul energy (which is generally considered to be pretty powerful).
To give a golem function, blood is necessary to give it a semblance of life, essentially what you described for programming shortcuts, although I don’t think anyone ever worded it that way.
If it requires someone to actually die, its because you are using everything they got.
Blood mages use other people’s blood because they are using other people’s energy, their life energy, their soul. The idea being that in magic, to consume the entire essence of a living being, especially a sentient one, is a really impressive amount of energy.
Other stories have mages drain the life from everything around them, killing every living thing in a radius proportionate to the scale of the spell they are casting. To light a campfire probably kills the grass under your feet and some hapless insects nearby. To drop a meteor on a city probably causes a circle of death about the same scale as the city.
Also remember that most of these myths predate understanding of joules, and watts, etc. To them, life energy was the ultimate thing. It makes a living animal or even a people, which is pretty cool.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer had Spike give a good explanation once: “Blood is life, lackbrain. Why do you think we eat it? It’s what keeps you going. Makes you warm. Makes you hard. Makes you other than dead.”
Blood is life.
And then there’s that whole virgin sacrifice thing…
Really? Kicking down the wall or making a hole in the wall is the “easy” way? REALLY?
How about, I don’t know, moving your laptop next to the router or your router next to your computer? Or just use really long ethernet cables(±RJ45 connectors)??
It didn’t say that was the easy way, but it is an ‘out of the box’ kind of idea. All the traditionalists focus on stuff like moving the computer, router, cables, etc, but Sciona just cuts past all that and removes the obstacle instead.
“… a lens made from a slice of neutron star..”
I’m going to have to try that.
You wouldn’t want to. Without the intense gravity to keep it collapsed, neutronium will explode spectacularly.
And if you have the power to keep neutronium compressed away from a massive source of gravity you can just make a lens using that energy instead, and save the hassle and expense of slicing up a neutron star.
If you have the energy budget to create a neutronium lens, you really don’t need one….
Is there an echo in here? :-P
Oh. Well that ruins my latest experiment.
*shoves blackholium telescope back into its box*
Well, I’m glad that things have calmed down and this page showed some communications and reflection upon options and not just more of Sydney blasting away in an unwarranted panic.
“NOT OKAY!”
Alright, that out of the way…
People are giving their own interpretations of Blood Magic here, so I figured I might as well chime in with my own.
The way I see it, in Magical Tradition, it’s not just Blood, but Humours- in other words, bodily fluids. And I think that all bodily fluids have power- and to explain that, I’d say that fluids hold the Soul. (think about it- pretty much everyone agrees that the Ocean is an entity, they talk about Volcanoes and Lakes and even Storms as beings in and of themselves- but when have you heard someone say the same thing about a beach or boulder?)- liquid/fluid is movement, and movement is Life, and Life is Spirit is Soul is Energy, yadda yadda metaphysics.
Soul replenishes. Fluids replenish.
Consider the old ‘spitting on someone’ to curse them. You’re using a bit of your bodily fluids (spit) to transfer some energy to them, with a negative spin. Similarly, ‘swapping spit’ is a transference of love. The transferal of fluid can create new life, the removal of it can take life.
So Blood Magery is just a subset of a broader ‘fluid/life essence/soul’ magery- one where Flesh magic is a sort of subset, and things like the Evil Eye and many superstitions sort of dabble in (fluids in the eye focus ill intentions on the target, baptisms, etc).
Nice interpretation
Seconded.
The law agrees with you (in India).
What about pee…
Anvildude
What about pee…
Pee/urine is a powerful marker of ownership.
Of course, all these really only work when you’re intending them to. If you’re just relieving your bladder, it’s not going to do anything. But when you pee on something with the intention of saying “This is MINE!”…
*cocks a leg*
Oh… you were not talking to me…
*pees anyway*
Nice. You got his shoes. ;)
Ask Trump.
We are out of golden stars. You will have to have…
a wait until some more get delivered.
Would you wear a T-shirt that reads “Let’s talk: Bodily fluids.” in public? In a bar? At work? A coven meeting?
”Blood Mage? Her coworkers say she’s a real Witch, three days out of the month.”
*runs for cover*
When in doubt. Whap
Recall a few panels back Sciona wanted Vampire blood – the older the Vamp the better.
Yes.
*tears welling up*
Was he the one who killed you, and made you a vampire?
One would expect vampire blood to be very different from human blood, wouldn’t be red, may even be white or clear depending on how you have the physiology of such a creature. Vampires may have its own power but for a different class of rituals to control and contain the flow of life energy so human blood instead. But is there a difference materially of one who has had sex to one who hasn’t. Does it count with masturbation? Is climaxing more than just feeling great, but an actual physiologically altering act? I have questions that would make the Red Queen explode.
Now the Aztecs talk about a certain substance in the blood of deities different from humans. That would change you if you suddenly had it. I see it as a kind of gold color of the substance very easily seen if they are injured—if you can injure them that is. To them the heart was a peice of the Sun and cutting them out is freeing them to fly back to the Sun.
Soon humans will be optional and vampires will be able to dispense with the troublesome cattle. An eternal vampire empire will dusk!
Dont worry Vampires will still need us to make more vampires and to keep the internet running(They dont sleep ALL day yknow ;3 )
This is what happens when Earth meets Middle Earth!
Peter Jackson, what has your wizardry unleashed on Hobbiton?
Bah! The New Zealanders should just look sternly at their fault-lines and say “NO!”. That’ll work!
They just have a serious lack of moral fibre!
“NO! bad golem! bad!” she killed me >_<
An unexpected result.
This would be an excellent time, with a provided dummy to test out the light hook. I mean, if the light hook can lift 16 tons, it does stand to reason that it is 16 tons force along every single point on the light hook.
Therefore, if she wraps the dummy in the light hook and squeezes, that would be 16 tons of pressure from every angle. What would be the result?
I have a mighty need for science!
There was that force being applied to Maxima’s hand, when she did her estimate. However the tentacle was failing to lift a beam when wrapped around it. Were your proposal to be accurate that should have been 16 tons for every hand-width of tentacle in contact with the beam, which would have easily given enough force to lift it.
Just as with how much a weight lifter can lift, the figure stated is the maximum effective weight that can be held up, not the pounds per square inch figure.
No, Foz‘s idea is not to attempt to lift Bad Robot, but to constrict it, like a python, squeeze it to see what pops out
The physics is the same, it is all about the amount of force that can be applied. It does not matter if that is going up or squeezing.*
Foz is perfectly correct in stating that if 16 tons of force applied to every point along the tentacle, then it could lift a vast amount (or crush something very tough, like a tank) . I just do not feel that the assumption could be correct, from what we have observed.
* Unless the tentacle is specifically stronger, or weaker, at one task, for some reason. By example an octopus is good at squeezing things, but, lacking bones, is not known for being able to lift things up high. However we have seen Halo’s lift three of her teammates effortlessly up to about head height, and she has mentioned picking up a car too.
So it does not appear to have octopus-like lifting weakness. And I cannot think of any likely reason why it might be comparatively weak at crushing things.
Some thing could be strong enough to resist a single concentrated point of pressure, but weak when you spread that pressure out (like a python squeeze)
An other example: a piece of armour may be resistant to piercing damage but weak against crushing (ie a bullet may bounce off it, but a hammer may crush it like an empty open aluminium can)
True. Sydney could try poking with the tentacle, and seeing if she can use it like a rapier. Albeit quite a blunt one. But the surface area of the end will be less than a fist, meaning the force will be that much more if it can be concentrated in that manner. Making it far more dangerous punching with that than the orbs.
Mind you even if the force providing mechanism (whatever that may be, but analogous to muscles) is too distributed to focus it in a punch (or it lacks an equivalent of bone, to transmit it to the focal point), then Sydney can always pick up a weapon to do the job. But Maxima has already pointed out some of the flaws in that.
However, if trying to punch a hole in armour, that is a valid technique. Given a suitably strong weapon being available.
There in, is a lot of “if”. Hence test! Sydney! We have a mighty need for science! (And at the very least, it would keep the construct busy)
DaveB – What happens if/ when Sydney figures out how to share what her True Sight magic analyzer sees with Krona’s reality hacking? Other than really being able to screw up enemy spells that is?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1564
Krona would probably love to see stuff like that.
“NO!”
Thats a BAD Golem, no puting yourself back togheter again. Dont make me take out the news paper.
Now sit… god Golem.
Now fetch.
The last thing Halo needs is a pet Golem smitten with her brazen smackitude. :)
Now that is an interesting way of interpreting the penultimate panel. I love the diversity of thought in this community!
Plus it is plausible too, given that Icon is living plate mail yet is clearly sentient, as he is the leader of a faction. And his whole faction consists of golems, constructs and other enchanted sapients.
“Sciona, I quit! You only ever offer me blood, instead of nice oil, and this gal has attitude!”
[to Sydney:] “Maam, might I enter your service?
Sydney: “Not on the first date, and not without protection… oh, you meant you want to work for me! Better run that by Maxi and the Council”
Obligatory mentioning of the typo in the undercomic author’s comment from https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2457 now completed.
See ya next Monday morn bright and early. If by some miracle DB sees this one and I don’t get back to him half of the regulars already know what I’m talking about. (or they should since they replied to the comments)
…she should so try writing “METH” on it’s forehead.
YORPIE SNACKS CAUSE CANCER. Specifically, Nonbrazier Pixelomia.
Noooooo!
I don’t wants to eat Pixel…
How did you get hold of the secret recipe? o_O
Oh, nevermind, you said Yorpie Snacks
Is ’cause oi specks der Queens English, not der Commercial Brandspeak.
No, there is a difference between the “Yorpie Snacks” (or Snax) and the “Yorpie Pies” (or, simply, “Yorpies”)
I don’t eat Yorpies. I don’t like how the fur gets stuck in my teeth. Never mind the screaming!
*hides in kennel*
*looks into kennel while holding a whistle, a stick, and a sack*
*goes quail hunting*
No, this is a special puppy-friendly version of the “Yorkshire Pie”, but was originally inspired by the “Yorkie” (or maybe it’s both?)
It could be Sciona’s diabolical plan mind. She has set up in a Mars building, after all! Harvesting that blood could just be to mass-produce vats of Pixel blood, with the intention of creating a line of Pixel Black Pudding Snacks!
Imagine much of England’s population being transformed into Pink Jaguars, with laser claws and invisibility!
Not to mention all of the variant lycanthropes that could spring up with such a huge population of weres. Every kind of great cat, and quite a few of the more distant relatives too. Pink panther cat-burglar’s galore!
And the most devious part of said diabolical plan? That number of obligate carnivores would be unsustainable, without a ready supply of mass-produced meat-product.
Poor Pixel would remain on the menu indefinitely! And Sciona would get very rich.
Up until invisible cat burglars, with laser claws, managed to redistribute the wealth.
Considering some of my friends write mythical stuff? Yeah, traditionally “The blood is the life” pretty much sums it up. And, a ‘blood sacrifice’ works because you’re, essentially , giving it an amount of energy equal to the life denied to the person.
Think: Shinigami from Death Note. By killing someone in a ritualistic sacrifice, you grant the ‘spell’ the energy that WOULD have let them live for X years. Though, since golems are, say, 10 times strong as someone else, the energy lasts only 1/10th the time.
Ooh, update day is upon us!
*wags tail excitedly*
Mmm. You know I could make good use of that!
*attaches feather duster to tail*
I just thought that they have too many supers with names starting with H. Heatwave, Harem, Halo all have chokers with H in them.
Tell me ’bout it.
I bet when Ren chooses his name he will go for “Harlem Hulk”!
Maybe the Harlem Globe Crusher.
Man I forgot how poor some of the guys powers were in this comic XD.Clearly he should call himself Hyperactive.
I can just about picture it. The dramatic music starts. Lion-O grips the Sword of Omens with both hands. “Thun-”
*WHAP*
*TINK* *tink* *tinktinktink*
“NO!”
:-D
“most of what the purists do is the hardest way to do it because they’re too dedicated to the art.”
Okay, no one put up the perfect quote Discworld has for this? /humor
“The Rite of AshkEnte, quite simply, summons and binds Death. Students of the occult will be aware that it can be performed with a simple incantation, three small bits of wood and 4cc of mouse blood, but no wizard worth his pointy hat would dream of doing anything so unimpressive; they knew in their hearts that if a spell didn’t involve big yellow candles, lots of rare incense, circles drawn on the floor with eight different colours of chalk and a few cauldrons around the place then it simply wasn’t worth contemplating.”
– Terry Pratchett – Mort
In the Deverry series, the workers of dark dweomer consume blood (and sometimes raw meat) to gain its life-energy to strengthen them and extend their lives. They’re… not a pleasant bunch. (And the books are not for kids. Mid- to older teens at the youngest.)
I like the idea of using blood as a coding hack, especially pre-development of more complex magical forms that can use subtler and more refined action -which are then in turn applied back to blood magic.
It’s a fascinating rabbit hole.