Grrl Power #513 – Robo regen
Well shoot, I wrote this post then somehow refreshed the page before I uploaded it. :P Well, here is the slightly less coherent 3am version. Edit: It turns out CTRL+R reloads a page in Chrome (at least). I guess I hit that instead of SHIFT+R when I went to type the page title.
This Super Husk is weird in that in seems to be able to copy super powers when no one knows how they work. Plucking some attribute out of Lycanthrope blood is relatively easy by comparison, but Super attributes – this suggests that Sciona might have some workable ideas about it, or she’s found a way to fake it somehow. This would be a puzzling tactic, because if Sciona can fake super powers, why make the thing have to go through the motions of scanning blood, and more importantly, why not just give it a bunch of powers from the get go? Probably some limitation of the blood magic, but still, that’s not much of a limitation.
Of course the next questions are; how many powers can it duplicate at once? Can it store and rotate them out or is it limited to X number and it’s first in first out, and also are the powers it copies at the same power level or does it have its own internal power source to feed them? And most importantly, is there anyone without blood available to fight it?
Oop, I just realized Sydney has all 7 orbs over her head while she’s got her shield activated. I’ll get that fixed when I get up.
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She’s pissed now.
Yeah, was just thinking that
Her comment (“Oooooh. That is unfortunate.”) seems more like it is unfortunate for Robo-Venger
considering it just inherited all traits of Pixels blood, I would assume that also means every weakness a Lycanthrope has, which means we might just get to see what silver does to were creatures in this verse
pixel had lazer claws…. now it has lazer spikes… how fun…
Good point. And the were-bunny seemed to be horrified by it. Of course she is a new were, so may just be going by TV knowledge. But that seems unlikely, given that she is being mentored by the Council. So on stuff like “oh, by the way, don’t touch anything silver, that will kill you!”
Combine that with the fact that it would make no sense for Sciona (who has fought the Council before, so knows her enemy) to create expensive munitions unless there was a good reason for it.
Possibly it may be there because of some other council member(s) of course. But it was aimed at a table with three weres, so, unless it is actually vampires who have a silver allergy, in the Grrlverse, I think weres will be harmed by it.
Fairly sure, the fact there were three (or even any) weres at the table was just a co-inky-dinky: they wouldn’t have known who would be at the table and the shells were loaded to take care of anyone, or thing, at the table
Kind of like Hellboy’s universal mixture that he used to load his special shells.
There was more than just silver in there so that makes sense.
Mmm, I think it is fair to assume that anyone with contacts in the Council (and Sciona does associate with an elder vampire) would at least know the current ‘main table’ membership. Who were clearly the primary target, given that is where the grenade ended up.
So, in my opinion, they would be aware that Gregor plus two other weres would be at the table. Even if they did not know which two.
You are right that the mix was designed to cover as many supernaturals as possible. But I think that first strike (the one with the potential to do the most important damage) would be optimised to take out as many of the known leadership as possible.
Had the fungi folks been in the current rotation, to be at the lead table, then they might have substituted fungicide capsules for the silver, as an example. Whereas, if they examine the rest of the ammo, you might find that every third grenade has some fungicide loaded in it.
I approve and endorse this comment.
+1
I would be more worried about Pixels ability to go invisible.
Of course we do not know how exactly Pixels “Lycanthrope only” Superpowers work. Maybe that part of her ability can not be copied via Blood?
Well laser claws are not part of the normal lycanthrope package, so one would assume that as she has copied one super-power that way, then there is no reason why the other cannot be likewise replicated.
Of course there may be limits, as Dave hints at, on how many powers it can duplicate, at once. And it may already be at that limit. But that is a separate issue.
The other thing is that it may not be able to tell, just from the blood, what powers the donor might have. It was not until Sydney mentioned regeneration, for instance, that it tried analysing the blood. The claws it observed itself. However it may well be unaware of Pixel’s invisibility power.
This, of course, assumes that it (or its controller) do not remember Sciona capturing Pixel, the first time round. Because she was scouting invisibly then, so, as Sciona keeps that construct close to her, it would likely have seen err or not seen that power in action.
one detail that’s been missed (in this discussion thread) so far; the blood it’s scanned, came outta pixel-snickts when she was in hybrid form. i’m guessing it can’t get the cloak unless A) she bleeds on it as a full cat or B) at least changes into a full cat, if sympathetic magic has anything to do with it.
That is a very reasonable point. Were it just a robot, somehow able to duplicate the properties encoded in DNA, that would not make sense, but as a construct animated with blood magic it certainly does.
I’m thinking the same thing, but we have to wait and see. Also, it’s adaptive which is not the same as smart…
Although Darwin seemed to think that was a useful property.
A very useful property, except in this case, of course…
Very useful for the ‘bot, not so much for the heroes…
;)
Maybe it has inherited the werecat’s weakness to laser pointers?
Heh. I got to get me one of those.
Were-pussy, if available, or laser-pointer, if not.
I can just picture you sitting all alone at home, asking yourself the age old question “Were-pussy?”
F5F5F5F5 Woo, new page! I still need some help. https://www.gofundme.com/my-car-is-toast It’s the last time I post this here I swear!!!
Hey, you are trying to keep your life together, with that. I sure do not mind seeing the message. And if it is actually helping, then I am positively happy about it!
Nice folks deserve to catch a break.
It doesn’t help my self image. I feel like one of those guys standing in front of a gas station begging for change. But in all everyone has been great. I am over a third of the way to the goal. I have worked nights for over ten years so you wonderful, beautiful people ARE my community.
There is a big difference, in that once you have gotten past this you will be able to remain in employment. So, with the help that everybody needs from time to time, in their lives, you will have the prospect of a productive future ahead of you.
By the way, even if you do not manage to raise the full amount you need, both the fact that you do have a job and have managed to get a significant deposit, should make it possible to get financing for the remainder, from a reputable bank. Even if you had hit a lending wall before, it is worth speaking to them again.
Far better that than accepting vehicle financing terms, or other extortionate interest loan. As that will make it difficult to make provision for keeping the replacement car going or saving for when you eventually need to replace that.
You strike me as astute enough to have figured all that out, and more (maybe already factoring that into the sums you needed). But I don’t mind risking offering unnecessary advice, even nine times out of ten, for the one time that it turns out to be useful to someone.
Something tells me his weakness is also bood related, maybe he’s weak to heat?
Or maybe you gotta use white wine, or is that for red wine?
Ya know, just dump glitter on his eye, that’ll mess him up, that stuff get’s everywhere
Oh I just read the subtext, though I dunno if robots can get sick, but it’s worth a shot.
Maybe, hmmm, I wonder what scanning succubus blood would do, would he attract toasters from miles around?
not toasters, but quite possibly wafflemakers
Let’s hope these guys are mechanivorous as well.
+1 for the Freefall reference, even if it was accidental.
For those who don’t follow Freefall: You should. They had trouble with carnivorous waffle irons about 1400 strips ago. (No, really. Strip #1184. They’re on #2520.)
Use Oxi Clean! Oxi Clean will get the stains right out! Dirt, grass, mud, paint, even blood comes right out with the power of Oxi Clean!
And if nothing else, it makes a useful catalyst for whitening ABS plastic (used in most 80s electronics) that’s turned yellow due to UV exposure (aka, retro-brite).
Go figure, it’s UV light that makes the plastic yellow; and it’s UV light (plus hydrogen peroxide and sometimes OxiClean) that makes it turn white again.
Coagulant. Clot all the blood and render it useless.
That might work, and they make a coagulant now that will clot everything very quickly…
The Andromeda Strain…Look it up.
;)
Too dangerous, unless you can (1) stop it from mutating, (2) modify it so it can only affect its intended target. (I’m not going to go into detail, because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read the book and/or seen the movies. Let’s just say the Andromeda Strain is more like a Doomsday Weapon than anything else.)
But you have to admit, it IS a very effective coagulant, isn’t it?
;)
Oh, very much so, as long as the infected person’s blood isn’t acidotic or alkalotic. After all, it can only grow within a very narrow pH range. If I remember correctly, it clotted the entire volume of blood (~4.7 liters) in… what, 7 seconds?
Throw Sydney blood at it.
That will only make it hyperactive. Actually it might make it compatible with the orbs.
It will also need to acquire super hands DNA to develop hands to use the orbs.
Or blood of a haemophiliac.
How would a robot deal with lack of iron?
could give it the blood of a super pacifist, then it wouldn’t be able to fight :P
Prince Philionel of Seyruun sez:
“Kindness to All Creatures Kick!”
“Benevolent Giant Swing!”
“Goodwill Towards Humanity Smash!”
And my personal favorite..
“Pacifist Crush!”
That reminds me of https://www.emmah.net/ujname.html
Is that random? Or did everyone get “The Gatling Gun of Warm Humanitarianism”?
I got “The Spikey Mace of Courteous Debate”, which I thought would be appropriate for this golem.
Brother Howitzer of Mild Reason
They knew me!
*wags tail forgivingly*
The Neutron Bomb of Sweet Reason
Hemophiliacs lack clotting factors. Lack of iron in the blood is anemia.
sooo… the metal would spill out uncontrollably all over the place?
Damnit. I study that stuff, I should have known that.
Make friends with Lord DarkSteel. Hector almost never has an iron deficiency.
Sound like a plan!With Syds super spazzyness everyone will be able to beat on it for days while it mouthlessly goes on about being an apex super midboss in training and needlessly applys comic tropes to everything XD.
You are forgetting who came up with the idea and the plan to beat TollHouseCookie, and Kevin, when not even Maxi could
And speaking of Max, she’s gonna have a fight on her hands when she gets there…
Not a physical one, or they will be in worse trouble
mother hell it now appears to have pixel power!
And on that note, I’m grateful that DaveB hasn’t pixelated his graphics style to reflect that…
Yet the real Pixel’s graphic bloody injury got concealed behind a convenient wall.
Pixel boobies unpixelated, yet Pixel ouchies censored.
Probably for the best mind, as Dave’s art is realistic to the degree that such an injury would be gruesome!
Holy crap. Harem and Khrona need to leave. Now! This this does not need teleportation, body copying, let alone freaking reality hacking!
Yeah but as far as we know, their superpowers aren’t blood based unlike ya know, lycantrophy.
The robo-venger didn’t just copy the Lycanthrophy. It copied Pixels laser claws. Which are her super power, not her lycantrophy.
yeah but they only work in her wereform, so they are probably linked in some way?
nah, the laser claws are just window-dressing, her REAL super power is the stealth mode
Please don’t give it ideas… !
We could only give it ideas if Sydney’s blood got in the mix. But then it wouldn’t be use exactly but “genre savviness”. Of course that could come with a downside, as it experience an existential crises when it realizes that it’s likely a disposable henchbot, and that its ultimate fate is to rendered into scrap.
Just have Marvin the Paranoid Android talk to it for a few minutes…It’ll be quite ready to commit suicide from CPU-induced depression.
;)
That is what that yellow orb is for.
How could Sydney even fight a stelth robot? She needs the shield, without it she is too vulnerable. To see it she needs truesight, but then she does not have a free hand for the lighthook or the PPO. Switching between weapons and reconnaissance is difficult.
Perhaps by backing away, she could drop the shield and use truesight and a weapon. But the robot is to fast for Sydney if she does not fly and probably has a distance weapon itself.
She would act as a spotter for Maxi, or Peggy, who wold proceed to nuke it from orbit
Invisibility’s kryptonite is powdered sugar. or baby powder, or any finely divided dusty stuff. like X’s lack of sound transparency, blow the powder in the air and shoot at the mecha bad guy shaped hole.
It would be easier for Sydney just to use her Tru-Site ball and relay the real-time location
Blowing powder in the air won’t be such a good idea if they are outside and it is windy… oh, they are, and it probably is
Glitter. It’s in her craft supplies.
I was just thinking, “Glitterdust!”
*slaps on a gold star*
Grab shield orb, grab ppo, fire above the space where the giant footprints appear.
Trouble is they are on a solid roof, with no sign of footprints being left. Whilst the plan would work, it requires an extra couple of steps, in luring the golem off the roof and onto the dirt road below.
Grab Truesight Orb.
TELEPORT well away.
PewPew to your hearts content from out of range.
Just what a fully trained Sydney might, but then we’re back to that pesky training thing. The best we can hope for is her stream of consciousness ADHD mode kicking in…
Remember one of Sydney’s more memorable quotes – ALWAYS EXPECT NINJAS.
I expect that stealthed giant robots would be covered by this.
Especially if she sees it fade from view, in front of her.
Oooo oo ooo … we need to get Dabbler over here for super sexy succubus golem time.
Use her glamour to turn into whatever turns it on.
i actually meant for a tiny taste of succubus blood. Since Succubi apparently have SOME inherent abilities, but most of Dabbler’s skills are trained. Ergo, you get a sexy golem without Dabbler’s badass-ery.
And for the rest of the night we have Dabbles making out with her golem-self… please, make that happen, specially if it retains its tentacle arm
That manakiller might find something it likes somewhere within a href=https://www.ufunk.net/en/univers-geek/36-filles-robots-sexy/>this selection…
Odd though it may sound, the one I found most appealing had her face slipping off!
“Excuse me, I just have to go put my face back on!”
Hopefully with a design flaw, like that, it will keep the price-point of her model down to an affordable level.
But when a woman is getting ready to have a “night on the town,” isn’t it common for her to say that she’s going to “go put her face on?” Even for a robot, that’s still all too realistic.
:D
Nice to see Sidney acknowledging her freeze like that and at least starting to apologize to Pixel. Cutting off the apology for updated info on the golem is actually a good idea as well.
Yup, raises her standing even higher (if that’s possible) by her acknowledging her role in Pixelicious getting impaled on a beam!! And those things typically aren’t small
Yeah, it’s good that she understands that she screwed up. Just another step on the path to enlightenment….
Indeed, the road to absolution is forged on the core root-word “solution.” Sydney recognizes her own failing, so that she may act to prevent it from happening again.
Maxim 70. Failure is not an option – it is mandatory. The option is whether or not to let failure be the last thing you do
I hope Maxima’s armour is up to snuff, or this could go very badly very quickly.
If this thing can absorb powers through blood, the last thing they need is to feed it Maxi blood!!
Now that would reaaaaaalllly suck!Its nice to see that this aleged upgrade actually has at least one capability worth bragging about….well maybe two with the flowerpower shields.
We currently have no reason to believe that Maxima’s skin can be pierced as we have only ever seen her bleed through her nose after SERIOUS impact. Chances are the golem would have a lot of trouble getting hold of any.
Does it mater where she bleeds from? And we don’t know if Maxi is impervious to Laser Murder-Spike Balls
It has tentacles, Maxi has a pair of nostrils, one insertion later and we have a lobotomized Maxi and a Golden Terminator
Lasers are great for creating instantly cauterized wounds. Tentacles to the nose seems far more plausible but would imply a great deal of understanding of her defenses that I doubt this automaton comes with.
Doesn’t matter someone’s defences: a tentacle up the nose bypasses most of them
She could just use her speed and Archiles as a shield.
Achilles might also act well as a weapon too. Max holds him in front of herself, then flies Mach 5 straight into the ‘bot…As long as she hits it with Achilles first, it’ll be “rest in pieces.”
At least there’s no conceivable way for the mannekiller to get hold of Achilles’ blood. I don’t think he’s EVER bled.
Yup. He, along with Math, Gwen, Zephan, Peggy and Sydney (if she stays safe in her bubble) are Team Super Golem Killer. Who could probably do with the Space Marines for backup,* given that one heavy hitter (Sydney) is not being very effective at the moment. Whilst the other (Math) might take quite some time to get here, from Archon HQ.
He has a lot of porn he has not seen yet. Just a few servers more…
* Tthey tend to travel by osprey (so may be coming with Peggy).
Wait, since when has Math been Team Super Golem Killer? o_O
Human … no innate ability in the blood, just a LOT of skill.
Yup, that was the reasoning.
Sydney can still be a heavy hitter. Just pick up something heavy and hit him with it.
Maxima has already pointed out to Sydney that, given how hard she could hit something directly with her Lighthook, it would probably do less damage than to pick up an object & use as a bludgeon.
From the tone of your reply I suspect that you meant it the other way round to how you actually phrased it, in the latter part. Which would be correct.
Although it is worth pointing out that Maxima was talking about the improvised use of a car, as a weapon. There are other things which could actually help her inflict more damage, most obvious of which would be a real weapon specifically designed for such a purpose.
Provided Halo can either find one durable enough (say from Deus’s display) or have one made to her tentacle’s specifications.
The only blood we’ve seen from Max was when she was punched in the nose. So don’t get punched in the nose…
That’s also the only place where we have seen Maxima get punched.
However we do know that Maxima almost died once, during a fight in Iraq with another super that’s “dead as far as we know”.
So she’s definitely not invincible.
Dead as far as Archon know. We know differently. Or suspect very heavily.
*points nose at circumstantial bandaged evidence*
In fact it sounds similar enough to “mostly decapitated” that I wonder if Sciona might have had a hand in restoring him?
To be fair, Maxima deliberately went face first into that one…
:P
A realistic (in lack of a better word) limitation would be if it can only regenerate until that small blood sample is used up.
And I hope Harem can teleport and without taking along stuff like blood and dirt.
Ooo good one. So it uses the blood from the person with the superpower AS the power source for that superpower
Yeah, but lycantrophy is infectious, so…
I wonder how infectious lycanthropy is in the GP verse. After all, Harem is kinda covered in Pixel’s blood right now…
I’m sure that Harem wouldn’t mind having *one* of her forms infected with lycanthropy. [And yes, Google Chrome: ‘lycanthropy’ is a freaking word. I did not mean ‘philanthropy,’ although seeing Harem infected with THAT would also be funny.]
Heh. Maybe she is?
“Here Deus, have a few more state secrets, I would not want you to have to sell off one of your yachts, to pay your espionage bills!”
“Arianna, you look gossip-deprived! Did you know Sydney is a vegetarian?”
“Hey Komic book nerd, you look like a sad, lonely looser! Want to make out? With five of me. Only four can be nude mind, orders.”
Yeah, it typically has to enter the victims bloodstream somehow
We’ll hope she didn’t scratch her hand on anything.
Daves heavily inspired by Fred Perrys golddigger so unless its a massive transfusion of were blood going into Harem shes safe from being infected.99.9% Of those infected with lycanthropy in the GD universe were infected intentionally which usually doesnt involve blood transfer.
If you mean the construct can be infected with therianthropy… uhm, sure, I guess. Seems completely against all the lore,but it’s DaveB’s world, so I guess I can see it.
As for Peggy, yeah, you may have a point. The lore is usually you have to be bitten by the therianthrope, rather than raked and clawed, so getting blood on you or even even in you wouldn’t trigger the mystical condition. Given that DaveB seems to be going with a more Underworld™ feel where it’s the blood of vampires and therianthropes that is the triggering factor, your point may very well be true. Nice plot twist…
Like Peggy doesn’t have enough things to worry about in this fight.
Side Note: traditional lore usually allows for an herbal remedy given in a timely fashion to counter the curse. Granted, the herb is usually horribly toxic and more than likely lethal in the dosages recommened in lore, so this may be a “Here, have some of this and you won’t need to worry about the curse annnnymore” sort of thing. “We must contain the infection!”
And by Peggy, I meant Harem, of course…
::mutters something about stupid memory::
Hmm maybe though given that it apparently scanned the blood instead of simply using it it couldve just used the sample to recode itself to have the abilitys rather than using it as a regen potion like Sciona did with her trollblood smoothie she had offscreen
I had the impression the robot scanned it first to see what type of blood it is and then it inserted the tentacle with the blood into its body where the blood was absorbed.
It probably only uses the ability it could comprehend from the scan rather than all abilities the blood owner has. The blood magic probably needs the blood to use the power.
Does the computer assess the blood to figure out what blood magic spell to use to use the power in the blood? So not one spell but one per blood sample. If you do damage and knock the blood sample out or destroy it, the spell will stop.
What scrappy SciFi movie from the 80s had the alien monster defeated by letting the monster eat the guy with cancer?
Not sure how that would apply here.
Give it gerbil blood?
Oh no, now it has all the powers of a gerbil, what were we thinking!
*wilhelm scream*
Sloth blood :D
Back up about a century. H G Wells’ War of The Worlds had the aliens die from terrestrial infections. (Not spoiler marked cuz you’ve had more than a century to read the book)
I’m a slow reader, OK?
That’s
Oh.
Kay.
There’s also a movie or two that are a few decades old, so you could follow the dialogue…Again, because of the age of the film, no spoiler warning is needed.
:D
DC has had at least one vampire try to drink Superman’s blood… Superman’s solar-powered blood…
Cue vampire burning up.
^_^
Feed it white rat blood … those things seem to die from anything.
They’d need something to take the ‘bot down that works faster than cancer would though…
:P
Can’t think of one from the 80s. Now, Species II (1998) did have the alien hybrids be unable to cope with any genetic disease. What killed them ended up being the blood of a guy who was merely a carrier of sickle cell anemia. Which was a Deus Ex Gluteus Maximus (the writer couldn’t think of any other way to defeat the aliens, so he pulled something out of his ass) if I ever saw one.
Because you made me do it.
Deus Ex Proktos.
Thank you for giving me a new snark,,,,
From one professional snarker to another… you’re welcome. :)
Since Deus ex Machina refers to the “god in a machine,” then I for one agree that that is an excellent snark.
:)
No, it’s “God from the machine”
This line of commentary paired with the gerbil references also in this chain brought up a tangential question for me ….
Why has Sydney never user the descriptor “Richard Gere spelunking” as a modifier in her insult rants?
“Why doctor, surely you’ve heard of gerbiling?”
No?
Probably should have let it re-attach it’s own arm there.
Venger! I get that ref! Helps I was a kid when that was on tv. Does this mean I can say PPO again? That one horn always made me think of the main baddie in Time Bandits.
Ow. I was thinking small and that it was Robot + Avenger and missed the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon ref you caught. Bad Scotto, no cookie. If she wants to continue the reference though, Sydney should swirl the Lighthook up into a club shape and knock him back to the building…
Duh, I get it now. The one horn on the side of the head. https://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Venger
Syd stop thinking in tropes and start thinking period,Your sociopathic attitude towards your teammates is starting to get annoying.
I don’t see how thinking about her period is going to…
Nevermind. Read that wrong
Rotfl!Maybe during that time of the month Sydneys more likely to use massive amounts of overkill?XD
Well considering her cramps started the day after the fight with V a couple of days ago….
What the hael are you talking about? She admitted that she was responsible for Pixelicious getting hurt
The fact she is enquiring on her injured teammates is fairly much the opposite of sociopathy
Actually that would be high functioning sociopathy,Low functioning sociopathy would be making a dead Pixel joke and then going all comic tropy about regenerators needing to get hurt to show off their powers without realising that talking like that is going to nark people off.
So, by showing concern for her injured teammates, and accepting due blame for the injury, that makes her a sociopath? Do you even know what that means? Or did you find it on a “Word of the day” toilet roll?
Oh thats cute!I want to wrap you up in a pink bow and carry you around in my pocket!Try reading up on psychology before you start with the insults sweetie ^^
You believe that was an insult? o_O
As a trained psychologist and counselor, she isn’t displaying sociopathy/psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder here.
While indifference to other’s emotional state is a part of the diagnosis, there is another part of the diagnosis which involves being self serving at the expense of others and manipulation of others in order to achieve one’s ends. In addition, the pattern needs to be persistent over time in order to be diagnosed as sociopathy. Not something that has ever been displayed in canon.
Per Wikipedia, “Psychopathy (/saɪˈkɒpəθi/), sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy (/soʊsiˈɒpəθi/), is traditionally defined as a personality disorder[1] characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, egotistical traits.”
Merely being focused on the situation at hand and prioritizing one situation over another isn’t sociopathy.
+1
Lesson #1, Passing Critic: You may have read about psychology, but you’re not a psychologist.
Weatherheight IS a psychologist. So I think I would trust his diagnosis of Sydney’s (lack of) sociopathy over yours.
Unless personal biases come into things of course but ill leave that there.
The opacity of Sydney’s shield in relation to lasers has already been foreshadowed. Hopefully those spikes cannot be thrown seperately.
They managed to reflect Hex’s beams during the steakhouse brawl.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1386
And block the harmful light from the flash bangs Harem stuck to Death Toll.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1465
I think it’ll hold.
On an entirely tangential note, I had not seen the prior altercation referred to as “The Steakhouse Brawl,” but I think that is probably one of the best names I have ever heard. If that was original kudos to you. If I had just missed it before, kudos to whoever originated it.
That would make an awesome movie title for a really bad B-Movie, wouldn’t it?
People keep coming up with new names for it
I was thinking that since Pixel et al. were kept prisoners and drained of blood this construct will simulate the person using the blood and will stop once the blood runs out or has burned off enough super power stuff in it. That is IF she can’t synthesise more of it.
Pixel was only captured in the original recon effort, which was rewound when Krona’s checkpoint activated. This time through, nobody has been in the basement yet, which means this thing probably acquired her powers since arriving on the roof.
Yup, that is the implication of panel 2. That the construct is scanning Pixel’s blood, from where the tentacle had been manhandling her.
Hmmm… Sydney’s shield vs laser spike mace. This should be interesting – after all, if the robo can deflect Sydney’s rain of death with it’s own shield, what about a spiky impact? Maxima test blunt force (fist) and energy blast… but what about sharp pointy things?
Who says it will target Sydney? o_O
She is currently the only target there
Kronechrome is at the base of the building, and Pixelicious is coughing up a spleen in the warehouse, with Bodie keeping an eye out, so, take your pick
her shield weathered the fallout of maxima setting off the equivalence of about 20 megaton TNT if not more when she blew up that Tank, the size of the blast and such taken into account, I doubt Mr. Copycat Tincan woudl be able to get through with just that arm.
Dabbler is the only member of Arc-SWAT who has been able to defeat Maxima in sparring. Yet she had her shield destroyed by a smaller, weaker, relative of this golem. Using just a spiked hand. Had it not been for Icon’s intervention it may have killed her!
Its one of the reasons I like Dabbler,If she knows in advance what shes facing she can loadout her gear to easily beat it but every time shes had a hard time in the comic its with something that she wasnt prepared for (In the case of the husks cracking her magic shield with an antimagic shank and then Dabbler soloing several of them off screen in the next meetup this is especially evident)
I doubt the superhusk can get through Sydneys shields since we have no idea of their upper limits(In fact knowing more of Halos limitations would be nice eventually,so far we only have a fair idea of her top flight speed and lighthook strength) and more importantly if the shields did fail given how Pixels claws work Sydney would wind up chunky salsa which we know for a fact cant happen cause were still in flashback mode at the mo and her get out of death free card has already been spent this arc ^^.
That would depend on the active length of the spikes, I would imagine. The Ball itself should be stopped by the shield, but if the laser spikes ignore the shield, then then would pass through.
If, on the other hand, the shield isn’t invisible force field but is a energy dampening field(i.e. any energy over a certain threshold gets reduced to just below that threshold), than the laser spikes shouldn’t pass through enough energy to cause harm.
Hopefully we’ll get to find out.
What was Harem supposed to say in Panel 1? “A ly…”?
I’ve long been a fan of werecreatures but this got me thinking: Why do they automatically have (or are assumed to have) regeneration as one of their abilities? For most common werecreature “species” (wolves, cats, etc.), the mundane species they’re based on don’t have regeneration.
Although, as a fan of Pixel, I’m glad they do have it in this universe.
A lycan
One of their abilities has always been enhanced regeneration (and, actually, nearly all creatures have a form of regeneration, how else do you explain cuts and broken bones healing?)
Actually, thinking about the history of werecreatures in myth and folklore, regeneration is a pretty new thing. When you go back to the Middle Ages and the like, seeing the same wound on a person that was inflicted on an animal that had attacked a person was one way of telling if a person was normal or a werewolf.
My question really is: At what point in pop culture did some writer or author artist think, “And they should be able to regenerate, too!”
On the topic of people healing, that’s not regeneration as we know it here and most fiction. Yeah, you and I can heal, but that’s different from rapid healing from a wound, or regrowing a limb. A guy gets shot in a movies and heals and he (usually) acts afterwards like he’d never been shot; in real life, you can suffer a truly nasty wound and even if you heal up and the part of your body that suffered manages to look okay, you won’t ever be back to the same physical capacity as before.
Regeneration in fiction means amputations aren’t a thing; in real life, what you say about us “regenerating” doesn’t apply. Destroyed muscles, nerves, and tendons don’t grow back. Flesh fills in the wound but they don’t replace what was lost. Here, most fiction, most RPGs, you usually grow and regain everything back.
Not an expert about mythical creatures, but they always differ much . Vampires alone have a ton of powers and limits. Off the top of my head I remember flying, climbing, strength, bat form, wolf form, gaseous form, handsomeness, regeneration (coffin, bloodsucking), control over animals, hypnosis/ thought control, no mirror image, regeneration, vulnerable to sunlight, silver, holy water, bible pages, garlic, stakes, cannot pass water, needs to be invited to enter houses.
But I have never heard of a vampire who checked of everything.
If you search long enough you will probably find single examples of impressive healing factors with wereanimals.
Hydras are an early example for super regeneration.
Hydras aren’t werewolves, though. Hercules’ hydra wasn’t a guy who turned into the 9-headed serpentine creature Her killed as a labor.
I agree that there’s a huge variance when it comes to collecting and comparing different myths, but the regeneration thing is pretty new and different when it comes to werecreatures or, at least, werewolves. As far as the modern pop-culture werecreature is based on western European werewolves (classic folklore -> movies -> modern fiction), regeneration is absent until only recently.
Hm. I’m now guessing it would be after Lon Chaney’s movies and around the time of horror movies like the Howling or an American Werewolf in London… I’ll have to check that.
It might be because of people adding and removing attributes of the stories with each retelling.
So it went with the original weakness to silver and from there changed:
Weak to silver > deadly allergic to silver > can only be truly killed by silver > immune to / regenerates from anything but silver.
Yeah. That’s probably why.
Makes you wonder: Does this mean any mythological or supernatural or superpowered character or creature is eventually going to get stronger with each telling of their tale?
Looks like it. Especially in Hollywood you have to rise the bar. The traditional monsters are quite lame by modern standards. I just read on Wikipedia that infectious lycanthropy by biting is as modern a concept as the fast healing.
That’s a good point. The original, Middle Ages European way to become a werewolf/transform was by donning a wolf’s skin and putting some sort of ointment on yourself. A likely scientific explanation for the phenomenon was that the ointment was hallucinogenic while people getting attacked (at night, in the dark) would mostly see just the wolfskin and think that a genuine wolf-like creature did the assault.
In any set of abilities, each generation (heh.. pun…) of people will re-interpret what the lore says in terms they can understand / accept. This is most definitely a thing. :D
That is actually a concept addressed in the background throughout Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. The audiobook versions are followed by commentary with the author where he discusses his interest in dealing with the effect distance has on information where that distance is across geography or time. It’s really pretty interesting.
That’s because that’s enhanced regeneration
Probably shortly after the “only killed by a silver bullet” bit go added by way of that “one kid” asking how that worked.
“A lycanthrope” I assume.
regeneration is a “bad power”. If Pixel didn’t have regeneration, she wouldn’t have been impaled.
Only if youre running offve tropes.Ive always found it funny Wolverine is considered a great fighter in the Marvel universe but he get repeatedly tagged in fights by even mook whod make stormtroopers look badass.
Which is what makes it a ‘bad power’, and we already had that bit about Wolvie and shit writers
Wheeeellll Ive often ran on the handwave that Wolverines the type to abuse the fact that he can get away with ignoring hits that even other regenerators would want to avoid which often gives him a chance to get a free hit in.Youd be amazed how many martial artists get caught out by instant aggression in the real world.
Of course the problem with relying on regeneration to win fights is you never actually get any better at fighting.
Except, we are (or were) talking about shit writers who can only show regeneration by making the character get sliced and diced on a regular basis (or did you not actually pay attention to the page where it was explained why it was a bad power?)
Oh no I remember the page,Just the point is outside of bad comic writer conventions regenerations almost a good power as Achilles,Potential near immortality sucking?Ill have two spoons of that over eyebeams anyday!
Now if writers were smart enough to actually show other benefits of regeneration other than the easiest to show people would be declaring it the greatest power ever,Heck with good enough regeneration not only do you have infinate stamina but you can also push your body to its very limits without breaking yourself,Then theres toxin immunity etcetc.
…………
Wait did you just call Dave a s**t writer?
Oh and in defence of Daves writing the first thing he wrote about with were healing factors was their huge help in dealing with poisons-in the case of a certain bunny even making it so a general antidote is all thats needed to help her shrug off a poison specifically tailored to floor a were in one hit.
Only if youre running offve tropes.Ive always found it funny Wolverine is considered a great fighter in the Marvel universe but he get repeatedly tagged in fights by even mook whod make stormtroopers look badass.
I’m assuming “lycanthrope” but since some stuff on lycans is likely classified, she amended it to super. Don’t see why though, since that slip gave it away already.
She could have been about to call Pixelicious a liar
or a lie-about…
That’s normally a ‘lay-about’ though
Hope laser claws cant so much as scratch Maxima… dont want that super mannikilller being able to get even a teensy bit of Maximas blue blood to duplicate her power levels.
Considering some of the stuff Max has been hit with so far, I’m not too worried…
Vehemence did manage to make Maxima bleed. Not to mention causing some internal injury too.
We may think of Maxima as being ‘Super-Man-but-only-one-power-at-a-time’, however her defense is not up there with his.
Even assuming they can hurt her, laser-generated cuts cauterize instantly. No bleeding.
Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the wavelength of the laser and the amount of power. Laser pointers are 5 milliwatts or less, and even then they can cause permanent retinal damage. Most surgical lasers are CO2 pulse lasers in the 40-watt range. Something like a CNC sheet metal laser cutter is around 1 kilowatt. The military (and military contractors) have tested lasers up to 50 kilowatts, and the Air Force hopes to have a 150 kilowatt laser by 2030.
Those 50 kilowatt lasers are designed to blow up unmanned drones (like the Predator drone) at a range of 3 kilometers (1.863 miles)… that kind of energy turned against a human body would not leave a neat, clean hole.
But which of them cause bleeding? Experiment, and report back please.
When a high powered laser hits something, it tends to vaporize the first layer in a puff of steam or vaporized metal. This cloud of vapor attenuates the beam, effectively shielding the target against it. So you pulse the weapon (roughly 5 milliseconds between pulses should be enough) to give the steam time to clear away from the impact point (which it will, as it’s being driven outwards by its own momentum) so that the next pulse hits with full force. Which causes another, even bigger chunk of material to be vaporized, because the surrounding area has now been heated to a point where it was almost ready to vaporize, but not quite, and that next blast of energy puts it over the edge.
Humans react a bit differently to this than your average piece of sheet metal being cut with a laser cutter. Our bodies have a lot of different materials with a lot of different flash points. But an adult human is also filled with water (50-65% of our bodies is water), which has a relatively low flash point. So when we get hit, that water boils off, and in doing so, rapidly expands. A lot of tissue will just burn and vaporize as well… but not all. Some of it’s going to be blown out from the wound by a highly pressurized cloud of steam, making an even bigger hole. And it repeats over and over again. The laser cauterizes where it hits, but the steam is far less hot than the laser, so it doesn’t. And the steam is what actually causes most of the damage.
The takeaway is that being hit with even a relatively low powered combat laser or plasma weapon would be a far, far gorier way to go than being hit with a simple bullet. Remember that scene in the Resident Evil movie where they’re in that corridor with lasers, and the one soldier gets cut into neat little cubes? That’s “Creative License – Physics” at work. He wouldn’t get cut into cubes, he would explode messily.
Though since the Manikiller has only rudimentary intellience it likely wouldnt understand how Maximas point spending works……actually even with Maximas base stats that would still be a bad time for everyone x,x.
This remind me of that power copy construct in justice league.
It ended up having every power it could get its hand on and after it got supermans it had an existential crysis and just left earth to find something more interesting to do.
Than he destroyed Oa and came back to kill Luther
This is a team superhero comic. Of course you’re going to have an Amazo / Superadaptoid expy
Oops, missed your Amazo reference before I made my comment, sorry.
Let’s hope that those laser spikes cannot penetrate your shield Halo. Get ready to duck!
I know you have bounced lasers before but the lesser ones of these had shield penetrating claws, and this one can clearly copy super powers! So expect the worst!!
Actually… she might be ok even if the laser spikes do make it through, at least working on the speculation about shields and visible light that’s previously been in the comic. If the spikes pass through but the mace they’re attached to doesn’t then so long as she’s in the middle of her shield they aren’t long enough to reach her.
She could run into problems if they actually puncture the shield instead of “passing through” though, or if they can change length.
That may indeed be how these work now. Previously though the other construct literally smashed Dabbler’s shield into pieces!
This may be an instance of adding super powers actually creating a disadvantage, if the modified weapon functions differently and thereby looses a useful capability.
Also, we have discussed previously that the visible ends of the “laser claws” are not where their effective ends actually are. As evidence, see the cutting off of the just replaced arm by Pixelicious.
So if Sydney isn’t careful with the size of her shield, just because the visible part is far enough away doesn’t mean she won’t have an impromptu and involuntary high temp acupuncture session.
That construct is going to get a big smile next…
So that it can do a Cheshire cat, when it turns invisible, of course!
+1, and a Yorp Snack for you.
O.O Annnnnnd in one sentance you just made this construct scary!
Oh I thought you meant Syd was about to spank it.
Well it has inherited other characteristics, from Pixel, so it may enjoy the offer of a good spanking too.
Should feed it some lawyer blood(if you can find one that still has any), might turn the construct into a waffle iron.
You know they have a checkered past.
If we hear funky and/or smooth jazz emanating from the golem, make sure we all tune in next page. :D
Obligatory mentioning of the typo in the undercomic author’s comment from https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2457 now completed.
OK, I was just thinking that temporarily gaining unique abilities from blood might be a thing that older vamps get the handle on and that’s why Sciona wanted all that older vamp blood to make the things with (like when Angel ate that one immortal guy’s blood and got super tough for a while, some of the tricks Kain used to play in his video game, etc… ) but Dave’s explanation seems to have put the kibosh to that.
Also, is it me, or has Harem had a boob size buff?
Not that I’m complaining! ^_^
Yeah, panel 1 jumped right at me when I opened this page.
No, Daphne have always been busty girls
according to canon, Daphne’s a C-cup – given her slender frame, panel 1 is at least another size above that
Are you honestly going to tell me that these are C-cups? o_O
Or how about these?
Possibly, but those are really pushing into D territory. If she’s wearing C, that can’t be comfortable.
There might be a weird perspective thing going on, Her shoulders are big compared to her under-boob area too.
So… From Dolly Zoom to Dolly Parton Zoom?
We’re ready for our close up, Mr. DeMille, said Harem.
Daph is officially a Super, which gives her an idealized body. Remember, B-cup Supers don’t exist. So, yeah, large end of ‘C’ actually sounds a bit small.
Someone has been watching X-men: Days of the Future Past, haven’t they?
Hum.. Well given that it used the fresh blood from this battle, and didn’t pull some out of “elsewhere”
that implies that the blood Pixal lost during the timeloop, was return to her from their machine I guess.
Not an unreasonable assumption. Although Sciona may simply have not gotten around to giving it a sample yet. But she has proven to be a capable enemy, so I think the former is the more likely.
anyone else think the golem in panel 4-5 is oddly cut off at the top?
The shoulders? Yeah, had noticed that as well
It is consistent with the art in panel 5 of the previous page.
I think Sydney should’ve said, “This doesn’t look good!” or “I got a bad feeling about this…!”
No, it implies that Sydney is about to get very serious, and that is never a good thing for anyone around her
Despite her having ADHD?!?!?
It’s been pointed out by people on this forum who have ADHD, that someone who has ADHD also sometimes goes into a state of hyper-focus. Whether or not that qualifies as “very serious” depends on the reader.
Also depends on the perspective of the one they hyper-focus on
I get it – the regeneration and laser spikes are a handy way to demonstrate acquisition of Pixel’s powers…
BUT, from a tactical standpoint, if the golem’s “super-power” is the acquisition of powers through spilling and collecting blood, then adding a bludgeoning weapon (that also cauterizes) may not be the best choice
A ‘bludgeoning weapon that also cauterizes’ is still better than a stump just below the shoulder. And after incapacitating someone with the laser-mace it can still collect all the blood it needs.
First things first.
And in this case, bashing through the shield is first.
Good luck with that :P
Its smaller, weaker, cousins had no problem in destroying Dabbler’s shield.
Though the smaller one was specifically designed to ruin a magic user/supernatural beings day so it kind of had an edge the big guy likely doesnt against Halo.
Oh there is a distinct possibility that it utilised an anti-magic aspect to its attack. However we cannot be sure of that. Especially as the Twilight Council does include various races with super technology (such as all of the demonic races). Whilst in normal parlance ‘supernatural’ equates to ‘magic’, it does not for this organisation.
Given that the grenade shells were packed with a general-purpose mix, designed to affect as many supernatural races as possible, it would be odd for Sciona to change that principle for their other weapons. Making it unable to penetrate a technological force field raised by (let us say) Chorius, would seem to be a poor strategic move.
Very true its a bit of an assumption on my part about the blade/spike being specifically a magical shieldbreaker though all one of them could do to Halos shield was pretty much pound on it in the hopes it would wear down.Its possible they had an entire set of toys just in case one of the more offplanet members happened to bring a BFG or three,Though im pretty sure most demonic races tech would loosely count as magictech so still fit in the antimagic bracket.
That said im pretty sure the council will be investing in armed guards in future after what almost happened and Im pretty sure each factionmember that was there would happily rubberstamp that expense.
I seem to recall Dave mentioning, in a blog, that there were armed guards. Just further out than where Sydney was. Clearly the SWAT manikins beat them too fast for an alarm to be raised.
The reason why none were right outside the chamber door would not be down to expense, but politics and history. Again, going by comments Dave has made, there have been attacks before by factions of the Council itself. I.e. no one faction would necessarily trust that another faction’s guards might not be the ones perpetrating the next attack.
If you check out the layout of the tunnel there was a large chamber, at the base of the elevator shaft (that Maxima flew through with the bomb manikin). That is big enough that it could hold guards from a cross-section of races. With enough representation of opposing factions to ensure that if one turned on the others, they would be outnumbered, even if they had surprise.
Likewise with other approaches, which Dave indicated that there were. Sydney and Maxima simply came in by one of several possible routes with access to that elevator shaft.
But, yea, they will be looking at a way of creating an antechamber large enough to handle the guard contingent required. At least those would be in earshot if another fight broke out.
Yeah clearly the guards werent all that good since they either got ninjad by 4 golems or none of them thought to sound an alarm when the attack hit,They mustve been embarrassingly understaffed too.
We know nothing of how they were overcome, so making specific assessments, such as being ‘uinderstaffed’ and ‘not very good’ seems redundant. Very good personnel can be defeated and massive numbers likewise.
It is worth noting though that the Council have managed to remain operational for upwards of three thousand years. Possibly they became complaisant? Perhaps tretchery was used to ensure they failed? Or maybe the enemy totally outclasses anything they have at their disposal? We do not know.
All that is pertinent is that the defenses were inadequate and clearly do need to be improved. Which is probably not going to be something that Sydney is directly involved in.
Not the best choice true but it could still harvest blood from whats left of the target after its been turned to mildly cooked bits.
Is it my imagination, or did you go to the bother of drawing the silhouette of Harem’s bra under her shirt? If so, that’s some serious dedication too detail.
Also, she needs to go up a couple of cup sizes, unless her intention is to blow her straps at the most inconvenient of moments.
She’s wearing the Wonder Bra 2.0. All the fashionable super-heroines are wearing them nowadays….
That certainly is the case. And you deserve credit for your eye for detail, yourself, in spotting that.
As to who gets the kudos for drawing it, that is harder to say, given that Keith coloured the page, so it could have been initiated either by him or by Dave. Nicely done, either way.
Perhaps Harem is still wearing her socialising clothing (where a wardrobe malfunction might titillate her) and has not had the time to get changed into her combat gear, with properly fitting sports bra (she is developing a martial arts style, so should have figured out that need already)?
I have an artist’s eye and am very meticulous, but I draw like a five year old and lack patience, so never got anywhere with developing the skill to put on paper what’s in my head.
Credit goes to Dave on that. Though I do a hefty load of the coloring on the pages he gives me, occasionally our visions don’t quite line up and he opts to do some post touch-ups before finalizing the page, so in this instance, that’s all him.
So, when’s Syd going to figure out she’s fighting Amazo and hit the robot with silver? Or find another super with an easier to exploit weakness, expose them, and then hit them with that weakness.
I got it! Throw some of Math’s blood at it then have all the girls fight it topless! Everyone wins (especially us).
..the construct then realizes that it is partly made of silver and promptly collapses.
ROFL.
With all that Lycanthropic blood on her, I hope she doesn’t have any cuts.
Ooh interesting.
Harem’s capabilities would be significantly improved, with were-jaguar abilities for one of her bodies. With the advantage that her other bodies would not suffer from any lycanthrope disadvantages, such as weakness to silver.
Then throw in the possibility that the super powers might be transmissible along with the lycanthropy, and Harem could have an awesome set of powers! There would be good synergies between the two sets.
Note that one of Harem’s weaknesses is the inability to teleport anywhere she cannot see. With the usual risk that if she tries to eyeball a spot to teleport to, then she is exposing herself to enemy detection. But with invisibility (and the renowned stealth capabilities of jaguars) that risk is very much reduced!
Another problem is her lack of super-powered offensive capability. Which laser-claws solve nicely. And likewise the powerful regeneration deals with her absence of any defense, barring teleporting away.
The latter of which would have been handy for Pixel to use, to avoid the tentacle (or even to teleport out of it after being grasped). Likewise for escaping, if waking up to find herself bound and gagged, in an enemy complex! Not to mention the nice ability to have conscious bodies rescue unconscious ones. And to provide replacement clothing, on demand (especially of use as having to leave such behind when using the animal form).
Finally Harem has been developing a martial art that allows her to use her multi-bodies and teleporting to attack an opponent from multiple directions simultaneously. Which will be significantly more powerful with laser-claws added to the options!
I imagine sooner or later every human whos in on the masquerade ends up annoying the weres by asking to “join the club”.Seriously out of all the supernatural races theyre one of the few that could offer more benefits than fears to the general public-ok new headcannon for me: Weres only embraced the whole veil thingy for the tiny fringe benefits and the fear that they wouldnt even be able to go shopping without someone trying to get them to bite him/her.
Cmon Sydney how can you forget about Dr. Ivo’s robot Amazo and just make a claim like ‘you are metal’ :P
That thing can copy super powers, and there is a whole buffet of super powers heading right towards them. YAAAaaaaa, it might be a good idea to NOT have Archon come to the fight. At all, or maybe have non-super personnel just come to the fight while anyone with ranged powers stay at a distance.
Wisely said. And now we see why Sciona was keen for Supers to come visiting.
This comic has officially gotten stupid.
I dont see how its gotten stupid. The powerset on this thing seems rather reasonable and is adequately foreshadowing how it might be a bigger threat than initially suspected without relying on some sort of deus ex machinae surprise. Im loving this storyline.
I suspect it is down to the fact that an artificial lifeform has managed to replicate the power granted to an organic lifeform.
Which is just empirism at play.†
*wags tail cheekily*
Actually Kaeto is in good company in considering that weird. Even Sydney was puzzled and/or outraged at the concept!
But it is not actually something that poses an impossibility. Clearly the fact that magic is being used to do this can resolve the issue by itself. However in addition to that we actually have scientific precedent too, in several forms.
One of which is that we can use DNA in computers. I am not talking about analysing the stuff, and representing it digitally. Rather prototypes have been used which literally use DNA as a storage medium to encode information to be used by a computer. The same as we previously used magnetic tape to do the same job.
The big difference between the two is that magnetic tape looses fidelity over time. Whereas DNA can remain viable even over geological timescales, if properly preserved.
So this shows how organic DNA can be used in a mechanical device. We have already blurred the lines between the the carbon empire and the silicon one. Work is proceeding on making computers that actually run using DNA, rather than just using that for external storage. ‡
Another example is borrowing techniques from nature to solve engineering problems. Be it duplicating an octopus’s suckers, to create artificial suction cups, emulating a bat’s sonar or a cuttlefish’s colour changing ability, these are all things we have actually done with technology.
Sciona has simply learnt how to do the same, but without the research and development delay, by means of using magic.
† Like racism, but applied against beings not from your own ’empire.’
Even our scientific classification lacks a term between ‘life’ and ‘domain’, which could distinguish between, for example, carbon-based life-forms (such as humans) and silicon based life-forms (such as golems, robots and those beings which may have naturally evolved using silicon).
Consider this to be coining the use of the term ‘Empire’, drawing from the pre-existing ‘Kingdom’ but using the logic of something that is larger than a kingdom. Note that prejudice of this nature should correctly be termed ’empirism’ rather than ‘imperialism’, to avoid confusion with the term usually applied to colonial-era politics.
‡ Potentially leading to the interesting situation of one day having humans catch computer viruses. We already embed pacemakers and other mechanical devices in our bodies. Which can catch computer viruses. If we make devices like that which use DNA themselves, and it is decided to make them compatible with our own (due to being used in the human body), then we lessen the distinction between viruses of an organic or electronic nature.
Those devices will be able to catch viruses that operate using DNA. So could be interfered with either by regular viruses or by computer ones (not necessarily in anything like the way they might in their normal environment, but snipping bits out of DNA and inserting their own code would certainly count as ‘interfering’, even if it did not actually result in any kind of viable change.
I really do feel like my knowledge base and vocabulary is vastly enriched by reading the comments of this webcomic.
Thank you, one and all.
Hm?How so?
To me it looks like a callback to Page #1 The Beginning. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/48
We’re going to find out if her shield is impervious to lasers or not.
Technically it is foreshadowing, as that was in the flash-forwards.
Sadly, even if the laser-claws do penetrate the shield, this could be due to the fact that these constructs have precisely that ability as one of their known powers (albeit for metal wolverine-like claws). So would not prove the case by itself.
But we have seen a laser-like attack bounce off of Sydney’s shield in the Battle at the Steak House Car Park™.
That wasn’t foreshadowing, it was rules lawyering…
Yeah Syd would have a really bad time with me as a DM.Anything she managed to get away with id wind up using to off her party members at a later date at the very least XD.And more importantly the light thing would NEVER fly.
Every time Sidney is standing around in front of a powerful enemy in her shield bubble I’m thinking when something eventually manages to break the shield Sidney will get disintegrated.
Very true. And we may well be building up to just that now.
But do not forget that the most powerful enemy Halo has faced (Vehemence) she did so with him inside the shield! Plus we saw the result of her getting blindsided by Sciona. Halo’s first death achievement!
Regarding Sydney having all 7 orbs up..
Maybe…she could eventually be able to learn how to use the orbs’ power without having to actually grab each one… and in this particular situation she’s unconsciously using that advanced skill without even thinking about it? Stranger things can happen in combat..
Just a thought.
Good lord the last thing Halo needs is MORE powerups right now,Give the badguys at least a sporting chance to do something!
Poor Pixel, fell prey to the most insidious and unbeatable foe of all: The Worf Effect.
Heh.
Rule 7 Of Shadowrun
“7) Turning into a Tiger in the middle of combat is usually a really bad idea.
7b) Never EVER Showboat – it will come back to bite you in the ass – hard.”
Works quite well for GURPs. When in suitably low-tech settings. Making a nice big target for guns though is not so good in the more advanced ones. Especially if you do not have tiger body armour in your transformed state.
In the case of the pink jaguar though it is more ‘the Wolverine effect’.* Contrast Halo’s pristine state at the moment.
Remember regeneration is a bad power!
* And no linking TV-tropes.
“No! [bad golem]”
And in the ‘Feng Shui’ game you actually get a bonus to your rolls for showboating…
A techno-organic Golem with “Power Vampirism” *a blood specific version of Power Cannibalism…which is just the “consume your opponent” version of “Power Copying”….*cough*….the villains making these things were being very serious.
But the question may arise, can it copy any power of those whose blood it gets or only supernatural beings?
Sciona speculated that draining Sydney of all her blood might confer the ability to use the orbs, so the blood mage who created the golem is reasonably confident that the technique could work regardless of power source.
Logically it should be innate powers and biologically transferable ones like zoanthropy only but, for all we know, the orbs may be hardcoded to respond to something in Sydney’s DNA. Things like Peggy’s aim and Math’s martial arts, however, are not a part of the body but learned skills.
Agreed. On all points, in the thread.