Grrl Power #525 – Tropelock
It only took 2 days for Harem to get Sydney’s Loony Tunes reference. Luckily Sydney seems to have locked up for a moment, so maybe they’ll reach parity at some point.
For Heatwave, absorbing heat is fine, as long as it’s (her words) “hot.” But getting things below room temperature is where it starts getting difficult and unpleasant. She “meat lockered” a room once, but she was grumpy afterwards and just wanted to go sit in a hot tub “for like, forever.” You might think that absorbing heat would be fine, like it would make her warmer or charge her up, but if you’re FartMan, the last thing you want to do is suck in a bunch of someone else’s farts.
Given the depth of Sydney’s trope knowledge, it’s probably a bad idea for her to consider all potential future twists and turns. Obviously she should think about the consequences of her actions, but there is a real danger of mental paralysis here.
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Hey, Sidney didn’t jump out of her skin when Harem teleported right on her. She is getting used to it.
This might be an odd result of her own ability to teleport now, being ok with other teleporters.
or the fact shes so sleep-dep’d she is barely aware of whats happening around her.
Sydney glasses frames are really thick in panel 3/4 but not in panel 2 0.0
those could very well be different glasses, there’s been quite some time since the events of that flashback.
in our time, not in sydney time that was like yesterday.
That was like, 70 hours ago to them.
Per Dave’s footnote, it only took Harem 2 days to get the joke. That was on page 1500. This is page 2498. Thats about 500 pages per 1 day of “Sydney time”.
“Pay no attention to the art style drift”
Her face changed too ;)
Thats because the art in the thought bubble is clipped directly from an earlier page. Dave’s art style has changed quite a bit sense then, going from very mangaesque in its beginnings to more “realistic” and paiterly over its evolution than its former cartoony look.
A surprising, and funny, demonstration of her new teleport power is needed.
Sydney: Hey Harem? Pull my finger.
That…would actually be a pretty damn good way to show them off – Have Harem pop somewhere nearby, where Maxima can see her but out of Sydney’s sight, Have Sydney send Holo-Halo next to Harem, make sure “physical contact” is made (& failed obviously), then send in Real-Halo & have her poke Harem. Pretty sure Harem will not be expecting Holo-Halo to suddenly be able to touch her, especially if they both just failed to do that a moment ago…
Oooh, a game of Vorpal Tag!
Vorpal Tag is a whole different game. Vorpal = chopping heads off. Teletag is what you are thinking of. (Yes I know Vorp is the sound Harem’s teleport makes).
“vorpal” is a made-up word anyway, conjugating another made-up word to result in it doesn’t make the result any less valid than the original meaning; by made-up i mean can be traced back to 1 person or maybe a small group of people, rather than a more natural creation not involving 1 clear author
Maybe so, but ‘vorpal’ has entered the general population as a real word
Vortex and portal = vorpal. Like the flat circle magic “jump through here” gates.
Atleast that’s how my mind thinks of vorpal.
Pretty much every word has to have somebody who originally said it. What you can get though is linguistic drift, where words change subtly over time. Especially in different regions or when adopted by a new country. In which case you can often get many people adapting a word in a similar way, to make it easier for them to say or for others to understand.
But a strictly new word is very unlikely to be spontaneously created by multiple people independently, unless there is some widely observed event that inspires people in the same direction.
In modern media this might be a celebrity fluffing their lines and others ‘taking the mick’ out of them by mimicking it. But, even then it was that person making the mistake who became the accidental author.
For this word though there is a very clear, intentional, author. Namely Lewis Carol. It appeared within a nonsense poem in Alice in Wonderland. Because of the huge success of that work, and its many adaptations, even the poem has had an effect on our culture. Several of its nonsense words entering into our vocabulary both in its original context and through the works that it inspired.
‘Vorpal sword’ being used in Dungeons and Dragons and thereby in many games and media inspired by that. ‘Jabberwok’ (and its morphed version of ‘Jabberwocky’) being a monster in songs, films, computer games, AD&D and even the Muppet show! ‘Mimsy’ inspiring a book and a film. With ‘bandersnatch’ inspiring a species in a book by Larry Niven and a character in Final Fantasy.
Even more interestingly, in terms of how words can be created and propagated, the poem has been translated into 65 languages! As the words were made up to be understood by English language speakers, for it to have similar meanings inferred by foreign language speakers, they had to create their own versions of the words.
So for a ‘made up word’ it has shown remarkable world-wide success. The fact that it was made up just made it all the more appealing to its audience, not less!
And, to add on to what the hirsute erudite gent typed: technically all words are ‘made up words’
Well to borrow an applicable line from Erfworld: You don’t hide things from the [girl] who plans your battles!
I think, if Pixel overheard Krona’s line (“I think she needs a reboot”), then she would be pissed off.
“NO! No reboot. No reset. No messing with time, causality or people’s brains!”
“Not again!”
Okay when did she teleport?
Sydney finds out she can teleport
Might be a good idea to update the every growing lists of powers that Sydney has …
There’s no reason to make the forest cold. All it has to be is below the temperature of ignition.
That is why Dave goes into more detail on that in the text below. In this case, she just needs to pull the surface temperature of the leaves below about 446 degrees Fahrenheit (230 Celsius). The wood, I’m not sure what it’s ignition point is. This seems to be fine for Heatwave, and she’s doing it, she just doesn’t like it as much as shooting heat out.
Dave said “But getting things below room temperature is where it starts getting difficult and unpleasant” Room temperature is not the same as 230 C. Or even close to 230 C. By a factor of ten.
If you want to multiply temperature, you need to do it in Kelvins, otherwise it makes no sense. Room temperature is around 295K, 230C is 503K, so not even twice as much.
He mostly said that to explain more about Heatwave’s power, not to explain what she was doing to the forest.
Sooo.. those maxima boobs….
Dave, you need to be looking at “All natural” reference material.
The super-roundness of em, make it look like maxima has had a SuperBoobJob.
Which would be impossible, after all..
SO.. yes, thats right.. you are getting an order for YOURSELF to “Go look at boobs on the internet some more” ;-)
She’s a super. Supers don’t get saggy boobs.
Does need a little less round though, I agree.
They are being awkwardly pushed up by the jacket too so they’d be more like boobs in an old-style corset.
This. The jacket is basically a push-up bra at this point.
It seems you are the one who doesn’t understand how breasts work, Stranger! Dohoho. RobK, Mike laid it down.
Yeah they’ve gone a bit off the rails lately. I blame it on the tightness of the jacket.
Coming up next story arc – Jackets for all da ladies, Concrete slabs for all da guys!
With Maxima’s strength – wouldn’t any “tight clothes” rip the first time she moved or took a deep breath? I doubt any clothing that isn’t tailored for full freedom OR sufficiently stretchy would survive.
Heh – just realized that part of Maxima’s power set is…. immunity to wedgies! The boob physics make sense if Maxima is using her powers (and her arms) to get as much coverage from that tissue-strong jacket as possible. Hopefully, she won’t sneeze
Very good point. That is something the Archon tailor, Iron Cloth, will have to be very careful about for Maxima and the other super-strong personnel. Stalwart in particular, given his fondness for expensive suits!
However only applicable in this case because of the fact that Maxima will have to be very careful to avoid another wardrobe malfunction. On account of the fact that this is not her jacket. It was lent to Max by Harem.
A bit late to the party but consider; Maxima’s very cells having interlocking force fields. She proably doesnt need much underwire support.
I love the comic, but the weight of that offhand Word of God statement just sunk in. Sydney made that joke two days ago in comic time. Sydney made that joke *two and a half YEARS* ago in real world time. Just….wow.
Yeah, the main problem with Comic-Time…
Well, apart from technology becoming obsolete (Just look at LexCorp’s computers c. 1986-’87, with the “primitive ” images on some of their screens, for example…) and major political changes (Look at all of those stories, “recent” for the characters, in which the Soviet Union still existed)…
Holy goats… has it really been that long?!
I love the artwork but lately it’s been diving a bit into uncanny valley territory.
I think it’s mostly visible on Anvil – the change in art style affected her more than other characters i think.
Guess it’ll go a bit away once we’re more accustomed to it, but still :)
It’s not just Anvil, the faces look unnatural to me. Heatwave, Anvil, and Sydney look like a dolls to me. It is beautiful art but it just doesn’t seem as good for a comic.
Especially the eyes looks weird.
I’m trying some new stuff, it’ll take a little while for me to get it just right.
Quit staring at Maxima’s cleav…
oh. the OTHER uncanny valley. Never mind.
I saw it and can’t unsee it now. Thanks.
That will teach you not to stare at Max’s cleavage! ;-)
I still miss the old art style. The current style doesn’t really suit this comic.
Sydney has an interesting choice to make. Does she place absolute trust in Maxima, or does she go the Batman route keeping secrets and creating contingencies( Max did just get mind whammied)?
Which one of the old art styles? It has changed a lot.
I don’t have a specific one, but the cartoony feel of the old style. There are examples of it all over the site. Hell, there’s examples of it in this very page.
I also miss Sydney’s bangs. I know “in story” she got that head band just a few hours ago, but I hope come “morning” she leaves it off.
My favorite time with the art style was about what it was in the restaurant battle. I think it had the best comic look.
Understand: the art style was always ‘mixed’, Sydney was supposed to be more ‘anime’ inspired while the others more ‘traditional’ Western style, not sure what happened to Anvil the previous couple pages she was in, that looked more like she suffered some sort of allergic reaction to something
If shooting heat is cool, then absorbing it should be warm. Right?
Shush.
Harem still knows about the teleport. She also is likely to bring it up in terms of tactics, or if Sydney tells her to be quiet, by accident.
She went in before the teleport and was looking for holo-halo.
Harem should have heard the statement over the coms of “Why can’t I see you anymore, Krona? HOLY CRAP I CAN TELEPORT!” While Sydney could explain that away somehow, it would be far harder to explain away the entire conversation with the OrcVampire lady that was holding Sydney up by the wrists (and I think she broke Syd’s wrists in that timeline too). “Uh, Hi? I’m Sydney Scoville. Protege of the incredibly powerful and dangerous Maxima of ARC-SWAT fame? Don’t know if you watch a lot of news, but we’re pretty hard to miss, really, unless you’ve been living under…. uh…
On review: We really don’t know what went over coms and what didn’t. Clearly, the coms are not always open given the reporting structure we saw earlier.
We do, however, know Sciona was present when Sydney was talking to herself immediately post-teleport. Was Sciona included in the checkpoint? Were her memories reset? Seems doubtful. Need to know, Sydney, and now Max needs to know. Entirely. Without exception. Because Sciona just picked up a new goal: acquire Halo’s orbs for herself. By whatever means necessary.
Except, we don’t know when Sci-fright actually re-entered, but it’s likely it wasn’t until after Sydney Halo-ported in and touched Pixel Panthers tail
Harem doesn’t remember what happened exactly. She described it as deja vu.
So as opposed to Sydney’s memory where she specifically recalls living it, Harem feels more a strong sense of familiarity to the events and possibly Sydney’s description… So the resent somehow impacted the memory of her other selves due to the quantum link of the copy that WAS in the timeloop but her other selves outside the link also retained it to an extent… Sort of like wiping the data on a Hard drive but not scrubbing it. A better description might be that she remembers it like a dream, without perfect clarity or recollection but descriptions and concentrated thought might trigger and improve the recollection.
This page is just full of tying up loose ends. Now if only they’d test Syd’s other two orbs on her bruises to see if one is a healing orb.
Yes! Much want. Very need.
She. Has. Already. Tested. The. Mystery. Orbs. For. Healing. Abilities!!!
If not months ago, then certainly once she woke up with large shiner and bruised cheek after the Restaurant Rumble. it’s fairly safe to believe that healing is not one of the powers (resurrection on the other hand… but, do you really want someone to die, for real, just for her to test it?)
As much as I’d like to discover that one of the mystery-Orbs heals (or even restores its owner from the dead), it would logically prompt the question of what happened to the PREVIOUS owner of the Orbs, wouldn’t it…?
Was thinking more some one else being resurrected (the owner needs to at least be conscious to hold the balls and to activate them)
Dont stress about it,Some people are just itching for Halo to get more broken powers and given that shes got a skill tree of unknown length on each orb theres a good chance shell actually get healing,time travelling and save scumming as superpowers sooner or later =).
When did she do that?
When the orbs were first introduced she said she didn’t know what they did and someone suggested she might have to be hurt or sick to see a result her reaction didn’t say she tried that already. Sydney is also very scatterbrained at times, she might not have thought to check for new powers when waking up with the bruise, it wasn’t mentioned within the comic at least, not even as a throwaway line.
It has been firmly established that Sydney is a hardcore nerd, plus is specifically into both tabletop and WoW (or something similar). Whilst I fully agree that she might forget to do such a test once, it would be incomprehensible for such a person to own magical items for months, and to have sustained multiple injuries recently, and never once to have tested the orbs for healing.
The comic has alluded to Sydney having done numerous tests, of the sort that all table-top roleplayers do so routinely that many have a checklist. You can guarantee that pretty near to the top of which is ‘check to see if the item can heal’.
‘Check to see if it can be activated by holding it between your butt cheeks’ is very very low down on the list.
Sydney has checked for healing, whether or not it has been shown. We do not need to see a pilot going through his pre-flight routine. It is something fundamental that they would have to do to even earn their licence in the first place. Same deal here. Sydney passed nerd testing by Leon.
I agree that Sydney is the type to do a wide variety of tests with each orb, as long as she could do it secretly, and that she would check for the more obvious powers.
However it is odd that she has not mentioned she checked for this when first interviewed about the orbs, she even says she’ll give a heads up next time she gets a cold. Kinda odd to not instead say she already tried that if she did.
I’m not saying I think one of the mystery orbs has healing powers, but there is no definite proof that she has or has not checked for it.
Indeed. There are certain things which we cannot say with absolute certainty. However we can set a threshold of likelihood beyond which experts can say ‘we believe this to be proven’. We see this with the particle accelerator tests. Beyond a certain point of statistical significance they can announce that a discovery has been made.
This point falls plumb in the middle of my field of expertise. We have plenty of physicists, biologists and other experts in this community. Mine is roleplaying games. I have absolute confidence on this point.
Do note however that I am not claiming that the orbs cannot heal. Simply that Sydney will have tested this before and failed to get it to work. This may have been for a variety of different reasons, beyond the orbs simply not having the power. Even though that is fairly likely.
For example a mystery orb may only have the power to heal others. No amount of solo testing would yield a result. Another may be that, just like the shield allows low levels of light to pass, it may not activate regeneration, unless there is serious injury.*
Or it may simply refuse to work unless in the hands of someone trained in medicine or first aid. Try to heal a broken bone, without resetting it, and you can permanently cripple someone, for example. Finally, of course, it could just be a skill that Halo has not unlocked yet.
* Quite a wise precaution if wishing to conceal ‘bad powers’. Seeing you recover instantly, from bruises and scratches, can make an enemy decide to use overkill on principle. Much like anyone trying to defeat Pixel will do, once they know she can shake off having a girder punched through her! Dealing a ‘knockout blow’ is not a viable tactic, against someone with such a power.
Ya know I Live with a person who uses Adderall and associated Meds…. Considering she took a pill during dinner….. and has been in not one but two fights…. And a real long meeting/background discussion…. Its about time for little Miss Scoville to fall down and go BOOM…. Dust ring and all as she faceplants….
I think we may be seeing the 1st signs of that here…
Hey, if nothing else it is a cunning way of getting out of answering questions Sydney would rather avoid, at the moment!
*plays dead*
“Pulls sword from cane”
Walks toward Yorp,
Meep Meep!
*paints a door on the wall, opens it, steps though and shuts the door*
“Clobbers Dr. Revenge with a Head Cheese.”
“Watches from orbital battle station as Kaeto hits the ground with the cheese”
…And straps on his head cannon…
Check out my new headcannon.
Based on how her symptoms progress, I’m guessing she’s on a time-release formulation already, with fast-acting “boosters” if needed.
time release just avoids the 10pm faceplant that fatigue will cause. Adderall is not a substitute for sleep. sometimes I take a very small amount to help me sleep.
Y’know, that would explain my occasional bouts of insomnia. Context: no longer medicated and sometimes my brain just refuses to shut down properly.
It’s one of the “proofs” that hypractivity is not behavioral – it continues in sleep, bad behavior doesn”t.
I must be missing something, I don’t get the Heatwave interlude :(
There have been no flames in the backgrounds since the Anvil drop. I think Dave is trying to ret-con the missing flames by inserting a panel explaining that at some point Heatwave got off the plane and flew around absorbing the forest fire.
I just didn’t show the angle with the forest fire. I think?
That was the way I took it. One bit of forest looks like any other.
Plus the vampire would choose to escape in any direction other than towards fire. That being one of the traditional ways of killing a vampire!
Also, fire is going to draw attention. If you’re trying to get away, don’t go where there’s attention.
their was a fire started when they were fighting the cyborg, and they were of course putting out the fire before it got worse.
I don’t have access to the high-res version. Has Sydney locked up enough have a drool line going from her mouth in the last panel?
She’s not drooling over the twin golden orbs in her face
So my only question is why hasn’t Harem sent a body after spare clothing for Maxima and Hiro yet? Surely one of her is available to pop back to base and get a pair of sweats or a uniform or something (one would think that they have something on hand for situations like this).
Because Harem is enjoying the fanservice as much as we are. She’ll go do it if someone asks, but… why spoil things till then?
Also because her presence may be required at the other locations to co-ordinate communications/response, and leaving one of those locations could mean she looses visual of an unfamiliar place and can’t return… also fanservice as Thornbrier points out.
So this is a Brick Joke… about a (non-Flying) Brick? How meta! About a meta!
Considering what a hard reset involves, you may want to give her some room if attempting a reboot.
They are safe, there are no desks in sight.
Frankly Sydney has a good point, Krona actually can read her magic, and in doing so could help sydney unlock her powers to a further extent. However that also means she can read her magic and what she can do along with the tow unknown balls. Which means Krona can let her know, and the rest of them, what those two balls do just like the others.
sorry, forgot the main issue, hehe, anyway, since Krona can read her abilities and tell the others what they are their really isn’t a reason not to tel about the teleportation since at this point she can’t really hide it unless she gets Krona to agree to keep it secret.
Kronachrome hasn’t really had the time to study Sydney’s balls just yet, at least not beyond seeing the UI is deeper than it previously appeared
It is not yet certain that Krona will be allowed to study Halo’s skill tree, in depth. For two reasons, one is that she is the head of a political faction which, although currently allied, may well not be in the future.
The other being that Krona has already endangered the world by abusing her power over time. Studying Halo’s skill tree was allowing Krona to gain an understanding of ‘the machine code of the Universe’! If she becomes totally fluent in that, through said studying, then her power would increase exponentially!
See point one for why that would be considered a bad idea.
Where was Krona listed as “the head” of her faction? I can’t recall.
She has her very own faction banner, the Konami code one that people keep mentioning.
Yup. More than just being the head of the faction though, Krona IS the faction. She is both unique and powerful enough to justify her own box at the Twilight Council.
This could initially be deduced by the fact that every other box had at least two representatives present at some point. But was confirmed by Pixel indicating that she was unique. This despite the fact that there is a faction which is a catch all, for everyone who does not fit neatly into another faction. Some of whom will doubtless be unique. Yet Krona did not fall under their banner.
That aside, consider that these factions have been known to literally fight, to resolve their differences. Even sometimes within the council chamber. So these are not idly won privileges. They are hard fought positions!
Then bear in mind that elder vampires are akin to supers in power. And we have learnt that there are a number of clans of vampires each with unique powers.
Yet all of them only get to share the one box. This should give you a fair idea of how the Council rates Krona’s current power level.
Such a position carries considerable political power too. Each faction’s representatives get to take their turn on the lead table, to decide on policy. Krona has no one else, in her faction, to contest with over who takes that seat. When her faction’s turn comes around, Krona will be one of the leaders of the Twilight Council!
Ah, but what if, and I personally admit its a huge what if, the orbs makes Sydney a member of that same faction because of Krona’s ability to read them and what they are in and of themselves?
Heh. I had toyed with the idea. Archon rules probably would allow it, as we have seen Zephan is one of the mage delegates. Despite also being the head of Arc-Light, so a significantly senior position to Sydney’s humble recruit status.
Not that it would negate any of the above mind. It would just mean that both Krona and Sydney were delegates and, in due course, would take their turn at the leader’s table together.
Now there would be a thought. Halo as one of the leaders of the Twilight Council.
“From now on, all lycanthropes must wear pink bow ties!”
A different argument against full disclosure would be to tell Max:
“Sir, we’re still in the field of combat, & I’m not sure if we have enemy ears focused on us. Shouldn’t this debrief be held under more secure conditions?”
just a tought,, but sould sidney say took your damn time instead of take your damn time?
Umm, no, this is just as valid, more sarcastic this way
Two new orbs? Maxima’s Orbs of Mesmerism?
No, that would be Dabbler…As a succubus, hers are literally hypnotic.
Honk!
Baack in the day when the Commodore 64 was top-of-the-line in home computing, Walmart would have a C64 set up & running a program for display. I would write a short program (about 6 or 7 lines of code in CBasic) & run it. The program would turn the screen black & display a blinking phrase: Help I’m trapped in an infinite loop!. The comp would just flash that phrase every couple of seconds or so, leaving enough time to read it, of course.
Yeah…That’s Sydney right now.
Wow, 6 or 7 whole lines? I could’ve done it in three lines, maybe even just two. I taught myself to program on the Commodore 64 when I was just 12 years old. Even though that was three decades ago, I still remember almost every trick of the trade.
For example, to center the message “Help! I’m stuck in an infinite loop!” in the middle of the screen, all it takes is: POKE 781,12:POKE 782,2:SYS 65520:PRINT “Help! I’m stuck in an infinite loop!”
(Here’s the secret: Every time you perform a SYS command, the BASIC interpreter preloads the accumulator with the value in 780, the X register with the value in 781, and the Y register with the value in 782. SYS 65520 calls a routine built into the C64’s ROM that sets the cursor position.)
… Oh, that’s just great. I just gave the world a look at how nerdy I really am.
the wetware version of this program is called “analysis paralysis”.
Wait so the fight that was written in 2014 was only 2 days ago comic time? I thought at least like a week to a month had passed.
Nope. This is why Sydney has not learnt how to army yet. Those pesky villains have been popping out of the woodwork too fast!
All this has happened in the span of two days?! Jesus.
Yea. Sydney gets a lot of stick for her impaired judgement and freezing, like this. But the lass has been through a hell of a lot. And on all too little sleep.
Dawn is about to break, but I suspect Sydney will not get to see much of the day, if she gets the opportunity to sleep. I don’t think Halo will be fit for action again until after dawn tomorrow.
Oh for fuck’s sake I didn’t get the full joke til now about dropping an Anvil on someone’s head. I just thought she was making fun of the cartoony nature of the attack by whipping someone onto someone skull and/or the faceplanting Vehemence did being reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote faceplanting into a wall.
Man i really miss the old art style this one is just to “realistic”
When Maxima asked Sydney to tell her version of events,Sydney was wondering what to tell her and maybe she was afraid to say the wrong thing???
Not so much saying the wrong thing as thinking about not telling about her new teleportation to keep it as a secret weapon.
All the more reason for Maxima to threaten to have Sydney court martialed…or not!?!
Ahh, but Maxima would not know why Halo was withholding information (either lying in her adorably bad fashion or simply refusing to detail part of her experience). This is very important, as time travel appears to have been involved. As such Sydney might be in possession of information which could alter causality.
Not that I think Maxima would use heavy-handed tactics on Halo, in the first place, mind. She has worked very hard to establish a connection. And we have already seen that she diplomatically ignored Sydney’s evasiveness, when talking about the orb’s origins.
From the significant look exchanged with Zephan, he was not fooled either. However they have clearly chosen not to press Halo on matters that she is unwilling to talk about. I think the same would apply here. Particularly if there is the risk of a paradox occurring because of Sydney talking about something that was revealed through time travelling.
Maxima would have died, fighting Vehemence, if she had not decided to follow Sydney’s genre-savvy lead. Bear in mind how significant that is. The senior commander of the country’s most elite special forces unit, effectively taking orders from someone who was that morning no more than a civilian!
Maxima’s judgement in trusting Sydney was sound then. I am sure she would do likewise here.
However, even if Sydney handles it well, there is still the risk that it might harm their budding friendship. Whilst as a colonel, Maxima may tolerate something that she was informed was being withheld for the unit’s best interests, that still may not sit well emotionally.
Especially coming immediately after Maxima realising that she needs to keep a professional distance between herself and her second-in-command. Maxima may decide she was getting too close to Sydney, and adjust their relationship accordingly.
Also, Maxi wanted to get Sydney’s report on what happened during the ‘time loop’, leaving out the newly discovered power at this time would make no difference, and she could mention something along the lines of “Something else happened, that I need to talk to you privately about, later, as per earlier orders” which may or may not clue in Maxi that it’s to do with Sydney’s balls
That would be a good way of avoiding discussing it in front of Krona, in particular. And would give her stalling time, to make a final decision, on what to say to Maxima.
Clever idea.
From her last appearance, I thought Krona had a dislocated left shoulder from when Daphne grabbed her when she fell off the roof, but she seems fine poking Sydney with her left hand, so I guess she’s okay, if a bit sore. Also fortunately not injured during the Anvil Building Demolition Service or Hiro’s VORCH moment.
I wonder how she saved her, since Daphne can’t fly and can’t teleport someone else?
This illustrates the tactical error in deploying Harem to five different locations. They should only send out four teams and hold Harem5 in reserve. Then she can ‘port anything a team needs from the base with “on-time delivery” such as ammunition resupply, weapons, batteries, water, hazmat suits, medical supplies, or replacement uniforms. Using a spare Harem like that would in effect provide hammerspace to all four teams all the time.
However, I am amused by 19 year old Daphne hanging her head in shame that she missed Syd’s cartoon reference. And impressed that she ‘fessed up to it.
Physically she’s 19, but she has experienced waayyy more
It was explained at the time how Bodie would have been able to use her *VORP*-fu to ‘bleed-off’ the momentum (or whatever) to lessen the impact of the fall
There was nothing stopping Krona just running away. Focusing too much on magical or super-powered solutions to problems makes it all too easy to forget the mundane options.
Incidentally I have had a dislocated shoulder and was able to raise my hand high enough to do a poke like Krona’s. No higher than that mind you, and only with extreme effort. I had to take photographs one handed, for example.
Importantly though it did not stop me from moving around, even when I was fighting off going into shock. If I needed to run, I could have. Fortunately however, in order to keep up with the action, all I needed to do was walk.
Your comments about Harem are all spot-on. Especially your conclusion.
IF Sydney decides that NOT telling them is the way to go then “Sorry, I am not at liberty to say everything.” is actually Sydney’s best option. Briefing Maxima on everything that happened up to, but not including, her teleporting is vital though. Especially the presence of the hostages.
She can conclude it with “the last thing I saw was someone matching the description of Sciona”. It is true, even if she is omitting the teleporting aspect. Sydney is bound to be pressed for details. But trying to lie will just get her caught out. If they accept her refusal, as having a good reason fine. If not, Sydney can tell them that she will speak to General Faulk only.
He can then make the call on whether Maxima should or should not know.
Maxima is a professional. She might not like her subordinate concealing information, but I think she would accept Sydney and the General’s word that it was necessary. Or if she was told about it, or why the details were being concealed, she is genre savvy enough herself to realise that she has had two close calls on being mind-controlled by the enemy already. So I doubt she would hold that against Halo.
It will be a tough call for Sydney to make though. Keeping a secret, in order to someday beat Maxima, in battle, will not improve their friendship.
Ultimately I think she needs to disclose the new power to Maxima privately. It’s then Maxima’s decision to make on disclosing the power to the others present there, keeping it secret or deferring to an even higher authority than herself to make the call.
Krona may also have important information or insight into Sydney’s orbs after viewing the chart and further details behind it. So they might get into a trade situation where they disclose further information about Sydney and her Orbs in exchange for assistance and disclosure of information from Krona in deciphering them.
A task that Krona may very well be inclined to do anyway since the Orbs appear to be clues and hints about her own powers that she’s expressed a frustration with understanding due to lack of reference.
That is a sensible option. Although it does not allow for the possibility of Maxima turning evil. Other than Dabbler Halo is the only one who could potentially beat an Evil Maxima (other than the combined force of all the other supers, as they used on Vehemence).
Keeping the secret from the rest of the team (and the non-Archon members) is wise, from the point of view of reducing the chance of it being found out by external enemies. It does not matter too much if someone else on the team goes rogue though, as there would be a variety of supers who could take down any one of them.
Maxima, on the other paw, is the most powerful known super on the planet. ‘What if’ contingency planning against her going rogue will not just be of concern to Halo, that is something the President probably has sleepless nights over!
not telling Maxima could result in injury or death to team members trying to protect/work with Sydney in a fight. It would alter everybody else’s combat actions because they wouldn’t take her mobility into account. This goes extra for Maxima as she directs the battle.
And at the same time, knowing could result in injury or death: “Oh, Sydney’s fine, she can just use the Lightbee to get away” forgetting (or not understanding) that it’s not instant like with Harem’s *VORP*
Well… If she’s truly serious about the threat of Nega-Maxima (Negima?) her best bet is the general in charge of the outfit since he’s the next highest ranked and presently has no significant powers (beyond his office) to use against her. Then its up to him to keep the information or disclose it to Maxima and further down/round the chain.
The trick is convincing Maxima not to demand the information immediately… Or tricking her with a story that leaves out certain details and maybe adds in a few more as necessary… But Sydney is a known failure at lying.
Correct.
The simplest solution is to indicate that ‘something happened which I believe should be only revealed to General Faulk. No lying, so it minimises the risk of any fallout. It is certainly something that Maxima, as an officer, should respect. Even if it would be personally disappointing that a member of her team would not trust her.
However she may suspect the reason why. In which case she would probably approve of the precaution. Maxima was clearly very deeply touched, when Sydney talked about realising the enormous potential of such power being placed into her hands.
Sydney and the president will not be the only ones concerned about what would happen to the organisation, the country and the world, if Maxima turned evil. Given her sensibilities, that will weigh on Maxima’s conscience too.
If she leaves out the teleportation and just makes it sound like she freaked out at seeing Sciona to trigger the checkpoint the others might wonder then why she was celebrating not being dead (since holo-Halo can’t be touched).
That could be dismissed as simply human nature to what could have been a fatal experience: Sydney may know she can’t be hurt in her holo-form, but actually experiencing it can be traumatic enough to make it seem real
They can wonder, but whilst Sydney refuses to comment, there will be nothing to point to the thing she is trying to conceal. Potentially she might have been killed by a sniper, for example. Or the construct might have blindsided her.
Over the years I’ve learned to cope with consider-all-the-possibilities recursion by dumping out after about the third loop. Of course, first one must learn to notice that one is in such a loop, but that comes with practice.
Once out — and I only add this because somebody will ask if I don’t — usually I’ll take what seems to be the best option given the processing already done. “Best” is, of course, situational as well as subjective. Or maybe I’ll find some other way to decide… OK, now I’m digging deep into an abstract situation and trying to cover all the possibilities. Shutting up.
Did you have your hat on, the first time we had this conversation? I am sure there is something hat related that is different. I just cannot quite put my paw on it!
The first time…? Have I nattered on about this before? Wouldn’t surprise me. Nor that I’ve forgotten.
I mean, it’s not like this is a place where ADHD would frequently come up as a topic of interest.
As for the hat, pretty sure that’s the only avatar I’ve ever used for my Gravatar.
The first time that we experienced this particular conversation, not a previous one. It must have been me who was hat-less on that loop, in which case.
Man it is going to be weird to not have you here the fourth time. Folks will think I have gone dappy, talking to myself!
That’s a long assed brick joke. Thank you for including the link back to the source joke. I remembered it but couldn’t think of it. 2.5 years? And 2 days comic time? Dang.
FUCK. Even with the explanations given, I’m in the same boat as harem.
Hopefully this will help, as regards Sydney’s expression, and her sound effects, in the thought bubble. Whilst this should explain the anvil reference.
I meant that I just got the joke.. Not that I still don’t.
Ahh, gotcha. You are not the only one. And I suspect quite a few folks got it the first time round by peeking in the comments.
If people made the anvil connection independently then it would be easier to connect the funny face to Road Runner. Whereas not having that thought, and just seeing the expression on its own, would naturally enough lead nowhere. The only clue being the ‘meep meep’. Fail to associate that with the feathered vermin and the joke falls flat.
Like it had been hit by an anvil.
That’s the problem with recursion…we keep coming back to it. :-)
Given that Harem has five brains, it may chronologically have taken her two days to get Sydney’s reference, but her multiple processors mean it actually took her ten experiential days.
Sydney has now discovered one of the more troublesome aspects of the Superhero Game; how much do you keep in your back pocket around people that you trust right now, for the day when mind control or politics means you have to fight them in ernest. It’s a tricky game to play.
Unfortunately, she’s already lost this round. Krona’s got the log of the previous loop, that ability was already accidentally revealed to Sciona, and there’s no way she could explain how the previous loop went WITHOUT divulging the teleport ability… so she’ll have to be very mindful to keep something else in her pocket for a rainy day. This cat’s already out of the bag.
Just take the fifth. If Halo decides that the information needs to be concealed, that is. Which there are very good reasons for.
“I can only tell you certain things.”
Namely those in the log, which will only include the things spoken in Krona’s presence. Which will include Sydney reporting about seeing the hostages. However none of the scene that took place with Sciona should appear in the conversation transcript. This is assuming that the log is like the audio black box, in an airliner.
Possibly it may include various sensor readings, like in the other kind of aircraft black box, in which case your assumptions would be well founded that Krona may be able to piece the clues together from that. But even with such, there is a good chance that the log would not have anything useful.
For instance, the things it would be monitoring would be time-travel related, to ensure that the power was working correctly. Unless it also has the equivalent of an audio track which describes the on-screen action (‘Halo vanishes’, for example), then it would require it monitoring the use of any super-power, in the vicinity, to actually figure it out.
If Krona has the habit of talking to herself, then that might indeed give the game away. As to what we saw though, she said nothing, when Sydney vanished (if I am remembering it right).
Mission wise it would be vital to mention that she saw Sciona though. But she can just leave the impression that was via her hologram, without having to lie. Which would be a silly thing to try, as she is dreadful at it.
Likewise this is why she should just say “no comment”, when asked how she died or otherwise caused the reset to activate. Obviously it would be necessary to indicate that it is in the team’s best interests for Sydney not to divulge any details, so that they do not feel that she is turning against them. Hopefully they would take her at her word, and trust her.
Ok at this point Syds reached the point where she has a fatal disability,Someone buy her some meth!(Also DAMN Ive missed a lot of fun while I was away!).Is it wrong that i like to imagine that this isnt a new thing and people are used to Syd randomly freezing up mid sentance like this?Its kind of what I always imagined happening every time JD had an imagine spot in scrubs X3.
Heatwave being able to absorb heat is a handy secondary related super power though,And makes it slightly less worrying that someone whos apparently mentally subnormal has the ability to incinerate things =).
Extreme exhaustion, from sleep deprivation, is something that we all have. Once Sydney has slept though she will be cured. Until she does though, her usual lightning-fast thinking will be severely impaired, and will likely get worse, if anything!
That said though, yes, it is potentially fatal. We see trails for people who have fallen asleep at the wheel, every year! Plus, without Pixel’s regeneration, it could have been fatal in this fight. And was pretty close for Halo herself!
trails = trials
Well, trails made by the tires as they go off-road and die in a ditch also makes sense.
Yeah Sydney shouldve been kept far far away from this one,This is pretty much a case of too much in too little time for her,Still shes managed to come through it with no mental trauma so in a wierd way shes shown that shes got more to bring to the party than the superpowers she gained by accident =).
Gods what I wouldn’t do for a Dabbler Mod in Fallout IV….>.>!
Careful what you wish for, Mia. I’m not sure they can do a four-armed version; they’d have to build an entirely new polygon mesh, texture map, and skeletal rigging from scratch for that (and probably a bunch of other terms from the field of 3D Graphics that I don’t remember.) Still, it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a modder out there somewhere who’s talented enough to make it happen.
The banter is all very well, but some of us are curious as to what happened to the villain…
We have been led to believe she fled as a swarm of bats (which, it amuses me to think, left a half-headed orc(?) corpse behind).
I thought that the bats were the vampire from the council who’s secretly working with her…
Yea, that is the way I took it. Although Kitsune9tails‘s take is perfectly workable. Clearly a vampire’s abilities are blood-related (more so even than a troll’s), so Sciona would be able to use her magic to replicate the vampire’s power, using the blood samples we saw her take.
In fact possibly it was both of them! Thus explaining why there was a conversation going on (despite the red-herring hypothetical, about it being the vampire talking to himself).
I am hoping one of the two orbs orvanother aspect of the fly ball allows for supersoeed on foot or super speed reaction time. It might even counter Sydneys long pauses on all her strategies due to genre savvyness:)
Ugh hate typing on smartphone
Personally I would opt for spider sense or even full-blown precognition. The latter could even explain the intuitive leap that Sydney made in figuring out For Whom the Death Tolls’s nemesis power. Although Dave did a pretty convincing job of showing Halo’s thought process. But it could have been providing her with subtle nudges, in the right direction, for example.
The latter is actually testable, by the way. Put her in a maze, with a number of wrong routes, and see if she beats the odds in choosing the right path, when having no clues to point one way or another.
In my opinion, increased reaction times/super speed overlap too much with Math (no real examples demonstrated, other than nudging the orb, in his fight against Halo), Maxima and Ren (Sydney’s fellow recruit). Plus Dave did indicate, when Mach the Knife (I can’t remember his character name) made his appearance, that he considered super-speed to be one of the most overpowered abilities in the genre.
Having demonstrated that, with Maxima, I think it unlikely he will choose to overlap so much with Sydney.
Ren, at least, is distinct in only being able to observe things in slow time. So he can have infinite thinking time, if he wants. Presumably his reactions will be somewhat faster, but possibly only in the ‘no thinking time lost’ aspect, as opposed to being able to run ten times faster than a normal person, for example.
I haz a mental picture of you, in full cape and wig,* sitting in the corridor outside a courtroom, waiting for the jury to return a result or a case to reconvene. Meanwhile, hidden in your briefcase you have your super-hero outfit, to right injustices, after dark. Of course that would need to have a cape and mask.
Except, of course, you would not be a law-breaking vigilante. You would do all your super-heroing in a legal, if covert, fashion!
* Yes, I know American lawyers do not wear those. I can’t help what the demon with the paintbrush does up there though!