Grrl Power #526 – Therapee
It would be more accurate to describe Sydney as just Manic as opposed to Manic Depressive, but she does have moments of… self awareness? They never last though. One of the advantages of a short attention span.
Maxima is not a good agony arm. It’s not that she doesn’t empathize with people have been through some lingering trauma. Her transition from slightly gawky teenage cross country runner to slightly gawky gold plated teenager (before she became a robustly full figured gold plated superheroine) was… bumpy at times. But Max toughened up during those awkward years and now her attitude to anything short of getting your leg blown off is “Walk it off!”
No wait, come to think of it, that’s exactly what she told Peggy.
(Sorry about the delay in posting. Not sure what happened there. WordPress just said “Missed schedule” I guess the host had a hiccup at 5:00 am or something.)
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Sydney is having a rough night…
Not the best night, for sure.
And once again, biology triumphs over psychology.
That’s a consistant theme with the Laws of Nature…It doesn’t matter what you think, it doesn’t matter what you feel, it doesn’t matter how strong your will, it doesn’t matter how strong your desire or how desperate you are, Nature WILL take its course. It’s the physics that matter, not mental state.
Question: When she was about to be shanked that time, couldn’t she actually have used her orbs to keep pummeling her assailant? Or was she just panicking too much to think of doing that?
As fas as I can tell, she can do with her orbs like Zenyatta does in that one emote, basically turning her into a bludgeoning buzz saw. If it can snap an arm like a twig, it can probably get her out of a grapple with someone of that level of power.
I think she was panicking too much, because honestly she really could have gotten out of that if she broke the arm that was holding her.
I just checked the page, she did break the arm that was holding her and it did not work. Never mind
But she could have kept going, broken it over and over, broken some legs, a skull. Either she’d get dropped or the healing boost would run out.
But between panic and the fact that she’s not that vicious it didn’t occur to her.
Actually, speaking from experience, getting clocked in the jaw can be disorienting even if it doesn’t hurt you. I know this isn’t breaking the arm or anything. You get hit in the jaw, or at least for me, there’s a brief moment of blindness as everything goes white and I tend to let go of anything I’m holding on instinct. Sure, I’m not combat ready like a soldier, but instincts are still instincts. One second of blindness can be a world of time in a fight.
Glass jaw.
coming from a guy who’s never been in a fight lmao
It’s not just an insult, there is a medical foundation to the term. I’m not sure whether it applies to everybody (probably not, going by rugby players), but in at least some people the top of the jaw comes close to several major nerves. A decent hit to the jaw sends the top end of the jawbone into said nerves, overloading them and stunning the recipient.
Well, really, that’s the whole point of training. To replace your natural instincts and reflexes that would get you or someone else killed in a dangerous situation with new ones that are more useful. That’s why things have to be drilled so hard and so often, to make as sure as possible that you will instinctively follow your training and not freeze up or panic.
But with her having troll blood she might have ignored the training, relying on her regeneration to deal with the trauma of injury. Some people just coast when they can.
She doesn’t have troll blood, she just had a troll-blood transfusion (or she wouldn’t have had to leave the room after Pixel Panther damaged her in the first place)
Also, considering how even Maxima couldn’t move the orbs away from Sidney, does that mean Sidney could conceivably damage Maxima with them using them like that?
Gee, seems like maybe Sidney should consider dipping a few points into melee combat capabilities if she ever figures out the upgrade sheet.
They have been shown to be pretty sturdy but just because Maxima couldn’t move them away from Sydney at that moment doesn’t mean they are strong enough to smash through her armor.
Also, I would not count that incidence at the bank as solid proof that Sydney can’t be moved by dragging the orbs away. Maxima was not expecting a dead-stop like that, and she was not standing very sturdy, shown by her slipping off the sidewalk. If she had yanked it with her full strength the container wouldn’t have survived.
Heretic! Tubey is indestructible!
Tubey survived the collapse of a restaurant, fer’ chrissake…This was even after Sydney removed the orbs that would have otherwise helped by providing internal support for the sides.
ALL HAIL TUBEY THE INDESTRUCTIBLE !
Tubey is protected by the Law of Wolverine: Since it would be destroyed by any reasonable amount of force applied to it, whether by a mere mortal or the most powerful superhuman, it simply will never be damaged at all.
And if it ever is destroyed, $5.99 at the local craft store and it’ll be resurrected like so many superheroes have been.
+1
That’s not quite the same. The force that holds the orbs within a certain radius of Sydney appears to be a lot stronger, perhaps physically absolute, whereas the force that maneuvers them within that radius is merely rather strong.
We haven’t actually seen them tested for their full physical potential yet. We’re only vaguely aware that Sidney has some level of control over how hard they hit something.
Whilst LordViking makes good points above, do bear in mind that the scene where Maxima tried to move the orbs and failed was early in the comic. Before Dave had a large readership and came to realise that every word a character makes is studied for meaning or even the way a character is standing would be used as proof of something.*
So I simplify that scene to its intent. The strongest super in the world tried her hardest to move Tubey and failed! To support this contention, note how Maxima emphasised her strength.** This is very important, if trying to figure out what the scene is meant to convey.
Even though we did not know it at the time, Maxima is the strongest known super in the world. And became extremely angry that this tube stopped her. As such, I do not think that indicates a casual attempt. I believe that, when Maxima experienced it resisting, she just cranked her strength dial, expecting it to reach the point where she overcame the resistance.
Except she hit the top of the dial, before that occurred. And the surprise of that happening made Maxima blow her top!
* I cut Dave slack for the legality regarding the bank robbery, for this reason. Likewise Harem being able to teleport inside the ambulance, despite being unable to see into it.
** Yup I appreciate the irony of doing what I mentioned above, regarding examining the details. But rather than studying the minutia, I am focusing on the intent.
Further, we can simply say that Maxima’s force field was giving structural integrity to Tubey. It was not her intent to destroy it, but to throw it. So that is actually a fair explanation for why it was not crushed between Maxima’s hand and the orbs.
Actually, Maxima wasn’t trying that hard at all. What I said about the tube not surviving wasn’t just said in jest, it is what Dave himself said would happen to the tube if Maxima got serious. He said so in a reply to this comment.
For those not wanting to click: “Maxima is super strong, but she wan’t applying much of it on this page or she would have cracked the poster tube.”
Ahh fair enough.
The strength at which the orbs can be hurled might be dependent on possibly one of the inner or connectinv ring dots btw.
The need is real.
Sheesh Krona, be a bit more sensitive. Her logs probably dont say anything about her being stabbed but she was about to be stabbed. Also, from our perspective, Sydney was totally going to die.
Being in the non-shanked category tends to change your point of view…
Somewhere in the near future Dabbler will be on her knees, shouting profanities to the heavens above, upon learning someone got to motorboat Maxima before she could.
Motor boating maxima should be on the bingo sheet
Motor boating Maxima is it’s own reward. It would be redundant to win points in a game with it.
Besides, it’s difficult to win the game if you don’t survive earning the points.
Somewhere in the world, Muten Roshi’s “Pafu Pafu” sense is tingling.
It would appear that the front of her trousers survived. That was a strangely shaped explosion…
Yes, I wanted to find out what those panties are made of so we can build tanks and such out of it…
They are black, so I’m going with spun carbon fiber….
or spider silk.
Well, Vance is only a recruit, plus he is also one of Maxima’s subordinates, so both the rank difference and the chain of command conflict would make that inappropriate.
On the other paw though, I suppose that would only apply to a human. It is not like Maxima would want to mate with a colony of spiders, after all! Plus it might be undiplomatic to turn down a spider’s offer of “Here is something I made myself.”
They only get to spin seven webs, in their life before they die. That would be a gift which said, “I think so much of you I am willing to donate one seventh of my life’s work to you!”
That’s a myth, by the way, though there are seven types of silk, ranging from the sticky stuff to trap and wrap their prey, to super-strong threads for support. No single species of spider weaves all seven types; in fact, about half of them don’t even make a web. Among the species of spiders that do make webs, most of them make a new web every day (and remember that most spiders, other than tarantulas, live one to two years. That’s a lot of webs! Tarantulas can live up to 20 years.)
A web fact: The web of the gold orb weaver can last for years, and is tough enough to catch birds… which is why scientists in the U.S. Defense Department have been trying to copy its silk for use in bulletproof vests… but it is not the strongest silk in the spider kingdom. THAT privilege belongs to the Darwin bark spider, whose web is about 10 times stronger than Kevlar.
As it was carrying a strong emotional message I did not put in any qualifiers. However, thinking about it the article I had read, which mentioned that, was speaking about a particular species. Clearly it cannot be a generalisation though, as some spiders are not web spinners at all. So it will not hold true, across different species.
Contextually, for me to remember it as ‘spiders’ it would have been the ones we (and in particular me) would come across most frequently in our houses. Turns out there are several types of ‘house spiders’, but the first one I checked out lives for about seven years and will typically live in a different web every one or two years.
So that does correlate to seven webs, using the higher frequency. I do remember the reporter quipping about feeling guilty when dusting, so I assume the article was in reference to a limit on how much silk such a spider could produce in its lifespan.
However that is just an assumption, as it is not something I had any reason to commit to memory. Only the reporters sadness stuck in my mind.
Also fact: Orb Weavers hate humans and try to catch us as often as possible
I see no other explanation for why the local orb-weavers (spotted Orb Weavers) insist on planting webs across doorways for weeks at a time.
Or the panties are so sheer against her skin that her armor field may have been able to protect it better than the outer clothes
And what appeared to be scorched skivvies in the previous pages now looks more like actual lace undies, probably thong-ish in style. Does this meet standard uniform regulations?
Do you think they really have regulation underwear? And if Archon DID have regulations for that… WHO do you think is ballsy enough to ask MAX to drop her drawers so they can inspect that?
Dabbler. She’s probably also the one who slipped that entry into the uniform regs while the C.O.s signing them off were… ‘distracted’.
There are certainly regulation colored tee shirts, since they are visible at the open collar of working uniforms. Other underwear is not as restricted, though I did have to point out to a subordinate one time that she had black panties and bra under an all-white uniform. Definitely not regulation. I think she’d gotten dressed in the dark that morning. :-D
Given that Maxima was almost certainly the one who wrote the rule book, for Arc-SWAT, you can bet that what Maxima wears is within regulations. One of the perks of being the boss is that you get to ensure you retain whatever creature comforts help you get through the day.
And get you through the night :wink:
actual military does have regulation underwear as they are issued items and an account of there location can be demanded (which leads soldiers to px stock up of extra for drawer display, mission bag inventory, private room inspection with impartial observer to stop “funny stuff” of worn uniform).
Not per se, but I had the misfortune to be wearing boxers on the first day of Basic. The shorts the Army issues are based on 1960s basketball shorts. i.e. they don’t provide much coverage and my boxers hung out the bottom of the legs.
The drill sergeant said something like “What do we have here?” And I said something like “Something you should probably not pay way too much attention to, if you know what I mean drill sergeant.” He actually let that slide, probably because if he hadn’t it would have called into question his masculinity and/or sexual orientation. But it was the start of a beautiful friendship, let me tell you.
Looking back at the boom, it appears the collapsing golem may have been partly between Max and the blast. If so, it’s possible that it sheltered her lower body slightly. That, plus her defensive field probably being most effective on the parts of her clothing closest against her, might account for her belt and parts of her trousers and panties surviving.
Dave sure likes to draw boob related jokes. And I love him for it.
Hey, don’t discount all of the time DaveB has spent in researching Boob Physics so that he could do this comic the right way. He took the time & effort to learn, so I’m going to appreciate his efforts to teach us what he’s learned.
Ain’t education wonderful?
:D
It’s a joy to see a master at work with such dedication.
Wow I’m ignorant. I had to look up “motorboating.” Well that explained a previous scene; now I feel like Harem finally getting “meep-meep!”
In all fairness, your protagonist is unlikely to be motorboated. But now you have a new joke for stimulating certain chakras.
Don’t sweat it too much, that is how long it took you to get it. Even as long as it took Harem to get that Anvil joke, by the end of that same page, even Sydney slowed down a lot too.
…Only to shift into high gear again when that bladder-hack wore off…
But Dabbler did get to grope Maxima’s ass first. And even survived.
In the near future when Math and Dabbler find out that Halo was able to motorboat Maxima, the interigation will commence.
Math will be asking/demanding to know size, shape, feel, texture, firmness, and so on.
Dabbler will want the same information but will most likely place Halo’s head against her own boobs, and want a comparison of hers to Maxima.
Dang krona, in Sydney’s mind/memory she died, and she is having trouble with it. Show some compassion girl and be more sensitive
Yeah, even Maxima is better at this.
Which is really saying something given her toughened shell.
While again Dabbler and Math would curse id they only knew … hashtag motorboat therapy.
And… then the news van drove up.
I wonder, did Sydney tell the whole story and then when coming to this bit scared herself over the memory of it, or did this memory jump at her again during her reboot and she went in for a hug before telling anything?
Sydney would have to explain it all to get to the “how I almost died” part…
I think the flash back hit her and caused her reboot.
The adrenalin rush at the time cushioned the blow but has now worn off and reality has sunk in. You get the same effect when breaking a limb. You can continue at the time but can have a panic attack later.
Sure, Krona might seem a bit harsh, but keep in mind, she’s a semper vigilantis. That means she deals with threats like this all the time, and has to keep under the normie radar at the same time. She know that she set the checkpoint to activate under life-threatening circumstances, BEFORE death occurs. And she faces death all the time, so she’s desensitized towards it.
Event trigger – Trousers browned.
Sydney may have needed her oxygen mask if her pee-alarm hadn’t gone off. She was getting lost down there and could have suffocated.
Is that a line forming behind Max of short people in need of a hug?
“Sydney may have needed her oxygen mask if her pee-alarm hadn’t gone off. She was getting lost down there and could have suffocated.”
This is now on my list of ways I want to check out – suffocating in the cleavage of a golden-hued super-heroine (super-strength is optional).
There was a film, staring Chesty Morgan, about a woman who went round killing men by suffocating them in such a fashion. All be it with less gold.
And then there was the Grinch (as played by Jim Carrey) got a chance to motorboat Martha when he showed up for the Whoville Christmas Celebration…
Kent or Wayne? o_O “Why did you say her name?”
Lmao. When Nature calls, you don’t let it go to voice mail.
The older you get, the louder it calls.
Of that I’m sure. Poor Sydney has just been ignoring her is all
Or as some put it, “Never pass up a chance to use the bathroom; never trust a fart.”
Thank goodness for Krona’s biological snooze program.
Yeah, Sydney would have otherwise lost her bladder control back in the basement with Sciona…Which would have promptly been reset when Krona’s time-loop kicked in.
How do we know it didn’t? o_O
I like Max’s expression in panel 4. Her trying to be supportive even as she acknowledges that being supportive is one of the few things her background and skillset have left her ill equipped to be.
Actually, I think she has exactly the right background and skillset to give comfort to Sydney. As a former nerd she knew to reference a chassic comic book achievement: “Hashtag Reaperfails.”
To be fair to Krona, she’s probably been in a similar situation more than once. It’s clear she’s used her check point more than once. At this point her mentality is probably, “You ALMOST died, but didn’t. So don’t worry about it.”
Honesty that’s probably how a lot of superhero fights have gone or will go. This won’t be the last time Syd will brush close to death. Its sadly something she’ll have to get used to.
Possibly, but it will definitely improve her paranoia index. “Shields up and THEN look around” should be her new motto…
You know what? Using her new teleport power to find a place to pee would have made for a really funny demonstration.
Of course she could still teleport back.
That would take longer than running around the corner, and more concentration. But I do like the idea of her returning via teleport.
It’s interesting how the art style changes in response to the scene. In panels 2 and 3, and in her Who’s Who entry, Maxima has cheekbones you could shave with. In panel 4 she has a fuller, rounder face that gives her a more kindly look.
She also has the after-effects of the Dabbler beauty charm going on giving her the smokey eyes and full glistening lips… I’ll be in my bunk.
“Put a cobra, 2 porcupines, and an I.R.S agent in O.B. Juan’s bunk”
Even if you include a vampire with the others in O.B. Juan’s bunk, the one who could draw the deepest blood wound would be the IRS agent…
Add a lawyer, a priest, and an ex-wife. Round two, fight!
Mother-in law round 3
I repeat my contention that Maxima’s physiology responds to her mood – when she’s in DangerMode or on guard, she’s all angles in her face; when she’s relaxed or enjoying herself or allowing herself to be vulnerable, her face also becomes softer and more relaxed.
It’s a bit of the art style that I really like.
Most faces change slightly. If you’re on guard, you tend to clench your teeth, elongating your jaw. When you aren’t on guard, you stop clenching, and your jaw relaxs. It’s usually subtle, but given that Max is shiny and gold, it kind of shows up more.
max is noted to become more angular with higher armor levels (by comment from DaveB in prior posting) so dumping that stat with sydney’s panic hug a softening of features would logically occur (not that we saw that in the V fight where she ramped up to the limit that should have also rendered her immobile/inflexible as stated to happen by author)
You know what, I did not expect the ‘I need to pee’ gambit. Despite the fact that it had been set up, in advance!
Not that I think it was deceptive mind. Just fortuitously timed.
No one expects the bladder imposition!
Well played.
++
+++
I need no further embellishments
*sniff*
Does that make it Chekhov’s bladder? If it is, Sydney had better watch out to make sure she doesn’t pee in any nuclear wessels. Wait, what do you mean, “That’s a different Chekov.”?
Ahhh. the image of Max’s golden cleavage glistening with a combination of tears and snot…
Only Sydney would have emergency T.P. in her utility belt. I don’t remember Batman being THAT well equipped.
Well, Sydney does have her own priorities. I doubt that the Bat also carries gum, stickers and googly eyes.
No, Bat-Stickers are a must. Find anything in the vicinity you think might be useful, swipe it, slap a sticker on it, and present it as your “ever-trusty Bat-[object]”
Maybe it was just another non sequitur, and she meant she has tooth paste in her utility belt.
What sort of soldier does not carry TP around in his utility belt?
The sort of soldier that causes people nearby to start holding their noses & moving upwind…
Reveling herself is better than a therapist for Sydney! Anyway will she tell Maxima what really happened of did Krona rebooted that as well?
OOPS! I meant relieving herself is better than a therapist! MY BAD!!!! :p
Freudian slip?
Pink, red, black or white? The slip that is…
It’s your mother’s slip.
“Revealing herself” also works. :D
Should Sydney tell Maxima what really happened or did Krona reboot that as well?
There has only been the one reset. Krona has promised not to do any more for the … errm …. time being.
The sudden urge to pee is not a symptom of a reset but a separate, earlier, use of her power having run out. Krona did mention that she was only delaying the need to pee (using her analogy of hitting the snooze button on an alarm). The alarm has just gone off.
As to what really happened, what we see above (in panel 1) will be the final moment that Sydney experienced before the reset. (Probably). Sydney will remember everything, from the first loop, up until that point. Her next moment would be back at the checkpoint, with Krona, Harem and Pixel.
Sydney should tell Maxima about everything she remembers. And urgently, given the other hostages that were in the room. If she recalls them. She was rather focused on Pixel. I suspect though that this will be like when she suddenly remembered seeing ‘X’ standing in the corner of the room, secretly observing Dabbler. Sydney has noted seeing them, but her brain has not processed that bit of information yet.
However as soon as Sydney resumes thinking about what she should tell Maxima, if she can take her mind off the trauma of her near-death experience (which will not be easy), she will hopefully review the memory and realise the importance.
Now that Sydney has gained a wee bit of thinking time *wink wink*, she should be able to figure out a way to stall revealing about the teleportation, until she has decided if Maxima should know or not. And if not, how to go about that.
No, Bodie mentioned that Pixel was down there administering first aid to her fellow juice boxes last page (or the page before)
Pixel could not do that if she was killed before she had a chance to regenerate. Halo was the only one left in the fight against the construct, after she got hit into the Mars building. If Halo was not there,* then the construct could just drop down and kill Krona.
Let us assume that Harem would spot it, and teleport out. There is not much else she could do against a shielded construct. Her flashbangs might make it pause. Or it may get in the first blow. Which with its strength and laser claws, would be fatal. Either way, its next target is finishing off Pixel, who has not had any first aid at this point.
So she is still stuck with a girder in her chest. Importantly the construct is both intelligent and knows that Pixel can regenerate, because it copied that power off her. So she would be an easy kill. not being able to get away from the spot the construct would be heading towards.
By the time the osprey arrives, both Krona and Pixel are dead, and Harem has either joined them or fled. Even more worryingly , they would not be able to see it, because it would be invisible.** Had Dabbler been on board even her porno sense could not detect it. So the one person who could spot it, Halo, is not there.
Which means it could pick its moment to convert Maxima into Evil Maxima! Attacking by surprise and without its mesmerising ray damaged by Anvil, we would see a very different debriefing. If there were any survivors, to be debriefed.
* Or, to avoid having to predict who might have been there instead, let us keep it simple and say that Halo turned out not to have what it takes, and teleported out.
** Obviously I am painting a worse-case scenario, but a realistic one, none the less. Possibly Pixel might have been able to remain conscious, despite having a girder through her chest. In which case she may spot the construct leaping in and turn invisible before it sees her. Unlikely but possible.
Likewise it may not have copied the invisibility. Or it may not realise that it had, until it saw the power demonstrated. See the negative consequence of Pixel trying to hide with that, but it noticing her do that. Or is smart enough to realise that there is blood dripping from mid air.
But even without that, it could still just hide. Knowing full well that reinforcements will be on the way. With Maxima still being at risk of being ambushed by a surprise mental attack.
No, was just saying that Pixel is already administering first aid, that was in reply to “And urgently, given the other hostages that were in the room. If she recalls them”
So, either Sydney already passed on that information, or Pixel remembered them from before she herself was being juiced like a pink grapefruit
Oh, sorry about that. The phrase “Pixel’s helping with the people hanging ten in there” just did not sink in.as referring to the hostages. Although now that you point it out, I can see the intent.
I think Maxima is going to get Harem to resit* the course on ‘how to speak military, when giving reports’. A generally relaxed culture, and unorthodox discipline regime, can be justified, but giving a confusing report cannot.
Even the rule of funny cannot sensibly be applied generally by DaveB, for this aspect, because, for best impact, a quirky turn of phrase needs to stand out against a backdrop of normalcy. Without that it just runs the risk of alienating readers who expect to see military personnel behaving properly.
In this case there is reasonable justification (comedy wise), because it shows Harem’s extreme distraction. But that is not something that Maxima should tolerate. Troops need to learn to conduct themselves properly despite distractions. There will be plenty of those in life-or-death situations. Which with injured hostages involved, this is!
Military personnel very deliberately speak in unambiguous standardised** ways, for a very good reason, people will die if there is a misunderstanding! That is why the use the 24 hour clock, for example.** If one unit thinks that their joint attack is at 6, in the morning, and another 6 at night, one of them is going to be engaging the enemy without support!
* I forget the term used previously. It has been on the tip of my tongue in two threads, but it was a misplaced enough term (grammatically speaking) that that I always had problems with it.
Mind you if I use Americanisms, without thinking, eventually normal people will not be able to understand me! I will have to hire an interpreter to speak to my parents!
** Varying from service to service and country to country. But the more they co-operate, such as in joint operations or under the NATO umbrella the wider the terms need to be recognised.
Of course institutional resistance, to abandoning a long-used turn of phrase, is very high. Strengthened by the vital esprit de corps, that encourages troops to identify strongly with their own unit. Archon though does not have such a historic legacy tying it down, so can adopt ‘best practice’ rules, from the outset.
Five hours late, and it comes up….
Next time use better porn.
+1
But if it persists for more than four hours, consult your doctor.
Note to Sydney.
As demonstrated in numerous web videos, if you need to go to the restroom and are wearing a wireless microphone, be sure to TURN IT OFF. Hashtag Mikefails?
Same problem if using telepresence, but worse. If she ports to the destination, she will have to make sure she turns off the hologram at the source end.
I don’t think she will be holding the orb while trying to remove her pants/underwear in order to relieve her bladder so there will be no issue with the “teleme” being present with her stripping since she HAS to be holding the orbs for them to work.
Yea, it would not be an issue in this case, but Wee Red Bird …
*snicker* I said wee!
… is making a point about future uses. In this case we …
*snicker*
… saw the trail of the orbs blurring after Sydney, as she ran around the corner.* So clearly she is not attempting to use it at this time.
Not that I think I agree with the point. Halo never has a hologram at her source (the place she was initially standing at). That is her real body. The hologram only exists at the destination. Which is replaced with her actual body. Possibly the hologram persists, but as it exactly replicates what her real body is doing, and is now in exactly the same place, it will be indistinguishable from it.
Barring someone else teleporting Sydney away, and leaving the image at the destination, I do not see that this would be an issue. And, ignoring this hypothetical, and just looking at Halo’s normal procedure again, I think the hologram would probably vanish at the same moment that Halo replaces it with her real body. Hopefully not leaving a gap for someone with high-speed-camera-like senses to notice the transition.
* Handy that the girl has real-life zip-lines, no?
*rolls eyes* back in Kindergarten are we? *sniggers*
She does have a history of forgetting she is holding the orbs. Like her flying orb while flying. And how many people have gone hunting for their car keys while said key is in their hand and causing an inconvenience while lifting things out the way to look under them.
I was thinking that, when she ports, both her physical self and the hologram trade place. But when she did it, she completely vanished from the rooftop. It does mean that porting in, grabbing something and quickly porting back to where you were won’t work. Unless the button has an option beside it.
Yea, Halo’s teleport is like Harem’s in a sense, in being one way. Neither of them could return to the rooftop if they teleported away. Although in Harem’s case she is OK if she remains within sight of it.
Halo’s advantage is that she can just send her lightbee back, if she wishes to teleport again. If it has a similar flight speed to Halo’s own, she could get to a destination up to 400 miles away, within an hour.
Halo’s disadvantage, if trying to do that, is her apparently limited senses, when in lightbee mode. She may not be able to navigate effectively over long distances. We saw how bad she was even with all of them working normally, flying from home! Let alone by ‘sensing stuff near to her’.
Sydney does have one hope on that front though. The orbs do have ancillary functions which support the primary usage. Her flyball’s vertigo countering effect, for example. Likewise its ability to provide low-grade protection, such as against bird-strikes and wind buffeting, at moderate flight speeds.
So the lightbee may well give Halo enough feedback to know when the lightbee has travelled ’10 miles east’ or sense that ‘my destination is in this direction’.
That really depends on how quickly she can deploy Holo-Halo: if it’s quick enough, she could do a ‘spot check’ every five minutes or so to help with her bearings, also depends on if Holo-Halo suffers from the same pesky problem with gravity, in which case, Sydney simply needs to be holding the Florb
If Halo is holding the Forb, she may as well be using it to fly. With the option of using her shield. Although I do appreciate there are circumstances where that would not be desirable. But those are the ones where popping into sight could cause problems too.
Although there is another possibility, come to think of it. Sydney needed to send the lightbee, as it was good for covert reconnaissance. Plus it needed to go through small spaces.
But I see no reason why it could not project Halo’s hologram whilst on the move. In which case she could see, hear and even talk, whilst navigating to the destination.
Speed of travel presumably being the same as with going in person. But keeping her options open on where she may choose to act next. If she is scouting and finds nothing, Sydney could take actions where her real body is, rather than having to fly back first.
Likewise she is aware of what is happening around her real body (recall how she wondered why she could no longer see Krona, after she teleported). So could be standing guard over something important, like hostages, whilst using the flying hologram to find a safe route out. Possibly even drawing enemies away, in the process.
Always with the option, of course, of teleporting to the lightbee, if that turns out to be the more critical place to bee. Say if she wants to do a waggledance, with the honey she found.
Just remember: Lightbee was originally just for sending her Holo to places, so would have typically been for scouting and covert surveillance
For example: Maxi “Quick, we need a sit-rep at location Potential Trap! I have to stay here! *looks around at available troops* {sigh} Okay Halo, you’re up, Harem has never been there!” and off Lightbee buzzes
Someone saying, in her earpiece, “Uh, Syd, you realize your Mic is still live, right?” would probably scare the pee out of her. :)
I mean, just picture some of the things Syd might say to herself while squatting behind the building!
You mean, like this scene? o_O
LOL. A lot. That was a guy with quite some stamina.
Or perhaps this one.
Or this one.
Aye, her cup runneth over…
No no, she’s still only an A-cup
Always assume every mic is a “hot” mic unless/until conclusively proven otherwise (i.e., turned off or batteries removed). Otherwise…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphone_gaffe
The one where Reagan “outlaws” Russia is one of my favorites, along with this one by David Cameron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gz6mZYxS0A
I had not seen that latter one before. Gave me a chuckle.
However that may not have been a gaffe. It would be a clever way to project, ‘I have just lost my job, but I don’t give a [honey badger]‘.
“That’s exactly what she told Peggy.”
…I can actually see that happening. Morbid humor to help her comrade get through the pain and trauma. Get her laughing while you rip the wreckage apart and fly her to get medical care.
*nods*
I have done the same. Well, without the flying and ripping.
Remember when Maxima talked about surprise vomit? Judging from her reaction in panel 5, surprise pee might get her as well. :-p
Are you taking the pee? ;-)
Does Krona have some sort of anti-glare coating on her goggles that makes it look different colors depending on the angle, because in some pages the glass looks violet and in other pages it looks blue.
I *think* that’s got something to do with Krona’s hair being visible through the glass, but I reserve the right to be completely wrong…
It’s also due to different colouring techniques
On the previous page Krona was in close proximity to the red orb. This was tinging her blue hair, resulting in the violet effect, you describe, showing through the goggles.
The page prior to that does support your suggestion better mind. The nearest orbs would be behind the speech bubble, but must have been the flyball and truesight orb. Blue hair with one blue and one yellow orb should have had more of a green tinge, than a violet one. But Halo was a bit further away in that shot, so the rest of her hair was not being tinted.
However if the goggles were reflecting the other orbs, due to their position, relative to the 4th wall, then there were pink, purple and red orbs which could have all accounted for the relevant shade.
Max might not be good at comforting ppl, but at least she does have a big sis instinct towards Sydney.
Which Sydney needs. It’s gonna be tough molding her into a hard charging superhero, but Max can nudge her into a valiant knight type….
i’d say in Syd’s case she has ADH!D
Oh, rereading this page just has me laughing again, so much! The gamut of emotions, both those visualised and the more subtle implied ones, are really rich. Every panel is an emotional goldmine!
And panel #2 shows Sydney getting ready to do some spelunking.
There is a Sydney debriefing joke here somewhere.
But seriously, it is high time to get her back to base to rest and med up, while a cleanup crew handles the rest of the site (and the imminent media and any local first responders).
I hope Maxima has learned her lesson about allowing charismatic vampires charm her into sending super inexperienced personnel into the field before their time. I imagine she’ll get called on the carpet about it as well (but maybe no actual punishment since retconned harm, no foul?),
I am willing to be corrected here, as we have a lot of military, or ex-military readers, but I am willing to bet that winning a critical engagement tends to result in a lot of slack being granted.
Do bear in mind that even though Sydney was way less useful than she could be, once trained and if fully alert, she did actually play a key role. At the point when the medic was tied up treating Krona and Pixel, there was nobody left to engage the enemy.
Even had somebody else been assigned Halo’s position, none of the personnel in the area would not have had the capability to engage it, keeps its aggro and finally divert it, at the time of the critical attack. A lesser combatant would have been taken out fast. If you doubt that, bear in mind that a super-powered lycanthrope and someone with god-like powers got taken out in seconds!
Further that would have left both of those two injured personnel totally exposed to being finished off by the construct.
Maxima needed Halo there, because she has such a powerful shield. Doubly so because it demonstrated the power to block mental attacks (Vehemence’s aura). Ingsol had no need to charm Maxima to do that. All he did was point out a critical need, that only Halo could fulfil.
You are not alone in criticising Maxima’s decision.. If she had gone the other way though, team X-ray would probably have been wiped out!
“…while a cleanup crew handles the rest of the site…”
Although I’d be willing to let them skip the area behind the building where Sydney just went & is about to go…
Sydney just seems to let her Id influence her Ego more than her Superego.
DAVE! Less than a Month to Project A-kon 28 (it’s June 8-11), and it’s over at the Ft. Worth Convention center for 4 days instead of 3 1/2. Whats the plan for the Meetup at the con this year? Any Panels?
Oh well, was sure that Sydney would have taken the time to empty the bladder once the pressure was off
I think she is relieving that pressure right now.
Chalk it up to being sleep deprived. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, Sydney would have realised that taking a wee would be wise, on a stake out. However sleepy, and without any reminder from her bladder, she just went along with the card playing.
She lacks the needed experience. Then add in a long night, and high stress,. Experience is the best teacher, and Sydney will have a list of do’s and don’ts built up pretty quickly….
Krona’s biological snooze button has its upsides and downsides.
There’s an old soldiers adage that goes something like “Never skip a chance to eat, sleep, or wee, because you never know how long it’ll be before you get another chance”. Looks like Sydney is learning this lesson one step at a time. The hard way.
I grew up sharing 1 bathroom with 5 older siblings, and learned the same rule without having to worry about bullets. :) lucky me.
Halo went directly to the golden orbs for comfort. Dabbler is gonna be jealous and MATH gonna want details…
DaveB masterful use of filters to soften Maxima’s lines in the motherly scene…
Can’t see Sydney shivering really well though cause of those filters and crowded background.
So how many of the heroines are going to pull Halo to their breasts for comfort when something ugly happens of she survives the impossible ?
I love it when Maxima gets all motherly over Sydney. Even if she is unsure how to help.
Maxima may not be practiced at it, but she does make a good ‘team mom’.
It’s a tricky role for a commanding officer to pull off, though, because traditionally being CO means needing to maintain professional distance so that you can bear to order people into lethal situations if need be, while ‘team mom’ is the professional giver of shits who becomes very emotionally invested in people.
Yea. In this case though Maxima has a very good military reason for doing this. Sydney simply has too eccentric a personality for normal military practices to work well with her. Normal basic training would stamp out her quirkiness and force her to conform to standard military behaviour or break.
The latter is something that can be risked with standard recruits. If they flunk out, have a mental breakdown, or worse still, commit suicide, then the military can just find someone else to replace them. Cynical but it is how the process works.
Except they cannot find someone else like Halo. And the risk of somebody with super powers going off the rails should not be ignored either. If Halo goes postal, there would be mass-destruction!
So being able to maintain a connection with Sydney is absolutely vital. And Maxima has found a way to do that with an emotional connection.
Risky, for the reason you say, but necessary.
Strangely, even with adhd, military training worked very well with me. But I only have a little of the clumsiness that goes along with adhd.
Oh my ‘too eccentric a personality’ should not be taken as being code for ‘ADHD’. Although it is good each time we have first-hand testimony that people can hold down responsible jobs, without ADHD impacting on their role.
However Sydney’s extreme version of ADHD is just a single part of her package of mental and behavioural quirks. For instance your instructors did not have to contend with you ‘burning in sunlight’, literally writing anything that annoys you on ‘the List’, or mistaking a bindi, for sniper using a laser rangefinder.
I hope.
That last was particulary important, since part of my job include laser guidance for bombs.
He he. Yea, I can see how that would be an important mistake to avoid.
Also writing Maxima as a real CO type would pretty much sideline her, so giving her emotional attachment and the ability to informally joke around with Sydney, Hiro, etc, expands her role and makes for a better story. Anyway it’s canon that ARCHON’s rules are more relaxed, after all in the real military Sydney repeatedly calling Max & Hiro by their first names rather than their rank is a pretty big no no. But she gets away with it because ARCHON is lenient in some ways, and again it helps the story.
If they expect to get coherent situation reports from Halo they’re going to have to just strap a bodycam onto her and review the footage later.
Well, she did just get time warped… sort of? So not sure cam footage would’ve survived.
Sorry I shall have to block any attempt to record Sydney’s bodily functions, or private moments!
*stands with back to Sydney, with hackles raised, and growling*
They’ll probably give her some sleep, but the military requires after action reports in writing. Now Sydney will get to learn military BS-speak…
Of course, ARCHON is not actually US military, it just has many of the normal military structures. There are pro’s and con’s to requiring the reports in writing. Written records are much easier to search/review after the fact. But, it has been shown that when structuring events for writing our brain fabricates some details to make more sense. This also happens when we recount the events vocally, but to a lesser degree than when written first.
Even beyond that, it’s been more or less confirmed that when we remember events, we’re actually remembering the last time we remembered the event, which means that we hit progressively worse ‘copy of a copy’ issues the more often we review events. That’s partly why written after-action reports of any sort are more reliable the more quickly you create them. There’s less copy-fatigue.
Good point. Well barring the opening statement. Archon is US military. They are on an exactly equal footing with the Army, the Navy or the Air Force. It is just that their role is specialised to anything relating to supers. rather than to the theater of operation (land, sea or air respectively).
So you are right to say that they replicate many of the traditional military structures. They simply diverge from them where their operational needs vary. For example a big difference is that supers are in high demand, in the private sector, and could earn way more there than a normal military salary.
Which Archon counters by both having a much more informal and relaxed working environment and by offering an extremely high salary. Resulting in a divergent culture and a less professional appearance, but not negating the fact that they are nonetheless still military. With the hassles of debriefings and reports.
“…ARCHON is not actually US military…”
Actually, Archon IS a new Branch of the official US Military. That was pointed out during the press conference a few days ago. In the Grrlverse, Archon makes up the Fourth Branch; Army, Navy/Marines, Air Force, and now Archon.
yeah that ISD (improvised stabbing device) is aimed right at her liver so if she didn’t die it was only a matter of time
No, that’s just the viewing angle
That is a quick jump from absolutely adorable to absolutely hilarious.
For young people – ANY young person – brushing up against their own mortality is *extremely* sobering.
It may not last, but for that time, holy shit…
I presume that “agony arm” is just a typo? Or am I missing some pop culture reference or Americanism?
Mmm, obviously not getting enough sleep.* I was sure I had put in “… a typo for agony aunt”.
* Four newborn kittens turn out to be quite relaxing. Trying to simultaneously cat-proof a house, and keep an eye on a feral mummy cat, unused to being indoors …
[blinks, yawns]
… is it still night time?
[head nods downwards]
Have a feral cat I feed, and took in for TNR. She adspted extremely rapidly to the luxuries of indoor life.
Heh. The first time Feral Cat decided to stay in the house, overnight, was two days ago. It was raining outside, and I did not want to risk disturbing her., as she was comfortably sleeping, on a towel, on my lap.
By dawn the storm had ended. But that was when Feral Cat decided to give birth. Perfectly happy to do so on my lap!
Here are the kittens yesterday. Then with their mum. And finally today.
adorable.
Welcome to the club of Those Who Have Been The Birth Place For Kittens. The real trick is to avoid getting blood stains on your pants…
Thanks. It is a nice club to be in.
That is where the towel came in handy.
You are one hoopy frood to have your towel handy at a time like that.
Heh. My house is cold. Part of the ground floor is underground, the walls are two foot thick solid stone and it is engineered to use air cooling. Great for summer, but in winter it needs heating. Once the wood runs out all I have is improvised partitioning, which minimises the air cooling, and wrapping up warm. Which it has done.
I suspect that Feral Cat had been scouting for a good spot to give birth, because she is a smart cat and normally keeps out of the rain. I had set up a large cat box, with a cat flap, on my patio protected underneath a a balcony and in a corner, so that it is sheltered from the prevailing winds.
Above and below it is wrapped in old duvets, so is well insulated. Although it is out of the rain, I also put a heavy duty tarpaulin, over all of it, to make sure that the duvets remained dry. Which they do. The inside has a deep layer of numerous old items of clothing and towels. All of which get periodically sprayed with insecticide, whilst Feral Cat and Garfield are elsewhere. Then aired after it has had time to do its work.
I keep a bowl of water topped up for them. Plus when I feed Feral Cat, I guard her, to make sure that she can eat in peace. Garfield is not my cat, so I just give him a token amount of cat crunchies, to keep him from pestering Feral Cat for a share.
Finally if I hear them making any of the noises that indicate an intruder is in the garden, I go out and chase them off.
So Feral Cat did have really nice accommodation. But I know that feral cats do tend to go into isolation, to give birth. So knowing her condition, and seeing that she had managed to get herself soaking wet, in freezing rain, I guessed that is what she had been doing. Which I did not plan to interfere with, if that was her choice.
So I just dried her off and brought her in, whilst the storm continued. The dry towel was simply a way to keep her warm, whilst she slept on my lap.
Momma cat has some really nice coloration.
Thanks. She reminded me of my first cat, which had an even wider range of colours.
At first I thought that three of the four kittens had taken after their dad, but it turns out to just be two. One is obviously similar to Feral Cat. But the fourth is actually bringing out just the creamy colour that Feral Cat has in patches, like on a paw and her chest.
Yesterday I found out that my neighbour’s black cat has had four kittens, at almost exactly the same time. And it turns out that ‘Garfield’ is their dad too!
I presume that an “agony arm” is like the shoulder someone let’s you cry on.
I’ve been expecting the pee snooze to expire for the last three pages now. Thamk you so much for that punchline ;)
TBH Dave I never even notice delays or hiccups here in the schedule. Helps that I don’t know what the schedule’s even supposed to be! xD
Tuesday and Thursday at 12:00 MEZ is what I got.
which seams to be 07:00 at where the server is standing.
I’m in the same Time Zone as DaveB’s server (US Central) & I get it at 5AM on Monday & Thursday…Give or take 1 hour for Daylight Savings Time.
OK as a person who has been killed a couple of times now, the first time you “come back” is a bit of a shock, and your mind tries to cover that bit up. Especially if you “come back” to a badly injured body. Mine had breaks in 3 bones and large chunks of skin missing when they started to scrape me off the street. I let them know about the one break I could still feel at the top of my left femur. I’m still fuzzy about the other 2 times, I think I completely blocked them out.
Please stop doing that!
The dying part. The coming back bit is fine. Wait until you have reached a ripe old age and have finished your bucket list.
Avoid coming back at that point though. Wrinkly old zombie, without its own teeth, and suffering from incontinence?
*shudder*
Not like he could bite you at that point. Would being gummed by a zombie turn you?
doesn’t wapsi square teach us that the reset is to the body of first death?
I dunno, but the wasabi triangle teaches us that flavour is the first point of eating and the third is to avoid death.
We only cautiouslyt mention the mouthfeel, round here.
Context?
Just made-up wordplay based off of “wapsi square” and drawing in Sydney’s love of spicy food.
that was good, have a yorp treat.
Ooh, special limited edition wasabi flavour!
*gobble gobble munch munch*
The Highlander teaches us that the first death returns us to the same body as just before the time of death; ie- Those who have their first death when very young will always be physically very young. Then the body stays the same forever (barring a certain, particular method of dying) & each subsequent “death” restores life to the same body thereafter.