Grrl Power #541 – Bubble Untrouble
This page really could have benefited from another panel or two between the final ones. Max looking around inside the bubble as it engulfs her, then one of her taking off her mask for a test sniff of the air. It’s challenging cutting down the movie of Grrl Power I see in my head into panels, on top of the challenge of laying them out on the page. (And fighting my desire to draw everything as large as possible.) Comics y’all!
Another difference between the in-my-head version and this one is originally, Sydney discovered the function of this orb in a more dire situation. Like helping shore up a structurally compromised oil rig or something, in water deep enough that racing to the surface would be a considerable danger. The reason it didn’t happen like that was simply because some simple testing of the orbs would reveal this function, and it’s not like the team isn’t going to do basic testing. So the drama took a backseat to practicality in this case. Of course if I had structured the story differently, I could have some oil rig incident happen on the morning of day 2 of the comic. Hmm. But that’s okay, not every revelation has to come on the tail of a harrowing event. Yeah, this version could have been vaguely more dramatic if Maxima couldn’t grab the chains cause Sydney was panicking, but again, none of that would make sense. Maxima can catch bullets. Grabbing that chain would be simple even if Sydney had been kicking her feet around, which she wasn’t because she’s a reasonably competent diver and knows how to reacquire her mask.
So yeah. The green one makes air. At least. Maybe it makes other stuff. Maybe if Sydney breathed molten gold like some kind of magma bling fish, it would make that. One question answered, and as usual, an infinite number more rear their head.
This page colored by Keith.
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A new skill!
Hey I can create gas too. It just is not as… breathable.
Yeah, breathable. Good thing the people who created it didn’t breathe chlorine gas. Or maybe it adapts to it’s user’s needs.
Most pools like that do have chlorine compounds to help keep things from growing in the pool, so, yeah, the chlorine is available. Good thing the green orb can tell what is actually needed by the wielder.
What if you don’t need to breath? Just vent heat? I’m hoping it won’t make any gas that will slow that down or corrode me… O_O
Cold argon maybe?
*Looks up Argon*
Yeah, sounds good, that could work for me. Might even be able to do some tricks with it… :p
I’m still not convinced it was ‘made’ by anyone else. Maxima also “found” her power too, but they both found their powers while doing mildly adventurous things and those powers somehow bonded with them specifically and a very low level (nobody else is getting ‘splash effect’ of getting powers too from them, and they’re obviously a similar source since there’s a person who gets complimentary powers based on other people’s powers that works with them).
My suspicion is their powers are like some innate psychic ability, but they manifest themselves in some cool way to make it not look like they’re innate. Otherwise, they’re just too convenient.
Ah but DOES it create gas, or just pull dissolved gases out of the water?
Also, will Sydney be able to select the gas mixture? If she could “bubble-up” with a high percentage of O2 before shielding-up (yes we will have make that distinction now) she could keep her shield up longer. And if she can change the air pressure around her that could be useful too.
Depending on how high a concentration of O2 you have, the results vary from Sydney being effectively drunk up to her body dissolving from expedited oxidation. Seriously, O2 jets are used to etch metal.
I love that about life on earth… the heterotrophs evolved because all the damn autotrophs were spewing out this horrible poison that killed them. Yay for evolving to metabolize poison!
Isn’t that the reason why someone won in a battle of wits against the Sicilian?
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-” *thud*
It turns out that those words did not mean what I thought they meant.
A selector for the gas mixture could be really handy. Especially for deep water operations. Since she can’t use the shield orb, the flight orb, and the “perhaps don’t fuck it after all” orb all at the same time, if she can eliminate the nitrogen and replace it with helium she could avoid most of the issues of bends associated with dissolved nitrogen in the blood stream due to the pressures a few hundred feet down.
Wow that’s really neat! And handy, as Sydney said. Now they have to test it against water supers.
I have a feeling the 2 orbs didn’t have powers yet but were undefined, because she needed to breathed she imprinted air powers onto that one.
It already had a few pips in the skill tree though, so it must have done something before she got the orbs.
Orbs were already pre-pipped, possibly from previous user and possibly from default. Otherwise she wouldn’t have know what this was: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1166
Interestingly enough the green mystery orb could have been activated without Sydney even being aware that it had worked.
SYDNEY (Holding green orb): “Come on activate. Do something! Create something or give me some sign that you are working! Damned useless soon-to-be-listed camel-armpit-sucking-piece-of-worthless-junk!”
Of course the ‘something’ that the orb would be complying in creating would have been air. If Sydney was conducting this test in her bedroom, or in the forest, she probably would not have noticed a thing!
That’s my point. The pips already there meant it was not a powerless orb. Just a mystery.
Not necessarily. The previous user could have put points into it themselves because they hoped it would make the effects obvious.
People keep assuming there was a previous user. If you’ve ever played FFX which also uses a sphere grid leveling system, everyone starts off with a few pips.
Yea it is interesting that the vast majority of commentators work on that assumption. Personally I do not favour it, even if I run with it at times. There are actually quite a few plausible reasons why some ‘skills’* were filled in
The one I favour most though is that any which Sydney has stumbled across in her testing have automatically had the slot filled in. Pick up the blue orb, and think ‘ooh this looks valuable, I should take it up to the surface and get a good look’ hey presto flying out of the water and a pip filled in on the flyball’s ‘skill tree’.*
Sydney could have filled in one of the green orb’s pips, by creating air, and not even realised it, having been in her bedroom or the forest.
When the skill tree appears could just be based on reaching a point where basic competency in the unlocked functions having been demonstrated, and picking of ones that cannot be intuited is then allowed.
* Skills being Sydney’s assumption. With the implicit implication that they are earnt with XP. But they could be certification for ‘effective use of power demonstrated’, and not require arbitary XP earning acts, like defeating foes, in order to unlock.
Ihave a feeling it doesn’t just work underwater, but creates fresh air anywhere. It’s meant to work with the forcefield orb (so no more need to carry canned air) and she never noticed its effect when she activated it before because she never did it in a situation where “more fresh air please” was noticable.
Mostly I’m gessing since the orb started glowing without being held
That seems to happen whenever she ‘calls them’ to hand. In this case, calling it by accident.
This all fits with the standing idea that the orbs are an ‘extra-terrestrial survival kit’ made by an advanced alien race, meant to adapt to aid the wielder in their specific emergency. Many say the last orb is the power supply, but I think that is the PPO. I had thought the last orb would be a communication/beacon to aid in being found by the orbs creators, but then we learned about the ComOrb’s ability to zip around and teleport and it just makes more sense for such a function to be in that orb.
Upon looking again, I think the orb started glowing once she had a pressing need for air. Almost like it was saying, “Hey, I could be of service here.”
All of the best balls are user friendly!
Orbs, otherwise you’re steering for the song.
It’s my belief that my big balls should be held every night.
I think if you are right about the survival kit the last orb could be medical repair/adaptation.
Less panic grab, more orb to the rescue.
Yeah, looks like it knew to save her, or at least her subconscious desire for air and free hand was enough to call it without a specific mental command.
I disagree. I thought it was that, as she looked to reacquire her mask, she saw the orb glowing and summoned it. She is, specifically, there to test orbs, after all. And she wasn’t panicking or in danger – even if her mask and oxygen were completely gone, she wouldn’t be in danger, because Max.
If Sydney had already put on her mask again, then I agree with you, though that is not obvious from the comic.
If not, then survival instinct would most likely have kicked in and she’d most likely be ignoring the orbs in favour of getting air. Rescuers have drowned when drowning victims grabbed a hold of them in an instinctive reflex to pull themselves out of the water, so survival is screaming at you to do something. And even with her ADHD, I don’t think Sydney would have kept orb testing in her head over breathing.
I thought it was more that, with the chains no longer holding her down, Sydney floated up a little and missed her grab at the mask line, grabbing the orb instead… Although I suppose the orb’s light trail kinda shoots that one down.
Possible, but shouldn’t her hand reach above the air line instead of below it?
I have never done diving, so I could be wrong, but my logic says she’d be higher than the line.
You’re assuming the mask and line would remain in fixed position. They’re still attached to Sydney. she rises, they rise (I think. I never studied physics, so not 100% sure)
Losing your mask and/or regulator while diving isn’t really that big a deal. It’s a significant piece of training for your certification, actually. It’s not terribly difficult to recover the reg — it’s literally a tube that is attached to your back, so it can’t get away. The only part that’s even slightly difficult about it is to remember to keep exhaling while you reacquire. Always Breathe Continuously on SCUBA. Never, ever hold your breath, even if you’re recovering your regulator. (You can completely lose your mask, obviously, but even that isn’t too big a deal; they sink slowly and you can probably swim over and catch it.)
Speaking of reacquiring regulators: DaveB, the way Sydney is reaching for her reg seems a little off. The way I was taught to retrieve my regulator was to dip my right shoulder down, reach back with my right arm straight and parallel to my body, then sweep the arm forward like you do in a jumping jack. Doing it that way ends up absolutely guaranteed that the regulator hose is in the crook of your right elbow where it’s easy to retrieve. Reaching back over your shoulder like that is very awkward.
Two other small details: her regulator is probably upside down right now, meaning that it’s in free-flow with air bubbles pouring out of it. Also, she should have a secondary regulator (aka “the octopus”), the hose of which is folded into a U and tucked into a strap on the left side of her BC (the vest).
Nitpicks aside, I love this entire sequence. This is exactly the sort of thing that a real paramilitary super-agency should be doing, and they’re being smart about it. It’s also beautifully drawn and the characterizations are perfect.
What sort of jumping jacks do you do that the arm sweeps forward? I’ve only ever seen an up and down sort of swing going straight sideways, and that includes a couple of movies. Is this a location based difference? It also doesn’t quite sound like it would touch the hose the way it’s currently drawn as floating, but that could be because I’ve never seen it done or done it myself, and it could just be drawn slightly (or more) off.
Probably just poor phrasing on my part. If your shoulder is down then “forward” and “up” are a little ambiguous.
Personally would guess that reaching for the mask in that method did not function for Sydney. Combine it with her height and the setting for the position of the tank a jumping jack would just push the mask further away from her. This is the hand over hand method which she didn’t do properly nor had the option to continue with considering the orb took immediate action to produce (what I hope is) air.
I have to disagree – you are forgetting about underwater visibility when you are not wearing a mask or goggles: visibility is very poor – I think Sydney was feeling along the pipe for her mask when her fingers brushed against the green orb, and thinking it was the mask her desire was for that touched object to be in her hand, to which the orb readily agrees.
What we are really lucky with here is that it wasn’t the pew pew orb…
Mmm, I suppose it is possible to interpret the green zip-line as Sydney having grabbed the orb and moved it to where we see her hand in panel 5. And your comments about visibility are highly pertinent. Plus the disorientation of being in an emergency situation would add to the difficulties.
However personally I am sticking with it being the orb having moved into Sydney’s hand. That seems to be the intent of the zip-line. If Dave wanted to convey the arm having done the moving he would have laid the two panels out in such a way that we could see her hand going to where the orb was, rather than vice versa.
Why it moved there though, under my take, is up for speculation. Whether the orb decided to intervene or it was a conscious or unconscious decision by Sydney (or the orb misinterpreting Sydney’s attempt to grab the ‘air-giving device’ as being itself).
However of those options I would go with the spirit of your statement, even if I disagree on the mechanics. You are thinking about what you would do with your hands, in that situation. But we have seen Sydney repeatedly using the orbs as if they were her own limbs.
And very importantly at an instinctive level. Halo only had the briefest of glimpses of Shadow-Boxer trying to backstab her. and he was already in the process of striking. So her orb-response is as natural and fast as if she were using her own hands.
So reacting exactly the way you predict would likely have the results that I postulate.
Correlate this with another curious fact: The green orb is the ONLY orb that has the singular double-line node selected on it. All the orbs have this node, but it’s only selected on the green orb. It’s been theorized what these nodes mean – I’ve always thought it meant ‘works without being held’. But maybe it means ‘knows when it’s needed’?
Looks that way to me too.
Yeah, votes 3 & 4 here too…
I’m presuming she’s using the flight orb (left hand) to counteract any possible buoyancy. So, does that localized atmosphere come from inside the orb like a SCUBA tank or convert the surrounding water into breathable air? Would she be able to go into a thinner atmosphere without the force field
orb? Is it possible that it’s a climate control orb? I mean, not only does it provide breathable air but maintains a comfortable temperature as well.
I disagree. I believe the flight is actual flight right now: the orb is making air, and so there would be no buoyancy. She’s simply holding herself within the generation area.
This raises the question of how fast/big the generation can be. If she propels herself underwater with flight, can this orb make air and displace water fast enough that her shield is not needed for containment.
Interesting question!
– With the shield orb filled with air around her, Sydney is very buoyant and needs to fly down to stay under water
– Without shield and without air around her, she’s a little buoyant – in the water.
– Now with the air bubble but without the shield… she is of course not as light as air so she would sink… down into the water below the air bubble, as much as if she would swim on a water surface, so just the head out of the water, more or less, unless she flies… and regardless of whether she flies or not, the air bubble is, with a shield around or or without one, very buoyant in water and should stream upwards… So… there’s some questions open…
Actually, without the shield and without the air she’s in SCUBA gear – which includes a buoyancy compensation devices, so she could be negatively buoyant, positively buoyant, or neutrally buoyant depending on how she has them adjusted. (Typically it’s a set of small lead weights and a variable-inflatable vest – the weights make you negative, and then you add air to the vest to make you neutral to whatever depth you’re swimming at.)
Correct, I forgot the scuba gear. Since this takes place in a pool and Sydney needs to fly down for some tests anyway, I’d assume that they go for a “neutral / not buoyant in shallow water”-adjustment, provided that they gave it any attention at all. But there are still some questions open.
I wonder if that trick would also work while in flight: If she could surround herself with a high pressure bubble of air she would have a windscreen. It might not protect her from impacts with solid objects but she could at least breath through it.
The flyball already provides low-speed impact protection. It is only when Sydney engages Holy Flying Lamas mode that she needs the force field up.
Okay, Dabbler Science Corner moment here. If it’s actually creating matter from nothing, we’ve got either a serious violation of conservation of energy, or a frightening amount of energy available through that orb (energy being matter times the speed of light squared).
If it’s doing something like electrolysis, to generate pure oxygen and pure nitrogen, she’s not going to want to stay in that bubble very long — nitrogen being missing from the mix, and let’s hope she’s getting the right atmospheric pressure to avoid anything like the bends. Plus there’s the excess hydrogen which would be dangerous to be around, especially with Max and her array of powers (the slightest spark, and BOOM)
If it’s doing something in the middle, like teleporting the gas from outside the pool, that might be safest, but why would it be the green orb instead of the “Holy crap, I can teleport” orb?
I’m betting someone already mentioned the huge displacement wave that is about to push another thousand gallons out of the pool…
Actually she just replaced the air bubble that was expelled of the pool when she dropped the shield, so no water will leave the pool, it will just get back to the level pre-shield-drop…
Given that channeling the PPO is like ‘touching the surface of a star’, and all the other Irb’s capabilities, I don’t find the Green Orb having access to a lot of energy to be much of a problem.
This is especially true if the Orbs are basically meant for space-exploration/to replace a space-craft, and the Green Orb provides oxygen or other essential gases, while also providing metabolic energy (basically replacing the usual hydroponics bay/environmental systems of a normal space-craft/space-suit).
And how is that different from the magic we’ve seen already in universe, or Krona’s abilities? It also could store (somehow) fresh air that it releases on command. Most likely uses magic-like effects to create air.
Or it’s converting the water around her into breathable atmosphere. I wonder if that would work in a vacuum as well.
That is a good question. I was thinking in terms of her being stationary. I imagine that there would still be a slight “barrier / bubble” effect when moving with the flight orb, but maybe lessen with increased speed.
The flight orb already has a low-impact shield of its own that prevents the air from whipping at her while she flies. It’s only when she goes super high speed that she needs to use the shield orb to protect herself from the wind. Depending on how well this ‘air bubbles’ holding barrier is (it clearly has one so it can maintain that shape underwater) this might be a very functional middle ground allowing her to slow to a mid-range speed, generate air, then shield-up again for highspeed flight. That would require some extreme coordination the likes of which we have never seen from Sydney, but still possible.
Now we get to guess what the upgrades are! Someone needs to get another look at her tech tree. Manipulating air, perhaps, or changing what she needs to survive, like removing the need for food. Or she could flat out change chemicals slash elements into something else.
Ah, so air bending, not water bending.
Damn, someone beat me to it…
It also is the other orb, she tried to waterbend with the orange/brown unknown orb. One cool bit of attention to detail.
At least she doesn’t need a rebreather now!
She’ll still need it for flying as she can only do two orbs at once, unless it would do the same while flying.
She can simply go on ballistic trajectory, let the flight orb go, refresh the air with the green one, then switch back to flight orb.
Actually if you were a space fairing creature who built these, they are very logical. Once you’re in space you accelerate to top speed (whatever Mass/Energy ratio Flight orb supports), then swap to Green air maker and cruise.
Maybe the point connecting this orb and the fly orb gives her that skill?
*shield orb, my apologies
First of the infinite questions that pops in my head is, does it just produce air or does it protect from any hostile environment? Does she have her own space suit now or what?
“Nemesis” ball, working like For Whom The Death Tolls’ power? Nice, but I think it would be easily deus-ex-machinaed…
Not necessarily. Like all of her Orbs, I would think that it has it’s own limitations. Even if it’s an environmental adaptation Orb, of some form, it probably has limits on it’s ability to protect from things like heat and cold. Lack of air is a pretty easy fix, relatively speaking.
I’m not sure about it being an easy fix… Depending on what it can do it could be pretty explosive. If it can fuse atoms to create the required atmosphere it could be releasing an incredible amount of energy. Consider if she was trying to breathe in Jupiter’s atmosphere, loads of hydrogen and helium, but little to no oxygen or nitrogen to speak of. If it attempts to create our atmosphere out of that, the energy release (or the amount needed to be absorbed somehow, maybe by another orb) pretty much equals an atomic blast.
The Orbs are running on Universal Deep Code magic. Given that, and how Sydney’s Shield already seems to do weird air-manipulation shenanigans to not pop her ears while re-sizing, it seems pretty simple to just pull an energy->matter conversion and make new atoms.
Well, simple for Orbs that seem to have been made by someone/something that can alter the universe on a fundamental level, anyway.
I was wondering that myself. So far, all of the Orbs have been more… Universal than not. The Shield provides ABSOLUTE protection against ANYTHING that harms. The Fly Ball just MOVES her, without any apparent limitation. The Truesight Orb sees through ALL illusions…
I’m betting this orb creates a survivable environment, no iffs, ands or buts. Like, Sydney could be dropped into molten rock, and this orb would create a comfortable environment around her. Or she could fly into a star, and it would keep her cool, satiated, and supplied with the perfect mix of breathable air.
Limitations being, however, that it’s environmental. It won’t prevent trauma, like the Shield orb. It won’t keep her in one place, like the Fly Ball. It doesn’t let her control what it does, like the Hentorb.
Just… Hostile environment becomes non-hostile in that small locale.
The Flight Orb and the Shield Orb have both been pretty heavily upgraded. The Lighthook has weight limits, and the Flight Orb does seem to have an upper speed limit, at least in atmosphere (friction’s a b*tch like that).
Can’t tell if the Comm Orb has a range limit, beyond Sydney’s natural vision range. While the magic detector does work through walls, it seems like it has some range limit, if only that of Sydney’s ability to distinguish tiny dots of distant magical power.
So… does this mean she could just grab this every few minutes while in her shield to always have breathable air? Or is this an orb that instead of “creates air”, “creates a habitable environment”? Makes me wonder if the area she’s in is at a set temperature, since then she could go into boiling or freezing water and still be fine indefinitely, since her environment would still be normal to her… Questions for later.
Wonder if it turns the air breathable or adds more air – could puff up the shield?
Daniel here. I’m guessing 1 of the next tests they’ll do is to fly around with shields up (maneuverability test perhaps?) until the CO2 alarm goes off, quickly get her to drop the Flyball & grab the Airball ( :P ) then see if that refreshes the air inside without needing to drop the shield…
Hmmm, that actually gets me thinking even more, but I’ll save that for another post…
No need to be flying to test the airball inside the shield. She can do that standing on the ground.
Daniel again. True, but they might use the opportunity to kill 2 proverbial birds with 1 Orb, say a maneuverability test. Sydney & Max have flown along the bottom of the Grand Canyon together, but that isn’t “dodging falling debris to protect in danger civilians”, or some similar situation. Or maybe something as simple as testing Sydney’s “Bubble bus” again at higher altitude, since that out-paces the CO2 scrubber’s abilities…
And the “Starship Control Orbs” theory now has more credence. We have Weapons, Shields, Engines, Sensors, Teleporter, and now Life Support.
Forgot, Tractor Cable.
Hope the last orb isn’t the one used for TNG style saucer separation.
Unless the “separation” relieves the need for Krono’s 30 minute “bladder snooze” and similar biological needs. But that might be considered “life support” as well.
Manananggal style? It should work fine. I don’t see a practical reason for it though.
Could the last one be Holo Deck?
She already can make a hologram, just of herself (right now and as far as she knows) but she can do it.
PPO – Offensive systems
Shield Orb – Defensive systems
Lighthook – Tractor beam / remote manipulation
Flyball – Propulsion systems
Commorb – Sensors/Communications and Transporters
Greenie – Environmental Systems and Life Support (possibly medical)
Red – (Main Engineering/Power Systems?)
Also, Syd technically got Airbending from that one…
Now Sydney doesn’t have to worry about running out of O2 while using the “Shield Orb” for extended periods of time now.
Red could be communications, too. That would be an integral part of any “exploration suite”. The ability to communicate with any intelligent native life on the planet.
Has she tried holding the other unkown orb while someone speaks a different language to her?
That would be a useful function, and the still unknown orb has only two branches, three if you count the odd double node all orbs have, which mirror each other in shape and number of nodes which might mean they have similar yet opposite effects.
Passive use could be the ability to interpreted a language, active use would be the ability to express the language, and the nodes are the communication types it works on (written, spoken, body language).
Good point, I hadn’t thought about the branches.
It makes me wonder what the tree branches for THIS orb could indicate.
One of the three is the ‘double node’ that all orbs have which probably is a function similar to all orbs. This orb is the only one that has it filled, but I doubt the current shown ability is from that branch.
The only other spot that is filled on the two remaining branches most likely is generating the air, maybe that branch is to create a survivable atmosphere? More nodes filled is a larger area of effect?
If this orb’s function is to help survive in inhospitable areas than the branch without any nodes filled might be the healing function people are hoping for.
Daniel here. In case you’ve forgotten Sydney’s skill tree, here’s a link to the official Deviant Art pic. …And here’s a link to a “cleaned” version I also found in my Deviantart Favorites. Guess it might need to be updated now…
Looks to me like LordViking may be on the right path. Personally, I’d be tempted to pay the next point to the line between the Green Orb & the Shield Orb, to see if doing so will let 1 “borrow” the abilities of the other, such as refreshing the air inside the shield…
I find that pretty unlikely. If the Orbs were designed for use by creatures with 3+ arms, such a function would be of little value. If the Orbs where designed for use by humanoids, with two hands, then it seems pretty likely to me that this is a deliberate feature, meant to nerf the Orbs somewhat.
I find it a lot more likely that those lines result in improved ‘combos’ when using the two Orbs they connect.
*three different branches
Has she tried that with the Comm ball? That would be my first choice to test since it seems to already have the sensor suite and communications array.
Cloaking device orb is still needed.
Only if she’s a Romulan.
Well, Maxima has no explanation for her pointed ears.
I would actually expect Yellow to have communication functions. It seems like a pretty good trait to add to your Sensor suite, rather than having it as a completely separate system.
What if Greenie is a Replicator?
ooh, that’s an interesting possibility – if the orb is replicating dissolved atmosphere… the. it can do lots of other things.
Starship was definitely my first thought when I saw this new power. Part of me wonders if the orbs are how some far flung aliens handle spacecraft, and these are say, a training set for a fledgling pilot.
Now I’ve got this vision of hundreds of halo-ed aliens descending onto earth, demanding their technology back.
If they have so many of them, why would they value a single set of them so much? Since the Orbs tap into the ‘Deep Code of the Universe’, I’m guessing their creators were probably advanced enough that they wouldn’t really care about a set going missing.
What they might be more concerned with is the person who previously owned the Orbs going missing. That might be a bigger concern.
First, what makes you think there are so many orb sets in circulation? We don’t have that much spaceships, they may have only a few scores of sets per planet.
Besides, they could also be concerned about what the new owner might do with them. You would not leave a plasma gun (with no ammunition limit) in the hands of a medieval person even if you had plenty of them in your army.
Since Dabbler told that Earth’s domineering species is deemed a little too agressive for the interstellar community, the orb makers would probably be worried about their creation being in the hands of one of those nearly barbaric and bloodthirsty Earthlings…
(I don’t expect this, to be honest, but that would make sense anyway)
First, Swift literally says ‘hundreds of halo-ed aliens’. In his scenario, there are hundreds of sets of Orbs.
Second, the Orbs are strong, but not THAT strong, especially in the hands of a human. The two-Orb limit is a pretty harsh mistress. Sydney’s excellent at using them, but the Orbs aren’t actually super destructive, as it stands.
Also, it seems like these Orbs have been lying around for a while, so they can’t exactly care that much. If the Orbs were being used by an organization that gave a damn about the Orbs being loose on Earth, one would think they’d prioritize recovery.
I think both arguments have merit. We do not have any particular way of weighing which is more likely other than through our own values. Most of the judgements you are both making are attempting to lay human-like thought patterns and values on aliens. Which may be badly flawed as their thought processes could be totally … ahem… alien to us.
We do know that the orbs are unknown amongst the aliens who have friendly contact with Archon though (or if they know anything they are not revealing that). But given there are clearly lots of alien species it would easily be possible for them to be the product of a species unfamiliar to these ‘local’ aliens.
Or the orbs could simply be a product of one of the known races, but who have not chosen to promote their achievement. Or it could be from a long-extinct species. Or from one from an alternate universe.
Basically we have too few clues to be able to predict their nature, beyond the fact that they are capable of coding in the basic language of existence! Which, on its own could explain why others are not aware of them. With that kind of fundamental power, they will only be known if they choose to be.
As far as Sydney is concerned if they have no cares about the orbs, then she need not do anything. Whereas if they may want their orbs back someday there is something that she can do to reduce that risk. We can see that the orb creators must be fairly moral beings, as we have seen that the orbs have safety features. Something we would associate with moral designers.
As such she would reduce the risk of them demanding their return if she ensures that she behaves in a moral and responsible fashion when using them. If she can show that she has selfessly performed great and good deeds then that would reduce the risk of them taking the orbs out of dangerous hands.
Whereas it it is unlikely to make any difference if the orb owners have no concept of morality, or various other options that might occur if their thought processes are too different to ours that even my assumptions based on their orb’s properties is flawed. In those cases Halo will just have to decide how to handle the situation when the time comes. If it comes.
I agree perfectly. I just pointed out that there were alternatives.
Nixeu, by the way, even with “hundreds of halo’ed aliens”, there could be only less than fifty per planet they own. It would only need them to own four to twenty planets. Okay, let’s say a hundred planet so they don’t send their whole outfit to get the orbs back… :-)
And, honestly, I don’t see the orbs as less powerful in a 21st-century human’s hands than a plasma rifle in a Middle Age one’s. They are probably even more powerful (a plasma rifle does not protect you from harm or lets you fly).
As for recovery, first, we don’t know for how long they’ve been there. Second, the orb aliens (if they do exist, and so on, and so forth) may think the original owner has died somewhere where the orbs would be destroyed or definitely lost. Heck, they could even have actually been lost in space, floated across the Solar System and fallen on Earth, making finding them that much harder.
What I mean with that is that we can easily find ways to justify almost any scenario. As Yorp mentioned, we don’t know enough to postulate any valid theory at this point. We can still make hypotheses depending on what we would like, or what we would find more fun, of course. ;-)
Given that Sensor and Teleport are in the same orb does that imply more capabilities for the other orbs that are also extensions of their obvious powers?
Entirely possible. I would certainly incorperate as many useful functions into each system as I could, if I had a limited number of limbs with which to operate them. I’m guessing the creator probably had at least 3 arms, if not 4. Maybe up to 7.
She will need to do a bit of juggling to fly with a forcefield and have fresh air.
The orb came while she was trying to reach for air. If she could guess what the other orb did, she could test by calling for it by that power. She’ll be sitting down with a list of super abilities and calling to that orb one skill at a time
“Need to do a bit of juggling”… just what someone with the hand-eye coordination of a moose is good at… ;)
Juggling is easy when you can summon the balls to your hand.
My guess is she can stop using the green one every now and then to pick up the flight or other orb.
Awesome! I hope that is indicitive of a whole branch of either ‘matter creation’ or ‘matter alteration’ which are two of my favourite powers.
*wags tail ecstatically*
if its matter alteration i lobby to call it the FMA BALL
But what’s the equivalent exchange?
So. Many. Questions!!!
Does it generate the air with any discernible force? Like a ceiling fan or a wind tunnel?
Is the air contained to the same range like her Forcefield Orb? Can it be expanded?
What temperature is the air? Could she be an air conditioner or blow dryer?
Sorry for all the questions, guess I got a little…long winded B)
It seems to be holding like a bubble around her rather than drifting upwards.
And not very substantial, seeing how Max’s feet are sticking out of the bottom and she’s poking her finger through it at the top.
Now for the OTHER orb…
Scuba Orb!
SCORB!
Ocba, if we are play off scuba. Scuba= self contained underwater breathing apparatus. Ocba- Orb contained breathing apparatus.
Well we have the florb, shorb, torb, pporb, and sorb, why not scorb? Which currently leaves one norb left.
True, but Halo’s both a diver and a nerd. I’m thinking it’s more likely someone will suggest that and she’ll go all technical on their ass.
It appears to me that she didn’t call the green orb into her hand, it jumped into her hand while she was reaching for her mask. That’s a new one, the orbs acting independently.
Makes me wonder if it was luck or an orb acting on its own at the beginning of the battle royale when an orb partially blocked shadow creep’s punch so Sydney was just knocked down instead of having her head knocked off.
Her rebreather will still be useful most of the time in that it frees both her hands for other orbs, like shield and flight or shield and lighthook.
She was reaching for air, in the form of her mask, which called the orb. She probably calls them to her hand by function rather than by colour or name.
That would explain why she picked the PPO for her random upgrade in the fight against the golem. We’ve seen before that in a ‘fight or flight situation’ Sydney defaults to ‘fight’, so when the golem pressured her she instinctively asked for something to fight the golem with.
It seems like she was flailing around and thinking “Oh fuck I need air” and the orb was just like “K, boss.” The orbs seem to respond on her instinct, not just specific commands.
+1
It is also worth noting that there are times when they do not respond to her commands. Namely if she tries to go too far away from them. This is clearly a safety feature, as it prevents theft and also ensures that the user will always be able to easily access the orbs.
If the orbs do only respond to the user’s wishes, but do so at an instinctive level, then her vocal commands would not be listened to, if they conflicted with her subconscious ones. We can be sure that she does not want them to be stolen or for her to loose the ability to command them (which may well happen if they get too far from her).
Likewise in this situation Sydney’s underlying instinct is ‘I do not want to drown’. So, despite her consciously reaching for the air tube, the orb would respond to her instinctive demand for air, rather than her conscious action, by moving into her hand and activating.
Of course the alternative is equally valid. Namely that Sydney was consciously thinking ‘I need air’ which certainly would fit the bill to be recognised as an order to come to hand and provide air.
Or Halo may simply have changed her mind, and stopped following her scuba training, switching instead to obeying Maxima’s orders, to test out the orbs. Knowing that the had time to resolve the issue, and had help to hand, would make this a reasonable risk to take, with the reward that the orbs may actually be able to help.
The fact that it did work, as she hoped, would still be surprising though. So her reaction plays well, even with that option.
Observations so far: Sydney is bad at hands
She is way better than me!
♥
But you’ve definitely got great jazz paws.
These humans think they are it with their fingers and opposable thumbs.
To everyone that called air bubble or breathing underwater last page, you get a cookie.
What about when I called it years ago?
*looks in empty cookie jar*
*cries*
You get a special something.
*slides a bowl over to Yorp*
Yummeeee!
I think I was the first to comment that it was basically a space ship – exploration set.
I think last ball is cargo, capture device… tied to tractor tentacles… can carry supplies, food…prisoners…
OH GAWDS this might make Sydney a Space Ranger! She’s gonna have to decide on her color and strike poses…
Hint was given when Sydney went gaga on Hammerspace by Dabbler… brown ball glowed didn’t it?
All of her Orbs were glowing. So, unlikely.
So everytime Sydney is a taxi service she needs to take Varia with her so that this orb can be used as well as flight and force field? (Presuming that Varia”s power with Sydney is, as widely speculated, to be able to use the orbs as well)
Well deduced.
I see a return flight (like from the Council meeting) with Sydney snoring away, the force field orb duct taped to one one hand, the green orb duct taped to the other hand, and Maxima outside the force field pushing the forcefield at Mach Wow, that’s fast!.
Pixel: Max, we have to go down and open this thing.
Max: What? You should have plenty of air in there by now.
Pixel: You know what Halo eats. The girl farts tear gas!
Hmm, that would depend on whether the new power creates fresh air or breathable air. If the first, then no one can smell you fart. If the second, then it depends on just how bad it is, and Sydney’s tolerance.
Given how it smells of cinnamon, we can be pretty sure that there’s spice in that air.
I wonder if Sydney’s eyes will turn bright blue.
She is the Kwisatz Haderach!
Her origin story might have some answers there: https://davebarrack.deviantart.com/art/Aquapirate-348429237
Sydney got out just in time!
That probably won’t work – The Orbs appear to deactivate when Syd falls asleep.
Makes one wonder if she can renew her air in “bubble” or if doing so would start to make atmosphers of pressure.. and give her the bends or worse when releasing it.
I guess she has to “want” oxygen, and thats why it didn’t zoom into her hand when she was running out of oxy before.
wups forgot to add..
I bet the green is actually more of a “localized climate control” sort of thing. with much more ability to it.
That part has already been established by the author, in previous comments. When talking about the possibility of getting the bends from embiggening or enlittling the shield. The orbs adjust the air pressure (by means unspecified) to ensure that it remains safe.
Doubtless that will also apply to this, as it is the same effect that is being controlled, namely air pressure. In fact even if the shield is raised in water, then the air bubble is created, it should have the same result. Water pressure and air pressure are the same thing but with different matter involved. If the orbs can handle one they should be able to handle the other.
In other words Sydney could have an orb with the top half being air, and the bottom water, but without being hurt by the pressure. That is negated by some means (presumably sending the excess matter into hammerspace, or something similar).
Actually slight point, water and air pressure aren’t the same thing.
Air, being a gas, can be compressed, so greater air pressure is an increase in density, which attempts to normalise itself, so it’s an outward force. Whereas water being liquid does not compress, so greater water pressure is just a larger amount of force applied by quantity of water under gravity, so it’s an inward force.
If you have technomagic which can regulate the pressure the differences you are talking about are not differences. Both gas and fluid behave like a fluid when under pressure. They can be piped, for example. And both will transmit that pressure, for instance rupturing ear drums for people inside the medium.
And, yes, at a certain amount of pressure the state of the fluid or gas will change.* What that change is, depends on the chemical and atomic properties of the substance. So at different points the material’s resistance to pressure will change, as you indicated. However that does not stop the pressure generating mechanism from being able to carry on functioning the same, for both.
The results of that pressure, can vary,, but the thing creating the pressure can continue to use the same mechanism to provide pressure regardless of it being a gas or a liquid. Or a solid for that matter, but then you no longer use fluid dynamics to predict the effects, you have to switch to another model.
*
Actually it does. At low temperatures it becomes ice (VI or V). But it will do so even at very high temperatures. Water actually has fifteen different phases (dependent on the particular temperature and pressure).
In due course it actually becomes a solid. It does resist being compressed mind. But so does air. They just do so to different degrees.
“Yes I need to update Sydney’s Who’s Who card to reflect her new power.”
And maybe boost her power rank as well? The implications of this one are… profound.
Whilst it is just air, there is little extra power. She could already achieve the same effect by taking on board some air purifiers and other life support equipment (such as generators and a power supply). Or, on a small scale, using a rebreather.
In the long-term though, yes, you are right. A matter-creation branch of her skill tree is profound. But until she unlocks more that remains just potential. So her power rating is correct, at the moment. In due course she will outstrip Maxima though. When fully trained and with her skill tree fully upgraded.
holds her breath while grabbing the aiorb, thinking about knockout gas. generates cloud of sleepy. runs for exit. planning ahead (I know, it’s Sydney) she might stand next to exit when doing this.
or thinks of pure O2, then uses tiny spark from PPO once clear.
Depending on how Bubble Orb (Blorb?) generalizes, it could be very powerful. Or helpful, like the vampire’s friend who constantly refills any needed fluid …
The pure 02 would depend on the flammability of the surroundings. A mix of Oxygen and Hydrogen (or any other flammable gas) would be immensely more effective.
However, by additively adjusting the oxygen content of the environment where there’s already fuel, whether it be hydrogen, some other flammable gas, or even such things as gunpowder, suspended flour, sugar, or other fuel substances, she can radically enhance the effective combustibility of that environment.
Most combustion is oxidation, after all, and inherently limited by the concentration of oxygen in the surrounding atmosphere, or released from the surrounding materials either by heat or the specific chemical reactions involved in the combustion.
This is, of course, contingent on whether she’s able to get the life-support ball to supply oxygen in excess of the proportions that her body needs. If it’s purely life-support, it might very logically have a specialized sensor capacity that would notice her going into a correctable chemical imbalance, such as oxygen deprivation or intoxication.
If she ever figures out how to make other substances… well, if *I* know of the existence of chlorine trifluoride, then so would Sidney.
Well Dave has said her overall rating is what it is right now because of “other factors” like the fact she’s new and doesn’t really know how to USE her powers. Kinda like Dabbler’s shield is listed as something like 3 stars because of it’s size, even if it’s actual physical capability is almost equal to Syd’s.
Now that we have a life support orb will the last orb be a repair system?
So far we have never seen an orb damaged…
although that would be handy if Sydney breaks stuff or sets it alight with the PPO.
I think repair orb would be healing powers.
Yeah. She is the space ship and the orbs are the different systems in the ship. The ship only has enough energy to operate two at a time, so she has to reallocate the energy for whatever she needs at the moment. Also, ships are usually referenced as “she.”
Referred, not referenced. Dumb me.
No no, Greymon could not have meant healing. That would have triggered my ‘Sydney is an experienced gamer and has tried healing herself a quadzilion times and failed ‘ rant.
;-)
Just think about how many bruises and other injuries we have seen Sydney with. Sydney is self-conscious about her image. The first time she saw her disfiguring bruise she will have tried to cure it. Despite having attempted such for months before joining Archon, anytime she had a cut or scrape at home.
It if does turn out to be a healing or regenerating orb we are going to need a damned good explanation for why it has not worked before. It is flat impossible that a dedicated gamer would not have tried that in so many months of owning the orbs.
The only injuries we’ve seen on Sydney are small, cosmetic stuff (some bruises, a small first degree burn from a hot pan, road rash at the firing range and a chemical irritant in one eye). A healing orb may well deem that not worth its time.
It’s entirely possible that the Green Orb, if it’s the environmental systems of the Space-Ship/Space-Suit Orbs, has a healing factor, but one that isn’t readily apparent (read: slow as paint drying), or isn’t currently active (because it hasn’t been invested in yet). Being able to heal/providing metabolic energy would very much seem to me to be a facet of environmental systems, anyway.
The only real way to test would involve a sharp knife.
Syd has injured herself a few times since the start of the comic, which might have set it off, but not reached out for help when it has happened. I doubt she would want to test the idea. Though, all you would need is to wait a few days till she injures herself by accident.
Now lets test it in a room filled with tear gas.
+1
Skip the mustard gas test until we have results on that one.
Hold up. A safer test would be to have heatwave set fire to a few things and test if Sydney could create new air in a room. There could be great search and rescue applications to this. I hope it actually doesn’t create air instead of displace the bad air. Dont want to accidentally fuel the fire.
That sounds like trouble waiting to happen actually for the very same reason you shouldn’t open a window in a room on fire. The fresh supply of oxygen will fuel the flames to burn even higher.
Maybe her air-bending powers also mean that she could remove oxygen from an area?
Best to find that out before she is on fire, in a hyper-oxygenated room.
What if can control molecules in way, and the more you upgrade it the more you can change molecules. Like some form of alchemy? Like she could be extracting the oxygen from the water molecules, creating the air?
Oh yea, that was my first thought actually. It is always fun to explore all the alternatives. An environment survival orb seems to be the most popular option, from reader’s comments. But I like elemental manipulation.
Ridiculously powerful mind. Just think back to the guy who has a swimming pool full of gold. That would be just one of the things a fundamental manipulator could do.
Another would be a swimming pool full of uranium or plutonium.
A swimming pool full of plutonium won’t stay that way for long, since you’ve long passed the threshold for critical neutron density, and there will be an ‘earth-shattering ka-boom’ accompanied by an actinic flare of bluish-white light and great heaping quantities of heat. :)
Yup, hence my ‘Ridiculously powerful’ comment. That reaction would make Maxima’s firing range demonstration look like a pea-shooter, by comparison.
Now I’m just waiting for someone to pull a Lina Inverse and push an underwater opponent into the air ball and then follow up with a fireball… =p
Or see if Sydney could produce cloud of fire-suppression gas.
Maxima: [ In fire-training tower ] Thanks for letting us do this test here.
Fire Captain: No problem, Ma’am. I’m kind of curious how this is going to go anyway.
Halo: Let’s see. Nothing burnable around us, except the paper and that candle over there. Okay, Brooke, light up the candle then the paper. Be ready to cool things off if this goes wrong.
Brooke: I remember the plan. [ Concentrates to concentrate the heat to the wick of the candle then the big bundle of old newspapers ]
Halo: Right. Good. Here we go. Greeny, carbon dioxide on the paper. Um, sulphur hexafloride? Um, Halon gas. Wait, stop. My voice has really dropped. The stuff is just around me. Heatwave, shut them down.
[ Fire captain turns on ventilation fan. ]
Tear gas, like one of Syd’s farts after all that spicy chow? If you see her looking embarrassed and reaching for the green orb, she is trying to waft one away.
NEW USE FOR THE ORB DISCOVERED!
Or, test it in a freeing cold room – does the green orb generate room-temperature air? Temperature control is very important in a life-support system. (It’s only got one pip in its main line, tho, so I’m not… holding my breath. (Ba-dum-tish)).
That’s one interesting orb power, the orb definately moved into her hand while she was reaching for something different. As for the generation of air… Given the whole “super tech” aspect of her orbs to begin with it would hardly be difficult to separate the O out of the H2O she’s surrounded by, no need for more complex chemical reactions. Of course its entirely possible that the orb is doing something far more complex to generate the air… I mean one of the orbs lets her fricking teleport, basic chemistry is obviously not the upper limit of what that orb is potentially capable of.
Personally I suspect the orb Does read what kind of air and environmental circumstances sydney needs to survive and generates an appropriate atmosphere for her, as opposed to just defaulting to air. The orbs are Clearly meant to be useful for more than one species unless their creator also actually happens to be human. In fact given how aliens apparently vacation to this place it seems extremely likely some space tourist (or someone pretending to be a tourist) left the orbs there, on earth, to hide them away for later.
I wonder if the orbs can be operated with paws? Or tentacles?
I was imagining very big-nosed 7-nostriled aliens.
the orbs are obviously extraterrestrial in origin, and since there’s no evidence that alien life is humanoid in appearance, if the orbs were meant for a species that looked like a mass of tentacles, or a huge blob of jelly for that matter, it would solve the limit of orb use.
So how did they get here?
A) they could be the “basic” survival gear for a boy scout (or the junior space explorer equivalent), in which case they may of got lost during a field trip.
B) they were left here as you said likely some space tourist (or someone pretending to be a tourist) left the orbs there, on earth, to hide them away for later. what if the tourist was an advance scout for an invasion force (why they would want to invade us, I do not know, it can’t be our water as Dibbler said it’s easer just to mine a comet). but since we’ve not been invaded yet means it’s either been cancelled due to logistics (it took a week to plain the invasion of a small beach in northern France, and that was just to travel 22 miles can you imagine planning the invasion of a small planet 65,279 light years way) or maybe they decided it was easier just to mine comets, of course if may of got cancelled because the scout couldn’t find the kit he/she/it left here (just dont tell Sydney she stropped an alien invasion).
They are most probably not space boy scout gear because Dabbler is an alien and she doesn’t recognize them. I would recognize terrestrial boy scout gear even though I have never actually seen it IRL.
I personally expect that the Orbs have been involved in numerous and sundry shenanigans across the history of the universe. Whatever originally created them could tap into the Deep Code of the Universe, but it seems likely to me that the Orbs have been handled by others over the course of their existence.
I say this because of the fact that, judging by the placement of the ‘skill points’ it seems like we’ve got some conflicting methodologies on display.
Someone seems to have gone with the obviously useful stuff in the huge upgrades to the Shields and Flight Orbs, while the Green and Orange Orbs, which seem to have the least evident powers, have gone neglected. The PPO, the Light-Hook, and the Comm Orb all also seem to have a lot of points in single trees.
The dot connecting the PPO and Flight Orb seems like someone experimenting to try and figure out what that would do, and the same applies to some of the other point assignments, particularly the Green and Orange Orbs. Whereas, if the Alien Space-Craft theory is accurate, the creator/knowledgeable owner would likely have prioritized the Shield Orb’s connections, since having a hull/environmental suit is so important. Same with having good environmentals, which makes the dearth of points in the Green Orb indicative of at least one owner who had no idea what the Orbs were meant for, or who misused them.
Someone should try setting the bubbles on fire. If they explode, they are probably hydrogen and the orb is proven to separate H2O.
As someone has already asked, can it also produce air when not needed?
Can it produce balls of compressed air it can shoot at an enemy like that bazooka shaped toy from the sixties?
Can it also DESTROY air? Poison gas…tear gas….smoke?
That bazooka shaped toy from the sixties was manufactured by Mattel, and sold as a Sonic Blaster. A friend of mine had one and it was loud. Took a while to pump it up.
Oh good. Now Sydney is going to have to spout bubble puns on the next page. She was in bubble trouble, or the Pauly Shore trouble in the bubble. But Dave will probably burst my bubble and go an alternate route.
Well, this is a perfect orb for her bubbly personality….
Good thing it recognized Sydney breathes oxygen rather than methane or whatever the previous owner needed.
I’m leaning toward the orbs being an ‘explorer package’. We have Flight, Defense, Offense, Scanning, Manipulation, and now Life Support. Not sure what the last one would be to complete the set. Medical maybe?
Can it produce other things Sydney needs to survive? Like Caffeine?
Capsaicin, don’t you mean?
Why not both? I need both.
I’ve been saying the same thing for a bit now myself.
Medical/healing is one strong possibility. Or maybe a translator?
I had suggested translator myself, but healing is also a good possibility for the last unkown orb.
Maxima herself even suggested it as a possibility when she first saw the orbs.
As I’ve said elsewhere, were I designing these Orbs, healing would be in the environmental package (Green) and communications in the sensors/scouting systems (Comm Orb).
Orange has a noticeable object in it, which looks like a mass of white fog, or something. Since the other Orbs with internal objects seem to be ones that can leave the Orb (Light-Hook because solidly pink while in use, while the blue tentacle is visible when not in use, Comm Orb’s central sphere leaves when in use, Shield is visible inside Orb when not in use, but vanishes while in use), I’m guessing this white mass plays a role in the function of the Orange Orb. No idea what it is, though.
I’d replace ‘scanning’ with ‘scouting’ though. It doesn’t just let her see auras and other things, but via the lightbee also gives her a safe way to check out areas and infiltrate places she normally couldn’t get into (as long as she doesn’t teleport in right in front of the bad guy).
I have the same thoughts.
It makes me think that the creator or intended users of the orb may have more limbs than we do. Sydney is limited to two but, for example, space exploration would require at least three hands or manipulators- a shield, a life support system (green orb), and transport (flight orb).
I wonder if it works submerged in other liquids. Or lava.
Also, look how the orb just flies to Sydney’s hand when she’s trying to grab the tube. Are the orbs sentient somehow? Or simply programmed to enter some automated function when the user’s stressed?
She can certainly call a specific orb to her hand if she needs/wants to, but in this case I think it could be any combination of accidental and/or intentional.
Accidental, intentional on Syd’s part, intentional on Syd’s subconscious’ part, and/or intentional on the orb’s part.
Called it.
But this raises a lot of questions. Could it be used as to protect against gas attacks? And what else can it do?
“what else can it do?”
Sydney can now do the final scene from Men in Black. Find a way to be swallowed whole by a monster. See the monster go ‘uh oh’. Watch the monster go boom.
She could do that before, Shield an PPO to the “rescue!”
Could the orbs’ purpose be for multiple environmental exploration? As in it’s a bunch of tools an alien astronaut would have to explore space and planetary environments? It provides transportation, defense, offense, manipulation, communication, surveillance, and now a way to breathe in a hostile environment. It’s even possible the PPO isn’t so much a weapon but can be used as (or geared towards being) a peace-time tool, such as for welding or cutting.
What may challenge this theory is that the orbs’ powers can only be activated by having them in-hand- but that would be to assume its intended users had only two hands like we human beings do. If their creators’/original users’ had more manipulative limbs then it’s not hard to imagine them using the orbs in space to repair spacecraft or do something similar.
PPO could be used for mining.
Maxim 44. “If it will blow a hole in the ground, it will double as an entrenching tool.”
++
Yes. Just YES.
The Orbs might also take the place of space-craft. A sort of combination space-suit/space-ship. Though the lack of an airlock is somewhat problematic.
I was wondering when Sydney’s blurb on the side panel concerning her orb’s powers would be updated. I guess we’ll be seeing it any time now. :D
Not for nothing, but +1 for Sydney not panicking and for doing what she’s supposed to when she lost her mask!
Also… It really looks like the orbs really may have been meant for someone with multiple arms.
I was thinking the same. Dabbler would have a field day. But would the original have had 6, 7, or 8 arms?
I’m expecting 7 very large nostrils.
I know Max is more competent, and as stated by the author he has limited panels, but in panel three it looks like Max is pulling both ends of the chain wrapped around Sydney’s ankle. That is a good way for someone to lose a foot.
P.S. If Sydney can find a way to put her hand into Dabbler’s wetsuit, she can now test her ‘fart’ hypothesis.
If it is a wetsuit, knowing Dabbler it might be body paint, or a hologram
It’s a wet-suit, as in others get wet (well, sweaty) when Dabbler is wearing it. Other water-based fluids may get excreted as well.
I don’t know, might be a difference in how we look at things but I thought it was pretty clear that she snapped the part of the chain that went around her ankle, pulling it looser before snapping instead of pulling it tighter.
I know this has probably been asked before, but her orbs, can she control their movement, because at the moment I assume their orbiting her like ioun stones and she just grabs the one she wants (which is fine as long as it’s in her field of vision), or does she have some control over them, I.E. if she wants to use the light hook she just thinks I need the “light hook” and it’ll move within range. or is there some kind of A.I. (for want of a better description) analysing the situation and selecting the appropriate orb, I.E. did the green “just happen” to brush against her hand at that exact moment or did the A.I. move it in order to protect her?.
It is shown often the orbs don’t just orbit her head but can fly in different patterns as well, and they come to her hand when she wants to use one.
Someone suggested Sydney might summon the orbs to her hand by function instead of conscious thinking she wants the PPO or Lighthook. Because she was reaching for her breathing mask her unconscious thought might have been something along the lines of ‘I need air’ to which the air generating orb responded.
Didn’t she hit Math with one?
and then got hit with one, yes. As well as the nutcrusher against “shadow knuckle” at the resteraunt
But she got hit with one because Math anticipated where she would put it to hit *him*, and at the last moment put *her* in that spot.
CALLED IT!
If she had a sex this orb for the ‘waterbending’ test, would she have fallen to the bottom of the pool?
*used
Stupid autocorrect…
I know the autocorrect can be a bit dense at times but how can it mistake “used” for “a sex”
There’s no way of knowing what algorithm autocorrect uses. For what we know it could very well be bogosort of all words in the world.
Miss the ‘u’ and type ‘s’ ‘e’ but then slip down a row when you try for ‘d’ .
I suspect I hit the “a” and “s” key on my phone at the same time, and it changed “uased” to “a sed” (since “a ” is fairly common) and then decided that “d” was adjacent to the “x” key…
It is shown often the orbs don’t just orbit her head but can fly in different patterns as well, and they come to her hand when she wants to use one.
Someone suggested Sydney might summon the orbs to her hand by function instead of conscious thinking she wants the PPO or Lighthook. Because she was reaching for her breathing mask her unconscious thought might have been something along the lines of ‘I need air’ to which the air generating orb responded.
Oops, this was supposed to be a reply to Shazz. Ignore this. (We really need an edit or remove function for the comments.)
If I were to compare this to GURPS I would say one dice of bad luck with two of good luck, dependent on or tied to weird magnet.
That’s more the Hero System than GURPS. Gurps just had 2 levels of luck as an advantage, until GURPS Supers added I believe, 2 more levels. First Level luck, usable ever hour of play, 2nd, every half hour. I think that the third allowed use every 10 minutes, with true super luck allowing the player to dictate the result of a die roll (I don’t remember if it was once per hour, or once per session) so long as the result was a rollable result.
GURPS also included Disadvantages about luck, which included Unluck, where the GM is pretty much obligated to at least inconvenience you once per session, though immediately lethal consequences were forbidden, Jinxed, which was a leveled disadvantage, where everyone within a certain distance of you, including your allies, suffered a -1 penalty on all rolls within that radius for each level of Jinxed taken, and Cursed, which was a BIG disadvantage, which meant that any time the GM either wanted to or needed to mess a character over, it was most likely to happen to the person who took it, and they couldn’t complain about it, because the were Cursed.
I’m sure people have said this, but does this mean that the orbs were designed by an eight-armed race? Seven orbs (held) plus one arm free for standard manipulation. So the actual race can use everything at once, but limb-handicapped humans only use two at a time. Wait a minute… found in water… can you say techno-magic squid?
LOL, apparently your Earth Octopus-type animals are pretty intelligent, perhaps they are the descendants of the Orb’s original owners? I know I haven’t met every alien out there, & even if I had been to their planet, old Megsy never let me wander away from the consoles I was repairing, never gave anyone any R&R time…
Yah the latest megatronus primes are all cruddy like that and there has been multiple documented. Begs the question what was the name of the fallen prime supposedly purged from record or was it the first megs that was forgotten as a holder and start of the cursed name?
The one problem with that theory is if it is like an Earth squid or octopus. Each arm has its own tiny brain… each arm literally has “a mind of their own”. In order to have full control over what its arms are doing, the squid or octopus has to have the arm in its field of vision. So what happens if an arm is out of its line of sight and suddenly decides “I don’t want to hold this anymore”? Potential for disaster there.
Perhaps the alien octopods have more-centralized nervous systems?
The problem with the theory is that an aquatic species is not going to have fire, and are extremely unlikely to develop even simple technology without it.
Of course, the sqid of Freefall have migrated to land and compensate for their lack of skeletal structures by using found or made objects. To the point that the one example of that species actually present in the comic has no trouble using an envirosuit originally designed for humans and then retuned slightly to better fit its needs.
Next: high altitude tests (after checking the air orb for customizable air)!
Maxima has got to feel pretty good about herself now; this test almost could not have worked out better (Gone more smoothly, yes. Worked out better, probably not.)
Based on what we know the orb can do, I am betting that it is teleporting the air in from elsewhere, possibly a generalized ‘elsewhere’. We know the orbs can make portals that warp space, hence the beam aperture function of the shield, not to mention teleporting. This makes me think that the orbs have a ‘warp drive’ function, which makes me think it is good that Sydney discovered the ‘life support’ function first.
I am definitely thinking that the orbs originally belonged to a multi-handed race with multiple non-visual senses (since they can only be detected visually and are shielded from other senses)… the Hindu gods?
That only leads to the (paraphrased) question: “what do the gods need with a space ship?”
I dunno. Maybe the creators of the Orbs made them for some being they sent out to explore the universe that they probably created? Who eventually died for whatever reason, leaving the Orbs to be picked up by someone else? Whether that first ‘someone else’ is Sidney or not, it seems relatively plausible to me.
Hell, maybe they cast out one of their number, making him mortal, who made the Orbs for himself with the last of his power/knowledge, and left to explore the universe they created. God-like beings have been known to engage in such shenanigans.
FTL travel? Or at least some place to rest your head.
Ballistic trajectory was my first thought as well, however, particularly for the sort of long distances and/or high passenger counts she’d need the air orb for in the first place… She lets go of the wrong orb, people go splat. A better solution would probably be set up some sort of rigging Maxima can grab and have Sydney set up her shield inside it. That way Sydney only has to worry about shield and air, Maxima can provide propulsion, and everyone inside stays safe.