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.
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does it have to be a sphere?? can she make it be flat? …cause then they could make a Star Gate…gate…. at like a party… one room music the other swimming….sure she’d have to stand by the door/bulkhead all the time…. but how cool would that be?
Ice cool.
And if she does it in a vacuum it would be colder than glacial cool!
I am guessing that the orb’s skill tree will include thermal regulation too. Maybe radiation dampening or radiation sickness curing. Mmm and bone calcification (and/or repair of other minor ailments due to living in an alien environment).
Actually no. That is, if it keeps the air in a ball like that.
Vacuum is a great insulator by itself, that’s why you pump out the air in the middle flask area of a thermos during production, the only reason gas or liquid would rapidly cool in a vacuum is that it is expanding, so as long as you can keep the air in a confined area you’d actually have the OPPOSITE problem. Your very own solar and body heat powered air oven… =p
Well I was thinking ‘outer space’ when I said ‘vacuum’. I was not envisaging Halo on a mission in a theromos flask. But I do appreciate that with the force field up there would be a barrier. But, although I did not stipulate it (in this thread) Sydney could enter space just using the flyball and the environmental protection orb (EPO if you’re hip).
It does get darned cold out there, when not in sunlight. For instance if the Earth or a space station is in the way. And when in direct sunlight that compounds the problem you are talking about. Hence why I stipulated ‘thermal regulation’.
It does not matter if you are going to die from being too hot or too cold, it needs to be adjusted to remain within your comfort zone.
Your thermos flask example is a closed system mind. Humans loose heat through evaporative cooling, which would change the nice and safe picture you are portraying. The surface of the air bubble would be a very large area for any liquids to evaporate from. If the orb prevents that, then it is not a risk. Otherwise Sydney will be continually breathing out water vapour to add to the cooling effect.
But, all in all, evaporation cooling is the least of the dangers that Halo would be exposed to, if choosing to go into space, in casual wear. So you are right to call me on it. It is a gradual progressive danger rather than an immediate threat.
Yes but outer space is basically a super low pressure gas and (extremely spread out) dust slurry, even so it’s much harder to get rid of heat than to pick up energy in various flavors that eventually or directly translate to heat, so the gas bubble would basically act as the innermost glass or steel layer of a thermos flask, with the vacuum around. If you let some water loose in outer space it would freeze because it would basically first boil due to the low pressure environment, and then the vapor would immediately freeze since it’s just used a crapton of the energy it contained before by spreading itself out. The same thing applies to air, so just by holding the air in a bubble like that, it acts as pretty decent insulator. simply because there isn’t much out there that whatever heat you would otherwise lose could be transferred to, it’s vacuum, more or less.
The other problems of course is radiation and the fact that the human body isn’t made for microgravity, but to be honest, if it can create a globe of air underwater, I’d say the green orb could probably easily emulate a nice 1G environment in space.
Dang, there goes my theory that the green orb is for orb control, and the double-line nodes are for hands-free use.
Dave already said a half-billion times, none of the orbs are a control panel or power source. Hands-free use under certain conditions could be interesting.
I think the repeating Node, the one that all the Orbs have, might be hands-free. It seems likely to be some sort of universally applicable function, and there aren’t a huge number of those.
Though maybe this shows that function? That it responds autonomously to need? That would be interesting.
Daniel here. Had a random thought replying to a post above…
The flight Orb could be nicknamed the “Flyball”, the newly revealed green Orb could be called the “Airball”, wonder if the brown Orb is rigged for construction, “deploying” pieces which deploy more pieces, eventually constructing something like a building or a mini-space-habitat. That would make it a Construction Orb, which could be nicknamed a “Baseball”…
What? Is Screwball the only one allowed to make bad jokes? This was originally MY profile…
Have you considered that Screwball might be the remaining mystery orb?
Have you ever seen them both in the same room, at the same time?
*pauses for dramatic music*
*looks around expectantly*
Aww…. come on… not even a teeny thunder roll? Where is Deus when you need him?
*cricket jumps on a kettle drum*
Now that was a funny co-incidence. Just re-read my comment, and your reply, whilst a peal of thunder sounded!
Forget the imposer Deus, I have the real thunder-maker providing my audio effects!
Never let it be said that Thunder Gods do not have a sense of humor.
Well thats gonna turn into one huge waterfart :D wonder what the crew outside the pool will think seeing such a massive bubble appear. Unless some magical power pull the air from the surroundings and pulls it tight.. which would make water weird and doing so in the forcefield as well.
The force field is no longer up. The air-bubble is self-sustaining without it. Sydney will be able to operate in water without the need of the force field.
That way she can pet any sharks who poke their head in, out of curiosity.
By the way, a very effective barrier for fishies (including the big ones with sharp teeth) is a curtain of air bubbles. It freaks them out. So if Sydney can keep the orb creating such an effect then she should be relatively shark free.
Except when a fishy is being chased by a bigger fishy and they blunder into the curtain without having noticed it. It is only a deterrent, not an actual barrier.
TIL you can see spoilers here by highlighting them and then clicking.
If Sydney needs to refresh her shield air in flight she will have to do one of those NASA parabolic arcs. Increase speed and send herself up at a 45 degree angle. Let go of the flight orb, and for the 30 seconds or so in free fall swap to the air orb to refresh the atmosphere.
She could probably rent this stunt as a ride to paying customers. (BYOBB: bring your own barf bags)
Once She and Vera figure out what’s going on, all Vera will need to do is hold her arm or rest her hand on a neck and bam! Operational Halobus.
Conversely a Maxima or Hiro could just carry Sydney and she could use the Aerorb(? and yes that’s terrible) and Forb and potentially fly at their respective speeds. I doubt most of the other flyers are strong enough.
Vera?
Varia.
For really long flights Halo could be going sub-orbital anyhow, so such tricks would be safe to perform, with great altitude giving safety for any height loss due to a problem.
Plus once she is high enough that bird strikes cease to be a threat and air-buffeting becomes marginal (at which point the flyball provides full protection) then Halo can permanently swap over the force field for the life-support orb. Hopefully only after she has installed heaters, and their power supply, or unlocked the thermal regulation skill on the orb.
Passengers might want to hold on tight to our girl though.
*holds paw up, to volunteer for a test-flight*
Sounds like fun. Gotta admit, 1 of the 1st things I did once going solo was flying really high. Well, after really fast :P. But having someone else do the flying for me? easy street… :)
If this is a Enviro Orb – or whatever name it’s given, then is it’s purpose to creates safe environments? So, I wonder if that extends to being in Outer Space? Does this mean that she could use the Enviro Orb and the Shield Orb to walk on the surface of the moon?
Or is this Orb more of a elemental manipulator Orb? Does this mean she is now like ‘Element Lad’ – DC Comics?
Or is it both?
“an elemental manipulator Orb”.
Sorry, that function is already taken. She did say she lifted her car with her tentacle orb. And it has been mentioned that Sydney drives a Honda Element.
Bubble Orb – Blorb for short.
I would guess that it would work in vacuum. After all, what’s the pressure differential between that far underwater and sea level in the air? I’d imagine it’s a bit past the differential between sea level air and orbit.
There are 2 powered circles in the tech tree bit emanating from the green orb. I wonder if the other green orb capacity is to make/control water?
I don’t know. Sinking straight to gutter humour. What is it with folks today!
;-)
So other than ‘pass wind’ and ‘urinate’ I wonder what other skills there will be? Projectile vomiting?
best guess? Green is life support orb. Creates what the user needs to be able to survive strictly on a life support basis. This would allow for things like air, artificial gravity, possibly drinkable water in the desert.
The gravity the flyball already handles. The last though would be very much in keeping with this. Well suggested. Oh, and to cthulhuearring above, even though coming at it from an elemental-control angle, rather than the environment survival one.
Each is equally valid mind.
A submarine is floating, thus “weightless”. But drop a wrench and it still hits the floor.
IOW, there’s a considerable difference between “flying away from a neutron star undamaged because it cannot damage your invulnerable self” and “flying away from a neutron star undamaged because you control gravity and can damp down the gravity nasties that come from being that close to a rapidly rotating stellar mass that’s smaller than Earth”.
Where’s Beowulf Schaeffer when you need him?
Oh, wait, he’s there all right. See that little grain of neutronium in the tip of the hull?
From a writing standpoint, giving the same hero both powers would be pretty dumb though.
the fly ball only lets her control her OWN gravity though. being able to create a sphere of breathable atmosphere and artificial gravity for others would be a different power altogether.
Hmm maybe the green orb is an environment control orb that protects the user from life threatening environmental hazards. Drowning. creates air. Fire. Keeps area around you at room temperature. Poisonous gas. Purifies air. Outer space. Pressure bubble and again air. Inside an air tight shield and about to pass out from lack of oxygen. More and more air. Being monologued to death by a villain. zone of silence. To be fair just being able to generate a clean field of air in any situation would be helpful a lot of the time by itself.
Both the mystery orbs only have quite small skill trees. So if it does have a very wide-ranging set of protections, some of those will have to be grouped together. But there is no reason why that may not be the case.
Monologuing would have to fall under ‘auditory hazards’ for example.
Naaa, the Lighthook is for monologue spilling prevention, just wrap it around their head, making sure to cover the mouth, and keep an eye out for cameras – don’t think the Team wants the Press calling it the molestorb… :p
Actually, two branches is the norm, from what I can tell. Shield Orb does have an orphan Node, true, and the Flight Orb has a bunch of greyed-out ‘ghost’ branches (which probably weren’t always visible). The PPO is just basically two lines, albeit with one fancy one for firing-modes.
The only Orbs with many more branches are the Comm Orb and the Lighthook. Probably stemming from the numerous facets of the Lighthook’s pseudopod, with maybe the Comm Orb being a bit of a misc. powers Orb.
Am I the only one who thinks a magma bling fish
would be kinda cool?
Yes, because it would clearly have to be very hot to remain molten magma.
Here we can see that Maxima can swim. She doesn’t sink the moment she stops flying.
Actually she still is. Maxima cannot turn off any of her core powers (other than the energy blast). She always has a minimum level in: force field, flight, super strength and super speed.
So we cannot tell if people other than Sydney would be able to float in mid-air… err whilst underwater. Just like the fly-ball granting ‘vertigo protection’, Halo might be gaining an extra effect of ‘hover in air’. Which may or may not extend to passengers too.
We have to wait until someone who can not-fly joins Sydney in there.
Once again, where the hell is Dabbles when we need her? :P
I meant in the first panel. She is obviously swimming more than flying.
It might be a bit of both, she wouldn’t want to fly fast in water the shockwave would be devastating.
Yea, DaveB needs to avoid ever showing Maxima doing her ‘disassembling a weapon in mid-flight’ trick, whilst underwater. Her hands moving fast would be destroying everything she was trying to avoid touching, through the shockwaves. Thus probably detonating the device prematurely.
Whilst the ‘getting to it in the blink of an eye’ would leave all the people she is trying to save dying from ruptured internal organs.
Tell that to the Chinese, please.
https://www.wired.com/2014/08/how-we-can-get-submarines-to-travel-at-supersonic-speed/amp
A submarine travelling at 750 mph still wouldn’t be supersonic, as the speed of sound under water is approximately 1500 meters per second (=3355mph).
I’m pretty sure that isn’t the only thing wrong with the science in that article. Like finding a way to make it more economical push water aside at speed rather than air for trans-Pacific journeys, along with constructing an entirely new infrastructure around the new transport medium. The environmental aspects alone would bankrupt most transnational conglomerates.
i wonder, did it come because of her subconscious desire for air, or did an alien connected to the orbs realize she was drowning? btw Called it~ air supply orb!(probably not the only one who called it though)
That or must somehow be able to sense whether she’s really needing air underwater though because she said she tried them all out when she was swimming previously also this time it flew to her hand it was nearby but it changed its orbit so that it could intersect the palm of her hand and activate as she was struggling to get her rebreather back on. Why didn’t it fly to her hand previously when she was running out of air inside of her Shield? They should still use the technology to generate the air for general purpose use rather than the orb because it can generate the air without her holding on to it.
Maybe wasn’t enough of a crisis – or perhaps there’s a way to make the shield gas-permeable that Halo hasn’t figured out yet. the Air orb’s AI may not be able to discern Halo’s lack of training in the suite of Orb capabilities. in that case, all previous occurrences of shield-air depletion have been in atmosphere that Air Orb AI could shrug off as “she is holding shield Orb, she can push button J next to her thumb”, instead of needing to drop an orb i. order to get Air Orb.
The combined AI would have to be (and as shown by tree, IS) very smart about matching various skills to each to meet the various needs of the moment.
which leaves the “hand interface” as the elephant in the room – how could anyone be so fricken smart about providing capabilities while still being so dumb as to rob the tool-using client of her only two affectors, or limiting her access to those capabilities?
creators of Orbs were not two-handed beings, or were able to interface to orbs using something other than hands.
P’raps it was invented by and intended for members of Dabbler’s race. Or a similar four-handed race.
that would less dumb, but still not smart. the drop & pickup part of the interface is a bad idea, especially considering everything else about the balls uses what is functionally a telepathic interface. No, the creators of the orbs did not use hands as Sydney must.
One other possibility is that the creators DID intend hands to be used as a way of limiting the wielder’s power while not limiting capability. (Like For Whom The Death Tolls, who had any power, but not all powers.)
I stand on the theory that this is, like the points, a training mode. Not just a focused thought, not just a well held concentration, but a deliberate physical action required to make them respond.
Yeah, me & Daniel the Human have thought that for a while, maybe some alien from the Counsel will fill us in on that detail. Maybe 1 of them will try to claim it back, or challenge her to Orb Vs Orb combat for her “impure use of our most sacred lost relic”…
Personally, I’m starting to wonder if this autonomous action thing is the repeating Node. The one that every Orb has, but only the Green Orb has filled in. I had theorized that it might be hands-free, but the more I consider it, that seems like way too powerful for such an easily accessed Node. But autonomous action to fly into the user’s hand when needed? That seems like a function every Orb could make use of, while not being too overpowered.
The state of intelligence, or not, of the orbs is one of the most interesting aspects about them. In this case it could simply have been an unconscious desire by Sydney summoning the orb. She knows she is trapped and she was here to test the orb, to see if it could provide water breathing.
Or they could be operating to simple programmed instructions (whether by computer type programming or otherwise, for instance instinctive behaviours). One safety feature could be ‘if user is drowning deploy for action and activate air bubble’.
Or they could be hyper-intelligent, but choosing not to reveal that.
Oh, believe me, I’m aware of that. The Orbs could indeed be hyper-intelligent, with the repeating Node simply freeing them to act when they feel the need to.
It’s just that the repeating Node has been bugging me for a LONG while, and I’m kinda hoping we might get some hints as to it’s nature. Hands-free feels super overpowered, so I’m leery of considering it. But the repeating Node would still likely need to be universally applicable, and there’s not a lot that seems like a good fit. Autonomous action is one of those few things, and it’s also not something we’ve seen before.
…God, but I hope it’s not ‘lights up when usable’. That would suck.
If I remember correctly, the comm ball now has that node filled in as Sydney’s first skill point, and it gave her teleportation. Nope, wrong, just checked. The comm ball had a second lone node that gave teleportation. Link here. There’s no confirmation yet on anything else for this new orb.
Yup. But, since it’s the only Orb with that Node filled in, I’m kinda hoping we’ll be getting some clues as to that Node’s function. I doubt it’s a generic ‘power boost’ (that seems more likely to be what the Nodes that fill in the central heptagon do), hands-free seems unlikely, at this point, and there aren’t a lot of additional options that could apply to every Orb.
Hmm waaaaay on back when, I suggested the orbs were not powers but the star ship enterprise
is that now confirmed?
we have ‘life support’ to go with..
phasers/ photons torps
impulse
shields
tractors
sensors (with transporters)
if it’s right, the last orb will be… warp
Warp Speed…warp space….warp dimension…or warp reality?
It is not a starship, it is an alien planet exploratory module. Ours.
;-)
Why not both!
…Seriously, why not both? It makes perfect sense for a one-person spacecraft like this to also double as an environmental suit, as the requirements are rather similar.
Indeed. I just like turning the tables. We see a space ship as being a way of exploring alien environments. I wanted to point out that ours is the alien environment, to anyone not from here.
They would have had to get here by some means though, so it is actually logical that it should be both (rather than inventing some other unknown means of them arriving on Earth). The flyball has a really big skill tree, so I would be very surprised if it did not have some means of interstellar travel.
Do note though that stargates qualify for that. Likewise anyone able to teleport interstellar distances. Plus Halo already has a teleport power.
So it is possible to have a planet exploring module that is not designed to explore space itself. After all the thing that fascinates us the most about space travel is the possibility of someday standing on another planet. Suns and gas giants we just look at, out of scientific curiosity. Planets though we want to go stomping around on and planting flags!
Might be in the ‘ghosted’ branches. Might even be why the branches are visible, and why the Flight Orb is so heavily invested in, if a prior owner knew what they did.
…Now there’s an interesting thought. What if the original owner of the Orbs stranded himself, perhaps by triggering some sort of permissions reset? And the Flight Orb is so heavily invested in because it was their ticket home?
:-)
That…actually seems plausible. I would usually figure such a function to be part of propulsion, but it’s entirely possible that such a function would be important/different enough to require it’s own seperate Orb. It’s certainly less easily folded into the Flight Orb than the other proposed systems (medical can be folded neatly into environmentals, and communication into sensors)
Or the last orb will be “summon weird shit”. The Enterprise use that function more than phasers.
It’s the Summon Bigger Fish Orb! It all makes sense now!
Lol.
It is the V’GER orb, sent to eliminate all the carbon units infesting the third planet.
This reminds me of the Mandarin’s rings from Marvel Comics. Back in the 90’s it was revealed that they were the power cores for a ship belonging to a race of dragons.
If the last one was warp, I think we’d already know. It needs to be something that Sydney wouldn’t have figured out while testing them by herself.
Maybe the last one is diplomacy. That’d fit your Enterprise theory nicely.
Analysis kit, maybe? Being able to determine the composition of the surrounding atmosphere, and of the environment, would be key for an interstellar explorer.
Alternatively, maybe it grants some kind of mental augmentation. Increased learning speed, perhaps. That would be good for understanding new cultures, languages, and technology, while potentially being not super obvious.
Ooh ooh!
Emergency medical hologram!
This would explain why Sydney has never managed to heal herself. She has only ever attempted doing that directly. What she should have done is called out “MEDIC!”
In at least some Star Trek novels, warp can’t be engaged from within a planet’s gravity well. Sydney will need some distance to test that.
Given it’s Sydney, I’d have expected ghost pepper scented as a minimum.
My guess is that the hint of “cinnamon” is actually spice melange.
Well, we’ll know for sure if her eyes change color eventually.
I wonder if the air bubble being sized to fit comfortably around Maxima and Sydney is a coincidence or if the orb automatically tries to encompass anyone nearby as well as its wielder?
We have seen several examples of the shield adjusting to fit the needs (for example being smaller when an obstacle is nearby or going torpedo-shaped in high-speed flight). I think it extremely likely that the environment orb will do likewise, as may be appropriate to its function.
So, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?
No, no they do not. Other than under survival circumstances. A very important distinction to make.
And it’s important to remember, it should always be the few that make that determination, and not the many.
Ideally yes. But if the few are rapists and pedophiles, for example, then it is right that the many make the call on who’s needs to prioritise.
Alright!!! So Cool!
And Very Handy, Too. When under water.
Would it make an Air bubble in space???
Yea.
Yup, very pawy.
I imagine so.
Guess we will have to wait to see if Max and Sydney would take that chance with a trip into space or a vacuum chamber.
It might be able to recycle the air in her shield bubble as she flys …
NASA do have vacuum chambers that they could do such testing in. And Archon may well have something similar, for power testing purposes.
So, with the shield and flight plus occasional air replenishment she could space travel. She’d have to tie the shield and air orbs to her hands when she sleeps but that’s all she needs.
Oh and she’d have to have her food packaged in a way that she can eat with one hand and doesn’t have to let go of the shield orb.
There are other alternatives available. For instance a specially made hat, which provided hands-free food on demand.
Or the Green Orb can also provide metabolic energy, perhaps. If it’s meant to be the environmental systems for a ship or environmental suit, providing food along with oxygen makes perfect sense.
So ok fresh air. Not really impressive on the first look and if you see the other Orbs it looks like a minor power (even if generating mass in form of gas is not a minor task). So what other could the Orb be? Dave says it would generate molten gold if this would be what you need to breathe so it’s more a generation of needs? So if you really hungry would it generate food for you? This would be a new hint for the “exploration set” theory.
It doesn’t need to generate food. It could just replenish her, like a recharge once a day or week. The upgrade could be that it healed her or someone else.
I wonder if Sydney has ever played the RPG, Empire of the Petal Throne (EPT)? If she has, she might name the green orb an “Eye of Calling Forth a Breathable Atmosphere.”
Wow! Haven’t thought about Tekumel in a few decades.
Sydney easily swearing? What?
She’s been using basic swears for the last week or so. It has been a while since we got the comedy long ones in our time but that’s a sudden change for her.
What are they floating in? The air surronds them (mostly) they shold drop down to normal floating height in the waterlevel if nothing else hlds them up…
Sydney is holding the fly ball in the other hand and Maxima is flying.
Oh well spotted! Both her hands had been free, and we only saw the one being grabbed. So I did not even do an orb-check. The flyball snuck in sneakily like a very sneaky thing that is the professor of sneaking at a ninja university!
It was always there. Sydney had let go the right orb, which was the forb. The left was the fly ball.
Yorp is correct. In panel one and two, both of Sydneys hands are empty, so she did re-grab the fly ball after Maxima broke the chains that bind.
Correct.
Do note that the orbs do already have powers that are normally associated with another one. For instance the flyball has low-speed wind buffeting and insect/bird-strike protection. Something normally provided by the shield.
Here we see something which would normally only be achievable with the flyball. As she has not fallen, like you describe, we can deduce that Sydney is either being granted hovering capability or there is a gravity nullification type effect going on (which is actually how the flyball works).
We can bet it is limited though, like the other example. So I doubt if Sydney could fly into the air using that ability.
Sydney is still holding her flight orb and Max has the ability to fly, so why would they fall
Sydney still has her Flight Orb in hand (it was the Shield Orb she dropped by accident) with her new Air Orb in the other, so the Flight Orb is most likely allowing her to float where she is. However I can see Maxima asking her to ACTUALLY drop the Flight Orb this time, see if she keep floating as is…
My bet is that Sydney would fall to the floor of the pool with the bubble fixed around her, so she could basically walk to the nearest ladder or ramp and get out of the pool. The strength of the bubble isn’t great, because we can see Maxima’s feet sticking out the bottom, and her finger going through it at the top, so it wouldn’t hold Sydney up to take her to the surface. Might be a nasty fall from her height above the bottom of the pool.
I envisage her falling in waste deep in water, with the bubble remaining centered around her head. Potentially she cold just have it as an air-bubble helmet.
If you have observed the behaviour of the shield, over the years you will note that it forms differently depending on whether Sydney is flying, or on the ground. Likewise if hovering to when in high-speed flight (when it becomes torpedo shaped).
Taking that lot into account, I suspect that the air bubble will be equally flexible. Being big if a companion is with Halo (like now) or small if she needs to swim (thus requiring her arms to be able to enter water) or intending to walk along the bottom, as you suggest.
If walking along the bottom, with companions, I see no reason why it would not create a large air bubble allowing them to all remain perfectly dry (barring muddy sediment, in other circumstances).
*places a Yorpie Snax™ bet*
The green no-longer-a-mystery orb will have an embiggener icon.
(Places 10LB hersheys bar next to bet snack) I say it has most of them beyond embiggener for the shield
When I was getting my SCUBA certification we did a metric-ton of “mask off, regulator out” drills and…Sydney’s doing it wrong. I acknowledge that both “panic” and “story” (and “Sydney”) are all perfectly legitimate reasons for why a character doesn’t respond perfectly to a situation based on how we, the audience, thinks they should act, but it still bugs me. It’s like being a trained paramedic and then having to watch the “worst-aid” that Hollywood puts in movies and TV shows.
I don’t know how much experience Dave has with scuba-diving, perhaps he’s really skilled at it and that’s why it was chosen as a hobby for Sydney. But anyway, I’ve done a fair amount myself and I’ve got a few advanced certifications, so if anyone has any questions about it, feel free to hit me up.
Max screwed it up too. Priority is to share Max’s regulator to let Sydney calm and focus. Then retrieve Syd’s Reg, *then* sort out the chain.
But then we wouldn’t have had a reveal, so chalk it up to an very convenience.
*narrative convenience
Yeah, I could nitpick about lots of stuff if I was trying to be a jerk (and I hope it’s clear that I’m not), which can be attributed to anything from the story to the art-style to the limitations of the medium to Dave just deciding it wasn’t worth his time to be 100% accurate, which is fine. But since we’ve got a comments section, I just wanted to mention the one thing that caught my eye first.
I don’t see any jerkiness. I love Dave’s nerdy take on how a league of superheroes would work. I can’t imagine anyone having the time to get every last detail right, and still tell a story, and inevitably he’ll draw a crowd biased to nit-picking who will pick up on anything that he missed.
I find it fascinating to read the comments.
Just out of curiousity: What IS the correct procedure?
Put your hand down at your side (kind of like Sydney’s right arm in the first panel actually). Then,keeping your arm straight, sweep your back, up, and finally forward in a large windmill motion. 95% of the time, your arm will bump into the regulator pose SOMEWHERE along the way and draw it into your hand as you continue the loop.Once you have a grip on your regulator, you can pop it back into your mouth. (and then exhale to clear it because it will be full of water)
If you can’t find your regulator quickly, plan B is to go for your backup reg, which should be clipped securely to your BCD (Buoyancy Control Device, like a vest) and within easy reach at all times. You do NOT grope blindly for your reg with both hands.
What I see here (I’m a Schultz of scuba – “I know nozzzing!”) is in the first second without her face equipment, she reaches to grab it and reel it in by the closest, surest-to-grab part of it – the part of the hose closest to her. The air orb ducks into her hand, preempting that and solving the air problem.
It had to have been no more than a second, cuz Max does not move slowly.
Don’t see how a trained reflex could do it faster or much differently for that first second.
Meanwhile, Max, who can do taxes while waiting for a bullet, sees that Sydney’s got that part in hand, (ahem) and addresses the other problem – the chain. Even if Sydney screws it all up, Max can it in the wrong order and still save Sydney.
Max probably trains to a different set of timing rules, including the concept of allowing others to do what they’re trained to do in the order of their training, while Max deliberately does things out of order so all gets taken care of. She can rely on the difference between her microsecond-level timeslicing and other’s tenth-second timeslicing to give her a margin of safety that no one else has.
“It had to have been no more than a second, cuz Max does not move slowly” she’d have to move slower in water than in air though otherwise the shockwave of the water would just push Sydney away at the same speed as Max is moving and Sydney couldn’t survive that.
I have seen interviews with survivors of emergency situations. Many of them describe a momentary initial panic, before the training kicks in. Dave has portrayed this very true-to -life.
Bear in mind that these are the reports of those highly-trained individuals who overcame their panic instinct. The ones who did not are not around to tell their stories.
Of course there are other survivors who indicate they simply followed their training and did not have time to panic. But Dave has made a sensible choice in picking the more dramatic of the two realistic options.
As for getting details wrong, do bear in mind the scope of the setting. We have seen a vast cast of diverse professions and skills. Police, military, medical, lawyers, TV reporters/presenters/anchors/ producers, forensic scientists, intelligence annalists, spies and even dog-walkers, amongst other critically important roles.
We do need to cut Dave a bit of slack. Bear in mind that he is both writing and drawing all of this, at the rate of two pages a week. Whilst it is possible to comprehensively research details or to track down someone and have them describe them in detail, by the time that has been done the deadline will have been missed.
What we can do is provide feedback. When armed forces people picked up on Dave’s errors showing gun handling, he took it onboard and we have seen good trigger-finger discipline and so on since. With the one exception being the guy that Dave wanted to show in a bad light.
Doubtless we will be seeing Sydney underwater in future. So pointing out the key take-home do’s and don’ts that most bug you from TV and movies is the best route to go. But simple and memorable, if you want to ensure that Dave remembers them in a year or two’s time say..
recall also the impossibility of showing precise split second timing and velocities in fixed format. or moving format, for that matter. imho, this comic (all things considered) has been quite a bit more realistic than the average bruce willis or mel gibson movie.
In the last page, Sydney had time to see the bubble collapsing and get out most of a sentence, so I feel like it couldn’t have been THAT sudden. But I was also trying to keep my criticism as gentle as possible- there are plenty of reasons, as I admitted, so something to not happen perfectly the way we expect it to. As I said in my first post, it just bugs me, and I realize that everyone’s threshold for certain quirks is going to be different.
That’s also why I offered to answer any questions anyone has about SCUBA diving, up the limits of my experience and knowledge, which I will be glad to admit. I’m a PADI (one of several SCUBA certification organizations) trained, and I hold the rank of Rescue Diver, which means I have advanced open water training as well as training in underwater search and recovery techniques. I also believe I have enough specializations to qualify for Master Scuba Diver (the highest recreational rank), but I never bothered with the paperwork.
I am NOT trained as scuba-instructor in any manner, nor as a commercial diver. Anything I pick up on would only be things an amateur would or should know about anyway.
‘Talking is a free action’. Whilst most comics do actually practice this, Dave has stipulated it as canon for Grrl Power. This is both because it makes good dramatic entertainment, in this medium, and is essential to have full scope in comedic moments.
Importantly it means we should simply never try to calculate the time things take by the amount of speaking done.
It does though lead to some instances where sense of disbelief can be eroded. However if you just keep that rule in mind, when reading the comic, then it should not bug folks quite as much.
I say this on account of the fact that movies which state a time limit, and then go blatantly longer (or shorter) than stated really do bug me intensely. They should just do half a dozen takes with the time stipulated at different intervals, and have the editor select the one that matches the final cut best.
Or, even more sensibly, just indicate that ‘we do not have the time’ or ‘hurry, the bomb is going to go off any moment’, and avoid irritating the audience.
Here though it does not bother me in the least. I have Grrl Power mentally categorised as ‘realistic except when comedy overrides reality, likewise talking is a free action’. Those are the universal laws in Grrl Power.
Regarding the scuba information offer, to Dave, that is a very kind gesture. Although I do not twit myself, I gather that Dave does have an active account. He does toss the occasional question out there (presumably avoiding any that might be spoilers). So if you do use it yourself, that would be a good way to give him timely feedback.
I don’t “twit”, but I’ll try to keep an eye on Dave’s account, and maybe if he asks a question I can answer it will motivate me to finally make my own.
I second the whole “Max has different safety priorities” thing. Especially because allowing someone to panic in a controlled environment is probably a REALLY good way to figure out power sets. Or power limits.
In a NORMAL training environment, the air gets solved first so the person can focus on the task they are attempting to train. In THIS situation – the goal is to figure out a mystery power. (And I’m pretty sure “make air” was one of ARClight’s guesses)
Still wondering why she broke the chain instead of untangling the foot. Chain too puny for her power? Or puny human foot too easy to break? (Yeah, I’d train to break entangling stuff by default too if I had super strength)
I guess- but Sydney is not a normal person. She has access to INCREDIBLY DESTRUCTIVE POWERS!!! Suppose the first orb she grabbed and activated accidentally was not the one that demonstrated a new ability, but the PPO orb, and she ended up blasting a hole in the side of the pool?
I’m guessing that Max could see that Sydney was not really panicking, and opted for the solution that would let her get Sydney out of the water if she had too.
I absolutely love the art in this page – how you draw Sidney underwater is incredible, esp. if you compare it to your earliest strips (which were still good and were enough to get a lot of us reading!)
And the Cursed Magic Item of Restraint has been removed from her glorious and massive Hair Antennae for quite some time now! HOOORAAAY!
+1
so the green orb either creates a area of clean air, is a sort of emergency ball that counters the current danger in a relatively basic way (going to drown then it provides air), or works in a combo with other orbs and flight + green = air
Life support orb unlocked.
Likely hood of these being tools for a spacefaring race to awesome to make normal boring old sets of spacesuits with tool accessories on a harness is now greatly increased. You have most of what you need here to pop out of a damaged spaceship and make quickie repairs with a little emergency defense/survival gear built in to each tool for crash landings on planets with hostile life forms.
The “point buy system” might have originally been some kind of tutorial mode that every member of the crew would have worked their way through back at the home planet in training mode before being allowed out into the great black yonder with their individually bonded tools/spacesuit. When the original bondmate died it reset to factory standard for the next compatible sentient being who happened along… (these aren’t original thoughts for grrlpower readers exactly but this reveal seems like a good time for a summary of this line of thought)
The interesting thing is that there are eight orbs. Does this mean an eight armed creature? Alpha Centauri only had six arms and two feet.
Seven.
Shhh we never talk of the eighth, in public!
Or the other 15 sets of orbs hidden at area 52
Or the fact that Area 51 is really under ownership & control of the SCP Foundation
WTF??!! I used the spoiler tag on that but it didn’t work!!
Dammit, my cover’s been blown!
oh dear, they may come to silence you now
This comment is gonna get buried but I’ll make it anyway.
I’ve come to think that the orbs represent every function of a Star Fleet vessel.
Weapons, Communications, Teleport, Propulsion, Shields, Life Support, etc…
This may already have been theorized and apologizes is this is too on the nose.
(I submitted it before I realized I should have used a spoiler curtain.)
I would never call spoilers on a guess for a future reveal.(accept to be silly like Yorp does) That’s just good fun, pretty much all we talk about ’round here, and ONE of us is bound to be right.
However, 3 of those functions (at least) have aspects to one degree or another wrapped into the com-ball, in that Sydney can remotely examine an area, seeing through illusions that may be in place (clearly evidence of sensor capability), while projecting an image of herself along with her point of view, which could allow some degree of communications, via charades if necessary, and teleportation. Which could, in a way, be considering the instant communication of your entire being from one place to another.
To me, this seems like a cross between a generalized sci-fi crew toolset, inclusive of Search and Rescue equipment.
If she didn’t have the fly orb active would she fall in her own air bubble?
First of all, an air bubble would ordinarily float in water… unless the air being generated came out incredibly pressurized. Sydney would fall, the air would go up, she would hit the water, sink for a second as more air was generated. Fall, sink, air, fall, sink, air…
My bet is that it isn’t ‘really’ air, it’s more like the D&D spell ‘airy water’, which lets you operate as though the water was air, including breathing it and reduced resistance to movement… enough so, in fact, that you can’t swim. You sink to the bottom and can walk around, at least until the spell duration runs out. Then you’re really *really* screwed, because you not only can’t breathe the water in your lungs anymore, but you don’t have the buoyancy to reach the surface anymore, either.
Then again, it seems Max can breathe the environment created, so there goes that whole concept.
Snapping the chain means that now they have to get a NEW chain. Simply unhooking Sidney’s foot would have been fine. (Unless Maxima’s power means breaking the chain was easier then dealing with a flailing Sidney)
Nah Heatwave can weld the broken links easily. Also Max was probably thinking more of just quickly getting Syd loose than a piece of easily repaired/replaced metal.
True. I think maybe Maxima was just in the mood to break something… ;)
Given Maxima’s strength, and her penchant for forgetting it (remember the minigun?), she’s probably making a judgement call that breaking chains is less of a hassle than accidentally breaking Sydney’s leg.
So does it convert or produce oxygen? Difference while being under the shield would be great since you’re already talking about a pressurized capsule.
It could be teleporting air down from just over the surface of the pool. or opening tiny portals to a pressurized airfilled chamber on another planet (say, deep in Jupiter’s atmosphere). or summoning back to earth from beyond the void…
That’s the problem with black box testing. since you only see the effects, and not the mechanisms, you can be wrong AND right at the same time – right about what it will do in a given situation, wrong about how.
On the flip side, the ‘how’ in the case of the Orbs is somewhat less important than the ‘what’. I’m pretty sure the only person introduced thus far who has even a chance of understanding the Orbs is Krona, since her powers and those of the Orbs seems to share a connection.
True; there’s still the prospect of discovering that expectations of how it works that are extrapolated from experiment might prove disastrously wrong under untested combinations. The possibilities of undiscovered features or unforeseen consequences would always introduce a bit of doubt. or should.
So don’t make any? There’s no real reason to do so, except maybe for Krona, who actually maybe has a chance to apply some of it. But for everyone else? ‘Universal Deep Code bullsh*t’ is probably a sufficient explanation for everything beyond the obvious effects the Orbs have.
Now, it is significant if the Orb is just conducting electrolysis here, or if it’s somehow magically producing oxygen. But there’s a fairly simply, fairly safe test for that. Sydney activates her Shield, and stays in it with the Green Orb active. If she doesn’t start suffering from hypoxia, then it can produce oxygen (somehow). If not, then it’s probably some sort of electrolysis.
Doubt “Air Orb” is the proper function in effect here, she’s still swimming. Most likely this is a “personal (and nearby passenger) atmospheric control system” pending upgrades would likely control stuff like size command, contaminant filter (good for poison gas, or farts), and advanced functions associated with orb linking.
So, PAC Orb! Cookie?
If your wondering about the science behind swimming in air, consider that water must be oxygenated for most fish to breath (not so sure about deep water fish). That and the idea that we still don’t have a proper explanation for the surface tension phenomenon leave plenty of room open for reasonable sci-fi here. Add the concept that water current, density, and maximum oxygen saturation can be CONTROLLED using electric current and magnetic harmanance… minus the magic orb, this is scientifically possible today, just really fucking hard to do (add a little dangerous, given our limited tech). This last bit can be tested in your own home with a D battery, some copper wire, and a bowl of water, not kidding.
She’s still holding the Flyball. She’s not swimming. Just maintaining her current altitude.
It would have hilariously confusing if you’d put that last sentence outside of the spoiler tag.
Well that makes sense, she DID find it in the ocean so that green orb creating an air bubble while in water means she can explore the ocean depths easily.
I wonder if Dabbler or Ms. Reality Hacker can give Sydney additional, temporary arms…?
…Or graft some permanent ones on…
I was thinkin this too.
But weirder/darker I guess.
if any arms are added to Sydney, she going insist that at least one of them is cybernetic, and has Dabbler’s hammerspace portal built into it.
They can start a contest to see who can give Sydney additional appendages the soonest. We can call it an arms race.
I’m wondering if this only works underwater. It could have functioned normally elsewhere and nobody noticed. And if it is not restricted to underwater environments, then we know have a way to replenish the air inside the shield. Meaning that Sydney could bunker indefinitely.
So, she’s just removed the only real weakness of her shield then. Awsome.
And yet arm count is still a significant factor, at least under some conditions.
some sort of rigging Maxima can grab and have Syd set up her shield inside it?
Easier route: put a harness on Syd, Max grabs the handle on the back, and Syd sets up the shield around both of them (plus their cargo/passengers).
However, this could mean that the harness would be carrying the weight of the entire load (save Max), which might be hard on Sydney.
However, if Sydney’s harness were hanging from some framework that Max could grab or strap into, or such framework included seats, the conjectural burden on Sydney is relieved.
I almost don’t belive this. She discovered them under water. How did she not touch every single one of them before she’d reached shore? Touching green when she originally found it, should have shown it’s power.
She needs to be wearing those swim gloves with webbed fingers in the discovery picture now, to prevent this error…
Now, curiously, once Varia figures out what power she has paired with Halo, Airball, Shieldball, Flightball will be the ultimate in cruzing pleasure. Not as fast as Varia paired with Heram but…
She touched the fly orb first and floated out of the water.
https://davebarrack.deviantart.com/art/Aquapirate-348429237
Ah, no wonder I couldn’t remember where in the comic that was, thank you.
I notice that the green orb was also headed towards her hand in that shot
The Orb may respond to biological needs. She already had oxygen when she was previously diving.
in the image on deviantart, it appears the orbs were quite scattered when first found – two of them are swimming towards Sydney from a distance as she floats above the surface.
Okay where has dabbler been in the last three pages?
Also I noted elsewhere in this thread. THe brown orb is likely her personal hammerspace…for Cargo…prisoners…food…stuff… BUT Who knows what’s already stored in there? (can she hide all the orbs in there when linked and form a real energy construct space craft?)
With these tools, Sydney is now an official SPACE RANGER!
Especially if her brown orb can act like a portable jail… Wonder if it links her sensor orb and can transport targets she’s tied down with tentacle or made immobile inside brown orb?
Wasnt there a hint when she went nuts about Dabbler’s hammerspace didn’t her brown orb (Brorb?) glow during that scene?
That’s an interesting idea. Might even solve the lack of an airlock, which is an obvious design flaw with using the Forcefield Orb as a hull replacement.
here it is, but it doesn’t look glowy to me:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1062
“So the drama took a backseat to practicality in this case.”
Which is really a big part of this comic. Brooding, anonymous, self-funded vigilantes may make for a more dramatic story but government controlled police are more realistic.
Yep. I’m cool with losing out on daily drama and having their lives seem a tad more believable. It’s part of what sets this comic apart.
That’s the D&D equivalent of an Airy Water spell…So coooooool!
Sydney, on the basis of her scuba training, was reaching for her air hose but thats when one of the unknown orbs responded to supply her need for air. It didn’t respond to her running out of air when inside of the shield because she didn’t explicitly think about needing air…So I wonder if that orb would respond if Sydney specifically calls for it to replenish a dwindling air supply?
“Sydney specifically calls for it to replenish a dwindling air supply”
At which point it will continually play songs from an Australian soft rock band.
Is Maxima wearing the scuba gear so she can talk or does she need to breath? I was thinking she was compatible with golden age Superman who could fly into space without needing protection.
She has been shown to need breathing aparatus for high altitude flight in the past.
I think Max will be fine flying around in space, as her force-field will protect her from radiation, temperature extremes and explosive decompression. However, as Spicefreak points out she does need to breathe.
Maxima will have a bit of air trapped in between the force field and her skin, but that would only give her a couple of extra breath’s worth of air, in an emergency.
Do note that although Maxima does replicate a number of Super Man’s powers, she is distinct from him. She lacks x-ray vision or any super senses (or the ability to create a gale by breathing out or such oddities). They do both have energy attacks, but Maxima’s is of a very different type and may well be more powerful than Super Man’s.
Plus she is golden, has purple hair, pointy ears and is from Earth.
However they are both apex super-heroes, so you are right in that regard. As well as on all the powers that they do overlap on. Plus they are both intensely moral people. But with different flavours, as Maxima’s feminism is extreme enough to become a flaw. Not to mention that her anger-management issues show her human failings.
Finally the core of her concept is that she is not all-powerful, unlike Super Man. She can only have one power at full strength, at a time. Dave deliberately created her with weaknesses that do not require green rocks. This allows her to be incredibly powerful at times, yet highly vulnerable at others. Needing to breathe is one of those vulnerabilities.