Grrl Power #599 – Arch-Off
When I added Harem to the team, I really thought I would be featuring her a lot more in the comic. She’s fun to write and think about, but she takes up a lot of space on a page. I have to show her in multiple places with different backgrounds and usually different people around her, so it’s hard to fit in alongside Sydney’s usual antics, but the next “book” will probably have mini-storylines like “Harem’s Day” or “Peggy’s Day” where I can spend a few pages focusing on some of the other characters.
This page got me thinking about Harem’s distributed physical presence and spanking. Like, if you spanked her… it’s not she wouldn’t know that she got spanked. but it might take her a second to figure out which one of her actually got spanked. Like if you leaned around a wall and popped her one, then dove back into hiding, it might take her a second to figure it out. Especially if you did it just as another of her was sitting down. She might think that her sat on a balloon that popped, or even for a split second think she sat on a tack or something. Of course, the one that took the hit would also hear it, but with enough stimulus, (like one of her is at a bar and a champagne cork popped, and another of her is at the practice range) it could confuse her for a second.
The residual throbbing would give it away. If you got smacked in the arm, you don’t need to see it happen to know which arm it is. Harem’s the same way. Just because she has 5 right arms doesn’t mean she can’t discern them from one another. It’s just that a cavalcade of stimulus can confuse her momentarily.
Co-ed Harem has something on her shirt. I don’t think it’s legible even in the Patreon version, but don’t lose too much sleep over it. There will be a better shot on another page.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like!
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Automated Artist Alarm for panel 4:
Warning! Warning! Female waistlines are approaching Liefeldian proportions. Further encroachments into this territory may lead to excessive muscularity, poorly drawn feet, and an outbreak of pouches.
Oh come on, they don’t look nearly that bad.
Everyone in these comics are practically toothpicks compared to some of the characters Liefeldian drew.
In addition she’s twisting midair so our view of her is closing in on profile. You’d be surprised out close together a fit person’s belly and backbone are.
Backbone is actually surprisingly close to the center of the torso.
Better would be belly and the back muscles.
There’s an actual reason for the super heroes to look like super idealized people though.
This is why they look the way they do in the past as gods and demi-hemi-semi gods of the past. Super beings compared to you and me.
And Sydney isn’t super-good-looking because her special powers were acquired from an outside source. Anyway, the main reason I’m writing this is because while reviewing the overall story, I noticed that there has been discussion regarding what to call Sydney’s orbs, and so far as I know, the author has yet to pick a formal label for them. Naturally, I want to suggest something.
Before getting to that, though, another thing I noticed was, no one in the story seriously suggests finding out what happens if someone else touches one of Sydney’s orbs. We do know they can conk people without frying them, but then then we also know even Sydney can’t make them do something drastic unless she uses her hands on them. Imagine if Sydney can share them with others –plenty of hands available to hold them, that way (and imagine if Harem had been the one to discover them –one person who has ten hands!). And what of Sydney herself, if she happened to be physically larger, with hands that could easily hold two orbs each? (And even with small hands she has been known to use tape to hold them in place, so why not tape two of them to one hand, say one at the base of the palm and another near the fingertips?) Inquiring minds want to know!
Anyway, small orbs of different colors are often played-with by children, and are called “marbles”. Sydney’s orbs are super-sized marbles, or, simply, super-marbles.
I refute that Sydney is not super good looking! Most vehemently!
Those are called breasts.
I have speculated that Maxima discreetly gave orders that nobody is to touch Sydney’s orbs. On account that might freak her out. Not to mention possibly provoking some kind of alien invasion.
Because it would defeat the purpose of imposing a two orb limit and the character would become too powerful and thereby boring, due to easily overcoming any problem. Plus Sydney has been experimenting with stuff like this and has come up with nothing that works.
As proven by her resorting to holding them in her butt cheeks. That is way down the line beyond using duct tape.
Sydney is good-looking. But none of the characters in the story have declared her declared-to-be-tomboyish looks to be “super” good-looking, like most of the super-powered characters have been declared to be super-good-looking. Opinions of readers can vary, of course.
As long as there is no mention of any attempt to tape two of the orbs to one hand, I will continue to assume it hasn’t been tried, yet.
And regardless of there being an order that no one else try handling the orbs, the possibility of that getting tried sometime still exists. Currently I’m thinking the candidates most likely to survive trying it are Maxima and Varia (the Boston/Aztec lady who is known able to handle the powers of others).
On another topic, when I stated that Sydney’s orbs could be called super-sized marbles, I neglected to also say they were super-powerful marbles. So, “super marbles” two different ways.
Varia most definitely would survive it, because she is actually the route by which Sydney can exceed her two orb limit. We have already seen the clue showing us this.
Regarding a two-orb limit, this could in the long run partly depend on all the possible features associated with the orbs. For example, suppose the shield orb comes with a “set and forget” feature, somewhere in the skill tree, so that it doesn’t have to be constantly held for the shield to stay up. The air-generating orb would also be more useful with a set-and-forget feature. Ditto for at least two of the comm-ball features (true-sight and aura-sight). On the other hand, some orbs, like the energy-weapon, might not be so helpful to have a set-and-forget feature (not unless that orb, at least, comes with some sort of identify-friend-foe system!).
One more thing about comparing the orbs to marbles: playing the game typically involves a circle, and of course the orbs default-form a circle when hovering over Sydney.
Darn it. Accidentally closed the tab and, when reopening it, did not notice that the reply had been re-positioned here.
LIES
Sydney is fucking sexy as he’ll
You don’t have to be an athlete to be attractive
This is how you catch Youngblood disease!!!
I kind of miss the pouches
I don’t see it, sorry. If anything, Harem’s butt is totally turned away from the camera. Not very Liefeldian.
Also I see a distinct lack of pouches.
They were commenting on her lack of a ‘healthy’ waist
Steeple your hands for maximum evil geniusness.
I thought he wasn’t evil, just true neutral with a flair for lawful evil trappings?
Wich is why he likes lawfull evil stereotypes like for example smugly steepling of hands.
No, he’s evil, Smugly Evil, he’s just not a Villain
I would argue (and did in my response to lil Joshu) that selling items of such obvious evil that they were all gathered up and placed in the Black Reliquary is villainous. Villainous of a “the good guys will need to be taking him down” category.
And if he does sell an apocalyptic weapon to Sciona he would justifiably be labelled as evil.
So far though all he is doing is charging her to view his inventory. That is something very different.
Especially if the prevailing theory that he is prompting Harem to summon Arc-SWAT bears fruit. There are several points supporting that theory.
Many pages ago Deus told Vale that he was counting on Harem being a double agent. So this looks to be his plan falling into place. In which case I would expect him to be fully compliant with whatever legislation is required.
Perhaps he has already submitted a report to his local police station about having requisitioned some dangerous items before they fell into the hands of criminals?
Alternatively he may have filed marine salvage claims for items he recovered in a deep sea salvage operation?
The guy is too smug (and smart) to be caught doing evil things.
Well, in Dues’ favor, he did manage to slap the not-so-silent alarm to Archon. I have no doubt that he’s fully aware of the effect he just set into motion. Indeed, I think Dues is calling for Archon specifically so that they arrive to capture Sciona before she starts testing Vale’s abilities just so he can keep that secret from us, out here on this side of the screen.
I think the largest challenge to that theory is the fact that Deus probably doesn’t want Archon knowing that he was in the vault and that he stole a pile of ancient, evil artifacts which were being held by The Council. About the best he can do with that situation is to claim that he went there to grab as many artifacts as he could before Sciona got them. And then the sharp pointed logical questions would come to pop that bubble:
“Oh? And why did we have to come here and find them? Why didn’t you tell us you had them?”
Because clearly some time has passed:
– Trent moved from the Council base to Archon. And got some clothes.
– Sydney has taken several showers.
– Maxima is back to assigning PT as punishment.
– The girls have had the time after that punishment was assigned to plan and implement an elaborate prank against Math.
– Maxima is back to assigning PT as punishment. Again.
– The Archon members who were in the Council super-secret location aren’t there any longer, as evidenced by the presence of the ZZ Mage and the Tyrian expy.
– Sciona has had time to put on some clothes.
– Sydney is all done with her after-action reports and is back to regularly scheduled classes.
All of that time passing gave Deus plenty of opportunity to have come clean, if his intentions with the artifacts was in any way honorable. But he did not do so. And so any claims of his (or yours, or anyone’s) that spanking a Harem was a super-secret prearranged signal for her to make that confession that for him, after all this time has passed, is just really, really stupid. And at the very least, if Harem goes along with that shitstain of a story, she should be cashiered immediately, since it will be her confession that she had vital information about not only Sciona’s actions while in the vault, but also Deus’ presence there, and his actions, and the disposition of a pile of evil artifacts, and withheld that information from her superiors.
Because of course you think in your ‘special’ mind that there are a lot of sellers of whatever who offer to show their wares to people to whom they have no intention of selling anything to. And before you claim that it is a delaying tactic or whatever else you might come up with, please read the above part about how Deus has had plenty of time to inform Archon that he ‘rescued’ a pile of evil artifacts from the Black Reliquary before Sciona could steal them. You don’t need a 15 minute stalling tactic when you’ve already had what appears to be at least a full day, if not several.
Clearly you missed part of my comment, namely:
Incidentally can you point to the law which obliges a US citizen to report the acquisition of ‘an evil artefact’?
If Deus has completed the relevent marine salvage forms, and import paperwork, and submitted them to customs for inspection, he can even have them in his office perfectly legally!
But the last time we saw them the artefacts were in international waters, if they still are somewhere offshore then he only needs to have filed a salvage claim.
Which incidentally answers all your previous points. Marine salvage is a legal venture, if proper claims are filed.
That base was:
1) Unmanned (by any humans – there are no laws recognising magical constructs as crew), and for thirty years at that.
2) In the process of being looted by a pirate.
Combined that sounds to me like valid grounds to conduct an emergency salvage operation and file the relevant paperwork at the earliest possible opportunity. Which I am confident Deus would not have been tardy with.
That’s the thing, we don’t know that the Reliquary is in international waters, just that the water-entrance starts, there is no way for us to know how far that tunnel went
Why would Deus inform the local
Donut PalacePolice Department rather than Maxi and Archon if his actions truly were ‘noble’? He had just had a friendly chat with Maxi the other daySounds like you are looking for as many reasons to trust Deus as me looking for reasons not to condemn The Daphne’s
US law was specifically altered to extend US territory to the edge of the continental shelf. They are one mile down, and thereby on the drop off, which is thereby beyond the edge. Unlike in the movie the Abysss they do not drop down like a sheer cliff face for the entire distance.
Much of it has to be a gradual slope, otherwise it would not be structurally stable. Which means the entrance is maybe a half a mile beyond the limit of US territorial waters. Unless the tunnel is very long it will not extend back into US waters.
Plus having gone to the trouble of building an entrance outside of US territory, what would be the point of going to huge expense (tunneling is bad enough, but at that depth it would be phenomenally dificult and thereby costly) to go far enough to be back underneath US waters?* So mine is a reasonable assumption.
Before the incident occurred.
Because he was not scheduled to meet with an Archon representative until this meeting above, and was very busy ensuring that the items were secured and that relevant paper work, customs inspections and so on were completed.
So he (hypothetically as one example amongst a spectrum of choices) told his local police department and mentioned that he had also arranged to meet with an Archon officer about the matter (Harem).
* Plus from conversations about whether the geomancer was in US territory or not, we know that there is not good precident for claiming that it extends deep below the ground. And I bet none for doing the same deep below territorial waters.
Any enforcement so far will have been regarding what waters drilling rigs are in. Rather than being able to enforce territorial claims a mile underground beneath territorial waters. Territorial waters treaties were framed to deal with fishing rights, having the ability to inspect ships for illicit goods, bar unfriendly vessels from entering and so on.
We are both right to operate by ‘innocent until proven guilty’. So far we have seen Deus commit sexual harrasment, but not anything else (regarding this incident) that is definitively even morally wrong, let alone illegal.
My only presumptions have been that he will have consulted his readily available legal department and, as an experienced buisness man and national leader, seeking to protect his lurative Archon contract, have followed whatever technicalities the law demands.
Harem though has been covertly supplying classified information to a representative of a foreign power. Which is defined as trechery. A very serious crime. So unless it is shown that she was doing so under orders she is a criminal. Mitigated by informing Maxima of the Sciona situation now mind.
And making it more plausible that she is actually an undercover agent. If she has been doing this under her own initiative though, then she will have considerable trouble explaining away her trechery.
Yes, that friendly chat before this occurred is why it now seems odd that he didn’t contact Maxi straight away. You saying he can’t multi-task and contact Maxi while still storing and securing the stolen items?
He could do. But he is not obliged to.
They are both heads of very important and busy organisations. Deus decided to take the route of informing Maxima via Harem. That is an instantaneous means of communicating, whilst maintaining absolute secrecy. No court could hold that to be an inappropriate choice to have made, to fit in this police report in amongst a great many other matters of national importance.
Even more so given that securing the items is of world importance. They are in his possession, so that is his primary obligation.
Wasn’t meaning about Sci-fright, and those items are only in his ‘possession’ because he stole them
Frank Quitely, your suggestion that he informs the local mundane police is not becoming of such a well-knowledged puppy: it’s not like he could tell them what they do (even if he did, or could, the Veil would ensure he came across as an eccentric loon), and who says he had to contact Maxi personally, he probably knows Mini Lucas or Zephan or heck, General Faulke
Salvaged please, not stole. They had been left unattended, under the ocean for over twenty years.
I am shocked that you are levelling such serious accusations against a pillar of the community, who heroically risked his own life, to prevent those items falling into the hands of a known and wanted criminal!
Like any honest citizen he will have filed whatever report is required to inform the authorities about the salvage he has made. Be that filing an ‘items found’ report with his nearest police station, or a marine salvage claim, as may be appropriate in the opinions of his lawyers.
None of the relevant forms will ask ‘what magical properties do these items have’ so, of course, there is no need to declare such.
I was also leaning that way. His actions in that banana republic, for example, were ruthless, but seemed to have a positive overall effect. A living wage, roads, health care, etc. for the citizens of the nation, and he only had to ruthlessly murder (ok, order the ruthless murder, there isn’t much legal distinction) one person. Who was apparently, unless he faked up the videos (er, ordered the faking up of the videos. Deus isn’t much of a “doer”) he showed the son, a typical “Saddam Hussein” style evil overlord himself. And even the fact the he himself is going to profit from this doesn’t push it towards evil IMO. While leaving the riches he is extracting in the nation for the benefit of the people of that nation would be a better act, it is arguable both that he is due some payment for improving the overall standard of living in the nation, and that without his overwatch that some neighboring country or some internal group would just set themselves up as rulers just as corrupt and inept as the prior one was.
But now? It was fairly neutral of him to allow Sciona to grab the items she grabbed, because even had he not gone there himself she would have done so. But to put the items that he grabbed up for sale, knowing without a doubt that they are all going to be used for evil, because that’s the reason they were locked away in the first place? That’s no longer neutral, it is straight up evil.
First off I do agree with you on all your points.
But there are other angles to consider. The first I mentioned above, that he is just bluffing about selling an item to Sciona. Assume that this is all part of his master plan and that he is recording this scene to prove his innocence.
Then reread his offer. At no point has he offered her an artefact. Nor has he actually said that he intends to sell any to anyone. This is so carefully phrased because he has a police woman standing in front of him, who he is certain is still working for Archon.
I put the following not to annoy you (OK OK maybe slightly for that reason). But (mainly) due to the possibility that it may well play out this way, and I would not want to ruin folks enjoyment if it does:
A business man can have customers for many reasons. Deus may, for example, have secured all the items somewhere far far safer than they were being kept, and have prepared paperwork for various interested parties to continue to keep them in safe storage in perpetuity. For a suitable fee.
Showing Sciona round the impregnable defences would amuse him. Especially as she would have paid him for the privilege of seeing that she will never be able to gain it.
Your last point needs adjusted. Show some of the security and don’t have the real artefact kept there. A few surprises to catch her in the act and faked bait in case she succeeded.
Odd thought:
Even if Archon discovers Deus robbed the vault, even if he wasn’t the one to break in he still showed up second hand and still took things….I feel at worst it would hurt their top-secret relations but not have any public relation changes or publically viewable legal backlash.
Given their last interaction (Maxima and Deus), Deus isn’t technically in the (need to know) aspect of knowing aliens and…sub-terrestrials or whatever all encompassing term we are going with here; exist.
and the fact this council operates by its own internal legal system (punish their own without regard or repercussions from the government legal systems);
In other words: they and their property doesn’t legally exist. So Deus can’t be tried or arrested on the grounds of robbing a place that doesn’t legally exist, from people who don’t legally exist *not being subject to mortal laws also denies you protection from them*.
Honestly would not be surprised if he intended to turn around and offer to sell some of the relics he *found in an unrecognized and presumed fully automated by abandoned warehouse* to Archon members if not Archon and the government themselves.
testing at the same time which relation they would rather keep secure, the one with the public identity and funding, or the (self important keep to themselves and even wanted to deny access to knowledge of their activities to Archon “monster”).
Yeah. Getting openly sued for theft of items from a top-secret underwater Vampire vault is not really something Deus will have to worry about making the courts. As long as he can justify to those he works with, he’ll be in the clear.
His biggest fear will be loosing the government contract to supply Archon with all their super gadgets. He had better have a really good line.
Promptly handing over all the items he salvaged and saying that he had to make an emergency intervention, when he became aware of the ongoing robbery would be a good start.
Mucho political capital (getting the items back rather than having the world blown up with them will allow folks to turn a blind eye to whether they believe his line or not).
But he would loose his toys.
Unless he found some that were not on the inventory, or made the most of his time examining them, or (like Sciona) making prompt use of the more convenient features.
And some might have ‘gone missing’. Which Deus could put down to Sciona, Wyrm-Cooter or bad inventory keeping/corruption within the Twilight Council.
After all, they had not been in the vault for 30 years. So cannot testify that everything that was listed as being in there, still actually was when the looters (and subsequently the gallant hero Deus) entered the Dark Reliquary.
…Getting sued ,no. Waking up dead and/or as statue fragments because the SV’s carried out a kill order from the Council, very likely…
The Council have one teeny problem with that approach.
Archon can ignore the Council killing supernatural monsters, as they have no duty to protect them, whilst the USA does have a vested interest in the Council protecting humanity from monsters preying on them. In fact they can and do actively co-operate in supernatural police actions (we have yet to see if that extends beyond such mind).
However if so much as one human is threatened by the Council then they would be obliged to intervene.
Even if that is Cooter, Deus or Vehemence.
Of course nothing to stop the Council doing that covertly and hoping that they escape detection. However Archon does have two in-house intelligence agencies who are fully familiar with magic and supernatural technques. So they would be taking a chance.
An unnecessary one, if Deus is (mostly) co-operating.
That sounds so racist when put that way.
By those statement the nonHumans have no rights whatsoever including those of citizenship.
Yet we have seen what look like humans on the council with supernatural capabilities. So where does being human stop and monster begin? Either a person is a person or you will eventually end up with a whole heap of trouble one way or the other.
I on the other hand I take The Council as just another government that happens to have a majority membership of nonhumans among its members and is world spanning in it’s reach and as a whole does not care for realestate. TheUSGov is not such a big fish when you look at it that way plus there are other world governments toes they will more that likely be stepping on and some will reciprocate in kind. If it’s good enough for the USGov then it’s good enough for The Council or any other Gov that gets mixed up in this – those who use drone strikes should not complain when Thors Hammer comes a knocking.
As for Deus – He most likely has a number of backup plans and political maneuvers in place just in case he gets caught red handed with toys he should not have.
Personally that is the way I see it. I don’t care if a person’s form has two legs or four, or fins, or flippers, flesh and blood versus chips and wires, or only exists in program form. If they both pass the Turing test and consider themselves self-aware they are people.
But, as a lawyer pointed out the other day, that is not the way the law sees it. In the US murder is specifically defined as only being applicable to homo sapiens. Whilst in the E.U. the rights we grant are termed as “human rights”, rather than “people’s rights”.
In this case though it works to Archon’s advantage. They are dealing with a society which can have open warfare between its factions. And who the leader pointedly reminded Sydney does have genuine terrible monsters as a part of their population.
Humans have murderers and rapists who are rated as being monsters. Amongst the supernatural they those and things we have never even heard of. But, on top of that being the ability to walk through walls or steal souls! As examples.
Note that the Council appear to have far tougher laws amongst their own people than human society does. Meaning that human cops would be compromised if they had to do things that were more oppressive than in their own society. But not if their own society does not recognise the people in question as having rights!
So Archon can support the Twilgiht Council even where they may choose to execute people without trial (as a hypothetical example and assuming that the Council does not have the same due process rights that we do).
Whereas if on their own soil and dealing with a foreign power, who has more restrictive laws, Archon are obliged to protect their own citizens to the standards of their country, not the other country. Which would still apply even with the unusual system of having a parallel government operating within the USA (as well as elsewhere).
Even though Britain and the USA are strong allies, no one would be extradited to the USA if they faced a the death penalty for a crime. The extradition process, in such circumstances, requires a legally binding agreement that the death penalty cannot be applied. This is in fact a constitutional requirement of any country in the EU (as a part of those human rights laws).
So, whilst I phrased it in a provocative manner, in the comics situation it just happens that all citizens of the USA are humans. So their rights must be protected against laws that are harsher than the USA has. Whereas the monsters get no such protection, as their society is the one with the harsher regime.
Fortunately for them not all laws specifically mention ‘homo sapiens’. Hence how animals and mascots can sometimes be elected to political office. So monsters may get some protection under laws as they are written. Just not the critical ones applicable to this thread.
Interestingly (or perhaps horrifically) – when the European Court of Human Rights put a stop to extraditions to the USA where someone was facing a possible death sentence, it wasn’t because of the possible death sentence. That part was deemed legal by the ECHR and British courts. It’s the possibility of years on death row that the ECHR considers inhumane.
Well the human rights act specifically prohibits the death sentence, and that is applicable in every EU state. Importantly it deals with rights of all humans, even Americans. So whist the latter is highly credible* I think there are probably nuances about the former.
For instance they would certainly consider the US’s right to execute criminals to be legal, what I do not think would be legal, for an EU country, is to assist that process in any way. So I can see how headlines may have made the points you did, even if the process was speeded up, so that a swift execution could be guaranteed, I do not think EU courts would permit such an extradition.
Likewise EU countries are not meant to extradite people to countries which permit torture. So if the US does decide to reinstate waterboarding, any prisoners at risk of that would be barred by the Human Rights Act from being extradited.
* The EU keeps challenging the UK’s whole-life sentences on the same grounds. In that case failing though because there is not the torture of the unknown. They are told up front that they will never come out, due to the severity of their crimes and to protect the public in perpetuity.
Whereas for a death row inmate they live in the perpetual fear that the next review will see them executed. Only to have it postponed on one point or another, for years on end.
If Archon found out what Deus was doing behind their backs, they would, in fact, have a reason to look the other way while the Council enacted their own brand of justice. Archon isn’t run by a bunch of people who are exactly sticklers for protocol and rules, I really, really doubt that they’re going to let someone use rules lawyering to let them steal powerful (and therefore dangerous) magic artifacts without punishment.
Also, here’s the other thing your missing. Deus’s crimes were committed on Council territory, and Archon therefore could, in fact, deliver him into their custody for punishment.
However as Yorp has pointed out, given the situation, they may have a legal obligation NOT TO, and would even covertly need to weigh their options.
See the big problem here is caused by the council, it gets away with its rather (harsh) internal legal system because they don’t exist legally and have no protections under US law. As in the government has chosen to look the other way and allow them to police themselves. However, and the council given what we saw in the meeting may even agree to these terms, the council may be forced to act on their own without the consent or knowledge of Archon; whome as a “foreign” body they feel no obligations to inform of such matters and would likely see as possibly interfering with them.
However if Archon learns of the council or any of its member parts going after Deus, its option to (look the other way) may be limited if Deus is on record as asking for assistance/protection from *bodies unknown* going after his life.
But heck, I think we can expect to see Maxima flying through that window next page if not soon, and a confrontation and Deus doing some law lawyering like this. and yes as Yorp pointed out, he can feign ignorance on items he doesn’t want known he has, by claiming Sciona or another party took them.
Yeah, that’s the thing: The Council predates the US Government, and while they are not publically recognized, they are still officially recognized by the Government, and as such Archon can turn Deus over to them as part of the treaty that allowed the US to be formed in the first place, and Deus can’t do a damn thing about it. Go public? Who will believe him? A hand full of ‘nutters’ like Coot?
The recognition I agree with. But bear in mind that the UK recognises the US, yet will still refuse to extradite prisoners who may be executed or tortured. And the US may do the same, versus the Twilight Council, for prisoners who could be executed without trial.
I stress that we do not know the latter. I am just basing it on the field of people we saw impaled by gorgons working for the Council. It did not have the look of something done after a court trial.
That however could have been from ancient history, and no longer be a part of Council law. In which case the door would be open to such an extradition.
Finally even with the laws I mentioned the UK did actively but secretly cooperate with the US in rendition. Including the taking of UK citizens to America to be imprisoned indefinitely without trial and (at that time) subject to waterboarding.
Likewise the UK (and possibly the US) have been implicated in secretly sending captives to countries where they almost certainly would be tortured.
Governments tend to ignore laws when it suits them. Plus they have certain provisions to legally cover up covert actions that they consider vital to national security. So I do not think there has been anyone convicted for breaking the law in the above examples. But am happy to be corrected as I could have missed relevant reporting at some time.
…Yorp, there’s one glaring problem:Sciona.She already has a destroy on sight order on her from the Council, since the first try didn’t take. I trust DaveB not to cause an open break between Archon and the Council having ArcSwat defend Sciona…
to Timothy Frierson,
no one is talking about Archon defending Sciona. We are talking about Archon defending Deus if they find out he has stolen goods from the vault.
Yorp is better at articulating the legalese of this but there is one other point in what you said I feel I should address.
“the treaty that allowed the US to be formed in the first place, and Deus can’t do a damn thing about it.”
This seems to imply the governments of the world are being allowed to exist and the council exists as a super illumanti behind the scenes controlling the world and allows humanity to exist.
This has been stated to be the opposite in the comic. The council exists for their own self preservation. They are certain if the veil was lifted and humanity learned of them as a whole, the majority of them would be killed by human kind; and the rest would then be forced to be subject to human laws *which would make their very existences difficult*
Keeping in mind the alien and demon sides of the council are technically both alien as they aren’t native life forms, and their presence is like Archon’s presence and the presence of Mages as more an outside embassy situation, they are ambassadors. The aliens aren’t locally political or likely have ANYTHING IN that vault> They view Earth as a vacation destination and are only securing that much of their presence. In fact they really aren’t even protected by the veil *we saw from Dabbler that the aliens use their own masking technology to hide their true forms, after all the veil does have be programmed for each species*.
So the council really is just a bunch of various creatures, many of which don’t even really like each other (also stated in comic), and police their own as many still view humans as prey. Archon and the US government secret aspects are less a *we fear the monsters and must do what they say* and more a *you scratch our back with stuff we don’t know, and we look the other way when you “police” your own population even when they are doubling as US citizens…such as if a werepack living in Utah decided it wants to eat tourists at a tourist trap. Rather than Archon move in and do an arrest and trial for murder, they look the other way when the council sends in furies and harpies to slaughter them like lambs. In exchange the council provides them with…well we haven’t really gone over much of that have we. Magic, knowledge, insight, aid when one or more of their own bigger bads show up like a demon lord.
Given that Deus practically ‘owns’ an entire sovereign nation, and is one of the richest men on the planet, I’m pretty certain that there’s no chance in hell that the US government would be capable of turning him over to the Council…. and of anyone who could blow the lid on secret societies without it being laughable that anyone would believe him, Deus is probably on that short list of people who could.
Not to mention how he’d likely be able to bury, both literally and figuratively, any politician who would dare to try.
Deus is still an American citizen (I believe) and it was an act of grand larceny. I have no doubt the Council can push forward an otherwise perfectly human mage to act as the agrieved party. You might have to do a little song and dance to arrange a secret court so that he can’t enter things into public testimony. But we’ve had those well over a decade now even without supers, so I doubt it’d take too much legal wrangling to justify their use for this. And that’s assuming there isn’t already a well established protocol between the two sovereignties regarding crimes committed against those protected by the Council.
The Black Reliquary might not be half as scary as the Black Treaty ;)
It’s not an act of grand larceny, at least for US Law. And larceny for the Council means they either have to kill a very public figure who has ties to Archon, his own nation (essentially), his own personal army of supers, super-technology, a rather good public image, billions upon billions of dollars and probably a lot of polticians in his pocket. You’re talking about someone who can very likely crumble the economy of different nations with phonecalls (this isn’t exactly an exaggeration – there are real life people who can do this also).
As far as US law would be concerned, if anything, it’s salvage. Unless the Council was to, as you said, put a human mage forth as the agrieved party, in which case they have to explain WHAT WAS STOLEN to a court. :) Not that Deus is going to make it obvious to anyone that he has had anything to do with any of this ‘heist’ to begin with. :)
So… assuming the Council even finds out (who’s gonna tell them?), their options are either ‘try to kill him and risk all the fallout that almost certainly will happen with someone as hyper-prepared as Deus is, try to buy the artifacts back with something that Deus would find more valuable (probably their best option), try to steal the items back (again only slightly less risky than trying to kill him), use US law and basically expose themselves to the courts, even if there’s a heavily redacted public record, or do nothing. Again, assuming they can even find out.
Heck he can come up with a laundry list of reasons he even knew it was down there from *Supers with Surveying powers* to “Opal sensed a disturbance in the force” *As in sensed an open space she couldn’t open a portal too. Found a way to check it out, no public records of anyone owning anything there, found some active death traps, and decided to loot what looked like some abandoned treasure vault *If you didn’t know better you could even make the excuse that the vault looks less like an armory and more like a private collection with extreme defenses* and had been left there for who knows how long.
yeah at that point the council would be forced to risk exposure or starting an invisible war with a man with his own private army of supers *and the council seems to only now be realizing how powerful trained supers can really be*, likely has his own contacts in the council; we know he has contacts with supers, humans, and “monsters”.
He is a Lex Luthor/Xanatos type villain, far too public and connected for a “council of darkness” type group to easily or even justifiably pick a fight with on their own grounds or in anyway that doesn’t put them at a distinct disadvantage.
Are you sure about that? I have heard that a US citizen who travels to a nation with a low age of consent and engages in sex with what are minors in the US can be charged, when back in the US, for what amounts to sex crimes.
I know you claim to be a lawyer, but are you certain that there is no US law about traveling into international waters or to another nation and committing larceny or some other crime? Because I’ve just given a precedent for acts legal in another nation being considered a crime in the US. It’s not much of a stretch to believe that acts illegal in another nation might also be considered crimes in the US.
To the best of my knowledge the only country which has a law which specifically allows that is the UK. Although prior to that law being introduced I know there were cases where people have been tried for crimes committed in other jurisdictions. For instance a murder that occurred somewhere in South America resulted in a murder conviction in the UK.
The reasons being that:
1) The country involved was not interested in the matter at all.
2) The individuals involved were all British subjects.
As such the courts deemed that it should be tried in a British court, otherwise justice could not prevail. I seem to recall that the main culprit had returned to the UK, so was available for trial. They may have had an accomplace who was tried in absentia. It was a long time ago though, so my memory is a bit hazy on the details.
You forget that Maxima has claimed that Archon has essentially unlimited powers, and all it takes is the ability to call something a potential threat to put it “legally” under their purview. Her actions with regards to arresting and interrogating Council members on the flimsiest of invented thought crimes, and her arguments about how it’s all perfectly within her authority, have made that clear.
What is more, Deus employs supers. Which makes any actions against him, for any reasons real or invented, able to be justified as being within the Archon purview. Deus may even be a super himself, given that he has the physique for it and is a middle aged, multi-corporate CEO. Not a perfectly exclusive Venn diagram, but one with very little overlap in our world.
Archon’s charter is still based on US laws, which are written by senators and representatives. I’m very certain that Deus is not someone they are going to at odds with. He probably could buy and sell them or might even have info on them. He seems like that type of person. The type of person they’re not going to send their super squad against…. especially now that Archon is public and FOIA cases are a real thing.
wow he just… slaps her on the ass. i wasn’t entirely sure if he was just egocentric or egocentric and also a complete asshole. guess now we know he’s definitely an asshole, even if that was just for dramatic effect. still not sure if he’s unambiguously evil though…
I wondered if it was some sort pre-planned of signal for her to do something. Like maybe inform Archon. It is a stretch.
There are a lot of folks making that assumption. ;-)
This is a super-genre comic. Stretches are more of a norm.
I also know she’s smiling when she says “Oh hey now”. Harem may just be turned on by power (a reasonable assumption), and her and Deus could easily be dating. If she likes that kind of thing, then it’s completely fine. And as evidence in that direction, she did choose ‘Harem’ as her superhero name, afterall. Like dabbler she probably likes things a bit more risque’.
Part of sexually respecting people is not only respecting their boundaries, but if you’re in a relationship with them, respecting their desires.
The alternative to ‘Harem’ would be ‘Mob’, don’t look too deeply into a name
well, harem is on technically gang of whores (gently put as primary it refers to group of sexual objects) where as mob is violence prone gang most certainly not there to please man
Or ‘Legion’.
‘Squad’ and ‘Posse’ would also work though the latter might be to close to a risque word. ‘Harem’ would be presumably lower on the list since it has no military or force connotation and is merely a collective noun for a group of women with little personal freedom.
Hmm… I see other people are interpreting “Harem” different than I am with her (and I view the term as more gender neutral).
You see…. she has one collective mind, but we’ve seen here different bodies flirt with multiple people. Although she may appear to be the Harem, in actuality, she’s collecting a Harem, and her power makes it very easy to do so. Heck, she could easily have a Harem of five men who all think they’re in a monogamous relationship.
I like where I am going with this. But linguistically I don’t think it holds up. For Daphne to want to convey the idea I suggested she would need to call herself something like “Harem collector” or “Harem owner”.
Even taking it as a gender neutral term (a rich woman certainly could assemble a harem of guys if she chose) the harem would be the (in this example) the guys. Rather than being the one calling the shots.
Traditionally that would have been the sultan. Which means that if she kept with tradition, Daphne should have called herself “Sultana”. But that is
nutsfruit.Try ‘Madam’ for Harem’s replacement superhero name in this thought experiment.
That brings in two elements not already in the equation though. Harem has never asked for money, in return for sexual favours. Nor has she attempted to prostitute others.
Promiscuity does not equal prostitution. Likewise just because Harem has more than one body that does not equate to her pimping her other bodies. Not even if all five have sex with someone. It would still just be her and her partner.
Just because terms relate to sexual matters does not mean that they are interchangeable.
Deus must have SOMETHING going for him… considering Maxima, of all people, used to date him.
Or “flash mob” which has no violent connotation and shows up and disappears suddenly. Really dang fitting, actually.
Awesome!
Googling only brings up YouTube videos of flashmobs dancing whilst dressed as superheroes. But I did not spot a comic, even when specifically adding that to the search criteria.
So if Dave wants Harem’s evil (or good) twin to be “Flashmob” he should publish a quick one page comic! Perhaps as a vote incentive (as it would be out of sequence to the story at present)?
Wow, if only there was such a thing as CONTEXT. Like “hmm, there’s a supernatural arch-murderess in the room who is going to reduce us all to flayed strips of raw bacon if we don’t keep her off balance if I’ve misjudged the relative strength of my bodyguard by so much as 2%. Maybe I’d better put on a _show_ of utter domineering confidence.”
I am sure that is very much a part of his actions.
It is still ungentlemanly though, and he deserves to get a good slapping for it!
Plus there are other ways that he could have done that. The concession I would make though is that he has already used several of those, in their prior encounter. So they would not have the same psychological impact used a second time.
As such this sudden change of direction might help throw Sciona off balance. If Deus can keep her that way, he can stall until the cavalry arrive.
That would be a perfectly fine rationale, if it bore any resemblance to reality. Deus isn’t bluffing Sciona, and he certainly isn’t afraid of her. He is taunting her. He taunted her in the Black Reliquary, and he is taunting her now. If she was standing closer it would be Sciona who got her ass slapped.
He certainly is doing that. It is his most overt action. But he is like a big smug onion, in a suit. He has many layers.
Warning: Peeling may lead to tears.
I kinda hope Sciona takes a swing at Vale just so we get to see Vale show her stuff
Harem should have a shirt that says “there’s more where this came from”.
“I have ten breasts!”
That is so perfect! :D
Still, nothing beats the glasses that say, “My breasts are down here.”
Needs a couple more arrows though. Maybe with a GPS display, I’m sure Dabbler would be happy to help.
The pic, for anyone who hasn’t seen it.
Okay. That picture is sorta awesome.
this shirt has to happen
THe last time we met (Last time we saw harem at deus’s…) you forgot somethings– ie Harem leaving her collar at Deus’s place… he’s letting Deshantes know that he knows what she did with the collar. at same time tweaking his visitor.
The slap is two things too hint to go grab that collar and turn it on…so intel can flow out as Deus wants at this moment.
And to alert Harem that he knows she’s a double agent… just be sure to pick the right side to be a double agent for…
Thirdly worded in a way that it affects Sciona at a female visceral level and let her assume he’s a sexist pig… very trumpian.
You miss-read that scene I am afraid. But understandably so as all we had was the panel of it on a bedside table. There were a few clues giving pointers, as to where that was, but no clear establishing shot. However Dave clarified, in comments, that it had been left in Harem’s room (back in Archon HQ).
Knowing that then this changes the implications and we can draw different conclusions to the current scenes.
Namely Harem turning up at Archon HQ without a collar (barring an artistic omission) was due to her coming directly from somewhere that she did not wear the choker. Being on duty all her bodies should have them though. Other than any which are on undercover work (legitimately or illegitimately as the case may be).
Then throw in the fact that Deus did previously reveal to Vale that he was counting on Harem being a triple agent. So with Archon’s number one most wanted villain turning up in his office, in front of a police officer, that he believes is still working for Archon, he would be confident that she would report in.
Doubtless Harem is just as prone to popping into his office unannounced, so he would expect her to teleport straight to Maxima, in such an emergency.
Using this line of reason Deus is expecting Harem to be standing right in front of Maxima when he slapped her bottom. And knows that her other body would react as it did. And that it would infuriate Maxima when she realises what is going on.
You are right that Deus wants Archon to know about this. But Harem does not need her choker on, to pass on information. She can do that just by talking, given that all her bodies are mentally linked.
Abby leaves the tracker in her room when she goes visiting Vale, there’s no point taking it off when she’s there
ew gross Deus buttslapping her made me dislike him a lot more, i thought he was a funny and interesting character before but now? Eh men who slap girls butts in work place settings are the worst! Even if it’s fictional.
Also white haired harem’s outfit is fugly what was she thinking mixing pastels like that? Her pink haired self is dressed a lot better even if she is just wearing her standard issue military training stuff.
I love how we got to see Sciona again so soon.
If you check back through earlier posts, few of us believe that Deux did the butt-slap primarily for lecherous reasons. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we are all correct in our assumptions, but I believe in the wait and watch approach in this case.
Indeed. Most megelomaniacs, who knew they were being betrayed by a triple agent, would be doing a lot worse than a bottom slap.
But it does nonetheless still leave a bad taste in the mouth seeing him apparently behaving in such a crass manner. Fortunately enough out of character that it points away what we would think at fist glance.
The combination of panels 2 and 3 certainly suggest that… he might be addressing them at Sciona, but paired with the slap, can easily be read as cueing Harem to go and do something critical (like summon Max, as we saw her doing in the previous strip).
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/676
Does anyone remember this? Back when Sydney really WAS 100% energy all the time. Compare back then to now, when she can content herself with a neat iPad game. She’s really toned down; and that’s not a bad thing, it shows character growth. But more important than that, I think, is what it proves: Sydney just wanted to be a part of something special or a part of a team, surrounded by people that like her and support her without her having to hide anything. She calmed down because she didn’t feel the need to GRAB attention quite so violently, she’s a celebrity now.
I’m not sure if this was intentional on Dave’s part, but bravo, I say.
Well done Sydney.
Not sure how you did it mind. But getting respect for playing a soft porn game, in front of your boss … oh wait … I get it. You played it quietly. ;-)
Mostly quietly… except when it was “just his belt.”
Distraction bonus? Maxima’s attention was rather diverted at that point.
This has probably already been discussed when Harem was injured before…
What happens if she’s injured in a typically non-healable area, such as the eyes? (I say “typically” to eliminate discussion on healing spells, experimental procedures, etc.) Is that copy permanently injured, or does that injury spread evenly between copies? Is that why her copy with Deus wears glasses? I know that she can “lock away” a copy, such as the copy that was injured in the battle, but while locked away/suppressed, that copy doesn’t heal.
Also, this was probably already heavily discussed, but I haven’t seen the conversation: Can Harem create a new copy after all 5 are used up? I’m assuming that in order to create an additional copy, she’d have to “delete” a copy. But can she even do that? Does she have “delete” capability, or can she only create permanent copies, locking away old ones as she goes?
Lastly, I’m guessing she’s never experimented with death experiences. But I wonder how many concussions she got before she discovered her “teleporting upside-down negates speed” capability.
Thank you.
*wags tail happily*
*sigh*
Guess I messed up my closing tags there.
No. Harem found out she could create a duplicate at a pretty young age. The process is simply a matter of teleporting but NOT deleting the version at the departure point. Thus keeping the original and having an identical copy at the arrival point.
Initially Harem could only do that the once. Since then she has gradually unlocked the ability to make more, at the rate of one every few years.*
Which must be spiritually worrying for her, given that every time she does a normal teleport she is killing her old body and creating a new one.
She cannot delete. Each copy is permanent. But Harem can remove them from existence, when she unteleports them. ** Unlike a delete though she can reverse this at will.
There is no reason however why Harem could not put a body away indefinitely. And I suspect that she may have already. To have a young body available when her others get old.
* For info, my head-canon is that humans have difficulty processing input from multiple bodies, so only when she has gotten fully used to handling the current number of bodies will her power let her create another. We know she has that limit, but I do not recall a reason for it, hence my own way of thinking about it.
** I visualise some kind of dimension without time that Harem teleports the body to. But maybe it is a recycle bin, and Harem knows how to restore the file storing her body to the real world?
That reminds me of a couple Star Trek episodes (one TOS and one TNG) where they use the Transporter to put someone in a previous “pattern.” Their memories only went up to the point that the “Pattern” was created. If Harem was to restore a young body, I wonder if that young body would have all the memories of all the older bodies. Yes, she has one central “mind,” but if her young stored body had an 18-20 year old brain, could that brain handle all the data from multiple, old-aged lives?
The exact nature and behaviour of Harem’s mind has not been yet fully explained. What we do know seems to imply that the memory and knowledge is not managed by the specific brain that originally acquired it, but for the “central” mind. IE, if a body is stored the memories, for instance, acquired for that specific brain do NOT became suspended (unavailable), like the actual physical body does.
That would mean that if a young body comes out off long storing it will have not to “handle all the data from multiple, old-aged lives”, because that was already being done, and will keep being done, by the “central” mind itself.
Think of it this way. Most people store their memories in one brain. It’s functionally a hard drive.
Harem’s mind is configured to run multiple brains in a synchronized network. Like multiple less powerful computers configured to run as a supercomputer cluster. It’s still only one computer, but each terminal is capable of performing different tasks… or allowing different bodies to work on the same task. That synchronization means that from an identity and consciousness standpoint, even though the cluster is made of five brains, they are handling the task of computing as if they were ONE brain.
I think that you’re referring to Lt. Thomas Riker for TNG.
Or maybe the episode where Picard, Ro, Kiko, and Guinan all became like… 14-15.
Yes, I watch Star Trek (except Discovery, which sucks). The Orville is the new Star Trek.
To me this is Orville.
But I haz heard a rumour about something awesome.
And it is going where Star Trek refused to go when the transporter was created. All those shuttle trips can be worked in. And notice how Spock is the only Vulcan we see who takes the transporter. Sarek did not. Probably the Vulcans in Star Fleet do including the Intrepid that had only Vulcans on board. That would have been interesting. I ma guessing that Vulcans as a whole do not trust the technology and maybe have other reasons for not using it. Killing yourself to travel would possibly go against certain rules they live by.
I wasn’t aware that Sarek refused to transport. If that was a TOS thing (or NG) That certainly hasn’t made it to the reboot, where Sarek was saved from the destruction of Vulcan by being beamed aboard the Enterprise. It was Amanda, Spock’s human mother, who refused to use the transporter and died. :-P
And we know that Spok isn’t the only vulcan to use the transporter, since the vulcan science officer in ST:TMP died during a transporter malfunction right at the beginning of the movie. Which made it convenient for when Spock showed up since he could step right into the role of science officer.
Oh, spoiler alert! But there is a statute of limitations on those. Rosebud was his sled.
“Which must be spiritually worrying for her, given that every time she does a normal teleport she is killing her old body and creating a new one.”
That depends on how her *VORP* works
You are right that it could be explained another way. For instance that normally the process just sends her body to a new location (by means unknown). Whereas when she is creating a duplicate that still happens but she also creates a copy. This would fit well with the quantum entanglement of her mind, as that would be the result of having the cells of her brain in two locations simultaneously.
However do note how it is phrased on her entry in the cast page:
If she does have a young body stored away, when she’s at the end of the majority of her body’s natural lifespans, she could re-teleport that one in time for the remainder to die off, then start again, presumably with the increased body capacity built up from living with the number of bodies she’d eventually gotten around to living with.
At that point, she could put one into storage and repeat.
Yup.
Now to mention the flies in the ointment. Even Harem does not know what will happen when so much as one of her bodies die. All of her brains are quantumly entangled. Which is how they all think the same things at the same time. So handy from that point of view. But rather unfortunate if one of the brains dies. Technically the same thing should happen to all of them, at the same time.
So, for her sake, we can only hope that when a brain dies the quantum entanglement is broken due to the fact that the other brains are still alive. So rather than trying to keep them all in the same state the path of least resistance is followed and the one that is diverging from the norm is the one expelled from the quantum linking.
One additional thing which would help push things that way is that living things have self-perpetuation mechanisms which unliving things do not. Likewise when you throw super powers into the mix. ‘Required secondary powers’ are oft mentioned. In Harem’s case there is some kind of super mechanism which sorts out the contradiction of her brains all being identical, yet being able to send different instructions to control each body.
Somewhere there is some mechanism which controls the interface between the quantumly linked parts of her brain and the rest of her brain which is not (each brain must handle the initial sensory input separately as such is physically coming in to different bodies) and likewise the rest of her body.
Whether that is the super power or her own brain having adapted to cope with the weirdness, one or the other mechanism may be able to handle the loss of one of the brains in a similar way.
As Harem’s ability to teleport grew, she gained the capacity to teleport into places without leaving other places, in essence creating a new instance of her body in the world, driven by the same quantum entangled consciousness that drives the other instances of her.
The thing is… aside from the quantum entangled brains, each instance of her IS a separate instance with a separate continuity of existence. Damage to one body doesn’t copy or impose itself on other copies. When one of her bodies is ‘unteleported’, it exists in a state of quantum suspension that doesn’t allow time to pass for it. Similarly, consider the theoretical issue of intoxication for her; if one of her were massively intoxicated, you might find that all instances of her were slightly less inhibited (one of the cores of her multi-core processors is thinking fuzzily), but only one of them would actually experience the disequilibrium and disorientation.
Right now, she can maintain (so far as we know) five instances of herself… but when she first manifested her ability, she could only manage one, and only later was able to manifest a second, and then a third, fourth, and fifth. In time, it’s possible she might be able to create new instances of herself… and we don’t know what the upper ceiling of that ability would be… or if it even has one.
Deeper questions about Harem:
Harem’s brains are all thinking for the same person. Does that mean that she’s smarter when there’s more of her? That may be the real reason she doesn’t like putting her bodies away.
They’ve said that PARTS of her brain are quantum-entangled. If she’s storing memory in one of the un-entangled parts, does she forget it when it unteleports? Or can she still access her unteleported brain?
Is there the potential for time-travel in this universe? Sending a Harem back in time gets WEIRD.
Extremely good question. Whilst we know that she is smart, the focus of that has always been on her extra experience and training that she has had (plus just naturally being pretty smart anyhow). I don’t recall anyone asking if her IQ effectively goes up when there are more of her.
Yes in one way, no in another. Officially all of her brains are thinking the same thing at the same time (being quantumly linked they have to). Whlilst I have pointed out that there must be exceptions to this (such as the handling of sensory input and the bits of the brain giving orders to limbs) these are pretty much autonomous functions that the conscious mind is not having to directly control.
By example, I will just think to myself ‘I want to walk that way’ and my body responds without me having to individually think about how to bend the leg and so on. Obviously I can choose to micro-manage, and avoid potholes or the like. But I do not have to devote my conscious mind to the task of walking, if I have other priorities.
Whilst she may gain some small extra capabilities those should be more than offset by having to make more decisions about what to do in five different places. Substantially more. However, for story purposes, the super power compensates for that somehow and she can still function as well as a normal person in every location.
So, where you are right that she is smarter, is because of that feature she can actually handle five times more tasks than a normal person. She could study five different languages at once. Likewise she could take one big problem, and have each body deal with one aspect of the problem.*
No only autonomous functions like sight processing would be handled separately, once that information gets sent for processing by the higher functions that is all handled by the quantumly linked brain. Which would include memory. Whilst even autonomous functions need some memory (“how long has this hot sensation been affecting my hand, should I flinch?”) it is not the sort that would include remembering where you put your keys.
There is no need to as all of the information is kept the same in all brains.
Theoretically the quantum linking would be continually keeping the unteleported brain identical, updating any changes. But change is a function of time, and there is no time wherever the unteleported bodies are. Making that an imposibility. So no, I suspect they are just instantly synchronised when restored to the time-space continuum.
Stephen Hawking has said yes. Krona thought she could, but was wrong. Her way just alters reality, within the ongoing time stream. Just like we can restore a game to a previous checkpoint, so we are replaying something that we got wrong before, we are actually doing that later in the day.
Yes. Note that Harem appeared to go back in time, but did not. Rather Krona’s power was selectively re-writing Harem’s memory in one body, to simulate that. Which the quantum linking was automatically updating to her other brains. But Krona’s power had not anticipated that happening at all, let alone in an ongoing time stream, so weird stuff was happening, resulting in a deja vous.
I think if she actually goes back in time, with all five bodies, she will be fine. She will have no more paradox than anybody else going back and saying hi to their younger self. Each set of five will have their own sets of memories and will not attempt to merge their minds (unless Dave decides that the super power will do that, for plot purposes).
If she only sends back some though, then, yea, weird shit will happen.
* Given that Harem has what amounts to one brain (even though it is in five different locations), an interesting analogy is to that of a quantum computer. Which is (according to theory) meant to be able to handle multiple different computing tasks. Being able to (for example) simultaneously solve five different versions of a problem to find out which is the optimum one. Whereas a traditional computer has to do just the one task at a time (over any given part of it circuits).
So (to extend the analogy, rather than as cannon) Harem can be thought of as quantum processing five different sets of thoughts using the one brain. Yet is able to be aware of what each set is thinking and coordinate their handling of each task.
Probably not technically smarter, but it might appear that way to an observer. Since she can focus on 5 different things at once she can solve problems much faster than a single person.
Some possible examples:
– The 5 of her at a crime scene would have everything tagged and bagged in 1/5 the time of any one person. That might not look terribly special given that it would look like there were the same 5 people at both crime scenes, but her 5 would not need any time at all to discuss and coordinate data in order to work up the big picture.
– She could have each one of her read a novel in a 5 pert series and would be able to have one of her take a test even though that one had only read one of the books and pass any test on the whole series.
– A complex math problem she could break into discrete portions for each of her to solve, reducing the time to solution over that of a single person with the same maths knowledge.
– And since knowledge is often mistaken for intelligence, when having a discussion with any one of these young ladies it would be difficult not to be impressed by her knowledge, since at a very young age she has multiple degrees.
Oh, and putting one of her bodies away should not in any way diminish her gestalt knowledge, since it isn’t tied to the flesh but is stored in her group-mind.
Don’t know if this question has been asked, but anyone knows why would Dues keep Harem around? He has to know all about her, so as far secret meetings and other confidential information, she’s not the best at keeping secrets.
cuz he believes in the strategic value of leaking secrets which he benefits more from their leakage than from keeping; tbh i have a feeling if he really wants something kept secret he simply won’t talk about it; if he talks, it’s fair game, partly to manipulate his enemies/allies when they find out
He believes she is working for him, relaying Archon secrets
But he also has stated he is counting on her also being a triple agent.
Regarding some posts here, Harem should not have such a hard time explaining her presence at Deus’ place. I don’t see a problem for her to have a personal relationship with him in her free time, from friendship to dating, and she could be there just visiting, not that she was all that about protocol. There’s a lot of possibilities, and it would be weird if there’s something in Archon’s contract obliging her to give account of her personal life.
She could even be arranging a “celebrity endorsement” contract, same way Maxima was offered.
Granted, when ArcLIGHT realize that such a link is going on they could rise her risk level a notch or two, but that’s not the same as to blow her cover all the way up, or even have her actually questioned.
Except it was revealed that Abby was the go-between relaying Archon secrets, whether that means Archon knows has yet to be revealed, guessing we will find out Thursday
I know. See my reply to Yorp below.
Investigations occur once potential leaks have been exposed. If Harem has been passing on confidential information (which seems very likely from the scenes we observed) and Deus has acted upon any of those, then the investigators may well be able to uncover that.
E.g. minutes after Harem is informed that the press conference about Archon will be later in the day, Deus suddenly starts to buy out minority shareholders in Machina Industries.
Circumstantial, but if a similar pattern emerges from other briefings Harem has attended, then their protestations of an innocent relationship will not be accepted.
Did Deus sell his gold whilst the team were being briefed about the geomancer, for example? If so Harem would be the only credible leak.
Yes, that’s right, I was just talking about what some people said that she was already busted just by telling Max she was at Deus’.
On the other hand, for a investigation to be opened they must believe there’s merit for it (resource management and all that), which could not be the case if Harem’s justification is plausible enough. That’s what I meant with my last sentence.
And just in case I’m not asserting that Harem is a double agent (as opposite to a triple).
Hmm, must have missed the part where she said where Sci-fright is…
Last page: “But Max, I know where she is!”
This page: change of scene to Deus’ office with an angry fairy and “Ow! Hey now!”
Was there a deleted panel somewhere?
We know Harem is at least a double agent (relaying information about Archon personnel to Deus), Deus is counting on her being a triple agent (or more), the old “I know that you know that I know, butt do you know that I know that you know that I know that you know?” trick (repeat it enough times and everyone will end up Schultz’d :P)
Harem is in the process of telling Maxima where Sciona is, even if she has been interrupted.
My comment was set in the future, when investigations were being conducted into Harem’s behaviour. Therefore contextually, by that stage, Harem would indeed have finished telling Maxima that Sciona was at Deus’s office.
“Like, if you spanked her… it’s not she wouldn’t know that she got spanked. but it might take her a second to figure out which one of her actually got spanked.”
That’s like saying that if I smack you it might take you a second to figure out whether I hit an arm or a leg. The concept only makes sense to someone who doesn’t have arms and legs.
Now, it might take Harem a few seconds to describe what she experienced to someone who doesn’t have multiple bodies, but her perception of the event should be instantaneous. Otherwise, it’s worse than useless: “Well, one of my bodies is on fire, so I guess all of them should roll around on the floor. Oops, that was a cliff.”
Yeah, but human body perception has glitches as it is, like the “rubber arm illusion”. Sometimes a sensation can be attributed to something that looks like the body part in question. Extend that to actually having identical sets of appendages and identical somatosensory cortices that basically function in parallel, and there’s a lot of potential for getting wires crossed there.
Just remember: there are five Daphne’s, the sensations are typically relayed instantaneously (remember during the Restaurant Rumble when Berry got hit by the rock and Bodie {who had been previously cut} made that comment about the same arm butt different body?), if one of them gets set alight, they are not going to be calm and collected and blasé about it: five bodies butt one mind
” five bodies butt one mind”
Precisely, but we’re looking at this in different ways. You’re going with the interpretation of each body being a whole separate entity, I’m saying that each one is functionally a limb. Yes, if extreme damage is done to one body she’ll be distracted in the same way that you’ll be distracted if you get shot, even if it’s only in the hand. But that doesn’t mean that you are never able to tell the difference between your hand and your foot.
What I am suggesting is that to her, the bodies are not separate entities. That appearance of separation is an illusion. For her, the difference between body A and body B is equivalent to hands versus feet or left arm versus right arm. They aren’t five separate bodies, they are just different portions of one body. They are all her.
I very much approve of dealing with Harem’s bodies as if they were limbs. It is by far the best way of us understanding her situation. And you have applied that logic well.
Yeah, saying that as well: which what the ‘five bodies butt one mind’ meant
Yes, that’s how I would take it as well. Sadly we cant argue with facts: there she is having a second of confusion in those circumstances (plus Word of God in the matter), so how she sorts her bodies is obviously NOT equivalent to how we sort our limbs. Something different is going on there.
I have mentioned in the past that I once was walking barefoot with my litter-mate, got to the end of the block, turned around and saw a trail of blood, leading down the pavement. Ending at my paw.
It was only at that point that the pain of having stood on a broken piece of glass hit me.
So I have first-paw experience of having mistaken sensory input for a limb (in my case that it was unhurt, when it was, whereas for Harem it was the other way around).
But things can get even weirder than that, in real life. Many patients who have a limb amputated can continue to feel pain in the limb, or have an itch on it. And V.S. Ramachandran has even shown how you can put a mirror up, next to the patient’s real limb, so that the reflection is in the position where the lost limb was.
Well, if you have not seen it before, you will want to see his talk on this, rather than have me paraphrasing it. Fast forward to 14 minutes, 10 seconds in for the part dealing with phantom limbs. Although the whole talk is facinating and every minute is worth watching!
Suffice it to say the patients could very easily be fooled into mistaking sensory input on one limb as being on another one. Even when that other one does not exist!
This analogy is a very sound one. I have used it often in the past and it withstood critical scrutiny from many angles. Even though analogies normally break down easily, this one is pretty robust (not perfect but it is a good match).
I fell off a flight of stairs when I was 13, slammed both my arms against the pavement and cracked a tooth. My left arm was swollen and throbbing, so the nurse splinted it, and sent me home with a note to see a doctor. The next day, my parents took me to a doctor, who X-rayed my arms, and pronounced that my arm was definitely broken – my RIGHT arm, which hadn’t hurt a bit the whole time. My left arm was just sprained.
The body doesn’t always know what’s hurt, or how badly.
Oh Jesus Sciona is even dumber than I thought!How is that even possible????
Power, pride, and a lack of introspection tempering the prior two; which leads to the classic trope of homicidal arrogance and rage.
Which is why Deus is simultaneously both less and more a threat than Sciona. Deus can be reasoned with and does not kill just because he can. One’s lifespan around Sciona tends to be supernaturally shortened. Deus has the potential to accumulate far more power in the long term simply because he does not abuse or break tools if he does not have to.
Sigh, the nerd perv in me cant help but wonder what happens when on of Harem is having amazing sex. Can the rest of her even function in a normal setting while that is going on? Or does she make a quick exit to hide and ride it out till its over?
“Don’t want to step up to the mike and do a Meg Ryan in ‘When Harry Met Sally’ to the U.N. Assembly.”
The Authority (2003) #6, page 9-10. NSFW. The possibility is brought up with a character who can do something similar, but it’s never specified what the result was.
That is one of the only other places I’ve seen the concept explored.
Now you make me wonder how she would handle a Ménage à Six situation. Something I am sure the resident Archon martial artist horn dog has contemplated.
Just thought of another thing Harem could do: to not disclose information under torture one of her other selves could do the reaction while the one getting tortured just moves a bit. Assuming there was some reason for her not to teleport out of the torture.
Nice idea, butt don’t believe that would work: it’s not like she can transfer the pain to another body, well, it does butt the body that is actually being injured still feels the pain
Yea it is an interesting concept, but I am sceptical about it too. Pain is an involuntary thing. The reaction is not something that we choose to do when we are hurt. Likewise Harem couldn’t choose not to react with one body. Well she could try, and maybe succeed for lower levels of pain. But torture usually does not use those.
To corroborate this just check out the scene where Harem had to bring out her body with the broken arm. No matter how carefully she prepared herself Harem knew she was going to be in unbearable pain!
Significantly Harem only has the one mind. She is feeling pain. It does not matter what body it emanates from. All of her is suffering. Hence why the super wedgie had other bodies, not physically involved, reacting.
Likewise in this scene we are only seeing the one body reacting, because that is the significant one that Maxima and Halo are talking to. But you can be sure that the one in front of Sciona also yelped. And probably others elsewhere too.
Had Harem been braced for that, she may have been able to prevent a reaction in certain bodies. But I do not think that she could do so when taken by surprise.
Something doubt anyone has ought up: why is Abby on that side of the table and Vale on the other? Unless they traded places when Sci-fright *BINK*ed in (doubt she would have used the front door)
Pretty sure the broken window indicates how the winged being approached the penthouse office.
Oh… broken window … right.
*screws up calculations about how tall the blue battlemech would have to be to be standing next to the penthouse of a skyscraper, without flying*
So, Deus is banging Daphne. He could be just posturing in front of Sciona, but that would go poorly for him if Daphne simply denied that she had any attraction for him.
Nah, Vale is banging the Daphne’s (or may be just Abby, seeing how it’s just Abby that shows up), not Deus
A personal ship of yours? All of their interactions that I recall have been negative.
Whilst that may be an impression that Deus is trying to convey, that need not necessarily be the actual situation. See the threads above for a prevailing alternative which does not involve that.
Which could of course be mistaken, and your, less convoluted, take could be spot on.
You know, I’m getting more and more curious who took something sharp to Deus’s face…
Deus, from an apocalyptic future, trying to stab his younger self, to stop him from causing the apocalypse. Only to have an even older version of himself parry the blow (their crossed blades causing the “X”) because he has found a way to achieve world domination over the ruined remains of Earth.
Probably.
IRL that kind of scar (kinda explosive) is usually caused by firearms. Either an exit wound or, way more probable here due the location of the scar, an entrance wound with the gun being pressed over the bone.
I bet someone put a very powerful gun between Deus’ eyes and fired. I wonder how he survived… if so.
WARNING – contains a gruesome close up of a real life open wound which caused death.
Alternatively it’s two slashing injury scars acquired in succession (though possibly close succession).
True. Scars left by slash wounds tend to be thin, though. For such a big scar to form, the borders of the wound should end wide apart at least for a while. That would mean that whatever hit him was not a sharp blade (the Epimorph could work, for instance), or the wound was subsequently altered (*), accidentally or on purpose.
Or, maybe Deus’ physiology just works that way (kinda keloid and/or hypertrophic scars).
(*) I remember reading about a tribal (is that the proper term?) custom of to make “body art” by performing multiple little adjacent cuts on the skin, and then applying a substance into them to interfere with the cicatrization forcing more notorious scars.
Deus may have taken the wound when he was younger. The scar tissue widened and stretched as his body (and face) grew.
I think you may have just discovered Deus’s super power. Or one of them.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/808
Found the answer to where she keeps her keys! Those little latches on her thighs!
I was thinking she might keep small stuff tucked in her bracers.
There is also the booby-box for storage of small items. Or in her case, small and medium sized items. Who am I kidding? Small, medium, and large items. Up to and including a compact car.
HAREM: Did you just hit her with a GOLF CLUB?
VALE: Five iron.
HAREM: Where the heck did you just get that from… uh… hammer space?
VALE: Cleavage caddy.
It has to be noted that Sciona is looking more professional than when we last saw her.
I can’t believe it took a close up of Deus for me realize his name is based off of ‘Deus Ex Machina’ ( an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a contrived plot device in a play or novel.)
There is an ‘X’ on his face. Deus ‘X’
There’re also the facts that he owns Machina Industries and that he still pictures himself with Maxima (arguably Deus X Maxima shipping).
You are correct. Believe it or not though the “X” on his face was not intended for that purpose, regardless of how well it fits. Either pure co-incidence or Dave’s subconscious pushing him in a direction that he did not consciously recognise, until readers pointed that serendipity out.
Maybe creative facial scarring is Maxima’s way of saying, “It’s over”.
Has anyone thought about how everything we’ve had so far has been Chapter 2? There was never a demarcation that established a chapter 3. (I know that that was probably just a format that Dave was playing around with, but I still felt it amusing enough to bring up)
Dave stated his intention that Chapter 2 (/book 2) would cover Sydney’s basic training. That has not yet ended, so we are indeed still in the second part.
*looks at panel 3*
Did he just use her to call SWAT?
He used the Buttphone!
A request to whoever it was who created the most excellent Grrl Power Comments Highlighter.* Is it possible to have an option to mark all pages in the whole comic as having been read?
Simply because although I do keep up to date with this but, having had to reinstall windows, it now appears that I need to go to every page manually for the application to recognize that I have seen it.
Sadly I do not have the time for a complete re-read at the moment. Or even just to click through every page, as there are so many of them now!
This enhancement (or a work-around) would be useful under more than just that circumstance though. For instance if reading the comment on another device, or in a different location.
Or if anyone knows a trick to do that, please let me know. I tried the various options but nothing leapt out (other than perhaps editing the list of pages viewed manually, but that sounds like an even longer option).
* That link being for the Google Chrome version, but also available in other flavas, found in the “Miscellaneous Goodies” sidebar (albeit that it may display at the bottom of your screen depending on your device/how your windows are arranged).
Love those stockings Harem has on. They are very nice! Is Dues such a pimp that he can just swatt Harem on the bottom and its ok?? Is he like that with the rest of his staff? Should Harem be hiding or something, she’s a spy or double agent right? Is it smart for her to be standing around Dues’s office like that?
Check out the window behind them. It has a big Sciona-shaped hole in it!* Harem was having her usual private chat, in Deus’s office, when Sciona smashed in for an unnanounced visit. So Harem had already been spotted, before there was time to hide.
We have seen that he is so adored by staff, and the public of his puppet nation, that even little girls give him gifts. Without a big soldier poking a gun in their back, as is the usual tradition. And he managed to win the affections of Maxima, for a while, despite the fact that she is hypersensitive to any hint of chavanistic behaviour.
So this seems very out of character. Perhaps there is more to this than meets the eye?
* The art threw me, and I did not recognise it as such, until someone pointed that out. It looked to me like either the silhoette of something outside or, thanks to the apparent bars running accross, some kind of stained glass window.
Those ‘bars’ though are just Sciona’s wings, in front of the window. Once you realise that, then the jagged shape of broken glass is very much apparent, with the blue being the sky beyond.
Butt, how do you explain the ‘broken’ glass pane on the other sides of the window frames? There are at least four panes of glass, not just one big sheet of glass
Wings. Sciona would have to have them extended up to just before the impact and does not appear to have finished folding them back at the moment of impact. We can see that her wings go above head height, so the leading edge could have broken the side panels before her body/head reached the window. Still allowing time to complete withdrawing them by the time of the main impact.
Plus smashing a centre pane of glass can stress the whole window frame to break glass either side of a dividing frame anyhow. But those side breaks look to be positioned about right for one part or another of her wings to have accounted for them. Either way though I don’t think it is a serious problem with the ‘Sciona came through the window’ hypothesis.
I’m seriously beginning to wonder if Vale is some sort of cyborg. Somehow I don’t think she’s a super, but if she isn’t, then I’m trying to figure how Deus could have so much confidence that she’d be able to easily defeat Sciona back when she was in an ogre body, let alone how she’d be likely able to beat her in her new (original) form.
Only things I’ve been able to guess is 1) she’s a cyborg or some other tech (like Luthor’s Mercy the Young Justice tough level) which makes her capable of being that good at fighting people who would be Deus’s enemies, 2) she’s some sort of ‘she’s so good that she might as well be a super’ fighter, like Math is, 3) she IS a super (like luthor’s Mercy the ‘Amazon’ tough level) and somehow has been under the radar of Archon, 4) she’s a normal human who’s a very good fighter (like Luthor’s Mercy in JLU tough level) and it’s all a bluff (although that seems like a big risk for Deus, considering how many actual supers he has on his payroll who would be better bodyguards in that case.
Not sure of any other ideas of what she could be, in order to be
I had just been thinking ‘super’ myself. Deus can afford to foot the bill. But your cyborg suggestion is great, as it fits the fact that he is the chief supplier of super gadgets to Archon. So if anybody could have a perfectly lifelike robot that could stand toe-to-toe with an arch villain it would be him.
It is worth noting that Dave has indicated that none of the supernatural factions are robots.* But Deus is not a part of the Council, so would not contradict that statement.
* There was a cameo of one robot, but only as a gag.
Me, I’m betting that Vale’s powers are related to Max in some way. Deus does have one half of the geode and they may have been able to either partially reproduce parts of Max’s powers or create something else based on it. Pure guess with nothing to back it, we will have to wait and see.
But I’ve been thinking of something else. We have been making a lot of assumptions that Harem will have to come clean as a double agent, but really. Is there a rule stating that people of Arcon can’t meet with Dues on a personal note? Just because Harem was there for when Sciona shows up does not really “blow her cover”. May bring up suspicion as to why she was there, but really all Deus and Harem have to say is I was offering the same deal that you turned down Max. Not only would Harem be off the hook so to speak but I’m betting it would annoy the hell out of Max and that alone would probably get Harem on board with that plan.
I went all the way back to the Pain Chain to see if Harem was represented there as well. Sure enough, she is.
What? Of course Harem was represented there, she was the ‘pain chain’
Fut the Wuck?
Spam crap, and they failed to even insert a virus link or website
Just do not click on the name. These are hot links and can take you elsewhere. Spammers may well direct people to malware laden sites.
The curious can just mouse-over to see where the link points. In this case it may just be random garbage, as you imply, but I sure am not going to click on it to make sure!
Doubtless Dave will delete the original post, when he sees it. Such is standard policy here. He is welcome to take out the whole thread, as far as I am concerned. But if not, this is just to point out why future readers may be confused by a gap at the top of the thread, or a really confusing start.
Tapping the name gets you to the Google play store where you find an online trading app with BAD reviews
Tappng on Spicefreak’s name, on the other hand, gets you to a hot blog.
It’s probably on Sidney’s reading list.
Ahh, you are braver than I. :-)
Be wary of orange names you do not recognise. Spicefreak is a reputable member of the community, which, yea, I am sure Sydney would have bookmarked!
Even with familiar names though, I would advise people to always check the mouse-over info (it appears in the bottom left corner of the screen – on my setup anyhow). It is possible for people to impersonate others here. Hence why I take the moment to confirm that it looks legit, before risking a click.
There are worse looking panic buttons…
He he.
Buttocks.
I say, that is a cheeky comment! ;-)
The set-and-forget is an interesting idea. Do consider though how invincibly powerful Sydney would become. Likewise if she could use four orbs (by using your taping technique on each hand).
Set the force field to raised, the air to supply, the flyball to fly in a set direction and speed (autopilot style). Then use PPO at will, with no risk of return fire, and no time constraints, thanks to infinite air supply. Grabbing the flyball any time a course alteration is required.
The rest of the time still being able to use any other orb, such as the tentacle, to rescue hostages or the truesight orb to penetrate illusions or invisibility.
I, for one, would probably loose all interest in the comic at that point. Halo would have no need of her allies, as she could overcome practically any situation on her own. With no risk, no challenge and no interest.
Then the only way opponents could stand any chance is if they find some way to stop her using the orbs in the first place. Either becoming like Super Man, in the enemy always needing to get Halo’s mitten kryptonite in play (yawn) or, more realistically, just shooting her dead, some time she does not have her shield up!
The comic is Grrl Power though, not ‘the Adventures of Halo’ So that is a possible fix to the story getting boring, if it does go down that route.
You are forgetting at least one key factor, which is that Sydney is not a megalomaniac. She has been described as not having a killer bone in her body, although that is perhaps an exaggeration (willingness to eat fish). Also, it has been pointed out that no matter how powerful her shield is, it should only be called “resistant”. And one known thing that gets through it is sound waves. I’m curious to know, if that one villain’s sonic attack had been directed at Sydney, how much of it would have gotten through (am aware that the shield blocked intense light beams but lets ordinary-intensity light through). Also, what about neutrinos? Just before a supernova explodes, it emits a blast of neutrinos so intense that despite their normal ultra-low-interaction-rate with anything else, the sheer numbers of them can still vaporize whole planets. If Sydney-as-spaceship can eventually do galactic exploration (those orbs got to Earth somehow!), who knows what weaknesses her shield may reveal (permeable by magic, maybe)?
Sydney does not need to be a megalomaniac to use the PPO in combat. She has already done so versus the super-construct. Versus less powerful foes she can use the tentacle. Anything in between she can stay invulnerable in her shield, flying around to find a solution. And use any or all of her other orbs to enact it. All at no risk.
Likewise she can form a one woman rescue team. Fly in invulnerably with infinite air supply, use the tentacle to move anything dangerous away (and/or destroy them with the PPO), once the area is safe, lower the shield to bring the hostages onboard the halomobile. All of whom will be safe indefinitely, no matter what the external conditions, and no matter how many they are, provided they can all fit in the embiggened shield. And can be flown to safety at 400 mph.
The suspense would be totally gone. Barring foes of Maxima’s level of power, Sydney could beat just about any enemy. And those few she could not, she would not be at risk from. Whilst Maxima may prove to be stronger, so far the shield has survived everything she could throw at it. So Sydney could still use the tentacle or PPO to interfere with whatever nefarious scheme a top-tier villain might be up to.
For all the lesser villains though they may as well just throw themselves in Archon’s jail.
Well, Sydney still has a significant learning curve ahead of her, before she can become too competent for the story. Remember how easily Sciona kept Sydney from grabbing her orbs, after that surprise teleport? We don’t actually know what Sydney told Maxima about the incident, but if Sydney kept the teleport a secret, then she also is missing out on, probably, Maxima insisting she train to use her orbs to do such things as break the wrists of whoever grabs Sydney’s hands. We’ve seen that an impact from one of those orbs can do significant damage, but if Sydney doesn’t react to the next surprise grab automatically and appropriately, she could have a short superheroine career.
In looking at the skill tree (page #181, archive #1166) for the shield orb, I can guess it has an even higher level of shielding available. Plus it has three other features (none selected), plus (I’m guessing) some sort of “combination feature” with each of the other six orbs. Maybe the combination-feature with the life-support orb automatically ensures the air inside the shield stays fresh. (Currently, the only “active” combination feature is some sort of connection between the flyball and the weapon orb. Any guesses on what that means?)
Anyway, it has occurred to me that perhaps one of the other shield-orb features is a way to put a shield around something that is apart from the orb-holder’s location. If so, then Sydney could shield a rock (from a distance), and Maxima could apply maximum effort to see what the shield can handle, without endangering Sydney.
Both good suggestions.
Sydney could have done with a way of enclosing Vehemence, without being in the shield, and risking life and limb.
I like the idea of a combination allowing the air supply to be maintained, whilst in the shield. Sydney already has a mundane solution which would extend her air supply beyond most normal fights. So it wouldn’t impact too heavily on her capability. But would make trips to Atlantis and Moonbase Alpha more convenient.
That restriction would be important though, as both mystery orbs have more powers to unlock on their trees. Which could well be significantly more powerful and open to disrupting the balance of the story.
Another thing regarding the skill tree is that it clearly shows how many activate-able things are currently associated with each orb (along with inactive-because not-yet-enabled things). The lighthook orb has 4 distinctly different *sets* of activate-able abilities, but how many of them has Sydney ever actually worked with? With Dabbler having memorized the skill tree, such that it can be referred-to at any time, this logically means Sydney has lots more experimenting to do, just to find out the full extent of what she can currently do with the orbs.
Possibly. Most folks think differently to me on this. They think the orbs have a bunch of powers already unlocked (perhaps factory presets or the previous owner’s use). However I think it is more likely that the highlighted skill points indicate things that Sydney has already unlocked, by ways she has used the tentacle.
For instance she mentioned testing out the tentacle lifting things, up to and including a car. Which could account for a number of points in ‘increased strength’. All without Sydney needing to pick something on the tree. Those occasions are what would grant a user to pick things which are not currently available (or not if they prefer to boost the shield strength the safe way, for example).
Another thing which we know that Sydney has unlocked on the orb (assuming her impressive displays correspond to a skill) is ‘precision flexibility’. Note how she wrote the comic book shop’s web address with the tentacle. Likewise how she was able to safely pick up three super heroines, in the restaurant.
Other capabilities might have included ‘increased length’ and maybe something she has not demonstrated in public yet. Say ‘erotic art’?
The next time we get a peek at the skill tree we should get confirmation whether my supposition is correct. Sydney was surprised by the air creating ability. So it is not something she has (consciously) used before (say in the bath, or when scuba diving). As such I would expect an extra light to have appeared on the mystery orb.
Although the lack of that would not actually disprove the idea. The orb may have been creating fresh air every time Sydney held it, but she just did not notice, as she was not underwater.
According to the story, page #181 is the first time Sydney encountered the skill tree, and therefore we must conclude that every enabled node on that page represents something she had access to from the get-go. She merely had no instructions regarding what those things were, and has been doing the equivalent of groping blindly.
I will note that the air-making orb has two enabled nodes, unconnected. One obviously is associated with making air. I’m going to guess that the other could make water (pretty important for most life-forms in this story’s universe).
One thing we can be sure of is the fact that the orbs can sense aspects of Sydney’s mind (essential for controlling them). I’m guessing that because she was part of a culture where high-speed air transport was common, that’s why the top speed of the flyball, available to her from the get-go, was Mach 4. If she had been born in the 1700s and had encountered the orbs, I suspect only the lowest-speed flying ability would have been available to her (and I would expect that with usage as as her comfort level increased, she would have been able to select higher speeds on the skill tree).
Likewise, she has a powerful shield because she is part of a culture where tremendous destructive forces are routine. The lowest-level shield probably would have been fine to stop rocks and arrows and maybe crossbow bolts, see?
I mentioned the above stuff because Sydney’s mind has not been thinking (even subconsciously) about a need for water at the same time she ever held the life-support orb. Therefore, no water produced. But she certainly needed air after that accident pulled her scuba mouthpiece off, in the pool! I kind-of want to see what happens if she enables another function of that orb, and needs to pee (hah!) —a **real** life-support system, after all, needs to handle both body needs and body wastes.
“The next time we get a peek at the skill tree”, the only differences from page #181 will be a node selected for the comm-ball (see #183, or #506 / archive #2447 –note that other stuff portrayed on #506 is what Krona sees, not what Sydney sees), and a node selected for the weapon orb (not so far shown in the comic). Therefore, for a significant time, we readers can keep referring to the excellently-shown tree on page #181.
I’m going to guess that Krona might be another person who could safely handle/use the orbs, with Sydney’s permission.
You miss my point. That is the first time she got to make an active choice. But the orbs could previously have been unlocking things that Sydney was attempting to do.
If we stick with the concept of them being ‘skill points’ (although there are many other explanations for what they represent and how they work), Sydney may have gained enough ‘experience points’, from practising with the orbs to unlock various low level features. However as she had been trying to use the tentacle to gradually lift heavier and heavier things, the orbs were automatically allocating those ‘experience points’ into unlocking ‘increased strength’.
It is only when Sydney finally reaches a point where she has gained enough XP to unlock various powers which could not be guessed intuitively, that the skill tree opened up, to allow her the option of a free choice.
I do like the ‘automatic allocation based on societal preconceptions and needs’ though. That is perfectly workable too.
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