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.
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I KNEW he’d turn a buck on this…
Well he is the ultimate capitalist, that goes without saying.
Now that we have all this stuff, that the council wanted to keep locked up at all costs, let’s give it to whoever is willing to pay for it. What could go wrong?
Well, you may say “What could go wrong?” go wrong, but Dues is very savvy when it comes to business (& the trope that goes with saying that) & would never say that himself.
;)
I do wonder which side Deus is on.
Then again, better question is, who is on his side. Without realising that they are.
Clearly he is on Harem’s backside. :p
Deus is his own side. The only way other people’s goals matter is how they affect him.
That is my thinking as well.
Tell me again, how can this guy not have a superpower?! (Unless it is being super cunning.) He has access to ALL the good transformative alien and supernatural stuff.
Also, can anyone clarify again, is Harem a double agent, triple agent, or her own agent just fooling around with both sides?… I can’t decide if I’m supposed to like her or not.
His superpower is having money. He can hire supers to work for him, so does not need powers himself.
The trouble with trying to grant himself superpowers is that neither Archon nor any of the supernaturals know how they actually work. As such are unable to replicate them. Or, if they attempted to do so, would have no control over the process.
Bear in mind that super hero (/villain) stories only follow those who survive the process. The rest are landfill, bits of exhibits in jars, in an asylum or out on an insane rampage across New York. Even if I had Deus’s resources I would not want to use myself as guinea pig number one.
Up until this scene we only knew that Harem was giving confidential Archon information to Deus. Making her a double agent. Deus confided with Vale that he was counting on Harem actually being a triple agent.
This scene seems to corroborate that, as Harem is letting the good guys know about Sciona being there. As this will doubtless compromise her presence and cast great suspicion on her activities, we can either assume that she was just a double agent, but has had a change of mind. Or that Deus was spot on the money and Harem has been acting under Archon orders and is reporting in as part of that.
That said she does enjoy fooling around with both sides.
Which does complicate your final point. Nobody likes a traitor. Technically if Harem was acting under orders, then she is not. And she is brave for facing the stigma of doing that.
But the reason why there is a stigma is because of the suspicion that will remain associated with her. Compounded by the fact that we saw Harem betraying Sydney’s confidence about being a (sort of) vegetarian. Can you trust someone who cannot respect a confidence for even a minute? Or who enjoys playing the traitor?
That is up to you to decide. She is one of the heroes today though, so just go with how you feel about her. And modify that as we see more of her. Especially if Dave does ‘a day in the life of Harem’ as he is toying with in the blog today.
Given that Deus is by definition the GrrlPowerUniverse version of David Xanatos, even looking a bit like him, then the reason he wants Harem to be a triple agent is precisely what’s happening now: he knew that there would be a hit against the Vault, and he knew that Sciona was not to be trusted. (It’s been setting up for probably over a year, after all.)
So having Harem as instantaneous communication is useful. She’s fulfilling that purpose even as we watch. (And he will want to continue this.)
Actually, I’ll lay odds that Deus is the geomancer that filtered out all that gold.
Possibly. But, as they met the geomancer, Deus could only do that if he was using disguises good enough to fool the head of Arc-Light* and Maxima. And not forgetting that Maxima and Deus used to date. So she knows him very well.
* Zephan. Plus bear in mind he is also a leader of the mage’s faction in the Twilight Council. And is a retired adventurer. So you can bet he has Lara Croft kind of skill sets thrown in the mix.
Original or ‘modern’ Lara? o_O
I’d say Original, at least based on the first game of the reboot. Nu-Lara seems to specialize more in the Killing Things and Not Dying To Grievous Wounds skillsets.
Cinema, original flava. Although I assume the new one will have equally impressive capabilities.
If by ‘impressive’ you mean ‘how many ways can she die a gruesome and very graphic death’…
Well Lara is just a well-trained normal person, with martial arts but no super powers. Harem is those advantages too, but can also teleport and has her choice of either super strength or multiple bodies.
Whatever tricks Lara pulls to avoid the potential for grusome death Harem can too. Whilst Laura can only dream of teleporting to safety! And super-strong characters have a bunch of extra survival options available, such as blocking attacks with any object in the area (including the rocks and paving in the ground).
Inescapable death traps kinda loose potency when you can rip chains off, tear locked steel doors off their hinges and use them as weapons or shields as required, or just VORP home.
Plus Harem can be striking any foe from behind, as well as in front, teleporting in weapons and maybe Varia, whilst leading a small army of supers to reinforce her position.
As we get older, some things we used to do so easily are not quite so easy anymore. Zephan is probably in that boat now. When he was younger (and less injured) he was swinging through obscure death-trap mazes in forgotten jungle temple complexes using a whip and the occasional shoot-em-up.
Now, his body isn’t up to those kinds of challenges. Occasionally, when he wakes up in the morning (but no longer at the crack of dawn), his knees and shoulders tell him he is not not as young as he once was and does not recover as quickly.
I wouldn’t be that surprised if Deus can read minds, except for two things:
-He completely misjudged Maxima’s reaction to giving her a jeweled choker. Then again, knowing someone’s response to something that hasn’t entered their head is different from what they’re thinking about at the time.
-Being around Sydney didn’t seem to distract him. I’d think that someone who has thoughts distracting to themselves would be contagious to a telepath. This would be a fun thing to consider in the future.
Mind-reading would be ideal for someone like Deus. You could get a lot more out of business dealings when you know what the other person needs and what they can afford.
That’s actually an ability that is MUCH more useful when nobody knows you have it. I suspect that Vale has an ability that’s better that way, so we may get some misdirection.
I can see Harem being partially partial to both sides, especially if she has a sense of what Deus wants. Wanting to protect her friends, while not wanting to be stuck on one planet all her lives when she knows there are alternatives.
Heh. Sydney must get +10 resistance versus telepathic intrusion.
I agree that Deus certainly could have subtle super power(s), such as telepathy, and just be smart enough not to overplay them enough for someone to guess. Although if they investigate other avenues that he may have discovered his business information and discount them, then rivals and others may be able to deduce that.
However he has so many different options even by hiring supers that nobody could point the finger definitively at him, unless they caught him in the act somehow.
And the key point is that he can actually have done everything we see simply using the resources of a billionaire with his own super gadget factory and access to a state intelligence network. Having super powers too is overkill.
But that can be fun. ;-)
Personally I do not think Deus has any powers. I have always seen him as the Lex Luthor of the Grrl Power Universe.
He has always struck me as the extreme capitalist who is hooked on the power his money has given him. He very much enjoys using that power to tinker with whoever comes near him, and is most certainly playing both sides of he fence, even a little more on the evil side then good. It could easily be inferred that any good thing he has done is just cover for illicit actions.
Or a Bruce Wayne that decided the best way to beat super-powered villains was not to put on an animal suit and run around at night with teen sidekicks, but instead decided to become a corporate mastermind and play the game better than them.
+1 each to both of you
To me the only evidence of him having super powers is his physique but it is possible he’s just in that good shape the old fashioned way.
If Deus played The Bard’s Tale, he’d choose the third option.
1. Side with mage, agreeing that the princess he’s locked up is actually evil and then kill her yourself and become a world-renowned hero.
2. Side with princess, agreeing that the mage is evil and kill him yourself to free her and she’ll have sex with you whenever you want.
3. Tell them both that they’re mental and to deal with their own problems, and you side with your own greed and wander off.
Seems Deus hasn’t been keeping an eye on social media for a while. Be careful not to get slammed with #metoo.
That won’t happen for a few years. Plenty of time to kill off any witnesses.
As Bridget Bardot said, a lot of those on that bandwagon are hypocrites
Did you see the SAG awards? Not a single male presenter
Ironic term right there. Just think about it, women running the SAG awards. ;)
You think they should be renamed the flaccid awards, to reflect the male nude actor statue?
I think Brian Griffin earned something similar.
That is a load of bull.
Ofc in any situation in the celebrity sphere there are those looking for more exposure but how on earth has that turned into “a lot”? Oh yes, let’s just belittle institutional and societal assault and abuse…its amazing how easily people twist themselves into the victim on the net. As to what Nakur said about being “slammed with #metoo” – if someone can’t take a step back and understand the difference between flirting and unwanted assault that’s a bit of a worrying sign.
And that goes both ways: someone who was just harmlessly flirting or being ‘overly friendly’ can be labelled a ‘sexual predator’ and they can basically toss their life in the sewer as not only is their job gone butt any future employment as well
Depends on the bandwagon used.
If it is to gain attention, then yes they are in the wrong. But those will be few and far between.
If it is the bandwagon of “I can now talk about the time/times I was abused/raped years ago and not have the fear of being branded a liar and kicked out of my profession” then it is not hypocritical and everyone should be jumping all over that shit.
Even just a few simply ‘seeking attention’ puts the whole thing in a bad light, and those few who really were abused won’t get the help or justice they need or deserve
“A few bad apples” and all that
Besides which, I get the feeling he’s trying to deliver a subtle message to Harem – perhaps also play for time – than actually do anything physical with Harem. Maybe pointing out to her that in leaving in a hurry to tell Max where Sciona is, she’s forgotten that she will have to explain what she was doing in Deus’s office in the first place..
Right, and I think he’s also sending a couple of messages: #1 He’s letting Harem/Archon know that he knows she’s a double agent, and #2 He’s letting Archon know Sciona didn’t get everything she wanted and that they could keep it from her if they rushed in with a counter offer.
Thing is, she knows he knows she’s a double agent. It was literally brought up to him the same time we found out she’s a double agent.
“she’s forgotten that she will have to explain what she was doing in Deus’s office in the first place.”
I don’t think she’s forgotten. She can just say she was playing double agent for Archon but made Deus think she was playing double agent for him. What I think she’s more likely to have forgotten (or not considered) is that there’s pretty much no way Archon would trust her claim at face value.
Unless she has actually been acting under orders. We have not had a hint of that yet though, from the Archon side. Deus was working under that assumption though.
*crawls out from under rock*
Pound (hashtag) me too? What’s that all about?
For the past year there has been a campaign with women outing guys who have sexually harassed them in the past, using the #metoo hashtag.
Good for shining light on an area that needs it. Bad because there have been a number of instances of due process being abandoned and men loosing their jobs merely upon accusations. Not all of which have been well-founded.
I am very much in favour of exposing such abuse. However due process should not be abandoned in the process. And it is extremely disturbing that people talking out about that get turned upon and hounded! We must not replace one injustice with another.
Our culture does need to be changed so that accusations are taken seriously and properly investigated. But we must campaign for that in a balanced way, where we do not risk encouraging false accusations. Each one of those that gets exposed harms the credibility of the campaign, even if they are far fewer in number than the genuine cases.
This is particularly bad as it shifts the debate from ‘how can we help abused girls and women’ to ‘how can we stop that harming innocent men’. Whereas if we followed the normal rules of our society, the latter would not be an issue and we could put all our resources into the more important former issue.
Yes, this
“Hear hear!”
Ah, Max just test how many Harems are in use? (Harem gets physically stronger the less copies, yes?)
Harem rarely ever has a low number of bodies out. It makes her feel blind and deaf and having lost limbs. I doubt Deus would have enticed her to meet with him if he made a condition that she must not have any other bodies summoned.
If nothing else that would make her feel that she is being set up, as she would be severely restricted in her power options. Rather than having several bodies leaping in to assist in her defence, Harem would have to re-summon each one individually. Precious moments lost in a deadly ambush.
Likewise she would be limited in only escaping to her most familiar locations. Which may well have traps or ambushes staking those out too. Whereas if she has any other bodies available, and in a safe spot, she can teleport to that body.
Wasn’t there a mention that the fewer Harems she has out the stronger she gets, but also she gets a little larger? All 5 Harems out 5’8″ only one maybe 5’11” or even over 6 foot. That would make it easy to see if she was down a few bodies, though I would not be surprised if Harem never ever willing went down to one even if she was specifically told to.
Strength yes, but she does not get larger.
At a guess you are probably mixing the latter up with the fact that Harem’s teleport encumbrance capacity increases when she has more bodies. From the loose association that we expect bigger people to be able to carry more.
In actuality she can physically carry a lot more as she does not just gain the strength of the bodies that she gets rid of, but actually exponentially increases her strength. If the progression followed the current patterns, and likewise with her gradually gaining extra bodies every few years, she should eventually become the strongest person on the team. When she limits the number of bodies she is using, that is.
At the moment though she only increases to two star strength. So super strong but not getting close to Mr Amorphous, Anvil, Stalwart, Super Hiro or Maxima’s strength. Even Sydney’s tentacle could beat Harem in an arm-tentacle wrestling competition.
Even worse her physical strength does not determine how much she can teleport. Whilst that does also increase as she removes bodies it is far more restrictive. Peggy’s sniper rifle being the biggest object Harem can carry, and then only if she goes down to just the one body.
Thought it was said that one Harem was equal to an un-boosted Anvil (mentioned during a wrestling session between the two), if no Anvil, one of the other females (fairly sure wasn’t Peg)
I have a vague recollection of something along those lines. If so though it does not match their profiles, as Anvil is ranked at three star strength (with her absorption being a separate, even stronger, power). Whereas Harem is only a two star.
Possibly Dave chose that as an average however, if she ranges from zero on the super strength scale, at five bodies, through to three at just the one body. And he has reserved the right to tweak the numbers if they do not match his intentions.
That said though they do, across the board, tend to correspond very well to the various scenes where comparisons can be made.
Like said: unboosted Anvil, can’t remember who it was exactly, just can recall the page showing Daphne wrestling with another female, maybe Anvil was just refereeing
Anvil’s cast entry reads:
Whilst her strength score is shown as three star and her energy absorption as four. So both entries are consistent with Anvil having three star super strength before she starts boosting.
I remembered where the scene was, Dabbler’s Science Corner #2. And you are correct, it does say “… putting her on a par with Anvil”.
So not matching the statistics we have, and as such Dave may have this on his list of fixes. Again though he may have put Harem as two star super strength as an average figure. So she could actually be three star fully boosted.
The discrepancy in having Anvil’s strength as an unboosted one versus Harem’s as an average could just represent their default combat states. Harem may habitually dismiss enough bodies to make, say, the remaining two have two star super strength. Which would still allow them subsequently to each summon an extra body for a surprise move (like teleporting to kick from four different directions).
However, even if assuming that Harem’s strength is the fully boosted one, they are actually well matched (current statistics wise). Because Harem is actually the better martial artist. So, when she is not feeling sorry for herself, she would be able to use her three star martial arts to counter Anvil’s three star strength.
Thus giving Harem the potential to make effective use of her two star strength. Yet this is nicely countered by Anvil’s two star martial arts.
All in all they are indeed well balanced. But overall rather than just literal strength for strength (or, if it is an average they are exactly matched as Dabbler says – so making that the more likely).
Even when they switch to an ‘all powers allowed’ match, as Harem’s multi bodies will allow her to make her martial arts even more effective (at the cost of exponentially lowering her strength with each body she recreates). But Anvil can counter that with her kinetic ability.
Possibly Harem’s multiple simultaneous head-kicks move may be able to overcome even Anvil’s formidable kinetic absorption. Three star multi-body power combined with three star martial arts provides credible maths.
Whilst bearing in mind it is not as simple as 3+3>4, given that each of those stars represents greatly increased power above the previous one (in the respective sequence). So only the third stars, for the initial two parts of the equation, would contribute significantly.
Wasn’t really doing a comparison between Harem and Anvil, butt indicating how strong a fully-boosted Harem was (because even of Anvil ‘dumped’ everything she had built up since she woke up, wouldn’t be long while getting physical in a sparring match or full fight for her to exceed Harem’s max strength again)
Oh, and she also had to leave her boots behind to lug the gun
I see where I was confused. I saw the blackboard and thought it meant that for each removed Harem she gained 25-50 pounds weight. It means she can carry more…
In retrospect that makes more since. As I doubt there is any woman on the planet that if they made a choice and suddenly say went from 120lbs and size 9 jeans to 145 and size 13 jeans where that would be ok. I dare say every single one would go back to the size 9.
Plus she is meant to be seeing him covertly. Which means she would need her other bodies going about their day job at Archon, to avoid raising suspicion.
However I did forget to give kudos for you for a cunning test idea.
“Here catch!”
Throwing a dumbbell that she should only be able to hold if having the limited number of bodies out that she claims.
That would rely on the tester knowing her full abilities
This is Deus we are talking about (note J.Knoff’s correction below). He knows stuff.
Plus it is certainly a test Maxima could use, even sticking with the inadvertent usage. She knows Harem’s capabilities in detail.
Oh and there was that press release giving the heroes’ powers. It may or may not have included that level of detail. The only classified things that we know about so far are three of Halo’s orbs and the golden skin.
Plus aliens, supernatural creatures and a colony of super spiders wearing a Vance suit.
I believe that the spider thing was a dry joke.
We don’t know that.
Yup. And, at last telling, neither did the author.
“Vance, your skin… it’s so silky.”
“Um, yeah, thats how it was ‘made’; which reminds me, I need to head to the pet store to buy a load of crickets… for… my pet iguana, yeah, that’s it.”
How will she explain that covert visit sans choker during the after incident report?
There’s no reason to believe she isn’t acting as a triple agent. This situation lends credit to that theory.
In fact it’s almost certain now that she is a triple agent. If not she will have a hard time explaining why she was in Deus’ office.
She will either have to explain to Max et all why she was with Deus without her choker or…
She will have to explain to Deus why she didn’t get in to trouble with Max for being there without said choker.
Either way, she is going to have a problem explaining to someone.
Harem will not have to explain anything to Deux. He already knows, and “won’t suspect a thing” when Harem tries to fool him.
Harem seems to be a clever girl who is not as clever as she thinks she is. Likely Deux recruited her and let her think it was her idea to do some spying. Now he wants to up the ante and one of the purposes of the slap was to expose her as having close, too close, contacts with Deux. [Another is to get Max and Sciona mad enough that they do what he wants them to.] Harem wasn’t thinking of the idea of triple cross fast enough so he is making sure she gets exposed and that Max will demand that she triple [or higher number] cross. He is confident that in any game of getting useful information & passing on what you want the sucker to know, he will come out well ahead.
Berry at Archon has her tracker on, Abby getting slapped does not
She also gets taller as her number of bodies decreases. I think it was discussed in the page where Sidney borrows Peggy’s flight suit.
Ahh, I did not remember that. Apologies to Wenthral, for disputing that above, if that is the case. I shall have to go back and re-read that when I get a chance.
Just checked out the scene in question. It is actually just a discussion that supers tend to be taller than other people. Harem is only mentioned facetiously by Sydney. With Peggy replying in kind.
An interesting scene as it shows a bit of a bonding moment in their shared ‘we are not natural born supers’ and ‘we are both very short (by comparison)’.
I hope they hang together more. They get on nicely together and Sydney could learn a lot from Peggy.
Anyone without super powers (or similar, such as mystical martial arts training) who can fight shoulder to shoulder next to supers, and rack up victories against the same, can act as an excellent role model even to super-powered recruits!
** I meant Dues, I keep getting character names mixed up >_<
Peruse
pəˈruːz
verb:
read (something), typically in a thorough or careful way.
“he has spent countless hours in libraries perusing art history books and catalogues”
examine carefully or at length.
“Laura perused a Caravaggio”
I should note though that some dictionaries only have the older meaning. They will catch up in due course no doubt.
I reject definitions which contradict themselves. That is not what words are for.
I refer you to the opening scene of _Gambit_, a Nero Wolfe mystery by Rex Stout, concerning the 1960 edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary:
“Do you use /infer/ and /imply/ interchangeably, Miss Blount?”
She did fine. She said simply, “No.”
“This book says you may. Pfui.”
It is entirely appropriate to ignore informal definitions which do that. Popular culture loves inverting the actual meaning of some words.
But you loose street cred if you are not at least aware of them.
The context that Deus has used the word in though is not the informal one. Rather it is the primary usage in both dictionaries’ definitions.
The traditional meaning having reverted to its secondary place given that it is now just a specialist use of the more generally useful take.
Flammable: inflammable.
look it up, that’s not even modified for comedic effect.
That’s because is flammable is an abbreviation of inflammable, from to inflame. (from the latin inflammare).
not an abbreviation, two separate words. flammable means (or at one time, meant) “can be consumed by fire”, as in, throw it in a fire and it will burn, but that does not specifcally mean it will support combustion on its own. inflammable meant “with an ignition source, this will flame up and burn.”
we were carefully taught the subtle difference in grade school science classes, at one time. But “in” as a prefix has two possible meanings, the other being “not”. people got confused when seeing warning signs on tanker trucks and the like that they clearly understood to mean “warning: this tank of explosive rocket fuel will not burn”. so the warning no longer has the “in” prefix, and meanings of the words have merged.
I hate to break this to you- but usage is what defines whats in the dictionary. some are more willing to change than others. but if a word is shown with contradictory usage in a dictionary- it is because it has been used thus in more than a few places. one can look up Ain’t in a dictionary now. much to the consternation of English teachers everywhere.
Didn’t consternate all English teachers. My teacher welcomed it openly and used it as a moment to teach our class about the process of idioms, derivations, and other such linguistic flotsam becoming accepted words.
And to the consternation of a few other people, like myself, who aren’t English teachers, but were raised in a time when using ain’t just ain’t right.
I’m not generally a prescriptivist (though that’s somewhat irrelevant since I believe both prescriptivism and descriptivism are problematic as absolutes), but I outright refuse to accept secondary or informal definitions that are the exact opposite (or nearly so) of the primary or formal definitions; and definitions (or words) that arose from a fundamental misunderstanding or ignorance of the word’s original meaning or structure. I don’t care how descriptivist you are: Using “nonplussed” to mean “not surprised” or “unfazed” is just flat-out wrong; and “irregardless” may be “technically a word”, but it is always the wrong one.
I also take some exception (how much varies case by case) to secondary/informal definitions that make a word less specific (and thus less distinct from any near-synonyms, and thus less useful). I think writing would be more interesting and nuanced if we all tried to use certain words according to their primary/formal (usually more specific) definitions, freeing them from “the sterile confinement pen of synonyms” (David Auburn) for related but broader concepts that we already have words for.
For example, I would love it if more people more frequently (not always, but more frequently) used “exceptional” to mean “unusual” (rather than “really good”), “remarkable” to mean “worthy of attention” (rather than “really good”), “fantastic” to mean “imaginative or fanciful; remote from reality” (rather than…wait for it…”really good”), “extraordinary” to mean “very unusual or remarkable” (rather than “unusually great”), “incredible” to mean “difficult or impossible to believe” (rather than “amazingly good or beautiful”), “innocent” to mean “harmless” (rather than “not guilty”), etc.
What about words like ?
Ahem, like dust?
With more pressing concerns in my day-to-day living, I tend to “overlook” that one…
;)
Which is why computers may some day take over the world, but they’ll never pass a turing test against a truly determined human.
Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana.
Requires so much semantic knowledge and contextual information that correctly parsing either, when used in a real world situation, that the parser might be self-aware in its own right.
Elf awareness flies like a mirror.
Slapping Harem’s butt is the superhero equivalent of pushing the silent alarm button at a bank.
Lol.
I had not taken it that way. Maybe. I like the angle. Especially if he is anticipating the situation at the other end, so having the double entendre subtext:
“Here is a message for Maxima”
And as a known double-agent, it is a common thing to figure out when to intentionally feed information back to the original employer. As a shady genius capitalist, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had worked out a code of specific signals before hand. Maybe based on how mad they would make Maxima if he had done those to her.
Spanks, slaps, and caresses are short predetermined messages (“Help”, “Hello”, “Good game”, “Happy feast of Winterveil”).
Grabs and squeezes are for sending morse coded messages.
squeeze.squeeze.squeeze. Squeeeeeze.Squeeeeeze.Squeeeeeze. squeeze.squeeze.squeeze.
squeeze.squeeze.squeeze.squeeze..squeeze..squeeze.Squeeeeeze.squeeze.squeeze..squeeze.Squeeeeeze.squeeze.squeeze..Squeeeeeze.Squeeeeeze.Squeeeeeze….squeeze.squeeze….squeeze.Squeeeeeze..Squeeeeeze.Squeeeeeze….squeeze.Squeeeeeze….Squeeeeeze.squeeze..squeeze.squeeze..Squeeeeeze.Squeeeeeze.squeeze..squeeze..squeeze.Squeeeeeze.squeeze..squeeze.squeeze..squeeze.Squeeeeeze..Squeeeeeze.squeeze….squeeze.Squeeeeeze.Squeeeeeze.squeeze..squeeze.Squeeeeeze.squeeze..squeeze.squeeze..Squeeeeeze.squeeze..Squeeeeeze.squeeze.Squeeeeeze.squeeze..squeeze.
Might not be the best system. Long messages take a long time to dictate this way and it might be difficult to arrange a covert groping like that.
i don’t know a snake ring did pretty well with squeeze as its only communication.
Wow, I did not expect to find a Sning reference here. Good Job, you got me to cough trying to inhale Fun Dip. :)
For anyone wondering: Incarnations of Immortality, by Piers Anthony. One of his better works, at least for the original 5.
Be careful not to hit the wrong side of Harem or your might trigger the non-silent alarm.
That would explain how Harem knows where Sciona is, if she is standing right in front of her!
And means that Harem is one of the good guys, if she is letting Maxima know!
Guesticus‘s faith in her has been proven!
Harem likes to be on all sides
Giggety
Out of curiosity, are you a Jedi? Or a mafia enforcer?
Only a jedi deals in absolutes. Could be a mafia enforcer who is/was a Jedi/Sith.
As DaveB has shown in his Deviant Art works, Harem can actually become her own “self-induced orgy.” I’d like to be the one in the middle when Harem is on all sides…
Now, we just have to see how she explains what she is doing with Deus (butt good to see that the one who meets with Deus has consistently been Abby)
I think that Harem was always a good guy, and she was more bored with the status quo with Dues probably reading her character fairly accurately and offered her both money and a “New experience” being that she done more the a active 50 year old by this time in her life. Something new experience was really tempting and was probably an irresistible hook for her.
That said I’m thinking she is not an active triple agent but is about to come clean with her interaction with Deus and most likely get in a heaping great deal of trouble. Leaking of classified information is a very very serious offense and she has been a veritable sieve of information to Deus. The classified nature of Sydney’s Comm ball alone comes to mind. She is if nothing else a tremendous security risk.
Now that I think about it if she was not a sanctioned triple agent, then this not only could get her kicked off the team but she could be facing real federal charges and real prison time.
All good points.
One extra factor to consider is that Maxima keeps telling Harem off for teleporting into meetings above her pay-grade. As Harem has a lower security level there are things that she is not aware of. Although not too low as she was part of the teams hunting Sciona, so she does know one of the biggest secrets.
Other than that though hopefully they have kept Harem from learning other classified stuff. So, even if she has been acting of her own accord, they may decide that the information compromised did not harm national security enough to justify loosing her unique powers, by imprisoning her.
If that is the case they may sentence her to either a suspended jail sentence, or conditionally commute the sentence (as, depending on their rules, a police officer with even a suspended sentence, for such a severe crime, may not be allowed to serve).
It would be a lot cleaner if she has been operating with their sanction.
Soooo is Harem sleeping with Deus, or what?
Nope, Vale
I agree that the ‘nope’ is most likely correct. I have not however picked up any hint of romantic interplay between Deus and Vale. Nor anything lustful even. So far I have only observed a strictly professional relationship.
But it is a close one mind, so I can see why your thoughts might go there. The way that Vale asks if Deus would like to try the thunder generator, before it is sent to have the button altered, has the feeling of her long-suffering patience at having to deal with his eccentricities.
Yes it is something you would expect from a couple who had been married or involved for a long time. But you can get the same feel between a secretary or other personal assistant, if they have been together for similarly long times.
In their case Vale clearly serves as his bodyguard (and likely other roles too, such as we see with the thunder generator) and has done for a long time, as she was present way back when he took over the country he now rules through a figurehead.
No, meant that Harem is sleeping with Vale
Ahh. :-)
So Deus suspects Harem is a double agent. And know we know for sure because she reports to Maxima about it. Then Deus is an enemy to the council, one of ARC’s allies. What now? Will they tell them? And what is Deus going to do? He cannot really explain why he robbed the council.
Robbed? More like rescued! They were about to lose *everything,* and he instead got away with a lot. Minus a finder’s fee of a few artifacts, I’ll bet he’d sell most of it back.
Why would he suspect that? Because he slapped her butt? That was because of his comment about having the effect of leaving women flustered in his presence, he would have done that to Vale… if she was on that side of the desk and he wanted to lose his hand :P
He already knows she’s a double-agent. Working for him at all is what makes it a “double” since it is already known that she works for Archon. What he suspects is that she’s a triple agent.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/797
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/808
Again, why would his slapping her butt imply that he suspects her of being a triple agent?
That was not why he slapped her
Looking for an answer to your question, as opposed to taking any side in the issue, check out Deus’s dialogue in panel 2. Overtly it is just a generic boast. The slap makes it more personal. Yet we have not seen any scene in which Harem has ‘left in a huff and forgotten something critical’.
But we have seen some other lady doing that… Maxima.
If Deus has reason to believe that Harem is aware of that scene,* then his words can be seen as a reference to Maxima, and the slap on the bottom being something that he would do as a way of teasing her. Either for when Harem rushes off to report in, or if Harem was already doing that, for Maxima to observe first-hand.
As I predicted, at the suggestion that Deus was involved, the intricacies and possibilities of the plotting are immense!
Nice one DaveB.
* Either from him having had a laugh with her about it, her having seen it on remote monitors, courtesy of him, or him spying on a conversation between Harem and Maxima about it)
You mean the SWAT on the bottom. Very different from a slap.
Something that Dabbler very much wants, but cannot have.
I’m not convinced “agent” with any multiplier in front of it is a good description of Harem’s role in this. She seems more like a ‘high speed back channel’, a pipeline moving relatively inconsequential ‘good faith’ information both directions. Sure, there’s a juicy tidbit here and there to confirm the value of the system, but neither side seems particularly oblivious to the importance of keeping her access restricted.
Aannnnd now Harem will have a great explanation as to why she is in attendance with Dues. Double-triple secret reverse counter spy. My brain hurts just trying to figure out who knew what when and was “in on it.” Daphne probably least of all. Will Max be able to keep a straight face through Daphne’s version of what she thinks was going on?
Didn’t I see a chart or something somewhere (Dabbler’s Science corner?) that implied Harem’s duplicative power manifested in stages? First two, then three up to the current five?
Is she “due”?
Has anyone discussed what would happen if one of her got severely killed?
What is the distinction between “killed” and “severely killed”?
There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do. Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
*eats a mutton lettuce and tomato sandwich*
Sright.
In a world with undead creatures I think those might be considered severely dead.
Woah, what would happen to the rest of the Harem’s if one got turned to some variant of undead, say vampire? Or got turned into a werewolf? Would they still be one mind, would that be a vampire mind? Sorry, I know big left turn, but that question just leapt into my mind.
Getting killed is one experiment Daphne has no plans on ever willingly undergoing
Comic reference for that: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1680
The chart you’re looking for is here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2371, and it does suggest that Harem will, at some point, manifest more bodies (note extra rows at the top of the chart).
And there we have it. Miss and Lee that’s a lot more direct I was expecting but it works. I know these people Mitra mean everything else makes me wonder what would be like if harem head a child. The pain of birth for one child over 5 bodies has got to be a very intense Experience for the mother
If she was singular (4 copies unVorped) when she pregged up, then she could have five babies at once. And Archon doctors could definitrly end the “nature vs nurture” debate forever.
Except that when she un-vorps any given body, it goes into a kind of stasis…While in stasis, that body is not affected, nor affecting, any other body. This is what allows her to modify & personalize each of her different selves (hair dye, tattoos, etc.) & none of that affects any other body.
It’s likely to work the same way in reverse too…Only the one body getting pregnant would be affected, no matter how many other bodies she has “internalized” at the time of conception.
Now if she were to participate in a real orgy & managed to get all of her selves pregnant at the same event, then I would bet that each of her bodies would eventually deliver 5 different babies, each with a different father. As a side effect…Damn, just think about all of the child-support she could get…
That’s my story & I’m sticking to it…Unless DaveB specifically says otherwise.
Yeah, i recalled that after posting. but I thought that the persistance of her teleported copies was optional, and if correct, what I said above is true.
Also, if bodily persistance is optional, she can leave a body on “vorp ice” for decades. when her (four or less) extant bodies that she uses all the time get old wrinkly and gray, she uncork the body she’s kept on ice, de-vorp the old wrinkly bodies, and start over. tele-persist 4 new young bodies from the one she just deiced, vorp-ice one of them, and continue living forever.
It is not optional, by the mechanisms that have been described. Harem’s bodies come out of stasis the same way they went in. Hungry, thirsty, bleeding, or whatever.
Your ageing trick will work even without the persistence being optional. Harem’s body that had the broken arm was in a state of suspended animation for a number of days. So if she is destined to die of a genetic age related degenerative disease, on her 70th birthday, that body should live a few days beyond her peers. All other things being equal.
However where it fails is that Harem does not merge back into one body, so cannot turn old bodies into young ones the way you hope. MidnightDStroyer was spot on with all points. In particular that all of the changes to each body (such as tattoos) are permanent.
Harem cannot teleport a body back into herself. If two bodies occupy the same space you would get, at best, Option A. At worst Option B.
Rather we can deduce that her bodies go into some kind of null space, or at least somewhere that time does not exist. So all Harem can do is put bodies in and take them out. Not merge them in any way.
But I am pretty sure that there are six Harems and one of them is a young teenager. For the next sixty or seventy years. Harem is smart enough that I would be very surprised if she had not figured out that she can double her lifespan, if only for that one body.
Now if during her lifetime Harem continues to develop the ability to create new bodies, then she could choose to do that with her youngest self each time. If she has no upper limit to how many bodies, then she would effectively be immortal. Barring misadventure.
The most likely limit is just how many she can control at once. Which may have capped at five. But as these ones die off, be that from being killed in the line of duty or, hopefully, old age, Harem could create a young replacement, from her eternally stored body.
Thanks… I thought it might be something like that.
Maybe she’s generating ‘points’ from each of her living bodies and eventually she’ll have enough to make another….unless she’s saving those points for an emergency.
When her body cap goes up, she has to be templating the new body off of something. In all likelyhood, if she has a youngster body stored, she’ll eventually pop that out and use it as the template for any further new bodies. If death actually frees up a slot (or she has some unused capacity banked), she’s functionally immortal, using the stored youth as a template to repopulate and then putting it back into storage.
If her cap IS based on managing input, then death has a very good chance of simply freeing up a slot (with, you know, some trauma maybe). Her biggest limit then becomes how much memory capacity does the external gestalt mind have – can she hold more than a couple centuries of experience, or does the past get selectively fuzzy for her as she retains only the more regularly exercised memories? Ah the trials of immortality.
I hope that she gets on well with Achilles. They will be able to reminisce and remind each other about life on Earth, before the Sun engulfed it.
She’s not ‘templating’ a new body from an old body, it’s simply: when she manifested a new body, she created a new body at the initial *VORP* point which would be an exact copy of the one *VORP*ed
So, suppose she could leave one in semi-permanent ‘storage’ for when she is next ‘due’ an extra body, pull it out and duplicate that one, problem is, there will be an extremely large physical age gap, not to mention, basically cutting a piece of herself off from life, for someone who gets such a thrill of experiencing so much (one of the reasons she is ‘spying’ for Deus), why would she do that?
If I gave you the option to select one hand (or foot) of your choice to be cut off, in exchange for eternal youth and immortality (barring gross misadventure), would you take that option?
Then what if I allowed you to grow an extra two limbs, of your choice, before having to make that decision? So even after having chopped one off, for immortality, you would still have more than you have experienced before?
This assuming that Harem has already made that decision, at some point in her life, and has popped one body in storage. Which is purely my take, I should add, as we have nothing to support that otherwise.
Not to mention a very fine chart (linked elsewhere on these current comments pages) where the ages that Harem manifested each extra body. That did not have a nice convenient gap where such a body may have been created.
Nope, no deal regardless if you let me grow extra (fully functional) limbs
The Daphne’s have already stated that she can’t imagine voluntarily reducing her selves down to just one for an extended period of time, and unless she blocked awareness to herself about the ‘extra’ body in storage, she would be itching to bring her out so she can experience even more from life (not to mention be stronger), also, if she did that, how would she know she even had one in storage? o_O
You can’t experience anything if you are dead. And that is inevitable for all people. Barring Achilles and, at her option, Harem.
Being able to hold two extra forks, for a few years, seems like a poor substitute to eternal youth and immortality, whilst still being able to hold one more fork than any other human.
Also do note the diminishing returns. Upon getting your third hand you gain considerable extra options, such as surprising someone with a weapon they did not know you were holding.
But whilst being ablel to draw two weapons, has pose value it is no more likely to surprise than one. And maybe less so, as it is easier to spot two concealed weapons.
Just as it would be easier to spot two people, rather than one, trying to sneak up on an enemy (under circumstances where they do not have direct line of sight and need to scout the approach, like at the Mars warehouse).
As for the feeling, it is not as bad as having a hand in a pocket. Because whilst it is there you can feel it being jostled, it gets in the way of you reaching your change and you are constantly reminded of it. Whereas one that has been removed from time is not experiencing any sensations.
However I would grant that there would be an itch to draw it out. But it is not like it is something unique. She has extra bodies, you would have extra hands. Whilst Harem would feel badly diminished going down to just one body, there would be proportionately less loss going from five bodies down to four.
In fact Harem put off getting her injured body out, for quite some time. So the loss was not anywhere near enough to compensate for the pain. Just like in painfully cold weather you would want to keep your hands tucked in nice warm pockets, rather than waving them around, in agony, just to demonstrate fork-holding techniques.
There is no point loosing hands to frost-bite for the sake of experiencing slightly more sensations or having slightly more utility. Just as there is no point in loosing life for a few transitory extra experiences, compared to gaining more experiences in perpituity.
Go on, it would be nice to have a familiar face at my 3,000 AD Stonehenge Summer Solstice bash. Rather than to have to toast one extra absent friend.
We will haz Yorpie Snax!
Aging and side is I had not thought of that particular ability it’s been mentioned that people who are related by blood tend to have similar powers if they have powers at all. That makes me wonder would a potential Harem child have the ability to make teleport copies of themselves?
Hmm, did you put Vale in the Who’s Who by mistake? Meant to put Sci-fright butt got the tags mixed up? o_O
I think you answered your own question. Vale’s “butt” deserves an entry all its own.
Now that statement is worthy as a double-entendre in its own right…If you happen to be in for that sort of thing.
:P
Keys are for people who can’t afford embedded microchip security systems. I’d be shocked if Deus & Co. weren’t on the cutting edge of these technologies.
Embedded microchips are for people who are oblivious to the loss of personal privacy and the potential for perfectly targeted genocide. So something that Deus may well have invested in, but would his chief of security/personal bodyguard want to compromise her stealth by allowing electronic devices to detect her presence?
+1
I’m aware of the RL implications of these systems, which is why I won’t be getting into this tech if / until it’s secured. This is a comic book superhero setting though, with technological potential that we haven’t tapped yet being more mundane for them. Also there’s other RL systems out there replacing keys that I didn’t think of first. (On a sidenote, I didn’t realize how antagonistic that wording was when I wrote the first post… I sometimes forget how much of a dick pre-coffee-me is. My apologies! hah)
No apologies needed. You just pushed the worst button for me, as that is a very real threat that we face, and now is the time to put a stop to it, before the momentum of big industry and government convenience steamrollers us into having to use it.
This is a dangerous self-deception. We do not have such a thing as a secure system. Your whole point stems from that, if you think about it. What we have is a backwards and forwards fight between creating a new level of security and someone (usually the day it is released) finding a way to crack it.
Here are a few abuses:
• Tracking whether kids are in school, and whereabouts they are at any given time.
• Criminals can tell when you are not at home to burgle you.
• Being able to convict you of a crime, because of the information about where you were and what you were doing at any given time.
These by the way are not hypotheticals. They are actual examples of things happening with smart phones today. The difference is that the embedded chips you cannot take out without chopping yourself open and digging it out!
Security cards can be hacked. Smart phones too. As will embedded chips.
The worst thing though is that they will be incredibly useful to employers, banks and the government. So there will be a huge pressure to use them. Or to loose access to banking, employment and government services. Of course they will be optional… at first. Up until the majority of people use them.
Then the number of services you can access without them gradually declines. I know this because I live life without a smart phone.
In general, no device that can receive and follow commands over radio can ever be trusted to be under a single human’s control. This will remain true no matter how many problems with tech and society/govt/bidniz are solved. If there’s an attack route, the bad guys will try -and occassionally succeed- at hacking it.
Security systems, no matter how good, only provide time, not lasting security. The security created by the tools of good wetbrains can eventually be hacked by bad wetbrains, and there’s an endless supply of bad.
I just KNEW there was a reason I liked you Yorp!
That’s a fantastic summary, cheers. I just want to point out that I wasn’t entirely clear – I’m under no illusion that anything can be perfectly secure, or even close to it, so I should have added the word “relatively” in there.
Totally agree with you about the dangers of profit driving industry to push consumers into higher risk lifestyles, too. I share that concern over ICS tech’ as well – I would like to think it’ll be improved for relative safety before it goes from being a volunteer technology to voluntold, but I’m too cynical / grounded / experienced to really believe that.
Also, the apology was needed, for myself mostly. Just how I was raised.
So the one Harem(short white hair and glasses)works for Deus and thus she knows Sciona is at..?!
Yes.
And I won an internet nickel! Where do I go to collect?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2746/comment-page-1#comment-622883
Very nicely predicted. You may also haz a Yorpie Snax!
Far more valuable than an internet nickle!
That Daphne is code-named ‘Abby’, the one in panel four is ‘Berry’
And, as the Daphne’s would tell you: there is no ‘this one’ or ‘that one’, if one is working for Deus, they all are working for Deus
So many different ways to abuse ‘it’ as a descriptor, I wonder if Cooter/worm actually has what Sciona is Demanding.
He did have at least two artefacts. The Regenator, which was designated as being intended for him, per Deus’s assessment anyhow. Plus the one we saw him wielding, when he made his escape. The two were very different in appearance (albeit that one was only seen in an imagined scene, so it may be a misleading fish implying that there are two). But he could have stuffed more than that inside his body.
DaveB:
“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…”
I’m sorta worried what this means for Harem in a more dire situation. The confusion caused by her multiple physical presences- even if only lasting for a second- can be serious trouble. For example, one body gets shot and the confusion and distraction puts the other bodies in danger, or similar.
Nevertheless, I must applaud this attention to detail. :-)
Go back to the Maxima-wedgie page
Oh yeah… But that was at least a prank.
I remember a Harem getting cut by Mach the Knife. Didn’t one Harem also break her arm?
Yep.
Vekter smashed one of the not-violette(purple-haired) Harem( not 100% sure but Strawberry is the one who was in uniform at the time)’s Right arm.
Yeah, Bodie got sliced, then Berry got rocked
All bodies feel the pain, butt only one actually sustains the injury, it’s possible if it had been Berry’s left arm, Bodie may not have ‘felt’ it as much as she did (rock hit-sensation on top of actual cut would ‘hurt’ more than just the rock hit)
I can’t believe no one (except Cesret) is linking the ‘swat’ sound effect to the fact that he wants Arc-Swat here ASAP.
He he. Love it.
I guess there are those times when, if ArcSWAT doesn’t have sufficient intelligence info, that it might be necessary to give them a swat in the butt to get them moving…
I must say that Harem’s day would have the most incredible scope for writing. But I love Peggy and would like to see more about how she fits in around all of the super powered types. She has shown that she is badass enough to take on otherwise invincible supers, despite having no powers/secret martial arts training.
I bet an awful lot of her day will be training, rifle range practice and building up her flight time. But there is a lot of scope in the latter for things that a squad with some flying members. So I imagine she can have pretty interesting days.
I am surprised that Harem manages to keep her weight in check. Her 5 bodies are out of sync and are all running on their own biological cycles. With her shared sensations it would mean that at any given time there is a good chance all of them would be likely to be feeling hungry. And it would be a real nuisance feeling the need to ‘go’ all the time when it wasn’t even your own body.
We won’t even mention dealing with ‘that time of the month’.
That isn’t a problem for most supers. They generally have “heroic bod” archetype and are taller, better built, more athletic in general, and have no body hair at all. It’s part of the package apparently. This was stated in the following places:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/868
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/876
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/880
and finally https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1816
Except Sydney gets “pilot of spaceship” and thus no bod-mods. And of COURSE these things only get discussed in showers and dressing rooms.
Women living together naturally synchronize menstrual cycles. Even if one of her bodies gets stored long enough to get out of whack, it’ll probably move back into conformity very quickly. Possibly _extra_ quickly depending on how much of the process is hosted on her core awareness.
Syncing cycles is largely debunked.Google shows lotsa info on this.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_synchrony
Ooh, thanks for pointing that out. I had been tempted to make a similar reply, and was not aware that the claims had been debunked.
It did always disturb me mind. I just could not see an evolutionary advantage to that having developed. To the contrary, if looking at survival of a small group, at risk of dying out (pretty much the state of affairs for humanity for most of prehistory) having desynchronised menstrual cycles would be better for humans.
That would increase the chances of procreation (ignoring modern society having monogamous customs). Whereas synchronised cycles does the reverse.
And, even looked at from the individuals point of view (still within the context of primitive tribal society), if you have a situation where a rival female is keeping the attention of the man (or men) that a woman is keen on, if their cycles are matched, then there would not be the opportunity presented to take advantage of being sexually available when the rival was not.
… oh that’s SCIONA. I almost didn’t recognize her as a full-bodied non-naked female.
Yea, shame she has lost her distinctive good looks.
Technically, she hasn’t lost her good looks. Right now, it appears that she’s “dressing down” as a disguise for her unique appearance.
No, Yorpie was talking about her ‘borrowed’ orc-body
I think Yorp has a thing for… prominent canines? *wokka wokka*
Grey skin, white hair, Tyreal wings, poorly socialized… Was there some other distinctive feature you were looking for? :)
Yes.
Wtf is Sciona wearing? Don’t get me wrong, I get that she’s another nut who wants to kill a lot of people. I pegged her for a more refined set rather than a more batmanesk skull motif and horns comedy thing. Also, breast plate with boob window? Come on now, that’s just self defeating. Especially after getting decapitated, I would have thought she would make better choices than that.
And if you were fighting her you would likely aim for the window? Which may be her intent. I may be wrong but the exposed area appears closer to her interesting dress/trouser thingy [note to self insert correct name before submitting comment] in colour/texture than to her skin. Which means it could be designed to attract such attacks, as it may well have armour underneath that.
Or, being a mage, that is the spot that she has put strong defensive/ counter-magic.
Finally Sciona has spent who knows how long having a male orc’s body. She wants to flaunt herself now!
Lots of ifs here, but maybe it’s armor from before she acquired her recent upgrades. It would certainly have to have been refitted to account for her new dimensions. So perhaps the material of that armor could be easily diverted to provide extra breathing room, but in the process left a gap, and she can’t find more of the material on short notice to incorporate into the armor?
She is a blood mage… Maybe having less restricted access to the area over her heart is helpful in some way? Haha, stab me and you just give me more ammo to work with!
Boob window aside, after getting decapitated, you’d think she’d learn to armor her head better than just putting on a tiara.
Also consider her magical power. She may not need the clothing to act as armor if she has an armor of magic protecting her at all times.
articulated sleeves and boots. Pretty sure that’s only worth the trouble for armor. Grand Canyon view:
https://grandcanyonhistory.clas.asu.edu/images/sites/southrim/kolb/KolbStudio_viewLookingStudioContemp.jpg
localized honeytrap / Math trap.
to quote:
–why do you think I wear a target on my chest–
Batman: The Dark Knight returns, pg 43, tradepaperback.
The return of the shopping cart is nigh!
…aand the winner of this round of the “left out of the Who’s Who” contest is… *drumroll* SCIONAA! Place your bets for next time NOWWW!!
We should also bet on who is in but shouldn’t be. I thought Dave said that only people who speak are in, but Vale is there.
That is the usual requirement, but there it is there to make sure that readers know the identity of individuals playing a significant part. In this case Vale is interposing herself between her boss and an extremely irate arch villain. And this after Sciona has had a chance to ask around about reputations. So it is less likely to be a bluff or overconfident bravado.
Plus people might be wondering ‘who is that with the cute bum?’
Incidentally any takers on Vale being related to Pixel? Or maybe they may shop at the same clothiers and use the same hairdresser. At the very least they read the same fashion magazines!
Or Dave doesn’t want to create yet another character color palette and has her sharing with Pixel.
Yeah, noticed the very similar hair-cut and colour as well
Harem’s shirt in panel 2 is really hard for me to see. Kind of blends in with her skin at that scale…
Don’t worry our author anticipated your craving, and is supplying a better look on the next page.
“where does Vale keep her keys?”
In her mouth for sure, she never utters a word, so it’s safe there
Or maybe hammerspace tech is widely available to succubi. There seems to quite a few of them here on Earth. Are they from Alpha Centauri or some other very nearby star?
Hell. ;-)
A particularly hot sector of the galaxy? It would make sense if our legends of demons and Hell stem from earlier galactic visitors. If they consistently described where they came from as being hot or fiery, that would account for that version of Hell. Of course, being galactic-spanning, others might describe having come from an icy place, or a prison planet, or that place they took Elvis to.
If you pay attention to the backstory, plotline & the cut-scenes in the Doom 3 video game (a highly cinematic re-make of the first Doom), your theory would be exactly the correct answer.
Although the place Elvis was taken to would not be called “Hell” I am sure! Not if he had anything to do with the destination. Nor would he want to be consorting with demons, even if they are just aliens, rather than from Biblical Hell.
We did not get a close look at those figures, in the Twilight Council, with angelic wings, but, from their silhouettes, they would seem to be more suitable hosts for him.
I have a funny feeling Deus is just stalling for time and slapping Harem to tell her to get the others here.
Yea, that does seem to be the general take so far. Interesting, as it plays well in the ‘what you see is what you get’ version too.
If Deus is doing as you suggest (and that seems very reasonable) then he is playing it very smoothly.
Yeah, Dues is that kind of guy that can get away with a lot of shenanigans when he’s covering it with his usual behavior of ego & arrogance.
Except… Berry was already in the middle of telling Maxi where Sci-fright is when Deus slapped Abby
Deus is smart. He could have just been covering his bets. If she had not gotten there yet, he was giving her a slap to get going. Whereas if she was there already the slap is for betraying him!
Not that he is fussed, as we can tell from his relaxed banter. Things are progressing within his anticipated scenarios.
This may brew up into an actual fight with Deus. If Archon has a mutual defense agreement with the council, and Deus has stolen from them, then wouldn’t Archon have an obligation to go up against Deus?
But I suspect I know what Deus’s first gambits will be:
“You claim I stole artifacts? I was stopping Sciona from stealing them – without me, she would have made off with many, many more. I have helped you immensely by doing that.”
“The Council owns them? You mean the organization with absolutely no recognized legal standing with any world government or international organization? How can they own them?”
“Archon will force me to turn them over? You will find I have abided by every term of our contracts and US law. You do enforce the law don’t you?”
“The Council will force me to turn them over? You mean the barely-held-together group that couldn’t hold them in the first place and whose individual factions will be bidding heavily for various artifacts? And need I remind you of the lack of legal standing of the Council and the various reciprocal defense clauses of my company’s contract with Archon? If they actually attack, you would be obliged to help me, not them.”
“I will be happy to turn over the artifacts… but there are some expenses I incurred while helping you that should be settled first. And of course my company can help you build better containment… for a price.”
And all this still doesn’t answer whether Harem is a double or triple agent. Sigh.
well there is a difference between contracts and national security. Besides if the council attacks and archon stands down, deus’d not be in a position to complain. Also if he is in that position and sues Archon can go ” we couldn’t, because of classified national security reasons.” that works in the US (even if it really shouldn’t).
Yes, I agree. And we know who Maxima will want to side with (not Deus). But my point is that Deus can throw enough legal, political, and practical counters that official action by Archon will be slowed down severely or stopped indefinitely.
I had another thought. Deus governs a African state somehow. Now that probably means he has diplomatic immunity. But can you be a US citizen and a official of an other nation? If not, the goverment could declare him persona non grata and let the council take care of it once he is outside of US jurisdiction. Or just declare him an enemy fighter and abduct him somewhere.
Deus is cunning in that he rules via a puppet leader. So he will have been able to set himself up, on paper, as being in whatever status fits his purpose and any legal requirements.
Having a quick browse through the key issue is if taking the job in the other nation’s government requires you to give up your US citizenship.
Deus gets to decide such rules in his country. Therefore whatever job he has does not require that he give up his US citizenship.
Doubtless though, as you say, he will have chosen some role that gives him diplomatic immunity.
All the rest of your points are true, as we have an international case where that has happened. The Georgian ex-President Saakashvili was named as the govenor of a region of Ukraine. Since then though he has had a falling-out with his former ally, the president of Ukraine.
Amongst other things they stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship* and in December was arrested/a>. He has since been released, but the situation remains volatile for him, given that he has been accusing the Ukrainian leader of corruption.
* Under international law this can be done with any dual national, but not for someone with only a single nationality. No state is allowed to deliberately make anybody stateless, regardless of any crimes they may have been accused or committed of.
As such Deus would be advised to remain only a US citizen, and not a dual national of the African country in question. Unless of course there is some clause under diplomatic rules which would prevent diplomatic immunity being granted to someone under those circumstances.
I won’t bother trying to look that up though, as the treaties for these things are enormous and even if you find a very clear rule against that, Deus has a building full of lawyers somewhere who probably could find some other rule that could be used to make an exception.
oh, an international treaty the US did join? normally they don’t like international law at all.
Back when they were a newly-independent nation they were quite keen to sign up to international codes of diplomatic conduct, so that they could gain recognition as a country, rather than a rebelious part of the United Kingdom.
According to Daphne, she was playing “double agent” just for the experience of it and most of that information was just what was going on with Archon. Info about new supers, what happened in battles, etc. Im going to assume this is the first time Daphne has seen Deus fraternize with criminal elements, and not only that but sell weapons to them. I dont think Daphne wants to be responsible for accidentally helping a criminal CEO at the threat of disintegration by Maxima. Or moral reasons, idk.
We dont know much about Daphne yet to understand if she really is that good of a person, honestly. I do hope we get a day with Daphne soon, like Dave said, he should have Harem’s Day for us to better know her.
Uh, the Council is completely legal. And is at least acknowledged by the US Government. The head vampire on the council even said there would be a reveal planned for the supernatural world.
They’re just also a national secret.
So even if Deus illegal breaking into the Vault to “save” those artifacts is dismissed: He would still be obligated to immediately return them as most are deadly weapons of national security, and Archon would be legally obligated to take them back by force and arrest him if he refuses.
And for all of you working out the implications of the slap: Yes, one interpretation is that Deus is implying he has a relationship with Harem. But he’s not just a sexist ass, he’s an intelligent, rationally megalomaniacal, manipulative sexist ass. Harem is a known member of Archon. By treating Harem casually in front of Sciona, he is showing he has some power over / relationship with Archon. So he is forcing Sciona to think about that, i.e. he’s saying “attack me and Archon will help back me up.”
Nice take.
Maybe he is just a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot. (bonus points for getting the reference)
I would have to work from 9 to 5 to find that out.
Trying to put that off as long as possible. It would impinge on my attempt to bring us closer to World Peace.
Perhaps you need some coffee…
…but -DO- -TRY- to pay attention whilst adding the sweetener, mmkay…?
Some of those … flavors … are a LITTLE too easy to get mixed up, mmkay…?
(…& JUST DON’T PANIC!)
Don’t panic!
And make sure you know where your towel is.
That is, if one is assuming that Sciona knows about Harem’s ability, and is able to identify each of the individual Harems.
There was a press conference the other day where Harem demonstrated her ability. Plus a nice press-pack which gave pictures of all the heroes and listed their abilities.
Your average street thug probably would not memorise that. But genius-level mastermind super villains, actually fighting the organisation in question probably would.
Fair enough.
Are vale and harem standing in the same exact pose? does deus has some odd unheard of before fetish for poses? or is that some sort of variant of soldier women fetish? Also, these clothes make her look ugly as sin. What the hell deus, why are you doing this to your subordinates!?
Makes whom look ugly as sin? o_O
harem.
though i might have exaggerated it, seriously, she doesn’t look good in that.
I do believe that Harem dresses herself.
Yeah, and that is Abby’s ‘shtick’ with the pleated and plaid skirts
Sciona, I didn’t recognize you with clothes on!…is something I imagine Deus saying.
Well my hate for Deus has gone up…again. Canot wait until he’s dead and the story moves on.
Hate? For being a capitalist? Selling items looted from monsters? Or acting out of character and slapping Harem’s bottom?
I rather doubt that Archon will approve of anyone trying to kill their principle supplier of super-fighting equipment. Nor Maxima’s ex-boyfriend.
I’m most especially NOT going to speak in defense of Deus…
…just pointing-out what some have called the “Joker Defense”.
This refers to the difficulty (& EXPENSE) of finding new & worthwhile foes who are able to successfully entertain the readership. It’s the same reason why Kal-El still has Lex, after all these decades.
Besides,
a DEAD Deus is a Deus that can suffer no longer.
If you TRULY HATE him, you’ll keep him alive, & in misery…
…which gives him the chance to escape that misery…
…& seek revenge…
…& lose again…
…& suffer MORE misery…
…are we starting to see a pattern here, yet…?
Sydney, back to your lesson now. You don’t want to be tardy!
Dave, I hope you made Vale’s outfit from something a little more mobile than the standard leather. After the first X-men movie Hugh Jackman told a story about the first day of shooting wearing their signature black leather outfits. They were supposed to do a fight scene but he said that the outfits were so tight that he was barely able to walk let alone do combat moves.
Motorcycle racing leathers look great – when you’re on the bike crouched over the gas tank. get off the bike, you look like you’re wearing double layer of adult diapers stuffed with maxipads. They also pull and tug in uncomfortable ways.
Gotta wonder how the cows make it look so snug yet comfortable.
And tasty. They may as well drop the black and white logo and go with “I am made of steak, bite me and see!”
…Sciona isn’t in the Who’s who?
Correct. I imagine that Dave will fix that in due course.
Unless… that is not Sciona. :-O
I think it high time Vale gets a chance to prove why Deus has so much faith in her.
Come on Sciona, dare ya to take a swing.
Double dare ya!!!
He he. Final panel. Deus looks like he has (mismatched) horns. Quite appropriately!
It amazes me that Sciona should’ve grabbed Vale by the shoulders and tossed her aside like garbage!
Well, Sciona was warned by Deus the last time. He thought it was funny that Sciona thought she was a match for Vale “in her current state” (that is to say, prior to Sciona using the Regenator.)
Apparently, Vale is a badass (with a nice ass).
So, two possible reasons for Deus slapping Harem’s butt.
1.) Call this the Machiavelli Move.
Dues wants Maxima alerted and coming to collect Sciona. So the slap was a signal to Harem to pass on the intelligence.
2.) Call this the Trump Move.
Deus is winding up Sciona. Slapping Harem’s butt was him saying “This is what I do to the ladies, you’re a lady; come on over here for a butt-slapping, you know you want it, etc etc, nyah nyah nya.” If he did that in Maxima’s presence she’d put him through a wall. Sciona? We’ll see.
Personally I favor the Trump Move, because if Maxima came and collected Sciona then you can be she’d tell everyone who else raided the vault. He’d have to give up all those incredibly valuable artifacts in return for, what? Worse, Archon would now know that Deus knew Sciona’s plans in advance, and didn’t pass on that intelligence to his “business partners.” That would seriously damage his relationship with Archon. (It would also pretty much end Harem’s “triple-agent game” unless Archon came up with a cover for their arrival.) So since Sciona can damage him, I see little or no upside to Deus bringing Archon in to deal with Sciona.
Of course Deus may have a completely different objective; the artifacts may not have been his goal at all, for example. Who knows?
A note on The Machiavelli Move: I forgot to mention that he would also want Maxima alerted in a way that is completely deniable by him.He’s not betraying Sciona, how was he to know that Harem was a triple agent?
Or quintuple agent in Harem. Because I can totally see Harem having some sort of person interest in both playing both Archon, Deus, and her own personal interest, and who knows which other sides?
In other words, would it surprise you if Harem ends up working with Scion as well?
Don’t forget the Twilight Council. She would not want her fifth body to be bored, after all! ;-)
I noticed that Vale has been shopping from Dabbler’s clothing line of detail-oriented body suits. As in, every detail is on display.
I’m pretty sure she’s a succubus also, so that would follow. It’s strongly hinted here:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/797
And I just noticed that Harem left her comm collar at Deus’s when she vorped out. Not sure if that was mentioned in the comments then.
Yup that was indeed picked up on, by astute observers, in a couple of threads.
I did mention, in one of them, that it would provide a hint about where she had VORPed from. ;-)
Picked up erroneously, and compounded by corroborating comments
Harem didn’t *VORP* out, Abby is still there, Berry *VORP* in from somewhere else
If you meant page #797, her tracker was left on her bedside table, so was never at Machina Industries in the first place
As for the ‘hint’ that Vale is a succubae, what? o_O
not on bedside table, because panel showing comm collar also shows Deus’s “Truesight?” query, implying table is whereever the conversation is taking place.
Also, background matches Deus’ office here (panel 3) https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2052
and here (panel 4) https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2047
Oops I missed the bit about “at Deus’s” or perhaps just took it as being “when going to Deus’s” due to knowing that to be the case.
The clues that Dave put in the scene were a whole bunch of books that a teleporter might have on her bedside table. Thus intending to convey it as being her bedroom. But as books could be taken anywhere there were a lot of people who were not taking it that way.
Dave did clarify that as his intention though. Plus tweaked the art, as per the edit at the end of his blog.
Sadly though adding her bra to the bedroom scene did not help to clarify that it was hers rather than some part of Deus’s complex. Hence I understand why you (and others) are still under the impression that you have been.