Grrl Power #613 – In flight edutainment
Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve drawn Sydney. I mean previous to the previous page, but I draw two pages side by side, so this page and the last were the same page as far as I’m concerned. I almost forgot how to draw her bangs. :/
This is kind of an odd page because it isn’t terribly illuminating. I just wrote it because I realized the team never went over Sciona’s race, or rather her species, which might seem species-ist, but in this case, it’s informative of her abilities. So instead of playing it like I just forgot to cover this before, or just kept putting it off because I couldn’t think of a name for her race (which I’ve been informed is not nearly as unique a race name as I thought it was – apparently my google-fu sucks) I thought it’d be funny to play off of Sydney’s ADHD again. Being told in a briefing about Sciona seems like something she’s at least try to pay attention to, but it was delivered as a written brief, there’s a very good chance her eyes would glaze over while scanning it.
Given the sensitive nature of anything to do with Twilight Council races, they probably wouldn’t just email blast everyone with clearance on the team, no matter how secure they thought their system was. So it was definitely a meatspace brief, but Sydney has had rather a lot on her mind lately. She was probably still mad about the whole werewolves (and indeed, wolves) have no relationship with the moon whatsoever.
There are more people in her bubble bus than I pictured, I haven’t quite decided who yet, but there’s definitely at least one Harem sitting in the middle. She’s not a heavy hitter or especially armored, but she’s mobile and really handy for ferrying small items around, and no technology or power yet known can block her ability to sense what each of her are doing, (including Sydney’s shield, which I actually considered the first time it happened) meaning the team has perfectly reliable communication over any distance. Unless someone klonks her on the head or something.
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This is her chance for some real inside information!
Yes Dabbler is sure to have some deep inside information having thoroughly pumped experts on the subject.
Pfeh. Knowing Dabbler as we do, she was the one being ‘thoroughly pumped’ by whatever expert she was getting info from.
I nearly drenched my screen in tea there. Good one!
No, I’d say Dabbler’s definitely one doing the pump, on both the interrogation and tantric energy fields.
My goddes seems a bit strange today. More “beautifull” and less “sexy” Not complaining. Just… well. Admiring.
You’re not alone.
She’s dressed for battle. There’s something a warrior woman…::sigh::
Nah, there’s something a little ‘off’ about her face, she doesn’t normally have lips that look like someone has just punched them
And if it wasn’t for her markings and colouring, would believe it was someone else entirely
Lipstick can make a huge diference, endeed. But is probably more the evolution of his “drawn skeletons”.
The shape of her face is all wrong
I suspect this is partly because Distracting the person who is both Pilot and Airplane is not smart.
the jawline is drawn slightly softer. i guess you gotta be at your cutest to murder old rivals?
Maybe she has her “fight face” on.
that getup is modest by dabbler standards.
Dabbler might still have (and now be using) the suit of armor she acquired at the Twilight Council meeting.
You mean Icon? The sapient suit of armour? The construct representative on The Council?
also known as one of the luckiest bastards in the comic so far? who else is physically capable of getting that close and personal with dabs without being subject to the squeaky hammer of amnesia?
Very true, butt, as a sentient sapient suit of armour, would he care? And is ‘he’ a ‘he’ at all?
Well I hope so, otherwise there wouldn’t be any point in hiring Clint Eastwood to provide his voice, in the movie!
“It” can be “female” with “male” voice and STILL enjoy their… “contact”.
Nah, it’s male. It took offense when she made it glamour-look like bikini armor :)
The Duke? I was thinking more Denis Leary…
Sorry, got a faulty connection in the memory bank. Got Clint and John Wayne mixed up…
Still would go with Denis Leary though. He if anyone would be able to keep Dabbs off balance, even if his form didn’t come with the benefit of massage…
I did google ‘macho actors’ and the Duke was at or near the top of the list. But a bit hard to hire nowadays. And I had to do the google as Charlton Heston is likewise sadly unavailable. My memory does not tend to cooperate when I request names of folks, hence the google (even if it someone specific I can picture, I often have to do that).
Amongst the land of the living the top of the list were Mr Eastwood and Chuck Norris. I think Chuck would have the visual recognition I required, but Clint has the voice. Not to mention I think he could pull the role off better.
Technically ‘the Duke’ was born Marion Robert Morrison. And even though he was strongly associated with west, he was from Iowa. He only worked in Westerns.
Whereas Mr Eastwood has also worked in space. There is a very good documentary all about it.
And here I was imagining his voice as done by Mr. Rogers.
The get up is positively prudish by dablers standards, there is almost none of her trademark Canadian alps cleavage..
Canadian alps? The mountains in Canada are not the Alps. Those are in central Europe. The Rockies, Coast Mountains etc. are in the west and the older more eroded Appalachians, Laurentians, etc. are in the east.
Maybe it was a typo for Canadian app cleavage?
PS: I want to see Sid toy with the people inside the “bubble bus” pulling up so they can freefall and recharge O2 with the Atmoblob.
That would involve Syd not mixing her hands up and dropping the right orb.
I’m now formally suggesting that Sydney be equipped with at least one moderately special glove. This glove would have a large hole in the palm, and a wide strap such that an orb could be palmed and strapped into place (using velcro, perhaps). When it is important that some orb not be accidentally dropped (like the shield orb when running the bubble bus), that orb would be strapped in place. With no glove on the other hand, switching orbs there would be easy. If by some chance Sydney needs to contact an orb with both palm and fingertips, then obviously the special glove needs holes in its fingertips, too.
Sydney has, and already has used, duct tape for that situation. No glove necessary.
They are military though……so Sydney probably now has a highly complex meticulously constructed and designed glove.
That she’ll use duct tape instead of.
Such a good description of how the military works there lol. I love it.
I don’t think so, that kind of solutions have to have at least one committee involved and is at least a few years late. Now a glove with a flap and velcro, that is something she can come up with herself and just have made.
Ahh, but Archon have the inn-house tailor, Iron Hand, who can get his clothing ninjas to whip up a purpose built glove, which he can then enhance to be super tough.
Pieces of duct tape have a limited number of times-of-use. That’s the main reason I thought of, and then described, an alternative that should be useful for a longish time. In other words, duct tape is something that you use up fairly quickly, compared to almost any well-designed latch.
Based on something I wrote farther-down on this comment page (search for the name Varia), I will now suggest an even-more special glove. I’ve noticed that Sydney appears to be right-handed (has been portrayed using that hand almost every time she grabs a single orb). So, if there is some orb she needs to hold onto for an extended time, while being able to switch orbs easily in the other hand, this glove should fit her left hand, and be as I described above, plus have something more.
This extra-special glove should be big enough for Varia to put her right hand into it, back-to-back with Sydney’s left hand, and for her, the glove should have another set of 5 fingers (10 fingers total, 5-at-a-time bending opposite ways) This glove will provide constant physical contact with Sydney, allowing Varia to use the orbs. The “back” of this glove, relative to Sydney, is the palm relative to Varia, and of course it should have a hole for orb-contact, and a containment strap also. If ever there was a pair of orbs that should be held onto most of the time (strapped to hands), it is the shield orb and the air-producing orb. Sydney would hold one, and Varia the other.
I don’t know if Varia is left-handed, but if so that would be a coincidental benefit. Still, if something like this two-handed-glove was constructed as soon as it was discovered Varia can use Sydney’s orbs, and if Varia thereafter only trains with a variety of them using her left hand, that should be fine in the long run. I might recommend that she first train with the fly-ball (maybe even strapped into the first type of glove I described above), because Sydney has had more practice using the more complicated/dangerous orbs (comm-ball, light-hook, and weapon), and the pair of them would become ready for significant action sooner.
This is fun and all but has it even been confirmed that Varia can use the orbs themselves?
All I remember is that the orbs orbited her as well….but that’s not a confirmation of usability merely that they acknowledge her. Did the “Varia can use the orbs” get confirmed and I miss it?
Be hilarious for all this speculation if her power from Sydney was…”Make globes orbit me”.
Heh, that would be an anticlimactic twist. And, no, there has been no confirmation. But I rate it as being highly likely that it was foreshadowing, which poked fun at those present not having noticed the orbs’ behaviour.
It is because the orbs orbited both Varia and Sydney, when Varia touched Sydney, that I assume Varia will be able to use the orbs. Finding out for sure just hasn’t been tried yet –the original scene got interrupted. (Perhaps that was a deliberate type of story-cliffhanger.)
Most probably a story-cliffhanger.
Her power is normally only similar, not the same so perhaps she will need to use something other than her hands to contact the orbs to use them?
*blushes*
Well, in this case it is the orbs that have the power, and Sydney is a user of that power. What Sydney can do without holding an orb is mentally move them around, and summon any one of them to either hand. So, that’s the power Varia needs to try when she is in physical contact with Sydney. If she cannot summon an orb to hand, then what might she be able to do, instead?
Varia already stated (#324 / archive #1751) she cannot do some of the things allowed by the orbs –or various other things– while not touching an orb. I’m expecting that if she can use an orb at all (when touching it), she will be able to do with it the same things Sydney can do with it, entirely because the orb is doing the work, and Sydney (or Varia) is just the controller.
Interesting comments in the first paragraph. Which gives the little grey cells some stimulating food.
You are reading more into it than Varia actually said. She only mentioned passing on her immunity to whoever she touches. Which the author, in his blog, specifically points out misses out a whole bunch of exposition about how Varia’s power works:
Whilst it is fair for us to make assumptions that contact is required (we have only ever seen her using a gestalt power whilst touching somebody), Varia has not actually said that she needs to continue to do so, once the gestalt has been formed and the immunity copied. And no mention was made by anyone about the orbs. They all failed to spot that the orbs behaviour changed.
I stand by what I wrote, because I read what Varia said in the second-to-last panel of #324, regarding what she couldn’t do while holding Sydney’s hand, and I was writing about what Varia said there.
And as I mentioned before, the scene where Varia held Sydney’s hand was interrupted. If the scene had lasted longer, the change in orb-orbit might have been noticed. We could possibly assume that if the orbs had kept orbiting the two of them after they broke physical contact, that might have been noticed. But for-certain in the next comic (#325) the orbs are all/only orbiting Sydney (I had previously suggested that during the interruption Varia might have touched someone else, perhaps accidentally).
Ahh, my bad. I took the “cannot do” “while not touching” down the opposite path to the one you intended. Unpicking it all, we basically view Varia’s potential with the orbs the same way!
*wags tail affirmatively*
Looking back at Faust‘s comment though, it is an extremely good point. Every other example of Varia’s gestalt (with a super) is a variant on what power they have. The one who gets closest is Harem, in allowing Varia to piggy-back with her, when she teleports. But Varia cannot teleport under her own initiative.
It is strong enough a point that I think Faust may have it closer than our viewpoint. I suspect Varia will be able to use the orbs, but not in exactly the same way as Sydney can. There will be some kind of twist or limitation.
Hopefully not the mundane ‘needs to hold hands’ one mind. I won’t speculate as to precisely what though, as Dave usually comes up with something surprising in such circumstances.
But to give one really ‘out there’ option, as an example, perhaps when Varia touches an orb, a bird hatches out of it. Say a humming bird for the flyball and an eagle for the truesight orb. These can then perch on Varia’s shoulders, to grant her certain of the orb’s powers, thus satisfying the ‘must be holding’ criteria. ;-)
To my mind, if Varia cannot do the same thing(s) with an orb that Sydney can do, then perhaps she can do other items on the skill tree, that Sydney cannot do. That could make it tough to find out exactly what Varia actually can do, given that Sydney herself doesn’t know everything she can do with the orbs. LOTS of experimentation ahead!
However, I prefer to think that as an orb-user/controller, with the orb doing the work, and Varia having grown up in much the same American culture as Sydney, Varia’s abilities with the orbs will be generally the same as what Sydney started out at (Varia won’t be able to teleport with the comm-ball, or use the aperture with the weapon, for example).
I suspect that they have a large air-scrubber with a curved bottom to double as a decent floor to stand on.
In comic there have been a few weeks. That is a realistic time frame for a custom build.
Not a scrubber, a couch, or giant beanbag
Beans are a bad idea in an enclosed space – just saying
Only if they are baked
But….but…..they’re a magical fruit!
Ample opportunity to have said ‘butt butt’ :P
And they are not a fruit, butt a legume, and you meant ‘musical‘ anyway :P
Shoulda used this version :(
The fruit is the seed-bearing flesh of the ovary of a flowering plant. The bean is only the seed; the fruit is the fleshy pod around the seeds. When you eat wax beans or the like, those are fruit. I do not think the seed alone counts as the fruit.
Did you know that a banana is true-berry?
Things will get deadly though if you split a banana seed!
Here, eat this apple; it has magical properties too. Just ask Snow White.
Or Eve, but that may have been another type of fruit, possibly purely spiritual.
Eve ate a tomato, which is also a fruit, just not an apple
Or something only present in the Garden of Eden and not something we would see around us every day, despite theologians conviction that they have correctly identified which fruit it is.
AND – eggplant, squash, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, olives, okra, and peppers are also fruits.
Just so long as chocolate isn’t!
you folks do realize with the discovery of the Atmosphere orb she doesn’t need to scrub or pop the bubble to refresh
Check the panels. She’s not using the airball.
Flight, shield, and air? How?
A circular couch with a curved bottom, that has an air scrubber, because Sydney still only has 2 hands, and seat belts and an emergency parachute system, as well as the couch being a flotation device with emergency transponder/canopy/meds/supplies, because Sydney has that ADHD issue, and has shown that she can drop herself multiple times before she remembers to grab the florb again.
Oh, and a strap system so fliers with super strength can retrieve/carry the “Couch of DAMMIT SYDNEY!”.
Ha! Great name. Of course, that would be just the first in the long line of “DAMMIT SYDNEY” products. :)
There is something about women with braids.
You find it very hard to resist the temptation to give them a gentle tug.
Sydney’s last bubble-bus trip took her underwater with Maxima helping to move the bubble when Sydney switched the flyball for the air-orb. Here we have Hiro flying outside the bubble, and based on what we saw back in #161 (archive #1043), he is perfectly able to carry the bubble when Sydney switches orbs. And flying on the outside means he isn’t using any of the oxygen inside the bubble.
Ooo, Hiro can do his “Atlas” impression, just as long as he hasn’t read Ayn Rand :P
That might not work. Maxima wasn’t able to knock the bubble around, so would pushing it be any different?
Supposedly her flying the Force-field was how they were able through the underwater tunnel a few issues back(or at least keep it from shooting back up to the surface)
Good point, and so it might be better if Hiro was inside the bubble, instead of outside (extra oxygen use presumably not a problem for the air-ball) –it is certainly move-able from the inside, by the fly-ball (and perhaps Maxima). On another hand, maybe the shield is attuned to the orb-user enough to let the bubble be moved when the user wants it to be move-able.
Well thought through, in all regards.
Actually, there is another factor that makes a hash of claiming aspects of the shield have all been thought-through. The Earth’s surface is rotating at hundreds of miles per hour (most places; it is over 1000mph at the Equator), and the Earth is orbiting the Sun at about 66,000mph. The shield has no trouble staying “fixed” relative to the surface of the Earth, but it most certainly is not actually fixed in place! I suspect the answer here really is an attunement with the orb-user’s perceptions and desires –which means if Sydney wants Hiro, outside the shield, to be able to move it, that should not be a problem.
However, there’s other things that are always relative to planetary movement like Harem’s velocity and whatever the heck Krona did.
Another aspect of the shield, which Sydney can control, is the position of the shield relative to the position of the shield-orb. Note that in #160 (archive #1041) and in #173 (archive #1129) Sydney, who must be holding the shield-orb, is clearly not located in the center of the shield.
On another shield-related topic, one of the things I’ve been wondering about (partly because science-fiction stories about impenetrable shields go back to the 1930s) is whether or not the shield can be used as a weapon, to slice something up. A bad guy like Vehemence could have been bisected, probably fatally (except we don’t know if the shield can do that, and, anyway, killing was explicitly discouraged in that fight).
Sciona, however, having apparently been sentenced to death before (head mostly cut off), might have to be killed. Has anyone in Archon thought about how they might incarcerate her, if they did capture her?
Maybe Kevin might want a room mate
Can’t work, because she apparently gets power from using blood, and her wings were just a couple pages ago used a a weapon to slice up Cooter/Wyrmil –you wouldn’t want that to happen to Kevin, would you?
And Kevin gets his powers from violence, including Rage Control and regeneration
Just remember where they have Kev incarcerated, and how
He can become more powerful only if he survives violence inflicted upon him –and he said as much when he told Maxima that she was too powerful for him. Recall what Sciona did to Vale in #602 / archive #2756 –it is unlikely that Kevin would survive that –and why would Sciona stop there, anyway? She sure didn’t with respect to Cooter/Wyrmil!
I haven’t read the comments under the page showing Kevin’s incarceration, but I suspect the air he is breathing has been laced with nitrous oxide (laughing gas), as an anti-violence measure. Regardless of that, or even if it was something else, we can’t assume it will have the same effect on Sciona, because of her alien biology.
Not nitrous oxide, marijuana, that’s why he has the munchies and so ‘mellow’, also why suggested dumping Sci-fright’s arse (and the rest of her) in with him
We have seen the shield deflect to avoid bisecting a table. So I doubt it would do that accidentally. However the orbs are responsive to the user’s mental commands, therefore, just like your other reasoning above, it may be possible for Sydney to do this purposefully.
Of interest though the shield does not form instantly as a complete shell. Rather it creates one panel at a time. Whenever you see the shield being struck a strong blow the pattern of the panels is easily visible. But if you want to see the detail of it building itself up, check out the embiggening at the press conference.
Elsewhere we have seen the process happens in reverse when lowering the shield.
Of course being bisected by panels would not make much difference to being bisected by the whole shield, except being a slightly slower experience.
Was looking through the archive for the table-avoiding incident, and noticed that in the first part of the big press conference, there was some talk about what to call the orbs, and then Sydney had to leave with Maxima before it was done. Considering how Krona reacted when she saw the skill tree (#506 / archive #2447), we might consider them to be “primordial” in terms of how they interact with the Universe –and from there it is only a small stretch to call them “primorbs” (long “i” sound, as in “prime”).
Another thing I wanted to point out, regarding Sydney’s control of the shield, is that it doesn’t have to form a sphere (see #158 / archive #1034). Also, it is able to interact harmlessly with things like the ground, and floors. (Not specifically shown in #93 / archive#526, but that shield must be intersecting the floor, highish-up in a multi-story building, but it didn’t take a bite out of the floor.) #209 / archive #1311 shows the shield intersecting a floor, but it is probably a ground-level floor. **Possibly**, although probably difficult to artistically portray, the shield bends at the ground and merely rests level with the floor –see #173 / archive #1129 for a hint of that, although nothing similar is portrayed in #209, or some other pages that I’ve noticed, like #214 / archive #1343, or #227 / archive #1386. Perhaps #224 / archive #1380?
Well, I guess I give up; could not find the scene where the shield avoids a table. Also I cannot really verify the claim that the shield forms in segments. Please provide some page numbers?
Here is one example where the shield must be deflecting</a. If it were not, the leg of the table would be inside the shield with Sydney, or be cut off. I think there is another scene where you can actually see that the shield goes lopsided, but can't recall what page.
For the shield panels, see here. I tend to remember that as ‘being raised’ as we can see it going upwards, but at that point the shield is actually being lowered (err in the opposite direction to how we might expect it from that turn of phrase).
Your second link was the same as the first. And I disagree about the first interpretation, partly because the shield is not spherical in that portrayal (page #284 / archive #1583 has the least-spherical portrayal I can find), and it is Sydney, not an outside object, that controls the shield-shape. Therefore I think Sydney is far enough from the end of the table that the table-leg could be touching the outside of the shield, and the underside of the tabletop could be touching the outside of the shield, and there was no avoidance by the shield of the table.
Okay, page #177 / archive #1150 shows the large shield protecting the press getting raised. But a few pages before that, when that large shield was raised (with Maxima complaining about being inside it), there was no significant time shown with respect to raising it. Suppose it only takes a second, either way, and the artist just happened to portray a scene in which, if one looks at just the right moment (and of course the artist is free to portray any moment), the shield can be seen “in activation” or “in deactivation” so to speak. What you seemed to have described is a rather longer time-frame for that.
Second link is actually contained in the “here”, butt you found it on your own anyway :D
Yorpie made an error with the first linkage :P
oops, I used the word “raised” for both the emplacing of the shield, and the removing of the shield. In a way, the word could actually make sense, getting used both ways, but I didn’t think about how confusing that might be. So: “oops” ….
Just check out the perspectives. The near table leg shows approximately the same distance between the top of the table and its foot as the gap between the corner of the room and the top of the table. In other words the table is forming a rectangle in the corner of the room.
The only way, for that visual effect to be achieved, is if the table was very small and much closer to us. However we can see that there are people in the foreground which would preclude that possibility.
Plus we have Sydney’s height for scale, even crouched down the guy with lasers coming out of his eyes is depicted as being approximately her height. Unless he is a giant, that means he is pretty close to Sydney. Assuming he is average male height then he is very close to her. All pointing to the table being very close to the wall (even if the impression of it touching the wall is just an optical illusion).
Then compare the width of the shield that we see there. If it is forming a perfect circle, in its horizontal cross section, there would be no way that it could fit behind the table. It would have to both be bisecting the table and enclosing part or all of the leg.
Yet we can see that it is clearly behind the table. Which means I feel confident in interpreting the scene as having a flattened oval, which we are just seeing from the angle where it appears at its widest.
Or it is an artistic error. But Dave tends to be pretty consistent with power effect depictions, so I am happy taking it as being intentional.
The page linked under “here” (a.k.a. page #177) shows a journalist looking at the shield, so the most obvious interpretation is that she is seeing that happen. Further the sound effects give us a reasonable clue as to how long it is taking. About as long as it might take to say “byoop”.
However, even if you wish to quibble about that, it is still clear that the shield does not spring into existence as a complete shell.
I do think there would be a difference between lowering the shield (in a non-emergency situation) and raising it though. The orbs do have various sensible features built in (such as making it hard to activate the PPO, by requiring concentration). So I think it could be raised very fast, if need be.
Therefore an attack with that in mind would benefit from that as well. If Halo is able to develop such. And if she felt inclined to even try. Given how queasy she felt about (inadvertently) helping Maxima to rip Vehemence’s arm off, I suspect it is not something she would be keen on against living foes.
Not to mention Arianna being keen to keep it that way. Nothing says ‘police brutality’ quite like chopping a suspect in half (and, per Sod’s law, doing so when someone is taping the incident).
To be fair to Sydney, she did not know that Maxima was going to remove an arm from Vehemence. And while she might not want to even think about slicing up a person, I doubt she would have an objection to slicing up various other things when it would be a major time-saver (possibly including various animated things, like that rogue guardian at the entry to the black reliquary, or those blood-powered constructs at the Twilight Council meeting).
Good points.
Although do recall that Icon is a construct. But, as the head of a faction of the Twilight Council, he clearly must also be a person. Sydney is a deep enough thinker that killing any person, even one who does not bleed red, might deeply disturb her.
It already did disturb Sydney when she found out that another construct, on the roof at the time of her second chance to pick something on the skill tree, was not stupid –and before she could say anything about that to Maxima or Hiro, it got blasted to bits.
Moving on toward a different topic (though also included some messages above), I posted some messaged to some other page of the comic about how Sydney’s orbs resembled marbles, and could be called “super marbles”. However, here I added an additional factor, Krona’s perception of the skill tree, which appears to her to be super-fundamental, or “primordial” in its capabilities. Well, suppose instead of the suggested “primorbs” they were called “primorbles”? That resembles both “primordial” and “prime marbles”. (They could still be called “primorbs” for short, though.)
Just found some significant info about the shield in DaveB’s post associated with #205 / archive #1286. It describes current shield “type” and hints at the future.
Apparently there was enough room between the wall and the table for a shield that large. Good thing it either automatically resets to a smaller default size or Sydney thought to reset it herself after the demonstration, where if you remember the shield was large enough to totally destroy that room if it went up in there. Her shield does form centered on her, large enough to encompass her, but will adjust itself up or down a bit not to slice off anything near her, which is why Shadow Boxer there didn’t get a haircut when her shield went up. That may be a yet undiscovered option though. Something else to note is that the orbs don’t automatically activate when Sydney grabs them, she can hold them without them turning on, but in this case it was a defensive reflex.
Well researched :)
The dialog in the last two panels is a little confusing. Does “they do alright” mean that the angels are doing alright? Or that the alari are? Or maybe it’s intended to be “they do, alright”, as a confirmation?
And in the last panel, what has been great forever? Has the animosity not existed, and the relations between angels and demons been “great”? Or is dabbler saying that the animosity has always existed, and from her perspective, is great?
I’d respectfully suggest a bit of editing there to clarify intent.
I suspect Dabbler is sarcastic, but i don’t know either.
As someone who has said something like this before in real life, not everyone can speak perfect English all the time after all, its the sort of thing that comes out of your mouth when you mean *both*, I read it as (Yes Angels are annoyed but it), (Angels are Annoying), and/or (Angles get annoyed easily and they annoy me).
“Am I detecting a little animosity there?”
“No, it’s never been little.”
Yes, this
There has been great animosity forever?
Yes, and it’s been great :D
I interpreted it as “the Alari do all right at annoying real angels”
Yes, it’s causing me to scratch my head a little, too.
I think this is a case of a missing comma. “They do, alright”… meaning it does annoy the real angels.
I think it is more that Dabbler doesn’t care if the Angels are annoyed. However they may feel, “they do alright.”
My take:
The angels are coping with their annoyances, they’ll be all right.
And, Dabbler is being sardonic in the last line. Things have not been great forever, obviously, which doesn’t have to mean they’ve been un-great forever either.
No editing required. Dabbler is being deliberately vague, probably to tease Sydney. Although in panel 3 it looks like Sydney has provoked some old memories, judging by Dabbler’s reflective expression.
Huh, I hadn’t considered that.
Sydney says “That must annoy actual angels.”
Dabbler replies with “They do alright.” meaning the angels do alright. The subject of the sentence she was replying to was angels.
When Dabbler says “great since forever” does this mean she can sarcasm in English?
I imagine angel/demon meet ups NOT including handshakes or hugs.
Nah, biblical propaganda.
Her face definitely says sarcasm to me.
depends on the angel/demon meetup, after all in the Diablo universe the Nephilim were born from an angel and a demon falling in love
Well, Dabbler’s reply was in response to Sydney asking about detecting a little animosity –and so I think Dabbler is basically saying, “No, the level of animosity between angels and demons has been great since forever.”
I just thought of something – with all those people in the Bubble Bus they’re going to be really eating up the oxygen but Sydney can only hold two orbs at a time. If the forcefield orb is in one hand and the flight orb is in the other hand then she can’t replenish their oxygen. If she does replenish then, logically, the orb she would drop would be the flight orb but that means they lose height and forward momentum pretty quickly while she replenishes the air. Then she has to make up the loss in altitude once she drops the ‘air’ ball and picks the flight ball back up….
Unless someone ‘braces’ against the ceiling of the bubble, and keeps flying while Sydney Bubble and Breathes.
Or, they have provided a couple tanks of oxygen
I don’t see any fliers inside the bubble. Sydney would need to call someone like Hiro or Max to fly underneath and hold it up while Sydney drops the fly ball and recharges the O2 levels.
They could name this particular maneuver “Air Support”.
ok MATH TIME
the human body breathes 7-8 L of air a min,
round to 10 for convenience, each cubic Meter of air holds 1000 Ltrs, or 100 min of air.
a ball 3mr would hold 113 times that much air
or 11300 min worth of air.
the average human has a mass of 985 per cubic m. allowing 8 people in the sphere and some basic kit for each, 105 times that, so 10500 min / 8 1312 min worth of air. or 21 hours….
now if its 2m thats 33 times, so 3300 min / 8 or 6 hours.
and yes i realise my error, its roughly 4 hours.
Yea, I have long pointed out that the shield can hold way more breathable air than has been given credit in the comic.
Your calculations fail to take into account that toxin buildup is actually the more critical aspect. You die of those long before the air completely depletes its oxygen content. But, that said, they have far more time than the handful of minutes proposed in the initial use of the Halomobile.
To keep it from bugging me though I am willing to run with the fact that they have tested it and found that it does not match normal air survival situations, so something is causing the air to go bad faster than normal. So maybe the orbs need a lot of oxygen themselves?
The orbs were found underwater, unless they have an amphibious quality, or are speaking in a cooling tower toxifying the coolant sort of manner.
Although I could bring up the evidence that the orbs may be some sort of life form(s), its not as well supported at this point as function orbs of a space craft.
Life is not the only thing which consumes ogygen. So does an internal combustion engine.
Not that I am suggesting that the orbs are mini-cars. But some part of their operation may require oxygen, or expel airborne toxic byproducts similar to us exhaling carbon dioxide.
Or instead of flying and having a bubble up. She is moving the bubble itself as an alternative to flight and using her air orb to keep things fresh.
I kind of wonder if one of Sydney’s upgrades will be the ability to use more than two orbs at a time. It would be really useful for situations like this, but I could see it easily being insanely overpowered…..well MORE insanely overpowered than she already is.
Or they can finally figure out that Varia’s gestalt power makes her perfect for the job.
,…. I mean they’ve had weeks and weeks, you’d think someone would have her try a second time, this time with a few sciencey-types watching.
Three words: Ben Wa Orbs
ok. .. first they need to be in her hands, suposedly she realy tried almost everything, and second they may be too big for her to even try that.
And now we know what the perverts will be drawing this week…8-P
Now we know one of the things they will be drawing this week.
The real perverts will be showing them exiting the other end (notsorry, bought up and emptied the local supply of Brain Bleach and Scrubbo :P)
you forgot about Tide Pods
Because have no idea what those are…
Tide Pods are a dishwasher detergent product that are disturbingly candylike in their packaging, Tide is a company and Pods are the product; there’s been a meme floating around where ppl claim to have eaten them and other ppl are saying no don’t eat em that’s stupid
Usually don’t see memes unless someone actively points them
Hmm, we have “Pods” over here, not ‘candy’ butt chocolate, usually flavoured with other chocolate products like Snickers, butt you would have to b a complete Darwin-award candidate to either get them mixed up or to leave them where children can get at them (it’s like storing bleach in a soda-bottle under the sink)
We don’t have the company ‘Tide’, butt we do have dishwashing tablets that look like giant candy
Hiro is flying outside the bubble and is capable of carrying it. Overall, it might be simpler if Sydney didn’t use the fly-ball at all, and just held the shield orb and the air-orb while Hiro did all the flying (and carrying).
Later on, I expect Varia (the Boston/Aztec lady) to be involved. We saw in #324 (archive #1751) that when she held Sydney’s hand, the orbs started orbiting the two of them, implying that either could use the orbs. We also saw –in #406 (archive #2029)– that Varia can access another’s power without using her hand for body-contact. So, if one of Varia’s hands is taped back-to-back with one of Sydney’s hands, the two of them should be able to use 4 orbs.
This is how I imagined it. She lets go of the flight orb for a few seconds and replaced it with the “air ball” and the shield drops, but still continues most of its forward momentum. Sydney is still experimenting with adding a bit of an elevation jump before switching flight for air so it’s not in total freefall. Probably not great for motion sickness really, but a bit like a gentle rollercoaster.
Oh yes, and with the speed they are going, they wouldn’t be dropping instantly, depending on how quick the Air-Ball works to replace (recycle?) the used good air, they may not even really notice
Having some sort of recycling system built into the seating would be better overall (they still need either something to sit on or at least stand if transporting more than a couple people, not to mention any supplies or equipment)
Oooo, maybe Mr Bubble could be like ThunderBird 2, with different ‘pods’ depending on the mission :D
Depends how much weight she can carry and how much it slows her down.
The weight limit was just in regards to the Violatorb, we have no idea if Mr Bublé has a weight limit or even a size limit
As for speed, that may just be limited by how much air-displacement she wants to create, if she can adjust the shape of Mr Bublé, she could streamline the back to reduce noise and drag
At her next upgrade Sydney needs to buy ‘customize shield shape’. That way she could sprout some wings on the bubble bus and have it glide for a few seconds. With practice and a little help from the flight orb Sydney could make her own Wonder Woman invisible plane. (We know she owns the shirt)
Nice glider idea. Sydney does get a fair amount of customised shape out of it at the moment mind. Such as her aerodynamic shaped force field, when flying at high speed solo. And the hemisphere when on the ground (as opposed to the sphere at the moment). But, yea, wings would be pushing the envelope.
*folds envelope into a delta wing*
Who’s with Sydney and Dabbler in the bubble?
Looks like Achiles and the other is Amorpho probably.
Achilles i can understand. Impossible to harm and able to annoy the hell out of most characters, which is a great distraction. But Amorpho? He might be out of his league here.
I can’t say I recognise the back of his head. But Achilles and Mr Amorphous are a team who are used to working together for years, as vigilantes. So, until the team has trained up everybody to be familiar with all the other team members, and have practised moves which would maximise their combined potential, I think that it is sensible for them to carry on working as a team.
Mr Amorphous should not be sniffed at mind. He has four star defence overall (stronger vs blunt, but weaker versus piercing), putting him just one category below Maxima and Halo’s shield! Bearing in mind that Halo’s shield gets bonus for versatility (such as being able to shield team members and hostages too). So Mr Amorphous may be able to withstand the Hulk pounding on him, even if that could bring down Halo’s shield!
Offensively he has three star super strength (enough to lisquisfy a tank). And his cast list symbols indicate that he has a three star rating with ‘hammers’. Which I translate as referring to him turning his own limbs into giant mallets and the like. Which he will doubtless be able to magnify the effectiveness of his super strength.
On top of which he has all the tricks that you can pull with stretchy limbs and body. So making a net to catch folks jumping out of buildings, being able to run really fast by greatly lengthening his stride, being able to punch a foe on the other side of the room, and so on.
Overall I would rate him as being more useful to Arc-SWAT than Achilles. And their super rankings agree with that. Achilles being a five star hero, whereas Mr Amorphous is a six.
Heatwave may therefore be one of the ‘out of sight’ members that Dave mentions, assuming that is her boyfriend. Or, due to her recent injury, she may be relegated to the delta team, or even the HQ reserve, until she has regained her balance and is fit for the most dangerous duties again.
You forgot that Les can be easily incapacitated and taken out of a fight (just drop a building on him, he won’t be harmed butt he can no longer contribute to the team, do that to Morph and he just oozes out like that pink ‘cat’ from “Something*Positive” :D)
Actually, Archon’s briefing room seats might need
cattle prods…stimulation systems.Dabbler would approve of this. ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)
As I previously pointed out, the “actual” angels Dabbler is currently referring to are just beings that are okay with posing as angels as confirmed by Dave himself, since they completely fail to match the Biblical description, same goes for what Dabbler refers to as “demons”
The reaction the ACTUAL actual angels is probably, at worst, “Geez, how hard is it for these humans to just read the Bible?”, actual demons are definitely pleased with such cases of mistaken identity
NOTE: If you want to know how the Bible actually describes angels try; Ezekiel 1: 5-11, Ezekiel 10: 1-22, Isaiah 6:2, Matthew 28: 2,3
The situation probably wasn’t made any better once TV was invented and creative folks were able to create pretty pictures and ideas of what angels were and display it enmas, repeatedly.
Enmas . . . Interesting Typo. . .
Yeah, we started that millennia before TV was invented.
One may assume that such descriptions have been modified due to repeated editing over the centuries. Maybe a quick perusal of the original Dead Sea Scrolls might clear things up.
So far, no major discrepancies have been reported
Yep, some types are closer to Lovecraft than anything recognizable. Since the context implies they’re extradimensional entities it actually makes more sense.
the best thing I’ve ever heard is that ‘angels’ may have been ‘atoms’, and that what was seen was basically the makeup of the universe, in enhanced size
Honestly “angels” in the Bible don’t all look like Ezekiels Bayonetta grotesqueries. There are examples of “angels” who look entirely human like the ones in Job (although the confusion there is really that “angel” is a job, not a race. It means “messenger”.)
You’re right that “Angel” does mean “Messenger”, though it does refer to them as a species, like how the demons are referred to as “Satan’s angels” in Revelation 12:9. (Demons are just Angels who rebelled against Jehovah God) They got the name due to the fact that they’re usually delivering a message from God.
As for the Human looking Angels, I should point out that Angels are spirit creatures with no physical form, and are thus Shapeshifters (though they’re are capable of taking physical form), Demons mostly use this ability for deception such as pretending to be a dead loved one or an “Angel of Light”.
The closest an Angel siding with God has come to this is Jesus/Archangel Michael after his resurrection, though he never lied about his identity and quickly revealed it or gave his disciples clues so that they could figure it out, in John 20: 24-29 he even used it to prove his identity to the Apostle Thomas
Now I wonder at how the angelic hosts roll. It was mentioned earlier that valkaries exist in the angel corner, as well as an angelic mercenary. I somewhat doubt we’ll get biblical exact copies of the angel breeds, ie I suspect cherubs look like winged babies here rather than a creature with three heads, so I wonder what they’ll be like.
Also, different personalities, like the demons, or lawful anal jerks like a lot of other pop culture shows?
Cherubs and Cherubin are different critters (like Niger and Nigeria)
Cherubim is the plural for Cherub, they are the exact same critter Guesticus.
No, they are not
yes they are, the angel with the flaming sword at the entrance to Eden is a cherub, the angels on the Ark of the Covenant are depicted as cherubim; it represents God’s righteousness and holiness, holiness meaning unaprpoachable by unclean things
hmm look at the ‘cherub’ in enki bilal’s book, in the first volume of his Nikopol trilogy.. dark, gritty cherub….
How do the angelic hosts roll?
……
…..
…. nope, I’m not making the holy roller pun. Not doing it, nope, nope, nope.
With wheels within wheels with eyes on the spokes, and fire, lots of fire.
Ahh, the classic biblical angelic forms. None of these modern ‘wings out of the back humanoid forms’.
Something that I find kinda weird about Bible-belt funded movies (such as on the Hallmark channel). The Bible has very specific descriptions of angels, and there is no excuse for having to use human actors given the cheap and readily available special effects we have nowadays. Yet they still insist on promoting the Hollywood version of angels.
Not that I mind overly, as I like the winged angel. I just find it odd that they would deliberately distort the image, just for popular appeal.
And the other thing that bugs me is how they insist on sickeningly overdoing the inspirational music. I had a film queued up for ages, wanting to watch it because it clearly had some interesting looking angel content. But the nauseating use of ‘you must engage your feelings that you are watching a holy movie’ music early on (even in mundane situations, where they were just ‘setting the scene’) caused me to abandon the attempt.
cherubim have wings, but the strictly human-looking angels are when they assume human forms to interact with humans in a non-visionary sense; John and Ezekiel had the non-humanoid cuz they saw visions, but Abraham saw humans cuz he was awake and conscious and all that; ofc, mind you, i don’t neccessarily believe all this but it’s just how stuff is framed in the bible
They took on human forms so as to be able to walk among humans without causing everyone to burst into flames around them.
Kind of hard to do their “spread the message” job when their very presence kills people.
Although the different eras, writers, and external influences play a big part, as early Judaism borrowed from about three (or more: hard to tell which tribal traditions merged to become which state religions in the Middle East thanks to destroyed historical documents…) different religious traditions…why you can have invisible spirits in one book, humanoids in another *seriously wrestling match with God*, and Eldritch Abominations in others *palpable darkness filled with thunder and fire and all that*.
They probably don’t use monstrous angels for the same reason (The Prince of Egypt) went with some pretty ethereal smoke for Yahweh instead of a giant cloud of utter darkness filled with fire.
Hey kids, want to know what we are actually praying to? Well by your modern perspective it would look like a nebula space monster forcing people to worship it, using psychic powers to manipulate people’s mind, forcing its cultists to eat horrible tasting food, go to war, and any disobedience is met with harsh death by its tantrums or its followers to such a degree that its head priests have to convince it not to whole sale slaughter everyone.
Ya’know the sort of thing modern heroes would fight against to hopefully save the cultists…and not assume that even after its death the cultists wanting to cling to power over the people would declare their “God” not dead, but now more (abstract) than before and pass that tradition down over generations able to split into numerous factions using newer stories due to the fact their God is now completely absent (what with some hero/entity having killed it ages before) to correct them.
I mean…
It would totally spook kids to not want to worship what in other media they are exposed to would be a bad guy…here kids here’s a carpenter with magic powers and some odd ball dove we won’t really explain to you no matter how many times you raise your hand in sunday school because we have no real clue either why the second bird Noah sent is suddenly standing in for one third of ONE God…just color the pictures of sheep.
I think part of why the movies continue to promote the Hollywood-morphed idea of angel is the same reason why Roman-empire driven Christianity adopted traits and stories from other religions… you borrow what’s popular, it makes it more palatable to others, and can lead to more conversions to your religion (or help slow attrition).
So, religious-group-funding is just picking up the same tradition of “What’s popular that we can promote for our cause?”
(I am not implying that Christianity was the only religion to do this, it’s simply been one of the most successful over the span of thousands of years at it — though I was a terror in my Catholic highschool religious studies course. The priests really disliked debating with me, because I cast a wide net of research back then, and came loaded for Pope. I mean bear. No, I was right the first time.)
That is how we know bears are Catholic. No wait … it is something to do with the Pope … and woods. Give me a minute.
By the way the current Pope really personifies what a Pope should be about. They aught to draw all future Popes from his order, whenever possible.
Cherubs actually have Four Faces, how many heads is never specified.
So does that put Harem one step above cherubs, in the angelic choir?
SmugD is two steps below, what with only being two-faced
that’s an archangel, not a cherub, and the 4 faces are on one head, so they see in all directions. also, a lot of the descriptions are pretty equal to what people have seen as UFO’s.
Nope, Ezekiel 1: 5-11 & Ezekiel 10: 1-22 are pretty adamant that it’s cherubs who have four faces
The bit about the briefings reminds me of a Christmas (midnight) mass I attended about 10 years ago. 2-3 minutes into the sermon, the priest pulled out a party-popper, displayed it very visibly, mimed “fingers in ears”, counted down from 5 on his fingers in plain sight, then set it off fought to the microphone and said “is everyone awake now? “
Ok, so Hiro is doing the classic superhero flight pose, for aerodynamics I’m sure, but Sydney can apparently bubble-up and just fly while standing normally, which seems…I dunnoh, wrong or something. I get that once you have a sphere-shaped shield, aerodynamics go out the window but normally the flying-while-standing is used for bad guys (I’m sure I’ve seen Darksied and/or Magneto do it). Maybe because it’s supposed to make it look like your so strong that you don’t need to exert effort?
Anywho, just something I thought I’d mention since I noticed the difference.
I was looking for a good picture to show what I meant, but I got distracted by this instead: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/d/d1/Kara_Zor-El_019.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100123194815
And all I can think of now is “Ma Kent, all-american grandmother, baker of cookies and raiser of Superman, decided that the best uniform for a teenage girl who flies was a miniskirt?”
Clark is getting himself an eyefull of dat ass.
no, we all know that panty shots of superheroines are censored by convenient mist or steam or rays of light
But if using manga rules that only happens if they are not wearing panties.
Although an anime I saw the other day had an hilarious effect, during the obligatory beach episode. Where it looked like a phantom attack had disintegrated all their clothes. With the censorship covering up all the naughty bits.
Spoiler alert.
Except the phantom attack was actually only to create the censorship effect! Their clothes were fine and could occasionally be seen when the obscuring effect thinned slightly. But it still freaked them out just as much as if they were fully nude. Doubly hilarious due to it tinkering with the 4th wall in doing the overall gag.
to be fair, now that Supes has been confirmed immortal (along with almost everyone else, almost), breeding a “pure” Kryptonian strain from Kal El and Kara wouldn’t be that difficult.
Artificially combine them, then clone, artificially age and indoctrinate the results.
And voila, standing Kryptonian army….
Wasn’t Kara raised by a completely different family than the Kents? And IIRC she designed her own costume in the comics. But i’ve never been a big Supes & Family fan so I may be remembering wrong
Depends on which continuity you go by (also affects how old she was when she reached Earth)
in Golden Age, heck Superman wasn’t raised by the Kent family back then, he grew up in an orphanage…and somehow forced a teenage Supergirl to go to that same orphanage to protect his own identity *Golden Age comics were dumb in a lot of ways*.
When Sydney is solo, she goes into the typical flight-mode, butt when she’s in taxi-mode, she stands
I don’t see the problem with standing in the bubble.
There’s plenty of propulsion power and visibility is excellent.
Sydney should be looking forward and down to see where she’s going.
One of the unseen passengers should be copiloting on the radio and gps.
Don’t see the problem either
Just like when driving a ‘regular’ vehicle: you do not have to be looking ahead 100% of the time
I didn’t say it was a problem, it was just something I noticed and thought might be worth mentioning.
It certainly was worth mentioning. It is worth noting that the fly ball can control gravity (or does something which has very similar appearing effects anyhow). When Sydney initially demonstrates it, in the ball room, she flies upside down, but her hair carries on hanging down relative to her own orientation, rather than towards the ground.
Likewise you can see similar behaviour at various points in the comic.
Probably easiest described as Halo having her own personal gravity field. But a bit more complicated than that when you examine the specifics of some scenes. Some of which seem to tinker with intertia rather than just gravity.
So far I cannot recall seeing such effects being extended to others in the Halomobile. They seem to behave pretty much like hamsters in a hamsterball (one that does not roll around anyhow).
Not to mention that ordinary super-hero flight-pose has GOT to give you such a crick in the neck. Humans are designed to move upright, with the head facing forward. Super-hero flight-pose only makes sense for penguins.
Or for short periods of time, the rest of the time you are scanning the ground
I always figured that was the point of that pose, there isn’t much to keep your barrings with in the sky except for the sun in the day, and stars at night if you decide to look up. So really, looking down at the ground is the best way to judge where you are.
Yup, and when you are looking ‘up’ and ‘forward’ is typically when you are going at speed for a short burst, and you do not want to run into the north end of a south-bound goose at high-speed
Fro Dallas area to Philadelphia 1,300 miles or 2 091 kilometers.
that is roughly 3.25 hours at her 400 MPH cruising speed
if they are letting her move faster (Say Mach 1) because the shield partly or fully negates sonic booms, then your looking at over 1.75 hours, depending on how accurately halo can navigate.
If they are authorized to go trans-sonic Mach 2 gets you in under an hour. Note that this is not exactly automatic
the Osprey, unless its heavily modified has a cruising speed at 241 kn (277 mph, 446 km/h) (now you know why they like Sydney so much? shes basically a low cost first edition Quin Jet!) the bad news is her on board sensors are not with writing home about. Basically Backup will be a bit behind them (4.6 hours flight time)
Just as well she has several navigators to give her accurate directions then…
Sydney CAN go up to mach 4 currently, and with the bubble up there’s only one reason not to – because she’d leave other fliers except Maxima behind – ie, Hiro – since Hiro’s the third fastest flier after Sydney at just under mach 1 (and can get to mach 1 with ‘gravity assist’) No reason to think she’s only going at 400 mph, she might be going upwards of 700 depending on if there’s anyone flying outside OTHER than Maxima and Hiro for alpha team.
Maxi is already ‘on-site’, she left immediately in the hope of either catching Sci-fright still in the area or being able to pick up her trail quickly
Maxi isn’t in any team, she is her own team and goes into wherever she needs
Okay on the ‘Maxima is already on site’ thing. I guess that’s possible. But Maxima IS on teams. She was on a team when they were looking for Sciona in conjunction with the Council, remember?
She is on all teams, because she is the Boss (active boss with General Faulke the Government liaison), not just one team, and initially she was her own team whilst everyone else were split up amongst other teams, and then she ‘joined’ with Sydney after the ‘reboot incident’, just like Anvil and Hiro did
Are we taking into account stops to refresh the air, or do we assume she’s using her rebreather-apparatus? Because she can only use 2 orbs at a time, and if there’s either no flight or no shield, that might be a problem. Even if she flies up high, drops the flight orb, does a quick air-refresh, and re-grabs the flight orb to not lose to much time, it seems like a stomach-churning maneuver.
Here is the author’s explanation.
If they ever find out about Varia’s power when touching Sydney, they could just have Varia touch Sydney’s shoulder, hold the life support orb, while Sydney holds the flight and shield orbs. Then they can just go any distance without ever stopping – including outer space. And if that second row of dots goes from mach speed to something more interplanetary or interstellar-speedwise, then she literally might be a spaceship. :)
There actually was a study on this, mostly for designing jetpacks and ideas for Iron-Man style flight, but it can be applied to Flyers as well.
The conclusion, unless you have indestructability like superman it is ILL ADVISED to fly like that, as it puts pressure on the spine compressing it. There is a reason fast moving vehicles put you in a chair. But even worse outside a vehicle with the air hitting you adding pressure.
The best flight position would be mostly standing with a slight lean forward *like skiing basically*, only going horizontal for short quick bursts or to slow descent in a free fall.
The leading expert in the world agrees with you.
Worth watching the entire video, but I start it at the pertinent part, for those who are short on time.
You can’t even see the wires! :P
The pertinent part was actually the start where you actually see it in action
Yea, that was the Easter Egg for anyone who followed my advice.
*presents an egg-shaped Yorpie Snack, as a bonus prize*
Well Dabbler sure has put on her bling and makeup for this mission. Lets hope Sciona appreciates all the effort made picking out a good-looking fighting outfit.
And Sydney is looking awesomely cute.
Best laugh was from the strapline about the briefings needing pictures and sudden noises! :-D
I was thinking chibi animations of all persons of interests narrating they’re role in this in squeeky voices.
“Hi, I’m Sciona. I’m a big meanie blood mage whatever that is and I’m ahead of everyone and I just blendered Cooter like he was boiled potatoes with blood instead of potatos! And now I’m flying off to my SECRET LAIR so you can’t ask me any questions!”
“I’m Maxima and we’re ArcSWAT and we’re going to ask you questions.”
“Noooooooooo! All my secrets, gone, gone!”
…..
….. actually, that sounds less like a way to keep Sydney from zoning out from the meaning, and more like what Sydney would zone out to.
*their role in all this. wtb edit functionality.
Should I be concerned that the mission objective (from Thursday) was “finally figure out what this is all about”, and today Dabbler’s toting a rail gun as her first pick of weapons?
….. actually, maybe the corset is her first pick of weapons. That’d make more sense for extracting information. BUT STILL.
They are going up against someone who has already strung up one team member, and bled her dry. And possibly killed Sydney (even though she got better). Both of whom were only scouting.
It is wise to carry a suitable weapon in case Sciona spots them again this time. Plus the point of gaining the information is so that (hopefully) a subsequent attack can be made on Sciona’s base. So would want to be armed for that.
Normally Dabbler would not need to mind. As she could just teleport the weapon of choice, from her lab, using the hammerspace feature of her cybernetic hand.
However she has been studying Halo’s orbs and powers. So will be aware that Harem’s teleport is blocked by the shield. As such she is being foresightful, in ensuring that she has no delay, to summon a weapon after the shield has been lowered (which may well be in a time-critical situation, where even a second may be too long).
I think it’s also possible Sciona is the previously mentioned “only being other than Dabbler to fight Maxima to a standstill”? Definitely fits the “pretty sure they’re dead” line.
No, that was the buff, face-wrapped dude speaking Arabic in the Bad-Guy Preview Comic right in between the press conference and the huge fight. He probably would have been the world’s #1 Super if she hadn’t found the geode…
Agreed, he was the one who was implied (by his retort). Plus Maxima was unfamiliar with Sciona and was briefed about her with Sydney. Which would not have played the same way if she had previously fought Sciona.
Actually I think it was Sydney, not Dabbler, who “fought” Maxima to a standstill. First, note how Dabbler nudged Sydney (#150 / archive #989) during the press conference, and remember that Dabbler was one of those watching the videos from the bank robbery (so now see #66 / archive #370). Admittedly, it was more of a spat than a fight, but most definitely Maxima was brought to a standstill!
No, that ‘fought to a draw’ was long before the Bank Prank, and Sydney didn’t fight Maxi at all: Maxi attempted to drag Sydney out from beneath the ecnalubmA, and was caught by surprise when Mr Tubey removed to move
Dabbles nudged Sydney to indicate that she (Dabbles) was one of the two, we saw the other one (the one presumed to be dead) on the same page we first saw Keven and the ‘traitor’ vampires (also the page we saw how much of a depraved perv SmugD is)
If Maxima realized it, it would have been mentioned. I actually think it’s someone else we’ve been introduced to, and not the Arabic guy.
At that time, we hadn’t been introduced to anybody, well, not many
I’d still like to know what it means to be an “actual angel” in the context of the GP universe. The term “demon” and “angel” have been thrown around since the beginning of the series, but it’s never been real clear if there’s any religious aspect to them and if so what that might be.
I cannot recall any prior canon mention of angels. Although there was an angelic-looking delegation in the council chambers, mostly only seen in silhouette.
As for demons though we have indeed had quite a lot. Firstly succubi are just one type of demon, but they are related to the others (somehow). Quite how is hard to tell as the offspring of succubi are always succubi.
DaveB has though declared that Dabbler’s school memories are canon (albeit that there was a homage or two included in the mix). Plus he indicated that succubi procreation is actually rather complicated and involves factories somehow. Which is pretty reasonable given that they mate with species from vastly different ecosystems and biologies, on different planets, around the galaxy.
An actual demon (or by extension) angel, would likely therefore be ones that have some sort of common ancestry. Although the connection may be a social one. So a group of similar beings or with common goals may have formed associations. Those who share these historical connections would be ‘actual’ whilst others would just have superficial similarities.
So mostly speculation, based on a few nuggets of information. Much more to find out, in due course.
Disgaea rules for Demons and Angels,
got it.
Disgaea is fun but confusing for me
Netherworlds are actually highly advanced planets who due to some cosmic bugaboo also have human souls go to them in the form of Prinnies to repent. Demons have many different sub-species but don’t tend to regard that much, are highly aggressive, but most those that end up in power either realize the flaws of the weaker demons and trick them into living better lives or else end up as mad tyrants. Basically just very aggressive and powerful aliens who somehow ended up with the job of looking after human souls while meanwhile trying to do their own things.
The Angels of Celestia are basically the same race, except they get to reward human souls and have less variety, with feather winged ones ending up the main ones…although there is some evidence that angels and demons ended up how they are due to the pocket universes they reside in. However humans can also become demons or angels through various methods both magical and technological.
Humans reside in the third universe, as the three typically interact via portals its easy for most human worlds and even most demon worlds to think of themselves as all about magic, but then you get the ones using weapons and spaceships.
I doubt I made it any less confusing.
the skinny: Demons and Angels are aliens, the Nether Worlds and Celestia exist somewhere in space, and the first game kept it simple by having Earth *which at this point is just one of many Earths* try to invade their Netherworld to colonize it.
Thanks for the explanation. I did try googling the term, but the images that returned made my nose bleed, until I fainted.
If they’re travelling in one of Syd’s bubbles, won’t they use up all the oxygen fairly quick? Or did she learn how lo let oxygen in?
Forgot about the oxygen-making orb. Silly me!
…Which she is incapable of using while simultaneously flying and shielding. So does she drop the shield (and thus, the team) to grab the air orb, or drop the flight orb (and thus drop EVERYONE including herself) to grab it?
… is Varia in there?
The recruit? Doubtful. Syd’s ability to pierce the veil and huge host of powers is what puts her in this group. Or yknow, being protagonist.
What I’d do is enter a parabolic flight curve, trade out the flight orb for the air orb for a few seconds, trade back and resume normal flight as quick as I could.
Screw that! (Settle down Dabbles) All they need is to pop open one of the carried oxygen bottles
Agreed. Seams like almost every one forgot about thier first passanger test with her and some of the solutions discussed then before the oxygen orb was even known.
What Syd needs is to gain the powers of the cephalopods that made the orbs, though Syd with chromatophores as well as the requisite number of muscular hydrostats would be chaos forming on a grand scale….. Now I want to see Syd with such powers at her beckandcall.
DUDE, SPOILERS!!!
All aboard the Sydney bus! “Go Scoville and Leave the Flying to Her.”
Oxygen isn’t so much the problem in a sealed environment. As someone previously said, crack open a tank of oxygen. Getting rid of all the CO2 the passengers are breathing out is. Once the CO2 percentage gets to 15%, iirc, it’s game over. Many different designs for scrubbers to do that, from simple calcium hydroxide filter packs, typically used in rebreathers, up to the systems used on nuclear submarines. Odds are good that Machina Industries has developed a miniature version of the submarine scrubber, ostensibly for use by Arc-swat.
I’m a bit disappointed that Archon hasn’t brought on board someone who specialises in ADHD and other issues. It makes sense that they’d want to get the most out of their people, so targeted briefing material and education sessions make a lot of sense. They’ve shown a lot of flexibility & forward thinking in other areas, after all.
Well, that’s my take as someone who is (was actually, quals expire around here, need to do a refresher course) a qualified educator, as well as someone with a few mental disabilities.
You have Brook at San Antonio and Darnal at Fort Hood. From what I understand both have appropriately trained and qualified and competent staff on hand for any active duty personel that need treatent for ADHD on staff.
Speaking of sudden noises. One of my chemistry professors fired a cannon in class once.
At the start of the lecture he was sort of doing something at the side of the lecture hall, but I didn’t see what. And then it fired mid way through the lecture.
I’m sure he was making a point about the reactions involved. Sadly I don’t remember the actual lesson. I do remember my reaction though – it was… energetic.
I guess waking up sleeping students with the classic “slam a book on the students table” get boring after a while. I can’t blame a teacher for getting inspired by his speciality.
As an ex-chemistry teacher, I have to admit, it doesn’t take much of an excuse to go playing around with chemicals. :D
Just ask Walter White…
I can imagine that. You have all these wonderfull equipment and chemicals just begging for you to play with them.
Plus all those annoying little brats to ‘experiment’ on, tough part is figuring out which ones no one would really miss or care about…
Huh…didn’t Sydney get that magical accessory to put her bangs up? Then again maybe she just forgot to put it on today
She has not worn it for quite some time. I suspect that she just likes her bangs.
*wags tail most happily*
Incidentally it is quite a profound item. Firstly it is Sydney’s first treasure acquisition, on her adventuring career. Secondly it is a functional magical item, with an observable and measurable effect.
In other words it could be used to prove the existence of magic!
Not that Archon need to know, given that they employ three mages. But the world at large does not believe in magic. Clearly Sydney is not allowed to reveal the secret of The Veil. Magic though is another matter, and I bet that she has not had orders to assist in covering it up.
Not that I think she would. But it is interesting that she has that option.
I’ve been trying to pinpoint where it stopped showing up, but the old panels are hard to skim.
Pick the smaller, firmer ones. Then the rest is all in your wrist action and eye to get a good angle for the bounce.
They really don’t need to bring someone who specializes in one condition on board just for one patient, Otherwise they would need to bring in 12 just to for each Fighter squadron.
And twice as many for Navy squadrons.(Badum Tish!)
Besides IRL there are(or were, its been a while) 2 that are stationed over at Brook that also work with ADD and ADHD patients, granted one mostly worked with Dependents and the other was her CO
I dunno, when that ‘one’ has the potential to become the world’s most powerful super hero, I think the cost would be easily justified.
Does Cooter still have the Regenerator?
I ask because of what Archon would do if they recovered it. There’s at least two people who could use it. It exposes another ethical issue with the whole Veil setup.
Some restrictions are implied as is. For example, a dedicated curse-breaker wouldn’t be allowed to sell effective anti-arcane shielding devices no matter how good the intention. Are humans also prohibited access to things which could greatly improve quality of life like the Regenerator? If so, I can hardly blame Deus for raiding the Reliquary!
It’s the Regenator, not Regenerator, and Wyrmoot ain’t there no more
I don’t recall any discussion regarding this topic, so pardon me if I am rehashing something, but shouldn’t Sydney (or more exactly, her shield orb) be at the exact center of the shield bubble? If not, that indicates that she has some control over where the bubble can form, and thus she could form the bubble around other people with her on the OUTSIDE. Just a question of geometry.
It hasn’t been mentioned for a while. Variability of positioning within the shield does not necessarily equate to being able to go outside of it. We know Sydney was unable to do that, otherwise she would have just enclosed Vehemence, and not risked her life by being in the shield with him.
You are, of course, correct though that variable positioning is an indicator that Halo may be able to develop that ability. But do not forget the tether that the orbs have. That in itself may prevent her from leaving the shielded area. It certainly would do from the embiggened one. It may have been the designer’s intent to prevent users from leaving themselves exposed or using the shield offensively.
We have, for example, had suggestions in the past that foes could be trapped, then crushed to death by unembiggening the shield.
Not… really, just because she doesn’t have to stay in the center of the bubble doesn’t mean it doesn’t still need to form with her in the center
Good point.
Currently they are mobile mind. So if it is not centring itself on her, I wonder how it is station-keeping with their journey? If it was just going ‘in thata direction’ Sydney would find herself plastered at one end. Whereas if it was inclined to stay put, if it was not positioning itself relative to her, then Halo would be at the opposite end, dragging the shield behind her, like a galloping reindeer in a tent.
Although the ‘localised gravity’ (or whatever effect it is) of the flyball can cover a lot of sins. Everybody in there, plus the shield itself, could just be ‘at rest’ and the flyball is moving their bubble of reality relative to the rest of the universe. With Sydney overriding her local position, at her whim.
Once she has formed the Bubble, she can direct it where she wishes and can stand where she wants
Remember during the Desert Demo Demo, Sydney raised the Bubble to cover everyone (except Maxi and Les) and then floated above everyone else, she was not centered and Bubble didn’t move, same with when she stopped Kevin, after forming the Bubble se was able to move inside it (she bumped into the shield remember)
Yaknow considering the speed of even most slow flight supers it probably ain’t much but I gotta give kudos for setting up the placement so that you have a MK1 in every direction but up. Someone just might be able to shout “Incoming!” before they got hit.
MK1 Superhero.
Batteries not included. Has some small parts, not suitable for children. Has some large parts, really not suitable for children!
I will purchase this….but only if they come in “Liefeldian” and “Non-Liefeldian”.
(I meant MK1 eyeball by the by for those playing along at home; remember to text for your chance to win!)
If you ever do end up drawing ‘real’ Angels, I hope they are appropriately terrifying. You know, what with the whole clothed in fire, glowing eyes, overwhelming aura, and the need to say ‘fear not/don’t be afraid + don’t bow down in terror/worship’ at the start of every single meeting with mortals.
Plus, don’t forget the chance to design some ‘fire swords’ though those could just be for guards or whatever. I’m thinking lightsabers with more flare lol.
The comic https://locuslilitu.com has what you need.
I’m a bit surprised Sydney would zone out in a meeting where a supernatural/alien/extradimensional/superpowered/whatever antagonist was being described. I mean, no matter how tired I might be if I was being briefed on an actual alien encounter, I’d be as alert as I could possibly be.
That is the kind of situation where I’d expect her to be in hyper-nerd-alert mode, absorbing all the data just like she has done for all the versions of the Enterprise and all the minutia involved in so many different comic titles that even I, an avid comic reader all throughout my childhood and more casually even into my 20s, have a fairly good general grasp of the story lines but not the multiple reboots (if applicable) and the sub plots and the crossovers and such.
If anything she should be trying really, really hard to absorb all the data, because that’s what Batman would do.
Or maybe Dabbles is lying and they never actually explained what Sci-fright is, butt knew Sydney would have lost interest at some point
The best lies contain enough truth to sound feasible and slash or logical
I’m sure you are correct.
It doesn’t look like Sydney is using the most embiggened force field setting. Not only would that provide a lot more room, if the rings on the ground at the firing range are any indicator, but it would also provide a lot more air.
PS: I just added ’embiggen’ and ’embiggened’ to my Firefox dictionary, since it is a word now and I don’t want to see the red underline telling me it is a typo anymore.
How cromulent of you.
At least one Daphne is sitting at the bottom, and DaveB didn’t say how many extra there were, just that there are more than he drew
The more embiggened it is though the greater the effects of the sonic boom they are creating. Considerably worsened by the spherical shape of their aircraft. So it is wise not to make it any bigger than necessary.
In this instance they can signal Super Hiro to push, whilst Sydney swaps out the flyball for the airball.
Interesting that its name is just ‘makes air?’. Which provokes me to think that the orb still has some interesting twists to reveal.
The sonic boom is dependent on the speed, not the size
Incorrect. At any given supersonic speed the larger the volume of air being displaced by the moving object, the greater the effect of the sonic boom. A small moon flying through the atmosphere would be considerably more disruptive than a needle, even if both are travelling at the same speed.
No, you just reinforced what just said: it’s the speed that matters more, if the small moon is going slow, then there would be minimal disruption, and thus, no ‘boom’
I was countering your absolute “… not the size”. That is different to what you are now claiming (which is correct). Importantly the comment you were refuting is perfectly correct.
Small supersonic objects, such as air-to-air missiles have a sonic boom but one that will not cause problems on the ground. Even though they travel far faster than even fighter aircraft can fly (cause that is what they are designed to overtake).
Whereas the larger an aircraft is the more destructive its sonic wake can be. Potentially being able to break windows on the ground, if low enough and fast enough. Even though Sydney’s shield is only carrying half a dozen people at the moment, its totally non-aerodynamic shape will be making it create a sonic boom significantly worse than a six-seater supersonic passenger aircraft (should such be built).
It… wasn’t an absolute
Of course the size does factor in, butt the most pertinent is the speed: if two objects are travelling at the same speed, the larger one will, naturally, cause the most disturbance, butt if you have a car-sized object travelling at a slow speed versus a Vespa going at high speed, it will be the Vespa causing more disturbance due to the faster displacement of air regardless of its smaller size
It all comes down to the speed and position relative to other objects
I should have used “accelerate” rather than “travel”, albeit that the key bit is how fast a speed they get up to by using that capability. Hence why I used the term that I did.
You definitely did a great job on the facial expressions in the last panel. Very expressive without cartoonish over-exaggeration.
Pro work.
I would be severely not okay being in the shield bubble with that rail-gun unstowed. The raw kinetic energy it’s been shown to put out means a misfire would convert all the bubble’s occupants into chunky salsa.
A very sound point.
To counter it though do recall that this is ultra-technology. It probably has considerably more safety features built into it than anything Earth technology can make. The most obvious one, that springs to mind, is that it may require a signal from Dabbler’s cybernetics, in order to arm and/or fire.
Although Dabbler can be a bit ditzy and forget simple things, at times (“Shame we can’t just cast the spell on a rock and throw that through”, so your comment remains pertinent.
Halo and Maxima have utility belts,and Dabbler doesn’t need one, but I don’t see a utility belt on Hiro.
Dave does forget things at times, especially on background characters. Each of them has numerous small details, such as this, so I would not be too fussed if it appeared on him later.
For now though we can assume that he has his pouches on the back of his belt, at the moment. ;-)
So if Harem is in the group, she’s kind of like a black box on an airline.
Even if they all get instantly wiped out, she still knows what happened right up to that point.
Of course, just like the black box, it doesn’t have any info outside of it’s sensors and what it’s told.
Unlike a black box, she’d probably get really torqued if someone mentioned this particular feature to her.
Not quite: when Sydney used Daphne as a navigator on her second day (to help her find the way to Archon-HQ), Daphne said that she was basically ‘cut off’ from the other Daphne’s
Yea, that does sound familiar. But, looking it up, we are conflating two separate things. The conversation includes both a discussion about the shared mind and the teleporting. The former though Daphne explains is not inhibited. Whereas it is the latter which she finds disconcerting.
This remains consistent with DaveB‘s comment above:
That thing Krona did did something screwy to her. She knew she had been inside the building, but DaveB’s own comment states she doesn’t exactly remember what happened.
The significance is that one of her bodies got reset, whilst the others did not.
Now on the face of it all of them should be identical, as their brains are quantumly linked, and what happens to one should happen to them all. So either they should all remember or none should.
So I suspect that the deja vu probably occured due to secondary memories. So any brain matter that got changed directly by the experiences in the warehouse got reset (and in the other bodies too). However it would not have reset memories being laid down by the other bodies. Nor any secondary memories associated with those.
For instance if the Mars warehouse body stepped on a bit of debris, causing momentary pain, the other bodies would have reacted, possibly causing a problem for some and not for others. Each is processing the reactions slightly differently, so those memories are associated with those bodies. Meaning that when the reset occurs, those would still be intact, even if the primary memories were erased.
Hmm, was misremembering: was sure Daphne said something about feeling ‘cut off’ while Bubbled
DABBLER’S BRAIDS OMFGKQHTKLNEDLQKHGBNDFSLKHBDCFSLKH
Yeah she’s rocking that look.
Someday there will be hordes of cosplayers trying to replicate it.
Harem?
One with the Osprey
One with Halo
One back at base Probably asleep or at the armory ready to grab and port
the others probably standing by at the Armory also ready to grab and port.
One at the base
Ignore the above that should be (For Harem)
One with Halo
One with the Osprey
One probably with a second aircraft or back at the base at the Armory ready to grab anything they may need
One or two at the armory-GM ready to grab and port(depending on how many Transports they have in the air)
One either sleeping or also at the Armory ready to grab and port.
You are forgetting the one informing SmugD what is about to happen
Panel 2:
Interesting circular feature on Dabbler’s gun. Was that a feature of the rail gun? I suspect that as Dabbler gets to create more weapons, and other toys, that it is going to become harder to place whether we have seen a particular one before, and what it may do.
If anybody is looking for something to do, adding a ‘Weapons and equipment’ page to the Grrl Power Wiki, would be a great service to the community. Dabbler could have her own section (or page) as she does not share her toys with others.
Which circular feature? The original had that circle piece with ‘studs’ sticking out, butt this one seems to only have a couple at the front (which look like lens)
I am talking about the thing that makes it look like a crossbow, in panel 2, but which goes all the way round in a circle, instead of forming a cross. So probably the same thing you are referring to.
Say, I wonder, did Dabbler modify a standard galactic version which did look like a crossbow. And if so, could they use it to play noughts and crosses, on an orbital board?
Yup, same here, that was on the original
Refresh my memory-did we know from the start that one orb makes air, or when was that figured out? As in, the page please?
No, at the start two orbs were unknowns. The air orb was discovered accidentally while Sydney was flailing about during underwater training in the pool, it somehow knew to go to her hand and react to the need to breathe (as best the scene can be read).
Correct when it was discovered, but a rather unfair interpretation as to the rest. They were actually testing the orbs and Sydney specifically said that she would try the green mystery orb. OK she then let go of the wrong orb, which made it that much more dramatic, but Sydney stuck to the mission plan, even in her panic.
I don’t think that’s quite right either. Syndey’s walking her hands down the air hose to her rebreather mouthpiece so she can place it back in her mouth. Correct about sticking to the plan, but a much older plan about what to do if your lose your mouthpiece while SCUBA diving. Also, disagree on the panic, she seems to have her wits about her as her steps are logical and the correct thing to be doing.
Granted “flailing around” would have been a more appropriate term than “panic” (the one Dave uses in his blog). :-D
But we both agree that Sydney was reacting rationally (even if her legs were having problems). It is the next page which is open to interpretation. Halo is reaching for the rebreather in one panel (clearly within her grasp). Then the orb moves into her grasp.
There are two possibilities. Either the orb made the choice (from a programmed “do this if the user is at risk of drowning” or from being intelligent).
Or it responded to the users command. This latter option could be as simple as Sydney thinking “I must grab the air supply” and the Air Supply orb responding to that. Or it could be Sydney going “I know I can hold my breath for a half a minute more, I may as well stick to the plan and see if the green orb lets me breath water”.
Having twice been that close to drowning myself, and having made just as complex survival decisions, I am quite happy to consider that Sydney would have been able to do that. And I am obliged to be loyal to Sydney and give her the benefit of the doubt.
*barks protectively*
Finally her resulting dialogue would match using any of the explanations.
Is it just me or is Dabbler channeling a bit of Maxima in both attitude and appearance?
That’s what it is about her appearance: she is looking a lot like Maxi in the invotive!
And that’s a ‘minor’ problem for ‘traditional’ artists: apart from a few truly distinctive characters, most characters tend to look alike, and even with the distinctive characters, the artist could have a ‘bad day’ when it comes to drawing them, even if it’s on the same page or three pages in a row
Wow, it has been a long time since we only had one page of comments.
*keenly looks at comment page number, poised to shout out “first”*
F**st.
Too soon, cool your jets, or the sharks will start clicking their fingers at you :P
It was originally attached as a reply to my own post above. I was not actually trying for a first (as the linked clip should show). But my ISP decided (per Sod’s law) to go slow right then and the posting failed.
I was so keen to get my reply in, when it returned to normal (just in case I lost connection indefinitely), that I failed to spot that,the reply had become a new post.
*weary sigh*
And, yea, the voice does sound rather too human, but it still tickled my funny bone.
Just to be sure, you do know that clip has been altered, don’t you?
Found the original talking Remmy clip
The upgraded version is better.
By the way, I am pleased to see that the Shires are developing a self-driving air taxi!
Our Aussie readers need not fear. Although it looks big enough to fit a war-pony and hobbit rider, the taxi range will only be 150km. So the Great Barrier will keep you safe for now.
You may want to consider building it up though, in case someone develops an efficient battery system, or a sufficiently powerful solar powered version!
News to me