Grrl Power #673 – Beware the history tab
I’m not sure Sydney would be quite thoughtful enough to notice that the first icon in the travel log is glitchy and weird. Well, she’d notice, but ascribing potential life and death significance to the press of a button is probably a step further than her mind might take her on a regular day. That’s assuming she’s correct in her assumptions, of course.
On the other hand, narrowly escaping death multiple times in the last few moments might have her a bit on edge. She could be thinking that narratively, she’s due for a big fuck up or setback, so her trope sense is on high alert.
I spent a while trying to figure out what the orbs’s gateway would look like, and for some reason, I made it look like a TV effect from the 70’s. I’m sure Sydney appreciates the retro look anyway.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
can see it now in life death mission maxima calls Halo. orbital strike with ppo. “a what? ” “we need the halo array” “oh target acquired” BOOOOM
Concerning orbital Orbital Strike Weapon if the Comic world is similar enough to our world. An Orbital Strike Weapon would cause the US government or what ever government Arcon answers to in A LOT of legal heat. I am classify Orbital Strike Weapon as a Mass Destruction Weapon. and both the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) II Treaty and Outer Space Treaty, formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, prohibit weapons of mass destruction and also Kentic Bombardment would also Violate the Spirit of the Outer Space Treaty.
I think some of those treaties might need revising in a world with supers flying around… Max and Sydney both individually possess enough power to rival sovereign states.
That’s why their pasport is revoked. They now need a [Insert millitary mumbo jumbo]
XD Thats a youtuber.
and I think treaties are out the window when there is world ending threat that needs to be orbital striked. I mean would you let a law or treaty get in way of doing what needs to be done to save the universe or Earth? doubt it. and probly do it and go ooopse sorry later and go ” well if I didn’t break treaty then world be gone annnd treaty wont matter. and doubt space alliance would get involved if its a earthling doing it to earth they may show up ask why and same scenario.
“formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies”
Oh, the TOPGASEUOSIMOCB treaty. I can’t imagine why they decided to change the name.
I know it’s a cliche but theirs the
Committee for the Liberation and Integration of Terrifying Organisms and their Reintegration Into Society…
C.L.I.T.O.R.I.S.
IDK. Plasma entering the atmosphere at the speed of… how fast does Sydney’s PPO cutter beam propagate exactly? Well we don’t know, but the force behind the mass fired is quite telling in effect. Explosive sublimation of mass…
It would have an overwhelming effect, depending on where it’s programmed to stop. Or if enough atmospheric friction could detonate the beam targeting. Unknown, risky, this is Earth we’re talking about. Would certainly blow a hole in the atmosphere if it did. Best not to chance it. We’re already warming enough. Close proximity to the blast is well enough effective.
I dont think it a retro looking portal. because its no police box, delorian, epoch, stargate or Magical Hourglass
But it *does* kinda look like Time Tunnel.
Looks a little more like the Hyperspace gates in Babylon 5 to me.
B5 gates were more monochromatic, either blue or orange depending on direction of transit.
Hello and, again, welcome to the Sydney Scoville Junior Enrichment Centre. Please proceed to the chamber lock, where you will receive MIGH-TAY AMAZE-BALLS and food that stings your eyes.
(sorry, but… blue and orange portals…)
Seemed so close to getting some Space Pirate Sydney action too… TT
It could still happen as long as she is in space I suppose but its hard to keep the flame of hope alive now that she has found an Orb based method of traveling long distances.
If Sydney ever maxes out an orb, will it spawn a new orb? FFVII materia style? (Not FFXIV style though… that would be bad…)
I had an absurd dream after reading this chapter. I dreamt that Sydney arrived at her destination far above the planet and couldn’t see anything. So instead she got a primitive map of the world, which just showed water, a lot of islands and on long stretch of land in the middle of the map.
I basically dreamt up a fanfiction of Sydney going to the One Piece universe.
There are worse places she could wind up.
Like on Pern during Threadfall…Ouchie!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiJzlcs-Ks8
Eh. Nothing gets through Mr. Bubble.
My geeky heart! *Faint*
O/T – Sydney sighting!
“Challenges of the Deeps”, chapter 21. (“Grand Central Arena” book 3, Ryk Spoor, Baen Books)
“My best friend when I was young, Marisol, had a heritage of Indian-Mex cooking going back generations, and she would try to give me something I couldn’t eat – it was a sort of friendly contest. For my part, of course, I refused to admit that anything she brought was too hot, so I developed quite a cast-iron palate.”
“Holy cow,” she repeated, now on her second glass of water. “You could’ve probably given Sydney a run for her money.” The wistful note was very faint, but he could still hear it. Another Hyperion memory.
Homage confirmed (plus article link). Thanks for leading me to yet another rabbit hole of fun writing to disappear down!
The page number says 637, not 673.
And now it says 633, not 673.
Sydney is messing with the spacetime continuum, so everything is in flux! RUN!
I’m hoping the next Warp Drive upgrade lets he go to ludicrous speed xD
Sg
somehow i don’t see Sydney wearing plaid.I doubt highly that she would be comfortable wearing a kilt in the Scotsman fashion.
Eh, I think she’d go for it if you told her it was a costume and she was cosplaying in Braveheart or something.
CAN WE PLEASE HAVE A FILLER Splash page Space Balls Reference of Lone Star and Barf on ludicrous speed pretty pretty please xD
are you volunteering to make it?
I would volunteer my soul, wallet, AND wife
Totally just remembered something that Arianna needs to go over next time Sydney is in PR class, the holy grail of military scandal prevention; “I can neither confirm nor deny these accusations. Please forward all questions to my PR representative.”
She’s gonna need a helmet. And a whole chapter in the ops manual
Theory. The readout reads form right to left…
My first guess is that the first entry is deleted information from the log, probably the point of origins.
It’s otherwise most likely in my opinion, that the planet associated with those coordinates no longer exists… hence the scrarrble.
The second is likely the first activation point of the orbs, or the earliest point where there is still a planet left to visit.
The third looks like either some sort of gas planet or mushy priomordial cosmic blob of a glaxay… or it was also destroyed.
The fourth is Earth.
And the fifth is the Alari homeworld.
One of them looks like the Google Chrome icon to me.
Of course, a browser in the transportation orb! Where do you want to go today?
what if the Vail thing or that network of magic stuff that hides monsters non supers. what if that is what interfiered with the warp and why its fuzzy. and maybe fail safe for the original user if there is one was sent back to last known safe location. or the balls are sentient and cortana like AI in them must protect owner programing and initiated said teleport back possibly. like your classic DnD talking sword of heroicness type thing
sure, but they hovered above her till she was asleep, and presumably out of danger.
I’m guessing this is a reply to my statement that we’ve seen the Orbs sleep.
It’s like a PC that goes to the screensaver when idle.
Touching any Orb is like moving the mouse.
Can’t sleep when in use.
Really hope there is at least one Lego brick in that warp. (Reference to the Warp turbo boost power up in Lego racing of anyone remembers that game.
Just hope no-one’s dropped a yellow brick ‘present’.
And now we have another data point in the orbs’ power-level. The travel orb can open a shield-sized wormhole to a prior destination, with little regard to intervening distance. Either it maintains a microscopic wormhole to every prior location in its list and expands same upon choosing the destination, or it maintains the universal coordinates and can open a new wormhole to said destination each time. I’m uncertain which option is more energy intensive; the multiple dimension map in #672 only suggests that the relative distances may be smaller than expected.
So: Halo courier service! “Off the beaten path” is still on our map!
It has yet to be determined if the location chosen is a prior location. It very well could be like mapquest suggestions. Local restaurant, gas station, hospital, hotel, popular intergalactic sightseeing stellar phenomenon. Or it could be orb specific, planet of manufacture/sellers main office, recharge/repair location, pilot/driver training school, space force headquarters. We will see.
Maybe they are powered by minimalistic black holes in a quantum matrix fed by dark matter in the universe?
If she doesn’t go to plaid, I’m going to be so upset by the missed opportunity.
Typo alert! This page is titled (and listed in the archives) as page 633. It’s page 673. There’s another page 633, from a few months ago.
Why must the orbs have a previous owner?
Why can’t the orbs have wound up in the ocean due to shipping error, and the existing unlocks Sydney started with represent her basic aptitudes.
Since we still have no idea how the orbs ended up where Sydney found them, there really is no guarantee that the orbs had a previous owner. It could very well be that the power behind the universe itself just decided to disgorge the orbs out of the very underlying fabric of space and time 2 minutes before Sydney got there specifically so she could find them. Why? Maybe they thought it would be funny to give an ADHD geek girl awesome powers just to see the carnage that ensues.
In all honesty if I was a god like being that’s probably exactly what I would do whenever I got bored every couple thousand years
Me too. I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t more creatures like Q and Trelane and even Mxyzptlk.
I think that sentence just give my auto correct a severe headache .
I have also been wondering if those Orbs were placed there intentionally to scan for people with certain mental traits, and when Sydney came close they revealed themselves as per programming.
Is something around the solar system creating a hyperspace deadzone? Kinda like how Earth is in this magic deadzone in the Pathfinder/Starfinder lore?
Putting my wager on Sydney now heading for a Dyson Sphere.
Because Dyson spheres are cool. 40% cooler than fez’s.
What about a Dyson Sphere w/ a Fez?
Or a Bow Tie?
And a long Rainbow Scarf?
Sorry, got carried away.
Scarf yes (make sure you have a bag of jelly babies in your pocket), fez and bow tie NEVER!!!! :P
Is this good news or bad news for Sydney?
Oh, HELL yes, those cheap-ass ‘laser’ effects on VHS tape-era movies is EXACTLY what it should look like; that shit was hype when you were under 10 years old.
watch its different for each person sense shes retro nerd geek what ever it chose to manifest in the VHS era reading rainbow transition effect probly with the THX sound or i think effect as it opens up. the vrrrrrRRRRUUUUUAAAAM sound thing XD
Duh. I just realized why there are two Warp History points that are staticy. They’re ‘out of phase’ with the user’s current location.
Could be too far away, could be in different times or in spaces with a different spacetime signature. Or the orbs could have some damage from whatever waxed the previous holder.
If she gets back to Earth on her own, she needs to walk right up to Maxima and either ask for a raise or hazard pay.
Or…. getting chewed out by her superior officer for ignoring an evacuation order and missing her ride home. She will probably get her pay docked for the help ‘call’ Dabbler had to make once they got back to Earth. (And those interplanetary roaming charges can get pretty steep.)
She didn’t ignore the order. She was trying to follow it, when she saw an attack, and attempted to protect herself from it, missing the portal. Counts as circumstances beyond her control.
Too bad she doesn’t have access to Dabbler there.
Dabbler would probably throw together a probe to send through to check on how safe the other side was.
You know, when Sydney gets back, and they find out about her wormholes, that’s probably something they’ll do for each of the waypoints.
Or see if Sydney could use the lightbee to check them out.
Unfortunately I don’t think she can do that ‘here’ because she needs on hand for shield, one hand for flight. If it was in atmosphere, that would be different, but it isn’t.
Great idea, let’s open a wormhole on the surface of Earth, what could possibly go wrong? :D
Tunguska blast
The issue with wormholes is einsteinian symmetry. Fold your wormhole so you travel from point a to b in near zero time to an outside observer. Ok, symmetry says you just took a LONG time in YOUR reference frame because somebody has to experience the time passing. You don’t get to just throw it away, unless you have some kind of symmetry breaking wormhole.
Which, to me, is a way of saying that wormholes are great for spying, because light doesn’t care about time passing, but probably not so great for passing anything living through them. Machines built to run on very low power for decades and then wake up when they get there, and you think they got there in seconds, yep, that’ll work fine. Frozen embryos to spread the human race around, with real time contact to earth and teachers and all that, yep. But you aren’t going there without being frozen or something that keeps you from experienceing the journey.
wormholes don’t play Einstein’s rules, they go beyond singularities where einsteinian physics throws up its hand and says here there be monsters. wormholes can brake all the rules including causality allowing someone to travel back in time.
Every bit of wormhole math is direct development from general relativity.
Who’s to say it isn’t a light based travel method via a lightbee teleport extension?
I LOVE the Stargate reference…
I miss Leon
“Destination selected!”
“Portal open!”
…….
“Any time now.”
…….
“Make it so!”
……..
“Energize!”
……..
“ENGAGE!”
………
“Oh come on!” (Shakes the Orb)
“Ludicrous Speed! GO!!!”
[Bip]
I bet Krona could see a lot more in that portal than Sydney does. Like, enough to get epileptic seizures. Or go mad from glimpsing Cthulu. On the other hand, Sydney slew three Cthulu-looking mother****ers just a little over a minute ago, so the reputations of the Great Old Ones are probably exaggerated.
Is “And the seventh chevron is locked!” some kind of pop culture reference that I’m just missing?
Well, as usual Google is my friend. Here’s one reference, and here’s another. Both related to Stargate-1, a show that I might have caught two episodes of when it was current. An Uncle loaned me his full collection a few years back, and after I’d had them for a couple of months and hadn’t watched a single episode I returned them. I just had zero interest in the show, the couple of episodes I watched weren’t terribly compelling, and I just didn’t get hooked despite my normal weakness for science fiction shows.
It more a reference to the Movie Stargate that the TV series Stargate SG-1 is based one. it the the Stargate/wormhole address code is a 7 symbol (chevron) long, the first 6 defined the detestation location where the 7th one defined the home source location
I’m wondering if the display fuzzing has something to do with that unstable expanding and/or self-recursive gate Sciona left behind on Earth?
Daniel here. I know this is last minute, but I’ve had a thought – What if those “fuzzy” symbols are damaged?
Ignoring all the arguing about other dimensions/future/alternate timelines, she’s only just unlocked that line of options, picking only the 1st dot. What if those “fuzzy” locations are fuzzy because she hasn’t unlocked enough POWER for them? It could be going “locking onto location XYZ123 – ERROR, outside current capabilities, retrying…”, with the fuzziness due to it’s inability to find the location…
It occurs to me; there are two waypoints that are glitched. Since Sydney *might* be in the future right now, it might be that the glitched waypoints represent locations that have been destroyed.
Glad to see someone else had the same idea I did (two comment pages ago)
Yeah, I wasn’t sure if anyone else had this thought or not. There are a lot of comments on this page. xD
I don’t know how I missed this until now, but the page is mislabeled. This is #673, but it says #633.
Okay. All fixed. Everything is fine now…
…
…
… just fine…
Wait… What if Sidney is not forwards in time but backwards? I mean even a day or two back and she might meet herself. Could the orbs be trying to prevent that by giving her a warning against traveling home for now?
She has to be forward in time, if anything. We have confirmation that “a few days ago” the planet was perfectly fine. So, if they went through the portal and ended up arriving a few days early, they would have met Sciona’s army, rather than whatever just wiped the face off of this planet.
The TV effect from the 70’s (sic) is called Scanimate, in case anyone cares:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanimate
Just for kicks, I didn’t see anyone mention that there is no reason to think the orb creators listed things from right to left. The static filled icon might well be the trash bin equivalent.
“NEVER want to go to that place again, drag, drop”.
It looks like Sydney just picked to travel to the Death Star.
The icon that is all glitchy and weird – that’s her current location. And she (and the orbs) didn’t get there via the orbs – another reason why it’s glitchy and weird.
She dialed up the last location the orbs traveled to?
That would be Earth.
I just hope Maxima doesn’t hurt Sydney when she hugs her, because she’s glad Sydney found her way home…
She’s going to a planet with a circle around the top (aurora borealis maybe?) and a circle on/near its equator. What if that planet is Jupiter and that other circle is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot? She’d be closer to home but not close enough and have to return here for more grinding.