Sorry for the late post. I forgot what day of the week it was. :/ Well, first week of summer break. That’s my excuse anyway.
So yeah, it’s a bit of a telegraph here, even if you don’t guess exactly what Sciona’s looking at, but it’s just the way the pages break down. So have fun guessing!
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The place is dead because the portal went forward in time.
Not nessisarilly, first question I had was ‘How long has she been on Earth?’
Technically time is relative…. and a big ball of timey-wimey stuff.
If it’s reality hopping, time in her home dimension might work differently than in Syd’s.
Yup.
Another possibility is that she has returned to an alternate Alari homeworld, where there has been some catastrophe. However it could otherwise be indistinguishable from Sciona’s world, even down to her* own home and personal effects. Depending on how long ago the disaster occurred, it may appear to be the present day, or some time in the distant future.
* Well an alternate reality her, presently on the local Earth, rather than the one the team are from.
Both of you are wrong. She is clearly on a planet which has nothing but shrimp. The statue is of winged shrimp too.
The Council exterminated all life on her planet.
There is a counter with a sign “Alari Rent-an-Army”. It has a ‘take a number’ dispenser with the ticket showing 9,998,383 and a “Now Serving” display showing “15”.
+1
Surprised that almost no attention is being paid to Harem’s reaction.
Probably she is utterly confused because this version is cut off from her other versions.
Surprised that no attention is being paid to Harem’s reaction.
Surprised at how little attention is being paid to Harem’s reaction.
An echo message. I see. What you did there.
there there there …
Actually, the subtle change between each of the three sentences was a nice nuance added in there, that took a few seconds to really get caught. I say well done, sir or madam.
A Starbucks, a McDonalds, and a CVS Pharmacy. And the Starbucks has another Starbucks across the street.
No no no, the Starbucks has another Starbucks inside of it,.
Unless it’s in southern Alaritownshireville State, in which case take away one Starbucks, add two 7-Elevens and a dollar store of some flavor.
If it’s in Texas, there’s a CVS with a Walgreens across the street, and a Home Depot with a Lowes across the street.
Joke all you like, but Lewis Black actually described going to a town in the United States that literally had a Starbucks across the street from another Starbucks. “The ONLY way this works is if there’s a bunch of old people with Alzheimers living here, who can walk out of the one Starbucks, see the sign across the street, and forget that they just had a cup.”
But one is an FBI front for surveillance on REDACTED.
Classified Data Leak: the other Starbucks
they’re selling their coffee in dribble cups.
they’re selling their coffee in dribble cups…
Why would a federal boobs inspector need starbucks as a front? This isnt idiocracy.
I’m pretty sure that I saw two Starbucks in downtown Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA) that were across the street from each other. However, they were both in large office buildings.
In King of Prussia, there is a Target store that contains a Starbucks and has a Starbucks sign on the outside. There is also a standalone Starbucks in the same parking lot.
I know there are even two Starbucks in Battlestar Galactica!
One can even have Starbuck and Starbuck in Starbucks.
They could even change their surnames, to match the character names, and get hitched up. Then, when Katie got pregnant, and they went for a coffee, there would be Starbuck(s) in Starbuck with Starbuck in Starbucks.
That can actually be explained if neither Starbucks was individually large enough to deal with the demand of the area.
i have no clue as to how true it is, as i’m pretty sure it was just a hater hatin’, but i heard many years ago that in the corporate mission statement or whatever it’s called, there is a line about wanting the company become so successful, so commonplace, that there WILL BE a starbucks spaced no more than two blocks apart from any/every other one, WORLD WIDE in order for their customers to never have to walk more than one block to get to a starbucks location…
The 2nd Starbuck’s is sharing retail-space with an “IHoP”, a Denny’s & a Shoney’s Big-Boy…
…each open during a different portion of the day…
…it’s a “Southern”-thing.
I wonder what the giant shapes are in the background (panels 1 & 2). There’s at least one to the side and one behind the team, so possibly one at each compass point? And they’re standing on an array of sigils….
Oathgate? Stargate? Watergate?
Those objects are the ships from the Vogon Constructor Fleet here to clear the way for a new hyperspace bypass.
Hope not – none of the team has their towel with them!
I wouldn’t count Sidney out.
I will rend thee in the Gabberworts with my Blurglegruncheon! See if i don’t!
Don’t Panic.
Don’t Panic, Mr Mainwaring sir… ma’am? Did those Fuzzy-wuzzy’s get you with their sharpened fruit? o_O
No, it’s just I know where my towel is so I don’t need to panic, and neither should you. The Guide says not to right on the cover in bold, friendly letters.
Wrong series (towels are preferred by those who get lost, and prefer artificial means of getting dried)
If those are Vogon ships from the Constructor Fleet, then why are they on the ground rather than hovering ominously in the sky in the same way that bricks don’t?
Because they are Vogons; their pilots are as inept as their soldiers.
Did not see that at first. Either they’re part of a wall structure or the horizon is completely flat.
So a couple of pages ago there was a statue, ostensibly of another alari, right behind sciona. That is likely what the shape is there. The statue looked headless inthat art so I’m guessing the great empire has fallen.
It’s… the Deviant server-space
Heh, that does look like the Deviant Art logo. :D
Lots of talk about a destroyed world and time passing, but based on Sydney’s comment about reinforcements, I’m going with earlier in time. MUCH earlier. Almost beginning of time early.
Well that and the talk of ages and time in the previous page.
If they went back that far in time, there would have been no Statue that apparently matched what Sciona expected, and the existence of that immediate structure around them could be rendered dubious. Sciona’s initial recognition of the location and sigils would indicate to me that they’re at least in the near future of her expectations, possibly much later.
Sign saying: “Deus industries”. The Alari were enslaved and work at the fake blood for movies factory, by using their very real own blood for it. Also: succubi penthouse, McDonald’s, McTentacles which serves humans, and talking ponies with machineguns singing “fiendship is tragic” in a copyright infrigment over the “Rainbow factory” song….
….but why did Sydney made Dabbler wind away the dust???
McTenticals doesn’t serve humans, they aren’t allowed in the door. It serves elder ones who EAT humans.
Humans are indeed allowed through the door at McTentacles. They are just not allowed to leave afterwards.
It’s only a model.
The glyphs being the ‘paint by numbers’ of a space ship outline, and they are in a bottle, being carried by Milla Jovovich.
Get on with it!!!
Yes, get on with it!
Shhh!
You made me wish that the next weekend was finish already, come on hurry Monday.
Her world has ended. Dust everywhere and a barren scape where the moons alone shine eternal.
1: World ravaged by war with no survivors.
2: A long dead civilization, with only ruins to tell their tale.
Those are the best guesses I can come up with.
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.
So, when they arrived there was/is a giant statue on a giant pedestal. We see the body of the statute, but not it’s head. I’m guessing the head is the key to the mystery. Once the dust was cleared away, is the Statue’s head missing? Is there something behind the statue? What would freak Sciona out the most? What would be so obvious to Sydney using her orb that she would know it would be a big let down to Sciona?
Sydney’s comments suggest that Sciona might have expected others of her kind to be there, but clearly, they aren’t. Maybe there was a war and they were all wiped out? If the statue is damaged, that could indicate violence or warfare. Or a rebellion against her.
If so, I suspect that Sciona did something that caused the calamity. Maybe not intentionally, but it would make the situation even harsher if she did.
Over the past few pages, there have been glowing runes on the ground, in a grid pattern. As if a mausoleum. Or a warning. Or both.
Nah. Sciona saw the sigils and knew she was home. They were supposed to be there. There is something else wrong. Presumably Sciona is about to have a Charlton Heston moment.
My guess is that demon Dabbler banished way back when made it’s way there…
ooh nice!
That might be the actual thing that happened.
I love the artists skill at the sad shock on sciona’s face. Whatever it is, the evidence is overwhelming and overwhelmingly devastating to her. She looks like someone just told her that her parents died, that her child was hit by a truck, that the world she knew is gone. I can’t believe it, but I feel for her. Great job.
Stage Left: A huge pile of trashed weapons.
Stage Right: A population of hippie Alari, dancing with flowers and doing yoga.
Stage Center: A huge billboard, “Make love, not war!”
Next Scene: Sciona collapses in abject horror.
Drat , you beat me to that idea , nicely played !
:-D
Cue Maxima donkey-punching Sciona in the next page cuz of practicality :p
Cue Maxima donkey-punching Sciona on the next page cuz of practicality :p
I’m going for a ruined City
Like this? https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/landofthelost/images/8/88/Altrusia16.jpg
Look out for any Sleestak! The team shouldn’t have to worry about any injuries. Sleestak are the only creatures with worse aim than stormtroopers. If they find a man with two annoying kids they may want to offer them a ride home.
Oh geez, thanks a lot for reminding me that I’m actually old enough to have watched it as part of my Saturday Morning lineup on TV.
Hey, I liked it, that’s why I watched it. But I just feel so old now…
Which one? There were 2 “Land of the Lost” shows If memory serves
No one mentions that trash remake movie that came out recently
Have the entire original series on DVD, mum is still looking for “Time Tunnel” (they never came back from that one)
I remember 2 tv shows using the name. *Google-fu!* yeah I was right, there was the 70’s show and one in ’91-92
Just remember the original series, and a trash movie remake (never watched the movie because the actor needs to be lost, permanently and forever!)
Thank you
Next page is a single panel.
Scooter sitting on a pile of allari bones.
Cooter: *nom non chewing on a bone* Oh good, I was getting hungry.
Okay this might be my favorite prediction yet
It is a 93 meter tall statue of an Alari, wearing a toga and a spiked crown, holding aloft a torch.
Mostly buried in an apocalyptic wasteland.
And that is not dust, its Alari ashes.
Computer: “they’re all dead, Dave…” Dave mumbles something about the cleaning crew… “Dave, They’re ALL DEAD, Dave!”… Dave keeps running his fingers through the dust piles…
Classic, glad someone else remembered :D
Agh, worst cliffhanger! D:
I’m going to guess .. Norwegian flag with crossed viking axes below it, on a pole standing in a pile of Alari skulls.
Makes me think of “new netherlands” from XKCD what if :D
Remember to clean the whale filter every few days.
Do I need to quote the Doctor here? Or any Alderaanian out there.
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Just what is it doing to Harem to be disconnected from the rest of her, I wonder…and what is happening with the rest while this one’s gone? Is the quantum entanglement actually broken, maybe? Can it re-establish itself when she gets back?
If they have gone to an alternate dimension (one where there is an almost identical Earth and a, perhaps less identical Alari homeworld) then there could be another Harem there. If the two sets of Harems (the ones on their own Earth and the ones here) are identical, then Harem could be receiving sensory input from each pair (two pink hair, two goth etc) and even another one identical to this body.
Even more confusing if those Earths are such close parallels that the alternate bodies are standing in almost the same spot, doing the same thing. Making it nearly impossible to figure out why the echo is occurring.
Although, if this is correct, it would be interesting to know where the alternate blonde Harem is? Did she end up going to the Alari homeworld in our team’s universe? Which may be the home to a thriving Alari civilisation. So giving really confusing sensory feedback of this planet!
Even if there were another Harem there, I wouldn’t think the entanglement would hold up – so there shouldn’t be input from the alternates. And if the Alari homeworld isn’t nearly identical, that lowers the odds even more.
On the other hand, if perhaps just a FEW of the sensory links were compatible, it might feel really weird….
How about this then? According to the many worlds hypothesis any given action creates two universes. One where that action took place, and another where it did not.
So every action which took place, since that wormhole opened, would spawn near-identical universes. With identical Harems in each.
If they travelled to one of those alternate universes, then the Harems there ARE our Harem, so the quantum linking should remain intact. Assuming (for this argument) that dimensional travel does not break quantum linking, then the echo would be there, due to Harem also sensing her native Earth selves.
Watch out! That train of logic could lead to finding a way for INFINITE Harems to combine across extremely close alternate universes….
All the myriad ways. – Larry Niven
Fred – one of my old favorites.
‘Fred’ is one of your favourite ways? o_O
Perhaps the problem Harem is having has nothing to do with the breaking of her quantum entanglement. It could be that the Alari home world is in an adjacent and parallel dimension, where time flows more rapidly than it does in our own reality. Suppose for example that a day in the Alari dimension lasts a mere second in our reality. If Sciona has been in our reality for 100 years, then over 8½ million years will have passed in her home reality.
This messes with Harem/Blondie’s head because while she still has the entanglement with her other heads, she is vastly overclocked in relation to them. The other harem’s possibly haven’t noticed her absence yet, because to them she has only been away for a few microseconds so far.
As a consequence, the explosion of the gateway is still going on in our reality. The present team could be here a couple of hours, only to need to shelter the less indestructible team members inside of Halo”s shield as they pass back into the flying debris.
*nods head*
*wags tail, at a different time rate to the nodding*
Lost your head there puppy
How many others have already commented on the minor error in that the truesight orb should not be able to see though the the dust unless its an illusion of dust.
And in that case it should not be blown away.
Me me me!
Nobody came back with the counter-proposal that I had been expecting mind. Namely that the truesight orb is not just limited to its truesight effect. Sydney may have used the lightbee to scout around, and projected her image to a spot far enough outside the dust cloud (created by their arrival) to see the surroundings.
Or it’s illusory dust that acts like the real stuff for some reason, for exsample it’s an illusion placed on air so when blown away the illusion comes to, it’s that way for realisim or it’s a really easily dispersed illusion. Or the orb was unrelated and she just wondered out of the dust and back as she’s wont to do.
She could see better with the orb if there is something magical around illuminating the scene.
True. Or an aura. Say the aura of death.
Every restaurant is a Taco Bell. And you get fined for swearing.
You got that right. See, according to The Council’s plan, I’m the enemy. Cause I like to think, I like to read. I’m into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I’m the kind of Alari who wants to sit in a greasy spoon and think, “Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?” I want high cholesterol. I want to eat bacon, butter and buckets of cheese, okay? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in a non-smoking section. I wanna run through the streets naked with green Jello all over my body reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to. Okay, pal? I’ve seen the future, you know what it is? It’s a 47-year-old virgin sittin’ around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake singing “I’m an Oscar-Meyer Wiener”.
or the lesser known filk we created for our D&D sessions: Oh, I wish I were an Ogre-Bunny Magi
Her people are all dead, and have been for some time. It’s kind of an old trope, but doesn’t get that terribly much use (at least not in my experience, its not like I’ve read or seen every piece of fiction on Earth) so I’m quite willing to accept it.
Its always a nice blow to the gut to the overconfident bad guy. “Now my people will destroy you, Bwa ha ha ha ha!”
Um… about that…
I can’t remember all the details, but I read a short story once in a old sci-fi magazine (possibly Analog, which is now paradoxically available in digital download). A human was on another planet and got involved with a feud between local factions. His side was discussing how to break into the enemy stronghold. At some point he said ‘Have you guys every heard the story of the Trojan horse?’ When they said no, he came up with a plan to leave an interesting looking package outside the enemy camp. Sure enough, they brought it back inside to show to their boss.
An old trick may be a new trick in another culture.
Sort of like the trope of a villain who manages to catch the hero in an inescapable deathtrap, explains his “master plan” to conquer/enslave/destroy the world/universe/multi-dimensional realities & then walks away to leave the unobserved hero a chance to escape.
When the villain first learns of the hero’s escape, it’s that first instant of regretful disbelief for forgetting to read the Evil Overlord’s Handbook…
A Giant Statue of and an altar to Hello Kitty.
There was a sociopolitical revolution while she was gone and now there’s just a few police officers to arrest her as a war criminal.
I see this encounter continuing in one of two ways.
1. Walking away from the group completely at a loss of words and will to continue fighting as the fighting spirit was just crushed.
2. Scona going out is a blaze of glory try to take as many of the heroes with her.
Frozen in time, or cryostasis, and will stay that way due to the runes present.
Lots of speculation about that headless statue we saw three pages back. Sciona is just now getting a good look at it. Now remember that when we first met Sciona she was three quarters of an Alari head grafted to a troll body. This could be Sciona’s own grave, where her headless body was buried. Bit of a shock to find yourself standing on your own grave.
I’d say that is a very good guess. Though, you’d have to wonder who went to the effort to make such a huge and monumental grave.
Does anyone else notice the big squares with tubes and or legs coming out of them all ominously in the background of the first and second panel of this comic?
Took a really close look at it, I see a really large square, it could be a door or a building or something else that is square or block shaped. There are two half-arc like objects coming out, one from each side. The square seems to have a border around it, much like a door frame, but it could just be decorative.
To the right of it is a light source off in the distance.
The alari world is now a great amusement park and they are at the ‘medieval ride’?
I’ve been wondering…How miserable of an experience is it going to be for Harem’s mind to re-align after this? I’m not exactly sure how information feeds from 5 sources works, but I would think that having a bunch of stored up memories from a cut-off body all of a sudden having to be added to the collective mind of the other four will be incredibly disorienting. I mean right now there are effectively two independent Daphnes, the one and the four.
The trouble is that Harem’s shared mind is only possible because of a side effect of her teleportation. When creating a duplicate Harem teleports but does not destroy the copy of her at the start point. Importantly this results in the shared parts of their brains (excluding the bits controlling the limbs, for example) being quantumly linked.
That is therefore a side-effect of her teleportation. Not a power in its own right. Also meaning that it is a one shot deal. Just as with regular particles that have been quantumly entangled, if you break the entanglement it cannot be restored.
The only viable way would be to destroy the separated body (along with the memories which it generated whilst living apart), and create a new duplicate, from scratch. As Harem does not know what happens if one of her bodies dies, she is probably not keen to try that option!
Although, on the plus side, if it would normally be deadly, for her other bodies, the one time it may not be, is if a duplicate has been separated.
However Harem is not describing a lack of any contact with the rest of her. Rather she is experiencing disorientation and an echo. So something else is going on.
To this Harem, it might feel like the other bodies are dead. Meanwhile the other 4 are wondering what happened to this one.
Oh without doubt, if the link were broken. That does not sound like what she is describing though.
I would say the other dimension or straight up distance just indicates that she is pretty much at her limit for her hive mind and something she has never encountered. Not even the weird Deja vue moment awhile back. Remember its true that certain parts of her mind are quantum linked. there is still a lot of other parts of squishy brains that are NOT. I guessing its just straight up the human part to her Super human nature that is having problems. But for all that all parts of her are having the same issue betting.
I still think we might see one hell of a Harem group hug when they get back.
Harem is indicating a type of “echo effect,” not a complete cut-off. Which means that there is some sort of temporal/time/chrono-displacement in effect which even messing up her “instantaneous” quantum link. It could be that 1 of her bodies being in different dimension from her other 4 bodies might have been sufficient to cut off her link completely, but as long as the portal is open there’s likely some form of time-dilation involved.
All of Harem’s sensory info is “out of synchronization.” What she’s describing as an “echo effect” might just be the best description of it that she can think of.
Did anyone but me notice that Achillies said “Ouch” when the portal hit, and we haven’t seen him since?
Achilles hasn’t been seen since #627. He might still be stuck in the ceiling.
You are correct that Achilles is not here. In fact the author commented that Achilles (specifically) did not get transported with the others.* And that only those depicted had been (thereby indicating that Mr Amorphous likewise was either left behind or sent somewhere else).
However that information also means that the “Ow” emitted cannot have been from Achilles, as that occurred after being sucked into the portal, and he was not present. Narrowing it down to Harem having been the one who said that. And we have seen her since, thereby confirming that conclusion.
Ooh, ooh! New theory time!
Mr Amorphous was left behind (we had not seen him for a while, so he was probably fighting manikin minions and/or acting as a contact point to Archon and the Delta team (the Alpha team were underground, so their communications would not work without something like that).
Achilles though was sucked through, but, because of his invulnerable nature, he went elsewhere.**
Or, for the purposes of this theory, elsewhen. The portal was actually going to the distant future, on the Alari homeworld. Achilles though just did a normal transport, but the time element failed. So he arrived there in the present day. And lived through whatever befell the Alari empire. After it fell, he had nothing to do but hang around, breeding Alari cockroaches, and hope that Archon eventually found him.
Eons passed and eventually the portal opened again, in the same spot. Achilles saw the disturbance and is riding from the ruins, on his giant cockroach, munching on a McCockroach Burger!
* This is important because Dave does not waste time drawing characters who have no significant part, when he has a lot of other stuff to do. So most of the time we should assume that the character is ‘just out of shot’, or somewhere nearby, and probably doing something similar to whatever they were up to the last time we saw them.
** If transiting to a specific location in time-space requires altering a traveller’s body in any way that may be harmful (no matter how trivial) and failing to make that modification means that the transport fails or has a different result, then that would explain why Achilles went elsewhere. He cannot be harmed or altered, in any way (other than as necessary for the normal functions of living, eg altering the brain to lay down memories).
This is way more fun than “he just wasn’t close enough to the portal.” I need the amusement, too, as I’m currently in a lot of pain. (gives doggie treat) You’re the best, Yorp. ^_^
This is a great community for escapism. I have been doing that a lot to try and counter depression, and return to productivity. Which is yielding some dividends. I just have to pop back for regular top ups.
:-D
I hope that you manage to alleviate your pain, or that it lessens, with time.
Oooh, foodies!
*munch munch munch*
Yeah, apparently it was Harem I saw. Oops.
To be fair, in small scale, sliding on her face, it was hard to tell. They’re both blond, and wear the same uniform jacket.
Butt, Daphne has the cuter butt :P