Grrl Power #640 – Not really a “Badum-Tssh” moment
Maxima seems to be channeling Margaret Cho there a bit in that first panel. Just… visually. She’s not making some joke about being overweight and/or Asian.
Is there a non-ominous way for something buried in the ashes of your people to start glowing after being trod on? Cause I don’t think there is.
I’m not entirely happy with the name “Xevoarchy” but The Federated this or that has been used, as has the Hierarchy and Imperium and basically everything else because sci-fi has been around for a few years.
What Dabbler’s talking about is basically that the galaxy, or the known civilizations in it, have a collective military that enforces a collective set of rules. It’s sort of like the UN, if the UN had a proper military that was 25-50 times the size of anyone else’s. Also instead of being a bunch of representatives basically there to promote their own self interests, the Xevoarchy’s focus is galactic civilization as a whole. At least that’s the intent. There are a bunch of controls in place to prevent a race or even a collection of races from hijacking their arsenal. But you know how people are, even alien people. Stupid. So who knows.
Dabbler implies it here, but I ran out of room to state it implicitly, but Sciona’s people are, as Dabbler’s cut word bubbles said, “Imperialist dickbags.” And maybe a bunch of their colonies got sick of the Imperial Tithe and did something about it. Of course, the rules of the Xevoarchy are nuanced, and while they allow imperialistic conquest, that only applies to civilizations at a certain technological level, where the conquering force can’t just go in a slaughter the natives and take all their stuff. They’re expected to provide advanced technologies and medicine and help prepare them to join the galactic stage, and eventually return the civilizations autonomy at some point. Oy. Now I want to sit down and write the Xevoarchy bylaws.
Oh, I forgot the blood on Sciona. I should probably add that. :/
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.
Amazing how Max can just look for a few seconds and conclude “looks to be global genocide”. I’d want a LOT more evidence! Just the fact that the planet is still habitable argues against it.
Maxi is an expert on Global Genocide
Exactly the point I was trying to make.
Its ONE city, and they just showed up there. Pretty sure at this point, extinction level event and blasted back to the industrial age or whatever would look about the same.
Until they see the full planetary scope of the attack to determine just how severe it is.
Is that really necessary, before rebuking a subordinate, for being extremely tactless, especially in front of a grieving survivor? Even though Sciona is a nasty piece of work, that is not nice.
For their immediate purposes there is little need to distinguish between ‘local devastation’ and ‘global genocide’. Their choices (beyond the immediate necessity of ‘stabilise the wormhole’) are still: ‘stay and investigate’, ‘flee before getting caught up in what may be an ongoing attack’, ‘stay and render aid to any survivors’ or ‘stay and make sure that there are no survivors’.
Only for an aggressive interpretation of the latter is there a need to determine if the whole planet has been affected (and any colonies or off-planet outposts). Bumping off survivors, only to find an entire planet of pissed-off Alari are still around, would increase the odds of severe retaliation against Earth.
However I am not as cynical about Maxima’s motivations, as Guesticus is, so consider that a much less likely option.
Actually, there’s a very obvious reason to call it global genocide.
Sciona is a murderous (to use DaveB’s word) dickbag. And the Alari are imperialistic dickbags. And Sciona just threatened to sick those imperialistic dickbags at Earth. In her moment of unexpected low, encouraging her to assume the worse is a valid tactical decision.
How about rebuking Sydney for being the lowest ranking person present, and responding to Dabbler’s exposition with “Explain that immediately!”? There’s no way Maxima should have allowed that level of insubordination stand.
As for Sciona, she doesn’t appear to be grieving, but it’s a fair assumption that she’ll be in shock for a bit at least. If that’s possible for her, but from what we’ve seen she has the full range of human emotions despite being an alien, even if they are a bit predisposed towards the ‘psychotic killer’ settings.
If one of the things we see under Sciona is a leg, and the other is a leg stump that has conveniently stopped pumping blood and doesn’t even show any blood or other damage (but noted by the author as an omission), what is the third? Is it a wing tip she is using as a surrogate leg and dust scraper? Why is there any dust left to scrape when a wind spell was just used not moments ago?
Yea it was rather a presumptuous turn of phrase. But the team does a lot of banter, and is pretty relaxed about rank differences, when doing that.* Tone makes a lot of difference, which is something that we need to add ourselves. Initially I pitched it mentally, in a harsh tone, matching the dialogue, and it just did not feel right.
So, re-reading the line, and modifying it so that “explain that” was in a quizzical tone, whilst “Immediately!” was in a higher, jokey tone, made it fit the half-smile that Dabbler has when replying.
Yes.
It looks like, beyond the platform with the sigils on it, the ‘parade ground’ of the ‘fort’ is sandy. Dabbler was blowing away airborne dust, but creating ripples in the sand, like this.
* Which makes sense with a C.O. who is an ex-air force officer. I used to work with an ex-RAF pilot, who flew nuke-armed Vulcan bombers, during the cold war. Every flight not knowing if World War III would start on their shift.
Being able to lighten the mood, with a bit of banter, can be a valuable way of keeping sane, when staring the apocalypse in the face.
Easy, she didn’t.
“looks to be” isn’t a conclusion.
It DOES look to be. It might not be, but it sure looks like one. And stressing the worse option fits better for both chastising the inappropriate joke, and for demoralizing Sciona.
Of course you can tell this at a glance. Look, every planet except Earth consists of at most 8 set pieces and at most two cities and one single biome.
You know, come to think of it, that complies with every documentary I can think of.
And of course, one large abandoned quarry.
Ahh, but that is a magical quarry, because it is on many different worlds. But because there is no way to be transported, from one to the other, folks don’t notice. They just think that common quarrying techniques create similar-looking environments. Just with different colour skies in the background.
This is the place with the big important portal, so at least… *major* genocide.
Like if you arrived in New York and Hong Kong and they’d been totally depopulated, you don’t have high hopes for the surrounding area.
The most likely culprits are unlikely to be that local either.
I see evidence of an aerial or orbital bombardment. Naturally there would be no signs of life (on the surface),
I would however as those are craters, glyphs are still glowing, and the landscape isn’t just a glass floor, that there (might) be survivors such as in bomb shelters. After all if you were to blast a civilization back a few stages of development your primary targets would be city centers, technological hubs, power sources, and likely the most concentrated populations if you wanted to pull a *the tribes in the outskirts may some day spread and repopulate*…although that assumes a lot and is very Earth centric.
But again, Maxima is making a first glance thought, Dabbler is the one really jumping to conclusions given the landscape really doesn’t look that bad for a total genocide based attack. Unless those craters were spore chambers for life deletion beasts/robots/zombie producing fungi or whatever demented bio-weapon pods you decided to drop in the middle of a major city. And she knows something we don’t based on the structure of the craters or something rather than *oh yeah they bombed them back to the industrial age, targeted shots* instead of “See these glowing craters this is evidence of the Type 15 Xevarchy bio-pod mega beast drop ship weapon. I know it well, it releases cloaked life drinker monsters that hunt down every member of a specific species, yep, men, women, and children, yep…the Xevarchy sure are…the good guys…hide, for here be monsters, never venture into the void of this universe, cross the dimensional walls instead and explore alternate realities of your own world, never let them know you have this tech, flee this dark and twisted universe to find another…and I think I went off on a tangent LoL
Don’t forget that Dabbler will have seen the results of Xeovarchy intervention before. Just like we see TV news footage of U.N. forces bombing targets, Dabbler will have seen many such interventions which pushed rogue civilisations back to a pre-industrial age. Along with documentaries covering ‘what life is like on a planet bombed back to the point where it has no factories anymore’.
Whilst some things will be very different from planet to planet, there will be certain commonalities, especially in things like the types of craters left, and other distinctive weapon damage to structures. Notably only factory-like structures would be hit. Whilst hospitals and schools, to either side may be undamaged. Likewise whole residential areas should be completely untouched.
Genocide though, and use of weapons of mass destruction, is much rarer, both for us and for them. Yet, even though we have only seen footage of two cities hit by nukes, the pattern of destruction is easy to differentiate, versus normal precision bombing, even to a novice.
Dabbler is much more than that. And may have been to sites of either type of intervention, personally. So should be able to pick out the difference when looking at a panoramic cityscape.
TL/DL:
Everything in sight hit = genocide.
Only selective buildings hit = knocking back to pre-industrial age.
Also, on that note we can say that Dabbler is an expert on such affairs and would be able to estimate what it would kind of be like if the planet (whatever it is Sciona came from) had been devastated.
Just like if we are to time travel to the future Earth and saw the remainants of a nuked New York plus sudden cold weather plus sky being the wrong color we can safely assume that a nuclear war had taken place (and most of the Earth and human civilization had been destroyed).
Have not seen this mentioned yet: Sciona looks to be walking across dirt, likely getting closer to the wrecked “pylon” seen on the last page.
-crystals
-brassy metal
-dark colored tentacles, some of which are segmented
Anyone remember seeing those together before? Perhaps someone else phoned home recently.
E.T. was also an Alari? Boy do they have more variation, than amongst humans!
It had a glowing “finger” for a while, but the blue ones must have the opposite effect of red ones.
‘It’ makes me wonder if this is a case of sexual dimorphism? E.T. being the male form and Sciona representing the female. Which would rather explain what Sciona saw in Deus.
Although E.T. does have that finger thing going for him.
To be clear, by all those elements I was referring to this individual.
Ahh, well observed.
That supports my supposition that Sciona may make use of Alari technology (or technomagic) in the technomagic that we have seen her use. Possibly downgrading her from genius inventor/ mage, to just being someone who knows how to use off-the-shelf items and going to a primitive planet.
I am used to folks making some pop culture reference to a popular game or TV program, neither of which I have access to. So I am used to things going over my head, due to me having never seen them.
Thus being surprising that your link was the other way around.
And it’s actually closer to green than blue.
Not only was he one, but I think several thousand of his race died on this planet and their corpses are likely under those dunes.
Surely you’ve heard of the ET Alari 2600, buried in the desert?
*puts on black fore-paw band*
Yes. Conspiracy theories abounded, but it was confirmed that many thousands really were buried.
To this day the Air Force have failed to respond to the accusations about the link with Area 51.
His name is CLAYBORP.
Somehow I don’t expect a happy conclusion to the final scene.
Of course it’s a happy ending!
The result of their coupling is able to heal itself unlike any of the rest of their kind, with other abilities added in. I’m sure it will help its species to grow exponentially.
It’s still on fire and the dust is still thick. While the dust could last for years, the fires most likely wouldn’t in a dusty environment So that indicates something that happened super-recently like, ‘today’.
Just so.
The dust by the way is only localised, due to the out-of-control wormhole next to them. Sydney attributed the dust to that, and the fact that we can see all the way to the city confirmed it.
However that does not impact on the veracity of your conclusion. Fires need a fuel source. Unless the Alari choose to build their structures out of things that are more flammable than we do (with our much less advanced technology), then fires only have a limited burning time. Although, without the dust helping to dampen it, probably adjusting it to ‘today or yesterday’.
A well-worded spell could do it. “If there’s a fire here, there will be a fire here.” (light match, flame starts and will just exist there now)
But I’m still going with the Destroyer of Mosques being the culprit since she flung Sciona into the incomplete teleport-home-blood-sigil.
That haunted expression of Sciona’s in panel 6 is the first time I’ve felt anything approaching sympathy for the murderous blood mage. She’s lost possibly her civilization, perhaps her whole species and without warning at that. That in no way mitigates her many, many capital crimes but the fact that she does at least care about her own people and not just herself adds a dimension of depth to her character that wasn’t necessarily obvious before now.
*nods*
Although I found her cliffhanger expression to be moving. Even though we only had the suppose devastation to go on.
I haven’t read through ALL the comments, yet, but has anyone considered that the Alari may have been wiped out by a VERY different Xevoarchy than Dabbler is familiar with?
Remember, they got here though a MALFUNCTIONING portal that TORE A HOLE IN THE FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE. I’m putting forth the notion that this isn’t the same universe, any more.
It fits the evidence. Harem’s quantum link with her other bodies, which should instantaneously connect her anywhere in the universe, isn’t working. Sciona was just in contact with her people days ago – in their universe. Multiverse theory says, this is an alternate reality.
it might not be even the same time. a few days ago could have been days/months/years ago before or after they opened the universal catflap, heck they may have “dug too deep” and unleashed something.
Good points, both of you.
One caveat mind, but which enhances the argument, rather than detracts from it is regarding:
She described it as having an “echo”. Meaning that it is working, just not as normal.
Which makes sense if she is sensing both the rest of her bodies, beyond the wormhole, as well as getting an echo, from her alternate-dimension self, in this universe.
That tentacle on the ground argues a different scenario. I am guessing they probably had a superweapon went rogue scenario. What I am guessing is they made something that reacts to the energy they emit and feeds on it, something that likes the taste of magic when those magic wings get close. Something that finds Alari (sp?) extremely tasty. Why I think they did it themselves is that when you make something that feeds specifically off whatever magic your species makes, its something that would require a profound understanding of how your own species works. Just like, nature probably cant come up with a super virus nearly as deadly as what we could develop with modern medicine, whatever natural threat that tentacle is a part of, is probably not a natural creature.
Or the Intergalactic Genocide Squad could have created such a super weapon and programmed it to seek out and consume Alari life energy. I favor the theory that Dabs knows what she is talking about when she fingers the Xevoarchy for the deed.
Seems a little… excessive to extinct an entire species no matter what the provocation. Hell, ‘knocking them back to the industrial age’ is even a little bit excessive.
I’m betting that this Xevoarchy does not actually exist. Why? Because it is simple: Multiple races, multiple competing interests.
You are not gong to get them to even agree on a ‘universal peacekeeping force’ in the real world.
Sounds good until you logic out that human beings cannot even get along with each other. Multiple different species? Not gong to happen.
Well we have actually seen the Twilight Council, which is a multi-species government, which has been operating on Earth for three thousand years.
Just because humans are bad at something does not mean that more advanced races cannot find ways to make things work better.
Mind you I have found a way to fix two of the flaws with democracy. On the off-chance that I can actually get it seen widely enough, that some countries decide to implement it, we will see a reduction in civil disorder, terrorism, civil war and war.
It is only because we took principles created by a war-torn city state, in an era of slavery, and failed to properly adapt them to work across a diverse nation, without slavery, that we have the problems we do today.
However match the system of government to the needs of the people within a nation (rather than force them to conform to a ‘one-size fits all’) and you can eliminate many of the causes of conflict.
Question: what happens if someone else grabs Sydney’s orbs? That hasn’t happened yet, so would it be possible for Dabbler to just go ahead and use 4 of them?
A: That depends on who it is who grabs it. If it is Varia I believe it is very likely she will be able to use its powers.
It may be. I doubt it, but as you say it has not been tested yet.
Our biggest clue is the fact that the orbs resist moving away from Sydney (and won’t let her move away from them). It seems unlikely that such a feature would be programmed in* yet leaving the orbs accessible to anyone.
The fact that nobody has tried yet, despite it being a very obvious thing to do, is notable. Halo has been at Archon some time, and has interacted with a lot of people. You would think that at least one would have been curious. Likewise Pixel and Dabbler have been formally examining them.
Further Maxima saw how fearful Sydney had been that somebody might try to take her obs away. Going to great lengths to conceal them, even from friends and family, both to preserve the secret and to protect them. Despite the torment of having to lie about Tubey.
As such I think Maxima has discreetly given orders that nobody is to handle the orbs, other than Sydney, until she countermands that. Specifically she called Peggy, to tell her she had a special assignment, yet we never saw what orders were given.
Taking Sydney to lunch was the obvious part. I think that part of the order though was not to touch the orbs, and to make sure nobody else did either. Notably Peggy took Sydney out of the Archon part of the building. Which would be an ideal opportunity to spread the word (or even make an announcement via personal communicators or the P.A. system).
Since then Maxima would be judging when it might be safe to broach the subject with Sydney. But getting on with other testing, of a type unlikely to trigger an anxiety attack.
So when Maxima saw how fragile Sydney’s emotions were, by Harem’s unthinking sexual remark, at the pool, and triggering a near-breakdown and nosebleed, I think any thought of testing by other people would have been postponed even further.
* And we know it uses a programming language, because Krona glimpsed it, when the skill tree was visible.
Math actually touched an orb during Sydney and Math’s “rematch”
I used to think so too. But someone pointed out that Math was careful to avoid doing that. If you go back and check it out, you will see that he nudged Sydney’s leg into its path.
Oops, that was as regards the leg. You are correct with his finger.
That is not the same as trying to control it though.
I supremely doubt Varia can use the orbs if she touches them. They aren’t actually there. Also, I’ve started playing Numenera. I think the orbs could be explained with the datasphere mechanic. However, if Varia touched Sydney (which she did, and we’ve both mentioned that the orbs then orbited both girls) then thought about using an orb, she probably could.
My numenera character’s foci is something I made, which is a combination of Cardcaptor, Blue Mage, Tank Mage, and Gamma World-style confused artificer. I bought some art supplies today and have been working on making the item in real life that I have in the game, minus the magical and nanotechnical traits. I’ll link a photo of myself with it when I’m done, in an upcoming chapter.
Two people touched Halo’s balls:
Matthias “touched” Fly his face: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/709
Matthias “touched” ??? with his finger and Comm with his shin: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/838
Dabbler “touched” Shield with the top of her head: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/626
But no one touched any of them with the PALM OF THEIR HAND except Sydney.
Nothing is real. Not the spoon, not people, not the ground. But if something not real feels like it hits us then that is real enough for most folks.
My guess would be that while anyone can simply touch the orbs, only Sydney can actually access the functionality of the orbs. We can already see that the orbs have in some manner, and for some as yet unknown reason, latched on to Sydney. The orbs insist on remaining within a certain distance of Sydney, and have been known to enforce this distance limit forcefully and comically. Presumably this distance limit is to ensure that the orbs are always within easy reach, at least as easy reach is defined by the beings that created the orbs.
This affinity that Sydney and the orbs have for each other just seems like it would logically be an exclusive affinity. While others can touch the orbs, to anybody but Sydney they are just pretty floating and glowing balls.
Agreed.
Note the exception of Varia I mentioned previously though. Whilst Viirin clearly disagrees (albeit in a specific way only), the fact that Halo’s orbs moved to include Varia, in their orbit, when they were testing for a Varia/Halo gestalt, gives us a very strong hint that is the power granted by the gestalt.
Of course complicated by the fact that nobody present actually noted that happening!
For info Varia usually ‘gets a sense’ of roughly what a gestalt can do. However we have seen that the orbs have extremely powerful defences against being scanned, by any means.
Dabbler used magic and technology, yet could not even detect the runes and glyphs that we have seen Halo both referring to and pushing. Plus we have no problem seeing them ourselves (but we may be seeing them the way Halo does, as we see the world from her perspective – if not literally from her eyes).
Likewise cameras and Dabbler’s cybernetic eye could not see the skill tree. But plain old organic eyes and brains could.
So it is logical that, even though Varia’s gestalt power may bypass the orbs normal exclusive behaviour, the part of Varia’s power, which would tell her that, was being blocked, by the orbs.
One possible interpretation of evolution is that any species too aggressive/greedy/dangerous would become extinct due to other species taking a permanent self defense action. The people of this planet may have failed their evolution survival check.
Unlikely. In the real world the more aggressive a species is (assuming that they are not just killing for the giggles) the more likely they are to survive.
That is why humanity IRL has been so dang successful on this planet: Push come to shove we could probably make literal demons from Hell go number 2 in their pants with our sheer aggression and hostility.
Not so. You are taking a humancentric view of survival. Put an animal-intelligence predator species into an environment where they can be as aggressive as they like and they will consume the entirety of the food source. And then starve.
We see this when invasive predators get onto an island.
It is only when predators and prey evolve in parallel, with each developing small advantages over one another, which gradually get counters evolved, by the other, that you get a more harmonious balance. Then a wider variety of adaptations and behaviours can prevail.
A simple example would be a submissive member of a social group. Who, when the leader is out of sight, covertly mates with a female. The more aggressive male is the one doing the fighting, protecting the territory and taking the risks. Whilst the passive male is passing his genes, without those risks.
Plus we view sharks as being aggressive, yet the ones who are selective and choose not to attack helpful fish, can go have parasites and dead skin nibbled off, by appropriate species of small fish.
Eat them though and you are likely to die of some nasty infection that more sociable sharks can avoid.
Even amongst human societies this is true. Napoleon and Hitler both thought that they could get whatever they felt like, through violence. And managed to convince other nations to join them. Yet others rallied around and fought back. The short-term gains, from aggression, proved not to provide long-term success.
Agreement with Yorp, except the example I thought of was viruses. Like the invasive predator on an island, an overly aggressive virus will kill its host then die off before it has a chance to move on to a new host. … Of course survivability during famine for both the predator and the virus can increase the aggressive specie’s rate of survival. If the aggressive species can swim to another island, or the virus travel through the air…
Of course, if a really aggressive species is an extinction level event, it will have to wait forever for new food and since nothing lasts forever, entropy will eventually destroy anything that has no means of acquiring new resources for self-repairing. (Sorry, my thoughts are more complex than my words: I’m also thinking of robots, ghosts-like creatures, etc.) But then an animal-killing plant (or machine) that doesn’t need to kill to survive, but uses light for an energy source can be aggressive as it wants and not effect its own rate of survival. Oaks, I have read, tend to kill off many of the plants that surround it; their “aggressiveness” tends not to impact their survivability in the same manner as viruses and hunters. … I forget, am I still agreement with Yorp or am I now arguing against my position?
Lol.
Sometimes aggression is a suitable tactic. It is just not something that can be considered the best option all the time.
For instance if we do get a zombie outbreak (all it takes is weaponized rabies, to get something pretty similar to the movies) it is vital to counter-attack any infested areas very aggressively. Serious academic research (to teach students how to model pandemics) have shown that only such tactics can contain the old-style shambling zombies.
If there are fast-moving ones, typical of more modern zombie movies, then even aggressive tactics will fail and humanity is doomed. DOOOMED I say, DOOOMED!
Likely doggies too!
It’s a balancing act. Too much aggression and you either kill yourselves off, or never progress beyond “Thog Smash!” Too little aggression and you never fight yourselves to the top of the food chain.
Me thinks that whatever destroyed that civilization left stragglers to finish off survivors and that its mechanical in nature, only way to destroy a civilization like what Sciona came from is to use some sort of automated mechanical force that cannot be effected by blood magic and such.
If the damage is so recent, could the portal coming into being itself have caused the world ending catastrophe?
Possibly, yes. We do have a few things pointing away from this though:
1. The destruction does not appear to radiate out from the portal. Think of the blast from the Tunguska explosion and Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Trees and buildings, respectively, fell over in a direction away from the epicentre. Whereas we can see at least one big thing nearby that is at right angles to the portal. Likewise the craters are not associated with the portal, but are some distance from it.
2. Dabbler is familiar with the attack patterns of the Xevoarchy and finds the scene to be consistent with that.
3. The fires that we see look to be dying down. The buildings appearing much like we have seen of war-torn zones, after the fighting has passed by, and fires have been burning without anyone to fight them. Or, closer to home for many of us, skyscrapers and apartment buildings that have burnt without there being a way of fighting the fire.
5. There are no debris still falling, which there should be if all that damage was within the last couple of minutes. Explosions that size, in a city (with furniture, fabrics, small items etc) would have masonry chunks raining down for a short while and the lighter stuff for ages.
They went through an unstable wormhole, and they aren’t wondering if they are still in the same universe and/or timeline?
“because sci-fi has been around for a few years” …? If one was to use statements like that to judge your sense of history, one might believe that you are only aware of the events that have occurred within your own lifetime. Personally, I would have preferred the statement “…for a few decades” which would have indicated as sense of history that slightly pre-dated your own life; but with facts like: “Written in the 2nd century AD by the Hellenized Syrian satirist Lucian, A True Story contains many themes and tropes that are characteristic of modern science fiction, including travel to other worlds, extraterrestrial lifeforms, interplanetary warfare, and artificial life.” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction; “…forever” or “…as long as science itself” might be more accurate.
They can only comment on one set of things, at a time. They have already determined that stabilising the wormhole is vital. It really does not matter if they are in an alternate reality, a different time or just on another star, in their own time-space. Unless they can fix it the side-effects might kill them. Likewise they will not be able to get home without sorting that out.
Meanwhile they have to contemplate how to balance that with the apparent genocide that has probably only just occurred. Again where they are is of less importance than figuring out if they are personally in danger and whether they can (or should) render assistance to possible survivors. If they spot an incoming nuke, that is a higher priority, for example.
I’m not sure if anyone else has suggested this yet… But what about the Robot/Construct/Golem that Sciona created?
It might have information about Sciona’s homeworld (from her) and if it managed the ability to get there somehow, it could have a sweet set of powers to help it take the race out, If it has most of Sciona’s memories it may even have access codes to turn any of their automated military against them.
Specifically I’m thinking this looks like it’s tentacles/appendages but in a stealth form like Pixel’s full Leopard had.
As far as the team know, they destroyed it. We saw the ‘pilot/brain’ tentacle thing crawling off, but even Pixel failed to spot it. So they are not even looking for it.
Possibly the delta team may stumble across it, when mopping up the base. Assuming that is where it ended up. In which case, yes, it should provide invaluable research material. Provided that it fails to evade them and that they are able to reverse-engineer any of the technomagic.
On the plus side, although Dabbler refuses to share her own technolgy, she does not seem to be shy helping to investigate other types and share the results of her research. We saw that with both Dabbler studying the orbs (at a time when Sydney had not joined Archon) and subsequently when checking out Krona’s powers (in her case being a supernatural member of the Twilight Council).
Given the highly specialised blood magic/technology hybrid nature of that creature, even Dabbler may not be able to crack it though.
Am I the only one who feels like the blood disappearing of Sciona actually works? She’s a blood mage, and I feel like the blood had maybe faded a little in the last few panels. I kinda like the idea of her slowly absorbing the blood she was covered in.
Well… We have seen her control her own blood as well, so I don’t see why she can’t control it to re-enter her system or simply clear off her.
+1 – I thought it was a sign of her shock and the fact she was no longer fighting
Most of the comments about it have been favourably disposed to her making use of it. Specifically to help speed the regeneration of her leg, which we can see is progressing fast.
Which has probably contributed to the fact that Dave did not get around to putting it back. With everyone being cool with it, there is no harm leaving it as is.
where is all the blood that was on sonia?
Those first 3 panels. That’s what it’s like when you’re still in the rush of that neurochemical cocktail and say something a little too flippant around others, and someone has to say something to let the air out of you before you can come back down to a sober perspective of how jacked the fuck up the sight in front of you is. Most people who don’t understand the experience aren’t as forgiving as Max is.
So the Xevoarchy is something a bit akin to the Great Convention of the Dune universe? To paraphrase, the various factions have their own military resources and are generally free to use them as they see fit, but agree that if any one faction crosses defined lines then the rest will join forces to whip them back into line. That way, the Xevoarchy/Convention/insert-name-here doesn’t have the cost and loyalty issues of maintaining a separate establishment in parallel to the individual factions, but still has the benefit of access to the best and latest personnel and equipment when needed.
If not happy with the name “Xevoarchy” you could have Windingsed it. Just a bunch of weird characters. It’s the name of an alien organization, it doesn’t need to have a namesake in english or even a readable alphabed yet. And in a later explanation Dabbler could come up with an alike-name or pronounciation that fits your liking