Grrl Power #650 – When god closes a wormhole…
This is the situation good commanders fear the most. Leaving one of your people behind in a different arm of the galaxy. With nearly no training. I mean, Sydney doesn’t even have the number to Archon HQ memorized. She does have her phone charger in her utility belt though, along with a sheet of gold stars and stick on googly eyes, so she may not be in as bad a position as it might first seem.
I think Dabbler went up about three cup sizes when she got back to Earth. Yikes. Okay not really, but they are supposed to be literally hypnotically distracting. The funny thing is, I actually usually draw breasts too small in most cases. Well, that’s maybe not true. I draw heads too big a lot of the time. I used a photo reference to get the pose right in the first panel, albeit of a woman with pretty big boobs, so… this is probably the right size for her. Granted she’s perma-glamoured, so everyone sees her a little bit differently. Somewhat ironically, Maxima sees Dabbler with larger boobs than Sydney does, for instance, because Max subconsciously assumes that a sex demoness should look more like a male fantasy slash blow up doll, ignoring the fact that she herself is quite endowed. Of course, Max doesn’t judge women for the way their bodies are shaped, at least she tries not to. Her opinions of women who get breast enlargements are a little more complex, but to her, how a woman presents herself is more important than the shape of her body, and Dabbler usually looks like she’s one hiccup away from bursting out of her clothes.
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Well here’s hoping that last unidentified orb is some kind of food replicator.
I’m personally hoping for wormhole generator/warp drive. With navigational charts, of course. That would complete the set for a functional starship. Comm ball: communications/sensor suite/limited teleportation, Lighthook: tractor beam/ grappling arm, PPO; phasers/photon torpedoes, Shield ball: shields, air ball: life support, fly ball: impulse engines. Which leaves an the last ball possibly being an FTL drive of some type.
Or the FTL is part of the flight orb, if you’re exploring space you’d probably want food, tho that could also be part of the “life support” orb; so~ if both the FTL is part of the flight and the food is part of the life support, we still have a mystery orb. o-o
could be like with star trek where there is an impulse drive engine (flight orb) and warp drive (unknown ball), which could have a whole different set of instructions required for use. with impulse you can basically fly by sight. with warp though, going so fast you won’t know you hit a star or planet until its too late? probably will handle much differen’t from flight orb. then again, flight orb may have the option but just isn’t available right now.
I can see the FTL being part of flight if it’s like Star Trek where you just fly fast but if the FTL is something very different (eg wormholes or something) then yeah having it in a separate orb makes sense.
Since the beginning the balls looked to me like survival gear for anyone traveler. They were found on Terra. So whose are they? Maybe the builders of that tech could uitilize more than 2 at a time. So there are things Sydney hasn’t been able to try yet. But no instruction manual that she could find. It is remarkable she “bonded” with them.in the first place…
They need somebody to take them home.
“Oh cool, that ‘auto-returning’ app worked! I thought we would never get those back.”
As I think I mentioned before, it might just be that the creators of the orbs had more than two hands. Heck…. Dabbler has 4.
Or none.
Snakes use their body as their manipulator. Plus could probably hold more than one that way. Further the tentacle is obviously modelled after their creator’s body and means of interacting with the world!
Sydney is just not flexible enough to fully enclose an orb with her body, but manages to simulate the requirement, by improvising with her hand.
Actually, I’m thinking the last ball might be some kind of control orb that will allow Sydney to access and use the other orbs without needing to actually hold them.
If this were the case, I think that one would be in the center of the levelup diagram, not just another peripheral orb.
It isn’t. For security reasons. Besides, the peripherals of a computer are the control bits, and they’re peripheral.
[the brown mystery orb flies down into Sydney’s hand, and a hologram of a white haired oriental man appears]
“Hello I am your emergency survival hologram. You appear to be stranded on an alien world, and under attack. First allow me to show you how to increase your shield strength ten fold. Then we can move on to instructing you in interstellar astrogation and discuss your interstellar transport options.”
I noticed there was a slight hint of the orb colors when the aliens scanned her brain. may be a trick of the light.
BTW, the aliens got a ‘reading’ on the flight orb for sure, but was the other one the flight or PPO?
The indisputable one was actually the shield orb, rather than the flight orb. Given that the shield was up.
There was quite a lot of debate about which the other one was, with one camp favouring the brown mystery orb and the other green air orb.
The difference hinging on whether the orbs rotated in between panes. Given that they ALWAYS do, I was content with the brown mystery orb conclusion. Which is corroborated by the orbs in the final panel having moved on two positions, from when we could previously make out their colours clearly.
Ergo they will have moved on one position, in the panel where they were being scanned. Thus making it the brown orb, in Sydney’s hand.
I mention the controversy because not everyone changed their mind. But they could not offer a convincing counter-argument.
I like the FTL as part of the flight and food replication as part of the life support (maybe also med functions). I would love it if each orb has settings that allow for default behaviors to be set, such as causing the flight orb to allow Sydney to hover in place if she let’s it go while she is off the ground.
The last ball could be informational; navigation, communication, translation and perhaps access to the orb settings.
FTL
Faster than light
Fried turkey legs
Find the lake
Fatten the larder.
FFFUUUU Too Loud
Fries, Tamales , Lettuce
Flipping The Lights
Fish, Tomatoes, Linguine
Fanatical Trinidadian Liming
For The Lemmings!
Fight Then Leave
Fear the “Temperate” Lassie
Food, Tummy-rubs, Love.
*hands over a Yorpie Snax*
*rubs doggo’s tum-tum*
*hugs doggo*
Thanks. Seriously good timing, to put a check against ‘the world doesn’t suck’ column.
*gives tail a wag*
sorry, everyone else, this is my favourite one! but thank you all for playing! :)
(For The Lemmings)
Forgot The Lemmings?
I was just thinking about the encounter with Varia – maybe the last ball is for interfacing with another set of orbs, either a duplicate set or an expansion pack. The skill tree seems to have the ‘upgrade’ factor covered, but it would be super useful to have a co-pilot to allow taking shifts or extending the limit of how much can be done at once.
Just having a ‘lock’ feature on all the orbs would be useful. Eg set up orb, lock and then you can release until you unlock them
Huh, I just noticed (after going back to that conversation in your link) that the Orbs included Varia in their orbit around Sydney… That likely means that when touching Sydney, she can also access the Orbs that Sydney’s NOT currently using… Oh my glob…
If only she could summon the lightbee …
WELL, we know sydney controls them mentally, possibly just like a limb, so she may well just not have wanted to knock varia with them and had them orbit higher around them both
Mmm, interesting angle, but not likely for several reasons.
The orbs constantly adjust their own flight paths automatically. We can tell this from simple deduction, because Sydney has been in plenty of crowds, often with people behind her (and therefore out of sight) yet none of the orbs has ever accidentally bumped into someone.
If all that was down to Sydney mentally commanding them, then she would have sometimes hit people who were standing too close behind her, or otherwise simply judged it wrong. It would be like a footballer kicking a football off the ground, everywhere he went. No matter how skilled, sooner or later it would hit someone.
With the orbs doing that automatically though, there is no need for Halo to intervene personally, in any situation, other than ones where she does want them to hit someone (or make pretty patterns).
Plus we can see that, even after Sydney falls asleep, the orbs are able to control their own flight, in order to safely slow down and make a controlled landing.
Importantly, when we see the scene where Halo is suffering extreme vertigo, and clinging on to Maxima, there is no way that she will have had the presence of mind, or the opportunity, to issue commands. Yet the orbs adjusted their flight to avoid Maxima. Notably NOT including Maxima, yet doing so would have kept them closer to their normal orbit. Instead they took a much more constrained alternative.
Likewise, in the scene with Varia, Sydney is fixated on the risk she was taking in having Varia manifest a strange new power, whilst holding her hand. So she was staring down at their hands, and not even looking at the orbs. Halo was completely oblivious, as to what the orbs were doing.
Also, in the panel immediately before the double halo, the orbit is doing just fine and they didn’t change relative positions. And Word of Dave for that comic starts off with “they missed something fairly obvious there”, so I think automatic joint usage is by far the most likely explanation.
And now I’m picturing a wildly gesticulating Sydney zooming back and forth across the landscape with the Benny Hill theme song playing. watched by the confused giant creature. It didn’t even get the chance to chase her, now she ruined that feeling
>Summon cheeseburger
kitteh powah!
summon bigger cheeseburger
Ka-Pizza!
Kangaroo Anchovy Pizza?
One of those things does not belong.
Now you;re just making us hungry.
*tosses yorp a bacon caramel yorpie treatk with scritches around the ear*
*leans into the scritching gratefully, nibbling on the treat, with tail wagging*
Yeah, anchovies, what sick mind invented those? o_O
And worse, decided they were ‘edible’? O_o
Odds on bet it started as “welp ya’ll, I double dog dare ya…”
I’m actually thinking that food & water could be had by Sydney’s Air Supply Orb. Life Support would include all neccessary sustainables, right? Maybe Sydney doesn’t know how to access it yet (hasn’t check her Orb for new sigils activating when she was hungry or thirsty), or she might have to spend her XP Pips on that Orb some more to unlock it, but thats where I think food & water would come from.
Now…Considering that these Orbs are decidedly of alien manufacture, the food might be unpalatable or even toxic, unless they also happen to be extremely intuitive with their bonded host & can produce something suitible for a human.
Or it could just fulfill her food requirements internally such that while holding it she just never gets hungry.
Yeah, but then she can’t feed any one else.
going with the spaceship orb theory (seems likely) it occurs to me that instead of “level ups” she is probably on some kind of new user ‘hands on training’ lesson set that unlocks new training exercises/related functions as training goals are met and has just completed some lessons by grace of doing random stuff.
Now so far she has been on a safe(ish) life sustaining planet that the orbs probably have some sort of record of seeing as they somehow got there in the first place, in other words not ‘lost’.
Now Sydney’s somehow jumped apparently 700 light years to either an unknown planet or known (hostile), while still in ‘training mode’.
Any bets on if the orbs have auto SOS for when the newbs do something stupid?
and if they do I can’t wait for Max’s face when Sydney inevitably shows back up right as they go to get the rescue plan in motion.
I would think the Life Support orb could reasonably be expected to cover air, water (or appropriate replacement based on life form chemistry), and food of some sort. And when the shield is up, it would probably be recirculating some of the matter in a closed loop.
We already know it does air – Archon probably hasn’t had a chance to analyze the exact composition yet, but I’d imagine it includes some water vapor or the user would start choking on the dry air after extended time in the shield. And if it can do water vapor, no reason not to do liquid water, and from there a nutritive solution like an IV or a smoothie isn’t much of a stretch. I think solid food (especially complex arrangements like a cheezburger) is probably a stretch, and this is a life support system not a catered luxury restaurant. Users can live on slush for a few days, they don’t have to like it.
Although, if it could do solid food as a 3-course meal, there’s no reason it couldn’t manifest just about any solid in any arrangement. 3D holo-printing a la Fortnite would be super useful.
Are you taking the piss, comrade astronaut?
That could easily be an extension of the “air ball”, it could be a “biological needs suppy” orb.
So that could teleport me to Sydney then?
*hopeful look*
*Sydney gets manga eyes and gives Yorp belly rubs.*
Yay! A dream come true!
Something we have still not had answered. How the hell did dabbler get to earth?
Being Dabbler, she probably traded sex for a lift.
The Hitchhiker’s guide has this to say about “Those” hitchhikers.
Enjoy the ride and make sure you have your towel. no not that one you sicko
The hitchhiker’s guide had this to say about Those Hitchhikers
Stay hydrated, be in good spirits or just drink them, and remember your towel. no not that one you sicko
Answered that question. thought the wording of the first caught me somehow. Site glitched and I had to exit the browser and come back in to see my comments. sorry about the 2 slightly different ones
I have found that waiting for the system to update the comments page, or even hitting the reload button while on the page does not work. You have to reload the main page and then click on the comments link to get a fresh version of the comment pages.
Or, apparently, complain about the page reload. The moment I clicked to post the above comment the screen came back with a display of that post. The Internet is sentient and has a warped sense of humor.
You would too, if you lived on top of Big Ben.
*bows respectfully to the Elders of the Internet*
I believe Dabbler has mentioned in previous comics that she has a ship, so presumably that’s how she got to Earth. Now, how she got her ship, that’s probably a story in and of itself.
Well since Wereworld is canon, I’d guess the…its been a very long time since that comic so correct me if I am wrong, she had a ship from when she was controlled by the…borgish whatevers…and was freed from that control on Wereworld, so presumably she might still have had that ship unless she traded it in at some point with the money she makes adventuring.
Plus there are dimensional portals, and some dimensional realms have active gates permanently connected to various worlds, such as Hell type realms, one Hell could operate for more than one planet (and even more than one timeline of one planet) so have gates to access them. So be on planet A go to its Hell and take a gate from there to planet B destination which otherwise would have been both on the other side of the galaxy and four major event timelines removed.
Dabble isn’t the only succubus on earth. They may have traveled together at some point. Or hitched a ride while seducing another race.
We don’t know how Ingsol became a vampire.
My vote: He was a human that was somehow (strange magic) teleported into space, and an alien turned him into a vampire so he’d live long enough in transit to get back home.
Dabs has some powerful orbs too.
Yeah, with perks and power ups as well
I can see those points.
Space, the final frontier. This is the voyage of the ArcSwat Sydney. Her never ending mission to seeking out life, spicy food and rest rooms. To boldy go home… that way. As it’s as good as any other way.
haha its funny that Mr Amorphous has only mild burns when we saw him get nailed with rocks going a high speed rubber powers for the win am I right?
I think Monkey D. Luffy would agree with you
That’s why he only has mild burns: the boulder to the face protected him from the blast (and propelled him away from the collapsing mountain)
Sydney IS in serious trouble.
*hangs head gloomily*
I prefer to think of it as a growth opportunity. ;)
I didn’t even notice. Not so keen on that aspect of her, so I focus on the rest of her. Which I do like. And I was finding her face striking in the first and last panels, so that was easy enough to do.
Actually, the thing that stood out to me over her cup size was Dabblers overall size compared to Harem standing next to her, she looks incredibly large in comparison!
A “small” point, but I think that is mainly the perspective of Harem being further away behind Dabbler.
Harem is behind her, not next to her — hence the apparent size differential.
Actually I was looking more at Harem. The diffused effect and colouration on her really comes off well in panel 5. Dave B’s art just seems to get better every episode.
Well in Jersey they say – That Dabbler’s boobs grew thee sizes that day!
I just want to say how much I like your explanations in the comments. The whole thing about the glamour and people seeing things differently is kind of amazing, really. So each person sees her in the most “interesting” possible form, based on their personal predilections.
This makes me ponder the evolutionary advantage of such an ability. Why did it come about? What’s it good for? The thing that comes to mind is that being super-attractive makes other people easier to manipulate, which gives the most effective Succubus the first choice of reproductive partners. Likewise, the Succubus aura would tend to repel other females of the species, serving to “mark their territory”, as it were.
So, as a result, men see her as their ideal sex partner. This induces lust, and a man thinking about his “little soldier” is easy to manipulate.
Women, on the other hand, are less influenced in this manner. So you’ll get one of a few reactions: strong women like Maxima will see this as threatening. Insecure women like Sydney will see this as intimidating. Women at all inclined to dabble (pun intended) with other girls – well, we’ve seen that reaction.
I wonder if that changes, based on the mood of the beholder? For example, I might be thinking of a pinup model one day, and the next day a particularly athletic jogger I saw on the drive to work. If I saw Dabbler both times, would she be buxom and hippy one day, then slender and leggy the next? Would people notice this after a while? Would it affect her influence on them? Would people build up a tolerance to Dabbler, like they do to certain drugs?
I seem to remember allusions to them being tailor made in some way. Interesting question about the tolerance, though.
I just realized – Dabble is an inverse boggart.
As for the evolutionary advantage, succubi in the Grrlverse have some pretty powerful advantages. Their glamor is basically highly advanced camouflage (like a cuttlefish) – able to change appearance and even shape. They also leverage the reproductive instincts of other creatures to become impregnated, a little like a type of brood parasite (e.g. a cuckoo) but competing with the mates rather than the young.
Not a boggart. More like a horndog, except goatier. A horngoat?
he he a horny goat…i’l see myself out now
I also have to say – Maxima really seems to care about Sydney. While Maxima is a professional and definitely cares about her team, she seems to have a genuine affection for Sydney – like a sister or daughter. I love that, and I love seeing genuine, caring relationships between characters, especially in a team like this where they rely on each other for their very lives.
+💕
Also Maxima not only sees Sydney as a friend, but also almost a ‘little sister’/ ‘teacher and student’ relationship. To put it in geek terms, she is the Mr Miyagi to Sydney’s Danyo-san….. the Yoda or Obi-Wan to Sydney’s Luke, and the most of all the Gandalf/ Frodo in Lord of the Rings :)
Plus she sort of is the reason Sydney is in ARC-Swat. She discovered Sydney, her vote was one of the main ones to bring her in as a recruit, she’s the one who put Sydney in every position for her to be where she was when they, against their will, wound up leaving her behind on a dead planet 700 light years away with a giant mecha-cthulu capable of possibly destroying her shields. And only a few days after she brought Sydney in too.
Losing Sydney would feel worse than losing most other soldiers under her command, I’d think.
Except Peggy. They have a lot of history.
I’ve been looking at the way Max interacts with Sydney… Sure, there are times where Syd can be frustrating, but for the most part, Sydney has been a good influence on Max… For as hard nosed as she seems to want to present herself, she’s quite disarmed around Sydney… at least one on one, and I think there’s a bit more than the Commander worrying about one of her troops missing… Maybe Max looks at Sydney as the annoying little sister she never had, but wouldn’t trade for the Galaxy…
Yep, it’s been pretty clear Maxima likes Sydney from the first day they met, and even with Sydney’s whacky antics sometimes she’s shown she’s also very capable and determined.
How could she not? The orbs distance field (???) overpowered her exerting strength without even noticing, her shield stood against all her power regardless of what type she used, she’s a nerd too, a feminist too, and how could you not love how she beat up Amorphous?
Maxima will save Sidney even if she has to punch trough reality to create a new portal.
Next stop- Twilight Council.
They can come to her whenever for whatever, they better do the same in return. Gimme a spaceship and also fly it for me! We got stuff to do.
Or maybe Sydney could scream reopen it. As Dragonball Z told us if you scream hard enough you can break the barrier between dimensions.
The obvious solution is to go fetch Krona and ask her to fix things. Let her hack reality and find sigil and artifact.
Reestablish the save point :)
I hope that isn’t the solution. Smacks way too much of Deus Ex Machina. DaveB is a better storyteller than that.
I’m not worried about Sydney’s safety because she has the 3 things she needs to survive. Her Orbs, her wit, and her Olympian level of ADHD. Sydney’s trek home is bound to involve some truly epic ADHD episodes.
Nah, I think that having to tell two different stories – one being Sydney getting home the long way, the other being what’s happening back home – for probably months would definitely drag down the story.
I don’t think it would be a Deus ex Machinae at all honestly. A Deus Ex Machinae is something totally unexpected to get out of a hopeless situation. Krona, the unknown orb, a pip increase – none of those would be unexpected. They’ve been totally foreshadowed, in fact. At worst, they’re checkhov’s guns, which can be pretty useful in a story if you don’t want it to drag on during a seemingly hopeless situation.
Of course it will be Deus, of Machina Industries!
He expressed a vested interest in Sciona creating a wormhole. And announced his intent to let Sciona do the hard work. With the clear intention of exploiting it. Given that he has always shown himself to be several steps ahead of the game, we can take it that he will have anticipated Archon catching up with Sciona and having a showdown.
As such the only thing that he could have been intending to exploit is Sciona using the can-opener to create the wormhole to her homeworld. The only other interpretation would be that he wanted to exploit the situation of Earth being under Alari occupation. Which, if he wanted, he would have taken steps to ensure that Sciona did not fail.
Given that we did not observe him exploiting the open wormhole, in any way, whatever Deus did has been done covertly. Perhaps recording the event, so that his technical people could replicate it, in due course? Perhaps sending Vale through (her stealth capability has been established)? Or maybe having her, or another agent, steal the can-opener, when an opportunity arose, after it had been modified into a wormhole creating device.
Notably Deus has prior for this, in that he got Opal to work for him, so that she can create portals to and from his private country. Given her being an employee, even if all he was doing was monitoring the events, so that he could let Opal see where the wormhole opened, he could have Opal create a portal there.
Not with the intent of rescuing Sydney mind. Even he could not have anticipated that sequence of events. But a whole world, with all the owners dead, and lots of stuff left ready to loot? Now that is a big investment opportunity. Especially if Deus was influential in getting the Alari wiped out (he clearly knows far more about off-world activities than humans normally do).
Finally he has Checkov’s gun, in his display case.
What if Deus has the same superpower as Booster Gold?
A normal loser who travelled back from the future? And Valeur is his robotic sidekick computer equivalent? o_O
Ironically, Deus of X Maxinae industries saving the day here would also NOT be a deus ex machinae:) Also good theory Yorp! Definitely a possibility.
Ooh, a pip increase! After surviving an explosion like that and saving her entire team, she’s definitely due for a level up.
I’m still wondering if someone else’s theory on that is correct – that the orbs are in self-repair mode and are slowly rebuilding functionality when they’re being used rather than some sort of ‘score’ system for levelling up.
I don’t think we’d need to show much if any of what happened back at archon. This is Sydney’s show, after all. Having such and so just swoop in at the first minute robs any sense of stakes in the story.
Who cares about a story where the most conflict someone experiences is a mild inconvenience?
You just described 90% of Blatman stories, ever since they invented ‘Bat-preparedness” and his ‘contingency plans against every member of the Justice League, except himself’
Ba ha ha ha ha! Maxima wants to use the artifact to recover Sydney. Can you even imagine how that conversation would play out?
Max: “Ok we dug out the sickle thing. Dabbler get casting.”
Dabbler: “Max, Sciona was a powerful bloodmage and she had an entire evil lair stocked with blood to help her power the spell. There is no way I can do it on my own reserves.”
Max: “I’m not letting you drain dozens of people to..”
Dabbler: “Max don’t be stupid. I’m not a bloodmage, you know how my powers work.”
Max: “…”
Dabbler: “So, I will need to drain dozens of people, but I promise they’ll enjoy it.”
Max: “I can’t order to people to….”
Math and Jabberwocky try to volunteer simultaneously and end up fighting in the background.
Dabbler: “See? Plenty of volunteers. Surely you’re not going to let your prudishness stop you from saving the life of your hyperactive little recruit?”
Max: “I am conflicted.”
Actually, I think it would be one of those times where it is less fulfilling for Dabbler. You know, only doing so she can save a teammate/perfectly matched foil for her wit/very close friend.
Although, I’d be all for using the situation to play Maxima bingo…
I probably should have posted this in the previous strip but I don’t think Sydney has that much to worry about with the big ship. While it’s blast momentarily damaged her shield it did not destroy it. That means her shield is still more that a match for that things blast. Now consider her own blasting ability which probably exceeds that ship’s own shields… All she has to do is remember that with her shield smaller it’s probably even more resilient.
And she can teleport herself onto that ship as well. But I’d seriously doubt it would be a good idea to use it to bring herself back to Earth!
So, I went back and re-read the first few pages of the comic, given how many references there have been in the comments to those pages lately. In those first couple of pages, Sydney argues quite vehemently that a transparent shield will not block light-based attacks. So, my question is, is that something she is about to learn first hand?
There are many ways to create energy beams that don’t involve being able to pass through transparent matter(Mostly because lasers are the pussy version of energy beam).
They all involve using super heated matter propelled at multiples of sound speed, for a combination of thermal + kinetic effect.
The thermal melts through your armor, and the kinetic penetrates the hull and kills everything inside.
Sydney got hit by lasers / visible energy beams during the Supervillian battle royale. And then she asked Dabbler (who was in the middle of “recharging” with the Barberian) why laser didn’t go through her shield even though she can see through it. Because SCIENCE! https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1630
If you go back to the pages with light based weapons such as #227 and #174 you can see that her shield gets patterned. likely Filtering the light down to safe levels.
While Syd could probably take on the monster that bladted her, she aloso has to worry about the mile tall ship that sent down that monster. What if they send 10 more just like it and they all hit her in tight sequence?
It was the “mile tall ship” that I was talking about what she could take. The 10 more like argument is just moving the goal post.
The blast that redlined her shield didn’t come from the mile tall ship, it came from the tenticled monster that was beamed down from the ship. It is reasonable to assume that there are several more of those tenticled monsters on that mile tall ship and that they could all be deployed against her.
Good point. I had to check that sequence again to confirm that. What is interesting is that that monster has not tried to attack again – nor has the big ship tried to send down any more. There’s been plenty of time for that to have happened already I think.
If we consider it to be like an aircraft, from a carrier, it may only be equipped with four missiles. If it has secondary weapons, it probably realises that those will be inadequate, given that its primary attacks failed to penetrate.
Although it does have its tentacles, and is big, so may attempt to grapple, even if that is the case.
However there is also the same problem that Sciona suffered from. Namely that her attack obscured her targets. The team were hidden behind the explosion and inevitable dust cloud, for a while.
So, now that has cleared and Sydney is plainly visible, it may well be about to launch another attack. Of some sort or another.
Having Krona just come “fix” it is just to easy and to much as lazy writing.
I am sure we will all be pleasantly surprised to what happens next. “crosses fingers and toes”
Plus, Krona got one of her most tested things screwy.
I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’d test it with a friend. Write something on a piece of paper, set the reset point to before you explained to them what you were testing/how you were going to do it and have it only affect yourself. You have all the memories, but does your friend?
I doubt they’re going to allow Krona to go for something that big just yet.
Max isn’t good with losing people under her command, is she?
To be fair, a commander willing (and able) to move heaven and earth to get soldiers under her command back, are going to get soldiers willing to follow her to Hell, because they know she’ll be there with them, and do everything in her (considerable) power to get them back out again.
And at this point Max has every reason to believe Syd is still alive, and thus in need of rescue. If Syd was believed dead, Max would probably be angry as a wet cat, but not necessarily going to be blindly charging back for revenge, or even just to recover the body.
Max might also feel a little responsible for Syd, which might make her feelings stronger. Although when she realized the mountain had blowed up, she quickly switched to the more immediate concern of the troopers in the current AO.
No commander worth their salt likes losing their people. Like everything else in the world, getting “good” at something requires experience, in other words, being in a situation where the Thing Is Happening.
I don’t know… I had a Captain who begged General Sanchez in Iraq (OIF 1) to send our company to Najaf or Ar Ramadi (right in the middle of some of the worst sectarian fighting) for no other reason than to get the company in Combat to better his Eval Report… Every day we got the casualty reports… and most of them were from those two cities… Dude was a moron…
It is because of Officers like your Captain that fragging was invented.
As Rexinalt said: no commander “worth their salt”, obviously that Captain wasn’t worth the spit on their boots (or the blood on their hands)
Sadly it’s often bad choices like that which are the first sign your cammander isn’t worth their salt.
A friend of mine, who arrived in my unit in Germany later in 1991 was on the border of Iraq, TDY with a reserve unit, at the kickoff of Desert Storm I. He told me of a full bird colonel who was so damn paranoid about getting fragged he made them stack their arms – on the border of Kuwait on the eve of the war beginning! If you have to worry about that, you’re probably Doing Leadership Wrong. The unit patch was a helmet with sword & lightning bolt crossed behind them, my buddy called them the “lightning quick back-stabbers”
Lol.
I wonder if her telepresence can be sent to HQ and she teleport through it.
Sure, if she knew where Earth was, it would be a start (she had trouble location ARCHON-HQ while in the same city)
If there is any hint of the portal to send it through.
The last orb contains a muffin button…
Watch it be a hearthstone…
He said ‘muffin’, not ‘maguffin’, but yeah, that would be good.
Still going with “Room Ball” though.
It just struck me that Sydney (or Dave) may be holding out on the final orb, awaiting a major sponsor.
You mean Deadpool’s Seventh Infinity Gem.
I may be missing a reference here. Why would Deadpool have the ego-gem?
It’s the “Continuity Stone”. Lets characters in the comic book talk to the writer/s.
Everyone gets to break the fourth wall when you’re with the pool boy. Also, of course Deadpool came up with it himself. It’s black and opaque. I wonder if it’s actually a turd.
Got it, he’s making a joke to tie into what is popular.
Thing is he isn’t the only medium aware character in Marvel. She-Hulk and Squirrel Girl both have the same power *and She-Hulk used to go further with it than Deadpool ever has*, but for the purposes of not being overpowered both characters *in-universe* have signed contracts not to acknowledge the fourth wall in story, and only between panels and off to the side moments…although Squirrel Girl has used information she gained (granted from Deadpool) in a between pages moment to affect things in story.
Hearthstone straight to the sea where Sydney found the orbs originally…
So, if Achilles had stuck his arms through the portal, could he have held it open? Enough for Sydney to send her lightbee through, anyway.
Or would a closing cosmic spacetime rift beat even Achilles’ superpower?
Given how careful Achilles usually is about testing the limits of his power, I bet he’d have gone ahead and tried without a second thought.
Nah! Achilles is too much of a heel!
The pun jar called and it wants it’s donation… LOL
I already made my donation but someone left it ajar and the donation escaped.
He could have stuck his head through and opened his mouth. Syd would then send the comm ball down his digestive track and teleport out the other end.
Do we think there’s a possibility that Achilles got blasted through the portal during the explosions? He might just pull himself out of the random debris below Sydney and say “Hi!”.
That would be both terrible and amusing given Sydney’s and Achille’s interactions in the past.
Well Dave has emphasised twice (once in the blog and again in comic dialogue) that the Earth-side explosion was principally the explosives being set off. And we did see the triggering explosion, fail to move Achilles away from the portal.
So he would have been optimally positioned, right in front of it, when the bigger explosion hit.
Making the proposal highly credible.
Plus it would be really interesting to see the dynamic between the pair of them, over a sustained period.
Not sure if this was brought up in prior threads but did anyone consider that there might actually be survivors on that planet? maybe not a whole lot but very possibly some. Now wouldn’t it be a hoot if The Mighty Halo somehow destroys this genocidal alien and winds up a hero of the Alari. Besides we do not know for absolute certain that Sciona is gone. She could very well still be there and not opposed to help if for no other reason to get back to earth to get her plans of world domination back on track with all those spirits running around now. If not, Sciona got to earth somehow, the process “might” be repeatable. Maybe light-bee size wormhole maybe? Like I said there may be survivors, they certainly may help Sydney if she helps them.
I also saw mentions about what type of Spaceship type her orbs might make her represent, Scout and such. Seriously to be honest, mid range comms/detection, fast, small high shields and armed as hell. If she was anything she is a Fighter.
No, Sci mentioned that there was no blood, anywhere, which would include inside survivors
It’s probable that that soul-battery was not the only one, maybe the others managed to fire off and escape, or the attackers managed to detect them and destroy them, and whatever cause the one Sci found to malfunction also probably saved the occupants (butt without her outside assistance, would have remained like that forever)
Wow. Already in the past tense. Way harsh, Dabs.
Makes me wonder how many team-mates she’s lost previously.
I´m very dissapointed with Dabbler. But, well… she is half-demon (or half-half-demon) after all.
Dozens. But plot twist: they’re all actually still alive–Dabbler just writes her teammates off immediately
Well, ‘lost’ could just mean misplaced! Maybe they fell down the back of the sofa!
Foreshadowing: Sydney already asked the question “Am I a spaceship?” The only thing she is missing is a navigation system…And that final orb might be the key. Also, I don’t think we ever established the limits of her speed, only that she was keeping up with Max. Who knows, maybe she can achieve FTL?
Just saying, it’s not impossible that she could return to Earth by herself. She has all of the tools. It’s just a matter of “can she find the way?” and “how long would it take?”
It was established at mach4 making her firmly the 2nd fastest flyer on the team. They wanted her to use the next power point she got on that orb tree to see if it would increase her speed. she of course fumbled that and got her rapid fire instead
We don’t know if that Mach 4 limit was an actual speed limit or just the point where available thrust balanced aerodynamic drag. I’d expect a lower maximum ‘flight’ speed underwater and a much higher one in the rarefied vacuum of inter-stellar space.
One thing we don’t know about Sydney’s flight orb is whether it operates by cancelling inertia, or by generating thrust. The first concept is kind of outside our general knowledge of physics, and might limit her speed relative to a certain mass (such as a nearby planet) – and might not even allow relative motion without a sufficient mass nearby to move relative to or it could be the opposite. Who knows?. A system that pushed against a local magnetic field might have similar benefits/limitations. Hard to say what the real limits of such a propulsion system would be, as it would pretty seriously break or sidestep physics as we know it.
If it’s more of a classical thrust generation mechanism (we’ll ignore its lack of apparent exhaust), then she could go very VERY fast in space, assuming she could keep accelerating indefinitely. We haven’t seen any indication that the orb’s power source is particularly strained by her maximum flight acceleration.
I don’t have time to go figure out the acceleration necessary to continuously propel a relatively light 3m sphere through the earth’s atmosphere at a steady Mach 4 – but it is a lot. The equivalent of several G’s if I’m not mistaken. At a steady single G acceleration, one can reach a large fraction of the speed of light in about one year.
If we assume that Sydney can accelerate indefinitely at around 8-10 Gs in a vacuum, she could achieve a substantial relativistic velocity in a month or so, and beyond this point time dilation would start kicking in as a more and more dramatic effect, possibly allowing her to reach Earth at a distance of 700ly within a reasonable amount of time from her own perspective (several months/years?). Of course she wouldn’t actually arrive at Earth until at least 700 years local time had passed, so most of the team would be long gone by then.
This of course assumes that the orbs have a functionally inexhaustible energy source (zero point energy, or dimensional tap, or some such nonsense). Unfortunately she’d still need enough food and water to last several months, even at pretty extreme time dilation.
Oh, and she’d need to slow down pretty carefully at the other end or she’d smack into Earth hard enough to blow its atmosphere off or something messy like that.
If I were Sydney I’d just say ‘screw that’ and engage in a far more entertaining genocidal battle with the forces of alien evil until I’d earned enough Exp to unlock a real FTL function, or until the team figures out how to re-open that portal.
IF the life-support orb includes food AND/OR Flight orb includes superluminal transit, these abilities MAY NOT BE (in fact, probably are not) UNLOCKED YET. Cue training/survival montage.
I just went back to the previous strip. The crater Sydney is in is HUGE. And the first creature that spotted her is looking in and making some kind of noise.
That’s not actually the first creature that spotted her (that one had a single large blue eye), that’s the second one that dropped from the tall spaceship via the white beam (that one had numerous small red eyes and was the one that fired that big WHA-BOOM). I didn’t get it the first time either!
Agreed. The first one was a small scout, sort of people scale. The landing party critter is much bigger, and our first clue as to its scale, was the strapline referring to it as a ‘mecha cthulhu’. Both its looks and roar match.
First, assume that the portal/wormhole isn’t entirely closed (but still rapidly shrinking towards its sub-atomic vanishing point). Then if Sydney can see with her Trusight Orb, assuming her light-bee is some kind of energy construct that can fit through a portal you couldn’t push a flee through now, she can still teleport home.
See crud like this happening is why whenever I give my address I always add ‘Earth’ to the end of it.
Also good for confirmation purposes.
United States, North American Continent, Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy, Universe Gamma (Futurama), Dark Zone (Lexx)
You forgot Outer Segment, Eastern Spiral Arm.
Which way do you define “east”?
Opposite where the sun rises, of course.
;-)
In relation to Galactic North, of course!
Clearly that would have to lie on a line which passes through the Greenwich meridian. That is how time, maps and the cosmos works!
Incidentally, Sol is actually vaguely halfway down one of the many minor spiral arms, the Orion Spur, between the Perseus Arm and the Scutum-Centaurus Arm.
Almost read that as ‘Scrotum’ :P
Looks like Max skipped denial and went straight to anger!
well, she is close enough to being coloured like an angry marine.
Point about lightbee, we’ve never seen Sydney really exercise it. Just move it around while looking for the “right spot”.
Maximum speed may be way higher. Including “think of a place you’ve been and it goes there instantly” speed.
Lightbee limits are still unknowns. Most of Sydney’s powers have unknown limits, if any.
True.
There is one (risky) possibility that occurred to me.
Dabbler is able to perform some *Area Memory of Magic* type spell, but without Sciona’s resources only able to create a TINY little hole connecting them. Through which though Sydney can project the light bee…and the risky part as its teleporting not just across space but through a portal *double layer teleportation in other words*.
That would be an interesting solution, opening a small portal, but I am not sure if Sydney had informed everyone about that ability of the lightbee to teleport. I can also see that several people are speculating about if the lightbee can simply appear at someplace that Sydney has been before and then teleport (I have suggested it as well), though in retrospect, that might be a little OP.
I wonder if Sydney used one of the sensory modes on that orb if she would be able to determine if the wormhole is completely gone or just mostly gone; perhaps some microscopic point remains, which potentially might be able to be navigated by the lightbee.
I wouldn’t doubt that Sydney’s orbs have all the capabilities necessary to get her out of her current predicament. What prevents Sydney from easily dealing with this situation is the fact that she has barely scratched the surface of the orbs’ skill tree. Set a random person in the cockpit of a 747 and they have the capability to fly to London, but no idea of how to go about actually doing it.
It could be the shield beeping after damage, was it adapting to that damage type…
Shot 2+ may not even scratch it.
Possible. Although Sydney is intimately integrated with them, and was extremely worried. So possibly empathic feedback, giving her (subconscious) cues about how dangerous the situation was.
I don’t think it uses Borg technology.
No, the Borg use Orb technology.
You know that whatever solution Sydney uses to get home, it’s going to include something from her “Arts&Crafts” pouch that is 110% not Maxim approved.
Stars are VITAL navigation aids!
… the last ball lets her turn any of her stickers (stars) into game items (Kirby’s Warp Star).
In honor of today’s lunar anniversary I would like to say
1) When the portal opened to another world Sydney took one small step for man
2) When the portal closed Sydney gave one giant curse for mankind
Unless we’re up for a long saving the mighty Halo arc, Sydney’s last orb definitely has an ability that let’s her return to earth. We’ll see in the next few comics I’m sure.
Might as well get my two cents in about the final undiscovered orb.
I doubt it’s going to be FTL. That would mean she has three orbs that do travel. She has the flight orb and the teleporting one. Either of these could be upgraded to FTL potentially. Alternatively, if the last orb has FTL, that would be a lot harder to come up with upgrades for. Perhaps it would do more than just FTL, but then there’s the issue of her discovering too much at once. There’s also the issue of an easy fix, too serendipitous, etc.
I also doubt it’s going to be sustinece. I’m on the side of people who think that the air orb can probably make other stuff too. Perhaps it can’t at the moment, but maybe when upgraded. No other reason for why not sustinece, though.
As for navigation, I’m torn. I feel like that could be an upgrade on lightbee, but that could just as easily be a part of the mysterious orb.
For a far out idea… I dunno. Maybe it’s a set-changer? Switch load-outs and all that? That’d open up a whole host of possibilities.
I kinda hope it’s none of the above, to be honest. I hope we’re totally surprised by the solution and the last orb.
Pro: Sydney has one of the most balanced power sets available to the team (other than Dabbler), so in terms of solo survivability in a hostile environment, she’s got one of the best builds – on paper at any rate.
Con: Sydney’s *actual* knowledge of solo survival tactics are almost certainly limited to what she learned in zombie survival comics and video games.
Pro: One of the blips on Sydney’s flight orb (or the un-orb) is almost certainly FTL/Warp Gate related. So in theory she very likely has the way home at her fingertips.
Con: Sydney doesn’t have many pips unlocked on her flight orb. FTL would likely be pretty high level, and unless she gets really lucky or has a breakthrough, she’ll probably need several upgrades before she lucks upon it.
Con: If she doesn’t have a mapping/recall function to go with it, that ain’t gonna help. Space is big, like, really, really humongous big.
Pro: One of those other pips is probably a navigation function, because again, space it big.
Pro: Sydney is currently standing on a blasted planet that appears to be solely inhabited by xenophobic KoS alien invaders. So there appears to be a ready supply of Exp on hand to unlock those pips.
Looks like Sydney better roll up those sleeves and get to work!
FTL is only “high level” if you are thinking of the orbs as the equivelent of a StarTrek ship. If you think of the orbs as the potential equivelnt of a Tardis, the FTL travel is kinda basic.
That greatly depends on the level difference between Sydney and the Others: if they are grey, Sydney won’t be getting any experience, no matter how many she defeats
Anyone else have the sneaking suspicion that since the comic is still stuck back in 2011 that this is going to be DaveB taking an opportunity to bring the comic up to date?
One of the next few comics will start with the header “SEVEN YEARS LATER” and we will see Sydney stepping off a hovering Talaxian tourist bus at the Council embassy and saying ‘Thanks for the ride guys!”
This isn’t too far in the past of the first couple pages. She should get back withing the next few months.
Heh.
During all that interim period though, Sydney will have had a lot of time to reflect. For instance, until she got back to Earth, to see if everything was familiar, she would have no way to tell if the wormhole took her to an alternate Earth.
Of course she could check TV news broadcasts, as they are approaching Earth. A galactic tour bus would be bound to take advantage of those, to help the tourists familiarise themselves with current events.
I wonder what she would think?
Overall the evidence kind of suggests that the orbs are an exploration/survival/military kit from some VERY advanced civilization. They are very much like a Swiss Army Knife in their construction and selection of abilities thus far.
Given that they were found on Earth, that virtually demands some kind of FTL solution was built into them, unless their original wielder travelled on some kind of mother ship and just used the orbs for local mobility, scanning, and defense.
However, Sciona has already demonstrated that inter-stellar gates can be produced with implements and power available at scales significantly smaller than a starship – she put one together on a fairly ad-hoc basis with local mystic artifacts after all.
The orbs themselves seem to be artifacts at or above the upper end of the recognized galactic power scale, given Dabbler’s difficulty figuring them out, and a similarly alarmed response on the part of the alien assault-thing. With that level of technology/power behind them, we can probably assume that they should – at least in theory – be able to marshal sufficient power to rend space and time on their own terms.
The intro should be retconned. That would make this a lot more interesting.
I disagree. The intro doesn´t change the fact that Sydney is the main character. Meaning, nothing fatal will happen to her. Not until the end of the comic at least. In about 50 or 60 years from now.
I saw the great vote incentive artwork based on Michael-Scott Earle’s books.
I get Michael-Scott Earle’s newsletter.
His amazon account was suspended on Monday.
If it’s not re-instated he may have to give up writing.
You can search on amazon and none of his kindle books are listed except the audible audio book versions.
If there are any fans of his books read the copy of his email below.
Then email jeff@amazon.com and ask to restore his account.
COPY of the email.
Hey everyone,
I wanted to thank you all for the thousands of support emails that you have sent me about emailing Jeff Bezos.
I really, really, really appreciate this. I still don’t know for sure why my account was suspended on Monday
, but a few of my fans actually work on Amazon- and from what they have dug up, it seems that Death Ship #3 and my latest release, Monster Empire, were flagged in the system for copyright violation. Apparently, Amazon just implemented a new back end software to search for that stuff, and it has suspended a lot of authors erroneously.
I have no idea if this is the case or not, since my email just said that I “violated terms of service” but they won’t give me an explanation.
If you haven’t emailed jeff@amazon.com yet, I’d appreciate it if you could do so and ask for him to re-instate my account. If you’ve already emailed him, I’d appreciate it if you could email him again. A tidal wave of my fans asking him if they can continue to read my books should get his attention.
Last night I spent a few hours talking to a reporter from Yahoo Finance. I let him know that I’m one of the best selling independent authors in the world, and that I wouldn’t have a career without Amazon, but they just suspended me without even a preemptive phone call or an email. I don’t know if he’s going to run the story, but I figure it would help. If he does, I’ll email you all the link.
If I don’t get my account back, I’m not sure where that leaves me. The other retailers don’t have much of a presence, so I’d probably have to discontinue writing my current series, and either find a day job, or write under a clandestine pen name. Either option seems terrible, since I’ve spent two years building a career writing fun stories.
My series will probably be over if Amazon doesn’t bring my account back.
But– I’m going to do a bit of work tonight. I haven’t really started Tamer 6 yet, and although I might not be able to publish it ever, I thought it would be cool to do a kind of public writing hour. I’m going to be streaming on Twitch at 6pm PST/ 8pm CST/ 9pm EST. I’ll write the first part of the first chapter for about an hour and answer questions.You can see my game face and my funky ergo keyboard if you come. I’m thinking a few hundred people will show up, but there are 20,000 of my fans on my email list, so maybe I’ll get a few thousand. Anyways, here is the link to my channel:
https://www.twitch.tv/michaelscotte
Thanks for being a fan, and thanks for emailing Jeff for me.
Hope to see you tonight.
M-S
Hm interesting. I usually equated genocide for humans to be all humans regardless of color,sex,religion etc. Also; how could you make it permanent? the universe is large and has lots of time. What is to say say the exact same combo won’t produce the same results elsewhere? Who’s knows if it has not already happened in another iteration of reality?
How do you precisely say it? -cide? How could one consider just how fine you slice the differences?
Now say take the Daleks. I truly think they want to do uni-cide – eg for every living thing in the universe
Syd maybe in a Chekhov’s Gun scenario, but maybe not at Godzilla Threshold level.
(BTW I am not shouting, just pointing out a few things with caps. I am trying to summarize a few things)
Consider a few things I think we can agree on.
where she is:
– On a KNOWN planet (Alari prime) approx 700 light years from earth. eg within same galaxy as earth
— No time, dimensional or universe drift
She knows a few important bits:
– about the xenoarchy / space cops, few other types of aliens that DO exist and probably know English as well (since some are staying on earth and have been there for many years.
– her team WILL try to get to her and/or communicate with her, but that will take time. (medium priorities)
Her immediate priorities:
– level 1 – survive!
— hide/run escape immediate vicinity of alien ship
– level 2
— run/hide on planet, then scavenge mode (
— stow aboard ship, then drop off at nearest/most convinient ‘space station’ (food,’phone’)
— PPO drill way in, tentacle in, find isolated spot etc.
What she DOES have:
– ORBS
— she has planetary access up to near orbital and under water (known powers of flight+sheld)
— uber PPO with rapid fire
— ability to create air
— ability to teleport short distances via ‘probe’
— damn awesome shield
— double powerful trusight exceeding dabblers know powers
– arm-puter and charger -ARC
what she might have:
– She might have a map (her wrist device) or maybe her trusight can function as a map, but needs time to discover
– She might have FTL capabilities, but needs time to discover
What her TEAM knows:
– Where she is – Alari
– What just happened there
what resources they have:
– Dabbler – knowledge!!!, magic talent and tech
– the council and what they know or could contact.
Actions her team could make to expedite Syds return
– the council might- be able to contact the Xenoarchy to send a ‘local’ ship to Alari – tell them what happened on Alari – something screwy is going on based on the time frame ScIona mentioned
– inform council also of several dozen alari sould wandering around
– perhaps enlist council help to create a new portal – dabbler may not be able to make a portal (RIGHT NOW’ but some others might
— yeah you could send a FTL ship to AlarI, but that would probably take longer that getting something nearer to help
And most maybe most important: what those Ship Aliens know:
– The jig is up!!!! They have limited time to do anything uninterrupted.
– They DO know that at least 4 entities escaped through the portal and maybe more of the spirits as well.
– They also know the fired a LARGE weapon at 5 of those entities and they were still standing IN THE EXACT SAME PLACE
— I am also willing to bet that they have NO IDEA if they hurt any of them. why? I think the ‘flashing sheilds bit’ was for Syds eyes only. why give anyone outside important info?
– They also probably know that the remaining one is HIGHLY peeved. (the yell)
Now how the ship entities might react (depends on motives):
– RUN! they seemed to have finished the job, why stay here to get caught?
– Try to Kill Syd. – they MIGHT know what her ORBS do, and the maximum capabilities, but can they do it in limited time?
– Try to capture Syd. Risky – again limited time. see above too.
Most likely scenario?
-The aliens pokes a few shots and run, Syd runs/hides first, later scavenges and plays with her powers. she is a gamer it would be alien Fallout for her.
-The aliens attack, sid dies. – unlikely – DaveB likes an income :P
-The aliens attack, Syd Roughs them up A LOT, they run
-The aliens attack, Syd sneaks on board take the ship from within, roughs crew up A LOT, they drop her off at neutral space station.
I love the little details like what you’ve got here – I enjoy watching as an author sneaks in little clues here and there. Usually I’m so wrapped up in that stuff that the real direction of the story comes from left field and I’m surprised all the same. Doh.
Could you help me out – I’m looking to find the source material for a couple of things you’ve got here:
1. Sydney is on Alari Prime
2. Alari Prime is 700 light years from Earth
1. This is not certain, but is probable. Sciona concluded that her people had all been killed. Had there been any other Alari planets, Sciona would not be seeking asylum on Earth, rather she would be going there to gain transport offworld, to another Alari planet.
So one of two scenarios is probable. Either they only have the one planet (other than conquered ones, which may not have a significant Alari population) or they had an empire, of some sort, but that the Alari homeworld was the most heavily defended. Making it reasonable for Sciona to conclude that the others will have been wiped out already.
For the latter option to be viable, they must have been on the homeworld.
One supporting bit of evidence is that Sciona referred to herself as being ‘home’, in her ranting to the team. As she is a duchess of the Alari (see Deus’s book of conquests), and considered that she had the authority to raise an army, to invade Earth, it is likely that her home was at, or near, the seat of power of the Alari. I.e. probably on the homeworld.
Or, it may have been meant in a broader sense, such as any human would view Earth as ‘home’, even if they might live on a space station.
2. The basis of the assumption was that Dabbler recognised the Alari, ergo they must be from within the same galaxy. This is sound.
It falls down on the numbers though, as the Milky Way is actually 100,000 light years in diameter.
Thank you, Yorp. Very well reasoned points.
*wags tail happily*
So slightly off topic, but when talking about dabblers glamour, it made me wonder what the effect would be on someone who is an ace, or from a species that does not reproduce via sex. Or when viewed by someone who has an exclusive interest in males would she look like some sort of bifauxnen?
If they still have some concept of beauty, physical even if not reproductive attraction (sexual activity and sensation can exist as a form of pair ponding for mutual survival even among asexual species), or a social concept of physical traits predominate in an alpha then something like a Beholder’s Beauty/Eye of the Beholder style glamour that preys on the mind of the subject to develop the glamour can use those criteria.
Remember, When the tentacle creatures made there sudden appearance they at first assumed that they were there to entertain the succubus’s. (and they were not opposed to the idea) It was also mentioned as part of course work so let your mind wander, it appears that your typical succubus is more then happy and prepared to get jiggy with any living creature, male, female or “other”, and maybe a few that aren’t. I would assume objects would be deemed a waste of time and energy unless there was a witness to entice.