Grrl Power #680 – Fancy almost bumping into you here
Not a whole lot to talk about on this page. Mostly it’s to show Deus and Vale missing Sydney by less than a block. Contrary to popular theories, Deus actually has no idea she’s there. So I spent most of the page throwing in some cameos and practicing backgrounds.
I know they don’t look like much, but dang, those buildings took so long to draw. A lot of that has to do with me still having relatively limited experience drawing architecture even after all this time. I don’t fervently collect pictures of cityscapes and bank lobby interiors and meeting rooms and open air markets quite as fervently as I do with pictures of faces and expressions and fitness ladies for my reference folders. I’m sure architectural rendering is super satisfying to people who like it doing it. I’d probably like it more if I knew how to do it faster, but all those little details and the molding on buildings get tedious really quickly.
It’s hard to imagine a station like the one Sydney’s on not having a ton of automation. Unless there’s some weird union deal with a race that’s big on manual labor, like Space Dwarves, Ugnaughts, Ood, or Oompa Loompas.
I’ve updated the vote incentive. This time to another attempt at painting a cover. This one is obviously from a yet to be published Tamer 7. I’m fairly pleased with it, my biggest gripe is Victor’s head, which I used a reference for, and it looks almost like I cut out a model’s head for it. Also his expression doesn’t match the fact there’s a 40 foot Purussaurus surfacing next to him.
Unfortunately I can’t link you to the Tamer series of novels, which I quite enjoy, because Amazon still had its head up its ass concerning Michael-Scott Earle’s books, but hopefully he’ll be back online soon.
Speaking of which, if you look close enough, you may be able to spot a M-SE related cameo on this page.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Love that you added the Star Justice characters. the twins are obviously discussing Adam’s… barrel length.
Not the length. It’s the width that’s in question here…
Are you deducing that through circumferencial evidence?
My pet theory is that the author is playing with us readers, and that soon enough Sydney and Deus will meet. Then we’ll see if there is any truth to Maxima’s prediction in archive/2032 (panel 3). Until then, however, all we readers can do is wait for the cavalry (Cora) to arrive.
Have you considered building some of your cities in SketchUp then tracing them over to save yourself some time? This looks great, btw! Longtime silent-observer fan :)
SketchUp? Why not Scatsup?
Actually Smustard goes great with SketchUp!
Actually DaveB, SketchUp is fantastic, and it’s super easy to learn and would be great for this.
I’ve done that in the past with some of the sets early on, but I got frustrated with the limited scope of the program. I tried to make an office cubicle, but when I tried to import a remotely organic looking office chair, the program chugged to a halt. Maybe it’s been wildly improved since I last used it, I don’t know, 5 years ago, but it was inadequate back then. It also didn’t have any decent export options. I was forced to take low res screenshots.
I have spent some time trying to learn how to use blender, but the problem with 3D programs seems to be that they’re simple toys like Sketchup, or you need a fucking doctorate to rotate an object.
I was about to say, I KNOW THOSE CHARACTERS IN PANEL 3! Haha, nice MSE throwback there :P
Three? Thought they were in panel two, unless you meant the robots
Panel #1 “Make us whole Vale, make us whole…”
Ok let me get this straight, they are on a Dyson Sphere, around a pulsar. Even assuming a very small diameter, say the orbit of Mercury about 36 million miles and you get a surface area of about 1.63x10ee16 or 16.3 quadrillion square miles. even narrowing it down to a belt around the equator 100 miles wide, you get an area of 22.6 million square miles. And they just happen to be a block apart? Ok lets make some more assumptions, assuming they are in a designated market place, the only such place where tourists are allowed, or just where all the markets are concentrated because the main port is there, then you odds go up significantly, there still remains the question of how Sydney knew to go there, unless she was directed there somehow. That implies she was able to communicate, either the comball has a universal translator function, or the inhabitants of the sphere have such technology and were able to direct her. You still have to wonder just how likely it is they would be in the same place, at the same time.
weirdness magnets attract one another, it’s one of the Rules. Plus it could be that most of the sphere is other stuff (docking/parking maybe) and only has the one city
Pratchett’s Narrative Causality, aka Narrativium.
+1
Since the station’s primary function appears to be a stargate hub, it’s likely that almost none of it’s availabe area is dedicated to shops by percentage, and that from all docking/landing points the traffic flow is designed to direct you to the shops.
Syd and Deus both probably just followed the flow of traffic from where they entered and it led to the center of the shopping area. Still unlikely but it’s not necessarily any less likely that two people in NYC both ending up in Times Square.
“Exit through the gift shop” – apparently one of the universal truths of traveling.
I think it may be more likely than you assume. It seems quite likely that the location puts all incoming personal warping into designated receiving areas, and Syd and Deus both got sorted into the human-atmosphere, human-size, human-visual-spectrum one.
Rule of Funny.
Your parties must rock.
Heh, thought you said “Your panties must rock.” :P
That’s a different party.
A Dabbler-party? Oh wait, she doesn’t wear any…
I’d be willing to bet Dabbler will wear Granny panties just to mess with someone’s mind
I dif to beggar:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2967
From Dabbler’s point of view, those are granny panties she’s wearing while baking cookies.
Crotchless granny panties
Perhaps that’s the small place for humanoids and relations? and sydny wondered around gradualy zeroing in on it by how familiar things are?
It’s even worse. Of all the planets they could go shopping at, they picked the one that was the last destination for the orbs. AND they got there within 10 minutes of Sydney finishing her fight, and figuring out how to warp there.
So the odds aren’t just astronomical, it’s astronomical cubed
When something seemingly astronomical happens in sci-fi we must do the sci-fi equivalent of “A wizard did it”, “a cosmic being did it”
The Q,
Celestial Sapiens,
The Destinies,
ect…
something with an unknowable agenda has guided the streams of time for this to happen.
AKA: the writer.
LoL
it’s in space: everything is astronomical
+1.
I do feel there was a scene skip here, like Sydney being directed where to land. I guess rule of pacing, skip the *welcome to the Fracture, please following the hologram light trail to the visitor area.
Although such a scene would have established Sydney knowing the name of the place for future reference and explaining why everyone would be concentrated in this spot. But then this page may not have come out till next Monday or Thursday. Two days a week pacing, awkward in a binge logical in real time.
Yes.
I would have liked to have seen that.
AT THE COURTESY DESK: (After set up of the translaton spell)
Agent: Name?
Sydney:Sydney Scoville, Jr.
Agent: Planet of origin?
Sydney: My home planet or the one I was at last?
Agent: Home planet.
Sydney: Earth. We call it Earth. Sol 3?
Agent: We’ll call it Earth. Your language tells us what planet you’re from. That and the bioscan.
Agent: Name of spacecraft if applicable?
Sydney: Um… This one? (Points at Flight Orb) And this one (Points at forcefield orb)
Agent: (Typing) Not. Applicable.
Personal mobility scooter device
PMS Device :P
Scooty Puff Junior
My Little Orb-y
It’s Sydney. She has a habit of being in places where she can see stuff that statistically she shouldn’t have seen (remember the SWATbots attacking the vampire council?). I think she generates an improbability field, which is probably why she has the orbs in the first place. Also, the rule of 3 says they’ll have another near miss, then a third time where one or both will spot the other.
Well, she just walked by Marvin. Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent can’t be too far away. Anything else would be infinitely improbable.
Any second now, she will bump into Florence Ambrose and Sam Starfall. :)
Buzz Lightyear…
And Marvin seems to be talking/ buying something from the robot head of security from the film Blackhole.
I always wondered what happened to him, and now I know.
Looking at the Fracture from the outside, it doesn’t seem nearly as large as Mercury’s orbit. In fact, comparison to the spaceships in it’s vicinity, a diameter of a thousand miles would seem excessive.
Pulsars, as far as I’m aware, are quite small, so I was picturing the station to be roughly the size of our moon, but of course, that would mean the gravity on the surface of the station would be lethal. Except it’s somehow being harnessed on this station for… stuff.
Which, given the obvious tech-level of the builders, wouldn’t surprise me at all.
*Hums theme song from MST3K*
Awesome Kzin!
That’s not a Kzin. It’s ears aren’t folded pink parasols (I think that’s the way they’re usually described?!). In fact, that looks a lot like a Terran tiger..
Like in all settings with a bunch of human and human-like beings in an interstellar society, how come there’s a bunch of human and human-like beings rather than squids, insectoids, reptiles, whales, leeches, amphibians, gestalt minds, artificial intelligences, armored reptilians (Zerg/Tyranid), armored mammals (pangolins) and the thousands of other varieties of forms that life takes just on this planet, let alone planets with MUCH higher or lower gravity, atmospheric pressure, temperature and maybe even basic mineral composition (silicon or chlorine rather than carbon or something)?
Maybe it’s just my biases, but I’m always a little disappointed when a story goes for “aliens are humans or humans with extra arms/colors/forehead ridges” when they can be so very much more interesting than that.
I’m thinking that this particular part of the Fracture is for bipedal oxygen breathers. Methane Breathers are one level down, for example
The explanation for film and tv is it’s cheaper to show humans.
At least Star Trek tried with different colors and latex prosthetics.
Not sure why other mediums would limit themselves.
I think there’s a sort of culture encouraging a lack of imagination, like maybe Dave worries that we wouldn’t “get” a race of sapient mycelium matrices that communicate by encoding a mathematical proof of the concept they want to convey in a spore then launching it to their neighbors via rapidly built and deconstructed biological cannons for them to decode
Because even today, CGI looks like crap on a low budget, and even on a high budget we’ve seen it so much people can tell when its CGI and will complain because they think it should somehow trick them into thinking it looks 100% in the scene.
and animatronics are either really expensive or look like puppets.
So your choices are either a human in a costume (but too much costume and it starts to look less alive and more rubber suit monster), or else a muppet or a photorealistic colored cartoon character.
We can’t just do anything, these things are expensive.
Now animated shows, they can get away with far out alien designs because EVERYTHING is animated so it blends in.
Its not as unrealistic as you might think.
Finding space stations and cohabitated worlds and moons with similar in build and natural requirements species actually makes sense to a certain extent.
We have “Form Bias” where some are simply more comfortable around, and had better first encounters as a result with species that more closely resemble their own species *less sudden feeling of dread around biped cat people or human but with tentacle arms or blue skin, than seven foot tall squid-blob with a slit full of teeth for half its body”. The reverse holds true, the Nyralthotep principle, a form so different from your own its hideous to behold and terrifying; in my own series the Croon alliance are non-humanoids who have concluded that humanoids are all abominations created by the humanoid celestial eldritch horrors of the multiverse.
Then we have atmospheric sharing. Perhaps you can have different species be in contact and commerce, but its a hassle for the 20 foot tall quadraped slug tailed five tentacles like elephant trucks on its face, nitrogen breather to share space with the oxygen based 5-6 foot tall squishy biped. They just use robots and ships and networks to communicate but not share space.
which is an architectural issue as well. Different body types would have different structures, roads, stairs, doorways, ect… so as bad as it sounds to segregate them, there could be size range and body type shopping districts using different robot merchants to move goods between them. Heck even Monstergirls show the problems, trying to have a Centaur or Lamia move around in an environment built for humans raises problems, imagine it for a species that resembles a fifty foot nest of silvery needles like a land based crystalline metallic sheen version of a sapient basket star fish.
Your realistic options for such settings would be, ALL contact by machines, no direct interactions or shared spaces.
I mean contact suits can only do so much, radiation shielding *both for and from the wearer*.
Although personally I’ve made the excuse in my own series of using a multiverse so most the species and races encountering each other are of human descent from different timelines *even if a tad off, magical Aesperians, Vampires, genetically modified Ju-el, cybernetic races, human created artificial life forms like Lamia and Slime girls based on their fiction ect…* with the less human like alien races rarely getting involved with them. Not that you don’t still get interactions,
but from a writing perspective it is a pain to try and explain the humanoid vocalizing and having a general conversation with the quivering mass of fleshy mass that uses subtle scents, chromataphors, and infrasonic pulses to communicate; or the low gravity floating filter feeding mantaray things that use radiowaves to communicate but human radio transmissions can drive them in insane.
compatibility.
Indeed. Having studied traffic engineering and city planning, I had a hard time enjoying Zootopia during the intro scenes showing how the big city accommodated various sizes and species, e.g. 3 sets of doors on a train with only 1 platform level. (no. just no.) At least the different districts were sensibly segregated by size and habitat.
Zootopia is a great example, just the amount of damage a rabbit and weasel caused in a mouse district, imagine an elephant in there.
The roads thought were pure cartoon nonsense for me, I can’t see any sensible traffic planner allowing mouse cars on the same roads as those giraffe and elephant cars. There is a reason most mouse world settings have them living in underground towns and cities (or else inside walls like the Muppets) away from weather and larger creatures.
Technically, it was the Fraggles who lived in the walls :P
Well underground for Fraggles, but mice and rats also had holes they lived in, but weren’t ever really focused on in the muppets.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/muppet/images/f/f3/Mousefamily.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070212173734
but mouse worlds are better exhibited by, Great Mouse Detective, The Rescuers, Flushed Away; and others like those.
I don’t remember muppets living in a wall(though I haven’t seen all episodes), are you thinking of the Borrowers?
Mouse Families and the rats had little holes and houses, like in Muppet Christmas Carol with the mouse family. As well as the cabins of the mice and rats in Muppet Treasure Island. It was never focused on, they just hung out to the sides of things like this.
Well you know it’s cause we’re .
Try 2: All made out of meat
https://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html
Convergent evolution! The same function drives completely different lifeforms to have similar appearances. The Tasmanian devil looks similar enough to other small mammalian predators (not as long as a martin, and thicker) that it could pass for one, until you looked at its reproductive system. Same thing for other marsupial predators.
I don’t think that quite cuts it when we have so many different shapes on earth alone.
There’s certainly very little convergent evolution on earth, being the rare exception rather than the rule. And even then, convergent evolution only happens in identical biospheres – finding an identical one to earth would be… really long odds.
It’s simple fewer people would have recognized a Puppeteer than would that Kzin, despite the Pierson’s Puppeteers being vastly more distinct – I mean, that could just as easily be a Caitian (or an uncharacteristicly youthful Vedala), a Sholan, or even a Tiger Underperson (OK, maybe not in that armor, but still) and few would have noticed (not a Sholan, though – they are more Lion-like than Tiger-like).
Or a Togorian , Ranth, Farghul, Aldebaran, Cathar, Cantrosian, Orryxian, Dilgar, or Feng…
i wanna see balloon animal-style ‘furries’!
True enough.
Oops, I said ‘Sholan’ twice, when I meant to describe Hani as being Lion-like.
And yeah, there sure are a lot of felinoids in SF…
Actually thought he was Kilrathi. Not a surprise, the Kzin inspired their design
I’m pretty sure most people are on the same page that “Anthropomorphic Tigers = Inherently Bad Ass.”
Going to the big cats pens at the SF Zoo at feeding time and listening to them snarling just before the meat was thrown in, my reptilian hindbrain was COMPLETELY certain I was too damn close to some serious apex predators…
My mum has a photo of me with me petting one on my lap. They is adorable pussy cats!
My guess is: Dabbler’s friend will show up, scan for her somehow, pick her up, and just as she’s leaving, she sees Deus and Vale.
I am still hoping she’s paged like in a store.
*Will Sydney Scoville please come to the front desk, your party is waiting”
just to get the reaction from Deus and Vale hearing it.
If they just scan for humans they’d be in for a surprise :)
Shop Keeper: Wow, you are like the second member of your species in my shop in the last 0.78 hours (translated to metric units from whatever he normally uses). I am thinking the other one is your mate, or did you just come in on the same ship?
Halo: Another human?! Here?! For the most part, we are not a space-faring species. I kind of got here by accident. What did this other human look like?
Shop Keeper: I think it was likely another gender from you.
Halo: Okay, male. What did he look like?
Shop Keeper: Quite a bit taller than you and more heavily muscled. Like you, he had brown fibres growing from his head, but much shorter than yours. He did not wear corrective lenses for his eyes. Mind you, he had two lines of scar tissue that crossed between his eyes.
Halo: Wait! Like this? [ Draws a line from above her right eye to below her left eye and then from above her left eye to below her right eye. ]
Shop Keeper: It was similar to that.
Halo: How weird is it that might know this guy? But what the hell is he doing here? [ Her wrist starts making sounds ] What the?! Uh, hold on. [ picks up the call on her wrist communicator ] Hello?
Cora: Hello, Dabbler asked me to pick up you and take you back to Earth. Which port are you close to and we can meet you there.
Halo: [ Looks at shop keeper ] Which port is closest?
Shop Keeper: Port 27 is the closest, down this street in that direction.
Halo: Gotta go!
Shop Keeper: You haven’t paid for that yet!
Halo: Oh, sorry. You can have it back. Here. [ Run out of the store, grabs the flight and force field balls and starts heading down the street ] Um, yeah, I am heading for Port 27, I think. I can meet you there shortly.
I can’t see Sydney just leaving without confronting Deus, or at least getting a picture of him for proof at a later meeting.
I am not the only one hoping she ends up in some kinda fight pit to earn space credits right?
Is it me,or does Vale look like Pixel,or more like an excited kid?
I was wondering how the heck Pixel had got there for a second. =P
I’ve thought for a while that Vale has a similar attitude to Sydney, she’s just better at hiding it :D
Oh yeah… both Vale and Deus both are nerds similar in scale to Sydney, already been shown. Deus is far closer in mind to Sydney, but I love all the fangirling and humanizing that is done for Vale despite what has already been shown as her not being human.
Yes, was thinking the same thing, butt decided to read the comments (at least on this page) before making own comment about how Pixeliciously cute Valeur was :D
Either Vale is related to Pixel or channeling her inner Pinkie Pie!?
Surprise twist – they’re both Vale, she’s a double agent.
Pixelicious and Valeur being related has been speculated on several times :D
Either this is confirmation, or DaveB is trolling the readers :P
I really hope that she discovers that the unknown orb is a universal translator now :). And she only didnt know because she hadnt talked to anyone that did not speak english yet.
At least not while holding the orb.
Would think that would be part of the commball, though it may be an as yet unfilled ‘pip’.
Dispite it’s name the com ball is actually more scanning than communicating however my hands would be on both of them if I was Sydney.
Actually you’re right. It would make a LOT more sense for the comm ball to have a universal translator function.
But it would be a lot more fun if Sydney has to mime and use gestures or otherwise try to get her message over without being able to just be automatically understood.
Initially, anyhow.
“As a courtesy to our guests a translation cantrip is in effect.
Those without biological brains may download the free App.”
(Something like Dr. Who’s gift he shares with his companions.
Which Dr. & episode did the companion notice it while in ancient Rome/Greece?)
it was the Pompeii episode, and Donna. and its not the Doctors gift, its an effect of the TARDIS.
The episode that introduced the soon-to-be Final Doctor
12th, not final. It doesn’t make him the final doctor because you don’t like the very idea of a female Doctor,
It was interesting to me that she seemed open to the possibility of having a girlfriend. I don’t think that the BBC would have the courage to have one of their ‘prime worldwide income source characters’ have an interracial lesbian relationship. But it would be cool if they at least dabbled some more with that, whilst the Doctor figured out her current incarnation.
Having a female Doctor makes no fucking sense, and before you bring up Missy, let me remind you that they had already gone the route have removing all of the Master’s remaining Regenerations, and then tampering with his DNA to give him one last Regen, as Missy (which means that that was NOT natural)
If they were so PC about being ‘progressive’ and shit about having a Time Lady, they had two they could have gone with: The Rani (which would have cool to have brough her back while Missy was still around, as The Doctor, Rani, and The Master were old school friends) and Doctor’s Daughter (who was last seen having survived and then flying off into space). Or even his Granddaughter, Susan
I DISTINCTLY remember one of the Doctors saying
“It’s a gift I allow you to share.”
Could it have been the Tom Baker Doctor?
Yes… I saw the Pompeii episode.
Italian translated to Italian comes out some weird dialect?
He probably did say that, butt it’s more a case of him extending user-access to the TARDIS’ translator, and then promptly forgot how to turn the thing off (or it broke, like nearly everything else in that blue box :P )
If I understand correctly, Tardis automatically translates both ways for its recognised users/guests, but does assume they’re speaking a language in which they’re fluent. Donna speaks in fluent English, Tardis makes Publius think he heard in fluent Latin; Publius replies in fluent Latin, Tardis makes Donna think she’s hearing fluent English. Reactions to the realisation of just how much rather delicate wholescale mental manipulation this implies, without consent or even notification, may vary significantly between cultures.
I’m torn between two scenarios for what happens when a user tries to anticipate the translation.
The first scenario is that the meaning for the speaker is preserved. Donna isn’t fluent in Latin: she has rote-memorised some phrases that she’s been told mean something, but doesn’t really understand them in terms of the component words. Donna speaks what is to her meaningless sounds, Publius hears what are to him meaningless sounds – even if the sounds Donna actually made would have had meaning to Publius.
The other scenario is that Tardis translates the words back. Fluent English speaker Donna speaks broken-but-effective Latin, fluent Latin speaker Publius hears broken-but-effective English (which he may or may not recognise/understand).
I like the image of the second scenario better, but the first is probably the more likely. Depends on the writer and/or any relevant needs of the plot, I suspect.
and i believe the 10th Doctor.
Has Sydney ever used the truesight orb to observe someone speaking another language? It’s possible, in keeping with the orbs-as-spaceship paradigm where the truesight orb is Comms, that it’s alsoa universal translator (though that might be an upgrade she’s not picked yet).
We’ve never seen her have the opportunity.
I’d also be impressed if allowed her to read non-English text,
like all the neon signs.
Isn’t she due to crash?
She really should take a nap soon.
Last panel, I see Maximilian and Marvin, but can’t place the third robot – if that’s a robot.
It looks like a more svelte version of the power armor from Fifth Element.
Mondoshawan?
Well, everything CAN be automated here.
Problem, though – all of the machines are sentient, have rights, and are part of worker’s unions. So, you STILL have to hire them, and pay them, even if you built them. It actually makes the self-building organic workers the cheaper option.
Like the scutters on Red Dwarf. They had a better union than the humans. Servicing wending machines is good enough for the meatbags.
I was wondering if this thing had an atmosphere or not. On previous pages it was difficult to tell if everybody was wearing environment suits since they were all seen at a distance. And apparently it’s oxygen-breather friendly so that must be common throughout this section of the galaxy.
YEAHHHHH, STAR JUSTICE!!!
Why does Deus look like he knows where he’s going?
He’s probably been talking to people (aliens) who know the layout.
I’m going with, if someone dials a stargate, and then says “lets go shopping”, instead of “lets send in a crew of heavily armed redshirts to see if this is safe” it is not their first time to that location.
As we can’t see his lower body (hopefully never again) it looks like either he is just waiting (and ignoring the sounds coming out of Valeur) or looking at the other building (seems to be posters or flyers of some sort on it)
Maximillian.. Nice touch there on panel 3.
Lady in the second panel:
“You must be THIS hot to join our starship crew.”
Seeing that Adam is stalking along, tiger form and BFR in hand, I cant help but wonder how many seconds until a whole lot of something hits the fan. Could be just the thing to corral Sydney and D/V into meeting up.
Or maybe not, since none of the ladies are armed (aside from the obvious), the crew of the Persephone might be heading to some ritual single combat, and maybe for once, mayhem isn’t mere moments away from them.
Can someone please get a high quality crop of that face Vale makes in the first panel. It just feels like a meme waiting to happen!
Or a new Gravatar :P
I do feel there was a scene skip here, like Sydney being directed where to land. I guess rule of pacing, skip the *welcome to the Fracture, please following the hologram light trail to the visitor area.
Although such a scene would have established Sydney knowing the name of the place for future reference and explaining why everyone would be concentrated in this spot. But then this page may not have come out till next Monday or Thursday. Two days a week pacing, awkward in a binge logical in real time.
Also other races may have other breathing restrictions so of course they would head to the one that has the best breathing atmosphere and temperature.
Any other MSE fans envision Eve as being taller than the twins? For some reason the twins being taller feels.. wrong to me. Meh, maybe I’m just weird (or missed something in the books)
Hold up… INTERLAC?! :D
Before its too late, calling a Chekov’s Gun possibility.
Sydney’s pocket of arts and crafts supplies.
Turns out as uncommon Earth materials *general alien tourism doesn’t think to highlight the Dollar General and Wal-Mart type locations*, that have yet to be entered into replicator databases are actually so valuable Sydney can trade them to replicator workers at a fairly nice exchange rate for local currency, or a ride home.
Would be a rule of funny, “I have a ticket home!” *pager: Would Sydney Scoville please come to the docking bay, your ride is here*.
Although a later set up would be funny.
Deus has some fancy tech to try and sell to Archon, Sydney sees and recognizes it and just blurts out, “Woah, what did you pay for this? That guy wanted all my felt paper and googly eyes for it”
Dabbler: “All?, He was trying to rip you off, next time I’m going with you.”
Deus letting it slowly sink in they have both been to the Fracture…
on that note something else occurs to me.
Why did Deus when he first met Sydney assume she knew about aliens existing? I mean yeah she works with Archon, but she’s a new recruit and most the recruits don’t have clearance about Dabbler.
Me thinks Deus may have recognized the Orbs…or Vale did and said something to him.
(I am convinced Vale is his guide here).
I would assume Harem has informed him what Sydney knows as she is meant to be spying for him so she can spy for Max
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/797 shows Harem telling him about the orbs, since he knows she knows about Dabbler’s true form it makes sense for him to assume she knows about others.
There’s also the possibility of negotiating a ride home “COD” as it were, promising that Archon will pay the tab for a Space-Uber ride home.
AT THE MONEY CHANGER/PAWNSHOP/UNIQUE ITEMS SHOP:
Sydney: What about this? (Places felt on the counter.)
Proprietor: (Touches it) It has an unusual texture. What’s it called?
Sydney: Felt.
Proprietor: Yes, I’ve felt it. Does it have a name?
Sydney: It’s named felt.
Proprietor:What would it be called had I not touched it?
Sydney: Still felt.
Proprietor: Because you touched it?
Sydney: It’s named felt regardless of having been touched or not.
Proprietor: I suppose it was touched at the final stage of its manufacture?
Sydney: Yes. Lets go with that.
Proprietor: Ok. Next. What are these markers called?
Sydney: Markers.
Proprietor: Get out.
I’ve said it before. She now owns the entire Alari homeworld – she won it in trial by combat against the Calimarian Champions. She can sell mineral rights or whatever for whatever she needs. There probably won’t be a lot of sex tourism there for a while, though.
If a world has no sex tourism, then it’s a useless planet and is worthless. Everyone knows that.
Is she carrying REAL felt? Because there might be a Leperoid race on the station who’ll take offense.
It’s not just that, she’s also got actual drugs in those pouches, her ADHD prescription.
Who knows, maybe Ritalin is a big aphrodisiac or euphoric substance in outer space? And highly illegal.
Or…..
To them, it’s Tylenol.
Or Tic-Tacs
If Sydney did actually want a job in astro freight delivery, here are some of her options. (for comparison 12K mph = 5.35 km/s)
1) She can get a job launching spaceships off world that weigh <= whatever she can carry from:
Mercury: 4.25, Moon: 2.38, Mars: 5.03, any of Jupiter's or Saturn's moons, or Pluto: 1.23 km/s.
2) Orbital speed goes down as altitude goes up. She can put a satellite into Earth orbit at a distance of 7500 km or higher (orbital speed 5.36 km/s). Just fly up to that height and then head sideways at up to 12K mph and release. (and yes, I am mixing velocity scales just to be annoying)
3) She can act as the first stage of a supply rocket to the ISS. She can get a payload up to an altitude of about 300 km and 5 km/s going in the right direction. Then the second stage kicks in to get it the rest of the way there.
This all hangs on the idea that they can figure out a way to suspend the object in question under a harness wrapped around her bubble with a quick release remote controlled from inside by Sydney.
I like the idea of her getting stuff into orbit, although if I were responsible for any of the payloads I’d want to control the harness release remotely and give her a good HUD to make absolutely sure the current trajectory was within acceptable parameters. Trusting Sydney to fling a hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars satellite representing hundreds of people’s life work in “about the right direction” doesn’t sound that appealing.
However, she could increase her value far, far more delivering via Aethereum Causeway, assuming she gets the controls figured out. Obviously this ability will be classified Platinum Ultraviolet, but if anyone at NASA ever gets approval they could just have her drop rovers directly onto the surface of a given planet instead of mucking with launch vehicles. Assuming NASA as we know it isn’t just replaced entirely by importing alien data and tech – why fund a decades-long mission to a distant planet when you can just buy environment samples or even talk to the inhabitants in person?
Whatever Vale was considering buying there, it got her to show more emotion than any other part of the comic. It’s probably not just a throwaway gag…
That’s a (mini-) Marker from the Dead Space video game series. So probably not significant in order to avoid legal issues. (A one-off shout out/tip-of-the-hat is much less of a problem than a continuing use in a significant way.)
Yes, yes, Sydney has never handled one of those either. No, not in this comic. I saw nothing! She is innocent I say!
I love Vale’s expression, and what it says about Deus’ treatment of his bodyguard. She’s like an excited little kid… and Daddy spoils and pampers her. No wonder she’s so loyal.
Lean closer
Did the pink haired stooge just buy a marker. Are you setting up for next holloween.
Lean closer
Maybe its me but rarely does anyone address this unless it’s a plot device, but it’s kind of important and boring, bacteria and diseases. i understand advance alien species having the technology to deal with some foreign object, but Earth. Deaus and Vale just walked through a portal.
Deus would have the technology to deal with that too but I wouldn’t be surprised if Syd doesn’t spend some time in quarantine after she gets back just to be sure.
Lots of aliens hang out on Earth and Deus always knows a lot more than humans should. So he probably has protection acquired from such sources.
Plus there is a good chance that bacteria (etc) from different eco systems are incompatible with each other.
Although when you have a galaxy-wide civilisation that latter speculation looses credibility somewhat.
Deus probably has the equipment/medication to deal with any potential issues. Vale doesn’t seem like the type who cares about little things like “disease” and “mortality”. As for Sydney… I’m suddenly wondering if the green orb also disinfects the surrounding area. We know it does more than just make air, and that would fit the “life support” label that Sydney gave it. I think they established all the way back at the interview that Sydney hasn’t tested the orbs while sick.
Considering he will sleep will anything that has an orifice that will fit (whether they initially want to or not, no force or coercion :rolleyes: ), very good chance he has Galactic-level medical facilities
Deus spots an alien that looks like a giant black spider crab with a column of spikey expskeleton blocks rising dead center from the middle of the back with a pair of long clawed arms and a xenomorph/Brood *Marvel* like head with bladed edges, and a wide mouth full of teeth.
Deus smiles, “a female Gurfar, a prize to my list.”
Vale, “No to ruin your fun sir but Gurfar males have a fifteen foot phallus with a four jawed tip to tear open the dry dock armored orifice of the females located directed under and opposite their central columnar body.”
Deus, “I love a challenge”
Yes, it’s boring, and not really important.
This is a comic strip, not a documentary.
It’s not necessary to show 500 different bathrooms and how every different alien goes potty, either.
Yup, that is a different kind of comic, with quite a specialised target audience.
But Quip did make a pretty good basic point about the dangers for Sydney here. Personally I would be more worried about the pollutants and other poisons which might be in the area, given the indicators. And there are either humans or things which appear to be pretty similar to humans. So diseases could be a serious risk too.
And Dave does think about such stuff too, so Sydney may have to deal with the consequences of entering this environment.
Point is, until t’s needed for the plot or overall story, it’s something that doesn’t need to be mentioned, like how The Enterprise never had a toilet or even showers
Deepening the dire situation that the primary protagonist is in does have dramatic merit though. Stuck untold lightyears away from Earth, with precious few resources, all sorts of challenges like communication and navigation and then getting ill with some (potentially funny/ scary/ really weird) disease could draw out emotional depths from Sydney.
Although I like her plucky ‘can do’ approach she currently has and there are umpteen routes that the story could go now, without having to go darker.
Next episode of Steven Universe, although they brought food for Steven and Connie on their trip to the Gem Homeworld, they must rush back to Earth because they realize too late since Gems don’t need to eat, they also don’t have toilets. LoL
You see, the real problem here is that Sydney had her hair down, so Deus and Vale didn’t recognize her. They only know Ponytail-Sydney.
Didn’t notice it initially, but the litter in panel 1 is a nice touch in establishing that this is a shadier area. Definitely on the prowl for deals that can’t be had in the well-lit, polished side of the station.
Also, “Missed it by that much.”
Okay so I’m not familiar with the cameos in this page, so my first thoughts were: “is the tall one Xochitl? No wait, she’s not blonde. Oh but the twins, could they be Harems?? Right height, similar to Harem’s blonde frame…”
I have not seen the hi res, so I am probably wrong. But remember that thing Harem did way back when? (Also, since she’s now been to the other planet, theoretically she should be able to teleport there, right?)
No. Harem can’t just teleport anywhere she’s been. Her teleportation requires line-of-sight unless she is very familiar with the location. An example provided in the comic itself was Harem teleporting to her childhood home from another city, but needing to use public transportation to get back to that city.
If Sydney managed to find a videophone that allowed her to contact Archon and Maxi, kinda like the ones used on NCIS and similar shows, would Daphne be able to use that to get a fix on Sydney’s location and *VORP* herself and a few urgent supplies? Maybe even stay with Sydney to provide a morale boost and travelling companion?
We know that Daphne would love to experience that, it’s just a matter of feasibility
She was able to do that during the Faux Bank Heist PR Stunt (she could see the location of the ecnalubma, knew what the interior was like, and it was a 5 second video delay so was reasonably close to being ‘live’), it would just depend on how much of Sydney’s location she can see and how big of time delay it was (may also depend on actual distance as well)
Another example from the comic itself:
No matter how great of a telescope she uses to survey her target location, Harem can’t teleport to the moon.
This implies that there IS a limit to how far Harem can teleport. Her limit just happens to be greater than the diameter of the Earth, so it’s a little hard to test.
I like how Halo is the only one dressed conservatively, at least among the human-ish women. A uniform tends to look like a uniform, she will probably be taken more seriously for it.
Does she look like a cop?
Considering what we’ve seen of the intergalactic community thus far, Sydney is actually highly unusual for a female humanoid. I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets mistaken for a young male at some point in the near future… and fails to correct this mistake because she doesn’t know the language.
If the women in panel two could be considered ordinary, maybe Sydney could be deemed exotically attractive.
No, bad Vale, put that down
Knowing that Vale is some kind of Lovecraftian vaporous nightmare under that humanoid shell makes the abrupt and completely uncharacteristic squee-face equal parts baffling and concerning.
She has fulfilled her Lovecraftian purpose then.
Every time you see a delighted smile, henceforth, you will have a flashback and the person’s face will transform into a vaporous nightmare! Eventually any nice expression will have the same effect, so all you will be able to see is the nastier ones and nightmare inducing ones. Your decent into insanity is well underway.
*gives a lovely smile*
Funny, a Russian friend of mine said that by culture, he never really trusted anyone who smiled too easily.
It’s just that grinning without cause is not a skill Russians possess or feel compelled to cultivate. There’s even a Russian proverb that translates, roughly, to “laughing for no reason is a sign of stupidity.”
Ha ha ha.
Is OK friend, I had a reason. It was to alleviate your fear of death.
I had a theory about Vale, but I’m no longer sure it holds up after seeing her “kid on Christmas morning face” in panel #1. The theory was that Vale’s stoic demeanor was due to the limitations of her skin suit.
It would appear to a human observer that Vale never had any sort of emotional reaction to anything. Actually she was responding in whatever fashion was normal for her species. We would never pick up on it however as those responses would be completely unknown to us, and they would occur entirely within the skin suit.
For Vale to show a human normal emotional response, would require her to actively and consciously manipulate the facial expressions of her skin suit. She just never bothered to do such a thing.
Panel #1 seems to contraindicate this theory. Then again, maybe Vale’s glee face in panel #1 can be written off as a one time exception permissible under the rule of funny.
GILES: I’ve got a theory that it’s a demon! A dancing demon? No something isn’t right there.
WILLOW: I’ve got a theory some kid is dreaming, and we’re all stuck inside his wacky broad way nightmare.
…
ANYA: I’ve got a theory, it could be bunnies!
…
Not being familiar with the Star Justice characters, when i saw the ladies in the silver bodysuits, my mind went straight to “They’re wearing Iconian Resistance Suits from STO!”
https://i.imgur.com/io1F8Tj.jpg
DANG! Gotta get back into that game and get me some of that armour!!
Okay I’m plenty curious to know where the characters in panel two come from, the tiger with that gun caught my attention especially.
They are characters from Star Justice. The tiger featured in a recent vote-incentive mock-up of a Star Justice novel.
Thanks, gonna look them up now.
Cyborg IS definitely HOT!
BEEP: Cyborg unit is operating outside established thermal parameters. Engaging system diagnostic mode to determine source of excess heat production.