Grrl Power #698 – The digital closet
So when I thought of Cora, like, I don’t know, 20 years ago, she had cybernetic limbs. She had them up until a few months before I put her in the comic, when I came up with the idea to replace her cybernetics with the hard light stuff. It seemed cool and more futuristic (and this after I just bagged on myself for not being much of a futurist.)
My original thought about the hard light replacements for the cybernetics (at least the external stuff like her limbs. She still has an onboard computer and… whatever, wifi and smartgun targeting etc.) But the hard light was just supposed to be just a replacement for her limbs. Then I had those refrigerator moments where I started thinking that if she had the hard light projector, what else would she be doing with it. That’s when I came up with her replacing her clothes with it, and it doubles as armor since the hard light is, in fact, quite hard.
The unintended result of her intelligently applying her tech is that she, like Dabbler, can essentially shapeshift. It was never a power set I imagined for her, but it makes too much sense for her to have it as a “power stunt” as it were.
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I’m really curious what Cora’s last loadout looks like to have elicited Sydney’s response in the last panel. I’m guessing Cora is now dressed like one of the Doctor’s regenerations. As it is still 2011 in the flashback, Matt Smith would be the current Doctor. Perhaps Cora is now sporting a bow tie and a fez. Or maybe she went Tom Baker and is now wearing an 18 foot long scarf.
Then again, what with her blue skin, she might just be a rather tall and curvy Smurfette.
It’s the latex-gimp outfit right above Sydney…
No. Cora ZTLRZTLZZZed out of that one off camera, eliciting Sydney’s response with whatever she loaded up next.
I bet it’s either Sailor Moon or Wonder Woman
Wonder Moon :P
Sailor Woman? She is a captain of a spaceship after all.
Nah, Too Cliche. I’d go with Lovely Warrior Cutey Honey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBaZIMcr14I
How about Lucy Lawless Xena?
I’m wondering if Dave hasn’t actually decided yet and is reading all these comments to see what he’ll go with
was just about to post this.
the bright hair and instant costume changes fit too well.
Heh, you had the same Idea I had. She was also a disquise-changer as well. I know of someone who tended to get those in the 18″ resin kits. Keiko Kamen and Dirty pair kits too.
Have the DVD of “The New Honey Cutie”, which includes a live-action cosplay :D
o.O Oh??? – have powerup portal and scour spaceweb to squire. (man the cool stuff you find out in comments)
Had to dig it out of a half-buried box
The correct title is “Go Nagai’s New Cutey Honey collection”, it is a 2 disc set (although have mislaid the first disc :( )
Found the cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjejHGuIEro
If she goes with a blueskin theme, anything from an Andorian from Star Trek to Zhann from Farscape.
Perhaps a Na’vi – I wonder how much flexibility she has with limb length and shape? I imagine the projectors can do a lot of options, but humanoid has got to be the easiest to handle with the connections to her actual muscles and decades of muscles memory.
If I know Sydney its going to be something related to a furry she always been excited when she sees one
I’m going with a female Deadpool.
Cora’s loadout?
Well, given that she could look like anyone, and she’s using Hard Light holographic tech, there’s only one possibility…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXYfnWRp1Q0
Yeah, she’s Ace in disguise.
Or it could be the Iron Lady herself; Margaret Thatcher.
Or possibly Lord Flashheart.
Hmm, hard light projection, outer space.
Of course, she now has the appearance of Pink Diamond
LoL
Still 2011 in the flashback. This is before Pink Diamond made her first appearance.
For the sake of making modern pop culture references viable, we should probably ignore any specific date referential and just go with the flow. Like how El Goonish Shive made a Dragon heart reference *around time comic started* and in-universe only six months have passed but makes more modern references too. Just chant the MST3K mantra and move along.
-remember Vale was watching Teen Titans Go on the private jet.
But would you really want to see a repeat of this particular faux pas by Sydney repeated with current cultural references?
Pop culture not politics, that is why you invent fictional politicians for your series so it’s not given any solid real world dating.
Star Trek. Sydney is going to have a picture taken with the crew done up in Starfleet uniforms.
Ha! NOW you can tell she’s Dabbler’s friend!
True. Knowing she’s a friend of Dabbler, the rubber suit loadout isn’t even remotely surprising.
Who do you think gave her the idea to even have that loadout? :D
The loadout in panel 5 looks like something that would appeal to Cooter.
Not just Coot, and that proves that Cora is familiar with Dirt :D
Oh come on, that’s far too tame for Dabblers taste.
While Keiko Kamen would be an option.
Yesss!
and a weekend cliffhanger, damn.
she may still take 6 hours to get ready for a date but them 6 hours could be 3 weeks before the date and saved for later.
No, it still takes her 6 hours to decide on which loadout to go with :P
Ha! You really think women are taking that time to “get ready?” It’s part of the game, my friend. To see if you’ll wait for her.
Wait, that’s what I’m supposed to do? Huh.
I mean, she potentially has infinite choices in her wardrobe, assuming she’s taken the time to scan stuff. Choice paralysis is real!
Gotta love the “oops, wrong button, Gimp Suit. Forget you saw that.”
Looking for some clarification of how Cora’s tech works…(Because at least so far, unlike Dabbler, Cora doesn’t have any ability to use actual magic, so she’s ‘limited’ to her tech and her ingenuity (for the world’s faintest definition of ‘limited’)).
For the sake of this rundown, I’d first like to state I don’t have any meta-level issues with one of Cora’s power-stunts being the rough equivalent of ‘visio-tactile mimicry’¹ (b/c it makes perfect sense, given her tech, and her apparent creativity and intelligence), but I think it’s worth noting that, at least as you’ve defined her capabilities so far, it’s not quite the same as what some stereotypical forms of shapeshifting seem to be capable of, so it be better to use a different term (at least in the comic itself):
*) Sydney’s interpretation of the mechanics behind Cora’s hard-light suit isn’t exactly correct, (as Cora states), but it’s apparently close enough to approximate the idea if you’re short on time (or panel space ;-) ).
*) With that surface-level definition in mind, in literally every piece of fiction I’ve ever watched or read, whenever holograms or force-fields were mentioned, neither of them possessed actual mass, although force-fields, at least, could interact with other objects.
**) (And even if Cora’s tech could alter or project mass if it had access to enough energy, the amount of energy it would need to do such a thing would be absurd. e=mc²…)
¹ If ‘visio-tactile mimicry’ seems like the wrong way to phrase this, it’s the best I could come up with without using already-associated words like ‘shapeshifting’, ‘transformation’, ‘doppelganger’, etc.
*) So, extrapolating from the infeasibility of being able to directly² increase her mass, given that Cora would need unattainable levels of energy to do so (with her limbsuit at least; IDK about her ship), she wouldn’t be able to alter her mass like certain types of shapeshifters in fantasy & RPG stories (ex: a Druid morphing into a Dire Bear, or a dragon disguising themselves as a human). Based on that, her capabilities are closer to Dabbler’s illusion-based succubus capabilities than the potential afforded to someone like, say, Beast Boy, who can alter his shape and his size across a very wide range. (But he also wants a moped because his arms get tired when he has to fly for too long…)
² I find it highly unlikely that Cora has access to the level of tech required for miniaturized (i.e. wearable) direct-mass-alteration technology, but, conversely, I find it extremely likely that she has access to *something* (miniaturized or not) that allows her to manipulate the effects of gravity to an extent — it wouldn’t work on actual mass directly, but it could emulate some of the effects.
*) Unless Cora’s tech is all completely shielded, (which is fully possible), a focused EMP could knock out her disguise rather easily. (Which could also knock out her limbsuit.)
Knowing you, at least *some* of the stuff I just brought up is likely already taken care of, (if not all of it), but I’d rather err on the side of caution, instead of finding out a year or two from now that you had to retcon something because the stress of the holidays made you miss one otherwise-minor detail while initially writing it.
I hadn’t thought about the mass issue. The easy explanation is that she lives in a world where starships have artificial gravity, so maybe adding ~70 to her weight isn’t a big deal.
As far as EMP goes, she wouldn’t rely on tech that’s so easily disrupted. Her hard light projector doesn’t use silicon based integrated circuits. It’s all optical processing and chips, and any elements that could be disrupted by interference are heavily shielded. With her cybernetic limbs, she could wind up frozen in place if something went wrong, but if her hard light limbs fail, she’d be flopping on the ground like a fish.
I’ve been thinking about force fields for awhile. What my idea for them is that they are molecules of air bonded to each other by molecular forces. It takes a whopping huge amount of energy to break 1 molecular bond so a sheet of them would be stronher than anything we could make. The “Hard Light” system could be simular. As such it eould have mass and affect things the way mass does.
Forcefields are not mysterious tech… So you know atoms are mostly empty space, right with plenty of room for them to pass through eachother, right? Well they don’t because of their electromagnetic fields. That’s all a forcefield is: an artificial recreation of that. The tech already exists in the real world, but the fields aren’t solid yet, they just provide… force… they’re also horribly expensive on energy to operate.
Optical tweezers are a real example of a forcefield that we’ve made here on real Earth. They don’t apply a lot of force, but it’s enough to be useful for some applications.
They gained their inventor the Nobel Prize in 2018.
Optical nose-hair pluckers. So good I bought the company.
Good to hear that I did catch something important that you’d missed — it’s why I decided to say something, after all.
:-)
With regards to EMP vulnerability, that’s about what I expected, but I thought of it while I was writing the rest of the post, so I added it to the list of stuff that I’d already thought of.
And now, I apologize in advance for the Great Wall of Text below. (If I could’ve made it shorter without eliminating stuff I thought was relevant, I would have.)
On to the topic of artificial gravity. (And by relation, manipulation of mass.)
With regards to the existence of things with the capability of maintaining artificial gravity, that’s fine for spaceships or anything larger (you’ve got a bit of wiggle-room between the size of a starship allowing enough room for a large reactor, and the possibility of Handwavium fuel of some sort), but anything smaller would present some logical hurdles to overcome.
My reasoning here is based upon the idea of available power sources, and the fuel they would require, which runs into some potential problems, but again, this wouldn’t affect starships. (There’s also a Boaty McBoatface-load of logical extrapolation to back up my reasoning.)
Here goes:
Unless you want to go the route of using some form of galactic-civilization superfuel (which has separate issues)¹, the only realistic power sources which come to mind for starships would be nuclear reactors (probably fusion), matter/anti-matter reactors, or incredibly energy-dense batteries (which would ofc need to be charged somehow, eventually). In and of itself, that limitation is not an issue, but this rabbit hole goes deeper.
¹(The issues I perceive are laid out in the gigantic Spoiler section down below. Sorry in advance. Again. >_>)
While I totally buy-into the idea that artificial gravity is something considered standard on starships, the creation and sustained usage of artificial gravity seems like something which would need some heavy lifting in the energy department, due to the power requirements of the localized alteration of gravity. Specifically, localized alteration of gravity would appear to need either:
*) Carefully controlled manipulation of the Higgs field, to provide enough artificial or emulated mass (idk if that’s the right term for the concept, but I think it’ll convey my meaning clearly enough), to actually warp spacetime and thus provide localized gravity.
*) Either that, or direct manipulation of the fundamental force of gravity would be required. This could involve fundamental particles, or perhaps a field of some sort (we don’t really know quite yet), but whatever the method, asserting dominance over the universe’s local status quo doesn’t seem like a modest undertaking in the “how-much-oomf-is-this-thing-gonna-need” department.
My point here is the underlying issue that all of these methods of controlling localized physics are the kind of thing where massive amounts of energy would be involved.
The end result of this, is that it seems like any of those potential power sources for starships all have issues with attempting to micro-scale them down into the “wearable” size category, while also maintaining appropriate safety precautions:
*) Nuclear Fusion — Would have to be quite heavily shielded (preventing stray radiation), tightly-contained (fusion requires containment to stay active, unlike fission), and would also require more active material than anti-matter (which would make it even more difficult to miniaturize).
*) Hyper-dense Batteries — These would have to be made of some kind of Handwavium, (which is doable), but they’d also need frequent recharging if they were small enough to wear and we’re ever used to manipulate local gravitational effects.
*) Anti-matter Reactor — By far the most energy-dense method of the 4 ideas (even a hyper-dense battery or a superfuel couldn’t reach 100% useable energy), anti-matter would have the easiest time with not needing much fuel, but building a device which either captured & utilized 100% of the released energy, or a device which could somehow safely dispose of any excess energy it did not consume, are both rather difficult prospects. That’s before you tack-on the challenge of making the device small enough to be wearable. Additionally, the containment chamber would have to be immensely strong to contain an anti-matter reaction (requiring something bulky, some sort of supermaterial, or an additional energy-draw requirement of appreciable value for a containment field of some kind). Finally, with anti-matter as a reaction fuel, even a matter/anti-matter reaction, with its 100% mass-to-energy conversion ratio, would still only have the energy output of the combined mass of the matter and the anti-matter which reacted together, so while artificial gravity seems like a possibility within reach, creating actual mass from that kind of reaction would give you, at most, the same amount of combined mass you initially put into the reaction (which was 50% matter and 50% anti-matter).
*) Superfuel — Assuming total Handwavium, even if it has a useable energy-density upwards of 90%, it still runs into the issue of requiring a reaction containment module, as well as being unable to create any appreciable quantity of actual mass, being limited to something equal to or less than its own mass.
¹Issues like the fact that Humanity would eventually need access to that superfuel. In order to travel the stars, humanity would either need to rely entirely upon other species, always purchasing literally everything they need for interstellar exploration ad aeturnum, or they’d need to establish separate manufacturing capabilities on Earth. (With a prerequisite level of tech and availability of resources.) And you’d need to provide a solid foundational lore on how this would happen.
On top of that, the point at which humanity would “eventually” need access to the superfuel could be easily predicted to be coming sooner, rather than later. Much, much, much sooner:
I’m referring to the fact that an argument could easily be made that it seems to be a logically-sound conclusion, (more on this below), based upon events which have already been depicted, that the comic will soon(ish)™ be seeing a rather drastic reveal. Specifically, the exposure (partial or total) of the existence of aliens to the people of Earth; possibly even the eventual integration of Earth with the rest of the galactic network. (Beyond the sex tourism & stuff, I mean. ;-) )
With that in mind, if your Earth is eventually headed in that direction, then to travel the stars, humanity would need that superfuel pronto.
Unless Deus subverts the starship-travel phase of the whole “getting to hubs of galactic-civilization” dealie, a feat which depends largely on whether or not he is capable of (and willing to) make additional Stargates.
My reasoning for the assumption of the imminent shift in popular awareness of existence of aliens is based on a multiple points:
1.) Rule of Cool. (Meta-awareness, but still). Because it would mean that stuff will be able to happen IN SPAAAACE!!! (Never forget the tropes.)
2.) Future story possibilities — a massive expansion of the possible scope of the comic’s story would mean that you’d have (at minimum) a whole galaxy of potential possibilities to draw from when you’re crafting adventures for Sydney and the gang, and would mean you could keep doing so for a long time to come.
3.) The official confirmation of the existence of superheros was fairly recently announced. (And given the state of the Veil, the existence of magic might soon follow: if it seems likely that an irreplaceable and badly-destabilized framework would inevitably collapse and force the secret out, it would make more sense to do a controlled reveal prior to that.) If magic were to be revealed, then at that point, with our society having already had two massive societal upheveals, it would be best to just get it over with and reveal the aliens as well, so you wouldn’t need to deal with restructuring society yet again sometime further in the future. Plus you’d split threefold the attention of people who hate change and are fearmongering or inciting hate-speech, prejudice, etc. because they wouldn’t be able to focus all their anger towards any single “new threat”, to try to turn other people against it.
4.) The globe-spanning spellwork which hides the general knowledge of the existence of magic has gone through some major changes recently: first of all, the Arcane Workings which power/control/define/sustain/structure it were recently attacked, and suffered damage; further attacks aimed at destabilization, if not outright destruction, seem a likely possibility. Secondly, not that long before the attacks, it changed from providing cover for (at least)² the existence of magic and superheroes, to just providing cover for magic, when the official announcement of superheroes happened.
²(I say ‘at least’ because it also bears mentioning that there’s the possibility that The Veil is also responsible for shielding the existence of any aliens who are present on Earth, (meaning if the Veil were to be destroyed, both magic and aliens would get outed all at once), BUT I can’t think of a reason why that would be any more likely than aliens just having access to really good disguise capabilities, tech or otherwise, which are a prerequisite for any aliens seeking to visit Earth.)
5.) Deus and Vale’s recent activities: a shopping trip to a Dyson Sphere. Deus has access to a Stargate (basically) and clearly put thorough planning into this trip, so the knowledge is already accessible to some extent. (Plus, Sciona’s reaction to what she saw when Vale’s ‘shell’ broke seems to point to Vale not being even remotely human. More like Eldritch Horror. (Not saying you’re likely to introduce Cthulu or its buddies into the comic, but– oh, wait you *did* do that. And Sydney killed at least one of ’em. ;-) )
6.) Sydney’s already in-the-know about the existence of aliens, (as-is her commanding officer), plus she possesses incredibly effective — field-tested — combat and reconnaissance capabilities, so she’d be an excellent first-line scout for learning more about galactic civilization in general, to prep her superiors’ awareness. (Provided someone is there to keep an eye on her…like Cora, Dabbler, or *maybe* Maxima.)
7.) Sydney now possesses the solitary, DNA-coded access to a literal handheld Ætherium Causeway, which was up until now purely theoretical. Like, theoretically theoretical. So of course, once Archon finds out about it, (and realizes what it is, and what that means), they’d have to be stupid to not use her capabilities to the fullest. (After some additional training, of course…) Also Sydney’s powerset is still evolving. With a *lot* of unknown potential. Potential which, going by what she’s uncovered so far, will be incredibly powerful.
8.) Cora, the captain of a starship and already a friend of Dabbler, was just introduced into the comic. Assuming she makes it back to Earth with Sydney, it doesn’t seem likely that she’ll be going anywhere away from the main cast anytime soon, unless she suddenly gets pulled away for an emergency or personal reasons, (or she gets killed). Part of that is seeing (with the reader’s meta-awareness) just how well she gets along with Sydney, but a lot of it is the obvious opportunity she could have to study Sydney’s orbs — she loves tinkering, so learning more about some totally unknown and mind-numbingly powerful alien tech seems right up her alley. And if Cora’s not going anywhere, then Archon (or at least Sydney) might have access to a starship.
So, guess who just learned that SPOILER tags automatically end at the end of a paragraph and don’t just continue until there’s a closing tag.
\/\/\/\/\/\/
>>>>>THIS GUY.<<<<<
/\/\/\/\/\/\
So, guess who just learned that SPOILER tags automatically end at the end of a paragraph and don’t just continue until there’s a closing tag.
\/\/\/\/\/\/
>>>>>THIS GUY.<<<<<
/\/\/\/\/\/\
And of course I didn't think to test it before posting, and you can't edit comment…oh well.
SONUVA–!
My first comment didn’t show up so I refreshed like 5 times before resubmitting, then they *both* show up.
AAARGH.
(I swear there are
daysweeksmonthsyears…frequent times when software just decides to pull a Murphy on me.)Heh, so that’s what Dabbles would look like with out her ears and horns :D
Only slightly. Cora had on pants and the breast coverings were a little large.
=^_^=
Was actually referring to her head
You forgot to mention only 2 arms.
We already know what she looks like with only two arms
Well… could be either I could see Cora doing a Ms, Doc Octopuss on that that brat of a cheerleader as a way to ‘get even’ particularly if they were a bit of arachnophobia
Did the artist change the terms from ‘quadriplegic’ to ‘without limbs’ a few pages ago? I went back, and I swear it said quadriplegic.
Yeah, DaveB mentioned he was thinking of doing it on the previous page. He discovered that being born quadriplegic is NOT the same as being born limbless. So a quick bit of dialogue change was in order.
DaveB also noted the edit in his Author’s Dialog on the page.
Yeah, that’s what I was referring to (sorry for not being clear, it’s late at night here).
It seems like she stumbled upon an outfit that really strikes Sydney’s nerd sense. I’ve heard the phrase that nerdgasm but I don’t think it’s quite that severe in this case. I can hardly wait to see what outfit she’s in next comic
She specifically says it an ‘old loadout’, so it’s going to be classic rather than modern, and I’m assuming she keeps presenting as female, so that limits it a little bit.
Supergirl/Wonder woman/Catwoman/Batgirl come to mind. Given her natural skin colour, Mystique would fit as well. So lets all guess wildly and see who gets it right… :-)
I was thinking Tomb Raider myself.
Too on-the-nose with the cleavage and holsters, but Indiana Jones would actually be a pretty cool look for her.
Figured she was referring to the gimp-suit as the ‘old loadout’, for last time she and Dabbles had met in person
At first I thought perhaps Slave Girl Leia, but then I realized that Sydney would not react so positively to that sort of objectification. So no chain mail bikinis. No Red Sonja.
I don’t think Sydney cares about the “objectification” all that much, considering her talk with Ariana.
Still I’m not sure if she would be that excited over something so common :)
Also, Slave Girl Leia is already a somewhat known/popular fashion here. One of Sydney’s audience at the grakz booth was wearing said bikini.
I am going to go with ToS gold uniform dress. It would fit Sydney’s nerd thoughts and be old. But then it might be older than Cora or Dabbler. Do we have their ages?
Dabbler is over 160 years older than Sydney.
Maybe Cora is cosplaying as one of the Lovely Angels. That costume might be a little bit exploitive, but certainly not as bad as a chain mail bikini.
Since Cora seems to favor the form fitting type of outfit, another possibility is a plug suit from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The old loadout seems to be the rubber suit as the ZTLRZTLZZZed happens after she says that and before Sydney exclaims “YESSS”
Another possibility, and one that fits well with Cora’s willingness to go overkill on the muggers, would be Rory Mercury. Cute and excessively violent all in one package.
Spandex, cape and mask.
Fitness model abs indicated or revealed.
Boots and gloves of unusual size.
What else would a comics shop co-owner nerdgasm over?
Star Trek: The Original Series female uniform. Preferably in blue (science/medical) or gold (command).
Thinking of gold, how about Cora having a Maxima appearance?
Let’s see. To avoid copyright issues, how about a web-comic pseudo-crossover with Superbitch (Sydney’s store has a poster for that), Mindmistress, Agatha Clay/Hetrodyne, Florence Ambrose or Fusion?
I would love to see Dave draw Agatha Heterodyne.
Florence Ambrose isn’t fictional in this universe. She was walking behind them (along with Sam and the robot) just a few pages ago.
The cameos are non-canon, audience eye candy only.
Otherwise Sydney (geek queen) would have noticed more than a few of them.
So just assume anything familiar to the audience wasn’t there and instead something similar was there, it wasn’t Florence but rather *insert canine like biped alien*, it wasn’t Zeiram it was *insert tall dark samurai hat wearing cloaked figure*, it wasn’t gloop and gleep it was *insert slime pods*, ect…
PS: saves on the possible urge (I am guessing) to create tons of new alien races to possibly expand upon later by using already existing ones for cameos.
Like, it wasn’t ET’s grandfather in that Star Wars scene, it was just some other alien who simply looked like ET’s granddad :P
Yes, exactly
because trying to mentally bridge the Star Wars universe and ET takes some insane mental gymnastics to explain the Star Wars toys and movies by extention existing on the Earth in ET.
Some fan theories are best left dead, by the side of the road, being eaten by meme crows.
Well a shape changing classic look might ne Cutie Honey!!!
I’m a little bit surprised that Dabbler isn’t ogling Cora’s boobs in to first panel, as Cora’s topless as doing so would be in-character for Dabbler
Sometimes, Dabbles’ nerd side overrides her succubus side
Right then, she was focused on ‘work’, the ‘play’ cums later, when they give it a thorough ‘field test’ (with said ‘field’ being a bed :sexy_wink: )
Studying that panel carefully, I believe Dabbler is getting a solid ogle on. Gonna also take a wild guess and say that a lot of gratuitous boob-groping was fully necessary while fitting Cora with various cybernetic devices. Even wilder guess …. Cora probably didn’t have any objections.
Also notice, Dabbler already has lost her eye & had it replaced with a cybernetic one at this young age.
Didn’t she say that her cyber-eye was the same colour as her natural eye? Implying that she was always Heterochromial (even if not heterosexual :P )
We don’t know how long Dabbler’s seen Cora topless. This may be hours into the process. Heck, maybe the first thing they did together was sex.
It doesn’t matter how many hours Dabbler has been staring at Cora’s boobs. Boobs like that never get old. Especially to a Dabbler.
I think there are some things to keep in mind. Dabbler seems to go out of the way to ogle, prod, and generally annoy people she considers prudes. Even at that she really only targets the ones who get mad. Case in point Maxima. Dabbler doesnt leer or ogle at sidney in the showers because she knows it makes her uncomfortable and as far as I can tell Dabbler is all about people being comfortable in their own skin. She might play gentle (for her) pranks on Sidney and push the boundaries of her comfort zone but I doubt she’d take it as far as Harem did at the pool. The one real case we have seen thus far of her ogling anyone was Maxima and that was complicated by an ooh shiny factor. Given Dabbler’s vast experience in the matters of people’s wobbly bits it’s not surprising to me at all that she is more nerded up than horned up. After all it is just boobs.
I’ll just post she now looks like Maxima…
Nah, Maxi would never wear a red corset like that … :P
So, it’s basically a light play, even if a hard one.
I wonder how the truesight orb will react to that. Maybe Sidney will try it? Or is she too afraid of nudity?
I’d be afraid to rely on something like this… even if our actual limbs are also mosty electro-magnetic interactions.
That’s a pretty cool piece of tech. But if it ever fails for any reason she’s totally screwed. And given her penchant for battle with heavy ordinance, damage to the unit (or having it taken offline by an EMP or alien tech equivalent) seems likely at some point. Or even just being stranded (or pinned down by heavy fire) long enough for the batteries to drain. Or hacked. Once anything like that happens, she’s not only completely immobilized, but stripped of all armor and clothing. I’m sure it’s well protected. She might even have a backup unit. But that’s still a lot of eggs in one basket.
Actually I think that an argument could be made that Cora’s limbs are far less susceptible to damage or other problems than the ordinary organic limbs that most people make due with. Someone with a sword could hack off your basic biological limb, but would find their sword shattering against one of Cora’s limbs. Cora’s ability to teleport in weapons means that it is significantly harder to disarm her than it would be to disarm a pure organic. Even if you managed to damage or steal one of her weapons, she’ll just port in another. The ability to swap clothing in an instant means she always has the right camouflage for the current environment. All in all I’d say she is probably much safer than a 100% meat person.
Sure, there are advantages. But if something happens to a mechanical limb, you’ve still got three others. Plus armor. If something happens to her hard light control unit, she loses limbs, shields, armor, and clothing in one shot.
So basically, Cora is the Black Knight, only you can’t safely “run away” after defeating her because she can regenerate her limbs with a battery swap.
Sure, there are advantages. But if something happens to a mechanical limb, you’ve still got three others. Plus armor. If something happens to her hard light control unit, she loses limbs, shields, armor, and clothing in one shot. And making it her armor means she’s constantly draining power just to keep it on, not to mention every time she takes a hit or even touches anything.
(Sorry about the double comment; the page glitched on me. Took a couple of tries to post, and even after refreshing the first comment didn’t show up for me until I’d posted the second.)
Also, if she can teleport item, it’s likely she has a spare suit.
Sydney looks so excited in the last panel I think we might have a possible vote incentive in Monday’s comic.
My worry is that Dave is going to be evil and not show us this form/outfit. But a vote incentive of it would be acceptable. Neutral, at least. Good would be showing us in Mondays comic.
Yups, we haven’t had a scene-change in awhile, this would be the right time for one :D
I’m thinking it’d be a good reveal for when Cora drops Sydney off back on Earth – then we’d get to see Dabbler’s reaction at the same time we see whatever outfit she had stored.
@DaveB — No reason Cora is restricted to only two arms. Especially with a friend like Dabbler available to help her implement it, Cora could have a loadout or three designed to emulate Dabbler exactly to number of limbs, as well as other appendages. Such as her own version of a Lighthook/pseudopods/tentacles.
She would, of course, require quite a bit of practice, but since she was born without limbs, adding extras (beyond normal humanoid form) shouldn’t be that much more of a stretch for her to master than being merely humanoid. Or Dabbler-oid. With Dabbler as coach and designer … Cora could become vastly more lethal than she already is by combining extra limbs at need with her teleport-equip function.
Just a thought for when Dabbler gets to see & be inspired by her new hard light rig. This is also a technology that can be adapted all of ArcSWAT, within tech transfer restrictions to Earth of course. At the least Dabbler should be able to upgrade Cora, and probably herself.
I would say her brain isn’t wired for the extra arms until recently. I heard about an experiment done with VR for humans navigating creatures with multiple arms or legs, for example a lobster form. That was done with just manipulating other appendages and learning to remap them without a direct brain attachment. So a direct brain attachment would allow manipulation of any number of arms provided you had the coordination to operate it.
As for people whining about the power requirements for the suit we already know that they have much greater power density and power capable items than we do. Dabblers railgun has its own Supply which would more than meet the needs of the hard light suit and it still fit within the rail gun.
there’s also been interesting studies done where they’ve covered someone’s arm with a blanket and placed a convincing replica of a human hand beside it, and touched both with brushes. the person isn’t allowed to move their hand to give away it being their’s, and something interesting happens… their brain starts getting neural feedback from BOTH hands lying there, sorta like “Phantom Limb” syndrome for a limb you never technically had.
That is due to a visual confirmation issue with the human brain. Blind fold them and they won’t get any feed back save from their real hands.
You see it, thus you expect it, even if consciously you should know better. Your brain is ridiculously easy to fool.
That’s why I suggested “With Dabbler as coach and designer.” They’ve obviously known each other for many decades, if not more than a century. Dabbler’s tech and magic skills combined would indicate a near-certainty that the idea of a Dabbler loadout for Cora had to have been thought of and probably even experimented with.
Now, the results & success of any such experimentation could go in several directions for several different reasons. Cora probably does have a 4-armed loadout, but there may be practical limits to her proficiency with it for technical &/or biological reasons. I suggest that the loadout exists and that there are times when she can use it to some advantage, but that practical daily or combat use might not be an option, else it would likely be her default during most of her waking hours. If I had that option, I’d implement it all day long just so I did use it constantly and naturally after decades of practice.
Hmmm. Other option comes to mind: just because it’s hard light doesn’t mean it’s visible. Similar to how Dabbler always has four arms in play, always, even when her glamor only allows people to see two.
Guessing right now, based on how excited Sydney is in the last panel, Cora changed into Wolverine :D
You do mean, of course, X-23.
Nope, Sydney isn’t interested in marrying Laura :P
What’s Sydney have to do with this conversation? I’m talking about fan service. For me. :P
Up near the top of the comments someone mentioned a female Deadpool. I’m thinking that, or a regular Deadpool, are pretty close to the top of the list even if I don’t think they’ll actually take the top prize.
Unless you meant to reply to someone else, Sydney appears to be the subject of the sentence, at the start of this conversation block; yes.
“based on how excited Sydney is in the last panel”
I can’t help but wonder how many times she has and will hear the line “Hard-light huh? … well its not the only thing that’s Hard.”
So, her hair color is also changeable, apparently.
Who says she even has hair? o_O
The Flashbacks. Those pre-date her having the Hard-Light stuff, which it literally says on this page.
Was talking about now, not then
So there are no drawbacks to making your clothes and body out of hard light?
It doesn’t disappear entirely if the projectors or power supply is damaged, it doesn’t need a constant supply of not-insignificant amounts of power or any of the other classical drawbacks of making things out of hard light?
It likely has insane power usage and disappears if the projectors are damaged… but power supplies aren’t an issue and everything’s probably embedded in Cora’s chest where managing to damage them means vaporizing her anyway.
Now I’m hoping she just changed into an Iron Man suit, complete with the chest-mounted arc reactor.
I’m gonna guess it looks like EDI… Leia… motoko kusanagi … ellen ripley … Borg queen… harely quinn
I’m guessing something very Han Solo like… Maybe Indiana Jones.
Will we see that loadout of Cora’s,so we’ll see why Sydney approves it!?
So, basically Cora’s essentially living in Second Life.
How long does it take her to scan for new forms?
Maybe she now looks like Sydney…
And dabbler became just a little less special.
You take that back!!! >:(
Remember, Dabbler’s glamour powers are a species skill. So every single succubus has them.
Its her tech and other spells that make her special.
I believe Dabblers eyes are …. the wrong color? Correct me if I’m wrong but does it appear the colors got swapped?
You are right. Good catch. Dabbler has always been left eye blue, right eye green.
Ref: Pages 176 | 182 | 576
Just have to check the banner across the top of the page, Dabbles always appears up there :D
My head-canon is that we’re seeing Dabbler in a full-wall mirror, DaveB would never* mix up something so important**!
* okay he’s had to retcon some things, but overall he’s actually got a pretty impressive track record on consistency.
** Seriously how did you even notice this? I was too distracted by amusement at both of their gangly teenager looks and “I’m experimenting” hairdos.
Whoops!
Cora just got confirmed as the bottom of the pair when she’s with Dabbler!
Not really. Cora clearly has a very active recreational life. That particular loadout could have been for anyone at anytime, not necessarily just for Dabbler. And, because you have experimented as a sub at one point doesn’t mean, in the least, that is your one-and-only go-to. Dabbler is focused on tantric energy however she generates it (in herself or others). Cora would seem to be focused on orgasms, and this may have just been a one-off with or without Dabbler.
Dabler isnt looking at the limb in pannel 1
Ummm, yes she is, both her eyes are slightly angled to her left, where Cora’s arm is
I think Sidney just may have an idea to holding more than a pair of balls at one time.
Hmmmm you know, its worth a try if nothing else it will give her a set of arms she can use while 2 orbing
Like Dabbles pointed out when Sydney begged her to chop off a hand and replace it with a cybernetic one: her balls won’t work unless in her naturally sweaty palms
No, they don’t know whether a cybernetic limb would work. Hard light “spare” limbs don’t need arms chopped off to try out.
Frank’s comment wasn’t directed at Sydney being able to handle orbs with hard light limbs … it was directed at her being able to handle two orbs with her natural hands and then having an extra hand or three made from hard light free to do other things. Although, as blackout mentions, once Sydney has a hard light limb to play with, no telling if there is a way to enable it to handle more orbs.
Sydney with MOAR ORBS!!! Just think of the potential catastrophes …
That’s why didn’t reply to Frank, replied to Keith
The bondage mittens make me think the artist/author may know more about BDSM than the usual folks. Back during the Major Battle with Vehemence, the subdued bad guys had their fingers taped. Both of these make a sub feel very helpless.
and then there’s that lamppost eyewash thing in Deus’s office …
This one: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2077 ?
You could do some *extreme* helplessness once you start using removable limbs.
As with everything, both amputee and bondage amputee are fetishes to be found online.
Heck, bondage mermaid monofin is a thing.
Hah, you think?
Google “dynotaku” and be amazed.
I can’t believe nobody here is nerding out over the differences between holograms, hard light and projected nanovoxels. You guys dissapoint me. XD
Anyone who has seen Red Dwarf knows the dfference between a Hologram and Hard Light…
Arnold Rimmer was a Hologram,
Ace Rimmer was a Hard Light Hologram.
With the basics out of the way, it doesn’t take long to ‘get’ projected nanovoxels.
I like how fast Cora just gave up, as have many before her. “That’s not how it w… okay basically yes, that’s close enough I don’t have the energy to explain the nuances long enough to breach your ADD field.”
One is real,
the other is theoretical with dozens of different sci-fi variants, some of which stretch using the term “Hard light” like a nanite swarm network that uses lasers and molecular assemblers to produce color and textures, down to simple magnetic forcefield holding in colored plasma.
and the third I can’t recall hearing before, but sounds like the nanite swarm going by the name.
I’m loving the subtle shift if Dabbler’s face to show that she’s younger. That suggests Cora is also over a century old too.
Going to put my Quatloos on a Cortana look.
Okay. Young Dabbler is freaking adorable
That’s one thing I like about cartoon over live-action.
And Dave does a good job with the younger faces too: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/720
Wow, uh… wow. Haven’t seen anything quite like that sixth panel out of you in some time, Dave.
That’s because they have been locked up in the “Fun-geon” for punishment.
Cora, don’t listen to Sydney. It’s not ordinary. Please keep the highly revealing outfit with the midriff and easily flippable skirt on.
i’m not gonna lie, panel 6 i thought for a second she somehow transformed into a living blowup doll i thought the ball was just the inside of her mouth, my first thought was umm…yea dab definitely knows you.
I looked at the comic hours later on the computer instead of my phone, and realized what it actually was.
4 almost looks starwars-ish
5 has a bit of a Georgia peach vib, and i thought maybe i saw her in a previous page in the comic before this part of the ark.
Panel four is Dabbles without the ears, horns and eyes (oh, and the extra limbs and bewbs)
Can we please get a vote incentive of bondage Cora?
I’d hit that….. vote button!
Panel_1 has me wondering, how old was Dabbler when the horns on the side of her head finally started to sprout? To my eye, part of what makes her look so young there is that only her forehead-horns are showing, although they’re about the same size as in the present. This in-turn implies that she “trims” those horns (perhaps with a grinding tool?), while allowing her side-horns to grow without restraint.
They might have been growing since much younger and she’s just wearing them in a different style back then.
Or she just has a minor glamor up that just hides a few of her more demonic features.
Nice how in panel 4, Cora turns into the alien race that is Dabbler’s non-demon parent. I presume if she was just copying Dabbler, she would have had horns or 4 arms.
Another theory:
Perhaps she’s “forecasting” what her daughter might look like if Cora-&-Dabbler somehow combined their DNA … ?
Wouldn’t that be panel four? o_O
Or, the forehead horns only grow that long, regardless of age
If Cora got Sydney’s code name from Dabbler’s call, AND she is a fan of video games, then she could be taunting Sydney by being a character from HALO. Master Chief for combat or Cortana for ‘recreation’.
Her shapeshifting would, of course, be limited to changing color and adding things, she could subtract or shrink in any dimension, which can be a hard limit as she’s not a small person.
But she could change the length of her limbs which would give a large range in shape-shifting to mimic other people or fool people looking for her.
Dave B
Perhaps I’m missing something, but if her limbs are hard light, like for instance the star trek hollow-deck then if something jammed the system would she have limbs at all? or would there be a basic setup like the party incentive picture?
yes I know that Sydney described just that and Cora said it was nano-tech but it still leaves me to wonder if the “illusion” of the limb is gone what is left. A bar and some distribution nodes?
As others have pointed out it’s still a lot more durable and harder to shut-down than plain biological limbs, it is a single point of failure which can cause problems but you can have redundancies and backups that prevent them from going down short of something that would kill you anyway.
ok yes I get that. thank you.*
I was still just curious what the base frame that generates the field might look like, or how Dave may imagine it to be.
Heck for all we know, it may be that the hard light limbs are being added by dabbler in frame 1 here. That the right arm shown there is the way it looks without being turned on, and the left is the hard light already installed and active.
* (I know i sound like a smart-ass Mike but i appreciate you telling me, text cant bring across vocal inflections and i tend to type like i talk)
Panel 1 distinctly says Cora recently upgrade the whole rig to hard light. So it can’t be Dabbler adding it in that panel.
Yes, and it also mentions Dabbles helping “design and install super high-grade cybernetic limbs.”
To do it properly, you are going to have to build it like a real arm, which means you start with the ‘skeletal structure’, as shown with her right arm, with the left arm already completed
cool thanks to you both