Grrl Power #700 – Too bad he’s not getting miles on that trip
Fracture Station limits what cargo someone can load onto their ship, based on the ship’s home world technology and flight plan, but obviously that doesn’t stop people from flying wherever they like once they take off. The station’s policy is to maintain the technological hierarchical status quo, but ultimately, they don’t really care what you do outside of their borders, and don’t have a way to enforce it anyway.
Someone planning on violating tech hierarchy still needs to be a little clandestine about it, as they’ll report that stuff to the galactic authority, but it’s not exactly impossible to get away with it, especially if you’re doing something small scale. Really, the thing that keeps is from being a problem is pre-FTL civs usually have no way of getting their hands on post-FTL tech anyway, and post-FTL civs have little to gain from selling to the pre-FTL ones. As discussed on a previous page, or at least in the comments, there’s not usually a whole lot the pre’s can offer the post’s. Even without stuff like matter replicators, if your post-FTL civ is still really in to gold and jewels, you can probably mine an asteroid field or a lifeless world and really strip mine the shit out of it without having to worry about cutting the locals in on their share, or ecologically destroying their world.
There are definitely reasons to trade with pre-FTLs though. Like if you want to ingratiate themselves to them so they’ll join your federation and not the Dominion or the Hierarchy or the League of Obviously Exploitative Space Dicks Who Are Really Bad at Branding. Or the species has something unusual to offer, like they’re all psychics or mages or whatever.
You know, in addition to what he actually bought, Deus presumably has those hover trolleys as well. A guy could get rich if he made actual working Back to the Future Hoverboards. And probably get sued a lot as well, no matter how many warnings the company puts on them about wearing helmets and not using them over water.
This is a somewhat inauspicious page 700. It’s not normally a big landmark number but it’s round anyway. Maybe I’ll try and do something exciting for #750.
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Close, but I guess they DIDN’T meet….
I’m at the “are we there yet?” point. I just wanna see The Mighty Halo’s homecoming.
I’m thinking that Deus, in his arrogance, will have some kind of nick-nack or a jar of the spicy flakes on his desk. Max and Sydney has another meeting with him and Sydney either fips out about the nick-nack or asking how he likes his spicy “space flakes”…
So Dave,
How far forward did the first wormhole jump them? It seems to have been only a few days at most.
None, neither did it take them to another dimension or any of the other reader-favourite ‘ideas’
Then what’s your theory for Harem having to many bodies?
My guess is its distance based. she ‘traveled’ really really far from her other bodies and her power pops out more bodies the more distance she’s gone. I assume to act as relays, i bet you money that the amount of bodies she’d need to chain port all the way around the world was her original 9. And that if she lined all of her new bodies up from earth to that other planet she’d have enough to get there if she used max range fo each ‘link’ in the chain.
‘9’? There are only five Daphne’s: Bodie, Gothamer, Berry, Blondini and Abby
Where did you get the ‘original 9’ number from? Just asking because I don’t recall it mentioned anywhere before that she has any more than the mentioned 5 bodies. Nor her having a distance limit beyond ‘need to know where she is going’ either by the destination being within view or having familiarity with it.
Not saying that the ‘her power popped out a few extra (temporary) bodies to prevent her from desynching’ isn’t right, but was it confirmed or hinted anywhere for you to mention such a specific number?
Dave detailed a distance limit in one of his blogs. I can’t remember how he phrased it, but it was strictly Earth-based (and even trans-continental would be an issue). Whilst Harem can teleport a lot further on a return journey, to a familiar spot, her outbound ones to somewhere she can see remotely (say on TV, in a familiar location) is quite restricted.
You may recall in the relevant Dabbler’s Science Corner, that Harem does sometimes have to catch a taxi, if her destination is beyond her teleport range (or otherwise does not meet her criteria, such as having to see it or be very familiar with it).
I can see how the number 9 might have been deduced, although I would not call it ‘the original 9’. If time-travelling to a future point, when Harem is still alive, she would be in contact with 4 extra bodies (if the time-travelling one had not yet returned). Add that to the 4 who remained in the previous time (and presumably still having some link with them) then there would be 9 of them exchanging sensory and other information.
This would not work with the alternate hypothesis of travelling to an alternate Earth, with another full set of Harems, as there would be 5 of her there, 4 at home, plus the traveller herself, for a total of 10. Similarly if travelling to a time when the traveller had already returned (or had not yet left).
The reason she took the taxi, was because she *VORP*ed home (possibly on instinct due to meeting Vance for the first time) and wasn’t familiar enough with ARC-HQ to risk *VORP*ing back
Don’t have one, for a start, she never said she had too many bodies, just that after portalling she was discombobulated and then claimed there were ‘too many’ (too many ‘what’ has yet to be said)
While she didn’t literally say that there were ‘too many bodies’ she said “there were too many of me!” (#651)
That could either mean there being more bodies of her than she is used to, or there being another version of her (future timeline or alternate reality) that she was partly starting to synch up with.
A good thing she isn’t related to Gav of Schlock Mercenary… XD
Okay, forgot she did say ‘me’, butt none of that has yet been explained, including Dabbles
Or it could mean that the wormhole simply was funhouse mirroring herself around. We do know she has:
1) only 5 bodies that get progressively weaker the more of them out in the world there are. (Like you I don’t get the whole 9 bit either.)
2) all copies have their own senses. But share them over 1 consciousness (she says there is only 1 her. Only 1 Daphne (with a quantumly entangled consciousness)).
And
3) her distance is either what she can see or places she can visualize.
This was covered in the Dabbler Science corner. And a comic strip sometime after it that recaps it. So I always saw the “too many mes” bit as the wormhole giving her a new power (not uncommon in comics for a McGuffin to awaken new powers.). Or the wormhole distorting her quantumly entangled consciousness.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1302 (Harems powers for those that keep getting it wrong. So you can recap how it works in Canon.)
Then what’s your theory for Harem having to (sic) many bodies?
My theory doesn’t involve time travel or alternative dimensions. This theory isn’t cannon (at least not yet), but I’ve seen nothing in the comic so far that precludes this theory.
I believe that when Harem’s blonde self was drawn into Sciona’s portal, she instinctively tried to Vorp herself out of danger. This wasn’t a conscious decision on Daphne’s part, but rather an action taken by her multibody, quantum brained version of a reflex arc. Whatever part of her anatomy that allows her to Vorp took immediate and independent action to get her blonde self out of harm’s way. This attempt to Vorp away was successful.
However, since Sciona’s portal had also grabbed hold of her, it completed the transport of her body to the Alari home world. This resulted in a duplication of Harem’s blonde self. Perhaps this was only possible due to the magical nature of the Brane Ripper, or perhaps Daphne was about due for a new self and this event just pushed her over the threshold. Looking at Daphne’s chart on Page 491 it seems like she was about due to pop out a new instance of herself.
So the Harem that arrived on the Alari home world was actually a brand new sixth instance of Harem. This of course played absolute havoc with Daphne’s sense of proprioception. As we haven’t seen Harem go through a new instance creation before, this period of discombobulation could very well be her normal response when it happens. Daphne would need time to adjust to the extra “her”. Her seemingly sudden recovery upon return to Earth could simply have been because once the new instance was within her normal Vorping range to the rest of her selves she could just dematerialize it for the time being.
While all of this is pure speculation on my part, I’ve yet to see anything within the comic that negates this theory. I am hoping that something like this is what happened as this would give all the ladies of ArcSwat an excuse for a mega shopping trip to help Daphne customize her new instance. I’m thinking Supers mixing with the Muggles at the local shopping mall. At the very least Arianna would be salivating all over herself thinking about the marketing possibilities of a bespoke Harem.
That’s a good theory, except… while we may have no experience of what happens when Daphne ‘pods’, she has experienced it four times so should be familiar with the sensation
I’ve been drunk at least four times, and it still leaves me disoriented and uncoordinated. Not everything gets easier with repetition.
Butt you still know the reason and the cause
So Daphne, not knowing the reason and cause, should be less disoriented?
No, she would know why she was disorientated, which is why your theory has a flaw in it
There are some minor issues I have with your theory though.
First of all if it was an instinctual vorp that resulted in a new body I think the new duplicate blond body left behind on Earth would be counted as the new one, not the one that was taken to the other planet. (Her power could be described as the ability to materialize in a different spot and then choose to keep, destroy, or stash away the previous body (up to certain limits). She does not actually travel between the two vorp points.)
Second, her acquiring a new body does not explain why Dabbler would think getting Sydney back would now be easier.
Dabbles’ thoughts on the ease of getting Sydney back may have had nothing to do with Daphne, or, at least, not directly
I’m not sure if it would matter which body was the original Blondie and which was the duplicate. I just assumed that the original Blondie would be the one that Vorped out in the normal manner, and the duplicate would be created by the Brane Ripper’s magic.
When Harem says that “there were too many of me!”, she may not have been speaking of too many Harems in general, but specifically too many Blondies. From Daphne’s perspective one fifth of her person is suddenly in two places at once. She is receiving sensory input from two Blondie bodies, one of which is where her sense of proprioception says it should be, and one which is an almost inconceivable distance away. This would explain why she felt scattered and couldn’t get her bearings. It would also explain why she felt like there was an echo or something.
Prior to Daphne informing Dabbler that there were too many of her, Dabbler was uncertain as to where and when Scionna’s portal had actually taken them. She believed, as many have, that the portal possibly shifted them in time or to another dimension. Since Dabbler knows more about how Harem’s powers work than pretty much anybody else, too many Blondies was the final piece of the puzzle that eliminated time and dimensional travel as possibilities. Now that Dabbler knew that Sydney was contemporaneous and on the Alari home world that exists in our universe, she knew that it would be possible to send Cora out to fetch Sydney.
That sounds plausible
All those effects could also be explained by them being send into the near future and her mind trying to sync up to the already existing version of her there.
Time travel would also explain how the Alari Empire went from ‘nothing wrong’ to ‘nearly wiped out’ between Sciona’s last communications a few days earlier to the moment they arrived, since the actual time between is larger than expected. (Though the invaders might really have been strong enough to do all this in just a few days.)
At this point I think it is best to just agree to disagree and see how it will play out in the actual pages.
I knew I had another example in mind for time travel.
The Brane Ripper wasn’t on Deus’ original shopping list yet suddenly he has an entire Stargate set-up for it just waiting for the ripper to be slotted in to it. It would take time to create and research all that, and it would not be a big retcon to reveal that the Vale and Deus pages actually happened in the same timeline as where Sydney is in.
Who wants to try guessing what DaveB will do for page #750?
My guess is that’ll he’ll defy the censors and show uncensored nudity *lol*
It’s his own comic on his own web site. What censors?
The ones put up by advetisers
Typically the add revenue on webcomics is barely enough to cover the cost of hosting its website. Whilst Dave’s is very popular it still will not earn enough to significantly impact his decision making. His main revenue stream is the generosity of the patrons. Which, ironically, would probably increase with a bit of nudity!
Rather it is Dave’s preference to keep the comic (relatively) family friendly and in keeping with his self-declared rating level. Which does affect the readership numbers as much of the traffic comes via websites such as Top Webcomics, which do prominently display the age rating. And reader numbers do affect his revenue as the more readers there are the higher the number of potential patrons within their number.
So even my statement above may not be accurate. Patrons tend to be community minded individuals, so if too many are lost due to the comic deviating from its stated base then Patreon revenue might indeed drop.
I’m okay with that.
Dave reveals the last power orb. Duh.
So, NOW everyone speculate on what it does. My money is still on it’s kind of a hammer space storage area, and there’s *something in there” that wants OUT.
That seems to make some kind of sense. Quite a while back, as Max & Sydney discussed how much her orbs functioned like a “spaceship” for her, they ran down a list of how that theroy fits its known functions. They mentioned shields, weapons,sensors, atmosphere/life-support, remote object handling, flight (even at high speeds & conjectured that a higher level unlock would allow FTL travel, which it did)…But one function that seemed to be missing from that list was Cargo Space.
Another function missing is information, such as maps, charts, system status, and performance logs. It would seem to fit with the “SenseOrb”, but could be part of the still unknown one.
Personally, I’d also expect there to be a translation system and an owner’s/operator’s manual, with or without training guide. Heck, have an AI teacher in there and Sydney might end up with her own immaterial (and snarky?) personal assistant to keep her on track.
Of course there’s also maintenance/repair or medical functions still to be found. (Medical would seem to belong with the green “EnvirOrb”. I don’t know offhand where a self-repair system would fit in to a known orb.)
But yeah, storage would be an appropriate function. Which orb would you associate it with?
The last door could be the equivalent of the ships computer maybe it’s an AIA that hasn’t seen any reason to pipe in, since she seems to be doing all right so far.
Those space miles are overrated. If you read the fine print, it clearly states you can only fly outside of blackout years. In the cargo hold.
Of a garbage scow.
Have a nice flight!
Blackout years only occur every prime number century.
You have that backwards. Blackout years are years that are not prime numbers.
Luckily they pay for the cost of suspended animation or a hibernation pod, whatever you species uses.
Rare always sells. Pre-FTL civs have that to offer. Artifacts, artwork, that sort of thing. Or there may be something incredibly rare that is common on a pre FTL world. Like Melmacians and lint…
What if a post ftl civilization sold a pre or a not quite one
it’s own stuff back?
“I see you invented television before the ability to record it.
It’s a shame these performances were lost.”
(Shows samples. )
(Oth tbh the 90% crap rule would apply. Proably.)
You mean another civilization might have copies of every Dr. Who episode? That might be worth some money, considering most of the early ones had been copied over.
Then, of course, there are the ‘reaction to’ videos, of aliens watching the (at the time) latest Dr Who episode.
“They think we cannot climb stairs? EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!”
The Crap Rule may not be as rare as one mught guess, even in the real world. Take note that England had made widespread use of canned foods for about 50 years before someone invented a can opener. As the Crap Rule applies, why did it take that long for someone to invent the obvious tool neccessary? You ever try to open a can of peas with a cricket bat?
So why have they not invented a paw-operated can opener yet then eh?
*performs Yorp hard stare*
To prevent cats from rising up against us, obviously.
…Not worried about dogs, though. Dogs will stay loyal even when they can open their own cans.
Cans 2.0 ? Well in some ways it then requires an exteral tool to open cans, but is simpler to automate and safer. I remember those slot key winding things – might be a bit more controlled but those edges were sharp.
do they still use that on ammo cans nowdays?
Interesting idea, although the Earth gap from broadcasting to reliable, ubiquitous backup and storage is only a few decades. A fleeting gap of very temporary value, mostly to those who lived through the ‘lost’ period.
However some real value would come from recordings of the centuries (millennia?) of an emerging species prior to their own inventions of viable recording and playback – whether video, audio, 3D immersive holo, whatever. How much would mankind as a whole pay to recover detailed recordings of the daily lives – and rise and fall – of all our ancient cultures? Egypt, China, most of Africa, the Neanderthals, the Vikings, etc – all cultures we’ve put massive time and money into understanding, and still mostly lost to time save for a few artifacts and carefully preserved writings of the very rich/important.
In the case of comic book realities genetic samples from superhumans ought to be worth a fair bit.
I think you could get some rather inexpensive slaves. Imagine how many slaves an evil bronze age king would trade for an AK-47 (or space equivalent) and crate of ammo, especially if you play up the religious angle of being from the heavens. Tech level has little bearing on slave quality, but heavily influences the price. A trinket to an advanced civilization is potentially a holy relic to a more primitive one. Or perhaps a war winning superweapin.
Say you have some old style nuclear pulse cannons, unpopular even when new due to their tendency to explode and poor radiation shielding (problems that have only worsened with age). At this point no one wants to buy them and storing them or legally disposing of them is costly. However, there are these Nazis in a primitive planet slowly losing some big war and they have a bunch of undesired humans. Sure the weapons have a few problems, but they’re man-portable and can punch through the primitive armored vehicles and aircraft used in the conflict.
That is horrific.
Do you actually think that’s a good idea?
That’s unregulated capitalisim for you.
Even Wealth of Nations, where capitalisim was first published, assumed baseline regulation.
Why would you sell to the poor loosers rather than the rich winners?
(1) Nazis weren’t poor… they had the stolen wealth of many nations.
(2) You sell to them BEFORE they are defeated, ideally when they are desperate enough to buy high and/or when they have peak large quantities of goods you desire such that you maximize your gains via arbitrage.
In fact, capitalism is more of an observation of markets than a persciptive philosophy. Break away from your marxist worldview man. Not everything exists because it was dictated into existence.
Bronze Age unless they are Chinese would not understand much about an AK47. Now in an episode of Star Trek the uplift by the Klingons were done a step at a time so that they could have a better understanding of weapons with graduated improvements. (And some synthetic help too.) The ep. is called “A Private Little War”.
Sydney didn’t notice Deus and Vale, but I would assume her choker recorded them.
How would her choker record them if Sydney didn’t see them? o_O
I can easily think of a few.
First, Doctor Phogg used “notice” rather than “see”. It’s a fairly simple matter to have something pass through your field of vision, but not be processed by your conscious mind (this is especially true of things your subconscious deems both “not a threat” and “less interesting than what the consciousness is currently doing”). A simple recorder, meanwhile, is just arbitrarily saving everything while it’s running.
Second: Different directions: A choker is on your neck. It’s inherently less mobile (relative to the rest of your body) than your head is. It’s often going to be facing a slightly different direction than your eyes.
Third: Wider angle of vision: Given the 2nd, it’s reasonable to put multiple pickups on a choker if you want to record as much as possible. If you have four cameras on it, each picking up a different (and possibly slightly overlapping) 90+ degree arc, it’s looking at almost everything (it still can’t see what your head and body block, though). Meanwhile, your eyes only pick up a (roughly, for most folks) 170 degree field of vision between them.
All of these.
Why put only one pickup on the troops battle recorders?
These chokers are made so that Arc Light can go over every detail of what happened in the after action analysis of Ark operations.
If you search for the Gorilla Experiment, you’ll find a good example that something very obvious may be in our field of vision without seeing it. I didn’t see the Gorilla when they did the experiment in class, just like loads of the other students.
Are you supposed to be warned beforehand about the gorilla? The site I found did warn me, and I did see it, and even got the right amount of passes. Of course that doesn’t invalidate the experiment, and may have something to do with me playing load of hidden object games lately. Gorilla is weak sauce compared to some of the stuff HOGs pull…
Without looking up the specific experiment, though from context recalling similar experiments, I think not. The versions I saw at least ask you to focus on something else (a ball being passed around for example) while something completely absurd but unmentioned walks around completely unnoticed.
There’s a second video in the series for people who already know about the gorilla. It actually reinforces the point pretty well – getting focused on one area, even knowing it’s subtle or that there are other ongoing subtleties, makes you miss the otherwise obvious.
Man, how did I miss an elephant in the room?
Because you focused too much on the chipmunk eating his nuts
You don’t get warned in forehand. If you get warned that something strange/unexpected will happen (even if not about what specifically), then you know there is something to be noticed.
Yeah, there is an ad on TV down here asking if viewers can tell if someone is having a heartattack, and showing several people overly dramatically faking (badly) having one, at the end they ask if anyone spotted the guy in the background having a real heart attack
Pre-FLT civilizations could sell their entertainment. People are always looking for a good show or something to make them laugh
And if Internet memes are anything go by, they don’t have to be very nuanced or intelligent
E
by gum!
Hell, we could sell an interested party the streaming rights to a neighboring friendly star system. The royalties alone would probably give us enough Applied Phlebotinum to turn Mars green in a decade.
After that, we introduce the galaxy to anime. Artoria Pendragon, Gilgamesh, and Alexander the Great will take their battle to the stars.
Or, for a fraction of the cost, we could turn Earth red!
Whats with val? Why the sad face?
Tired after putting in extra time around SmugD
My guess?
She’s an elite bodyguard, one of the tippy-top combat folks in the solar system, but today? She’s a baggage handler.
My guess she is down because he did not get her holographic fairy wings.
Was going to ask that myself.
Told ya he was going to pull this shit *cue the SmugD defenders with a cloth to polish the steaming turd*
Very low quality bait.
*nods*
Very low quality turd
Hey! Mythbusters proved that you can get that turd VERY highly polished… just sayin’…
Didn’t say it wasn’t possible (saw that episode as well)
Rare or unknowns foodstufs could also sell. Like chocolat. Or drugs that are hard to get in more regulated vocalizations. Trading weed for death rays. Sounds like something humans would do.
Good point. Although unless there is a genetic link between aliens and humans (which is possible, given a number are similar in appearance), then most Earth foodstuffs will almost certainly not have the same effects or taste for beings from a completely different ecosystem.
Even within our own there is a huge difference from species to species. Cats, for example, cannot distinguish sweetness. So whilst chocolate is poisonous to them they are much less likely to be tempted to eat a lot of it (unlike dogs, who will be inclined to eat a fatal dose if available).
And, of course, that is the other issue. Alien foodstuffs are more likely to be poisonous (or at best inert) than nutritious or tasty. Unless convergent evolution of whole ecosystems is a thing.
Humans can metabolise onions and garlic, a food that is toxic to cats and dogs, and repellent to rabbits, deer, and most insects. The horrible bit is onions and garlic radiate a fragrance that ATTRACTS cats and dogs, so while they may not dig up an onion, they will chew on the shoot’s leaves if they can… and the results can be horrible to both cat/dog and the owner.
Note that your point cuts both ways. An alien biochemistry may well be entirely unaffected by Humans’ favourite drugs – but equally, it may go absolutely loopy over something that Humans find quite bland or even don’t consider as a consumable at all. In an infinite universe, where anything you can imagine probably exists somewhere, there is an alien that would kill for your toenail clippings.
Honestly, I’m more curious as to what Vale was picking up. We can guess a lot to what Deus was after, but I wouldn’t have pegged Vale as the kid in the candy store with a shopping spree type. I mean… look at her wardrobe so far as well as her mannerisms. Not a lot in the way of dress up and go out to play material there.
A new plumbus, of course.
I kind of got the impression that, despite their smaller size, those packages also contain stuff for Big D. That’s why Vale looks so bored- because unless a brawl-at-the-space-mall breaks out, she is grossly overqualified and this is a waste of her talents.
Well having a captive wormhole dose have its uses I guess. Bypassing customs has to be one of the crappiest things to use it for.
And it does look like he’s going to try to manufacture FTL tech on Earth, or maybe the Moon. Given the unknowns about the environmental effects of the manufacturing processes, the Moon might be too close.
in all logical even if he has his hand on the tech it should be almost impossible for Deus to reproduce it in any meaningful way. it would be like giving some one form the middle ages a cellphone and expecting the to be able to make a new one.
we that whole true for Mr. villain sue here we’ll see
Note that post-FTL tech doesn’t mean it’s outside the manufacturing capability of a pre-FTL civilization–especially if it comes with bootstrap instructions. Could be something we’re already (in theory) close to like “this is how cold fusion works” that’s still an enormous advantage for him to possess. Could just be a truckload o’ space weed and they aren’t allowed to give that to pre-FTL.
You would have to be very careful that the complexity of technology you were introducing was reproducable, as I’m pretty sure that analogue mobile phones could be understood by 1930’s scientists and they’d be able to work out which bit did what (eg: that silver cylinder is a mic, this black box is the RF modulator) but being able to predictably remake even simple semiconductors requires pretty good materials sciences and materials purity which might not be possible in the given era.
Something like firearms is a bit different, because it’s mainly a mechanical problem and apart from heat-treatments it’s mainly “get the shapes right and it works”. It is *possible* to run semi-autos off black powder (eg: an AR-15 rifle), just not for a huge number of rounds between cleaning (maybe one mag-dump and that’s it).
I keep thinking of Doc Brown and the circuit he did with ‘old’ tech to replace a tiny computer chip.
What happens when it breaks down?
The note he left Marty said that some of the components won’t be obtainable til 1947 which was why he couldn’t repair his Delorean in 1885.
Yeah, and I’m pretty sure Deus has thought of that. The stuff he’s bought won’t be the absolute best tech available in the galaxy – it will merely be the next step up from what he already has. Advanced, but not beyond the ability of his labs to replicate.
Well he already has FTL tech, in the wormhole, so that seems a bit redundant. Albeit useful as a backup, given that he is reliant on a single artefact to do that.
However he seems to be the sort to prioritise profit. Selling FTL tech on Earth would eliminate his (human) monopoly on importing or copying off-world technology. Even using it, within his organisation, creates the risk that industrial espionage, defecting employees or the actions of national governments might gain access to the technology, with the same result.
Rather he probably just wants to keep ahead of the R&D curve of his competitors and release beyond the cutting edge technology to the market.
Advanced enough that nobody else on earth can compete with him effectively, but not quite so advanced that it screams ‘alien technology’ to either Earth-based authorities or alien observers.
Or he may just be acquiring the technology to build an invincible army and take over Earth …
He does not seem to roll that way, but there was that one country, as a precedent, I guess?
Of course, if he did plan on going down that route then he would have to deal with all those pesky super heroes. Which would require infiltrating their organisations, in order to be able to optimise countering their unique abilities. Hang on …
D seems to have the long term view of looting a country or planet, skim a little off the top over years and leave enough to keep the economic engine churning along, instead of getting a small pile and then taking all of that which shuts everything down. Basically it’s the model by which government is supposed to work, establish a strong economy, then take enough to do things that need to be done to keep the economy working but not so much as to shut the economy down. Make rules that keep a few people from getting all the profits and shutting the economy down.
Hmm, reading this, I can’t help but think Deus’s goal is (semi-) benevolent king of the world.
Really hoping that that box Valeur kicked was SmugD’s gift to himself: a mug with his mug on it that says “Galaxy’s Smuggest Arsehole” (and he wouldn’t see that as a bad thing)
I just notuy that Deus uses the same knot on his necktie (a Trinity knot) as I do.
Nothing much else to add here, except perhaps I should become a supervillain.
I
think I’d be good at it.
Play Evil Genius or the Original Dungeon Keeper :p
I’d play the heck out of a combination of those two games. air jet traps pushing intruders into a lightning trap. Good times.
I really would have liked to see version 3 of dungeon keeper. I even thought of some new mechanics for it.
I am sure it helped my dad regain most of his fine motor control after he had a stroke
Well they did make a mobile app version, but it’s kinda lame. After a week or so, your raids keep being against players who have clearly been at it for years and optimized their dungeons to be completely unraidable.
I had that sorta with a facebook sea battle game. it’s when they continually nerfed the game mechanics to favor the whale I retired from it. the only way to play was to pay. I had some cool ‘perfect’ ship fleet builds that I found and used, but after then n-th nerf I was like ‘I’m outta here’
I consider a day to be pretty much wasted if I learn nothing new. Today I discovered the unique beauty of the Trinity Knot. Practicing now.
Im a bit confused, did Deus go through customs or did he actually get around their security with the help of his wormhole?
He totally got around their customs restrictions.
It’d be hilarious if they both got busted for bypassing customs.
“So, you two are from the same Pre-FTL world, and you want us to believe that you both happened to independently break onto our station at the same time. Do you have any idea how unlikely that story is?”
:-)
Dues, shows he can do it, without getting caught. If Sydney wants to leave, could they even stop her from doing so.?
I dont think Deus would want to stop her. He seems like the type of guy who would help her out while being cryptic about all of the tech he was haling.
Oh you meant customs, didnt you? Cora seems to have her ways to get around customs as well. So, Sydney is probably fine.
Cora can always arrest Sidney, say she’s hauling her off to space prison & deliver her to Dabbler. Deus is quite capable of taking care of himself.
No way they would both be busted. DaveB has made Deus the most lucky guy in the universe. He can literally get away with everything just because he was lucky enough.
It’s been suggested before that Deus is a super himself. Perhaps his power is being extremely lucky? Imagine how well a real-life Teela Brown or Gladstone Gander would be doing if they seriously tried to build a business. The mind boggles.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Deus was the Vandal Savage of this universe. Lives forever, and just has a wealth of knowledge.
I think his real power is giant piles of cash, and not being a total douche to his employees (although he still annoys all of them).
His fracture shopping expedition is probably his greatest feat of luck, but mostly it’s because he didn’t have bad luck, rather than he did have good luck.
Need any spare lampshades? I could sell you some.
Did you honestly expect, the slug-sniffer who stole contraband WMD and lied to the authority’s golden face would go through any form of customs? o_O
So, now he has been to the marked and bought himself a “fat pig”. jiggety jig. And the seller commented on the level of tech bough. That’s going to be one hell of a pig.
Ahem! Rather obviously, Earth, in the form of Deus, has achieved FTL technology. That he’s exploiting it for personal gain is only to be expected. That he’s keeping it secret is less expected, but still, FTL is FTL.
He ‘acquired’ Advanced Alien Tech, not FTL tech
He’s got a functional portal that he made with earth tech. He traversed some number (quite a few, most likely) light-years in a very short period of time via that portal. That’s FTL, although not using a space ship.
Umm, no, that is using a portal
That is the equivalent of saying, someone driving a Porsche can run faster than a Bolt
As long as that porsche is getting him to a given destination faster than the bolt, then yes, he is traveling FTB, aka Faster Than Bolt. The method does not really matter.
While that’s a valid point, Deus is using an alien artifact to do this and it’s entirely possible that he can’t get the portals anywhere he wants. If that’s the case, you can’t really say you have “advanced FTL tech” when what you really have is a free ticket on the local mass transit system. Sure you’re going FTL, but it’s like saying you’re a rancher because you got an old cow from a petting zoo.
Except for the part that needed the brane ripper, which was decidedly not Earth tech.
It might be, actually. Just because the council had it on lockdown does not mean it came from off earth. Unless you are making an arbitrary distinction between magic and tech here…
Quite. It’s a controlled artifact because it’s dangerous, but we have nothing to suggest it isn’t local. So that would be perfectly local FTL technology. Portals are just as much FTL as Warpdrives
There is always some low value trinkets a pre could sell to a post, but You would likely need to sell a lot of them to get the high value post goods. Still, a post smart phone would likely be pretty valuable.
Actually, given nano assemblers and 3D printing technology, the most valuable items would be those “uniques” that had never been duplicated.
Everything else would be worth “material cost + assembly cost + profit”. Which all boils down to most things being incredibly cheap from our viewpoint.
So a hand made macrame sweater would likely be worth more than a post smart phone.
except you would more likely be trading for glass beads not a smart phone and you would be unlikely to sell enough to get a smart phone before overwhelming the market for human curiosities so volume is pointless. You are better off with unique high end foodstuffs rather then trinkets because anything made will be competing directly with the civilizations own goods and any other primitives they are in contact with. Things like chocolate or spices even if they have something similar will at least have a market price in whatever their actual currency is.
If you want to go with trinkets you need to get everyone on earth to agree to make a big show of not selling to the aliens. Make up something about it being against our religion or something, that way we could get a good price for a few items “smuggled” off planet.
The ‘market for human curiosities’ in this case appears to be the whole galaxy. It might take a while before it was overwhemd with them.
Conspicuous stargate? Or is the station so big and cluttered that a stargate doesn’t stand out? Or maybe it was really well hidden?
The “stargate” only exists on the Earth end.
On the far end it’s a raw portal entrance.
There is only one “stargate” on the Earth side.
The other end is a “raw” portal.
Attempt 3 at posting this…
There is only one “stargate” – on the Earth end.
The portal on Fracture Station is a raw projection with no generator or tether.
And probably almost closed when it’s not in use, so it wouldn’t stand out too much. (And apparently The Fracture isn’t monitoring for illegal wormholes and the like.)
Looks like Deus and Vale missed meeting up with Sydney and Cora….
Upon returning to earth,Deus suddenly realized that noise was made by Sydney!!!
I can’t imagine a scenario in which Deus would be within earshot
AND Sydney experiences a “Wheee!”able moment.
When it happens though, he’ll make the connection.
What are the chances of him getting home only to find he left his keys on bugmans counter top.
Did Vale just have a horrible transporter accident in the bottom left panel?! Because only her legs are showing!
Nevermind on closer inspiration I can see a few hairs sticking out behind the pile of boxes still could be drawn better to not look just like a pair of legs cut off at the waist.
For some reason I always imagine Deus to sound like Krunk from emperor’s new groove.
Funny, I do too. I’m sure there’s been a “voice the Grrl Power characters” thread before, any takers on starting another? Personally I’d vote for Mary Elizabeth McGlynn for Maxima, Jennifer Hale for Dabbler, and Michelle Ruff for Sydney. Anyone else? No? *crickets*
Got to hand it to Deus smuggling made easy. I also shows that he has a minor respect for the person who after selling him the merchandise waited until the transaction was complete before mentioning the technological restrictions that may be imposed. It’s sort of like saying sure I can sell you this and I’ll be legal for me to sell it to you but I’ll be illegal for you to take it home and that’s your problem not mine.
Then what’s your theory for Harem having to many bodies?
Love the Blade Runner reference!
There’s a story from a hundred years ago or so about a construction worker
who would take a wheelbarrow of sand after work each day.
It’s just sand, the company didn’t mind.
They DID check the sand to make sure he wasn’t stealing tools.
After a few days they did notice that he WAS stealing wheelbarrows.
Those hover pallets were probably rentals.
The sales guy will have to pay for them when they aren’t returned.
He probably did ok on the transaction with Deus, but paying for
the stolen pallets is like a reverse tip.
That’s an Urban Legend. They didn’t ‘notice’ the thefts, he told them at his retirement, long after it was too late for them to do anything
Another version was the guy stealing briefcases: always leaving with a new, empty, briefcase
And another version has him smuggling wheelbarrows — or mules, or horses in the guise of pack ponies — across a border.
The version I first encountered was bicycles across the border, and he was carrying a backpack full of unregulated peat moss.
Are those monoliths?
I want to know why Vale looks sad. Well … glum, but that’s close enough.
Spent another day with SmugD? Would make any normal individual ‘glum’ :P
DaveB: “Forget customs. Maintaining your own private wormhole is worth it to skip the TSA.”
But Deus & Vale won’t collect any “Frequent Light Years Pionts” either because they don’t fly through space, they’re skipping past it. Then again, I just couldn’t see Vale as being the type to voluntarily standing for getting her “female-humanoid outer containment shell” sexually molested either.
Another thing that keeps Post FTL tech from being acquired by pre-FTL society is that high-tech gadgets require high-tech tools and infrastructure to make, and often to use and maintain.
Aborigines in Australia get ahold of a laptop, and they’re not going to be able to do much with it. In fact, it will be a miracle if they can get it to last a week. They won’t be able to connect to the internet, plug the battery charger in anywhere, or even understand whatever software is on it.
If they try to use it in any way they understand, like a club, plate, or whatever, and they’ll likely smash it to bits.
Now think about them finding an abandoned car or airplane. They might be able to make some use out of the vehicle fuel, and engine grease, but they’d have no way to replicate it.
You… do realise how rude and condescending you are sounding, don’t you? The Aborigines are not as primitive as you seem to think, a far many of them even speak and write English (well, Aussie, which is a kind of English :P )
Uhl is talking pre-colonisation aborigines, obviously. Should have just gone with an old civ that doesn’t exist anymore; substitute “2nd century Roman soldier” if you like.
Australian aborigine dealing with the modern world (well, sorta modern):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqa0X431fKE
…You do realize that’s a clip from an old movie and not real, right?
… You do realise that was a real Aborigine appearing in a movie, right?
Is it just me, or did Vale suddenly clear six feet? Her legs are pretty long in these shots.
No, she only has two feet. One at the end of each leg. (rim-shot)
But I agree with the observation. Dave’s body to leg ratio for females has been getting increasingly skewed in this comic lately.
If you look closerer, you will see her groin partially covered by the bag in her right hand, and it makes it look like the left leg is longer than it is
Okay, looked closerer as well, and Valeur has always had longer legs than her torso
There are other reasons they make you go through customs inspections.
I hope one of those boxes has a stow-away tribble in it and it finds Deus’ kitchen.
I’m surprised no one has guessed that maybe Vale is sad because her shopping trip is over? She seemed to be having a great time at the beginning.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/3009
Yup.
It is almost like she has returned to a prison, after a day trip away.
It could be Deus didn’t buy her anything, or… she didn’t come across another of her kind. We also don’t really know what it is that binds her to Deus’s service.
She likes to watch.
Two things.
1. Besides the “because it’s cool” thing, why do aliens have accents when everyone has translators.
2. Why hasn’t station security picked up on an unregistered wormhole that showed up in a back alley? It’s not just a “station only plays lip service to galactic law” it’s a serious lapse in security, what if Deus was planning on invading the place. Since most of the tech we’ve seen has been able to pick up on Sydney’s warps, I assume there should be no trouble picking up on something that I assume, from a galactic perspective, is made out of bamboo.
Not that any of these questions should interfere with a fun story.
1. Because the audio samples they have for the language in question was taken from a source with said accent in it? Or because the native language has some sort of odd accenting to it that makes the translation come out with an accent similar to an Earth one?
2. Because it isn’t a TECHNOLOGICALLY produced tear in Space/Time, but a magical one, it just might not be composed of a type of energy that the detectors on the station are tuned to detect. (Just my off-the-cuff theory, anyway)
Agreed.
Knowing that there is an accent, and its nature, is a useful bit of information that advanced translation technology may well choose to convey. If you can tell that someone is likely from a rural community, or a pretentious one, or is styling themselves as gay, or comes from a really rough area, can make a big difference to social interactions.
Hmm… Yes, I’m still overthinking this, but… I can see your scenario being abused by the company who makes the translators using such a service to turn anyone they don’t like into stereotypes.
I’m reminded of a Tanya Huff novel, where the main character’s translator has a small error- doesnt really mistranslate, just stretches any translated words’ “S” sounds from a certian alien language. The alien language being that of an anthro lizardman type alien.
“Sssso. Sssuccessss?”
I have mulled over the issue of why the station’s security was not able to notice Sidney’s Gate, but they probably did not – and these reasons would kind of apply to Deus’ gate as well.
1.) Timing is everything:
Cora’s crew could only track her because they had scanned a complete planet with an “one time use” set of probes at the right moment (one time use is not really confirmed, but I think it would be cheaper/smarter to leave them at that planet for surveillance, at least as long as the planet wreckers are doing their thing).
2.) The station is not advanced enough to track Sidney’s gate:
While the station itself seems to be quite well advanced, it had to be saved by Cora (twice!) – which sets Cora a little higher on the tech foodchain.
If Cora could only scan the gate while it was active, the station might not be able to get it at all.
Same goes for Deus’ portal: it was created by a pretty powerful magical artifact… so it should be quite advanced, too.
3.) Size and location of the portal.
While the station probably has a tower to track all the incoming / outgoing traffic like on an airport, they would probably not notice the signature of of an high tech gate with the size to fit just a human being – they are looking for ship sized portals out there, after all – and flying and single person space walking seems to not be a common thing.
Deus however seems to have rent some sort of warehouse to warp into… probably a place he acquired just for reasons like this. Which makes it likely that he had a realtor who could hook him up with a place in a security blind spot. And again the portal is also quite small – you could obviously move parts and people, but It would not allow for a ship – so faster then light stuff is out of the question…. and really would not have to think about faster then light… if you have instant translocation.
4.) Foodchain.
If you don’t detect it their portal with your scanners and you are lucky to just… see them use it… It might be better to just ignore what they are doing (unless it might harm you), as they could wipe the floor with you.
Regarding your first question:
Could be just to add flavor to the translations or just because of missing lectors in the open source translator library for “ten eyed, bearded horn-skull” ‘s people…
ever try and see a wooden sail boat with a modern radar? if the boat doesn’t have some reflective metal in it, radar wont see it.
if the magic porthole is the equivalent to made from sticks and twigs it probably doesn’t register as a threat.
as for accents my guess would be that in a multi species galaxy you just might a want a little variety rather than every person using a translator sounding like Walter Cronkite. this would probably work for diplomats but for people in general accents work in the general sound scape.
Vale seems down. Maybe she is just tired, but with her super strength that seems unlikely. Why no shopping buzz?
We have a gap in her backstory that makes it hard to interpret what she is feeling.
Maybe she’s thinking, “Aw, do we have to leave this cool place already?”
My first thought when I saw her face was, “she seems conflicted,” as if Deus’s shady dealings might be getting to her conscience. But that seems out-of-character, so on second look I reinterpreted her face as just bored out of her mind. Either interpretation could lead her to leave Deus… We don’t know why she hangs around with him anyway. The only time she has really seemed engaged in anything is when Sciona was getting testy with Deus. All other times she has seemed rather detached.
Gap? The only thing we know conclusively about her backstory is that she was already with Deus 10 years ago.
*holds claws a hairs-breadth apart*
Yup, a teeny gap.
Hah, Deus’s comment is more appropriate than most will realize. It’s from an old nursery rhyme, “To market, to market”.
“To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.”
Much more of course, but that’s the jist and very appropriate for this little arc. .
One thing a low-tech civ would have that a higher-tech civ might want would be art. Even in a world of matter replicators, people would still want an original Picasso, because an original Picasso has a uniqueness value. A really good forgery, once detected, is not half, or even a quarter as valuable, except to someone who collects forgeries specifically, in which case the forgery has uniqueness value in its own right. Also, a lower-tech world might have novel solutions other cultures had not thought of. With all sorts of different kinds of minds and environments, it seems possible to me.
Moreover, they might be perceived to have novel solutions. Think of the ‘Ancient Chinese Medicine’ shtick many westerners buy into, for example.
“… because an original Picasso has a uniqueness value.”
Only to cultures who have bought into that concept. Others may consider that a perfect copy is exactly the same. Because it is, other than in the minds of the people who want the prestige of claiming to own something unique.
As long as they have a concept for art as we know it, yes.
The two are not synonymous. The diamond industry has created a ‘natural is best’ culture, so that we are willing to pay a huge premium for ‘real’ diamonds. Despite being able to create artificial ones which are just as good. That is not art, it is a cultural phenomenon where we apply an arbitary standard.
Arbitary simply because people cannot distinguish one from another, without laboratory tests and the opinions of experts. Both will still scratch glass, look pretty and be equally useful in industrial applications.
In fact, for the latter, the consistency of artificial gems is probably more desirable!
Likewise with a collection of paintings. The owner will enjoy all of them, in their own right, as works of art (otherwise why would they remain in their collection). Likewise any visitors will be able to admire them as such. Perhaps not enjoying them as much, if they are not to their taste, or maybe getting more out of them, for those which particularly appeal.
But if they are all so good that there is no way to tell that each is an original or a copy, then the only way that there is any additional enjoyment is if the owner knows them to be an original, and boasts of that to their visitors. This is not the same thing as it being a good piece of art or not!
Its quality does not change by that statement. It does not suddenly look better.
It may make the visitors envious mind, if the perceived value goes up. But that would only happen in cultures where a premium is placed on the concept of something being ‘an original’. Any culture which thought that was stupid would not pay more!
Diamond industry is an interesting one and Yorp is spot on with the price fixing between artificial and natural gems. A flawless artificial diamond will sell for as little as a quarter or less than the price of a natural stone with the same cut and clarity. Add to the fact that Russia and DeBeers have huge stockpiles of natural diamonds and basically control the market between them. It’s been touched on before in this forum as to what would be of value for trade between interstellar cultures. I think I recall a SciFi story where cow flops commanded a high price to a certain alien race.
A collection of forgeries from a notorious forger might be interesting. As long as you could prove they were genuine forgeries, of course.
In many cases, the forger is just as good of a painter as the original artist, in some cases, even more so because they can ‘imitate’ almost flawlessly (including incorporating any flaws from the original) more than one artist
I was reading a BBC news article last year about a pro-forger who turned legit. Nowadays he will forge any piece of art, to order. But clearly labels them as such, and presumably the accounts are all kept accordingly, so any attempt to use them in fraud would fail.
He is so good at his job though he claims that a number of the worlds art collections hold paintings he knows to be by himself, from before he went legit. All having been verified as the genuine article.
A bit of oddness with natural and artificial diamonds: 9 out of ten random women off the street, when presented with a manufactured and natural diamond side by side, will correctly ID which is which.
or an ultra violet light source. synthetic diamonds must be dyed in accordance to the laws bought and paid for by the diamond industry.
i have been around a bunch of art both masters and reproductions and a real piece of art kinda has a feel to it, unless the forger sees his forgeries as art also. that feel not an empirical measure but it is non the less real for some people.
lots of art/craft cant be reproduced and i wouldn’t suspect that a hugely advanced civilization would bother to try and make ways to reproduce those things.
That reminds me of people who say that a transporter that scans you down to the subatomic level, then destroys you, sends that data to a distant receiver which then builds a perfect copy of you, is something they would have no problem using. Personally, I would stay as far away from it as possible. A perfect copy is still a copy as far as I’m concerned.
Same here
It’s one reason why would rather live in the Star Wars universe than the Star Trek: Wars don’t have no teleportation crap, and has a lot more planets to explore
Remember what happened with Riker? Due to a buffer malfunction, a second Riker was created. What is really stopping anyone from doing the same thing, on a mass scale?
Klingons would basically clone hundreds of their best warriors, Hyu-mons would clone thousands of their massest murderers (oops, meant ‘war heroes’)
And thus were born the Gavs.
The Borg should have done that, it would have made them even scarier!
“We are the Borg. We will abduct your best and brightest and copy them endlessly!”
It looks like this is the result of generations of kids being taught that the way to stop a dangerous leak is to stick their finger in the dyke.
And remember if caught in a bank robbery you probably will not succeed at throwing a bank robber, using their tongue!
Dike. It’s spelled dike. Dyke is derisive/reclaimed word for a lesbian, especially a rather butch one.
Not sure if this misspelling was intentional on your part or not, because it rather changes the meaning just a little.
:-D
Not intentional. Mind you I may have been thinking of a more interesting alternative to sticking a finger in a dam. You will have to check out Dr Freud’s outfitting theory on that.
Nope! The original spelling is in fact d-y-k-e.
Spelling it “dike” is a neologistic spelling specifically to avoid the associations with lesbian slurs but “dyke” is still a valid way to spell it.
Or a pair of diagonally cutting pliers, which is also spelled dykes. I still have some that had ” 6″ Dykes ” on the display card at the store.
The etymology of how lesbians came to be called “dykes” actually crosses with the fairy story, concerning things that had fingers stuck in them and why. As I don’t wish to cross boundaries with Dave’s website I won’t go any further into the explanation.
Not the brightest bulb in the box, although the article doesn’t make it clear if there were others nearby. If so, it was a rather heroic gesture to start with… but after the first few seconds there was no reason to stay there.
As an aside, the story of the Dutch boy saving the dike and thus the town is not based on a historical event, but on a Hans Brinker story. Although a Dutch skipper did mitigate a dam failure by plugging a leak with his boat. A finger plugging a tiny leak might actually work on a short earthen dike for a short time, but piping failure comes from an entire section being saturated and progresses fairly quickly once surface flow starts, and is generally a sign of wider issues. The analogy of a ‘finger in the dike’ as an effective but unsustainable short-term fix is still pretty accurate though, and thus the legend endures.
Um… I looked at the article… the guy lay down on the bomb to shield others from the explosion. That was pretty brave of him. Thankfully the bomb proved harmless.
Oh brave no doubt. And in the tradition of soldiers throwing themselves on a grenade, to save their fellows in a trench. But that is quite a different situation to a large explosive device, like this, and with nobody else nearby. The former makes his human shielding pretty pointless, if there were anybody near enough to be affected he would just add shrapnel to the blast. It is way more than just a grenade.
Worst of all, in laying down on it, he was risking setting the thing off! Hence the government advice, for others, not to do that.
But the guy has a good heart, and deserves praise for his action, to offset the ribbing he will be getting for the bizarre take on it.
Hm…
You know, for an industialist, there’s plenty of stuff that he *could* get past customs which would still be worthwhile.
I’m guessing it’s a “Okay, you’re past the milestone, your people have demonstrated the ability to generate artificial gravity fields, you can take gravplates now.” But back on Earth, while we may have the theoretical underpinnings on AG, and we’ve demonstrated it in the lab, we don’t have decades or centuries of optimization to build them cheaply on an industrial scale. Being the sole source of such devices – either just buying them from off-planet or taking someone else’s optimized design and reverse engineering it – would be exceptionally profitable.
But that’s not what Deus is doing, now is it? He’s buying something – a lot of somethings, from the looks of it – which are considered bleeding edge by at minimum a post-FTL civilization and maybe bleeding edge by Fracture standards in general. That implies they’re not for public consumption but rather personal use.
Whatever he bought, he’s got plans. We’re gonna see them in a big way later.