Grrl Power #727 – A timely prank
There’s been a lot of speculation, and this finally confirms it. Time travel! This is why when the team arrived on Alari Prime, Harem got discombobulated, because suddenly there were twice as many of her, and half of her knew the date was different. This helped the team immensely though, as they knew exactly when in time Sydney was. Past Harem also instantly knew everything that had happened in the intervening time. Since she only has one mind between all her bodies, the two versions of her integrated into a new single mind with the added memories. Her ability to recall those memories, however, is somewhat limited. They’re all there, but they don’t just burst forth unbidden. Most memories need some context. She sat down and tried to sort of remember everything in order, but a lot of the samey daily minutia got lost in the kaleidoscope of monotony that is modern life. The big events, however, were a lot easier to pull up. In the last 2 months, the team has gained a bit of a reputation for being exactly where they needed to be to prevent major crimes and disasters. If anyone is speculating that Archon has a psychic, they’re okay with people believing it.
So they were thrown 51 days into the future, and it took Sydney 2 days to make it home, most of which was spent on Cora’s ship. That’s not too bad considering she had no idea where she was. It’s lucky Cora got a lock on her when she jumped from the Alari homeworld to Fracture Station.
If most of Sydney’s friends are around her age, most of them would probably still be alive after 57 years. So, typical overreaction from her really. The reason Harem went with 57 years instead of 53 years, is 57 is the length of time Ripley was lost in space between Alien & Aliens. As for why I chose 53 days instead of 57… I don’t know, probably I thought it’d be too on the nose to homage Aliens that hard.
Moving update: Jeeze, I though preparing a house for sale was took a lot of time, but showing a house… geeze. All weekend it was every other hour, pack up and go for a walk or do some errands while a realtor walks strangers though the place. Not conducive to working on a comic. :/ You’re supposed to let the realtor do the selling, which is probably a good idea. I tend to overshare. “That’s where the cat threw up last week. I stepped right in it. That’s the problem with having cat-barf colored carpet. I guess it depends on what you’re feeding the cat really. Oh, and also there’s a hellmouth under the porch.”
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Do you have planning permission for that Hellmouth?
I can see the building inspector looking under the porch.
“Ah, I see. What you have there is a class 3 infernal portal, also known as a type 2 Hellmouth. You’ll need form 666c, and we’ll need to have a regular pest inspection to check for imps and quazits.”
Don’t foget the need for hazard forms and signage.
Why would he need a planning permission?
Unless it’s a NEW Hellmouth, and falls under the ‘Super/sub/other-natural portals, Rifts and Gateways'(SSO-PRAG) of 1973 it would be considered ‘Grandfathered in’ and excempt from regulation.
You need planning permission for improvements to the house.
Prank. Called it.
Sydney is adorable with Dabbler wrapped around her.
Agreed. It is a really cute way for Dabbler to show she missed her, also very modest and appropriate for Dabbler in considering Sydney’s comfort levels on being touched.
Both of them are. :)
And Harem´s face in the fourth panel is awesome.
Come on, I want to SEE her give the detailed report of her battle on the Alari homeworld and actually be taken seriously when she delivers it. No demure skipping over that part, no ‘Sure lol whatever Syds where’s your meds?’. I love the goofy girl but this was a huge milestone for her and it needs the appropriate gravitas and page commitment let’s dooo iiiiit.
I too really want to see this. I want to see Maxima’s jaw drop further and further with each reveal of what Sydney has done.
I’m thinking that Sydney’s missed two days of sleep and 7 weeks of her tv shows and movies.
Considering that if those 7 weeks started yesterday, that represents the entirety of Season 8 and most of this year’s summer blockbusters, I’m thinking Syd’s going to screaming “Spoilers!” at people for a while until she gets caught up.
Just remember what sort of crap was running in 2011
Braking Bad and House M.D. where running back then. Also Captain America 1 was running.
She’s in a sliding ‘now’.
Comic book time?
Not as bad as The Simpsons where Bart has been 10 for 20 years,
but it’s always now now.
*THIS* would be a good time for ‘I Was A Teenage Superhero’ to debut so she could
get 8 episodes in over the next 3 years.
instead of saying at the same age forever comic book characters sometimes age and then the universe gets reset. Or they are just some other age without any explanation. It gets really wired if characters age at different rates.
Like said: crap ;P
Well that’s one more achievement off the list:
Survive dying [o]
Time travel[o]
Attain FTL drive [o]
Sit still for 5 minutes [ ]
Make Maxima say bingo [ ]
You know, that last one could be done pretty easily with enough coordination from other parties…. Tell Max that they’re playing at the shop, hand her the card, quickly head for the door, have participant party X ask Max what she’s playing, and boom! You’ve got her.
That’s “ ‘Make Maxima Say’ Bingo”, not “make Maxima say ‘Bingo’ ”. Though if only “Bingo” is on the word list, and someone wins by making Maxima say it, they’ll have a “ ‘Make Maxima say “Bingo” ’ Bingo” Bingo.
I still want to know how they managed to make her say “Trouser weasel”
I tend to overshare. “That’s where the cat threw up last week. I stepped right in it. That’s the problem with having cat-barf colored carpet. I guess it depends on what you’re feeding the cat really.
Pro tip as a cat owner with 6 fuzzy friends. Go with tile and carpet can burn in hell. 1. Messes of every type are easier to clean up and 2. allergens are not trapped and sticking around. Even if the new place already has carpet, it’ll be worth the investment to pull it out and tile. If you still want some carpeting, throw rugs are a thing. Over all it makes a house easier to buy and sell.
First thing I did when I bought my place was rip out every single last carpet and put in nice wood floors.
And I don’t even have pets.
Pro Tip #2:
Put down an area rug under your office chair, if it has wheels.
Dave, take heed to this one, if you go with hardwood or other non-carpeted flooring:
Sydney will survive trying to sit down and having her wheeled office chair squirting out from under her, shooting across the room.
You will only injure your back & bottom…and trust me, bending or even breaking your coccyx is NOT as “fun” as it sounds. (Old ice skating injury, oy…)
Other than that, definitely go with the smooth floor & the area rugs. Sweeping & dust mopping is simple, and it’s way hella cheaper to change out the look of the room by just swapping an area rug. (HOWEVER, that said…don’t go with laminate if you have cats with upchuck habits. That stuff has to be cleaned up immediately or it ruins the thin top surface of the lamination. Hardwood, tile, linoleum, bamboo flooring, those are all better.)
[blockquote]You will only injure your back & bottom…and trust me, bending or even breaking your coccyx is NOT as “fun” as it sounds.[/blockquote]
I second that comment. Everyone has regrets. One of mine is not putting an area rug under my office chair when I lived in Tyler (Texas). Sat down too close to the edge of the chair, and whoosh! I landed coccyx-first on a hardwood floor. I don’t think I broke anything, but it ached for weeks.
Dave, I know a lawyer and his wife, who live down by San Marcos, that would consider the Hellmouth a positive selling point. Though, they’d probably want to run themselves and their friends in as a strike team to check volatility before buying…
Hardwood floors show well in houses, but walking into one is like walking into an echo chamber. I know, everyone says to buy giant rugs and put them down, but then you’re still covering the floor with fabric, only now there’s no padding under them and you have an increased tripping hazard.
A) You should still have padding under an area rug, especially if you have expensive area rugs.
B) They’re not really a tripping hazard, assuming you learned to walk by lifting your feet more than 1/4″ off the ground.
Some people get old or have an injury that forces them to basically ‘shuffle’, and some area rugs are thick
Well said.
Buy giant rugs and hang them up! Haha, I’m a genius.
Stick foam pyramids to the walls?
Missing your birthday by time travelling would definitely suck. Poor Sydney!
On an unrelated note, I attempted a 3d render of Maxima. Am I allowed to post a link to it here, I’m still not totally happy with it but I think it’s worth people seeing it at least :D
Dave B has not complained before about fan art (usually quite the opposite), so fire away. There may be some concerns for NSFW images, but otherwise, sky’s the limit, as far as I can tell.
Max is totally safe for work:
https://www.deviantart.com/sammyscuffles/art/Maxima-793445707
… I have no idea how to actually post a link properly. Does this thing have markup?
Nicely done, I also put you on my watch list.
Very nice! The color is a bit off, and the reflectivity/shininess is higher than Maxima even without her grit duller, but otherwise very spot-on!
Umm, what? The shiny isn’t that much off from what DaveB himself has shown in the past
Which colour is off? The Purple? Or the gold? Again, DaveB himself hasn’t really been consistent with which shade of purple, and the colour of the gold could be passed off as the lighting in the room
As Sasha said, nicely done, only problem for me though, is the face, can’t fully explain what it is butt it just doesn’t look like Maxi. Even looking at other examples (both by Dave and other artists), there is just something not-Maxi about it
Best guess, is you kept her head the same width from crown to chin (she normally has a narrower chin than temple, if that makes sense…)
I think it’s that the cheekbone area is wider than the forehead area and chin. So from top to bottom you have widths of medium, wide, thin. Like so.
—
—–
—
I think Max in the comic is more Medium, medium, thin.
—-
—-
—
That’s my best guess. The face actually reminded me of Melonie Mac’s face.
Great work Scuffles!!!
Yeah, that was what was trying to relay
Will repeat (because it’s easy to have missed)- a very good job
Had no idea who ‘Melonie Mac’ is, so did a quick Bing and one of the images that showed up looks like a very good base-model (either accidentally or intentionally, still a fantastic job of creating Maxi in 3d)
Fuck off, you racist asshole. When I want your feedback on my feedback I’ll ask for it. And since nothing you say has any vaule there’s no chance that will ever happen.
Where the Hael do you get the ‘racist’ from? o_O
Where, in either post, was there a mention of race? O_o
You don’t need to constantly exhibit your racism for me to remember your earlier racist remarks, idiot.
Actually, no, she didn’t miss her birthday.
Since birthdays are a measure of how many years one has been alive, her calendar birthday should now move ahead by 51 days.
She did miss her birthday, since it is the day, or rather date, on which one is born. This doesn’t change.
One could argue that age is a measure of how many years someone has been alive since they were born, with Sydney now being displaced for 51 days.
Actually, this means Sydney can now have two celebrations that normally would be held together. One is celebrating her birthday, the date she was born on X years ago. The other is celebrating her ageing a year, held 51 days after her birthday.
Yeah, people tend to confuse birthday (most only have one of those) with birthdate (most people aim to experience as many of those as possible, and others seem hellbent on seeing as few as possible, and extending that ‘courtesy’ to others)
Approximately 1/(365×4+1) people have the same problem, for entirely mundane reasons. (those with a birthdate of Febuary 29th)
interestingly birth dates are not evenly distributed.
Personally use the day of the year (135), which actually works out to be close enough to the actual month-date to not be that confusing to work out :D
Although, also personally find using the Month-Day-Year system to be more ‘comfortable’
People tend to have sex more often when it is cold, thus producing, slightly, unevenly distributed birthdays.
Yep. There seems to be lots more procreating going on in certain months.
Yes, apparently people do confuse those words – but I fail to see why as they are really self defining: “date” is a one time event; “day” is a repeating event, e.g., Monday not Mondate, holiday not holidate.
Birthday (an anniversary), is ones’ (repeating month and day), day of birth whereas
Birthdate (a single event), is the (one time month, day and year), date of birth (DOB).
Your medical records, driver’s license, et al, all ask for Date-of-Birth (DOB), not day.
One wishes another a happy birthday, not happy birthdate.
Per Oxford English Dictionary:
Birthdate = The date on which a person was born
Birthday = The anniversary of the day on which a person was born
Personally, feel it’s simply they don’t think about the real meaning, because nearly everyone knows what one means when they talk about birthdays
And see? Made that error as well: ‘date’ is a fixed time, whereas ‘day’ is a moving point (even when trying to be clever, just show new levels of stupid :( )
That is actually backwards. People have only one birthDATE, but multiple birthDAYS. You do have the basic concept correct though.
Order of the Stick did this joke already.
Honestly; It’s been Done/Simpsons already did it. Is a thing for webcomics as well.
OotS, Sluggy Freelance, Schlock Mercenary, Girl Genius, El Goonish Shive, stuff made by Willis and other old webcomics that still update and everything that isn’t a reference to current events has been done in one form or another.
Schlock Mercenary alone is coming up on putting out a comic every single day for 19 years in two months. This year it will hit 7000 comics.
“Kevin and Kell” has been going since 1995
Butt yeah, there is very few jokes that haven’t ‘been done before’, it’s how they are done that matters, not if they are fresh, and personally, this was well done (like a juicy cheesesteak :P)
Ah yes, Kevin and Kell, been ages since I’ve read that. Disappeared from my bookmarks during a reformat at some point.
Got me to look up large webcomics on Tvtropes, through https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArchivePanic
Lots on that list that has slipped out of my bookmarks over the years when trying to recreate the bookmarks from memory.
Guess there is nothing to it, but start at the top of the missing ones and add them one at the time re-reading the archives.
Cover me, I’m going in!
Started reading “Kevin and Kell” after being referred to “Safe Havens” a month or so back (still need to find the time to get back to “K&K” and finish the archive, still about three years behind)
Okay Syd, just think about what you would have done on your birthday, and what you did instead while missing it. I suspect there would be no comparison.
Hay DaveB, my GF is getting ready to sell her apartment as well. Was there with her this whole weekend while the real estate agents came to see her and take pictures and shit. She’s a bit of a wreck atm. Extremely stressful for her. You have my sympathies.
Have to hand it to Sydney she knows it’s the little things that count. Miss birthday presents are no joke
Would have been more believable if Dabs had cast a glamour over everyone except Maxima, to make them look older.
Max could have just made the excuse that her powerset doesn’t let her age.
I don’t think she can cast a glamour over anyone but herself. She might have some other ‘cosmetic’ spells like the one she used on Maxima a few dozen pages ago, but I still don’t know if she has any spells that can physically disguise someone (other than her own personal glamour).
She glamoured a puppet made of utensils, sticks, and napkins at the restaurant in an attempt to pull a prank on Sydney.
Though she was holding it, i’d argue that demonstrates that she can cast it on other things…
Pretty sure that was Gwen doing the illusion. Dave has said he doesn’t want a powerful Illusionist on the team.
Dabbler’s limited to her personal glamour, and Gwen needs a vaguely color coordinated effigy to make a single, small puppet of Maxima.
Halo – YOU MISSED MY BIRTHDAY? I WANT ALL MY PRESENTS NOW!
Everyone….
Halo- 53 days? DO I get paid for that? WOOOOOHOOO! SHOPPING SPREEE!
Max- And…depending on your AAR maybe danger pay and a bonus too…minus any damages you did at the station.
Halo (sticks out tongue) I was good!
Frix I’d say so.
Cora’s crew – Amazing acoustics onboard…
Halo blushes
Dabbler- We sooo have to talk Sydney.
Halo- OH I brought a present too…sorta…
Everyone what?
Halo MORE REFUGEES!
Made it to the last line before I ruined my keyboard
Accounting will insist on pay her for subjective days plus applicable bonuses.
Don`t want to set a precedent with people in hibernation.
that’s unsustainable, imagine if one of them get trapped in a time accelerated area where they live two years inside, while only 2 days pass outside, you don’t want THIS incident for being a precedent!
pay people only on global Earth time!
Shall we overlook the spaceship collision she caused? Is that covered by insurance?
OMG… the insurance they’d need to take out because of Halo?!!!!! (“I’m sorry, we cannot afford your premium. You’re off the team.”)
Nobody else worried about a morally ambiguous Harem (she works for Deus) with 53 days of future knowledge and access to stock markets?
Also Dabbler’s wearing triangle panties?
In a dress like that you’d think she’d go au-natural.
She’s under orders that she has to wear panties. (Re the cookie baking page.)
First, is “triangle panties” even a thing? And second, how would you know even if she was? I went looking to see what might be referring to, and the best I can guess is the slightly darker area in the last panel? That seems to me to be a shadowed area due to the curve of her legs.
Yes “triangle panties” are a thing, also a bikini bottom.
Given that almost all panties/bikini bottoms have a triangle shaped front panel and some even echo this shape on the back panel, the label seems rather redundant.
nah they aren’t redundant. They are basically string floss or thong and a triangle patch to help minimize camel toe…or if real tight emphasize it.
Almost is not all
Only a few are string with a postage stamp, most have proper ‘sides’ with substantially more fabric covering the crotch and the butt
Funny how Cora and Dabbler are not talking about the same thing in the last panel.
Ah, crap! I’m planning on selling my house very soon! Crap crap crap… I thought recaulking the bathtub was bad enough, but now I have to spackle over and repaint the hellmouth, too??
*stomps off muttering dire incantations under her breath…*
Nah, just throw a rug over it, burn some incense and put one of those fake fires in the room to cover the sounds of infinite fires and the anguished screams of the eternally tortured souls and you should do fine.
Nah, just throw a rug over it, burn some incense to cover the smell of brimstone, and put one of those fake fires in the room to account for the sound of the infinite flames and the screams of the eternally tortured souls.
I was actually just thinking of playing The HU’s Yuve Yuve Yu. (It’s how I put the hellmouth daemons to sleep.)
https://youtu.be/v4xZUr0BEfE
To put myself to sleep, I listen to this one:
SKÁLD – Rún
https://youtu.be/s9NIBZfVBW4
Also do the realtors trick. make cookies or cinnamon rolls just before a showing.
I baked bread for a showing…still had rolls and croissants rising while others baked.
Also big ass pot of strong coffee and some sweetened flavors. (yes there was irish of Real Estate woman asked later in day.)
first visitor OMG! I smell fresh bread…reminds me of my grandmom’s home when I was little. Honey we gotta take the full tour… (He was already halfway through kitchen door, mug in hand (Navy chief))
“Fresh pot brewed, Chief. Pinch salt added. Guessing no foo foo to flavor? (he nods) Bit early…if yer not driving…Irish?”
He started laughing and just took his coffee black and a fist full of croissants.
“Mmphrgle mrph NOM NOM Chomp Mrphgle”
“Yes, Chief. I made them myself. Help a shipmate while he’s on duty.”
They came back later to make a bid.
So did 3 of the other six who came through.
Chief got the house because wife loved bathrooms and the kitchen. (the smell probably helped.)
Halo: That means I missed the free birthday promotion at my favorite restaurant for that, Atomic Buffet.
is it me or did she seem more upset when she thought she missed her birthday than when she thought all her friends were dead and that she missed 50+ birthdays?
With the bigger hit, the impact takes time to sink in and it’s more distributed. When it’s a smaller hit that just happens to take out something specific to you, you notice it a lot more.
Fifty three days,what does it mean for Sydney!?!?!?
That it looked like she had disappeared. That’s why Arianna had a prepared PR statement and strategy- to hide that she- ARCHON’s new star recruit- was MISSING.
Sydney talks about missing her birthday, but you can also look at it as her natural lifespan being effectively extended in the real world for 53 days.
Possibly because she literally had disappeared.
I was hoping Maxi would put Sydney on KP duty for those missing fifty-three days…or maybe not!?
Archon has restaurants, no one does KP.
You don’t need a mess to assign someone to KP
Of course you do.
KP is not a generic term, it stands for kitchen patrol. Literally the definition requires food preparation.
There are other punishment details, but they have different names.
It’s the punishment that matters, and they could easily donate the peeled spuds to any number of food services either in the building or nearby
‘Food preparation’ does not have to always equate to ‘food processing or cooking’
I don’t get this line of thought in anyway as at best its unbelievable cruelty and at worst out right insanity.
halo did not abandon her post for no reason nor do anything that would fall inside dereliction of duty. she was left behind daring a live fire mission, where she saved peoples lives i might add, and only survived by fighting her way through overwhelming odds. she was missing in action and as much as I am not a fan of militaries there are few if any that would punish their people for this.
anything outside of a obviously lighthearted joke about her being punished wouldn’t even be funny. it would just paint Max and the other higher ups as such a level of outright inhuman trash that Sydney should think about leaving the team if not planet for good.
Archon is also very much aware that their troops are uniquely valuable individuals. If they get a reputation for screwing over their troops, no more supers joining the good guys. If the word in the super community is that Archon screwed over Sydney, but Deus treats his supers like rock stars; guess who gets to hire as many supers as he wants.
Sydney’s eyes are yeesh HUGE in that first panel…but she and Dabbler look so frikkin cute together! Just adorbz, very loving (platonic…and yes, succubi can express & accept purely platonic affection! Don’t be racy-ist; we know there are celibate succubi nuns! They’re rare, but they do exist…)
Actually, we know there aren’t. Dabbler said so on the page that showed an image of a hypothetical one.
Yeah, butt she wasn’t celibate though
Sydney’s eyes always look huge, it’s part of her charm (and why no one can stay mad at her for too long :P)
So it took Deus 51 days to retrieve the sickle and set up his wormhole to the station ? :)
That definitely explains how that second power generating tower got built “so quickly”…and it also quite possibly explains how Deus paid for all the things he purchased.
The way I see it, the arrival of the refugees changes things. Why would he be in a rush to use the portal, and need the energy for it, if one of the generator fans wasn’t yet fully operational?
It doesn’t make sense…unless he actually needed to go to purchase items for helping the Alari refugees repair their ships. In that case, they would have given him their interstellar currency, or items worth the trade (precious rare alloys or watertight cases full of valuable computer components, or whatever it was in those bags). Either way, it was something which would’ve been worthless to him here on Earth if he didn’t go and exchange it for the stuff for them (plus a few incidentals for himself & his bodyguard)…because the Alari aren’t fools, and wouldn’t just hand over tech or materials he could immediately use.
If Deux was buying replacement parts, why didn’t the Alari chief engineer or equivalent go with them to make sure everything was correct? It would have gotten around the “can’t give tech to the non-ftl civilization” problem as well, without having to overpay or bribe the being he bought all the stuff from.
Would have tipped DaveB‘s hand as to what was going on
Presumably the second updraft tower had to be completed first, in order to supply enough power. When the artefact was retrieved only one tower was complete.
I think the time warp was due to Sciona’s wonky wormhole, and since the rest of the team returned through it I think only Harem pickup up anything from the future via her unique telepathy. I think Deus didn’t jump until a day or two ago (however long it took Cora to fly back).
Actually, this raises an interesting question – when was Alari homeworld destroyed, 53-ish days ago before Sciona heard anything, or just a few days ago when the Alari ship came to Earth? Did the time jump cause time-paradox-things and someone decided to wipe out the Alari preemptively since they were about to attack Earth?!
(Overanalyzing alert!)
If Harem connected to her future consciousness and shared their memories, wouldn’t that create a feedback loop? She knows what her future self knows – including the knowledge about getting the knowledge. And the memory of getting that. And the memory of that… Technically it would mean having infinite information download into your brain at once…
Honestly, I’m amazed it didn’t end in a total meltdown.
If it was a stable loop then future!Harem already knew about it happening from when she was still current!Harem. Current!Harem however was updated to also include the memories that happened between those 51 days, which already include the realization of having memories that are 51 days ahead. Similar to what happened back when Krona did a reset of one Harem.
Yes, but she would have infinite sets of memories of those 51 days. The one her future selves lived through, the one from the ones they received them from, the one those got etc… Each cycle adds the currently lived 51 days on top of the memories she received – and since it’s a stable loop, that spirals off into infinity. And now imagine that transferring over with whatever speed Harem’s connection works…
The only thing that doesn’t actually make it infinite is the errors in human memory. But at that point all she remembers is living this period over and over again, because those are her most recent memories.
You bring up just one of the reasons why time travel is a fucking idiotic plot point and why it should be avoided at all costs.
And in this case, it doesn’t seem to have added anything at all that was actually necessary. It was just a “something cool” (for some value of) the author decided to throw in to make his plot suck more. Nothing was gained, much was lost.
The time difference helps explain how Cora’s crew ‘instantly’ knew where they could find Sydney, and how Dabbler could have contacted and instructed them so swiftly to do so.
Same goes for explaining how Deus could have a setup for a working stargate ready in time to be at the space station at the same time Sydney was there.
And yet none of that was at all necessary for the plot, nor does it eliminate the causality issues which come with, or would come with unless handwaved away, time travel.
Aren’t you legally required to inform potential buyers of the hellmouth though?
To some it might even be a selling point.
Just put in on the list of selling points as “built-in waste disposal unit”.
I use it as central heat.
Huh, so they had 50ish days to attempt to warn the Alari of an incoming genocide, I wonder if they even tried?
The existence of all of the Alari refugees would suggest they did warn them.
They arrived on the Alari homeworld, after the genocide happened.
But then everyone except Halo went back the way they’d come, thus returning to their present. We don’t know how recently the genocide had happened; it’s possible it hadn’t happened yet when Dabbler made her call.
i see several problems with that scenario; first, does dabs have a FTL communication device, and more importantly, the phone number of an alari that would be taken seriously by their ruling body? second, how pragmatic is dabs? if the alari are ruled by a set of violent expansionist bastards, pragmatically it would make more sense to let them get well and truly bloodied, if she was going to tell them at all, to ease tensions/ reverse the doomsday clock / save the most lives (or so it might seem at first, depending on how the war with the mecha-cuhthulu fleet went). third, and most critically, there’s stable time loop shenanigans to consider. they already saw, first hand, the end result, including the soul coffins and world-spanning magical circuitry. in only 51 days, that and the tiny (by comparison) refugee ship might be all they could do.
She must do. How else would she have contacted Cora? It takes multiple years for light from us to get just to the nearest star to the solar system; no way to get the word out in just 50-odd days that way.
It hadn’t happened as of last time Sciona contacted them but was completely done in 51 days. Other than some minor evacuations there’s not much they could have done in that time to prepare for an invasion that overwhelmed them (unless the first time they lost because their defenses were down for maintenance or their fleet was tricked away or something).
It will turn out to be the standard ironic self-fulfilling prophesy logic of most time travel movies.
The invasion force was actually the Time Police who were sent there to restore the time-stream after they heard the Alari had been engaging in communications with people who had information from the future.
So, if Archon had NOT called to warn them of an invasion….
These faces are priceless :)
I can see where that would be a pain. But it could be worse. My realtor blocked out 4 hours for open houses across three weekends. I had to make myself scarce, which normally wouldn’t have been a problem, but the realtor also wanted the cats out of the house. That seemed fair, as during the week and while I was at work I had to place notices on the door for potential buyers and their realtors such as “Two cats in residence, do not leave door open or unattended. If a cat escapes call this number immediately.” And I guess being scolded before you even enter the house isn’t exactly a good thing. But with cats in the car my options were limited. I have two cat carriers, but the cats don’t like being in them or being in the car, so it was constant mewling for 4 hours. I’d drive to the local mall and park in the garage to stay out of the sun so I wouldn’t have to keep the car running for AC as even in non-summer months the car can get pretty warm with direct sunlight on the windows. I’d try to read, but the constant crying of the cats made 4 hours with a novel less fun than it would have been normally.
Moving sucks.
Teleporting behind Sydney like that Harem is lucky she didn’t get punched in the nose. Again.
Nah mate, she reprogrammed that a while back.
My place has a Hellmouth. Its great for garbage disposal.
Obviously not. It’s not like you remember how memories form in your head either, you just remember things you have experienced. But fun thought though.
Wow, I thought it was time dilation which would seriously mess things up.
Yay for time-space curvature! It sounds like the brane ripper is a sloppy sort of transportation portal, for those who don’t really care when-ish they arrive. Since the rest of the team went back the way they came, they got back to the right time. Deus would have also gone back to his departure point. This also explains the Alari colony ship – they would have been fleeing the nasties on their world.
Hmm… It *probably* wasn’t the same group Sydney saw at Fracture, and Deus *probably* didn’t tell them ‘Hey come on by, fake a busted frobnicator or something’. Probably.
I mean, it’s not like Harem knew about events happening in the future, and would tell him, right?
No, Sydney’s attempt at stopping it is what fucked up the portal
Yes, SmugD went back to his departure point, which was two days ago
Of course it’s not the same group of Alari saw at Fracture, they are currently onboard Cora’s ship, waiting for the rest of their trip to commence
Nono.. the ones who LEFT the ones Sydney picked up.
Sydney didn’t see the ones dropping off her cargo, we have no way of knowing if those ships we saw where even connected to the Fracture-group, or if they were simply huddling in the same area (one usually doesn’t go wandering when they have been dumped in the middle of nowhere, at least not straight away unless the conditions of their location is not safe ie under attack or environmental reasons)
Didn’t miss your birthday. Relativistically, it’s now in 49 days.
This also means Harem had a second discombobulation a couple days ago. Not very useful except that it would have confirmed the exact date/time for them.
So will Joel be here? there’s no way he would have bought the “sequestered for training” line, without having been informed of it by Sydney beforehand. She’s invested in the comic shop, if she was going to be locked up for a few weeks she’d let Joel know. And doing that out of the blue is basically unlawful imprisonment. So Joel should have been fed at least a different story, if not forced to sign an NDA before being told what happened.
Also it’s highly doubtful that Joel and Olivia could have run the shop by themselves as busy as it now is. So with no Sydney he would have had to hire someone if he wanted any hope of a reasonable stress level. Heck, he would have likely needed to hire a 4th employee anyway with Sydney gone for days at a time(as we saw her there in the morning on day 3, and that’s when she’d normally be allowed to work) Joel and 1 PART TIME employee would have trouble managing to keep regular business hours with that much product flow.
Also, I wonder. With Sydney missing, if Harem popped in from time to time to keep Syd’s “supers show up here sometimes” thing going. Since she’s the one that suggested Halo show up at random times even when she’s not working, to keep up the “gimmick”
People are applauding the faces on this page, personally find Dabbles’ face in panel one and Berry’s in panel four to be messed up. Not ugly, just… not right (and that’s ignoring the fact Berry looks like she was stung on the lips by a swarm of wasps)
Agreedo. Though tbh I don’t find messed-up faces to be a new or unusual thing.
Harem has forgotten Hyperactivity gives and imitative bonus… Not he face
She lucked out on Sydney being more freaked out by the message rather than the messenger :)
Fun reveal for Harem! hahaha
Great Reveal for Harem! Well done, DaveB!