Grrl Power #818 – Queue E1M1.mid
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard this music track.
The reason Peggy isn’t manning the gun range today is because I meant to show Sydney’s upgraded glasses the very next time she went shooting, but she already went. So I decided that Peggy is a big believer in safety goggles, and… I guess Sydney doesn’t like wearing the goggles over her admittedly weirdly huge lenses.
I’ve been to a shooting range only one time, for a beginner “rent a few different kinds of pistols and shoot them” thing, and I actually did get an ejected piece of brass stuck behind my glasses for like half a second. It wasn’t pressed up against my eye though, thankfully. And of course, some woman in a V-neck shirt got one down her top. There’s probably never been a day at any shooting range where that hasn’t happened at least once. I mean, can you blame the brass?
Dabbler has a similar system in her cybernetic eye. It scans the exterior of a gun as well as some of its internals, then projects a calculated crosshair based on the vanishing point drawn by the barrel shape as it’s pointed away from the wielder. It’s not as accurate as something with a smart jack built into it, but… it’s still pretty accurate, especially once a few rounds are fired and it can calibrate.
Arc-SWAT is hilariously casual. Seneca is from the Air Force Special Tactics Squadron, which is like the Air Force equivalent of the SEALS I guess? They don’t seem to have a cool name though, like “Rangers” or “Delta Force.” Just “STS” I guess. Anyway, I have no idea what rank Seneca would be, so let’s just say Master Sergeant. A raw recruit would not normally be addressing a MSgt by her first name like that. Like, probably never, actually. Maybe if they were both off duty and off base.
Of course, as you can probably tell from this page, Seneca is pretty laid back. She’s more of a “you seem vaguely aware of the risks, go for it.” kind of instructor.
Edit: For those who don’t recall Cora making new glasses for Sydney.
Edit 2: Okay, I added a thought bubble trim on panels 3 and 4 to help indicate that it’s a Sydney daydream.
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Catching hot brass like that would be a catastrophe.
I was on a range back in the day firing prone with several other guys and every now and again it was like a cigarette was stubbed out on my back. It was other guy’s ejected hot brass.
Imagine that in your eye.
Ouch, on your eyelid it may result in a burn scar, on your actual eyeball….
I think you would be lucky if you didn’t end up permanently blind.
I have had the lit end of a cigarette in my eye. It’s not pleasant. Thankfully I was about three at the time and you heal well at that age, so no permanent damage was done. Would not recommend :p
Ouch :|.
I was once pouring fishing weights and my brother, 9 years old at the time, came up behind me and threw a piece of ice into the molten lead. The lead partially covered ice before it vaporized, causing an explosion. I was spattered with molten lead on my hands, arms, face, chest, and legs. It burned through my cloths as if they weren’t there. The burns weren’t that bad but the drop that landed on the tip of my penis was damned uncomfortable. I got a welders apron for my birthday that year, and I didn’t even get punished for beating my brother with a cast iron skimming ladle.
that point you call frix XD
I’ve popped around the left side of a piece of cover, whilst training with blank ammunition and had three casings bounce off the cover and straight down the sleeve of my firing arm and get stuck. Had to peel them off the skin. I’ve since learnt to either roll sleeves up, or tighten my cuffs
this is why we have the oversized face shields for people whose glasses would normally result in them being taken off. on indoor ranges even with the baffles being soft padded to help prevent brass from bouncing you still have people who end up with hot brass in their hair. In fact the one closest to me will inspect your goggles or glasses to make sure they will not let the rounds your firing bypass them. If George is there he will take his glass eye out, show it to you, AND THEN proceed to tell you WHY they require Safety goggles or shields on his range.
… Souldn’t the eye socket keep the glass eye in?
They can be removed. You have muscles holding your genuine eye in right now.
I had a friend who would take his eye out, rub it on his sleeve, put it back in, and say “Aaah, much clearer now.”
I have weird friends.
Had… ?
IIRC, it’s actually the tight fit holding your eye in; The muscles connect to the eye at the back, and the eye socket at the front, and are pulling it forward. The tight fit and eyelids keep it in.
Which is why it’s possible for your eye to pop out, and get pushed back in. Not that it’s recommended, it’s hard on your optic nerve.
I knew a guy who got out of a speeding ticket that way. The officer pulled him over, walked up to the car, told him he was speeding.
Officer: “Have you been drinking?”
Driver: “Nope, sober as a judge.”
Officer: “Your eyes look a little glassy to me.”
Driver: *Pulls out glass eye, looks at it with good eye, turns to officer with wide open empty eyesocket* “Looks okay to me!”
Officer: *closes ticket book* “You can go” *walks back to patrol car*
I’ve still got a scar on my eyebrow (A chunk where it can’t grow, right in the middle) from a ricochet. Not even the brass. Hell of a shock to feel something like a bee-sting and see a small piece of copper and blood leaking slowly down the inside of the lens of my safety goggles.
I have special shooting goggles now that have prescription lenses.
A lot would depend on the load. There’s a huge difference between light loads for practice and heavy loads for actually killing something. And the light load will have much less heating.
Yes, I know people argue about this all the time. And this isn’t the right place for such a discussion.
So far this forum has been a great place for just about every discussion. We cover a lot of ground here :D
I dare say that Sydney might be hard pressed to decide if catching the brass like that would be worse than a spicy-noodle eye-slap or not.
As a left handed shooter I have to deal with the fact that almost all firearms are designed for right handed people. This isn’t so much of an issue for me with my rifles, it is only slightly more awkward to work the bolt as a lefty and I don’t own any assault rifles. But any time I’m firing someone else’s pistol or assault rifle it is a pain to have the brass arcing in front me me instead of heading away from me.
There are many manufacturers who make left handed action firearms, but the combination of another left handed shooter who actually bought a left handed action firearm is a fairly rare one in my experience.
The perks of having an artificer on the team
Cora isn’t on the team though
Still part of the A-team.
Cora is definitely not a part of the A-Team either…She got a healthy set of physics on her chest, by God!
Ooooh, I like the glasses, is the system also available for contacts?
Not yet, in spite of lots of interest and research, but we’re getting there.
I’m guessing panels 2 and3 are imaginary? Otherwise Sydney would be doing her Sagat impression again.
Panel 3 & 4 anyway. I have never been struck by hot brass, but getting it in the eye like that would definitely induce an injury. That is part of the reason that the separators between shooting stations are motion and sound absorbing. When a casing hits it, a significant amount of the energy is transferred to the separator and the casing pretty much falls at your feet.
Huh. I didn’t even pick up on that, but you’re probably right.
Yeah, I should have done thought bubble panel outlines on those or something.
Maybe the new glasses have built in safety functions too.
… When did she have time to do that?
When did Cora get Sydney new glasses?
Probably the time she spent not existing as a reaction to the fight with Vehemence where the special glasses broke.
She was fabbing them while Sydney was fooling around With a certain Space Woof…
Yeah, we saw Cora fixing them on the ship, fairly sure it was while Sydney was sleeping (no, not ‘sleeping’, actual sleeping)
Close. Cora was fabricating the new glasses when Sydney called her on the intercom to ask if she could get a bathtub full of ice cream to sit in, in mid-Grakz-induced gutpocalypse. Page 712, “Turn On Your Fart Light.” (Grakz generates post-digestive phospho-luminous particles, like attack shits on fire off the shoulder of Orion.)
Why is Sidney holding the gun like an amateur? She’s been trained by a military organization she should know how to shoot.
Because she is an amateur. She has not yet been rigidly trained, there has simply not been enough time between adventures.
Glad someone else spotted panel three as well
What is most obvious wrong with the way she is holding it and in what panel. The only gun training I have is air rifle 25 years ago :)
WE-e-e-elllll, I’m hoping someone will eventually notice Syd is letting the “laser beam” do all the heavy lifting in panel 10, which
possiblyprobably means she is not holding the gun correctly and is likely to suffer wrist injury from uncontrolled recoil…I’m also concerned she has 21 rounds up, according to the Cora-lenses… I have already voiced my concerns about Syd’s lack of training, but this is getting dangerous.
The only way she’ll get better is down at the range though.
In panel 3, both of her arms are bent at the elbow. When firing a handgun, your shooting arm should always be straight. In an isosceles stance, both arms should be straight. This makes it far easier to control recoil. The way Sydney is holding the gun would make it extremely difficult to control. “Limp-wristing” (allowing the muzzle to flip upward too sharply) can cause a pistol to jam. Worst-case, she could even end up smacking herself in the face with the gun.
On the upside, I will give her credit for proper trigger discipline. Basic gun safety rule #2: finger off the trigger until sights are on target.
Oh, shit, I thought I drew them right. **runs off to google image search**
Are… are you not supposed to hold it with your pinky extended? Oh dear, I really must apologize to the other club members when next we gather at the range.
The pinky finger is to be extended only on Tuesday’s and Thursdays. This rule was invented for the same reason that tennis scores go from 15 to 30 and then to 40 instead of 45: To confuse the peasants who do not deserve to understand.
Darth Vader paper range targets are my new favorite thing.
Yes, someone DID catch that it was Darth Vader! *highfives*
Sydney it is about as accurate as a Halo. . . Um the video game Halo. . Pistol like that. Please pay attention.
Some guns are designed to eject the brass in a ‘safe direction’…
Hot tip; Never ever use the stand to the right of anyone firing a H&K G-3 or a derivative unless there’s a wall between you. (Used the License-built AG-3 way back in time… It’s actually a pretty good shot as long as you don’t do something foolish such as going full auto. Then it climbs like a mountaingoat on speed… )
Isn’t there a few guns that eject the casing in weird directions?
I remember one that ejects them down
And I think I remember one about bad design where it ejects it to the left basically into the operators face
Are you sure that wasn’t just a left handed gun someone was firing right handed?
Not a big gun nut, but the Owen machine carbine had a top-mount gravity feed and ejected straight down.
The Calico 960 and American 180 both use top-mounted magazines and eject downward.
I can confirm that, I have a Calico. Nice gun, very well balanced, and the weight of the magazine above the barrel does a remarkable job of suppressing muzzle climb when you fire it.
And if you load it with tracers and install a Helfire trigger, it looks like you’re firing a laser rifle! :)
Sounds like fun! I remember reading about the Calico years ago. I’ve seen one, but never actually fired one.
A lot of bull-pops eject downwards. A lot of rifles have left handed variants that eject right.
Left Hand Variants should eject left, standard guns eject right. Ejecting left for a right hander would bring the brass across you. I suspect this is what you meant but just got the words flipped around in your head while typing. :)
I suppose there’s an optional casings catcher for when you don’t want to leave evidence behind.
Or if you want to make sure to recover your spent brass for reloading.
Oh, the G3 loves to throw brass. Always hated policing brass after a day at range with one. Loved hitting the guy at the other end of the range though.
Oh yeah. But it didn’t matter. it’s not as if you could reuse the brass for reloads afterwards. The big dent in the side of each casing kind of made that a moot point.
Did you use a stock G-3?
I bet you’d have loved the AG-3 with 20mm longer stock, winterizing and stealth adaptations…
(There’s a hole in the cocking arm that you can fit a casing, or even a complete cartridge, if you felt badass, so that you could grip the arm even with thick mittens. And the bolt has a textured ‘thumb area’ that can be seen through the ejection port. After inserting a new mag, pull the cocking arm back, but don’t release it. Instead, slowly move it forward again to load the cratridge. Then put your thumb onto the ‘thumb area’ and give it a push so that the bolt locks into place. Very silent… At least compared to the regular CLACK!!! )
It was nice being able to take out a target at 300 meters, that’s true.
Incidentally, Norwegian Sharpshooters(Polite word for sniper) used that rifle with a 1.4x nightvision scope as their main rifle for many years. (for the first 10K rounds it was ‘good enough’)
I’d think the big dent would just mean you’d need to melt them down and recast them – which I’d expect would be needed in any event, because the fit is extremely tight and the process of firing a bullet pretty much has to be severe enough to warp a metal as flexible as brass.
@Dave: your world, your rules. In actual basic training, though, you can get issued prescription inserts for your safety lenses (in addition to BCGs).
She’s technically only been in basic for what a week now?
Using my own glasses as reference that’s about how long it takes to get a new set of lenses
Closer to three, Sydney-time
Also, Peggy gave her the gun detail stripped in a bag. Sidney’sfirst shooting lesson came aftershe coyld correctly name every part andassemble her sidearm herself.
Yups :D
I’m going to go ahead and predict that Peggy’s response when she finds out about the glasses will be “learn to shoot without them first”. Sydney needs to master the basics before she can fully take advantage of the glasses. If I were teaching someone to shoot, I would teach them to use iron sites before letting them use fancy optics.
Not sure of Syd’s vision, I did see it somewhere in the saga, but spectacles are normally used to correct a focal abnormality… I wouldn’t want to point anyone at the target who cannot clearly see both the target and the sights.
Syd needs now to organise a safety face-shield to deflect stray casings.
On a personal note, I’d be teaching how to use both eyes open rather than squinting out of one :) It’s actually not difficult.
I think the point trying to be made was to learn to shoot without the TARGETING assistance, not the visual acuity correction. If you want to go to the next level of difficulty, you can copy a scene in the Walking Dead where the actor sighted a gun using the eye with an eye patch on. https://media.comicbook.com/2018/02/carl-wrong-eye-aim-1086041-1280×0.jpeg
Yeah, the wrong eye is hilarious, but what about the height of the stock on his shoulder? I did that. Once. I was four.
I didn’t mean without glasses at all, but without the augmented ones. A backup pair of glasses. I also wouldn’t put it past Peggy to train Sydney to shoot without her glasses at all because it is always a possibility of her losing her glasses in a fight (as witnessed by the steakhouse brawl where none of the HUD glasses survived the fight).
I’ve been learning how to do that in VR. It’s very useful.
The fixed focal depth is also very helpful. I’ve only ever fired air rifles a few times, and lining up the sights on the target with one or the other being out of focus was annoying.
Sydney’s about to severely disappoint herself. Look at that red circle – I’m betting that’s ‘predicted error margin’.
The glasses are no more useful than a laser sight: You still have to handle the gun correctly for it to be any use. I’d want her training with them as she’ll need them in the field and she needs to not over-estimate what they can do for her. They give a good estimate of where a shot is going to go, no more. If she can’t hold the gun still and on target, the fact that it tells her where the shot would be is useless.
“The glasses are no more useful than a laser sight”. Wrong, a laser sight tells you where the barrel is pointed, the glasses tell where the bullet is pointed. While both require proper gun handling technique to be effective, the glasses don’t require estimating drop for distance or bullet drift.
Sydney is a smart girl. Peggy won’t be finding out about the glasses. It’s not like something she could randomly spot or notice, so as long as Sydney can manage to keep her mouth shut she’ll get to enjoy her new high score. Which won’t be a new range record, no matter how good the glasses are at automagically adjusting for range, elevation, windage, the curvature of the Earth, or whatever. An amateur shooter is still an amateur shooter regardless of how good their gear is. She’ll be a better lousy shot, and will improve a bit faster than she might otherwise but that’s all.
Speaking of E1M1, see also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZG1eqPEYbY
There’s probably more covers of that song than there are videos of tweenage girls singing “Let it Go.”
That one’s pretty good though.
Bloody hell. I work armed security, I need glasses like that.
I’m wondering what’ll happen when she tries the Pew Pew Orb (I’m not hip) with those glasses…
My assumption is that it wouldn’t be able to scan the Pew Pew Orb, just like almost every other device they have used on the Orbs to scan.
…oh, yeah, I’d forgotten about that “feature”
Where is Sydney’s hearing protection?
Putting them on last panel.
It’s Sydney you think she remembered them?
Fire any gun without them repeatedly and you’re not going to forget. Even lighter calibers like .22LR can be painful to the ears.
Oh I know guns are loud games/movies are bullshit in there silencer designs
But still it’s Sydney
The ones overseeing the shooting range are responsible for the safety of all shooters and would be held responsible by Max so it wouldn’t matter if Sydney remembered; Seneca would.
Especially in an indoor range
Oh crap, you’re right. You’re absolutely right.
DaveB, I beg you, you gotta go over this page again and put ear plugs or ear muffs on both Sydney and Seneca.
Oh, I get it. Sydney is putting on ear muffs in the last panel. Panels 3 & 4 were imagined (or else she’d have fired a shot without the glasses turning on which would have been weird). And she does have hearing protection on in 3 and 4, although quite obscured by her hair. So DaveB didn’t miss this detail.
Sydneys? Where s Senicas!
Seriously there’s 4 range violations between the two of them.
Don’t worry. Seneca wouldn’t have needed it until the last panel. Panels 3 and 4 were imagined by Sydney.
Panels 3 and 4 should have a border and or filter to indicate that they represent a truncated timeline, an invalid future.
(The Great White North’s “Dooleelee do dooleelee do” transition. )
I see that that has occurred.
Thanks Dave!
In order(and realise that I thought syd was having a sydney moment
Sydney’s lack of Eye protection in the dreem flash forward,.
Improper paneling on range dividers/ seriously This is actually the reason why you almost never see the old Wood/plywood/Cork Board barriers on ranges.(and if you do, leave, if for no other reason than a soft barrier not only slowes down flying brass, but it also deadens the sound from firearms, and you don’t want to be on a range where the owners can’t be arsed on that subject)
as for Senica.
No hearing protection, Seriously most range Managers nowadays use powered ear protection so they can carry on normal conversations on the range.
No Eye protection, Hopefully by now she’s seen at least SOME of the Videos of people who manage to send brass, bits of the Lane barriers, parts of there misassembled guns and even part of the targets and lighting flying through the range by now. The USAF has one that was created by the army.
ok now that was a daydream or fake flash forward on Sydney’s part, but the fact remains that She (Senica) is on a Firing range with a Dangerously wreckless amature, (To be fair every range super I have ever met defined that as EVERYONE WHOS NOT ME.)
And given the Gun Safety fails you find on youtube…
seriously the one I go to here will explain to you that when he calls Cease fire, you WILL have the gun saftied and on the bench or rest and completely out of your hands before he finishes saying Fire. (And yes he has strobe LEDs for the hearing impaired.)
(and yes, she is Eating on the range, and I know Richard would be having an apoplectic fit over her doing that But most people consider it more of a normal hazard (Spilling food/drink) given that water bottles on the range is not strictly verboten)
They’re in her ears, small foam ones. Trust me. No, really.
She’s wearing them in the brass-in-the-eye sequence. They’re partially behind her bangs though. She’s also carrying them on her forearm in panel 1 and is putting them on in the last panel.
I will grant I forgot them in panel 3 on the first pass. :)
Damn, another reason I also want the original page.
My brother and I were at a range once, and brass from the gun my brother was using flew back at his face and smacked into his sunglasses. Would have been bad if wasn’t wearing them (of course, would also have been bad if they’d struck the lens hard enough to break them and send shards into his eye, but they didn’t, thank God).
And there was this time I was shooting with my cousin. The ejected casing from his pistol flew up into the air then down my cousin’s collar, into his shirt. He was waving his hands at the sudden hot pain on his upper back like a cartoon character, but that he had a loaded firearm in hand in his moment of panic definitely made it not funny (to his credit, he managed to keep the gun point downrange).
Ejecting hot brass is one of the reasons I’m glad I shoot revolvers instead.
I haven’t yet had a gun that would fling brass in my face but my favorite .25 will fling it up to land on top of my head. Antique guns, due either to age or odd design, will sometime fling brass in unexpected directions. I’ve been dinged by the other guy’s brass way more often than my own. This is largely due to shooting at an out door range with no panels between tables. On several occasions I’ve seen an old guy jump up and untuck his shirt to shuck the hot brass that rolled down his collar.
Took me a bit to figure out that third and forth panels were hypothetical.
Hat is a really good look for Sydney. She should wear a cap more often.
Awesome glasses indeed. Wonder if she can figure out a way to get that HUD to work with her pew pew orb?
And calm down, the HUD is useful but doubt that automatically makes you Annie Oakley.
“Took me a bit to figure out that third and forth panels were hypothetical.”
That’s a really good point. I thought those two panels really did happen. That led me to wonder why the glasses didn’t turn on when she fired the shot that sent a casing into her eye.
> Awesome glasses indeed. Wonder if she can figure out a way to get that HUD to work with her pew pew orb?
PPO has built-in HUD, another in glasses would be redundant and maybe even confusing.
Yay Shadowrun style Smartlink!
YES! That’s what I was thinking but I can’t remember what the variant that links to goggles instead of a cyberjack was called.
Smartlink is the cybernetic implant, Smartgoggles is the non-cyberware version for Normals and Magic types to get the benefit of a smartlink without losing Essence and Magic.
I may have spent … a few years playing/running Shadowrun
Oh… I just realized…
Did Cora reinforce Sydney’s glasses? Make them more durable and less breakable? It’d be sad if she put all that nice tech into them only for them to break in a fight.
So, anyone have a guess as to what the pistol is? It looks like a really good reproduction. But they wouldn’t be using spitzer bullets on a range…
And yeah, I’d want her to use iron sights too.
And, finally, KEEP THAT MUZZLE DOWNRANGE!
FN Five-seven. I think they even mentioned it when they gave Sydney her sidearm, but I’m too tired to look it up in the archives.
the FN Five-Seven is also the only gun I know with that type of magazine (two rows of bullets). A good choice when you want many bullets and not an extended magazine.
Also a good choice when your other weapon is a FN P90.
Double stack mags are common; I have several pistols, including a ParaOrdnance P15-40, that use them.
But if it’s a Five-seveN, I withdraw my objection about the bullets, since those are standard for that caliber.
Most modern pistols feed from double-stack, single-feed magazines. i.e. the magazine holds two rows of cartridges that get squooshed to a single row at the very top for feeding. Most modern rifles feed from double-stack, double-feed magazines where the rows stay separate all the way up and the gun has to be able to feed from either side alternatingly.
In Pistols the single-feed design means the mechanicals of the pistol can be kept at a reasonable size, but the magazine design is less inherently reliable (and also a PITA to load one cartridge at a time). The Five-Seven however uses double-stack/double-feed magazines because the 5.7x28mm cartridge is so skinny it doesn’t need a blimped-out pistol frame to work.
FN P90 — I’m given to understand that it’s much more accurate than a Jaffa staff weapon.
It also has a higher rate of fire, reloads faster, is lighter and more portable, and is overall a more deadly device.
You can’t use it like a wizard’s staff, however.
Yep, you’re right.
Yup, Five-seveN.
Re: muzzle down range, when isn’t she?
Panels 6 and 9, and maybe 7 depending on how wide the range is. The muzzle should never point at anything but the backstop except in the moment of recoil.
Halo his unlock cheat mode interface. All equipped items will be scanned and targeting range is approximated.
Just wait until she tries to look at her orbs using her HUD glasses. Oh right. They refuse to be scanned, so the result would be nothing. It was only when the skill tree (web?) appeared that Krona got to see anything special. Oh boy, was that special!
Hah! I like that. They REFUSE to be scanned, rather than cannot be scanned,.
At that level of tech, that’s completely appropriate terminology.
Personally, I prefer my Nth tech that scans as Cheetos. I mean, anyone takes a look at that shit, they’ll not want to get inside, lest there be Cheetos dust *everywhere*. ;)
And it is even valid training, getting familiar with equipment she really will use in the field, and NOT with glasses she do not use out there.
Besides, probably those safety glasses are prescription less too.
David.
Please tell me that the casing either hit her glasses’ lens and not her eye or that it was a thought bubble type scenario, Please. There would not be any ‘funny ha ha’ moment with Senica if it did happen. There would be screaming and Sydney loosing an eye if it happened. I don’t really thing Doc Chevy could repair a ruined eyeball after the scalding casing perforated it. So please add a ‘dink’ or something to show no eye contact or else make the boarder a thought bubble. I know it’s normally normally joke trumps reality thing but that’s REALLY dangerous and not pleasant to see happen in real life.
It was only imagined. I also thought it really happened. Clues it was only imagined:
1. She already has ear muffs on in panels 3 and 4, but is only beginning to put them on in the last panel.
2. If it wasn’t imagined, it would have been weird Cora’s upgrades only turned on after she’d already fired a shot.
3. What you said, which is far less funny and cute than what was depicted.
Valid point; noticed the ear muffs only after the initial scare. My heart attack is still bothering me after seeing that, though. Turns out you can’t ‘dad arm’ someone who isn’t real.
New range record maybe, as the one to not get a single shot on the target, or even in the correct ‘lane’ :P
Cue “GlasOS” promptly crashing being unable to calibrate properly due to Sydney’s “talents”, rebooting insane, and vowing to perform ‘science’ on humans until the calibration process could be completed…
Yeah even with a laser sight mapped into your eye, you still have to handle the weapon properly for the bullet to end up at the indicated spot. She’s been to the range several times now though so hopefully she’s at least stopped flinching when she pulls the trigger.
‘Weirdly huge’ glass lenses probably means that she has an expanded peripheral vision problem. I have that and my vision will degrade if the periphery of vision is not also covered by corrective lenses.
I wear big glasses just so I can use some of my peripheral vision. I like being able to see clearly without turning my entire head.
I’ve never thought expanded peripheral vision was a “problem”. The only problem I’ve got with it is that, since my cataract surgery, it’s not in focus anymore. But, hey, beats being blind.
My expanded peripheral vision was not a problem at all until glasses. I managed to get “weirdly huge” glass lenses like Sydney’s, except they’re *not* big enough for my ridiculous peripheral vision, and that makes wearing glasses a literal headache. Fortunately, my prescription is light enough I can just not most of the time.
Sydney’s glasses are basically flat, they don’t do shit regarding the peripheral
Does panel 9 where she’s inspecting her gun give anyone else anxiety?
She’s not pointing it directly at the back wall, but she’s also not pointing it directly sideways either. It’s still pointed downrange. She should have the safety on until she’s ready to fire though.
Yes, because somebody has failed to make stick the instruction “Handle the gun, or handle the gizmo. Choose ONE.“
The gizmo? You mean, her glasses?
Da.
But really, any object not the gun or its ammo or parts. And even if ammo or parts, the gun itself must be in an unfireable state and place, like a bench or table.
AH, I’m looking at panel 9… :)
nah the “new glasses” are from one of her power orb level ups…
No, Cora fixed Sydney’s glasses while transporting her back from Fracture, there was speculation at the time if Cora would make additional ‘fixes’ to them (other than making them lighter and more durable)
AFSTS, hunh? Shouldn’t she be in a $5000 suit and carrying a $2000 briefcase? Oh, wait! She’s currently in Archon. Nevermind.
When I first saw the round count in the tenth panel, I was thinking that looks like some of the numbers used to test colour blindness. If you can see 21, then you are a hyperactive with poor eye-hand co-ordination, which means that even with improved targeting, you are still going to scatter-shot the target.
I never noticed how alike Halo and Agatha Heterodyne are both in looks and personality. There’s another crossover I’d like to see.
The comparison has been made before. Agatha is normally much more focused; just watch out when she gets really focused! I can just imagine an encounter between Achilles and a Jaegar.
That does create a fun mental image – unfortunately Achilles doesn’t have a good hat, so they’d probably tire of him quickly.
Oggie: Woww! Hu iz ah tuff guy! Da niif did not evin go hin. I givin you grate hat! [ Hands Achilles a large bold headgear with the words “Tough Guy” written on a plaque on the front.
(ツ)•°°( ↑This! ↑ )
(ツ)•°°( ↑This!↑ )
Really? I don’t think they’re alike at all. The closest Agatha’s ever come to swearing was when she called that guy who smacked her rear a “disgusting little man” — admittedly in her jagged black text Lucrezia voice — and as a young lady, she doesn’t even drink stimulants. :-) She does like her machinery though.
Does coffee not count as a stimulant? She does like a good cup of coffee.
I suspect people will know something is up when she gets too good too fast.
I’ve done a bit of range instructing, civilian level, not military. I take it pretty seriously, as do te people I’m around. People who don’t, I don’t get on the same range with them. Sometimes I lodge an opinion with the range and they don’t get on th erange again.
Anyway.
Even taking a laid back approach, I usually stand around and watch new people get gear out, arranged, and set up in general. I say and do nothing until they reach for a weapon, especially to begin loading it. Of course I step in before that if they do something really dangerous, but when they start to pick the weapon up, that’s when I step in and go over anything they did wrong or anything they could have done better. It’s the least intrusive and the least offensive while preserving range safety for everybody
Sydney would be wearing goggles, and I would have said something so that she didn’t ever ask anyone ever again about not wearing them
Also, she would not have a charged weapon in hand without full ear protection securely in place.
EAR PROTECTION. ALWAYS.
EYE PROTECTION. ALWAYS.
NO EXCEPTIONS. EVER.
Other things like cleavage protection and socks to avoid burned feet when a case falls into your shoe … I strongly urge such things, but have been known to let hem slide. The problem is, on a public range, especially when you don’t know the individuals intimately, you never know when some idiot throws a tantrum when hot brass burns her tits or starts to cook his ankle. Then you get idiots who start dancing around, screaming senselessly, and waving a live firearm at other people. Sometimes even the range instructor.
That is how people get dead. So it’s very much NOT recommended behavior to EVER relax range discipline for anyone ever.
Please handle firearms with perfect respect always. Or don’t even attempt to handle them at all.
[ / END lecture mode ]
Well, it looks like Sydney is wearing the hearing protection, but yeah, the eye protection is insufficient.
Given that Archon has a staff doctor with the power to heal others’ injuries, Seneca may favor letting recruits find out the reasons for the safety procedures the hard way, since few of the possible injuries would be permanent.
Jiggawatt was able to recover almost all her hearing in a few days after having her eardrums completely burst by a superhuman sonic attack, so I’m pretty sure the doctor could fix gunfire-induced tinnitus in a few minutes. Likewise, the Unmaker-induced hot sauce burn to the eye Sydney got was all good in less than a day, so a brass blistering her eyelid would be easily fixable.
When you can fix any likely injury, the temptation to let experience do the teaching for you would be palpable.
I have serious doubts the staff doctor can fix a case of dead.
When shooting at the range I wear glasses and a hat.
when teaching new shooters I recommend as follows hat glasses and a shirt that comes up high on the neck, this is especially true for female shooters. The happy dance of hot brass is not something they want to do and I don’t be next to when they’ve got a gun in their hand
Oh except for the bullet counter she could have just bought a hollow sun and put on the Glock or several other optics choices. I guess the pseudo magictec might allow one to shoot around corners but then again does she really need to since she has light hook.
Don’t eat at the range Seneca, unless you need extra lead in your diet for some reason!
Is there a “heavy metal poisoning”-based super origin story she’s trying to kickstart?
She has an incurable sweet-tooth
why does the target look like Vader?
Why not? Besides, when I first saw the target, I was thinking that was a woman with a particular above the shoulder hair style, not the flanges of Vader’s helmet.
As I understand it (and I’ve actually looked into it out of curiosity), the elite of the five branches of the military (if we include the Coast Guard, and we should) are as follows:
Army – Green Berets (don’t let the A-Team being Airborne Rangers fool you.)
Navy – SEALS (and the top among them is Seal Team Six, but I wouldn’t want to piss off any of them. Maritime and land operations deep recon and occasional tactical action into enemy territory.)
Marines – Marine Force Recon (Jethro Gibbs from NCIS was MFR before becoming what amounts to an elite MP)
Coast Guard – Maritime Safety & Security Teams (MSST – predominantly a counter-terrorism function, rapid response units protecting ports and waterways.)
Air Force – Air Force Pararescue (Have to be able to drop into dangerous areas, provide infiltration/exfiltration support, medical treatment, and more. Sam Wilson, aka: Falcon from the Avengers, is former AF Pararescue.)
As a former military guy who has worked with some of these folks at high levels, I can concur – Don’t let the Airborne Rangers fool you. Not all are Meathead buffoons who place following orders and rank above all else including common sense and critical thinking, but enough are.
The other guys are generally cool AF, but they are also usually stand-offish until they really know you. And maybe even a bit then. Hazards of the job and being a trained killer I think.
then cora told the team about the glasses being fixed and slightly upgraded. peggy comes in from briefing “ok now do it with out the fancy new glasses” XD
“But then I can’t even see the target from this distance. It’s a fuzzy blob, way down there.”
“Use your old glasses.”
“My old glasses are broken. I only had one pair.”
“Okay, try it without these guys anyway. 5-round grouping.”
[ Sydney aims down the range and squeezes off 5 rounds. The target is pulled up to the station. ]
“Well, did I hit anything?”
“You nicked the corner down here, on the bottom of the target. Otherwise, nothing. So about the same was when you started with us.”
I usually wear cargo pants at the range, and I often discover random shell casings in my pockets later. Don’t feel them when they fall in there. You get some odd looks when you reach into your pocket for your keys or change, and pull out 2-3 9 mm casings.
“There’s probably never been a day at any shooting range where that hasn’t happened at least once. I mean, can you blame the brass?”
Sydney’s enlisted. Provided they’re not around to hear, she can always blame the brass.