Grrl Power #858 – Tutorial level
Sydney’s training is starting to pick up. I skip over a lot of it, especially the classroom stuff where she’s learning the law end of being a superhero. But with her recent improvements to her aim, they want to see what happens when they cut her lose with a loaded gun in a maze full of targets.
Don’t worry, Doc Chevy is on base today. There are a few standing bets as to whether her skills will be needed.
Originally, I had actually planned for Sydney to actually do the cake or death gag in on the course. By “originally,” I mean there’s a draft of this page in my notes that’s probably six years old. She winds up getting yelled at after getting icing in her gun, but I guess both Sydney and myself have matured very slightly since then.
But the fact that she showed up with a sack of cupcakes mean she was still planning on goofing around, but she’s starting to get the idea that these military guys are actually pretty serious about weapon handling. Character growth!
Cake or death, for those of you unfamiliar.
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Wait… where did she get a sack full of cupcakes? So when is she going to have to come clean about the glasses too?
When she gets caught.
The thing is, those glasses probably are training her to be a decent point shooter. They’re not a bad training aid, she just needs to alternate them with regular glasses.
“Oh, Sydney!
The ability to shoot people in the chest was in you all along!”
Shhhhh, some things one doesn’t question. Like where do the NCO’s get that good coffee in the morning when all the mess sends out is rarely better than grade 4. Don’t worry your head about it. (sips some more of said coffee of the gods) it’s okay.
Honestly, I’m trying to think of a scenario where she would get caught.
“Oh you shoot great! Now shoot without your glasses.” “Um, I can’t see clearly enough without my glasses.”
And if somebody were goofing around and put her glasses on, they’d also need to be holding a weapon up for the reticle to show. I’m not saying a scenario doesn’t exist, just any that I think of off the top of my head are implausible even for a comic standards.
I don’t get it. Are folks trying to say she’s not allowed to have help like that from her glasses? I would think it would be standard issue if it was helpful. Or did I miss something? Alien tech not allowed or something? I’m confused.
Generally with training (in almost anything) you want to learn without all the aids then move on to using the aids later on.
eg: grade school kids shouldn’t be using spellcheck when learning to write even though there’s nothing wrong with using spell check in general.
There’s plenty wrong with computers spellchecking. Not principally—a fine proofing aid that would be—but each computer spellchecking my english text was stylously limited: lettercase styles, agglutates, hyper/hypo/poly -synthetics,; yet more obstructing my edition than aiding my proofing. And selfspellchecking exercises mental faculties.
*Stylistically
*Self-spellchecking
For a brief explanation of why using computers all the time is a bad idea see Moonbase Alpha Singing.
Eight’s knot joust that thee vocabulary hand grammar oaf ennui computer cheque haze limitations, butt that thee auto-incorrect Kant tale wane thee righter haze used thee write spelling oaf thee rung word.
Plus of course the other problems of delegating everything to computers, namely that it often introduces a single point of critical failure and potentially trains the user to be incompetent without such assistance. Tech is all very well, but it should only be trusted as far as you can fix it or go without.
Eh I think it’s like not allowing calculators in math class, it’s stupid after first grade.
Not stupid.
Once you start using an aid, you come to depend on it.
It’s not a bad thing to depend on a calculator for math. Math is itself just a tool, it has no inherent value except as it use as a tool. Using one tool to aid another tool is just technological progress. It’s like using a table saw instead of a hand saw, the table saw is easier and faster, but you don’t get an upper body workout by cutting a 4×8 sheet of plywood in half.
How often have you done paper calculations as an adult? Does anyone outside of acadamia do quadratic equations on paper?
Given the number of shop assistants I’ve seen bewildered at having to do a percentage discount in their heads… And percentage discounts are EASY if you practise them. Without a calculator. It is only simple arithmetic, not mathematics.
We hear lots about people being illiterate, but nothing about being innumerate. Of course, you don’t get little electronic devices to do your language for you, so you need to do it yourself!
…
Do I do paper calculations? Not for everyday numeracy, it’s too time-consuming.
“How often have you done paper calculations as an adult?” – Aboo
Maybe not every day or even week, but probably at least once a month I’ll use a pen and paper to jot down either the factors involved or the end result. It’s rare to need the paper for the intermediate steps, but not unheard of. And that’s not counting the far more frequent times that I’ll do it all in my head, because it’s not that complicated and/or I only need a ballpark estimate.
It’s more of a matter of relying on a crutch in the field. For instance, given the field she’s working in their is a significant chance that those glasses will get broken at some point. If she’s relying on them to do the skill work for her, what happens when suddenly she’s had them taken away and in a situation where it actually matters? It would also cause some rather uncomfortable questions when those in charge of her instruction suddenly notice a drastic drop in skill causing them to half way start over.
If she is in a situation where her glasses (that she uses to see with) are taken away, she’s got bigger problems than trying to shoot something with a handgun
It’s less of her being in danger and more of a collateral damage problem. We’ve already seen one case of her losing her glasses in a surprise attack. I doubt that she’d be in any real danger between her bubble and team mates, but her glasses have a much higher chance of being taken out by rubble or obliterated by accident.
I don’t see Sid ever actually using her gun “in the field”. She has the PPO , the gun is just a training tool.
I thought that not getting broken was the original idea behind Cora making Sid her glasses.
One. Even I wouldn’t use Syddles’ PPO in a street fight/battle. You don’t bring a napalm/flame thrower to light a camp fire. Her allocated gun is a combat required weapon.
Two. No, Cora was “repairing” the cracked lens after Syddles escaped from the Vogons. Cora decided to add some features.
The simplest scenario where she gets caught is Cora saying, while somebody else is present, “Hey, Sydney! How are the new glasses with the integrated targeting system working out?” or something to that effect.
Alternatively, they gave her prescription shooting goggles, (Remember, she’s supposed to be wearing them, but Seneca let her use her own glasses instead.) and Peggy requires her to use them. And suddenly she can’t shoot worth a darn anymore.
But, like I said, by now she should be a decent point shooter, even if she still sucks at using the sights.
Or they’re stepped-on, having fallen off the face.
Nah, we can today make glasses that wouldn’t be harmed by being stepped on. Memory alloy frames are already a thing, and only cost keeps Lenscrafters from selling Aluminum oxynitride (AKA “Transparent aluminum”) lenses. The chances of those glasses Cora made breaking from somebody other than Stalwart stepping on them isn’t great.
Just because Sydney’s targeting glasses are high tech doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t just as fragile as any other kind of glasses.
You’re making the common error of assuming that high tech equals high quality in all ways. How many people have broken their iPhone screen by dropping them on a hard surface? Or ruined any cell phone by getting it wet? Very often high tech items are more fragile rather than less. I could use my StarTac as a quiddich quaffle and it wouldn’t be harmed, but don’t try that with any modern cell phone.
We literally saw Cora making the lens in her space-fabber, only someone like you would assume she would go “You know what? Even though I’m adding all these new abilities, I will replicate simple silicate-based lens’ as currently available on Earth. What could possibly happen while Sydney is wearing them to damage them? “
Yeah, but… “Fragile” includes the lenses falling out of the frame. And if the frame gets… distorted, then good luck with re-seating the lenses.
… What frame? :thinking:
It’s the bits of wood that hold the picture. :remembering:
True, except, Sydney’s glasses are frameless (they are beyond reproach, the wearer on the other flipper… :P )
I think it safe to assume that Cora (who fabricates her own custom prosthetic limbs) is a better engineer than to let durability be an issue.
So now we get the scenario where (for whatever reason) Syddles’ specs fall off her face and under a heavy mass… And Peggy sees Syddles calmly refitting them to her face… I wonder what Peggy’s question would be?
“I wonder what Peggy’s question would be [on seeing the durability of Sydney’s glasses demonstrated]?” – gorblimey
Probably along the lines of “where can I get my leg upgraded to those materials?” That probably wouldn’t be the only question, but it may well be the tie-breaker in the decision of whether or not to take the tube-grown replacement meat-leg.
Or where Cora has already told Peggy directly. While they were on a ship on vacation. Probably while they were in bed.
Peggy just isn’t letting it on that she knows yet.
Peggy also isn’t letting on that she has an “off switch” for the targeting function…
That would be a really stupid function for Cora to build in. It opens up Sydney to the possibility of having her glasses hacked by an enemy. In combat that could be a deadly back door, all for the idiot thought that perhaps Sydney’s superiors should be able to turn off her targeting assistance capability? Here’s an easier way to do that: Have her wear her terrestrial make glasses.
I can’t see them giving her prescription goggles… it’s far, FAR easier- and cheaper- to give her standard goggles that are made to go over her existing glasses, and have her wear her glasses under them. As a matter of fact, once Peggy finds out about the glasses-not-goggles thing, she’s going to assume it was an ability-to-see issue like that, and get her some of those goggles made to go over her glasses. All the safety goggles in the world won’t help you if you can’t see the target to begin with.
That said, the assist on her glasses is much like the lane departure warning on my car: A great teaching tool. It doesn’t tell her how to do it, it tells her how wrong she is. It’s because of that assist that Seneca was able to determine that she was holding/firing the gun wrong in the first place, which would’ve completely crippled her targeting ability regardless, as demonstrated. A true aim assist, that would guide the gun to the right aim and everything, would be like the lane keep assist on my car (that I usually keep turned off): A great tool for an experienced driver (shooter, in Sydney’s case), but ANYONE else should leave it alone.
These days, the prescription route is far less expensive and a damn’sight more reliable. Employers have discovered that workers with impaired vision from over-lenses are the greatest cause of incidents. So now all they do is direct the employee to the company oculist, on company time. And the employee gets nice polycarbonate lenses in a safety frame that securely holds the lenses, and looks super cool. (My last pair had an aviator frame! And I got two specs, one night-time and one dark polarised!)
Like heck looks super cool. Before my cataract surgery my eyesight was 350-400. Even the thin lenses looked clunky, the polycarbonate safety glasses, (Polycarbonate has a relatively low refractive index.) were so thick at the the rims to meet the minimum center thickness that they looked absurd. Hurt my nose they were so heavy.
Only people who barely need glasses look good in prescription safety glasses.
From your second sentence, I’m assuming your eyesight with cataracts was pretty well nonexistent :(
Your not putting a date on your surgery, but I will make the point that these days you would never be allowed in the field, for OS&H reasons.
How’s the eyesight now?
About 30-30, but fixed focus now. Still need reading glasses if the light levels are low.
That was about 10 years ago, chemotherapy gave me cataracts that came on like a freight train. And, yeah, I ended up leaving ROTC back in the 70’s over my eyesight.
Now my son is in coke bottle glasses, but we’re saving for the surgery to fix his vision when it stabilizes. Not cheap, takes a combination of Lasik AND Intacs, neither is enough by itself.
My total sympathy. My worst problem was short sight, but the correction got lots easier with non-silicate lenses, much lighter. And going to aviator frames lessened the burden.
All the best to your son.
Wow that’s bad, friend of mine was Albino. They have terrible vision because of the albinism, even with his glasses he had to shove is nose into the monitor to read what the customers information was. Still don’t know how the hell he was actually faster then me at resolving customer issues. He would regularly beat my best times by a couple minutes, I was no slouch at the time and could crank out a call depending on the subject in under five. He just knew the system better, is all I could figure. Yes you can solve a person problem in under five minutes if you know what the hell you are doing and looking for. Give me the right product let me learn where and how it breaks and I can tell a person how to fix it in seconds and actually fix it.
Keeping in mind while they aim they don’t work like a video game and auto-correct her arm to shoot or guide the bullet. She still has to learn to control her manual behavior; but it does help a lot, just like a scope only better.
Yeah, they show her where to shoot, it’s still up to Sydney to actually hit the target
ohh Gluten free cupcakes, then I won’t die if I get one thrown at me.
Don’t be too sure, gluten-free cupcakes are a lot like dwarf bread. And you don’t want to actually eat either one if you can help it.
Disclaimer, I have several celiac relatives and the recipes have gotten way, way better over the last decade. Still not great, but palatable and occasionally hard noticeable
These days you can just use 1for1 GF flour in a regular cupcake recipe. I haven’t noticed much of a difference when I made cupcakes. But I was also using an old vegan recipe that I like better than normal cupcakes. Also it being safe to lick all the bowls was a nice bonus :)
Oh yeah – the gluten free cake issue is SOLVED! (Just as soon as garlic bread and donuts recipes get fixed my life will be perfect….. I miss donuts…)
I agree, when my son got diagnosed with celiac about 10 years ago, any gluten free bread or cake we could find tasted like cardboard, or worse, and forget about drinkable beer. Fast forward to now, and we have found some cake recipes that I like better than the “normal” version.
Art on panel 2 is brilliant, love how Sydney looks.
Yeah — Dave’s art really has improved. Or, he’s subtly changing Syd as the “super hero bod transformation” takes hold. Will we recognize a 36C-22-36 Sydney?
The one day when Sidney finally puts on a bikini and has the abs to rule them all. Abs-zilla. Abs-dominatrix.
Or as Heather in Spinnerette says, “Girl Abs!”
Ah the good old GABs
The Abs-olute body?
Syd does look subtly more… filled out. Her arms are more toned and she looks like she has discernible biceps, she looks like she has at least moved up to a reasonably large B cup whereas she used to be completely flat. For most supers who have innate powers the super hero bod is explained as genetics IIRC but maybe one of her orbs is responsible for physical support and is slowly modifying her as a sort of passive buff?
It’s pecs. Women have been doing pushups to increase their bust size for ages.
In addition to getting more exercise she’s also not wearing two layers of baggy shirts here either but a tighter workout shirt.
She is firming up but I would bet the only way we ever see C-cup Sydney is pregnancy or implants. In the same thought I can see Sydney benefiting from the exercise but not really getting into it to the degree need to rock a six pack. Both would make for some fun fan service though.
Aside from her now comically oversized head, (Panel 2 is ok, by by the last panel she’s approaching bobble head territory.) Sydney has the same build as my wife. Who, yes, does have abs, even if they’re not conspicuous except when she’s doing crunches. Frankly, the level of body fat you need for abs to be conspicuous when relaxed isn’t healthy for women.
It isn’t healthy for men either
I like the instagram vs real life comparison photos some models have put out. Even fitness models only have visible abs when they are actively flexing or posing.
+1.
Ok so Sydney gets her heart broken TODAY, but the NEXT time sh annihilates a massive alien fleet all by herself, you know she’ll be screaming ‘Cake or death? Death for YOU, no cake!’
Ah yes, the Orange Lantern approach.*
* I’m not about to dive into that archive, but basically during a burst of power and clarity he generates construct eyes watching everyone on Earth simultaneously while locating a villain, then as an apology for the intrusion bakes a cake the size of Manhattan and gives each person a slice.
Not reading that rubbish, butt assuming you are not talking about Larfleez, the only Orange Lantern (the time Luthor or even Blatman got the ring doesn’t count), and he never gives anything away if he can help it, certainly not an apology
No, not Lafleez – With This Ring is a popular and long-running Young Justice alternate history fanfic, wherein the main character appears with just an orange ring and his wits, and uses it along with common sense (and enlightened self-interest) to bring supervillain tech to market and get other supers to do something useful with their powers. He does actually face off with Larfleez a good ways into the story though.
I actually haven’t read/watched most of the source material, but I’ve enjoyed seeing fridge logic triumph over tropes.
Cake please.
Well we’re outa cake.
PIE!
So my choice is ‘or death’? That’s not very fair.
I guess I’ll have the chicken.
One chicken with white wine for Mr. Hitler
Better option than the cold fish head.
Oh,no! Not ludfisk! Anything but that … I’ll talk … *sob*, *sob* … just no more ludfisk.
Sorry ,,, Lutefisk
Splurge gun death would be my choice.
The çåkè is a lie. Now get back to work!
This comic always have a lot of cake. Mostly cheesecake but some beefcake too.
It’s gluten-free cake, so, yeah, death.
Not actual death, just tastes like it :P
She3 should of gone with cookies. “You’re a civilian. You get a cookie.”
She certainly won’t give anyone brownie points for being caught amid a superfight.
Man, I wish I had Seneca’s metabolism. Gorge on sweets but still have abs like those? And yes, I know she must exercise like mad, but still, she must process that sugar like crazy!
Supers don’t work like us mortals obviously. Big boobs and arms for all.
Peggy and Seneca are both ‘mere’ mortals who just happen to be really really good at their jobs.
Is Seneca not a super? What exactly is her job – I don’t remember it ever being touched on directly. Wasn’t she guarding ARC-Light during the Vehemence fight?
Yeah, she’s just a ‘regular’ soldier, like Shawn, not-Goose and Pegs
Top level athletes eat ~5000 kCal a day when training, so Seneca always snacking sweets seems realistic. I have a very physical job and a fast metabolism, so on busy work days I’ll easily eat 3500 kCal a day. So that’s normal meals plus three full sized donuts or cheese burgers.
Amish farmers have similar calorie requirements. The truth is, you can eat as much as you want, and practically anything that’s not outright toxic, so long as you’re getting enough exercise.
Is it me, or Peggy really got vertically stretched while flying with Cora?
The original A-Team is hardly recognizable. *sniff* They grow up so fast.
Nonono, you fool! There’s only ONE Cake or Death!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZVjKlBCvhg
Now, see some of the others, esp Lego Death Star Cantina (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw)
I came looking for this and was not disappointed. Thanks, I haven’t watched these in years. :D
The late night petrol station shopping is one of my favorites https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKLuLkLw20Y
Hello, I’m a murderer.
… I’ll have a Twix please
While I like both, I am a much bigger fan of Death Star Cantina.
“And this is wet, and this is wet, and this is wet…”
Seems like there was a missed opportunity for this back when Sydney was at the Fracture.
Where did you dry these, in a rainforest?!
Interesting thing to note: this story starts somewhere around 2010, back during Obama’s first term in office (He even makes a cameo! You can look it up if you want…). Even if we’re assuming the side trip to the Alari homeworld took six months, and then returning to Earth took a week, and Sydney’s been back on Earth for a couple months thereafter… well, Obama’s still more than a year (probably more like 18 months, minimum) from being re-elected. I’m pretty sure the “Cake or Death” thing wasn’t around back in 1991.
It is comic time.
Seneca isn’t good with dates (too healthy :P )
Okay, I went back and checked, and the Eddie Izzard thing was done in 1999, so there you go: a dozen years (-ish), not 20.
It could be hyperbole. One has said that a certain phone, first released 2–3 years prior, is a dozen years old. At least he understood that the smaller the hyperbole, the greater it’s effect.
Time is one of those things you are not supposed to think too much about when it comes to superhero comics.
Yeah, it gets harder and harder to stick to “real” time in the comic. I don’t want to skip ten years ahead and several members of the team are retired and Dabbler’s wandered off on some inter-stellar adventure.
You want an in-comic explanation? Everyone that comes up with a reference you want to bring into the comic from “later” in the real world is a secret super or their “thing” that you’re referencing was moved up in time, due in some way to the supers being revealed.
Basically, the reveal of supers sparked their creativity or action to do or say that thing that your reference relies upon in a way that it happened earlier than in the real world.
Pretty simple, I think
Or, this is a completely different time-line where things happen whenever Dave says they do?
I just try not to think about it too hard.
So long as each difference is minor or caused by principal differences. If it’s major, but not from other principals, then it’s to be treated as a principal. Wherefor is it principal? Irregarding frivolity or seriosity: is it’s effect on the artproduct good?
That’s up to DaveB – if I were writing something that were splintering from reality, then for things that would otherwise be happening 10 years into the future in *real time* to be happening 10 months in the future in *comic time* – I would want to try to have an explanation, however brief…
but that’s me…
Also, a short flash-forward now and then might be rather interesting, depending on how far you skip ahead – do some of the supers or other main cast now have kids/family or have they somehow gone rogue or died – that sort of thing — then after you return to the comic’s “present,” you drop the occasional reference to the future change and how it came about…
Not sure if you’re up for a character-from-the-future sort of thing (like a time travelling super – especially one that can’t quite control his or her power very well for some reason), but that could also be a way to drop references to the comic’s future
Either because the future is what we make it, not what he/she/they experienced before travelling into the past…
Or because they’ve been made crazy or something by the time travel and are largely unreliable as a source of information for the military…
the character wouldn’t have to be a spoiler…
but yeah… this would allow you to have references to the real world, now and then, while allowing you to keep the comic being drawn in a consistent time frame
You haven’t gone too far into Harem’s disorientation when she was in a time frame where I guess there were too many of her or something, but I wonder… what if one of the Harems were temporarily (or permanently??) sucked into the future somehow… it could SOMEHOW give her a bit of precognition perhaps… or if it was temporary, then her copy returning to the “present” could really screw with her memories – what’s real and something to react to now, and what’s in the past, etc…
Just a few thoughts – love the comic!
There is a simple(r) fix for the entire problem.
Obama wasn’t elected in 2008. He was elected in 2016, after Hillary’s second term!
The Donald isn’t anywhere on the horizon, just a bitter, tweeting businessman.
That’ll do it – case closed.
It’s already an alternate universe.
I want to move to that timeline.
Where an accused war criminal was president? o_O
Well, you can also remember that the entire comic to date covers less than a couple months. This is still a flashback to he 5th page when Sydney is a corporal.
Cake is fake, the pie is made of lye, eat too much of either, and you WILL die!
I thought it was \beginpoetrymode Cake is fake\caesura The pie is a lie\caesura He who ate mine\caesura shall certainly die\endpoetrymode
You know what lye is, right?
It’s not true!
Gelatinous cake? oh the horror of Lutefisk cake!
i’ll have the chicken….
but yea getting hit with cake in a combat situation doesn’t sound bad…unless its coming at me at mach 1 then i might mind assuming i’m still conscious.
Okay, why is Sydney carrying the cuppie-cakes in a sack? And why is Seneca still eating one? :thinking:
And do not say “Because it’s Sydney” or “Because she has a sweet-tooth”! or variations on either!!
Do love the look Pegs is given Neca in panel eight, like “Why are you eating that, after it’s been in a sack?”
Sorry to disappoint you but fact is that Sydney is a total weirdo. This comic is about a weirdo creating chaos in the lives of those boring military types. So snack in a sack is typical Sydney behaviour. In fact that rhyme may be why she used a sack.
Seneca’s running in-comic gag has been that she’s ALWAYS eating something sweet. So, if there are cupcakes, even bag-cupcakes, she’s eating them.
Because the cupcake bandoliers are delayed in shipping.
Is… there anything significant about the *SPLAT*job on the attractive woman’s cleavage?
Center of mass.
That… wasn’t what was thinking of
Think of something else that goes *SPLAT* on a woman’s cleavage (if you are old enough, that is)
Orange Slushie!
Blue Freezy Shake! (Cora hates those! https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-697-space-high/)
Groucho Marx preferred banana cream pies.
Now, could dabbler not make a bullet that expands into a cupcake when fired?
Seems like a fun prank to play during an exercise.
A womans center of mass is at the level of her hips, as that is the widest part!
That’s… not how center of mass works, but yes it’s near the top of the hips for women, and only slightly above the hips for men. The targeting principle is different than the physics one, but either way Sydney’s hit is high so I’m going with comedic effect. “Center of laughs” perhaps…?
this will be interesting if she has to to go without her glasses
The term for the tactical training maze with targets is a Hogan’s Alley. There was an old NES game based on that, but there’s an actual permanent ‘town’ of Hogan’s Alley for such training by the FBI and others.
There is of course the classic example therof: https://youtu.be/j-aFqq8aAWA
Less well-known, but still amusing: https://youtu.be/-WKM9GDuX0Y
As you went with Hammer, surprised you didn’t go with the inspiration, Dirty Harry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oRm-YxsEH8
From Men In Black: https://youtu.be/K3hAVT2sDqQ
The artwork is very edgy today.
I’m not very familiar with comics much, but Bradbury comes to mind, and Miéville, and Joe Haldeman. Even the Helliconia trilogy.
Just use a combination of almond and coconut flour, and a small amount of tapioca for structure. They turn out pretty much the same as regular flour cupcakes. As long as you aren’t allergic to almonds or coconuts.
I LOVE coconut.
As a veteran I can confirm that while Ludacris. It is entirely in the realm of possibility and not just at the range. Just, trust me. I know troops. I know what they can get up to, that’s why there is make work and training. To keep those nice young, strong, not quite right in the head, trigger happy fools occupied. Now, one of you maggots go get me an exhaust gas sample from that tank!
The cake is a lie.
The cake is fake, the pie is a lie.
That’s not what Doug Rattman says.
YES! Someone is starting to get it (almost, you misspelled ‘lye’ though)
Lye is a very powerful corrosive alkali. Making pie from lye would be ungood.
You just have to use enough lemon juice
DING DING DING!!
So… what will Sydney do when Peggy enforces proper range discipline and makes her remove her glasses and wear safety goggles?
In my experience, range officers are fine with glasses (mine are polycarbonate and equivalent to safety glasses). Would be inappropriate to not use them, anyways, seeing as being able to see details is kind of important when it comes to shooting.
If someone were to insist on her using goggles, they ought to have prescription lenses (since her glasses are large enough she’d probably have trouble fitting them under goggles). But I’ve never been to a range insisting on goggles, just glasses – and by lens size alone, Sydney’s count (especially now they’re made of whatever Cora and company fabbed for her).
new…. art style?
Dave has tried out many new art styles over the years. Sometimes it’s nice to go back and read the old stories just to see the original art work. (First Peggy is the best Peggy).
Trying some things. Put my “add” layer above my color layer to try and give the color a bit more variation, then played with brightness contrast a bit. I think I like it, but Seneca looks oiled in the first panel there, so I need to tweak it still.
As i said in my post above, too edgy — Bradbury comes to mind, and Miéville, and Joe Haldeman. Even the Helliconia trilogy.
What will happen next,Sydney doesn’t pass….or will she!?
Peggy notices a slight glimmer on Sdyney’s glasses and the realize something’s amiss!
Then she goes to see the obvious suspect-Dabbler…!
Not too much character growth please. Sydney’s antics should be a permanent cause of facepalms among the serious military staff.
Sydney is going to run the ‘live fire’ course. In panel two we see her about to select the shield orb and the PPO. The course is definitely about to be on fire.
(P.S. in the penultimate panel Peggy appears to have a scar over both eyes)
It’s hilarious that she has to be told not to fuck around on the live fire range. It’s also frightening that she has to be told not to fuck around on the live fire range.
Especially considering that she have firepower enough to fight space Chtulus.
Space kaiju, not Chtulus (Cthulu so I’m going to assume that’s a typo).
Vogons.
Panel 4 … so cute!
Like Chuckie.
I love the way that Peggy gets “Chuckie Face” when she is talking about the seriousness of the target course.
i hate myself, but now i really want to see someone run a firearms corse like that
With a lead gun in one hand and a cake gun in the other.
Cake or death will never get too old to be funny. I’m with Sydney on this one. :)
Just waiting for Peggy to tell Syndey to run the course without her glasses, and use the proper safety gear.
Those are prescription glasses, she can’t just shoot without them
Syddles is far-sighted AFAIK.
It doesn’t matter, if she takes to the course without the proper gear, she’ll be failed.
And I’m pretty sure DaveB himself said that Sydney doesn’t need her glasses to see, just to read.
–EXCUSE YOU?!?
I have 2 family members who have celiac disease. One has had her diagnosis from 1992. Gluten-free cakes have come a LONG way in tastiness since those early days, and are actually pretty damn delicious! And yes, I DO know what I’m talking about, because I’m NOT one of my 2 family members with celiac. I get to eat GF cake AND eat wheat flour cake, etc.
(Besides, frosting never has flour in it. (If it does, yer doin’ it wrong.) The right frosting can make anything taste faboo!)
I bit into a gluten free pita about 6 years ago and I’m still in therapy.
*shivers in commenter*
Wow. Syd actually stopped herself doing something inapropriate yet funny. She IS maturing! (Slightly).
Hm. How would one go about getting cops to throw more cupcakes?
If the criminals start using cupcakes instead of guns the cops won’t need guns either. Then the cupcake lobby can buy some politicians to replace guns with cupcakes.
Just arm them with donuts
If you arm cops with donuts, they won’t be armed for long. Fed, but not armed.
It could be hyperbole. One has said that a certain phone, first released 2–3 years prior, is a dozen years old. At least he understood that the smaller the hyperbole, the greater it’s effect.
Mispost. Please disregard.
Cake is nice, but cupcakes are not. They are too large to eat easily, the cake part is rarely nice cake, and the icing is usually awful.
They are all about appearance, not taste – like a flashy, badly dyed blonde with fake boobs.
Why have cupcakes become the default cake?
Depends on the type of cuppie-cake and where you get it from, just like with full sized cakes: not all are created equal
The cupcakes I make are just cake dough filled with berries and chocolate, if the dough is good enough you don’t need frosting
Sure store bought ones suck, but so do cakes
Now, as I see it, the responsible way to run this gag would be to use a longarm with an underbarrel launcher using “specialty” rounds.
“And this is a 40mm Bean-Bag Round – made with actual beans…..”
What i want to know is if there’s a few MIB-style target cutouts, and if Sydney is going to catch on immediately.
You mean, little ‘Suzie’ carrying advanced physics books through a rough neighbourhood (West Philly) after midnight?
Or Symon using an old street lamp as exercise equipment?
That civilian cut-out looks like Veronica from the Archie comics…!
Thought she looked familiar…
*dances around madly!*
Little Red Cookbook!
*bwahahahas!*