Grrl Power #865 – Mental (attack) support system
The alternate version of this page has Sydney bubbling Sandy like she obviously should have, then Sandy sneezes right in her face. We all know her shield is pretty darn good, but Sydney wasn’t “in the zone” just now. She was busy thinking about sideboobs and internet comments.
This is a scene I’ve had rolling around in my head for about 7 years, and it’s good to finally get on paper.
Archon probably does have some protocol for mental invasion, but psychics in the Grrl-verse are a bit rare – or at least if there are a lot of them out there, they’re probably either real good at staying out of the spotlight, or are working for Arc-DARK, or making bank in the private sector. Or are supervillains. But that’s still technically the private sector.
In any case, with people like Zephan and Dabbler on the team, the building is warded against a lot of stuff. It’s not impenetrable, but it’s much harder to get into than most places.
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All this makes me wonder if they have tested Sydney’s bubble for Mental Defense?
Ha! First on Page 1 and Page 2 :D
Gesundheit!
Sideboob!
Well she wasn’t affected by the mental anger effect of the big bad at the restaurant (can’t remember any of the names) while she was in her shield, so yes, I’d say that’s a conclusive test.
At least against certain extranormal energies, like vehemic energy and weakness auras. Might not be the same with other energies though. Like tantric energies possibly tantric auras. Dabbler jumping rope with the “hypnotic boobs” seem to go through the shield rather effectively, for example.
She hasnt dealt with psionic energy yet, far as I remember, but it would be a good assumption that shed be immune to that as well with the shield up. But playing devils advocate for a moment, it is not guaranteed until we see it happen.
I kind of figured that, although they were genuinely hypnotic, they were also metaphorically so in the more usual way.
Yep. And Dabbler did say they were LITERALLY hypnotic. So I have to presume she means literally, rather than figuratively :).
Plus we already know certain things do get through the shield like normal levels of light and sound. Which Sydney wanted to ask Dabbler about (also related to the rpg session in the beginning of the webcomic)
[quote]rather than figuratively :).[/quote]
I don’t know, I think that Dabbler’s entire figure might be hypnotic…
Didnt it block Vehemence’s aura?
Defense in which direction, though? It’s been called into question before.
Sydney is convinced that there’s a mental attack going on and all she can come up with is pulling the fire alarm? Yeah, good that they’ve been training her super powers and super strategies for the last pages and didn’t waste time on conventional firearms. At least she wasn’t pulling a gun on Sandy like those unqualified security forces that haven’t been trained for anything other than shooting at a suspect.
Going past the Rule of Comic, I’m thinking of a private pilot in the USA who lost an engine on his Beechcraft King Air just after takeoff. The engine failed at 100 feet, the pilot did exactly what he had been instructed and pulled the nose up… The plane slewed hard right, losing speed rapidly and dove straight into a hangar, killing the pilot.
The correct response should have been to drop the nose to keep speed up and aim down for the runway. But he was never trained for this particular emergency, because it was never recognised as a “common” emergency by the FAA.
Syddles has not been trained for psychic attack because Archon already has “adequate” defenses. And how, exactly, would Syddles defend Sandy?
I think this post has suffered from a psychic attack. The slash-b was in its proper place, but WordPress moved it.
The best defense is bubbling her.
Sydney’s bubble has shown to be resistant against some of them(Vehemence violence aura)
Sydney trained herself to block psychic attacks, and used her instincts to test a solution which turned out to be correct. This would be when she put the force field around both herself and Vehemence, blocking the remainder of the team from his “fight each other” influence.
As to how, exactly, Sydney would protect Sandy, all you have to do it read the author’s notes right after the comic:
Yeah, I think my intelligence is slightly shorter than DaveB’s intellect…
Technical argument :) (and to paraphrase Futurama, a technical argument is the best kind of argument).
Sydney hasnt been ‘trained to block psychic attacks.’
She knew that Vehemence was using a vehemic aura to force people to fight and, knowing that, she was able to resist the urge to use the PPO on him until he stopped expending energy on the aura a few seconds later. We’ve already seen that it IS possible to, at least temporarily, resist different types of auras. For example, when Sydney first meets Dabbler and she’s pushing her tantric aura, you can see that EVERYONE in that room (except maybe for Zephon) was resisting the urge – several saying ‘not a lesbian, not a lesbian’ in their heads to do so, until Dabbler turned down her aura as well, a few seconds later. The only one who wasnt even remotely affected seemed to be Maxima, in fact.
Plus those auras are not ‘technically ‘psychic attacks’ if you would take the standard idea of a psychic attack being a psionic or psyker or something like that (both types which apparently do exist in the Grrlpower universe, according to Gwen’s initial attempt to scan the orbs and Cora’s mention about psykers on the Fracture).
Even if we were to assume lust and violence auras were psychic attacks though (since there’s at least an argument there that it might be, given how Fel corrupting radiation have been listed as psychic emissions, although those are not ‘auras’ per se) …. I would argue that being able to resist a few seconds because of the knowledge that an aura was being used in the first place isnt really ‘blocking a psychic attack’ anyway.
What we do know is there is one thing which has blocked two out of the 3 types of auras we’ve seen so far – Halo’s shield. The shield blocks vehemic auras and weakness auras. It does not seem to block tantric auras though (or if it does, it does not block hypnotic boobs at the very least), and we do not know if it blocks Fel corruption radiation, which is the only time we’ve seen any of these ‘generalized emissions’ referred to as ‘psychic.’ (Cora mentioned it was a psychic emission on comic #777, in the third panel). There, it wasnt called an aura either, but it was referred to as ‘stygian energy’ – so if there’s such a thing as a stygian aura’ then we’d have another aura to investigate.
Moot point though, since Sydney was not there for the Fel fight anyway.
Long story short, my main point is there are different types of mental-based attacks, and we only know of a couple which the shield definitely works against, one that it does not work against (or at best partially works against), and one that we have no idea on.
We have not yet actually seen a psychic attack like from a Jean Grey/Professor X/Emma Frost type of psychic though, even though if I had to make a prediction, Sydney’s shield would work against those as well. I just wouldnt say it definitively until I see something involving an actual psychic attack, like a vampire domination attempt while she’s in a shield (or like the psychic attack that the mannekiller was using against Maxima). Also no idea if it would a telepathic invasion would work against Sydney when she’s shielded up since we havent seen any of that, but Maxima does seem to make the assumption that it would rebuff a telepathic scan as well (when Sydney was revealing that she could teleport to Maxima in the air).
I’d have to say that the blocking or otherwise of Dabbler’s tantric aura by the Shield remains unproven, based on the evidence of the Restaurant Rumble. Dabbler is successful in distracting Vehemence with her semi-improvised skipping routine, but we have no evidence for whether that is aided by an aura or purely down to visual effects. Note that Vehemence had already been put off-guard regarding happenings outside the Shield, first by the surprise of Sydney’s mere presence in it with him and then by her sideshow with the Lighthook’s ‘limitation’. (As noted earlier, I would question whether the ‘discovery’ that the Lighthook ‘only works outside the Shield’ is a true limitation and/or newly realised, or whether it’s a deliberate misdirection to get Vehemence to drop his guard and be more susceptible to distraction by Dabbler’s moving mammaries.)
i have done the violent sneezes before myself, usually 10 or 12 times. and have it done harf enough to po[ my back loud enough to freak out others who hear it.
when i first saw the first panels i thought the lady sydney was talking to was try to hold a gutbuster of a laugh in and was about to explode
Same haha, on both counts!
Lets add together what we know about psychics, magicans and other mental attackers in the grrlpower-universe.
Cora claims Fel ships leak *psychic* radiation and that this radiation can transform people into monsters.
Some supers like Jabberwocky and Vehemence have magic rooted powers.
High tech post-ftl civilisations sacrifice psychs to make Aethrial causeways.
Sydney’s bubble helped against Vehemences violence aura.
Sconia’s robot hypnotised Maxima and the author strongly implies that is, because it contains vampire blood.
Dabbler claims psychic illusionairy light can be only detectable by organic systems if she asked about why her mechanical eye doesn’t detect Sydney’s balls and she states that there is apparently a third way to detect it, because “she isn’t detecting that either.”
Dabbler establishes the 7 schools of magic as ways to use the same concept.
It’s possible to absorb magic and cancel it out, because Sconia’s kill puppets do it all the time.
Magic powers can interfere with other magic tricks(Dabbler’s kiss).
Magic can resemble physical objects(the defense of the small demon).
Magic can be locked into objects and shaped for specific purposes(the vault)
Advanced enough magic users can use it for interstellar travel(Sconia’s wormhole)
Aetheral causeways don’t leave for Cora detectable traces(Sydney’s arrival)
Illusionist are rare on earth(Deus after hearing about the truesight orb)
Magic can be kept functional without human power sources(the Veil)
Magic can be channeled(soulbreaker sword against heavenly sword)
Magic isn’t reality bending(Krona bends reality, but still can’t get teachers).
All times Aether is involved there is magic or psychic involved.
Sydney’s orbs are undetectable for magic users(Archon’s introduction)
Feel free to add
Also we have at least one telekinetic as well (Vektor) – although I suppose that’s not actually a psychic power or mental attack, but it seems related.
All superpowers which are not “always on” such as super strength, resistance to injury, etc. could be said to be psychic or mental powers. They require conscious thought to trigger them, and they ignore physics and so could be said to be powered by the mind of the super.
And that goes just as well for Heatwave’s fire blasts as it does for Vektor’s telekinesis.
But I don’t think they qualify for the purposes of this discussion.
Magic can interfere with /change memories (Dabblers silver hammer)*
Screw up one closing markup and it wrecks the whole post… It looks vaguely readable, if anyone needs help I’d be happy to report or explain where it might appear confusing.
The’re many points in the comic where some super-genius/alien/mage makes a statement about this.
After Dabblers kiss appears to be longer in effect than intended Dabbler mentioned Jabberwocky’s powers were somewhat magical.
Sometimes she calls something a spell than I rule it as magic.
If she calls what she uses a …ter it’s probably technology, just as a device.
Of Vehemence I assumed it, because his power varied widely, worked comparable to Dabler’s(often magical) way of power collection, could surpres sleep spells, and had filled circles.
As of where the author seems to draw the line.
Archon doesn’t care as long you can keep up(explicitly said about Math and implied about Dabbler)
It’s still an officially unanswered question whether super powers are alien magitech. Sydney once hears about the option, but the aliens she speaks are just as surprised about supers. There’s mentioned that there seem to be higher levels of tech than she encounters, so it’s still a viable option.
Magic has seven schools can be used by different individuals, can produce a wide variety of effects(Dabbler), individuals of comparable level can analise each other’s tricks(the first encounters with Sconia’s henchmen), can be made mechanical(the Veil), but can also be done with only verbal and mental components(the defense of the small demon), can be learned to others(Sydney’s passenger test), produces circles filled with other shapes in the air(all confirmed cases of magic), can be drained out of someone(Sconia’s kill puppets), can be canceled out(Sconia’s kill puppets) and is barely used by post-ftl civilisations(The infiltration Sconia).
Psionics are a lot more appearant in post-ftl civilisations.
Dabbler can detect psionic light with a third trick that doesn’t involve her mechanical eye(Dabbler’s analyses of the orbs). Psionic radiation cannot be detected with method’s currently known to humanity(The aftermath of the Fel). Fel ships radiate psionic radiation(The aftermath of the Fel). Is practiced by more than one person(Cora meets Sydney)
Super powers: Bound to a person, wide variety(Talk about the Veil and the first press conference), can overlap(Vehemence’s army), can’t be learned to others, can’t be given to others with current human or 1st level post-ftl technology and ignores biological limits(aftermath of the Fel),
Reality bending: probably super power(Sconia’s first face reveal), currently limited by Krona’s ability to understand it(Sconia’s first face reveal), can be shielded from with magic(Sconia’s final robot), Recquires energy output for bigger feats(the end of the time loop problem), can do powerfull things(Krona begging Sydney for update screen) and done with code(the timeloop shock).
Why am I reminded of that song about Maxwell? ? ?
Sconia takes over a super named Escorpia who can affect people’s mental processes.
I want to zoom in on Maxima. How much did she hear? Is this the fateful incident that convinced Max it was a good idea to let Sydney anywhere near ARC-light?
I actually though she was trying to stifle a laugh at Sydney’s side boob comment as she is less endowed.
That would be most unprofessional for a commanding officer, especially if directed at a subordinate who is extremely sensitive about such matters and has had nose bleeding breakdown. An officer should have strong enough self-control to suppress such a reaction.
But, yea, internally Maxima may well be trying to contain such a reaction. Although her maternal instincts towards Sydney may have precluded the need.
Was waiting until I had a day off shift, before commenting. Tend to be too much of a zombie on work days. But today I was heading home from a really exhausting shift, when I came across a person collapsed on the railway lines (at a level crossing). far too heavy to move by myself, and with the next train due to arrive imminently!
Managed to attract attention, from a nearby pub, whilst I was dialling 999. So together we were able to get the victim off the train line (narrow squeak mind). And get an ambulance to attend. I won’t detail the person’s condition, due to their privacy (I’ve mentioned no names, but I doubt there are many similar instances in any given day). But they had a known condition (another bystander was a friend of theirs) and the paramedics were able to take over smoothly.
No more first aid required from me, other than putting them into the recovery position, ensuring that the air ways were clear, and describing symptoms and other useful info (location etc) to the emergency services.
So thought I would share this unusual end to my day. Before resuming zombie mode.
Glad you managed to help them out! 0_o
I WANT ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sydney’s hair style is looking really good. I cannot believe i did not see that before. I was waiting to se it for likke, more than 500 pages i guess?