Grrl Power #900 – Recapitation
Something something Cyberpunk…
I played a little bit of it last night. I think I’m still firmly in the opening tutorial bit. I haven’t even done a “Upgrade your cybernetics” bit yet, but I’ve shot some people and been driven around small chunks of the city. Honestly, I’m the worst partner for anyone to have though, because in the middle of the first firefight, I’m taking time to look corpses and weapons off the floor while the big guy in the other room is laying into us with his “My gun is so big that when you pick it up you walk slow and can’t put it in your inventory,” and I’m like “Ooh, that pistol looks cool.”
Oh, I guess I should talk about this here comic page.
Woo, page 900! Kind of… an inauspicious page I guess, but here we are.
I’m not sure what Sydney was digging for in her utility belt because… well, I knew the attempt would fail, but as I was working on the page I started to think about what possible thing she could pull out that might help. Attacking Concretia is basically a no-go. The golems she forms are pretty tough (tough being an entirely relative term, especially in a world of supers) and if you break one, she can just make another if there’s a ready supply of stone around. I say stone, but we’ve only seen her form golems from concrete and asphalt so far. When she’s in her specter form in between golems, she can’t be hurt by pedestrian physical attacks either. We haven’t seen her get attacked with energy or magic in that form so we don’t know how effective that stuff is at this point.
I figure the best thing Sydney could pull out of her utility belt might have been a flare? Like an emergency flare that you can launch by pulling on the back like a holiday cracker, something you’d find on a lifeboat or maybe a survivalist hiking kit. (Is there such a thing as a non-emergency flare? I guess people could use them for light, but if you’re using a flare for light, you’re probably in an emergency situation already.) She could try and fire the flare out of the tarp and hope someone sees it and posts about it on social media and that someone at Arc-LIGHT is monitoring anything tagged #NYC on twitter. Or… she could try and fire it up into the false ceiling where she hid the stasis pod and, you know, hope the building catches on fire and a fire alarm goes off. That’s the kind of thing that could get her a commendation for keeping her cool under pressure while also getting written up for destroying seven stories of private property before the fire got under control.
To clear up one or two misconceptions about the orbs. The orbs have a limit as to how far they will move away from her, (let’s call it four meters) that much has been established, but within that perimeter, they can be pushed around, especially if she’s not paying attention to them. She doesn’t usually let anyone else near them though unless she’s using them to clonk someone on the head or doing a double testicle crash test. This is the first time anything like this has happened.
And I know what you’re thinking. Concretia’s stone fingers shouldn’t be able to use a touchscreen phone. There’s a reason smartphone styluses aren’t made from cement. Well, several reasons. Maybe she tore off a piece of tarp and used that to dial.
Evidently I should keep pimping the incentives, because people who swing by the comic on days other than the first post of the month don’t always catch them, and it would be irresponsible of me not to point out that there is a modest collection of nude pinups over at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Since she called someone with Sydney’s phone she must know that Archon is probably tracking that, and since she specifically used Sydney’s phone I think that was the point, she called someone from Archon and told them where Sydney is, the question is why, the three possibilities IMO are 1. hostage negotiation, 2. Sydney out of the picture for now, Concretia just called Archon so they can pick Sydney up later (as non-lethal of a takedown as you can get), 3. She either is or intends to be a double agent, needing a direct line to make a call during a chaotic situation to report.
Either she is extremely incompetent (highly unlikely given how she incapacitated Syndey) or she knew the phone is probably being traced. I think you are right with #2, but also she was telling her accomplice with a burner phone where to pick up the goods. Another option is she is communicating with someone who has power over electronic equipment and can totally negate the trace.
I don’t think double-agent. She’s there alone with Sydney, she could have dropped the act.
… unless she’s setting up her villain team for a fall, and she’s tricking Sydney so she doesn’t give anything away… but giving the power Halo has, her getting lose would be more of an issue.
COME ON.
If you were a double agent…
briefed thoroughly enough to take Sydney out that way without hurting her in the slightest…
would YOU talk to Sydney?
Rather than risk her getting loose and the Chaos that could ensue then, yes.
as a double agent, tricking Sydney and keeping the bad guy act is an absolute must. Sydney has a track record of keeping confidential information confidential…and that track reckord is not very good…as in…she doesn’t. Further, double agents tend to have handlers who are vetted and cleared to know, and Sydney most likely has not been cleared and most definitely is not her handler. Knowing who double agents are is several ranks above her pay grade. Technically, she shouldn’t even know about Dabbler being an actual demon or about the council of monsters, but keeping her out of the loop on that became moot the moment she revealed her true-sight orb. No amount of true-sight can reveal if somebody is a double agent, though, therefor that can still be kept secret from her.
Betting either Maxima or Deus was called. She acts like a member of Archon. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if she were a double agent. Why’d she take the shirt though?
I imagine it’s likely related to why she took the utility belt, there are probably pockets in which Sydney could have stored useful stuff, and thus removing the shirt disarms Sydney of that stuff. Granted, if she really wanted to be thorough she’d have also taken her boots and pants, but the pants would likely be too humiliating and taking the boots for the sake of thoroughness but not the pants would raise a few eyebrows, especially if the double agent theory shakes out.
Its a uniform item allowing her to pass herself of as archon. Trousers and boots are more generic in appearance. The utility belt and chocker indicates rather than merely a unspecific member they will have someone try to impersonate Sydney.
Somehow, I do not think that Concretia can wear Sydney’s clothes. This was probably to keep her from grabbing various tools that have been tucked into the pockets on her jacket.
Now the question is, what tools did Sydney secrete elsewhere on her person? Calf-length boots with reinforced areas, as these appear to be, are a traditional home for blades and/or picks. Even standard trousers can hold a useful amount of kit, and that’s before we start counting unconventional specialist holdout items.
That feeling when your head just isn’t on right…
How does one ‘act like a member of Archon’? o_O
I assume it is a joke based on all those shows and movies where the hero puts on an enemy uniform and no one questions them as they walk around the base, despite the dozen plus ways that wouldn’t work.
Oh, thought they meant she is acting like a member of Archon, not that she is going to pretend to be one to infiltrate the Arc
Oh thank God Concretia put the top half of her head back on, that was SUPER freaking me out.
Also, is it me or is Concretia smarter now without Vehemence’s aggro-whammy or Death Toll’s….Death Toll-ness?
Concretia’s acting smarter, now that she’s thinking.
Or, possibly, she was previously focusing her smarts on the whole “let’s not give away that I’m actually Marble Maiden, k?” while in the big brawl.
Just because someone’s feeling like being particularly violent doesn’t mean that they’re going to feel like using all of their capabilities, especially if they have some to spare. I’ve known of a few people who decided to “slum it” and go for a street brawl in a slum area, because it’d been too long since they’d gotten in a good fight. Exactly none of them actually used all of their skill in said fights. They were focused on not getting hurt too bad and not getting IDed, rather than on winning their fights. In some cases, that just meant fighting outside their martial arts schools, but in one case, it also meant doing some moves that were generally considered fairly boneheaded as well (although, as it happened, those were *in* his martial arts schools, so he was able to do them in a relatively safe manner, at least.)
Actually I am thinking that Marble Maiden and Concretia are cousins or some other relatives.
Marble Maiden: There you are, Concretia. You have a lot to answer for.
Concredtia: Marble Maiden, what are you doing here?! How did you find me?!
Marble Maiden: Well, I was in New York looking at universities. As for finding you, Grandma sent me. I am here to stop you and family takes care of its own.
Concretia: Well, you aren’t going to stop me, but I can stop you!
Marble Maiden: Hey, I can’t move! [ Takes a slow step ] That doesn’t work for long on living stone! Connie, you have really made some poor choices since we last talked.
Concretia: What are you talking about? We’ve never met.
Marble Maiden: Constance Olivia Mason, you are my cousin. Take a careful look; ignore the mask and variegation, and you should be able to recognize me. By the way, Grandma and Grandpa are quite disappointed that you have chosen this path. Your little sister too; it broke her heart when we realized what you were up to. She really looked up to you.
Concretia: You leave Sandra out of this! I can use my power to make money! Aunt Hilda does!
Marble Maiden: Aunt Hilda is a geologist. She isn’t using her powers to steal from people. You haven’t been in touch with your family for a while. Sandy’s name is really apropos for her power set which really starting to develop now that she is a teenager.
Halo: What are you talking about?
Marble Maiden: Oh, all the women in our family have some sort of earth-based power. I turn into marble. She can cast her spirit into rocks and concrete and stuff. Her little sister can turn her body into sand-like particles that she can control into wild movements. [ To Concretia ] But you didn’t know about that, did you? [ Back to Halo ] Our Grandma knows when any of her descendants are using our rock-powers. Me, Sandy, Her. [Back to Concretia ] It also means that she knows where you are. Since your spirit is here, that means the other place she feels you is where your flesh is. [ Cell phone rings ] Hello. … Oh, you are? Thanks. I will let her know. [ Hangs up ] 260 Garner Road, Suite 417. Ring a bell? Sandy’s the one who opened the door to your apartment. They are standing around your bed right now. You remember what my big sister’s power is, right?
[ Concretia suddenly stops moving and the glowing eyes stop glowing. ]
Marble Maiden: [ To Halo ] She won’t be a problem any more. Like I said, family takes care of its own.
Halo: Um, could you break my orbs out of the floor? I kinda can’t move when they are down there.
Max: [ Just arrived through the tarps ] Sydney, are you alright? Marble Maiden? I’ve been wanting to talk with you.
Marble Maiden: I guess we should talk, but not right now. I have to go take care of some family business.
Halo: Max, can you break my orbs out of the floor over there? I can’t move from this chair while they are other there.
Talk about Deus Ex Magma
Nice story, personally feel DaveB has a plan that isn’t as contrived and ‘convenient’
Actually, I don’t think Marble Maiden’s powers are really all that similar to Concretia’s. One can turn into stone, and the other can make a stone body for herself to remotely possess (assuming Concretia still even has her original human body, have we ever seen that?)
to be fair we don’t know Marble Maiden’s powers. She was mentioned WAAAAY back at this point regarding people being kept an eye on (honestly as the page was full of cameos of characters not in this universe but other online comics I thought at the time she was just another cameo).
since then however the character has not really come up in story aside from a talk about the plasticity of stone skin and costumes. So as of now they are a “none-character” character in this comic *mentioned and shown but has yet to make a real story relevant appearance*.
That feeling you get when your head isn’t on quite right…
She just became a villian in order to try and get ahead in life.
And it worked… half way.
You’re giving me a splitting headache.
She’s quite good at head games.
Concretia is so ahead of her time, and so smart, too! i mean wow, the lady is literally ALL Grey Matter!
She’s being blackmailed into being a bad guy. The villains have her between a rock and a hard place.
She’s a rock in a hard place?
If you want non-emergency flare, go to TGI Friday’s. If they still exist. Thinking about that, I’m realizing I haven’t been to a TGI Friday’s in at least 16 years.
Oh, wait, that’s flair.
https://www.deviantart.com/seuraaron/art/Flair-for-the-Dramatic-399628076
Could have been worse, coulda been the Nature Boy :P
Actually, it could have been much worser: The Nature Queen :shudder:
She would be pulling super glue out of her belt. It probably wouldn’t help, but superglue would not damage the golum, but in sufficient quantities it might slow it down or even freeze it in place. Again, it probably wouldn’t do any good, but ita a limited tool set and her best option.
Super doesn’t stick well to me, I can peel it off after about 10 minutes! If I glue my fingers together, I can pull them apart with little effort!
Would that piece of concrete count as a mask? :)
Yeah I am confused by these actions, unless they plan to use Sydney as a hostage, or there is a bounty on Sydney like on Maxima *possibly by the likes of Sciona*,
Because if the stasis pod is the objective and Concretia followed Sydney here from the crowd before Brut revealed himself (they likely didn’t just show up but had been in the crowd or gone down there seeing all the commotion), well then the easier bet would have been to wait for Sydney to leave and then just snatch the thing and Archon would never know WHO took it.
If however Concretia is a red herring and not with the LLC, she could still be with another villain group…or more disturbingly she’s a good guy who either A: thinks Sydney was up to something or
B: with the CIA or Arc-Dark and is intercepting the tech.
As some people have pointed out last page this situation shouldn’t have happened. Dabbler was under the impression the fight was almost over, so why tell Sydney to fly off and hide the stasis pod instead of just bubbling up and waiting there, knowing none of the aliens could get through her force field? Heck even with the super mercs showing up after it still would have been the better move as she can fly around and such with the stasis pod sitting in her bubble and use her tentacle on anyone else who shows up. Not to mention Dabbler already removed the power core.
So then why tell Sydney to take the Stasis pod from the area? The conclusion we can reach is, Dabbler had no intention of letting Archon have the stasis pod, keeping advanced alien technology away from humans. At least this is a possible interpretation. So some Arc dark members who also snuck there, including Dabbler’s handler “X” called in some help because Dabbler has overstepped her authority. Sydney is just following orders from a senior team member; although she may suspect thanks to her time with Cora that this was the reason also.
But Earth authorities, nope, secure the technology, and question Dabbler and Sydney’s motives later.
Occam’s Razor is leaning towards the LLC bounty bit, unless Concretia is just show boating and part of their scheme was to (humble) Archon through a humiliating defeat *a non-lethal mafia move*, (I don’t need to kill you, you’re feeble and toothless and we can take you out any time you come to our neighborhood),
I doubt if it’s sending a message. This is straightforward “taking Sydney out in the most direct and harmless way possible, while giving nothing away.”
If Concretia was just trying to protect the building, she’d use more words and have not made the call.
If she wanted to talk to Sydney, she would not have made the call.
If she only wanted the tech, she’d have waited until Sydney left.
If she was a double agent and Sydney was not a target, the same.
She has immobilized Sydney and is not talking to her.
Therefore, Sydney has just been kidnapped.
Or Concretia is just a taciturn b*tch who is setting herself up for a Sydney-style takedown.
Taking Sydney’s jacket certainly implies she’s… cold hearted.
You mean, she has a heart of stone?
she just has a rocky exterior once you get past all that she is totally transparent.
Spin the balls really fast or bang them against the concrete. That serves two purposes:
1) Noise, so can get found more easily.
2) The balls are invulnerable; the concrete is not. Eventually, the balls will wear through the concrete.
Do we actually know they’re invulnerable? We know the shield isn’t. We know that colliding them with each other at the force needed to break an arm isn’t enough to break them. But how do we know that’s not the upper limits?
No One has ever broken through, her shield!
That first Squid attack came very close to popping her Bubble, one more such attack and add another pile(s) of ash on Alari Prime
Comparing that to physical grinding is silly. If they can protect Sydney against Max levels of energy, they can protect against grinding. Physical grinding is really just atomic force-interactions.
Talking about breaking through Mr Buble, not cracking her balls like eggs
the world breaking mecha kaiju only appeared to tax the shield, nothing has broken through it yet.
as for the orbs, if we are assuming they are Nth tech, made by Nth level space wizard beings who generally have a hard time not breaking everything around them just by standing there, some examples their languages able to destabilize matter, then it stands to reason anything they make intended to be interacted with regularly would be very durable. Not to mention long lasting.
So yeah, its a fair bet wherever they fall between Elder Gods and the Chousin their tech is probably more durable than some cement, bash or just press two things together hard enough and the more durable one will break the other one eventually.
Mildly amused Concretia has a jagged and angular face, but her chest is smooth curves….
I’m still trying to figure out where the cloth for her clothing came from.
I am just going with pigment shift in the mineral, she may be doing it subconsciously, an additional power she hasn’t been able to consciously control.
I’m betting that it’s clothing, and that she arrived using some kind of teleport-through-stone-or-concrete.
Her face has …
… chiseled features.
♂️ rewinn here making an impact with their sharp wit
It would be twice as funny if I were a full wit,
But sadly, I am only a _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
well, since you’re telling a yarn, I’ll have to guess you were gonna say knit wit.
I’ll not nit-pick the “knit wit”,
I must admit it’s a fit bit.
Huh. That symbol is not the emoji I picked, which was a plain ‘up’ arrow I think. Actually, I think that’s the first time a symbol has worked for me at all… more research required.
This is why batman booby traps his utility belt.
https://youtu.be/0kU34BQveuo?t=129
Nice Daffy Duck ending there.
The TV set was definitely pre-covid.
Maybe Joker is into retro electronics? :)
well, now i guess Sydney can’t do anything… well unless that orbs of her can pierce trough concrete…
She can still use her tongue.
There is some wiggle-room in the ball cage. If Halo directs them to smash as hard as they can, in all directions (as she cannot see how they are being contained), they may break through the weaker lower section. Then it depends on whether she can sense their location at all. If so, Sydney may be able to direct them on a route back to her hand. Such as going outside, then back in the way she came. If they have enough slack, from her, to find a path.
Reverse trace deathtrap: every unknown who Does contact that number now has a condemned timer ticking down above their heads.
The current possibilities, realistically are only a few.
1) Concretia is incompetent / not tech savvy. She just called someone no realizing it is bad to use a government agents phone.
2) Concretia doesn’t care that she used a government phone, because whoever she called will finish doing “whatever” before it matters.
3)Concretia is on Arc-Swat’s side somehow, or Arc-Dark, and this is just tension building for a secret mission for sydney.
4)Concretia deliberately used sydneys phone, to let a tech/super/mage gain access to Arc-Swat’s system thru the phones security
There might be other possiblities, but anything else just doesn’t seem likely atm.
just as a random point, I agree with the earlyier point, Concretia might just be Marble Maiden, or they could be siblings with the same power set working together, or even better it could be like Harem – a person with multibodies but one conciousness.
There is also the chance this was all to demoralize Sydney.
Concretia has rendered her defenseless yet has not killed her in the half dozen ways she could right now, taken away Sydney’s uniform coat which has her name and rank on it, and may have used the phone not to contact her own people but Archon as a taunt. She could now take the stasis pod at her leisure leaving Sydney helpless to be picked up later, as a message (don’t mess with us, we could kill you anytime we wanted).
giving us the hero demoralizing moment of “they left me alive not out of mercy, but out of pity”, or the self aware version where they know it was a warning.
I suspect the use of Sydney’s phone may have been necessity rather than any grand plan or lack of knowledge. From what we saw at the previous fight when her bodies were being destroyed – Concretia doesn’t have pockets. She probably can’t carry a phone between bodies, and Sydney had the closest one.
1504 Broadway in our universe is between the towers at 1500 (ABC News) and 1514 (Good Morning America) – unless Concretia got the number wrong. It’s only 1 digit, could happen.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/1504+Broadway,+New+York,+NY+10036/@40.7566174,-73.986147,74m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x89c25854decb442f:0xa38a9ebbd6298925!2s1504+Broadway,+New+York,+NY+10036!3b1!8m2!3d40.7566021!4d-73.9861211!3m4!1s0x89c25854decb442f:0xa38a9ebbd6298925!8m2!3d40.7566021!4d-73.9861211?hl=en
Probably like fictional characters having the phonenumber 555-555-5555. A non-existant number/address to avoid unintentional fan-side-effects.
I know Marvel made a fictional version of New York and put their locations over real world equivalent spots…they also did this internationally, Wakanda basically took up the entire eastern side (I think) of Lake Victoria.
DC on the other hand got really weird by saying their Earth was actually bigger than the real world Earth and squeezed their locations in…despite Gotham City have a Statue of Liberty….
Yeah, always preferred the original DC-verse where they simply renamed their cities, like writers tend to do with countries (because 75% of America’s wouldn’t know they were made up anyway)
even where places are located changes in DC. I remember once them basically indicating Gotham was New York city and Metropolis was Chicago or another city on the Great Lakes, but then I see modern movies and its like…wait so Metropolis is New York and Gotham is New Jersey now? what? Like they were in the same metropolitan area, as opposed to the early 90s at least they were a plane flight apart. Bruce Wayne took a plane to Metropolis in the original Batman/Superman movie.
Buffy/DC crossover Fic on tth actually brought this up this week in a new chapter of the plagiarist.
Xander is in DC and of course knows everybody’s secret identities, and they’re leaving Gotham somebody comments they’ll be In Metropolis in an hour or so, and a few minutes later comments where they’re going to stop for the night, because it’s going to take us a couple of days to drive there.
To which Xander comments oh yeah forgot about that, metropolis moves every once in a while
and when it does everything Retcons so nobody notices.
everybody goes what, are you kidding? Xander, no,no it happens, it’s a thing.
Always felt Metropolis was D.C.
But when they merged their universe with ours and added the ‘real’ cities, Got Ham was moved to New Jersey (or was it Albany), somewhere close enough to see New York but still far enough away to not be New York
in the really old comics Metropolis is a short car ride from Smallville…forget what the show Smallville did but it too made them feel close; but Smallville is always in Kansas. Makes it feel like they have a Steven Universe map going on.
I would hate to be D.C.’s cartographer
Map drawn, and designed, by the Warner Brothers (and Sister Dot)
The 555-01XX phone number range is officially reserved for fictional use.
She’s right thought. Batman has had his belt stolen times until he started to have some safety measures (mostly against opening it, not against stealing it.)
Even Adam West has a purple sleep gas come out of it.
She being idiotic, weather on purpose or not is yet to be decided.
they were all most likely under communications monitoring while in the field, helping with the original visitors.
breaking the neck com unit in the middle of a communication would defiantly be noticed by the monitor, with out some type of official sign off/pass code to shut off. same for her phone, it would at least have a thumbprint ID or PIN to be able to use it at all. I expect reinforcements momentarily.
totally unfounded accusation time:
Concretia is really Olivia, maybe as a split personality dream projection like an uncontrolled subconscious astral projection. Based on nothing but a slight similarity to their designs
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power20-try-just-one-you-wont-get-hooked-i-swear/
Also Olivia and her half-brother-cousin Tony that Syndey had a slight crush on have not been in the comic in a pretty long time now I think.
PS: it is surreal looking back at those pages, not just for the art style change but looking at the comment numbers. can’t remember the last time there was less than 100 and they were so few back then. Shows how far this comic has come along really. Now it has pages and pages of people arguing guns, the law, what streets are made of, air traffic, alien physiology, ect…
You know who else hasn’t been seen in a very long time? Sydney’s business partner!!
until proven otherwise and yes it doesn’t make sense and will most likely be shot to pieces in three or four days depending on how you track time, I am just going to imagine this is Olivia and she is calling their friends to grab Sydney to take to a deprogrammer (somehow following her to New York, or were already there and its a coincidence they are taking advantage of), believing Sydney was whisked off into space to be brain washed to be a government stooge. She just vanishes without warning, her friends and family told she is on a secret training exercise, no contact for months, and then she suddenly shows back up on an alien space craft and right after is focused on even more intense training, which has to not be very Sydney like to people who know her so…
get some super vigilante “heroes” abduct Sydney believing the government and their alien overlords have brainwashed her to be a super soldier; and go from there in that line of thinking.
I have thought for ages that Olivia might be a hidden super, but hadn’t connected her with any character we’ve seen. I like this theory, and the workout clothes fit in well.
I would also accept Marble Maiden, since I’m pretty sure Olivia is on the good side and I don’t think Concretia/MM are the same person.
what made the overlap in my mind, aside from wearing work out clothes, was the general build, facial structure (lips, cheeks, eyes), and even the hair a little bit. Take Olivia’s hair in that strip and make it floaty and it is pretty close to Concretia’s style.
I like the idea even though I am almost certain that it is not true :).
Of course not, Olivia is a roleplaying gamer, she wouldn’t be one of the bad guys!
Just realized, removing people’s heads at the jaw line, then putting them back is a thing with this comic, isn’t?
I had noticed that too, the exact split is where the ears and upper lip (and presumably the upper palate) are severed from the rest of the head.
I wonder if there’s a reason or if it’s just part of Dave’s artistic thumbprint. I can’t recall that exact line being used by anyone else, most artist I’ve seen either replace the jaw alone or the jaw and the ears together… this is almost the opposite, then again most of those have been cyborg type replacements…
Also Sciona’s intelligence resided in the upper portion while Concretia here is inside the lower portion…
I’m probably overthinking it but that seems like it could mean something.
Umm, no, Cree’s ‘intelligence’ is also in the upper portion, she just didn’t lose it, just the crunchy outer shell
About the only thing I can think for her to do now (if she needs to do something) is use whatever technology is in her glasses to contact Cora… If it’s more than a “receive only” device with some aiming, translating and other functionality.
She received the message from Frix so if there is a way for it to reply or send then I imagine she’s seen some functionality and might have an idea on how to activate it.
Yep, that’s my bet. Also, it can be used without vocal input.
Wondering (without reading the other comments) whether Sydney’s communication/neck thing did not send a distress squeal when it was torn from around her neck.
How can concretia login in Sydney’s phone without her help?
Sydney literally just had the phone open to take a picture of where she was. (I know you don’t need to unlock some phones to take a photo, but we are looking for a realistic reason Concretia could use the phone easily)
…. that or Conrectia for some reason KNOWS, for story purposes, how to get in Sydney’s phone
Or she simply called 911, which is always available without unlocking a device. Even cell phones with no SIM or active plan can make that call.
Sydney is a girl. If her phone code is even set it will be 1111, 1234, 4321 or HALO.
No, wait, she is a HUGE nerd, it will be NCC1701
Do girls not have randomized passcodes in your mind? Is there like evidence for this belief
Sexism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When I worked ITSec the people I had the hardest time getting to use secure passwords were the male executives. Something about their personality type made them believe that they were too important to bother with passwords and such. Which was a shame since they also tended to have the accounts that the hackers wanted into the most. Female executives typically weren’t so self important, they followed the rules.
Most of the time, people’s phone passcodes are their birthdays. Nothing elaborate becausevif you forget you cant yse your phone:)
Which is kind of funny if you think about it.
They were indeed super important and that’s, why they should’ve bothered with passwords.
On phones and PC, or just on one or the other? They could argue that there’s less need on a phone, as it’ll be on their person rather than staying on the office desk – partially substituting external ‘have’ security via control of physical access for internal ‘know’ security via passwords etc.
Security measures come in three categories: something you have (a device, token, or similar), something you know (passwords, security questions, etc.), and something you are (biometrics, including recognition by a live agent). As far as I’m aware, two-factor authentication systems generally recommend that the two factors be taken from different categories. Which could easily be spun, rightly or wrongly, into treating two weaker factors as the equivalent of one stronger one.
Another possibility to what could be happening to Sydney… As a human, not a super, she might be far more vulnerable to some kind of tech/magic/super mind control or coercion.
I think Concrectia just made a major mistake. All of ARC-SWAT’s phones are monitored. If Max didn’t get that brief snippet, Leon knows now.
Cyberpunk crashed on me when I was barely out of the tutorial. Sat down with the partner dude on the second-ish main quest and suddenly hit a fatal error.
I just realized that now we know where Hench Wench got her Geokinesis from.
Also, happy #900! The countdown to 1000 begins.
This might have already been asked and answered but how does Concretia know anything about the orbs other then they are the source of Sidney’s power. she’s doesn’t even restrain Sydney because she put Sydney the farthest away from her orbs so she couldn’t move. she wouldnt of known what that was.
She or someone she knows has watched the raw security footage of the bank heist. The cameras caught Sydney in the parking lot where she forgot tubey in the car and got stopped by the tether effect and fell down. Combined with the footage of Maxima trying to give her road rash by pulling on Tubey when she was hiding under the ambulance, she could deduce enough about the orbs’ effects to pull this off.
It’s been months since the bank heist and the Archon reveal press conference – the public and villains alike have no doubt been watching and rewatching all the Archon-related footage from that day forward, and debating “who would win.” I expect most of the world at this point has had at least one “how beat ” conversation – anyone serious about attacking Archon would have done their homework to find the most likely theories.
And to be honest, in a modern world where super powers exist, there would be massive fan databases, with massive fact checking and analyzing done over even the smallest facts. The bank video is one, but also any video from inside the bank, or possibly in the parking lot / in front of the places sydney went also before coming out as a super (like when she went to eat at mrs. booljangs for lunch)
This is actually a fairly large aspect of the setting in the Parahumans web series. The largest powers fan site has grown to the point that it provides legitimate services to the public, has trusted verification methods to check if people are actually supers/involved in events, and is used by other supers for research. Multiple chapters are presented as being on the site.
Dialing the phone with concrete fingers is probably something she’d trial-and-error’d way before this. You’ll notice she took Halo’s jacket, so there’s the medium to make the touchscreen work.
Another accusation:
Concretia is with Arc Dark, and both her and X have still been watching Dabbler and keeping an eye on Cora and Sydney since they came back and were hidden in the crowd.
This point has been brought up already, but it does bare a more rational looking at.
Sydney removing the stasis pod from the area to go hide somewhere else by Dabbler’s order when they were under the impression the fight was almost over is suspicious.
Why would Dabbler tell Sydney to go hide it when she could as easily bubbled up around it and waited for Maxima to finish the fight with no danger to herself or the stasis pod being taken when it is in her field and after clean up just hand it over to Archon?
The Suspicious answer her “handlers” may come to is Dabbler intended to have Sydney hide the stasis pod with the intent to retrieve it later and send it to her lab or have Cora take it and never allow humans to look at it. Sydney has been in space so there is a question as to what Cora and her crew had said to her regarding allowing Earthers to have access to this tech, especially after all the hullabaloo with the space ship stuff. So Arc Dark could be restraining Sydney under suspicion of acting not in Archon’s interests but the beliefs of aliens like Dabbler to keep advanced tech out of Earth’s hands.
If nothing else Dabbler and Sydney should be questioned as to the reasoning for this action even if Concretia is just a super villain anyway, as it still looks suspicious to take the advanced tech away from Archon’s temporary ground station and guard it there with zero threat of it being taken, and instead cache it away somewhere on the order of a none-ranked team member. Sydney will have the easier go of this, senior team member told her too while other team members were busy engaging the enemy. Dabbler however will have the more scrutiny over this decision. As it is was likely not in the interests of the human team she is working with…heck she even said she wanted to teleport it to her lab but its too big so then ordered Sydney to go hide it somewhere till she could get it later; this implies intent to keep out of human hands.
Yeah, and what if, as it turned out, the fight wasn’t over? You want Sydney to be trapped in her bublle for the duration, not really being of any help except as a loudmouth yelling instructions and plans? Or maybe un-bubble and risk someone else taking off with the Pod? o_O
What ‘temporary ground station’? That implies they actually had set up a little shack or something and not simply flew in on Sydney-Air and started working the crowd
Every member of Archon onsite was either fighting or had been taken out of the fight (including Dabbles, shortly after sending Sydney away)
Nothing would change.
She is bubbled up, the stasis pod sits in her bubble, if she flies it flies with her exactly like when she bussed people. In any fight in this location her only real offense option is the tentacle, which sitting there with the stasis pod in the bubble doesn’t change anything about that either. She can’t use the PPO here anymore than she could on Fracture station with the muggers. So she would be just as effective in the follow up fight as she was before.
But the crux of the problem is, they didn’t KNOW the follow up fight was going to happen so staying put to wait for Maxima to come out and hand it off to Maxima, her actual superior officer, would have been the proper protocol. You don’t secure an item of interest by squirreling it away from everyone else. Because again they were under the impression the fight was wrapping up, so preventing anyone from taking it should be easy at that point, just don’t let anyone run up and grab a trash can sized object you are holding onto.
On that note we saw when they arrived that they had some kind of temporary set up. Or Sydney could just stand back, as again, no indication of the follow up conflict. In fact HAD she stayed until that happened and THEN was ordered to secure it elsewhere to prevent any chance of her accidentally lowering her shield and the stasis pod being grabbed would have made more sense, especially given her limited offense options.
But that wasn’t the sequence of events. Instead we have Dabbler who doesn’t share tech, has already indicated she wants to send the stasis pod to her lab when she gets the chance, ergo…Archon and the US government will never see it again most likely, and has told a US military personnel to leave the area and hide it for her to retrieve later; should only be seen with suspicion.
Unbubbling at the time at times square (in order to expand the shield and put the container inside the shield) during an active, albeit mostly settled, battle zone would be more irresponsible than taking it half a mile away to hide it. Especially given how certain people are claiming its irresponsible for Sydney to not have her shield up half a mile away and 28 floors up away from a battle zone.
Also people keep acting like they knew that someone would be waiting half a mile away to kidnap Sydney. How would this be a logical in universe belief to hold?
I am not faulting her for having her shield down, but flying atop a nearby building to get the stasis pod safely in the shield and then come back. I question Dabbler’s motive in relation to Archon’s interest in how it will be interpreted.
Two possible motives for Dabbler.
1) It’s alien tech and it’s best that humans don’t have it, after what happened with the Fel ship being a bad precedent. (which is something I would disagree with, because humans have every right to the fel ship and the trade was good for Earth)
2) It’s potentially dangerous tech and we might need Sydney for other stuff on this very busy intersection of Manhattan, which is hampered if she also has to deal with the container, so have her put the container somewhere safe where civilians can’t get to it, then come back to help clean up this mess. (which I would agree with, given I don’t have metaknowledge and hindsight of what would happen)
Which WE can agree on. and Sydney got the talks from Cora about Xevoarchy laws and how dangerous the Xevoarchy can be regarding them. Sydney may even be paranoid now that it really was the Xevoarchy with new toys that Dabbler just didn’t recognize thanks to being on Earth for so long (long enough not to see them) who attacked the Alari homeworld; and fear that if humans advance too quickly and with supers as a factor going into space the Xevoarchy may attack the Earth.
But that’s not the viewpoint Dabbler’s handlers working as government agents would have, especially if no one has mentioned the Xevoarchy and those laws yet; or the whole blast a potentially dangerous to other planets world back to being pre-industrial, yet. (If) they are still shadowing Dabbler then they saw Dabbler take the power supply and take it to her lab, and mention how she wants to take the stasis pod too and in that same breath tell Sydney to take it somewhere and hide it in the meantime. Given Dabbler’s previous statements of not sharing technology, Arc Dark may have an instant distrust and seeing an opportunity being lost and may consider Sydney compromised by Dabbler and Cora, send someone (Concretia) to tail Sydney, detain her till she can be questioned by her superior and secure the alien technology that would potentially solve their problems with detaining super criminals (stasis), among other uses.
Taking the “always suspicious” factor into account for such individuals and organizations.
I didnt even consider that, but yeah, Sydney might see the Xevoarchy rules very much like the Prime Directive but with more negative implications for Earth if it’s violated too much. She’s probably already nervous enough about the idea of anyone other than Cora and Archon finding out that the orbs might be Nth level tech, given how Cora said it could ignite an interstellar war. Sydney was not thrilled about that.
I honestly did not consider that. I figured that Archon, and therefore the US, SHOULD keep any alien technology they acquire from fights with aliens.
If Sydney has to defend her decision and Fauk being a Star Trek fan I can see it now, first explaining the whole blasting civilizations that prove aggressive to their neighbors back to the pre-industrial age if they keep being problematic or deemed to big a threat if they keep going forward.
and then point out Earth: Imagine the Xevoarchy is the Star Trek Federation *with a big touch of Star Wars Empire thrown in for good measure*,
now imagine if Star Fleet found a planet made up of hundreds of nations who are constantly at war over not just resources but beliefs, including self serving expansionist ones. This civilization is pre-FTL but pretty close to getting FTL, but has done so thanks to being rewarded by a member planet for taking down a Borg Cube…and they find out this species has individuals who could single handedly aim their hand at the sky and shoot down the Borg cube; and also more like them could be present and appearing in greater numbers in recent generations by an unknown cause.
and to put a cherry on top one of the people on that planet you find out after they’ve started to snatch up any random alien advanced tech they can is also bonded to a Q (or higher being) device of unknown upper limit but already makes every warp drive look like a sail boat.
this species is getting off this planet, this war like, developing god like powers species…and they are actively taking any advanced tech they can find.
(there is a reason Marvel and DC have had multiple big events of alien alliances teaming up to take down Earth).
“If Sydney has to defend her decision and Fauk being a Star Trek fan I can see it now,”
I see a flaw in your otherwise wonderful post.
Faulk is a Star Trek fan, true…. but most likely a TOS Trek fan, not TNG Trek, hence the Orion Slavegirl. And Kirk was known for repeatedly violating the Prime Directive every chance he got to do so.
I bet she already works for archon and this was a failed training sim on sidneys part
You know that’s what I’m thinking, Concretia could have killed or disabled Sydney with her powers if she wanted to, so I think she is a member of Arc-Dark now probably (infiltration specialist) so that call could be her telling Archon she’s “eliminated” Sydney.
This could probably is a training exercise where none of the participants on Arc-Swat’s side know that it’s a training, including Max.
If this is a training Sydney’s gonna get an ear full at the debrief:
– lack of situational awareness, even if she’s taking a potentially dangerous object out of the combat zone she should keep her head on a pivot the entire time.
– not keeping shield up in a combat situation when not using any other combination of orbs (she’s not using any orbs at all while she’s taking the picture making her an easy grab for Concretia), without the shield she’s the squishiest of all of Arc-Swat’s heroes
– and the end result of course, Arc-Swat’s 2nd most powerful super eliminated first.
A training scenario in the middle of Times Square with enormously expensive collateral damage? Not even the US Government is that dumb.
nah.
The orbs have the power to resist maxima. Thus, the orbs should have no problem travel to Sidneys hands through the concrete. Concrete is pretty weak actually. Normal concrete is steel reinforced to get stiffness.
Hence the orbs should just break through the concrete at sidneys will and she should be forcefielding miss concretia and just continue with business.
The issue is that Sydney has never been in a situation similar to this. Sydney could have fallen for a common issue with super powers, that you can do only what you think you can, and thus doesn’t think she CAN call the obs to her.
Frankly, this is just a good example of a spot Sydney needs specific training in, she just hasn’t had a reason or a chance to think she needed this type of training yet
Jedi in the house,
very early on Sydney did call the orbs to her, Sydney was hiding under an ambulance and Maxima was about to open tubey so Sydney called out and the tube flew to her.
however she may not think they can break through concrete, but she should at least try.
You sure about that? o_O
And concrete is only as weak as you make it, which most US companies do because they are skimming the profits and using inferior shit
Yes, I re-read that page just yesterday while double checking if my mostly baseless accusation was right based on Olivia and Concretia sharing a similar design. I passed by a bunch of pages and got caught re-reading. and Sydney while under the ambulance called out and the tube flew from Maxima’s hands to Sydney; and the following dialogue states seeing “Jedi stuff” as Sydney had called the tube to her from that short distance.
the strip is even titled “Jedi yoink”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-67-jedi-yoink/
In all of SYdney’s power testing we never got a measurement of how much force her balls can voluntarily exert. Given they’re her last ditch CQC option that’s a misstep that only becomes glaring with hindsight.
There was nothing on that page to indicate Sydney didn’t scurry out from under the ecnalubma and back again, considering her balls were asleep
yes there is (especially if you read the few pages before and after it), its obvious she didn’t scurry out and grab it, because
A: the sun
B: she was hiding under the ambulance and wasn’t forced out till after by Maxima
C: the Jedi reference is a clear reference to the force, so moving things without touching them.
D: She couldn’t have, Maxima was trying to open it, you think skinny little Sydney could have run out, grabbed the tube FROM Maxima’s arms that quickly surprising her and then scurried under the ambulance? That is less believable than the (Jedi Yoink) that is clearly implied.
A: Sydney is a goof and is not a vampire
B: she was not stuck or trapped under the ecnalubma, requiring Maxi to get her out
D: Maxi isn’t perfect, if she didn’t have a firm grip on it then eve a skinny Sydney could pull it out of her hands (and if she did have a firm grip, then force-pulling Tubey would have moved her hands, which they didn’t)
E: Sydney is a goofy nerd geek, ’nuff said
Jedi
Yoink
I am not going to argue the obvious with you.
Omg I fgorgot how the early comics where. They are sooo goood. Su much humor, and feelings in those.
No, no they do not. They don’t want their buildings falling over at the most inopportune moment, which is AT ALL. Concrete batches go through rigorous testing to ensure all kinds of safety requirements.
Because when people are injured or die due to negligence or cost cutting in construction, reputations are destroyed, businesses are closed, fortunes are lost and people go to jail.
Complete agreement with Sigurther here. Most companies do NOT want to skimp on the concrete. If for no other reason than if it fails, they will be on the hook for millions or billions in lawsuits, not to mention jail time. And if you skimp on the concrete, it will eventually fail.
Fine, not most, but enough do to make it an endemic and a common cliché
For Fruck’s sake, people were commenting in these very pages about how shit US concrete is!!
And, unfortunately, skimping is not just a US problem: a few years back, when Christchurch had an earthquake, a building collapse killing many many people, and the building company was investigated for bad building or inspection practices
There’s a difference between ‘investigated for’ and ‘convicted of’. Even if they investigators are 100% confident that the materials and practices were up to standard, they’ll want to have the evidence on hand – and if the builders are similarly confident, they may well insist on the investigation to prove it.
If they can show that it was up to standard, but that the standard only anticipated a magnitude-5 quake rather than the magnitude-6.2 that happened, then they can rest a little easier. It opens another can of worms, of course, about whether the standard’s demands were appropriate to its test scenario and about how well the test scenario reflects the risk, but that’s arguably the regulator’s can of worms rather than the builder’s. And sometimes the answer honestly is “we did everything right to reduce the risk as far as reasonably practical, and just got hit with the really narrow odds”. But at least being investigated lets you prove it.
I don’t think it’s a question of what the orbs can do on a hardware level. It’s a question of what they’re programmed to do. There’s probably some software level force limiter that Sydney could override if she knew to.
We see that the Orbz won’t kill her if forcibly moved while she’s being restrained.
Does Sydney have the ability to call out the skill tree at any time?
The concrete is sure to shatter if they started spinning.
I am surprised by the amount of faith in the strength of American building cement I see in the comments. Without support bars this is really weak cement. I have kicked through six inches of the stuff with a steel toed boot before, broken it by accident…granted that was with heavy machinery, but it chips so easily.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if someone forced Sydney forward or if she forced herself forward and the orbs without even needing to try broke through at least the bubble they are in…the floor might be a tad thicker though, but pulling Mjonir shouldn’t be that hard if we assume the orbs are harder than the cement is.
*and we do see a tiny crack already in the cement*
Yepp, and rememeber, There is no counter force on Sidney when the balls exert this force to their surrounding. She could simply just walk or run the balls out of there.
The tether does apply to her though, early comics had Sydney leave tubey in her car and reach the end of her metaphorical rop
there was very oddly a counter point, in the bank heist when Sydney was being pulled back the tube rolled across the floor towards her. Despite the other times we see the one in motion being stopped. How the tether works seems to also be situational, implying a possible psychological angle to it based on Sydney or her subconscious connection to the orbs.
Really? Then why is Sydney stuck to that comfy concrete throne? o_O
what is it with DaveB blowing off the top of folks heads at the jawline? he did it with that Bloodwizard chick as well.
Its a popular means of mostly decapitating someone. Its how all the cool kids do it nowadays.
Halo succeeded where another New York resident failed.
When you go to the dentist and refuse to open wide and spit
I think King Kong was just a visitor, not a resident. :)
You know how those tourists are, climbing on everything they’re not supposed to, etc.
Unknown orb, now would be a really great time to figure out that yours is the drill that will pierce the concrete floor
Hopefully with the sub-power of not needing to be held, to be activated.
My guess:
Sydney has completely forgotten about her glasses. Cora or Friz will check on her, Sydney will send an SOS, help is on its way.
Failing that, Sydney can always count on help from another source.
Sydney is getting yoinked into space again isn’t she…
Concretia isn’t an alien.
She is a grey though.
shhh,
the back to back fight has clearly been confusing a few people going by the comments, who missed the clear shift from one group to the other and the dialogue explaining they are not together but the time since then in the real world and having lives the information has not retained its self as readily available.
-granted until (tomorrow) by the looks of my clock, we won’t know for certain if Concretia is
A: With the LLC and attempting to use Sydney as a hostage
B: With Arc Dark and is preventing Dabbler from taking the Stasis pod away with Sydney as an accomplice.
C: With another super villain group or solo taking Sydney hostage
D: A local vigilante
or the darkest option no one has suggested and I will in the hopes by saying so prevents Zalgo from infecting the comic, I’ve seen it trying.
E: Concretia is calling Alari infiltration agents who plan to murder Sydney so one of their ghost souls can parasitize her body and possibly gain control of her orbs as part of a Skrull like plan to gain super powers by killing supers and then taking over their bodies.
“until tomorrow” – Rhuen
Cue cut to the Times Square Throwdown, or to what’s going on back at ARC-HQ, or anything else that keeps the cliffhanger unresolved!
Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if we jumped over to the aliens in the mini-van to see what they have been up to.
She fired her pistol twelve times and transmitted the start of a report that was cut off. Backup is arriving very soon now. They know it’s Concretia.
Sydney now needs to say “vermillion” so someone can hear her, letting ArcSWAT know she’s captured, and make all the escape attempts her overclocked little brain can manage.
I am curious as to what Concretia’s objectives are. She is clearly quite clever. Has she signed up with the mercenary company just to score a big windfall? Presumably securing an alien artefact would be a good opportunity, in which case.
But is that worth living her life on America’s most wanted super villains list? Bearing in mind that Archon had given most of the victims of Vehemence’s aggro aura a ‘get out of jail free card’, given that they were not acting under their own volition in the mass brawl around the steak house.
Typically mercenaries will pick targets which their host country either dislikes or is not bothered about enough to seek retribution for their activities. Whereas stealing a priceless artefact from the custody of a US police officer/solider will most certainly attract their ire.
Is Concretia planning on spending the rest of her life in some pokey country without an extradition treaty with the US? Or is her plan to keep hiding out in construction sites, forever?
All the more perplexing as her powerset is powerful, and thereby gives her innumerable ways that she could have exploited it (given her intelligence) to earn legal income without much in the way of effort. For instance using her concrete golems as labourers, if she just wants a modest income locally without any hassles. Or getting big paydays if she is willing to travel to places where conditions are too hazardous for normal workers. Such as clearing up chemical or radioactive hazards that are too dangerous for humans even in protective gear.
I always like that people have that level of optimism to think that in a setting where super powers are new that people would just be accepting of them and give you a job.
As opposed to being terrified of you, assume you are possessed by a demon, super powers come from Hell, are aliens disguised as humans, are infectious or just “freaks” and despite how useful you’d be their bigotry against anything they don’t understand keeps them from hiring you; and other workers accusing the “freak” of taking their jobs
(see Colossus trying to get a demolition job for example)…them then trying to attack him after he just single handedly leveled a building was really dumb, but then again I could actually see people that brain dead doing just that…after all we see people in real life who think they can win a fist fight with a crocodile.
for the sake of the fantasy element and to avoid X-men syndrome (see Generator Rex, BNA, Needless, S Cry Ed, Tekkaman, and dozen plus others who fell into that), perhaps its better this world leans a little more into the acceptance and not as many or as influential of bigots against super powers.
*on that note; DaveB, I know its your story but please don’t give into the temptation to introduce an over zealous scientist character who wants to cure supers and tries to force the “cure” and may even use robots as a result
(seriously while not a “cure” but extermination we even had that trope show up in two separate series of Digimon as anti-Digimon scientists…more extreme and closer to X-men syndrome in Series 5 than 3)
Of course the world has bigots and the intolerant. Which would not change with the introduction of super powers. But the world does not consist exclusively of bigots and the intolerant. Of course, if they happen to be the ones in charge, then that is a game changer, as they can impose their agenda on society and encourage their like-minded fellows to persecute people.
Failing that though, as in this setting, people can employ or be employed by whoever they want. So if one employer is anti-super, then she can go down the street, to that person’s rival, and have a fruitful working relationship. Not to mention help drive the intolerant person out of business. It won’t do much for super/muggle relations, but it would give her a nice morale boost.
And if anyone is stupid enough to attack her, because of taking their job, or driving them out of business, then that gives her a nice excuse to squish them in self defence. Taking care to keep her retaliation proportionate mind, if she wants to stay on the right side of the law.
Deus I can understand. He is getting a lavish lifestyle and keeps things balanced so that he is still considered a valuable business partner by the US. So his nefarious activities are giving him the thrills he seeks along with affording good quality of life.
I really do not see that future for Concretia, based on what we have discovered so far. Unless she is planning to go offplanet perhaps?
FYI, great attention to detail on the unfinished drywall, man. Stuff like that is one of the reasons I love your comics; you don’t skimp on the detail. Too many comics have the most bland backgrounds or absolutely none at all. Yours has a world that’s crammed full of detail, and you still have regular output. It’s awesome. Thank you!
+1
When Sydney tries to move away from the orbs she gets stuck in her tracks.
When the orbs are being moved away from Sydney they have been shown to suddenly stop even in mid-air and “sleeping”.
However, Sydney when being moved away from the orbs in the “bank heist” didn’t stop her or the man moving her but rather the tube moved across the floor.
Sydney has also shown the ability to call them to her from a distance even when they are “sleeping”.
There is a tether limit, but how it enforces its self is oddly suspicious as it changes slightly based on the environment and situation, having both Sydney and the orbs being forced apart in opposite directions at the same time is so far unprecedented.
Sydney only gets stuck if the orbs can’t follow her. The orbs are dragged along with her. only when the orbs are moved without her they stop. Ergo: the orbs are tethered to Sydney, not the other way around
sitting in a car seat and not up against the door doesn’t look blocked. It looks like a situational awareness factor.
Concretia has a head that’s like a hermit crab.
If you want to study the orbs, you need Sydney along with them. They are connected to her. There is no indication that they will work for anyone else. They might leave this galaxy or even dimension if Sydney is killed. Will they take revenge for her? Anyone interested in them will not know the answers to those questions.
Treating her well is beneficial, as that would have her more likely to cooperate.