Grrl Power #902 – No accounting for lack of taste
I apologize for the multiple puns in the stinger. Except I don’t, because I laughed out loud when I thought of it.
I try not to write Sydney as a stereotypical “A-Cup Angst” type. Sure, she has a lot of big boobs in her face nowadays, (truly a dire problem to have) but I think she deals with it okay. This scene, however, does seem to show her being more upset with Concretia complaining about lack of jiggle than she is about being trapped in the chair. I guess being mildly offended by humblebragging about their endowments is how she deals with stress. That and humor.
I almost worked a joke in about unconscious body security being an important consideration for all women of a certain age whether or not they’re capable of poltergeist projection, or whatever Concretia is doing here, but… the implications felt a little dark.
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!
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To start using a captive audience takes Talent. Also I do think the statement he will try to get this all sorted out. How are they keeping her alive if she’s not giving a chance to eat and take care of other bodily needs?
I would assume the same way they can keep a comatose patient alive and cared for, with the added urgency of Concretia has probably been made distinctly aware of exactly how her body will fail once they STOP caring for her, one way or another.
Could be that her meat body goes into stasis whenever ever she’s not at home. That would prevent her wasting away, but she’d still be vulnerable to people finding her body and assuming that she’s deceased.
So she “sleeps” holding a sign that says “I aten’t ded” and hopes she’s found by a Pratchett fan.
I got that reference!
I ^still aten’t ded
This point, it turned into “I’m likely ded”
It means they must have access to medical equipment like the life support for coma patients
Well at this point it could be earth science or space tech. Aka coma and life support or stasis pod. We don’t know yet if Concretia is alien or native to earth.
assume Earth super until proven otherwise.
There is also another option for keeping her hostage not coming up very often, and in a world of magic and demons as well.
Possession/puppetry. If someone else can control her body and others are watching. No one will know she is missing as her body goes about her daily life, and the one possessing or puppeting her body can threaten to make her body kill its self at any time and make it look like suicide or an accident…hell as its not your body if you can control someone else’s body you can force them to stop breathing or hold themselves underwater, ect…its like having a gun constantly pointed at their head.
Simple enough, I’d just keep her in a wood box, in a wood cabin, in one of the places where soil has accumulated to great depths (some parts of Kansas that’s over 100 feet) no stone or concrete anywhere around in any useful quantity. She can’t exactly rescue herself as a one carat diamond, even if she could inhabit something that size.
This does imply that she isn’t revisiting her body though. Autonomic systems would probably take care of swallowing and elimination, though that does lead to some yuck thoughts. Not to mention the level of abuse known to happen to the comatose in institutions right here and now. She’s gonna be really mad if she gets her body back and she’s pregnant.
Nah, put her fleshy body in an enclosed wooden boat out on a lake. The largest piece of rock/metal/concrete, etc. in her captivity are the nails that hold the boat together. Even if she could combine all of them, they only have a few kilograms of mass, nowhere big enough unless her form is going to be size of an large action figure; also pulling all the nails out of the boat tomake a body would cause the boat to collapse and her unconscious human body would drown, so even more not a good idea. If she made a hard body from the surrounding rock, her rocky form would sink to the bottom of the lake and not be able to reach the boat to free her flesh.
Nails can be made of wood. They used to be, back in the day. The farm I grew up on had a 200 year old barn which was made with wooden nails. I kept one as a souvenir when we took it down because it was falling apart.
The trick supposedly was building the thing with dry wood, and then soaking the nails and the wood right around them with water so it all wants to expand and doesn’t have the space to do it, so it binds together.
So all the metal on the boat could be limited to the medical equipment that they need to keep her alive, and most of that is plastic. I think even the needle for the line to give her IV nutrients and fluids can be plastic, so we’re basically just talking the tiny amounts of metal in the mostly silicon integrated circuits and the connectors between them and whatever else.
If a nail is made of wood, is it not then called a “peg”?
funny enough that is also what you call being nailed by a wood made of plastic.
Don’t use plastic people. It’s not body safe, and the chemicals leaching out go through condoms.
brain fart, meant latex or silicone. I was more focused on the double-entendre.
Xuriel, is that you?
Pegs are rarely sharpened. Pegs I’ve seen that have been sharpened are generally only sharpened at the tip, much like a metal nail.
Wooden nails are generally sharpened along most of their length. People I’ve shown the nail generally mistake it for a wooden stake.
You forget that as presented here she has no limit on the distance she can travel to bring some minerals in – she is not Magneto. So distancing her body from rocks is not good enough. Any kind of trap has to be active: if she tries something funny, she is killed on the spot or something like that.
as a side rant the plastic prison shouldn’t work on Magneto either.
comic book wise, especially when he gets writers who crack out a physics text book: his full power Magnekinesis makes him a virtual god, levitation, forcefields, manipulating particles in the air to excite and charge them to create electric bursts and plasma beam, and even bend light to turn invisible. Electromagnetic radiation is a pretty wide range.
the live movies however where he is more a Ferrokinetic than a Magnekinetic it still shouldn’t have worked, based on his range of influence to manipulate a whole jet, cars dozens of feet away from him, and even the entire golden gate bridge in the next movie (and since it isn’t folding into one spot or bending because he is lifting one spot), he should have been able to reach out and pull the wires from the walls for the lights, the monitors, the support structure of the building, ect… that plastic prison wasn’t that far away from the main building. Heck take the prequel (before it became a separate timeline series) and how far away and precise it was to control all those missiles…yeah the plastic prison just falls apart as a concept.
For what it’s worth, we do have the technology to make plastic conductors which generate less resistance than copper wire. But last I read up on the technology, it was prohibitively expensive (requiring super-long molecules, which greatly limited the production speed, as well as very careful doping which meant any given strand could turn out to be worthless).
That said, if he’s a ferrokinetic, he probably wouldn’t be able to do anything with the most likely copper power lines. Even if he’s a magnekinetic but not comic book ridiculous, he’d only really be able to do crap with the copper wires while they were still carrying power.
Also, I seem to recall his fancy hat magnified his abilities a rather ridiculous amount, including his range, and he was wearing said hat when he did the various examples you gave. They didn’t let him wear said hat in his prison cell.
Thought the helmet was to prevent Charlie from getting into his ole’ noggin
It did both I think. It was designed to amplify his powers AND, since Magneto also aided in designing Cerebro (Magneto had a habit of being able to create ways to amplify different mutants’ powers via technology), he used the same design that was used to amplify Xavier’s powers to block Xavier being able to get into his mind as well. At least that’s how it went in the movie. Not sure if it goes like that in the comics as well.
I’m about 99% certain his fancy hat as you call it, his helmet, actually just blocked telepaths from messing with his mind and prevented psychic assaults. At least in the comics, and I sure don’t recall anything more about the helmet in the movies.
I didn’t watch all the movies, diminishing returns on the entertainment factor. But best I recall it just blocked Xavier’s telepathy.
Don’t know if the comics ever did anything, I know they had him make himself young and boosted his powers at one point via some chamber device. His powers in comics fluctuate, but never as low as the movies did; I mean the movies he really just felt like a Ferrokinetic and didn’t display any actual magnetic properties beyond moving around ferris metals.
but In the comics depending on the writer *and popularity of the X-men franchise/Marvel wanting to promote them* he tends to fluctuate from B class to S class Magnekinetic…with oddities that feel like the writers are trying to flex their knowledge of physics and if he can control all electromagnetic radiation well…he should be able to ignite objects, cook people from the inside out, vaporize people with plasma beams, manipulate gamma radiation, manipulate light (turn invisible, shoot lasers from his fingers).
-A high ranking Magnekinetic is a virtual god in a human body,
but even a lower ranking one should be able to do more than just move certain metals, like interfere with electrical signals, pick up or sense radio waves, make microwaves, radio waves, and if just magnetism erase your hard drive by putting their hand over it for a few seconds and concentrating. The movie Magneto really felt like a ferrokinetic which could be argued to not even be magnetic but a specialization of a geokinetic power set if no other magnetic properties are involved.
in short Foxverse X-men Magneto was less lord of magnetism and more metal bender.
Just have to remember: not all Power names are directly connected to their actual powers
Take Quicksilver for example: his powers have nothing to do with metal of any kind, but named after the metal that was named after the speedster messenger of the Greek Gods, Mercury (same reason why the Golden Age(?or was he Silver Age? the one before Bazza Allen) Flash wore a helmet with wings)
And it was a complete co-inky-dinky that, years after being introduced, it was revealed his daddy was Maggie, the master of magnetism
And Jean Grey never even had a Power name until she got Phoenix’d
Maddox (Madrox?) The Multiplying Man? Couldn’t even count to ten without taking his socks off :P
So no, don’t get so hung up on the names, which, as shown in just a few examples, means diddley other than ‘They sound cool!’
you do realize Quicksilver was named the way he was BECAUSE of the connection to Mercury the Roman name of the messenger of the gods who was known for his speed right? While really indirect his name was related to his power.
Multiple Man makes multiples of himself, so not sure if you were trying to do a tongue in cheek joke.
Magneto is called Magneto because “master of magnetism”, the movies butchering his power set doesn’t change that, nor others having odd ball names.
Yes, bad joke about Multiple Man
The point is: not all Power names derive from their powers (admittedly, a far fair number do, like Ghost Rider and Doctor Octopus)
Most people at the times wouldn’t know shit about the Greek Gods, and, if lucky, would know about the liquid metal
Sabertooth, does not have, well, sabre-like teeth
And who gives a shit about the movies?
Sabertooth is named after the big cat which had claws, sharp teeth, and a bulky build.
But yes not all supers take names that relate to their powers *although likely is related to their costume theme they chose*, but the vast majority do as it just makes more sense; unless you have a general Uber power set in which case any name that denotes strength or power or whatever. Depends on if you are trying to make a joke, proxy, or something serious.
would be really weird to have Hydrokinesis and call yourself Captain Apollo.
the movies were part of this as the plastic prison was from the movies. So assuming referring to the movies and their rewritten history.
Or call yourself Cyclopes and not have super strength or a large build
Cyclops name relates to his costume design, his visor looks like one eye.
He probably didn’t have many good choices on name.
Opto-Blaster, Red Eye, Death Gaze.
naming himself after a type of one eyed giant was probably one of the less odd names.
Cylon?
Other way around:
X-men issue 1: September 1963
Battle Star Galactica: 1978-1979
(although they may also be basing their name on the word Cyclops, but the red visor was very uncommon prior to X-men)
In theory you could surround the plastic prison with actively controlled coils designed to prevent magnetic fields from propagating. Or just a layer of superconductor the fields couldn’t penetrate. The thing is, most of what Magneto does is physically nonsensical, as it requires magnetic fields that would have obvious side effects, such as inducing enormous electrical currents, or directly killing people by interfering with chemistry. And the detail he does remote from his body suggests that he’s somehow generating the fields outside his body, which again violates known laws of physics.
In the comics, at the peak of his power, Magneto could leverage his enormous control over magnetic fields to control forces such as gravity, too, through some unified field bafflegarb.
Of course, I suppose Magneto would be a boring character if all he could do was to magnetize himself…
Anyway, yeah, the movie Magneto was just a metal bender, magnetic fields didn’t seem to have anything to do with it, he could manipulate materials that weren’t ferromagnetic, so long as they were technically metallic.
Maggie was named after the generator, nothing to do with magnets
He is the master of magnetism. the movie version butchered this but that is his original design.
His levitation was usually explained as magnetic levitation like a mag-lift. Although some forms could qualify as quantum locking. But yes all super powers have some metaphysical properties like producing magnetic fields in localized spaces. Just like a Gravikinetic making one spot affect one person without pulling up the ground under them or the air and other matter around them to the localized intense gravity.
I don’t read all the comics but like I pointed out as powerful as a Magnekinetic could get unified field theory is overstepping it, at that point they are a Quantumkinetic *one step below a reality warper*, heck Molecular and Particle Manipulators are basically weak and strong force manipulators, just sounds cooler to name what they are manipulating rather than the forces involved.
but wonky physics is to be assumed, either in-universe explained *through feeling it control aspects of the forces we can’t control via machinery or know about yet* or else metaphysical distortion of the laws of physics through a limited spectrum is the true power *heck most energy manipulators already get the (extra dimensional energy source) get out of physics free card anyway*
and yeah, come to think of it he was manipulating none ferris metals as well in the movies. So Metalikinetic (metal bender). One more thing to shake your heads at about the movies’ treatments of the characters. I did after typing try to think if he did anything else magnet related in the movies I could argue charging his device in the first movie but then…if that were true he could just have hooked it up to a generator for the same effect *wobbly science device anyway*. But yeah, I don’t recall him ever doing anything explicitly magnet related in the movies.
Perhaps a stasis tank?
medically induced coma, depending on how her projection works – that’s what I’m assuming until the comic shows otherwise. If her brain needs to be active, then perhaps a paralytic with life support. A guard with a deadman switch rigged to explode her body is probably more than enough to dissuade her from trying much of anything
I hadn’t thought of it either. Better hurry and find out who ‘They’ are before Max shows up – she DID get a distress call off, remember?
Bah, concrete doesn’t even have cleavage! This significant and important error invalidates the entire rest of the comic!!
Although if you really want a geology pun, can I point you in the direction of Cummingtonite? https://www.mindat.org/min-1170.html#:~:text=Cummingtonite%20is%20defined%20as%20a,the%20B%20and%20C%20positions.
How about fuchsite?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuchsite
spathic
in British English
(ˈspæθɪk ) or spathose (ˈspæθəʊs )
ADJECTIVE
(of minerals) resembling spar, esp in having good cleavage
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
I remember that from one of Spider Robinson’s Callahan stories…
*1 clap for the joke under hte comic*
i give the puns 6/10.
And that is an aggregate score.
I share your sediments
You’re just digging yourseolf deeper….
I am trying to be gneiss about this, but these puns are complete schist.
Oh blood and shale
Well can’t gypsum for their moneys worth.
If Concretia was reaally a dude:
Is that rebar in your pocket, or you just happy to see me?
I see what you did there…
I blame Ro for this entirely. He has infected DaveB with bad puns and dad jokes.
You hear me Ro? You win.
Dave have always been a shameless punster as all true comedians should be. We should all follow his example.
DaveB provided an egg sample? That’s a yoke I’d like to hear.
You know what? If everyone else is going to be awful with puns I might as well too.
The sandwich that Concretia wants is probably on marble rye bread. Probably with a nice helping of Rockfort cheese, or maybe Monterey Jackhammer.
Are you happy now? I am beaten. :)
My sediments exactly. It is marbelous how you cemented the puns in such a statuesque manner.
rock on, dudes!
This does establish it has been some time. I wander if perhaps it goes as far back as the brawl, with some of those there grabbing her body up and threatening her. A lack of a criminal record can also mean just hasn’t been caught. So some mafia enforcer with that group, sees potential and after brawl puts a gun to her body’s head and it gets taken away somewhere she doesn’t know and put on life support.
During?
Page 186 seemed to suggest to me that Kevin was watching the live reporting on Archon’s announcement hoping for something like Max’s daisy cutter, and he’d prepared for the dinner battle starting sometime before anyone had heard about Archon. He’d identified who he wanted in his battle, and enough of their schedule to get each of them. Maybe he sparred with them all and had used the resulting energy to place hooks on them to draw them to him when the time was right.
But he could’ve also identified those he wanted to work with longer term, and noted hooks that he could use to bind them to him more firmly (at least, in his mind.) He knew the battle would distract Concretia for a while, so he had some henchmen who weren’t suitable for the battle nab her while she was out.
With his incarceration, they either decided to go it on their own, or found someone else to hench for. The someone else would be unlikely to be Deus, because it doesn’t seem like the sort of dirty deal he would be interested in. Even if they didn’t tell him, he has this annoying tendency to know things he shouldn’t. I’d think, if he did find out about someone who worked for him having Concretia’s body on ice, his response would have been to rescue her and make her a different kind of deal she wouldn’t refuse. Even if she turned out to secretly be Ray Parker, Jr, he still would’ve found some other way to get Concretia on his side. This is less about morals, and more about being the smart kind of evil overlord who understands that kidnapping the body of a spirit form super to force them to work for you is the sort of ploy that eventually leads to a painful reversal. As Peter Kepler (from pastutopia.com) might say, the short term benefits of such an arrangement don’t outweigh the inevitable betrayal.
Concretia’s involvement in that fight did not last as long as Kevin had intended, but it still could’ve provided enough time for them to make off with her body, especially since they had all the time it took for Kevin to get the group to the restaurant, despite not having foreknowledge of where the restaurant would be. Of course, having Opal in the group helped with that, but there was still probably time spent finding which one to port everyone to – time during which Concretia was in Concretia form, and thus not aware of what was happening with her body.
This, of course, assumes that she can find her body, or maybe they left a note. But it would explain why she couldn’t rescue herself immediately. (Sure, holding a literal gun to her head would keep them safe from her forming a body locally and attacking them. But it wouldn’t really keep them safe from her geokinesis.)
A few problems with this scenario.
IQ. Kevin is NOT a super-deep thinker. Yes, he’s put a lot of thought (for him) into how to use his particular power. But thinking through her power, and how to get (and keep) control of her body to force her to work for him? I really don’t think he’s that capable.
Need. Kevin benefits from violence, period. There are many, many ways to get much more violence with much less effort than is needed to capture her body.
Style. Using others as a power source is one thing. Leading/commanding/controlling active underlings? We’ve seen nothing to suggest that he wants to go that route, and again, his power means that there is little benefit.
Having said all of that, it is clear that someone has put a lot of thought into dealing with Halo. While there is a significant amount of public info, video of the big fight would have provided a lot of info about that–and would have also identified Concretia as an interesting asset.
My money’s on Suzie
He did manipulate Victor and Opal into working for him whilst allowing them the impression that they were leads in their own right. So I think you underestimate Vehemence. But, that said, I agree with your overall sentiments that it was not him. His aggro aura is powerful enough that he did not need to resort to kidnapping and coercion. After all, he managed to get many innocent, law-abiding individuals to fight the super police for him, without having to do any of that.
However I also agree with Rhuen that this could have happened in the aftermath of that battle. Not all of the victims need have been honest or good people, so all it would have taken is for one or more of them to stumble across her body, and decide to hatch a plan to exploit the situation for their own ends.
Had Concretia been recruited by Vehemence using his aggro aura and coaxing her to immediately come with him to vent her newfound anger, she may well have abandoned her body wherever she had been standing at the time. Making this a highly plausible option.
The fact that we did not see any of the other mercenaries at the steak house brawl in fact lends credence to this idea, as it lessens the possibility of her having been ‘recruited’ by them prior to that occasion. Had they been around at the time Vehemence scooped her up with his aura they too would have been dragged along to the fight.
Failing the above, then it probably was the fight that drew eyes to her. There were media members present, so her actions, and the vast power potential she displayed, would likely have gotten more than one villain group keen to acquire her services. Whilst Archon were tied up processing the captured combattants, the mercenary group (and others) could have been hunting for her (and Budget Halo), as ‘the ones who got away’.
A lack of a criminal record can also mean she hasnt committed crimes before now, because she is not a criminal.
I wasn’t referring to Concretia with that sentence but one of the other participants in the fight who got let go.
they may have been like a mob enforcer, no criminal record because they never got caught, and knew where Concretia’s body was due to the whole group meeting up before the brawl and absconded with it to threaten her to work for them.
Ohhh okay.
And yeah i recall during one of those debriefing sessions at Archon that they mentioned there were some organized crime organizations that did hire supers.
Wow. She really is opening up to sydeny.
You could say her cold stony exterior was only for show.
Or even that she’s really coming out of her shell.
Haha, I was thinking she probably has little to no feeling down there with her bits being made out of concrete with no pliability and sex being impossible unless the guy had a similar hardness (uhh.) That’s one of the things I love about this çomic, something probably at least 60% of the audience has thought about but in most other comics would go unaddressed? It’s thrown right in.
Do you think Achilles would be fit for the job?
Do you think he is into hydraulic fracking?
Boy am i!
My money is on her not actually having any appreciable tactile feedback from the golem – probably no more than “is the golem currently lined up with where my ghost form is?”
Serious moment, but all I can think of is… Where are her nipples?
Another reason why she’s so frustrated.
Uh, it’s a crafted golem that she can’t really feel anything through. What’s the point of nipples?
Alleviating dysmorphia?
Not the Golem, her naked ghost form
What makes you think ghosts would have nipples?
… Why wouldn’t they?
When you go into ghost form do you have nipples?
Yes, my ghost form is a super hot bosom woman wearing long white robes and has long flowing hair…I am so haunting a pond after this life.
I fully intend to haunt a doughnut shop.
I did not expect this as a response at all. :)
My ghost form varies, but is often draconic. Due to the imposing form and flight.
Although, often, in lucid dreams, I have a humanoid form, to allow bounding from hilltop to hilltop. Which is just awesome.
If awake and in heavy crowds, I visualise it more as angelic, if able to fly over them, or demonic, if the headroom is lacking and a route straight through them feels more satisfying.
Haunting options? Female, sure. But all of the above options too. Flying and bounding are just too cool to give up. And fangs and claws have their uses, even if ghostly. Location? A pond with a waterfall sounds good. Or a heated swimming pool. Year round company.
That’s no basis for a system of government, you know.
We denote all government choices now to the rusalka, mavka, sojra, nixies, bolotnitsa, neirids, en naddaha, and all the rest who either swim around in groups or stalk water ways alone to prey on men; because why not; the worthy will get magic swords and government positions who seek them out, and the unworthy wanting power from them will be drowned and eaten.
Scott is Monty Pythonning you, Rhuen.:)
About how strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. I mean, you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you, right?
I got the joke, my response was a response to the joke….
Not everyone has pokies, that said, maybe her ghost form is a reflection of her physical self image. When you ask most people what they look like, nipples are probably pretty far down on the list of descriptors
So too are digits (fingers and toes), ears (unless really noteworthy), knees, elbows, etc. Basically everything except eyes, nose and the size of their tits and dick (including both)
It’s just one of those things you don’t really think about too much, but you know the general shape, size and colour anyway (including more moles than you would like to admit, at least the more prominent ones that you can see or feel regularly)
Nipples may not be something you describe to a stranger, but if they are particularly sensitive… that’s not something you are going to ignore or forget (specially if you suddenly no longer ‘feel’ them)
“Hmm, something’s missing” *casually run hands over body* “That’s it! My nipples are gone!!!”
More to the point, Connie’s astral form is now “unclothed, yet undefined”, as opposed to back in #216.
Ok, the stinger made me snort. Good one Dave.
Actually thinking about it, hearing she has been away from her body for some time now raises some really dark possibilities concerning the state her body is in; hell the least dark of those being its dead and she can exist without it, or her body is possessed…or there is a far darker possibility that…well she is an attractive woman and there are even myths of goddesses suffering such twisted fates as their physical forms take naps….
There are many reasons why my character Rhulan when she’s go into hibernation so she can project dream forms to other realities without compromising this or that status (also distortions of time between worlds, sleep in her world for a few hours, dream project to another for years at a time);
well she’d always secure her body; even as insanely overpowered as she was and now is even more so she would do this. In the Rhulan Empire days when she would hibernate she slept in a stasis pod that was lowered into the floor of a room full of defenses and watched over by her android maid/guardian Amara who had a dark energy core; which at the top floor of a castle atop a giant tower.
even now at 100% of her power restored she sleeps in a room that is in a pocket dimension behind eldritch seals that is folded inside another pocket dimension that only those close to her can access.
If you have to wander away from your body, secure it. As any fae or goddess can tell you who later had to massacre a farmer or some hunters later.
This is a world with advanced technology, both earthly and alien, plus super powers and magic. Her body is probably in some form of stasis. I mean if they’re holding it hostage, it would do her no good if it was dead. Her intangible form might be a natural part of her powers, and they just snatched her body when she was out.
My bet is she returned to her apartment to find a grinning thug and no body, and has been following their orders ever since because of the threat that her body would be destroyed if she didn’t play along.
well, yeah. Heck it could go all the way back to the brawl. Some of those others who let go may have known where her body was as they all met up before being ported to the diner; and were let go due to not having criminal records (but only because they were the types of criminals not to get caught) and decided to take her body and hold her hostage to work for them.
The least you should do is to have a cardboard sign with ‘I ate’nt dead’ to hold while you ‘sleep’…
Yes. That.
Also…
Vampires have to have body security during daytime,
that depends on the type of vampire, but generally hidden underground, or in the basement of some abandoned building. A vampire with resources could have protective thralls and minions. Really sets up vampire society to rely on being a society, to need the security of older vampires with networks and minions and secure locations like a penthouse or mansion out of town with security working there that doesn’t question why the owners are only ever seen coming and going at night. (or can afford decoy limos with tinted windows to leave during the day so people think the owner of the house is leaving at regular hours).
of course in this setting the veil helps a lot….to protect predatory creatures from being noticed by their prey who have lost even the rudimentary defense of noticing they are in danger as the veil may cover a vampire showing his fangs as just them smiling or something.
I smell foreshadowing of ARC getting a new member…
That cleavage pun though! Reminds me of college geology classes. In a mineralogy class where I was the only girl, one of the guys said, “If you said three directional cleavage (yes, it’s a real term) anywhere else on campus, it would be really funny.” No one laughed.
take engineering fluids. (fluid flow in a pipe)
that as a really solid point…
now i await the cut for a splashart of the villainous group
Well we can see one of them in panel 2 above.
Hench wench indicated that her mercenary group had formed a collective company, so that she could gain the powers of all of her employers. One of which (the geokinesis) clearly was Concretia’s power. So look back at the other mercenaries we have seen, in order to check out some more members of the villainous group.
Its not clearly concretia’s power. But it probably is Concretia’s power.:)
Rather then saying is must be Concretia’s power, it might be a fusion of a couple – HenchWench said she gets all the powers, so she might be able to get them all at once.
More than just getting them all at once, she could be able to find synergies between them that don’t exist within each super alone. You may have trying to say that (?)
that would be an interesting take on her given how limited Hench Wench is as a power copier, to have the power amalgamation ability to compensate for her limitation of (only people she works for). As opposed to *one at a time* or only *non-conflicting powers* (like super strength doesn’t conflict with stretchy or any klnesis, but try to use cryokinesis and pyrokinesis at the exact same time; or more dramatically divine and demonic energies and you could damage yourself.
Amalgamation is rarely seen (due to being broken in story) get cryokinesis and pyrokinesis, suddenly they also have hydrokinesis *with cold and hot water to chill and scald*, or steam manipulation. Pyrokinesis with Geokinesis, suddenly they are melting rocks they are controlling and displaying magmakinesis, ect….
Interesting plot device for Syd to work out her own solution.
Concreta hasn’t said that she hasn’t been back to her body, only that she hasn’t been able to do normal things with it. Whoever it is, they must have her body on a iv drip for sustaining her health and probably restrained and sedated. That would allow for her being unable to eat and move around without preventing her from returning to it. Whether she returns to it, but remains comatose, or she doesn’t because she would be comatose doesn’t really matter.
Doctor Strange would use astral projection and had similar concerns for his body. Wong was there with him in part to ward against anything untoward happening to it.
She a even know who they are beyond whoever is holding her body. That could be some medical staff and a liaison. A cutout.
Problem with that is she can wander around as a ghost. If I was in such a state, I’d most certainly take a few minutes to at least find the location via a few street signs or water tower names.
I might not trust the state police for getting me out alive, but Archon is a whole different matter.
Presumably her digestive tract still works. Drop an NG tube and buy a case of ensure from your local grocery store. IVs are only needed for people whose digestive tracts are not working properly for one reason or another.
Perhaps if they’re being administered a paralytic?
Kill Bill … when the Bride remembers Buck… smh gah!
She is very spathic. Which is the proper geological term meaning “having good cleavage”.
And now you can use that to complement any women you’re romantically involved with and/or flirting with. I mean, if they’re into geology puns.
If she were into girls, she’d be a sapphic sppathic.
If her powers extend to gemstones, she could be a sapphire sapphic sppathic.
“The year is 2035. The punsters have taken over the world. I’m the only one left. Occasionally, I will force myself to make a pun in order to throw them off track, to make them think I am one of them, but my heart is not actually in it yet. I still yet resist.
“My name is Punder, and this is my story. It all started on a webcomic forum, so many years ago….”
*gem-like tear, falling from eye*
One of my favourites. Well done!
Who are “They?” Place your bets everyone!! They could be:
A) Sciona’s group using super mercs as patsies,
B) A new super villain merc that wants to get ahead of the game.
C) Mercs last minuet hired by other unnamed country to get alien tech (It would most likely be Russia).
D) A group secretly working for monster/demon hunters trying to get alien tech
E) Deus, somehow. The dude has an intelligence network bordering on omnipotent
Choose what you like or add your own below
OK here we go:
A) Plausible, but Sciona has enough problems of her own without risking a confrontation with supers if she gets found out, so I’m rating it unlikely.
B) Basically yes, this is what the evil limited liability company is all about. But are they acting on their own or were they hired?
C) Could be, and this would not be inconsistent with B). It’s not clear yet if the Evil LLC is taking a flier on their own or if they are working for a third party. Could be Russia, why not – or China, which also has a long track record of thieving IP. Or a yet-to-be-named bad guy. No offense Cobra Commander!
D) Not impossible but nothing has hinted at monster/demon hunters behind it all. Specific bad guys but we don’t know enough yet. So for now I’d call it unlikely.
E) Nah. Deus has other, far less risky ways to get alien tech. Dude built a portal to an alien spaceport FCOL. ARC-Swat is buying tech from him already. Also he’s good to his employees in order to gain their loyalty. This would be an unnecessary risk, therefore out of character.
After Maxima’s big reveal stunt on TV, there was a page with a gallery of reactions by antagonists. We haven’t seen much of them besides Deus. Maybe this is where another one shows their hand.
I get the feeling Dues knows enough of the evil overlord list that he knows keeping someone’s loyalty this way is just ASKING for a heroic rescue and so on
I absolutely can see Deus self-publishing How I Did It after he retires.
We have seen two Monster slash Demon hunters so far, and cereally doubt they are the only ones
A) Agreed. Plus she would not underestimate Arc-SWAT again. These mercenaries were woefully underinformed for it to have been Sciona behind them.
B) Pretty much what has been revealed so far, albeit a collective, rather than an individual. Ironically this means that Concretia is part of ‘they’, as proven by the fact that Hench Wench gained ‘geokinesis’ of a flavour that could easily have been Concretia’s power.
C) Mercenaries typically do have an employer, rather than operating under their own finances. But they are also opportunistic and will take advantage of a profit making situation. So I concur that B) & C) are compatible.
D) If they were hunting monsters, why have they attacked Archon? So agree that this is implausible.
E) As you say. Likewise as for my answer under A). These guys are too underprepared for it to have been orchestrated by one of the villains with experience vs Archon. Not unless this is a simply a distraction for some other dastardly plan taking place elsewhere. Which both Sciona and Deus have been known to do.
As for the ‘other’ option, my suspicions, always fall on the most subtle of the masterminds we have seen in the comic. The evil overlord.
If I understand Cobra Commander correctly, the Monster Hunters wouldn’t be making a point of attacking ARC per se, but instead trying to get hold of off-Earth tech in order to make their hunting more effective. Taking on ARC would therefore be just a way of holding their attention in Times Square, distracting them from following the tech-thief getting their spoils back to base.
If Maxima hadn’t come on this gig, or had been successfully removed by the Capture Crew, then that might work. The flashier members of the LLC could probably stalemate an understrength detachment of ARC for long enough for their colleagues to get clear, and then make a fighting disengagement (or disappear into the ground courtesy of Hench Wench). With Maxima on the field, and Hench Wench playing Leeroy Jenkins instead of getaway pilot, they’re in trouble.
This makes sense, and as Guesticules pointed out there likely are more monster/demon hunters out there than the couple we’ve seen so far.
Although the Evil LLC hijacking team seems surprisingly well informed. The alien tour took ARC by surprise and yet E-LLC quickly put a strike team on a high value target. I call that suspicious. But yeah it seems clear ARC wasn’t their primary target.
Still giving the edge to B) and C) but Option D) looks more likely than I thought.
It could also be any of the other people shown on the page that introduced Deus and Kevin. IIRC, there’s several more from there that we haven’t seen since.
Page for reference: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-186-fingers-to-maximum-steepleage/
have feeling its the center one on that pic the ” perhapse we can use this” line. unless the cat lady is like that crazed super geek thats collect them all and has them in stasis fields type crazy. but she said They so betting the two in center.
Pretty sure those are Vektor and Opal.
Yups, it’s either Vektor and Opal, or the Vampire Duo (the ones working with Sci-fright)
Hmm, Vekter was one of Deus’ goons when he took over Galatyn, and presumably had Opal working for him as well regarding that issue about getting a rail-line to the coast by bypassing a country or two that were in the way.
Deus doesn’t seem to piss off of his minions though, wonder what that deal was.
Demon in top left is one of Dabbler’s nemeses, so that leaves ‘Zealot’, Guy probably involved in that ‘incident’ regarding Maxima and the mosque and ‘Jester’.
I think page 186 panel 5 is neither Vektor and Opal nor Sciona’s vampires, but a pair we’ve otherwise not seen. It’s difficult to say for certain since they’re just shapes, for the most part, but I don’t think the shapes match. So long as they’re not either of those pairs, they’re my guess for who has Concretia’s body. Otherwise, I’ll just say somebody from page 186 who isn’t Kevin, Deus, Vale, or Max.
The females’ hair matched either Opal’s or Brunhilde’s (or both), fairly sure the males’ hair more closely resembled Vektor’s though
Tgape – I’m really sure that those two in shadow were Zova and Gunnhildr.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-482-panty-raid-0/ (panel 3)
Doesn’t quite match their hairstyles though…
A: This would play into the darkest possibility, harvesting supers for their bodies and/or blood to have other Alari possess them to gain their powers or use their blood to empower her and her people like she did when fighting Archon in her lair. Only problem is these Mercs seems under informed for that. Its not implausible, but feels a little unlikely due to that.
B: This feels likely, its a classic. New player, or local crime syndicate want to make a name for themselves or make a move to demoralize anyone else into thinking super cops can push them around. A “stay out of my turf” move. Or “I’m the new name in town better respect it”; that you see from so many street level super villains who would target the likes of Batman or Spiderman; the Defenders had to deal with creeps like that fairly regularly. Heck back in the day I based a low level super villain on this idea, a guy with a terrible embarrassing power who would force supers to work for him due to his inferiority complex, targeting those with powers that they learned easily or were more publically displayable. Using his mob family connections to do so. ended badly, not the best way to promote loyalty to gather a bunch of people under threat…from each other…who may realize that and turn on you.
C: seems likely, especially with the bounty remarks. Sadly I wouldn’t put it past other groups like black ops, private security firms, and the CIA, to pull this crap as well and secretly snag supers off the street to study and try to duplicate or force to work for them and have them grab alien tech and even go after supers within their own government for whatever convoluted nonsense reason they can have…we are talking about the same people who thought cyborg cats was an idea worth spending millions of tax payer money on after all.
D: Yeah, like Sciona though you’d think some demon lord, vampire queen, or whatever would know what Maxima can do; unless this is a sacrifice move and Brut and Henchwench just don’t know it; to act as a distraction while the flyer takes off with it.
E: Eh, not impossible, but I feel this may be indirectly his fault, like his minions told their minions in the area to go sneak off some alien tech the alien tourists who just showed up may not realize is valuable to the locals, pickpocket, trash digging, that sort of thing; and jumped the gun when the alien mercs showed up and decided to after Archon on their own. Like Vektor was told to send his contacts in New York, and those contacts have Concretia because Vektor and Opal kidnapped her body back at the brawl and have been trafficking her to lower ranked minions as an enforcer under threat.
There is also an F option.
Some twisted Collector type of villain has been collecting supers and this is just a game to them and they want more supers to control while enjoying the show. I am reminded in the potential threats splash page one of the not yet seen villains was a “let the games begin” type.
a correction, looked at the page
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-186-fingers-to-maximum-steepleage/
I mentally superimposed the two guys in shadow with the masked lady with the cute stickers on her mask. Internal problem, I myself have masked characters who like to “play games” with human pawns. But that said I think the two guys in shadow may have been in the brawl, so the only ones not seen from this are the masked lady, the demon lord we know hates Dabbler, and the cleansing guy (I am guessing cultist type, maybe thinks supers are a sign of the apocalypse); made someone like that myself almost twenty years ago, like 2002, a total nut job calling himself Messiah who believed he was the second coming of Christ and supers that joined him he believed were the incarnation of angels, but any that didn’t he believed were the incarnations of demons…twist was his power set was super weak and while he had a cult the supers were just using him to embezzle the tithes.
I’m guessing Deus is at the top, but there’s probably a few layers of middle-management in between. Reasoning being that the ONLY time Sydney has explicitly told anyone that she can’t use her orbs without touching them was in the boardroom meeting, and notably Harem – who is leaking intel to Deus – showed up uninvited right before she said that. “Deus is the only major player outside of Archon who knows Sydney’s weakness” is pretty significant foreshadowing, and now someone shows up who uses this very weakness against her? That’s no coincidence.
But I don’t think he’ll tip his hand just yet. It’s too early in the story for that (I’m convinced Deus will either be the final or penultimate villain of the story). So it’s probably some lesser group who will later turn out to be working for Deus.
Would “they” be Mechania Industries or Deus himself!?
Don’t let SmugD’s cheerleader read that
Too late! :)
Although I would not say cheerleader. I’m more of a Deus afficianado. :)
Well she is working for a mercenary group, and Deus is known to hire mercenaries. So possibly. But I don’t think that Deus himself will have organised kidnapping Concretia, to coerce her. We have seen that he always offers somebody a generous deal. OK he did kill the dictator, when that was not accepted. But he then passed the offer on to his heir.
So if it is Deus, then Concretia is probably not telling the whole story. Possibly he may have made her an offer, but demanded to keep her body as security, if he did not trust her to keep the deal. But that really does not sound like his style. Plus Concretia seems too upset at her body being held.
Again, were Deus involved, he is savvy enough to keep his employees happy. So even with the body hostage scenario, I am sure that he would allow her to make use of her own body in between missions. And he is clever enough to find a way for that to be done securely.
So, on balance, I think it quite unlikely.
Depends on if SmugD is ‘making use’ of her body while she is not using it, he’s not above that sort of shit
He is. We have seen him consistently gaining consent. He may be churlish, but we have not seen any hint that he is a rapist.
More than that. He’s WAY to proud to force anything. He’s not going to risk a negative review…
Deus is like James Bond. Men want to be him and women want to be with him.
Deus is in love with Maxima so I doubt he would risk hurting her like this.
I don’t think Deus is in love with anything except power, and his reasons for not making an enemy of Maxima are strictly pragmatic. He would have nothing against hurting or manipulating her, as long as she didn’t find out it was him.
Deus is a warrior poet with the heart of an saint and the wit of the devil. He loves Maxima, but he would never allow her or anyone to have dominion over him, even in the ways of l’amour.
To quote another great wordsmith, Drax the Destroyer, in that pinnacle of literary fiction known as Avengers: Infinity War:
“He is not just a dude. You’re a dude. This… is a man. A handsome, muscular man. It’s like a pirate had a baby with an angel.”
Soooo… Concretia has lost her marbles+
Well at least she still has grit.
She really wants to polish her perlite.
I think this thread needs an age rating!
Got to love a gal who has cleavage you can bounce an echo off of.
Unconscious body security is a priority for EVERYONE that’s old enough to be self-aware, regardless of age or gender. There are some really sick people in the world. Yeah, it was wise to not make “jokes” regarding that.
It’s why we lock doors at night.
Only in places and times when we are afraid of strangers. There have been times when that was not the case. And the benefit to risk ratio made that confidence justified.
For many of us that would be true today too, but our perceptions of the risk are greatly magnified by media and fiction scare stories.
More people face greater risk from those inside the locked doors, than outside.
For many of us that would be true today too, but our personal experiences show the risks are great enough.
There’s two ways to look at the risk/benefit ratio. You think that people are inflating the risks, but I think you’re inflating the cost of avoiding that risk. Locking ones dwelling at night is pretty cheap, all things considered. The chance of having a home invader may be low, but the personal cost of having one are too high to not justify a little caution. You can buy a deadbolt lock for $20. That’s a one time cost per external door, assuming that somehow your dwelling doesn’t come standard with it. Sure, it may be less than a 1% risk for most of the people you know, but 10 years of therapy for PTSD costs a lot more than $2000.
I realize that the locks don’t protect you from someone already inside, but not having those locks don’t really help that case, either. I don’t have an answer for people like me with abusive parents. In my lifetime, I’ve seen a trend towards people getting better at recognizing the signs and stepping in to help out, though I have the perception we may have backpedalled a bit in the last six years.
In any event, it feels like a separate case. It’s also my impression that part of the reason why there’s more danger inside than without is it’s easier to deal with the outside risk, so we have. That would-be abusers don’t go trying doors to see if they’re unlocked that much because most of them are locked and they have the perception that virtually all of them will be. That they have the perception of risk from the attempt that outweighs the chance of benefit from taking it.
To be fair, I’m not afraid of strangers. I’m afraid of people that I don’t know are safe to be around. I’d say that my father and his brothers saw to that, but their father was worse than my grandfather’s sons combined, and my father’s only afraid of strangers, so it obviously didn’t work in his case.
Your assessment neglects mental health. If you are genuinely living in a safe environment, but are choosing to lock your door, it is an indicator that you are afraid, building up stress and degrading your quality of life.
Money can buy locks but it can’t buy happiness.
I have not locked my doors for over 30 years. I have only rarely had that trust broken, once in stolen food that I later decided was freely given, after I had found something else for dinner. A few times I had some of my socket sets taken, but never anything more that that.
*nods approvingly*
Glad to hear it. Sadly I do live in an area where modest precautions are wise, as there has been someone around trying doors on cars and stealing any unsecured items, within the last couple of years. So we do need to make sensible risk assessments, even if relaxed and optimistic. All too many people though are very bad at assessing risk correctly. Especially with all the misinformation we are fed in today’s society.
I grew up on the farm in Western Kansas. We’re talking late 70’s & 80’s. The rule was that if you left a pickup somewhere (because you were moving tractors or something), you left the keys in the pickup in case someone needed it.
When it’s 110, and the only people for 20 miles are farmers, you take care of each other.
Lol, same for Western Oklahoma during the time period. It was likely that the only person who would even see your vehicle was the farmer checking his fields or the guy plowing the next field over. This lasted until the meth cookers figured out that the rural countryside was a convenient place for their labs.
and this was why when something horrible happened rather than look for a neighbor who was the likely culprit they made up forest monsters or blamed some stranger deep in the woods. I mean, no one in our village locks their doors so surely our neighbor two doors down didn’t sneak into our house and murder our children who he was constantly yelling at to stay out of his yard…nooo…it had to be a werewolf.
The mad gasser of Mastoon also comes to mind, people leaving windows and doors open at night because of the heat and this psycho was pumping toxic gas into their homes. Which was in the 1940s I believe.
It was nice to (feel) secure and trusting your neighbors, and think things are worse now because the actual culprits are being caught and low and behold it was a demon bog monster or a foreign spy, it was that person at the church bake sale.
At least she is looking at Sydney’s face when she says ‘Sorry’
I love that Halo, bound to a stone chair and unable to move except her mouth, is able to do more damage to the enemy cause just by being nice and chatty and drawing the taciturn geokinetic into conversation. Now THAT’s how you superhero!
Yup. Likewise when she befriended Vehemence, before it was even found out that he was the assistant mastermind (to the evil overlord squirrel).
When your the “evil mastermind” person, or even just a general minion…. who talks to you as if they are both genuinely interested in your answers, and are non judgmental about it? Almost no one would do that.
(specifically, sydney might not agree with you, but is willing to listen & accept you feel a certain way… plus the nerd in her makes her try to understand the viewpoint being stated)
Sometimes the spoken word is a mighty weapon indeed:
BASHIR: They broke seven of your transverse ribs and fractured your clavicle.
GARAK: Ah, but I got off several cutting remarks which no doubt did serious damage to their egos.
BASHIR: Garak, this isn’t funny.
GARAK: I’m serious, Doctor. Thanks to your ministrations, I am almost completely healed. But the damage I did to them will last a lifetime.
—“The Way Of The Warrior”, Star Trek Deep Space Nine
So, that is a nipple in panel three?
According to the upsized Patreon page… Nope, just some coincidental alignment of the background visible through her spectral self.
Now the main concern was what the phone was used for. All well and good Sydney working well on recruiting Concretia, or at least getting her cooperation. But if villain reinforcements are just about to arrive, they are going to have to keep Concretia undercover and make some kind of arrangement for keeping safely in touch fast.
Not to mention getting Halo out before the baddies turn up! And that is also dependent on whatever was mentioned in the message.
The friendship is nice, sure will suck when the bad guys evil minion spec ops team shows up and starts cutting off Sydney’s fingers.
They mustn’t she has lovely fingers! She can open cans of dog food and doors. Sydney would have a terrible quality of life without them! She may not even be able to hold the orbs well enough to operate them.
*ears drooping*
Goodbye ear-scratching appendages.
Yes!
*tears welling up in eyes*
Max: Leon, I just got a check-in from Sydney, but it was interrupted. Trace her phone; where is she.
Leon: Just a second. Oh she is calling somebody. I don’t recognize the number. Just a second. I just intercepted the call; that was definitely not Sydney’s voice. It gave an address that is really close to where the phone’s GPS say it is, 1504 Madison Avenue in Brooklyn, 28th floor.
Max: Got it. Anvil, this guy’s yours. [ Flies up ] New York Approach, this is Archon 1. Emergency flight plan: vertical take off from Times Square to vertical landing at 1504 Madison Avenue in Brooklyn, flying at 4000 feet at just under the speed of sound. I will be well under any of the flight paths for JFK.
Anvil: [ Puts her hand on the guy’s shoulder ] Has my boss read you your rights yet? No, fine. You have the right to remain silent and (well, whimpering is fine) anything you do say may be recorded and used as evidence against you in court. …
Do not recall seeing Kenya on this trip….
But yeah, that’s how delegation should work, I think. Honestly, “aliens landed in Times Square” ought to have mobilized the whole squad. This seems a touch lackadaisical, in hindsight…
Technically, Max doesn’t have to file a flight plan, as she’s outside the jurisdiction of the FAA. And not because of being ARC-Swat. The FAA only has jurisdiction over things utilizing a machine, mechanical contrivance, or other such device to achieve flight. Sydney WOULD fall under FAA jurisdiction for flight, due to her orbs, barring any ARC-Swat exemptions.
The same thing applies to the Justice League. Superman’s power of flight is a natural ability for his species, so the FAA has no power over him. Green Lantern on the other hand uses a ring, so he’s be could be potentially in legal trouble for flying around at will.
She doesn’t check with FAA for her own sake, but to make sure she knows where other actual aircraft are so she can change paths to accomodate – she’s much smaller and maneuverable than a passenger plane is, so knowing where they are/will-be makes things eaiser for them and her.
Sorry, but if I were in a position to do so, it would take me about 15 seconds to issue a finding that any flight of any object under the control by a legal person not subject to the DoD’s flight control rules is directly subject to those of the FAA.
If you want to challenge the finding in court after you have been arrested/fined/grounded, fine. See you in about three years.
We’re talking about the safety of the skies here. This is NOT optional.
why being a flyer while one of those (must have) type of classic powers (hell there is a Saint who was said to be able to fly), in the modern world is such a pain to actually get a good days flying around going.
You are either just hovering around in doors or barely off the ground.
you get around the twenty to one hundred foot range and aside from birds and bugs you have power lines, radio towers, cell towers, varying sizes of houses and buildings to contend with along with the slope…also trees if you are trying to stick under fifty feet.
but get above that range you end up having to deal with (provided wind sheer and temperature aren’t major factor for you), things like air craft, helicopters, blimps *depends where you live*, private planes. Want to get really up there for a nice cloud flight and watch the land from a relaxing height and next thing you know some airliner is calling in a UFO or guy with a jet pack and nearby air bases are scrambling jets to check out the mysterious object dipping in and out clouds.
Why would she fly at 4000 feet? She could literally run there quicker than it would take to reach that altitude
I imagine Max is not restricted to 10G accelerations like most fighter jets. If she runs from Times Square to Brooklyn, she will have to contend with all sorts of foot and car traffic. In the air, the traffic density is much lower. Stay above the drones and the tall buildings and hopefully out of the view of the bad guys. Also, I expect Max to really show up on primary radar so it is polite of her to announce what she plans on doing. Besides, I expect she would be subject to the DoD flight rules, but she is definitely in civilian airspace, so she will talk with them instead.
The word you want is “Spathic” – ‘having good cleavage’. Yes, it’s a geology term.
Having played Manuel Samuel, I can confirm that it is frustrating to have to manually control normally autonomous body parts. And most definitely not fun!
…this also strikes me as an effective way to insert a spy into Archon.
“Aside from the gobs of money & prestige, we literally saved her life & rescued her from the Bad Guys. Her loyalty is beyond question!”
Indeed. Although the fact that she fought Archon at the steak house, and has imprisoned Halo here, would actually raise questions. The mitigating circumstances could very well be sufficient to allow her to be recruited. But there would always be some doubt, for anybody who has been on the other side.
Maxima is the one who’s loyalty is beyond question. She is career military and has risked her life in two wars for her country. So her secret past having been recruited at the Olympics, as a deep cover Russian sleeper would come as a complete shock to everybody.
Sound reasoning that anyone actually running real world ops would keep in mind.
That said, this would do nicely as a lead in for a Judas Contract scenario.
I’m guessing she doesn’t know where her body is and it’s being kept alive by the bad guys.
It could just be in the back of a van/ambulance/etc and constantly moving around.
Important question, does her astral body reflect the condition of her gross meat body?
Whoever has her has the know how and resources to intubate her and I sure hope they’re managing bed sores because those suck. I hope her body is in good condition when she gets it back.
“Oh we amputated all of your limbs when the gangrene set in, we REALLY didn’t know what we were doing when we started this. We kinda dropped your body out of a few windows so some of your bones are a little broken, but you’ve still got at least a dozen teeth.”
So Concretia’s spirit can animate rock, concrete, crystal, etc. How is her non-corporeal form vibrating the air enough to talk?
It’s possible that it isn’t. It may be a limited form of telepathy that only looks and acts like talking. It would be interesting to get an audio recording of this conversation to see if it sounds like Sydney is talking to herself when Concretia exits her concrete body.
Vibrating airborn dust?
Construction sites I’ve been to have generally been far dustier than I would’ve expected before having visited about a half dozen of them. This goes double for construction sites using concrete and mixing it on site.
You just asked “How can already-physics-defying character X do Y when Y defies physics?”, you realize…
That is true but it is not an unfair question given this genre tends to establish rules and limitations in what and how they are defying physics. If a comic has a pyrokinetic, says they can only manipulate fire, and everything they do is fire based but then suddenly can breathe in space you generally want an explanation for this additional ability.
DaveB, now that we know a bit more about Concretia’s powers, may be time to update her Who’s Who…
I have to say, your humor there has a bit of a slump, but it’s still workable. Curing it will just take time, and in the aggregate it’s a decent foundation to give more structure to future puns.
I didn’t take Sydney’s disgruntlement as a small boob envy moment, so much as a, “Lady, I am not interested in the way girls bounce like that,” moment. I mean, considering who Sydney works with, she gets Dabbler groping herself in the locker room, and Harem groping herselves, too, and Sydney has professed herself not interested in other ladies that way. (Hypnotic succubus cleavage notwithstanding, since it is literally hypnotic–a function of Dabbler’s existence, and not a function of Syndey’s interests.)
How did she lose her body?
She got Stoned and she missed it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM1MftCtIlg
this is the first time I’ve seen a girl concerned about a loss of jiggle. I and a lot of other people with boobs usually want to contain as much of the jiggle as possible since it can be often in the way. especially bigger breasted women.
Unless Concretia’s concern is attracting potential dates, in which case that makes sense.
Since she’s openly complaining about lack of ability to self-stimulate to a more-or-less-total stranger, I’m guessing that Concretia (Anima?) is an individual who is comfortable with her sexuality and enjoyed the attention that she garnered in meatspace form.
I’ve talked with women who’ve had mastectomies, and pretty much all of the ones who talked with me about how they felt about the whole thing admitted to concern about the loss of jiggle. Most were direct about it, one indirectly admitted concern about it by asserting she’d talked with her plastic surgeon before her mastectomy, so she could stress her interest in not having over-inflated sacs so they would move correctly. Other women around at the time tended to empathize.
I don’t think this would be something that would occur to women who have not faced an involuntary loss of breast mass.
That said, I would suspect that Concretia’s probably feeling more frustrated on the “dates” aspect than any of us can really imagine, unless she’s ace or otherwise has an unusually low libido. She’s not only been unable to get any, but also unable to give herself some temporary relief. She could be sufficiently on the edge that her normal dating boundaries are feeling a bit blurred.
But also, she’s liable to feel the security of anonymity in her spirit form. It’s probably something she’s used to – nothing she does as a super ever comes back to haunt her. Except, well, until suddenly her body was gone. But the stuff she’s done as a super since then haven’t come back to haunt her, either.
If so, these admissions could be part of why she’s hesitating to ask for Halo’s assistance: suddenly, these personal admissions she’s made might have a lot more relevance, as Halo would know who she was if Halo helped rescue her.
… especially if her body’s gender doesn’t match her spirit form’s gender.
so I wonder if sydney aside from talking is using one of the more underestimated abilities of the orbs, remote control.
sure they have a max range she and they can be separated by, but those orbs are anything but fragile, they look smooth, but they have been shown orbiting/moving at extreme speeds, you have 7 orbs pressed solidly against the concrete prison maybe get them spinning (like a top or in this case a drill bit instead of a saw blade) at a good 3000+ rpm and let friction sort out the rest. even without the use of their abilities the orbs are quite dangerous since all one needs to do is get em spinning or orbiting fast enough and slight contact in passing will do damage
It probably doesn’t matter if Concretia is right there and able to fix the damage Sydney does. In fact, it’s probably smarter for Sydney to not play that card until she believes Concretia’s left.
true concretia is there but as far as she has shown and said I don’t think her senses extend into the concrete as shown when sydney unloaded into her mouth and cracked concrete bodies head in half, how she talks about she cannot taste/has not eaten, how her breasts don’t bounce or anything unless she consciously animates them, and how she cant enjoy a little “personal time”
sydney could drill the orbs to near anywhere in range depending on the rpms sydney can spin them at concretia would not really be able to well stop them, then its just a matter of waiting and seeing how this whole situation plays out since you cannot stop the ghost concretia and who are these “they” who have her body
One of the things I enjoy about this comic is that each character has a motivation for why they do what they do.
Most of them are tropy, but superheroes are a *very* tropy genre.
I love the fact that Concretia got caught up by a facet of her own power and that those exploiting that facet were smart about it. I also like that she realizes this is very big down side for her and that maybe, just maybe, actual *allies* are better than partners in crime.
I also enjoy that Sydney once again shows that, in some ways, she’s a better hero than most, because she consistently tries *talking* to her opposition and tries to understand why they’re doing something that isn’t in their long-term interests.
Of course, then the beating commences.
ISWYDT
Tropes are basically recognized, documented patterns of behavior. tvtropes mostly documents ones that tend to be more common in fiction than real life. However, *everything* is a trope.
Superheroes inherently involves an element that is foreign to our reality, which inherently invokes a lot of patterns of behavior that aren’t common in our reality. Just like any genre that inherently invokes elements that are foreign to our reality.
They use to be called ‘cliché’s’
Never did like that ‘trope’ tripe
Well, “trope” is a more general term for any recurring element in fiction. “Cliche” is specifically a trope overused to the point where the audience is tired of it.
Paraphrasing Dr. Impossible, at some point in every world domination scheme the heroes show up and punching suddenly becomes important.
Ahh, a fellow philosopher.
*scratches ear with hind-paw*
Has anyone been tracking Halo’s eye movements during her scenes?
Kinda think she’s already opened an app or comm link there.
I’ve been wondering about that too.
Usually the nonverbal commands have been like “Focus here for 2 seconds to translate” or something. That kind of thing would look pretty weird during a conversation if she’s staring/focusing at nothing. She did it in the cafeteria right? It probably looked like she was staring at food or something.
Those jokes… Are you stoned?
The interesting thing about catching Halo is identifying the orbs can be used to lock her in place.
I think the most likely option to showcase that was at the bank. During the robbery she moved and the tube went with her. But she also got hung up on the door going in, and when the tube got stuck under the ambulance. The freakout at the end of the press conference also helps. I don’t know if that part was actually televised even if the press did see it.
Whoever they are, they’ve got money for a lawyer that won’t ask questions or say no. They’ve got the ability to get the intel they need, and figure out how to use it. And the ability to travel fast enough to get to NYC before the tourists are shooed off. (Or they got lucky and are already based in NYC)
Random thought, and a possibly disturbing one. Concretia used the phone to call someone inside Arc because she knows that person can control the situation. A spider on a web, who is ALREADY inside Arc, who wants sydney for something.
Random thought 2, HenchWench might be in a “Legion” kind of super power situation… she could actual have all of these powers, but its to much for the fragile human psyche, so she has to come up with a way to “allow” her to use the powers. (This makes why randomly joining a company could somehow grant powers)
Random thought 3 – Just because I don’t think i have seen anyone point this out yet. Concretia might not know where her body is at all, as in have no way to find her own body once she is out of it and the body moved. In that case its real, REAL, easy to hide a person for someone with the resources to figure out Concretia’s real body
3) Seems likely.
The alternative is that her body is being held in a location that Concretia is aware of, but it is too well guarded for her to reclaim. Which given how strong her powerset is either requires a substantial power (e.g. a force field) to be constantly used or an organisation with unshakable dedication and discipline.
The latter being what it would take for a non-super powered solution, such as keeping a knife held to her neck, 24 hours a day, whilst being constantly on the alert for Concretia to be peering into the room from some dark corner. With the ruthlessness to immediately kill her, on the first glimpse of the ghost form.
We have seen what happened to Halo, one of the most powerful supers
on the planetin the galaxy, when caught momentarily unawares by Concretia. So reclaiming her body, from a known location (or having tracked it down with some body sensing power), would be a simple matter for her, without truly extraordinary countermeasures.I’ve pointed out #3 as the most likely scenario a few times now :)
That weird moment when the thought of the rock lady not being able to rub one off leads to the realization that she probably has no feeling whatsoever, but then that leads to the realization that you kinda have to be able to feel things in order to function, like imagine trying to grab something without seeing it, but you’d never know if you had it or not, you wouldn’t be able to walk very well if you couldn’t feel the ground under your feet, and fuck my life I’m starting to go down a Sydney-style rabbit hole.
The problem she has with rubbing one off now, a) failure to lube, b) she gets a palm full of granite dust.
Does she call that “Romancing the Stone”?
Unless in deNile, and calling it the “Jewel in the Nile”.