Grrl Power #905 – Imaginary gopher
- Sydney really is talking to someone.
- She’s thought about what she’d do in a situation like this and is being weirdly convincing about it.
- She’s cracking under the stress, despite putting on a collected front, and really thinks she’s talking to someone.
- She’s debuting the first scene of a play she’s working on.
- All of the above.
The full Skilltree is thus:
- Ambivilize an Adversary
- Baffle a Baddie
- Confuse a Criminal
- Distract a Delinquent (or a D-List Supervillain)
- Embroil an Evil-Doer
- Flummox a Foe
- Garble a Grifter
- Helter-skelter a Hooligan
- Imbroglize an Illicit
- Jumble a Jailbird
- Katzenjam a Knave
- Lead-astray a Lout
- Mystify a Malefactor
- Nonplus a Ne’er-do-well
- Obfuscate an Offender
- Perplex a Profligator
- Quagmire a Quincunx (I just wanted to use the word Quincunx)
- Rattle a Reprobate
- Stump a Scofflaw
- Tumult a Traitor
- Unsettle an Unscrupulous
- Vex a Villain
- Welter a Wicked
- Xenotransplant a Xenophobe (You come up with something better)
- Yarmulke a Yobbo (In my defense, this would confuse many people.)
- Zig-Zag a Zealot
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Oh good! For a while I hallucinated that Sydney was holding a baby in her mug shot at the top of the page. Now she is just Sydney being hyper again.
The mug shots vary, at random, for every reader, on every page. So what you were seeing is not what anyone else was seeing. And what you see when you read this will probably be different too.
Although there is only a finite pool of pictures, and not a huge one at that, so you will start to see the same ones after a while. And, yes, one of the mug shots does have Sydney holding up her baby.
If you see it having a tail and a handsome canine snout you may be hallucinating. Or seeing a more updated prediction than the original.
A baby? You mean Sydney Scoville the Third.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/wp-content/themes/grrlpower/images/page_gfx/halo/port-halo-042.jpg
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/wp-content/themes/grrlpower/images/page_gfx/halo/port-halo-079.jpg
If I have to guess, this is a series of code words that activate specific functions of her glasses to record, transmit, and send out a distress signal. Which granted her collar being removed mid transmission should have done the same anyway; minus the potential the glasses have of recording and real time transmitting what is happening.
and Dabbler does have the best bet to be seeing this, the cybernetic eye likely also made (or co-made) by Cora being able to link into the feed of the glasses *a feature Sydney will need to stay aware of in the future while wearing them anywhere private*, and Dabbler being a sorceress and a scientist should have a number of ways to detect Sydney’s location *collar tracker, glasses tracker, life sign detector*, magically via astral imprint signature, life aura signature, psycho layer brain pattern signature (eh, science or magic on that one), ect…
and Dabbler should have a simple lock on and gate spell; actually I think she said she did back when looking for Sciona but she needed something at the destination to lock onto to make her own portal. The tracking spell was also mentioned at the time, embarrassing Dabbler she didn’t think to do it to a rock and kick it through Sciona’s blood gate.
Maybe she’ll finally be able use vermillion in a sentence.
Verily, vermilion vastly veils villains.
Also this:
“Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.”
Very verbose.
Always avoid absolutely awful alliterations.
An adroit author adores applying aliteration and assonance ad nauseum.
( Or: clever writers love to use the same letter or sound at the beginning of words and repeating the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming stressed syllables until it becomes annoying)
Ro, I think we are in the presence of a higher intelligence.
oh and orb AI name is vermillion [bam easy way to sneak it in
addition:
She could be doing a double bluff. She is actually contacting Cora’s ship via the glasses right now but making it sound like she is either being crazy or talking to an invisible presence so the bad guys don’t guess she has an actual transmitter still on her person.
I question whether Sydney’s mental discipline is such that she can have an electronic conversation with her eyes simultaneous with a verbal and semantic conversation with her mouth and hands without the two bleeding over into one another.
*somatic. Unless she’s using sign language, in which case both.
I was thinking less two unrelated conversations and more the things she is saying are coded and relate to her situation while someone is on the line in her glasses.
Riiight, I completely forgot about her glasses. That should be interesting
The worst part is, considering this is Sydney, it could be any of the above. Or simply an elaborate bluff that will somehow pay off in a comical fashion.
Considering Sydney’s acting talent is about a 1 on a scale of 1-100, I’m going with “She really sees something”.
In a close second is “Her meds wore off”.
I dunno, she’s claiming it’s the orb AI. We haven’t seen any indication of such a thing, the orbs are still just as mysterious to Halo as they are to ArcLight/Dark.
Nor have we seen any advanced interactions with Arcon overwatch tech (just basic comms, GPS, and tac overlay). And the only thing we’ve seen Cora’s glasses do so far is messaging and a firearms HUD. Until we get something from overwatch or Halo’s POV, I say she’s just bluffing.
but… It operates via EYE MOVEMENT TRACKING and BLINKING to activate the selected menu item… both of which were not being monitored for nor probably were even thought to be capable in such a small set of glasses… even the Occulus Rift, and the Vive are just HEAD motion tracking, and still they’re buggy, let alone EYE tracking… I’m not saying it CAN’T be done with our tech level, but it would be VERY difficult to fit it in… That said: I’m pretty sure she texted her boyfriend and he sent out the alert to the appropriate peoplevia a system that is known aout already… though possibly that means her glasses are now known about in ways and by people she doesn’t WANT to have know about yet, and that she’s trying to spoof both the bad guys and a soon-to-be-pissed-off Max (etc. for not telling them ALL about the glasses when she got them from Cora and crew.. ) that it was the ORBS that sent the message, and NOT her glasses…
Actually, both Oculus and HTC have eye tracking. Both companies use eye tracking to render the part of the glasses you’re looking at in higher resolution than the parts you’re looking away from. HTC even bought their version from TOBII, a company that specializes in eye tracking systems.
Neither the Oculus nor the Vive have foveated rendering at this point. Even the Index, arguably the most powerful HMD we have right now, doesn’t have it. It’s a holy grail of VR and it’s being worked on, but it’s not in the consumer product yet.
Do you know if the Index has it too?
I’m fairly sure that some Army and/or Air Force systems use eye tracking, to designate targets for helicopter gunships’ missiles and turrets. The version I recall was a relatively bulky helmet-mounted system, but that’s [i] what they were revealing to civilians [ii] over a decade ago. Given how far tech miniaturisation has progressed recently, and how much military-grade kit ‘jumps the queue’ relative to consumer-grade kit, I wouldn’t bet against tracking now being feasible within the confines of a thick-but-plausible frame.
Eye tracking tech is very much a thing. My ex-wife had floaters, which were treated via an eye tracking apparatus she described as being asked to follow a Pong ball with her eyes as it moved around a screen. This was ~15 years ago, and technology marches on.
Occam’s Razor.
Sydney’s lying capability, on top of her lack of ability to be calm in the spur of the moment, leads me to believe that it’s ‘real’.
And the comment about the orb AI is, according to her, just a guess.
We’ve had a time skip, and Sydney had several level ups on that alien planet. The only level up pip I remember her using was the flight orb upgrade that enabled trans-space flight. So her adding one or two of the unused ones to the orb no one has any idea about isn’t remotely the weirdest thing we’ve seen her do.
if AI is truely there what if those center prongs are like ioun stone mode auto use AI for that orb
Sydney gained three upgrades on Alar, but they’ve all been accounted for on-page. The first one went into completing the ‘normal’ string of flight upgrades, the second went into the first node on the ‘warp’ string to unlock the Causeways, and the third went into the central node. We don’t know that the extra point in the centre didn’t unlock a previously-unseen AI assistant, but I doubt it. While a ‘copilot’ is a plausible fit for the ‘big general-purpose buy’ nature of the node (large size, central position), I wouldn’t expect it to unlock until the node is completely filled – and I would expect it to introduce itself as soon as it’s been unlocked.
Compare Sydney’s eyes and facial expressions now to when her space boyfriend got into the pool/hot tub.
She takes a deep breath and gets very focused and serious sometimes, under pressure.
That does not rule out a bluff.
Her language in this case indicates she is intentionally engaging in exposition.
You don’t directly repeat everything the invisible being says.
Indeed, bluffing requires focus.
Sydney is a role-player acting for good ones is second nature you put on the role and wear it until the game ends. Folks that can do this well granted are rare. But that doesn’t mean she can’t use that skill to bluff and bull her way through this while she summons help via the alien glasses. I would bullshit like this if I wanted them guessing as to what or who I was talking to as well, makes it hard for them to guess what she is using to communicate.
He he. The blog is almost as much fun as the comic.
This seems like an opportune time of year to say thanks to DaveB, for keeping the comic going, and continually upping the quality, year in year out. Thanks for enriching our lives.
Sydney: (pretending to talk to the orb AI when she’s actually communicating with Frix via the glasses): “Just go let Dabbler know that I’m captured so THEY can take these guys out since you can’t!”
Frix: “Wait you’re captured?”
Sydney: “… How do you not know the address. You’re here with me!”
Frix: “What are you talking about Sydney?”
Sydney: “1605 Broadway. The 27th floor. You were HERE when I flew in here. I mean I can understand MY not knowing the address but you’re supposed to have all that AI processing power.”
Frix: “Are you… not able to talk at the moment?”
Sydney: “Listen you vermillion AI ghost thing… just do it okay? You said it would only take 3 minutes but at this rate it’s going to twice as long. Now go! shoo! Tell Dabbler that killing the guys in the robe are fine, by the way.”
Frix: “Uh… okay. I’m going to relay this whole message to Dabbler and the Captain.”
Sydney: “Okay see you again soon!” (looks back at the bad guys) “Sorry so what are you going to be doing now?”
Thinking the glasses can communicate superliminally (with or without some satellite constellation assisting them) but that they can’t geolocate and communicate their location as automatically added metadata is a bit of a stretch for me
What if the privacy settings are set as ‘on’ :)
Perhaps – that probably depends largely upon the level of security that can be assured in the system, compared to the rest of the galaxy, and whether Sydney has attempted to configure such things (and is it in training mode, where Cora would not only be more interested in whether and how well it was being used, but those settings might be impossible for Sydney to change).
If the settings cannot be changed by Sydney or simply haven’t been changed, I would tend to assume Cora would have left them “on” (by default), as Sydney has clearly shown herself to be naïve with respect to the galaxy and has already gotten “lost” once before. Whether such a thing would be a purely cautionary move, or whether there was specific beneficent or maleficent intent behind it… who knows?
DaveB knows!
yikes – when I said «left them “on”», I meant leaving something like geotagging on, not privacy settings, which would most likely turn things like geotagging off
They were made by Dabbler’s best buddy Cora – what makes you think ‘privacy’ is one of the options?
Well Cora’s a little more aware of other people’s privacy needs than Dabbler is. :)
Being able to geolocate – given the right reference infrastructure – is one thing. Being on a world that happens to have that infrastructure is a separate question.
Our world’s consumer-grade electronics are able to trace their location to within a few metres, but only by relying on a network of satellites and having the right algorithms pre-loaded. GalPS chips may well be standard-issue for Cora’s upgrades, but they’re not much use until she can arrange for Earth to get a constellation of GalPS satellites. And while we do have a choice of native GloPS constellations, I doubt their respective receivers and algorithms are standard patterns in a non-Earth fabricator.
Pulsar-based navigation already exists, it works like GPS but instead of triangulating with satellite signals it uses the radio signals from pulsars. It would work basically anywhere in the universe as long as there are identifiable and known origin pulsar signals.
Pulsar-based navigation is all very well when you’re navigating on the scale of star systems, but I very much doubt it would be useful on the scale of city streets. It’s a scope-vs-detail trade-off: something designed for an operating range of light-years (and reliant on a relatively limited number of natural beacons) is unlikely to also have the resolution for metre-range accuracy. From an engineering perspective, it’s far more likely that GalPS would use the pulsar system to confirm which planet they’re on, then switch to a local satellite-based system (which can be as accurate, via satellite constellation size, as the local users are willing to pay for) for their location on that planet.
I second the Goodest Boy. DaveB, thank you, immensely, and from the bottom of black and frozen heart, for your work.
I would third the thanking of DaveB for all of the great entertainment through the years from this strip. And a happy New Year to everyone.
What is Sydney trying to do,a diversion or hoping that someone can hear her collar band radio!?
Hoping to bluff the baddies into thinking reinforcements are coming and are about 3min away?
3 minutes is a terrifyingly long time in a situation like this. Plenty of time for them to drug her to the gills, uncage the orbs, and scoot with her over somebody’s shoulder.
I’m thinking that the “3 minutes” is to relax them for the first two… at which point, 90 seconds after she said 3m, the cavalry arrives.
The author gives a list of options, in his blog above. The villains are as confused as you are.
I am opting for 5. on Dave’s list. Because my philosophy allows even options which have mutually exclusive sub-components.
I think ‘All of the above’ works best here.
Sydney is not stupid, just easily distracted. People forget how smart she is because she is always going for the next shiny thing.
Then they get reminded and it can hurt.
I still love that in the restaurant battle, the same day as her debut, the baddies called out “Distract Halo with something shiny!”
Probably at least partially smack talk, but not unfounded. I’m sure there’s been some serious psychoanalysis and profiling of each Archon member by now, by both fans and professional villainous advisors.
It’s basic power dynamics. She’s powerless right now, and so she’s trying to create some power by confusing her captors and making it seem like she knows more about what’s happening than they do.
Given that these are dominating slaving creepazoids for whom power matters a LOT but DON’T employ psychological techniques in place of restraints and shock collars, they will either be super-savvy to this or super-blind to it, but nothing in between.
Bewilder-a-Burglar
Stump the Chumps (okay, I swiped that one from Car Talk)
Disconcert a Dirtbag
If she’s bluffing, she’s doing a darn good job of it…
Methinks we either may be finding out what the last orb can do or what the last upgrade does for her. perhaps a emergency function of the orbs if put into a situation where they can not reach the owner sets up a emergency communication situation.
That’s my thought.
This is the longest the orbs, (active) have been out of reach of the bonded user.
I’d totally instal some kind of backup for this situation if I was making a training tool.
Course, if it’s just a clippy level assistant, it aint the most effective.
Oh bloody hell the Orbs have a Skippy mode. Cyberpunk 2077 best damn gun in the game, total smart ass as well. Bad user
They’ve found out over 200 things that Sydney is not allowed to do in the US Military?
Context: Skippy/Daisy is a smart gun with an auto targeting feature from Cyberpunk 2077. Skippy also improves with you as your character levels up.
Context I didn’t yet have. Thanks!
I don’t know if this is an uncredited ability someone with ADHD has but i am i capable of doing this very thing in a very convincing manner as well as all you need is to pretend you are talking with an actual person(ie :let’s call him real friend representation) and imagine the probable answer they would have based in the conversation.
My guess is, she’s probably talking to an imaginary joel.
This is how I stay three steps ahead of my DM at every table session. I spend the intervening time talking to “him” while I plot.
It’s how I was able to talk him into letting me create an alternate Sphere of Prime/Prime Utility for my technopagan Verbena Blood Witch/Socioeconomic Engineer, in our oWoD Mage game.
Autism is often portrayed as a superpower, but sounds like other flavors of neurodiversity are just as powerfu.
Always depends on the situation. ADHD is great for coming up with a lot of stuff quickly or hyperfocusing on one task you have fun with – but it’ll get in the way in a lot of other instances. Like actually following through with any of these ideas…
Personally, I’ve got Asperger’s. It’s a superpower if you’re an engineer, sure, you can minutely concentrate on one thing for hours, juggling an absurd number of factors in your head, but you buy the points for it by having no instinctive understanding of social relationships AT ALL. It’s like growing up an orphaned Vulcan adopted by humans.
I literally had to learn to paint an expression on my face at all times because people found it disturbing otherwise. Like, “I’m not feeling anything at the moment, why would I have an expression going?”
Didn’t level up my social skills enough to date until I was nearly 50, darn it. In retrospect I missed so many signals…
My son’s got ADHD, and HE has social skills. Just no apparent ability to concentrate on anything he finds boring.
> It’s like growing up an orphaned Vulcan adopted by humans.
I actually used that exact simile with my parents. They didn’t seem to get it at the time.
I always assumed it was an autism thing, tho since I have both autism and adhd, I suppose me doing it could just be a sign of my adhd. :P
I do this too. Anytime I’m planning to talk to someone, I unconsciously act out my part of the conversation, trying to prepare myself for every conceivable outcome. Never thought to use that for DnD though…Mind, I’ve only been in the players chair once, so..
Frist, props to henchman 1 for good instincts and quick reaction time, he’s clearly completed his Evil Overlord training. You take any indication of a threat seriously first, if it’s a false alarm you always have time later to kneecap someone crying wolf too often.
Second, I couldn’t tell for sure on the last page, but the new villain is definitely carrying some variety of women’s coin purse / clutch. It remains to be seen if that’s an affectation to reinforce his twisted nature somehow, or if there’s a reason he needs immediate access to small change and chapstick in order to defeat The Mighty Halo.
That coin purse is likely hiding needles and little vials of various drugs to paralyze, induce sleep, and so forth. They clearly have access to medical equipment given Concretia’s set up so it is reasonable to assume they have some to render their target unable to fight back or resist being taken away.
I’m thinking another control collar like the one that is on Concretia’s hostage body. (Law of Conservation of Doodads.)
Like that would stop Sydney.
You really think something like that would stop Sydney swearing? It would just make it worse, oh so much worse!
My vote is number 2.
Also, “nonplus” should have two S’s.
You sure about that? Are you confusing the noun (nonplus) with the adjective? (nonplussed)… or are you pulling a halo?
*tag* your it. *flees*
That’s “you’re.”
Ha, you’re it now, they lured you right in to – …dammit.
Anyone else remember the ARCdark dude that was almost completely undetectable except for sidneys orb and dabblers porno-sense? What are the odds that he’s here and shes talking to him?
Somewhere south of ‘very slim’ as she only saw him [his name was X iirc] with the aid of an orb – that she does not have access too right now. Unlikely but not impossible it’s a bluff. My money would be on orb AI/7th orb.
Agreed.
Your final bet is a fair one. Other options are available though, per Dave’s blog above.
It would be hilarious, though, if X was really there, and in the exact spot she was talking to…
Given that we’ve seen no prior mention or even a hint that there could be some kind of ghostly “Orb AI,” and how terrible it would be to shoehorn one in to the story right when Sydney needs some help, my vote is on pure bluff.
I am betting more on this being code talk through the glasses than anything else.
You seem to be forgetting her supertech glasses.
While Dabbler’s cybernetic eye couldn’t see him back then, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t fixed the issue by now.
Wether this is really happening, or sydney just stalling the bad guys, either way this is just awesome
Agreed.
*wags tail enthusiastically*
My guess is that she really does see an anthropomorphized AI support for the Orbs. But she only started seeing it after getting back from the death planet, maybe it was one of the unknown perks that she picked (like that center wheel causes her to be “more in-tune” with the orbs and is now able to see the AI).
As for why she hasn’t mentioned it yet…… well this is Sydney we are talking about. Either she thought everyone would think she was crazy talking to her ‘imaginary friend’, or she just forgot.
Probably the first, anything not considered “mentally normal” is treated with a heavy stigma in today’s culture. You can be a bit eccentric sure, but I am sure that Sydney has had many lost opportunities because people think dealing with her ADHD is too much. I know I had a couple doors slammed shut because of it in my personal and professional life, and I have it far less worse than she does.
I know a person who speaks to peaceful and loving “spirits”, they are terrified that people will find out and will lose friends and family. Or worse, be force to take expensive medication and have to suffer the horrible side effects from them.
People who are not “mentally normal” are not treated well by society. Better than it used to be, but still bad.
“People who are not “mentally normal” are not treated well by society. Better than it used to be, but still bad.”
They are where I work. But a very close friend of mine was very very badly mistreated elsewhere here, so I am not contesting your summation.
I might contest your Dalmatian. But that depends how many you have.
“As for why she hasn’t mentioned it yet…”
Halo is genre-savvy and knows that there is a very good chance that she will have to take on Maxima (or Dabbler or any or all of the rest of the team) at some point. She has already tried to conceal at least one of her powers precisely because of this. And has never been totally forthright about her origins (and Maxima has her suspicions about the latter).
And it is quite fair of Sydney to consider certain capabilities to be on a ‘need to know’ basis only, if her contract allows that. So here I am drawing a distinction between members of Arc-SWAT (/Archon in general) and typical members of the US armed forces.
The military typically consider everything about their personnel to be within their need to know. Even who they are dating and/or intend to marry. And such is defined and codified by the laws that govern military personnel.
Archon though have had to be a lot more generous, in the terms that they offer to potential recruits, because of the worldwide shortage of supers (versus the demands for their services) and having to compete with the deep pockets of industrial and commercial employers (such as Deus).
IF Arianna has been a good lawyer, representing Sydney (despite her conflicts of interest in also heading up one of the Archon divisions and being in charge of their commercialisation of super images etc), then Sydney’s contract should not require that she volunteer information about changes to her capabilities.
An alternative way might have been to reiterate the right of someone not to incriminate themselves. But if such a clause was invoked then it may imply that the employee has done something criminal. Whereas a well designed contract (from an employee’s point of view) would say that they are not obligated to reveal ANY personal information that is not already specified in the contract.
Any openings for a truck driving Poli-Sci capital-S Socialist transwoman with severe depression, CEN, and potentially PBD, where you work?
There are, although the truck driving would not be utilised. However, with the severe depression, I would advise against it, at the moment.
We: are right in the middle of the expanding clusters of +70% virility covid; are front-line covid fighters; had one of our colleagues on a ventilator for weeks (thankfully surviving and back in the fight with us last week); have a couple more with PTSD and others suffering depression from the losses suffered in the first two waves; and finally do not have covid vaccinations yet.
But, to help counter the depression, we coped far better in the second wave, than the first. And hopefully it will stand us in good stead versus the more virulent version. We are meant to get our vaccinations (for staff at least) in the next month. And morale has improved having fought off the second wave, for the time being.
Plus, long-term wise, I am extremely optimistic that we will get things back under control and return to a (new) normal life. With this (the Brighton area of the UK) being a great place for all LGBT (etc) people, in particular.
The younger local members of staff have attended the Brighton pride all their lives (straight and gay alike) and it amused me that they all structured their holiday plans and social events to ensure that they could do so (pre-covid anyhow), even though we work in sight of the parade route.
We have various gay members of staff and a bunch of us with conditions such as chronic depression, ADHD, autism and dyslexia (not to mention mine, which involves my brain swapping names around at random). None of whom have been discriminated against as a result. All backed by the force of law.
So, yea, there are some cosmopolitan places, where discrimination is minimalised and diversity is celebrated. Although I appreciate how rough it is for folks in many places around the world.
…everything in my feed, re: The Old Country & trans people…is Not Good (TM).
Hearing that you’ve got a work (and a whole community!) where we can exist safely…that really makes me emotional.
*hugs*
Your a Good Boy, Yorpie. Sharing that with me really, really was nice.
What does CEN and PBD mean? Just curious.
Childhood Emotional Neglect
Borderline Personality Disorder (typo in the acronym)
““People who are not “mentally normal” are not treated well by society. Better than it used to be, but still bad.”:”” Like a high IQ, and/or being a Furry! :)
Well hope that aid shows up soon, this is just looking like a bunch of morons who have more money than brains think they can take the orbs and use them for themselves. I mean personally if I was Max I would of smashed Hench Wench into oblivion to the point where that idiot is in a coma.
If Maxima is worried about calateral damage to take down what look to be a pair of B-class (power wise) supers; she could always pull the classic orbital submission move that flying S-classes have.
Grab them and fly straight up till the air is too thin and they pass out. Then bring them back down safely and before they regain consciousness restrain them. and luckily Dabbler has a sleep spell…which is another option and really should be her go to non-lethal for anyone without a strong will or psychic blocking.
X?
This list is comedy gold.
Clearly this is a bluff, but we have lots more information than the bad guys do. I am thinking her phone should start ringing. Concretia looks at the phone.
Bad guy: Who is it?
Concretia: Archon HQ.
Bad guy: Answer it, but no funny business. [ A gun is placed to Sydney’s head. Concretia presses the Hands-free button ]
Sydney: Yallo, this is the Mighty Halo. Max, is that you?
Leon: [ On the phone ] No, it’s Leon. How’s everything going?
Sydney: Oh, I’m fine. Just trying to find a good place to put the uh, artifact. Yeah, situation green. just standing in the limelight.
Leon: Right. Good to hear. You have a good place for it yet?
Sydney: I found a place called Vermilion Insurance down in Brooklyn. Well, that’s the name of the building anyway. Hey, did you listen to my voicemail from earlier? It has some important stuff in it.
Leon: Not yet, but I will check it when we get off the phone. Do you think you will be long?
Sydney: I don’t know. I really need to finish up here before I head back, but I will do what I can to get back to lend support to the main team. Bye. [Bad guy hangs up the phone. ] There, satisfied?
It’s convincing it’s it a bluff, but I want to guess she can see X somehow? (See pages 106-108 for reference.)
The only reason why I don’t think it’s him is I don’t know why he would be following Sydney right now.
He’s assigned to Dabbler, I thought… and we’ve seen no evidence he can reveal himself to only one person
She also would not give away his presence, nor would she pretend he was part of the orbs AI suite.
Imma go with 2
Hmmm… not sure it is a bluff. At first I though the shadow from Arc-Dark was hanging around… but judging that we STILL don’t know what the point did, might be worth a wager.
Think about it for a second, these Orbs are nth level tech, lots of theories that they might just be ‘prosthetics’ or ‘toys’ for such aliens… I don’t know about you but usually my toys come with an instruction manual (and probably 30hrs worth of tuition).
Extrapolating from that into Nth level tech and that they are ‘linked’ to her… on a physical level (or rather… they don’t wanna let go)… is it much of a stretch to think that they’re now communicating with her, perhaps going through the tutorial perhaps or providing access to other useful abilities. I mean.. nth level tech, surely they can send a phone signal…
She did start getting intuitions about how to do things, after investing in the center of the web. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-637-beware-the-history-tab/
I was just thinking double bluff code talk through her glasses; but you do make a good point.
if we go with the they are Nth level being’s toys; what with the skill tree and earning experience points stuff; it is fairly common in a lot of games, to have an assist character; and if they are meant to for training; which edutainment toy is also an option; you generally get some helper “friend” to assist, Mario helps in typing, a little talking dog/parrot/cat/anime girl; ect… popping up in the screen to give clues…so long as its not a fairy saying, “hey listen” every five seconds LoL. Although if this is the case and they had to be unlocked there could be more to it in the assist character department.
Now I kind of hope I am wrong about it being code talk because imagine the fun/interactions and frustrations of a simple yet insanely complex AI that is supposed to help, but only give clues, and not directly assist because the hyper dimensional “kid” is supposed to figure out the toy/edutainment training device themselves for the most part. Some, “oh I can’t do that”, “maybe if you think about this”, “I can’t give any details about that, but I can give you a hint if you like”,….or being able to take over the light bee projection and be more visible and audible to others as a mirror Sydney.
My first thought was she was talking to the Arc Spy Guy whose name I can’t be bothered to look up… but Sydney seeing him required the Telepresense Orb.
Then I thought it might be some kind of AI associated with her Alien-Tech glasses.
But more and more, I think she’s just fucking with them.
It was the highly forgettable “X”.
Note how Sydney’s eyes keep moving around. She’s clearly negotiating the glasses’ menus.
She’s using the glasses to code-talk at someone.
Without having set up a code talk, I’ll best, so they’re just getting all this and just as confused. But a few things of note:
She mentions ghosts and looks directly at Concretia.
She mentions not being able to punch and then mentions the orbs.
She mentions the number 3 while looking at the 3 armed men.
She mentions Dabbler by name only, probably something to do with her abilities to bind and/or magics.
And I’m probably super overanalyzing all of that.
I like these thoughts
but who knows
I’d question the supposed smarts of these guys, but I’m remembering that for sixty years crooks thought it was a good idea to kidnap Lois Lane. Compared to that these guys at least have some expectation of getting away with whatever they are trying to get away with.
Does Sydney’s glasses look off to anyone else? In the second, third, and final panel they look normal like any other pair. but throughout the rest of the panels we see the rims of the lenses being held much lower by the arms.
Yeah, I noticed that too.
The arms actually hold them very low on the lens… and the pictures from the back of her head are wrong, meeting the frame where glasses normally would connect.
Defenstrate a Do-Wronger
+1 for one of my favorite obscure words.
I do like how panel 6 is set up as an aside to Concretia.
yatter to a yobbo (speak nonsense to an attacker)
xyst a xanthophore (send a cold-blooded animal down a garden path)
I love how you guys all get together to play Stump the Chumps twice a week.
Anyone else notice that her response to him claiming that he had a solution to her banter was to COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN HIS ACTIVITY FOR LIKE TWO MINUTES, by BANTERING at him?
If you had a solution to her bantering, you should have used it. Instead you got sucked into trying to comprehend her fantasy world, and now you’re boned.
Yep, she just bluffed his call.
Because she’s Sydney.
Who said the monologuing had to come from the villain’s side?
The only thing I am worried about is that Dave does a different page and has us hanging for the next 2 to 3 pages.
Cause he done it before!
Oh, yes, please let that be the case, we haven’t checked in with Noel in… years! :D
Congratulations, Sydney. Even the readers are arguing over whether or not this is a bluff. The villains have no chance of knowing.
To be fair, not all of us fans are all that bright.
Why look at me for example, while taking a break from my cybernetic upgrades, I *may* have accidentally reversed the polarity of one of the capacitor-driven electromagnets on my homemade magnetic coil gun and ended up making a rifle that shoots around corners instead of going straight. Complete dumb-dumb here.
My personal opinion – this sounds like Sydney is talking to / reacting to 2 different things. The Orbs AI self defense interface, and also speaking with Cora thru the glasses. Sydney trolling is still a possibility, just not what i think is happening here
IF Sydney is Bluffing…I would not like to play Poker with her, because right now she is Not Too terrible at what she is doing. Especially that last bit telling the Baddies what Matt Smith said to the Giant Eyeballs, “Basically…..RUN!”
Brilliant. In a world with supers, aliens, magic and weird-@$$ tech, can anyone ever be 100% CERTAIN that someone is merely talking to thin air or otherwise bluffing?
I presume that the skill-tree is an homage to the Monty Python Confuse-A-Cat sketch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tsIxNci_dE
Reminds me of a “Five-four-three-two-one!” scene from Iron Man 3. Same energy.
I was just thinking that.
https://youtu.be/RNOyJZRwqP8
Her phone activity was definately intercepted, gps from that located and her glasses are technologicaly interesting. She might see people who arent there communicating with her.
Flim-flam a fellon.
Thoroughly out-think a thug
I wonder what part of her body is connected to the orbs. If you used a tool or superstrength to pull her legs or arms would you be able to rip them off?
If so, what part of her wouldn’t you be able to pull? Her head? What about her eyes?
That’s… morbid. I would assume there’s some safety mechanism to prevent that. Like, it’s anchored to her overall location centered on her center of gravity.
Static or dynamic centre of gravity? Static would be a fixed point in her body, near the centre of mass in a given posture – which requires definition of the posture, and possibly a non-point anchoring volume. Dynamic would be the centre of mass for whatever posture she’s currently in – which if you take a small piece of body and start pulling, with the Orbs’ tether limit acting as fulcrum, gives you a lot of leverage to move the rest of the body and a lot of distance that the small piece can be pulled.