Grrl Power #922 – After action flippancy
Cora and Dabbler obviously have some shared history and sense of humor. Dabbler tries to not fly her “I’m an alien sex demon intergalactic woman of mystery and mayhem” TOO high while she’s on Earth, but sometimes it slips out. And if you’re thinking “Really? Cause she does lots of sex stuff.” Remember that she doesn’t orgy the team comatose every night, so yeah, she’s keeping herself pretty reigned in. That’s only possible because she gets herself some Super-grade tantric good good every so often.
You know how in cop shows, when a cop is involved in a fatal shooting, they make them go see the police psychologist just to make sure they’re doing okay and/or not reveling in the kill? That conversation was difficult with Dabbler because she didn’t have any sense of weight for the event. Not in a psychopathic way, which is definitely a flag in itself, just in a “I’m used to a more wild wild west system of justice where I’m a freelance bounty hunter and it’s accepted that killing inveterate recidivist felons objectively makes the universe a better place.” and eventually they were like “Look, just don’t kill anyone unless there’s no alternative or you can’t work with us.” and Dabbler’s like “Ug. Whatever, it’s your planet.”
If you think that attitude should disqualify her from law enforcement, well, that’s certainly arguable, but keep in mind that someone high up probably had the thought that if she hangs out on Earth for a while, maybe she’d share the thing that’s better than integrated circuits, or she’d leave her Astro-Phone laying on her dresser while she’s out on a mission, so who cares if a few criminals experience some space justice?
Cora… has not been through any of that screening stuff. She was just asked to try and not kill anyone.
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He did need killing but still…
A bit of overkill there, Cora.
Cora’s just giving Dr. Frost job security. :)
There is no such thing as “overkill”. All kill is either exactly enough kill, or insufficient kill.
I believe the true answer is “open fire” and “reload”
“Overkill” is when you kill the guy you wanted to kill and his grandparents die from shock retroactively, taking their neighborhood with them.
If you haven’t killed hard enough to violated causality, then it’s not overkill.
Overkill can happen when you have limited ammo and multiple targets.
Because then there’s also “crap, out of ammo”.
“You can never have enough ammo.”
~Johnny Silverhand, “Never Fade Away”
Reloading’s a problem. Remember, if you’re leaving scorch marks, you need a bigger gun.
There is no such thing as enough dakka.
*laughs in BBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTT*
“Commencing orbital bombardment. The Emperor Protects.”
“Instigate Exterminatus. The Emperor Protects.”
Overkill is when you use a weapon or spell that targets the DNA astral imprint of the target and eliminates any and all individuals matching a specified parameter within the gravitational field of the planet.
in short, kills him, kills his entire family…make it vague enough and target his entire species…entire branch of the animal kingdom..the whole animal kingdom…everything on the planet with protein…and so on.
Not bad for something intended to only target all the bacteria or viruses in a body and eliminate them, just turned up to astronomical degrees by disturbed but also kind of lazy aliens.
Ah yes, familicide (explained further here). That’s… generally considered going a bit too far.
I loved that this was actually revisited in the story, where they came upon a temple of humans all dead that the elf hadn’t realized just how far the spell would go, not just to immediate family but their version targeted everyone whose bloodline could be traced back to that one dragon, a life form centuries old whose offspring and descendants would differ enough from her to interbreed peacefully with other species such as humans.
That’s definitely a well-written story, in which decisions that make sense at the time have meaningful consequences
There is no such thing as “overkill” precisely because there IS such a thing as “underkill.”
He did need killing but Cora had no authority to do so, which made it vigilantism. Also, Maxima knows that Cora uses the same weapon storage as Dabbler (IIRC) and she definitely knows there are non-lethal options in there.
And even if Cora did have any authority, it would still have been unlawful killing without due process. Due process applies even to pieces of shit like he was.
I believe the next question is “Exactly why did you think that such ordinance was necessary?”
It will be forgiven (this time) due to “oops” being a factor. She is technically law enforcement and hostage saving does work as an excuse even if overkill happened.
Cora is not even ‘technically’ law enforcement, she was never deputized
She is quite literally given special status on that space station and after using “regular ordinance” in self defense was given a ticket for littering. Close enough to me. You don’t get “can use firearms against muggers” permits.
Justified defense of others is not vigilantism. Vigilantism requires attacking someone who is not a current, active, threat. The standard argument against vigilantism depends on characteristics that are absent here: 1. That there’s a good chance the vigilante gets the wrong person; 2. that the damage imposed is excessive compared to society’s normal judgement (usually because the actual goal is revenge); 3. that the vigilante undermines the normal rule of law by going outside it.
Self-defense (and defense of others) is a fully legally recognized thing, making 3 inapplicable. In self-defense cases, you’ve caught someone in the act, so 1 is inapplicable. (Defense of others is a bit trickier as you may not know who is the aggressor. But not a problem in this instance.) 2 is the only one that can hold any weight here. I can see arguments for excessive force — the tech she has available is likely to have a way to incapacitate that is less damaging. However, exact degree of force is hard to judge, and instead there’s usually a bright line rule of stopping once there in no longer a real threat.
Lasagna bag was in the process of shooting a person he KNOWS is a federal police officer, after imobilizing her, aka Sydney in the head…. Thus he is dead. Don’t get anymore justified then that.
Agreed. Someone who states their intent to kill someone, and has only not done so because two of his own criminal gang are trying to stop him, has no cause to call his killer a vigilante. Well, the DA doesn’t have any cause to call his killer a vigilante, because obviously they themselves aren’t going to be calling anyone anything anymore. Which was both the intent and the result.
As a private citizen, she actually could reasonably be in less trouble than a police officer would have been, because a police officer has a set of guidelines they have to follow and a process for reviewing their actions against department policy, not just legality. Whereas as a private citizen, with a clear life and death situation, killing to protect another in imminent danger could be considered justified and there’s not a department policy book to be consulted; it’s mostly justified or not by circumstance. Though some localities may have their own laws about what does and doesn’t count, so depending on where the shooting took place, local law might also have some jurisdiction. How all that applies to an actual space alien is another headache for the guy having to do all the space diplomacy negotiations, though.
Everybody had authority to do so. If somebody is threatening the lives of other people with a gun, and it’s in America, then absolutely everybody around that person – citizen or not – has the authority to kill him. Legally it’s called lethal force in defense of others.
There’ll be a trial. You’ll have to argue it in court. You’ll have to establish that that was exactly what was happening. But… ultimately, yeah. There was nobody there that didn’t have the authority to kill him.
“Everybody had authority to do so. If somebody is threatening the lives of other people with a gun, and it’s in America, then absolutely everybody around that person – citizen or not – has the authority to kill him.”
This is not actually the case. To be more specific, the affirmative Right to Defense means that anyone faced with someone armed with a gun and obvious intent to use it can legally take whatever steps are necessary to defend themselves and others from the threat of death or immediate bodily injury.
HOWEVER, this is not a license to kill.
To illustrate the difference, a hypothetical. Say you are in exactly the same situation as Cora. You’ve got a firearm of your own, and you put a bullet in his shoulder before announcing yourself. (Although unless you have reality-plus guided sights on your gun I’d suggest going for a double-tap to the torso.) So you’ve shot him, he’s dropped the gun, and now you’re exchanging banter. Then you shoot him in the head. That isn’t self-defense or defense of others, that’s murder.
So, back to Cora.
Did she have less-lethal rounds that could have stopped at just the damage done to his shoulder, which neutralized him as a threat? If she did, and while moving into position, she selected unwinder rounds so she could neutralize him, taunt him, and watch him perish explosively, then she murdered him. She used far more than “effective force.”
Even more so if Cora has MORE effective means of non-lethal neutralization–like a Star Trek phaser on “stun.” Which she very likely has for, in nothing else, situations where she wants to take targets prisoner for questioning. She might have even had a means of disarming the unwinder in case she accidentally hit the wrong target or changed her mind and wanted to question him (I know I would).
I’m sure Cora won’t be charged, since I’m sure Archon’s not going to report the situation truthfully, but Cora murdered the guy, pretty much in cold blood. “He needed killing,” while possibly true, is not a defense even if it’s a “cultural thing.”
You cannot retroactively say that, because we know he was neutralized by the round — which is a counterfactual statement, since he still had the ability to order henchment to attack or kill the hostage, and the ability to pick the gun up, etc, so he was NOT neutralized — but if we assume that he HAD been neutralized by the impact of the bullet, you STILL cannot retroactively say that Cora would have known when she pulled the trigger that Boss Tartare would be neutralized by the bullet.
The question is, at the time Cora pulled the trigger, was that selection of round the one IN HER OPINION the most likely to minimize the harm to the hostage.
That’s all.
IN HER OPINION, was that the best choice of round to minimize harm to the hostage and stop all violent acts by the THREE kidnappers.
That’s the only operative question with regard to whether the unwinder was a valid choice of weapon.
One unwinder bullet DID achieve that.
“You cannot retroactively say that . . .”
Actually I can. Consider the circumstances.
Alerted to the danger through Halo’s new glasses, Cora had enough time to apprise Maxima–who suggested she go secure the situation with “non-lethal ordinance.” So we know Cora’s got that capability in her arsenal. Nevertheless, she chose ordinance not appropriate for “soft targets” (Dabbler’s words).
Arriving on the scene, Cora put her ultra-lethal round through Evil Bastard’s shoulder, causing him to drop his gun. Why his shoulder? Because she has one of those virtual-targeting systems Halo’s now using to cheat on the range, and can put the round anywhere she wants with sharpshooter accuracy. She knew her target was an unpowered human and shooting him in the shoulder would effectively neutralize him. Otherwise, not putting the shot right through his head would have been risking Halo’s life.
Could Evil Bastard have ordered his goons to attack? Sure, except they had no weapons drawn, and were actively attempting to stop Evil Bastard from killing Halo themselves when Cora intervened. Cora had them covered and was 100% certain of dropping them with her virtual-assist marksmanship before they could have drawn.
Could Evil Bastard have retrieved his gun? He’d have had to stoop and grab it with his off-hand, then raise it to shoot, before Cora could put a second round through his head. So, NO. Cora was 100% certain of her ability to stop him.
With her first shot, Cora was 100% confident of neutralizing Evil Bastard and his crew. If she wasn’t, she would have put that first shot through his head. So the conclusion is, Cora never had any intent of merely “stopping” Evil Bastard. She went to Halo’s rescue fully intending to kill him, an unnecessary act she could have easily avoided without endangering Halo, and to do it with an unnecessary amount of style and extreme prejudice.
Now, there are a couple of motivations for her to do that.
First, there’s her natural tendency to consider criminals who threaten lethal force as fair targets for Judge Dredd-style executions; she displayed that tendency quite memorably back at the Galactic Crossroad Space Station. Her action is entirely consistent with her character.
Second, there’s the opportunity to “establish her threat credibility.” If Evil Bastard’s not the kingpin of his organization, then if she has to fight any more of them she’s clearly established her eagerness to use horrific levels of force.
Both considerations might be in play, but I’ve got a strong suspicion that she simply enjoys it.
As she put it, “He was bad.”
That’s not quite true: This page shows Maxima had no idea what was happening with Sydney until now, so Cora was likely referring to a general suggestion that Maxima made before they went to deal with the tourists.
This doesn’t affect your conclusion, and I agree with the rest of your post, I’m just chiming in for accuracy’s sake.
There probably won’t be a trial. A DA would have to determine that a crime had been committed for there to be a trial. And that seems unlikely given the circumstances and the witnesses involved.
You don’t, for example, charge a person with trespassing for running into a burning house to save a person inside, despite that being the exact charge which might be made under different circumstances i.e. no fire involved, no one to save.
The real question is whether henches one and two would be charged with murder under transfer of intent.
Let’s face it, they knew their boss was vicious when they arrived with weapons to a kidnapping site. The death of someone as a result of that crime was predictable.
So, if it weren’t for the fact that both of them will be disappeared in order to prevent tactical information about Sydney from getting out, they would end up being the fall guys for the death.
All things being equal, they probably will be offered a work furlough program if they take berths on Cora’s ship off the planet at the earliest convenience.
Having played many fps games and rpg’s I can tell you there is no such thing as overkill. Make sure they are dead and can’t get back up.
As the good books says “There is no such think as “overkill”. There is only “Open fire” and Reload””.
I believe that particular book is titled “70 Maxims for Maximally Effective Mercenaries”
There is no overkill. There is only “open fire” and “reload”.
And the best weapons are the ones you only have to use once.
Overkill is that moment that you realise that you miscalculated the blast radius and find you are in it …..
“If you’re not willing to shell your own position, you’re not willing to win.”
GEN. TAGON: If you made a mistake, it was that you believed I loved those little, hand-painted pike gnomes too much to shell them. And, well… I did love ’em. It would have been immoral to sacrifice them like that if I didn’t.
GEN. TAGON: If you hate somebody, using them to bait a trap might as well be murder. If there has to be a sacrifice, and it can’t be you, it had better be somebody you like.
KEVYN PRIME: Do you have many friends, General?
GEN. TAGON: Living? No, not really.”
It was just insurance against a frivolous tort. Pureed perpetrators find it difficult to prosecute.
Ya poor Sid is going to need more therapy time.. Look at that stare
At least this one should be more relatable than, “Being Alone World Champion.”
I’m assuming Dr. Frost has experience with combat trauma.
Oh she will get a new comic day and be just fine. Eg the one with a swimsuit edition of Wolverine….
Going to need a full detail report with Concretia. Also Dabbler looking fine here so what’s she been up to this whole time. She did well against the alien mercs but hard to believe that one punch knocked her out and now she is back .
I’m guessing the “real” use for an unwinder round is to set off voiltiles/explosives with a delay to give you time to duck behind cover, not really to give you a moment to taunt your target.
Or to create commotion in charging gang’s ranks.
might work well for extreme-range sniper shots, where you need any hit to be a kill, but not necessarily instantly.
Or you could use it for hunting or big varmint control, where you want to dispose of the carcass in such a way that the scavengers can easily clean it up.
Or maybe the real purpose is to dispose of targets that are unpleasantly resistant to one-poke-though-the-vitals kinda of damage, and who need massive overkill to drop. Zombies, aliens with distributed internal systems, critters who are naturally immune to shock or on combat drugs.
Or maybe the purpose is to kill one target as messily as possible, so the rest know exactly what kind of business you mean… or because you think the splash effect is cool.
Considering Cora deals with hundreds if not thousands of different alien physiologies, One round that guarantee one shot take down would definitely be top of my magazines.
It’s not a guaranteed one-shot takedown. Against an armored opponent, it would do little.
Or the magic shield of a high-level magic user, which not only exist here but Cora is intimately familiar with a high-level magic user. The baddies had matching cult robes and the guy’s wearing a cowl for crying out loud, they’re not just for looking imperious.
Fully agree she was warranted to intervene lethally given the urgent situation, but her chosen course of action was just offal.
is Dabbler really high level though? Recent events cast doubt. She’s definitely a jack of all trades magic user, and maybe with enough prep time and in her own element does really well, and the comic said she fought Maxima to a stand still, but chances are both were trying not to seriously harm the other given the context.
But she got knocked out of this fight in a pretty pathetic way (granted we don’t know the exact strength class of Brut and Henchwench with Brut’s strength, but Dabbler looks not to be seriously hurt so at the least questioning what the hell happened there. If she had a defense aura or other *greater hard* or whatever defense spell up then her leaving the fight needs another explanation. I’d take going to help guard the prisoners when Cora left, but nothing in comic has shown this so far.
It feels like we just pulled a Goku here (removing a character temporarily from the story who could have too easily wrapped up the conflict), life sign/aura track on Halo, Gate spell to her location, astral line track on Concretia *granted it looks like they didn’t need that anyway*, and using sleep spells on Brut and Henchwench, and even Henchwench going full elemental spirit, a demon sorceress adventurer should be able to pull an enchant weapon or enchant fists to hit them anyway.
Also in this fight Dabbler almost lost another arm if not for Cora. So really I am given to wander if Dabbler is really as powerful as she says or if she just has so many magic and tech trinkets and knows such a wide variety of spells that she can fake it.
because the holding back excuse doesn’t fly given the encounter with Henchwench apparently removing her from the fight for a few minutes. Surely she has fought demon lords and gods as she claims that can hit harder than that, not like the punch sent her flying into a nearby building or through several of them or through the street into a subway tunnel.
Ah yes, the question of how one compares overall power across wildly different classes.
Let’s say Achilles has 100 levels in Damage Resistance; he doesn’t have any left for anything else, but what he has is enough to make him invulnerable. Dabbler may well have 100 levels of her own or even more, but she has a lot of classes to spread them across: maybe something like 25 Seduction, 20 Magic, 15 Tinkerer (invention), 15 Gun Mastery, 10 Sword Mastery, 5 Damage Resistance, 5 Multiculturalist (languages etc.), 5 Engineer (maintenance/repair)? Sword Mastery is not one of her priorities when it comes to allocating levels, so as far as fencing is concerned she’s at a definite disadvantage against even a moderate specialist – as testified by her prosthetic arm. Some weaknesses are of little concern, as they can be shielded by a strength, but probably not all. And if the shield slips, or she’s distracted and doesn’t apply it properly, then an opponent with the right
gazorpazovumchallenge can cause her some serious problems.While I doubt there is any base 100 skill points to distribute across a skill tree for everyone in this series, I get the basic idea.
Dabbler’s innate abilities aren’t the same as what she brings to a battle. She is a succubus (granted in some worlds succubi/incubi rank amongst the most powerful of demons based on how in their folklore they are essentially unstoppable), but most series tend to downplay them as one trick ponies low on strength…balance issues for games…
something that plagues magic users, because games for balance issues have turned magic users into glass cannons this has become the expectation, but in legends and myths magic users usually had incredible physical strength, pretty much one of the first benefits of magic was self enhancement beyond mortal limits.
I guess modern stories have the same issue, I have been accused of writing a Mary Sue just because I described my character as essentially a cross between Wonder Woman and Dr. Strange…and later Scarlet Witch. But I grew up on old fairy tales and legends it just felt natural for the magic user to also be crazy strong and fast, heck in the anime Slayers the magic users were crazy strong, fast, and durable, even in-uiniverse (Slayers Try) it was pointed out the magically enhanced humans had evolved to be essentially super to non-magic humans *but was the norm for them so didn’t realize it…this was a huge inspiration*
but that’s off topic.
Dabbler is about 400 years old, but even that old with her ADHD, focus on tantric powers, and jumping between magic and advanced tech, her jack of all trades approach would make sense to make her lag behind in some areas.
in fact even some of her claims can’t likely be taken at face value, killed gods…define a god, did she kill a reality warping master of its world, or did she kill a talking fish that can increase luck, bless or blight crops, and make it rain if the clouds are already there…who was demanding human flesh in exchange for its gifts or else it would spread sickness and make floods wash away the crops ect…
huge difference in what can be classified as a god. With the right prep even some such beings can be taken down, find their special weakness, an incantation that can seal them, use enough magic items and tech they can’t counter and bam, you can boast you killed a god…thanks to your ailment defense charms, lightning gun, anti-probability hex charm, and spell card that calls upon the power of a greater god/demon of an opposing element specially prepared for this mission.
Just saying, she has done alot of boasting but I am starting to get the feeling she is all about the prep, and her prep is mainly for supernatural threats. She did really well in the supernatural fights she’s been in so far, but not as well against tech and supers.
In retrospect, I should have given Dabbler more points, and maybe a few more areas to spread them across. I can see how picking the same number (especially such a ’round’ number’) could facilitate the misunderstanding that this was only for the relative distribution of abilities, with the total power distributed being controlled separately.
I was thinking of something more like multi-classed RPG characters, in systems where use of a specific ‘job’ (for want of a better word) helps you gain levels in that job and the character’s overall level is based on the sum of their jobs’ levels. Achilles has concentrated on one job to the exclusion of all others. Dabbler has so many jobs in parallel that her overall level is quite high, without necessarily having enough levels in any particular job to take on even a mid-level specialist.
‘Killing a God’ is the sort of claim that demands a lot of theological context, both for the ‘killing’ and the ‘God’ parts. Do we count the Roman soldiers who were on crucifixion duty in Jerusalem on that particular Passover weekend?
Dabbler being like the multipath skill tree who ends up spending points in every single field makes sense to me. To the point her overall level is high but lacks behind in any one field for anyone who specialized in that field. Also a major hoarder of magic items and weapons (both magic and tech), and her own admission hasn’t put in the skill time on even the weapons she likes the most.
‘
Not just focusing on lethality, but diversity, if she knows what she is up against she can prepare ahead of time, and has a base preparedness that works well against what she is accustomed to, namely supernatural foes (such as all her stuff in place that kept the guardian skull golem at the vault from adversely affecting her); but for anything special probably needs to research on what she is up against and set out ahead of time what spells, items, and weapons to take along. Surprise is clearly her weakness.
and yeah gods are so diverse that honestly that term is badly used and depending on the person means something completely different (I was annoyed watching Star Gate because the Goa’uld claimed to be all knowing yet the gods they were imitating didn’t have that as a power in the first place), it was a problem with the writers assuming god was a universal concept in all its specifics..same issue when assuming fairy, vampire, dragon, or demon have to have specific details…of heaven forbid Kaiju.
you can have gods that are basically just super humans with negligible senescence or have to eat special fruits every few centuries, but can otherwise be killed, some that are just hard to kill, others that go to an afterlife but its sort of like ascending for them so they stay gods just now no longer dealing with Earthly matters, some if they die return but changed into a new god with new powers and personality, some will stay the same and just come back a few days to a year or so later (a lot of nature gods are like that, you slew the winter king of the forest…but he will rise again next winter if you don’t know how to seal his spirit), and so many myths of gods killing yet having to seal inside the Earth or the bottom of seas, under mountains, ect…their rival gods.
yeah its one thing to say you killed an immortal (unless you kill him) superhuman making a village worship him vs a water spirit that will reincarnate a month later in another nearby body of water vs killing a giant nebula that can take on any form it wishes and decimate an entire continent with a single blast of cosmic energies.
I will try not to go crazy on links, but thinking about it, my character Rhulan has fought and killed a number of “gods” as well, of very different types; and at very different points in her life. Limiting to three links
1: Og’daga (an eldritch abomination sealed in an obelisk that was prophesized to destroy the world of Volca when unleashed)
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3330998/39/The-Saga-of-Rhulan
2: Ahm (a member of an immortal race of bird like humanoids who have proclaimed themselves gods)
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3330998/82/The-Saga-of-Rhulan
3: Heaven and Hell of a planet, Rhulan and her wife Migdra and daughter Rhudra, are trying to raise an empire, the god and devil of this world have fought against them as “invading gods”, this goes back and forth between two battles as the supreme god of the planet Espara has called upon the Dimension Police to help expel the alien magic, Rhulan in this “battles” both the devil, and then for much of the story the supreme god of that world.
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3330998/97/The-Saga-of-Rhulan
She’s really more like a sexy magic-based Batman or Green Arrow in the tech department.
Cora received no instructions regarding this specific situation, and she had no way to know whether Boss Lasagne was a super. She received a general briefing about US/Earth preferring non-lethal takedowns. Unless Cree told her more about the guy offscreen, she had no guarantee that the round would even kill the guy.
I’m thinking it’s for use against resilient opponents who can take a lot of trauma while minimizing collateral damage. Sydney was right next to him and unharmed – a regular grenade would have thrown shrapnel towards her.
This also means there’s no need to take cover. The delay could be inherent to the operation, but more likely it’s a programmable and/or remote controlled fuze with a wide variety of applications. (Which would be even more damning for Cora.)
Sydney: I mean, I probably shoulda warned everyone about Cora being HIDEOUSLY violent anyway, so this is partially my bad…
First, Sydney did warn the bad guys. Second, Dabbler knows far more than Sydney about Cora’s firepower and habits. Also since Dabbler is a long time member of Arc with a higher rank therefor could be held more responsible than Sydney. Third, if Arc officers are pathetically stupid enough to not say “Do not kill anyone if you have any ability to subdue them.” to Cora then Arc took all responsibility for her actions by allowing her to come along.
Sydney would have gone through an extensive debriefing where all of that information and detail would have come out. The first person to visit an alien world (in a group) and then an alien space station would be spending long, long hours telling and retelling every detail of her experiences to many people who out rank her.
Ok a couple of minor points. The unwinded round. We realy don’t know what other kindds of ordinance rounds she has access to, or what kind of targets she may have to use them on. Also, It may very well be a single target activate/disarm on command munition ( notice it did nOt go off on impact, she said opps just before it went off ) which makes it safer to use in a multi target environment.
It may be one of the few generic “possibly useful on almost any super powered/ supernatural oponents” rounds she has. After all in theory this is a world where people like
And let’s face it, we already know there’s at least one potential opponent she has who that round, when it goes off would only annoy, if that.
Vale
Sciona Arjun and her Damn I need a new body approach to magic
Concreata
Wymilcooter
Second, Ironicaly Max is reminding me of a Japanese police Lt who I talked with explaining what happened with a Swat involved shooting in when he was doing a ride along with the officer he was assigned to while in Detroit.the Officer was my neighbor at the time. And before you ask, yes the choice of housing locations was deliberate on the part of the Client. The complex was known to be Haunted/ caused and the landlord was required to reveal that my using used Easter egg die to water the flowers on my poach did not help. .
That and my using used Easter egg die to water the flowers on my porch did not help. Should have been a separate sentence. My causing my flowers go from white to a literal light pastel rainbow seemingly overnight did not go unremarked. Granted I did meet the Neighborhood Miko and a rather nice police officer the next day when I got home. And yes there was a reason why my building and my apartment were considered haunted.
Well, we do. When the muggers jumper Cora and Sydney on the Fracture, the local cop said she’d appreciate it if Cora used lighter ordinance in the future. To which Cora replied something like “This is my light ordinance.”
So really, it’s not much of a surprise that she applies deadly force to those threatening herself or her friends.
Cora also stepped onto the scene with her weapon already in hand. So for all those wailing about how she should have used a less lethal round, consider that Sydney was about to be shot, and swapping weapons might not have been the best way to prevent that from happening.
Speculating about her weapon having multiple different rounds available to it are just that: Speculations.
well next to keep her friends from being covered in gore she should use a protein destabilizer round that caused the target to melt into a puddle of meat goo.
Her gun is explicitly noted as having variable lethality, which implies different ammunition options. Just a regular slug or inert grenade would have worked decently well.
The Unwinder is is a specialty round with a narrow field of application, I’m not buying that she had it loaded just-so.
And what if her opponent was armoured (protection from ‘regular slug’)
Inert grenade? What is that and how does that differ from the Unwinder?
Then the Unwinder wouldn’t have worked either – it would have bounced off and never gotten the chance to unwind him form inside. Presumably she has some kind of ammo she could have loaded to prepare for armor – the Unwinder doesn’t fit that description.
A grenade whose fuze isn’t armed, so it’s essentially a slug. The Unwinder could have qualified as one had it not, you know, blown up.
Is the unwind round a reference to the Unwind series of books? If not/you havent read them, I reccomend them but VERY CAUTIOUSLY. They were very good but for me and several other people I know, also intensely disturbing.
Dabbler previously explained her ability to could call up tools (like weapons) from her remote lab via teleportation (or equivalent magic cool tech / psyche powers), and then send them back there. I think she made a mistake by not using that ability to send that bit of “alien tech” to her remote safe lab using the same method. Asking Sydney to take control of it, and to hide it, (in hindsight) was not the right thing to do. It put Sydney at unnecessary risk.
Maybe she felt it would be helpful to get Sydney out of the battle zone?
As far as excessive gore / violence goes . . . it’s a webcomic with good superhumans fighting bad superhumans using superpowers & unusual and advanced (and sometimes alien) weaponry. There will be fallout, and even collateral damage. I was surprised at the degree of splatter, but not dismayed.
It’s a comic. In it, justice is applied at a comic level, not at a nation level with which we’re all familiar.
Plus, the excellent author provided advance warning it was going to get messy before that comic was posted.
The device was too large, but she removed the power source. The rest of the device was still high-tech, but not that high-value
Well apart from the fact that it’s a collapsable stasis chamber. Basicaly sooner or later someone’s going to pull a mad scientist on them and hook them to a power plant or 12.
Who do we know is both mad (egotistically insane) and has a few dozen power plants just laying around waiting for him to plug into (and then claim he ‘invented’ what he just plugged in, or at least the resulting {by}product)?
Tony Stark? David Xanatos? Lex Luthor? Or were you referring to the paragon of the Grrlverse?
Don’t you start!
An unbeliever! Pander, get him! He’s daring!
Guesticules, could I interest you in joining our belief structure of the Holy Trinity of misunderstood good rich guys? In the name of Tony Stark, David Xanatos, and Deus Ex Machimae. Amen.
It does not matter if you do not have faith in him, my child. For he has faith in you.
All praise Deus, amen.
I’ve participated in S.W.A.T. / police officer training scenarios, posing both as a bad guy with a gun, and as an innocent bystander / victim. The incoming students/officers were expected to apply all their education and experience to react appropriately each situation, and it was eye-opening to me when I saw the amount of instant decision-making they were required to perform.
We all had guns, but we’d all had the original barrels removed and replaced with special barrels that only accommodated practice training bullets/shells that were a unique size, and which fired blue soap pellets. This ensured we couldn’t actually hurt each other, while also showing where someone had been hit–or if anyone had been hit at all. The pistols created noise & smoke similar to shooting actual bullets, which added to the sense of chaos.
In one situation, I posed as the bad guy with a hostage held at gunpoint. The trainees were expected to shoot me as soon as they saw I had a gun. But they attempted to reason with me, to save my life AND that of my hostage.
The S.W.A.T. instructor had decades of experience in similar experience, so he’d previously given me the command to shoot the hostage if I heard any of the officers say to “drop the gun.” It was what sometimes happens in those situations, and he wanted his trainees to experience the tragedy. So I complied. They failed to shoot me and save the hostage’s life, as required when they saw that I had a gun. For better or worse, it’s the training required.
When the hostage was “shot”, I was then instructed to try to “shoot” the six trainees. I missed, and I’d been “shot” as well. I had at least seven hits on me, and it was incredibly sobering.
Once things calmed down, the instructors calmly explained what had been done right, and what had been done wrong. They showed that the hostage had died, and that I had also been shot. They explained that the desired action was “taking out” the bad guy as soon as they saw his gun.
Then the scenario was recreated so they could “practice to success” instead of stopping when they failed. We played the scenario over until they met the trainers’ expectations. By the end, the hostage lived, I was “shot” but lived, no officers were hurt, and we moved on to the next training session.
There were hours and hours of different situations that my son and I participated in, from burglar alarms to ambushes. The trainees came out of it sobered and serious, better understanding the expectations placed on them, as well as the risks they were presenting to the public while doing their duties.
The S.W.A.T. trainer is a veteran who served in Iraq. He has 20 years on the police force, and had done drug interdiction Miami, and rescues in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska (think “The Most Dangerous Job” TV series). He could be Dwayne Johnson’s brother in physique and strength and intelligence.
In short, he could step in for some of the supers in this series, and he’d look right at home (if given comparable superpowers).
Yeah, it’s hard to talk people down, especially when they may be in an irrational state of mind. They could even pull the trigger accidentally due to being highly stressed and not having trigger discipline.
Trying to talk down a violent criminal isn’t “choosing the peaceful way”. It’s choosing to endanger an innocent victim’s life for the sake of sparing the assailant’s life. That’s not compassion, it’s cowardice. It is giving the criminal full agency over the situation so that the officer doesn’t have to be the one to decide how things will play out.
That’s not how we should want our police to behave. Police should take the actions most likely to result in minimal loss of INNOCENT life. Not take actions to maximize their own comfort with the situation when rationalizing that they ‘did the right thing, and if only the murderous lunatic had made the right decision…’
You’d have to know who’s guilty and who’s innocent first. Which is what we have courts for, not what we have police for.
Innocent people don’t take hostages. Also, police generally don’t go in totally uninformed. If the criminal was subdued by someone, they would be informed to expect to see someone subduing the criminal and not to shoot that person.
How you treat encounters is a numbers game. You’re not dealing with just one singular encounter, you’re dealing with tens of thousands of encounters every year. What procedure officers follow will determine how the vast majority of these encounters play out, and changing the procedure to be “nicer” but riskier leads to hundreds to thousands of innocent people and officers dying over the course of each year who didn’t need to die.
People are always trying to find new techniques, or new weapons that would make police less lethal without losing effectiveness, but it often fails for one reason or another. Sometimes because it just isn’t effective and leads to a lot of people dying, and sometimes because it succeeds but isn’t very media friendly so people demand it not be used.
The solution is not to say “just be less lethal” and pat yourself on the back. If you want a more peaceful police force, you need to come up with a way for them to succeed at being peaceful. It helps no one if we end up with pacifist police who never kill anyone but also who never succeed in saving anyone.
Sidney’s description fills me with chuckles- as is Max’s reaction. Dabbler’s face is hilarious too.
Yes I know it was traumatizing, but damn I want some of those rounds. And a gun that shoots them.
What would an Unwinder round do to steel plate? (Asking for a friend.)
I’ll bet that nothing would happen other than a quite solid ‘Thunk’ and a dent in the plate… my reasoning is that i think the “unwinding” that it’s doing is that it is LITERALLY ‘unwinding’ the twists and curls of the victims cellular DNA and or proteins… the 3 second delay was just how long it took his body to pump the chemicals and/or nanites (or whatever else it is) throughout his whole body… then once it was all over, it simply (HA!) just dissolved his cells… and the various chemical processes either naturally occurring in a body, or as a direct result of the act of cellular dissolution then quickly built up gas pressure with enough force to redistribute his remains over the 50ft. Lasagna Pool that is his new, final form…
That’s a lot of expensive tech to accomplish the same thing as a tiny bit of the alien equivalent of C4 or Sentex. And given the hole in the concrete floor of the building under construction, explosives seems to be the safe bet and not some fancy and otherwise useless DNA destroying shell.
That hole in the concrete? That was where Sydney’s balls were being stored, not a result of Lord Lasagne being splattered around the room
I expect something more force-based (perhaps releasing spiral-shaped forcefield tendrils out from the round), considering the large amount of coherent body matter that was still present.
The thing you’re describing would be extremely useful and deadly but wouldn’t need to make the target explode – They’d collapse into sludge unless you specifically made the round include a bonus explosion. And what hit other people probably wouldn’t include a whole rack o’ human ribs.
As someone who works in the dairy industry, the Horizon Organic logo is much appreciated.
[ Cora… has not been through any of that screening stuff. She was just asked to try and not kill anyone. ]
… and failed.
Oops.
That totally made me think back to the “oops” bit in Bill Cosby’s old standup routines.
She was asked to TRY and not kill anyone, Lord Lasagne gave her no choice
Whatever an “unwinder” round does, it made a hole in the floor.
the hole in the floor was where Concretia had stashed Halo’s orbs
It appeared to me to be the spot where cowl-man had formerly been standing.
going by the panel sequence I got the impression that hole was where the orbs were.
I am of the opinion that if you are going to kill, make it quick and clean as possible. Preferably one shot. Coral did so. Sorta. She got the one shot down, perfectly. The clean part? Hilariously, not so much. By the way, Dave, I am sitting here at work when I saw Dab’s facial expressions…and now my Co-workers are staring at me from all the laughter…
I would not call a round with a 3 second delay quick. Sydney was just lucky that he didn’t fill her with bullets between getting hit and exploding. 3 seconds is a lot in a situation like that.
And if he was not expected to kill her when things got bad for him, then killing him was unnecessary.
TBF he was unable to operate his weapon because Cora hit him in a part of the shoulder that caused him to drop his weapon.
Mighty skillful shooting on her part, or maybe good technology.
Then she didn’t need to kill him and had no reason to load the Unwinder.
Who do you think she loaded the unwinder for?
From the evidence presented in-comic, Cora anticipated the biggest threat was Concretia, someone who finds bullets merely annoying.
It’s Lord Lasagna’s bad luck Cora didn’t take the time to unload and reload a less lethal round, but he has only himself to blame.
Lord Lasagna. Not due to tactical considerations, but because she wanted to kill him messily.
Concretia would also have found the Unwinder merely annoying – it might destroy her body, but she can just reform. And for temporarily slowing down Concretia, there would be better options that don’t have a delay.
I’d like to see that evidence you’re referring to. We don’t know for sure what information Cora had going in, but if she was well-informed, she would know Concretia is reluctant and taking out her handler removes the threat from her, if she only knows who Concretia is, she knows any kind of physical force only stuns her, and if she doesn’t know what to expect, she would never load the Unwinder, which is effective against some types of tough opponents but weak against others (and the tough supers she’s seen so far belong to the second kind.) Instead she needs to load something with immediate effect, so she can take immediately decisive action if necessary.
Yeah, but it would take time for Cree to rebuild a new body, and every time she does, it gets popped like a lumpy balloon, it won’t be long before she flees (if that was the case and she was still an enemy)
Which she can also achieve with a high-powered slug, as Peggy proved, and then she doesn’t have to wait several seconds for it to take effect, during which Concretia can keep attacking her.
In the end, the Unwinder isn’t a good choice for anything Cora could have expected.
No luck involved. From the moment that round hit his shoulder and Cora announced herself, Boss was thinking about Cora, not about Sydney. (Who he had just been trying to kill.)
Cora completely DOMINATED the scenario, and luck had nothing to do with it.
Sidney was lucky that she kept her mouth closed.
I love the face in panels 5, 6 :)
Sydney’s synopsis of the entire combat situation made me laugh so hard I had tears
No doubt when she has some time to regain her composure, she’ll fill Maxima in on the whole Concretia Enslavement situation and that the bad guy in question was literally preparing to execute her for the purpose of seeing what happened with her orbs when she died, and Maxi will be less angry at Cora over the fate of the jerk.
I would doubt that, given that Maxi’s anger is mostly on account of unnecessarily traumatizing Sydney.
You mean the torture and imminent death wasn’t traumatic already? o_O
“She’s already traumatized, so there’s no problem if we traumatize her more.”
trauma has diminishing returns. past a certain point the brain starts forgetting crap. or is that old age? I can never remember.
If they spin it right to Sydney, the fate of Captain Lasagna could be quite cathartic. It already was in the medical sense (it’s a synonym for purgative (At least from the other end of the digestive system.))
that really depends on the individual and their own coping mechanisms, some repress, some pile on, some go numb, some break, which is all severely over simplifying the myriad of ways different people react to intense stress, anxiety, and traumatic events.
Did I see an homage to Gunnercrigg Court’s late-great Coyote in Dabbler laughing?
Instead of “He was bad”, Cora should’ve said “He hit Sidney”.
Maxima would be more understanding in that case.
That was quote from “True Lies”
“They were all bad”
Okay, a ‘paraphrase’
Maybe we should just number standard comments, e.g.:
101: Cora should have killed Lord Lasagna
102: Cora should not have killed Lord Lasagna
103: Cora should have killed Lord Lasagna, but more neatly
201: Relevant reference to statutory law in New York State (the scene of the killing)
202: Irrelevant reference to the law anywhere else
etc etc
It would shorten the time it takes to read the comments
Anyone up for totaling the stats on this?
Reads comments…
Deja Vue,
Didn’t you say that the last 3 times we had this debate?
No, someone probably has though.
Brichins is making a meta joke, Rhuen.:)
Ie, he is having deja vu about you saying deja vu.
Now that I explained the joke in too much detail, it is clearly 4 times funnier. :)
Thanks for clarifying that for us :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bhsKlz8xkg
I love that you responded with that. And that brichins responded with his video as well.
Just like last time.
So, where is the stasis pod? Surely they didn’t just leave it where Sydney dropped it at the construction site? It’s not with Halo, Cora, and Concretia when they’re observing from the rooftop after raiding the Swansong.
Is Cora confiscating yet another piece of loot from an Archon kill? What about the power source she removed? Will Ray Cosmos and The Space Mercs ever be in frame again? Did overwatch fail because Leon is ghosting Sydney after their awkward relationship talk? Will Zorchbot recognize its blood-powered creator in her new form? Find out eventually* on Grrl Power!
* resolution of tangential plot threads not guaranteed.
One plot thread I’m hoping will be resolved: Ray is alone with a batch of prisoners that he thinks is helpless due to the Alari Nannydisks, but they have at least two allies free to act. Add to this Cora literally dialing Ray down to save energy for later, and we have a potential prison break that could be embarrassing for Ray – if he were capable of embarrassment.
Weird that no one seems to have thought of THIS: Cora has exposed everyone (well, the ones with organic bodies) in the room to a pretty substantial biohazard, aka Creepy-Guy’s shredded corpse. Seriously, Sidney has blood- and gore-splatters all over her face. If that dude had a disease that can be transmitted via bodily fluids, like Hepatitis or HIV… well, in any case, Sidney needs a decontamination shower and a few injections.
After the scab pool in the vault….. I suspect that Sydney has ALL the things a person can catch…..
Alien biology unlikely to be susceptible to Terran viruses. (Unless they are running Windows 95) & vica versa. There is little danger here.
While it’s true that cross-planetary infection between ecosystems with different biochemistry is likely to be exceedingly rare*, that’s not really relevant in this case as ‘Creepy-Guy’ is Human.
* He writes, after a year in which a cross-species infection within the same planetary ecosystem has swept the world.
Yeah. Kinda a HUGE difference between a cross species infection jumping from one to another from the same planet. With the same proteins and all the rest of the common elements from sharing a biosphere. That is hardly in the same star system, literally, as a cross species jump between representatives whose proteins don’t fold the same way, much less the rest of it.
Not disputed, just acknowledging the coincidental example for what could happen if (and it is a big if) something did cross over.
At this point in time, we don’t really know how wide the envelope of ‘life not-as-we-know-it’ extends. It may be that there are effectively no limits, to the point of not even needing compatible habitat conditions. Or it may be that very few options are comparably viable, to the point that it’s a good bet anyone we meet uses the same solutions to the same problems. Some choices appear effectively random, like the chirality of asymmetric molecules (i.e. which way the helix coils, among other things). Others are more constrained by basic if non-obvious physics or chemistry, like the sheer bonding versatility of carbon compared to nearly all other atoms.
Yeah next big one will be Elm disease.
Cora is, biologically, two thirds human. Any argument about how different extra-terrestrial life would be (correct in the general case, mind you, although there has been plenty of lampshading towards the opposite in the comic) doesn’t apply to her.
Which one is the alien? Lord Lasagne is fully Terran
…Kinda seeing Dabbler laugh like that reminds me of the Grappler Baki series, after Oliva folded Sea King Yoh like a crushed pop can, and Yujiro laughing at it.
Panels five and six.
Oh so worth the price of admission.
No matter the price. :D
“I’m so amused by that, I am going to turn into a muppet for superior laughing technique!”
People are viewing Cora as being somewhat morally ambiguous, but I’m not seeing it. I mean the worst thing she’s had to answer for is littering…
Actually she doesn’t even answer for those because she never pays the fine or answers the summons, a judge just wipes them once or twice a year. But it’s the only thing that law enforcement can get to stick on her Fracture record at all so it keeps morale up.
That’s why they lay down the plastic tarp before…
Cora’s next words after he was bad need to also include the situation, Sydney was effectively tied down (rendered immobile) while being struck and the man was attempting to shoot her.
Lethal force is authorized.
all other discussions on the type of weapon, the ethics, ect… are irrelevant in this context. Granted she probably has tons of weapon options that could have done the same thing with less gore…and lots with more gore *or more horrific…don’t make me make another list of worse potential high tech weapons*,
in the end Cora is a gunslinger from a wild west type background, kill the bad guy, save the hostage, prisoners are an after thought, and honestly a burden unless you have a bring back alive bounty.
Cora may be all those things, but downtown NYC in this day and age is not the Wild West. Nor is Cora any form of recognized law enforcement.
I remember at the start of this whole thing many people were out there, Cora included, trying to limit the damage to Earth society this influx of aliens were bound to have. But, flip of a switch and *BOOM — PHHHHHTTTTT* Cue lasagna bag.
Girl needs a few lessons in more than a few topics.
I agree… Cora’s next sentence should be along the lines of: “He was about to shoot Sydney in the head from 2 feet away.” Which should be enough to tell Max that Sydney was a powerless captive…
Actually thinking about it, this discussion also need to include the situation with Cora and the boat full of criminals apprehended and handed over the police.
secondary, go get that stasis pod,
third, what do with the criminals who have been apprehended,
fourth, the aliens and other civilians who left the area out of concern for their own lives now scattered into New York city,
fifth, so nobody noticed the flyer take off the stasis gun. That actually makes two of the criminal supers involved here not apprehended, the flyer and the power copier,
also two of the alien mercs are still loose.
Not gonna do a critique on Lawful use of Deadly Force on this, because it is fiction, and I do enough of those on Real Life shootings. Example Ashli Babbitt;s Death was a result of a ‘Bad Shoot’ In My Humble Opinion(IMHO).
Speaking of that, I think it should be mentioned here in a science fiction comic, that a major, pre-eminent Book Publisher of Science Fiction, Military Science Fiction, and Fantasy books, has shut down its Forum site, due to pressure from the Cancel Culture.
That’s right, Baen’s Bar, an Online Forum for the last twenty-plus years, was shut down because it offended some liberal. Hopefully, it will be backk up soon. Anyone interested in the tale, can google Bain Controversy.
Also, April 29th marks the end of the first hundred days of the Biden-Harris Presidency. Not My Presidents day events will be held wherever…
You still sure they will even reach that date? o_O
Myself, I like how that bad guy is now being referred to as “lasagna bag”
Cora could’ve said, “He called me a bitch” and Maxima might’ve been cool with it.
Ok let’s see.
We have the illegal alien trafficking* / smuggling by the male inflatable sex doll.
Illegal entry by the passengers of the blow up alien sex doll. From the look of things add in failure to go through customs, bringing in firearms, and possibly bringing foodstuffs.
We have the aliens who were engaged in attempted kidnapping and Human Trafficking. Oh and attacking federal officers, resisting arrest concealed weapons issues, and so on.
And before anyone goes with the “but there aliens so there’s no laws on the books” that probably will not fly with any judge, at worst they rule that they are citizens of a country with no diplomatic relations with the US, and because of that they can’t contact the embassy or request diplomatic assistance.
At worst a judge decides there to be treated as wildlife and turned over to either a dep of agriculture vet, or local fish and wildlife, where ironicaly they can and probably would be declared an invasive species. Basicaly property seized, examined by a vet, uthanized and possibly incinerated, Granted the judge will probably do that as a warning (basicaly we can treat you as a human or as a wild animal, the later makes you an invasive species…. If only to get them to shut up.
Just saying I like how Maxima was drawn in panel 8.
Overkill is when you blow up a part of the spiral arm of a galaxy over a turf war
Overkill is when you respond to a gang trying to be tough by pulling a MGL-6 and one shotting a small gang
Overkill is when you kill one Pc with a single Basilisk arty shell booby trap
And the last 4 panels are nicely drawn to my eye. (plus I love Halo’s shocked look)
She thought he was a super and could take anything less And this was someone who captured Sydney so certain violent death is authorized. ‘Oops’ was realizing he was not.
That was my first thought too.
it is right up there with-
‘Oh, I thought you were wearing a bulletproof vest. My bad!’ (NOT fiction, by the way!)
If he had been a tough super, the initial impact wouldn’t have disarmed him (the Unwinder would just bounce off Brüt’s skin, for example.) Then it did nothing. In general, if a normal bullet wouldn’t have worked, the Unwinder wouldn’t either, since the unwinding comes too late to stop him from shooting Sydney or doing any number of undesirable things.
If she had been worried about tough targets, she would have loaded high-powered slugs, fancy penetrators(shaped charges, for example) or set phasers to disintegrate.
You still haven’t explained how you imagine a “normal bullet” would have demoralized the henches as effectively as that one did.
I wonder if there are actually that many people who disagree that “killing inveterate recidivist felons objectively makes the universe a better place”. I suspect most of the disagreement stems from an inability to agree on what behavior qualifies as “bad”. I don’t think this says much for the level of moral or ethical development of the planet.
Seems, most of the arguing is over how Cora killed him, not so much that she did
And what about the collateral damage of her actions? Sydney is clearly traumatised by it, and they lost potential intel by killing him. After all, the dead don’t talk.
Also even if you’re of the opinion that repeat offenders deserve to die which, is not something worth debating but whatever, but even if you take that approach, you have to remember that even scum can have friends and family – people who will possibly be incentivised to come after you if you kill their friends, which puts all of YOUR friends in jeopardy. Because no action is without consequence, and nothing ever happens in a bubble. There are consequences even if you’re not around to see them.
1) There is no evidence at this point that Boss Lasagna had any intel that the henches did not.
2) There is no evidence at this point that anyone will miss Boss Lasagna.
3) There is no evidence that leaving Boss Lasagna alive would not have resulted in violent acts by him and/or the henchmen.
4) There is no evidence whether Boss Lasagna had any other potential strategic or tactical moves he could have made.
Having no evidence for the contraposition isn’t justification for acting on an equally unsupported assumption.
Cora, act the time of deciding her actions, had as little evidence that he had no intel (if anything, one would assume the boss knows things the footsoldiers don’t), that shooting him with the Unwinder and blowing him up later wouldn’t have resulted in violent acts, and that he didn’t have an ace up his sleeve.
And if there’s no increase in safety, there’s no justification for going lethal.
Please stop arguments about if Cora was justified. I am sure Dabbler could magic up documents to substantiate a claim of Oh I am not from around here and I have diplomatic immunity, and it will be one hundred percent legit. I didn’t say fake documents. Real ones. I meant legit.
They disapprove of Cora’s decision and action. That’s a relevant fact.
Cora doesn’t give a crap what they think. That’s also a relevant fact.
No, that isn’t relevant to a discussion of fiction.
But damn that lasagna comment had me in stiches
Idk why it only just dawned on me… if Mittens are her Kryptonite, then how about winterized hamster balls? No seriously. Say she gets two “tactical hamster balls” distributes her most used combinations (like a flight orb on one side and shield on the other) and then just floats em up into her hand from inside the balls. Not only could she avoid something like what Concretia pulled, she could keep her hands warm and relatively safe. She won’t be able to use her sidearm of course… but we saw how well that went.
Or, maybe make em like a ball with a fleece tube going through and a hole or pocket in the tube the orbs could drop in. That way she can put her hands all the way through the hamster balls and use them, or keep them inside for ball handling. Think Bakugo’s Grenade Gauntlets from My Hero Academia, how his hands are outside of the grenade looking things. Now picture him being able to pull his hands in like a grenade-turtle hybrid nighmare.
Or I suppose, you can go the less amusing route and just let her have baggier bullet resistant, cut resistant sleeves. Hide the balls in there.
I absolutely love Dabbler’s look in panels 5 & 6, as well as, of course, laughing at the transition undertaken by those two and the subsequent panel.