Grrl Power #941 – Distract a Detla
Detla is going to get the impression that Archon is some sort of co-ed college comedy romp. That or she’s going to start punching dudes. It’s also possible that everyone in Arc-SWAT has decided to cock block Achilles today because that’s the thing they drew out of the Hat of Stuff to Do if Supervillains Don’t Attack.
Dabbler’s appearance isn’t permanently changing, in case you were worried about that. She just decided to wear something a little more tan today. (Possibly a little too tan. Any caucasian person that tan is going to look like an old catcher’s mitt by the time they’re 34.) Changing her glamor is a little harder than just laying on the couch changing channels, but… it’s not a whole lot harder either. It’s an innate ability controlled by a spell – a spell she’s had a lot of practice with, and maintaining it takes less mana than her mana regeneration rate.
It’s really hard drawing people looking down. That’s what Max is supposed to be doing in panel 2, looking down at Math’s manties, but it looks like she’s sighing. I guess it works either way, really. The problem is that women (especially sexy cartoon women) have full lashes, so if their eyes are only 1/4 of the way open, then lashes cover everything and it looks like their eyes are closed.
The new vote incentive is not quite ready yet. Well, it is, but I wanted to do an extra variant and maybe a little comic page, so it’ll be up with Thursday’s comic if not sooner.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
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Called it
Everyone called it.
I don’t remember calling it. Mostly because I didn’t see the point of saying anything.
Now waiting for the explanation of why her mask doesn’t stop her for seeing the chart when cameras do
Same reason Sydney’s glasses don’t stop her from seeing it?
She might both see it and not see it. Possibly more.
It is an interesting mask and we have no idea what her eyes can see.
Like a human? Or like a camera or see the science/magic behind it? All three or mysterious option 4.
it was only a guess in the comments the mask was mechanical in some way. This just reveals that it is not.
So that green glow is either just some little lights to hide her eyes and not vision based or is coming from her eyes themselves.
i had a reply yesterday that could answer this… basically if her mask is strictly “cameras feeding vision screens inside the mask” then she SHOULDN’T be seeing the skill-tree AT ALL… BUT… if her face mask is more like an advanced version of “Google Glass” then it’s actually her natural vision augmented by a H.U.D. projected onto either the inside surface of the lenses, or directly onto the retina itself, at that point she WOULD see it with her natural eyesight, but the camera wouldn’t “see” anything. when she takes a “screen shot” of the tree, she’ll probably THINK she got a good pic, (because she can’t tell the difference) but when she’s alone and tries to decode what they pips mean, that’s when she’ll discover that she actually didn’t get a pic…
We still have the problem of why the mask is emitting light. This is a common problem with supers (hey Iron Man!).
Maybe what we got here is an alien who sees by visual sonar – just as bats emit squeaks and interpret the returning sound, so too Stygans emit radiation in a spectrum that humans can see (and possibly other spectra such as radar) and interpret the reflect.
It’s not really necessary in environments with a lot of visual-frequency radiation, such as the surface of the earth, but might work if you evolved in a light-free environment – or were engineered for one (such as a Space Ninja might be.)
“Why is the mask emitting light?”
*solemnly*
“Because, it’s Cool.”
Apropos of nothing…. Way back in the wayback, when robot vision was still an interesting problem …. we actually built a robot, in a college engineering class, with a couple of CCD’s behind focusing lenses for eyes. If doing it today we’d just rip the whole assembly out of a digital camera, but digital cameras were pretty specialized equipment at the time.
One of the problems we had to figure out was adjusting the sensitivity of the CCD eyes to changing levels of light. After messing with various designs for ‘pupils’ and things we hit on the best solution. Adjusting power to a small LED in each focal cavity allowed us to easily reach the point where LED light plus Environmental light triggered about half of the CCD elements – and that was also the point where we got the most useful information from the cameras. Problem solved, Engineers swap a high-five and move on.
It was one of our SO’s, visiting the lab, who pointed out to us that when he turned off the light, suddenly seeing glowing eyes in the dark was a little bit creepy.
Engineering is awesome, if a bit thoughtless at times.
Actually, rather than point at Iron Man (after it’s been revealed canonically in film that they are cameras), rather point at Blatman: not only do those eyes glow, the holes change shape depending on his mood (talking the cartoons, haven’t really watched any of the re-re-reboot movies, other than the Ledger one)
Hot alien chick on the premises. I’m surprised it took Math this long to show up.
He was looking for his mankini
While he does have his horny guy sense he doesn’t have Dabbler’s porno sense.
Hey, I was one of those who called that Math is likely to show up because of Detla being here for training…This would be another opportunity for math to exercise his new skill at “avoiding distraction during combat due to lecherousness.” Even though he seems to have it under control, it’s still relatively new & it takes time to develop any new skill to the point of Mastery.
So, who else called that Math should be showing up for this reason? C’mon, I know I’m not the only one.
Aw….I was hoping for a “WHAT ARE THOSE?” meme moment.
Okay placing the bets,
is this just she notices and everyone else is like…oh right that.
or
writer’s convenience Detla recognizes it or something like it from her home world and/or travels (like temple wall stuff).
5 non-value money-units on the second thing
She just notices… that Halo has a halo… and nobody (apparently) cares.
inb4 she recognizes the order /group that the orbs came from
Although, if she recognizes it…. she would not ask that question.
I hope we aren’t going to get any orb exposition out of Detla. The fact that we (and the characters in the comic) have no clue as to the origin or purpose of the orbs is part of this comic’s charm.
With any luck, Detla will say “it looks like X” sending Cora off on a wild goose chase to collect X.
A recognition which may or may not be accurate and/or useful, by the time subjective associations and fallible memory (and working knowledge base, and translation) are taken into account.
Not impossible, after all Zephan had said they did look like something he’d seen before and we all back then guessed at things like spirit stones, ioun stones, elemental spheres, wish orbs, ect…
heck a casual glance and the right cultural context and one might think of Raijin’s orbitals, or spheres held by dragons, or orbitals around various cosmic gods/goddesses, ect… on the temple wall there is a goddess with seven moons floating around her….but that turns out to be unrelated as the goddess represents their sun and the moons are actually the seven planets of their system…or representing a central empire and kingdoms that make it up.
trying to connect dots that aren’t even on the same page is what leads to so many conspiracy theories and bias about ancient cultures (and so much more).
So what you’re saying is…
“Aliens.”
https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/wao1-036
No, Maxi mentioned Ioun Stones, and then admitted to being a former nerd (or a geek) and Sydney told her to say it with pride!
Just think of it. Cora runs off across the galaxy on a quest for information about the orbs, and brings back …
Pokeballs.
A Quiddich set.
Someone’s holographic advertising display.
Something else that turns out to be the Reticulan version of an e-book.
Toy starships from an Orion kid’s battleship game tactical simulator.
etc….
I’m going to bet that she is simply jealous that she doesn’t have a skill tree on any of her equipment.
I’m betting on Delta recognizing something about it.
My bet is Delta is going to recognize that as Nth level tech and either start panicking, trying to leave earth to warn the universe or keeping quiet about it.
I am expecting its more like “that looks like X that wars were fought over, planets destroyed, I have to go tell people I obviously shouldn’t tell because that would definitely start the galatic war I am worried about” sort of thing!
No bet…
Dabbler’s face in panel 7 is just far too cute.
Must… Resist…. Lick… Finger…
It’s Sydney and might be coated in hot sauce or worse.
sydney considers hot sauce to be ketchup. so its worse.
“She got her powers from a game, and she won an
upgradelevel up from dealing with what happened yesterday.”Now they have to hire her, or ‘silence’ her. =->
third option C: if her culture is that hard-core about oaths/promises etc… then all they have to do is get her to make one saying that she won’t blab the details,etc the specifics of which are to be worked out by Ariana in legalese… and she won’t need to be either A’ed or B’ed…
Speak of the devil and he shall appear.
… I get the feeling that Max has had about enough of the antics at this point. We taking bets on if the host of them will be running the obstacle course in swim wear at this rate?
A cat herders work is never done.
Not yet, at least. Too much chance for ‘accidental’ costume malfunctions or ‘misplaced assistance’, given current mindsets.
Incidentally, what’s winter like at their location, and what’s their current season?
I get the impression that it’s Texas, and therefore, highly variable. Hurricane season (roughly fall) oughta be fuuuun. (ObJustification: I live in SE Texas)
I’ve been enough places to know that where Archon headquarters are is really ambiguous, much like the artist has stated was his intention. I note that most people who seem to be thinking it’s a particular location tend to live near the particular location they’re thinking it is.
Not me.
I’m pretty sure it’s in the region of College Station, TX…and I live in San Diego, CA.
WHICH, for the record, would be a must, must better location. (=D
Winter is cold enough to totally bork their power grid; I cannot even guess what season the comic is in now.
It’s in Newmans Season.
Going with the notion that it appears to be Texas – and the ‘wideshots’ of plains and mountains we’ve seen seem to have a particularly ‘Texas’ character – winters are sometimes fairly mild and sometimes bring bitter cold with ice storms. *usually* there’s no ice or snow on the ground even if the place is hard frozen, but if the sky feels like it, it can drop three feet of snow on your head in a single afternoon – and then melt it all off in one day a week later causing Houston to flood.
It’s always Houston that floods first. The city’s got crap drainage. But I digress….
I’ve never actually lived there. My brother did, for several years, and I saw a lot of it on visits.
It’s weird the way different places have similar features (plains, mountains, etc) that look different. Texas mountains don’t look like New England mountains don’t look like California Mountains don’t look like Dixieland don’t look like Afghanistan mountains….. we get blind to this if we take all our visual cues from movies, because movies teach us that all mountains look like Northern California mountains (or Italian mountains, but I digress again).
“I fought enough stuff, so now I get to upgrade my powers.” Detla walks aawy with the impression that this is how superpowers work for ALL Terrans.
It is. Its just a lot more obvious with Halo/Sydney ;)
…oh, shit. The orbs are spotted.
Way to cliffhang us alright. :)
Nah, for this to be a cliffhanger there would need to be a scene transition, this is just a page hanger, a thumbtack if you will ;)
possibly a paper clip, or if you[‘re on the Patreon, a pay-per clip.
Looks like Delta saw something she’s not likely to see….
Makes me wonder what else is in the Hat.
When was what Dabbler is wearing, or her hair, or whatever, Sydney’s design? I’m confused there.
Sydney doesnt wear chainmail bikinis.
Sydney apparently is incapable of braiding her hair the last time I recall her trying to do so.
Sydney doesnt have an all over body deep tan.
Am I missing something? Was there some point where Sydney had the style that Dabbler is using right now? I feel like maybe I’m forgetting something. If so can someone link to the page where Sydney has the style that Dabbler is currently using? Thanks in advance.
It was sydney’s lust design from beginning interview at Arc Swat
Btw never mind – I found where she had SUCCESSFULLY braided her hair.
But it still doesnt really seem at all similar to Dabbler’s look.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-866-rooftop-rally/
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/gp0100/
The difference is mostly due to style shift and changing tools from then to now
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder special glamour. AKA Beholder’s Beauty. A psionic glamour that makes one take on the appearance of what the target finds the most attractive. For Sydney it was this blond super hero look, for General Faulk a green Star Trek alien, and for Cooter a stereotypical “Hooter’s girl” blond.
Let’s just hope that Detla doesn’t touch anything and select it by accident.
Yeah, she’s not the only one…
Get it together, DaveB.
I mean, I guess if this brings you the income you need to pay the bills, good for you. But really, don’t you want to write a good story? Wouldn’t you prefer to have not only your art but your writing bringing in your income? Can you not envision a day when the two combined might be the source of your income?
I thought that your foray into writing your Enhancer tale might have said that all of the above was true.
Looks like I was wrong.
why not just come out and say “I don’t like this comic, I’ll stop reading it”? Dave B is doing great work, it’s a fun comic, the characters are believable in a not-quite-Looney Tunes way, and it’s a free webcomic.
Because then he would have to find another webic to hate on
Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck is your problem?
He’s the king of the Fae. Who was known for being a colossal prick.
I always liked the way Auberon was presented in The Books of Magic…
I preferred him in Disney’s Gargoyles.
That was just a great show, really. ^_^
It’s easily one of the top 5 animated shows ever made, imho. It would be in the top 3 if not for seasons 3+. But that’s because they changed studios and network execs ruined it.
Btw the other 4 in my opinion would be ExoSquad, Mighty Max, Justice League Unlimited (I include Superman TAS, Batman TAS, Batman Beyond, and Zeta Project in that grouping), and Transformers. At least when you take a continuous storyline into account.
I apologize for leaving out other great cartoons like Duck Tales (original one), Darkwing Duck, Tale Spin, Samurai Jack, Invader Zim, Venture Brothers, Clone Wars, Fosters Home for Imaginary Creatures, Dungeons and Dragons, Spider-Man (1994 version), X-Men, The Tick, Futurama, Avatar, Korra, and a lot of anime, both american and japanese.
Can… can I borrow from your movie collection? I don’t favor exactly the same lineup order, but you nailed many of the greats.
Meetup for a weekend cartoon nostalgia epic sleepover? ^_^
I’ll bring foods and drinks, both soft and hard.
:)
Btw, the reason I gave that list was because I tend to favor cartoons which have a consistent overarching storyline between episodes, especially if it’s a fully encapsulated story with a beginning/middle/end. It’s something I tend to really love when done right in a cartoon (or in a non-cartoon TV show for that matter, like Babylon 5).
I just consider Exosquad and Mighty Max to probably be the two best overarching storylines in a cartoon ever made, both with a beginning, a middle, and an end which summed up the entire story being conveyed (although with Mighty Max, the end was a time loop back to the beginning, which I still found VERY enjoyable as a conclusion). Samurai Jack had a beginning, middle, and end as well, although it took several years to finally get season 5 and the conclusion.
You’ll notice all of the shows I mentioned had a very coherent and consistent storyline, although The Tick sort of doesnt, mainly because it was prematurely cancelled. But you could see that they were trying to set up a consistent universe in that cartoon as well. :) I probably should have also added Rebels, since I had Clone Wars in there, because that cartoon was fantastic as well (and is the main reason I love Ahsoka so much, although she was very well fleshed-out in Clone Wars, both the 2D and 3D versions). Really liking The Bad Batch so far as well – Filoni is some sort of genius with being able to have a consistent storyline.
Sure :)
Invincible is shaping up to be included on that list as well from what I’ve been seeing.
Oberon is lord of the fairies, and there’s not enough fairy-on-fairy action for him.
And I don’t give a Puck.
How unFAIRY for him that Dave doesn’t write the comic he want.
Your puns are going next level now, Ro :)
I can’t let Dal have all the pun.
And the funishment continues…
Boooooo! Hisssssssss!
The fun of the pun is in the tone of the groan. >.<
A pun, at maturity, is fully groan.
It’s a conspiracy. All of you are conspiring to kill me with puns.
It’s just something he (Oberon) does. Criticism without giving a reason for his criticism, and doing so with the maximum amount of personal attacks.
I also think Oberon tends to miss the point of the comic, which DaveB has pretty consistently explained is the ‘day to day’ stuff in a behind the scenes account of superheroing, occasionally interrupted by actual superheroing. He’s mentioned this MANY times, including in the About section of this webcomic, which I doubt Oberon’s read.
“To me, the most memorable moments in comics and shows are the scenes with amusing character interaction, you know the issue the X-men spend playing baseball, or the moments where you see the ice queen warming up to the underdog nerd character, or the scene that establishes that two tertiary characters have a buddy cop thing going. I find that’s the stuff I remember and enjoy the most, not what villain they fought that episode. If Wolverine fights Sabertooth for the 47th time, who really cares? But if the artist draws him drinking a Strawberry Yoohoo afterwards, that’s the sort of thing that people remember.
I wanted a comic that focuses mostly on those interstitial scenes I enjoy so much. So the comic is largely “day in the life” It is still a superhero comic though, and there will be some fighting of course but I suspect that any fighting Sydney gets involved in will be a little more slapstick than you’d normally get.”
It might also be that Oberon does not understand that the comic reads different when binging it than when you’re waiting every few days for a new update, which can make any comic drag a bit (see my own criticisms back during the year long Vehemence/Parking Lot fight – ironically because I wanted him to get back to the ‘day in the life superheroing’ parts – reading it in a binge form makes it a lot better than having to wait a year on the resolution).
Or maybe Oberon’s just being a troll. It’s the internet. People like that happen. It’s impressive that DaveB tends to rise above that though without going down into a flame war over it. And we know DaveB does interact with his readers a lot – he just isnt going to fight with them, even when one is being rude about it. It’s admirable of DaveB, if anything. He’s being the adult in the room.
Btw to Oberon: Could you knock off the author bashing? Or at least have actual constructive criticism beyond a ‘you suck’ mentality? It’s not a critique when you say stuff like “Get it together” or “Don’t you want to write a good story?” That’s not a critique. That’s just trying to insult. Because, like you frequently don’t do, you don’t give an actual critique – nothing to actually build on for someone looking for any sort of constructive comments. What you’re doing is petty, mean, doesnt add anything to the comic forum, and just tries to incite a flame war for no good reason.
Trust the lawyer to give the long form answer. ^_^’
I can be wordy myself, but I think I’ll stick with “the fuck are you,” for this one.
Sometimes, it’s just more effective to grab someone by the feelings & fucking twist.
I’ll remind you that I’m “author basher” who presented our poor, beleaguered author with a detailed critique of his foray into actual writing . One which covered not only the standard grammatical and spelling errors but also the issues of what a thin character his protagonist was, why his internal monologue made him read like Reed Richards, why he was an expert in dinosaurs, why we knew almost nothing about him other than that he had been in prison, and plenty of etceteras. One which he thanked me for. And then promptly ignored when he did his editing pass.
You don’t have to think that my criticism is constructive, you have that right and I’ll not deny it to you. But you make yourself out to be even more of the fool when you assert things that have no basis in reality. I’ll repeat myself that you’re clearly a lousy lawyer, if indeed you really are, because you’ve proven so very often that you have very little discernment. A trait of a good lawyer. Which you clearly lack. Tard.
Look, people who are snowflakes and can’t handle criticism which amounts to “this sucks” aren’t going to make it in this world. There are always going to be people who are more than willing to tell you that you suck, regardless of whether you’re a content creator or some random guy on the internet criticizing some content creator. Two things our author appears to have gotten right is his ability to shrug off idiot critics who are just yelling “you suck” and not to get sucked into fruitless arguments with them. Both save a lot of time.
Not to digress, but I’ll digress: Look at the responses to my post here: Almost all of them focused on a fairly lame attempt to make fun of me for my choice of internet handle. As if I’d care. The people who think I’d be hurt by a comparison to homosexuality are obvious bigots who assume that I’m a straight male who is insecure enough that being called a queer would trigger me. Or possibly that I’m a gay man who is insecure enough that being called a queer would trigger me. Either option only makes those doing the name calling out to be both fools and bigots. You’ve selected Pander as your internet handle, here at least. But anyone with any amount of knowledge of English knows that a pander is a pimp. One who provides illicit pleasures for others. Selling their sisters and girlfriends, possibly their own mothers or daughters sexual favors for profit. One might claim that you chose this handle because it means that to you, and you like the thought of being a seller of illicit pleasures, a pimp, a pander. Or hey maybe the name means something else to you entirely. Maybe you’ve identified with the word because a lawyer could be said to be one who sells themselves, suborns their own morals, sells themselves, is willing to argue that black is white as long as there is profit for doing so. Or perhaps you’re either ignorant of the history of the word, or you just don’t care. Ponder that, Pander.
On one side, if the author does not enjoy writing the story, the story is not worth writing. On the other, it does seem to be getting progressively more fan-servicey, which usually isn’t good.
More fan-servicey than shower scenes and patreon cameos? That’s been the comic from… well, before it even began. As described on the “about” page:
“A Midsommer Night’s Dream” features super-powered fae, hardly any fights, lots of humor and sex farce, and an Oberon that demands everyone do what he wants.
DaveB is practically Shakespeare ;-)
*ducks*
…
ZING!
…
*stands back up*
Good shot, Sir!
How could it FAIL to resemble a co-ed college comedy romp with Dabbler and Harem in residence? Awesome. I still cannot figure out why I find a four armed purple alien with alarming teeth extremely attractive.
I didn’t think it was Maxima looking down, I thought it was her closing her eyes in the visual equivalent of a sigh or a cringe. That gesture you do before going on to do something you don’t like.
A “keep your patience, count to 10” moment was how I saw it too.
That’s commanding officer taking the helm mode… the thing she went to the pool to avoid.
And people wonder why someone might _not_ want to be the boss.
Whaddya mean “going to”?
I think the meme is well set in ferrocrete in her consciousness already.
Some of those background shots look like the ocean. I guess they’re just supposed to be big lakes though since they are in Dall- I mean, an undisclosed city in central US.
I believe they are all of windows reflecting a puffy cloud sky.
I think that’s supposed to be distant cityscape. Interstate Freeway, roads, lights, etc. Of an undisclosed city in souh central US.
Math is slipping. It took him this long to realize what’s going on and horn in on Achilles’ action.
Sometimes you want to keep your weapons secret.
But it might not be a bad idea, security wise, to send a visitor or two on their way with the knowledge that you are capable of wrecking the shit of anyone who wants to start trouble.
And of course it’s one thing to keep the weapon’s existence secret, quite another to have its existence be known but its capabilities secret. The former is better if you’re preparing for a surprise attack on an entrenched power, the latter is better if you are (a representative of) the entrenched power trying to deter attack – keep your opponents guessing about what you can do to them, but make them very sure you can do something they won’t have known to prepare for.
And Sydney’s orbs shock the hell out of another alien with what should be supertech :P
I am pretty sure Detla’s looking past them, based on the fact that she’s already seen them, and the focus of the frame.
If that mask has any electronic enhancers, then that will be the case.
Not all flavours of ‘supertech’ are alike. Detla’s and Lapha’s respective Peoples may be highly adept in (say) miniaturised opto-electronics and custom-grown biologicals respectively, but just as mystified by the other’s specialisation as a typical Earth Human. And so far, she hasn’t seen anything from ARC to suggest the full power level of the Orbs – she can infer that they’re rare, because no-one else has them, but not whether they’re anything more than a fancy penknife that only Sydney can be bothered fiddling with.
Math isn’t lying: that budgie-smuggler does cover as much skin as a pair of togs
He never said that those were what he normally swims in (and why is Sydney paying attention to what the boys typically swim in anyway? o_O )
Well… we have seen him in his normal swimwear before. :)
(see bottom panel)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-537-cake-exchange/
Unless he swims in a singlet, those are just shorts
I think they were swim trunks. Mainly because I think they were ALL wearing swim trunks as part of the agreement with Varia.
You can sort of tell because Achilles is making fun of Stalwart, saying “I can’t believe even your swim trunks have pleats.”
The idea that a girl might pay attention to what the hot guys she works with typically wear confounds you? Do guys not pay similar attention to what girls wear?
I may be brain-farting here, but what did Dabbler mean when told Sydney “This was your design, if you recall”?
Did she create that particular glamor specifically to go meet Sydney (as opposed to using one she had designed previously as would make more sense), or am I forgetting or missing something stupidly-obvious?
No. Dabbler’s downplaying the Sydney/Anvil data breach here.
What data breach?
I’m scratching my brain too. I can’t recall a literal design session. What could easily have slipped my mind though is some dialogue, maybe along the lines of “wouldn’t you have looked better with …”
*carefully pops top of skull back on and carefully combs claws through fur to look normal again*
If that is the case, I too have had a similar experience, last month! I follow a bunch of YouTube channels, one of which has 150K+ viewers, yet has a point of pride to respond to most of the comments directed to him, in person. He has never failed to respond to any such that I have made in the past.
A couple of months ago he had unveiled a new invention of his, which fascinated me, as usual. I could not resist suggesting a refinement to it, which he responded to favourably. Lo and behold, one month later, when he did a follow up video showcasing a number of improvements, there was one he described as having been inspired by a viewer comment. Which turned out to have been mine!
*basks in moment of reflected glory*
Mind you his improvements worked fine. Mine worked way way too well, to the point of only being needed in extreme conditions. Quite funny having an armchair invention idea turning out to being too good.
The way Dabbler looks is based on when they first met Sydney in the conference room, and Dabbler took on a special glamour based on Sydney’s mind.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder special glamour. AKA Beholder’s Beauty. A psionic glamour that makes one take on the appearance of what the target finds the most attractive. For Sydney it was this blond super hero look, for General Faulk a green Star Trek alien, and for Cooter a stereotypical “Hooter’s girl” blond.
Oh yea, I recall us having those discussions at the time now.
But has Dabbler ever let Sydney in on that (specifically that her default human form, since she met Sydney, has been the one that Sydney inspired)? She looked like she was in the know, to my interpretation of the above scene (in particular not responding with “I don’t know what you are talking about?” or something more witty along those lines).
yes, in the board room Dabbler explained how the power worked, and a short while later when other teammates saw Dabbler, Sydney was pointing to herself and I believe DaveB explained under the comic Sydney was telling them that human guise was based on Sydney’s inner fantasy.
So I guess this verifies that Detla’s mask is NOT cameralike if she can see the skill up tree. Or maybe she can only see the orbs?
That eyeline in panel 5…
Not really a fan of the new men’s design. They look like Uncanny Valley models now, especially with the shading
Some of the characters have survived the comic’s repeated style changes better than most. Math is the man who I think has been hit the hardest, looking like a different person from one appearance to the next. I think most of the other men are relatively consistent in appearance, despite appearing relatively infrequently. Sydney changes a lot, despite being the main character, but has enough distinctive elements to her design to make her recognizable. I miss a lot of the crazy faces she made earlier in the comic, when the style was less consistently realistic.
huh, so delta’s visor is not a visor but her face that’s an interesting tidbit. how did I come to that conclusion? cause if it was not then she wouldn’t be able to see it (as dabbler told us so long ago that her eye could see the halo orb level tree but her cybernetic eye couldn’t)
Unless Detla’s eyes do really glow and that’s just a non-electronic protective film over them.
But I don’t think we’ve established she’s seeing anything besides the orbs themselves, which apparently do show up in pictures.
Not necessarily. Your conclusion is correct if it’s a full-replacement AR visor, with cameras relaying the outside scene to internal screens with the required additions. But it could also be a direct-vision overlaying system, with the additions projected onto a transparent screen, which would let her see the eyes-only content. And might make quite obvious the difference in visibility.
the three options are.
either the mask is a camera and she only sees what the camera sees, in which case no skill tree just the orbs.
if it is just a mask, even if it has lights inside it, her eyes will still be seeing out, so yes skill tree is visible.
if its an added vision, as in like Iron-Man or tactical goggles, then its still just a lens she sees out of normal with tactical data overlays. So she should be seeing the skill tree just fine but the tactical feed back system isn’t displaying any data on them like labeling something as a hologram.
Heh heh… despite the obfuscating “fan service” and entertaining banter, I see what you’re doing here Dave. You need a reason for Max to agree to let Detla stick around ARCSWAT despite being an alien mercenary that previously fought against them, and now what with her having seen something she shouldn’t have, you’ve got that reason, since Max can’t risk weird advanced alien tech getting her out of a “primitive” earth holding facility, she’ll need to keep a close personal eye on her whereabouts. Well, that or kill her–but from what we’ve seen of her, Max is unlikely to agree to such a… “pragmatic,” solution just to protect classified intel.
Whoa, considering the aliens attempt at a superhero kidnapping power grab, of which Detla was mobbed up with, do NOT answer her question. Forgot Dave’s name for the Nth power level/technological space wizards who in all probability created Sydney’s spaceship orbs, but Detla does not have the need to know ANYTHING about them. Arc is a military outfit with government security protocols. I mean we’ve seen how security conscious Max is regarding Halo’s orbs. This needs to segue into a different conversation real quick. Maybe with Math offering advanced martial combat techniques. Anything to distract Detla from the orb, map. Jeez, in the real world, exposure of such highly sensitive info to a potentially hostile agent, would very likely cause Max to revoke any liberties and toss Detla back in the slammer. What if Detla managed to get off world with the knowledge that a human was in the possession of Space Wizard tech? Dave already mentioned the possibility of interstellar war over such stuff. Barring execution and a quiet burial, think about ADX Florence supermax prison. General Faulk would damn sure be thinking along those lines.
Yeah, I think I may have mentioned a couple days ago about how bad of an idea it was to bring Sydney to Max right now. It’s possible that Anvil didn’t realize that Detla was here, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like it’s kind of the same situation that we had with Harem popping into meetings, except in reverse. Anvil just popped into this meeting with a very sensitive topic.
That said, I can see why she may have felt it wasn’t that big of a deal: the upgrade menu was first discovered on live national TV. Thanks to satellites, that’s live interstellar TV.
However, since the menu doesn’t show up on recorded content, it wasn’t instantly compromised, and it’s certainly not something that Detla should be told about.
There’s giving an answer, and there’s giving a useful answer. If ARC makes it obvious that they’re trying to distract Detla from the skill tree, such as by throwing a sharp turn into the conversation, they make it obvious that it’s something worth paying attention to. If they play it down, perhaps even with an answer that’s truthful but very incomplete, then ‘making fancy patterns in the air’ is just one more of those crazy things these Human Supers can do – and her day’s filled with those already.
of just a refussal to answer.
outsider: “what is that?”
military: “none of your concern, now back on topic”
The big problem about giving a useless but true answer is that they need to also give a justifiable reason for Anvil to have taken Sydney down the Anvil express elevator. Did they just pop in to ogle the busty blue chick in a bikini?
No they don’t. Military communications style has never been big on communicating reasons for anything that has already happened. Nor for anything you’re being ordered to do, unless not knowing the reason could make you screw it up. If you ask the ranking officer why Anvil jumped down from the roof with Syd, you’re going to get one of, “It doesn’t matter”, “Don’t waste Anvil’s time with that question”, “Get back to work”, or “You don’t need to know.”
Expecting anything else is something they scrub out of your brain in boot camp.
A: “Maxima, Sydney needs to speak to you in private. It’s a [Codeword] topic, medium urgency.”
M: “I’ll be with you as soon as I get this tied off. Any particular reason Sydney couldn’t come tell me under her own Power?”
S: “Acclimatisation training for no-Power scenarios. I won the toss for who got to go first!”
Absolutely. Information security is more complicated than just withholding information. The way you hide something can reveal information about it. Most people in the comic’s universe don’t know what the orbs are, or how powerful they are, and just seeing them or most of the things they can do isn’t a big deal. Even the most powerful ability they’ve displayed so far, opening an Aetherium Causeway, isn’t something that requires Nth level tech — it’s that they can do that at their size and portability that makes them incredible. There are presumably similar-looking things in-universe that they could be mistaken for, just not as powerful, and it’s easier to let people believe that’s all they are, rather than make a big deal about hiding the fact that they’re something significantly better.
Dabblers face in panel 8 actually to me really looks like it could be “Sydney if she was a girly girl and really tried to be glam” that expression just instantly makes me think Sydney. It’s pretty funny looking.
I thought she was closing her eyes in self-control. Much practice at this, she has.
Yeah I thought that as well. More of a:
Internal Maxima Monologue: oO(Keep it together Max… he’s wearing bikini brief undies by the pool. Why? Because he’s Math. I don’t know. Just… be professional Max, and ask him calmly. Deep breath. In…out…. okay, now ask)
Yeah, but Math makes a good point. It’s really not appropriate for her to interrogate him about wearing a skimpy outfit by the swimming pool. She overstepped her bounds here.
The dialogue strongly suggests that it’s not just a skimpy outfit — it’s literally underwear, and not swimwear. They’re typically made out of very different materials. So it’s not questioning his choice of swimwear, but why he’s walking around in his underwear.
Math’s challenging what is a particularly… contrived norm, in which inappropriate nakedness is more complicated than coverage. But I’m surprised nobody has called him out on his claim that he “didn’t have time to put on a bathing suit”, as if (1) he had a deadline to hit, (2) that was a lengthy process, and (3) he isn’t incredibly fast.
It wouldnt be the first time Maxima overstepped her bounds. She’s done so a few times with both Hiro andHarem as well. :) And admitted it a couple of times. :)
Probably my initial take on that too.
Ditto for Pander‘s inferred
infernal* internal monologue.* Pander plays the Devil’s advocate enough that the mental slip is easy to make.
Hardy har har. :)
Devil’s Advocate, you didn’t do contracts for Enron did you?
Of course not,
just Madoff and Theranosshe would never advocate for such* companies! Also, those were all more about forensic accounting than IP.* the ones whose lawyers weren’t good enough to get away with it. ;)
“Sydney spent a bit of time on Fracture Station after getting lost in a dimensional rift. Cora found her there and brought her home, and bought her holographic wings. Since then, she’s been … adjusting them. We’re not sure how she’s managed *this*, but we gave up asking about how she managed to do what she’s done with them yesterday.”
Nice.
In panel 7, it looks like Sydney is holding an orb when pointing at Dabbler, but just a few pages before, she said she couldn’t use her orbs when they are in train up mode. Why does her hand appear to be grasping something glowing?
Because you’re not interpreting what you’re seeing correctly.
We’re viewing her hand from behind her. One of the dots from the upgrade menu just happens to be between us and her hand.
That’s the skill point she has to apply to the skill tree. It’s stuck in her glowy hand until she puts it into an orb.
Agreed.
And Sydney should know better than to be waving her hand around, whilst it is loaded with a skill point and next to a skill tree with no known undo option!
OK, that makes sense. Had to go back to the 19th to notice it in the drawings. I know it wasn’t a part of the skill tree because there was no other skill tree lines of light. Strangely, I would think it would also be noticeable on the 26th when she is falling and her hand is wide open, but I guess that might be due to the distance and it not being as bright as when its added to the skill tree.
Maybe she can ‘read’ the symbols on the orbs and in the ‘skill tree’ if there are any there ?
It might even be an obscure but not completely forgotten language ?
Or perhaps it is but the symbols live on like Greek letters in Math when most today don’t know the Greek alphabet in it’s entirety unless they live there ?
Or she is just seeing a really fascinating display of shiny orbs and symbols and connecting lines and swirly things.
But, yea, if she can understand any of the runes or symbols, that would be profound. And plausible that aspects of Nth generation technology civilisations culture may have been passed on, even if their ultra technology has been kept secret.
maybe a Star Ocean scenario. the great heroes were avatars of such a civilization and relics exist or did in legend sharing similar symbols. A great time gate, sword of evil banishing, temple of the star beings, ect…showing them with similar designs and orbs around them.
Jeez, *EVERYONE* is having a bout of ADHD right now lmao
ADH(sd)
Attention deficit hyperactive (squirrel distraction)
Wait, is the squirrel hyperactive? Like in that movie?
Hammy
Nah, he just went faster than light, was thinking of the other movie
Math training her is probably not the worst idea.
Sydney walking around with her orbs doing what they’re doing is probably not the BEST of ideas, but the compound is supposed to be secured. But at the same time, she is outside on the roof, where anyone with a long-range, high-powered camera could (and considering the people there, probably is) taking pictures. I know the energy of the orbs in this state doesn’t show up on cameras, but… aliens.
Anvil should get a discreet telling off by Maxima later. Nothing too severe mind, as it is unreasonable to assume that someone under arrest would be allowed into a secure area. Plus they were high up enough that she may have not been able to clearly identify Delta. So there is some mitigation. But blue skin is unusual enough that even that is not a great excuse.
On the other side though aspects of Halo’s orbs have been declared to be national secrets. Anvil was very much aware that the skill tree was visible, so should not have brought Sydney into the proximity of anyone she did not know to have top level security clearance.
Of course Sydney herself should be thinking strategically too, when her skill chart is up. But we (and Anvil) know how distractible she is when there are skill picks to be made, so, as the senior officer, Anvil really should have looked before she leaped and assessed that the situation better.
There shouldn’t have been anyone there without high enough security to be there in the first place. Kind of the issue Maxima is having with Achilles right now regarding Detla.
So Anvil had no reason to believe anyone was around.
One thing in these discussions, its just the skill tree, nothing is labeled, and skill trees are video game specific items, it is unlikely anyone without a cultural base on something so unusual to even recognize what it is. Detla may just think its a fancy decorative hologram but not recognize the art or design of it. Unless her mask operates as tactical goggles that would label something as a hologram or hard light and isn’t detecting the skill tree at all while her naked eye behind the lens can see it clearly.
As Oldarmourer mentions above, the orbs do have runes on them, albeit that Dabbler could not detect them with her scans. Likewise the skill trees. Plus Delta is an alien, so her visual acuity may be way above the human norm. So she could be seeing things clearly that are not visible to poor human eyesight (including those of readers) or any technomagical scanning.
I did grant that there is some mitigation for Anvil assuming that anyone present there should be cleared. However when you are dealing with top secret matters, such a lax assumption should not be made! You need to be certain that the person has top secret clearance.
Which, by the way, is considerably above clearance necessary to have access to Archon’s swimming pool! We already know that personnel are allowed to bring dates back from discos, for example, and take them into the social areas. Which would very likely include the swimming pool, barring it being blocked off whilst restricted access training or testing was going on.
Detla’s line of sight in panel 5… I’ll leave it at that.
She is checking out the subject matter of discussion. Nothing unusual about that. Humans may be incredibly coy about such matters, at times, but not all beings are like that.
*bends over and gives genital area a good clean with tongue*
She probably figures it’s a “mate attracting outfit”, and that it’s not considered rude to look, either by her assumptions about Terran culture, or by her own culture, which the dialogue suggests considers the face as more private than other parts of the body. She may also consider it a fair trade for allowing herself to be ogled, or maybe she just wants to look, and thinks she can pass it off as cultural ignorance. She’s already playing mind games with Achilles, so who knows?
I wonder if this is a call for Dabbler (forget it) Hammer? If so, will she demand to seduce her first?
Knowing Dabbles, she will claim that that is the only way to summon the Hammer
Something just looks off about Math.
When’s the last time we saw him, anyway?
Wait never mind, there’s his picture in the “Who’s Who” to the side. His hair’s darker than normal, and his face is detailed differently.
Okay the more I look at past comics, the more regularly recognizable he becomes, but his hair’s still darker than normal.
Math looks different pretty much every time he shows up. I was going to say #823 – Vantablackbelt was the last time we saw him, but he was at the game in #853 – Pyrrhic poker.
that’s because teachers keep changing Math!
Why would they change Math?! Math is Math!