Grrl Power #944 – Something about interrupting a Colonel
FYI: People had been correctly pointing out that the “hyperdrive” branch of the skill tree needed an orb in the first spot, so I’ve added that now. Not retroactively yet, but at any rate, the OCD amongst you can unclench slightly. Also, the center ring wasn’t notated correctly. The “pizza slices” in the absolute middle light up as points are spent in the surrounding ring, and I had forgotten that when she bought the points there when she was on the Alari homeworld. So panel 1 is a fully accurate shot of the skilltree at this point in the comic. Until Sydney spends her new point, anyway.
Maxima is ridiculously (unrealistically) easy going most of the time when it comes to saluting and… I don’t know what it’s called. Military… affectations? All the snapping to attention, needing to ask permission to speak candidly, all that stuff. I’m sure there’s a term for it. She’s so lax that I’m sure some people forget Archon is actually military most of the time, and I have to imagine some readers who were in the military just politely nod and think “Military. Sure.” But I think we can all accept that Sydney, and actually a lot of the team simply wouldn’t thrive in a proper military environment.
I’ve actually considered a scenario where Sydney gets seconded to a proper military unit, like some naval unit needs her for some deep-sea reconnaissance or something. I just don’t think I know enough about military life to make that remotely satisfying to read, and also I don’t think it’d be very funny, because Sydney would probably get in trouble almost immediately and be in tears by the end of the third page.
Presumably, Sydney is actually learning all that saluting, standing at attention, and marching up and down the square. Just, off camera. I’m not sure that stuff would make for the most entertaining pages.
ANYWAY. Every once in a while, Maxima feels the need to remind everyone she is their boss and not to interrupt her the moment she enters a room then burst into laughter.
Twenty laps for Sydney is not the same punishment as twenty laps for Dabbler. Even if Dabbler wasn’t topped with tantric energy, she’s a fit adventurer who has been in her share of running gun battles and “must reach the dark tower before the demon god awakens” situations, etc. Honestly, even 40 laps would barely tax her. Max would need to consider something absurdly boring to actually punish Dabbler.
(Dabbler has summoned a little magical fan to blow cool air on her in that last panel, in case you were wondering what that blue thing was.)
The new vote incentive is up! Some of you got sort of invested in Lapha and Garamm, so her she is testing out her new duds. I don’t know if or when they’ll show up in the comic again, (probably more a question of ‘when’) but we’ll have to see if she got any other options besides the tail. Personally I’d go for retractable, venomous fangs, but presumably if you get those, you also have to get a special upgraded pancreas or liver or something, in case you accidentally bite the inside of your own cheek with your fang.
As usual, there are a few variants over at Patreon, and as is becoming more common, a little follow-on comic.
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good examples of what not to do is go watch Cpt Hawkeye Pierce from MASH. As for what Max making Sydney run would depend on the contract she signed and since she was a corporal before the flash back I would assume she is more military aspect side of things. Other wise she would be a consultant like dabbler.
I wonder if filling the node that connects directly between 2 of the orbs might unlock some sort of combo ability. Like when activating both orbs at the same time might have some sort of ultimate attack based on which powers those two orbs have.
Or perhaps allow controlling both Orbs with one hand and them in contact?
I wonder myself if the center ring is what exposes the detailed controls on each Orb –like turning on the advanced options on the Forb for “embiggening”
I have a long standing hypothesis that Sydney doesn’t actually need to touch the orbs to control them. They behave as if they are to a physical part of her body, even though they are physically disconnected, at least in 3 dimensions. What I mean is that she can mentally control them, move them around in 3 dimensions, using her mind… and probably even by using the motor cortex of her brain. Also, moving them moves her and vice versa. They’re likely physically connected to her in an as yet undiscovered 4th dimension.
Imagine if you will a 2d being on a piece of paper. It’s a square. The square represents Sydney. There are 7 circles surrounding the square, representing her orbs.
Now, extrude tendrils from those orbs out of the piece of paper into the 3rd dimension, and curve them around to physically connect with the square. Those tendrils have a set length. If you drag the square around, the circles will follow it. If you grab one of the circles and drag it around, the square and thus also the other circles will follow it around.
The fact that they can’t be scanned and appear to not exist according to technology can also be explained by the fact that the bulk of them exists outside of the 3rd dimension. You’re just scanning a tiny portion of them, the end point, and the end point is just a 3d shadow of a 4 dimensional object shoving itself into our dimensions.
The end result is this… Sydney doesn’t need to touch the orbs to use their powers any more than she needs to use one hand to separate the fingers on her other hand into a Vulcan Salute, though that is how a lot of people start to learn how to do the Vulcan Salute. Using her hand is akin to that, she’s just grabbing a part of her body and manipulating it to do what she wants it to do.
Another thing to take into consideration are the various cases of acquired vision, where a person started blind and then later acquired vision through medical intervention. The earlier vision is acquired, the quicker and easier the person adapts to the new sense. If it happens in adulthood, the person may never fully adapt. Two cases in particular come to mind.
Sidney Bradford who at the age of 52 was given the ability to see via a corneal transplant. His eyes worked fine, just his corneas were opaque. After a lot of practice at interpreting what he was seeing, he was able to accurately judge the distance to objects. This was due to the fact that he was already well practiced in judging distance to objects from having interacted with them while blind. So it was fairly easy for him to tie distance into his meager skills at sight. HOWEVER, he was unable to decipher perspective in 2D art, and as a consequence could not perceive the ambiguity of the necker cube (a 2d illusion of a 3d cube that most sighted people grow up drawing in grade school… where you draw two overlapping squares and then connect the corners).
Then there’s Michael May, who lost his sight to a chemical accident at the age of 3, and then through a stem cell treatment regained his sight at the age of 46. He too could judge distance to objects, and also had had no concept of the phenomenon of perspective. So when people or objects moved away from him, he did perceive the distance increasing, but he also believed the people or objects to be shrinking in size.
There’s another case that I can’t find the name of the person, but he had his sight restored and could see objects and navigate around a room without having to touch things, but he couldn’t identify what the objects were until he touched them to feel them.
What I’m getting at here is that Sydney did not grow up with these orb like extensions to her body, so she might never outgrow the need to touch the orbs to control them. Maybe she will, maybe she won’t.
Lastly… I believe those six center bits where she originally had 2 and then put in a 3rd are probably a limitation in the system for how many orbs she can command simultaneously… If I’m right, she can control 3 orbs at once now, but doesn’t know it and hasn’t thought to try it because she’s already assuming from her previous experiments when she only had 2 pips there that she can only control 2 at a time.
Oh, and if I’m right, once Sydney masters controlling more than 2 orbs simultaneously, has all of the upgrade pips filled, and knows what they all do, she’ll basically be a deity…
Nah, she would be the ship who sings …. in very creative yet colourful levels of profanity.
If that’s the case Sydney really needs to consider the atmosphere and shield joining link
Probably the best punishment for Dabbler would be Office Space style TPS reports.
Team Penis Size reorts?
She’d probably teleport something in with A.I. to write them for her, then watch porn in her cybernetic eye and masturbate, all while maintaining an illusion to look like she’s filling them out.
…Actually… who’s to say Dabbler doesn’t go about her day masturbating most of the time? I mean, right now she has two hands invisible and illusionary clothing. One touch of the yellow Orb and Sydney could see far more than she ever wanted.
Dabbler’s already noted she’s not wasting time with internet porn a long time ago when Sydney brought it up, she doesn’t need it when she can have the real thing anytime she wants.
Or just program her cybernetic arm to fill the forms out for her while she does whatever else she wants.
By in-universe rules, Succubi only feed on the tantric energy of others. I don’t think they can set up any kind of feedback loop for that with themselves. Besides, Dabbler doesn’t seem like that kind of pervert. Her interests seem to veer more towards technology and reverse engineering, beyond what she’s been led to believe she needs to survive. It may not happen in comic, but I personally think it would be a great plot twist if it turned out tantric energy wasn’t the same as lust after all.
what they need is about 10 asexual people who have some useful job skills. force dabbler to be in a room with them. If they are really asexual that would make it unpleasant for her.
. . . Sure hope insufferability to pansexuals isn’t a defining trait of asexuality. Since Dabbler actually seems like someone I might like to know, but I highly doubt she’d be able to find any tantric energy in me whatsoever. XD
Be glad that Sydney and Dabbler weren’t hitting the bong when Max walked in…!
Who knows what would’ve been in store for them!!!
…………….now I need to see that, and it’s effects / consequences.
So what are we thinking on best ways to spend the point?
I’m thinking either the last pip in the shield or another pip on the “wheel”
The shield is one of her most used orbs and easily the most important considering it keeps her alive. Very likely the only reason Max takes her on dangerous missions despite not having completed training. That nearly full branch is likely to either make the shield stronger or allow it to expand even bigger. Stronger would be more desirable for better safety but larger is also very useful.
The “Wheel” is speculated to give her more inherent knowledge or control over the orbs or to intuit their function better. If they’ve figured this out and believe it to be true then it’s highly valuable for making better use of the Orb functions she already has and for better knowing where and how to spend the points in the future.
You know Sydney’s list?
She bought it here:
https://wtfnotebooks.com/
Starting a new job soon, sorely tempted by a few of those options.
Is her purchase decisions community driven? Inquiring minds want to know!
I think their could be a lot of cool value in exploring life support and mystery orb but I’m not an Ace Asset to a paramilitary enforcement team, so my priorities might be off target. In any case I’m always excited to see more orb management pages. Is be happy to see the top brass panel where they discuss advancement planning and the resulting exploratory training activities.
A little smaller than the eco-friendly spiral notebooks that staples stopped selling a year or so ago.
Sadly they are soft cover like every other one on the market.
I loved the durability of the hard cover combined with the ease of laying flat or folding over of the spiral binding.
NOTE: I use them as field log books when on job sites – labs mostly
Just curious but do you Dave know what all the powerups are on her skill tree? (if you do maybe someday you could share :) )
If you are curious here is where the powerup have appeared that I could find.
First upgrade
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-181-power-up/
with Corona upgrade
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-506-square-root-access/
Alien world upgrade
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-659-the-greatest-challenge-upgrading/
Extra – dabbler draws them and they try to figure them out
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-429-snap-judgements/
I can try to make a guess for some of them
Flight orb: we know the completed line was for max speed and the node it unlocked was for aetheric travel, the line with two points is probably about acceleration
Shield orb: the partially completed line should be shield strength as there’s basically no chance the shield would withstand a shot from space Chtulhu as the default, the line with three empty nodes probably increases shield regeneration. The solitary node might be for making the shield unidirectional, like the ones on Cora’s shield
Unkown orb and Air orb: no idea
Communication orb: the solitary node was for telepresence, the almost completed line is probably truesight strength, the last node being most likely only useful against Nth illusions (which means they should by it asap)
Lighthook orb: the line with three dot could be the light hook’s strength since 15 tons is a lot
PPO: That one depend a lot on whether the fact it didn’t change when Sidney added a point there is a mistake or not, if it’s a mistake then the straight line is probably overall power, the six outer nodes of the circle six different method to shoot (with big explosion and rapid fire being the only ones currently unlocked) and the six inner being a specific upgrade for each shooting method.
Also, the node liking two orbs are probably for making simpler to use both orb at the same time, the one linking flight and PPO would remove the need to compensate for your speed while shooting and the shield-lighthook would allow Sidney to use the lighthook insde the shield and not just outside
As time goes on, I’m more and more uncomfortable that Sydney is basically a conscript. If she had not joined, she would have likely been taken out by darker branches of the system and had the orbs taken from her at worst or had to live with shadows over her for the rest of her life at best. She’s a 100% unknown potential threat to military and government minds, but she’s also the definition of someone psychologically unfit for military duty, and yet, here she is, running laps as punishment for a giggle, a major part of what and who she is, when she never even endured the tests and mental breakdown and rebuild that is military basic. And I think Max really should know better about holding her to the same standards of “instinctive serious mode” when she walks in the door and other such things. Also given all this knowledge, 20 laps for a giggle on someone still pretty fragile to that much exercise who also has a personal and friendly rapport with was definitely overkill. Also 20 laps while the fucking super important skill tree is stuck floating up in the air? Dumb fucking decision simply for that reason. It could have waited until after they handled the situation at hand.
All the military stuff regarding Sydney just sits wrong with me the more I think about it.
a scary thought I had when we saw the Twilight Council vault. If the Twilight Council had found out about her before Archon did, and determined her artifacts were too dangerous chances are they would have secretly killed her for the intent of hiding them away in the vault. It was implied some items there were obtained exactly that way.
True, but at the same time Krona has some pretty serious powers and they’re happy to let her live… although I guess I kill would have just caused a reset…
… Actually I just realised she’s in the Twilight council’s equivalent of the Military, so maybe Krona was presented with a similar situation to Sydney… I feel like Sydney might have fit better in the Council’s Vigilantis.
The council must be somewhat annoyed that they didn’t scoop Sydney as a VI, they could make a case for her being under their domain as easily as the supers can for her being with them. No one knows what the orbs are and Sydney is clearly not actually a super.
Now Archon has Maxima and Sydney who are both lol powerful even in comparison to ancient vampires, etc. Even though the two are on relatively friendly terms having Sydney on their team would have helped bolster the credibility of their power. Something we saw demonstrated when the council did the “Oh do you need our assistance to get to the vault, we aren’t aware if your powers can take you there” bit and Maxima had Sydney as an ace to humble the Twilight Council further.
Difficult to pick. I mean, Sydney isn’t the greatest at secrets and subtlety, so the Council might well be glad they don’t have her running around with their special enforcement group, while ARCSWAT dosn’t worry about that and their PR actually found it desirable for “humanising” the team to the public.
She’s not a conscript. She was given all the information necessary for informed consent, offered the position, and signed of her own free will.
She wasn’t made to run laps for ‘a giggle’, she was made to run laps for mocking, pointing, and laughing. I’d be pissed if one of my employees did that to me and I’m a civilian.
As to her being ‘fragile to that much exercise’, the safe assumption is that she was made to do it at a pace that was uncomfortable but not debilitating.
As to being made to run laps while the tree is open…eh. Discipline needs to happen immediately after the error in order to be effective; making it wait is simply adding psychological harm and reducing the person’s ability to focus on important things such as figuring out the skill tree. They’re in a safe environment and Maxima was probably hovering over the field while Sydney was running so it’s not like Sydney was in any danger even in the very unlikely event of an attack in the middle of Archon HQ. We don’t know how big the track was that she was made to do 20 laps on but it probably wasn’t more than an hour or two to do them. Overall, seems vastly the better solution to do it immediately.
>she would have likely been taken out by darker branches of the system and had the orbs taken from her at worst or had to live with shadows over her for the rest of her life at best.
What makes you think that considering they’ve done that with literally no other supers?
The only one who comes closest was Cora, who had to have an expert look into her reality warping powers.
>She’s a 100% unknown potential threat to military and government minds
Not really. Especially not before joining Archon.
Well if they had done it to other supers would we know it? (considering Maxima made a big point about how they wouldn’t whisk her whatever her power were I think we can assume they did not but there’s always a chance)
I’m pretty sure you mean Krona.
Who was accused of thought crimes (as in Krona had committed no crime at all. She was simply suspected of being able to commit a crime and this was used as the flimsy excuse to void her civil rights) by a person (Maxima) who had zero practical knowledge of her power set. Who was arrested based on those same thought crimes, after a mission in which she was called in by a partnering organization. Who was then subjected to a revue of her powers, not by “an expert” as you misstated, but by someone who also had zero practical knowledge of her power set.
As I said when it happened, it’d be like the local cops calling in the FBI to assist in the investigation into a criminal the FBI had more information regarding, and then arresting one of the FBI agents for having a shinier and potentially better handgun than the ones the cops are all issued. Because hey, they could shoot someone with that thing!
It was an exercise in lousy writing, and one which could have been avoided with the smallest amount of thought being given to the supposed plot complication before just blazing ahead into idiocy at full speed and expecting that everything would just work itself out without the slightest amount of authorial thought being required.
It’s probably not worth arguing with you over this, but for the benefit of other people reading the comments, you’ve drastically misrepresented the situation. Krona was not accused of any crimes, thought crimes or otherwise. There was reasonable suspicion that she may not only have the power to carelessly “shatter reality”, but that she may have already done so. There was a pressing need to investigate what she had already done and could do. It’s a reasonable matter of self-defense. Insisting that someone must intentionally act to harm others before any defensive action can be taken that infringes on their rights will inevitably result in extreme loss of life. People and societies must be able to proactively defend themselves, rather than waiting until after they have been harmed.
I find it hilarious that you first claim that Krona wasn’t accused of thought crimes, and then contradict yourself by relating exactly how she was arrested for thought crimes.
Please cite the statute, state or federal, which makes having or using the power to “shatter reality” (have fun defining that in court…) a crime.
And no, people or societies have zero right to “proactively defend themselves.” That’s a bullshit justification for violating civil rights. American citizens of Japanese decent were interred after the start of WWII using this illegal justification to strip people of their homes, jobs, and liberties. And this is just one example. It has never in this country, not once, been a just and necessary act to arrest, try, and convict a person based on fear alone. Anyone who owns a firearm can chose at any time to murder someone else. Or a knife, or a reasonably heavy rock. That has never justified jailing someone for owning a firearm, or a knife, or a rock.
You are a terrible person and you should feel terrible about yourself.
You seem to struggle to comprehend ideas that do not fall into the narrow, limited set of categories that you understand, and they get awfully distorted as you attempt to cram them into those categories. I can’t even follow your definition of “thought crimes”.
Krona did something to Sydney. It probably saved her life. But it may have also had unintended side-effects, or only have been temporary, like her bladder-snooze program. Do they not have a legitimate interest in investigating that, or do you think they should wait until Sydney suddenly keels over with a gaping wound in her stomach? They brought Krona in for questioning. That isn’t the same as “arrest, try, and convict a person based on fear alone”.
I’m also curious how you justify Cora’s execution of Sydney’s kidnapper. He hadn’t shot her yet, so why was Cora justified in shooting him?
As a veteran I can tell you this…
Sydney would for right in with some of my units. I don’t see her going beyond E4 without some serious thought and growth. (Fact she was referred to a corporal in beginning though.. if it’s army corporal that’s an NCO, though a very junior one. I think though Sydney b would grow quite quickly when realising her decisions affect others in her command
I agree, I think this applies to a variety of organizations whether the rank is formal or not. A rank or status is conferred due to a degree or skillset and into the deep end of the pool you go. Some people wash out pretty quickly, some dog paddle to the edge of the pool and a few go swimming. A lot of this is played for humor, it’s one of the reasons I like the comic. IRL Sydney would always be who she is and she will probably never make high rank but she would probably learn to button down and make it work.
Given the Nature of Arc-Swat deploying as a special forces team rather than a company or other larger deployment, I don’t think her NCO status necessarily represents leadership potential.
So far every time she’s seen action Max has been around. She has the unit CO looking over her shoulder calling shots, Max’s specific duty is overwatch even.
It was mentioned however that Corporals and above know about all the other supernatural stuff. It seems like most of the rank in Archon is going to be about pay grade and clearance levels than it is about standardized duties.
Realistically, Arc Swat should probably have a crap ton of Warrants. They all exist solely as experts in their technical field, employed for those abilities. Their powers.
Nobody is expecting most of these people to lead a squad of riflemen on patrol, or pull motorpool duty. No matter what Rank Sydney attains, she’s not going to be the person giving the STD speech before leave, or the NCO in charge of motorcycle safety.
They have professionals like Peggy who aren’t supers taking care of that kind of thing.
If the organization continues to grow Peggy would eventually have to choose between active combat roles or training. We’ve only been introduced to Peggy and Math, two mundane humans who have been recruited for combat duty because of their expertise but I wouldn’t be surprised if more show up eventually. If ARC maintains a constant class of a half dozen or so new recruits that would justify having an orientation team. Having Peggy doing firearms training is probably convenient for cast management but she would be stretched pretty thin. I think ARC would eventually end up with civilian contractors, warrant officers and NCOs who would function as an Office of Orientation and Training.
I don’t believe that either Shawn or Seneca is a super. Goose may not be either. I’m guessing quite a few of the other minor characters in Archon that have shown up in the background aren’t supers.
I disagree. I had a couple guys in my units who made E5 or E6 and got the promotion just by checking boxes (one even admitted it). Archon’s promotion rules are likely to be more subjective than the Army’s, so I don’t see any concerns about blasting through junior ranks.
I actually think that Sydney is one of the few members of Archon that would make it a career: most of their supers seem to be there for the thrills (Math being the most obvious). Sydney is the only one that has explicitly stated she’s there to serve, to the point she missed or ignored talk of a salary during her interview. If her seniors stay involved (and they definitely are) I can see Sydney eventually being promoted to the leadership. Probably as an officer, I can’t see her as a 1SG or CSM and she’d need the freedom of that authority to remain a little zany. Only thing she would need is some time with a normal command, and TDY assignments are a thing.
When did Corporals become NCO’s? I mean that seems to be way more in charge types then needed,to many Chiefs and not enough Indians as they used to say
They very technically are. Corporal corresponds to a squad leader role in most peoples military. If you send 5 guys out on patrol somebody is technically in charge of the whole thing.
I’ve said it before, if I were Dabbler (and assuming she knows or is going to be told) the pip in the branch from the speed for the flight orb granted her what they consider the most advanced form of portal, something that clued Cora that these might be Nth tech, I’d be very curious what the pips after that one grant Sydney. considering it is implied by being the first thing gained in that chain that to the creators of the orbs that most advanced portal is their basic portal.
the higher pips could also unlock more portal functionality like how the higher pip on the ppo unlocked the spray shot and its aperture
i’d be more interested in the effects of the shield pips since its sydney’s most useful orb assuming that the only one with points in it is either shield strength and/or shield regeneration then what other functionality’s could be added, course the pip between shield and flight also interests me since the effects of the connector pips seems to be a mystery (course sydney has to gain almost 100 more levels to reach her theoretical counter-stop unless the lines fading into nowhere are point sinks that can be leveled infinitely or lead to an advanced skill tree that can/needs to be unlocked)
my guess is the pips allow Syd to travel outside normal space to the other plans dabbler talked about and likely beyond
I for one would go for the double-circle on the Yellow Orb. My gut tells me that that would enable some sort of Appraisal mode that might reveal the names/descriptions/etc of the orbs themselves.
My gut feeling is that the double-line nodes enable some kind of hands-off or automatic mode, something that works whether Sydney touches the orbs or not.
Actually, there is precisely one such node that’s filled in, and precisely one hands-off power Sydney has – the ability to move her orbs…
New theory: the unknown orb is the meta-orb, with orb-related powers. The key to solving Sydney’s Kryptonite problem.
Way too early in the story for Sydney to get over her ‘can only use two at a time’ problem, if she ever does. Her power levels would skyrocket if she could keep her force field up indefinitely, with unlimited life support, unlimited use of her energy weapon, flight, teleportation and the rest of what she can do like she’s a combo-platter super-powers hero or villain like Amazo or Combo-Man (yes, he exists, a gag character from Marvel combined so many heavy-weight heroes and villains including Doom he could probably fight someone using a Cosmic Cube and win).
I’m not saying she’d be able to use everything. Just that the double-line node on the yellow orb might give, say, always-on Truesight, and the one on the flight orb might give a reflexive Featherfall ability. The shield and lighthook orbs might get a persistent ‘lock position and hold’ mode, and the weapons orb might give a basic laser-eyes power (bad for Sydney’s glasses). The life support orb would get a CO2 scrubber, which is all Sydney is using it for currently, but which probably just scratches the surface of its abilities.
Fan is certainly not what my brain attempted to think Dabbler had
Something about Hoist on your own petard…
That’s hoist BY your own Petard. A Petard was a barrel of gunpowder with a long fuse, made to be rolled towards a castle gate while one of your friends lit the fuse. If you didn’t run fast enough to get away before the fuse ran out, you were Hoist (Blown up) by your own Petard (Bomb)
The barrel is correct but part of the operation was to nail it to the castle door with a hammer and spike. The saying comes from some poor sap that was part of the group sent to do so. One hoists it up while the other hits the spike in. (Maybe with a third holding a shield/cover) Then they light it and run. The spike guy accidentally nailed his own sleeve in place and couldn’t pull free before the boom.
Sap comes from sapper, which has the following job description.
A sapper, also called pioneer or combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building etc.
When it comes to sapping walls [not gates] they would tunnel to the foundation of said wall, undermine them and then blow it up – sadly if one did not get out of the tunnel in time they would become airborne and since most such are not built for such modes of flight the results would be rather messy.
So lots of comments and I have no idea if anybody will care but……
As some one in the Canadian Military, Who has worked often with the Special Forces I can say with confidence that “military discipline” aka sir yes sir two bags full rigid discipline basically doesn’t exist. When your a part of the team it’s first name basis. Share your opinion/perspective/ specialist knowledge as required. Also comradery, “smokin and Jokin” is basically the norm. until its time to work, then there is no messing around. But that’s the point, you get to know each other fully so that when you are in combat or another “work” circumstance you not only trust your team but know how they will react. And if you call your team leader by there first name and make a harmless joke, that doesn’t embarrass them in front of outsiders, then your team leader is fortunate that they the troops trust you enough to make you one of their own. Of course the CO should always be called sir, even if he calls you by first name…. but it would be pretty rare for a CO to also be a team leader like Max so this is different.
Yes, “military discipline” is the fairly universal term for it and I’d agree that it’s situationally enforced. In “down time”, things can get a bit less “by-the-book” except in basic training. It’s when you’re on-task that you cut the sass and do the “yes sir”/”no sir” stuff.
Dabbler: Ahh, that was a refreshing warm-up! I might have broken a sweat…
Max: …
D: *insolently* What’s wrong, Max? I’m still waiting for you to… discipline me properly… *grins*
M: rrrrRRR…
Syndey: Oh, for God’s sake, JUST K-MMPHH!!!
*Peggy appears at the door, out of breath*
Peggy: I’m here!! I felt like I was needed…
Sydney: *hand clamped firmly over her own mouth* Nmph wmphfph, umph gmph hmph (No worries, i got this)! *gives Peggy thumbs-up*
o_O
Is that what you see?
I’ll readily admit I’m not always the best at reading expressions, but Dabbler’s expressions pretty clearly read regret to me. It looks like she’s reevaluating her life choices, not trying to tease Max or anyone else.
a) It’s not about what _I_ see, but about what _Sydney_ sees. Improbable ships are the lifeblood of nerd culture.
b) Easy answer – Max is hot, and Dabbler is a succubus. Of course she wants to bone her.
c) More complex answer – Dabbler is both super horny by nature, and a super-genius badass adventurer, slaying gods by day and sleeping with their spouses by night. To her, Max represents a PUZZLE – a super-desirable woman who, despite all experiential data Dabbler has collected over centuries of life, DOES NOT WANT TO SLEEP WITH HER. Dabbler is enough of a nerd that a problem like this causes her to obsess over it, throwing herself at the problem again and again, looking for some bit of data that will allow her to unlock The Maxima Enigma. I’d bet Internets that’s why she joined the team. Max is her Everest, and she will never stop climbing.
I like what you are putting down and would subscribe to the ‘zine to make sure I would not miss any ships with such zealous crew attempting to get them to sail.
Okay. There’s some super warped assumptions in here that I disagree with on a number of levels, but rather than each of us delving into why we think the other’s worldview is wrong, I’d just like to ask one question.
If not nerds, what group do you think avoids doing all this drama you just described?
The term you were looking for is military customers and courtesies
Gotta say, Sydney is much better at this game than Dabbler; she’s very specific and still correct, whereas Dabbler’s guesses are far more vague and easy to make.
Just-for-reference-material military type story:
My dad was in the army, served for a time as a sergeant. Did _not_ have the best throwing arm. When time came to lob a grenade, he might be asked, ‘Let me throw that for you sir.’ – his men wanted to be sure the grenade went far enough that it didn’t hurt them.
He has a nervous habit of cleaning his fingernails. There was an occasion where he had to chew out one of the men under him. During the ‘chewing out’, The private is very contrite. Extremely so. ‘Yes sarge. Sorry sarge. Etc sarge…’
After the chewing out is done, my dad’s still caught up on how contrite the private really was… He then realizes he’s been cleaning his nails for the past while. With his knife. A knife with a blade considerably larger than your average pocket. Poor private was being chewed out by a angry superior that was flashing a foot long knife around…
Nervous habits can be amusing, if properly framed.
My grandfather was an instructor during WWII. A big part of which was training soldiers in how to throw grenades. Including their fist uses of the real thing.
In those circumstances, chewing out was a lesser skill, when it came to fumbles, than to leaping out of the trench!
Y’know, I don’t know why I feel compelled to mention this, but I have never found heavy tanning to be remotely attractive. All I can think about is the damage it’s doing to the skin. And I know it’s just an illusion that Dabbler’s wearing, but still. Just don’t get the appeal.
Dabbler and Sydney similar enough to bond like this but…Dabbler is basically a civilian contractor/mercenary/private advisor with combat abilities or however you want to call that….Sydney is in Maxima’s outfit however so Dabbler rubbing off on her can present certain immediate corrections.
Looks like laps of the room/table, no track, no PT kit, no public observation.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-659-the-greatest-challenge-upgrading/
Sydney’s word balloon tail in panel 1 would be improved if it was moved farther to the right or shortened to start above the skill tree. Right now it’s mostly blocking 2 bubbles in the flight orb’s speed/warp trees, making it kind of look like the speed one is trailing off to nowhere and making the reader unable to tell if the second warp bubble is filled or not.
I wonder if the orphan nodes with a double line may offer a more significant boost than those with a single line – might be worth giving one of those a go?
Hmm, Is not there some lines and nodes should be grayed out? This page showed all lines and nodes is lighted up. In page #181, showed some are grayed out. Except Alien world upgrade (#659) later.
What happen?
The pew pew orb has the same amount of points as it had the first time she brought up the skill tree, yet we know that she put a point there