Grrl Power #980 – Destination beatdown
Sydney probably could have just hunkered down in her shield and let Kevin just blast away at it, then maybe juggle him around with the lighthook, but she felt this would be a whole lot more demoralizing.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
I really need to finish the book so I can close the tab I’ve had open for three weeks on google results for “sintered.” (Spoilers? Not really, no.)
So Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was on sale and I’ve never played one of those so I decided to check it out. It’s… fine? The hide, stab, climb a thing loop is okay I guess. It’s basically the same game as Far Cry, but you hide, shoot and climb a thing in those. That basically describes all of Ubisoft’s catalog I think. The world is huge and there’s a lot of nothing. Like I remember Skyrim, you couldn’t walk for 90 seconds in any direction before finding a carin stone or dungeon entrance or a giant herding sheep or something. AC:V has you running for 5 minutes from place to place to a pre-marked treasure which is usually an ingot for upgrading your weapons marginally, or a “mystery” which is usually just some minor scripted side quest that gets you some XP. There are also towns you can raid, because you’re a viking, but instead of calling in your homies, I can usually take down an entire town by myself because I’m playing on normal difficulty.
Like I said, it’s fine.
All this is to say, I haven’t made any progress on T:E2 since Monday because I haven’t played any video games in quite a while and thought it would be fun to hit some digital Saxons with an axe. I do hope to make some more progress by the next update though. I’ve played a lot of video games and the gameplay loops tend to wear out their welcome with me fairly quickly. I actually can’t think of the last game I actually beat. Playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, I maxed out Enchanting and Stealth, then enchanted a full set of glass armor with stealth buffs, then crouch stealthed all the way through an Oblivion portal and stole the gem thing and I was basically invisible even in bright light, and after I did that I kind of figured I had basically won the game in all but time expended, so I stopped playing there. I tend to either do stuff like that, or just play long enough to get about half the upgrades then exhaust the gameplay loop and lose interest.
September’s vote incentive is up! It’s been over a year since Max was featured in one of these, so I figured it was time to revisit.
If you just popped by to see it right when it went up, you might have missed the update. Her nipples were a touch high in the first version, and if you poke through the comments there, you can see the reference I used, only that model’s boobs were about 3 cup sizes smaller. Anyway, I flew her nipples south for the winter and updated the relevant pics.
Nude version is up at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
‘Hey Mom, I’m in spaaaaaace!’
When it comes to fighting Sydney, Vehemence just doesn’t have any ground to stand on…
His plan just lacked substance, ya know?
He’s starting to realize the gravity of the situation.
Vehemence just realized he is not in Kansas anymore.
Some more:
“She realy takes his breath away.”
“Fighting her, he feels like a fish out of water.”
“She brings him to all the nice places.”
“She sweeps him off his feet.”
“Once again, her stragegy against Vehemence is absolutely suffucating.”
He was wrong to think of her as airheaded.
And this is what they call a power move.
Add Sydney’s hair among her Halo, the aura from her shield, and her posture, she has this *I am the divine* vibe going for right now too; with the Give Up sign a very *child like god* trope on top of it, possibly making Kevin here question a few things while he expends energy on life support.
And here I was thinking Bugs Bunny.
[Though I have seen it argued that he’s a trickster god in his own right.]
@[gyrre]:
The tradition of “Rabbit as Trickster-God” has roots in traditional tales that African slaves brought with them into America, where Joel Chandler Harris adapted them into the “Uncle Remus” stories.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Chandler_Harris]
In Native American folk-tales, the role of “Trickster-God” was usually played by the Coyote.
[https://www.uniguide.com/coyote-symbolism-meaning-spirit-animal]
…As you may have noticed, both creatures managed to find their way into the “WB”-Studios, & there’s little doubt as to which of the 2 managed to snag “top billing”.
:)
In most Oriental folk-tales, we see this role played by the Monkey, or “Monkey King”, where he symbolized both Cleverness & Rebellion:
[https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/monkey-india-china-p2.html]
It Certainly Looks Like the Shield Orb
Hanging next to her Right Temple
But I Expect that is just a Minor Color Goof ;)
Poor Kevin ;)
I think that’s the lighthook, but I may be looking at the fixed version.
Can’t be. using Shield and Oxygen Orb
iirc she doesn’t need to continuously hold O2 orb, only when she feels like refreshing the air.
Pinky : Egad, Brain. It’s so close. We’ll get there before you can yell “Poit”.
The Brain : We’ll reach Mars before I yell “Poit”, Pinky.
Okay so Vehemence will have to spend energy to survive in space, like when drowning, same principle.
Either through quick regeneration or trying to support a space battle form like Prime from Ultraforce; either way he is spending a lot of energy.;
other thoughts.
She keeps using what amounts to the most advanced portal next to a heavily populated and policed by what seems to be the higher end dominant empire of this galaxy, the Xevoarchy (hence enforcing travel bans and what not regarding tech) and Cora could detect the Aetherium causeway and where it was going while it was open (stated once closed though it left zero trave where it was open to); but having done this multiple times surely traffic control at least is getting curious and starting to realize this isn’t a sensory glitch.
on that note. Brought up when she did this right outside her comic shop that someone outside might have gotten a picture and with alien traffic on the planet someone else see and recognize and put it out there on spacetube or whatever. She just also did this right in front of Detla, who was part of a poacher squad after Maxima *granted Detla was mislead on their motivation and is effectively the Topaz of the group now it seems* but still alien mercenary just saw an individual using palm sized balls open a portal that should take a small army of psychics or a massive advanced civilization battle ship to pull off. The very thing that clued in Cora the orbs might be Nth tech rather than just 3rd.
Speaking of how high up is Nth, I mean 3rd tier alone can occupy anything from glowy squids like the Vorlons and Shadows to the Ancients, Wormhole people,
but there is are some astronomical reaches above that from amount of power, control over physics so that raw power civilization scale becomes a joke (something only a primitive civilization would insist defines advanced societies)…once you get to dimension tech and subtle controls that is…but beyond that you have the ludicrously long lived, multiverse empires, ect…
I did a thought piece not long ago inspired by some tropes in comic books where we seem to meet multiple individual entities or empires insisting they came from before time, early universe, beyond the edges of space ect…
rare types of advanced civilizations.
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/Rare-Ancient-Aliens-types-891740886
At this point Nth could be anything from beings of living Mana, from the 36th dimension, the Q, the Precursor of the First Ones, the mysterious higher beings of Phantasy Star, heck even the Matrix style extra universe race from Star Ocean (as disappointing as that was), clear up to the likes of the Chousin from Tenchi Muyo.
-it seems it often comes down to if you want to stay 100% sci-fi, add some mythology type elements, magic, or mix them together in a blender till they are a single *what?*
^ All of this. Plus the overkill and loose rules of the Archon training plan that not only permitted but anticipated a civilian prisoner being a) shown an ultraviolet-level classified resource and b) flung into raw vacuum with no proof he could survive it. This was a horrible idea on all counts, and he’s well within his rights to sue Archon into oblivion. Possibly with Deus’s help, who would nobly take over.
On the other hand, it’s hilarious and I am thoroughly enjoying both their faces in the last panel.
If the battlefield was as obscured to the participants as the fifth panel suggests, then Vehemence (and especially Detla) may not have seen much of anything. They’ll have seen that there was a portal-type transportation, but not any of the framing details that would identify it as an Aetherium Causeway as opposed to anything more conventional. Detla doesn’t even see where they’ve gone, just that they have gone somewhere. Vehemence does get a look at the inside of the Causeway, but he’s (probably) got much less knowledge base with which he might recognise what he’s seeing – and if Causeways are as rare as Cora suggested, even Detla may not know one by sight.
i don’t think Vehemence is exactly a civilian, being as how he knew Dabbler was an alien, despite her claiming it was her “battle form”; remember, this is before Cora showed up with Halo, and the world governments had to admit aliens exist
Grrl Power #264, he refers to Dabbler as a succubus and mentions Aetheon Thrones
You mean the same authorities that missed Deus’ portal which was active for the duration of his visit?
And while she is using the most advanced way to travel and considering what is usually necessary to use this way and yet there is no ship? If their scanners can pick up single lifeforms in their region? Would you mess with someone like that?
At best they know that there is a single individual, that can travel this way without a space ship.
Worst case scenario? Annoyed this individual transports their entire station into the next sun or a black hole.
Advanced Civilizations…
I think it was Isaac Arthur on YouTube that listed that as a far-fetched possibility to explain the Fermi Paradox.
Aliens so advanced that when they discover a new sentient species they create a universe exclusively for this species to develop on it’s own.
The ultimate Prime Directive if you will.
Missing a stray portal outside the docking area is something that annoyed me at the time. I mean if they had established the brane ripper created some sort of stealth portal that couldn’t be detected even by magic or something then it wouldn’t have bothered me; but yeah, it is a notable problem. That said there could always be a visiting ship that picks it up on approach or departure that does keep alerts for such portals as powerful enemy vessels could be using them.
that said your other point is a fare point, if you detect such a portal and only see some individual step through, especially out into space or with a glowing halo; probably not unfair to assume this is some advanced or powerful being and best to just leave them alone.
on advanced civilizations, looking at the idea of species that determine it pointless to expand outward if they have the option to expand inward *create pocket dimensions and terraform those* or expand sideways *find alternate timelines of their own planet and colonize those*. Why create mega structure in space if you don’t need to and the same amount of resources and power requirements end up able to jump timelines to an already compatible planet (your own basically).
but the planetary zoo idea is one to look at. If one found a pocket universe not bigger than a system to upwards of a galaxy, littered with inhabitable planets fine tuned for something in there; one could assume one of two things. Either that species is descended from an advanced civilization that retreated into that space and degraded over time; or an advanced civilization put them in there to observe how they develop without external sapient competition and readily available extra planetary resources.
-that or its a simulation and just a game but thanks to how advanced they are with dimension tech it looks and feels as real as the physical world. Among other out there ideas.
Isaak Arthur’s videos are usually interesting.
Breathing… Its fundamental…
Speak for yourself…
V is not stupid. He raises his hands in surrender. She takes him home. By the way he is still presumably moving, so she just creates the portal in front of her and lets him sail through it.
And if he was playing Possum, he then pops her like a zit
Sydney is probably going to keep him in space long enough that his power level will go down (You can tell by the color of the markings on his body). There’s no way that Kevin isn’t going to be burning off energy while exposed to open space, so he’s going to be pretty depleted when Sydney brings him back to Maxima…
I thought on that one until I had an apple drop moment and remembered Newton’s first law. The causeway is just that a passage, it would have no real effect on inertia.
Meep meep. This feels like looney toons.
When Sydney “paints a tunnel” it really works…
I appreciated Aang’s rule (TV Series Avatar: The Last Air Bender): defeat the opponent, but don’t kill him. In that final fight, Aang removed his opponent’s elemental (fire bending) ability.
I wonder how someone would remove V’s ability to get stronger, develop new skills & abilities–without killing him?
Considering he needs it to survive they likely can’t, just like they can’t de-succubus a succubus. There’d also be human rights concerns to fundamentally change someone like that. It reminds me in the reboot for Magnus, Robot Fighter where the descendants of H.A.R.D.corps were experts at the use of nano-technology. Spider-aliens worship plant life, can’t eat it and require meat to survive. The captured prisoners were rewritten with nanotech to have a diet exclusively of plant life instead of meat, meaning that if they wanted to survive they would have to blasphemously eat plants and their captors were proud of how ‘humane’ they were.
That darned old “Prime Directive” coming back to bite everyone again. Sigh. The morals of one society imposed upon another, and everything done in a vacuum, without thought of the consequences.
I think they just didn’t care, they were very arrogant and domineering and basically wanted to run the galaxy under their rule for what they considered the laws everyone should obey. They were pretty insidious about it with part of their plan centered around getting a system to convert their solar system into a Dyson Sphere and were trying hard to turn their birth solar system into another conquered world ‘for their own good.’ While the Spider-aliens were a hostile alien race they weren’t irredeemable and much of the conflict is because of those divergent social mores based on their evolution. So converting prisoners like that showed the contempt that they had for their beliefs. Mind you that was out well before we had the RL example of Guantanamo Bay and US soldiers trying to force Muslim prisoners to eat pork products in violation of their beliefs.
I think we are gonna see another Sydney’s levelup in next few pages, this time in controlled environment, with Dabbler and Krona both getting good long look at it, without interruptions.
Which may have been the REAL point of this excercise from the start.
Three. Moves. Ahead.
Yessssssssssssssssssssss!
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-136-list-near-miss/
…so close to #1000!
So I did not anticipate this, and I am *delighted*
Is she holding the wrong orb in that last panel? One hand for the sign, and the other one has the flight orb, which is unnecessary in zero G, and no shield orb?
It’s meant to be the shield orb, since the flight orb would mean her hair wouldnt be going all over the place.
And she would be asphyxiating because she’s in deep space.
But I see what you’re saying since the glow of the orb in her hand looks like it’s blue (the color of the fly orb), but the shield orb is more of a dark purplish color. And the orbs we can see around her are the PPO, Lighthook orb, Life Support Orb, and Comm orb – the other two are behind her head and not viewable.
Nope, she’s holding the wrong orb – Lighthook is behind Comm, Unknown is behind Makes Air?, and Pew Pew Orb (I know that I’m not hip) is behind the shield orb – you can tell it’s the shield and not Lighthook, because you can see the Lighthook inside its orb (which is kind of visible as some mild texture on the Lighthook orb you can glimpse through her hair behind the Comm orb.
Yeah like I said, it’s supposed to be the shield orb she’s holding, but it looks like it has a blue glow instead of a purplish glow so DaveB probably made a mistake on the coloring.
Next page of notebook: “You like spicey food? I know a place.”
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I didn’t even think of letting the bull barrel into the red cape hiding the vacuum pool of deep space!
Even Vehemence has to agree that move was both unexpected and breathtaking!
But he doesn’t have to give up, no pressure after all, atmospheric pressure that is…
Also he’s probably getting hot under his collar he isn’t wearing. Space is often very cold, but humans generate heat constantly when alive, and have means to dissipate the unneeded excess. In a vacuum, most of those methods fail miserably and you can cook to death from your own body heat! That’s why spacesuits have so a hefty cooling system built in.
Sydney really knows how to fight like a super powered geek/fangirl alright! :D
With no enclosure, I’m pretty sure Vehemence’s sweat would readily evaporate into the void.
I’m not sure if anyone else has mentioned it already, but Vehemence is making a mistake holding his breath here.
If you held your breath in a vacuum, the air would start to expand and boil due to pressure and rupture your lungs (and possibly other vital organs), so even if you did make it back to a pressurized area you’d have too much internal damage to survive much longer. Letting your breath out would actually give you more time before permeant damage occurred.
Now, Vehemence being who he is, that could change all kinds of factors, he could simply resist the depressurization damage or possibly even make a power to generate his own oxygen, but there’s still the question if the boiling oxygen would even be any use to his body? Unless he was able to create a power to pressurize his body as well, but either way, he’s using up a lot of stored power just to stay alive.
The water boils in his mouth and eyeballs the air in his lungs expands, oxygen turns in atomic oxygen if there is UV light present it doesn’t boil. So the first two things you do in vacuum exhale and close your eye’s tight if you are in a suit and it isn’t the helmet or torso tie of the limb as fast as you can you have about two minutes before you are out of O2. If it is the torso or helmet thin happy thought’s and hope your team can get you inside.
So first things that happens is you Asphyxiation, this occurs one to two minutes after exposure
Next thing that happens is you depressurize. This is why you exhale, no really exhale it could save your life.
Up next of swelling, no you will not explode from this that is for really bad sci-fi movies.
Then you freeze, it is really cold in space unless you are in direct sun light.
Lastly the radiation which is everywhere the sunburn you get is nasty hope you are on the dark side of a planet even then you are catching rays since they are coming from every direction.
Movie that got this right off the top of my head 2001 and Titian AE. Bowman goes right into the safest area he can, while in Titan they do a similar shot into the ship. Outlander gets it wrong so does Moonraker and lets not forget Total Recall.
Now as for Kevin he is burning through his power as fast as he can to keep all this bad stuff from happening to him. Space is an unforgiving hostile environment, only other place as dangerous is the bottom of the ocean which can crush you like a grape.
Actually, you’ve got maybe 20 seconds of useful consciousness. Problem is that vacuum draws the O2 out of your blood as it passes through your lungs so your blood O2 levels drop quickly below the level needed for consciousness. After that, you’ve got a couple minutes where you’ll recover if they get you back in atmosphere, after which the brain starts dying.
Next panel….
Sydney: “So, Vehemence, do you like spicy food?”
that stuff will definitely power him up!
Just like the afterburner on the Batmobile.
yeah hmm. Sydney and Max are kind of pushing a line with this
1 he asked “what if I don’t want to stop”, did not say he wouldn’t and was offered a legit opponent
2 they had agreements apparently not to use auras, force waves, or anything “fancy” – id say a warp gate into space counts as fancy
3 this could easily be fatal for him.
The training session stopped when Maxima said it stopped. Any action after that is no longer training and there are no rules to follow. Vehemence is lucky that Maxima didn’t exact lethal force on him the moment he failed to comply.
Even if you’re being generous, and take his threat/non-compliance as a cheeky hypothetical, the fact remains that: What if I don’t step down = You fight her, Fights her = Didn’t step down. Sydney isn’t on the training menu, she’s the threat container called in when a prisoner that could kill multiple members of the team turns hostile.
Not a lot of Fleshy species survive showing up in space with no warning well.
Except for TARDIGRADE-MAN!
….
…. I’ll just show myself out.
Believe it or not there is a “Captain Tardigrade”
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEwAcpjUIAAUk7V.jpg
OH, this is definitely more demoralizing. Even if you win, the walk home is going to take a while…
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-161-cooldown/ Impotent Rage is amusing.
Gotta admit, I did not expect that. I mean, given her power set and so forth, the travel gate wouldn’t be my guess.
“No. Kill me Sydney, I DARE you.”
I mean, what does he even have to lose? They’ll never let him go, never let him join, and he’s going back to a cell after this. He’s just the team’s practice dummy until the day he dies.
At least, they’d never let him join now.
If he demonstrated willingness to play their game even after powered up this time… I have the feeling Archon’s tolerance for danger is a lot higher than mine.
I’m certainly aware of people who really have experienced the situation that you suggest Kevin was in, but I don’t think he was actually in that position. If he had been, letting him get that powered up would have been insane.
Now, as a result of his choice to step out of those agreed upon limits, he could very well be in that position. He’s shown he’s not to be trusted.
Though, even there, I’m not so sure. I mean, this is a superhero comic. Superheros take ridiculous gambles. Also, I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of fans that would love to see Kevin as one of the team. But I don’t see Kevin being a team player for long enough to actually be allowed to join. He’s smart enough to do what it would take while he’s not powered up, but he seems to lose his wisdom once he gets enough juice.
power corrupts. this could be a form of training if they do it right. apparently using the power to heal is unpleasant, so he’s getting negative reinforcement for his unwillingness to play ball. keep this going couple of dozen interactions. getting the good stuff when he cooperates, getting to suck vacuum and burn power when he does not. it’s going to change his attitude before too long.
Sydney is scary smart when she concentrates.
Goku would be so proud
I mean its a cute bit as who has not been, you have the power or portals just portal them to space but out side of being a bit this comes of as feeling wrong. we know v is not immortal and that his power gives him regeneration so the amount of damage he is suddenly taking would be lethal. the normally human as 15 seconds under optimal conditions ie not holding their breath before death. but honestly is not ruptured lungs thats gonna kill you its all the instantly having zero oxygen in your lungs ie 15 seconds and your out like a light. even when you breath out you still retain some oxygen in your lungs not so much in space if your exhale your lungs are going to instantly collapse *better than bursting but you will start suffocating instantly.
Anybody else noticing an actual LACK of space traffic around the station? I also don’t remember what looks like rings of debris.
If Cora could track her there I wonder if that alien kaiju thing could as well. Although I imagine Fracture Station would have pretty formidable defenses between it’s own setup and whatever battle ships were seeking travel through it’s paths.
Kevin’s probably starting to think that he was better off in his cell while being spaced out…
ah. even superpowers cannot deal with asphyxiation. that’s what I always said that Reed Richards would be the ultimate super-assassin. No being that needed O2 to survive and had a circulatory system could survive him if he just formed a bubble around their head and forced himself down their nose into their lungs. Yes, gods and such could beat him. But Asgardians like Thor and Loki are as vulnerable as we are to that sort of thing.
With the additional advantage that he could then de-bubble his victim, reform, and walk away leaving no obvious trace. Good luck proving guilt, when all the prosecution can point to is suffocation without any obvious signs of the method.
Will there be a space fight between Kevin and Sydney.
Kevin can throw mass to move(like pee and pants) and if he moves fast enough Sydney is going to have a hard time either redirecting or dodging him depending on his direction.
Aaand now she’s screwed and stuck with Kevin, because the icon of destination Earth is glitched. Last time she choose not to select it. Cora solved the problem and gave her a ride home. Earth is still glitched, so what will happen if she presses the icon? The same thing that happened to the orbs’ previous owner?
She has already gone back here and then back to Earth to get grakz that she then have to Niel degrass Tyson. It is no longer glitch
think the glitchy mark was like a warning aka your last warp didnt work to well dont use it then delete mark so if survived the encounter can go “oh that fuzzy yea not doing that again” delete XD but also the time wonkyness from the spell could of wonked it
that was my impression as well that the time distortion from the blood portal scrambled her *last planet visited*. She safely went back and forth to get some spicy food for her interview.
Hah! Okay that is a clever little Sydney. This move I didn’t see coming at all. But you know what? I find this funny. XD
Y’know, I’ve changed my mind. Sydney’s boss music should be the Prowler’s theme from Into the Spiderverse. And this moment is the 1:08 mark.
NARF!
Sidney’s face in panel 2 is literally the most scary she’s ever been.
This is the comic expression of the moment when the DM asks V’s player “Are you sure you want to do that?”
Now here’s a potential issue with V. So, once he gets to a certain power level, he can basically spent energy to make up whatever power he wants.
You can judge his current power level through his glowy bodystripe thing.
How much power would it take him to fake a different color glowy bodystripe thing?
I think bringing him out near a heavily-populated and -policed space station is a big mistake. He just has to start attacking it, and he probably has enough vehemic energy to at least propel himself towards it. They won’t know they shouldn’t fight, and will respond with extreme force. He’s at a stage he can tank a hit from Maxima, so he probably can survive that.
Fortunately, being spaced may wreck the mood with this kind of surprise, so he may not think of that fast enough to keep the vehemic energy from waning.
Honestly I’m just curious exactly how the logistics of getting him either safely in the air bubble or back to earth are gonna work out now, ’cause it’s not like he can fly to follow her into a causeway back, and she’d have to drop the shield to get him inside which is gonna have *effects* on her non-superpowered body no matter how brief the drop
Maybe she’ll lighthook him down to the station first?
Maxima can probably take the space exposure, and she can fly.
He can ride home like a bug on her windshield. Just for added humiliation.
So… to win a fight that wouldn’t end up hurting her anyway, Sydney exposes (again) her ability to create an Aetherium Causeway (spelling?), which most of the galaxy would literally kill to find out. Good job with operational security.
Gone just like that? What about all the calculations and stuff so they don’t get inside a super nova?
Doesn’t need that for destinations that are already bookmarked. And she’s got a “back button”, too, so going back to the quarry will be easy.
What Brett said, also it’s Nth tech not 2nd tier or 3rd tier even tech . Autolocking on something moving through space regardless of point of departure or destination or anything in between is easy to bypass within a single dimensional space is easy. Nth children do it for like their kindergarten exercises.