Grrl Power #1406 – Peeping super entity
Ooh, Harem’s got a secret…
This guy, let’s just call him Nthaniel for now, probably could be running some sort of “know what every quark in my vicinity is up to” field, but, maybe he’s bored with however many ages of never being surprised by anything. He’s got access to really incredibly comprehensively sophisticated advanced predictive algorithms running on whatever the next six steps past quantum computing is, being powered by the total captured energy of a violet dwarf, which is a kind of star I think I just made up that’s really good at outputting energy used for computations. And he has senses that are like a million tricorders scanning everything in… let’s say in one A.U. So it’s hard to surprise him usually. But apparently the branch of Causal Naturalism reality is taking is one of the less likely outcomes.
One of the cooler things I read about in Systema Delenda Est (though I’m not sure of the actual origins of the concept) was Summer Civilizations. Basically, you simulate a civilization in a ridiculously powerful computer, run that civilization forward at ten-thousand times normal speed, then you steal all their patents and weapon designs and cool ideas for the real world. (Or is it the real world!?) And I guess if they come up with any pithy philosophy or good, uh… movie ideas or quilting pattern or whatever, you could steal those too. Anyway, I mention it because if you have your own matrioshka brain, you could probably run a few dozen of those and crib some of the good stuff from them, including their own predictions about any number of events.
I spent a little time trying to write “I’m an advanced being therefore the concept of “I” is too simplistic to encompass my personal pronoun needs,” but really, in the end, that seemed sesquipedalian. I wasn’t going to write “This unit” or “Entity Alpha” or whatever, and a personal pronoun really only needs to be “I” or “we” if they’re some kind of group consciousness. Having multi threaded thought processes to the point that some might begin personality divergence may be a case for some sort of hybrid personal pronouns, but in the end, I just went with “I,” because if I used anything else, I’d really need to make room on the page to explain what “Vo,” or “Glim,” or “Schvarvelshooshisticoli,” meant, unless I wanted you guys thinking it was his name.
Ooh, look! A new vote incentive! And it’s updated with color!
Well, in progress, obviously. I have another one that’s actually a bit further along, but everyone was all, “Sydney Kobold vote incentive!” So I switched to this one. Plus the other one was a multi-character picture so it will actually take me longer to finish. I hope to have an update for this one each week, so stay tuned. There is a slightly higher res version on Patreon.
By the way, this gunmetal blue-ish background and teal pencils are how I draw the comic. I set it up this way so I don’t have to spend all day staring into a bright white blank page.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
My theory: 6th Harem is her original body, dematerialized so it never ages from whenever her powers first manifested (hence why it’s smaller, it’s from when she was 13-15?). Making her effectively immortal with careful management.
Or another Harem is about to pop, thus the sixth is still in ‘gestation’.
We also don’t know what happens if a Harem dies. Though we do know she will dematerialize one if they are extremely injured. So that is also another option, and #6 is simply too close to death to recover with earth medical care.
Though the idea of “number six” being the original body isn’t a bad idea.
I remember predicting a 6th Harem years ago when Dave posted a pin-up of all of them together and noticing their “styles” matched with the My Little Pony characters, except for a “Fluttershy” version.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/harem-playboy-800/
Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Rarity…. But no Fluttershy.
She may be following the route other multiples have done in the past. Keep one hidden that no-body knows about, just in case. A final survival safeguard, and maybe a way to ‘rescue’ herself in case ARC ever turns on her and manages to block her teleport.
That’s a being not frequently surprised. To encounter Sydney, Harem, and Max — three very different/unusual/surprising entities — in quick succession/together seems like it would be quite disconcerting.
The” Unpredicted event density gradient trends concern-ward” suggests that Nthaniel was already a bit antsy before noticing Maxima…
It’s OK mushroom-dude… Maxima is a lot to take in at first… And you are taking her in first through ninth and a few dimensions string-theory has no idea about!
“Opposition assessment”? Is he looking at who Sydney has faced to get a read on her capabilities, or is he trying to judge how much of a hassle it would be to try to recover the Orbs? Considering his next action was to look at Harem, it could go either way.
speaking of recovering the orbs and opposition, I do think he means what Sidney has gone through, other forces that may try to take them, Realizing one of the potential conflicts may be mooted by his presence now. That at some point the Xevoarchy or another type/tier 2 civilization may try to take the orbs under THEIR laws about less advanced civilizations gaining access to technology above their level…in a hypocritical move because the orbs would also be above THEIR technological level as well, a conflict we’ve been expecting ever since learning about that law when Sidney was first on Fracture Station, and that they have been monitoring for Aethereum Causeways appearing. So chances are now, they confront Sidney, try to take the orbs, she calls them out on their hypocrisy, and originally figured either a tier 3 would show up and say, “no we know who made these” but now its more likely, “excuse me gents, I do believe THOSE are MY property and I would much prefer they stay in the custody of the young lady here”
Given the “Activity Log” display and the “User Choices” and “Unusual/Creative/Effective” comments, I think Nthaniel is getting a read on Sydney’s track record (including her assessment of opponents and coming up with tactics to defeat them).
Looks more like it is a decision tree…. He went with the pros of her using the orbs first, and then was assessing the cons.
The implications:
this “guy” was drawn here by the orbs, so the orbs are likely either “his” property or something his species produced. Since he personally detected them, probably his, just noticed a tab open on his computer going, “your gameboy has been remotely active for x amount of time”…
Harem apparently has a sixth body, so guessing either stays inside the others or is kept hidden just in case she needs to make a quick escape…or is the original body and the others look nothing like them (remembering very early theories from the name Harem was actually a guy with the power to create female clones of themselves)…although this implies either way faking a backstory to the point Archon bought the fake records..or they know they are fake and just let Harem think they have one over on them.
Maxima. Given Maxima is showing the colors of the orbs, the theory her “symbiote” is also Nth tech is looking likely, but isn’t what this entity detected, so either just not his, or was made by a different species or group but chances are they know what it is.
Onto the comments, how a Nth level being thinks and what their technology can do…and doing/describing both in a story without handwaving as magic or just saying, “beyond comprehension so I can’t describe it to you”., I have a personal view that just because something is beyond comprehension does not make it invisible or indescribable, there are a ton of things in reality that humans can’t really comprehend the size, scale, power, or the way it works no matter how much math they do, and images of it or anime and shows about it always shrink it down…which worked for me as a solution, also inspired by theology and mythology (dumb themselves down).
In my own stories the incomprehensible beings, the Amana, Amarian Amana, Architects, etc…when encountered are usually encountered via an avatar, forms that have physical and even biological limitations, the “true form” or “higher self” is being filtered through one or MANY layers of limited forms…sort of like non-local consciousness theory, but as a higher entity not a field. Done so for various reasons, because their true form is too disruptive/destructive to the area they want to explore, for amusement, curiosity, in all cases it usually comes down to, experiencing things first hand as the beings themselves experience them. Which all sounds simple but spent years creating reasons for this, mostly because I also made them extremely individualistic and encountering even what one may think is a government of their species is actually usually just a small group, most often related to each other…because the premise is entire sections of reality, galaxies, galactic clusters, even pocket universes and specific timelines could be their property or the equivalent of their backyards or parts of their homes.
So yeah for ease of storytelling giving them reasons to limit their own senses to relate to the other characters and thus also the audience. With the true forms leaking in from time to time, in an over simplification like playing a game, your character is limited by the game, and even their responses are limited…just expand that to real world variables and thousands of options based on other options…and try not to give yourself an existential episode that leads to questioning if freewill is real while exploring how biology and society limit choices due to physical and social needs.
I came up with this short some time ago to describe it in human terms:
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/The-Rat-Avatar-Hypothetical-893105154
a more direct description:
They can observe externally (as Nthaniel here is doing,
or
Possess someone, have their senses but it is an invasion of a body, and still retain their own biases
or
manifestation: create a body to interact with, mind stays the same, body simulates the target species but is usually not in some fundamental ways. But does allow mixing in t observe and interact, most common method for Amana.
or
full incarnate: place a fragment of their conciousness, or have the true form “sleep” and experience life as a mortal from birth to death exactly as they would, essentially playing the part of a soul so they have full first person experience. However if they remember what they really are during this, the person they were might experience some existenialism on what is “self” biology, ghost, social expectations, vs their true form…Princess Kaguya inspired idea.
Actually, I wrote something more recent, as part of a sub-set of this species that made Heavens and Hells for various worlds, having a Vocational reason to incarnate as the mortal species of that world. Its a bit more mythological than the above sci-fi version, but was also a writing exercise to help illustrate a mental gap between humans/biological species and these beyond physical reality cosmic scale minded entities.
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/The-Vocational-Reason-Celestials-Incarnate-1260066762
Harem didn’t start out with five clones. She had to build up enough strength that she could survive having her stats between her bodies, so this is probably a sign she is gotten strong enough to manifest a sixth clone or she has more control about how her stats can be divided than we though so has a sixth one out and having it resting while it has the bare minimum stats or mass
Or maybe it’s not ready yet, but it’s… ‘gestating’? Center of 5th panel harem seems smaller and is curled up in a way harem is… unlikely to need to be curled up in at the moment.
I think it’s the reverse. It’s her original younger-teen self, sublimated into the Superion field and therefore untouchable and unaging. She’s made herself immortal by projecting selves back into normal space while keeping her core safe.
His reaction suggests Maxima is actually using Oth tech, more advanced than his.
(there is also P and Q tech but nobody wants to deal with them because they are just gross and jerks)
You put Maxima in that pose so her five super attributes would read like a pentagonal contest attribute display from Pokémon Ruby, didn’t you? Nice.
Hmm. Altus and Sydney aren’t colored. Interesting
Neither of them have powers. Only the supers are shown colored currently as well as the orbs which have all of Sydneys powers.
My theory here. The Orbs and Maxima’s… golden goo juice… are both Nth tech. Potentially from the same source or something associated in some way. For all we know there was a battle on Earth that resulted in the destruction of both parties and Syd and Maxima have relics from the opposing sides. The orbs potentially possess distilled ‘essence’ of various things such as the various fields that have been mentioned a few times with the upgrade grid functioning as a control panel. Increased usage meaning more need. Conversely Maxima’s allows for direct application and control, but lacks the ‘upgrade’ ability. As a result Syd’s weaker now, but her orbs are POTENTIALLY stronger than Maxima given enough upgrades, but likely with some drawback we don’t know. Meanwhile Maxima’s got a much higher ‘base’ level, but also can’t really grow her power. In RPG terms Maxima’s a level 50 compared to Syd’s level 20, but Syd can get up to level 100 while Maxima’s stuck at 50. Both are Nth tech which is why they’re fully colored. Sydeny and Altus are ‘normal’ in of themselves, which is why they’re grey. They’re just normal beings with nothing special about them in so far as powers are concerned. Harem is a Super which is tapping into the Superion field which is why she’s blue and also concerning. Because a normal being isn’t supposed to *have* that sort of power and humans are, possibly, the only exception. We may only be able to tap into them because of something unique about Earth altering the Superion field to allow us to become saturated with it in unique circumstances.
That’s my current theory as to what’s going on.
I was thinking something very similar – both are nth but the orbs are tech and Maxima is biological. Even the colors are similar here. There are WAY too many similarities between their power sets – Flying? Check. Pew-pew? Check. Shield? Checkeroo (though Maxima’s is more limited to herself. Strength? Check-ish. Maxima’s is inherent but Syd tested the lighthook and could lift far more than a human. Maxima’s has built-in telepathy resistance. Maybe similar to the true sight ball. Speed? One mark against Syd. However, Syd has the molecular rearranging one AND an unknown one. Also, Syd can open wormholes. Pretty sure Max can’t do that… so far.
I predict that both the orbs and Maxima (thanks to the goo) draw power from the same … ?dimension(s)?
There’s also the possibility that Maxima CAN grow stronger over time. We don’t know for sure, yet. She could very well be effectively immortal and CAN get stronger on a long enough timescale.
Another interesting similarity: Maxima has limits i.e. she can reallocate between her abilities up to a maximum and down to a minimum; and Syd showed that overuse of the orbs left them depowered temporarily.
I like someone’s theory about the supers basically resulting unintentionally from some nth-level shenanigans. OR!!! Maybe that’s what said nth beings were on earth FOR!? Two paths to replicate what was naturally occurring on Earth?
Same glow as the orbs, but throughout her body instead of localized. Interesting… Wonder if that geode and the orbies came at the same time, or if those are independent incidents. Does explain a few things, namely Max being the omega of omegas so far, and yet Sydney can somewhat keep up with her.
Now I’m wondering if whenever Sydney gets an upgrade, if Max also gets a boost, but she’s been holding herself back for so long that she just hasn’t noticed yet. Maybe there’s some linking that can happen later once certain nodes are active. I noticed that there were some cross-linked nodes on Sydney’s skill tree that probably have certain orbs activate with each other. Maybe there’s some kind of Nth tech interaction that hasn’t been unlocked yet… Especially since ‘tech’ is a very nebulous term when you get to this level of advancement.
like starship captain and her crew. or bodyguard or quartermaster
I also just now noticed… That’s 6 Harems! I thought at first it was just the other people around, but I looked back at the original scene and it wouldn’t make sense. Either it’s her original body trapped somewhere, it’s a form that hasn’t been shown, or it’s a 6th iteration that she hasn’t manifested yet. Considering the first time we were introduce to Harem, she was working (and sleeping) with Deus, something she’d been doing in secret before revealing it to the team… I’m really starting to question her…
I wouldn’t be surprised if this original body is being held by Deus somehow, or if ARC has it tucked away and only top brass are aware. Kind of curious if even Harem knows…
The tail of the word bubble made it look like Harem was the one speaking, but Dave says that’s Harem. Confusing word bubble placement.
Notice that the streaks in the outlines of the Harems all converge on the smaller one in the center. This would seem to support the “That one is an unmanifested original, small because it’s younger as insurance against old age.”
I’m not too inclined to think of the streaks as any indication, since it may simply due to Dave using a classic masking shortcut with textures. Plus the last panel doesn’t seem to follow the same rule, with the center being in two different spots, one in the top sleeper, and one on the side of the runner, and the other two going in different directions to each other and the other two.
Hang on a minute… EVERYONE, GET IN HERE… Look at how Maxima looks, doesn’t her internal colors look….. SUSPICIOUSLY like Halos various lil orbs? Down to similar patterns at that (bright color with dark/black center)
In case someone hasn’t already mentioned it, “Summer Civilizations” sounds remarkably like a swipe from Ted Sturgeon’s 1941 novelette _Microcosmic God_ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcosmic_God)… except that there, rather than simulate a society (which wasn’t even a vague idea then), the scientist built one small and fast enough to run in his lab. Slightly different ethical situation, but the base concept isn’t that different.
Funny seeing you mention Systema Delenda Est… I just yesterday belatedly checked back on that one to find the last few chapters posted and finished it. Very interesting concepts involved in that one. Some of the “tech level” ideas mesh neatly with some ideas I was pondering, uh, I guess over a decade ago and never really turned into a story, but would really like to get back to someday… XD
what if the original owner of the orbs was also wearer of the symbiote and impact killed the pilot cause he didnt have super powers and symbiot only enhances what you already have. or didnt shift to defense in time. thus sealed in a rock. or geode went dormant due to no host and sprung to life on maxima and so on or detected capatible host and bam. thus orbs and symbote thing are like two tech or symbiote used to be set of orbs but exploded and thus orb blood which adapted into symbiote to survive
I think it’d be funny in Nthaniel ever introduces himself if he does so as Nthaniel because it’s something someone in another reality called him once. I love when characters acknowledge their creators reality.
“Unusual, Creative, Efective” translates aproximately as “Ri~ight…”
“Quandry, Nexus Chrisisunity” translates roughly as “What the f…”
“N’yah” translates roughtly as “N’YAH!!!”
“Crisitunity” is probably a portmanteau of “Crisis” and “Opportunity”
Now he’s scared.
I wonder if the balls are considered living things, and Max’s geode was an egg. So when it cracked open and she got the dust all in her mouth and all over her if her body essentially became the orb.
Thus, when she’s cycling her powers on the strength chart, she’s essentially changing what orb is in control but since she’s using her body she is simply using really big hands to hold the orbs. So her limitations are the same as Sydney’s roughly, but she started out so powerful because she got pure nectar… kind of like a baby snake’s venom being so powerful, whereas Syndey received second hand orbs that clearly had been through it all.
Possibly, I wonder what the chances are that Sydney’s orbs spawned the geode (little, but rough,, orb) as a safety measure when they crashed on earth, like a life pod of sorts.