Grrl Power #1381 – Disassembly dissembly
While Dabbler seems like the obvious choice for space adventures, they already have a crew of stellar adventurers to give them the tour. Additionally, Dabbler is one of the team’s powerhouses… well, powerhouse isn’t quite the right word, but she is one of the team’s heavier hitters due to her experience and flexibility. Yes, Max and Sydney can probably get back to Earth almost instantly, but you never know. Does Sydney’s Aetherium Causeway work if she’s on a ship traveling FTL or jumping between gates? They don’t know, and Max wanted to minimize the impact of her and Sydney’s absence.
In private, Max has described Digit being almost as smart as Dabbler in certain fields, and almost as dumb as Heatwave in every other field. There’s also some evidence that Digit is a super-science enchanter. That is, some of the things she’s made can’t be replicated by others. It seems that she somehow imbues some of her gadgets with an extension of her powers. Sort of a telekinesis, matter rearranging/summoning/dismissing sort of affair. Where else does all that chain come from?
One of my favorite weak to strong progression fantasy series wraps up with Mark of the Fool Book 10. I haven’t quite finished the book yet, but it’s great so far. I recommend it muchly! The whole series has excellent audiobooks as well, narrated by Travis Baldree. The audio for 10 isn’t out quite yet, but if you’re a long haul trucker or an Excel Office Drone and need about 200 hours of audio, I say go for it. Maybe by the time you get to book 10, the audio will be done.
There is a new one coming soon, I promise!
The vote incentive is finally done!
The update to the TWC image is pretty minor, but the Patreon version has the bonus comic as well as nude versions. I will strive to make the next one more timely.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Gadget hitting on Halo’s boyfriend.
Surprised she hasn’t noticed the flirting.
The aura incident must have kindled more than an inner fire.
What did she invent after her toes uncurled?
Will an uninvited invader to her shop get invaded in turn?
Or will Dabbler borrow it for her emergency usage collection?
Halo has noticed, but she has been adapting to open relationships, as indicated by her chat with the resident computer guru after she returned from space.
There’s also the extra memories that might have unconsciously altered how she views relationships.
Someone like Digit was my guess for this.
Also, Maxima should not hope for that. Knowing Digits track record, she will find something more dangerous to work in every invention.
“… find something more dangerous to work in every invention.”
Which is probably the real reason she’s included on this trip. Comic hijinx!
In-universe, she’s the obvious choice for a single additional person. Only in retrospect… I’ll admit I didn’t think of her. Earth is still official pre-FTL and restricted from acquiring advanced tech through legal purchase. But expose Digit to that advanced tech with (with access to a screwdriver and a bit of time) and she’ll should be able to learn enough to reverse-engineer it back on earth; or even invent something better.
Why does your last line summon images of the Tumbler/ HFY: Enterprise (tv show) meme?
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/129qn54/i_typed_out_the_exchange_on_why_humans_run_the/
Easier to read Reddit Version.
I feel like bringing Digit on the ship in hope she somehow absorbs knowledge of advanced space ship tech is a bit of a underhanded move. Like Max is trying to sneak past the waiting line for discovering ftl tech advancement.
Grrl power is down to 30 on top web comics. I’m a touch sad.
I will do something about that then.
– Like Max is trying to sneak past the waiting line for discovering ftl tech advancement.
Of course she is. Why wouldn’t she be?
Not to mention she is also well aware of what Deus has got going on and is capable of. You can bet if he can cheat his was up the tech tree, he will. Would we really want Deus to be the first one, or the only one to offer an FTL drive to the world stage?
Considering the serious imbalance of power between Earth and the overal galactic civilization it is obvious that the gap will be narrowed by any means necessary.
Oh… So Digit might basically be 40K Orks but in one person. Technology works because she believers it works. That’s hilarious really.
Sounds like the most funny theory so I will go with that for now.
More of an ‘Oooooooooh!?’ than a WAUUUUUGH!’ ?
I can see that as a possibility….
Dat pre’ty laydee makz da good stuff, just lyk da boyz …
“Super Engineer” has traditionally been one of the hardest Trope classes to adapt to TTRPGs. Orks obviously by-pass this by not being characters on a team, but an whole force on their own. I’d be interested to see how the RPG versions of 40K have handled Orks as PCs in mixed teams, or even as PCs.
Personally I’m a big fan of the “Magic Smoke” method. That is, the engineer creates something and it remains capable of altering the laws of reality until someone lets out the “Magic Smoke” then it returns to the random scrap items it was.
I also keep a close eye on anything Drew Hayes writes, as I’m sure he’s going to be the one who finally makes a system that works perfectly, mostly because I’m pretty sure he’s not even thinking about doing that.
In the TTRPGs that allow Orks on mixed teams (mostly Inquisitor and Rogue Agent), Orks get a scaling bonus to certain skills (and a bonus to their Psi trait if they’re a Weirdboy) based on the number of Orks nearby, and a talent called “Next Best Fing” which allows non-Blank humans, Eldar and so on (probably not Tau, but I don’t remember) to count as a partial Ork for the sake of the bonus.
The Mekboy specialty gets a bonus to making gadgets and weapons and can make stuff with limited resources that other crafters wouldn’t be able to do if they have enough boyz with ’em.
When did her name become digit? That’s the girl that can put in a Time loop right?
Nope… This is the Tinkerer Gnome of Doom and Destruction.
You’re thinking of Pixel… a not dissimilar name, admittedly.
Actually, no… I’m mixing them up myself. Krona is the reality-hacker… Pixel is the were-Jaguar.
Or for that matter, how does the chain NOT slow down the harpoons? I mean, sure they’re going out very fast, but there’s limits.
This is also the problem that Spiderman has with his webs. How are you getting a web to go out let’s say a hundred feet at a *very* conservative estimate. If it’s spooling out from the webspinner, it’s creating drag. If the gob being launched is trailing web, it’s losing mass. Either way, the web has to be launched at considerable velocity.
Well that seems to be overthinking a lot. It’s obviously similar to a high powered water gun: the stream comes out as liquid and pushes itself forwards. The more you spray out the further it carries and the longer the strand after it solidifies in contact with air. Real spiderweb is also stored as a liquid and becomes solid only after it leaves the spider so that doesn’t even require mental gymnastics, unlike the spider sense and super strength he has…
Spider-Man’s Webshooters fire a chemical mix that solidifies into webbing on contact with air, the liquid mix is pressurized (he can control thw webshooter with his two fingers to create the different types of webbing he uses).
Yes, there is drag in on the weblines and harpoon lines. Which is why over a certain distance their path will be an arc (traditionally harpoons use a line of rope for at least for their flight distance).
Real answer: It’s a superhero comic. It just works.
Attempted explanation for chained harpoon using real-world physics: The chain is also being accelerated. So instead of a single explosive force like with a real-world harpoon launcher with a heavy projectile and light-weight rope, picture a continuous linear accelerator. It not only accelerates the steel harpoon, but continues to accelerate the steel chain as it passed through the same chamber. The chain doesn’t push on the harpoon, but neither does it slow it down.
As for Spiderman’s web, yeah, that just doesn’t make sense. My biggest problem with Spiderman is that I’m a structural engineer. I know that the old decorative architectural surfaces (thin brick or metal veneers, stucco, rusted fire escapes, etc.) he’s attaching to and swinging from would simply pull off the buildings before supporting his swinging weight, much less the force of holding back a train. It’s either immerse yourself in the alternate-universe physics or not watch it.
It’s canon that Spiderman’s danger sense is guiding him to just exactly the spots where he actually can apply that sort of force; At one point he lost it, and was routinely having problems pulling loose while webswinging and wall crawling. But, yeah, comic book physics are routinely absurd that way. I lost track of the number of times Stark would have died in the first Iron Man movie…
My biggest problem with Spiderman’s webs is that given the size of the fluid reservoirs (in a pretty subtle bracer-thingie on his wrists) there can’t really be more than about 250 grams of the stuff, total. He uses it pretty freely, especially when swinging across town or tying up evil-doers so the police can take care of them. So the ratio of web produced to fluid consumed has to be quite high – something on the order of 1 gram of fluid per 30 meters of webbing.
And those webs are ridiculously strong. He does things like stop falling streetcars by attaching them to bridges, and on one occasion when he tried to stop Juggernaut two fairly substantial ten-plus floor buildings broke off before his webbing did.
And there’s a limit to the mechanical strength of molecular bonds, and when you do the math and figure the stresses, even under the most optimistic interpretations of everything, that webbing has got to have more tensile strength than anything that can be made of matter.
The science of superhero comics is a lot like the science of Narnia.
What Digit will remember from this is probably: “blah blah blah, disassemble anything on my ship, blah blah blah.”
Oh Maxima, what have you done?
Also, Adam’s description of Digit’s creations reminds me of Genius: The Transgression. Although in this case all of the Havoc is generated from Digit herself and not from regular people touching her creations.
She done a stupid, is what. Or so it seems to me.
My thought was more of the Tinkers in the web serial Worm – supers who can shortcut traditional means of research to basically just make the thing they want, and whose tech typically can’t be replicated by mundanes, and indeed can typically only be maintained by a Tinker (albeit not necessarily the one who originally made it, although it’s a lot easier for that one). There’s a character in that, Flechette, who uses a Tinker-made crossbow that could have easily been a Digit creation – a high-powered crossbow that generates a chain tether for the bolt, allowing her to use it as a grapnel, tie foes up, etc. When she leaves the organization the Tinker works for, she winds up having to go back to her old arsenal, a rapier and throwing knives, as she no longer as the means to keep the crossbow working.
Sparks from Girl Genius certainly aren’t dissimilar either.
Oh yeah, the Girl Genius universe would not consider Digit somebody too out of the ordinary.
… I don’t even like the idea of Digit messing with terrestrial tech, let alone advanced alien tech.
This feels like such a bad idea. >_<
Still, it'd be nice to see someone other than Sidney and/or Maxima catch some spotlight and get a few achievements.
So… it’s possible Digit is a variant on the super-scientist of the Buffy the vampire slayer rpg. Basically a magic-user who employs machines instead of rituals. And she doesn’t know it / doesn’t know how she does it. Annnd Maxima is exposing her to all sorts of new technology. Great. That’s… great.
Anyone needs me, I’m keeping even further away from her.
Not gonna lie, the description under the comic has me thinking she has powers similar to the Orks from Warhammer 40,000 AKA 40K – they don’t entirely know HOW their technology works, including the fact that IT ONLY WORKS BECAUSE THEY *BELIEVE* IT WORKS, they just know it works! The Inquisition picked up one of their guns and tried firing it, only for nothing to happen, before an Ork took that very same gun & just started blasting away at the targets…
If so, then it’s possible that during her construction process, her supposive power would kick in subconsciously, altering the function of certain parts into whatever she needs it to do to make the device work how she wants it to work…
Could be a bit of both. ‘Machine magic’ was on the Dabbler’s chart, so there may be some actual method to Digit’s madness, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t wholly ignorant of said method, and dependent on instinct to get things done.
Adding to the Digit comparisons, but a Parahumans (Worm) classification of Tinker seems appropriate with her technology breaking known physics and not being replicable by others.
I was thinking the same thing, only recently found that series and I’m loving it so far.
I was looking for this comment cause I was thinking the same thing!
Didget. In the spirit of the comic, perfect for hilarious misadventures.
“Ya’ll hold my beer and watch this” has nothing on “What does this do?” for larger-scale consequences.
My Wife would say that hearing me say things like…
“What’s this do?”
“Huh, I wonder…”
“Where does this cable/rope/line/screw go?”
“Have you seen my drill/grinder/power saw? I have a project…”
“It’s not THAT much gas/lighter fluid…”
“So THAT’S what it does…”
and
“Uh oh…”
Is half the reason her hair went grey so fast after we got married. (We’re still together 25 years later, so I must be doing SOMETHING right often enough.)
Depends… is the noodle vegan?
It took me a while to realise it meant the “pool noodle” and not the food “noodle.”
Probably because they’re usually called “foam sticks” where I’m from.
I imagine most US readers had no misunderstanding as, in my experience, they usually refer to the food by the brand name “Ramen” ?
No, when we use the word ‘noodle’ in any context other than food, we qualify it. ‘Pool noodle’ aside from being a pretty stupid name, is an entirely different object than ‘noodle.’ The expression he used actually refers to a limp noodle.
‘Wet noodle’ is a colloquial phrase meaning something insignificant or weak. To ‘beat someone with a wet noodle’ is a mildly humorous way to say ‘pretend aggression without any intent to cause actual harm.’ And it’s usually used in the context of teaching a lesson or training someone not to do something.
It’s like swatting a dog with a rolled-up bit of paper when training – it’s not going to hurt the dog at all, nor even cause pain, but it will communicate to the dog that you think he did something wrong and want him not to do that again.
Besides the fact that wet noodle does in fact refer to the food type noodle (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_noodle ), also “ramen” is not a brand name. It is a loanword from Japanese referring to a Japanese noodle soup using Chinese noodles, though in English it is often used more expansively to also refer to the noodles themselves and sometimes other types of Asian noodles.
Max should just tell Digit that she’s barred for life from building or using anything harpoon related….
And maybe Digit takes a different path and, in reference to the Sunbow G.I. Joe cartoon series, maybe she starts building either a M.A.S.S. Device or a weather dominator?!?
She’d hear that as “You*** ****** *** **** **** build*** ** ***** anything harpoon related”
I see harpoon railguns in the future. Or overpowered tractor beams….. No no, self building asteroid station that expands by auto grabbing other asteroids too add to itself
…which she forgets to put a size limiter on, so soon you’ve got a a Jupiter-sized asteroid station as the only body in the system
Digit having a superpower to make super tech that only she can use solves one of the things that’s always bugged me about super scientists in comics. They make some kind of amazing device that could easily make life better for millions but instead of selling it on the market or patenting it and making a fortune they make a one off and use it to either fight crime or rob a bank.
You’re REALLY going to hate Forge from the X-Men, then.
I RP’d a comic-book mad scientist in games for many many years. One of the problems she ran into with the tech she developed was that it required expensive and hard-to-replicate parts and materials. Once she took some time to find ways to make less effective but easier to build versions of things, that’s when she started making the big bucks. Some things are just unable to be done that way, so she keeps them in a vault in her personal lab. (You do not want to know how hard it is to create hyperstabilized yttrium-91, which is required for her wormhole generator.)
She kept heroing for a while, though, because she had a taste for the thrill. But the company, Random Access Technologies, got too big, and she retired to become a full-time CEO and make sure there were no corrupt executives selling off company secrets.
(She does suffer from – and is treated for – Hyperintelligence Induced Sociopathic Syndrome, which is that thing characterized by “I’m so much smarter than everyone else, I should be in charge!” thoughts. It’s also known in-universe as Fezzini’s Syndrome.)
That’s the “Vernes” from the Wearing the Cape series. Their tech can’t be reverse engineered, it only works if they build it themselves, and is frequently based off known to be wrong physics.
Inviting the super-tech genius is a surprisingly smart move.
If even 1/10th of her craziness can be reverse-engineered, Arc-Swat’s gear will see an exponential increase in quality. Which will, inevitably, trickle down to the private/public sector because no secret stays secret forever.
All it would take is 1 successful raid or a villain getting away with a piece of damage tech after a fight.
or they themselves selling part of the technology, like how a lot of advanced technology was initially developed by the military and they trickled down into everyday use, like satellites or the internet
I imagine Digit as unknowingly being a Son of Ether from the old Mage – the Ascension game. (They’re the borderline crazy Doc Brown type inventor mages.)
Basically, like most members of the SoE, her power is focused in the sphere of Matter, with some in Energy and a little in Prim and Force (mostly with the former to allowing her devices to create chain out of thin air, the latter countering the weight and inertia of said chains). The two points she has in Entropy are a bit scrambled by the Permanent Paradox Flaw she picked up… sometimes, unfortunately, her devices fire off unintentionally, but fortunately they never cause serious damage when an unintended launch sequence is initiated.
Unfortunately, she has no points at all in Mind and Spirit, and likely never will. If she develops skill in Time, it would most likely speed up the speed of her “Harpoon Tech” (Or ” ‘Poon Tech”… as Math probably calls it because he’s such a teenager… and Dabbler because, well… double entendre and she’s Dabbler.).
For her Stats… Well, a TON of knowledge points in different Engineering types and skill points in the required Crafting and Tech can make up for the fact that Mental seems to be her dump category for Attribute points, oddly enough. (I figure her social skills have a baseline Manipulation, 3 in Charisma because she can “cute” her way out of most situations, and an appearance of 5 because she’s clearly a Super. Physical attributes are secondary with a balanced spread.) Virtually no Talents, few skills other than insane levels of Crafts with a few points in Firearms, and no knowledges other than those related to science, the history of all things Harpoon related, and for some reason insane levels of knowledge about gadgeteering-based super heroes and cartoon characters.
*facepalms as his own Autistic brain nudges him* Great… I write all that and could have just summed it up as: she’s probably a High Functioning Autistic SoE with an Autie obsession with Harpoons and tech based heroes.
Forgive me, please. I still haven’t had any coffee this morning.
there are always 2 way to do thing, the good way, the bad way and chuck norris!
“I love this plan! I’m excited to be a part of it!”
DaveB: Sounds like Digit has the Spark (Girl Genius reference)!
Alternately, Tvtropes “The Spark of Genius” could give you some examples of similar abilities..
Quantum, tachyon, (other buzzwords)…
And when she comes back she can make harpoons that are FTL, so they travel back in time. Yeah, FTL travel doesn’t work that way in the comic. Unless she makes it work that way, since she knows Einsteinian theory.
You’re hooked before you know it.
I’m on book 7 of Fool, myself.
With Grrl-vers, do they have a hologram then for digit?
She looks like a kitty being picked up like that. I wanna boop her nose.
Maxima might regret that choice. Now she has to babysit TWO easily distracted and very excitable blonds with a tendency to cause unchecked chaos wherever they go…
Much of the comedy in this comic is about Maxima herding cats like Halo and Digit.
So Digit is like Penny from Please Don’t Tell My Parents Im A Supervillian
So, are we taking bets on how many panels it takes for Digit to find herself hogtied?
Just finished reading the new Wearing the Cape novel. Waited a long time for it, worth the wait but REALLY hoping the next one comes faster.
ahah that was a DeeDee moment XD
Is there a way to get J.M. Clarke’s mark of the fool e-books that is not Amazon? Because fuck Amazon.
I found a couple of the books but not the entire series.
Okay, see that?
When Digit is picked up by her scruff?
Her legs draw up. That’s a good sign. Means the kitten has had enough time with mom being carried around in enough space that they learned to tuck everything in.
You don’t get that on kittens separated too early, abandoned for health reasons, or raised in a tiny cage with no room to move.
… sorry, Kitten season at the shelter. Brain is stuck in kitten mode. All things are kitten. or poo… *sigh* always one o r the ther… or both.
is there a kitten season? I thought cats sort of have kitten whetever they feel like
Is “I’m keen to guess” an intentional cheese shop reference?
Gonna have a Noodle Incident.