Grrl Power #1440 – Gambledämmerung
I want to know what Cora’s Hard Light Holo-Projection interface looks like that she can spontaneously select a sword and have it appear to grow out of her cleavage, all without missing a beat in her conversation. I imagine her eyes dart around a bit while she’s talking when she does something like that. On the other hand her hardlight limbs are obviously tied right into her motor cortex, and presumably she has proprioception and touch feedback hard wired into her brain as well, so it’s entirely possible that she can just imagine what she wants to happen, then commit to it by flexing her prefrontal cortex just so.
I don’t know a lot about betting, but on Tom’s screen there, he was prepared to bet on Max to win the entire tournament, which of course would be much longer odds than betting on her to win each round, one at a time. Well, statistically, I think the actual mathematical odds would be the same, but I’m sure the bookies weigh things differently and always slightly in their favor than pure math would allow. But really… how do you even set the odds of such a thing anyway? If you had massive amounts of data on all the fighters in the tournament, like a hundred fights against all sorts of different opponents, you might be able to put together some sort of in-the-ballpark statistical model, but “Ixah” is a total unknown, as are a few of the other remaining competitors, so I assume the odds at this point are derived mostly from gut feelings?
I put the odds on her to win the entire tournament at 7:1. She has to actually win this round, of course, then there’s the semi-final against seven more, presumably tougher opponents, and then the final is another 8 person Battle Royale. (I think, I haven’t actually totally finalized that in my head.) But 7:1 is probably pretty generous, even though she effectively eliminated 3 of the other competitors herself by showing off a lot of strength and even a little tactical acumen by neutralizing the singularity spell with another opponents attack. I’d guess at the beginning of the round, her odds of winning just this round would have been at 8:1 since she was an unknown… or maybe a little worse, since the bookies would be favoring UMBRage and Kill-7? Again, I don’t really know how that stuff is figured. But her odds of winning the entire tournament at that point might have been mathematically 512:1, but the bookies probably wouldn’t have given better odds than like 24:1 maybe?
I know the odds in gambling isn’t set entirely by statistical models, the amount of money in the pot also is a big factor, and I think the odds are actually limited by what it’s possible to pay out. At least, in “reputable” gambling forums. If someone bets $10 million on a pot that’s already only $1 million, the odds might shift to 1.1:1 maybe, despite how much of a long shot that three legged horse is to win? Maybe it’s possible the house will actually contribute to a pot, cause they take a fee to process all the bets or something, and that could sweeten the potential payout? I don’t know.
But Cora and friends placed their bets at the beginning of the tournament for her to sweep the whole thing, so they’re going to make bank if she pulls it off. They probably also placed smaller bets for her to win each round, that way they don’t lose everything if she gets knocked out in the semi-finals.
A tournament like this would also have all kind of weird other gambling going on, like wagering on how many total decapitations or incineration or whatever else occurs.
Ah! I thought I had more time till March. I’m bad at looking at dates apparently. The new one is underway. I should have a draft ready to go for the next Monday comic?
Here is Gaxgy’s painting Maxima promised him. Weird how he draws almost exactly like me.
I did try and do an oil painting version of this, by actually re-painting over the whole thing with brush-strokey brushes, but what I figured out is that most brushy oil paintings are kind of low detail. Sure, a skilled painter like Bob Ross or whoever can dab a brush down a canvas and make a great looking tree or a shed with shingles, but in trying to preserve the detail of my picture (eyelashes, reflections, etc) was that I had to keep making the brush smaller and smaller, and the end result was that honestly, it didn’t really look all that oil-painted. I’ll post that version over at Patreon, just for fun, but I kind of quit on it after getting mostly done with re-painting Max.
Patreon has a no-dragon-bikini version of of the picture as well, naturally.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
“Well, statistically, I think the actual mathematical odds would be the same”
Not really, because the odds aren’t independent. A priori you might give her a 50-50 chance of winning any given match, and thus assume that in 8 matches she only has a one in 2^8 (0.39%) chance of winning them all.
But the matches aren’t random, and every time she wins a match the odds of her winning the next get reevaluated, so while she might get 50-50 odds from the bookies for winning any given match, they might give her 1 in 20 odds of winning the whole thing.
They’re not obligated to make the odds add up to 100%, after all.
Beat me to it.
I would add that the the bookies are not assigning odds a priori, either. Some of the contestants are repeat participants with a track record. Others (e.g., Maxima) are complete unknowns, and the bookies will just be using their best guess, based on the average performance of new competitors for which they have no information.
Forgot to fix my in correct use of “a priori”. Yes, the odds are assigned “a priori”, but the bookies have reason for that not to be 50-50 odds, even for unknown competitors.
Big Tiddy Sydney is distracting.
Surprised she’s not staring at her own more.
You know she’s gonna ask for a temp potion from Dabbler or give her Woof BF the puppy eyes until he gives in.
She now can pull off the Oppai Lolita look. Since she learned that holoprojectors are everywhere, I suspect she’s gonna do the LokiThor walk with Woof through the corridors.
Maybe even do a mini-max alt on herself. Poor staff is gonna get a sideshow and no relief until end of worksheet. Unless it’s like a coffee or smoke break, only for nookie.
She was staring at them for 5 seconds, then she got distracted.
I’m pretty sure she is unmezmerizable for this reason. Except for Dabbler’s hypno-boobs.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-196-girls-go-to-the-bathroom-in-pairs-to-talk-star-trek-and-boobs-right/comment-page-2/
I’ve also heard bookies will adjust odds so people will bet less or more on certain contestants. Like, if the odds are 1.5:1 and there are 4 contestants, they want equal money on each so they make 2:1 or better payout. If one contestant starts getting favored, they’ll adjust so the others will get more put on them.
They don’t care who wins, they just want more money than they pay.
A dark horse might still have an upper limit of 8:1 or 20:1 so they aren’t losing their own farm on a random loss.
Another thing the bookies will do is adjust the odds while watching betting patterns. If one participant is getting more bets, the bookie will lower the odds on that participant and increase the odds on participants who are not getting that many bets. This is generally what is done at horse and dog racing tracks.
At the horse races, the odds makers will set the initial odds based on the prior performance of the horses and jockeys. For inexperienced horses and jockeys, they will start at 5 to 1 or 10 to 1, depending on the size of the field. As the bets come in, the odds will be adjusted to reflect the betting pattern. If nobody is betting on the longshot, they could go up to 100 to 1 (you bet $2, but win $200 if that nag actually wins). A very popular horse may have odds as low as 1.1 to 1 (you bet $2, but only with $2.20 when the powerhouse wins the race).
I expect the same kind of thing to happen here. As Max (Ixah) is winning against more opponents, more people will bet on her. This, in turn, will lower the payout for her, capped at a minimum payout. Now that she has left the field, the bets for her will start drying up, and the odds for her winning will creep up again.
Monday, we see the portal reappear like a white hole and spit Ixah out. The voice from within yells, “And stay out!”
For a depiction of this, see the John Cusak film, “The Grifters” (warning, it’s a pretty brutal film in some ways). One of the characters is working for a bookie, and if the official odds are too much in favor of a particular horse, she gets sent to the track with bags full of cash to make bets to even out the odds.
When there’s a series of individual contests which must each be won in order for the bookie to pay out, in sports betting that’s called a ‘parlay’.
Since the actual odds of winning a parlay are so tiny, bookies have to offer HUGE payouts to a winner in order to lure the suckers into making the bet.
And when there’s several of the events which the sucker is betting on wins, the sucker internally feels like they got much closer to winning than they actually did…which encourages them to make more parlay bets in the future.
Parlay betting is huge in sports beting at the moment. For most people in the country, they haven’t had easy access to sports betting until changes in the law a few years ago. So there’s an extremely large pool of suckers who think that betting on a parlay is a good idea (because they don’t have enough personal experience in losing at sports betting to warn them off of stupid bets).
Bookies don’t care who is likely to win, they only care how much money is bet on each contestant, and they try to set the odds so that they make a profit no matter who wins. So if there’s a match where they think $8000 will be bet on Alice and $5000 on Bob, they’ll set the odds at something like 2:3 on Alice and 5:12 on Bob, so no matter who wins they take in $1000.
Of course, if when the bets come in more money is being bet on Bob than anticipated, they’ll adjust the odds to reflect that.
Another thing to consider is that the betting public isn’t rational. People are much more likely to bet on someone of whom they’re a fan than someone whom they’ve objectively decided will give the best return on their investment, so long-time contestants (and known powerhouses) like U.M.B.Rage and Kill-Seven are going to get a lot more money bet on them than an unknown, probable flash-in-the-pan like Ixah. There are probably 5-20 contestants who all have odds in the double digits, while the vast majority (including Ixah) are 1000:1 or less.
Yes, exactly. The house always wins.
Because if they don’t, they aren’t the house for long. Considering the amount of money changing hands.
It’s like grocery stores. Yes they make lots of money, because they make a tiny bit on a lot of transactions happening every day. Which works as long as you’re on the correct side of that. If instead you’re losing a little bit on each, then you quickly lose a whole lot of money.
And…..reveal eldritch, super-massive, world splitting sword in three, two, one….and she’s back to making paste of the competition!
I’ve also heard bookies will adjust odds so people will bet less or more on certain contestants. Like, if the odds are 1.5:1 and there are 4 contestants, they want equal money on each so they make 2:1 or better payout. If one contestant starts getting favored, they’ll adjust so the others will get more put on them.
They don’t care who wins, they just want more money than they pay.
A dark horse might still have an upper limit of 8:1 or 20:1 so they aren’t losing their own farm on a random loss.
I would believe it yes.
After all, the other three readily available ‘places of holding’ are an even harder no from Maxima (and 99.9999% of women on earth)
The “palm of holding” is a favorite I’ve seen in manga. Not embarrassing one bit, just cool.
Well there is always the navel.
It may not be ideal in size for a place of holding.
Yet it would have its benefits, like an easier sword-draw than other places.
What about good old fashioned “reach behind the back” hammerspace? It works for video game characters, animated characters, and live-action highlanders.
If the curve of the waist is sufficiently concave to carry the enchantment, she could just pull it out of her side. It would be a fairly natural drawing position. Like, cleavage of holding sounds sexy, and can even look sexy, but for drawing a weapon out of, it’s super awkward to get the clearance needed for much more than a dagger. Similar argument against pulling out of the butt or crotch (minus the acknowledgement that it can be sexy, as I don’t think either of those look sexy to attempt, just awkward). But pulling a sword out of the top of her hip would be a very natural movement.
Also, special shout out to the various comedy options, mouth of holding (go read the Mage Errant bookseries by John Bierce, it’s really good and features a mouth of holding in later books to great comedic effect, and also great tactical effect in combat), nostril of holding, and behind the ear (or in the ear) of holding. Probably won’t be sexy, but plenty of room for shenanigans!
Well, pulling a weapon literally out of your butt is worth a laugh at least once, just because it fulfills the cliche.
And probably some ribald and juvenile jokes.
The other… THREE… available places of holding that would be a hard no from most women on Earth?
What are the OTHER 3? I can think of 2 others that would be a hard no from someone like Maxima but what is the third that would be a hard no?
The trope is called “Victoria’s Secret Compartment” for a reason.
The female handbag is in some case an IRL female bag of holding …
15 years before after a DIY session , a female friend had asked me to retrive something in her handbag , the administrative document was in , but also a clawed hammer …
With a plus sized hadbag womens had the tendancy to put every stuff in .
Cleavage of Holding is pretty much what Creati (Momo Yaoyorozu) has in My Hero Academia. Since Max is a closet nerd she probably knows this
More like Cleavage Factory – unless they changed how her power works after I stopped reading the manga, Momo actively creates objects (hence the supranym Creati) on top of (or maybe just under but they can pop out without causing damage) her skin. I think it’s largely an excuse for her super costume to be extremely revealing (and make her take off her top when she needs more surface area – IIRC she does that to make an insulating blanket from her back at one point to defend against an electrical attack), but it’s an interesting concept, and I don’t think would be entirely out of place in this comic’s world.
As for Max knowing about it, I think most of her nerdette experience is in the past, and looking it up MHA didn’t come to the States until 2015 (2016 for the anime). I think it would either be very new or have not yet come out in the States at Grrl Power’s present day. Sydney might still know about it (as might Parfait), but Max is unlikely.
Why wouldn’t Maxi know about a Japanese-exclusive manga or anime?
She’s a huge nerd, and can travel internationally
The real question is: when did MHA start? Seeing how this webic is still, theoretically, set in 2010 or 2011
MHA first started publication in mid-2014 it looks like. My point is more that I don’t think Max really keeps up on nerd trends – she did nerdy stuff when she was younger and so has the foundation to understand a lot of Sydney’s references (and occasionally make some of her own), but the more recent stuff she’s probably only familiar with if someone in her circle has brought it to her attention and she found time to read/watch it (the former is probably easier for her, thanks to super speed, unless she’s got a fast-forwarding setup that preserves audio and video quality – which being part of Archon she technically does have access to, but I don’t think she’s the type to watch sped-up fan-subbed anime on government equipment). And, of course, there’s the question of what Current Year is in the comic. It’s presumably still during the Obama presidency (he showed up in an earlier comic), but that lasted until a bit after the start of 2017 (although he was functionally a lame duck after the election in 2016) and I think there have been some post-2011 references made by Sydney (probably errors on the author’s part, although even if we’re still in 2011, we’re quite blatantly in an alternate history setting so some things happening earlier or later wouldn’t be out of the question… and the same could be true of MHA), so it’s certainly possible MHA is a thing. I still feel Max wouldn’t really think of Momo when discussing Cleavage of Holding – if she is a fan, she’s enough of a stickler for detail that she’d know that’s not actually how Momo’s power works, even if it sometimes looks like it is. That said, Cora’s demonstration of it, where she’s functionally creating the sword (out of hard light) as she draws it out, is indeed quite similar to Momo’s Quirk.
Remember, Archon pays really well. She can afford her own equipment if she wants it.
*cheshire cat smile*
Usually the odds are based around who is betting what more than what the bookie’s think is actually likely to happen. So if a ton of people are betting on other people to win, that is going to push her odds down, but if a bunch of people do a coordinated attempt to dump a huge amount of money on her winning, then it is going to push the odds back up. The initial odds are often set on some data or a preset amount based on past odds. So like they may have a 100:1 odds for random person that no one knows about winning everything as the starting point, and then adjust it based on how the bets start coming in.
Yeap. Odds are set so the bookie makes money based on the bets laid, not on any prediction from them.
I think she’s coming out of that hole with a few seconds to spare, but moving so fast that nobody can see her. An insanely fast Max going all out in a fae realm is only going to take a few seconds to hit “GET THAT OUT OF HERE NOW” status.
She’s amped up in the middle of a fight. She’s not going in cold and mildly petitioning for release. Besides, that fae lord would have to agree to be part of the fight, would they not? Otherwise, tiny tinkerbell is going to be in more trouble than the fight is worth.
Would Cleavage of Holding mean that Cora can’t be stabbed in the chest? Would anyone who tried just not get their weapon back?
The old ‘portable hole’ armour. The disadvantage being they can grab things in/through it and aren’t immediately disarmed.
Storage things like bags are typically kept closed to avoid contents spilling everywhere. We aren’t seeing a big portal opening in the cleavage so aiming into there likely would extreme accuracy or an assist grapple to open the storage / part the cleavage.
Assumes that the container is extremely durable inside. You don’t want a puncture, or something ricocheting around, or whatever holds your stuff near the entrance to break.
just call it hammerspace and she’ll accept it easily XD
Deus and Sciona immediately think, bet now! Whilst the odds are artificially lowered. Thothgoth misses out, as he whiffs the moment before she escapes.
He’s thinking that. She’s thinking “Attack Earth now!”
The boobs are literally hypnotic, so it’s arguably not even on Sydney.
That’s for a succubus. I don’t think Cora is one, though I could be wrong.
Cora is not a succubus. Her boobs are no more hypnotic than anyone else. (which is to say, ‘some)
Its cleavage of holding for 1 reason, her breasts make her force field a big “bigger” in the area in between them, thus protecting the tech from being destroyed, unless her force field fails, in this case, the cleavage of holding being destroyed is the least of her problems… Cora also tried the “in between your legs of holding” but Max “compromised” to the top one
The mouth is also viable. She would then theoretically have access to whatever a launcher inside could fire. Flamethrower, liquid nitrogen, swords or anything she can think of. *mid battle getting mixed up and spitting out kittens*
Was just thinking that, butt, how would it work though? Wouldn’t the bag open every time she spoke?
Unless that’s why she is wearing that outfit: the bag opening is on the ‘mask’, thus allowing her to still speak without spilling everything
She could have Jessica Rabbits booby trap.
If I’m interpreting the betting screen correctly, there are only three contestants left in this round. Ixah (who only has a few more seconds to get back into the arena before being eliminated), Rambo-Barney (who was downed, but the commentators have repeatedly said is not out), and Saraviah. That means the damage Ixah did to Kill-7 was too much, and 5-eye robot, skull with floppy ears, and speed mask of doom were eliminated by K-7’s initial blast or each other. If this is correct, then Nightwing’s magic will easily dominate Rambo-Barney’s melee attacks unless it’s somehow immune to magic. With 2:1 vs 1.5:1 odds, the bookies think Nightwing will win.
As for rounds, doing the math with 8-contestant single-winner rounds, a final of 8 <- semifinals of 8 * 8 <- eliminations of 64 * 8 = 512 contestants.
The screen only shows four at a time, you can barely see one at the top of the screen above Maxi
Zooming in, I may be wrong. Not enough info to tell. The three in this Elimination round are all the same color. The next one down, “Eggbert”, is in a different elimination round with different colors on the horizontal and vertical banners. The partially visible contestant above Ixah also has a different color horizontal banner, but zooming in now it looks like the vertical banner is the same. So that one is probably one of the eliminated opponents, possibly Gray Anatomy. There is no way to know the order the contestants are listed, so there may be more viable contestants off the screen.
I do wonder what Mr. Super-Intelligence thinks of this. Does he think Max can get out of that and, if so, how?
I think some of this is probably new data for Deus. So “Hmm.” and the squinted eyes mean that the wheels are rapidly turning. We’ll find out what he thinks later.
Panels of key reactions…
Nicely done, DaveB.!
“HOLO SWORD/NIPPLE CENSOR” is a great gag, IMO.
“So you’re using hammerspace…”
“Yep”
“… as armor?”
“Yep”
“How does that work exactly?”
“Stab me.”
“Stab you?!”
“Yep”
“Where?”
“Surprise me.”
“… Okay, but for the record, you asked for it.”
*stabs eyeball*
“Go for the eyes, Boo!”
“Wha… how are you alive?!”
“Dude, we JUST talked about this.”
So Sydney has kept her new big bazooms.
I dunno, I like her better with her standard-size gazongas.
Oh, her name is Sydney Scoville, she’s a member of this band.
Whenever Earth is threatened, they will always lend a hand.
They’ve got some superpowers that are at their beck and call,
But most of ‘em have knockers that are big as basketballs.
Oh, the fighters clash and their fists will smash as the contest plays away,
While Sydney’s got her new bazooms, and puts them on display.
With toplessness shown, self-consciousness blown, these jugs are promised land.
A credit to the planet Earth is Sydney Scoville’s band.
oh, we are the Halo Orbs
We always spin and sway
and if you think we can’t
we’ll just get in the way
That’s why the people of this world..
It hasn’t been that long in Sydney time. I’m sure the new hasn’t worn off yet.
There are two types of “pots” in gambling. There’s the fixed pot, where a group of people put money in and the winners split the total. The payout ratio is determined by the total coins (convenient term) paid in by everyone divided by the total coins paid in by the winners. If a bookie or “house” is involved the payout ratio would be slightly reduced to cover the house costs. Then each better’s payout is the coins they placed times the ratio. More people betting on the eventual winner would lower the payout odds. For this type of pot all betting would have to end before the start of any action. Late / real-time betting as shown here wouldn’t be allowed or else everyone who bet on someone already eliminated would drop new bets at the last second to dilute the fixed pot and mitigate their losses.
We aren’t seeing that type of betting pot here. In organized betting against a “house” (or betting app) which allows real-time bets the “pot” is unlimited, or rather only limited by the financial solvency of the house. Payout ratios are fixed at whatever they are at the specific time the bet is placed. If Tom clicks that button, and Ixah wins, his payout would be 49million coins (assuming the betting house can cover it) no matter what happens the odds after he clicks. New bet payout ratios would be constantly changing based on a statistical analysis of the contestant’s past actions, current field conditions, and the spread of money placed against each contestant to mitigate the House’s risk. So at the very beginning, even though “Ixah” was a complete unknown (other than passing whatever basic tests would be required to be allowed in as one of the 512 contestants), her payout odds would go down with each successive massive bet placed by the US Government, Cora, and her friends. If Tom clicks, her odds would go down and the next person wouldn’t get a 7:1 payout.
Max is going to come back, the faye are going to bow to her, then she will be back in the game. Later, after she wins, during the debrief, when asked what happened, Max will simply glower and say she had to drop the disguise because she was worried it would run out of power after she had been there a few hours, and they saw her golden skin and her pointed elf ears. They think she is royalty because of her ears, and helped her back, and she enabled the disguise again before returning.
Can anybody explain to me why it’s allowed to place bets in the middle of the ongoing match? Surely the bets would be closed as soon as it starts, or else there would be a ton of people sniping the underdog bet as it turns out they’re winning. And if they adjust the odds as the match goes on to allow this sort of thing, it’s not fair to the people who bet on the underdog at the beginning.
Some betting does close at the beginning of an event. I haven’t been to a horse race since the 1980’s but at least at the time the betting windows close just before each race. With other, less regulated events you can be based on the shifting odds.
Maybe your payout is siply determined by the odds at the time off betting.
That is usually it: your payout is determined by the odds at the time of your betting, later bets will have different odds
Bets for horse races would be typically closed once the race has started (not sure about late scratches), other sports would allow different bets placed any time between the starting whistle and the ending whistle (or whatever is used signal the start and end of event)
Absolutely NOT a gambler, so simply going off of stupid ads on TV for the only government-sanctioned gambling (there are two of them) in the country
Yeah, I’m about a half hour from the nearest Indian casino. We get the commercials constantly and big ass bill boards on any major highways. I get bored with slot machines after about 30 seconds and I’m not a good enough poker player to run with the people at the tables.
Betting used to always close at the start of a contest, or say at halftime of a game. Modern betting with real-time app access can go on for much longer. It does shut down a set some time before the end, or when the “house” decides the conclusion is set. In this case, Ixah can escape the Fey realm and go on to win the whole thing (7:1 odds) or either of the other remaining contestants can still win this specific elimination round (2:1 on Barney, 1.5:1 on Nightwing), so more money can still flow into the betting pool.
And this is just “contest winner” bets. Add in “proposition” or prop bets (wagering on the results of a single action, such as whether the third pitch in a specific inning will be a ball or strike) and things get a little crazy.
I believe she’ll make it back in time. Won’t be surprised if she does. That said… that is a long conversation to have in thirty seconds, just Cora and Sydney, counting last page, even if there are no pauses for thinking or breathing and both of them listening to the announcers, about 45 seconds should already have passed. You miiiight want to bump up the time-out if you want to realistically say Max got out in time, because they already should have been announcing her loss before the “cleavage of holding” joke unless this is D&D-esq “talking is a free action”
Additional thoughts on the matter: Bluce must not have been speaking Eglish(unlless the countdown started mid-speech), be what he said would’ve taken *far* longer than five seconds. Also, I bet this is a setup for “crush on Max’s golden ears” to return.
It’s a comic book. Talking basically takes no time no matter how long the speech, or fights in comic books would have pretty much no speech at all.
That depends on the comic, really, and how realistic they try to be.
Dave appears to aim for some level of realism(as far as sci-fi-fantasy-comedic-adventure can be realistic), especially considering his habit of calling stuff out in comics and movies that don’t make sense, during the early years, like lazer fights over the city, gun kata, and so on. Most of his speech in fights has been well managed, during pauses for negotiation or grandstanding or people setting things up, planning when they have a momentary breather… when people are pressed for time, talking tends to backfire unless it’s quick and short.
All true, but realize that all the talking on this page is occurring simultaneously in different locations. Based on your comment I read Bluce’s lines out loud and am between 20-25 seconds for what has been said so far. Assuming the timer didn’t start until she was fully removed from the battlefield and that she was “trapped” for a several seconds before it sealed her off, that puts us totally within the realm of “comics physics”. The back-and-forth between Sydney and Cora is the longest.
All the conversation on *this* page is happening simultaneously, yes, that is why I very specifically only mentioned Bluce’s conversation, with Gail, and Sydney with Cora. My estimate was based only on those two, and the premise that Sydney and Cora had to listen to Bluce to have their conversation(since Sydney knew to ask question she could only know by listening to Bluce, and had the full thing uninterrupted) as well that Bluce started post teleportation(which is what the panel order appears to depict).
So with your estimate of 20-25 seconds for Bluce + Sydney and Cora’s lengthy conversation, that *should* have been *well* over 30 seconds.
Don’t forget that “Time passes differently in the Fae realms.” There’s plenty of time for elven shenanigans if he wants them.
Defo not forgetting that no ^^
The issue I’m finding though is that there’s a 30 second limit for ring out in *this* realm, and with the amount of talking going on(just counting the announcers– assuming they are either speaking English for some reason or the broadcast is translated for Sydney), Cora and Sydney… about three times that should already have passed outside the fae realms, no matter how long or short it is in the fae realm. If the conversation is rushed, one might be able to claim it occured in a minute, minute and a half, but it looks more like 2 minutes.
Assuming Dave isn’t just handwaving talking taking time or going to reveal Max never left/is already back before this chat.
Normal legends about fey realms says a night there is a few decades, give or take. So Max (in said legends about Elf Hill and so forth) is in slow time, not fast time. If it really does mean a day is thirty years on the outside, that’s a slowdown of 30×365= 10950. 1/10,950 means she’s got to break out in about .0025 seconds in her time. Sounds like a chance to show off how fast she can really move/think/kick butt. If she can do a million to one speed up, she’s got about 40 subjective minutes to get out, per her perception of time when she’s sped up that much.
I’ve heard both. Far as I’m aware it depends on the tale/author. That being said, the way Dave wrote the announcer speaking in the previous page implies that time can pass faster there, and that it is the obstacles that are the concern.
“[…] because while time often passes differently there, it can still take beings years, or even lifetimes to escape”
“often” implies inconsistencies, “still” implies time goes faster at least part of the time(because if it was slow time always, “still” wouldn’t be needed, it’d always be expected that they’d be extra slow).
The odds are adjusted, but people get the odds that were displayed *at the time of their bet.* So early betters on underdogs get underdog-level payouts, but snipers will only get small payouts because the odds will have evened by then.
Betting odds are usually changing in realtime, based mainly on how much people are betting on them. Only the initial odds are the result of any guesswork on the part of the bookies, after that the adjustments are essentially formulaic.
All the talk of gambling and odds reminds of a great comic from the 80’s, “Starstruck”. The patrons of a high society bar on a space station would bet on who would show up at the party next.
Once a match/race is begun, the betting is closed.
there can be no further bets on that event.
That depends on the entity taking bets. In some cases you are correct, in others, less so. That said, the bets there aren’t on the outcome of the match, but of the whole tournament, so it is moot.
Races, yes, matches, no
Max moves very fast. A surprise twist would be that she got out before the tree top closed.
LOL at “Draft Suckers” — a bit of a “take that” at all those annoying gambling app ads.
In simple terms, the bookies, or their agents, go to the local sports bars, or the equivalent, and survey the crowd to see how many people are betting on each contestant. They calculate the ratios of all the betters and then set the odds at slightly worse (better?) than that so they win no matter the actual outcome. They also make a clean profit from the betting fee it’s self. The betting odds have no real relationship to a given competitor’s actual chance of winning. In most cases it is not possible to determine a competitor’s actual chance of winning.
Maybe they’ll get lucky and the fae in question will be someone who owes Zephan a favor?
Betting the guy obsessed with Max’s ears ^_^;
..or perhaps the fae in question has access to a bookie.
The payoff for “Ixah wins” must be falling through the floor about now, so Lord Gambler – after suitably testing Maxima – places a bet on the 29th second and returns Maxima on the 30th.
Dude refresh those odds, it’s probably worth a 200 bet at current odds even if it’s unlikely in your opinion that she is going to make it back.
Ah yes… the old Maxwell Smart gag…
“Would you believe… a midget in a rowboat?”
How easily people forget, Max is a certified nerd. And a D&D nerd at that. One that played in (presumably) the 80’s or 90’s, with AD&D2e/3.0/3.5. She is MUCH better equipped to handle Fey realm shenanigans than people just judging her fighting capabilities would think.
I feel bad all this great action and storytelling and I just want to see the topless party pin-up
Too bad you cannot brute-force your way out of Arcadia. It’s all about contracts and give and take. Really, a messed-up place to be honest.
You don’t believe you could brute-force the lord with a fist to the face (or other, more sensitive, spot)?
Or maybe slap them with your car keys? Cold-iron is still deadly to faye?
The issue then becomes having a vengeful Fae. Such a scenario could end with receiving the magic equivalent of a bomb in the mail, except its on your bed. And it appeared while you were sleeping. Max herself may be too difficult to hurt, but it could lead to retribution against her family and friends.
Didn’t say it would be a wise thing to do
Plus, Fae are dicks, and can get ‘vengeful’ over anything just because they are dicks
The FeyWild is a series of tubes… It was invented by Allen Goremonger in 1999.
Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey…
Hmm…
…. Money says a bunch of the fey are watching the show as well and they’re speed dialing right now before their bets are reduced to ashes.
I’m wondering how fast Max could fly over long distances. Why you may ask? Because if the Faye Realms are connected by The Ways she could find an exit elsewhere and fly back.
Either Max flies so fast that she reaches an exit in almost no time, or she goes demolition mode until someone kicks her out or she breaks out. Or, to make herself more interesting and mysterious, she exits just in time wearing new armor and armed with a god slaying sword. (I wonder if that would be considered getting outside help?)
The problem with the demolition thing is that, even forgetting the whole vengeful Fae issue of strange magic curses, that sounds like going full terrorist to escape, which Maxima would not be okay with.
The fae realm described like tubes across space is a neat idea. I do something similar, a kind of outside the multiverse hub that connects to “tunnels” and doorways to specific territories on different worlds. Appearing as caverns, the Eternal Mansion, the Eternal Castle, the Doll House, and others based on the aesthetic choices of the particular entity, fairy queen, eldritch, etc…that rules that section.
Had some stories where a secret society tried to map one of these realms realizing the doorways opened up as short cuts all over their world and deeper in lead to other worlds. But naturally huge risk when discovered by the beings there.
Betting it’s in her feet. One part of her body that wasn’t completely skin-tight.