Grrl Power #369 – Can’t knock the rock
Panel 4 is about my favorite picture of Dabbler to date, for anyone keeping track.
Panel 3 is smaller than I intended, so if you can’t tell, her top has popped open and I censored it with a pacifier. It would have been clearer if I hadn’t been intent on fitting her butt into the picture, but I’m bad at butts and need the practice. :)
When I came up with Varia, she was mostly a vessel for some neat powers, and her name and personality quickly followed, but as I wrote this page it occurred to me that she would be an invaluable resource for the team because she has so much experience with different kinds of powers. Sydney obviously has her own encyclopedic knowledge base, much of which translates into the real world, but some of it may not. Varia actually has more real world knowledge in some sense, but just because someone she bumped into in a club let her turn into a… I don’t know, a prismavore for 3 seconds (I’ll let you come up with your own idea of what that is… I assume someone that eats light or drains color from stuff it touches) doesn’t mean she’s an expert on it. In fact there’s only a few gestalt forms she’s especially familiar with since she has to drag someone else along to do it. Now that she’s on a team where they dedicate time to training, she’s beginning to developing actual proficiency with a dozen or so forms. Enough at least to know that if your brain and skull and all that stuff is made of stone, it’s much harder if not impossible to give her a concussion.
On a side note, I’ve no idea if Maxima’s lingo is legit sounding. Basically “middle management on up, hold back a sec” If someone has a more natural way to phrase that I’ll update it.
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Girl Power Con: Cos-play voting rules clarification
Harem battle hooker is canon. So is permissible for entry into any applicable category.
And, if I am voting, will get extra points. Plus increases chances of winning any discretionary prizes, that I have my paws on.
And she has the benefit of being able to wear five different outfits at once, to strike at the heart of the most popular genre’s.
‘Its Otakuman, rotate in Catgirl Harem and Sailor Moon Harem!’
Now I want to see Magical Girl Harem and Catgirl Harem in the worst way… I wonder if DaveB would be kind enough to draw them as a future vote incentive?
Just rereading the comic and noticed this. I just want to point out that cannon battle hooker Harem (CBHH) is going to include binkies on the boobs. Which will be hilarious.
+1 (NSFW).
But, for anyone with Sydney-level shyness, there are options.
she’s speaking dabblers language
Maybe Sydney should be grateful that the uniforms are more SWAT than Battle Hooker. I don’t think Sydney could pull that look off.
Sydney, yes. Me, no.
I would love to see how far down the red, from her embarrassed blush, went, the first time she tried it on! Her blushing is soo cute.
No way! You could do it, Yorp! You’re a hound – really, you could pull it off better than anyone, since you can go with nothing but strips of leather and a sweet looking buckle. Exception for Dabbler, just because she’s got tantric powers, and Battle Hooker armor is automatically 150% more effective on her.
Welll…. ok, but only because you talked me into it. And no showing any photos to Sydney! I would not want her to get the wrong idea about me.
Which do you think suits me better, the pink or the red?
Pink seems more, natural looking, red is obviously photoshopped :P
Possibly. If so they have done a good job with the shadows. Which is not being dismissive, such can be done fairly simply, so you could well be right.
Some dogs enjoy standing on their hind legs, for short periods. My Jack Russell, for example, does a superb meerkat impersonation, and that seems to be quite common. Likewise a friend’s dog is trained to do a high five, on command.
A dog who likes doing meerkat impersonations can easily be trained to also do a high-five. Pop a shirt and wig on it, and it could re-create that pose, in the photo, on demand. The really tricky part though is the ball. But a lot of trained dogs (including both those I mention above) are happy to be arranged into poses.
Someone could well have positioned the ball and draped the dog’s leg over it, to try and keep it in place. Obviously it would tend to fall down or slip out of position. So I imagine it would take numerous attempts. But they only need it to hold the ball successfully, for a couple of seconds, to get their snap.
And an old film-maker’s trick, for such situations. When in doubt, cheat. Double-sided masking tape would work wonders, in making that shot easier.
I think the real question is as a dog can you see any color difference anyway?
I can. I have cones in my eyes, just the same as you. Dogs just have less, so the colour perception is poorer. But it is not black and white, or grey-scale only, as general knowledge used to teach us.
It was a joke, about how often what you see in magazines have been photoshopped, not about the dog standing on their back legs :P
Gotcha. Mind you, no joking needed on that one, it is an endemic problem. Some have pledged to keep it honest, but I do not keep up with entertainment news, so only hear about issues major enough to work their way up to main headlines.
Yorp, It’s OK, you can admit you are Vargr. I don’t think there are any members of the Solomani movement here.
This^
+1 for the Traveller reference (my favorite sci-fi pen-and-paper RPG setting)
Used to play a ‘Traveller’ game on the Amiga (or was it the Commodore64?) 20 something years ago
There were two, actually. “Megatraveller: The Zhodani Conspiracy” (1990), and “Megatraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients” (1991). They’re both available off the Abandonia website, and can be played on modern PCs with DOSBox. Oh, and you were right, by the way: they were also released on the Amiga and Atari ST.
There’s an even older game called “Space” (released in 1982), but they got in trouble with whoever was publishing Traveller at the time, because they hadn’t asked for permission to use the Traveller system. I don’t know if you can find that one anywhere. Even Abandonia doesn’t have it. There was also a Megatraveller 3 game that never got past the planning stages.
At some point, there was even a MegaTraveller MMO in development, but it seems to be on an extended hiatus; no updates from the developers in over a year. Too bad… if it was done well, that would be one of the few games I would willingly pay a monthly subscription for.
Yeah I loved playing Megatraveller 2 on the Amiga (won it in a magazine competition), 117 worlds and a the character generation at the time was the most thorough of its time (you could actually die of old age running your characters life before you even got to the adventure lol)
Late to reply, but it sounds like had Megatraveller 2, if that’s the one where you were looking for ancient artefacts
The Amiga’s text-to-voice software was great for coming up with ‘alien’ names: just mash the keyboard and if the program could say it fully (other than individual letters), then you had an ‘alien’ name :D
Strips of leather and a buckle …..isn’t Yorp just missing the red ball gag then for the full look? :)
And, it looks like the beginning of a Rivalry between Sydney and Varia.
This could mean some very interesting collaborations, such as a “what if” dialog on power possibilities. Although, it could also mean a heated game of Trivial Pursuit: Supers Edition!
Totally a friendly rivalry, where they attempt to out-knowledge each other
btw, for all you fans of Varia:
https://oce.leagueoflegends.com/en/page/champion-reveal-illaoi-kraken-priestess
just a thought.
And I am waiting for someone to review the video of Varia testing Sydney’s power connection and how the orbs went around both of them… It would definitely solve the Shield/Pew/Flight/Lighthook conundrum. Just need a tandem parachute jump harness, have Varia in back running flight and shield while Sydney rocks the grapple zot combination. (No you may not hold the Pew Pew….) Only need some skin connection so they both wear shorts and leg contact.
I would almost say go the other way around. They wear a tandem suit with Sydney in a harness riding piggy back but the suit connects at her waist into the back of Varia’s. Varia looks strong enough to carry Sydney, and that way as long as Sydney wears short shorts their skin contact can’t be disrupted. Then they can totally Psychic Tandem War Elephant.
Way to go, a nice rationale that justifies hooker battle-wear. Sydney, go with Varia and get yourself some battle bikinis and harnesses!
Or maybe do a “Master Blaster” thing with Sydney riding on Varia’s shoulders (or have a special belt made for Varia so Sydney can stand up pressed firmly against Varia’s back, that may even give a small boost to Dabbles’ tantric energy collector ;))
The beast with two backs
As a Bostonian myself, I think it’s wicked awesome you’re givin’ Xochitl an authentic accent. Keep on bein’ pissah, buddy.
[just keep on walking, and pretend like you understood that]
*nods, non-committedly, in passing*
*waters the trees*
Wicked Awesome = Boston for ‘excellent’
Pissah = Boston for ‘beyond excellent’
Ahh, that is a relief, it sounded like you were instructing DaveB to keep on marking his territory!
I think those of us over 25 knew what wicked meant. It’s the pisser bit that’s screwy. Do yall have Mens Beyond Excellents and Womens Beyond Excellents and maybe even a few Uni-sex Beyond Excellents as well?
Pissah works in all scenarios, genders, and can be used by anyone over 18. Kids usually get smacked for swearing
Remember the penguins mantra…….”Smile and wave boys….smile and wave”
when I snuck into yorps base to put a kick me sign on his back it seemed to be “do not upset the predator or shell him into eating us.” by the way where did you go? I couldn’t find you.
Getting laboratory data on Varia’s powers might need to turn into a game of 20 questions if the result of the activation did not give any visual clues.
Can you see, hear, smell, feel, taste anything new?
I’m thinking of a number, What is it?
Here is height chart and scale. Can you get taller, shorter, heavier or lighter?
There is glass of water on the table. Can you levitate it? Boil it? Freeze it? Turn it into wine?
Here is a barbell. Can you lift it? Bend it? Eat it?
There is a target. Can you shoot a beam, plasma, or substance at it from any bodily part?
If she gains a power like regeneration or immunity to disease, how would they know unless they started doing bad things to her?
And lastly Varia we have the immortality test. Stand there for ten years and let us know if you feel any older.
He he thank goodness her power normally gives her a hint. Some kind of subtle clue as to what Varia can do with it. Maybe a bit lower-key than turning into lava.
Although I am sure this would pass over some peoples’ heads.
No, I think you’re in the ball park on this one.
Might take the characters a few orbits more than the readers?
to be frank.
and not a wiener.
Neither one noticed the orbs shifting orbit to accommodate Varia when she touched Sydney. (Ok that’s odd my auto-spellcheck keeps trying to change ‘Shifting” into S#!ting)
They probably call her in every time she gets a cold to try touching anyone they haven’t figured out her combo with to see if it gives her healing or disease immunity. Considering how many people she has to try I doubt she lets them make even a small cut for every one.
Standard procedure in a few D&D games I’ve been in.
“You find a copper ring.”
“I put it on.” “Okay.”
“Am I still visible?” “Yes.”
“I jump up and down. Am I going really high?” “No.”
etc.
and if it looks like your wedding ring, its obviously cursed :)
Sounds similar to something which can occur in contemporary social situations, actually.
“Oh wow, man, I am turning transparent! Nobody can see me any more.”
“No, unfortunately, we can all still see you. And please stop trying to take your clothes off, the bouncers will throw us out!”
“Hey, I am floating up to the ceiling!”
“No, you are just laying on your back, waving your legs in the air. And it looks like the barman is calling the police!”
Gwen demonstrated, back when they brought Sydney in, that she can conduct analyses of Cape’s powers. Perhaps that would be the way to figure it out? Have Gwen running her mojo and then get people to reach in and touch Varia. It may be it would only detect her base power rather than the additions but it’s worth a shot.
It’s cool that you have dabbler wearing a turtleneck, being experienced and deceitful she’d want to cover her choker to avoid association if possible. Basically as out of uniform as she can get.
Why would she want to cover it up? At least inside the base anyway.
She’s showing it here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1803 in the mechanics lab.
Dabbler’s choker isn’t an Arc-Comm unit. It’s just something she likes to wear.
Adamas is correct; her communicator is a cybernetic implant.
Maybe she’s covering up an adam’s apple.
Well Dabbler does not seem to take it off. Plus more than a few legends indicate that a succubus can turn into an incubus, the male equivalent. So you might be right.
If so, one wonders what else she might be concealing? We have seen that she has two navels, for example.
Does Dabbler have two Adam’s apples?
LOL, I’m trying to picture a reason besides comedy for glassjawium to exist.
Low quality invisibility? As part of Prism power set?
Congratulations. Google recons you have created a new word there.
My turn. Mmm… arsesunshinium!
Caromium — the metal that causes you to swerve in randomized directions at the slightest impact.
(hah spellchecker tried to get me there)
Felicitite –a bone like material (concentrated rabbit’s foot bone) that grants luck…
Catium – No matter how much you talk at it this metal just ignores you.
Colonoscopium – The discovery of this metal with friends leads to general discomfort and an inability to look one another in the eye.
Chocolatomgium, an edible metal that tastes suspiciously better than carobiuck
Heh. At first, I thought Varia was saying “larva” instead of “lava”.
Any new theories as to why Varia’s powers don’t with with Sydney? Could the Orbs be blocking it? Or is there something unusual about her?
She’s a Space Robot, clearly
Varia’s powers do work with Sydney, we just don’t know exactly how yet. The fact that the orbs circled circled both women tells us something is happening there.
Bad ninja!
Always. Expect. Ninjas! Even bad ones. :D
especially if you order from uchans okonomiyaki with rush delivery
Never presume a man does not have ninjas at his disposal.
The prevailing theory seems to be that Varia will be able to use an orb while touching Sydney.
Hold hands and they can each use one.
Varia grabs Sydney with one hand and they can use 3.
Lock elbows or otherwise and they can use 4.
Maybe Varia will act as an “Orb Enhancer” and make Sydney’s powers an order of magnitude stronger? Only DaveB knows.
You really need to go back and look at that page again.
Now no spoilers folks. Let Just Me (and any others, who did not spot it) have the fun of finding out, for themselves, what I am hinting at.
Looks like only 2 Orbs went over to Varia, the Green and the Yellow. All of the others still orbited Sydney. The Green is one of the Mystery Orbs.
Not sure what it means yet.
Naa, you need to look at the next panel too. The orbs are doing their usual kind of orbit. In that panel the nearest are: Green, Forcefield (peeking out from behind Varia) and Brown (just behind Varia’s hair, in front of her head).
It is a fun thing to speculate on. :-)
Yorp’s right. At first it’s just 2, but then you realize the entire orbit has widened to circle both of them.
Varia might be the key to unlocking the power of the two mystery Orbs. But I think this is also suggesting that the Orbs are affecting Sydney in ways she isn’t aware of.
Very good thinking. You might want to also consider several clues from this page.
Sydney has semi super powers. Does no one connect what she eats with what could conceivably be shared… Stomach of asbestos. The eyes are a little weak though.
I personally think the lack of response is predictable. The pilot of an A-10 has no superpowers, observe mass devastation upon the target he shoots at though. Is Sydney merely the pilot/driver/controller?
Effectively. Even with her encyclopedic knowledge of superhero lore and her taste for spicy food, she would be just a normal – if lovably wacky – girl without her orbs. Varia has already been shown to be able to get something out of even non super powered people though. Besides, there actually was a response considering the orbs changed their orbit.
I was an E-5 in the USAF, and since then have been involved in plenty of corporate meetings. All in all, I’d say your phrasing is just fine. I’ve had plenty of meetings where something very similar was stated.
Senior NCOs and Intelligence assets please stay for Heads Up with the Brass.
It’s been established that the person Varia touches is immune to negative effects her ability, right?
Otherwise, it could end up very bad is she decided to get intimate with a guy before finding out he turns her into a woman shaped nuclear death cloud.
Correct. And yea. Mind you scant consolation for the rest of the city.
The really good news is that she does get a (presumably mental) clue, so should be able to tell that it is apocalyptic prior to activating the power.
Which is yet another reason why I do not think Varia’s power would activate just by someone else touching her. Although Varia gains access to the power, when touching, it is not until she has decided if her hint sounds like it is safe, that she need turn the power on.
we don’t know that varia’s power isn’t control optional based on gestalt (some powers she controls and some will happen anytime that person touches her)
*nods*
The clue against it is that she does not take precautions to avoid accidental skin contact. If that lava form above happened involuntarily, then she could burn the building down just by someone bumping into her in the food court. Let alone the kinds of power that Keneth proposed initially. Given the vast range of powers Varia can have, some of them are bound to be deadly to third parties and property.
But super powers in this world (that we have seen so far) have the required secondary powers and safeguards to work as intended. So your proposal is most fair. If it is correct, then I think we will likely find that the powers she can control are the dangerous ones. For the same reason as above.
That would indeed be a disconcerting moment. o.O
I’ll say that your lingo from Maxima was spot on. As a former Army E-6, I know a bit about that. I’d say perfect use of lingo, in fact.
Instead of E7 and up, I’d probably go with DivOs (division officers) or khakis (E7 and up, navy only), department heads, chief’s mess, senior NCOs.
Would your chief be appropriate to attend what sounds to be an intelligence debriefing?
Wouldn’t his, or her, time be better spent tidying up?
All levels attend intel briefings. Admin issues are typically top-down from co/xo/cmc to departments to divisions.
I awaited your reply with baited breath, I see you rose to the challenge, without succumbing to the bends. I suppose it makes sense to know if somebody might be planning on spiking the punch.
The idea, in general, is that anybody in the room may have a bright idea, whether it’s an E2 or an O6. There are strategy meetings for higher officers, but you’ll typically find every rank at a briefing. Even if it’s just an Intel Specialist to turn the slides.
Diversity!
I must say that I do like the general “costume realism” of Grrl Power. However, considering Archon’s budget, I would think that they would design fully covering and bullet-resistant costumes for each of them that still came in “superhero” colors and designs. If nothing else, giving each a distinctive and iconic look would be a boon to marketing.
Colorful, distinct outfits would lose tha combat advantages of uniforms. First: camo might not matter to Maxima, but Peggy and other squishies need to ability to be non-obvious. Second: not being able to easily track individuals when they mix with the group is a disadvantage for the enemy. It’s why zebras have stripes
There is nothing so far stated that the camp is anything more than a default setting. It could be woven with fibers that can change color to all black, all white or any combination by control. “Here come the cameras. Go, go on all adverts!” Suddenly Sydney is rainbow colored with decals like an Indy 500 racecar driver –one of them being her own store. (Arianna knows Sydney has to buy up ARC stock to keep up the superbuzz sales…)
Camo not camp. As in the uniform –ninja’d by Spellcheck!
Hey, why didn’t it fuss over ninja’d?
“d” is a legitimate word in the English language. Various phrases borrowed from French incorporate it (with the apostrophe on the right, where it means “of”). Plus it is a legitimate contraction, with the apostrophe on the left. For instance “they’d” or “I’d”.
If your spell-checker treats the apostrophe as punctuation then it would need to store “d” as legal, even without an apostrophe. So it would pass verification even if “ninja’d” does not appear in your dictionary.
In urban environments and close combat (and much of superhero combat is fist-range), camo uniforms aren’t much of an advantage. In any case, note that the third panel example didn’t go with camo (actually, it’s dark colors with the bright ArcSWAT lettering on the chest is almost as bad as Batman’s old bright yellow-and-black bat symbol). On the other hand, color-changing weave is something very doable today, if expensive (and Archon could certainly stand the cost); they could easily have colorfully individualized uniforms capable of switching to dark patterns in a second.
Or the more common, lower-budget, option of putting the message on a flap/panel that is only attached to the uniform permanently along one edge. The rest of it being held in place with velcro or poppers, making it possible to just fold it over, and clip it with the reverse side showing only.
Normally this would be just display a plain version of the uniform (or camouflage pattern, as the case may be), but other options are available.
Netball players have been doing that for years, makes it quicker for player changes than using the old bibs
Heatwave needs more non violent weapons. She needs to carry heat activated foam pellets that get tossed and then heated. Like popcorn they expand but remain sticky and then harden without direct heat. Maybe even a bola with the same materials along its length ( a “safe” metal weight to hold and use to throw) Put a capsule of water in the center for it to swell up as it converts to steam.
That… does sound like a great idea, Dabbles would be the obvious one to go to, but she doesn’t let any of her tech lose, so second best option would be her Sparqie friend (keep forgetting her name, or the name chosen by the ARC-viewers)
Okay, her name is Digit (not Gadget nor Agatha)
Her full name is always to me, going to be Digit Hetrodyne, descendant of a Transylvanian noble house of unhinged inventors.
Agatha is drawing closer to you. She is barely the other side of the English Channel! Have you started blocking up the tunnel? Or do you have confidence in your spy being able to prevent her, or her boyfriends, from turning England into molten lava?
We are quietly confident the Hetrodyne can be reasoned with. at the very least to keep her destruction to limited, pre-determined sites.
Glad to hear it, your majesty. Thank you for granting me an audience, out of your precious schedule.
*bows low*
Oops, back was a bit stiff, let me try that again…
*bows low*
Going on earlier comments, it wasn’t just the back:P
Okay last crazed comment (for the day, don’t get your hopes up). Gwen learns magic. Vehemence has to have some glyphs written down, and/or she could see the entire aggro glyph in the fight. Can you imagine if she developed her own style of emotional magic. Not tantric. Not Vehemic.
Gothic.
Dun dun dunning.
–and that time Spellcheck waited until I hit “submit”. Honest.
I elect Varia to be the first member of AnARCist.
Beware, over-stretched arcs might result in Arc-lightning! And we all know that, by divine right, Arc-King will defeat AnARCists.
We are getting so many Arcs we might need an Arc-hive to keep track of them.
Heh.
What’s with the gray toned lines? I can still read ’em when I highlight, but gawd it’s obnoxious. >.>
And rock forms can still get knocked out. Sensory overload, shorting the powers out, mental commands, and probably good old chemical warfare if you adapt it to the stone form. Wonderful thing about super powers, if you can dream them up, someone can dream up a counter.
Those are spoiler tags, if you want to read them, you have to make the effort
They were talking about physically knocking someone in Rock form out, from a punch or a blow (without shattering them like what kept happening to Cree before she decided it wasn’t worth the energy if even a ‘normal’ like Peggy could defeat her), and it’s possible, if they no longer need to breath while in Rock form, that most chemicals won’t work either
Now Varia may not have encountered a situation where her tougher forms can get knocked out. While our supers are clearly being tested, the tests are not to the breaking point where you might end up with dead or crippled supers. So Varia may not have been tested hard enough to knock her out. So she may be answering no from ignorance.
But just about any complex system can be knocked out/put temporarily out of service/… Recall the times your computer has rebooted, for mysterious reasons [or because you did something you shouldn’t have.] So Varia can be knocked out. The margin between knockout and kill may be paper thin, but if/when there is plot reason, she may take a short nap.
Agreed, on all points.
The simplest way to reveal them is a simple click. That makes them a lot easier to read, than the highlighting technique.
My guess then, in reference to rock forms, that the force necessary to knock them out, physically, would be greater then the force necessary to shatter them. Requiring trickery if you didn’t want a pile of gravel on your hands. Although there was a comic book character from Image that WAS nothing more then a pile of Rubble…he was funny.
Good point.
Absolutely random thought. Lightning is ultimately energy, restrained to plasma trails, drawing all the loose energy in the area into a dramatic blast, and everything in our world at the moment is heavily reliant on the same form of energy. Not just electronics, but all life works off a sort of biological form of it.
So…
Jiggawatt if she was creative enough, couldn’t she use everyone as meat puppets?
Only if she’s okay with well done, singed, perhaps even charred results when she lapses in the concentration required to keep the juice low. Its like trying to whisper to an audience using rock sound stage equipment set for the arena venue –and your audience of one is taped to the speaker tower.
Jiggawatt demonstrated being a sock-puppet, but I have reservations about how much control she would have, doing what you propose. Most super powers work well as intended, in this setting. But adapted uses would be restricted by logical restraints.
If you zap a frog, with some juice, you can make it twitch. Aim it at a leg, and you can make that leg twitch. But making it walk? Nearest you could do is make it look like it was dancing, but in actuality all it would be doing is jerking spasmodically.
Mind you there are creative uses for your idea mind, but most are more limited in scope than your ‘sock puppet’ imagery might conjure up. Jiggawatt could make an opponent drop something. Or, if they were already holding a lever, and she zapped the right muscle, she could get them to pull it. And if she kept the juice low, when arcing between members of a crowd, she may be able to avoid knocking them out, thereby getting them to do the ‘spasmodic frog dance’.
However there is one way that I can see your proposal working. Albeit on a single target at a time. And that is if she is able to enter somebody’s body, and map her own electrical patterns over theirs. That would take a heck of a lot of practice though, even if it is within her scope. If she can pull it off though, she would be effectively possessing their body (and their brain).
But this would (probably) not be an intended use of the power. So as scottostanek points out, there would be considerable risk from overdoing that. Organs (in particular the brain) are hugely sensitive to electrical impulses. Get it slightly wrong and her victims will just have an epileptic fit. But permanent damage and death are actually far more likely, given that her normal operating power is in the lightning category, rather than the AA battery range, normally used in frog-twitching classes.
But possessing people is an oft-used trick in super hero stories, and she could judge the correct power levels by ensuring she copied her own electrical map closely. Which may cause interface problems with her host, over and above an unfamiliar body. But despite the problems, there is interesting scope for your idea.
*grabs ‘PLAUSIBLE’ stamp*
Thankfully though, his sock wasn’t pre used and crusty before he used it on her
Am I the only one that wants this sequence to include Sydney telling Dabbler about the infamous ‘Man of Steel, Woman of Paper’?
Please let it happen DaveB! I want to see Dabbler’s reaction when thinking about a super MALE who was that strong, that fast, and that durable ALL THE TIME.
OMG I love the little exchange between Varia and Dabbler below the comic!! :D
So, if Varia found a really useful power set –such as flight /gravity etc –do you think she would try to get the person tested for a more permanent donation? Say a 1×1 square of skin that gets transplanted onto her torso? Running: put the skin on the inside of her first finger and touch with a thumb. Super punching: line it up so when she clenches a fist (the correct way) to punch it is touched. Telekinesis: at her temple.
Blaster: right hand on the top so it lines up when she forms a 2 handed gun pose. Get Harem to donate a bit of earlobe and put that in the ear… This assumes her skin to other DNA is required and the flesh joins around the “patches” don’t count.
I don’t feel as if Varia should be a variable Frankenstein’s monster though. I would imagine that the government and public are shaky enough about arcon as it is, and that would probably throw people over the edge.
Extra indicates that Varia has had a few sex partners. Which leads me to speculate: What if Varia gets pregnant?
Related speculation: Varia gets similar powers from people who are related to each other. What about people who are related to her?
Can she get powers from more than one person at a time? Does she keep the powers for any time after she lets go?
Varia should be able to form a gestalt with the baby* and gain a power. She has indicated that she gets a power from everybody (other than Maxima and we know the reason for that). This would include having formed gestalts with her close relatives. Varia shares as much DNA with her mother as she would with the baby.
* Possibly even in the womb. Although she would probably not want to risk doing this, as there would be no safe way to test if there are potential complications from doing so. Risking her babies life would be an unacceptable risk, unless they were already in deadly danger for some other reason.
No. She would surely have said so if this was possible, so I find that very unlikely. Even if she was too slow to think of this herself (and she seems to be pretty on the ball*), then one of her numerous gestalt partners would have suggested it, sometime during her life. Even if only during the last few days or weeks, that she has been in Archon.
We have no proof either way. Currently though she has remained in contact all the time when demonstrating the power. But under circumstances where she would do so out of convenience.
My speculation though is that she may retain it. Either for a short while, or until she forms a new gestalt. Simply because Dave will probably get bored, always having to show her holding hands to use her power. Especially when trying to move through crowds or other situations like that.
Neither option creates huge story balance issues, albeit the latter would make her a lot more flexible. She would always have one power (the last one that she had been granted). But we have seen nothing to support this possibility yet.
* Other than having not spotted the possibility of using tissue or blood samples to form a gestalt. But that is a fairly ghoulish thing, and less obvious to non-gamers, than the general public.
DaveB can also use the common writers device of having Varia retain the powers gained only for a set length of time, ranging anywhere from minutes to hours after release of contact. Keeping it consistent of course, ala “Ben Ten”.
No need to keep it consistent, different people could be different lengths.
We know that she has not done so to date, because Varia told Sydney that she has not even thought of it. From a writing perspective I would find it unlikely that Dave would go this way. ANY problem would have the following solution (anywhere that has smart phone or pip-boy reception):
• Call Varia.
• Show Varia the location of the problem via live feed (e.g. using Skype, if on a smart phone).
• If Varia’s standard selection of ghoulish bits does not have what she needs, Varia teleports to her walk in-fridge of indexed human parts, and picks a power that will solve the issue simply.
• Varia Teleports to the problem and activates the power that will solve it.
Whereas presently it requires the following steps:
• Call Harem.
• Harem calls Varia.
• Varia shows Harem her location.
• Harem, teleports to Varia.
• Varia consults her database of gestalts, picks a suitable mix, and phones the person.
• Now they hit the delay which will keep the rest of the story interesting. Harem cannot transport the gestalt partner. That person has to make their way to the original caller by other means.
• The original caller shows Varia the location of the problem via live feed.
• Harem, with Varia travelling in tandem, teleport to the location of the original caller.
• Do something interesting, with the gestalts available at that location (the original caller, if no one else*), until the gestalt partner can get there with the easy fix power set.**
* Unless that is Maxima, her ‘screwy skin’ would block that. But if it is Maxima calling for help, their troubles are pretty big to start with.
** Please do not show this list to Sydney. She will figure it out soon enough herself. The poor girl is being phased out!!!
The ‘sewing on’ option would not work, as described, for info. Organ rejection would occur, in most instances. Only a fairly narrow range of individuals could donate compatible tissue for implant. However, that said, it is an excellent idea, even for just that!
Two or three powers, from close relatives (normal people or not), will give her flexibility for when operating alone. Even if they are not particularly good ones, they are better than her current option. Without a partner she has no powers.
But, see my previous post for why this would be a bad idea. If this one works, then so does the above.
One problem with that idea: eventually, even skin grafts (and donated organs) become part of the recipient and lose the DNA of the donor
Untrue, except in the case of bone marrow transplant… and even then, rejection can go the other way (aka graft-versus-host disease, where the graft rejects the recipient, unless the hospital is extra-careful not to transplant any mature lymphocites along with the marrow.)
Once you’ve received a transplanted organ, you will be on immunosuppressants for life (however long that may be; lung transplants are prone to chronic rejection, which is why the average life expectancy of a lung transplant recipient is 4.7 years, about half the length of other transplants.) After the lungs, the next most likely to be rejected are any heavily-vascularized organs, such as the liver and the heart. There are four exceptions: Identical twins, very young children, bone marrow transplants, and skin grafts (a skin graft is not meant to be permanent anyway. The intention is to cover burns or close open wounds until the patient’s own skin “grows into” and replaces the graft.)
Very young children (generally under 12 months, but often as old as 24 months) whose immune system has not fully matured may be able to accept transplanted organs without rejection. The most important factors are that the recipient not have produced isohemagglutinins, and that they have low levels of T cell-independent antigens.
If there is any evidence that donated organs “become part of the recipient”, I haven’t read about it. And as I already stated, skin grafts don’t “become part of the recipient” either… they are *replaced* by the recipient’s own skin as it grows over the damaged tissue that the skin graft was covering.
P.S., the reason bone marrow transplant is different is that they kill the recipient’s bone marrow and pass the recipient’s blood through a heart-lung machine to filter out any white blood cells, then inject the donor’s bone marrow after any mature lymphocytes have been removed (although they don’t always get all the lymphocytes out, which is what causes graft-vs-host disease).
Basically, they are replacing the recipient’s entire immune system, which is why bone marrow transplants don’t suffer from rejection the way other transplants do.
Yes, but whose DNA does the transplanted whatever’s have?
Different parts of the body can have different DNA. This can occur by means other than transplantation too. Another way genetic chimerism can occur is where an individual is born with DNA from multiple fertilised eggs.
A recent surprise medical case found that the tumours growing in a man’s organs were not even of human DNA! The genome was only a tenth the size of human DNA. It turned out to be tapeworm genetic material. Believed to have been laid into an organ, which merged with his cells, became tumorous, then spread throughout his body.
This is only a single case mind. But there are 75 million people estimated to be infected with that species of tapeworm, and nobody has been checking to see if they are all still fully human!
*singing*
Tapeworm man
Tapeworm man
Does whatever a tapeworm can
Lays eggs in your organ
And turns you into a cancerous tapeworm man
Only some DNA gets replaced. Studies are finding that women who have had children come out of it with some of their DNA being male. https://blogs.plos.org/dnascience/2012/10/25/male-dna-in-female-brains-revisited/
In a bone marrow transplant, the DNA remains mostly the donor’s, not the recipient’s. It’s even possible for someone’s blood type to change as a result of a marrow transplant. (If that happens, well, congratulations… you’re officially a chimera.)
From my time in the Army, Max’s lingo sounds right to me.
Heh, clever manga-themed name. Apply for Archon membership and you could get a very close call-sign.
That armor must be near or above the limit of Harem’s tag-along-capacity. No wonder she likes her costumes sparse.
Yes, definitive the only reason for her to wear the battle hooker outfit.
Fairly sure, if she can lift it, she can *vorp* with it, with some things right on the edge of the upper limit
No, her limit was a quarter of her weight. She isn’t that tall on the cast page.
Google results place swat gear around 15 – 30 kg.
Ok, I forgot they have an Arc-tailor who builds plate armour with pixi dust.
is Dabbler drooling at the thought of Jiggly marble boobies in panel four ?
Yes.
Yes. Yes she is.
Dabbler looks more like she’s half-asleep.
Her eyes reveal that she is day-dreaming about being in another situation.
Which would clearly be clinical fact checking of her hypothesis, purely in the interests of science.
For Science! :)
The space marines, and other non-flyers in Arc-SWAT, might want to be issued with the jetpacks, unveiled at Dubai airshow.
Hmm, never heard of this before now, thank you Yorp, have a Yorpie-treat
Of course Google is dismissive towards it: a multi-billion dollar company couldn’t do what a tiny Kiwi company could (oh, and by the way, it was a Kiwi who developed the first powered man-made flight :P)
Yummy!
*munches treat whilst flying around the Statue of Liberty with a jetpack*
*refuels, straps on wings and flies off into the sunset*
Okay, that thing in New York is a jetpack, but that thing in Dubai? That’s simply a hang-glider with an engine
Thanks for the link, Yorp! That JB-9 jetpack really ‘is’ a new level of personal flight tech.
The jetwing, though? That’s not flying, that’s falling, with style.
Well, the Wright brothers (and Gustave Whitehead) disagree, but even if Richard Pearse actually beat them by a few months, they still bested him in making the first controlled powered flight (again, disputed by Gustave Whitehead). And that’s a much bigger accomplishment.
Note that Pearse credited the Wrights.
So, in panel two, we see the ladies together and chatting, with Ren and Vance off in the background. If the guys weren’t checking out the womens’ butts before, I’m convinced they started after hearing words like “battle hooker.” ;D
Absolutely, well for Ren, anyhow. Firstly he is a human male, so it is pretty much an irresistible biological imperative. And, even for those guys, who might not be sexually attracted to bums, they are still beautiful and wiggly! Secondly the group ahead includes Dabbler. It is not just her boobs that are hypnotic, every part is. Including Dabbler’s jiggly bottom.
Vance though is more likely to view ambulatory bipeds as an instinctual threat, to both his life and his home. Although if that was a group of statues ahead of him, he might well be looking at their butts and contemplating that they would provide good shelter from the elements, to any web he wove between their legs.
If we get a closer look, as he passes, check to see if Vance is drooling. That could be a serious danger sign, that super-spider colony tastes extend to larger prey, than flies! And it probably would not be drool, but venom.
Here’s a bit of silliness I thought you all might like. Am I the only one who remembers the comic strip “Bloom County?”
But of course, this is the strips most classic moment.
I hadn’t seen that before. But thanks, because I had seen the cute penguin in the first link before. He is a long-time reader. Now I know where he comes from!
Confirms a hunch of mine though. His feet did not look well adapted to snow, ice or even swimming, for that matter. I guess he must have evolved from a grassland-adapted species. He certainly seems comfortable, in that environment.
You could be right. One story arc had him looking for his mother in Antarctica, while another had him say that he had relatives in the Falklands. Maybe he’s a recent immigrant to the frozen continent.
As you may have guessed from the fact that I know such minutiae, I’m a fan who has read and reread the book collections of this strip far too many times . . .
Here he is – Opus The Penguin.
More like this:
https://mini-info.net/galleries/misc/KIMG0007.jpg
Cute! I got something similar way back when I graduated high school. I don’t have it anymore though.
The dog I had at the time got hold of it . . .
Don’t listen to Ignoble, my brave penguin army!
I was going to put up that it’s really unusual how well Sydney gets along with all her teammates considering they’re a group of where you really don’t have much of a chance of being rejected for anything other than the worst of reasons, then I remembered…
SPIDERS.
NEVER FORGET SPIDERS.
If Varia were to acquire Achilles indestructibility, and Maxima’s other powers wouldn’t she be the most powerful super?
True. Note though that although gestalts with supers tend to grant Varia similar powers, to those of her gestalt partner, that is not always the case. Achilles’s power is very specific. Any variant on it, even if related, is not likely to be the absolute invulnerability he has. Therefore would not be a huge improvement on Maxima’s own capability. Albeit that it would free up the need to divert power for defence.
The real problem though is Varia can probably only form the one gestalt at a time. If she could gain multiple powers, at once, that really seems like something she would have mentioned already. Finally, the one person she specifically cannot form a gestalt with is Maxima.
However, your comment is very relevant, in the grander scheme of things. As Varia does have seven billion other power sets, she can potentially form. It is not unreasonable to suppose that a set combing both, in one, is amongst them. Not unreasonable at all!
I dunno. Wonder if she’s tried having Maxi suck on her finger? If she did, how much would Dabbles pay for the picture? I ask because the TK shield is apparently only on the exterior of Maxi’s body. Really, that’s the only reason. Promise! :P
I just realized the arc-swat emblem has “with great power tcomes great responsibility” in Latin
Yup – you had me convinced with the lingo. E-7 and above is a common catch all. They also ask for “All Officers, Enlisted E-7 & above and Special Staff”. Shortening it is fine. You need to get a Sergeant Major in there somewhere though – they usually tend to the Enlisted and advise the senior officer or Commander on all Enlisted matter.
Convinced me and I’ve been either in and working with the military for 30 years. :)
Hooray for educated guesses!
Yup! It’s just a little weird with Max dealing with the Enlisted as much as she is… she really needs a right hand NCO to be doing that stuff for her. Sure, they can react like a special ops team… but for day-to-day feeding/caring of the troops… need an NCO.
Sure, as soon as you can provide an NCO with the following qualifications, she can delegate:
• Class five flight (to keep up with Halo)*
• Class three plus defence (to withstand an accidental, or rogue, attack by Halo)
• Nerd experience (to form a bond with Sydney)
• Class five attack capability (to overcome the defences of, and eliminate, a rogue Halo)
• Or class five reactions (to deal with rogue Math, Halo or others)*
But, yea, super powers are not necessary for the NCO role. However they are important for various points, such as testing upper limits of powers, coping with training accidents, providing a sparring partner and so on.
Enough exceptions, in fact, that her ongoing presence will still be called for, far more than with a regular unit. Even though the supers will be doubtless be trusted in smaller units, and even in independent operation, in due course.
Sydney may only be a recruit now (and a corporal later, once we get back to the opening scenes of the comic), but she represents combat utility equal to a battalion or a warship. More than enough justification for being under direct command of a lieutenant-colonel!
* This is also needed to intercept a rogue Harem, before she can teleport away.
Dont know if anyone has Said this yet, I’m not gonna read all them comments.. but Isnt it weird Sydney the Newest recruit steps down on the voice of Actual Experience based on her knowledge of comic books? Which are acknowledged to be at least marginally different from the story cannon?
Battler hooker armor would be justificable for three people on the team:
Harem: to lower the weight of her clothing.
Varia: to provide skin contact with the third.