Grrl Power #429 – Snap judgements
I always imagined Pixel being anime-ish (though I realize she maybe looks like a 10 year old a little bit the way I wound up drawing her on this page) Still, it was a while before I thought about how Sydney might react to that. Not that Sydney literally looks like a cartoon, I mean, if this was a live action movie. I try and use slightly different art styles to make each character more recognizable, or at least that was the intent when I started the comic. Really it’s come down to most everyone getting drawn in a standard western comic style and then Sydney is considerably more manga influenced. Really Harem is supposed to look a bit more Disney Princess, Dabbler is supposed to be… evil manga chick, like the kind that smacks you with a riding crop and does the “Oooh ho ho ho!” laugh. Anyway, the point is that it did not escape Sydney’s notice that her and Pixel share more than a few attributes.
Specs is a cameo character courtesy of BrainBlow, (comments handle.) We haven’t seen the last of her or even all her abilities, but it made sense given her spectravision that they’d want her to take a gander at Sydney’s orbs.
Yes, Pixel and Specs should both have Who’s Who entries, but it’s the weekend after A-kon and I’m wiped out so I’ll get those added later today. Speaking of which, A-kon was fun. Fred Perry of Gold Digger didn’t make it this year and there was a disappointing webcomics showing because of some staff turnover behind the scenes, but overall it was enjoyable. I grabbed dinner with a few fans and we let our nerd flags fly a bit. I actually missed the con on Saturday though cause I was working on the comic. I really need to figure out a way t draw faster. :P
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Also, those panels got reeeally small there. Oh the benefits of being a Patreon supporter who can see the page in a larger size.
[Insert “Support Dave on Patreon” ad]
So you’re saying this comic is effectively pay2read?
Not really…It’s more like “pay to read it BIGGER”…
;)
Basically.
I prefer to think of it as ‘Pay2ObsessivelyOverAnalyseEveryPixel’.
You mean like Sydney just did?
He he. Nice one.
Actually, Sydney paid nothing to Overly Analyze anything. If anything, she’s earning a substantial salary while she’s on-duty…She’s actually getting paid to Overly Analyze!
Did you pay2read it? Pretty much answers your question.
Congrats on getting the cameo, and thanks for your continued support for the comic!
I enjoy doing a bit of character creating every once in a while. One of the specialist themes I too like to explore is characters with enhanced vision and detection capabilities. Normally I am for well-rounded characters, but this is one area where specialising can be fun. Yet, despite not being combat-focused, can still make a viable, and profoundly useful, character.
Not without combat capabilities. It simply is significantly less impressive when put side-by-side with people who can catch bullets out of the air and wreck tanks with the flick of a wrist.
Yup, detection can give a vital edge in combat. But even more so before hand. Being able to spot a foe, or unmask their deception, can avoid being taken by surprise.
Nono, not detection. The visual spectrum stuff are kind of the “side-features.” :3
Oh I am such a tease.
If they’re a cameo does that make them from something else? or just a character you made for this somewhat?
Made for this, basically entirely. Her powerset is one I’ve been imagining for quite some time, though it’s unlikely their full extent and potential will be explained in the comic.
One question on her clothing. Is the leather harness part of some sort of gun holster, or is she really into lederhosen?
Dave’s the one in charge of clothing design.
It’s a shoulder holster. The over-the-boob strap is questionable, I just felt like adding it.
Question about Specs: was she born with her power, or did she acquire it later?
Born.
Snowflake, it’s snowflake!
Better than Snowflame showing up.
Cocaine is his god.
Well, they look identical on every spectrum, except for visible light. We can see they are different in that spectrum.
Unless that’s an illusion
I think what was meant was that checking in different spectra outside visible didn’t alter or reveal any of the markings, or clues as to their origin or composition.
No, they look weird in the spectrum of visible light too. It’s just to actual eyes they look different, Dabbler couldn’t see the skill tree with her bionic eye and mentioned in the initial boardroom meeting that none of her scanners could sense the glow of them. While it’s clearly visible whatever they’re emitting is nothing normal.
If it’s an illusion, that illusion might continue to function through colour filters.
It is obviously an illusion since the orbs do not emit EM radiation (visible light is EM radiation). The illusion does seem to be limited to ‘real eyes’ though.
I recall that Dabbler specifically said she was NOT detecting them as being illusions.
According to the Who’s who she can see in several spectra, that’s totally different than “colour filters”. For instance, an invisible person could happen to be “visible” in the infrared spectra.
A description which can also include x-ray vision.
Heh :) And now we know why there’s no a similar sign in the guys’ shower :P
(I actually wrote a fanfiction about that a while ago ;) )
A description which includes pretty much the sum-whole of the Electromagnetic Scale.
;)
I don’t think she meant identical to each other. I think she meant identical to themselves. I.E. The PPO looks exactly the same in each spectrum, the Truesight orb always looks the same, ect.
Agreed.
Fuckin’ sweet, WMG ORB SKILLTREE TIME!
I’m hoping Sydney ‘figures out’ how to pull up her
SphereGridOrb Diagram just to tweak Dabbler’s whiteboard efforts.Keep in mind, Dabbler is drawing this from memory after looking at it for just a minute or so a few days ago. I wish I had that kind of recall sometimes.
From the digit memory of her cybernetic implant eye….. shes probably got a few pictures of it……………
scratxh that, it didn’t show up n her Cyber eye if memory serves me correctly…
She doesn’t. Dabbler mentioned that the Skilltree is invisible to cameras, including her eye.
She said that the camera couldn’t see it, because her cyber-eye couldn’t. That she would use her perfect recall to draw it later.
So Dabbler has total recall. I wonder if she has ever been to Mars?
That movie should have been named Total Refuse. And I mean the original. I didn’t go see the remake because of the horrible original. That, and any twists about was it real or just his dream vacation experience would be ruined by the knowledge about the original.
The second was a complete fart in the duck pond: they didn’t even mention Mars let alone go to it (they did keep the tri-titted mutant, but they kept her covered up, so what was the point?)
I enjoyed the original. I like the principles, protagonist and antagonists alike. Plus the various twists kept the story interesting. Not to mention that the sci-fi setting and elements worked well.
I consider the second Total Recall in the same way that I consider the second Highlander movie: There should have been only one.
They shouldn’t have gone beyond the short story it was based on. The first movie, for me, was all a dream.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Can_Remember_It_for_You_Wholesale
For the most part short stories are, well… too short to provide the full material for a movie. It is fairly common practice to pad out such adaptations. I make a point to avoid reading the book of a film I intend to watch (or vice-versa). You all too often find one or the other falls short of expectations. Which allows me to judge the film on its own merits. They are different medium, after all.
However it is not always possible to do this. I fully intend to watch Grrl Power, the movie, for example. In this case though, as with most of the science fiction masters, I had read the source material (and most of his other works too). Fortunately many years before, as I had gone off any short stories, so disposed of all such works from my collection.
I did remember its broad outlines though. So I was quite happy that they just took it as a source of inspiration. I enjoy being taken by surprise. Having an exact duplicate of a story I already knew would have been rather dull.
True, short stories don’t have enough detail to flesh out a movie adaptation, but with a a good creative team that respects the source qua the source, an adaptation can add to the original, or take it off in an interesting direction (The Swimmer, The Wild Ones). Conversely, a team without respect for the original, or who are too much under the metaphorical thumb of the studio or star can produce a Running Man or a Total Recall. Unfortunately, Hollywood produces more of the latter than the former.
I prefer to read the book/story before seeing the film, as I find that casting choices, costumes, etc. get stuck in my head, and I often prefer my own imaginings to those of the film team.
The little library I run collects films based on books (and the books they are based on, of course);most of the patrons just take the videos and never read the books. I can’t convince them they are missing out on most of the story by doing so.
Of course, I also have patrons who won’t watch a black and white film if a colorized version of the film is available.
I really think that Grrl Power would do better as a tv series, with several movie adaptations, much like the first several seasons and the first three movies of Dragon Ball Z
From Yorp:
Ooops. Messed up the blockquote tags:
What wound up IN the box was supposed to be my reply to Yorp’s sentence: “You all too often find one or the other falls short of expectations.”
Coleridge wrote Kubla Khan, a less that 200 line poem fragment. And an epic fragment at that.
Rush turned that fragment into an equally epic 11:00 song.
omg pixel is supper cute i hope we get an ark with her and specs at some point
I do like the little cats bell shes wearing…
I assume that’s a “The Cat Who Walked Through Walls” reference. I wonder if she has phasing?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_Who_Walks_Through_Walls
We named our cat Pixel. It turned out to be prophetic; on at least three occasions I let her into the house from outdoors twice in a row, when there were no open doors or windows!
Nice catch, I’m guessing that phasing through solid walls would be exactly the kind of power that would qualify for an Arc Light field agent. I would have totally missed the reference if not for the reminder, it’s been a while since I read Heinlein.
Yes, I hope an ARC will have some LIGHT shed on it.
…
That was terrible. I’m sorry.
“supper cute”?
“supper”?
You mean that you want to eat…
Never mind.
^_^
You know, sooner or later they are really going to have to sit down and study those orbs, or at least see how good their anti scanner abilities are.
For now, at least, it looks like we are going to see some hard questions about her skill tree. Cannot wait!
Also, I’ve got an Internet cookie on pixel being bustier than Halo, just for comedy sake.
Also, love the new characters.
I see your cookie, and raise you two Internets.
I don’t get what Sydney is doing to Pixel.
Comparing height and eye diameter.
Pixel is taller.
More so since she’s barefoot, for whatever reason, while Sydney is still wearing her boots. I assume that those are Pixel’s sandals on the floor. But why the negative emotions? Seems like Sydney had called dibs on being the little one on the team, and was annoyed finding one almost as short as her.
Sydney wants to be the special snowfl…erm, butterfly. And is displeased there is another anime-type person.
Besides, Pixel didn’t take well to Sydney’s immediate behavior.
Would you? o_O
Not really.
…by which, I mean I would not take well to Sydney’s behavior either.
Clarity. ^_^
Maybe Sydney takes pride in being the smallest.
I think it might be the opposite. She determines that Pixel is maybe one inch taller than her, and THEN decides she doesn’t like her. I wonder how she’d have felt if Pixel were one inch shorter. Then she might like her because it would make Sydney no longer the smallest person there? Who knows.
Yea, that is the way I read it. We have seen Sydney has a complex due to being surrounded by tall people. Maxima initially, then falling over seeing Anvil and then getting jealous of Leon’s height. Not to mention every other member of the team too.
Here was someone who looked like she might be just as short as Sydney, but it turns out is actually also taller. Plus is crowding Sydney’s cute girl style. Pffft! How dare she?
You see her as a threat? And not doubling the cuteness factor? You saying you wouldn’t like to be the filling in a Pixel slash Sydney sandwich complete with extra lashings of hugs and scratches? o_O
What exactly does Specs mean that they are ‘deeper’?
Deeper in what? Gravity well? That would be cool, if they bended spacetime with magic
They’re bigger on the inside. Like if you were looking into a pool that looked 12 ft deep, but it’s an aboveground pool that’s only 5 ft.
TARDIS ORBS
I feel that rather than space bending, it’s more likely that the orbs are holographic. And I mean in the real life holographic film kind of way, that the surface is a light field image that provides an illusion of the interior. Advanced version of the tech could explain the anomalous emissions across the EM spectrum.
(Although, the eye/camera thing is pure magic. There’s is no physical difference between a camera and the eye, both use the photoelectric effect to detect photons. In camera the electron excitation by photons directly causes a charge build up; in the eye the excitation causes the retinol molecule to change shape via photoisomerization. So clearly the orbs also have some sort of non-EM based illusion technology/magic in them for the user interface at least.)
For the eye/camera thing you’re assuming that what syndey and the others “saw” was any kind of emissions at all. It could just as easily been projected into the vision centers of their brains. That’s the theory I’ve been working with.
This would make it supernatural (as in beyond _current_ understanding) rather than preternatural (impossible to understand/inherently illogical) like true magic. Or, to put it another way, it’s technology so advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic rather than actual magic.
It is worth noting that the tentacle is quite big. But looks really teeny, when it is inside the orb. Of course if the henai orb is bigger on the inside, then it is just retracting into it, rather than also shrinking, to get inside.
That is a good point you raise there.
Also, It was suggested, but never tested, to see if the light that was emitted was psionic, and when Sydney went to use an orb, she saw what Dabbler’s true form was and there was no comment made about whether or not her activating the orbs changed anything with the scans.
Side note: I don’t think they have tried to scan the Lighthook’s arm yet. Just saying that it might give a clue.
Finally gonna have to pay out that betting pool.
Which one?
THEY’RE…. TARDIS BALLS!
In that case, there are some very unhappy TARDISes out there somewhere. :)
No they’re not… Tardis’ have blue balls.
When the Chameleon Circuit is on the fritz, sure. We don’t know about the rest of the time.
they’re green isohedrons
Tardis’s don’t have balls, they have round things.
I don’t see how that makes the Tardises any less unhappy.
So, by virtue of being anime-ish in design, Pixel escapes the “Most Common Superpower” trope? Or… she’s not actually a super and thus like Sydney and Peggy in that respect?
Pretty sure Pixel’s not a super, but rather, as Maxima states, “she has some expertice on artifacts.” It will be interesting to learn if Pixel’s able to manipulate magic or not.
Magic counts when it comes to making one super for the purpose of the trope, hence Gwen herself not being hard on the eyes.
As for Pixel, maybe not a magic user herself but having an item or two?
Small stature, the bell and pink hair points to one of the magical girl variants.
Does the lack of shoes mean she will turn into some sort of nature spirit or fertility goddess incarnation?
Umm considering most fertility goddesses are usually shown in art as being very pregnant, I think we can rule that out. That and “Pixel” seems an odd codename for a nature spirit. I’m thinking more Technomancer, possibly from an artifact herself. (hence her “experience)
As mentioned further up, Pixel is very likely a reference to The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. That would mean that she does have super powers of her own, and also the reference to her being a field agent in the sidebar. Presumably Dave knows why she escaped the most common superpower.
The most logical explanation being the one already provided. She is an expert on artefacts. If she uses devices (be they technological, magical or divine in nature) they can grant her super-powers, such as walking through walls, but without them giving her the typical super-hero physique. Yet another reason that Pixel is crowding Halo’s territory!
Note though that Peggy only said that super-heroes tend to be several inches taller, on average. Which implies that there are exceptions.
Further we can see that the looks tend to be an idealised form. This is something which is drawn from a culture, and we have seen enough variation to know that the criteria is not so narrow that the only culture is ‘California beach babe’. Anime heroes are a big thing in Japan (and other parts of the world that they influence). Pixel checks the box on that.
Finally Pixel is wearing quite a bulky jacket, and is slouching a bit. These could be aspects of her disguising a super-fit body. Something that would be necessary, working for the intelligence side of Archon. Recall that looks are part of the package, and anime girls do not have bulging muscles (on the whole) so she could be fit, but not as strong as her western-iealised counterparts.
On the whole though, I would go with the former explanation. The latter is stretching slightly as it requires rationalising on more than one point. Whereas the first one resolves it simply. Or, of course, the name could just be a name, rather than a call-sign, and she may have no powers. It is possible to have acquired expertise, but without having ended up as being the owner of an artefact.
I think that we might be missing something here. We are all assuming that she is an adult. What if she is actually just a really young super, and has grown into her body yet?
That aspect is answered by the first line of the author’s blog, above.
From which we can infer that she is actually an adult, despite her relatively diminutive stature and looks.
“Finally Pixel is wearing quite a bulky jacket, and is slouching a bit. These could be aspects of her disguising a super-fit body.”
Why not? After all, Superman has gotten away with that technique & a pair of glasses for the past several decades…and running.
You do realise you don’t have to be a Super to be attractive, don’t you? Guess not
But the corollary is that if you aren’t attractive, you aren’t a super.
^ This, Guesticus.
Don’t forget that idealised looks are drawn from a particular culture. Further that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. An idealised anime super heroine may not look attractive to Western eyes. Excluding folks who are keen on anime, of course.
Zack Tilly this: just because one is beautiful and the peak of fitness does not make them attractive to all or even the majority
Just because you are a Super with the typical Super looks, does not automagically make you attractive
Just take Jennifer Aniston (please, take her far far away!!), to many people she is beautiful but not everyone considers her attractive
Heh. Wild Cards. Jokers.
Troll.
Drummer Boy.
Peregrine.. no, wait, strike that…
It’s been a long time since I’ve read any of the Wild Cards novels, but didn’t Drummer Boy have the typical groupie accompaniment of most rock stars? And this despite his 7 arms and other freakish appearance.
Got it in one.
There were several Joker-Aces that made the whole Joker/Ace thing far more ambiguous than the original dichotomy suggested.
And fame and money always trumps appearance (Rick Ocasik is a splendid example). Artistic talent is also powerful aphrodisiac.
Pretty likely that those straps on Specs are for a gun holster, so I wonder what she’s packing.
Standard issue stuff. She’s no Maxima or Dabbler.
“Standard issue” can include some pretty exotic “standard” weaponry.
Let’s go for something that’s better than “standard” but not too exotic.
How about the FN Five-seven?
depends on what all her “specs” can do now doesn’t it? if she can see through walls then concealment vs cover could be made moot by a gun that can fire Tungsten or DU projectiles.
And none of these kinds of weapons you are likely to want to carry in a shoulder holster.
Yeah uh Maxima? Cut the bullshit. You know damn well you would not be okay with it. If not for personal reasons then definitely for safety ones.
Well you saw how she reacted when she wasn’t the biggest girl in the room anymore. Appalling violence!
That was because Dabbler was having fun pushing Max’s buttons. Anvil has been bigger than Maxima in many ways for several years now and they seem to get along well.
I believe the violence was more for the invisible ass-grab.
It’s nice to know that Sydney’s oddities are just common knowledge already, and generally accepted/warned about.
Well, considering her performances every time she’s gone near the media, it’s no surprise, is it? Only Maxima and Arianna have had more TV time than Sydney has… and Maxima’s the only one who could have made a more vivid impression on the audience.
New recruit who has already made a huge impact not only on the team and organisation but the global media? Of course people are going to be talking about her (specially the fact she has seven balls that orbit her head that no one can figure out)
They are the most visible and always-on power in the group so far. The others can certainly demonstrate their powers in spectacular ways, but while just walking down the street they are no more amazing or unusual than seeing a group of police, fireman, or servicemen walking down the street. Except for the short one, with all the spheres circling around her head, that is.
“most visible and always-on” apart from Maxima’s skin?
Golden skin is odd, for sure. It’s just not an actively manifesting power. It just sits there, you wouldn’t know she could shrug off mortar rounds unless you saw it happen.
Orbs circling someone’s head and defying the laws of physics, that’s a different story entirely.
True, I used to see street performers in Brighton a lot. So seeing robot-like or any kind of metallic-painted individuals was not uncommon. Typically taking a statue-like pose, or performing a robotic scene. But they might need to eat lunch too.
The plus side is that folks will (generally) tend to associate Halo with, and identify her by, the orbs. So when she pops them in Tubey, it will be a more effective disguise than other celebrities popping on a pair of dark glasses and a cap.
There’s probably an internal email list for non-supers called “Guess what they did NOW?”
I just realized that Pixel, Sydney and Maxima’s reflections look shorter than they are. Is the wall at an angle?
It’s the light and/or viewing angle.
It’s supposed to be the viewing angle, but the artist got it backwards. From above the image should be taller. If the window were tilted enough to make them that much shorter, the image would also be tilted and would get smaller as it got further away.
Yup, the reflections are wrong in several ways. Maxima’s is the best one, and Syd’s, which seems to be kinda a copy of the original, the worst. Worth to notice that the chosen POV cause the reflections to be totally diferent than the originals, which makes it really really hard to get right without a model (real or digital).
One can check taking a figurine of any kind (from a porcelain statue to a transformer) and try and reproduce their stance angle in front of a mirror, then see the result. Take in account that the POV seems to be at Maxima’s eyes height or so.
The room has an image distortion system in the glass wall to alter the view seem from the outside. This prevents unauthorized personnel from seeing classified information on the whiteboard. Because…science!
Actually Pixel is interfering with the light. She is actually shorter than Sydney, but is distorting their respective images to make herself look taller. But this is causing complications which can be detected by looking in at the reflections.
Possibly.
Will ArcLight determine the origins of Halo’s floating orbs?
Will Pixel and Sydney discover they are long lost twins?
Will they make out or start punching each other?
Tune in NEXT TIME on GRRL POWAH!
Live from the Boston studio?
I have it on good authority it’s actually “BAH-SHTIN”.
Precision is paramount.
I vote slap-slap-kiss.
Less tongue in cheek, punching is more likely because I don’t think Sydney swings that way.
Or possibly start punching each other then make out, or vice versa
Well, that is how Ari and Suzie met afterall ;)
Didn’t realize until I saw the cast list that it was Gwen. I thought it was Harem, and imagined another her copying down the design for the skill tree elsewhere.
You’re not alone in mistaking Gwen for Harem xD
I recall reading ‘Sydney’s a what?‘, where Gwen and Goth Harem appear together, and being similarly confused. They’re both going sexy Goth, but Harem chose purple highlights, while Gwen took pink ones. Gwen’s got the gem choker (as opposed to Harem’s Archon choker), and GHarem’s got the skull barets. Also, Harem’s a bit taller, and you can still make out those farm-girl freckles of hers.
They are fairly easy to mix up. Peggy is also in the goth girl look, with her pink hair and multiple (and more visible) tattoos. But her facial scar and much shorter hair style makes her easy to distinguish.
Gothamer and Gwen are easy to mistake for each other (at first initial glance) because they share the same hairstyle, just Gwen has the hanky in her hair and pink fringe and Gothamer has purple bangs
Same here, but then noticed the hanky in Gwen’s hair
Am I the only person here who initially read ‘Pixel’ as ‘Pixie’?
No.
That’s what I saw too.
The thing that surprised me (and really shouldn’t have) is not only is Dabbler left handed, she’s LOWER left handed. I honestly would have expected the upper hand to be the dominant even if she was naturally a leftie. Of course she’s likely ambidextrous with all four but whatever :D
So she’s a bottom lefty.
Or is that hand just acting on its own.
/Subtle_reference
Actually, I think this has been mentioned before…
That bottom lefty is always a handful.
It has been indeed. But, it goot to remember the good stuff
her bottom left hand is cybernetic if I recall. It’s the one she used to teleport in the railgun during the demonstration.
In Spinnerette, bottom-lefty acts like every hand on Dabbler. Isn’t bottom-lefty the artificial arm? Maybe there is something that cyborg hand can do with a white-board marker?
If I had to guess I’d say it can probably act as a CNC-like plotter, without all the jitter an arm full of muscles ends up with.
I wish I could “like” comments.
Just do a “+1”, instead of a “like”.
Oh, so Dabbler’s bottom lefty, being cybernetic is the only one that can be trusted with ‘proper’ work?
As opposed to a bare bottom beauty (at least at the moment).
Tetradextrous.
Undoubtedly, she does has been using different hand(s) at different moments.
Dabbler’s a succubus–the lower, sinister hand, by traditional association, must be dominant.
Eh, that just made me realise that “dexterous” stems from the right hand (“dexter”, in Latin).
Yep, Yorp.
I like pixel.
Dave, If you ever for some reason decide to quit doing this comic, could you do a panel detailing out a fully powered up Halo. I find myself wondering about the skilltree and contemplating the not just the orb powerups but the linking and unaligned powerups as well. The curiosity is killing me. the possibilities for cross orb integration and new powers are immense, and I’d love to see it completed.
Noo! Don’t even think such dire thoughts!
Lower the flag! Lower the flag! You’ll doom us all!
I dont think Gwen has made an appearance since the initial board meeting. It’s been a long time anyways.
Pretty sure she was around during and after the diner fight.
That was a steak house, not a diner! Emphasis on was.
Interesting view of your cast, Dave. I’d have pegged Dabbler as being more like Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo (i.e. the free spirit) myself (which would make Maxima Tenchi (the one who has to ride herd over all these personalities). Arianna’s the one who pings my Demented Noblewoman (i.e.: ‘the kind that smacks you with a riding crop and does the “Oooh ho ho ho!” laugh’) radar.
I imagine Harem to have the personalities of an entire Sentai team rolled into one.
For those who’re wondering, I think of Sydney as Misato from Neon Genesis Evangelion: A ditz under normal circumstances but can Get Dangerous real quick.
Misato in Eva only acts the ditz.
It’s a defense mechanism that allows her to downplay disappointments.
Watch her carefully when she’s in the background.
In addition, she makes several “thought” comments that strongly indicate the ditz is an act performed for other’s benefit.
i wonder how many times dave had to draw that whiteboard version to get it inaccurate? original “skilltree” https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1166
… which Dabbler is seeing from the other side. So apparently she flipped it in her memory.
Or maybe she just walked around it, so has seen from both sides
I would guess that it is a copy-past-add_perspective job.
Wait… That “Hola” rings a bell.
Amazons’ greeting, from Wonder Woman.
Oh, is it so? Then that’s why Sydney used it when met Peggy. Annnnd NOW I suddenly get the whole Sydney-WW tshirt-Pixel thing. I’m far from nerdish enough to be around here :(
Well, to be fair, the comics and episodes of Wonder Woman I saw where Spanish dubbed, so the “hola” should go unnoticed :)
Ask not for what “hola” rings a bell?
It happens to be Spanish as well, to which the Amazonian language may or may not have a connection.
Except for the fact that Wonder Woman is supposed to have been born out of the Greek Pantheon. Notice her curses and expletives i.e.: Great Hera
Well, since Syndey’s code name is Halo, that would make this greeting “Hola, Halo.”
+1
Those red lines between Pixel and Sydney…are those words?
They are audience visible comical dashed measurement lines. If this was animated they’d be blinking with accompanying sound effects.
The word accompanying them (namely “measure”) is what gives the clue as to the nature of the red lines. Contrary to Dorje Sylas‘s supposition, I suspect that an animated scene would show Sydney’s hands moving to measure out the paths that we see shown as red dotted lines. But, as they stand, I agree that they are purely visible to the readers, for comedic purposes.
Now I have the picture of Dabbler with a riding crop going “Oh ho ho ho!” stuck in my head now. But in a good way.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/376
So, is Pixel indestructible… or an idiot? Who thinks “Oh, 2 pairs of boots and cloven hooves… time to kick the sandals off! There’s no way my micro-toesies will be crushed and broken here!”
Well they do have a Super doctor on staff, so lightly crushed toes aren’t that big a deal… in the long run. Just as long as she doesn’t get one lopped off.
Maybe whatever artifact(s) she has require that her to have a grounded sole ;P
It’s just the stabbed and electrocuted ones that are an issue. Lopped off is probably easier to fix. I have a brother-in-law who works as a printer, and once got a finger caught under a press. Not a blade on the thing, and not a printing press as in movable type. It was a broad plane of steel intended for compressing stacks of paper. Took the finger clean off. It’s probably been 10-15 years since that happened. He says the the only issue after it healed up and some PT to get it back into full function again is a slight tingle as if it was slightly ‘asleep.’ Probably they were able to connect the largest veins but still left the thing with limited circulation.
It may be symptomatic of ‘phantom limb syndrome’. About two thirds of amputees experience that. A neurological genius, by the name of V.S. Ramachandran has developed a cunning treatment, which just involves using a mirror. Which, none the less, has a pretty good success rate. But if it is only a tingle, rather than pain (which is common in phantom limbs), then I assume such would not be needed.
It seems it does wonders in the treatment of stroke victims’ one-sided neglect syndrome too.
I think you missed the part where they were able to reattach the thing. So he is not an amputee. He was an amputee for a few hours, however.
Since he describes it as feeling just like an extremity which has ‘fallen asleep,’ which is caused by cutting off the circulation, I am fairly certain that it is poor circulation which is causing his lingering tingling.
Ahh, that was not clear. I took the “full function” to be that he had fully adapted to the loss, so could still type on a keyboard, or whatnot, despite the loss. But I can see the intent now that you have pointed that out.
Yea, both nerves and veins can be permanently damaged after such loss and re-attachment. So either, or both, could be contributing to that.
If Dabs did step on her toes, how far would a pair of sandals go in protecting her toes anyway?
How far would a pair of steel-capped boots go? o_O
Well, as one who has had my foot stepped on my hooved creatures I seriously doubt Dabbler weighs 500-2500 lb
Got a sneaker clad foot stepped on by a horse once. Had to beat on the thing a few times to get it to take a step. Hurt like the dickens, but didn’t break a bone. And 1/4 of a horse’s weight has got to be a lot more than 1/2 of Dabbler’s.
Mine was a cow. Twice. Really hurt my paw.
Horses wise though, I was taking my Jack Russell Terrier, Buffy for a walk, when I found a horse parked* near to my gatehouse. I told Buffy to stay, and went over to pet the horse. Which it was ok with.
Trouble is Buffy got a bit jealous, started to come forwards too, hoping to get some attention as well. I gave her the command to stay, and she obeyed. However the horse was not too happy with seeing the dog, even though she had stopped. So bit me!
Man it takes ages for the bruise from a horse bite to die down.
* See, I knows all the technical terms.
I’ve had a foot stepped on by a cow. The ground beneath was soft because of recent rains, though. I’ve had the same foot stepped on by a clever horse who knew exactly how to put enough weight on your foot so that you couldn’t get away, but not so much that it would break any bones.
(The short version of the story is that this horse smelled the apple in my pocket. It wasn’t going to let me leave until I gave it the apple. As soon as I did, it took its hoof off my foot.)
Sandals are Super-Effective at stopping toes from being crushed of stepped on.
::coughs::
What Deof Said.
just as a chain-mail bikini provides a female warrior with better protection than a full suit of mail>…
;)
Again with this? The mail-kini provides better protection in the form of increased agility (can’t damage what you can’t hit)
I have my own theory on Pixel. The character is short, thin, somewhat androgynous, has pink hair (on occasion), and is able to scan and manipulate magical objects. It is Tedd from EGS.
Which would actually make sense. Tedd’s ability to watch a spell being cast once or twice, and then give a detailed description of it including aspects he has NOT seen, would be very useful to ArcLight.
EGS also has multiple universes, each with their own version of Ted. I wonder what would happen if Dabbler got her hands on a TF gun
Chaos. utter chaos. I’m wondering what TF5 would do for Harem, would hitting one change all or just the one and what would happen if she unteleported that body before the TF gun wore off.
Just so long as she does not point it at Sydney. She is perfect as is. No transformations, of any sort, required. Especially not the sex-changing variety.
But, as a tom-boy, she might enjoy checking it out?
Ah, El Goonish Shive. Just found that and am plowing through it.
pay no attention whatsoever to ‘The Wotch’, okay? :}
The Wotch was one of my favorite webcomics once upon a time. I haven’t checked in on it in quite a while though.
Gee Sydney, territorial much? What’s interesting about nerd girl is that her ‘powers’ are acquired, not ‘naturally’ occurring like the other supers. Sydney probably feels odd among the other supers for that reason and thus is jealous when someone appears to threaten her unique status in ARC./SWAT.
At least she doesn’t feel the need to mark her territory. That could get… awkward.
I don’t see why? That is perfectly normal behaviour.
*scratches head in puzzlement, with hind-paw*
I have the feeling that Sydney would mark her territory with pepper spray.
Yah–with the amount she consumes, probably. :P
Dabbler doesn’t normally turn me on, but man, those pants…
They certainly do perfectly show off her ungulate legs. Not as good as digitigrade ones, mind, but nobody is perfect.
I think Dabbler’s legs are kind of nice.
::twitches a long silky ear::
So both these ladies are commenting that Sydney is weird. I guess that fits.
Looks like Dabbler is drawing an image of Sydney’s Skill Tree on the white board. Maybe they can figure out what the 2 Mystery Orbs are for.
She is also filling in extra spots
Maybe they’ll finally try to use one of them to heal her bruises.
Does it really bother Sydney that much that Pixel is shorter than she is? She complains about others who are taller, and she complains when they are shorter.
It’s not like Pixel has Orbs circling her head.
Thought panel three showed Pixel to be slightly taller (and her eyes slightly smaller in panel four)
Yep, it is close but even in panel 2 Sydney appears to be the shorter. By a whisker. But panel 3 has the dotted line rising, going from Pixel* to Halo.
* Who will doubtless be accidentally called Pixar, by me, at some point.
No, Sydney is disapointed that Pixel is taller.
Poor Maxima. However much she may be frustrated by Halo’s antics, at the same time she must find it difficult not to laugh at them.
Why is Dabbles filling in extra spots on the chart? Unless you have the actual Power-up Menu to play with, it’s not going to tell her anything
She is hypothculating.
Maybe she’s putting in things Sydney can try to see if that fills that slot? An experimentation list, so to speak?
Seriously, I need more patience – DaveB keeps addressing things right after I comment, and you *know* he’s had these pages ready and in the queue for weeks. Always a few thoughts too slow, it seems.
Yeah, but how does that work if they don’t have the actual HUD and the balls to work with? o_O
Sidney describes the Mandala and where various orbs fit into the over all scheme. Dabbler then sketches and Sidney provides feedback until it’s close enough (and given Sidney’s ADHD, it’ll probably be pretty damned close before Sidney is happy with it).
Sidney then describes what powers she’s manifested and the group works together to logically or intuitively figure out where each power should be on the overall mandala.
By doing that, they get a bit of a hint on the nature of each orb, which should suggest options for effects to try out.
For the orbs that haven’t manifested apparent powers, one can then do exactly what the rest of the forum is doing – making guesses on which archetypical power sets aren’t represented and speculating on which seems most reasonable, and then trying those.
Spent 12 hours over two weeks in an RPG doing something very similar. The GM was both pleased that we took the initiative and a little miffed at how close some of our pure horseshit guesses were to what the magic items actually did (yes, we tried using an identify spell. No, identify didn’t work. Which usually means artifact / plot driving items and more headache than they’re usually worth).
Hmm.. I wonder if Sidney can manifest the mandala and then use abilities to see if any of the nodes grow brighter when used? That would make the Mandala significantly more useful.
Granted, it’s so damned beautiful, I couldn’t care less about the Mandala’s practicality. :)
How did Dabbler mess up the skill tree? Does it have a memetic property that makes it so people remember it wrong?
How did she get it wrong?
For one thing, in the center, there should be an extra ring of empty circles between the central shape, and the ring that has two circles filled in.
We haven’t necessarily seen every level-up.
Well she is still drawing, so maybe anything missing will be filled in before she says she is done. To prevent speculation like this it should have been shown as a left, right, top, or bottom hemisphere.
Actually the originally empty one is present, since it’s the one formed for the dots over the lines between opposite orbs. The absent is the loose one that had two dots filled. It seems her memory merged them both.
There’s also some “tails” misplaced, which could be irrelevant.
DaveB, are you following this? Dabbler gave us the impression that she had a photographic memory, but even though she’s got a lot of the grid right, messing up any of it could be very important. Or are you retconning its appearance? That seems unlikely, given that the original is available in multiple places on the internet, and your fanbase undoubtedly has saved copies of it to their hard drives for reference (because we’re nerds: what do you expect? :P ).
Do note that there are several personnel present. Although Dabbler is the one drawing, they could all have been contributing the bits they recall. Except Maxima, that is. The errors, in which case, being down to flawed memories and/or the process not being complete yet.
Except, Dabbles is the only one present at the time of the initial reveal (Gwen wasn’t out at the firing range was she? And Maxi and Sydney have only just arrived)
To be fair, Sydney has a point about quasi-dopplegangers.
There’s a height problem issue. Frame 2, suggests sydney is taller. Frame 3 shows her shorter.
If this is due to boots, then there are still problems:
1. she wasnt shown as taking them off
2. WTH would pixel have her shoes off in this scenario??? makes no sense WHATsoever.
Depends on where Pixel comes from: maybe she hates wearing footwear and only wears sandals because she has to and she takes them off at any opportunity
If you look closely at panel one, Pixel is stretching on her tippie-toes, panel two Sydney is bending over to get a closer look at Pixel, how can she appear to be taller? o_O
“WTH would pixel have her shoes off”
Maybe she wants to be ‘light’ on her feet. Get it? Arc-light.
Look, a serendipitous tumbleweed!
(runs away)
Quick! After that tumbleweed!! It has kidnapped O.B.!!!
It’s tumbleweed hunting season?
No, it’s duck season. FIRE!
Straight line, in panel 2, Sydney is shorter. Ok, she is leaning forward, so I can see why you might assume that she is the taller. But Pixel is leaning back, so the two are probably cancelling each other out.
It was sensible of Sydney to go back-to-back, and straighten up, to eliminate these differences.
You’re killing the joke, Smalls.
I take my shoes off whenever I enter my home. I suggest to guests that they can also, but it’s not a dirt on the carpet thing for me, it’s a comfort thing. And I’ve slipped my shoes off while sitting at my desk at the office many times also. I do put them on when I get up, but that’s not to say that Pixel has to also.
I’m guessing we won’t see Pixel or Specs again any time soon, since they have a who’s who entry.
If you read the Author’s note, you will have read that he was wiped after A-Kon and will get to that as soon as he recharges his batteries
IOW, I believe we can exSpecst to see more of both of them.
Wait, is there going to be another shower scene? So soon?
We can hope…
^_^