Grrl Power #673 – Beware the history tab
I’m not sure Sydney would be quite thoughtful enough to notice that the first icon in the travel log is glitchy and weird. Well, she’d notice, but ascribing potential life and death significance to the press of a button is probably a step further than her mind might take her on a regular day. That’s assuming she’s correct in her assumptions, of course.
On the other hand, narrowly escaping death multiple times in the last few moments might have her a bit on edge. She could be thinking that narratively, she’s due for a big fuck up or setback, so her trope sense is on high alert.
I spent a while trying to figure out what the orbs’s gateway would look like, and for some reason, I made it look like a TV effect from the 70’s. I’m sure Sydney appreciates the retro look anyway.
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What is this? Sydney actually using her brain and logicing? THAT IS NOT HALO! THAT IS AN EVIL CLONE!!!!
No, that is completely in line with Sydney’s thinking
Indeed, Sydney is kind of introvert type person in all fronts aka observant and logic thinker(remember the villain who pretty much overpowered maxima) albeit she also goes with adhd trait and tends to think too fast and often off the target:)
This is a video game with no instructions in the hands of someone with ADD. Obviously not standard protocol as it would have been jumping to warp speed BEFORE that thought process entered anyone normal mind.
ADHD doesn’t mean “recklessly impulsive”. Getting distracted by one’s own questions is 100% an ADHD thing.
Like trying to play Myst with no guide. Ever try it and you haven’t played the game in years? It’s madness.
There was a guide to Myst?
*Realizes I spent time finishing the game without a guide…*
There was one? Oh Man when I was younger (when it first came out) a friend and I spent hours on it figuring it out, of course this was during the lack of internet at the time. I recall the musical section where you press a key to get a note then repeat it behind you was really hard as you had a wind noise blowing as you turned around. Thankfully my friend was musically talented so kept humming the key note as we did it. Ah fun happy times that was.
ADHD doesn’t make one stupid or limit one’s ability to concentrate. Instead, the brain simply tries to pay attention to too many things. It’s not a lack of attention; it’s a surplus of attention. In settings wherein the numbers of input are limited, such as Halo is experiencing now, someone with ADHD could find themselves way ahead of the (ahem) normal brain. I have ADHD and I’ve been known to write a 300-page novel in 6 weeks.
Been there, done that…
You mean like that time she used Logic to defeat Vehemence? Or “For whom the bell tolls”?
She also had moments during those situations where she had to wrestle her own mind back on the ‘correct’ track as she sometimes tends to jump about, throwing randome misc bits of data onto the thought train and potentially jumping tracks momentarilly. I can totally relate to that.
You mean The Periwinkle Butt Sniffer?
parkinglotbattle
Is it me or does the one to the left also look weird? Less staticy, but still weird.
It definitely looks too smudgy and colourful in comparison to the other ones we can see that aren’t outright glitching.
Yups, noticed that as a well
Looks smudgy, like the previous user tried to erase it’s record
And now I’m thinking: The previous user only wanted some anonymous sex tourism. And then they lost their balls for it on earth.
Maybe it’s the location of a nebula?
It’s probably glitchy for the same reason Harem had a hard time:
1) it’s a different universe or
2) They are at some waypoint nexus in the universe
But hey, either way, if she can travel through the universe or teleport through alternate realities, she just went full on Sliders/Dr. Strange.
3) They are well into the future and Earth no longer exists. Error 404, planet not found.
Damn. I knew that unless the others found a way back, the only way Sydney could return would be if the orbs had a history log or something. I could have said “I told you so!” but I never thought to post it.
I think it’s hilarious that the “who’s who” still puts that orb as just “flight.”
Be… cause it still is just flight? o_O
That, or we haven’t actually seen it do anything other than flight, so DaveB hasn’t seen fit to change it (remember how long it took to update the Green AirBall? and that one still has a question mark)
Being able to create twelve-dimensional wormholes is kind of beyond the capacity of “flight.”
It is flight. Very fast flight, but still just flight.
It might be better stated as “transportation”
At this rate Sydney will be the most powerful being in the know universe.
until she needs to sleep … those squidalians are still way more powerful. it is fairly clear to me that they were playing with her, slowly testing her abilities, given that they could have bombarded the whole group from space instead of dropping squidward next to them. all things considered she really hasn’t done anything worth noting to them, popping a cap in a few of their swarm drones and mega squidbillies and then running away isn’t really a threat given how very large that corkscrew ship is and that it was dropping bombs in lines to get in her way instead of carpet bombing the whole space she is likely to be in.
I dunno how accurate that assessment is.. Just because they didn’t glass the planet on first sight or even after she killed a bunch of ships and a couple of heavier foes, doesn’t mean they were ‘playing with her’. The size of the ship doesn’t necessarily correlate to destructive capacity either.
For comparison, Tony Stark might not seem like much of a threat to an aircraft carrier at first glance. However once he’s suited up and the fight starts in earnest it would probably ramp up pretty quickly, especially once he took out a fighter or three, with very little ‘playing around’ involved.
Even with its size, there’s probably still a limit to the squidalien mothership’s combat effectiveness, especially in an active battle where its own forces are being destroyed while being unable to eliminate or even apparently harm the threat.
playing with her might not be quite right but evaluating her seems to be what they are doing, those orbital bombardments look orders of magnitude more powerful then squidwards initial flash bake attack that stressed her shield, and the ship could have hit them with that instead of sending in squidward.
there is just so much that is unknown about the squidbillies, that ship might just be a scout vessel for the fleet that wiped the glow butterfly people. squidward shrugged off her ppo beam at a distance, assuming that its body shield doesnt stop you from getting close to its body in the first place so lightbee wasn’t considered in evaluating how she took him down, he was still fast as shit given that it could punch her into the earth. this made it think that speed and shield were her defensive powers so they send a new guy who can reduce her speed to 0 and doubled down on the dps. then they use single shot straight like fish dooming bombardment to see how well she can move at speed. this all makes me think they aren’t taking her too seriously.
iron man vs man made weapons arnt really a good comparison imo the scales are too far off, we are dealing with potential god lvl orbs in the hands of a human vs planet wiping Cthulhu-esk galaxy cops. it just feels like the squidies are taking “baby steps, devastatingly overpowered though they may appear” in dealing with her.
Well, there is a reason the squid people nuked her on sight.
Is it just me, or is playing trial-and-error with spacial singularities and the fabric of the universe a reallyreallyreally BAD idea?
This is Sydney we are talking about here…
Yeah, remember her reaction when she found Ingsol’s secret closet full of potentially lethal artifacts? “I should definitely play with them and find out!”
It’s either that or starve to death on giant monster planet.
Given that “crash land on giant monster planet” is one of the TAMER possible outcomes, I fail to see how this is an “either-or” thing.
What’s the worst that can happen… She lands in orbit above an advanced civilization that is not friendly and either knows about the orbs and the people who made them and wiped them out, is at war with them, or is the race that made them and wants them back, or she lands in an alternate universe and becomes universally lost spending an entire comic season or 2 planet/universe hopping to get back, or lands in orbit above a long since dead world, or she lands at a unihabited planet only to wakeup an hyernatng insanely powerfull evil race bend on universal destruction, or she lands in orbit above a friendly planet but they don’t know where earth is so she has to try again, or she manages to find earth….
One of those, yeah…
Or maybe she warps out through the wermhole and stays where she is. Like the transporter accident that resulted in two William Rikers. Then DaveB will have to draw twice as many comics to advance the story. Yeah, we don’t want that one, do we.
…Who is this “we” you keep referencing?
(Don’t worry, DaveB, I don’t want you to die from burnout.)
…. I’m pretty sure that is not, in fact, the worst that could happen.
This is the only comic I’ve ever been impatient to read the next page.
Unfortunately, this episode almost screams ‘cliffhanger!’ so next time we’ll probably be back on Earth…
OMG! Pastel ponies everywhere!
Now I’m thinking that assuming that the current location will be added to the log is not safe. After all, she did *not* use the orbs to get here in the first place, which might be a condition. The only thing that definitely keeps her safe is that she’s the heroine, and Dave is not going to kill her. Definitely. Probably. Maybe.
And another thing that might make this unsafe. If she’s returning to where the orbs were with their previous owner, she might run into someone who asks: “Who are you and what have you done with Xurxes?”
What if the blurry thing *is* the current planet already added as a waypoint ?
This would make the previous point Earth
What if the planet is actualy blurry?
Well, we know Sidney makes it because this is still all flashback from the first couple of pages of the comic
Unless this is a Tannhäuser gate. She could find herself off the shoulder of Orion amid attack ships firing C beams at each other.
I would not believe that.
That would be the perfect place to lead the Squidwards to.
The middle of a space battle.
That was supposed to be a reference to one of the final lines in a particular movie, that nobody seems to have picked up on. I guess I failed my Voight Kampff test to prove I am a human commenter.
You didn’t completely fail, I got it.
Got it as well, one of the classic adlibbed lines ever, right up there with “You talkin’ to me?” and “Hey! I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” :D
John obviously got it.
To be pedantic, the attack ships are on fire and we’re not told where the C-beams are coming from.
Remember the very start of the comic — this is all a flashback. In the very first strip, Sydney was a corporal. She had to do something to get promoted. Surviving all this ought to about do it.
Unlikely – even surviving such a battle won’t make a private into a corporal. This isn’t about an RPG game, Dave trying to be realistic. That means months, or even years passed between the current event and the “present”
Battlefield commissions are still a thing, aren’t they?
Not really applicable. You don’t promote someone to corporal because they did something courageous and amazing, that’s what medals are for. You promote someone to corporal because they show leadership qualities and you need to give them authority over some privates.
If Sydney was stranded with some of the other recruits, then took charge and got them home safely, that would be the sort of thing she might get promoted for.
Also, commissions are for officers, not enlisted.
We do not actually know for 100% sure that Maxima was addressing Sydney. Anvil was there. Anvil is already a corporal. Maxima could’ve been chiding Anvil for calling Sydney the big guns…or for wearing that (spectacular but) non-regulation tank shirt…
…Personally? Yeah, it does look like Maxima is addressing Sydney. But we don’t know that for 100% absolute doubt-free bona-fide sure.
Anvil is a sergeant, Harem is a corporal
Some people suggested that the invaders had been attacked by an orb user before. If that’s the case, she might be headed to their homeworld.
Better hope that ability doesn’t have a cool down if things go south…
I REALLY WANT TO SEE THE WHOLE THING NOW WITH THE ADD ON!
Curses!
Watch her jump back to where she entered the Alari homeworld.
I hope she uses the telepresence orb as a malp.
OMG. All those squiggly yellow lines around the edges of the warp gate. Sydney is about to go to ‘The GRID’ in the movie TRON. I want to see her steal a giant flying robot tank. Oh wait, she IS a giant flying robot tank.
Why is it that the orbs can read her mind sometimes (taking flight directions, moving to/from her hands, etc.) but other times needs some kludgey interface?
Seems like if you could read someone’s mind that would be the preferred interface for every-fricken-thing.
… or am I nerding out too hard on this?
Maybe that’s the function of the central area which she just upgraded. The more upgraded, the more functions get automated.
Probably because some functiosn simply should not be automated.
Imagine if the Orbs simply opened up wormholes whenever Sidney thought about traveling to another planet with intelligent life.
Or the ComOrb reacting to the mere though >Teleport< even if she's projecting herself into enemy fire to act as a diversion.
Or the PPO switching firing modes on a hair trigger.
Let's be honest here, especially for someone like Sidney, having holobuttons that have to be deliberately pressed and displays for the relevant data to make informed decisions on what the Orbs are about to do is a very good thing.
Regarding reading the mind as a preferred interface, may I point you to the classic movie ‘Forbidden Planet’ and remind you of what happened to the Krell?
If Sydney is thinking that she’s due for a big mistake or setback and watching out accordingly, she’s probably missing the fact that, you know, being stuck on an alien planet probably counts.
How does she know what ORDER the history tab is in? That could be the LAST one, or the FIRST one.
As for what happened to the orb’s previous owner, my money is on the Chicxulub impact. It’s close enough to the keys that if the orb’s user didn’t have the shield up, they would have been killed almost instantly.
Same way she knows it’s a history tab.
Nah – that was way too far back, the orbs would have been under a mile or more of silt. Better odds he was one of the dissolves-on-contact-with-water types.
We don’t know the orbs’ “unbonded” behavior. They could have a “Don’t get lost” feature where they repel accumulating dust or debris and “Float up” to the surface of whatever they’re on periodically, even in “Sleep” mode.
Well, it could be the history tab, or it could be the bookmarks menu, or it could be a shopping list, travel brochure, etc. IF Sydney is getting more in tune with the orbs, then her certainty that it is a history tab is explained, including which direction is “more recent”. Or she’s completely off kilter, and she’s about to show up in Oz.
“Thank you for using the latest B&L Trans-Galactic Orb Services! At this time, you have used up your free trial and any further use will incur charges and you will need to have a current Trans-Galactifax credit report pulled and a credit card issued to proceed with any further use to secure payment. Thank you and we hope this does not cause any inconvenience.”
If the center section of the skill tree is giving her insight into the orb functions, it is likely doing the same with regards to how to read the menus. (Inc. reading left to right vs. right to left.)
I agree with the arguments that she’d probably know the order, but left to right would make a lot of sense – looking at panel 1, Alari homeworld (current position) would be under her thumb, next would be Earth (which looks Earth-like), 3 is smeared out (previous owner’s last stand?), 4th (her selection) is previous owner’s homeworld or at least initial point of orb possession.
That leaves the technicolor smear, which could be the default ‘home’ button, and/or the orbs’ point of manufacture, and it’s … scrubbed by default? Or is now a hot mess of exotic radiation, a la Krypton, and no longer safe to travel to.
Space jacuzzis are the best jacuzzis.
My guess is that the arrow on the travel log is pointing to “You Are Here” and the reason it’s glitchy is because she didn’t get there under her own power but was instead transported by a compromised blood spell.
I would agree, I was thinking that the one thats all wonky is her present location. It might be wonky not becasue she didn’t get there under her own power, but that the orb is unable to positively identify the location. Planet not in its database. If thats the case, then the location just before that (the one she chose) would be Earth.
And if it is Earth wont Max be surprised when Sydney just walks into the room?
It’s a BOOM TUBE, DUHHHHH.
She should be joking about Darkseid, or maybe salacious comments about Apoko-LIPS.
Don’t worry about the effect, Dave.
You were just inspired by Land of the Lost.
Since there are a couple of fuzzed-out options, I’m wondering if the right-most one is in fact Earth, but Earth in her “home” universe, not this alternate one she’s in now. And she hasn’t unlocked the drive that moves between realities yet, so she can’t select that one. Though I confess that it sounds like a pretty big coincidence that there are *any* points she can go to in this reality. Unless there aren’t an infinite number of alternate universes, or there are, but there are some that sit at whatever works as a lowest potential energy point in this context, and gates tend to land in those if not properly directed elsewhere.
If this is a multiverse situation, how would she know if she got back to the exact right universe? Maybe she lands someplace very similar, and she’ll be thinking everything’s fine until a couple days later, when she see something juuust out of place enough to tip her off.
What if she ends up shooting into an auditorium filled with thousands of other Sydneys from different alternates?
I demand that Sydney Prime adopt the name “Old McHalo” during any such gatherings.
Of course Sidney doesn’t realise the last planet she visited is NOT earth, it’s the alari world.
Of course she can’t select that, she is already there.
Earth here she comes….
If I were Syd I’d be more worried about how much that last “waypoint” resembles the Death Star.
Of course Sidney doesn’t realise the last planet she visited is not earth, it’s the alari world. She can’t select that because she is already there.
Does the icon for last planet visited look like Death Star to anyone else?
Yep
Ok, serious question time: She just unlocked wormhole travel. This is level 1 of this skill. How does one upgrade this???
Add interdimensional and time travel.
There could be a ooldown/recharge time for the wormhole travel bit (most usually do) and later upgrads culd be upgrades to how fast the orb can recharge for wormhole travel.
Autopilot and suggested courses, e.g. “avoid tollbooths and eldritch horrors.”
Add explore mode, as opposed to the current travel presets and bookmarks. Kind of like adding gears to your car that allow you to go off-roading.
Or add a Drunkard’s Walk option, where you pop from one location to another at random, until you say “stop”. If the interval is short enough, that’d work as either escape or exploration.
See Heinlein’s “The Number of The Beast” for more info.
Did you noticed it currently only allows specifying WORLDS? Next upgrade, countries. Final upgrade, specific room.
Do you need a reminder what happens if you open a wormhole inside a room?
Hael, even Sydney knew to get out to orbit first
It could be a proximity gauge, just like flight was a speed gauge. If she has only unlocked 1 pip, then she can only get to (known?) planets with X numberr of lightyears or parsecs or fleeb-lengths, whatever the orb creators decided upon for their criteria. 2 pips could be twice as far away in radius (exponentially increasing just how many stars she can reach–going from 1 cube to 2x that in all directions does not give you 2 cubes or 4 cubes, but instead 8 cubes in the stack), and 3 pips could be 4x that, etc…
of all of Sidney’s various powers and abilities, her ability to be Genre savvy seems to be one of the most op.
*THAT* is her power.
It allows her to use the Orbs.
Did the Orbs choose her?
Honestly I never understood Sword in the Stone logic especially where the powers choose the person. Around the time that they published Marvel 1600 they started this whole line where the spiders wanted Peter Parker to inherit their power.
Another time that Math’s advice has saved her life.
Sydney. I think you mean “Seventh chevron is engaged.” It’s been a while since I watched Stargate, but they say that at least every other episode.
Unless traveling between galaxies, then its 7th chevron locked and 8th chevron enguaged. But that dosn’t happen often. Made things difficult between the SGC and Atlantis for a while.
No, he got it right. Chevrons 1-6 engaged, then Walter always said “Locked” for the final chevron. He even says (in character) that he did that on purpose “for variety.”
No, he got it right.
Chevrons 1-6 engaged, but Walter always said “Locked” for the final chevron (whichever one it was). In one episode, he says in character that he did this “for variety.”
For the life of me, I have no idea why the first one didn’t show up. Thought my browser crapped out. My bad all.
It happens sometimes, the original post doesn’t appear until you leave the page and then return reloading the updated page. Refreshing doesn’t work (I’ve tried it).
Refreshing does work, you just have to have patients
Refreshing doesn’t work for me, and I have been patient with it.
Nope. Definitely “locked”. Sequence is; Chevron One, encoded. Chevron Two, encoded…. Chevron Seven, locked!
Looks like Sydney’s about to visit the Prophets.
I kind of hope one of the space mega squids stops Sydney wipe she tries to disembark just so we can get her to yell out another stargate reference. Specifcally “In the Middle Of My Back Swing!” Thankyou for that earlier one by the way!
Accidentally travels to earth because technically the last place the orbs traveled was the Alari Homeworld.
Am I the only one who loves the asymmetrical nature of the wormhole? I mean look at the four corners, the top two are all squareish while the bottom two are loopy.
Looking at the icon Sydney pressed, it seems to resemble Mogo. Too bad a Green Lantern crossover isn’t possible.
Years later, Sydney would be lost to the void of interstellar space, having accidentally cleared her browser history out of pure habit.
Or the distortion is showing the current location but is screwed up due to something the invading aliens are doing (there is a vertical dividing line between the distortion and the log history).
The smudged out and staticy icons could simply mean that those locations no longer exist (or now quarantined) since we have no solid evidence of how long the Orbs were lying undisturbed on Earth (though me and Yorp have suspicions about that) given their location on Earth.