Grrl Power #1329 - How not to be seen
Added 2025-02-10 11:00:12 +0000 UTCThank you for the support! You guys are awesome!
That would be SO. LOUD. It would make your vision vibrate.
Triceratopi is definitely the plural for traceratopses. Don't look it up.
Sydney's new nickname for Slam is "Blue Moon." She won't explain why, or why she's as familiar as she is with doo-wop music from 1961. But she remember the lyrics as "Bong-a-dong blang, clang-a-dang-bang, bong-a-long clang, bling-a-blang clank, Blue Moon..."
Sydney probably should have gotten on the horn... the Arc-Com-network, not doing something inappropriate with Slam, I mean. She should probably have called someone as soon as she had a serious suspicious about Sciona. But it also makes sense that she'd want a little more evidence to back it up, not just a vague reference to someone wanting to stab her, which is evidence of nothing more than they'd met her.
Comments
I'm surprised Sydney is hip to to do-wop. The Marcels - Blue Moon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eMkH0s3Vpc
eddi_TBH
2025-02-11 04:33:45 +0000 UTCMax has that itch between her eyebrows that happen whenever Sydney isn't in visual range. She's waiting for the phone call.
eddi_TBH
2025-02-11 04:23:10 +0000 UTCShe doubled down on that one ninja wanna-be in the Big Brawl. He just transformed into an unconscious soprano.
eddi_TBH
2025-02-11 04:21:19 +0000 UTCI think Terra mean the orbs and/or their maker.
eddi_TBH
2025-02-11 04:19:23 +0000 UTCShe always tries to out guess the villain on Scooby-Doo.
eddi_TBH
2025-02-11 04:14:47 +0000 UTCI heard a standing rack of rebar go. That made my ears ring
eddi_TBH
2025-02-11 04:13:58 +0000 UTCMax's problems just cubed.
eddi_TBH
2025-02-11 04:12:49 +0000 UTCOrc in butler's outfit opens door, clubs Thief. Looks at the rest, "May I help you?"
eddi_TBH
2025-02-11 04:12:09 +0000 UTCBetween the ears, the tail and the Beacon they are running about -6 on Stealth. Plus talking, plus no points in the skill anyway. Sciona finds it impossible that anyone could be that inept, so ascribes the noise to a poorly balanced stack of I beams. The Three Stooges meet Monty Python. For those who have never seen it. And those who enjoy watching it repeatedly. How to use up an entire season's pyrotechnic budget in one sketch, Monty Python: How Not To Be Seen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGv8oAHxekU
eddi_TBH
2025-02-11 04:10:26 +0000 UTCOne of her vision modes is certain to reveal something. Whether or not she can interpret it or not is something else entirely.
Person
2025-02-11 01:08:54 +0000 UTC"I ROLLED A FOUR!" I think Sydney rolled the four. Siam? She rolled a natural 1. Reminds me of a game I was DMing once, the player stealthed up to a door to listen, and rolled a 1. I concluded the door was just balanced in the doorway and they knocked it over. sneak... sneak... listen... creeeeaaaak.... *THUD!!!*
Eric Loken
2025-02-10 21:31:31 +0000 UTCMath poked one with a finger early on: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-133-tibiassault/
Torabi
2025-02-10 21:10:25 +0000 UTCThe very epitome of stealth!
Merle Blue
2025-02-10 20:41:55 +0000 UTCThese three are goofballs together and I like it
SheepFace2000
2025-02-10 20:23:15 +0000 UTCIt was probably deafening when those beams fell down.
Opus the Poet
2025-02-10 19:04:18 +0000 UTCAhhhh... ADHD at it's finest... Yeah, that happens to me too, but not when MY LIFE IS IN DANGER! Funny thing is, when a serious or dangerous situation comes around, things slow down for me and my brain goes into analytical mode... Saved my touchas more than a few times...
JasonAW3
2025-02-10 17:36:35 +0000 UTCVaria might allow use of 3 orbs. I think she has to have skin contact with the other person, though I don't know if they have to be holding hands. On the other hand, Sydney doesn't have powers. I don't think her power is "orb-owner", though that hasn't been explored. And the power that Varia gets may or may not be related to any power the other person has. Probably why her callsign is "Varia" instead of "Imitadora" (Spanish for imitator) or something like that.
Mark Magagna
2025-02-10 15:35:41 +0000 UTC- They don't work for others. They don't work for someone possessing her after all, so just touching them likely wouldn't either. - She can only activate one when she grabs or at least touches it with her bare hand (or at least a finger). - More than one orb for a given hand doesn't work, or at most only one orb works. - Only the hands work, not other body parts. So two and only two orbs at a time. No idea what would have happened if Dabbler had become the orb-owner though (orb-bearer is hard to say, possibly runs into copyright issues (circular-metal-object anyone?), and is not applicable - she's not bearing them because they float). No idea what happens if she loses a hand, even if she gets it replaced. Possibly the replacement works as long as she thinks it's "her" hand. Although she can't (so far) wear gloves either. So maybe not. Maybe there's an upgrade in there somewhere. In Hero System rules, they're an Obvious Inaccessible Focus on a Multipower with restrictions on point allocation. The key to removing the focus is removing her ability to touch them with her bare hands, which is more difficult than e.g. grabbing the orbs yourself (which would be Accessible). Sorry, a bit of geek-out there. I played a *lot* of Hero System for a while.
Mark Magagna
2025-02-10 15:32:50 +0000 UTCI'm not sure how to respond because this seems to miss the mark a lot. Sydney and Max aren't tasked with monitoring whether supers have influenced the government. That's the job of ARC-Dark or similar. And given that Archon is generally shown to be mostly heroic and idealistic (if pragmatic), the remit of the government watchers would not be "we're OK with super influence if it means they vote the way we want", it would be "is anyone using super influence on members of government at all because that's what we're supposed to stop".
Greg Morrow
2025-02-10 15:28:50 +0000 UTCThere was an earlier strip where she tells Peggy about it, and Peggy points out all the cases where it wouldn't work. It removes illusionary disguises. It doesn't work on solid objects, e.g. not through a mask. So it (probably) wouldn't work on possessed persons. Though it might be worth trying - maybe it would show an outline or something, since it's working via magic. Peggy's demonstration was with a non-magical piece of paper after all.
Mark Magagna
2025-02-10 15:20:08 +0000 UTCShe was going to, but then she got caught up in gathering evidence...
Mark Magagna
2025-02-10 15:16:56 +0000 UTCDoes Sydney even know about the senator "voting weird"? For that matter, would Max (much more dialed in on the politics) even have caught that? Do we know what votes the senator changed? Would Archon really be on one side or the other of those votes? For all we know, the senator was going to vote against the dungeon, then Sciona changed his mind. Is Archon going to go into the details of why?
Mark Magagna
2025-02-10 15:16:26 +0000 UTCNo excuses! Sydney knows better. She's watched enough movie/tv tropes about people who don't call in and try to get more evidence.
Town Crier
2025-02-10 14:00:15 +0000 UTCThe only time they deliberately avoided people was when Sydney herself was possessed. This is the first time I can recall anyone else touching them. I'd like to see some follow-up on whether or not Varia can use them too, when she's touching Sydney. They might be able to use 4 orbs at once, provided Varia's power doesn't require touching by hands. Imagine someone attacking them thinking Sydney can only use 2 orbs and then they get hit with 4. "Ignore her. If she's flying shielded that's all she can do. What do mean she's firing on us, and using that tentacle thing? And who's that other broad?"
Marc Vun Kannon
2025-02-10 13:27:45 +0000 UTCNot sure Max would like being called a "Great Old One Patron" :)
Justaguy
2025-02-10 13:26:49 +0000 UTCIIRC, Sydney hypothesized and Max at least partially confirmed that there are elements of ARC aimed against supers exercising government influence via things like possession. And Sciona's body is apparently a citizen of a Spanish-speaking nation. So there should be all kinds of warning klaxons when she becomes staff for a representative who a) starts voting weird b) is read-in on the dungeon. Sydney may be very late to the party here. Or it may be protagonist disease. Either is fine, and funny.
Greg Morrow
2025-02-10 13:19:48 +0000 UTCIt's good she's not blurting out whatever comes into her mind, but she could perhaps use some fine tuning on the when.
Marc Vun Kannon
2025-02-10 13:19:39 +0000 UTCJust wait for Sydney to break for a couple of days when she realises that she is now essentially a D&D Warlock with a Great Old One patron and granted with a feast of boons (upgradable Mage Hand, Truesight, Unlimited use of the Fly spell).
Terra_Lupis
2025-02-10 13:02:36 +0000 UTCAnd, of course, Sydney forgets to call Max... And, as stated before, when is Sydney ever discreet..?
JasonAW3
2025-02-10 12:15:16 +0000 UTCNot certain that would work since Sciona is technically possessing a human.
Thisguy
2025-02-10 12:08:02 +0000 UTCSydney smacked Math with an orb early on when he wasn't expecting it. It appeared to be just blunt force trauma. I don't think anyone but Sydney can actually use them.
Nathan Wilson
2025-02-10 11:26:32 +0000 UTCI think when she was first hired it was discussed that they don't work for others, I don't remember if it was before or after the Vehemence fight
Nicholas Cordero
2025-02-10 11:25:01 +0000 UTCHow soon until she realizes that her yellow orb has true-vision?
Whoriar
2025-02-10 11:24:23 +0000 UTCI think this is the first time anyone besides Sydney has touched the orbs? She's said multiple times that she doesn't know what would happen. Can anyone confirm its the first time, or do I need to reread the entire comic again? Such a shame, hate it when that happens...:)
Mike
2025-02-10 11:13:47 +0000 UTCSomewhere ARC-Dark is getting a collective migraine
3of4
2025-02-10 11:08:42 +0000 UTCOnly one word here: N-yahhh!
Michael Obert
2025-02-10 11:08:03 +0000 UTCMom said it's my turn with the brain cell.
Tannerbot
2025-02-10 11:04:59 +0000 UTC
