Grrl Power IV: Constantly Expanded Universe

[Keltest]

Yeah, but I don't remember any confirmation that that's been a two way contact (my memory is pretty gawd dang random).

Cora is pretty clearly Maxima level on her own, and I presume the ship which seems to me to be nearer Enterprise size than Apollo lander has some capacity too.

She's come in without stealth, which means to me that she expects to be able to deal with anybody who queries that, even if they are not local. She could be galactic level CIA equivalent, or she could be rouge (sic), but she expects to get away with coming in unstealthed.

Arianne is totally out of luck either way, her job is telling as few detectable lies as possible, and Sydney and co. just blew that out of the water hard, whichever way the story goes from here. Somehow I think the author doesn't like corporate shills.

Dabbler messaged Maxima and told her that Cora said she was en-route. Dabbler mentioned Cora by name. I think its safe to say that Dabbler knows who she is.

[halfeye]

Dabbler messaged Maxima and told her that Cora said she was en-route. Dabbler mentioned Cora by name. I think its safe to say that Dabbler knows who she is.

Ooh good, so Cora is more Judge Dredd than Lex Luthor. That is good to know, thanks for that.

So it's just Arianne who's in the soup.

I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Given what Cora did to the muggers, I've had her pegged as south of Neutral for a bit. Now it's starting to look like that applies to both axises.

[halfeye]

axises.

Axes.

[Traab]

Axes.

axi's /nod

[sihnfahl]

axi's /nod

I think some folks need an axii.

And, yep, that was her thinking; 'cat's out of the bag, so...'

[Traab]

Dangit sydney! NO PRESS! YOU KNOW THIS!

[Rogar Demonblud]

Sydney really shouldn't be allowed out ever. Either that, or they have to be very careful to make sure she never learns anything remotely classified.

In a strip more like The Authority, Sydney would be scheduled for an unfortunate training accident right about now.

[Dragonus45]

Yea but Arc isn’t anywhere near as authoritarian or evil as the Authority was.

Honestly Sydney’s character really suffers for the need to get humor into the strip in situations like this. Like, you could play off a big part of this being the Cora just doesn’t grasp how important the PR split for this is and it was mainly her idea to just drop in anyways. It would make sense that Sydney just doesn’t grasp why what might not be 100% a good idea because she isn’t thinking about all the PR angles. But then she wanders around her to the reporters and the brief moment of laughter is overshadowed by how little she seems to have grown or learned after that.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Really, this goes back to one of my constant complaints. Sydney should've had her Spectrum Spheres tucked into the poster tube and then had the tube padlocked shut. She can carry them around with her, but she can't use them until she passes basic. The idea of her being superpowered and completely untrained is horrifying.

edit: for an example of what she'd learn in basic, the first thing she should've done once she got back in range of the Earth Commnet (so high orbit) was call in to report her presence and ask Max or another officer like Peggy where they want her to report and how public can she be or not be.

[Traab]

Really, this goes back to one of my constant complaints. Sydney should've had her Spectrum Spheres tucked into the poster tube and then had the tube padlocked shut. She can carry them around with her, but she can't use them until she passes basic. The idea of her being superpowered and completely untrained is horrifying.

edit: for an example of what she'd learn in basic, the first thing she should've done once she got back in range of the Earth Commnet (so high orbit) was call in to report her presence and ask Max or another officer like Peggy where they want her to report and how public can she be or not be.

The thing is, they already had orders on where to go, they just unilaterally decided that since there was already an alien vessel on earth that they no longer needed to bother. Which is frankly STUPID of cora as she would have to assume that max or dabbler are somehow idiots unaware of the fact that the world now knows about aliens. I could see sydney being that foolish as she isnt experienced enough to know better, but cora? She is a professional and should be well aware of the importance of meeting dabbler where she said to be. Now, the reporter thing is something sydney has already had drilled into her head. You dont talk to them other than at best what she did at the comic store "Write down your name, station and question, i will pass it on to our press person and she will handle them from there." You especially dont start (presumably) bragging about your awesome secret mission and how it turned into slaughtering an army and unlocking interstellar travel. (At this point im assuming she is so amped up on being home that she isnt even CONSIDERING holding back) I hope arianna gets there before its too late and boots sydney into the building telling her to go report to the general or something.

[Lamech]

She's excited to be home. She's talking to people.

Look, the main reason this is a PR disaster is because Archon lied about Sydney being sequestered in training. (Hopefully they didn't lie on any court documents.) If they had just said "Sydney is currently located at [redacted] doing [redacted] because [redacted]" this would be fine. Then they could say: "Sydney was on a trip with Dabbler's alien friend! Look, they found more alien refugees! We're making friends with aliens. Go us!"

[Forum Explorer]

Yeah, I feel like Sydney is just super pumped to be home after you know, being abandoned on an alien planet. I wonder what she's saying to the press, but I doubt she's going to actually reveal anything that's actually classified.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Yeah, I feel like Sydney is just super pumped to be home after you know, being abandoned on an alien planet. I wonder what she's saying to the press, but I doubt she's going to actually reveal anything that's actually classified.

Yeah. She knows what the world knows, she's been watching the news as they came down. The Alari have probably said far more interesting things than Sydney can come up with, short of bragging how she fought thousands of space fighters and four kaiju, and killed half of both.

[lord_khaine]

Really, this goes back to one of my constant complaints. Sydney should've had her Spectrum Spheres tucked into the poster tube and then had the tube padlocked shut. She can carry them around with her, but she can't use them until she passes basic. The idea of her being superpowered and completely untrained is horrifying.

This really should be the case. I mean, finding a rocket launcher on your vacation does not mean you should have permission
to drive around with it in your truck. And these spheres makes a rocket launcher look like a toy in comparison.

The problem is just, that even though its the safest choice. Then you cant afford to do something like that.
Its to likely to cause resentment in the owner of the super weapon. And would needlessly antagonize someone you need to recruit.

[Rogar Demonblud]

If she doesn't understand the need for training and safety protocols, you might as well lock her up now.

And with what they're paying her, she can afford to humor them (literally so, as it turns out).

[Traab]

If she doesn't understand the need for training and safety protocols, you might as well lock her up now.

And with what they're paying her, she can afford to humor them (literally so, as it turns out).

And she is going through said training and safety protocols. She just keeps getting yanked out into the field because her power set is so varied and strong its really important to have them on hand.

[Ibrinar]

And this discussion is why making your MCs eccentricities also the source of comic relieve (outside of comedies) can lead to problems.

[Lamech]

The main one that is an issue is the PPO orb. Moilestorb and Flight are smaller issues, and no where near as bad. Comms, Shield, and Air are pretty harmless.

However, had the PPO been locked in a tube, Sydney would have been required* to be kept out of fights. This would have resulted in V splattering Maxima and quite the pathetic entrance for Archon. Assuming Death Toll didn't stomp all over Maxima first. Oh and a certain bloodmage probably could have gotten her hands on Maxima's blood then which would have gotten a lot more of people slaughtered. Maxima would not have been around to protect the Council and Veil. While Archon couldn't have predicted the exact sequence that might have resulted from grounding Sydney, they could have predicted that grounding Sydney might have denied them an essential resource.

Second, trying to restrain an alien weapon that responds to the will of the user like that is the sort of thing that sounds like it might backfire.

Third, you'd risk annoying Sydney and potentially setting a really stupid precedent for any would be Archon recruits. "Come join Archon! We will lock away your fun powers!" is a terrible recruiting slogan.

In summary, locking away some the orbs would have been something that ARCHON could have predicted would have been a bad idea, AND would have in fact been a really bad idea. It is hard to criticize a choice that had a lot of good reasons and in 20/20 hindsight was a good one.

*She'd be dead on an alien world otherwise. Or worse, undead or assimilated or something and leading the aliens straight to Earth!

P.S. Did anyone else wonder why Death Toll couldn't get a counter power to being swarmed? I'm thinking a more insidious version of Apocalypse's body-swapping from Age of Apocalypse would have been super-effective.

[Douglas]

P.S. Did anyone else wonder why Death Toll couldn't get a counter power to being swarmed? I'm thinking a more insidious version of Apocalypse's body-swapping from Age of Apocalypse would have been super-effective.

Because that's just not how his power works? He gets a perfect counter to each individual threat, not to the collection of all threats facing him.

[Lamech]

Because that's just not how his power works? He gets a perfect counter to each individual threat, not to the collection of all threats facing him.

Eh, I still say they got lucky. Although I suppose its possible he stole someone's body, ate their soul and is now just faking.

[Forum Explorer]

Eh, I still say they got lucky. Although I suppose its possible he stole someone's body, ate their soul and is now just faking.

They did get lucky. Though it's important to note that his power is should be described as Counter. His power swaps to counter any one attack. But it can't do anything about multiple attacks that are too different from one another.

To explain, his power never went to something purely defensive like going ethereal or the like.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Sorry, Lamech, but the PPO was not used at all in the Vehemence fight (so that's unaffected), was not used at the TC meeting (so that's unaffected), was not used in the fight against the superhusk after Maxima arrived (so that's unaffected) and was not used in either the Vault or Sciona's hideout (so those are unaffected). So the only fights that would be affected are with the superhusk (without the PPO, Sydney would have to obey her standing orders and use the Shield and Fly orbs to stay out of range, i.e. NOT ENGAGE) and the Alari homeworld (which is a tissue thin excuse to let Sydney cut loose).

And all my solution would require is that you have a short arc showing Sydney becoming a trained professional before she gets deployed, instead of being tossed into situations she only survives because she has artifact grade Plot Armor.

And again, anyone joining ARCHON should be someone who prizes discipline and training, not an idiot looking to blow **** up with their Kewl Powahz. Those are the people ARCHON exists to deal with.

[lord_khaine]

And again, anyone joining ARCHON should be someone who prizes discipline and training, not an idiot looking to blow **** up with their Kewl Powahz. Those are the people ARCHON exists to deal with.

Thats just sadly only in a ideal world, where its sane people who get super power grade artifacts :P
At the end of the day, Archon is a starving beggar, and Sydney is a pizza with marshmallows and pineapple

[Rogar Demonblud]

I'd rather starve than eat that.

[Traab]

Sorry, Lamech, but the PPO was not used at all in the Vehemence fight (so that's unaffected), was not used at the TC meeting (so that's unaffected), was not used in the fight against the superhusk after Maxima arrived (so that's unaffected) and was not used in either the Vault or Sciona's hideout (so those are unaffected). So the only fights that would be affected are with the superhusk (without the PPO, Sydney would have to obey her standing orders and use the Shield and Fly orbs to stay out of range, i.e. NOT ENGAGE) and the Alari homeworld (which is a tissue thin excuse to let Sydney cut loose).

And all my solution would require is that you have a short arc showing Sydney becoming a trained professional before she gets deployed, instead of being tossed into situations she only survives because she has artifact grade Plot Armor.

And again, anyone joining ARCHON should be someone who prizes discipline and training, not an idiot looking to blow **** up with their Kewl Powahz. Those are the people ARCHON exists to deal with.

And sydney is not an idiot looking to blow stuff up with her kewl powahz. Before joining archon she used her ppo all of once, to figure out what it did. She realized she started a freaking forest fire and hadnt used it since. Up till archon finally convinced her that they wouldnt whisk her away to a lab and be experimented on/have her orbs taken away if possible, she basically didnt use them more than some very limited experiments to find out what they did. Like she floated in her apartment, picked up her car with the hentorb, etc. And again, they have been training her. She was only involved in the superbrawl because she was literally there when it happened. She went to the council meeting because she could see through the veil with her orb and that was the simplest way to show her wat was going on and why she couldnt talk about it. It was a general meeting, not meant to be more dangerous than dying of boredom. Maxima admitted it was a mistake to let her take part in the search after everything happened. They pulled her out of training to go to the black vault because maxima needed someone to transport her underwater without having to owe the council any favors or look like they couldnt handle this setup, so politics basically. Even the meetup with sciona that lead to her offworld trip wasnt supposed to be that way. She was just transport as she could bring the non flying/slow flying squadron along far faster than the jet could. Its why she hung back through like 95% of the confrontation, only taking action once she spotted the explosive booby trap.

Her abilities make her fairly vital on missions, so its balancing her definite need for training with "We need her with us or we wont be able to stop the thing" And she has demonstrated fairly excellent general ability with her orbs. She acquitted herself very well in the super brawl, both in straight combat and problem solving with figuring out various weaknesses. So it was a calculated risk arcswat took bringing her along, and you know what? She hasnt done that badly overall. Heck, even this latest debacle showed her in a good light. She protected her team with that shield from the mega blast that very likely would have killed harem, dabbler, maybe even hiro or maxima if her armor wasnt up high enough, then, when stuck behind, figured out a workable plan for getting out of there and pulled it off.

[Forum Explorer]

Yeah, for all the complaints about her judgement, she's actually made pretty reasonable choices when the pressure is on. It's when it's off that she starts acting like a fool. Like now. Babbling to the press is a bad idea, sure. But it barely matters in comparison to how she handled being lost on a wartorn planet.

[lord_khaine]

I'd rather starve than eat that.

See.. thats generally what people says until they are starting to starve :P

Also, yeah, i guess Sydney isnt directly a threat as such.
She is just constantly in need of a babysitter.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Marshmallows are chemical fluff with a lot of toxins and no nutritional value. Pineapple is also noxious if not eaten with other foods to break up the acidity and metal contaminents. So that pizza is not going to feed you, just kill you in a different way.

[Forum Explorer]

Marshmallows are chemical fluff with a lot of toxins and no nutritional value. Pineapple is also noxious if not eaten with other foods to break up the acidity and metal contaminents. So that pizza is not going to feed you, just kill you in a different way.

The pineapple is on a pizza, and marshmellows are basically fluffy sugar. They aren't literally toxic. I mean, I at least hope that wherever you live doesn't allow toxic marshmellows to be sold.