Grrl Power IV: Constantly Expanded Universe

[Rogar Demonblud]

Sadly it always seems to produce something that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

Only if it's made by Sirius Cybernetics.

[lord_khaine]

Whats im kinda shocked over here, is that Sydney seems to have completely glossed over how she does not in fact have any money.

[HandofShadows]

The person who said that Sydney's love of super spicy food would play a part was correct.

[Traab]

Whats im kinda shocked over here, is that Sydney seems to have completely glossed over how she does not in fact have any money.

Well there is still time, her mind is probably jumping all over the place due to stress, adrenaline, adhd, thirst, etc etc etc. And her first thought was the scanner was some sort of credit check device so yeah her lack of funds is in her mind still.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Anyone else suddenly reminded of when Sydney stopped for lunch on the way to the bank?

[Rogar Demonblud]

Well, it's going better than that. Points to Dabbler for remembering to mention Halo's spice addiction.

[Traab]

Looks like dabblers friend managed to locate her. Lets see how it goes from here. Gotta admit im curious to see if there will be a wacky misunderstanding or not.

[lord_khaine]

One might think actually being adressed by her full name should manage to cut though everything else.
Especially now that she has had the chance to relax over an extremely good meal.

[Honest Tiefling]

Just realized that the catgirl from the Star Trek animated cartoon is in the previous page. Cute touch, through I have to question the choice of that slave leia bikini outfit. I mean, with THAT hair color? Must be a color blind species.

[Traab]

One might think actually being adressed by her full name should manage to cut though everything else.
Especially now that she has had the chance to relax over an extremely good meal.

Thats true, however, there is still the chance that they run into deus and vale heading for the food court. Or one of Coras enemies spotting her and causing trouble, or any of a host of random horrid hijinx.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And I called it with the designated arrival points. Along with, it seems, some that are decommissioned and 'lost'.

[Lamech]

Just realized that the catgirl from the Star Trek animated cartoon is in the previous page. Cute touch, through I have to question the choice of that slave leia bikini outfit. I mean, with THAT hair color? Must be a color blind species.

There is no bad hair color for a slave leia bikini outfit.

[Honest Tiefling]

There is no bad hair color for a slave leia bikini outfit.

That is where you are VERY wrong. I refuse to accept unfashionable fan service, it's just plain lazy. Just go bald if you are going to mix those colors.

[AvatarVecna]

Stupid sexy Flanders.

[Traab]

I suppose it does make cleanup and getting changed super easy, barely an inconvenience.

[John Campbell]

A fair bit of my NaNo this year has been about my light-manipulating superheroine putting together her first costume. I should have just had her go with Cora's solution.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Definitely a friend of Dabbler.

[AvatarVecna]

Special Snowflake status has been reaffirmed.

[HandofShadows]

Well, most of the main characters are "special snowflakes".

What I find interesting is that there seems to be someone sending stuff Earth's way. Max's powers are from an rock that came from off world. The spheres are from off world and one of the consul can hack reality and no one understands who she does it. The source for that ability is highly suspect to me.

[AvatarVecna]

Well, most of the main characters are "special snowflakes".

What I find interesting is that there seems to be someone sending stuff Earth's way. Max's powers are from an rock that came from off world. The spheres are from off world and one of the consul can hack reality and no one understands who she does it. The source for that ability is highly suspect to me.

I definitely understand that such status isn't unique to Sydney by any stretch of the imagination. And I'm sure that down the road (who knows, maybe even soon^TM by webcomic time) we'll get an explanation that makes sense of it. But until we do, the only explanation we've got is a space captain Dabbler has faith in going "yeah wormhole generators that fit in your pocket are high sci-fi nonsense nobody I know has ever even heard of, and I'm saying that while standing on a frickin' Dyson Sphere". And then you have to reconcile that with the fact that one of the recent (or maybe just more frequent?) jumps the orbs made were to this Dyson Sphere thing, whoever last had them was around here with them, seems kinda weird that nobody's ever even heard of something like this. But even assuming that whoever had them was keeping them mega-under-wraps for exactly that reason, we still come to one of two conclusions as an explanation:

1) A space-farer who got their hands on technology that makes capital ships look like oversized toys accidentally lost them on the most backwards planet in the galaxy and didn't have a way of retrieving them, somehow.

2) A space-farer who got their hands on technology that makes capital ships look like oversized toys intentionally lost them on the most backwards planet in the galaxy because Earth is super-duper special for some reason.

[sihnfahl]

we still come to one of two conclusions as an explanation:

1) A space-farer who got their hands on technology that makes capital ships look like oversized toys accidentally lost them on the most backwards planet in the galaxy and didn't have a way of retrieving them, somehow.

2) A space-farer who got their hands on technology that makes capital ships look like oversized toys intentionally lost them on the most backwards planet in the galaxy because Earth is super-duper special for some reason.

There is the third option, which was implied by the 'screwy destination'.

A Space-farer who got their hands on tech that makes capital ships look like oversized toys, and hid them from everyone else, had a mis-jump that resulted in the orbs ending up on Earth, dying in the process.

[Keltest]

I definitely understand that such status isn't unique to Sydney by any stretch of the imagination. And I'm sure that down the road (who knows, maybe even soon^TM by webcomic time) we'll get an explanation that makes sense of it. But until we do, the only explanation we've got is a space captain Dabbler has faith in going "yeah wormhole generators that fit in your pocket are high sci-fi nonsense nobody I know has ever even heard of, and I'm saying that while standing on a frickin' Dyson Sphere". And then you have to reconcile that with the fact that one of the recent (or maybe just more frequent?) jumps the orbs made were to this Dyson Sphere thing, whoever last had them was around here with them, seems kinda weird that nobody's ever even heard of something like this. But even assuming that whoever had them was keeping them mega-under-wraps for exactly that reason, we still come to one of two conclusions as an explanation:

1) A space-farer who got their hands on technology that makes capital ships look like oversized toys accidentally lost them on the most backwards planet in the galaxy and didn't have a way of retrieving them, somehow.

2) A space-farer who got their hands on technology that makes capital ships look like oversized toys intentionally lost them on the most backwards planet in the galaxy because Earth is super-duper special for some reason.

It could be some super advanced civilization is using Earth as a petri dish for all sorts of various nonsense just to see what happens.

Having said that, its a superhero story. Its going to involve special snowflakes, pretty much by definition.

[tyckspoon]

There is the third option, which was implied by the 'screwy destination'.

A Space-farer who got their hands on tech that makes capital ships look like oversized toys, and hid them from everyone else, had a mis-jump that resulted in the orbs ending up on Earth, dying in the process.

It's probably just meant as an Easter Egg callout, but if the mention of the other civilization that uses Aetherium causeways means anything, we might infer that this method of FTL travel is both difficult and inherently dangerous. "Died in a travel accident and lost the technology" is exactly what you would expect to happen in 40k with somebody trying to use a personal warp-tunnel generator. That's probably the good result, even - the bad one would be more along the lines of 'ripped open a warp storm on your homeworld and now everything is demons.'


Edit: I might also infer that the reason the known method of Aetherium travel is so extreme is that everybody else looked at that and went "Nah, we're good, we'll figure out some other means of faster than light." Possibly Sydney's orbs aren't such impossible technology so much as the other technological powers that might have been able to get to that point discarded it as dead-end tech so they didn't put in the work needed to improve on it that way.

[Dragonus45]

So something like the gate area they are at now could have been around for a very very very long time. It’s possible that the previous holder of the orbs was there so long ago that no one know recognizes them because no one has been around that long.

[sihnfahl]

That's probably the good result, even - the bad one would be more along the lines of 'ripped open a warp storm on your homeworld and now everything is demons.'

First is least-bad.

Bad is when, mid-warp, your 'collective FO' field collapses and the creatures of the warp board your vessel and do unmentionable things to you and your crew.

Worst case scenario is when the skies open up...

[Sean Mirrsen]

1) A space-farer who got their hands on technology that makes capital ships look like oversized toys accidentally lost them on the most backwards planet in the galaxy and didn't have a way of retrieving them, somehow.

2) A space-farer who got their hands on technology that makes capital ships look like oversized toys intentionally lost them on the most backwards planet in the galaxy because Earth is super-duper special for some reason.

An option, among actually fairly many, is: A space-farer who got their hands on technology that potentially makes capital ships look like oversized toys, intentionally went to the most backwards planet in the galaxy to hide them from everyone else, either for safekeeping or to prevent their misuse, because Earth was, until fairly recently, a rather generic planet with little significance besides the tourism.

And I will point out again - the Aetherium Causeway travel system was not unlocked until just a couple hours ago. The Orbs do not contain a list of prior destinations they traveled to on their own power, they make a list of "travel destinations" period. This feature was not "lost" over time and just reactivated now, because the Orbs registered the screwed-up portal transit from Earth already after having been found, and before the travel system was activated.

Which means somebody found them, saw their potential, and intentionally traveled to the place they thought was a good place to hide them. They took a portal to the Fracture (the orbs recorded the transit), and then a ship to Earth (the orbs don't record conventional travel). There are limitations imposed on what kind of technology (including spaceships and scanners) can be used around a pre-FTL world, and Earth's status as a tourist spot would prevent anyone who did know of the orbs from conducting a large-scale search for fear of retribution from other races for endangering their citizens. They just didn't manage to pick a secure enough spot to hide the artifacts, or weren't familiar with the concepts of ocean currents and erosion.

[Rogar Demonblud]

So something like the gate area they are at now could have been around for a very very very long time. It’s possible that the previous holder of the orbs was there so long ago that no one know recognizes them because no one has been around that long.

They were right at the surface, if Sydney's recounting is accurate. In the Florida Keys, a place with massive sedimentation because of the outflow from the Everglades. Those things have been on Earth for at most a decade.

Also, more shout outs in the background, most notably being Florence Ambrose, Sam Starfall and Helix from Freefall.

[halfeye]

First is least-bad.

Bad is when, mid-warp, your 'collective FO' field collapses and the creatures of the warp board your vessel and do unmentionable things to you and your crew.

Worst case scenario is when the skies open up...

You are still thinking small.

A galaxy swallowed whole is still only local news.

There are galaxy clusters, and magor galactic groupings above that, and even then there are bigger structures.

They were right at the surface, if Sydney's recounting is accurate. In the Florida Keys, a place with massive sedimentation because of the outflow from the Everglades. Those things have been on Earth for at most a decade.

That doesn't necessarily follow, stuff gets uncovered occasionally. It is odd, but maybe people found them before? maybe there's a stealth mode that Sydney hasn't unlocked yet?

Also, more shout outs in the background, most notably being Florence Ambrose, Sam Starfall and Helix from Freefall.

Schlock too.

[sihnfahl]

That doesn't necessarily follow, stuff gets uncovered occasionally. It is odd, but maybe people found them before? maybe there's a stealth mode that Sydney hasn't unlocked yet?

Or they're sentient and choose the bearer. One ring-like, only not malicious for the reason behind the choice.

Which could mean they could have been on Earth for who knows how long... they throw off scans, and can even make themselves look like something else...

Until happenstance led Sydney to be in the area, and the orbs decided she'd be the next bearer, so 'undug' themselves.

[Vogie]

Random thought - The unknown orb contains universal banking information that interfaced automatically when she put her hand on the scanner.

It wasn't a plot hole - it was a revelation!