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Grrl Power #947 - Mass Spec...ulation
🕑 Added 2021-05-24 10:00:05 +0000 UTCThanks so much for your support! Like, seriously, you guys.
To view the full-size version... left-click, right-click, new tab. Or left click then use the scroll wheel to zoom in and click and drag the image. I just figured that one out myself.
I thought it'd be amusing to show Sydney moon-jumping around and for some reason I thought that would be best illustrated from the foot up. So, a slightly odd page. I regret not being able to make it all feet - not because I'm trying to satisfy some foot fetish checklist or anything, but it would have been a nice touch thematically.
Really, they should have done this with the orbs straight away. They did scan them for radiation, but it didn't occur to them that they might be outgassing. I don't know how fast Mass Spectrometers are, or if they have to scan for one thing at a time, or do everything at once. I guess whatever the answer is, this particular Mass Spec is going to take a few hours because someone took it apart to see how it worked and maybe had a few extra bits and bobs left over when they put it back together.
No, I don't have a Who's Who entry for "The List." Yes, I have considered doing that.
I was going to post that since Dabbler is normally digitigrade, (yes, technically unguligrade, but I think Dabbler would agree that word is insufficiently sexy) walking around on super high heels wouldn't present much of a challenge for her. But that's because I momentarily forgot that she only looks like a beach bunny because of her glamor, not because she's a shapeshifter. So, she's still just walking around on her hooves. Even though her glamor is like a fully realized illusion with full tactile components, so you could give her a foot rub, and you would feel a foot while doing it. She would feel the contact being mapped to the correct part of her foot, which would be important if she was going to react correctly - and since succubi glamors are pretty hard core, it would be dumb if there was such an easy way to detect them.
Not that all succubi have digitigrade legs and hooves. As with most other demons, there's a lot of morphological variety, but since their glamors will usually have to deal with hiding horns, and occasionally have to hide wings or tails, they are extensible to cover things like hooves and extra arms.
Note that when Dabbler is glamored as a plantigrade human wearing heels, she tends to stand slightly pigeon-toed, but in her "natural" guise, she stands duck-footed, which is evidently the opposite of pigeon-toed.
Comments
Dave Barrack
Well stick with the comic for another 950 pages and we'll see if we can get you again.
Martin Drkoš
Dave decided it was time to practice drawing feet.
Martin Croft
This a page for podophiles (that's feet in case you got the wrong Idea)
Souliris
If you guys need me i'll be down in Bleep Bloops
Eric Loken
Likely a GI Joe reference as The Pit was what they called their underground HQ.
Eric Loken
I tend to think she may have a point
Woodrobin
Even if she was completely weightless, centrifugal force would cause her hair to point away from her center of rotation as she's doing a back flip, although that doesn't seem to pertain to this effect. If she has a "feather fall" effect partially negating the effect of gravity so she can't fall faster than a safe speed, then the part of gravity that is being allowed to pull her down would also pull her hair down. I would imagine it would drift gently downward, similar to how her body does. She could probably do one of those L'Oreal hair swirl slow motion takes, although it's possible that doing anything that girly might be Sydney's kryptonite.
AlpineBob
Why is her hair hanging down, though? When she first demonstrated her flyball she also went upside down, and it was declared that she had her own personal gravity. (Actually, I think she was still affected by the earths gravity, as she didn't feel lighter - it was just redirected by the orb to whatever inclination she took. But that is just my personal theory, I can't remember if Dabbler ever made a study of it...) Edit: point being, if her gravity is always her personal down while flying, having her hair hang "down" while she is "upside-down" is actually having her hair hang <i>up</i>.
Kevin Wright
I'm not sure which part of ARC Spark I want to visit first. I'm a car nerd, so the garage is bound to be entertaining, as is Grindy Gears, but I'm *also* a computer nerd, by trade even, so Bleep Bloops is enticing. The Pit is just mysterious...
Otoger
issue is that was the active test, where she got the "wrong" orb in hand
NickG
Perhaps the green orb's passive mode is sampling the atmosphere it's owner/host/whatever is comfortable in and reproducing it when in an emergency situation, eg. Syd trapped underwater.
Dave Barrack
Just tell yourself they're illusionary feet.
PucThePlayful
I second this on both counts!
StLOrca
I’d like to see Sydney halted mid-flip as Maxima grabs her by one leg. Max then carries on her conversation as if nothing is wrong.
PSadlon
To be fair, Dabbler's assumption does err on the side of caution.
Kenneth Winkelman
Just looking at Dabblers feet are making mine hurt.
Meliantha
I love the directions sign in the last panel.
Stephen Gilberg
This is the first time I've LOLed at a GP postscript.
Stephen Gilberg
I'm guessing that Maxima looked like she was seriously considering Dabbler's suggestion, so Sydney got mad at Maxima.
Philip Brown
I dont get the, "ha HA" -> "what" -> list progression. I would find it more understandable without the "what" panel, personally.
Dave Barrack
It is a poster a friend of mine had in like... 1991. It was probably at least partial inspiration for both Heatwave and Digit. But I like your idea better. :)
Sm00thJa22
Can we get a Who's Who entry for the mechanic lady in panel 10? And maybe a pin up? Yowza!
akrasia
Why does it have to be doing anything? Can't a passive ability be... passive? It's hanging around, waiting for some condition to be triggered. Could be monitoring radiation levels, and doing nothing until they reach a harmful level for Syd.
Warren Woodard
Two things: One, the orb might not be emitting anything, it could be absorbing instead. Drawing in air into "storage" for later use when it generates atmosphere. Two, that is not how Mass Specs work, however, this is a web comic, a work of fiction with super powers and alien tech, so I don't really care. (I used to work with GC/MS, Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry, though we didn't do analysis on air samples.)
Town Crier
Camera work is an artform. This alternate perspective adds another level of fun to this page. It is similar to the scene in "Fargo", Season One, where the assassin hits a mob-owned building, and shoots his way through the different floors. We hear all of the action, but all we see is the quiet outside façade of the building as the camera pans along the windows. It makes the scene immeasurably more fun.
Michael Obert
It is true, most scientific tests are NOT fast. A Mass Spec (though I am no chemist) takes multiple hours (like DNA sequencing usually takes days, depending on how you do it). Of course, this is super-tech, so it can take however long you decide it takes! For all we know, Mr. Mass Spec runs on Trash like it's namesake, Mr. Fusion.
David Houghton
Can't say I agree with the logic in the comic, it's a passive through Sydney so far, so it could be she gains an ablity. Like with ppo she does shock damage with a punch, with shield, she can take knife cuts, so with enviroment orb she could be resistant to toxic air.
Damaged
Heh, basically everything in the show NCIS was ass-about. They had DNA tests take minutes and other, faster tests, go really slow (generally, depending on what the plot needed). I would avoid using it as a source (particularly when it comes to anything to do with computers).
Granite
Is that a poster of Heatwave with "Too Hot to Handle" in the background, or someone cosplaying Heatwave?
Anton Schleef
At least he doesn't have to deal with cutesy ankle socks. I know of another web comic where the creator has a minor fetish for them, and outs his in-comic representation of himself by claiming that's why he doesn't draw the characters below the knees, as most of the girls would be wearing them.
Thisguy
From my limited knowledge that comes from NCIS. Mass spectrometers are not fast. I’m also not 100% sure you just put the sample in like that, but if it’s not standard, I assume it would be modified to deal all the weird stuff ARCHON get. Also today, DaveB feels like drawing shoes and feet. Which is an interesting change, as it’s one of the rarer things you see. And it’s always nice to see characters from all angles.
CyberSkull
It took me a moment to figure out Dabbler mean the straw that broke the camel’s back.
