Monday's comic!

[murgatroyd666]

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20191021#.Xa1ytPqwcaY

Oh, Zeetha! You just had to monologue, didn't you!

Comments

[kelkyag]

Welp. I was wrong, and this is far worse. And the protagonists don't have Vapnoople's godling-thumping gun.

On the other hand, Lucrezia says she hasn't done this before -- but Agatha *has*. Maybe Agatha will be able to pick up the pieces when Lucrezia's about to explode? Or maybe this is a good moment for another double-dose of movit #11?

(And hrm. Lucrezia currently thinks an organic mind matters, and she's the master of organic/mechanical mind transfer. But Agatha has built dingbots with ... sparky inclinations. That combination has scary potential.)

[kelkyag]

Actually, what's Lucrezia's power source? The implication so far is that second breakthrough involves some sort of external power source (and sufficient sparky(?) ability to handle it). Does she have one, or is she tapping her own body's energy and going to fall over shortly?

[spectrum_09]

We saw Snackleford perform what HE thought was needed for a second breakthrough. We don't know how Albia did it.

[kelkyag]

Agatha didn't have the others to model on, but she still did the floating ring of sigils of power as suited her style. Snacky and now Lucrezia each manifested a levitating ring of symbols, as did all the queens in Albia's memories except Sianna (who has a third eye (maybe instead/in a different vocabulary?), and does manifested runes when attacking). They may not be doing quite the same thing in quite same way, but it seems similar enough for the authors to mark it in a similar way.

Sustaining it ... well, we'll see?

[spectrum_09]

First, the link doesn't work.
Second, that's a circle of equipment Agatha is using, not a ring of symbols.

[kelkyag]

Apologies, I dropped a quote: corrected link

It's hardware, yes -- that's how she works, those are the symbols & tools of her sparky style. A chemist-spark would probably have picked something different. Lucrezia and Snacky, who've seen other people sustaining second breakthrough, picked the symbols (& tools, given Albia's manifested blocking circles, and Sianna's runes, and so forth) of the state they were aiming for. I think it's deliberate artistic choice in presenting second breakthrough. Could be always be wrong. :)

[spectrum_09]

More "Beyond the Impossible". How do you fight a Queen? What's next? Albia imploding the Dome? Let's back our selves into as tight a plot corner as we can and see if we can escape.

I am, however, wondering about Martellus' chemical leash.

[kelkyag]

Snacky didn't last long (though perhaps spending most of his available power killing his supporters would've kept him from exploding had he not also gotten in a fight). Agatha came within seconds of exploding herself. Second breakthrough is potentially perilous. Lucrezia becomes a *lot* more dangerous if she survives, though.

Perhaps the boys will check out the (broken but still informative) zappy stick clank-Lucrezia tried to shoot Albia-in-Trelawny with and come up with something in a hurry. The chemical leash or something from Violetta may also provide openings.

[murgatroyd666]

I am, however, wondering about Martellus' chemical leash.

Heh. A sneaky idea! I like sneaky!

Unless Lucrezia was somehow observing while she was being suppressed, she should be unaware of that little detail ...

[turbobeholder]

Quite possibly.

Another big Chekhov's gun (and already in this dome) is the courier dingbot.
If it walks in and replays the "Heterodyne theme" (like others from the Sturmhalten batch did), the jig is up. :]

[kelkyag]

Oooh, good thought. And Tarvek knows about that effect, though he might not be able to build a device to generate it himself.

[jbwoodford]

Hm.

Is this something that only AFAB Sparks can do? As far as I know, there are no Kings to correspond to the Queens. There may be another reason that the Heterodynes didn't tend to have daughters.

[kelkyag]

Snacky achieved second breakthrough.

The ancient god-queens consulted with and helped each other, possibly including guidance on achieving second breakthrough and surviving it. Speculation: they were picky abouut who they supported, and disinclined to support male candidates. (I also speculate that they did not care for the woman Albia deposed to take her throne, and provided little to no support.) (That paints the queens as a unified block, which was probably not always true.)

[murgatroyd666]

A bizarre thought. Peraps the Dreen are third-breakthrough Sparks ...

[turbobeholder]

And not a single one of them was tempted and/or bored enough to "ascend" an eternal consort?
Some details were a little bit over even their heads, such as mirrors. Maybe same deal with this.
So dudes get to try their own processes. The problem is that it's not something one can try on 10000 lab mice first. And being ever experimental, those are not nearly as refined, though still get the results, as we have seen.
Other than Snackford, we know of Igneous and Heterodynes' tests for compatibility with Stage #1.

Speculation: maybe Jägerdraught came from attempts to "ascend" a non-Spark? They are ageless, for one.

[murgatroyd666]

The problem is that it's not something one can try on 10000 lab mice first.

The prospect of 10,000 lab mice with godlike powers should terrify every biomedical researcher.

[kelkyag]

Maybe some were. I suspect it takes one bad breakup with an eternal godlike consort to make fragile, short-lived mortals look like the more sensible choice. :)

I'll be surprised if the second breakthrough process turns out to be substantially different based on sex. TBD!

Would the old Heterodynes have had that idea to aim for? Deliberately making the Jagers as powerful, monsterous hunter/warriors seem in keeping with their style. I hope at some point we get more Jager history.

[murgatroyd666]

And not a single one of them was tempted and/or bored enough to "ascend" an eternal consort?

Albia changed her form faster than I can change my socks. How do we know that she couldn't manifest herself as male if she wanted to?

[turbobeholder]

Agatha did have god-mode experience. Not that much, but may be enough to use against Lucrezia. In which case they either continue wrestling and lock up, or expend too much power and pass out.
Which wins the time.

Also, who knows how any of this will interact with her collar, so there's also that.

[murgatroyd666]

... or expend too much power and pass out.

Or explode, but that seems unlikely since we;ve seen Future Agatha in the Time Window.'

[jbwoodford]

"But...but you exploded! I saw you do it!"

"I got better."