I think the defense mechanism actually speeds non-customers to their intended destination; so most people wouldn’t notice it and assume that they were traveling faster than normal. Cecil noticed because the Flea told him to walk down the street so he didn’t actually have an intended destination.
In a way it’s very similar to the magical time loop in the egg. Perhaps Power and Glory are actually the minions of Koschei the Deathless who’s trying to get his eye back?
Koschei is a collector of magical items after all.
The self-induced “we must have been walking faster than we thought” excuse is not going to hold up forever; there’s a felt throwing/acceleration effect that by itself grabs attention. The wide range means more people being subject to the effect, thus a greater chance for people to notice.
If it’s Koschei, then that means he’s giving stuff away despite being a collector. Understandable if he’s parting with stuff he no longer needs or wants.
The drive to reclaim some measure of power (perhaps even a device that mimics her original powers) is what’s going to destroy her, it will slowly corrupt her as she feels driven to do whatever it takes no matter how vile in order to acquire power once again. That paranoia is simply a manifestation of her compulsion to gain powers once again.
It might be that the zone specifically accounts for your intended destination, and shunts people around so that their path doesn’t take them past the swap shop. There’s nothing indicating that Clarinet kid (I’ve forgotten his civilian name :P) coincidentally lives on the edge of the zone’s area of effect– it’s more likely, given all the magic surrounding these Power and Glory guys, that the zone just rips info about where you want to go from your own head.
So say your house and AND the place you work are both really close to the swap shop. You leave home for work, on a path that normally would take you right past it. The zone shunts you straight to work in the morning, when you leave home, and then when you come back, shunts you straight home.
The hole in this system would be anybody who doesn’t have a clear destination in mind– namely most insects, and recently Cecil, who was just told to walk down what he thought was a random road– and I guess anybody who knows about the swap shop and wants to go directly there. Maybe that second group is an intentional “gap”– a soft way to make Power & Glory strictly invite-only.
I am beginning to doubt that this effect is P&G. I wonder if someone with abilities is either helping Sarah or is keeping the underaged from the store.
The middle/background frame gives us a perspective that deliberately shows us how far Ron and Tyler are from Power & Glory, so one way or another it’s presumably important that we notice that.
I like this – the mixture of the mundane sales practice (whoever pays first gets the item) with the bits of mystery makes for a more interesting story. I agree with the other commenters that the exclusion zone is a bit too overt not to draw attention in a town with a lot of supers.
So I guess we have confirmation Sarah didn’t get powers yet, and her shirt-ripping was a red herring, unless the item she’s gunning for gives you powers, temporarily, by looking at it … maybe an overly literalist interpretation, but that would explain why she emphasizes looking at the item, above and beyond having an interest in buying it. It would make sense to give the prospective customer a taste before purchase, as an incentive. Maybe the item in question is a power generator – you sit in front of it and bathe in its radiation until you have the powers you want.
But it’s still unclear who the original mysterious buyer is. Both of them are paranoid (is that an effect of the shop, or just an editorial commentary on the personality that would be attracted to it? Why the need for all this secrecy?) But Sarah isn’t sophisticated enough to hide her intentions, whereas the OMB went so far as to wear a disguise even into the shop. Also Sarah doesn’t look all that much like the OMB (even taking perspective into account, she doesn’t look big enough to be a head taller than Glory) and I doubt a kid like her is capable of coming up with a wad of cash, hence the need to trade.
The shirt-ripping was simply that and nothing more, no red herring about her gaining super-strength because you don’t need super-strength to tear a shirt especially if the material is cheap and weak. Looking at something is also another way of saying you want to buy it, so when she’s going on about someone ‘looking at’ the item she wants she is very much going on about them wanting to buy it. There’s also no need to give someone like Sarah a taste of power she’s already had power hence why she’s so desperate to reclaim power in some fashion, you also wouldn’t want to risk empowering someone who’d be clever enough to steal the item they want or more. Even though they surely have precautions against that it’d still be foolish to take the risk.
Too true about the shirt-ripping. I’ve torn two or three older t-shirts just pulling them off at the end of the day, and I certainly don’t have super strength.
I think the point of her character is that her she might believe her powers are gone even though they aren’t. Besides which, there is nothing preventing a character with powers already from gaining more, assuming Power and Glory are willing to sell.
I wonder what happens if you cross the street laterally instead of passing by it sideways. Or going to the store right across from it. What about how high it goes; does it speed up time or does it take just as long as if youd gone through it normally.
Im probably just reading too much into it and asking for too much of an explanation from the comic creators, but it seems like a really weird way of doing this.
Posting from several years in the future — I originally thought that this has something to do with the slide effect in front of P&G’s building, but that doesn’t really make sense (the slide is only in front of the building, for that one block).
Now I think that it is supposed to be the first manifestation of (spoilers)[rot13] Eba’f arj dhnaghz jnec cbjref [/rot13]
Item bounty swap shop? I can see this being useful regardless of your intentions. Need a lot of interesting fodder items to swap away though.
Oh, good heavens… Sarah, that paranoia is going to destroy you… :-(|
Also, I’m surprised to see how far Glory & Power’s story-deterrent enchantment reaches. With this, people WILL notice.
I think the defense mechanism actually speeds non-customers to their intended destination; so most people wouldn’t notice it and assume that they were traveling faster than normal. Cecil noticed because the Flea told him to walk down the street so he didn’t actually have an intended destination.
In a way it’s very similar to the magical time loop in the egg. Perhaps Power and Glory are actually the minions of Koschei the Deathless who’s trying to get his eye back?
Koschei is a collector of magical items after all.
The self-induced “we must have been walking faster than we thought” excuse is not going to hold up forever; there’s a felt throwing/acceleration effect that by itself grabs attention. The wide range means more people being subject to the effect, thus a greater chance for people to notice.
If it’s Koschei, then that means he’s giving stuff away despite being a collector. Understandable if he’s parting with stuff he no longer needs or wants.
The drive to reclaim some measure of power (perhaps even a device that mimics her original powers) is what’s going to destroy her, it will slowly corrupt her as she feels driven to do whatever it takes no matter how vile in order to acquire power once again. That paranoia is simply a manifestation of her compulsion to gain powers once again.
I wonder about the people that life in the move-along-zone.
It might be that the zone specifically accounts for your intended destination, and shunts people around so that their path doesn’t take them past the swap shop. There’s nothing indicating that Clarinet kid (I’ve forgotten his civilian name :P) coincidentally lives on the edge of the zone’s area of effect– it’s more likely, given all the magic surrounding these Power and Glory guys, that the zone just rips info about where you want to go from your own head.
So say your house and AND the place you work are both really close to the swap shop. You leave home for work, on a path that normally would take you right past it. The zone shunts you straight to work in the morning, when you leave home, and then when you come back, shunts you straight home.
The hole in this system would be anybody who doesn’t have a clear destination in mind– namely most insects, and recently Cecil, who was just told to walk down what he thought was a random road– and I guess anybody who knows about the swap shop and wants to go directly there. Maybe that second group is an intentional “gap”– a soft way to make Power & Glory strictly invite-only.
I am beginning to doubt that this effect is P&G. I wonder if someone with abilities is either helping Sarah or is keeping the underaged from the store.
I think you’re right. That house is a long way from their building.
The middle/background frame gives us a perspective that deliberately shows us how far Ron and Tyler are from Power & Glory, so one way or another it’s presumably important that we notice that.
I like this – the mixture of the mundane sales practice (whoever pays first gets the item) with the bits of mystery makes for a more interesting story. I agree with the other commenters that the exclusion zone is a bit too overt not to draw attention in a town with a lot of supers.
Maybe not. They are used to weird property defense systems. Go back to the cookout the Nuclear Family hosted.
That and it could rely on the “Moonshadow Principle” people just dont notice it even though its right in front of their faces and barely hidden.
I think this confirms it works on normal people. But it also seems to confirm that at least they don’t usually notice it.
This store is the metahuman equivalent of Needful Things.
How often do the items brought in as “payment” get put on the shelves for sale?
Ok I’m lost, why are they moving so quickly?
Anyone passing too closely to Sam’s Swap Shop (now Powers & Glory) who isn’t specifically invited BY P&G, finds themselves getting rushed past it.
So I guess we have confirmation Sarah didn’t get powers yet, and her shirt-ripping was a red herring, unless the item she’s gunning for gives you powers, temporarily, by looking at it … maybe an overly literalist interpretation, but that would explain why she emphasizes looking at the item, above and beyond having an interest in buying it. It would make sense to give the prospective customer a taste before purchase, as an incentive. Maybe the item in question is a power generator – you sit in front of it and bathe in its radiation until you have the powers you want.
But it’s still unclear who the original mysterious buyer is. Both of them are paranoid (is that an effect of the shop, or just an editorial commentary on the personality that would be attracted to it? Why the need for all this secrecy?) But Sarah isn’t sophisticated enough to hide her intentions, whereas the OMB went so far as to wear a disguise even into the shop. Also Sarah doesn’t look all that much like the OMB (even taking perspective into account, she doesn’t look big enough to be a head taller than Glory) and I doubt a kid like her is capable of coming up with a wad of cash, hence the need to trade.
The shirt-ripping was simply that and nothing more, no red herring about her gaining super-strength because you don’t need super-strength to tear a shirt especially if the material is cheap and weak. Looking at something is also another way of saying you want to buy it, so when she’s going on about someone ‘looking at’ the item she wants she is very much going on about them wanting to buy it. There’s also no need to give someone like Sarah a taste of power she’s already had power hence why she’s so desperate to reclaim power in some fashion, you also wouldn’t want to risk empowering someone who’d be clever enough to steal the item they want or more. Even though they surely have precautions against that it’d still be foolish to take the risk.
Too true about the shirt-ripping. I’ve torn two or three older t-shirts just pulling them off at the end of the day, and I certainly don’t have super strength.
The reason we wonder is because of the way she reacted, She seemed to assume Tyler was evil until she ripped his shirt.
So my second guess is that the thing she wants would make his clothes invulnerable.
I think the point of her character is that her she might believe her powers are gone even though they aren’t. Besides which, there is nothing preventing a character with powers already from gaining more, assuming Power and Glory are willing to sell.
I wonder what happens if you cross the street laterally instead of passing by it sideways. Or going to the store right across from it. What about how high it goes; does it speed up time or does it take just as long as if youd gone through it normally.
Im probably just reading too much into it and asking for too much of an explanation from the comic creators, but it seems like a really weird way of doing this.
Posting from several years in the future — I originally thought that this has something to do with the slide effect in front of P&G’s building, but that doesn’t really make sense (the slide is only in front of the building, for that one block).
Now I think that it is supposed to be the first manifestation of (spoilers)[rot13] Eba’f arj dhnaghz jnec cbjref [/rot13]