PS238 by Aaron Williams
Ps238: The School for Metaprodigy Children
PS238 by Aaron Williams
Ps238: The School for Metaprodigy Children
PS238 by Aaron Williams
Ps238: The School for Metaprodigy Children
PS238 by Aaron Williams
Ps238: The School for Metaprodigy Children
55 thoughts on “2019-10-04”
amnesic
Does Cthulhu like Brussels sprouts??
TBeholder
And what will happen if It doesn’t?
green
just think, if you’d’ve had this before, none of this would’ve happened
CCC
…that sounds like exactly the power she needs right now, albeit not the power she wants.
Power and Glory are genies, aren’t they?
John
They’re a lot nicer than the typical genie, who is generally a rules lawyering jackass. They are demonstrating quite a bit of restraint in their karmic justice distribution. They could have given her something far more ironic and with much less utility for making amends following her inescapable What Have I Done moment. Actually it’s pretty artful that they are giving her exactly what she needs to know EXACTLY what she has done.
Blob
In the oldest stories I’m aware of (from the Arabian Nights), genies granted wishes genuinely based on the wisher’s intent. They might be jerks outside of that (“Ha ha, I’m going to kill you, puny human, because I can!”), but genies were too dense to engage in the subtle sabotage they’re portrayed as engaging in now. I’ve always wondered if “The Monkey’s Paw” influenced our culture’s view of wish-granting.
Moe Lane
The smartest answer I ever saw to that conundrum was Bugs Bunny’s. “I’ll take a carrot. Hey, while you’re down there: can you make it *two* carrots?” Sure, the genie can still screw you over, if he wants to — but at least you’re not Just Asking For It.
Simreeve
Well, Bugs didn’t tell the genie where he’d “take” those carrots…
^_^
Knug
More like the Witches from Discworld. Give folks what they need, not what they want.
TBeholder
Or rather like The God Box. :]
Weatherheight
Butnuts!
Barry Longyear needs better publicists – he’s amazing.
Messenger
There was the theory that they were actually Malphast’s parents in disguise. That doesn’t seem to be the case the more we see of them (though I thought it was a cool theory and wanted it to be so). P&G seem to be really crazy, esoteric meta-technologists, even crazier than Angie and Prospero are.
ThatOneGuy
More self preservation than genies. You saw what she did to get her powers back and it does seem like she already had some power. Can you imagine what would have happened if an actual super villain had made the offer? Better to nip it in the bud.
Villains are okay and heroes are okay… But keeping people from destroying the world of erasing existence is the best thing you can do.
Stephen Bierce
Clothes Make The Man
D
Manners maketh man. They made two movies about this. There were bar fights about it.
Clothes are just a side benefit.
LaughingDemon
Well.. he was going to need a change of clothes…
beleester
I thought Dynamode wanted a *specific* set of powers, not just a random item. When she was negotiating with Power and Glory, she was worried that someone else would buy it first and she only got convinced to go after Tyler because the other powers for sale weren’t what she wanted.
Faust
She didn’t want any other products for sale and I think this was an unspecified superpower / set of superpowers and the only real technically genuine superpower for sale.
They may have avoided saying what it was in advance, pushing the point of it being the only superpower for sale.
TBeholder
The deal was “item” that will “fits right”. http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/2016-06-01/
Prairie Son
The deal she made was for “1 set super powers for 1 Tyler Marlocke”, so it looks as though she didn’t bother to specify her original super powers.
Nos482
I’m not so sure if that was the deal or the price.
The chaos-goo might as well have been what would’ve given Tyler his powers.
Anyway, I predict that P&G won’t get to keep the goo… Cecil’s coat will snack it and thus upgrade itself.
Messenger
Or someone just plain ol’ buys it off them.
Bear
Remember that “one set of superpowers for one Tyler Marlocke” might not be a description of an exchange.
It might just be a cutesy asshole way of asking her to bring them Tyler Marlocke so they can give HIM a set of superpowers.
Seriously, just because it was written on a piece of paper that might have been the same kind paper they write invoices on, doesn’t really strongly imply that they were promising her anything in exchange for bringing Tyler there. They might have handed her the super-introspection thing just in order to try to avoid violence.
Ed Rhodes
I just had a thought. What if this sense of introspection leads her inward to where she can find the block that’s on her powers and remove it? And yes, there IS a block on her powers. While she appears to have two forms, she’s stuck in one in the day and the other at night.
John
I had exactly the same thought. Super self-knowledge seems like it ought to cover that kind of thing.
Messenger
She’d have to be really dense to not realize she’s got 2 forms. Or dishonest about not specifically mentioning it during the group therapy sessions. Unless the psychic block on her powers also blocked her from realizing it.
Ed Rhodes
No, I think she’s fully aware of it. That’s why she had clothes of two different sizes in the bag she hid in the ventilator. I’m going to suggest she’s ashamed of it and didn’t want to share that part of the “curse.”
Messenger
Why be ashamed of it? Not everyone in the group is completely powerless, such as Paula Grissom/Skybolt (2016-08-2016). A crippled superpower can be as bad as having no power.
Ed Rhodes
Because it’s not really a power when you stop to think about it. She has no control over it. Apparently, she switches at six o’clock, and can’t do anything about it.
Messenger
Um, yeah, that’s what I said. “A crippled superpower can be as bad as having no power.”
But she’s in a therapy group for the ex-superpowered. There’s no point in being ashamed of it among peers who would understand.
Jenora Feuer
Not only that, but really, this sort of superpower would be absolutely great for fine-tuning applications of other abilities. “Hunh, the last time I threw this I hooked it five degrees off, if I shift my finger positions this way the energy projection should keep on target…”
Zer-author
Not just that. Super-introspection would be a hard counter to subtle thought control, most sorts of mental or social manipulation, and probably many forms of insanity as well. It can be used to boost judgement and critical thinking, generate self-improvement, and just generally increase the chances of reaching enlightenment.
Even if this doesn’t, in some way, bring back her original powers, that girl has just about won the lottery. Super Self-Instrospection is useful for virtually everything *except* causing massive collateral damage.
Unmaker
Super Self-Instrospection is useful for virtually everything *except* causing massive collateral damage.
“Oh, I really am a sadist sociopath! Now where was that unstoppable plague…”
vonBoomslang
Amusingly, then the damage wouldn’t be *collateral*, it’d be deliberate.
LookieLouE1707
If the super-introspection really does provide insights into the human condition in general, into those around one rather than merely into oneself, then it’s a potentially tremendously dangerous power. Think hannibal lecter getting miggs to swallow his own tongue, lex luthor getting superman and batman to fight each other, or the scene in the movie “Limitless” where the protagonist successfully manipulates his landlord’s girlfriend into sleeping with him. Sure, you have to go find a plague in order to unleash an epidemic, but once you know where the lab is all you have to do is manipulate the lab techs.
Messenger
I’m really surprised to find that this is the deal that P&G offer people. It’s a superpower lottery? Not that what they do or are capable of isn’t impressive, but shouldn’t it being random throw a lot of theirl customers off?
Then again, I guess this is just part of the theme of this story arc: having lost power, some people become so desperate that they’ll take whatever they can get. It’s quite an interesting- and sobering- look into the superhero genre.
Also: glad to see Tyler’s secret identity preserved. 🙂 We were all so worried the machine would somehow blow his cover as Moon Shadow.
Ie Yamof Ool
The power wasn’t random, ‘The Boss’ just didn’t say what it was. She was told “it’s the only one that fits”. Considering what she did to get it, it was very ‘fitting’.
Considering what I’ve seen of P&G, their trades seem less what people want, more Deus ex Machina for what P&G feel need to have happen.
Opus the Poet
This is not the same costume Tyler had when the Chaos goop got him, nor does it resemble the costume future Tyler was wearing when he got the phone call from his past self. Is it a costume from the now-defunct duo team they got the tube from?
Stephen Bierce
We’ll know “momentarily”. I was wondering about his “Career Day” costume so I looked that up. I don’t think we ever saw Tyler completely in the costume his parents put together for him.
SFI
http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/04232007/ <- there's a moderate view of the full costume on this page.
Messenger
It probably is a costume of the defunct duo. It’s nothing that matches anything Tyler wore before. Neither does he recognise it.
7eggert
Arms-fall-off-boy used to have the most useless super-power.
Rock
Is that a kid version of the uniform adult Moonshadow was wearing during his phone call with Tyler…?
Messenger
Nope (08222008). It seems adult Moon Shadow’s uniform is pretty much the same as his original/young version. Just sleeker, better, “more professionally” executed.
What Tyler’s wearing now is either Blue Dragon’s or Valiant’s- or a mix of both!
Messenger
So… What does Lester get out of this?
Dynamode got a superpower that’s making her confront what she’s done to become superpowered again, becoming less heroic in the process.
Is Lester going to turn out better in contrast? Or worse?
Marie
I think he’s gonna get something more positive as he was actually considering the right thing far more than the supposed hero. He chose poorly still, but did not charge forward without thought- this is an improvement for a former villain.
I still kind of hope he’s not getting a power, as common sense may be the greatest power of all!
Marie
Hope Tyler’s not getting power. Lester’s getting better slowly.
TB
If only she also got the power to project that introspection on supervillains, she would probably become the most powerful hero in the comic.
Clell65619
Wait.
No one is concerned about P&G turning chocolate into Brussels sprouts?
Solid proof of their ultimate evil and everyone is talking about Dynamode’s self realization and Tyler’s outfit?
Priorities people!
Messenger
No one is concerned because that’s NOT a statement of what P&G DID then and there. Rather, that’s a statement to describe how much power the chaos orb has (enough “to power a global death metal festival, summon Cthulhu, etc.).
They didn’t turn all chocolate into brussels sprouts. What they DID then and there was peel all that crazy power off Tyler. That’s their proof to Dynamode that the Christmas Cracker she just got to give her powers is the real deal.
William H. Stoddard
I think the word should be “alienating” rather than “ostracizing.” Ostracism is voting to exclude someone from a group, and is normally done AFTER the person has alienated a large part of the group.
When I studied Greek, our textbook had a story about a man called “Aristides the Just,” whom the Athenians voted to ostracize. During the vote he met a citizen who asked his help in casting a vote in favor. So he asked, “Why do you want to banish him? Has he done you some injury?” The citizen said, “No. I’ve never even met the man. But I’m tired of hearing everyone talk about ‘Aristides the Just’ all the time!” So Aristides marked the ballot as the man asked, which kind of proves that he deserved the title. . . .
Prairie Son
Aristides was a compromise candidate. Athens was divided between Themistocles and somebody else, and as the law required somebody to be ostracized (ostraka, a pottery shard), they agreed to combine followers and vote out Aristides so neither of them got ousted.
Aristides came back to help fight the Persians, btw.
William H. Stoddard
In any case “ostracism” isn’t something you do to them, but something they do to you.
Foradain
She got the Bobbie Burns package. ^_^
“O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
An’ ev’n devotion!”
Abel DuSable
Uh… no.
No, I would have to say that is not a super power, and because it is focused on herself it is only useful as a horrible sadistic punishment.
Best example for this “power” in play is the Terry Pratchett Discworld novel (and animated miniseries) Wyrd Sisters.
At one point at the end, the witch Granny Weatherwax attempts to nullify the ruthless and heartless Dutchess by casting a spell upon her. Granny describes it as breaking down all those little walls everyone builds up inside our heads so we never actually see the horrifying truth of who we really are.
The Dutchess is however only momentarily disoriented and states that she KNOWS who and what she really is and PROUD of it… resulting in Granny being the one who is horrified and stunned.
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