Sydney is concerned about information propagation. One person can keep a secret, but the more people who know it, obviously, the more chances of it slipping out somewhere along the line. She was so concerned with other people getting mind-plundered, that it just didn’t occur to her that some telepath could come by and snatch it out of her mind. From what they know about her shield, its a reasonable assumption that it would block telepathy. But she obviously can’t be in it 24/7. Nor would she want to. They do now know the green orb does “life support” but whether that only includes generating breathable atmosphere, or if it extends to any form of calorie supplementation and hydration is something they haven’t tested yet.

If I was a superhero (or any kind of government agent that made a habit of making enemies of powerful people and organizations) I would be intensely paranoid about so many things. Even before Snowden and Wikileaks, I had zero faith in any organization to keep anything secret, much less any massive, sprawling governments. And that’s in a world without teleportation, phasing, cyberkinesis, or just good old fashion telepathy. Superpowers aside, how many people would have access to Archon’s classified files, and how many of them have families who could have guns put to their heads?

Let’s assume that the only people who have access to intelligence regarding Archon’s full suite of abilities is Archon themselves and everyone is in that one building. That’s clearly not the case, but just as a starting point. Even if an organization had a telepath who could make sure no one is a mole or on the take, you’d still have to check everyone who walked in the door every single day to make sure they haven’t started being blackmailed or have a family member who is “safe, at the moment” since the last time they clocked in.

Even if you did that, what stops someone from getting a video call in iChat or whatever in the middle of the day showing their wife tied to a chair holding a sign saying “leave the door on the roof unlocked” or whatever? Confiscate all phones upon entering, monitor all communications in and out? It doesn’t matter. In the end you’re still dealing with people, and they can be manipulated.

It’s for these reasons and more that people who believe in moon landing conspiracies are ultra-maroons. They really think no one would have slipped up or spilled the beans about it by now? In 50 years, not a single person might have mentioned it. No deathbed confessions? Not even an email anywhere on a server that got hacked? Come on. Come on.

I spent more time on panel 2 than anything else on this page, and I couldn’t get Sydney’s expression how I wanted. It was supposed to be that sort of pinched, “you’ve asked someone a question you know they’re not going to like answering” expectant look. Almost like a Robert de Niro-esque look. I don’t know if that makes any sense. Revisiting it now, I think the thing I goofed on is Sydney’s lips are kind of pursed. I think now that they should be tight, like she’s sucked them in between her teeth. Anyway, she just wound up looking weirdly smug, which isn’t quite what I was going for.

Oh my god you guys, moving sucks. There were like 3 or 4 days last week where I didn’t get any work done on the comic, instead getting like 20K steps in just carrying stuff around and disassembling and reassembling. And that was with movers who did the bulk of the heavy lifting. But we’re finally settled into the new place. Well, not settled. We’re here. We’re a ways away from being settled. Half of everything I own is still in boxes. I’ve already tossed a bunch of crap I never used, and I suspect by the time I’m done unpacking, I’ll have lost another 20%.

I will attempt to update the vote incentive later today. All I have is a bit of a doodle, but hopefully now that the bulk of the moving stuff is done with, I can get caught up in general and put some work into it.

Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.