[0836] The Divine Comedy, Page 33 (Manga Studio Adventures)
└ posted on Monday, 7 November 2016, by Novil
- Sandra: Liz, my leg’s stuck!
- Larisa: Don’t move! I’m coming!
- Inventory: Samsung phone, Slice of pizza, Carbon rod (inanimate), Gorbachev keyring, Paint brush (with paint)
- Abilites: Pyromania, Artistry, Precociousness
- Caption: If Larisa destroys the killer digger with a rocket, she’ll save Sandra’s life. However, the explosion will also cause the collapse of the already unstable floor. The digger will fall down and crush the five boy scouts who have been lured there by the nefarious angels. Now it’s up to you to help Larisa to make the best of this trolley problem! Make a suggestion what she should do in the comment section! (With a sketch if you like.) We will use the best suggestion for the next strip!
![[0836] The Divine Comedy, Page 33 (Manga Studio Adventures)](/comics/2016-11-07-0836-the-divine-comedy-page-33-manga-studio-adventures.png "[0836] The Divine Comedy, Page 33 (Manga Studio Adventures)")
While I like the little quandary, I fear Novil has made a crucial mistake in this comic. Amongst Larisa’s items, her lighter somehow is not included. I mean, Larisa without her lighter even with a rocket launcher on hand… just isn’t right.
@ markoatonc:
Aah forgot about the pizza… used as lure might be better than bazooka (the but let’s be honest, it would fit her more to go all demonic) might try to bribe the angels with pizza, but not sure if they like it.
If she shoots the digger anywhere, shrapnel will fly around in all directions and those would be lethal too, so she can’t shoot the digger.
But she has a paintbrush so she can use that to paint a wall between Sandra and the digger. This is, after all, just a comic… 😀
Btw. too lazy to come up with your own plotline? 😛
Boy Scouts are ALWAYS prepared!!
So either they save themselves with a touch of MacGyver’s style! – such as, tying all their condoms together to make a large slingshot (being prepared at that age also means being hopeful, so they each have at least a dozen on them! [proof… http://pbfcomics.com/191/ ] to boost themselves out through the crevice we see them through;
OR
They each brought MAGNUMS – because for kids, •they double as a body bag!• They climb into one, to not create a mess when the floor crushes them, and make themselves easier to identify for the county medical examiner!
(for the one kid who brought the Ramses lambskin & a Magnum, it may sound messy, but think how easily he slipped into it! THAT is thinking ahead!)
Dong Balloons! These days, not just for spies, campers & plain old boinking!
Ok, so, of Larisa uses the launcher to fire the paint brush into the controls of the killer digger, she should be able to stop it from moving, then, she should use give the rocket launcher to one of the boy scouts who has a badge in engineering (cuz I’m assuming that’s a thing). Then, she should use eat the pizza and stare into the Gorbachev key ring, igniting her Russian strength, allowing her to lift the rubble by using the carbon rod as a fulcrum, while using the Samsung phone as a smaller, localized blast to help clear it.
Larisa should rocket jump accross the crevice and with her new found harem of boyscouts distract the digger and lure it away with the gorbochev keyring painted to look like sandra.
Use the Retina Display to hack the AI, maybe even upload the Angel’s virus from where they hacked Satan earlier.
Throw Sandra the carbon rod, so she can get the leverage to get out.
Shout distracting things, such as “I’m so glad that Sandra is over here!”. If there is time, Paint a Sandra and Woo on the wall.
Use the Pizza to lure the Boy Scouts up a floor (like how Woo can climb impossible things for cookies), then shoot the vehicle.
Pray for a miracle (even if its from a different god, like a raccoon goddess).
Shoot the digger anyway and hope they were good enough Boy Scouts (because they would have been prepared!).
Best options I could come up with.
@ DrCryllus:
Or just use a Samsung “High Efficiency” top loading exploding washer! The perfect bomb along with their “FirePhone!” With 3 million just recalled, there has to be at least ONE for sale in a mall!
http://tinyurl.com/hghf36h
Alright, so I don’t have an actual real plan. A good lot of my ideas were posted before I could say them… so insteeeaaad….
http://i.imgur.com/OgrrPOi.png
I made a completely silly nonsense panel entirely inspired by the classic MS Paint Adventures look (as well as a little call back to Homestuck)
(http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=007256 this is what the refrance)
…pfft, seriously though, the MSPA Style of this page… gotta love it haha.
@ Ivan Fang:
I wish we had 90 seconds to edit! I forgot to close the bold! Dammit! One reason I like Disqus!
I was a Boy Scout, can confirm, we train for situations like this. Its a part of how to save damsels in distress merit badge.(advanced version of life saving merit badge.)
I say the scouts are likely armed with our standard kit of knives, firestarters,(steel wool) Paracord, and Handkerchiefs. The scouts immediately leap into action using a modified flying squirrel (loop Paracord over exposed rods, and have the heaviest scout leaping grab the end, and is then used as a counterweight to lift the others. He is then pulled by the others.) Next they ally with Larisa, who they revere as a god of fire 🔥. The scouts then utilize monkey fists to tie up the digger, and larisa uses the back blast of the rocket launcher to fire burning steel will into the exposed fuel fill cap of the fuel tank of the digger, torching it from the inside. The backwards fired rocket is also of use, as it was aimed at the column behind them. It falls over the gap, onto the digger, damaging it further. Larisa runs over the bridge and takes manual control of the burning dented hell digger(she is a succubi now… She should be able to take a little fire) Using rope the scouts allow her to lift the rocks safefully off of of Sandra. The mall begins collapsing, and Larisa scoops them up in the cup, allowing them to escape through a wall.
Outside an army of diggers has gathered.Larisa, the Scouts and Sandra fight a brave but losing battle against the diggers. Sandra distinguishes herself by healing the injured scouts. In the last moments, our cornered heroes are saved by Cloud, his family, and Woo, backed by an army of demonically empowered woodland critters. However, the Angels also appear, raining glowing arrows. A vast battle erupts, which only ends after “upper management appears”. The two sides argue with them, and put aside their differences to defeat a common enemy. A planetscale battle erupts…..
Honestly, this is all covered in the Scouting handbook. You should all read it sometime. We train for everything.
1. Shoot the ceiling above the far side of the Killer Digger, thus collapsing onto machine rendering it disabled.
2. Lure out Scouts and Sandra with pizza.
Eat the pizza.
I don’t know what to do next, but at least you ate the pizza.
Is one of those boy scouts Landon?
Shoot at the ceiling to collapse it on the digger.
Ok, the killer diggers are semi-autonomous, self driving construction vehicles. But as David comfortingly reminded Yuna [307- Scary thought] there hasn’t been any real advance in artificial intelligence in the past couple decades. So, while they have to be quasi-intelligent, they can’t be all that bright. Therefore: Use the Samsung phone to replay a recent message from Sandra on an auto loop, and toss the phone in one direction. Then use the paint to write “Sandra” on your shirt, and run in the other direction. This will cause the killer diggers to spin around in confusion long enough to lure the boy scouts to safety with the pizza.Throw the Gorbachev key-chain in any random direction, and trust to the laws of narrative inevitability (This is the Deus ex Machina after all.) The key-chain will careen off half a dozen objects before, in a freak one-in-a-million chance, it dislodges the Target sign, forming a temporary bridge. Dash across, jam the carbon rod into the tractor treads, then go free Sandra. At this point the Samsung phone catches fire. The killer digger now has only one target, so it comes after Larisa while Sandra escapes. The friction causes the carbon rod to ignite. It does not slow the killer digger down in the slightest, but it is a lovely colored fire, and we would not want to have missed it. Now that the scouts are free, and Sandra is free, and we have started two totally gratuitous fires, blast the floor from under the robot, then send another shot down to blast the robot. (because why settle for one explosion, when you can create two). Now use your final shot to blast the angels.
Step 1: use rocket launcher and/or explosive phone to shatter the fourth wall.
Step 2: Use paintbrush to create columns shoring up the floor, then block the digger from continuing its pursuit of Sandra.
Step 3: Re-enter comic, receive praise for a job well done.
Point the rocket launcher backwards toward the digger. The rocket back blast is a narrow sheet of flame now pointed at the quite fragile hydraulic lines of the soon to be immobile machine. If Larisa’s rocket should happen to land in the general region of her enemy it gets all the better.
Flame plus explosions times Larisa equals victory.
This is Larissa we’re talking. She’ll aim AT the Boy Scouts because it will undermine the digger and save Sandra.
Okay, so a few obstacles I’m seeing that need to be overcome.
1) the digger is already moving towards Sandra, so time is of the essence. Must be a quick action or series of actions.
2) unsteady floor
3) pinned Sandra
I’ve seen a couple posts that reference the idea that the angels couldn’t possibly risk innocent life in the battle to kill Sandra. I’m willing to believe this line of logic, but I also think that if the scouts died (or were believed dead by Sandra) Larisa might have some trouble moving Sandra along more expediently. SO! I think this is the best course of action.
First, throw pizza to cover/knock over the camera by which the digger is moving. Also, shout at Sandra to curl up! The digger will now be blind, and will over correct itself, driving over Sandra. There is enough space between it’s treads that Sandra can easily curl up and avoid getting crushed.
Second, wall run (yes, I believe Larisa has practiced parkour) to the other side, and knock the target sign down as a bridge. Call for help from the boy scouts to uncover Sandra from the rubble. This will end up with one of two scenarios: The boy scouts are angels, which Larisa’s eye app will pick up immediately and she already has a loaded launcher to blast them with, or they are actually boy scouts and they’ll be honor bound to help where they can while ALSO providing bystander shields against any further interference by angels.
Third, prepare for next situation while trying to run out of there to a safe location.
Shoot at Sandra, the angels will be forced to save her since it has to be them who kill her, thus they will save her lie from certain danger and nullify the plan to kill Sandra, God will never be able to touch her again
@ Lookfar:
I almost forgot, as you throw the key chain, be sure to invoke The Lady, with the words “It’s a million to one chance, but it might just work!” (Homage to the last, great Terry Pratchet).
There is a clear “Target” there. Just shout it, and explosion will not heat the floor, but might be just enough to stall the engine of heavy duty machinery…
Larissa should offer unspecified sexual favors to the scout who rescues Sandra, then she should use the rocket launcher to hit the top of the digger and topple it.
Also I like the previously mentioned idea of using a rocket to make a ramp for the scouts.
Turn on her samsung, converting it into a timed micro-explosive. Throw it into the killer digger, killing or distracting the angel inside. Grenade jump over the gap using the gap using the rocket (flashing the boy scouts tastefully to corrupt them, of course) then freeing Sandra after splattering the front windshield with paint.
The Samsung phone can serve as a less devastating explosive.
Throw the inanimate carbon rod down so the scouts can try to use it to prop the floor, then blow the digger to hell and back.
First Larisa shoots a missile at the angels to distract them, then she uses her phone/the google contact lenses to hack into the killer digger and instead use it to save the five boy scouts. she then eats a slice of pizza
Save Sandra, obviously. That is the whole point of this deal. Plus Sandra is larissa’s close friend while the boy scouts are strangers – and maybe even just angels pretending to be boy scouts.
TF2 it! Make like the soldier and use the launcher to launch across the chasm and save Sandy.
Several possibilities:
1. Larissa throws the inanimate carbon rod to jam the treads of the digger. Everyone knows that an inanimate carbon rod will always save the day — “In Rod We Trust!”
2. Seen from behind: Larissa pulls up her shirt with one hand to flash her boobs at the boy scouts, and holds up the slice of pizza in her other hand and shouts “FREE PIZZA!” The scouts instantly scramble out of the crevice, because no teenage boy could resist a double-whammy like that.
3. Larissa turns around, spots the two angels, fires two rockets, and vaporizes the little bastards. (My preferred solution.) Then she zaps the digger with the third rocket, and since the angels aren’t around to control events, everyone is safe.
4. Larissa paints a beard on the Gorbachev keychain to make it look like Elon Musk and/or Nikola Tesla, tosses it onto the image sensor of the digger, and yells “I AM YOUR CREATOR! I ORDER YOU TO STOP!” The digger must obey, of course.
5. Larissa paints a beard on the Gorbachev keychain to make it look like Elon Musk and/or Nikola Tesla, tosses it onto the image sensor of the digger, and yells “I AM YOUR CREATOR! I ORDER YOU TO RUN OVER THE GIRL!” Since runaway AIs always disobey their creators, the digger turns aside and doesn’t harm her.
6. Larissa doesn’t shoot, and the boy scouts are saved but Sandra dies. Then Larissa rubs the keychain and chants “Spirit of Perestroika, aid me now!” That unlocks Sandra’s respawn capability, and she comes back to life. Since Sandra did die, there’s nothing the angels can do about it.
Throw the Gorachev keyring to have it build an weightless Iron Curtain between the digger and Sandra. As long as the digger does not have the Reagan bobblehead, it won’t attack Sandra directly.
That will at least buy more time…
RPGs have a highly directed blast. Practically all of the blast energy goes forward. This is intentional as the idea is to blast a hole in the target.
For this reason, Larisa should aim directly for the middle of one of the wheel hubs on one of the tracks, destroying the wheel-hub only and making it impossible for the digger to operate that track. The metal of the wheel-hub will contain any remaining blast energy so that it doesn’t cause the floor to collapse.
With one track out of action, the digger will only be able to move in tight circles, and it’s still too far away from Sandra to reach her that way.
The digger arm could reach Sandra but, while the “angel” operating the digger is trying to figure out exactly what’s going on, Larisa will have time to jump across the gap, write “Pyromania Rulez!” on the cab window (backwards, so that the operator can read it) using the paint brush, then while the angel is staring in confusion at the writing, Larisa will have time to get the rubble off of Sandra and pull her to safety (well, temporary safety at least).
Oh, and the slice of pizza is supernaturally enhanced and will heal any wounds Sandra may have if she eats it. 🙂
In the mean time, the inanimate carbon rod is having a conversation with the Gorbachev key ring. They’re both discussing why Larisa doesn’t use her mobile phone to report this. Sure, she can’t say that “angels are trying to kill my friend” but she can say “construction equipment is being used to destroy the mall” – which is true. It just leaves out the unbelievable aspects. 😉
Use the cellphone to call Luna. Tell her to activate The Plot Device.
Step 1-) Throw the slice of pizza into the windshield of the digger buying herself some time.
Step 2-) Knowing angels are vulnerable to any naughty thoughts she takes the paintbrush covers her most private parts in pain.
Step 3-) She texts God a “Mission accomplished” with the picture knowing god will instantly gloat and forward it to his angels before looking at it (insert “Uh oh” look on God’s face when he looks at the picture)
Step 4-) While the angle is stunned Larissa uses he Gorbachev Keyring which is obviously russian and indestructible as an Atl-Atl to throw the carbon rod thru the windshield of the digger making a hole big enough to throw he now obviously overheating samsung phone thru it.
Step 5-) When the cabin bursts into flame Larissa screams for the boy scouts to get out of the way. Jumps over the chasm and uses the rocket launcher as a lever to lift the cement slab and free Sandra.
Step 6-) Coup de grace she throws the rocket into the cabin and runs away with Sandra… BOOM!
Uses all the items and all 3 of the abilities. And it is totally in line with over the top shenanigans Lariss a would do.
Target the hydraulic lines with a disarmed rocket. The impact will sever the lines and the bucket will lose all power. Tell the boy scouts to get out and they will because they are always prepared. Use the carbon rod to damage the tracks so it can’t move. Then get Sandra out.
Use the phone to call the digger and say that its crush is waiting outside for a date. The digger leaves, and everybody lives.
Assuming she has literally seconds before the digger kills Sandra, she should not hesitate to shoot the digger.
The Trolley problem is a great example of an ethically debatable issue, but to me a tipping factor is when the life you’re saving is someone you know and love.
Save 5 strangers by killing one other? Debatable. Save a loved one at the expense of others? Still debatable, but that’s a major variable added in.
Not to mention the other variable here, that floor might be giving way even without Larisa’s shot. She might fail to save Sandra and then watch the ground crumble anyway.
Now, if we’re assuming she has some precious seconds to act before deciding, that this isn’t just ‘the trolley problem’ with an assumed ‘life for life’ exchange being a given fact, then yeah, take a few seconds and let’s find a solution.
Most realistic is simply pointing the bazooka at the scouts, and yelling at them to run before she shoots. We don’t know if there’s an easy escape for them, but if there is and they just don’t realize the imminent danger, yell at the fuckers!
She has a samsung phone. If it’s a new model, she could use her pyromania skills to start a fire with it. Not sure how that would help, but she has solved some big problems with even small fires.
She has 3 shots, she could use one to take out the diggers claw, buy some time to save the boy scouts before the digger attempts to simply crush sandra to death by running her over.
And she has a paintbrush. Assuming she can find something to paint on, she could paint some crazy painting that instills fear and terror into the angel’s heart and makes them flee.
RPG-7 arming distance is 5 metres. If she fires it at the distance illustrated in the shot, it shouldn’t arm the HE charge but the force of the rocket would likely cause it to break through the circuitry.
I’m gonna take a stab at this, so try to stay with me:
1: Liz uses the rocket launcher as a piercing device rather than an explosive to pierce the two hydraulic pistons supporting the bucket arm of the digger.
2: The unsupported bucket arm pivots and crashes into the floor in front of Sandra and digs in (my hasty rigid body analysis assumes that the digger is not close enough that the rotating bucket will collide with Sandra).
3: The digger’s bucket arm is now neutralized, and since the bucket is anchored in the floor, the digger will be temporarily immobilized.
4: With a few extra seconds and one threat addressed, Liz can use the rocket launcher barrel (placed vertically on the ground) as a jumping point to leap to the other side of the gap.
5: Next she can take the carbon rod and jam it into the “left” digger treads to prevent that side from moving.
6: She then can use her paint brush to paint over the camera of the digger so that it cannot see and respond to it’s environment.
7: She then runs to the gap and requests the boy scouts toss up some rope to her (all boy scouts carry rope) she runs over and attaches the rope to part of the right treads of the digger.
8: The digger, now only aware of Sandra’s position and it’s broken bucket arm, will eventually push it’s bucket free of the floor and try to run her over by moving forward, but the only tread that will turn is the right tread, causing the digger to rotate safely away from Sandra AND allowing the boy scouts to grab the rope and be pulled free of the basement by the digger itself.
9: With the boy scouts free and the digger now completely out of alignment with it’s sensory information and away from causing immediate harm, the Liz and the scouts can pick up the rubble off of Sandra to get her to safety.
These next few steps are very important. The angels clearly have many plans and backup plans and are still focused and un-phased by the trouble they’ve encountered this far. To ensure safety, Larissa has to make them upset, so they start making mistakes.
10: She should graffiti the now less dangerous digger, preferably with blasphemous and heretical pictures, which she can do quite well (using the paintbrush of course).
11: Next, she should hang the keyring from the inside of the cockpit of the digger (like an air freshener). Think of it as Larissa’s calling card.
12: Finally, she needs to take a picture of herself with her Samsung phone, as well as the rescued boyscouts, and Sandra in front of, or on top of, the “desecrated digger” with either Larissa or Sandra casually munching on the pizza and winking at the camera.
13: The last, most important step, is that the picture needs to be sent to multiple social media sources with inflammatory comments directed at the angels to anger them into not thinking straight.
And that, is the best plan I was currently able to come up with, to effectively beat the digger, save the boyscouts, save Sandra, and phase the angels.
OK. Those are boy scouts and there’s a fire down there …
Use the slice of pizza to motivate and calm down the boy scouts. Throw them the rod and the launcher and tell them to use these to stabilize the floor above them (hey – they are boy scouts! They should be able to improvise).
Use the samsung phone to try and hack into the Tesla build killer bot (There sure is an app for that).
If that fails use the paint brush and paint to paint pics of Sandra all over the place to confuse the bot … after that fails use your pyromania skills to direct the fire that’s already burning at the bot, overheat and melt the CPU.
Darn. I didn’t use the ammo and the keys.
Pizza Deamon!
http://picpaste.com/pizzaDeamon-yliwC0nM.png (sorry, Trackpad sketch)
PS: I like coyoteBR’s solution 🙂
@ Canuck-Errant:
Ah, correction: On going back the rocket launcher is designated as an M40 Bazooka; no such weapon designation exists, but the weapon appears to be closest to a Carl Gustav (also known as the M3 MAAWS). The Carl G has an even longer arming distance (~15 m) but a heavier round and more powerful rocket booster, which would likely cause more kinetic damage on its own than the comparatively lighter RPG-7 munition.
She should show them the Gorbachev keychain, then throw it over her shoulder. Seeing the keychain will trigger their natural instincts (it is a well-known fact that Boy Scouts, when exposed to Communism, enter a state of uncontrollable rage), and in their desperation to destroy it they will quickly find a way out. At that point, Larisa will be free to engage the digger.
Load the carbon rod into the RPG launcher; shoot it through the killer digger’s window, harming only the driver.
Summon Luna to use her Deus Ex Machina (is it a Diabolus Ex Machina in this case?) to shut all the killer vehicles down.
@ DrCryllus:
Exactly what I thought XD
Use the programm on the samsung to hack the trolley. Then use it to fight the other trolley.
Take a selfie with the Samsung, throw the pizza to the boy scouts to feed them, throw the carbon rod to Sandra for her to move the rocks out while Larissa distracts the killer digger with a key ring puppet show and face painting.
why not just use the rocket launcher to proper yourself? its a short distance and Larisa is smart, she can figure out how much power she need to move nesr Sandra without crashing.