[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)")
Throw the carbon rod into the tracks of the digger to restrain it’s movement. Next throw the Gorbachev keychain into the hydraulics of the arm to stop them.
This will give her enough time to use the paintbrush to create a photo realistic image of a pizza that the boy scouts can see. Use the real pizza to add the smell to the air. Additionally, she will use her phone to play video game sound tracks so that the boy scouts will climb out of the whole to play video games and eat pizza. After all we all know that teenage boys want to eat pizza and play video games more than anything.
Once the boys are free she can then blast the earth mover to insure that it can not break its restraints at the last moment and come back after them.
@ Novil:
Use the backblast of the launcher to fire the carbon rod into either the cabin or the hydraulic lines on the digger.
Or, since an anti tank launcher fires shaped charges, just hit the glass cabin and most of the explosion will disperse into the air in the cabin and behind, only killing the driver and not applying undue force to the ground or excavator body.
@ vecernik:
That was my thought too- use the Samsung as a controlled, smaller explosion, knocking out the hydraulics. In a perfect world (presumably, it wouldn’t work with the forces at play, but none the less) bleeding the hydraulics would lower the backhoe’s bucket, giving the boy scouts something to climb out, and perhaps even redistributing the weight enough to stabilize the floor.
Wow, more than 190 posts – in one day! Novil, that mus be a record.
But the true reason why I’m posting is: Is it actually possible to be more pyromaniac than Larisa?
Well, I guess we can give her credit for not having set fire to any inhabited buildings or some such.
Larisa should pull a soldier and rocket jump across the gap to Sandra’s side, then shoot the top of the digger to make it fall backwards away from the boy scouts so they’ll be safe.
Alternatively, tell the boy scouts to praise Satan, and she’ll sleep with them all in hell once she’s a succubus. If it works, bonus points with Satan. If not, they had their chance, and if they don’t think she’s worth dying for, they aren’t worth saving.
Don’t forget that Novil has a Twitter page. Retweet his comic if you like.
Wow, so many comments. Can’t wait to see what Thursday has in store for us.
There should be a “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” or ‘explode the Killer Digger’ scene. 😀
Ehh, do we have any proof that this particular digger’s AI haven’t flipped a middle finger to angels and doing what the f//ck it wants? I don’t actually see it threatening Sandra.
Dunno, but there is a target sign, so I guess you should hit it and see what happens.
Give the scouts the carbon rod. As an Eagle Scout myself, I can tell you they’ll likely realize it’s to help hold up the floor above them. Being carbon, the rod should be able to do this. Shoot the digger. Use the phone to video this happening because it’s awesome. The scouts then climb out of the hole (They can figure that out too, it’s like rock climbing) and help Liz get Sandy out from under the rubble.
Alternately, Liz uses the carbon rod as a pole to dance on, distracting everyone while she texts cloud to come save Sandy. Succubus training +1 and the boy scouts will find their way out of the hole to be able to watch her.
Make her shoot a paintbrush and when the paint will cover whole windshield the operator won’t have a vision, so she will have more time to get to Sandra and help her ^^ Aaaand to save those scouts (at least to shout “get out of here” to them) xD
@ Kuroneko:
@ ArcanErasmus:
@whoever the hell else made suggestions relating to taking out the operator
The digger is AI-operated.
ArcanErasmus wrote:
actually it looks like Larisa has more of explosive ordonance rather then armor piercing one.
Use the Plot Device to summon the real Luna to save the boys so Larisa can save Sandra.
Kill the boy scouts…
Throw the inanimate carbon rod into the diggers mechanism causing it to jam. Then use the pizza to lure out the scouts with the pizza and finally shooting the digger with the rocket launcher.
Step 1: Fudge the boy scouts and just shoot the excavator! You’re already going to hell.
Hmm… quite a pickle. Honestly, there will probably be consequences no matter the choice, so I think after making it over to the digger, she should use both the rocket launcher and the rod to jam the treads. Ditch the rockets beforehand.
Also, for that last panel, did anybody else start hearing the old FFVII battle theme, by any chance? I know I did.
Great way to end a strip!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY1Vetd7OCs
Larisa shoots at the Target sign and misses completely! The digger unexpectedly stops and shuts down, smoke and the smell of ozone pours out from radiator.
A scurrying sould is heard from inside the cab…
Sid and Ruth hop out, successful in destroying the machine the way most rodents do.
By chewing the wires. 😆
Ruth runs to the food bar and grabs a steak.
@ Titan:
Most practical suggestion right here
ArcanErasmus wrote:
That would work if it had human drivers… We don’t know exactly where the AI driving these things is at…
Simple: Threaten the boy scouts, forcing the trolley problem on the angelic minions instead: their nature is to be good and to follow their orders, so having to choose between saving the boy scounts and destroying Sandra should cause them to self-destruct in a hilarious poof of glitter!
Well, it is Larisa, so the solution has to involve fire. That’s a given.
If we assume that’s the latest Samsung (and given the whole battery fire problem, Larisa probably rushed to get her hands on one) what Larissa does should probably involve setting it on fire in some way.
Alternatively, the rocket jump idea suggested by one of the first commenters seems like it would be pretty epic. Still, that doesn’t involve fire…hmm…
(Also, this is my first time posting. Hello all!)
1. Throw pizza to distract boys away
2. Rocket-jump over to Sandra
3. Hack another vehicle to crash into killer digger
Do the unexpected, the impossible.
Divine intervention by Raccoon Goddess and army of space raccoons.
I agree she should rocket jump over to Sandra to get there in time, then escape somehow. But rocket jump should be involved.
Option 1) Fire rocket at the Boy Scouts, destroying the floor and excavator in an act of rebellion and condemnation for the trolley problem as a whole. The loss of life is the fault of whoever engineers a situation such as this and Larisa’s destined for Hell anyway (with some pretty cushy benefits), so she has nothing to lose. And I’m saying this as an Eagle Scout, by the way. Any Scout worth his salt is willing to give his life to save another. If they even are Scouts and not angels in disguise.
Option 2) Text Cloud / Cloud’s little sister and tell them what’s going down. The little sister will see the time stamp on the text and teleport/time travel to the mall via some technology she’s created / will create with Yethuza and/or Cloud just in time to save the day.
Larisa would reason that she is already going to hell anyway and blow up the digger. If this strip has guts then this is the next comic I want.
I don’t see any issue with crushing the boy scouts.
(Diagram sketch) https://s15.postimg.org/fe08zqonf/Sandy_diagram.jpg
1) Use 1 rocket to smash the digger’s crystals. Latest RPGs can be programmed so the rocket doesn’t explode on the first impact. The rocket can go in and out the digger without exploding.
2) Throw Samsung phone inside and let it explode to disable the drone.
3) Use a second rocket on Larissa’s side of the floor and hope that will give the boy scouts room to escape impending doom.
4) Use the last rocket to Rocket Jump (because cartoon logic, I’ll fight you) towards Sandy and rescue her.
5) Use the RED paint to create a convincing smear that will fool the angels into thinking Sandy is now roadkill.
Use the Gorbachev keyring to “tear down that (black) wall” with Regan Smash!
Fire the ground under Sandra to have it collapse, then the boy scouts proceed to pull Sandra from the rubble. 10% of success with Sandra living
Use the inanimate carbon rod and the keyring together to open one of the rockets and empty out some of its explosive so that the blast will not be big enough to collapse the floor. The phone can be used to compute the right amount of explosive (making full use of her high pyromania and precociousness stats). Then use the paintbrush/paint as glue to temporarily stick it all back together again (making use of her artistry stat). Toss the pizza down under her own side of the floor, thereby attracting the boy scouts over to that side, just in case. Finally, launch the modified rocket right at the hinge of the machine, and use the launcher again to pole-vault over the gap and help Sandra out of the debris. B-)
She has three shells. Hit the ceiling above the digger to bury it, tell the boys and Sandra to keep under the shelf of rock to avoid falling debris!
Here another possibility from a friend and an enemy…
http://monstermakerno3.deviantart.com/art/The-Choice-644607046?ga_submit_new=10%253A1478569650
1. Use Gorbachev keyring to jam the rocket inside the rocket launcher
2. Use rigged rocket launcher as an improvised rocket engine to cross the gap.
3. Pull Sandra out of the rubble, barely in time to dodge the attack
4. Use brush with paint to blind killer digger’s external sensors
5. Rig samsung’s phone battery to explode and use it to gain access to the inside of the digger
6. Use carbon rod to short out digger’s inner circuits and set it on fire
7. Restore Sandra’s health by consuming a Slice of Pizza (+10 hp)
8. Escape
Can Cloud help here?
If not, aim for the top of the crane. The blast may screw the weight of the crane to crash in the opposite direction.
Larisa turns into the Female version of the Human Torch!
Deactivate a rocket’s explosive potential attach the carbon rod to it then fire it in the joint between the crane and cab disabling the crane. She then takes an armed rocket fires it on the ground on here side to create a ramp of rubble the scouts can climb up.
Rational: So much unexpected input is already going on in the environment that any sanely/safely programmed AI is going into a halt state. This whole scenario is a false dichotomy; no specific danger exists beyond the general unsafe environment. Do nothing and/or call fire & rescue.
Pragmatic: Drop the pizza off the near/frame-right side of the crevasse to lure the scouts away, then rocket the supports BEHIND the digger, causing it to collapse backwards.
Lateral: Replace the secondary charge (but not the primary/detonator) of one of the rockets with paint. Aim at the digger’s sensor array. No substantial damage, but it will be unable to proactively target Sandra.
Obvious-Optimistic: depending on the strength of the carbon rod, remove the entire warhead assembly of one rocket, jam the carbon rod in its place, and launch it miraculously into the most important mechanism of the digger to halt its progress.
Fanciful: wrap the carbon rod in the pizza and toss it generally across the gap. Sandra the wildlife whisperer can then convince whoever shows up for the pizza to bring the rod the rest of the way over, where she can then use it as a lever/shim to get free.
Completionist: Remove explosive payload (detonator and secondary explosive) from one rocket, replacing it with (presumably oil- or alcohol-based) paint. Launch to distribute somewhere between the digger and Sandra. Remove secondary explosive from second rocket, replace with Samsung phone. Launch as incendiary shell to ignite the paint, obstructing the digger’s view. Use the carbon rod as a fling-arm to throw the keyring onto the digger’s windshield. Use the detonation charge from the first rocket to ignite the paintbrush. When the digger turns to identify the source of the fire, it makes a classical depth-perception error, observing “Gorbachev” (far-Larisa + near-keychain) brandishing a torch. As the All-American AI computes the ramifications of a direct Russian military attack, use the pizza to pay off the scouts to plant the main explosives from all 3 rockets under/behind the digger after ingeniously modifying the detonator of the 3rd rocket into a time-delay fuse with enough leeway to escape.
You know as an Eagle Scout myself I should be more annoyed with all the “Leave the scouts to die” solutions and while I’m still not as annoyed I can tell its more joke than not.
Oh dang, pizza? Pizza break, that’s my vote.
Get the Angel’s attention with the keychain, throw the pizza at the window, use the carbon rod to life Sandra up from the rubble, get the boy scouts towards Larisa with the promise of awesome explosives, use said promise to blow up the Angels back to God, and use the Samsung to call emergency services.
In lieu of the pizza, instead use the paint to obscure window, follow the steps shown above, and use the pizza as a token of goodwill.
Shoot the digger. She’s going to Hell anyway and it’ll be for nothing if Sandra isn’t saved.
@ Mei:
The deal was she only gets to be a succubus if they succeed.
Ooh, this looks fun.
Larisa should hack the Killer Digger with the Samsung phone, using the carbon rod as an antenna.
The digger is then used to pick up the scouts and dig out Sandra.
Let her use the carbon rod to jam either the treads or hydraulic system and then use the pizza and phone to lure the kids out before blasting the machine away.
Throw the Samsung phone so it gets caught between the treads and the wheels. Crunch, small boom, treads fall off, you have disabled the machine.
Pull out the pizza, the boy scouts will be lured by it clearing her shot at the machine.
@ Tangent101:
To be quite frank, I was a Boy Scout and your statement is entirely………true.