Grrl Power #737 – Succubus couture
It’s telling that Cora thinks there’s a chance that this after hours welcome back party might devolve into something else entirely. She’s obviously never had an office job. Or if she did, it was on a planet with very different views on sex. It’s an even bet that most civilizations don’t have an entirely laissez faire attitude about sex, though. In fact the majority of them (in the Grrl Verse) do have some significant hangups about it, so in that regard, Earth is pretty typical. Dabbler still likes acting all indignant about it though.
At least among species that reproduce sexually. I wonder if asexual sapients would have sexual hang ups. Or… asexual hangups I guess. Would asexual species have porn? Probably depends on how they fertilized themselves. I mean, they wouldn’t have prostitution or anything like that. Wow, I’m thinking way too hard about this.
In the known civilized galaxy, there’s probably a few that are like a succubus paradise. Just free love and sex everywhere you go. No disease or unplanned pregnancies to worry about. Hmm, actually I wonder if that would be succubus paradise. They’d be able to stay topped up on tantric energy easily enough, but in a world where sex isn’t commoditized at all, they would lose a great deal of their power, sociologically speaking.
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I don’t know how much catching-up Cora and Dabbler have had time to do, but this is another example of Dabbler being possibly the smartest individual on Earth. According to https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-698-the-digital-closet/ Dabbler doesn’t know anything about the hard light system, and here she is, hacking it.
Or maybe she knows all about the system, just not that Cora was using it.
At any rate, Dabbler must be locking Cora out of her own emitter, because the linked page implies she changes by an act of will – she doesn’t have a control device in any of the panels.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-708-refugee-callback/
Ahem.
It might be that Cora uses an external input device to program in predesigned outfits that she then can call up at will. Dabbler comes along and jacks in her PDA and uses it to push something a bit more kinky into Cora’s saved outfit buffer.
This.
There is obviously some kind of neural interface going on. That field she is clicking on in #708 could as well be a projection from her hardware. I imagine the interface is not smart enough for her to just think “I want the outfit to look like that” but a gesture for pull up the menu and let her choose may be an easier implementation. I imagine that the holo limbs are jacked into her peripheral nerves like the box in #698 and is not a brain interface.
Wellto be fair Cora had warned herself about Dabbler. . . .
That page just says Dabbler doesn’t know she has it, not that Dabbler doesn’t know anything about a hard light system.
That’s why I said, “Or maybe she knows all about the system, just not that Cora was using it.” Did you read the whole post?
She might not have known at first, but Cora did change her outfit between the elevator and here. See? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-730-add-it-to-the-database/
Didn’t Dabbler help Cora upgrade the hard light system?
Dabbler helped upgrade them to better *cybernetics*, Cora has since upgraded to hard light.
Cora just said that Dabbler doesn’t know about the upgrade of the limb-suit to a hardlight system. but presumably the technology is not unique or new, so dabbler probably does know about hardlight technology in general. and we’ve had enough time since arrival for Cora to have informed Dabbler about the upgrade existing.
Explained in the very next page. Dabbler is just *That good* it takes her merely a minute to crack it.
Daphne’s hug capacity is the stuff of legend and we don’t get to see it? :(
There’s an idea for a vote incentive right there.
I can see a revenge wardrobe malfunction happening in a seconds. Good way to loose some of the gained attention.
I’m asexual and a lot of my friends are, but you (and others that have read my comments over the years) have probably noticed excited aesthetic interest in one thing or another. I watch porn, and my other ace friends do too. Just we have no interest in partaking ourselves. (Other aces could be different)
I figure an asexual civilization, if they came to know about sex (because I assume every species on their planet reproduces in non-sexual manners as well since that’s what they evolved from/with) then they’d probably look at it like my group does: scientific curiosity / entertainment.
I mean some people study plant root system differences (an example would be tree roots are 1.5 the branch width and 3x the plant height, but a 3 foot barrel cactus has a 9 foot wide root system that’s only 4 inches deep) but no one needs to know that for the purpose of mating.
Probably just a bigger version of this, I’d guess. They would probably have some hangups- it’s not Planet of Hats (kudos if you get what I’m saying) but there are supporters and detractors of everything, and different cultures even there. Some would allow totally open boning due to entertainment interest, probably thinking of it as a violin player standing on the side of the road playing for cash. Some might just worry about sanitation and not like the idea at all. Some might just want to not have to know either way and do whatever you want, but not in public. Others might decide that since they don’t do it, no one should, and try and wage war against multigendered sexual species.
Am an Ace as well, and like you, interested in observing (not in a voyeuristic manner, so you don’t need to keep lowering your blinds… ), just not personally participating
Problem for me, is after watching, don’t really feel ‘good’ about it, butt tend to find if don’t ‘relieve stress’ at least every couple of days, will have sex-dreams, and totally do not like those as they are not by choice
I remember a… dry nightmare? I had. Made me feel worse about myself for years after (fun fact: it’s still happening!) so yeah I know what you mean. There were other dreams closer to what you’re saying that were off-putting to say the least.
Ace here, as well. Demisexual, technically, but I’m rather bereft of male friends and most I’ve been interested in being friends with are either married, gay, or both, so meh? (Also, there’s the whole “oh, I’m in the friend zone” mentality that most guys tend to have, not to mention a lot of people seem to not be able to wrap their head around the idea of opposite-sex friends where no sex is involved. :/ )
Anyway, wanted to mention that asexual people can reproduce. If they’re okay with having sex (ie, can function, just not particularly interested), then they’d do it that way; if not, there’s always the same method lesbian couples who want to have a baby sans adoption use. *shrug*
Yeah I know of Aces that have sex with their partner, not because they want to, but because it’s the price you pay for not being alone. If you want someone to be willing to allow you to be in their presence, well… I mean this isn’t a forced fact, but it is certainly something a lot of people feel is true. At the same time, there was a girl I was interested in (she’s white but has a flat face (like Summer Glau) and that interested me to look at) that I met in 1996 and we’re still friends now.
She’s the one that helped me tame my pet opossum.
Thinking about it, most of my friends have always been female, and maybe they like having me around because I don’t buzz around their crotch like so many flies at a barbeque. *shrugs in ignorance*
Don’t personally view it as ‘the price you pay for not being alone’, most Ace simply don’t derive pleasure (or at least as much as non-Ace people) from the (physical) sexual act, they will do it because they love their partner (unless they are also aromantic, in which case, why do they even have a partner? o_O), and if their partner truly cares about them, they won’t force the issue (and in such cases, they will get their ‘release’ elsewhere, with consent of their Ace partner)
Yep, you guessed it, I’m aromantic too.
I want a partner so I can have someone to talk to, bounce ideas off of, and other stuff. I mean I’m still a human, which is one of many pack animals on this planet.
I’m sorry, the name of one of the Succubus’ nemeses is a portmanteau of ‘thot’, ‘ho’, and ‘goth’?
I’m honestly not sure whether to (metaphorically) slap you or cheer you…
Meh, more like a clingy ex, like that comic-guy who tried to hit on Maxi (and was lucky to survive… meaning Maxi was the one lucky to get out of the comic store)
Perhaps he impressed her with his silence? :)
Except, he was doing more than talking (or not talking as the case for the prosecution may be)
Actually, all he did was stand there and say “You have really nice…” after standing there awkwardly for a long time.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-357-one-of-the-least-painful-ways-to-get-shot-down-by-maxima/
And he did move closer in the second last panel
It really depends on what part of her he spent all that time looking at
Do agree that Maxi could have handled it better, butt can’t see how she could have handled it worse: have to remember his introduction, and how much of that Maxi witnessed
To be fair, it can be argued that Maxima handled it fine :) She shut him down before he said anything annoying to her without getting unnecessarily violent or threatening at least (which she is particularly good at). Especially if Maxima heard any of the argument before they came into the shop. The guy IS annoying. And Maxima might have thought “I am going to make sure he does not annoy me since I might flick him through a window if he acts to me like anything close to how he acted to Joel” (i think thats his name)
Could be a combo of “Thoth,” the Egyptian god of magic and knowledge (the deific scribe) and goth, a Germanic people who were involved in the fall of the Roman Empire, so perhaps a magical deity/demon that destroys civilizations, like that purple and gold demon you see Dabbler banishing in a flashback, back during the power demo to the press?
From what I can tell, it seems more of a Lovecraftian Horror, than a portmanteau or similar combination. Similar to Shoggoth and the like. There are already confirmed Lovecraftian-style monsters out there in the ‘verse, mostly Demons from what I remember, but others do exist. There was even what amounts to a Teenage/Early College Cthulhu lookalike in one of Dabbler’s flashbacks, the one about Succubus School.
Probably that demon guy who was after her?
That was my thought. Thothogoth sounds like a plausible name for someone who might return with a great burning… I still think Dabbler’s right, and he should have somebody look at that.
I am going to be a grammar pedant here. The correct wording is “taller than I”, not “taller than me”. If you add the missing verb (‘am’) it is clear that ‘than me’ is wrong:
“taller than me am”
“taller than I am”
On the other hand, not all characters talk in perfect English, so maybe that is intended. But the writer should at least know the difference.
Except, ‘am’ is not missing, it is deliberately not included because it would be wrong
If the full (double emphasis on ‘full’) sentence ended with ‘taller than I’ (which itself sounds so much wrong), then yes, you would need to add ‘am’, butt ‘taller than me’ was used which is correct
So, not only are you a ‘grammar pedant’ (believe the word you meant started with ‘n’), you are an incorrect ‘grammar pedant’
No, Guesticus, Unmaker is correct as far as pedantry is concerned.
That determination was made by the uberpedants of Victorian England, who were attempting to fit English into a Latin mold at the time they standardized spelling.
“taller than I [am]” was taught to all of us in the middle of the last century as correct usage. It only sounds strange now because vulgar usage has prevailed… in almost everything these days.
Don’t get me started about comedic versions of Elizabethan “thees” and “thous”. Anyone can pick up a King James Bible to hear what it is supposed to sound like.
Yes, and they are still wrong
And the usage here isn’t of the ‘vulgar’ kind, it is of the informal kind
I have to agree with Guesticus. To end it with I, you need an implicit ‘am’ to make it correct. But the fact that there could be an implicit ‘am’ to make an “I” correct doesn’t mean there’s an implicit “am” there for a “me” ending.
Further, the Victorians aren’t the only ones who can correct how English is used. While I frequently am frustrated with descriptive grammarians for removing the expressiveness of language, I do not wish to suffer from prescriptive grammarians removing the expressiveness of language, either.
That having been said, virtually every grammar pedant comment about comic grammar usage forgets that quotes are exempt from any need for being grammatically correct, and the vast majority of comic text is quotes. I find Unmaker’s argument even more frustrating because they recognize the quote exemption, and yet *still* think that their argument has any validity.
Not in American English, that changed a few years ago.
I’m. considering buying Mutants and Masterminds, and I. thought I would run a game set in the Grrl universe, post-timeskip.
Have you considered using the original Champions? What is now called the “Hero System” – It allows for ridiculous control over how powers work, to the point of, if you want to fire a beam consisting of custard creme pies that deals a bit of physical damage and causes an entangle effect due to the sticky pie filling, you can do it.
I game mastered Champions for over twenty years, and I love its capacity to model anything. I never considered any other system until I wound up playing with people who don’t use mathematics in their everyday lives.
When I started playing, my friends were other Electronics Technicians and other wargamers (Advanced Squad Leader, anyone? Star Fleet Battles?) so I didn’t see having equations for everything instead of charts could be a problem for the players.
It can be.
I have played a lot of superhero systems. Villains And Vigilantes, GURPS Supers, Golden Age, Marvel Super Heroes, and I would like to have a look at Marion Harmon’s Wearing The Cape system. All of them have something, and most are worth a look.
I still prefer Champions, but when you pick that one you kind of have to have a raised bar (as far as mathematic ability) for your players.
I guess I would sound old if I said education did a better job before people could rely on calculators and were forced to be better at basic math in their heads in order to pass higher level courses.
Champions (4th edition) is still the best for my use.
I was trying to build a character in Mutants and Masterminds, and even that game (and Numenera) wouldn’t let me create a character I really like- Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura.
Apparently she’s far too powerful to even be a superhero.
The Champions system would probably allow it, but the game master probably would set the maximum active points for their campaign too low to field in their campaign.
You would just have to set it up as a power pool, so you could only have a certain number of effects active at once, but keep the versatility. IIRC, Sakura didn’t use a lot of different powers at once, and having the limitation that you have to activate a Clow Card for some abilities (Obvious Accessible Focus, and I believe the flight is part of her magic staff as well) could get you some significant cost savings, assuming a bad guy could try to grab the staff away.
For animé powers, many of them cannot be just thrown on a whim.
Activation time can often be thrown on and entire pool or multipower.
But then you wind up fighting a speedster…
Well a speedster is a problem for anyone with an accessable focus.
Ebert Thawn: Nice magic staff! (Zoooooom!) I think I’ll add this to my collection!
That’s why most of my accessible focus users have high strengths.
I am fond of strong characters with staves (Firelord, Union, Adam Warlock during Infinity Gauntlet, etc…) who use the staff to get a bit of reach as much as anything. Or as a focus for a ranged attack.
Strengths not enough to keep from losing foci regularly when I’m a player, as I am constantly bad about running out of end and then burning through my stun.
It’s dramatic, yeah that’s it: Dramatic.
PUT GRRL INTO FIRST, VOTE EVERY DAY
A purely asexual species is unlikely to ever develop to sapience, as it stagnates evolution…
The only way I can see sapience and asexuality happening at all is if the species is technically sexual but uses technological means of reproduction, rather than sexual means. Such as artificial wombs or cloning. Such a species would most undoubtably have sexual hangups… otherwise they wouldn’t be using artificial wombs or cloning to reproduce.
The Battletech universe explores that a bit, with those born from sexual reproduction in the Clans being referred to as “freebirths”. Calling someone from the Clans a “freebirth” is akin to calling a Klingon a lilly livered yellow bellied coward, or calling a Ferengi an altruistic philanthropist.
Also thank you for saying “sapient” instead of “sentient”… That really gets on my nerves…
For those who don’t know, the word “sentient” just means it can sense the environment and form a subjective experience of the world it lives in. Ants are sentient and pass the mirror test for crying out loud. Sapient means capable of cognition and wisdom.
Not really asexual in the biological sense, but I once thought up an alien species that reproduced by breathing out pollen at certain times of their life. Others who were in the right part of their cycle would get fertilized when they breathed in such pollen. The catch was, their larvae developed only to a certain point, and then went into hibernation until the parent died, after which all larvae awoke and began consuming their parent’s body. They didn’t gain sapience until they pupated. It made for an ALIEN world view from a human perspective: not only didn’t they have only one gender, but the entire CONCEPT of sex was alien to them! As was the idea of family, since they never knew their parents. Also, the way they looked at death was… odd, since to them death was necessary to bring new life in the world. (Oh, and the idea of human pregnancy scared them at first since it was too similar to a condition they sometimes suffered when their larvae awoke too soon and began devouring their parent alive!) Just an old attempt to imagine a truly alien frame of mind, but the talk about alien sex reminded me of it.
I like your aliens. An other example is Sam from Freefall. He is some kind of squid-like scavenger. When they lay eggs they die and the young ones get picked up by other adults. He compared it to picking out a puppy.
Enemy Mine?
I have a flimsy excuse now to bring up a favorite: BDELLOID ROTIFER!
Asexuality also means, that the individual derives no pleasure from sexual acts (usually the physical form), not just that they can reproduce without a partner
Kryptonnalso had the beginnings of tgag for about 200 years before the planet exploded. Most Kryptonians were born in birthing devices called the “Gestation Chambers” via technology rather than from sex. The House of El was just rather old fashioned so Jor El and Zor El and Lara and Alura had their children the old fashioned way.
I hate writing on my phone.
The gold people in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 are this.
False assertion, parthenogenal species exist.
Well a biologically asexual species might gain mutations and adaptations by a different process then combining genes with a partner. The development of their offspring might be heavily influenced by diet or environmental factors, or maybe even work more like that old Soviet theory of evolution (where traits where gained from the previous generation’s need to adapt).
It would have to have the right amount of flexibility and stability to keep it from stagnating or going of the rails, but that is true of our own form of reproduction, we’re just more used to it.
Ugh.
A new Cape High novel (juvenile superhero series) came out today and it’s got a Mork and Mindy reference early on. I blame Sydney.
I like the fact that we don’t see a trace of lower leftie until the very last panel. Dabs was apparently hooking up her hacking tool the whole time she was talking to Cora. Misdirection for the win!
Not sure if noted already. And most comments are about hacking, Maxima’s decorum, or sexual types. But Dabbler appears to have lost her forehead marking in the last panel.
What does Dabbler have in mind for Cora?
A maid outfit with a thong.
Next up: Cora and Dabbler bake cookies.
Hacked wardrobe malfunction coming?
Sounds like Anvil is one of those girls who goes “Must be over 6ft” :p
Looking at Anvil’s cast page, it’s “must be over 6’7” tall.
She sort of explained why earlier when Sydney gave her a hug and wound up with a face full of boobies. Which admittedly is probably great for the guy but it’s apparently awkward for Anvil, hence she prefers tall guys so that every hug isn’t a motorboat.
Or, that every hug isn’t an excuse for a motorboat, which is why her other criteria is they not be jerks (which would be the hardest to find)
If the height difference is too great then the taller person risks a crick in their back if attempting to kiss during coitus. It’s annoying.
I must admit that I am most looking forward to a reaction scene when Sydney tells Max about her combat with the alien Big Bads, her power-ups, and where/how she got to where Cora picked her up. The dropping of jaws alone might shatter some windows.
Yo Dave, the army issued a statement that Captain America would get both pay and promotions while he was frozen in the ice. So Sydney would also get full pay and such
So, why wasn’t he General America then? o_O
because until he was recovered he was a historical icon rather than anything else. When he was recovered, he should have been reconsidered to have been mia instead of kia, but culture has inertia that mere military bureaucracy can’t easily overcome. tl; dr: even if he was promoted to general behind the scenes, it wouldnt have changed any of the perception of him being captain america.
Also in general, it is extremely weird that arianna would be arguing against he clients not being given any compensation they may be entitled to. She is their lawyer after all. In general it should probably be general faulk or such instead in that scene.
She is also the lawyer for Archon
It’s not weird that she’s arguing against the supers getting compensation they’re entitled to. This is why it’s a really bad idea to consider the company lawyer your lawyer no matter how much they claim they are. It’s called “conflict of interest”, and it almost always resolves in the favor of the corporation, so don’t fall for it.
I expect Sydney will come to understand this and get her own lawyer later, as will many of the others. This will, however, be delayed a bit, because even with the penny pinching, Archon is paying fairly well for the time they admit that they are responsible to pay for.