Grrl Power #1184 – Little hairy dress
I wish I had a cleaning cantrip. There’s a lot of decent options when it comes to cantrips, but in everyday real life? A little bacon spatter on the stove top? Cleaning cantrip. Inside of the microwave after heating up a bowl of something a little spattery? Cleaning cantrip. The spot behind your monitor getting dusty? Cat hair all over your shirt? Need to squeak one more wear out of your favorite bra? You know it, cleaning cantrip.
Okay, yes. Guidance (+1D4 to ability checks), Control Flames, Gust, Mage Hand, Mending, Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy, and Vicious Mockery would also be useful, (the last one only if it worked when posting snarky comments online), but Clean really beats them all for everyday use. Yeah, I know Clean isn’t a D&D 5e Cantrip, at least it’s not on the official list because there’s virtually no combat use for it. I don’t even know if that’s true. An adventuring team a dozen strong all with Clean could definitely piss off a Neo-Otyug. Still, you got to figure there’s a ton of cantrips that didn’t make the Tome of Arcana cut, like, Tune Instrument, Timer with Audible Alarm, Fit – to make clothes that are like half a size too big or just a little tight under the armpits fit better, Make Wobbly Chair or Table not Wobble, stuff like that. Man, that last on would be nice. It really bothers me when a table in a restaurant is tumping back and forth like you’re trying to play Labyrinth with your appetizers.
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And in the Patreon variant, what better way to resolve it than a nude race? You know, to eliminate uh… wind drag I guess?
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Prestidigitation can be used to “Instantaneously clean or soil an object no larger than 1 cubic foot” which is basically your hypothetical Clean cantrip (albeit not usable for the largest cases.)
I think the best Cantrip to have IRL would be Mending though. Being able to fix any damage that isn’t more than a foot in any direction would be godly in a world of microprocessors and smartphones.
Depends on what it can mend, I guess. I’d figure it only mends physical faults in hardware, but that’d still be pretty nice to fix broken screens, shattered plastic, stripped screws, short circuits, scratched CDs if anyone still cares, the occasional manufacturing error on a processor die, etc. If it could fix lithium ion battery degradation that’d be awesome, but that’s more of a buildup of material than a crack or anything, so it’s more of a Prestidigitation thing.
I often wish in daily life that I could have either Prestidigitation or Mending. I think I wish for Prestidigitation more often, because I hate doing dishes and I often wish I could make Ensure taste different or something, but that’s out of laziness. When I wish for Mending it’s because of something otherwise unfixable, so yeah, Mending takes the cake.
Mending sounds great until apple finds a way to make that cause a calibration error that can only be fixed at a genius bar.
:P
The ability to fix manufacturing errors in processor dies would make you a billionaire overnight. Semiconductor yields for high-end chips used in modern CPU/GPUs can have yields as low as 30%. The entire modern wafer would trivially fit inside the range of Mending, too. Instantly boost that shit to 100% yields, and at an impossible level of quality control. Even the best chips that get used are not literally perfect, they’re just above a certain acceptable level of defects.
I don’t think Mending would fix an error like that. It fixes things back to their ‘original’ forms. If there is an error in production, mending would just fix back to the original error-filled form, much like it won’t fix a T-Shirt that reads “Warluck” to ‘Warlock’ or something.
If you want it to an ‘idealized’ form, you need 3.5e’s Masterwork spell, which would change the quality level to 20 and ideal.
But yeah, Prestidigitation does cleaning just fine. If you use Spell Slots, it can dust a whole room at once.
In 1e, there was actually a Southern Magic spell that did nothing but keep you worn clothes sparkling clean all the time.
Yeah, that would rely on ‘Warluck’ being a typo, and not an intended spelling (never heard of needing luck in war? clearly never seen combat)
Curveball is the closest character I can think of to being a warluck. Sort of the weaponized superhero equivalent of these guys.
That vid link is not available :(
Awww. :( It’s a playlist for season one of The Goes Wrong Show.
I’m aware, but assuming that a dedicated Clean cantrip would effect a larger volume.
True.
A society that runs 99% on magic would have more spells and cantrips than the two dozen found in the D&D players handbook. Specialised spells for greater efficiency.
And fewer do-it-all ‘swiss army-chainsaw’ spells :)
How often do you need a larger radius than a cubic foot in 6 seconds?
An argument can be made that the literal RAW of the spell cannot affect a portion of a larger target, nor can it target a creature, since a creature is not an object. Either quibble would prevent it from being applicable here since Parfait is not an object, nor is she less than 1 cubic foot of material.
Having said that, I have never met a DM who didn’t rule that you can use presto piecemeal like that, nor have I met one that didn’t rule that you can use it to clean yourself/your party members. It’s not technically what the rulebook says it can do, but it’s a logical extension of what it says it can do and it doesn’t break the game to allow it.
I’ve got you some magic for the microwave, at least. It’s not D&D proper magic, but it’s your typical Texas witchy naturespell. Like any good spell, it requires a little preparation. You’ll need:
bowl (substitute for cauldron due to small size)
water (only the purest, freshest…oh, wait, you’re also in Texas; feh, just use your tap water, who cares)
something that smells nice (cinnamon, vanilla, orange peels, whatever)
dish detergent (optional, for tough things)
Fill your substitute cauldron with the water. Add in your nice smells and your optional dish detergent. Mix gently to avoid a mess. Err, that is, to avoid angering the spirits! Place the bowl into the microwa–summoning device–and engage the self-chant for 120 to 300 seconds. It is very important to make sure your summoning device has properly engaged the chanting process. It won’t work if you do the chanting manually. You can confirm this usually by way of a low humming sound and/or a countdown on the magical display output.
And that’s it. The nice-smelling things are kind of optional, too. They’re mostly just to make your kitchen smell nice, but it can help with strong odors in the microwave.
Not sure how that does anything that a spray and wipe doesn’t do quicker? It steams so maybe it loosens baked.on stuff, but it also bakes stuff on more…
Steams loosens things up nicely, but also it infuses soap and scented oils into the same crannies the smells are hiding in.
Always be careful when microwaving water to (near) boiling, since it can become super heated and explode/instantly boil upon contact.
I’d be kind of surprised if the soap that was mixed in also gets vaporized rather than left in the cauldron, though, it might depend on the soap.
P.S. always make sure it’s a microwave safe cauldron
Since it is a cantrip, you can cast it as much as you want, so you could still use Prestidigitation to repair/clean/soil a larger object, just a bit at a time. A 500 cubic foot vehicle, for example, would take 500 casts to wash.
One cast per 6 seconds = 10 casts per minute, so it’d take almost an hour to clean a 500 cubic foot vehicle. Not bad for a full-on detailing, though.
I invoke rules lawyering to cast it on my semi trailer’s paint, instead of the entire trailer. Due to the thinness of the material, the aggregate volume is well under 1 cubic foot and requires only a single casting to do the inside and outside at the same time.
Unless the DM rules that the cleaning causes the paint to debond from the underlying material, in which case I start a guild to replace industrial sandblasting and all paint removal products.
Is the paint fully contiguous on the interior and exterior? Does it cover all parts? If so, then as a DM I’d allow it, but I’ve never heard of a semi-trailer that was covered inside and out in a single, contiguous layer of paint that covered all parts such as bolts. Not saying yours doesn’t, it’s your trailer, I assume you’d know better than me how it was painted, but that sounds rather non-standard given the trailers I’ve seen.
To hell with the trailer! I would use it whenever I encountered a truckstop toilet.
A lot of those cantrips are covered under the Druid craft/Thaumaturgy/Prestidigitation cluster, thankfully. Still surprised at how few spellcasters select those… its been a running thing since at least 2nd ed, where half of all spellcasters don’t have the apprentice tricks spell
I thinks its a combination of hard limits restricting the number of spells a caster can learn, and a lack of creativity in hot to use them. Its like D&D is one of the only places where the number of spells a caster actively knows is restricted in addition to how often they can cast magic.
Actually, D&D largely adopted the magic scheme from The Dying Earth series; You could force a spell into your mind by reading it while concentrating intensely, (It fought you!) and retain it until cast, but having cast it you’d have to re-read it, because the casting erased it from your mind. (That’s what made spell books so vital!) Better mages could fit more/tougher spells into their minds. And the casting of spells was mentally traumatic enough that you’d need recovery time.
I’ve always been kinda irked by the trend to ignore utility cantrips, IMO. Speaking rather broadly, you’re not likely to actually *need* more than one damage cantrip on your sheet, most caster classes in 5e get three cantrips at within tier 1 of play, and that’s before factoring in all the ways to get extra cantrips (racial spells, feats, some sub-classes or class options, magic items). Assuming a party of 4 with two martials and two full casters, even without taking any of the extra cantrip options you get at least 6 cantrips in the party by level 4, ten cantrips if you have two sorcerers, if two of those get eaten up by damage cantrips (one for each caster), then the only reason for not even one of those slots to be taken by druid craft/thaumaturgy/prestidigitation is a failure to make good decisions.
I take one of those three spells on nearly every caster character I make, and on the rare occasions I’m doing something that requires other priorities I ensure one of my party members takes them because they are just too useful not to have when they are an option. Other utility spells that make very frequent appearances on my character sheets include minor illusion, mage hand, dancing lights, mending, and mold earth. Never underestimate the power of utility.
It’s kind of like how not taking healing word or cure wounds when they are an option makes you a jerk, not taking at least one utility cantrip when it’s an option means you missed something vitally important and obvious.
most definitely a smoke show. Rawr.
Prestidigitation *is* the cleaning cantrip in D&D. Given its other properties, including arbitrarily alering flavor, it’s basically a tiny Wish spell. Least Wish.
In my D&D group we’ve been calling Prestidigitation “Least Wish” since 3e. It continues to be the best cantrip in the game from a roleplay perspective.
Mending’s second, if you’re curious~
I’d argue minor illusion is better from a role play perspective than mending, I get WAY more use out of minor illusion than I do mending (outside of on my battlesmith artificer, but that’s because mending heals my defender and not due to a standard use of the spell).
Does the bard want a second instrument to accompany their performance? Minor illusion. Do you want to project a 3d map and say “here’s the plan”? Minor illusion. Is one party member’s clothing “indecent” for a royal audience and they’re gonna be sitting or standing in one spot for an extended period of time? Minor illusion. Want to show the guard what the perpetrator looked like? Minor illusion. Want to commission a highly specific piece from an artisan and need to give them a visual example complete with accurate dimensions of the object you want? Minor illusion. Need total concealment for whatever reason? Minor illusion (so long as they don’t touch it or spend an action to investigate). Want to make an in-universe joke about narration? Minor illusion. Want to fake someone else’s voice? Minor illusion. Wanna sing a duet with yourself? Minor illusion.
The possibilities are as boundless as your imagination!
There is a cleaning Cantrip in D&D, and you even named it! One of the effects of Prestidigitation is:
• You instantaneously clean or soil an object no larger than 1 cubic foot.
So it’s Clean the spell, but also ‘spill wine on a wizard’s robes’ the spell.
You’re thinking of prestidigitation: the best D&D cantrip to get in real life because you get cleaning as just a starter, followed by magic marker, food re-flavourer, instant microwave/icebox, minor flare abilities (puffs of wind or sparks little misical notes, etc), and just the outright ability to make non-magical trinkets or palmsuzed illusions that last for six seconds. Nothing helpful for combat, but it’s the real life champion for both convenience and being the life of the party.
Sydney’s modified but awesome summoning made me remember a book series I haven’t looked at in ages.
The mc is a chemistry major in college and stumbles onto a book for spells. He laughs at the rustic ingredients and then uses science to create much more perfect spell variations. Including buying synthetic gemstones for the spells that need those. Because they’re not only cheaper, but ‘perfect’ and thus better for casting.
Can’t remember what it was called, though…
Please post the series when you remember.
Sounds like it may be interesting.
“Demon Hunter” by Michael Dalton.
‘Clean’ is actually part of prestidigitation
I think the wobbly chair one might could be called “Prop.”
The GURPS magic system has a good supply of handy spells for everyday use. In fact, checking the table of spells at the back of GURPS Magic, I find that “Clean” (by that name) is on page 116. It removes dirt and grime, and polishes surfaces that can hold a polish, but doesn’t remove bad smells; you use Purify Air for that. There are a lot of other small spells . . .
I’m personally not a big fan of GURPS College Magic (what I call the version of magic in GURPS Basic Set, GURPS Magic, etc), but yeah, it’s got a lot of little spells like this. In Ritual Path Magic, I think a simple Lesser Destroy Matter ritual would do the trick, at least for cleaning things as well as, say, a typical washing machine can do it. For a Powers build, Create n (Destruction Only +0%; Only for Cleaning -80%) should do it (although I’m not sure if Cleaning Only would qualify for a full -80%), with exactly what kind of stuff you can clean out of objects (and how much it costs) determined by what you set n as (Very Common I think would basically cover everything, then Common->Occasional->Rare)… although personally I’d be more inclined to just fiat a cost of [5] (it basically automatically gives you the Perk Sartorial Integrity, which prevents you from getting yourself and/or your clothing dirty, and lets you share it with other characters/objects/etc, as well as basically being a general purpose Accessory Perk for cleaning supplies), although I could be convinced to just make it a Perk (Sartorial Integrity applies automatically, while this should probably require a Ready or Concentrate to use, which arguably justifies being able to share the benefits with others).
In a Powers build I might call it Aspected: Cleaning for -20%.
One thing about the GURPS mana-based magic system is that it works pretty well for designing entry level mages who aren’t human artillery pieces but provide a lot of small utility.
Bayonetta, Jr.
My mind went there too. Of course, she’s not the summoner here.
In my experience, cleaning is what most people take Prestidigitation for, although that function seems to have become less powerful in D&D 5e, being limited to an object of no more than one cubic foot.
Most clothes could fit within that area, individually. So would still be useful for laundry and most pieces of equipment. If your creative with it and have the time, could even clean a house. Cleaning a whole house would just require multiple castings, which is doable since now cantrips are free cast. In 5e cantrips do not use a spell slot to cast.
Not to be an “Um, Actually” guy… but well, here I go: The cantrip Prestidigitation. One of the uses for it is to clean/dirty a small area. Assuming you only used the clean function; you would have a cleaning cantrip.
Man, those eyes in frame 7? They just scream “Astroboy”. Got a really strong Tezuka vibe going there.
Gwen hasn’t noticed her missing fishnets?
Heh. Maybe it’s some kind of succubus aura thing where you gradually wind up more and more naked without noticing?
Not yet, maybe DaveB will beat her to it.
I think it’s the lack of ‘sudden chill’ that makes her not notice.
With fishnets, how would you tell? There are more holes in a fishnet than net
Given the texture of fishnets, she’d notice the first time she moved. They’re a lot more sexy than they are comfortable.
Interesting new theory. The fishnets were an illusion and when Gwen provided the mana to cast the summons she diverted the mana maintaining the illusion.
Honestly one of the best mundane utility uses for illusion magic IMO, using illusions to change your clothes to whatever you feel like wearing. I personally wouldn’t use it to replace clothes entirely since I find the weight/pressure of clothing in some areas comforting to the point where it feels weird when I’m not wearing clothing there, but I’d love to be able to wear whatever’s comfortable but still have “appropriate” or sexy clothing depending on the situation, heck, even just being able to change the message on my t-shirt to something contextually relevant would be awesome!
I think being able to instantly turn a deep neckline shirt into a turtleneck whenever you notice some creep staring at your cleavage would be kind of neat.
Topologically, if you get a hole in your fishnets, that means you have fewer holes in your fishnets.
Prestidigitation *is* the cleaning cantrip. One of the modes is: You instantaneously clean or soil an object no larger than 1 cubic foot.
the side effect of using the cleaning half of the spell is that something in your other pocket will get dirty by the same amount
Pretty sure prestidigitation has clean as one if it’s potential effects, so there’s just no specific clean cantrip.
Prestidigitation literally cleans stuff :p
The prestidigitation cantrip is the cleaning cantrip. Cleaning is one of the many abilities it has.
Prestidigitation covers cleaning actually. Cleans or soils a 1 ft cube. Dm dependent on if that means that the object has to be 1 ft cubed at most, or if it can be used piecemeal on a larger object at a rate of 1ft per 6 seconds.
I usually run with the latter, it makes more sense to me, but people also just usually handwaive away the area limit if it’s smaller than a large object (like having it clean up a person traipsing through sewers in one casting).
Or you can go with the caster being able to shape the area cleaned. It’s not like you need to clean your insides. At least if magic is advanced enough for it.
Lol, could make that a plot point. The self taught witch from a barbarian tribe needs to cast it multiple times and wonders why she doesn’t need to poop or per as much. Where the civilized mage from the academy just needs to do it once, but their BMs stay regular.
Technically it can clean or soil an OBJECT no larger than one cubic foot, creatures are not valid targets and you can’t do it piecemeal since it isn’t an area effect. Having said that I have never met a DM, myself included, that didn’t allow presto to be used to clean a person or for a larger object to be cleaned over multiple castings, simply because it rarely matters enough to care that the RAW says otherwise and it adds to the world to have those things be options so rule of cool applies.
So what happens to the actual dirt when you use a cleaning cantrip? Does it get dumped into another universe, does it splat into the ground behind you, do you end up with a palm full of filth? Also, is Sidney going to clean that floor before her home/comic shop/military base gets infested with ants?
Won’t bother to mention the same spell everyone already has, but I will say every arcane caster I’ve played since cantrips became an at-will thing has made a running gag out of being a Felix Unger who could throw fireballs.
13 replies of “Prestidigitation” implies-
A lot of posts are still being moderated and not yet visible on New Strip Days.
and D&D rules forever!
Nah, don’t blame the comment section on people not reading when wanting to be the first to mention something (this happened even before the delayed postings)
Hot succubus covered in honey and glitter? Yeah I’m sure that’s someone’s kink out there.
She’s a hot, 18 y/o succubus, that’s enough for anyone, anything else is window dressing! All she’d have to do is walk through any collage campus and she’d have every single male (and some female) following her like hungry lost puppies. Including teachers and staff… MMA cage fights be damned, that would make SO many ready for a fight just for the “rights” to her… lol. (cue “The Beasty-boys” ‘you gotta fight’)
Wait…. she experienced time in transit? And it was so long and good she started soaping up?? Did I understand that right?
Not quite. Summoning transit apparently is not instantaneous, and so you can get some amount of sensation out of it. However, she was summoned from her bathtub (note the brush from last episode), because Rule of Funny.
Hmmm… How long does it take hot water to soak the honey out of full-bodied hair (pun intended)?
RELEASE. THE. KRAKEN.
^_^
She did, panel 3, not my fault the camera was too high….
(Pssst! I doubt Parfait’s going to fall for the folded $10 bill by her foot gag, …then stop trying, that’s lunch for the month already!)
Next time, olive oil. Got it. It even comes in “virgin” and “EXTRA virgin”!
You can only use that to banish a succubus
Why am I sticky and naked, did I miss something fun?
*Manages to open page shortly after it’s uploaded…*
*Starts waiting for the obligatory “I’d love to see Sydney using the Hair To Clothes ability as a Vote Incentive” posts…*
*Is rather surprised to see no such posts 2 hours later…*
I’m honestly surprised to not see any posts asking for “Hair To Clothes Sydney” as a Vote Incentive. Personally, Vote Incentives are always “no skin off my nose either way” for me, but I am amused by those who insist upon certain ideas. Especially since Parfait would have to be doing it for her basically, so it would be 2 girls for the price of 1…
Mind you, part of me is strongly saying “give it time”…
Bayonetta has killed that joke, and resurrected it repeatedly, only to kill it again from each limb gun, and twice more from the BFG she made from her own hair somehow. Then buried it under the “Gun Mage” tropes.
Combat use for cleaning cantrip…use it on goblins to make them less repulsive so you can fight with both hands.
There must be a magic “fit” spell somewhere out there. Magic armor in games magically fits anyone attuned to it perfectly without needing to be altered so it makes sense that there’s a spell to do that.
Masterwork spell from 3e would probably do it? 100 gp, instant masterwork. So if you’re wearing a bad suit, ping! Instant perfect fit.
Cleaning cantrip uses?
in order by grossness:
– dogs and mud.
– kids and food, paint and bodily funtiond.
– Inconsiderate people and public toilets. if you think spray and pray is a gaming term, you haven’t seen some of them.
In our group, we add some small things to prestidigitation like it can summon a small stool to sit on and can be used to shave, groom, apply makeup, and such.
I see the umbra witch’s have had an effect of hellish fashion. Hair is cheap, plentiful, and full of the owners magic. Emergency cloths is a fringe benefit at best.
This sort of industrial magic thinking is why I liked Eberron as a setting. Also the WizBiz by Rick Cook. Many of the even most basic (cantrip) magical effects either surpass or greatly enhance industrial processes. Partly because the “costs” break thermodynamics, conservative of energy, and reverses entropy (flips time’s arrow), without Rules as Written consequences.
For example “Create Water”, this seems like a great solution solving clean drinking water problems the world over. But where does the water come from? If it isn’t magically assembled out of existing Hydrogen and Oxygen, then it’s creating new atoms. Which will add Mass to Earth. At the volume of water required daily, this will begin to create problems. You’re adding more mass to Earth. You’re also increasing the total “water” budget of the planet. To a lesser extent Mending and Prestidigitation also cause this issue. Purify Food and Drink, a better option than creation, but where do the non-potable contaminants go? Mass removal, and some of those are valuable (like nitrates) in other systems.
On a pre-industrial scale, most of these issues are negligible at a global scale. Although you could posit a magical civilization that collapses because they kept using magic to vanish away their night soil, and slowly depleted critical ecological trace elements.
Ah, yes, who can forget the fresh sea; A guy who was short on fresh water managed to cast a desalinization spell, but without any limiters. It ended up burying his whole country under drifts of salt, and the adjacent sea became fresh water, with all the salt water life dead.
Taught as a lesson to new mages in what never to do.
For the mad scientist variant, Ice-9 is even more potent.
Just looked up the Wiz series again, only read it a few years ago and didn’t realize it was written so long ago (early 90s). Kind of appreciate it more now that I realize how well it leveraged the ideas at that stage of the consumer computer industry.
That’s a big factor in a couple of my worlds. in a spell that converts A to B, B will slowly revert back to A. The “safe” versions of purification spells will put the impurities somewhere specific… in bathrooms, converting them into water and putting the water through magical lines to the sewers and storm drains, where it would be far downstream before slowly converting back. (Microorganisms wouldn’t suddenly be alive again, though.)
There is at least one city that is constantly covered by smog, because everyone uses brooms with dust-to-wind to clean out their homes, and it becomes dust again in the air.
Awhile back,it was revealed that Parfait was already eighteen?!?
(Unless she’s been lying about her age???)
I mean, cleaning’s useful, yes, but I prefer my magic to facilitate things I CAN’T otherwise do, rather than make stuff I could already do easier.
Personally I’d take a quality of life upgrade that saves time and effort to replace an activity I hate doing before getting into anything to give me more things I can do. I already don’t have enough time to do all the things I want to do most days, and while I want to live in a clean house, I hate having to clean so I usually live in a dirty house (since I value my free time more than I value cleanliness).
If that upgrade took the form of prestidigitation and not simply cleaning, that’s even better since it can replace my old microwave, allow me to eat healthier since I could re-flavor stuff I don’t like to taste like things I do, and help provide visual aids/a laugh track to conversation all on top of helping me keep my stuff clean.
So if that transit was luxurious, can one set up a summoning that isn’t? Say one that uses sigils drawn with gravel , grit and a big pile of sh*t.
Grease could potentially counter all sorts of stuff, be it an oil spill someone may have set up to burn unsuspecting adventurers or Grease, for a magical source of similar level, at least logically.
It may not be that relevant for direct combat, but it might actually be way OP when you can just casually get rid of a lot of dangers.
I’ve made similar commentary in Shadowrun. For all the spells out there, the best ones are the spells that allow my mage to be exceptionally lazy. Want a cold one from the fridge? Get a Magic Fingers spell and stick a mirror on the wall so you don’t even have to turn around.
While magical cleansing might be convenient, it would take away the relaxation of a nice hot bath, or the refreshing feeling of a shower. Not to mention sharing a cleansing cantrip with a friend/lover/spouse doesn’t sound like it’s much fun… Unless it’s the same one Dabs used on Sydney during that visit to the black vault! (that poor body pillow)
The smokey clothes might be fun though, fast on, and all is needed to strip is a good fan and a smile ;) Avoid windy days however, unless you’re into that…
I really can’t help but wonder what Sydney is thinking about here, I doubt Max is going to like any of this, I’m sure Dabbler will, since she was so worried that Tom was going to hurt Parfait, I don’t blame her for that, Tom does like to loom over everyone and that gave me an image of just hands and feet showing out from under him… (shudder)
You don’t take a nice hot bath to get clean, so even with magical cleaning being a thing wouldn’t stop having a bath
Oh I know! I was just saying that would take the fun out of getting clean. I read a book long ago that was a sci-fi and it detailed how they got clean, a membrane they would walk through naked and it would strip any dirt and dead skin off as you went through. However, that membrane was a “shower door” so you’d be clean even before you turned on the water. No soap, and the door would dry you off as you left. THAT’S the best way to shower!
Deathworlders universe has a pass-through sanitation forcefield over all interfaces between human and non-human area, to prevent Earth microorganisms from wiping out the rest of the galaxy.
This was an alternative universe that was like 500 yrs ahead of us, rather weird story line.
It was an L. Neil Smith book called “The Thomas Paine Maru”, the second in a 3 part series.
Correction: TPM was the 3rd book in the series, the second one was called the “The Venus Belt” they are good enough to read, but I wouldn’t spend the money for hard cover versions thought.
I think the issue with Tom is more the fact that he’s Dabbler’s ex than anything to do with his appearance. If *you* had a significantly younger sibling that you were protective of, wouldn’t it make you uncomfortable for you to find out their new beau was your ex? Especially one with whom things ended poorly? Granted their culture likely wouldn’t care about the age difference as much, so it’s likely a bit less of a deal if only because that isn’t a factor for them, but still, their break up didn’t sound like it was particularly amicable, so not wanting your kid sister to get stuck with that seems valid.
I don’t think he’s her “ex”, at least not by Earth’s western world standards. Dabbler is still wearing his collar (the quadruple X). Regardless of how they broke up (if they ever were together, by earthly standards), Dabbler has been siphoning mana from Tom the whole time. From the brief exposition on Succubus history, I’m lead to believe that the bond Succubi need, can be cut from the “master” side at any time, and that means starvation and possible death for the succubus. And since Dabbler is still here, this means the bond exists, so Tom never broke it.
As the explanation goes, rather than Dabbler draining Tom’s mana, Tom can drain HER mana if he wants. The notion was that succubi have a kind of mana “hole” that they leak uncontrollably from until they die, unless it’s “plugged” by connecting it to a master. A built in control mechanism and kill switch.
Apparently this hole opens up at puberty…
Why are you assuming the relationship between Big Tom and Parf is a sexual one?
He’s her master simply so she, you know, doesn’t die!! And, most certainly, because she is Dabbles lil sister (it’s quite possible that he offered himself to protect her from someone less scrupulous… which is saying a lot!)
Dabbler made it VERY clear that the act of bonding to someone requires the “Owner” to have sex now and then with the “slave”. When Max asked Dabs if she would have to obey her if she took on the roll of owner. Dabs said technically she would, but they would have to have sex to keep the bond solid. Max dropped it.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-998-alls-well-that-succs-well/ panels 6-7.