Grrl Power #1189 – Sydney and Parfait, sitting in a tree…
Hey Sydney, guess what happens if you invite (summon) an eager, young succubus over and hang out with her all night ogling boys and giggling and lounging around in PJs and talking about being an eagerly willing slave of a powerful Fiend lord? Oh wait, you already know.
Don’t worry, it’s not turning into that kind of comic. Or if that’s what you were hoping for, then… do worry, I guess?
What Sydney hadn’t considered is that Dabbler, for all her instigation, has her succubus nature pretty locked down. Parfait is actually still in Succubus Finishing School (Suc U). She’s doing her work internship credit with Thom. This incident might cost her a grade point in Power Control 201.
Succubi are famous vamps/honey pot/general seductresses, but they wouldn’t have that reputation if they were uncontrollably throwing themselves at the nearest warm bodies constantly. Becoming the Mistresses of Pleasure is a lot of what Suc U is about. The rest of it is all the advanced power refinements they can learn once they get their rampant randiness under control. That and advanced social acumen, manipulation, intrigue, etc.
The July vote incentive is finally up! There was a disagreement about digitigrade and plantigrade leg configurations. What better way to resolve it than a race?
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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Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
i see the pearl clutchers are out to be angry at their inability to distinguish fiction from reality while applying their moral panic absolutism.
you are not entirely wrong, however I’d rather see discussions of is this OK? than the simple ‘she had it coming’ that was not all that unusual not long ago. besides, if you really want to see pearl clutching… I have a story for you….
I see fiction as an opportunity to explore difficult moral questions that people generally prefer not to think about. Issues that people think they know the answers to, but only if they’re looking at the most common or obvious cases. Where things get interesting are at the edges, the boundaries, and fiction allows us to explore cases that don’t exist in real life, so we can think about not only what the rules really are, but why they are.
Succubi, as well as any other mind or emotion altering effects, provide opportunities to explore the uncomfortable questions about consent, and how difficult it is to determine whether or not someone is really consenting, and what factors might affect their consent and how they communicate it. It’s disappointing when people stop at “this makes me uncomfortable” or “this is fine”. The next step is to ask why. Compare similar situations, and find out where the line is, and figure out what makes that line important.
This. When things are different enough that the usual assumptions don’t hold, when you can’t just apply your usual convictions without examining the reasoning behind them, that’s when fiction is at its most thought-provoking, and Grrl Power is quite good at presenting those situations.
At some point we will crack the next great frontier . Biological modification.
We’ve already started down the path a long time ago. Survival of the fittest. Whether it’s cybernetics or cloning or reprogramming genetic matter. Sooner or later we’re going to come upon a point where we have a choice. One that is simple easy cheap inevitability if it is truly staggering. If you don’t like what you are you can change what you are.
It’s all battle against karma, well maybe not a battle but a question. We explore it in fiction, to guess what someday it might happen. Time will tell, maybe it already has and we have to do is look.
I mean heck look at cell phones, 40 years ago they didn’t exist. neither did the internet not really. Funny thing is if somebody imagines it somebody else takes an interest in it somebody else might invent it and then voila here it is. I’ve seen it before on several levels.
Life imitates art – recently learned about some research done on what sci-fi ideas have already become reality, with encouragement for people to review the unfulfilled ideas and use UI to map out what it would take to create them, then go work on it.
Writeup – https://www.notboring.co/p/sci-fi-idea-bank
Ideas sources and news feeds – http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/ctnlistpubdate.asp
Remember those clipboards in Star Trek that the yeoman handed to Captain Kirk and he would sign off on them and had it back to her looks sort of like a wedge safe clipboard?
well about 1986 I had the chance to work on a programming project that involved handwriting recognition. this is before it was was in Windows. Windows was only about 3.11b version. The operating system was a specific pin-based operating system. The computer language it used was similar to BASIC. was even sent to Connecticut for a quick seminar and how to use it. The hardware was rather interesting started off with an IBM tablet but it had almost zero peripherals and about an inch thick. They used a electronic pen lol kethey do nowadays on tablets. resolution was pretty terrible compared to today’s standards maybe VGA. shortly they had a device that was also wedge shaped (finner at the bottom and thicker at the top with a round tube near the top) still in a notebook type of fashion. this is before USB took off. The unit was only about 6 by 8in and about an inch thick at the thickest part. The CPU if I remember was only about as good as maybe a Pentium one. I think they were just coming out of the intel 486s. It was a rather cool system you could operate in portrait or landscape as well. All in all it was a precursor to the tablets we have today. The handwriting recognition technology got absorbed into Windows 3.11b and above so eventually we switched over to Windows operating systems on them. It wasn’t quite as good as the PenOS but it worked. this is also before they had any sort of decent speech to text capability built into the operating system either. you could also say this device was a precursor to the Microsoft surface devices that was several decades later.
only pearl clutching i see here is from you; cy414.
Clearly you haven’t been paying attention…
The Grrl power comments section cycle continues. When ever the comic changes focus or tone it always offsets or upsets someone in the comments. Either there is not enough cheese cake and sexual stuff or there is too much, either there isn’t enough humor or there is too much, or it’s about the focus being on supers , sci Fi aliens, or r magic, instead of which ever themes it was on when they started to read it. Which I have said before and likely will again as this pops up in comments almost every time the story changes to a new adventure
…or context matters. I’m all for some girl on girl action but uh she’s kinda magically roofie’ing Sydney. We already know Sydney is straight and that “lust auras” are low-key mind control. It this WAS “that kind of comic” that would be ok but it isn’t so Grrl Power doesn’t run on porn logic.
what we are seeing looks less like she is affecting Sydney, and more like she lost control while remembering her pleasure centers and turned her lust aura on herself. Making this closer to a case of getting drunk or high and then making a pass at her friend.
My points still stand as the comments reflect this whenever the comic switches to a new event or goes for a time being action scene focused and then goes to jokey, or was jokey for a while and then does something serious *or gory*, this includes if we had a segment of cheesecake and then it goes to a board meeting, same with themes like supernatural or aliens, switching between them.
Now in this scene yes, it would be inappropriate for this to continue as one or more parties (if the lust aura spills over to influence Sydney as well) are not in a proper mindset and Parfait has already expressed she does not consent to her own actions, she wants something to stop herself like a sleep spell.
Even if Sydney is not being affected by the lust aura, it’s still not ok. “I lost control” is not a valid defense of sexually assaulting someone.
Didn’t say it was.
However I will add there is another aspect here. How strong is Parfait? Let’s say Sidney can push her off, use her shield to block magic, or whip to restrain her until finding Dabbler or Gwen. The likely outcome of this scenario.
However if Sidney could and chose not to, then she would be at fault for taking advantage of someone not in their right senses.
Best case scenario both Parfait or Sidney forcing the other is avoided.
That’s because normally it’s just an excuse. But if you’re, for example, under the influence of a mind-altering drug (without consenting to taking it), it would be different.
Parfait actually wasn’t in control, she succumbed to an effect designed to enslave her.
Yes, it’s not ok, but Parfait isn’t at fault (nor is Sydney), beyond perhaps not being careful enough.
It doesn’t have to be ok. Sometimes things happen in stories that aren’t ethically good. I think this is a case where our enjoyment of the story can be distinct from our ethical judgment of the depicted scene.
Sydney isn’t even sure if she is straight
And the only one being ‘magically roofied’ is Parf, Sydney is just being kissed
This.
Although being magically roofied by your own biology is, I think, unique to succubi.
The lust aura makes those caught in it horny, but doesn’t affect their inhibitions. Otherwise Sydney would just as likely have jumped on Parfait, or the others in the room would have pounced on Dabbler in the ballroom where she was introduced.
Sydney not reacting to Parfait’s escalating libidinous behaviour could be explained by analysis paralysis (What do I do? What do I do?) and her trust in Parfait to not let it escalate as far as it has – they consider each other as friends after all.
Sydney is straight, we have WoG on that.
And Sydney is being roofied by Parfait’s lust aura. The “fun” part is that they’re both roofied.
We have WoG that Sydney is straight.
She is being roofied by the lust aura. The “fun” thing is that both of them are being roofied.
lolwut
Parfait is magically inducing extreme lust in Sydney, and we now know everybody in the damn building too. Consent is not possible because she is NOT in her right mind. Yes, Parfait is “roofie’ing” her.
We also know the Sidney is indeed straight, are you perhaps thinking of the page with Krona & Leon? Read it again, not a threesome.
Are you kidding me? Of course she is. The whole building is. Don’t get me wrong; no pearl-clutching here, but your statement is just demonstrably contradicted by the evidence.
As for all the is-it-right-or-wrong-and-if-so-on-the-part-of-whom arguments… Gwen is the only party here that is clearly, 100%, in the wrong here. Why? Because she brought Parfait, a member of a species known to be able to strongly affect the minds of others (and worse, having a history of being employed as spies and assassins), into the base in manner that comlpetely bypassed *all* security procedures. Sure, it was Sydney’s idea, but Gwen is the senior officer that both approved the action and committed it. You can be absolutely certain that ARC has regulations governing summonings, that Gwen *knowingly* broke them, and that she would be subject to a court martial after the dust settled.
Evidence that wasn’t available at the time
I was in some ways hoping for this arc to ship these two characters, and I’m not disappointed. Also, the 5th panel had me guessing if she was serious or messing with Sydney. At least that question was answered in the last panel!
Oh I I think that boat is already been shipped. We’ll still have fun figuring out the destination though.
I must admit I like Sydneys new Hairdo and the exposed shoulder also nice. Makes her look less “Tomboyish” and a tad more sexy. So I guess hanging around “SUPER Models” something is bound to rub off.
Whoa, Parfait, back off. Sydney is spoken for by someone she’s super into. Who is also super into her. If you know what I mean WINK WINK.
If Syd decides to broaden her exploration of multi-species polyamory to her new succbus bestie with benefits, Flix is not going to clam jam and would be the first to jump in the middle for a hot threesome. First, that’s the way Cora’s crew live and he’s not a jealous hypocrite. Second, he respects Syd’s wishes, as shown when the goblin engineer made a move on him and Syd was got seriously conflicted by her inexperience about allowing it or not. If anything, an interesting plot development would be how Syd would reconcile her participation in an open throuple with Flix and Parf with her attempt to build another one with Leon and Krona. Intersecting circles with her in the middle or an hexagon? Inquiring minds need to know.
Just throwing it out there that part of her rapid..attentions might be in part due to the luxuriant summoning materials used.
Backrubs may be a way out.
If there is a strong desire for physical intimacy, with someone who is okay with you touching them but not kissing, in many cases they would be willing to accept a shoulder massage or backrub if offered. Ask first, of course, and don’t expect to get physical pleasure of your own out of it – but if you truly just want to please them and be close to them, this can be a way.
I would suspect this would be part of succubus training, if it is not just a thing for humans (which I’m guessing it is not, given the number of aliens we’ve seen with similar-to-human anatomies). Of course, Parfait might not have gotten to that class yet.
I also wonder if a succubus’s summoner counts as a lesser master (as in, a master whose orders can be overridden by the primary master) for purposes of triggering a succubus’s master-oriented pleasure centers. If so, would it work for Sydney to order Parfait to stand down? If so, what would Sydney do with the knowledge that her friend experiences addiction-level physical pleasure from following her orders and is quite okay with Sydney ordering her around? (She did, after all, give Sydney her summoning instructions. This may have been a greater demonstration of trust than Sydney realized, if it lets Sydney act as a secondary master.)
Whelp.
There’s that bi panic that we’ve all been watching bloom.
No bi panic, we already know she’s canonically straight. I suspect Dave might retcon that fact for an easy out though.
I mean.
Been seeing a lot of them glimpses.
So.
Yeah.
Maybe it’s shenanigans, maybe the author is tapping an egg.
Either way, people are always allowed to found out later in life, that stuff like that can be messy.
Late bloomers ain’t lesser bloomers.
Have we?
Are you perhaps thinking of the Krona and Leon thing? Go back and read it again, she definitely was NOT asking for a threesome.
DaveB, don’t let the whiners worry you.
They aren’t mature enough to be reading this comic.
Maturity has nothing to do with this.
At least one person in this particular discussion threat has expressed that the events being depicted (of how the lust aura manipulated people into certain actions) is deeply uncomfortable and painful to them, because they either lived through or witnessed somebody close to them, falling victim to emotional manipulation.
This kind of manipulation tends to leave life long trauma in the victims, so please respect somebody when they express how reading about it is making them feel. Being reminded of how your heart was ripped out and your self-respect was crushed is painful, no matter how many years have passed.
I understand that it was not Dave’s intent, nor exactly how he wrote the story so far. But that is the terrible thing about triggers: They do not have to make sense. They only have to cause a specific reaction in your brain.
For some of the readers it is the way that succubi were (and are) enslaved that triggered painful feelings. (and he made it clear from inside the story that humans by and large are NOT okay with the entire concept, not even the modern version of succubi enslavement. Max all but cracked Thom’s skull, twice, and Sydney similarly expressed extreme distress about the notion of what Parfait was subjected to.)
And for some readers it is the mental coercion that hits too close to home to emotional manipulation.
Neither are throwing a tantrum, nor are they thin skinned or immature. They are expressing deep discomfort and potential trauma caused by these particular subjects.
Maturity should, however, allow people to confront and discuss difficult and painful topics reasonably, rather than throwing tantrums and demanding to get their way. People finding certain material triggering is not a sufficient reason to discourage anyone from creating art that includes that material. They don’t have to like it, they don’t have to engage with it, but they shouldn’t try to prevent other people from doing so.
Cue in the Shotgun Wedding :)
So this ISN’T gonna turn into “Parfait & Sydney Make a Porno”? /s
…aaaand Sydney’s heterosexuality is under attack. I predict a new wallpaper.
Having moral objections to what happens in a comic isn’t the end of the world.