Grrl Power #1191 – Security risk
Maxima and Dabbler flew back from their DC meeting on a plane, since there was no way Max was going to carry Dabs across country that way. She can carry people obviously, but her own personal deflector field doesn’t help the person being carried much, so she can’t even approach Mach 1 unless the carry-ee has their own toughness or protection. Dabbler could cast a force field spell or use a gadget, but again, Max would much rather sit back and relax in a Corinthian leather plush bucket seat and have a beer on a private plane than bridal carry Dabbler 1,200 miles.
There’s no way that kiosk doesn’t have an air vent in it. Although, in a fit of paranoia, the vent also has a lockdown in case a detector detects anything like knockout gas or carbon monoxide or the like. See, the lobby was designed by smart people who have also seen every heist movie and also read a bunch of comic books. They sat around a table and pitched entryway security, like, “Okay, above the kiosk there are super tough security windows with murder slots in them, and the guards wear armor…” and the next guy cuts in with “What about magnetic powers?” and the first guy snaps back “Let me finish! The metal wires of the security windows can be charged to set up their own magnetic field, which would interfere with magnetic powers, obviously depending on the magnitude of said powers. And just in case, have the guards wearing kevlar, ceramic plates and Oobtek inserts instead of metal armor. Now, how do you get through that?”
“Uh… lasers would go through clear windows.”
“Right, we can polarize the glass and UV coat it, and make it opaque to several other parts of the EM spectrum.”
“What, like put one of those microwave door cover weaves over them?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, a gas attack preceding an ingress would work if you could hit all the guards at the same time.”
“The guards would have gas masks on their outfits while on duty, and there will be a suite of sensors in the alcoves.”
“What about the person in the kiosk? Presumably we don’t want them looking like a Heavy Armored SS Trooper from a near-future anime.”
“The kiosk will have its own set of robust but more discrete defenses.”
And then the designers learn there’s going to be a large stretch of open skylights on the top floor and they throw their hands up and say “Fuck it, we did our job.”
All that is to say whoever’s is in the kiosk, or whoever is in there with them, must have elbowed a switch or something, because it shouldn’t normally steam up like that.
The new one is coming. I want to do a little add-on comic for it and it’ll be ready.
The July vote incentive is 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?
.
.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
I was half expecting Max’s nips to pop like the pinging of a M11 Garand magazine after the last round.
I half expected the fabric to rip, but that would be very inaccurate as they’d need to protude several inches and/or be razorsharp
Now I’m wondering if Max’s cold-hardened nips really could cut glass?
Glass is fairly easy to cut if you do it right, I’m sure her fingernails could easily as well, but what bother and just smash it? I’m sure that’s heavy layered glass, like they use in the limo’s, so I doubt her nips could but it is a funny thing to think about!
only if she scored
Well, SOMEBODY is scoring right now! lol
I know, I know, dad joke…
I have child, I identify as male. Dad jokes are a contractual requirement.
Somehow, your Gravatar is both extremely appropriate and extremely inappropriate to Kate Winslet here.
I was thinking some what a similar idea with the dress buttons flying off at kill velocity.
There was a hilarious scene like that in “My Dress-Up Darling”, (“A Lot Happened After I Saw That Photo”) where an extremely busty girl is cosplaying a boy, but suffered catastrophic costume failure.
I like how Max is all Analytical in that last panel..
-It’s a Lust Aura..
-It isn’t Dabbler…
….
-Dabbler’s Mother… nope.. Doesn’t seem to be the case..
– …. Parfait…
– *Of course* it’s the teenage succubus sister who is Friends with my most powerful Enfant Terrible..
@DaveB,
Re Max not carrying Dabbler:
“She can carry people obviously, but her own personal deflector field doesn’t help the person being carried much, so she can’t even approach Mach 1 unless the carry-ee has their own toughness or protection.”
Is it safe to assume that Max flew slowly with Sidney after the bank heist in #74?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-74-adrenaline-junkie/
It’s a careful balancing act. Faster means less time in the air with this screaming possibly insane girl. Slower means she might stop screaming. And then she doesn’t stop.
I like to think that Max tried going slow to begin with, and then started discreetly speeding up after the screaming started. Although the first panel raises the question of why Sydney wasn’t just loaded into the helicopter. Maybe Max was trying to make a big impression? Maybe Max didn’t want this suspicious girl out of her sight (although she too could have gotten in the helicopter). Or MAYBE, you just found the exact reason why Max doesn’t carry people anymore.
I’m reasonably certain that Halo’s comic shop and the assaulted bank were in the same city as the ARC building.
The distance involved is a lot smaller so the speed doesn’t need to be nearly as high. They are in the same city, after all. Max was annoyed that she was sent to do a common bank run, but that would still be to the nearest branch of the bank.
Wait, Dabbler’s mother? Have we met her before?
More importantly, why does it seem that Maxima has met her before??
We haven’t, but Maxima met Dabbler some time before we did, so maybe SHE’s met the woman.
I’m thinking Luxanna Troy from TNG, very forward and insistent. And a constant embarrassment for her daughter. Add in the succubus powers and WOW, not good!
all parents strive mightily to embarrass our offspring. revenge is a dish best served cold…. and those poopy diapers are very very cold, and stinky, still.
Got to make sure they move out asap. Keep those dad jokes going.
My eldest son, about 3 weeks after he had his first, called me, apologetic for everything he did as a kid! Just a 5 years before I gave him the parental curse: “I hope your kids treat you the same as you do us” didn’t take long did it? LMAO!
you waited until he was close to moving out?!?!? wife and I have pronounced this curse over son before he made it to 15.
?? multiple times a year since they were old enough to understand what the curse was
I thought her name was spelled “Lwaxanna?”
No. Closest thing would be Tom calling Dabbler and Parfait the Daughters of Xanadu, but that could mean a place rather than a person.
Or an older progenitor/clan-mother.
I just looked up the wiki on FOOF and Yikes! Apparently it’s capable of initiating explosive reactions at 90°K which is it’s melting point(?). That is insanely reactive, but safer than resublimated thiotimoline which was responsible for diverting a Cat4 hurricane during an experiment.
What is FOOF?
Dioxygen difluoride
The chemical make up for it is F-O-O-F as it’s two oxygen atoms sandwiched between two fluoride atoms. It sets ice on fire. Dramatically. It sets a lot of things on fire, as Opus has said.
Also I know my diagram was bad, and inaccurate, but I don’t know how to type it accurately with this english human keyboard.
IIRC it can set *sand* and *concrete* on fire too. There’s literally no way to put it out if you spill it.
That depends on whether you have liquid helium available, I suppose. I’m pretty sure you could put it out with that, if you could get close enough to apply it without dying.
If your lab has liquid helium on hand, it’s a cite cooler than mine. That was both a temperature pun, and also me being envious of any one who has spare liquid helium sloshing around in their 4 kelvin room. Because it turns back into a gas at 4.15 kelvin.
Fun fact, supercooled liquid helium climbs up the walls of a petri dish and escapes. It does all kinds of crazy stuff. Haha. So, a lab with liquid helium and foof on hand both is so much better funded and neater than mine. I had to make my own centrifuge. I have… no funding. Q_Q
That’s why true scientists and inventors are certifiably insane, like Digit with a dash of Bunsen Honeydew :)
That’s chlorine trifluoride. FOOF blows up, it doesn’t really burn.
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-save-you-time <== very funny
H2F2, dioxygen diflouride. A molecule that REALLY wants to be anything else.
I think you meant O2F2. H2F2 would be Dihydrogen Diflouride, which might arguably be even scarier, if it were possible (I’m pretty sure it’s not).
Had you instead written H2N2, that would be a strain of influenza that emerged in China in the late ’50s. It was one of the deadliest pandemics in history, apparently. (Not that that’s in any way relevant, I admit.)
Make that O2F2. I blame the typo on Russian computer hackers.
And I was beaten to the reply by someone while I was typing.
It has been one of those days.
*Isaac Asimov joins the chat*
I am not justifying my existence! it is its own justification.
I am, therefore I AM!
Did anyone else go back to the last (first?) time we saw this entryway to see if the motto was there, and noticed instead that the archon star used to only have 5 points (and no motto)?
Also, fun fact to the surprise of no one: that’s Uncle Ben’s motto, and I don’t mean the rice brand.
Speaking of carrying someone in flight, I’ve been thinking, as long as you’re reasonably super strong and don’t worry too much about wind resistance, wouldn’t the simplest and most dignified position be flying Superman style and have them ride on your back like a horsey? You might even develop a saddle if it’s going to be a habit.
Fireman/bridal carry seems more like a thing for carrying someone wounded or insensate. Or maybe if your back is already occupied. . .
Will someone explain to me “dress purps”? I’ve google searched and it just keeps thinking I’ve misspelled purple.
The term Dress Blues is short for the ceremonial uniform worn by branches of the military, including the SPAAAACE FOOOOORCE!
Archon specifically went with purple to indicate they are ‘not your father’s military’.
It thought it was so that Maxima would look better in the press releases.
That seems reasonably effective, but I can see a few possible, related, downsides:
1: Wind resistance would limit you to relatively sedate speeds.
2: You’re relying on them to hang on, which panicky civilians and allies new to flying might find difficult. Especially if you’re doing any complex maneuvers or dealing with wind resistance.
3: Riding bareback is supposedly quite tricky unless you’re practised.
4: Most, though not all, flyers’ suits are short on suitable hand holds for a rider.
5: I don’t think Maxima wants Dabbler “straddling” her, “riding” her “bareback”, and needing to find four things to grab on to for stability. Especially not for a long distance, in public, at sufficient altitude that simply dropping the demon when she grows irritating isn’t morally an option.
The uniform of Archon is deep purple in hue, as opposed to the blues common to the other services.
So, Dress Purples/Purps is indeed correct.
Pretty sure that actually is a slangy shortening of “purples”, referring to the color of her dress uniform, just like musicians in an orchestra refer to the black clothing they are all required to wear as “concert blacks”.
You know, when I looked a few minutes ago, I was surprised to see that there were still no replies to Roosterhead’s comment. I even re-loaded the page to be sure of that before posting my own reply. But it decided not to show me all those replies that were posted days ago until after I added my own. Ga!
Dabbler’s mom will be like the noodle incident from Calvin and Hobbes. Frequently mentioned but you never hear the details.
We might get references to the things she’s done.
Things and people she’s done :P
I’m sure Dab has no issues flying at high velocity without a forceshield. She enjoys blowjobs afterall.
She turned polygonal!
The only thing I’m confused about is whether Max is or isn’t still mad after she learns that Parfait is the one responsible for all the sexy stuff happening now.
I assume still mad, but less mad than if it was being done intentionally by someone in full control of their powers.
Yeah, someone fucked up here. That was either Parfait herself, for not making sure the proper safety precautions for her were in place, Gwen’s fault for not having them in place, or Dabbler’s fault for not briefing Gwen on the appropriate proceedures for dealing with visiting young Succubi.
Is Cocopineapple…from the previous page… Jiggawatt?
I mean she is dark skinned and her hair looks like a pineapple with how she puts it up…
Hmm, just going to have to wait for the reveal
Doesn’t she have the ability to travel through power lines? Would she need to violate traffic laws?
The PR lady is straight, iirc.
To put it delicately… is the entire base gonna be knee-deep in jizz?
doubtful. unless that one guy is visiting, but I think he had limits too. maybe if vehemence grew then found a compatible partner… (good luck with that image…)
Kevin would not need a partner to do that. You are welcome to that image.
That’s not putting it delicately, Larry! ;-)
If you’re talking about the pliers, it’s “vise grips”… Or did you mean “vice” as in an immoral habit?
I am choosing to take this as a hint that the aura can’t force you to do anything.
Yeah, this settles that issue very nicely. Maxima is feeling the effects, but has complete control of how she reacts. This puts the aura on the level of ‘spiked drink’ (or maybe ‘special brownies’) rather than explicit mind-control. That doesn’t invalidate folks being squicked out by it–the aforementioned spiking of the punch bowl is actually criminal in and of itself, just not as great a crime as actually coercing specific actions.
And this incident in particular is thus the classic sit-com event of ‘accidentally spiked the punch’ (or, again, ‘accidentally left out the hash brownies’).
100%
Still dubious and off putting but not the worst case scenario.
Does Maxima knows Dabbler’s mom by any chance?
If Max is annoyed now,wait until she learns Sidney is the partial architect of all this madness/horniness and a consultation with Dabbler could probably have prevented or at least mitigated it.
Note: ignore this.
I feel like Max has meet the mother…
I’m sure it’s appeared before, but I just noticed the motto on ArcLight’s seal is “with great power comes great responsibility.”
If Max is annoyed now, wait until she learns Sidney is the partial architect of all this madness/horniness and a consultation with Dabbler could probably have prevented or at least mitigated it.
And yes, I did put out this comment as a reply. It was a mistake.
LOL!! I expected them Nipps to be bursting out of that suit like Kool-Aid through brick walls.
Has anyone else ever considered the supreme irony, that while running around the Titanic, a floating hotel with *thousands* of beds in it, they had to seek out a car, in order to do the deed in the back seat?
Believe it was simply, they were in that room doing sexy paintings and then decided to do the sex
Also, fairly sure all the beds are in rooms with people in them
The only fully secure [anything], is the one that doesn’t work, can’t be used, nobody can get to, and can’t even be found. No touch, no comm, no see, and totally worthless.
So you have to make compromises in security. It’s always been that way, and it always will.
It’s one of those design conundrum triangles. “Secure-Usable-Affordable, the more you to one, the less you have of the others”.
To those that don’t know, most fields have some version of this, though the 3 components may be different. As you may or may not know, the angles of a triangle always add up to 180 degrees. Increase one, you have to remove that much total from the other two as all three must add up to 180 exactly. (Don’t go off into 3 or more dimensional objects and that mess, triangles are 2d geometric figures smart-aleck).
Very much that ^
You have three things to work with, pick two (technically you can use all three, but it’s at its most basic output)
The version I hear most often is you can have: 1.Quick delivery. 2. High quality or 3 Low price. You can pick any two but you have to sacrifice the third to get them. Having worked in a job with security adjacent duties I can say that this triangle forms a sort of compromise tesseract with affordability being a common point between two triangles.
the most famous one I know of is Health Insurance. You can have high quality, low prices/cost, or wide availability. The USA has high quality and wide availability, and so our prices are crazy. Most other countries go with high quality and low cost, but restricted availability because of that.
This isn’t accurate, the other wealthy countries have high quality, high availability, and low cost – because the majority of the cost in the US is split between profit and the administration required to manage the profit engine.
Some of the other wealthy countries have less availability, some have more. Some have high quality, some have less. The US’s system is not the highest availability, nor the highest quality, but it is the highest cost – even including the costs the government pays in each country.
Socialized medicine is actually affordable and effective, and it exists in many countries. The only reason it doesn’t in the US is because there’s a fortune in profits to be had.
Something that has bugged me about succubus nature since Dabbler’s exposition: We know that modern succubae in all likelihood have the potential research means to remove the need for a bond. However, they do not do it since they like it that way. The bond activates additional pleasure centers like Parfait eloquently showed, it is entirely voluntary and carefully screened by the matriarchs these days, it is a cherished feature of the species, and so on.
However, missing a master is a medical emergency for an adult succubus that would inexorably lead her to death in a few days at most if the ‘soul hole’ is left unplugged, even with the bast magical countermeasures. As such, suddenly losing a master due to accidents, violence, etc. is a dire risk. I know there are probably arrangements in place for temporary, emergency bonds in such cases, but I wonder: why not remove the ‘soul hole’, but keep the other features of the bond in place? It would thus become a harmless recreational feature, not a lethal threat. I am under the impression that the matriarchs would able to do such fine-tuning, and cases of a master’s sudden death in all likelihood are not so rare, esp. if the master has a dangerous lifestyle, enemies, etc. So why let things stand and leave all adult succubae with the equivalent of an arterial aneurysm?
Silly idea, Parfait goes on Cora’s ship to meet Sydney ‘s bf, Woof.
Curiosity strikes, finds tentacle closet with warning signs. Peeks in and gets snagged in.
Comical onomotopeic sound effects fill panel. Parfait exits with slightly flustered grin on face.
Pulls out checklist from cleavage of holding. Marks of abducted by closet tentacle monster.
What else is on her list? What’s checked and what’s open?
I spent 20 years’ in the (US) Military, and I have no idea what “Dress Purps” are
(Full disclosure… It wasn’t as a woman.)
That’s because Dress Purples are unique to Archon
I can just picture Maxima walking into the building, someone distracted bumps into her, and then clutches their chest in pain because of being jabbed by her nippy hard-ons.
Impressive that they popped though a jacket, shirt, presumably a bra and she’s keeping that much allotted to strength? :p
Given what we know about Max’s altered biology, she could likely literally cut glass on her nipples right now.
Health insurance stands out to me as the most well-known one. Either cheap prices/cost or broad availability, or good quality, is possible. Our costs are insane because of the exceptional quality and widespread availability in the USA. Because of it, most other nations choose cheap cost and excellent quality, but limited supply.
Insane costs also artificially suppress apparent demand. There are plenty of people who need health care, but can’t afford it. There’s no waiting for care because so many people are turned away before they even get to a waiting list.
Exorbitant expenses also artificially decrease the perceived demand. There is a significant population that requires medical assistance but lacks the financial means to access it.