Grrl Power #1193 – Kiss monster’s gonna get ya!
Turns out succubi like sex. And also smooching all over people and stuff like that.
Parfait will eventually run out of mana while she’s projecting her lust aura out so far, so yeah, she’ll eventually wind down on her own. However, remember that succubus master/slave thing? It allows the master to use the succubus as a mana battery. The opposite is also true, but the succubus can’t pull from the master without permission. Thothogoth is an Archfiend and he’s doing pretty well for himself. He’s not the most powerful guy out there from the Infernal Empire, as he’s only about Dabbler’s age (remember they went to ‘Hell High’ together) but he’s still got a pretty significant mana pool. If Dabbler has, let’s say, 200 mana, Tom has around 300 (Dabbler spends as much time on tech and gizmos as developing her magic) and Parfait has like… 50? Tom, being the progressive kind of guy he is allows his ‘slaves’ access to a good chunk of his mana unless he knows he’s specifically going to need it for something.
Now if you’re wondering if Dabbler’s larger mana pool means she could do something like this to the Archon HQ, well, that may very well come up on a near-future page.
That’s why Parfait can manage something like this in the first place, and given her inexperience, wrangling her aura is really difficult when she’s super turned on. It’s like a teenage boy trying to get his erection to go down just after discovering he has superpowers, and that power is clairvoyance, but he can’t turn it off for an hour once activated, and it forces him to watch cheerleaders showering. (Don’t worry, it’s all consensual, because… uh… hmm, give me a moment… Oh! It’s part of the latest Japanese Game Show: The Superpower Prank Hour! That’s why the cheerleaders are really intent on soaping each other up and kissing and saying things like “Our totally normal sapphic byplay is greatly enhanced by the thought of someone peeping on us!”) Anyway, what I’m saying about her aura is that it’s far easier to go through than around. I mean, seriously, imagine a teenage boy willing his erection away while being made to stare unblinkingly at that.
The August vote incentive is up! Yeah I know it’s late, so hopefully I’ll manage to get some bonus (read: overdue) incentives up as I attempt to catch up.
Oh no! Sydney’s been injured! A Wampa may or may not have been involved, I’ll leave the exact nature of the incident up to you. It’s not relevant to the picture. And before you’re like “Dave, Bandaged Rei is one thing, but floating unconscious in a bacta tank is probably an even narrower fetish.” just check the picture out.
The Patreon version has nudes and variants, and a comic that reveals something interesting about the orbs.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Harem starts getting Bank flashbacks…
Well this will get Parfait into a bunch of trouble I suspect
Sydney is the one who called Parfait into Archon HQ in the first place. I have the feeling that, if anything, Sydney will get into *even more* trouble.
She asked Gwen to help, so, 1) she couldn’t have done it without Gwen even if she tried, and 2) Gwen should have thought things through and said it was a bad idea to summon her.
If Sydney is getting in trouble, then Gwen is getting in twice as much trouble. If either of them was going to know it was a bad idea, it’d be Gwen.
And Anvil ok’d it.
Let the reluctant Yuri Foursome begin!
Could happen, if Dabbler spontaneously decided to be a terrible person and risk getting evicted from Archon by overlaying her own lust aura to make everyone too horny to think straight just so she could finally score with Max.
Probably not happening though. And there’d actually be significant consequences for that, as it’d harm Earth’s human-succubus relations and make things harder on Decolette’s side as well.
I think Dabbler has been around long enough that she doesn’t get stuck in odd feedback loops where she forgets what consent is, so that should not happen. Parfait seems to have done a 180 from “I’m sorry, I can’t hold it in” to “aaawwww come ooooooon fuck meeeeee I can interpret something you said half an hour ago as meaning you wanted iiiiiiiit” and I’m willing to bet succubi in this setting understand consent better than most, what with their entire history and culture being about gaining access to it
Succubus culture is going to have a very different concept of consent with limited applicability to humans. The mere fact that sex is necessary for survival already changes a lot of things, as does lust magic.
Succubus society does have mandatory sex, which wouldn’t fly here.
It just doesn’t equate to how things work here. It’s like having a discussion about whether food needs to consent to being eaten, when the food actually is biologically engineered to enjoy being eaten, but isn’t sapient or sentient anyway. Why would you even discuss it?
Why? Because world-building is embedded values, and Dave is all about consent porn. Like, the consent is part of the fetish, so it has to be talked about and talked about and talked about.
I know it’s probably a generational thing, but I far prefer the pot-throwing scene in Ghost. Nobody needed to say a damn word.
You probably would prefer that. Nobody routinely violated your consent while claiming they knew you wanted it. It’s all upside for you with little risk.
It’s not a generational thing, it’s primarily a gender thing. Though the younger generations are better at listening to women, so consent culture is finally starting to become more mainstream.
there is something wrong with your statement… why do i sense passive aggressive judgement mixed with probably personal experience…
what’s more, your statement does’nt make sense and is too simplistic. you said it’s not a generational thing while stating that things are changing at a literal generational pace.
For all her flaws Dabbler is a good person who would not risk her friendship with Tom and Maxima. Also this is not a tragic story, its just silly people doing silly shenanigans and I don’t see why that would change now.
Yeah, very very unlikely. Dabbler has not been that kind of person.
I hope Dabbler will make sure Parfait’s punishment isn’t too severe,she’s still a young succubus who doesn’t realise how out of control her powers can and what effects that can have. Although my Evil Australian brain automatically thinks of how effective a weapon that could be. Let her get ‘captured’ and then strike when most of their opponents foot soldiers are too horny to do their job properly.
Oh you can bet the important people will plan to weaponise the lust aura. If this was a slightly different kind of comic it would start a lust aura weapon race. ”Mr president, we can not allow a lust aura gap!”
They already have – Dabbler used her lust aura during the big throwdown with Vehemence’s… minions? Victims? They were certainly being coerced into it. But Dabbler used her lust aura at one point. She simply didn’t take it all the way into actual sexual activity.
I for one expect that Dabbler will take Parfait to her room, or maybe even teleport somewhere where she could have an orgasm or two, leading to end of that mana pool (and the aura).
Archon not being hardened against aura attacks is Archon’s failure. This is accidental red team.
I guess that depends on how easy magical auras are to harden against. IIRC the only thing we’ve seen that’s impermeable to Aura is Sydney’s bubble, now that doesn’t mean there *aren’t* magical shields one could employ to defend against an aura attack, it would be honestly pretty weird if there weren’t, but if they are, say, prohibitively expensive to maintain or require a difficult-to-obtain material component to last any real length of time, then it might not be a top priority to establish large-scale defenses for that type of assault.
It’s also possible that blocking magical aura attacks usually needs to account for the type of aura, as the aggression aura from the brawl at the diner has a different sort of magical source as a succubus’ lust aura, so if separate magical shields would need to be in place to be able to defend against both auras, then it might be awhile before defenses against all sorts of aura attacks can be in place, and I’d imagine lust aura could be a lower-priority considering the most powerful tantric mage the are aware of being on earth is allied with them, so the may be relying on Dabbler to defend against enemy lust attacks until the can get the defenses in place (I am presuming that Dabbler is more powerful as a tantric mage than Decolette considering Decolette is specialized less into combat applications and more into fulfilling her personal needs, so even if she’s capable of “stronger” or more complex spells or somehow has more mana or something, her ability to translate that into combat application, even just a lust aura distraction, would be lesser, something she suggested was true at one point).
Regardless of the reasoning, though, I expect it will be explained soon enough, but considering this isn’t the first time they’ve encountered magical aura being used against them, intentionally or otherwise, I rather doubt the explanation will be anything like negligence or lack of sufficient effort to find a solution. Sometimes you can do everything in your power to prepare and still be caught with your pants down, so to speak.
I dunnno, This is the second time that an aura based attack successfully pulled the rug out from under the entire arcswat team while in the midst of going about their mission.
What with Kevin and the SuperpowerBeatdown (an incredibily rare event in universe but right out the gate its the first thing Archon has to deal with) and now from a garden variety ‘tween-aged succubi in training (and you thought human P\puberty was rough) the after action reports are going to be heavily focused on “what the hell do we do to prevent this sort of bullshit” besides Nth level tech via Mr Bubble.
and how long has there been between the first aura incident and now?
researching and adding defences takes time
It’s a failure if they could have had a defence and didn’t use
We don’t know if
a) there isn’t a defence available
b) they have a defence but it’s not effective enough to prevent all impact (it might have reduced the lust aura effect)
The US did do a bit of research on a “gay bomb” for exactly this tactical effect.
The chaperone has arrived. Also, the chaperone’s chaperone.
The normal solution, back in the 70’s, was to think about your bus driver, or maybe the cafeteria ladies. Usually old enough to be your grandmom, and overweight. Admittedly, I don’t know whether that would work in the scenario you’re describing.
That could develop into a different sort of situation.
thinking about family members is great, that way you’re less likely to make discoveries about yourself at the most inopportune time re: what counts as sexy for you. nothing wrong with being old or overweight, and nothing wrong with someone being specifically into these body types, but it’s just not the time for figuring it out. that said, the kind of discovery you could make thinking about your family, though much rarer, becomes a lot more dangerous.
Is there anything that’s a turn-off for a succubus?
Licking their eye is apparently a turn off.
i dunno, i think if anything, it might awaken something into certain succubi. besides it did’nt stop her. barely paused her for 12 second lol
Purity rings maybe?
Chastity belts with unpickable locks?
Chastity belts are actually used as sex toys in current times. And “permanent chastity” is a turn-on for many kinksters, if relegated to the realm of fantasy for obvious reasons.
Then again, for succubi it might be different, because the act itself has more practical relevance.
A little time at the luck picking lawyer site, and defcon will inform you that locks are the illusion of security.
Whilst I was leery about how gratuitously cheesecakey things were getting I really appreciate Sydney firmly asserting her sexuality. Whilst some people do discover their bisexuality / pansexuality, that isn’t everyone. Some people are just straight and that grounding in reality even amidst high fantasy hijinks is really what drew me to Grrlpower in the first place.
Honestly, remaining heterosexual is quite literally a choice when there are willing succubi who can make sexual attraction happen. That rather changes matters significantly when it comes to sexuality. So does the fact that Archon HQ has an atypically sexually open atmosphere.
Now there’s a strange thought. Succubi could offer “100% successful sexuality conversion” services for willing persons, although they’d probably just make people bisexual.
Honestly, I think it is more likely to a very temporary sexual attraction, powered by magic. And apparently, the more strong-willed (or ADHD-fueled) can still exert a decent amount of control.
Fridge horror time, but that probably exists on a spectrum. Parfait is not that powerful and lost control, but Dabbler is an order of magnitude higher and could maybe do this if she focused it instead of spreading it as an aura. Just rewire someone. She made Jabber discover things she hid from herself, but… frankly, how do we know that wouldn’t have worked regardless?
Frankly, Sydney’s vibe to me doesn’t really seem entirely straight. As for what her sexuality really is, could not say for certain. Maybe that has something to do with how often she has to assert her straightness. Meanwhile Max has said it like twice and I believe her.
As for Sydney’s resistance to auras, she’s definitely got a fair amount of resistance to them, especially when she’s aware, and is probably a mix of some level of innate ability, the complex electrochemical mess that is ADHD, and her connection to the orbs. We know she was able to remain remarkably calm and logical even when exposed to Kevin’s vehemic aura.
> Frankly, Sydney’s vibe to me doesn’t really seem entirely straight. As for what her sexuality really is, could not say for certain.
Sydney is straight as confirmed by WoG, and her reaction to superheroine shower shenanigans (good-natured annoyance & some jealousy) bears this out.
It seems likely that that could be very messy. Having a sexual experience, however pleasurable in the moment, can later lead to a lot of emotional distress if it conflicts with the person’s perception of themselves. A succubus could create a level of arousal that might overwhelm a person’s sexual orientation but making it stick would require a significant change to the person’s baseline personality.
And such changes are absolutely illegal, per the convo Parfait and Dabbler had in Parfait’s first appearance. I suppose if someone wanted to have their sexuality altered in this way, it might be allowed, though I don’t know if succubi magic could undo an existing sexuality–I suspect they could only add to it. So you can’t go from gay to straight, or vice-versa, but you can be pushed to the middle of the Kinsey scale.
I expect they can remove sexual attraction, etc. as well, if only because they need that skill to undo accidental damage (which seems like it would be a common enough mishap in their society), although that’d probably be an unpopular application of their abilities.
I think it more likely that such “events” are common enough in their society that they don’t consider them “damage”.
I need to disagree on that, I know from experience as well as from experiments that there exist some poor souls who are flat zeroes on the Kinsey scale. I know that I’m one of them because I did my research.
…?
I’m not referring to mundane seduction here, but rather succubi magically rewiring your sexuality to drop it elsewhere on the scale. Whether you are naturally capable of such attraction would be irrelevant.
Yeah, it does seem that way here, which can be problematic. That’s why the best representations of this (Eg. the Exalted TTRPG) that I’ve seen make it so that, powerful lust effects or no, sexual attraction is immutable. The only overrides are actual mind control where the person’s feelings aren’t involved.
Though I do personally suspect that many straight people are on the bi-spectrum, just at the 1% gay/99% straight level where it rarely comes up and is quickly suppressed by society’s expectations.
Except it’s only 100% successful while under the influence of succubus magic, and only with succubus themselves, and you have to be hit with the memory hammer afterwards or you’ll forever be ruined for relationships with non-succubi.
So, 100%***** (the astrix are for the terms and conditions)
They can make lasting changes, and I’m fairly certain this falls under a succubus’s field of expertise.
I’d love to see the conversion torture ministers conflict over that:
“We can finally turn the gays straight!”
“But we have to summon real demons to do it!”
someone said on the last page that this sequence may not age well. the author’s note is not going to age well, in fact its already going bad.
the author made this sequence just to make the ‘its not what it looks like joke’.
Parfait needs to take a cold shower alone and cool off so she can actually learn something. the lust juice is talking right now. Max is going to dress Sydney down, once Sydney finds some clothes.
I think some…. redraws of the last few pages would look good on patreon where we can check on Dave’s understanding of anatomy. yeah thats it.
Yeah, I believe that parenthetical in the author’s note is what’s known as “stepping in it”. Also “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt”.
It’s pretty straightforward as a guy making up an extended metaphor to explain something that doesn’t map very well to our reality. It’s not “stepping in it”, it’s just a very obvious reach for a specific purpose.
There’s a lot packed into this sentence, and it makes the whole situation look even worse, rather than better. But please, enlighten us with your interpretation.
Yeah, all this doesn’t seem worth the punchline.
I’m going to guess that succubi can increase the range at which they are able to absorb tantric energy, and it’s just that Parfait hasn’t. Otherwise, she’d be able to tell that her lust aura had an effect on other people in the building. Kind of seems like a waste, purely in terms of succubi survival, to have your lust aura larger than your absorption radius.
Succubi in training she certainly is.
Well, I suppose that settles the aroused aro/ace debate from two pages back.
Three pages, blast my sleep deprived hide.
hard not to feel just a little bad for Parfait here. I don’t think she intended for this to happen and is now in an awkward situation she’ll likely feel very embarrassed of when she comes down off her lust. Probably not the sex aura part but her situation with Sydney who seems like her first friend around her age or at least her first human one. Good on Sydney though for setting her boundaries and not giving in to what’a apparently a very high powered lust aura. I hope they can work this out and stay friends.
Of course Dabbler has a “whatcha got? lemme in!” smirk on her face. That’s a given. :D
I think the best part about this scene is that Syndey can not see clearly who has entered the room because she is not wearing her glasses. It just adds an extra bit of humor when you realize it.
I think her uncorrected vision is good enough to recognize a purple blob on a gold blob as Maxima.
parents walking in on ya moment almost.
So uh, Max looks disheveled…
Most likely from speed, really–she was presumably either running or flying through the corridors once Dabbler identified ‘ground zero’ of the lust aura.
Intriguing.
Huh. Looking at how Parfait and Sydney’s foreheads almost met makes me realize that Parfait’s horn is probably mighty inconvenient for sexual congress. For a succubus, that seems like a problem?
No more problem than the nose. Just tilt to the side.
It’s probably useful if you’re kissing one set of “lips”, and you have another set of “lips” at eye level
Shouldn’t the pink text bubbles and whatnot still be there if the lust aura is still active?
I love Dabblers broad smile.
You have to wonder if she isn’t enjoying Max’s second hand arousal.
Dabbler is eating well today
The hors d’oeuvres are quite exotic I would say
That smirk on Dabbler’s face XD
I previously was in the “Parfait isn’t to blame because she can’t control herself” camp, but this is starting to sound like she just couldn’t take a no for a no.
I hate to say it, but she clearly misread Sydney’s summon. Sadly she’s not able the understand the idea of “just friends” and let her succubus way of thinking take over. Dabbler does and while she loves to flirt (and often does) she doesn’t force anyone like that. Once Dabs and Max find out that it was a friends day out that went very wrong I’m willing to bet she’ll jump down Parfait’s throat for doing this all. (and praise her off-mic)
She might not be familiar with friendships without benefits, given her nature, but it seems like she can take a no normally, but her current circumstances are compromised.
The lust aura should give plenty of content for the Monthly ,i mean quarterly ,vote incentive. ;)
That smile on Dabbler
Uh,oh! Looks like Sydney’s gonna be taken off field duty and be put on permanent KP duty…!
Also note the look on Dabbler’s face…
KP = Kissing Parfait
As always, people arrive at the most hilarious moment.
Thing is about what Syd just said is I think Max would actually believe it probably after getting the run down from Dabbs on the way to the room.
GUYS
I woke up from a dream this morning and in that dream I saw this semiperpetual motion eletrical generator.
It used those high powered electro magnets instead of ball bearings as its hub. Or you could usethe powerfull magnets they have out there your choice and except for the necassary electrical parts was made out of that really strong plastic that is stronger than steel. The outside shell is made of the same material but made so the electromagnetic radiation is sheilded. No one wants a lawsuit because your product causes brain cancer in babies, now do they?
I tell you this because I have neither the money nor the education to make this product. In my dream it was called the Quiet Atlas. Guarenteed to run for at least 15 years but desighned for at least 25 year lifespan because of material stresses.
Many of the people who read this forum are fairly intelligent and could get this product to market. If so then do the world a favor and di it. A simiperpetual off grid generator would be a godsend for the world.
The main reason for it to be made of the superplastic is because of the strength to weight ratio.
It is designed to power a median sized household and cost around 3-6 grand depending on the size and power output of the unit.
Wow another perpetual motion machine that conveniently ignores friction, electrical resistance, and thermodynamics.
Please tell me you posted this after getting a degree in electrical engineering or physics to make the irony sweeter.
/why yes I do know a patent attorney with an engineering degree and your claim is not at all original.
the only perpetual part of a perpetual motion device is the fact that someone, somewhere, has ‘thought one up’ and attempted to blame society that it wasn’t made, rather than accepting the physics. Living organisms are the only perpetual motion devices that work at all, and even then, they are pretty much designed to expire.
Living organisms aren’t perpetual motion machines. They’re energy storage and conversion machines. A plant stores energy from the Sun. That’s why wood burns: energy is stored in the chemical bonds. Given a heat catalyst, they unbind and the energy is released. Herbivores convert and store plants’ solar energy. Carnivores convert and store herbivores’ plant-derived solar energy.
A perpetual motion machine keeps going without energy input (hence the perpetual part). Plants due without sunlight. Animals die without food. Not perpetual.
It’s a semiperpetual motion machine. It takes what you were saying into consideration and has a guarentee of 15 years but is desighned to last at least 25 years.
Did you not read the first post thoroughly?
Your first post is insane rambling, and contains no useful information. What exactly in it do you think is novel and inspirational that someone with the knowledge and resources to implement it wouldn’t have already considered?
As for the friction part that was taken care of by the use of electro magnets. It is already producing electricity, why not use some of that to keep the flywheel from toutching anything?
That type of teck has been around for wile now.
There is still some loss from magnetic bearings crossing the magnetic field lines, it’s tiny compared to even air bearings, but it is a real loss, also there is some heating from inductive forces in the electromagnets. I learned about them trying to float a paperclip in a PWM magnetic field from an electromagnet only to have it melt and fall to the floor because molten iron isn’t magnetic.
Given Dabbler’s familiarity with the subject matter & ability to perceive tantric woo-woo stuff, I suspect that – at least to her – it’s exactly what it look like, Sydles.
I expect a version of “The Talk” between the sisters, and a somewhat awkward debrief between Sydney & Max, followed by the establishing of some new protocols. None of which should prevent future visits.
I feel VERY uncomfortable with all that. Sidney did not consent. Rather the opposite. And still got subdued into this activity. This is clearly rape, regardless of Parfait being aware of it or not. And Max and Dabbler must have witnessed Sidney’s protests.
Sidney also summoned a succubus, a literal demon of sex while knowing what they are.
She knew the risks and really some time in the making of that circle and finding someone to front her the mana to summon it, there should have been a moment where she asked if things could go wrong.
Parfait did not ask to be there, and Sidney should have maybe had a sit down with one of several experts at hand to educate herself before taking a risk that put not only herself but everyone in that base in harm’s way.
This is like someone buying a cobra and bitching that it bit them.
What makes me uncomfortable is the degree of risk taken without forethought on her part. That is the type of thing that kills.
In Sidney’s defense, she ran it by Gwen first, and we’re about to find out how much Max knew about this.
Your explanation here is bad in a number of ways:
Firstly, when discussing rape, you probably shouldn’t ever say the victim was responsible, which is what your cobra analogy here does. Especially when you describe it as “bitching”. You should probably examine why that’s your reaction.
Secondly, you analogize Parfait here to a creature without intelligence or agency. If you’re correct, and she really doesn’t have a choice, then that means that succubi are inherently dangerous to be around, and I don’t think you think it’s reasonable for them to be treated that way. (Any succubi who might be incapable of control would need to be banned from visiting Earth outside of careful supervision from people immune to their aura)
I think that up until now, succubi have been portrayed as having agency, even when it comes to their lust, and as such – they are responsible for their actions. That makes them incomparable to an unintelligent creature who would attack out of instinct or lack of understanding.
A better analogy would be bringing over a person you know is a nymphomaniac and expecting them not to rape you if they get horny. Which… we do. Anyone not capable of that isn’t someone you should have around.
First, are we going to include all of the people caught up in that naughty lust aura as victims? I really do think we should.
So with that being said, I suspect that the blame for what is going on is more of a 3 way than a sole ownership.
Next, I seem to recall some expo drop or two about the training succubi needed to control their abilities, and for them to gain full agency, which Sydney was there for.
So to my accounting there is 2 people involved in that summoning who should have both the training and judgement to understand that this could be a bad idea.
> Parfait did not ask to be there
She literally invited Sydney to summon her, and she could have refused the summon if she changed her mind.
Parfait isn’t a cobra, she’s a sapient being, so she is morally responsible for her (controlled) actions.
Sydney isn’t responsible for Parfait’s actions, and her own were risky but not morally questionable. She is the victim here.
One can place themself in a situation where they will be victimized.
And just because they are victimized after that action it does not negate their prior poor judgement. Or their accountability for it. As often such cases of poor judgement bring along far more than just one victim to the slaughter.
And this sapient being has a slave collar and training/conditioning/whatever wuwu conditioning to learn to suppress and control. Something of an expo dump that Sydney was there for.
The point of that training was so that she could overcome simply being a snake and be more.
Also on the topic of victims, that is a rather large building that has what likely another couple hundred victims of sexual assault in it? So I suspect Gwen and Syd are far from blameless in those assaults.
They enabled her to be there knowing fully what she was.
They had no knowledge of how well trained she was besides Dabbler considering her a friend though.
And she showed no prior issues of control before. So, no, not really Syd’s fault at all.
> And just because they are victimized after that action it does not negate their prior poor judgement.
The inverse is more relevant here: Sydney’s poor judgment does not negate her victimization.
I’m glad to see someone else commenting on this. I get that Parfait is a young succubus and may not understand fully what her powers are capable of and how it applies to consent, but this whole set up, especially this page, has been very uncomfortable to me and Parfait is definitely going from cutely inept to just plain gross here.
I grew up near a fairly large wildlife refuge with free roaming animals. Every so often someone would decide that they really wanted to pet the bison. The bison would only put up with this for just so long and if they were lucky the tourist only just got chased back to their car. This relates in that Sydney, while not meaning any harm, didn’t really understand what she was getting into. Sydney knew just enough to be dangerous and the people around her, such as Gwen, mistook her confidence for experience. The bison in this story, Parfait, doesn’t mean any harm but doesn’t grasp the tourists motives and reacts according to her bison, or in this case succubus nature. Sydney for her part is just lucky she didn’t get trampled. You can also apply this line of thought to explosives and heavy machinery. Really it’s a wonder that I still have both eyes and all my fingers.
Yeah, but succubi are people. Not 90% instinct-driven animals or machinery.
True, animals and machinery are both much less dangerous to be around. But the point was more about knowing just enough to really screw things up.
Parfait not only did not understand that she crossed a line with Sydney, she clearly does not understand that there even is a line to cross. She is actually hurt by the realisation that Sydney was fighting her
Which in hindsight is understandable for a very young member of a species that is literally engineered to answer the consent question with a “Yes. Any time, any place, any form”.
and who grow up in an environment where consent is not an issue that needs to be discussed, or given. (those succubus high schools that wars are fought over. The male students have been consistently portrayed to go there because of the fact that the succubi at the school not just want but need to have sex with anything having a pulse. This may well be the first time that Parfait meets somebody who genuinely just wants to spend time with her without clothes having to come off…
This page fanned the flames of my rage for the monstrous things those arch wizards of old (and their less ancient successors) did to the succubi.
Not particularly happy with the succubus matriarchs either, who have frozen this mind control into place because they, according to Dabbler, ‘like who they are’.
I suspect that there are simply two different kinds of people, and no way to bridge the gap between their perspectives.
For some, sex is simply a pleasurable physical activity, and they can’t understand why you wouldn’t want to be doing it, or why you’d be all that picky about who you’re doing it with. They might find certain acts or people gross, but overall, see all sexual activity as pretty much the same.
For others, sex is an extremely intimate activity, only to be done with someone you trust absolutely. Sex is a dialogue between the participants, and is a different experience with each person. It creates a bond between those people, and they’re picky about who they want to have such a bond with.
Those are probably the extreme ends of a whole range of attitudes towards sex, but I still suspect that it’s hard for people to really understand other people’s feelings on the matter, even if they’re consciously aware of them. I also suspect there’s a correlation between trust, ability to connect with others, and sexual attitudes… but certainly some odd data points in the mix.
That’s rude from Max, entering someone elses private room without knocking. Yes, they are military, but Halo is anything but a normal recruit. Normal recruits don’t have their own single room.
She knows that the disturbance affecting the entire building is coming from that room. Finding out what they hell is going on is her first priority, not social niceties like “knocking”. And while ARCHON recruits have their own rooms, they absolutely ARE still recruits.
Syd graduated from recruit, remember?
“This isn’t what it looks like.”
.
.
.
Unfortunately.
So just to ask because I have not read all the comments since the kerfuffle started, has Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse five’s alien infanticide been noted for Aliens do things differently?
It would be hilarious if Maximas first words were: You’re…out of uniform, Private.
And very much in character for Maxima.
Sydney forgot about her shield. It’d protected her from vehemic energy, so it stands to reason it’d do the same for tantric. Not that Parfait had meant it, but this should be a clear example for her that attacks can come from any and all directions.
It has a minimum size, and the specific aura caster is within that radius. Her shield isn’t like a certain anime vending machine’s that can choose to push someone out of it.
It’s fair to assume Sydney didn’t know that the aura was effecting anyone outside her room, so, she didn’t put it up (putting the shield up would have helped them, just not her).
Parfait is touching her, so the shield probably wouldn’t help. She’d have to wrestle her away with the lighthook, then put up the shield, but that would be a fairly extreme measure. It looked like she had a shot at talking Parfait down, which would definitely be the preferrable solution.
Just a grammar note: ‘succubus’ is singular, ‘succubi ‘ is plural. So, Parfait is a succubus, Parfait and Dabbler are succubi. You should never say “Parfait is a succubi” That would be like saying “Dave is a cartoonists”
you could technically say she’s a succubisexual, tho ;P
Ahh, guy math: Teenagers being spied on in the shower is totally consensual because x reason
Just imagining the dressing down Sydney and Parfait are going to be getting from Max.
HALF THE GD BASE ARE PROBABLY PREGNANT AND THE REMAINDER HAVE DEFINITELY HAD THEIR BI CURIOSITY SATISFIED! WHAT THE HOLY HELLS WERE YOU THINKING?
And half of all beds are trashed! Plus several floors under said beds! We almost had a earthquake alarm going off in the city!
Remember that this comic is set before Roe vs Wade fell. And they have both superpowered and magic healing available to them.
Abortions are not a problem here.
Ok, it seems Syd is still firmly in the straight camp even after this experience, so my hopes about the ship for these two do evaporate for the foreseeable future.
Xuriel does need to educate her sister thoroughly and ASAP in the Terran concepts of friendship without benefits and sapients not being pansexual by default. A serious cultural misunderstanding took place here that is painful to witness since you can tell that it hurt them but Syd and Parf do care for each other nonetheless. At least it seems that it can bridged and is unlikely to harm their friendship going forward. Bless Syd for being her usual indomitable and forgiving self and not apparently holding grudges or being traumatized by this event.
Parf does need to finish that damn succubus training ASAP before she is fit for walking among non-demons unsupervised. It leaves me kind of baffled she needs an extra tantric charge to shut down the aura after what happened here and in the rest of the building. On second thoughts, however, perhaps the other people were too distant and things with Syd did not go far and long enough for her to feed enough to regain control.
I suppose that Syd’s summoning privileges and Parf’s visiting rights (at least without a chaperone with a sleeping potions or three at hand) are going to be restricted without supervision until Parf gets her training. However, Archon does need its damn area-wide defenses set up against aura attacks. Their negligence to do so bears as much responsibility for this fiasco as Syd and Parf. What if the next hostile that manages to breach out Archon’s perimetral defenses has an anti-life aura?
So you admit, that pretty much everything from you from the past 3 comics was you shipping. Not that it wasn’t patently obvious.
Sydney is the only person I can think of where I would buy that “this isn’t what it looks like” from.
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?
Yeah this is a bit of a problem here.
Tbh, if I were Dave, I would’ve explained it differently. I’d just assert that drastically overhauling the soul has significant ramifications for your ability to remain yourself so you need some real experts ($$$) to do that, or you can slowly and gradually try to do it yourself (because messing with your own soul is much easier, but you still need to learn a lot of soul magic and do it properly), but doing it also costs you some mana-draining capability and unsurprisingly the succubi who don’t do this tend to out-reproduce the ones who do. Given all the effort for middling rewards when you can set up a decent, basically safe bond for much less effort, most succubi don’t bother.
Er, just to be clear, the argument would be that since it has significant ramifications for your ability to be yourself, it’s not as simple as plugging the hole, but requires a much more careful approach to preserve the succubus’s sense of self, making it much harder to obtain the services of a qualified expert. And learning soul magic to DIY would be a specialized methodology for the specific activity.
I see your point, although I was thinking of this fix as less of soimething that gets to be done for every individual succubus by herself or an expert, and more like an improvement that the matriarchs engineer in the nest generation of succubae, although the two approaches are far from being mutually exclusive for a species with extensive magical bio-engineering expertise.
I suspect that the patching of that hole is not a reliable fix.
Because right now I have a question or two, is it simply a hole that is plugged or are they depending on their master for some soul like metabolic processes?
I have a feeling there is some quality of life issues that DaveB needs to fill us in on yet.