Grrl Power #1198 – Friends without benefits
Tantri-bind: Active Ingredient; nimora salka. Side effects include nausea, itchy scalp, temporary frigidity, random sphincter spasms (also known as Deadly Airlock Syndrome), fruitsome flappy woof-woofs, one of your eyes might move asynchronously, making you look bonkers or like Columbo. Consecutive doses can be fatal to succubi.
I haven’t done a full long shot of the auditorium (mostly to save time,) but basically the whole team is there. Everyone except the people needed to watch the doors and, you know, minimum facilities management. Oh, and I didn’t forget Gwen’s fishnets. They got removed sometime before the meeting.
Sydney’s like, “Of course we’re still friends… the kind that don’t open mouth kiss each other. Also stay away from my boobs. And if you try and go below my belt again, I will elbow drop you in the kidney from the top rope.” Of course to a succubus, that barely makes them an acquaintance. But Parfait is willing to adapt.
I imagine Hell High has fieldtrips to the usual places, like Avenum Lava Falls, the Obsidian Whirlpool, the Plateau of a Million Corpses, but it’s probably not until you get into Infernal College that the average student might visit non-infernal worlds during their coursework. Parfait is slightly better traveled than other demons her age, but this is still only like the 3rd or 4th time she’s been to Earth. (She went with Thothogoth to Galytn a few times before she met the team there.)
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.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"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.
Well at least she apologized and Sydney made it clear that she needs to work on the whole “take no for an answer” part as one of the main take aways from this.
Definitely not my favorite event but I guess it could have been handled *worse*. God knows other comics have.
The fact that there is nuance to the event/issue and there is an active and lively discussion indicates that it was done pretty well. I haven’t seen anyone saying it was a good thing but we have a not unreasonably sympathetic culprit, a group of people with mixed reactions, and a in-universe discussion afterward. The group of victims have excellent mutual support with each other and the services of some excellent professionals. The on-staff psychiatric help just underlines how important the mental and emotional well being of everyone is. I’m having trouble thinking of an incident like this that has been handled better.
Not really, no. It would be generous, at best, to describe a considerable portion of this “conversation” being someone trying to express their concern, and being browbeaten by people who frankly are obstinate at best.
Between media literacy, understanding consent, etc, there’s a lot of ground here to cover that a lot of the commenters just plain fucking aren’t equipped to.
There is a pretty significant difference between ‘having concerns’ and ‘trying to label the whole event as sexual assault on a mass scale’ when:
A) There was a near-complete lack of control and predictability of a scale resembling, say… just straight-up not knowing if any given carpeted environment is going to result in you getting an electric shock from something, then there’s…
B) The individual in question comes from a culture where sex and sexuality are, for all intents and purposes, little different from getting tickled by someone, on top of…
C) Basically every single other culture BUT humans being SIGNIFICANTLY less bothered by sex and sexuality. Hell, some of the people in these comment sections would have conniptions if they ever saw French television. We are the odd ones out, here, not them, and a bit of perspective would be a good thing to have to temper expectations and reactions.
Anyone who looks at what happened here with the same level of disgust as Jimmy Two-Fingers deliberately getting someone more drunk than they’d usually be in order to have sex with them, *deserves* browbeating, if they have managed to read this far and somehow still have zero perspective on the setting, systems and cultures involved.
“Having concerns” would be “Oh, I hope the partnered folks don’t get fucked over by this, they clearly weren’t in their right mind and could be considered under the influence,” because sometimes people get emotional, lose sight of rationality, and don’t consider that to be enough even though it’s the only time it’s happened.
“Having concerns” would be “Wow, Archon REALLY needs to work on defences against mind-altering auras.”
Both of those are REASONABLE concerns to have.
“Having concerns” is NOT “That barely-adult girl, who didn’t comprehend the magnitude that her powers would be augmented by her chosen handler, and who came from a culture where the ramifications of an event like this aren’t nearly as severe, should be treated as some of our most heinous criminals; what she did was practically mass rape.” That is not ‘having concerns’ and should not be TREATED as ‘having concerns.’ It is self-righteous malicious judgment of someone innocent who is a victim of her situation and should be treated more gently.
Lack of control does not take away from what happened here.
And no one wanted her jailed. Just a bigger reaction than one that feels kinda forced; ie barely anything.
It ABSOLUTELY takes away from what happened here.
Lest anyone fail to fully comprehend, Parfait had her OWN rationality severely hampered by this incident as much as anyone else did – she is clearly not immune to her own aura, as evidenced by WE LITERALLY WITNESSED IT. Resistant, perhaps, to her NORMAL level of output, but the ladder rungs she’s holding on to used to have regular lubricant and she JUST got used to that, and now she’s having to get used to Super Ultra Mega Hyperlube being on those handlebars and she clearly underestimated how difficult it would be to keep on top of things.
I don’t consider the current situation to be barely anything; her body and situation have changed in a way that is going to force notable life changes on her and she is right at the beginning of a new learning cycle – mistakes will be made. She’s apologetic, she’s trying to improve, and this event was by no means intentional. Her part in this is done and over.
Like, this isn’t ‘lack of control’ as in “repeat domestic abuser has ‘anger management issues’ in the sense that he doesn’t WANT or TRY to manage his anger” or “Cooter ””NEEDS”” to be as vile as possible, control is off the table”, this is lack of control as in “You can’t overcome a tazer jumbling the signals in your nervous system through sheer willpower alone, no matter what anime tells you.” There are literal outside factors that remove full control from the equation. A gentler hand is not just a good idea, it is THE MORAL IMPERATIVE.
I’ll understand if Maxima wants to put some further regulations in place, like telling Sydney ‘no summoning inexperienced succubi on a hair trigger right in the middle of the base’ or ‘we’re going to have to keep tantric-binding potions and vehemic-binding potions next to the fire extinguishers going forward’, or to suggest to Parfait to keep such thing with her on her own initiative as proof of sincerity, or to ask Dabbler about a ‘bracelet of tantric regulation – so she can keep healthy but damage can be minimized’ – these are all incredibly reasonable reactions that aren’t nothing.
However, Parfait is a victim of her situation as much as anyone else here was, and while I think some kind of restriction might be justified just to be prudent about potential damages, some of the comments I’ve seen over the last few pages very much give the impression that Parfait is due some kind of outright punishment that falls in line with the usual expectations of “sexual assault”, if not something more severe, as if what she did was as bad as Cooter’s entire existence or even remotely approached Vehemence’s premeditated brawl and the injuries/property damage that resulted from it.
I’ll gladly retract all of this if we find out that this was part of some plan by Deus to sow discord into Archon’s ranks and that Parfait was in on it, but I doubt that’s going to be the case.
It occurs to me, after having read my post again, that there is a potential avenue where this can be twisted. Parfait’s breakdown was during when she was talking about being biologically wired to take pleasure in her master’s orders and how intense it is, and how difficult it is for a young, newly-collared succubus to resist.
It’s entirely possible that she might have been told “While you’re over there, I’m going to send you an influx of mana, and I want you to try to resist it.” by Thothogoth. Given he’s currently working for Deus, it’s entirely possible that Parfait may have been turned into an unwitting weapon of subversion – as trying to resist the mana influx would be the same as following Thothogoth’s orders, thus sabotaging the attempt from the get-go due to the pleasure feedback. In which case, this whole event would have been FUBAR because Parfait might very well NOT have gone critical at all if it weren’t for that plan, completely alleviating her of any and all responsibility. Maybe she’s under orders to not share what her orders are, also, so there was no chance of her warning Sydney about this possibility. People are bothered by the mind control angle of the auras, but Parfait’s succubus biology is inherently way worse with regards to her mind being controlled than the lust aura has been shown on humans.
If that ended up being the case, this whole situation could be read as ‘an innocent being taken advantage of’ – not from the perspective of everyone else in relation to Parfait, but Parfait in relation to Thothogoth and/or Deus.
I wonder how that kind writing would be perceived. How many people would be upset that they were taken for fools by Deus? How many would perceive it as being a spineless writing contrivance to relieve Parfait of any culpability? How many people would be alleviated because it just reinforces their perceptions of gender stereotypes?
I mean, not really.
Par not intending to do so doesn’t make the subject matter less uncomfortable or make what could have potentially happened to Sydney less horrible. It just makes her less culpable.
As it stands she is very lucky that Dabbler stepped in with the right tools before Sydney had to hurt her or give in despite her reservations.
Yes, but there have been many commentators who wanted her labelled as a rapist and a sexual predator, with all associated punishments
Who? Where?
Failing to stop when Sydney asked her to may be sexual assault
The main points of disagreement have been with the
“it’s all harmless sexual fun in a comic, whee”
and
“people being affected by a foreign influence that massively reduces their ability to consent is not a good thing and reading about it in a largely comedy comic is quite jarring and not something we like”
My perception is that most of the people concerned about what has happened aren’t trying to assign blame or seeking to have anyone punished. It’s concern for whether or not the people affected by the aura are victims of mind control, and that either the characters will all blow it off as no big deal, which is unrealistic and minimizes real-life sexual assault, or that handling it realistically will be tonally dissonant from the rest of the comic.
It really isn’t. Making a lot of people angry does not default to “lively and nuanced discussion”.
Aggreged had not D.B. built up a large reserve of good will I probably would have bounced on this arc.
I do wonder had this been a male character say like star fox going “super critical” if the general .. oh its ok view parfait is getting would be so granted. Especially as she just admitted she KNEW she was a danger to others due to lack of control.
It’s fine that most of the supers are ok with what happened, though that makes someone like Maxima all the more important to keep things in check.
This incident reminds me of when Vehemence used his aura to make everyone fight each other without them giving consent first. Now, I haven’t read the comments back then, and I know he’s a bad guy, but I have a feeling that the topic of consent probably hadn’t been quite that much of a topic back then. ;-) Note that probably not all of the infighting was between people of equal strength. Wasn’t it Arianna who choke-held some other woman? There probably were some one-sided fights happening off-panel, too.
The sticking point in Vehemence’s thing was voluntary mind control. The sticking point in Parfait’s is the entire baggage regarding sexual consent, rape, abuse, trauma, etc. It could actually have gone much much worse, and scarred people more than the scrap following Vehemence’s thing went – as he apparently controlled everyone to go mostly non-lethal, and a fight is usually not traumatising. Remember, the worst injuries were on the one attacker Vehemence took down himself, and the ones inflicted by Sydney, that is, the two people not affected by Vehemence’s aura at the time.
Heatwaves missing toe disagree with you on that last point
And there are no physical side-effects here either. (They’re pre fallen Roe vs Wade)
So it’s all mental side effects from “I did things I wouldn’t have otherwise” in both cases.
People are just more prudish about sex than violence.
Depends on the culture you’re in. As a non-American, I noticed times and times how much their movies, shows, books, etc. shy on sex (and I’m talking about consensual, regular sex, certainly not mind-induced urge to mate) but are way more ok about violence. In my country, it’s kind the opposite: teenage-aimed comics have no problem showing nipples, actors do not keep their underwear during intercourse scene, etc. but the rating quickly escalate when it comes to visually “inspired” violence.
Yeah, Americans have a massive problem with sexuality.
I blame the Puritans.
Then again, looking at American culture as a fight between the Quakers and Puritans makes a lot of things make more sense.
Somehow, I can’t help picture two mobs each belongings to oatmeal and cat food.
just mix ’em! You won’t be able to tell the difference!
The USA was both a haven for religious fanatics and a penal colony for Europe’s countries. So we have the extremes of both sides at war here. Like a evangelist that got caught with a sex dungeon in his “summer home.” Most cases it’s people that are both ugly inside and out that cry the loudest about it. It’s just the worst kind of jealousy.
As a french I’m also socked by american puritanism … and their acceptation of violence – for them it’s kinda fun an without consequences – I blame gun culture … In France porn is more available than a firearm in US I believe it’s the contrary -even if US is the first porn producer , and host about 60% of porn websites -.
Perhaps former staunch puritains are more shy on sex than former no so fervent Catholics.
And please don’t mention Donatien Alphonse François de Sade…
It’s all based upon irrelevant averages. Americans include a lot of prudes and a lot of sluts, and lots of people who pretend the former is more harmful than the latter… despite the fact that in our lifetime, sex has killed far more people than abstinence.
About sexual freedom the G.O.P is against abortion and had banned it from 13 states…
In us cpaital punishment is legal in 27 states and all the 13 states mentioned above are in the 27.
Thou shalt not kill , is on the puritan’s only book it seems…
In my country even the far right Rassemblement National is not against abortion …
Marine Le Pen had said she had “jamais remis en cause l’accès à l’IVG” ->” never challenged access to abortion” and she is the president of Rassemblement National- National Rally-.
And capital punishment is abolished since 1981.
For every 1000 girls aged 15-19 years, the birth rate is 64 in the US, 13 in Germany, 9 in France, and 7 in the Netherlands.
The median age at first intercourse is 16.4 years in the US, 17 in Germany, 17.4 in France, and 17.8 in the Netherlands.
Perhaps a less puritan view could , limit teenager pregnancy ,and paradoxically made fist intercourse latter.
“Shall not Murder” is the the correct translation a far cry from “shall not kill”
As to French law..
Abortion in France is legal as an elective medical procedure during the first 14 weeks from conception.
It’s the a translation of the anglican bible of 1870 the English Revised Version
Catholics Orthodox and non anglican protestant could differ.
Exodus 20:13
Louis Segond Bible catholic
Tu ne tueras point. translation Thou shalt not kill.
Martin Bible XVIII century French catholic
Tu ne tueras point. translation Thou shalt not kill.
Darby Bible XIX century French catholic
Tu ne tueras point. translation Thou shalt not kill.
King James Bible XVIIth century British Anglican
Thou shalt not kill.
English Revised Version late-19th-century British (1870) Anglican
Thou shalt do no murder.
american standard version (ASV) protestant
Thou shalt not kill.
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition ( Biden’s oath bible) catholic
Thou shalt not kill.
Russian Orthodox bible
Не убивай. translation Don’t kill
There is not only one version of the bible and the English Revised Version is a command of the head of State and head of anglican religion at this time Victoria …
The original source is the Torah
https://tjpnews.com/torah-makes-distinction-between-murder-killing/
says outright that the actual translation is “thou shalt not murder” and points out different word use in the rest of the Torah
Yes, that is the correct translation, but far too many know it as kill
There is a vast difference between ‘kill’ and ‘murder’
The original source the Torah version, it’s an interpretation…
God in new testament is much more forgiving , Jesus message is more forgiving than Yahweh
one.
As a fact Thou shalt not kill makes sense in Jesus message and Thou shalt do no murder is more Yahweh one.
Perhaps it for that the catholic translation is Thou shalt not kill instead of you shalt not murder…
Enven if in UK you shalt not kill is in the law since 1969.
I had some knowledge of catholic , Lutherian and Calvinist theology but not a great amount of Orthodox , Anglican and Puritan theology.
Perhaps my view of puritan as a type of hardcore Calvinist without Predestination is inaccurate.
Another precision in catholic canon law there is no ambiguity
Last Catechism of the Catholic Church (2018)
“The death penalty is inadmissible, and Catholics should work for its abolition.”
The pope Francis the oficial chief of catholic church had sated one of the highest of all documents in terms of its authority, removing any lingering doubt about the church’s belief.
It’s “Thou shalt not kill” ,” tu ne tueras point”
It’s Thou shall not kill for a sizable part of Christian 1,329,610,000 or 50,1% percent of the christian population.
For the 220,380,000 Orthodox I don’t know the official position and they can differ according to patriarch
For the 900,640,000 Protestants it’s mixed Protestant church are not unified
For 28,430,000 others Christians it’s also mixed.
> It’s all based upon irrelevant averages. Americans include a lot of prudes and a lot of sluts, and lots of people who pretend the former is more harmful than the latter… despite the fact that in our lifetime, sex has killed far more people than abstinence.
How in the world are you coming up with deaths caused by sex vs abstinence and what evidence are you using? If you’re going to trot out the old STDs canard, that’s not *sex* causing the deaths, it’s ignorance of how to have safe sex, plus a purity culture that incentivizes people not to go to the doctor about their genital-related issues until it’s too late, plus shit access to health care in the first place.
As to abstinence causing deaths, look no further than the incel community and their record of violence and murder against women.
PS: Regarding the whole “pretending that prudes are worse than sluts” thing? Yeah, prudes are the ones who shove their noses into other people’s bedrooms and change the laws in ways that hurt others.
Deaths in childbirth, deaths from STDs
They are both deaths from sex, certainly more directly related to sex than people killing women because the women reject them are directly related to astinence
Yes it must be the open views of France that keep you homicide rate down… yet above Saudi and Jordan those bastions of free thinking. True still lower than USA but you are still mostly a mono culture we will see how well that works out as it changes.
France’s homicide rate is 1.14/100,000
The USA is 6.84/100,000
That’s a pretty significant difference
As for a monoculture, 10% of France is North African, 3.3% Black, about 1.7% Asian.
Thanks , and France is not only in one continent -Metropolitan France -we are in 12 time zones.
And France longest border is with Brazil.
For monoculture , we are not like american who had two political parties , an no public television channel shared with your neighbor arte is an European public service channel
Arte is a Franco-German television channel
It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG) ARTE, plus two member companies acting as editorial and programme production centres, ARTE France in Paris (formerly known as La Sept) and ARTE Deutschland in Baden-Baden (a subsidiary of the two main public German TV networks ARD and ZDF).
As an international joint venture (an EEIG), its programmes focus on audiences in both countries. Because of this, the channel has two audio tracks and two subtitle tracks, one each in French and German.
the english website exist it’s free: https://www.arte.tv/en/ and GDPR* compilant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation
If we are in monoculture why did we are in voluntary association with 27 nation states, from Portugal to Poland.
Your are a bigot and one without any knowledge, in France your kind of people was called a ” beauf ”
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/beauf
In France we have the Panthéon a mausoleum for the remains of distinguished French citizens:
74 only are inside 69 mens en 5 women for their own merit
Marie Curie, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Germaine Tillion, Simone Veil and Joséphine Baker
…
Adolphe Sylvestre Félix Éboué french , black born in Cayenne is here since 1949
Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie a Franco-polish scientist – one Nobel prize in chemistry and one in physic – is here since 1995
Freda Josephine McDonald aka Joséphine Baker a naturalized french citizen born in US is here since 2021
Alexandre Dumas the french author of The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers is here since 2002 and his grandmother was Marie-Cessette Dumas, an enslaved woman of Afro-Caribbean ancestry.
Not so bad for monocultural ape and I speak English , in reciprocity I want an answer in French..
Just do it.
Nah, pornography is a lot more readily-available here. Getting a firearm requires going into a physical store, providing photo ID, going through a background check, and spending quite a bit of money. Getting porn requires a device with a display and an internet connection. Even if you go into a store for the porn, at worst you’d just need to provide a photo ID (and if you don’t look underage, I assume they wouldn’t bother asking for it; I’ve never got pornography from a store so I don’t know). Loose-powder black powder firearms (which are classified differently in the US, to the extent they legally aren’t firearms) are a bit easier to acquire, as they can legally be purchased from online storefronts without having to go through all the hoops and don’t cost as much as getting a comparable modern-pattern firearm, but are still less available than pornography.
Violent entertainment, on the other hand, is markedly more readily-available than pornography, of course.
Yes in France is the same for pornography but way more complicated for an non black powder firearm.
C category
It is mandatory to make a declaration to a gunsmith or broker to acquire and hold a category C weapon for sports shooting
It is mandatory to have created an SIA account to purchase and own a weapon as a hunter.
Weapons Information System (SIA) – Holders area (Online procedure)
Ministry of the Interior
The SIA is open to the following adult individual gun owners:
– Person with a hunting license
– Person who wishes to keep an inherited or found weapon, and who does not have any possession title (neither hunting license, nor collector’s card, nor sports license from shooting, ball-trap or ski (biathlon) federations)
Consult the guide available online to create your SIA account: SIA: Weapons Information System.
To create your account, you must have an email address.
Prepare the following supporting documents, scanned or photographed:
Identity document (identity card, passport or residence permit in France)
Proof of address
Hunting license if you are a hunter. Also prepare your SIA number: SIA: Weapons Information System if your gunsmith has had the opportunity to create one for you.
Once the account is created:
you are assigned an identifier number. To log in to your account, you will need to enter this number and the password you have chosen.
you are assigned an SIA number. This number will follow you throughout your life as a gun owner. It must be presented to your gunsmith before each intervention on your weapon.
I’s for
Semi-automatic repeating shoulder firearm
Projectile with a diameter less than 20 mm
Shooting 3 or more rounds without replenishment
Manual repeating shoulder firearm
Projectile with a diameter less than 20 mm
Firing 11 or more rounds without replenishment
Shoulder firearm with 1 shot per barrel
Manual repeating shoulder firearm
Rifled barrel equipped with a pump reloading device chambered for calibers 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36 and 410
Capacity of 5 shots maximum
Total length greater than 80 cm 31.5″
Barrel length greater than 60 cm 23.6″
Fixed stock
Firearm manufactured to fire a bullet or multiple non-metallic projectiles
Classified in this category by ministerial decision
Weapon and launcher whose projectile is propelled in a non-pyrotechnic manner
Mouth energy of 20 joules or more
Category A, B or C firearm neutralized (made unfit for firing)
Category A is technically forbidden
Category B
It is mandatory to obtain authorization from the prefecture to acquire and possess a category B weapon.
This type of weapon can be used for sports shooting or in case of professional risk under certain conditions.
And a category B authorization is hard to obtain and easy to lose…
Let’s be totally honest here. If a politician – ANY politician – tried to declare that the U.S. Armed Forces can no longer provide reproductive care to servicemen in the Grrlpower setting, then there’s going to be a HUGE reckoning. “Do you want to lose more than half our team of superheroes to other countries that aren’t pulling this kind of crap?”
“MORE than half? We have a lot of male heroes…”
“THEY’LL QUIT TOO. They won’t tolerate that kind of disrespect towards their comrades.”
I think at that point several of the team would just go Justice Lords on the US Government.
Though I do think they should do that anyway, America skates by on “its the status quo” for a lot of really bad shit.
Pregnancy is not the only possible physical consequence of sex.
… and I wouldn’t call getting an abortion “no physical consequence.” Of course, it’s not like they’d likely have much more difficulties with that post-Dobbs than before – while the ARCHON headquarters is (presumably) in Texas and the DoD isn’t allowed to provide abortions outside of certain cases, one of those cases is rape, and I don’t think it would be difficult to justify this situation as falling under that – it’s just that everyone involved was functionally under the nonconsensual effect of, essentially, a potent date rape drug. Even failing that, I doubt Texas is going to try to use their “No you can’t leave the State to get an abortion” law – if that’s even still in effect, it always struck me as legally questionable – against ARCHON. And from what I understand, pre-Dobbs Texas wasn’t exactly an easy place to get an abortion anyway (they had some of the stricter restrictions in place), so they probably would have wanted to leave the State anyway.
> … and I wouldn’t call getting an abortion “no physical consequence.”
Eh, it’s no worse than getting a bone set.
Your view of no physical side effects is quite selective.
Plus it was in the middle of a battle. You expect things to happen in a super-fight. You don’t expect to get suddenly whamming at home in your PJ’s.
Well it wasn’t a problem back then because Vehemence is a bad guy.
Him not respecting the consent of others was expected. And so was him nearly getting killed over it.
It’s not like if one of the main cast had done that it wouldn’t have been a problem.
In fact, several people complained when Dabbler mind whammied animal-lady.
Including Maxima if I recall.
> Now, I haven’t read the comments back then, and I know he’s a bad guy, but I have a feeling that the topic of consent probably hadn’t been quite that much of a topic back then.
Well yes, that’s expected. There’s no reason to talk about the bad guy doing a bad thing, since he’s expected go (this would only come up if someone questioned whether he really is bad guy), and there’s no reason to frame violence in terms of consent, because it’s obviously nonconsensual.
Sex, however, is something that can be and very often is consensual, so it’s worth more to talk about when it isn’t.
Violence is frequently consensual as well. (See every martial art tournement ever)
Yup, discussion at Aikido last night centered around how important it is to have training partners you trust to give honest attacks, so you can actually train the correct responses. One student mentioned not really feeling like it was good training unless they were a little afraid. It’s a fine line. So both consensual, and violent (though I’d rank Aikido as the least violent martial art that actually makes contact – doing “kung fu air kata” is pretty, but I wouldn’t call it violent)
Whether you call combat sports violence is kind of a matter of definition. With Vehemence we’re talking about attacks, which are definitely always nonconsensual.
Illy is actually correct from a legal standpoint. The reason that boxing matches, football, UFC, etc are not assault and battery is because battery is the unlawful application of force directly or indirectly upon another person or their personal belongings, causing bodily injury or offensive contact. Those martial arts and sporting matches are not considered unlawful because of the mutual agreement to engage in the violence and therefore an implied acceptance of the possible consequences of that violence – ie, they consented and therefore it is not unlawful. If not for the ‘unlawful’ language in the definition then it would be battery. Hence why definitions are important in law. :)
Although you are correct in that with Vehemence specifically, there was not even any arguable form of consent by his victims of his violence aura.
When most people play football (real football) they don’t consent to having another player headbutting them or deliberately digging their spikes into their shins
Because the rules of soccer forbid that sort of behavior in game, so for THAT there is no consent given.
However, anything within the rules of the game, or anything not in the rules specifically but generally seen as a risk involved in playing the game, are considered to be lawful and/or implied consent.
So if you’re in a boxing match and get punched by Mike Tyson and break a rib, tough luck – you realized the risk and it was implied consent. However, if he bites a chunk of your ear off in the ring… that would be assault and battery.
That’s not a very good comparison. Violence is qualitatively different from sex in that it’s something that’s not inherently enjoyable to be on the receiving end of, for most people. There are no feelings of guilt or shame for having felt pleasure to work through afterward, no cognitive dissonance to resolve. That’s why rape is so often considered on par with or worse than murder (or at least, often elicits more visceral revulsion) – it takes something that *should* be a source of pleasure and joy and even fulfillment in one’s life and twists it into confusion and horror and trauma.
And of course the other reason that people are upset about this and not about the Vehemence incident is that the societal problem of rape is minimized much more often than that of murder.
Supervillain does bad thing is expected, so is violence in a superhero comic
Supervillain mind controlling heroes into assisting a crime happens in mainstream superhero comics, supervillain mind controlling heroes so he can rape them not so much, The Purple Man did it to people and it’s resulted in him being one of the most hated villains in the world
Are they ok with it ? Once you apply mental control at what point can you be sure that the effects are at 0 ?
The main difference was the existence or lack thereof regarding mens rea. Vehemence had mens rea to do what he did. Parfait did not.
She is so much the reason for next weeks safety briefing.
Wait this isn’t a safety briefing?
This is a debriefing debriefing.
It took me a second to get that but once I did I laughed a lot. Good one.
I’m here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress.
If the effect was building wide, I bet the “Cupps” waitresses were more than “tipped.”
-I’ll see myself out now.
Look how the story develops without people calling rape at the drop of a hat and letting the author thread the scene.
Precisely!
Yes, look. It’s completely handwaved.
It’s because we trust the author. If this had been the very START, some folks would be…. louder.
On the other hand, Olgaf can pretty much cover anything by now.
If what happened wasn’t attempted rape, then how should we refer to someone stripping off someone’s clothes and forcing themself onto them while that person is repeatedly telling them to stop?
You can insist on only referring to what happened as sexual assault if you think that sounds better, but that’s an umbrella term for lots of offences, including rape.
It can’t be rape if there’s no mens rea. There was no mens rea for Parfait since it’s literally a part of her biology that she had no control over or ability to stop. If anything, her mindset was to have Sydney stop it from happening which is why she was pleading for a nimora salka or a sleep potion once she realized what was happening.
This wouldn’t happen with humans in real life, since humans do not have a biological/magical lust aura that can take over their mind and libido involuntarily. So it seems odd to make a comparison with real life since there’s no reasonably comparable situation.
Which simply means that the in-comic world is lax in coming up with a proper term. The closest equivalent would be “involuntary sexual assault”, or maybe “negligent sexual assault”. Now, one could also argue that Parfait herself had no real idea that anything she was doing with Sydney could trigger this result, and that would argue against negligence on her part–as others have noted, it would instead point the finger at Thom, who is responsible for Parfait as her collar-holder.
Remember that for modern succubi “collar-holder” doesn’t mean all that much.
“Which simply means that the in-comic world is lax in coming up with a proper term. The closest equivalent would be “involuntary sexual assault”, or maybe “negligent sexual assault”.”
I actually discussed this last comic about how, for there to be some sort of crime here, they would have to make a new crime of sexual assault where the standard is negligence, instead of intentional or statutory because of the very unique situation here.
“Now, one could also argue that Parfait herself had no real idea that anything she was doing with Sydney could trigger this result, and that would argue against negligence on her part–as others have noted, ”
Correct, that would be a defense against criminal negligence (as opposed to the tort). Criminal negligence is conduct in which a person ignores a known or obvious risk. I’m not sure that Parfait would have a good defense there (if negligent sexual assault was thing), since she did realize there was a risk, and ignored that risk since she is so new at this and didn’t think about the risk that should have been otherwise obvious to her. There is evidence that she did know there was a risk since she did ask for nimora salka or a sleep potion (the same thing that shows she did NOT have intent to commit a sexual assault is something that hurts her defense if there was a law for negligent sexual assault. :) It is, however, a moot point since even if they make a law after this, she cannot be charged retroactively.
“it would instead point the finger at Thom, who is responsible for Parfait as her collar-holder.”
You are now describing something called vicarious liability. This is more often used in torts than in criminal law. Vicarious liability imposes criminal responsibility on a defendant on the basis of a special relationship (parent/child, guardian, employer/employee, etc). I do not think Tom would be liable here though, as what Parfait was doing was not in the scope of her normal duties in their relationship, any more than Tom is responsible for Dabbler’s actions (since they have the same relationship as Tom and Parfait). There ‘could’ arguably be some vicarious liability for a tort though, if the courts determined that their relationship was like that of a child and their parent. Although i don’t think modern succubi/master relationships are like that anymore, based on what Dabbler said earlier when describing succubi history.
Nice post!
Thanks! Your own posts have been very helpful to me in clarifying my views.
You mentioning tort law here actually makes a lot of sense, to me. Without mens rea, it might be most sensible to turn to civil law to assess liability rather than ‘guilt’ as such. I think Thom’s culpability would be best assessed by Parfait’s current position in the training that Thom is supposed to provide (specifically, the self-control training, which is part of the training in resisting orders). If she is not considered to be truly the age of majority in demon culture, then I would argue that Thom is the only real figure who can be deemed her legal guardian, and thus the one who should be left holding the bag.
This all makes sense to me, and it’s why I want to see new procedures put in place to deal with this situation. A reasonable expectation would be that Parfait should be expected going forward to always go over these details explicitly when spending time in company of humans, and ensure that safety measures are in place, and the ARC building needs to have new procedures when dealing with summoned guests.
I still say that Gwen dropped a significant ball here, as the authority figure and subject matter expert who made the summoning actually possible. Dabbler needs to work up a procedure manual or something with her going forward.
No it’s not fully comparable, because of fictionalised extenuating circumstances. circumstance that only exists because the author decided to create them like that, and indeed didn’t exist at all until a few pages ago. I am critical of Dave choosing to write these events happening and then brushing them aside because he can make it so the characters can’t help it/ don’t care what happened. They aren’t real people making decisions, there is no mind or intent that could possibly be held liable because they are puppets.
Agreed in that Plot devisium is in high use here.
I will have to disagree with you on this, while it is not as powerful as the succubus power, there is pheromones (the chemicals that are produced that attract two people to each other)
As for my thoughts on this little “situation” yes there is going to be some issues and maybe some regret a bit later.
While Dabbler will be able to assist in some of the possible issues and there is professional staff to assist in other issues. It seems to me that these adults are being adults about the situation.
Accidents with powers going out of control is known to everyone of them as they all have had it happen to them and or have seen someone’s power out of control.
Seeing that Parfait (well being in high school/ looks ) is a teen and everyone knows teenagers have issues controlling anything.
If someone REALLY wanted to be a total A** with the law. The only one that MIGHT stick is on Sydney for sexually assault on a minor.
And when, pray tell, did that happen in this comic? I think I’d remember seeing something so graphic depicted here. Unless I somehow accidentally ended up on the FvT site instead of Grrl Power and didn’t notice.
Yes, and in the Gor books all women who were enslaved and raped eventually enjoyed it
In many thrillers, spy movies and cop shows people manage to beat information out of helpless people just in time to save the day
The author writing things happening a particular way doesn’t mean that everybody should be happy with how a particular situation is addressed.
“I will elbow drop you in the kidney from the top rope.”
Sydney should rather target the Gazorpazovum.
I’d suggest the Squigglysputch, but I think only Irken’s have that one. Maybe the Glubach? Species that have at least usually hqve two.
We know Succubi in the grrl-verse have a gazorpazovum.
Syd’s hit Dabbler in it before.
That could just be Dabbler – she’s a weird alien-demon-somethingorother chimera after all.
Do we? Dabbler is only 1/2 Succubus, so maybe the gazorpazovum comes from her non-succubi side…
later Parfait is told- Max is the softy. the one you don’t want to cross is Arianna.
she will mess you up, legally of course, so it hurts more.
I guess chastity belts are a form of torture for succubi?
Hold on… *googles real quick* and they apparently also are for humans, except I now need to exorcise my PC
Depends is succubi can feed off people edging or not.
Ahhhh, well, there’s a few lessons hidden away here. Succubi can consume and subsist off of tantric energy that they don’t help generate… but this potion ties their their own energy up. No spells, and looks extremely uncomfortable. Like, constipated with unrelated cramps bad. Whereas someone who would put a chastity on a succubus would also be enjoying it in their way, probably, so feeding as they are denying. A physical barrier is probably something that they could easily work around, whereas this, a magical barrier, is probably worse.
Of course, I ain’t read up on what mythological succubus do in their spare time and what kills them and such. Is speculation.
It would be nice if Sidney admited to a least part of the responsability. Inviting a succubus to a sleepover and then, among other things, buying sex toys online with her and ogling boys at the gym is kinda like inviting a werewolf and wearing Lady Gaga’s meat dress. I am gonna say “she was asking for it” but what happened to her genre saviness?
She expected that, like Dabbler, that her friend could control herself and take no for an answer.
Clearly she was wrong. But that doesn’t mean it’s her “responsibility” for expecting the bare minimum from another person.
“Bare minimum” from a HUMAN person. Dabbler has make it clear again and again that human comportamental norms, from a succubus pov, are hard to understand, more to follow and not only because of societal differences: it’s not just their culture but also their very physiology that drives them to have sex.
Dabbles has literally never said that and every other succubus she has met hasn’t acted like that.
Further more, Sydney couldn’t have known that some dumb fun could lead to an aura wave. So, again, she shares no responsibility in this.
I think I’ve figured what’s your point here.
You’re projecting on this narrative the problem of assaulted women being blamed for “asking for it” because of how they dressed/acted. Experience taught me it’s useless and highly frustrating to genuinely talk about any topic (like how succubi in this webcomic have a differently wired brain when it comes to pleasure centers, a body that runs less on solids than on mystical energies released by naughty activities and because of that, developed a society where having intercouse is almost as mundane as lunching, hence their inability to truly get how and why human society sees and treats sex – all these points have been previously established in the webcomic, actually read it and you’ll see) with people treating said topic as an excuse to rant about something else.
So if you’re not interested to have a fan talk with me about this webcomic and prefer to assert something as dishonest as your previous statement about Dabbler, I’ll let you at it.
“You’re projecting on this narrative the problem of assaulted women being blamed for “asking for it” because of how they dressed/acted. Experience taught me it’s useless and highly frustrating to genuinely talk about any topic (like how succubi in this webcomic have a differently wired brain when it comes to pleasure centers”
This is not even remotely what DuffenBlaster was saying and I’m confused by your aggressiveness towards him about this. What he is saying is very reasonable – this:
Sydney has a lot more experience dealing with succubi than other human beings. She has dealt with three so far – Dabbler, Decolette, and Tamatha (whereas most human beings have dealt with and learned the history and biological information about exactly zero succubi). And in none of those cases has anything occurred even remotely like what happened with Parfait here. None of them have mentioned anything about this sort of risk being possible either, despite all three of them telling her different in depth information about what it’s like to be a succubus and what they go through as a function of their biology, including one who is underage.
As a result, it would be unreasonable to expect Sydney to know that asking about collaring, which Dabbler already did explain in some detail at the quarry, would resulting an out-of-control lust aura happening. This means that there is not a reasonable scenario in which Sydney would be considered negligent for the actions which occurred here.
I don’t see anything dishonest about what he said.
Yes, exactly!
It’s not that hard a concept to grasp.
I would hazard that Sydney’s real leftover problem should be that I doubt she got approval to summon Parfait (only Gwen knew & helped cause Syndey reached out to her for help). She’s only a Private, Parfait likely isn’t a US citizen/has a passport even, and so Sydney violated border/customs and also brought her into a US military HQ without checking her in and getting her a guest badge. And probably plenty more regs. Max should punish her for that at least.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1182-the-dark-luxurious-arts/
Second panel Anvil knew about it and Sydney thought Max knew as well
Anvil knows about Parfait, it’s not clear that she knew Sydney was about to summon her.
unless you think Gwen is referring to parfait as “this”, while looking at the summoning circle, no. Sydney stated that Anvil knew about the summoning, and max probably knew
No, I think Gwen was referring to the summoning happening
I think Sydney thought Gwen was referring to “the thing you’ve just told me about meeting Dabbler’s sister and that she gave you her card”
How would Maxi know? She wasn’t even in the same State!!
Wrong genre savvy. She thought she was just in a superhero story, not a sex comedy.
I still think her lust aura could be a valuable weapon if it can so effectively disrupt people’s thinking on that level. Even if it would only affect lower level villains or grunts, that means a whole lot of people you can disregard or capture when they’re *ahem* exhausted.
Back in the ’90s when scientists started looking into how pheromones affect humans the Air Force came up with the idea to create something they called a ‘gay bomb’. The goal was to turn all the enemy soldiers instantly gay and have them irresistibly attracted to each other.
(I think the guys who come up with Ax body spray tried to use the same logic in their marketing, without the gay part)
> The goal was to turn all the enemy soldiers instantly gay and have them irresistibly attracted to each other.
I wonder if they’d ever heard of the Sacred Band of Thebes?
Unless it is turned up to the level of true mind control, and thus just leads to a mass rape event, they’ll just shake it off.
Maxi kinda like Sydney’s Dabbles: overbearing older sister
This is a true and valid point.
Nimora Salka, far more effective than saltpeter.
And Sydney put the whole incident into perspective.
Nice.
Can’t blame Maxima for scowling and glaring considering what a cat herder she must be all the time.
she’s just pissed her nipples almost tore through her uniform earlier, no biggie
Given that we’re talking about Max, I would bet that the super that produces their combat uniforms probably uses more durable than usual fabrics for Max’s clothing. It might be a problem if her strength and armor were dialed all the way up but just everyday schlepping around, I would bet on ordinary self consciousness over inconvenient pokies.
His name is Ashley btw and the uniforms are super durable made of a new material he created called ‘Q-vex’, which on its own is basically Kevlar 2.0 even before you add in his other creation – Ooblek. Hence why it took a long time for him to design then. According to Ashley himself. :). Or it could have been because Archon launched prematurely. :)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-154-predictably-unpredictable/
Initial uniform
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-318-now-she-looks-human/
Ashley’s designed uniform made out of Q-vex.
Honestly thought Ari wasn’t even in the room, but guessing the reason she wasn’t on the stage is because she’s with the ones affected by the LAura
Really hoping there will be more passing talking about this, not that there won’t be more pages (unless more pages are already sketched out) dedicated, just… maybe called-back in future (please don’t pull a “The Simpsons” and have next week everyone is back to ‘normal’ and this is treated like it never happened)
The back to normal is normal for “Monster Of The Week” shows and far predates the Simpsons.
The real Monster was the babies we made along the way.
…seriously though, you know there have to be some pro-birth extremists in the building, and this incident may have just seriously complicated things. And I’m probably being unfair, there. Even a woman who’s stance is, “I won’t do it, even if I won’t stop you from doing it,” is probably going to be facing a serious crisis, even this results in pregnancy.
I have to wonder, is Uncle Sugar on the hook? Would Tom take responsibility for his junior here, and help provide for a person created as a result of her aura?
Would the potential mother – assuming she isn’t also a screaming religious fundie – automatically reject any support from Parfait’s general direction, let alone a literal Archfiend? I mean, Tom honestly seems like a pretty good guy, even if he is a sneaky bugger; it seems reasonable he might at least open some doors for a kid resulting from this incident.
“Would y’ like t’ go t’ wizard school, Harry?”
I would assume that most of the women there are on some sort of conceptive, there seems to be a healthy sexual attitude in ARC so protection would not be frowned on.
Also my sister takes contraceptives just to regulate her monthly pains and alleviate some of the symptoms of her bodies cycles. If women do sync up on cycles if they spend a lot of time together, like I have been told, Arc can’t afford to have half of the fighting force unavailable a few days or more every month on a simi-predictable schedule. So they might be prescribed for medical reasons. I don’t know how the military reacts to women in combat on their period, so I could be talking out of my rear end.
All of this is my own speculation we have no evidence one way or the other.
Well, if pro birth extremist is now a viable (no pun intended) term.. that makes the others side pro murder extremists.
and yes I said murder not kill as there is premeditation.
so people that can be hit with a baseball bat and not notice are “down” to something that 1/2 the population works through 12 times a year.. intresting view you have there.
*Yawn*
1: It’s only ‘pro-murder’ if you accept the idea that a glob of fetal tissue is a ‘person’ capable of being murdered. Most pro-choicers do not.
2: Even if we accept that premise, it doesn’t obviate the fact that carrying a pregnancy to term does, in fact, shorten women’s lives. Even without complications, it places a massive strain on the body; once you factor in the odds of complications, mandating carrying the kid to term is mandating that they risk their own lives for another’s–something we don’t do even in the case of living children (a parent cannot, for instance, be required to donate an organ their child needs to continue living; we might think very little of them for it, but the law cannot be used to compel them to do so).
3: Of course, when complications ARE factored into the picture, the whole thing becomes exceedingly more grim; women regularly die in countries with strict anti-abortion laws, because the doctors are unwilling to risk a post-hoc decision that the abortion wasn’t justified (which would result in them losing their license, and probably facing jail time), and the process to get authorization, even if such an option exists, is typically slow and cumbersome, in a situation where every second counts.
Please feel free to take your pro-slavery views to Hell, where they belong.
Murder is something that happens to people
A foetus is not a person
So, according to you, Mad Hamish, until it’s actually squealing on the hospital bed, it’s not a person? Good to know. So you’re totally cool with it if your partner decides, as the “foetus”* comes out, that she doesn’t want a baby after all, and has it terminated before it can draw breath? If it’s not breathing independently, it’s not a person, right? And if you disagree with that, at what point *does* the “foetus” (*which literally means baby in Latin. Your illogical, misanthropic, intellectually dishonest wordplay would mean nothing whatsoever to an ancient Roman. You’d be saying [and are saying] “a baby is not a person” and they’d think you were an imbecile) become a “person”?
•
Because your argument has established that it’s not murder to terminate a baby (in Latin) because unborn babies aren’t people. So when do they become people? What’s the criteria? And if you say “viability” well, what is “viable”?
•
I know you have no answers to these questions, and almost certainly haven’t even considered them, unless it was while reading an article by someone who had actually considered them. The questions aren’t for you. They’re for the people reading your inane, unthinking, recycled, misanthropic pablum. If you decide to declare that some living beings with unique DNA aren’t people, without even understanding your criteria for that unpersoning, then it’s not even a step before declaring anyone you dislike an “unperson” that has no right to live.
First off, an argument from etymology is… silly, especially from someone complaining about wordplay. If I want to argue with an ancient Roman, first thing I’ll do is pull out my cell-phone to convince him I’m a powerful wizard.
Beyond that, ancient Romans would’ve found the whole discussion baffling, since in their eyes, even a newborn infant wasn’t a ‘person’ yet. That process didn’t even begin until after the naming ceremony (held days after birth), and wasn’t really complete until their teeth came in and they could eat solid food. I mean, that’s an interesting standard for you to put forth, but I’m not sure you’ve really thought it through.
Nice goalpost shifting. It was a point about the stupidity of using the exact same word in a different language to hide behind. The word means baby. That’s all it was. It was certainly not an appeal to the Romans’ views on personhood or the morality of murdering/killing infants. (Even if we stipulate that your (evident) position is true, arguendo, and babies in Latin aren’t “person’s”, they’re clearly not inanimate objects or dead, so “killing” certainly applies, even if “murder” doesn’t in your framework)
•
Now I’ll ask you the same question: when does the “baby in Latin” become a “person” who can be murdered, in your opinion? What is your criteria? From your intellectually dishonest goalpost shifting statement, I guess it’s “until they can eat solid food”? Again, fascinating. Horrifying, but fascinating. Do people who need feeding tubes no longer qualify as “persons”?
Really, where do you draw the line?
After birth? After “viability”? After age 2?
The point is that “fetus”, in ENGLISH, does not mean ‘baby’. It never has. It means unborn mammal.
As for my own standard–it’s actually quite simple. If the fetus can be delivered via induced labor on the spot, with no additional danger to the mother than the existing pregnancy or some other procedure, then it has the right to be born. If, however, inducing labor would increase the risk to the mother’s health more than those other options (medical or surgical abortion), then no, the potential child’s right to life does not trump the mother’s.
Oh, and note–a fetus delivered prematurely by a mother seeking to end her pregnancy will become a child who must be properly cared for. Whether the mother chooses to do so, or opts to give up the child, is entirely her decision, and regardless, since the State will have been instrumental in bringing that child into being, it must take full financial responsibility for it–medically, socially, educationally, the works. Hope you’re not like most pro-slavers who object deeply to any taxes that go to pay for social welfare of others, ’cause those costs are gonna add up fast.
Funny you should mention the Romans. You know they practiced infanticide, right? In fact, the family head was obligated by law to leave any visibly deformed babies out in the wild. Hell, maybe if we brought it back then there’d actually be enough resources for those of us whose brains have actually developed enough to render us sentient.
Funnily enough words in modern English don’t mean exactly the same thing as in latin, hell in some cases words in English don’t mean the same as they did 20 or 100 years ago…
Wander up to a Hell’s Angel and tell him he’s looking gay…
Case in point:
https://youtu.be/2s13X66BFd8?feature=shared&t=32
Sigh.
First off, the term is “forced-birther.”
—
Lets assume for the sake of argument that the feutus is a person (It’s not, but I’ll grant it for the sake of argument)
It is inflicting severe bodily harm on the pregnant person. (If you want to argue this then you’ve never seen a pregnent person)
It’s a basic human right to be able to defend yourself against things that are hurting you (or are obviously about to).
In the case of pregnency, abortion is self-defence.
—
Or: Your body is your property.
You have the legal right to evict people from your property.
In the case of a pregent person evicting a feutus, we call that “an abortion.”
Waiting for Sydney’s military-ish punishment for having a visitor without a visitor pass in their secure facility.
It’s not as if Max can make her peel potatoes. (well… she could I suppose.)
Max makes Sydney do Laps. Lots of Laps…
Remember that Sydney’s stamina may have improved *a bit* since she joined the gang, but is currently still only slightly better than your average desk jockey. Plus Syd *hates* physical exercise with the passion of a certified nerd..
And if all else fails… Hand her over to Arianna who can have her do.. Desk Duty..
A full manual check of forms [something] filled in over the last year for spelling errors should do the trick.
Even Dabbler would take that month Abstinence over that…
The laps are good choice because not only Sydney’s hates them but they also make her better soldier.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1182-the-dark-luxurious-arts/
Second panel Anvil knew, and Sydney thought Max knew.
Anyone ever get tingles from a really good pun? One that makes you roll your eyes, want to punch the punster, and feel weirdly good at the same time? No? Just me? Okay, I see the door.
I dare say you will fit right in here. Welcome fellow punster.
stay. there are services to deal with the ninjas. refine your technique or don’t.
*cue good,bad,ugly whistle music and wind blown tumbleweed – ka-ching, ka-ching*
Have pun will travel…
So, Parfait now needs to carry two of that potion on her at all times when she’s in the States. One of which is instantly accessible. (Two, so she still has one while she’s getting a replacement for the one she just took)
Eh, Dabbler said that was the *quickest way to shut down a lust aura. I’m sure if she catches it early, a slower, much less unpleasant method is available (she mention a sleep potion when it was ramping up)
> I’m sure if she catches it early, a slower, much less unpleasant method is available
Fair. But she needs to bring something with her so she doesn’t do the paniced “Does anyone have one? In the other room? Crap, too late.” again.
That potion is like chemo for a human, sure it’s helpful, but not something you want to take on a regular basis. Parfait did try to explain to Sydney what she needed but didn’t know the english words to use. It doesn’t shut off the energy, but subdues it for a time, like the difference between a sleepy-time shot and a mild tranquilizer.
In the description after funny side effects: “Consecutive doses can be fatal to succubi.” That doesn’t sound like she can really consider taking two in a row seriously. She probably just needs to leave and get the antidote, THEN get the replacement.
Depends how close together “consecutivly lethal” starts to be a worry. Hours? Carry two. Days? Just one.
I would assume that if she is physically able to do the aura thing again, she recovered enough for second dose to NOT be fatal.
This is just a repeat what we got after Dabbler altering the memories of her conquests. “Oh poor Dab- I mean Parfait, succubi are powered by sex so that excuses it.”
Even in the unlikely even Heatwave breaks up with Amorphous it’s just gonna be a blip isn’t it? ಠ_ಠ
You did not handle this well Dave.
> Dabbler altering the memories of her conquests.
We don’t know that she didn’t get consent for that.
Consent becomes irrelevant/impossible in the face of mental manipulation. Did you consent? Do you only think you did? Did they take a video of you consenting but you changed your mind later and that was erased from your mind?
Who knows.
After a certain point you have to start TRUSTING your partner… or else you shouldn’t be partners in the first place. If you need to have that level of confirmation regarding interactions, at least one of you needs to walk away and work on themselves.
If someone alters your memories, how can you be sure whether you trusted them before they altered your memories?
I am arguably the biggest (or at least the loudest) proponent of affirmative consent here, Emma, and I don’t Dave is handling this badly, or trivializing anything. I also don’t think that “any memory manipulation makes x,y,z thing invalid,” because I can think of a dozen instances in my own life that I’d like to forget/remember differently, or parts of my own personality I would genuinely like to edit from the top down. Would it make me a different person? Well, yeah.
That’s kinda the point.
Personal interest aside, it’s not hard to imagine a person volunteering to do something along those lines. However, I strongly suspect that that _isn’t_ what Dabbler is actually aiming at. Rather, I suspect that she start by approaching Brooke (possibly alongside Dr. Frost) with, “Hey, we need to discuss something extremely important, which could potentially result in you becoming dangerously enraged and hurting people, which I don’t believe you want, and would regret. May I created a temporary area of emotional suppression before we start this?”
That will probably be followed by a rundown of events, itself followed by, “Now, I am not suggesting you don’t have a right to feel betrayed or angry. I _am_ going to ask if you’d allow yourself to – again, temporarily – experience what was going on at the time, both with Mister A, and Jiggawatt, and also my sister. Not because I think this will make everything seem “okay,” but so that you have a full grasp and thorough understanding of everything, so that you can decide how you’re going to react to these events.”
The more I think about it, the more I think that Dr. Frost really _must_ be involved in this entire incident. Even if it results in nothing more than a fifteen minute wellness check, the importance of getting in front of any potential conflicts is too great.
If the calming aura doesn’t come with illusionary comfort animals (https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2010-07-07) I will be disappointed.
*“Hey, we need to discuss something extremely important, which could potentially result in you becoming dangerously enraged and hurting people, which I don’t believe you want, and would regret. May I created a temporary area of emotional suppression before we start this?”*
That would stop her from making an informed consent because emotions and how you deal with them are part of the decision making process.
*That will probably be followed by a rundown of events, itself followed by, “Now, I am not suggesting you don’t have a right to feel betrayed or angry.*
Even though she can’t right now because her emotions are suppressed.
*I _am_ going to ask if you’d allow yourself to – again, temporarily – experience what was going on at the time, both with Mister A, and Jiggawatt, and also my sister. Not because I think this will make everything seem “okay,” but so that you have a full grasp and thorough understanding of everything, so that you can decide how you’re going to react to these events.”*
And what happens if she says no? She feels no anger right now, you just explained it wasn’t his fault so she doesn’t need to experience what happened to him, do you force her to feel the lust aura anyway? Or do you drop the suppression field and let all the anger come roaring back? Maybe she is angry with you cause you tried to trick her into being ok with being cheated on? I don’t see a good outcome to your scenario.
No, more magic won’t fix this problem they need less magic, and for the people that were affected by the aura to stop plotting against the people who weren’t affected.
The psychiatrist does need to have mandatory meetings with all the affected personnel and there SO’s that is a good idea.
I agree with this, except for the point where “It wasn’t his fault”
The aura can only ever be an extenuating circumstance, not an excuse for what he and Jiggawatt did.
If it were an excuse then we would be talking about mind control (or at least will override) and the aftermath of the story has gone out of its way to show that it was nothing like that.
Experiencing how hard a lust aura can hit if you are not expecting hit may convince Heatwave to forgive the two, but she is not required to and neither Dabbler nor dr. Frost has any right to even suggest to her that she should. Only Heatwave has any right to decide how betrayed she feels by this. The best the others can do is showing her the circumstances and even that is rather questionable from a legal point of view. It’s not mind control but it is manipulative.
Calming her down so she does not set Amorpheus and Jiggawatt on fire hot enough to melt steel in seconds, is something that absolutely should be done (she does not need the legal trouble of a double homicide on top of her broken heart.
And of course all of this assumes that Heatwave has no self-control and will immediately descend like the wrath of Pele on Amorpheus and Jiggawatt. To be honest nothing in her brief appearances have given me the impression that she is uncontrolled like that. The one event where she had reason to believe that Harem had made a move on her boyfriend she did not attack Harem directly. Rather, she melted an aluminum can in her hand to make her point.
To me it rather comes across as Amorpheus knowing that Heatwave will be deeply upset and hurt by what he did, and is trying to avoid the repercussions. Basically he is saying: “I did not control myself and now I want you to hit my girlfriend with a lust aura hard enough that she will forgive me.” That’s not taking responsibility for his actions.
It seems that D.B. and most of the commenters are of the view that no one really had a choice or at least were greatly impaired in making the choice.
As an aside we do not even know if supers can have offspring.. lets hope D.B. does not go down the Watchmen path with this..
The person in the booth at the entrance was having sex while on duty, based on their uniform when Sydney first enters the building, I’m pretty confident that the people manning it are military
If the lust aura hits somebody bad enough that a military person, on duty in a public facing position in a glass booth starts going for it then it looks like a pretty good sign that there’s been a pretty huge impact on somebody’s ability to make choices.
> Consent becomes irrelevant/impossible in the face of mental manipulation.
No, it’s just that evidence of (lack of) consent becomes harder to prove.
Which is a very different thing.
While I agree with your points, at the time Dabblers true nature as a alien succubus was a secret and governments have a lot of leeway to keep secrets, up to imprisoning or killing people just trying to learn the secrets. See the warnings around Area 51. So the ability to remove those secrets without killing them is the kinder option.
Dabbles didn’t remove the memory of the sexing, she removed what it felt like to have had sex with Dabbles, because she has muscles that hyu-mon women simply don’t
They would remember having a great time, just not what made it so great
That last frame of Syd looks oddly kissable, even with the glare in the background.
Course, I’m already rather smitten with her so…
Are we done with satisfying the pearl clutchers?
No, they will never be satisfied.
Certainly not so long as the Red Flag Brigade keeps making themselves known, we won’t.
Even if that happens you will find something new to complain about, loudly and at length. It’s alright though, I won’t hold it against you. You can’t help it, after all, you are only one of God’s creatures.
Yes, that’s why prior to this storyline I’ve been posting nonstop screeds against just about everything in the comic…. Oh, wait, no I haven’t. And in fact, the only critique I’ve made of the comic itself in this has been of DaveB wanting to have it both ways–not mind control, because he knows that a lot of people have issues there, but also mind control, because participants need to get a pass on their misconduct (cheating, abandoning posts).
My aggressive and combative comments in these threads have been entirely about specific individuals who have expressed views I find morally and ethically repugnant. So no, if those individuals were to disappear, I would not have any particular need to find something else to rage about.
But hey, keep trying, Diddums, maybe someday you’ll reach the exalted heights of a middle-school debate class.
There’s a very easy way for it to not be mind control, of course:
Mr A and Jiggawatt are cheating cheaters who cheated. And are therefore reaching for an excuse to make it “not their fault”, the way most cheaters do after they’re caught.
And that will break the status quo. Which might happen once heatwave comes back on base.
Which rather ignores that a military person was steaming up the windows when they were on duty at their post (the booth at the entrance)
Would any military person like to tell us what the likely consequences of that would be?
The idea that people didn’t at the very least have their judgement massively affected doesn’t really hold up with the observed actions
You’ve never been horny enough that you’d steam up a mostly-sealed glass can and had to wipe the condensation off so you can see out?
From what we’ve seen there was only one person in there. Allusions to a sex scene in Titanic are not proof.
Not when I’m at work and I’m not even on duty in the military
and that’s an extremely unlikely way to be trying to wipe condensation off a window…
So we should all stop trying to improve the world, just call it good enough?
Some people can enjoy life, while still seeking to fix problems.
I say we provoke them more! It’s funny watching them tear their hair out over this harmless stuff.
Looks like Arianna makes an appearance and sitting by Gwen,Also what was Max gonna say to Parfait?!?
fruitsome flappy woof-woofs?
I need translation.
Smelly farts, powerful enough to make your cheeks vibrate
both sets of cheeks
Yeah, but the SSBD’s are much more fun to deploy.
*(Sneaky Silent, But Deadly)
Growing up, it was always “Silent but Violent” (they tended to be the real stinkers, so were the people deploying them :P ) and “Loud and Proud” (usually blamed on the family pet, or the dog)
So Maxima is still glaring in panel 10, because…
A: She is still waiting to complete her sentence from panel 3, or…
B: She is actually glaring at Sydney, whose disciplinary action Maxima has not even addressed yet.
C: Old habit.
Panel five has me thinking that ARC (any any other super organizations) would need a response team for emergent supers. You know, some one to hand out the “Your Super Powers and You” pamphlet.
Vehemence always wants fights to be non-lethal. The violence stops if one side dies.
He was trying pretty seriously to kill Max, but only because he realised Max was powerful enough that she could take him out comfortably if he wasn’t already massively powered up.
So he’s ruthless enough to kill people who he sees could be a threat but killing people isn’t his main goal.
Parfait doesn’t want Sydney mad at her because Sydney knows how to punch a succubus in the Gazerpazovum.
Gazorpazovum.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-589-hot-box/
Side note, a little off topic but I just had to share: We recently got a new employee at our shop, a comic book nerd, cosplaying Comicon attendee, small of build and stature, very loquacious, has to be in almost every conversation, wears glasses, more of a dirty blond than a blond but doesn’t own a comic book shop (I asked) and I don’t see any orbs orbiting her head.
Does she carry something that could hold a couple of cans of tennis balls?
I only see her at work so not at work but who knows when she gets off.
Does she carry around a sus orange tube?
show her the webcomic and whisper ‘you could cosplay her, and it wouldn’t be very expensive’
Mag-levving 7 glowing balls might be more of a challenge than most cosplay costumes ;)
Hats exist and the craft store has clear plastic christmas ornaments ready to be modified.
LOL! Not looking for HR issues. Tell you what, I will ask her is she knows of the comic.
What effect did it have down in Fusion & Cupps?
Honestly i really like how this is handled. It’s a very grey area when you add this kind of power and learning curve into the mix. Also that Sydney did not let her off the hook on “no” either. Well done on the art too – parfait looka so sick and pathetic right now.
Seems pretty off the hook to me. Wagging her finger while saying “naughty naughty” would be more “hooked.”
We have confirmation: being Team Mom is Maxima’s job.
Maxima: “Don’t give me that! I am NOT your mother! That is not in my job description… oh lord, that is EXACTLY my job description. Crap.”
Nah, Max is the team dad.
Dabbler is obviously the team mom :D
who else would love to meet their kids in 20 years?
0.o That’s a results may vary description. If we were talking my family Max is team Mom and Dabs is team Dad… in the case of my SO Max is team Dad and Dabs is team Mom…
It doesn’t matter which side of the relationship fills the roles as long as someone does.
Ah, good.
Arianna is present. That actually goes miles to improving my anxiety over the potential fallout.
I very strongly suspect that some new regulations regarding “non-standard guest-entry” (summoning) is about to be discussed. The fact Sydney did in fact consult with one of the in-house arcanists, who herself participated in & assisted with the translocation, is going to save her some much more serious consequences than she might otherwise have had.
Not “all” consequences, mind you, but definitely keep her from a formal judicial punishment. I do expect she’ll be getting some not-insignificant EMI, however.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1182-the-dark-luxurious-arts/
Panel two Anvil knew about the summoning and Sydney thought max did as well. So while she avoided the security booth the commander in charge knew the visit was happening.
Not entirely certain Top (she’s listed as an Lt on the cast page, but referred to in comic as ‘Sergeant,’ so I’m assuming DaveB intended her as the unit’s Top) has the pull to hand wave regs re: visitors…
NOTE: For those not in the know, ‘Top’ in this case refers to the ranking senior enlisted, being short for ‘Top Sergeant.’
Their job is more-or-less to act as the CO’s direct liaison to the enlisted in the command, and they usually provide significant mentoring & advocacy for their juniors. In the Navy, this is what we call the Command Master Chief Petty Officer, or just “Master Chief.”
I’m not sure that’s the proper reading of that page.
I’m not sure that Gwen and Halo have the same understanding of what they’re talking about
Gwen is likely to be meaning “Is Max aware that you’re about to summon a succubus onto the base now?”
while Halo’s comment could be
“Anvil is aware I’m about to summon a succubus and I think Max is”
or
“Anvil is aware a succubus gave me a way to summon here, and I think Max has been told”
or
“Anvil is aware I met Dabbler’s sister and I think Max is as well”
I don’t think it’s clear from the context which of Halo’s possible meanings is what Dave intended, I lean towards the 2nd or 3rd options.
I think it’s possible it’ll be clarified in future comics, certainly the next comic casts significant doubt on Max being aware of the summoning being imminent
To a determined fault finder last page would look like Max looking for an excuse to handwave the incident away.
I say Maxima is smarter than that.
I hope she is about to address some of the glaring weaknesses just revealed. Like what to do if you suddenly get an urge to do something out of the ordinary.
I hope she says “My door is open to anyone who wants to talk in private.”
After everyone has had a chance to cool down I’d like to see everyone encouraged to sit through some analysis sessions – voluntarily of course. Supposedly we have some excellent psychiatric help available. Show us, don’t tell us.
I’d want to map out the moral and ethical code of everyone involved, again to find out weaknesses. Who should not be paired with whom in what circumstances.
For instance, Math -must- have very strong self control to function socially, much less stay on mission. Others will need some work in this department.
Not Maxi’s door, Doc Frost’s door
The rest of your post? Simply don’t have the words for how bad that is, hopefully someone smarter can answer (*Calling Lawyer Panda! {to the tune of “Calling Doctor Ben Casey” :P )
Dr. Frost is currently unavailable, as she is in therapy herself now. We are sending a “get well” card.
Let DaveB. finish telling his story, please. I’m guessing we are only about halfway through the ‘Parfait comes to visit’ arc. The latest pages in the auditorium show Maxima assessing the effect of the aura incident on her personnel just after said aura was suppressed. I expect this arc to be a great opportunity for story and character development. As damage assessment shifts to damage control, disciplinary actions, and policy changes, our author & artist may show us what he has learned about the internal workings of the military over the last decade.
Fruitsome flappy woof-woofs? That line makes me think of what happened after Sydney took that potion that Dab’s gave her so Trix and Syd could have fun. LOL
I’ll let you figure out what the fruitsome part means :P I have an idea, but I’m a dirty old man ;)
The historian Morris Berman pointed out in several of his books that the USA has two problems that cause its crippling ineffectiveness as a society.
The first is that it has what he calls a negative identity. It only defines itself in opposition to others but has no clear, widely shared, notion of what makes America. When such a group does not have an external enemy they easily start regarding each other as the enemy as there is not enough positive identity to associate with them.
The second is that the primary initial settlers were: religious fanatics, disgraced nobles and opportunists. These three groups had specific mindsets that are still prevalent in the overall culture of the country. It makes for a country that is easily provoked into self-righteous outward (or inward!) violence, and a population prone to black and white thinking and an ‘end justifies the means’ pursuit of the accumulation of wealth. It’s not that this is unique to the USA, but it does tend to have less mitigation there.
Way to go! You & Berman have managed to insult 300 million people!
Ok, so they won’t all feel insulted. The good old, home grown, American communists, will instead see your post as a sign of their success. They have worked hard for over a century to destroy Americans’ common identity, to divide and conquer.
And isn’t it funny how you call people fanatics who fled persecution by religious fanatics in their home countries?
that’s funny. at least one group came to America as a second choice at least- they fled their home country, to another more accepting country, then left that country. besides, there is a very real possibility that instead of wanting just the liberty to do as they pleased, they wanted to dictate what those around them did as well. because they are the only right thinking people. at least one of these groups banned Christmas, in the US. yes the American war on Christmas is older than the Articles.
The Puritans were kicked out of the UK because they were vocal about wanting to do away with the Anglican church and replace it with their own. Since the Anglican church and the Crown were one and the same, that was, actually, treason. They were prosecuted for their political acts, not their religous beliefs (at best their religion was indirectly responsible to the extent that it affected their political acts).
And once they got into the USA they could not wait to start prosecuting their neighbours (and each other) for their religious beliefs.
That said, there most definitely were groups that fled Europe because of religious prosecution, but the Puritans are not a particularly good example of those.
The persecuted often learn the wrong lesson from their persecution. Modern-day Israel is something of an example of this. The Puritans may have been fleeing religious persecution in England, but they were more than happy to engage in it themselves in the colonies. (As the Quakers about that one.)
Your belief that America even had a ‘common identity’ a century ago is… amusing, at best. In 1923, women had been allowed to vote in only one Presidential election, as the 19th Amendment only passed just barely in time for the 1920 general election. Black citizens were still held to second-class status, at best. And of course, homosexuality was punishable by prison time throughout the country.
You really need to get your history lessons from someplace else than reruns of Leave It To Beaver and the Andy Griffith Show. The only way to claim we had a common identity before ‘the communists’ came along is to ignore at least 75% of the people in that identity.
Or another way to interpret history is that only the people with a common identity were considered people and allowed to vote.
What’s changed is that people who were ignored or powerless now have a voice and power. It’s no longer possible to pretend that we’re all the same, because it’s no longer possible for the dominant group to suppress those who are different.
Yeah, you and I are basically on the same page, here.
It’s the GOP who calling all their opponents “not real americans” “elites”, “groomers” etc…
and a lot of the early American settlers weren’t fleeing persecution, they were going somewhere they could persecute people who disagreed with them.
pullin yourself up by your bootstraps is going that well, huh?
So, it’s Thothogoths fault for giving nearly limitless power to a teenager without checking if she could actually handle the power he gave her.
It seems kind of like giving the new hire directly out of college full control of a huge company’s social media accounts and expecting them to not say anything that makes customers mad.
Gwen and Syd assumes she had control of her magic because they weren’t really aware of just how much power she had just gotten.
Question: did the Aura start leaking out and cause the online shopping and oogling part of the night, or was that just a natural part of their hangout?
*hrrrnnghhh!!!* Deadly Airlock Syndrome brought back soooo many horribly funny memories…maybe I will share….
Gwen has lost her fishnet body stocking. This is either a subtle touch or just too fussy to draw – I’ll go with the former.
They were in the way for some activities she was inspired to do a few minutes ago.
This feels like the wrap up page or the next couple of pages will be fore this mini arc, but I still want to know who CoCoPineable is! Arianna is on the page, but the only person we see sitting next to her is Gwen, who we know was alone and getting ready to solve it on her own, while Arianna was already mid-sexting by the time we got to her.
It’s not a coco-pineapple. It’s a Peñis Collida.
I missed that (in my defense, I don’t drink much, and when I do I tend towards light beers).
A pina colada is coconut and pinapple.
A Peñis Collida is what happens after two or three pina colladas.
I may be autistic, but that one I understood :D
Technically, we don’t see if anyone is sitting on the other side of Ari and Gwen
Gwen might be on the aisle, but there are clearly more chairs on Ari’s right
Yes. That _is_ her job. It’s actually in her job description.
Oh and like no grandparent has eeeever gave their grandkids candy, pop and caffeine and sent them back to their parents.
Succubus would make a great hit at a ‘getting to know you’ singles club now with ‘guaranteed results’ – put bars right out of business. What was that old quote Candy’s dandy but liquor is quicker?