Grrl Power #1231 – Dark The Mighty Halo
I think everyone guessed this page was coming. Also, it being a 4 panel mostly full of Lapha reveling, I expect there won’t be too much to really talk about, other than how Sydney is getting another stamp on her “Things that happen to superheroes” Bingo card. This is separate from the “Make Maxima Say” bingo card (that hasn’t been revisited in a long time, admittedly.)
The next page more or less returns to the higher panel count, but I’m not done with experimenting with different layouts. I’d like to get caught up on the Vote Incentives and I’d like to do more writing, like Tamer: Enhancer 3 and other original books, but I haven’t had the time in a while. I think maybe one or two lower-panel-count pages a month might help me out toward those goals, so I’ll probably mix them in on occasion.
The new vote incentive is up! Crimson and Scarlett have a present for Ingsol!
It’s them, they’re the present. They’ve decided that “Sire-versaries” are a thing and Ingsol has to be convinced this is a good idea each time. Everyone thinks his pair of names-that-are-synonyms-with-red sirelings who are both women and who were both turned in that age range that ensure peak hotness means he’s a dirty old man, but he actually isn’t. It just worked out that way. And don’t forget that while it looks like there’s a 25 year age gap between the girls and him, it’s actually much worse, as he is 700 years old, while Scarlett is something like 180 and Crimson is only 40. But at the same time it’s meaningless as they were both fully adults when they got turned, so it’s all copacetic.
As usual, Patreon has the pair of them in various states of undress.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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It would be pretty funny if they defeat possesed Halo with spicy food.
How? The body has the immunity to the spicy
It’s not a case of immunity, it’s a case of preference. It’s like masochism; you FEEL the pain, you’re just ENJOYING it.
Speaking from experience?
If she was inmune to spicy food she wouldn’t be able to enjoy it.
Quoth the Halo: “Medic”
The possessing entity will be driven out by Sydney’s heroic-difficulty level menstrual cramps.
Nah, her ADHD is going to make that entity dizzy in just a few minutes
ok, I did not see that coming.
Dark Sydney will most likely trip over her own feet and wind up flailing comically.
It would be ironic if Sydney was now LESS dangerous. They might prefer her that way.
While this one is there, get Her to try and use the unknown orb!
I predict that the unknown orb will evict Lapha or allow Sidney to evict her… Just as soon as Lapha touches it.
Well Sydney is still in there, as seen before she didn’t take over her Lizardboy. It might take a moment before Sydney crazy kicks in and she will regret getting into that body.
Poor Lapha, they surely will be traumatised after spending time in Sydney’s head.
A development hell you could say…
Clearly, Lapha used the Space Kiss to distract Sydney, which allowed her to “move in”
She probably didn’t need to do the space kiss, all she needed to do was jangle some keys.
This certainly explains her asking if the FF makes her unbeatable.
If Harem remembers Sydney’s interview, she would depop a couple of herselves and grab Sydney’s hands. No free hands, no orb shenanigans.
Or pop all her selves in, and secure her hands with two Daffies each, and the fifth to sit on her legs.
Let us remember, although Sydney has been working out and getting more fit, he’s still only graduated from baby kitten to bunny rabbit.
Also, returning to my prior statements, Lapha needs to die.
This is the second time she’s made a play for kidnapping Terran personnel, demonstrating herself to be an extreme, and active danger to public safety, not just on Earth, but ultimately to the galaxy at large.
The other problem they would still face are the moving orbs. Sciona disabled Sydney by grabbing her hands and preventing an orb grab but Sydney was still able to break her arm with the orbs, even if Sciona could heal it in a few moments. Harem could easily face the same.
Thats not to say it isn’t a good idea for a copy of herself to gram a tazer or drug delivering gun and watch right now and catch her off guard. Even knocking Sydney out with a punch should be possible… Except it’s not newly graduated Sydney she’s fighting, its mercenary Lapha who might be a much better fighter.
The merc is piloting a Sydney.
Basically, have you ever tried running new software on a twenty-year old PC?
Even if she grabs her hands Sydney can still move the orbs towards them. She does this with the Shield orb in panel six of #1223
Getting pelted with rocks is far preferable to an invulnerable laser Cannon firing in all directions.
Sydney can, but can Lapha?
Lapha is in the body, but that doesn’t strictly mean access to the Orbs.
That would be my guess as well.
If they were created by an Nth level civilization, something as simple as body/mind possession should have been taken into account in their security settings.
I expect Lapha do start making an evil monologue only to be interrupted by being smacked by an orb.
Followed by the mental conversation between her and Sydney.
So, does she inherit the ADHD too? Because defeating a supervillain by mentioning Batman seems fun…
It really depends on how tightly the possessing entity ties with the body. Since they retain cognitive functions outside of a body, I’d say the chances of neurochemistry of the hijacked body affecting Lapha’s behavior are slim.
Worked in Emperor Joker when Joker got control of 99.9% of the power of a 5th dimensional imp that usually bothers Superman.
Just yell, “New comic book day!”
Dear Abby, please don’t take this the wrong way but… THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO BE SUBTLE!!!!!
How difficult is it to say that Sydney has been possessed?
Do you mean Daphne?
I think G means ‘Dear Abby’ as in the advice columnist.
If memory serves, Guesticules’ use of ‘Abby’ is in reference to Abby Sciuto of NCIS (played by Pauley Perrette).
Although why this name applies to Co-ed Harem and not Goth Harem I’m not so sure.
Because White Hair is the scientist one, Black-Purple is Gothamer
Preferred giving them individual names, rather than just a description
I don’t comment on things much. I’ve been reading this for a long time it feels like, and this is the first time I’ve been officially scared.
Really scared.
Not scared, but fully expecting to be surprised by how this develops.
Are the comments working right? I posted two comments hours ago and they haven’t showed up.
Ctrl+F5 forces the page to refresh the cache, it makes newer comments show up properly.
And what to do on a phone?
Suggestion @DaveB, let us open the comments in a separate web page?
Clear cookies and reload to see comments refreshed?
That seems to work, thanks!
Comments have been borked for awhile now, sometimes they post straight away, sometimes they can take hours to appear
And sometimes post that you saw (and possibly replying to) disappear after posting something
As long as you don’t get an actual error message, then just accept the post went through and it will appear in its own sweet time
Actually, I’m surprised Archon doesn’t have a code signifying that a team member has been possessed by a malignant entity. At the very least, Sydney would have demanded one for most of the common superhero tropes.
Syd: Max, Hiro’s been 417-Blacked! Come quick!
Max: … Sydney, I’m career military, and even I can’t keep track of all these codes of yours! What does that mean?
Syd: *SIGH* 417 is “hit by an elemental energy attack”, the color indicates what kind of dragon would use that attack! In this case, acid!
Max: Sydney, Hiro is invulnerable to acid, he’ll be fine!
Syd: His _clothes_ aren’t, and yes, he is VERY fine…. Hurr hurr…
Max: … I’ll be right over.
In the next page we see the orbs smacking into Sydney’s head as she attempts to dislodge the Aetherith from her body.
I would find this quite amusing. However, I suspect we’ll need Dabbler’s expertise to dislodge the possessor.
Dabbler is conveniently down with a severe mana hangover.
Another amusing if anticlimactic scenario:
Max flies in. Aetherith grabs the molestorb, a noodle of light comes out… and binds her hand to the orb then wraps around her ankles. Because Sydney’s mind controls the orbs, not her body.
Ooooo that’s a good idea/guess
or the unknown orb does a “MIND CONTROL DETECTED! – CAPTURING INVADING SOUL” and boop. Sydney now has a fairy to talk to like Link does
Lapha: Listen!!
I was half expecting that the only “body” she’d be possessing would be the illusion copy Sydney can generate as an auto-defense against mind control installed into the orbs.
Oh no! Lapha has fused Sydney’s front teeth together!
Stealed with a kiss
oh dear, now i wonder if she will be able to use the orbs, and what is going on inside Sydney’s head.
Uh huh. Enjoy it while you can. It’s going to be tricky to keep this locked down
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-278-alarmingly-disorderly-harnessing-of-doom/
This person is straight up not going to have a good time in Halo’s body and brain. Plus most of her powers are based on training and practice and thought processes unique to halo.
I’m wondering how long it will be before Sydney’s chaotic nature forces her out of the body.
Last time Sydney was abducted Cora turned people into chunky bloodmist: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-912-maximum-trauma/
wonder if the people violating Sydney’s autonomy this time will face similar retribution?
I feel like I missed a couple pages where the actual posessing happened…
Go back three pages (to just before the side-flash) and see Sydney get kissed. That’s the transfer.
So what could Harem/Archon do against Sydney.
Lets first take her own list of weaknesses:
Being riddled with bullets: high collateral damage and will have to happen lightning fast.
Mittens: inconvenient to get on, but Harem has shown some impressive skill in that regard.
Direct sunlight: she seems to have overcome this weakness
Wooden stakes: high collateral damage and will have to happen lightning fast.
Beheading: high collateral damage and will have to happen lightning fast.
Shirtless guys with nice abs: partly mind based weakness effects unknown when possessed.
Shown weaknesses:
restraining orbs: requires speed, but could work.
distraction: partly mind based weakness effects unknown when possessed.
large explosions: large amounts of collateral damage, but could work.
Keep in mind that Lapha is a mercenary who might have far greater hand to hand combat skills than Sydney.
Even if the hands are restrained by Harem popping in all her selves, the orbs can break limbs like they broke Sciona’s Troll arm.
a lot of combat work is dependent on trained responses.
We don’t know how they come across in this situation
and even if the reflexes and reactions come across strength is still largely going to be limited by the new body’s abilities
As I said elsewhere, I’m not sure Lapha can effectively pilot a Sydney-class Gundam.
…as a PSA, I am definitely drunk right now.
Nope, didn’t see that coming
Pay attention would be heros. This is why you at least own ways to take down even your allies. Hopefully in non-leathal non-permanent crippling method.
Is that you, Batman?
Daphne needs to teleport in some mittens, quickly.
Just as a question. Since Sydney hasn’t taken her ADHD meds, would that have any effect on the possessor? Like I get it’s a mind taking over her body, so would none of the mental effects bother them? Or am I just barking up the wrong idea?
…Anyone have a taser? Pepper spray obviously won’t work and even if it did then that’s still Syd’s fleshbag.
Fighting Sydney plus her ADHD for control of that body should be ‘FUN’
Just pointing out that Parfait has demonstrated the perfect spell to cast on Sydney.
Then demon has already tried kissing her….
There have basically always been extenuating circumstances stopping Sydney from doing a pure Optimal Pick with her points. It’d be kind of funny if she dinged in the middle of Lapha’s shenanigans and that became part of how they subdue her – and in the process, Lapha ends up picking something totally random on her behalf.
“You spent my spec point! You spent MY spec point!”
Okay I did not see that coming. Obvious in retrospect but still blindsided me. Good job!
But … Will the orbs obey a passenger who is not Sidney? What controls the orbs, the host’s nervous system or the host’s consciousness?
If it’s the nervous system then the hijacker has access to the orbs’ powers.
If it’s the consciousness then the hijacker has nothing. And Sidney has the potential to control the orbs without physical contact.
Interesting …
But as they have magic members, I’m sure ARCHON has a protocol for possession.
I get the feeling that’s as much Sydney laughing as Lapha. Next page is probably Lapha finding out how hilariously confusing it is to invade the mind of someone with severe ADHD.
Will the mystery orb be auto-defense against use by a foreign entity???
Uh,oh! If Max does show up, how would this turn out?!?
I know that it can’t succeed for plot reasons if not cause the flame orb is can pilot a sleeping body, but shouldn’t the first thing Harem attempt to do is knock Sydney’s body unconscious? That would immobilize her.
Sydney, you are in danger of becoming a couch potato.
Get more exorcise
My guess is that Halo will still be in control of the orbs, and will end up whacking Lapha around the head until she flees. And then realizing that now she has to deal with the headache she has just given herself.
eather its bad OR sydney is letting her monologe due to heroes dont interupt the monolog its bad form. after lapha finishes she just takes control physical and then talk no jitsu her till she begs to leave