Grrl Power #1232 – Crisis partially nipped
Lots of speculation on the previous pages, and quite a few of you called this outcome. This was broadly hinted at in the bonus comic for the Sydney Surrogate NSFW post a few months back. While canon, I’m not actually sure where in the timeline those events occur. Probably not too far in the future I guess, but we’ll have to see. Also the fact that Lapha isn’t totally suppressing Sydney was foreshadowed when she had to jump onto Garamm’s head after the Times Square battle. They seemed to cohabitate rather seamlessly. It’s unclear if totally dominating a host is something Lapha’s species can do and she’s just bad at it, or the effect is different with each species and/or individual they attempt it with.
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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Oh, good! No orbing for Lapha. :) Still wondering if a sufficiently powerful telepath could remove someone like Lapha from an unwilling host, though. :/
Meanwhile, are the newer images in the Who’s Who? feature looking pixelated for anyone else? It’ like they’re tiny thumbnails that have been enlarged further than they should be so they’re the right square size, or something.
I give Lapha about 20 seconds before she goes into self assault via orbs mode.
Naw, Sydney won’t hit herself. I give Lapha about 2 minutes before being in Sydney’s head leads to brain damage in whatever Lapha uses for a brain.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-122-if-only-all-behavioral-therapy-was-this-easy/ This bit of the archive might suggest otherwise…
Though I’m thinking it would be plan 372 after every horrifyingly cute mental image and cuisine preferences tests fail. (might even take a full half hour)
There was also Sydney punching herself in the guts to try and teach her ovaries who’s the boss (spoiler, it was the ovaries). So, yeah, I was expecting self-injury as an accidental reaction to her circumstances, too, honestly.
It’s been a bit since Sydney engaged in some really creative cursing.
I am SO looking forward to the next few pages
This is gonna be hilarious. *Grabs popcorn and lawn chair.*
Okay, now that it’s a comedy show instead of a dramatic tragedy, I kinda hope that nobody can figure out how to get Sidney un-possessed. Just have this villainous alien body-jacker forced to tag along while she does normal Sidney/Halo things.
They should be able to do the same thing Lapha and Garamm did to remove Tenri from her own body, at least once they get the tool the bad guys used.
Dabbler has so much experience in alien powers / capabilities, I’d bet she has at least heard stories of forcefully quitting a flame-being possession.
They’ll need to cuff her into her mittens every night to stop Lapha taking over when Syd’s asleep.
But other than that? Yeah, Syd could just keep going like normal.
Not exactly. Lapha is going to be in charge of the feet and hands, so it’s not like Sydney can ‘drag’ her anyplace. Someone else could overpower Sydney’s body, of course, but there would need to be actual cooperation from the joystick-napper to be able to use the orbs.
Congratulations! You bodyjacked a vessel with soul locked powers. Didn’t even dominate the host mind. Real 1/10 performance. I suppose she is still in school. Though you’d think don’t pull a Ginyu would be lesson one.
^ this, all this, and I saw this coming (so did most of us), and also confirms most, if not all, of the canonicity of one of the Patreon extras
no, this is the hijacker, that hijacked Parfait’s friend’s body so she could then hijack Sydney’s body; pretty sure the hijacker is no longer in school
Managed to find and target quite possibly the only Superion Force user in existence whose powers AREN’T genetic.
I’m not certain the Orbs tap into the Superion Field, although it would make a degree of sense for the Nth’s technology to do so (and this may be part of why nobody is able to figure out how they work – they utilize a force nobody even knows exists). Considering Deus suggested the Superion Field may have been artificially created (if I’m remembering his explanation of it properly), I wonder if the Nth might have been the ones to create it. Then again, I think Deus also suggested the field may be relatively new, and we have reason to believe the orbs are at least 66 million years old (dating back to the end of the Cretaceous). Hard to say.
But, yeah, Lapha probably picked the worst possible “super” to possess for her purposes, but she wasn’t exactly spoiled for options. I wonder what would happen if she possessed Harem? Would she only control one body? Would she be able to un-teleport the others (like Harem did to the one with the broken wrist)? Would she even be able to tag along with a teleport (Harem seems to not be able to bring living things with her, and I assume Lapha’s flame would count as such)?
Consider; the universe is 13 billion years old. 66 million years is a rounding error. “Relatively new” definitely could be a good description.
Having Sydney or Harem will give the demon access to most of Archon. Just body-swap rapidly until you find one with the appearance and powers you like.
Sydney’s swears sound like actual cussing, not her usual word salad.
( another sign shes been possessed )
Pafit needs to use the straightjacket spell before this goes from comedy to FUBAR.
Again, all Sydney has to do is make the orbs spread out to all points of the compass at their maximum movement distance from her, and her body will be unable to move in any direction due to the tethering effect, and they’ll all be out of reach. Then wait for Maxima and Dabbler, and take a lot of Selfies, entitled “Lappy finds out how hard it is to take Sydney over.”
Hmm, yeah this would work. Sidney can control the orbs movements mentally, have them spread or clump to an anchor point and she can ground her own body should Lapha try to hijack the motorcontrol of the legs, the same thing used against her by Henchwench and her own car way back when.
It was Concretia who used the tether limit on her, not Hench Wench.
Oh right, brain fart on my part there lol
“How do they know I’m not you?!”
Well maybe it has something to do with the giant flaming eyeball on Sydney’s forehead, the glowing orange eyes, the villainous laughter, the ridiculous facial expressions, and the attempt to activate a high-powered energy weapon in public? Is Lapha stupid? Like actually REALLY stupid?
pretty sure the question was regarding how the Orbs knew she wasn’t the prime user
It doesn’t particularly matter, I feel the answer to the end question is still the same.
To be clear, I feel it was a worthwhile attempt, but I feel like she should have realized this was a possibility going in, and recognized when it happened.
Note that realizing that it was a possibility going in would probably have also caused her to not laugh at first – because she would understand that just possessing the body wasn’t the real test of the concept. If she were smart, as soon as she had Sydney, she’d have grabbed Tenri’s body, to do her best to hide what she did until she could actually get to the real test. And the real test would have been going for the shield, not the pew pew.
… although Sydney could have possibly let her have the shield. Or, I should say, “let” her have the shield, just to let it play out a bit more.
Yes, clearly.
Those last three are actually pretty on brand for Sydney
ridiculous facial expressions and maniacal laughter… Do you even READ what you type?
So that hole in the flame icon is a mouth!
Usually, it seems to be an eye. Look back a couple pages to the actual Tenri being held in the ship with Lappie’s lizard partner.
Since different people are different, and there’s at least two people where Lapha didn’t manage total domination, but seems to act like it’s possible here, I’ll suggest it’s probably variable based on the individuals involved.
That is, some of them are better at dominating than others, and some people are easier to dominate than others.
I’d guess that she expected to be able to totally dominate Sydney based on anti-Terran racism. To be clear, “race” isn’t the correct term, but it *never* is. What we think of as race is entirely a social construct with no actual basis in anything. It may seem like it has some basis now, but there was a time when some Irish were lumped into the same race as people of obvious African ancestry, as well as various other clear indicators that the racists are completely delusional.
“indicators’? Racism is usually a fallback to excuse failure. thus, why it’s so popular among those who fail at life. Lapha made a bad bet-she bet that the orbs were connected to Halo’s body, not Halo’s self. She compounded by betting she could sustain dominance in Halo’s internal monologue, likely due to said Halo being so visibly flighty and random. The idea that Halo is actually well grounded in her OWN self might’ve occurred if she knew about Sydney Noping out of a young Succubus’s lust aura at point blank range, but she wasn’t around to see or hear about it.
” Racism is usually a fallback to excuse failure.” If this were true, then there would be at most a weak correlation between race and wealth. This correlation is actually quite strong so your statement has been disproven.
Race is the correct term if you are doing controlled breeding like humans do to dogs. In this case, however, the correct term is species.
The term we use for dogs is “breed” not race.
It looks like we use breed for cows, chickens & cats as well
We also use breed for hyu-mons as well (ever heard the term ‘half-breed’ before?)
There have only been two instances of Lapha attempting body-hitching: Garamm (to save her soul) and now Sydney (to risk her soul : P)
There obviously can only be one Spawn of Sauron per shell (which, while they can grow a replacement, still ends up looking the same, plus any modifications like adding tails)
Just to be clear: body-hitching (what she did with Garamm and Sydney) is not the same as body-jacking (which she did with Tenri)
If Sydney was a Green Lantern she could crush the Death Star down to an orb the size of a Volkswagen.
The girl is totes will power.
Give her half a chance, she’ll shove the offending lit fart out. And she can use her anger, Sydney doesn’t worry about the Dark Side of the Force, only Her Side of the Force. Totally different.
Perhaps her resistance to possession is one of the yet uninown perks that the orbs are granting her?
Roll to Control your new Host. 1.. critical fail. Hosts powers are under Host controls and your domination of this Host is is insufficient to full control them, Host is now directly insulting you.
This reminds me of something that doesn’t get explored enough in superpowered stories yet because of ignorance about mental health, neurodivergencies, and disabilities.
I don’t know the specifics but DareDevil had a story where a telepathy tried to read his mind, and got brain-overload from all the sensory input. Things like ADHD and blindness can mean a person’s mental capacities are vastly different from what is commonly portrayed as “normal.” Even something like height difference means your sense of center of gravity is different from others.
So, in a world where bodyhopping is possible, it would be an extremely dangerous power. Without cognitive training, jumping into someone else’s body will immediately cause negative reactions. Every single ache and pain you’re not used too; every pain threshold muscle releases and you suffer the brunt of it — most nerds here can’t even imagine taking over for a lady whose got sharkweek cramps. You’d be immediately immobilized. Let alone someone who has extreme cognitive function differences.
Harem would be the ultimate example of a bad time for this. Her brains are quantum-locked. Even she has trouble controlling her bodies when she laughs or feels pain or pleasure. A bodyhopper or telepath that actually tries to occupy her mind would immediately be hit with 5 different perceptions at once. Immediate loss of balance and direction, and nonzero chance their brain has an aneurysm.
> Without cognitive training
Or the required secondary powers.
> most nerds here can’t even imagine taking over for a lady whose got sharkweek cramps.
I feel like that’s being rather sexist.
It wasn’t sexist at all. Cramping is a very specific sort of pain, and the number of guys in the history of the human species who’ve experienced it for multiple days (as opposed to the comparatively brief sessions triggered by physical activity) is vanishingly close to nil. So yeah, no, most men have no clue what menstrual cramps are going to be like.
I supposed using ‘nerd’ to suggest ‘male’ was a bit sexist–girls have been nerds all along, even if they were invisible to popular media until it was decided that nerd-chic could be portrayed as sexy.
> I supposed using ‘nerd’ to suggest ‘male’ was a bit sexist–girls have been nerds all along
That was the bit I was getting at.
Oh, oh, I know how to kick her out. Give her some Scoville approved-extra spicy food to eat. Sidney would love it, but for Lapha it will be like having Hell in her mouth. Even better, give her some Grakz. It would be an incentive for her to leave Sidney’s body ASAP.
I wish there was a +rep or upvoting system for this…
Chug Grakz! Win!
The only downside is that you’d basically have to force-feed them (which is, honestly, a pretty unpleasant process). After all, Lapha’s in charge of the body, and there’s no way she’s going to voluntarily ingest anything above a Sydney “Meh”.
Sidney can talk, so she have a shared control of the mouth, at least.
Time for the one and only original Sydney Reboot self gank…
Nah, Lapha’s in complete control of the body, other than for purpose. Of course, Sydney could give her own body a concussion with the application of an orb to the head, but that seems like a sub-optimal strategy….
Can not be complete control simply by the ability to vocalize by Sydney. Also with her various gestures as well as changes of expressions implies that control of the body requires concentration by Lapha.
The casual observer of Sydney will consider this behavior to be within Sydney’s normal operating parameters.
Time for Sydney to unveil her REAL power.
How to annoy the living crap out of ANYONE (or multiple “anyones”) and out-patience them.
Playing that genre savvy long game!
Not surprised that Sydney can resist. She already had willpower training with boob hypnosis, not to mention her original strong willed self.
It’s not a case of her ‘resisting’, exactly. The orbs only respond to their owner. Lapha appears to be as much in control of Sydney’s body as she was Garamm’s; it’s only moving/activating the orbs that’s off the table.
Huh…. Does this mean that Sydney has taken her hostage at this point? Omg, does this mean that poor thing is being subject to Sydney’s unfiltered mind?
i mean, its an overused gag that the hyperactive character resists-ish mind control and similars in a comically easy fashion
It was stupid to think that controlling Sydney’s body would give her control over the orbs, since we know from the story arc that Sydney fought with the Naga-sqidworth that the orbs connected with her MIND, not her body. Again, Lapha didn’t look into things carefully, and now she and her lizard buddy are about to get arrested. We also know when Lapha’s body was eaten, she was able to attach to him and escape her fate, but didn’t control his mind, just his body. Sydney could easily keep her captive until Max and some of the other aliens can figure things out.
Just because the audience knows something doesn’t mean it’s stupid for a character not to know it
We know that Lapha didn’t control her teammate’s body, we don’t know that she couldn’t if she’d wanted to or maybe she’s improved her abilities and can do it now
I’m just saying these two aren’t taking the time to do any research on their targets. Like any bad antagonist, they cook up a half-baked plan, and are shocked that the super they are trying to collect isn’t as weak as they thought. And she did control his body, she was just being nice about it. Like team rocket in pokemon, inept bad guys that never seem to get it, but always manage to get away to try again.
We have WoG that she couldn’t take it over. She can move it, but so can the original owner. Which is what we’re currently seeing, with Lapha and Sydney taking turns using mouth and body for talking and gesturing.
Lapha is pretty much doing what anyone could do to someone else, use electric shocks to make someone else’s muscles move independent of their wishes. She’s just way better than painful zaps. I would think that anyone that can attach to a body would know that control doesn’t effect the mind, only the motor nerves. The orbs are connected to her mind, anyone that did their homework would of figured that out since Sydney calls them to her hand rather than her having to reach up and grab. I think Lapha and her lizard buddy are either just dumb or too lazy to put more time into planning. Plus, they keep going after the big dogs, which is a recipe for just ouch. First Max, now Sydney. What’s next, trying to handcuff Harem?
“I would think that anyone that can attach to a body would know that control doesn’t effect the mind, only the motor nerves. The orbs are connected to her mind”
WoG says it involves “sharing knowledge and memories”, so there’s at least a mental aspect to the possession.
She also says “I am you”, so it sounds more conceptually fundamental than just remote-controlling the nerves and muscles.
“anyone that did their homework would of figured that out since Sydney calls them to her hand rather than her having to reach up and grab.”
Lapha probably didn’t know Sydney calls them to her hand (we see her trying to reach up to the PPO.) Which is understandable if they didn’t have footage of her.
It’s still dumb, because she can’t override Sydney’s control to begin with, only share it.
You’re vastly over-estimating their access to intel about supers in general, and Sydney in particular. Hell, one of the reasons the bounties on capturing a top-tier super from Earth are so high is that the aliens want to know how the hell we’re able to produce people who can do this sort of thing. Add in that most individual supers are extremely idiosyncratic in terms of what they can do, and you’ve got a situation where ‘research’ isn’t possible without a subject.
At best, she could use analogies–and the closest analogy to Sydney’s orbs would probably be some sort of high-grade cybernetic implant that controls the orbs like drones. And I’m willing to put money on the notion that Lapha could control, say, Cora’s hardlight-suit.
And remember, finally, this wasn’t the plan. This was the improvised back-up option when the actual plan was rendered moot because Max didn’t seem to be coming. At most, she was really probably hoping that claiming Sydney would make it possible to get to Max (whom, I should note, WOULD be vulnerable to Lapha’s body-swapping shenanigans if she didn’t have her defensive field up). And for that purpose, Sydney was a much better choice than Daphne, whose powerset very publicly has been depicted as having body/mind dualism that probably spooked Lapha just a bit.
Max had pointed out to Sydney that she has her own “tin-foil hat” so I doubt Lapha could attach to Max. Also there has been many public broadcasts from the beginning of each and every super, and that many seem to use their minds to use their skills, when Lapha clearly thinks it’s mechanical / body. It might work on some like Hiro or Stalwart, where they mainly just uses augmented muscles, where Sydney’s powers are entirely operated by her mind. Harem is another one, she uses her mind to teleport, not her bodies. Plus if one of her was taken over, all that body would need to do is de-create and Lapha’s flame would fall on the ground.
I think Vahriah being unable to use her powers on Max is a better argument than the “tin-foil hat” comment.
In a typical superhero comic, we would be getting a titanic, blast-filled conflict between OP Sydney and OP Maxima, which is why Harem prioritized getting bystanders to safety.
But *this * comic has … a hilarious and sarcastic battle inside Sydney’s head, with her body providing the audio and gestures for both sides. Well done!
That’s what I love about this comic. On the last page, I thought we were going to go into that kind of a fight, and I was disappointed because it’s such an obvious and grim trope. I was *delighted* when I got to this page and found out we weren’t going that direction, and instead we get to have fun with this bit.
At least it’s a cohabitation of the body and not the mind. If she tried to read Sydney’s thoughts, I’m pretty sure she would go insane from the information overload. Or just scream and jump to the nearest life form that’s NOT Sydney.
Use the sauce the being of gas cannot combat the burn. Only those from the Scoville line can withstand it’s power.
I still think when she grabs the yellow orb, Lapha is going to get hammered hard.
kinda saw this coming.
Woot! Called it. Like the lady said, the orbs have better taste than to consort with a pretentious matchstick with delusions of relevance like you, Lapha.
Parfait looks so traumatized. I don’t think she’s realized this isn’t her friend yet.
Which friend?
Tenri. Lapha was pretending to be Tenri (who is stuck being the Eye of Sauron back in her dorm), so Parfait hasn’t yet figured out that this flame isn’t Tenri. :)
The ‘which friend’ was in reference to Tenri or Sydney
Parfait most likely knows what it means when a… whateverthehellthisspeciesiscalled (WETHTSIC for short) has their flame jump from one body to another. While alien abilities are a bit ‘like’ human superpowers, they are far more homogenous across the species, so a WETHTSIC’s body-hopping power is probably as well known among galactic traveling types as a rattlesnake’s tail is to North Americans).
“whateverthehellthisspeciesiscalled (WETHTSIC for short)”
Ætholith.
Kernel level anti-cheat.
Oh cool, Kraken’s back.
What happened to the swole cthulhu that was here during the fight scene?
Methinks Lapha might have bit off more than she can take…
I think we’re about to see the TRUE power of Sidney finally unleashed (black belt in cursing, 7th dan)
I started thinking about the mechanism by which Lapha, Tenri, and others of that species have interaction with the host body/bioframe (some sort of invisible network of links to the nervous system), and it occurred to me that the orbs must have a similar link to Sydney’s nervous system (conceptually if not mechanically).
This makes me wonder if Lapha is able to sense those connections between Sydney and the orbs and maybe this episode will give some insight into the situation as a whole.
I mean, it’s also entirely possible the two connections work on totally different levels and there’ll be no insights in this regard at all.
Actually, I think the absence of such awareness is evident here, which itself is a bit of a clue. The orbs technically aren’t linked to Sydney’s nervous system at all–they are plugged directly into a ‘port’ in her spirit/mind/soul/ka/whatever. In this world, it would appear our bodies are also jacked into the mind, but in a different port than what the orbs use. So Lapha is operating the body after displacing Sydney’s body-jack, but her orb-jack is completely unaffected. The orbs, of course, are so damned rare that no one even knew that there’s such a thing as an orb-jack.
I think it’s still too early to say, given how time flows for the comic.
Let’s watch and see what happens…
would be funny (yeah another the final orb theory based on the latest situation kind of post), if a much earlier statement in the comic turned out to be true, that it is a brig. Sidney and the orbs being like a spaceship, the rush the cockpit line made me think of this. The final orb ending up not needing to be touched and can just pull others into it, like an attempted hijacker, just beamed into the brig.
When the idea of ship’s brig orb was brought up. I previously considered it might be multiple function storage.
Brig, Cargo bay. Possibly even energy storage/and collection. Now why it has not functioned for her in the past, may have something to
*Sydney grabs some marshmallows, sticks a stick through them, holds over her head*
Lapha: HEY! Stop that!
Sydney: Make me!
L: RRRRR… look, it’s a psychic flame, I don’t generate heat!!
S: Hrm… *pulls out flask of super-hot sauce, chugs some down*
L: Wait, what’s tha- ah, AH! Hot HOT HOOOOOOOTTT!!
*marshmallows start to sizzle*
S: There we go! Now I just need graham crackers and a chocolate bar…
Someone needs to use sleepy time cocktail on Sydney. I’m sure ArcDark has contingency plans for this scenario and that would be the thing to do before she gets her shield up. That robs the body jacker of a functional body.
Probably a good idea to secure/sedate Sydney/lap before either gets the idea to inflect bodily harm to force control(Sydney already casually slammed her own head once)
Third time we seen two being inhabit a single body kinda lost its charm.
A consideration for why Sydney is able to resist/still exert some control while possessed is her (undiagnosed?) ADHD.
It is literally a disease where parts are your brain fire off out of sync with other parts; for something that’s used to being able to exert total control this would, at least, be something that would have to be carefully adjusted to and, at worst, something that is basically akin to there being multiple minds within the target: Can only possess/dominate one at a time.
This would also make creatures like dolphins and geese difficult/impossible to fully possess as they are able to segment their own brains to different tasks (including ‘this section is on sleep time, and this section is on ‘keep me swimming/flying’).
Naa, when Lapha had to inhabit the lizard guy they could both talk to each other like this, but he didn’t mind her taking him for a “ride,” She just expected the orbs to obey the body not Sydney’s mind. Lapha’s race seems to be able to share a body, but not the mind. Kinda like a pushy friend that suddenly shoves you over in your car while saying “Here, I’ll drive” without asking first.
(yes I had one try that, it’s amazing how fast they change their mind when you give them a charle-horse and push back)
It’s literally not a disease. So don’t call it that.
They’re going to get into a fistfight with themself, aren’t they?
Naa, Sydney will keep her busy until Harem hits both of them with a sleepy-time shot. That way they can figure out how to remove Lapha and put an end to this pain-in-the-neck(head).
Nope. Lapha’s in control of the body–and thus, the hands (there seems to be an exception for controlling the mouth, which I suspect has more to do with Authorial Giggles than anything else). Sydney’s in control of the orbs, only.
The concern would be Sydney smacking her own body around with the orbs, which would absolutely be in-character for her.
Sydney tried that once early on when she had her first day with Archon, she was having “lady cramps” and tried to punch herself to stop them, even she said it wasn’t her brightest idea.
Possessing Sidney you would have better luck herding cats
and milking them
Robert De Niro’s character in that movie was an idiot (literally anything with nipples can be milked if it’s a mammal, and you are ensured of getting something to come out if it is a female of a certain age)
And he claims to be a big-shot ex-CIA (or some sort of elite military), and he gets taken out by a bumbling county cop? Nah, more like he’s just some psycho over-protective father who likes to scare away his daughter’s boyfriends
Much less shaving a cat without the necessary tools, would be a bad idea, same goes for milking, anyone that’s tried to rub the belly on a strange cat would know better after the first time.