Grrl Power #1244 – Meyegraine
This page exists because of all the times I’ve seen people get possessed in shows, and their eyes change, and I can’t help but think, “That has to hurt.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen it addressed in any show I can think of. Of course, if you turn into a werewolf, all that bone stretching and tail growing and fangs ripping through your gums might hurt, but a ghost possesses you and your iris disappears? Yeah, no worries mate.
The eye change is different than the eye glow, and you’ve got two types, the outer and inner glow. Like, maybe there’s an illusion of light pointing away from the eyes, and the “caster” can’t see their own illusion. If it’s just a real light floating just in front of the eyes, they’d blind themselves. And if it’s an internal glow… again, it could be an illusion, but in cases where it definitely isn’t, say, Stargate SG1 – that would definitely blind the user. Eyes are sensitive to light. Setting off a bioluminescent road flare inside the eyes wouldn’t be good for the owner of said eyes. Yes, the Goa’uld can heal the host, but then I have to imagine that every time a Goa’uld does the eye-glow, they’re like “Shit, I know most species find that intimidating, but I hope nothing important happens for the next seven and a half seconds.”
For some of those eye-changes, you can argue that it’s just some mystic contact lense that appears over the eyes. Basically just superficial and cosmetic, and the eyes don’t actually change. But in some shows, they give you a close up of the eye after the possession is over to show it changing back. That’s probably not an illusion – the eyes are physically changing. So you’re possessed by Bast or whatever, and now you have cat eyes. Well, human eyes don’t really have a mechanism to change like that, so, fine, it’s Bast magic. Except when Bast gets sent back to her kitty litter phylactery or whatever, am I supposed to believe that the possession magic has a built-in “make sure the host springs back to how they used to be, gracefully and painlessly”? No. Gods don’t care about that shit. If it would change back at all (and it always does in every show,) it would be a painful mess. So that’s what inspired me to make this page.
If I’m honest, I might not dedicate a whole page to eye depossession if it happens in the future, but it’s safe to assume that some ibuprofen will be involved.
The new vote incentive is up! This is a bit of a weird one as it’s a character that hasn’t appeared in the comic.
It’s my Ifrit Pathfinder 1e monk, Fray! Ifrits don’t really make great monks in Pathfinder, as player characters they get a +2 to Dex and Cha, but -2 to Wis. For monks, Dex is good, Cha is largely irrelevant, but Wis is important as it can add to your AC and also has something to do with Ki points I think. But I didn’t care. I wanted a character with dark blue/gray skin and glowing orange hair, so that’s what I picked. (I don’t think Ifrit even really have dark skin, so maybe she’s 1/4 Drow? Don’t care. I think she looks cool.) Will she show up in the comic? I mean… maybe? Probably in a Dabbler flashback, but who knows?
As usual, Patreon has her in delicto flagrante.
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So she’s got temporary possession eyes? Because certainly her eyes seemed normal way back when the comic started so it cleared up somehow.
Actually, I’m pretty sure you can pull off the cat eye thing by “just” cramping the iris, (It’s a circular muscle!) in two places.
Normal iris control is uniform around the iris, so it just changes size. But I suppose in theory you could activate it in a non-uniform way and get the hole to change shape, the same way your calf does weird contortions if it cramps badly.
It wasn’t hard to learn to voluntarily control my iris, I’ll have to try that some time, see if I can get more detailed control over it.
I wouldn’t try that too much, besides the headaches it’ll cause you could mess up the involuntary action of the iris in bright light, etc. Plus the lens of you eyes are effected as well, when I had my cataracts removed and new lens put in, my eyes wouldn’t adjust to light changes and it’s much harder to focus on anything, since the lens are not connected to anything, they just sit there, I have to switch to different reading glasses for close-up work. I was very near-sighted before, now I’m far-sighted.
Cat eyes act like that because they are designed to dilate much more than our round irises. Goat eyes are similar, only the iris is horizontal rather than vertical. Neither see better than us, just can see in the dark better is all, handy, but not good for clear vision.
In my experience learning to take voluntary control over involuntary functions doesn’t mess with the involuntary functions when you’re not actively doing it. Like, I learned to slow my heart nearly to a stop for a beat or two to mess with my doctor, it hasn’t given me heart irregularities. In fact, it’s awfully hard to pull off unless you’re hooked up to a heart monitor and looking at it.
These things are fighting you every inch of the way, the moment you stop concentrating on them they revert to normal operation.
I’ve had cataract surgery, too, and I highly recommend learning to voluntarily contract your pupils. It lets you temporarily sharpen your vision if you haven’t got reading glasses handy, and compared to the heart thing, it’s a relatively easy skill to pick up, you don’t need any tools except a mirror to practice it.
i am extremely interested on how you figured out/learned how to voluntarily use those muscles. for my part, guess i only changed the resting state of them? they are nor round, but more oval-y shaped now. i wish it was more voluntary and i could get them to switch back easier. it usually takes a week or so either way for me, and yes, it can hurt pretty bad, like you said, a cramping of muscles. eyeball Charlie horses HURT
Everyone does to a small degree without noticing it, we call it focusing but in fact we are adjusting both the iris and the natural lens in the eyes. and crossing the eyes as well. but to force your pupils into an entirely new shape isn’t beneficial, cat eyes do that because their irises are much larger than ours, allowing for the eye size difference. If an eye doctor has ever dilated your eyes, the size of the pupil isn’t that much larger than before, while a cats eyes are mostly iris/pupil.
My cataract surgery left me far-sighted rather than near-sighted and it’s driving me crazy.
How can people live like this? I have to have regular glasses because the cataract surery wasn’t successful enough to cure everything.
And I have to have computer glasses, which are different than the regular glasses or the bifocals in them.
And I have to have reading glasses if I’m reading books for any length of time since neither the computer glasses nor bifocals are strong enough to let me read for a couple of hours at a time.
It gets a little better over time, mine were done 7 years ago, and at first I had to have readers just to be able to see the monitor, now as long as I’m 4-5 feet away for a 32 in I’m fine. Plus other than needing UV sunglasses ALL the time outside during the day, I don’t need anything to drive or do yard-work. Having 3 different readers depending on what kind of close work I’m doing sux, but since everything was brown/grey and normal house lighting wasn’t bright enough to see by. The only thing I miss is to be able to read a book in bed before going to sleep, I’ve wrecked 3 pairs of 2.0 readers doing that since. Well that and having to wear safety glasses, I never had to worry about that until now…
Goat pupils are also rectangular, which is deeply unsettling for some reason. I believe the horizontal orientation is for peripheral vision, which helps against predators
There’s some research that’s been done on the different pupil shapes- apparently they help with different types or locations of movement vision, I think? So horizontal dilation (cat eyes) help with seeing prey movements, vertical dilation (goats) helps with seeing predators, and W-shaped (cuttlefish) helps keep color vision more active or something.
Cuttlefish don’t see color like we do, they don’t have different pigments for different colors. Apparently, they instead use chromatic aberration to differentiate colors.
Keep in mind, it’s not just reshaping the iris, but expanding it over her entire sclera. That is gonna hurt like the dickens when it returns to normal. and probably, like she says, have some kind of permanent effect on her vision…it might get better, or worse.
Not to mention her eyes dilating like that, which would probably have felt like having the room lights suddenly being turned up high. Sounds like a migraine trigger to me.
Regarding eye damage due to too much light, see Lazer Pony of the League Of Super Redundant Heroes. His origin story is right at the beginning of the comic in strip #6.
Now the question is: why does Aetholith possession induce eye change? If I understand, they were designed as magical AI to control complex machines and said machines probably don’t have organic eyes, so where does this effect come from?
I’d assume it’s something like a logo, like that window icon you see everywhere on windows computers.
So, you look at the security camera, it’s got a flame iris, you’re supposed to think, “Hey, they’re using an Aetholith control system! Cool, I should look into getting one for my keep, too!”
It’s branding. Or started out as branding, anyway. Remember, they were originally products, just like the Succubi.
I wonder how many galactic races got their start as products? A lot of them, I’m guessing.
Ah, so like the Sega logo popping up but going Aetholith.
Other than to show Sydney was taken by Lapha? She connected to every part of Sydney’s body, so something had to be noticeable. Despite what women think, most people look at the face, so the eyes would be one of the first things noticeable. She did the same thing to the big lizard guy when she had to piggy-back on him until she got a new body after her old one was eaten during the failed kidnapping attempt on Max.
I thought the same thing. Why would possession of the mind modify any body parts, including the eyes? I understand body morphing like werewolves etc where the entire body is modified for the new species, but the mind/soul? There’s no physical connection to any bodily functions.
the mind controls all parts of a being, physical and mental, as it’s the programming aspect of the brain hardware
Handwaving: A huge amount of the brain is dedicated to visual processing. Vision, for the sighted, is by far the mist neurologically significant sense. Settling in and taking control of a human will require extra work on the visual cortex and optic nerve and eyes
Especially if, as stated, aetholiths were created to collect and manage data. I bet the eye change helps the aetholith collect more accurate visual data (better resolution?). And yes, it has become a brand over the years.
Could be a security feature, if the system goes rogue you know and if someone tries to hijack a body for sight access the creator can’t be held liable.
Well, I mean, the ‘eyes change back’ could just as easily be ‘the illusion is reversing’. Rather than just instantly vanishing, it fades out.
Likely would mess with light levels at least some, hence why there’d be a more gradual shift. Rather than just giving what is effectively a flashbang effect. Maybe a mix of both? Messing with how a dilation happens, along with a neat overlay effect. Maybe it’s a mana ‘signature’, that’s unique to each Aetholith? More than just the flame above the head. Something akin to what Dabbler said about the collar she wears. The same principal, applied differently.
Not sure if there’d be any nerves TO feel pain in the lens of the eye, but depending on how it got at least some of the effect, it might be more? Plus it’s Magic, so there’s that to take into account. But given that this is usually a voluntary process for the possession, there’s got to be some way of mitigating that… unless it’s intended to happen as the disconnect happens, rather than a ‘oh hey connection lost’ emergency exit result. Or ‘forcibly removed’ as well.
And if it was a known effect, I imagine that they would have painkillers already ready for Sydney.
The thing is, when magic is involved writers can make such changes as painful or painless as they want.
For example, I hit on the idea that the main reason werewolves go berserk is that the pain of the change makes the sentient part of your mind hide from the pain, leaving only instincts in charge. Add the energy needed for the change the body is left ravenous.
So, the side effects of the change could be lessened if there was a large amount of meat in the room when the werewolf changes. The hunger could easily be sated and the animal in us would rest, letting the sentient part come up again.
Read a vampire novel once, about a society where vampires had been declared to have human rights, and the mortuaries had blood fountains in them, and very strong doors, so that any dead bodies that rose could quench their thirst and come to their senses without escaping.
I totally agree on the SG-1 eye-glow, that was just showy. But they needed to show that someone had become possessed in some way, it’s boring if it’s just announced. As far as the eyes becoming cloudy, cataracts will do that, I had to have mine done 7 years ago and mine were clouded, I just didn’t notice, other than house lights weren’t bright enough anymore and my vision was blurry. I just thought I needed new glasses.
I would have guessed that the effect of Lapha was having on her eyes would suddenly go, but I doubt it had any lasting effect on her vision, just needs time to recover, just like when the eye doctor dilated your eyes during an exam.
Given how large Sydney’s pupils are in panel 6, I reckon she’s getting a headache from the glare as well as the “depossession”. Have had similar issues (dilated pupils, not alien possession), and now always carry a pair of UV protection sunglasses whenever I’m going to an eye test.
I’m curious. Did ARCHON have a padded interrogation cell before they hired Sydney?
I’m 100% sure they did.
It might not have been specifically for Sydney but given that they are tasked with managing an unpredictable variety of supers and possibly other entities it makes sense to have one on hand.
What super-base wouldn’t be complete with out a padded, super secure room for anything up to a ghost or a person with, oh I don’t know, super gravity powers or telekinesis? Just spit-balling here, but I think that chair is a tad bit much for that skinny gal with the balls…
The question is how her fancy cheaty glasses are going to interact with her modified eyes.
unsauronized
unSauron~eyes~ed ;P
if the possessed eyes were just an illusion, even the sudden increase of how much light her eyes were getting in that brightly lit room would hurt.
As Lapha’s magical effect on Sydney’s eyes seems to be a physical change you can push that pain induced by the light up a notch or two, as well as add pain from her Iris resuming it’s original shape, possibly even pain from the Sclera (the whites of her eyes) reverting as well.
Sydney may also experience momentary sharp pains in her eyes over the next fews hours, or day.
Just a tech note, but why is Dabblers face so…. default perky last few pages? Last panel today, and first panel yesterday. They’re so OOC from the rest of her and other’s face art and alike that it’s creepy!
That meaty chili Max got for her really perked her up.
Her expression in the last panel is very much like the expression in the previous page’s first. But both are happening within a similar enoguh time-frame for it to make sense to be just perked up by outsmarting Lapha.
I’m guessing getting a whiff of Sydney’s dinner put her immune system into overdrive and cleared her right up.
I wonder what’s next for Sydney,maybe Dabbler get her out of that chair and get some aspirin?!?
By the way, Aspirin is really bad for situations where any inflammation is there in the digestive tract. And Syd there had just done a crime against her digestive system, even if she’s used to it.
This is where Ibuprofen and Paracetamol rock, and then Nimesulide, Ketorolac, and heavier things.
If the light was generated in the outer layer of the retina and shone outward then there might not be much of an effect noted by the person generating it ? or perhaps they might be temporarily desensitized to the particular frequency of the light ? Only while it was emitting ? Or perhaps they have a third eyelid over the retina they can close for a moment ;)
A bit of a side note but did anyone hear 5he metal gear surprise sound effect on panel 2?
Sorry Sydney. No over the counter drugs for you today. Or tomorrow.
Your brain has to be checked for damage.
You’ve also been off your meds. Drug interaction not recommendEd.
Sydney has had a kinky week so far, two sapphic experiences and a bit of bondage to boot.
Now. Can we go back to capturing demons who has forbidden knowledge and have teleported god knows where?
No. Carrying out military operations on foreign soil without host nation authorization is to be avoided. Using “Murrica!” as a reason won’t work on aliens the way it does on Earth.
Are any alien species in the process of setting up embassies on Earth yet?
Next page: Sidney is standing beside the chair, gently rubbing her arms to restore circulation and feeling. Dabbler is standing beside her.
Sydney: Thanks for the Advil. Can I have the rest of my meal now?
Dabbler: [ Hands over the closed container ] You are taking that outside before you open that container again. [ They start walking down the hall ]
Sydney: Fair enough. Say, what happened to my little parasite?
Dabbler: Max gave her some choices, but I don’t know what Lapha chose yet. I know the first option was to go back into the body she came with then into holding. Max also suggested she stay in the transport frame and I could put on a pair of towers or something; I think I am missing the reference.
Sydney: I get it. I got dozens of copies of the books in the shop. I will give you a set.
Dabbler: Max also said she could go downstairs and work with Gadget.
Sydney: No! That would be so cruel to her.
Dabbler: Yeah, I know you and Gadget are getting along, but I think Miss Harpoon can take care of herself.
Sydney: It isn’t Gadget I’m worried about! Just what could Gadget do with an amoral AI? My mind boggles.
Dabbler: [ Stares into space, then snaps back ] You’re right. That would be a bad idea. I’ll tell Max. [Sydney heads out the doors that got locked to torture Math, as Dabbler continues down the hall. ]
Not Gadget, Digit
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-948-the-non-analog-insurance-hazard/
But the mistake is understandable.
Let’s say Digit’s harpoon get confiscated and now starts making…a weather dominator or a M.A.S.S. device?
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.
But can you dodge them all? Sydney has a bunch of balls.
Eye glow is the expansion of perception into regions beyond those of mere light. The act of casting means you’re no longer looking at light per-se, but rather the energy around you and that you’re about to manipulate.
Now you have explained things regarding the eyes, next time it happens, you can skip the aftermath effect and just have them downing pills
This is why you get professionals to preform an exorcism. Amateurs leave you stuck with the eye strain and eye pain.
One question is, how long do you let Sydney sit in that chair? You know, just to be certain.
Needs a checkup from the neck up.
We haven’t seen the team doctor for years.
Dabbler’s sweatshirt is is nice, I’m betting it was made by their inhouse tailor. I don’t care how oversexed you are, everybody needs a frumpy sweatshirt. That said, I’m betting that she also has a sweatshirt with just a scissor cut on either side to allow for the lower arms and a convenient flash of side boob because succubus.
I feel kind of bad that Sydney doesn’t get to keep the cool flame-eyes. I feel like she’d be okay with that.
And eye drops, Xu-Xu. Like, the eye-droopiest eye drops. With all the drugs. Xuriel must have access to galactic civilization’s best pain killers, right? That stuff. RIGHT IN MY EYES!!
I mean, light *itself* [rather than glowing substances, which tend not to be] is directional, the presence of (real) light pointing *out* of the eye doesn’t necessarily imply the same amount of light pointing back towards the retina.
I’m not sure what an “illusion of light” would be – my understanding would be that illusions [of anything] produce, reflect, or absorb real light.
In some systems, the illusion of, for instance, a torch in a dark room would also create an illusion of whatever was supposedly being illuminated (this is especially common in cases where the illusion itself is more hallucination [ie, mental] rather than holographic [physical]).. Of course, in such a case, the one making the illusion would want to make sure to make some features accurate to reality, so as to avoid disbelief.
Also, if Sydney needs a new prescription, then she’ll lose her fancy Cora glasses. Unless Cora is now her new optometrist. Or maybe they’re smart enough to auto-adjust?
… they are smart enough to auto-adjust. Or maybe they have submenu for readjusting.
Ah, she didn’t get to keep the Sauron eyes.
Huh, I never noticed that Sydney’s eyes were golden and not just hazel. That’s a sign of great druidic potential, you know.
Yeah, that seems like having an entity ripped out of your motor functions might be a tad painful.
“Possession eyes” are more metaphorical than physical.
Traditionally eyes are seen as the “windows into the soul” – so if a different soul inhabits that body, the view through those windows would change. It’s literally just a shorthand for “that’s someone else right now”. The exact same reason you used a different color for Lapha’s speech bubbles, even though she still used Sydney’s voice.
Oh, we’re doing Eye Scream now. Wait we can do links here, right? obligatory tvtropes warning
We all scream for Eye Scream.
On the eyes, as someone with that most that most useless power to unfocus my eyes at will and headaches I can appreciate the throbbing pain behind the eyes that feels like your eyes want to pop like zits but you can’t do anything really about that.
That said, was Sidney aware her eyes had changed before now? Its not like you can just see your own eyes. I forget if I missed a line acknowledging her reflection.
on the subject of the eyes changing back after a possession ends, this like with the whole werewolf reverting back always struck me as purely supernatural, because unless you have regeneration the human body shouldn’t be able to “revert back to normal” from something so extreme. So something more akin to a spiritual conversion. While possessed is something else.
When it comes to the glowing eyes I always assumed anything with eyes that glow from an internal light, as opposed to reflective, is utilizing a difference sense or method of sight to see. Like using echolocation, sensing other particles, life sign detector sense. I have with at least some magical beings who do the glowing eyes made it so they use a *dimensional distortions sense* that translates the multidimensional imprints of the environment to the brain like sight to form a picture that fits their personal concepts…although this alos allows for seeing things normal vision couldn’t either, like souls, the aura of people behind walls, a “sense” of the entire layout of the surrounding environment, etc.. Depending on how acute the spell sense is, the range, and how powerful the user is.
I believe there is a modern fantasy equivalent of this now, “magi sense”, where you sense the mana in the environment to form a picture of the area. Its not exactly the same but serves the same purpose.
In fact some of my spell casters don’t even like using their glowing eyes because they “see too well” and it overwhelms them, causes a headache, perceive too much…its, especially for young magic casters, too much information switching from biological sight to soul sight and seeing *everything* in the environment, air currents, particles of dust, tiny insects, near and far equally clear, even variations of heat, radiation, radio waves, none of it blocking the others all perceived, let alone the advanced versions where they can see souls, tell how old a soul is, who is possessed, zoom in to internal organisms, etc… but even at the basic level light is now seen as waves and bouncing around and what colors saturate and what bounce or are absorbed can even be determined with experience.
But as some say, sometimes its best to have a little blur in your vision, like wearing sunglasses.
> was Sidney aware her eyes had changed before now? Its not like you can just see your own eyes.
Well, she *is* facing a one-way mirror …
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1237-sob-story/
I’m a little surprised Sydney didn’t try to get an education in space age science or something out of the shared memories while she had them.
Sydney is worried about her eyeglass prescription because it might mean giving up the space tech glasses Cora gave her.
‘Eye’buprofin Away! Also IF she has clearance for those that require it, better check that the retinal scans still work.
If Sydney learned to change her eyes at will (and it became less painful with practice) it would be a hell of a party trick. Which might be all it takes to make Sydney try (cuz she doesn’t already have enough party tricks).