Grrl Power #310 – Dabbler’s happiest meal
Dabbler’s hammer isn’t a physical hammer, it’s a melee only amnesia spell. I just happens to look like a hammer. It also isn’t a broad spectrum amnesia solution either. When Dabbler starts doing tantric stuff with someone, she can set a marker to roll their memory back to. She can’t just clonk someone with that hammer if they see classified documents or discover she’s really an alien or whatever.
The Barberian (named by you guys) should probably get his own Who’s Who entry at this point. I’ll try and get that up today.
Edit: To clarify one thing for those of you concerned and so you don’t have to go hunting though the comments for my response – Barberian fully knew what he was getting into last night, and he’ll eventually remember most of it, just not some of the more intense aspects. Her wipe spell is a bit like a flashbang, it’s a total whiteout for a while, then stuff mostly returns to normal. I will revisit this on a future page just to make sure it’s clear.
I was going to do a page of Harem driving with Sydney into the base and touching on the configuration of the building layout, but that would have involved me drawing car interiors and exteriors, roads, and some of the other vehicles Archon keeps in the garage. The real reason I skipped it though was while informative, nothing particularly amusing was going on, and I was having trouble with entertaining dialog. Turns out the previous page may need some clarification, so there might be material there for a bonus page for book 2, like Sydney asking if Harem has to compensate for the Coriolis effect and the like.
I thought “Unicorn Butt Patrol” would get more traction in the comments on the prior page, but as per usual on the Internet, everyone wanted to talk about physics instead. Here are two more treasure troves of bad book covers if you’re interested: Good Show Sir contains lots of older covers, usually painted with some measure of skill, and some of which honestly aren’t all that terrible, but a lot of questionable composition and material. The imaginatively titled Lousy Book Covers has more modern examples, so obviously prepare yourself for bad photography, lousy photoshops, terrible typography and even clipart!
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
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.
So that answers the question about Dabbler’s bedroom – she has quarters at Archon (as many commenters suspected).
Yeah, but why is he naked on their couch in the common room?
He’s not. Check the first panel, he has a shirt.
Second panel, and he is only wearing a blanket
Guys… he was never wearing a shirt. He wasnt even wearing a shirt during the fight.
He doesnt wear shirts, apparently, at all :)
Gods above and below, how I love that woman!
Actually thought this page would be Harem showing Halo how to check her car for explosives. If I wanted to hit a super, car bomb makes more sense since she wouldn’t really be able to use her shield in the car and if it was around it, the explosion would be even worse.
It just keeps seeming to make sense the more I think about it since Sidney was on TV twice in one day. Once detailing where her car would be parked and the second with the press conference showing how her powers worked.
“I thought “Unicorn Butt Patrol” would get more traction in the comments on the prior page, but as per usual on the Internet, everyone wanted to talk about physics instead”
well, what did you expect when you made a web comic superpowers and how they work?
humor here is great, but what can we say about it? “HA-HA, he said butt! LOL” and what then?
also, Barberian is exceptionally fitting for him. that should be his codename.
uhm.. image 7 and 8, she is missing the armband.
So does the Tesseract match the Pyramids? She’ll never let anyone tell.
Ummm… just so we are clear, this was more or less rape. you do know that, right?
That depends. He could have given consent to both the sex and the memory wipe. But yes, it appears problematic.
(I should stress that _without_ consent to both, there would be nothing ‘more or less’ about it. It _would_ be rape.)
I don’t think she had any problem getting consent…
She very likely did not, but even so, the OP is correct and it does have problematic implications. They are not insurmountable, mind you. All we need is just one panel next comic where Sidney asks, “You didn’t –?” and Dabbler looking horrified and replying, “Ewww! No! I got his permission!”
she is a succubus, whats the point in sydney asking? she already knows the answer.
Maybe so but she more then likely used some level of magic to get him into bed as she has that going all the time.
The magic is probably this:
Dabbler: “Want to have sex?”
Barberian: “Yes. Yes I do.”
Tis a mighty 4 word spell.
Only usually works when women invoke the mystic chant.
the problem with this case is that you can’t call it rape, if he agreed.
and we all know how her boobs work.
also, i am not even sure if man can be raped, except for by another man ofc, but that’s a different type of trauma.
her having so much energy is just a prove that he enjoyed it, and when talking “consequences”, the only lasting (physical) “problem” would be pregnancy, which is cannot happen to men, and dabbler doesn’t seem to care.
conclusion?
case out the window.
R:
Men can be raped. It happens frequently. And it is entirely possible for men to be forced by women. Not just through muscle; nonphysical coercion is rape, too. And it is not a ‘different type of trauma’ — this sort of trauma is destructive no matter what. As to the ‘magic boobs’, using magic would be coercion, too.
Without consent, sexual intercourse is always rape.
Please study this in greater detail before talking about it. Your post came across as the rankest rape apologia.
I dont wanna open all cans of worms with the question of magically induced consent , but just point out that there likely is no trauma thanks to the AmnesiaHammer
( i need a better name for that thing )
“rape apologia.”
i am not saying i was right but… did a “feminist” teach you to argue like that?
“rape apology” is one of the things they say.
“And it is not a ‘different type of trauma’ — this sort of trauma is destructive no matter what.”
Well obviously, trauma is still trauma, just for a slightly different reason.
someone who is doing it left and right will most likely say no when, when asked by a person of the same gender. unless same gender is the default mode, then will say no to the opposite gender. But there is no point to bring gay people into this.
sometimes people are scared of things that would normally be good for them, and its them being afraid is what breaks the experience. just because he doesn’t agree at first, doesn’t make it a bad thing. but ofc that doesn’t mean that “no” become meaningless.
this is a delicate topic and if you do it wrong, the trauma happens and then it is the fault of the one who forced it.
as i said, he clearly enjoyed it so no trauma here, only as dabbler said “normal would be boring for him”.
the way i see it is “no harm done, no crime done”.
then you are going to say “but what if a harm was done?”
to which i ask back “what kind of harm could be done?”
its not “rape apology” its “no harm = dismiss”
So, basically you’re saying “no memory = no harm = no rape”? If that was true, does that make it ok to use a date rape drug?
Or are you saying if someone consents no matter how the consent was achieved, then no harm was done? So getting someone drunk or stoned and then asking for sex is ok as long as they “enjoyed” it?
Personally, I find your arguments offensive.
Dabbler’s issue is that she’s always going to be interacting with people in a diminished capacity due to her very nature… Not sure how you get around that one.
A) Dabbler is a succubus – a demon of illicit sex and lust. I don’t think she’s going to know/care about the difference between magical seduction and regular seduction (especially since she likely used abilities that are inherent to being a succubus – you’re not going to accuse a woman of committing rape because she showed off her legs, are ya?)
B) It’s fairly likely that Barberian gave consent to the sex. While I would consider the memory wipe a disgusting thing to do to someone without prior knowledge, I wouldn’t call it rape on its own.
And again, Dabbler’s a demon.
It is rape… MIND RAPE…
The amazing kore skin. Mind rapist
Kreskin. Stupid autocorrect
How do you know he didn’t give prior consent to the mind wipe? As far as we know, he agreed to it either as part of an agreement to sexual intercourse or afterward because he knew that any future sexual experience would pale in comparison.
Sibeh: “no memory = no harm = no rape” it’s not what he mean at all! He said “no harm, no crime”, it’s like if you’re forced by hypnotism to accept one thousand dollars… where is the crime? With succubus magic, no trauma could appear, it’s always enjoyable, so, speaking of rape here as no sense.
If Barberian could remenber, the only thing he would say will be “more please”.
You are incorrect… to say he has no memory of the event is completely incorrect… YOU CANNOT ERASE MEMORY… the memory is still there, it has only been repressed… as for trauma, being manipulated by succubus magic CANNOT, by its very nature, be harmless… your free will being stripped from you, along with everything that makes you a person, being used as a sex toy and having your lifeforce/energy drained away… MEMORY or no, that would leave trauma…
And as for your hypnosis theory, if the money was stolen, and in your possession, and you say a hypnotist gave it to you, or you don’t know where it came from, guess who goes to prison for 10 to life? There’s the harm…
just because this method is not capable of erasing it permanently, doesn’t mean no way exist. detail, but keep in mind for the next time.
succubus nature? what do you know about succubus nature that we don’t know? isn’t she just strengthening the natural instincts?
your free will being stripped? we do not know about that.
V’s aura works in the same way (except violence instead of lust) and we have seen it can be resisted.
“along with anything that makes you a person”.
what is it? greed? fear? desire? curiosity? something else? what is it that makes us a person? ability to chose? as terra said, if he had remembered he would most likely say “more pls”. dabbler is not some random rapist, she is an experienced succubus, she knows how how to please, to suck as much as possible. if you disqualify “pleasure” as a base for his decision, then what is there left “human” that would let him make a choice?
without pleasure, the pain also loses its meaning as all it become, is a damage report. Logic? That’s easy, machines can do it too. just put in some lines “x = valid, y = invalid” some numbers and machines will be able to chose the “logical” answer out of the provided list.
life force energy drained away? you mean shortening his life by 10 years? its the 10 years that he would possibly spend in prison anyway.
there are places where women do it for money. they probably don’t like it, but its the choice they make for living. here, barberian exchanged his energy for 10 years in prison. how is that different?
What I think The Old Hack is trying to say is that there is mental component to rape.
A common thread through most rape cases I have heard of is the mental trauma: a person has, through physical strength or other means, forced themselves into an intimate position with you. There’s a sense of being out of control, of having things done TO you rather than doing them WITH you.
The particular details may vary, but that sense of the situation being out of your contol, you being powerless and the act being intimate are all there. That’s usually pretty damaging, as it negates any sense of personal space or personal autonomy and in many cases it will also evoke any social bias about sex that you might have (e.g. Sex is dirty, therefore you are sullied).
Sometimes this trauma affects you at the event and sometimes it affects you when you’ve gotten some distance and can look back (e.g. Why did I let him/her/hir do that to me?).
This mental component, more than any other, is the reason why the simplification of “if there was no consent, then it was rape” is necessary when arguing the legal matter. Even then though I often see people asking “how do you prove consent?” I don’t have good answear for that…
So yeah, rape is actually pretty complex. Physical harm and the risk of pregnancy are actually the easiest/most graspable aspects.
In the case of this page though, a pretty solid argument can actually be made for it being rape. The act of wiping the Barberians mind pushes this into rape territory, simply by removing the Barberians autonomy in the matter. If the wipe is undone at any point (we see evidence of this being possible on the page), then that may be enough to trigger the kind of mental trauma mentioned above (especially if it is just partially undone).
Really, by removing his memory Dabbler has potentially made the consent/non-consent issue irrelevant and made the case more clear-cut as a form of rape.
So in conclusion: I hope she’s got some sort of written consent to the whole thing. And even then, there’s going to be an argument about whether or not he was coerced into writing that (especially since he was being debriefed about, and suspected of, a crime at the time).
[This was written on a phone, so it’s probably full of spelling errors.]
I agree with sibeh… rape is rape, no matter the gender, and often leads the victim to either perpetuate the cycle by raping someone else, or commit suicide… even if they have no surface memory of the act (amnesia, for instance) someday, something could trigger a flashback, and the psychological trauma would hit the victim full force, and could make them shut down completely… they would not be able to cope, and may even go insane… in ALL cases, the victim of physical or sexual abuse blames themselves… do not try to rationalize it, or write it off as “its a man, and woman, its not rape” because that just shows ignorance… and to even think that makes you a terrible person… you should be ashamed of yourself for posting that…
before you critique the excuse you first have to consider qualifiers so “rape is still a rape” doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
we are not discussing whether rape is bad or not, we are discussing whether this specific case is a rape, and whether this specific case has and lasting damage, physical or mental.
“its a man, and woman, its not rape” i am not sure what you are getting on here, but its not really “man and woman” its a man and a succubus/alien.
how succubus are, everyone knows. as for man having more desire for it than women, is too unquestionable.
if he felt like wanting more, he would probably come back for more, she seems to like him.
Dont be ridiculous- wonking his memory without consent would possibly be assault, not rape. Cut the hyperbole. (Depending on whether you could prove not wiping memory would result in more harm)
“…i am not even sure if man can be raped…”
Actually, there ARE cases on record when women have raped men before, even at gunpoint. It’s just that the proverbial male-ego is less likely to report it to the proper authorities, so those reports are very scarce…
and because of that “male ego” i am am not sure if it would qualify.
even if all requirements are there, men and women react differently to it.
i repeat “i am not sure”.
If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Yes. Of course it does.
If a man was raped and doesn’t tell anyone about it, was he still raped?
Of course.
How people react to it is not the issue. Their choice to report it or not is not the issue. If they suffer from mental anguish later is not the issue.
Rape. Is. Rape.
Rape is an ACT. Not a mental state. The “male-ego” MidnightDStroyer mentions influences the individual’s decision to REPORT the crime, it does not change that the crime happened.
See my reply to your earlier comment, it is down there somewhere.
|
V
The first case of male rape to go to trial was in the 80’s. She pulled a gun on him and when he “couldn’t perform” she use an “erection injection”, a shot to the base if the member that caused the blood vessels to constrict restricting flow out. This was a primitive and frequently painful pre-viagra ED treatment.
There are 2 ways for a woman to successfully rape a man. The first is if they desire to have sex with the rapist, but feel it’s wrong, i.e. “I have a wife”, “I’m a saving myself for marriage”. Second involves drugs, viagra doesn’t care if your horrny, scared, tired, upset, or asleep, if your body CAN have an erection, it WILL have an erection.
R, the idea that a woman can’t rape a man is WRONG.
Allow me to give you the dictionary definition of rape: “unlawful sexual intercourse or any other sexual penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth of another person, with or without force, by a sex organ, other body part, or foreign object, without the consent of the victim. ”
The act of rape itself is very broadly defined save for the last “Without the consent of the victim”. The genders of both parties are irrelevant in this definition.
Interestingly enough, the US Uniformed Crime Report (what the Gov. uses to determine how much crime is officially happening) defined rape as “The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.” until 2012 when they changed the definition to: “Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
Keep in mind that the Uniformed Crime Report definition is NOT law. It is a definition used to make statistics on crime rates. The change reflects the change over the last 200 years of how individual states defined the act of rape.
Had you made the statement “i am not even sure if man can be raped” in 1940 I’m sure there would be several states that was correct in. There may be today (I’m not sure off the top of my head), but if there are, there are definitely less than in 1940.
sexually or otherwise, barberian was not physically penetrated. he was the one doing the penetration. so if you were to read it “literally” i don’t see this rule allowing a women to rape someone. and as i said above, keep gay out of here.
“If a man was raped and doesn’t tell anyone about it, was he still raped”
“does the man consider himself to beraped?” is what i mean that i am not sure whether he can be raped.
Women are usually much more emotional about everything, and thats why when a women gets raped it is a catastrophe. men are less emotional and if they…
i am not saying that men are invincible and can’t get hurt no matter what (except for achilles), but there doesn’t seem to be a point in doing anything about the case presented ON THE PAGE ABOVE.
For a man there is no lasting physical consequences, so only mental is what we look for.
what makes it “horrible” and potentially traumatizing, is the doubt of if its right to do, or fear of the future and other things. Her hypnoboobs however make it a non issue, meaning he only have pleasant memories, if. and as for the “consent” the Dave already answered it below AND above: “She got consent. She didn’t have to trick him or anything.”
you can see it if you scroll down half a screen.
Quote: “sexually or otherwise, barberian was not physically penetrated. he was the one doing the penetration. so if you were to read it “literally” i don’t see this rule allowing a women to rape someone. and as i said above, keep gay out of here.”
That is… an interesting argument, and admittedly one I hadn’t considered.
And actually fairly sound given that the rape included only the ‘standard’ sexual practice and no other contact. Under the dictionary definition, one might be able to argue that kissing with tongue counts as rape…
Anyway, the only rebuttal that I can think of at this time is that the definition does not explicitly state that that the criminal/perp must be the one doing the physical penetrating.
Admittedly, that is a flimsy basis for counterargument.
Though I am reasonably sure that it is likely how such cases are ruled in the courts. I might need to check this one.
Thank you for the Food for Thought.
FYI, Achilles took an arrow to the ankle and died.
As to if a man can consider himself raped… Speaking as a human male, I sure would if I were forced to have intercourse with someone against my will.
the “wording” wasn’t supposed to be the main part of the comment.
personally, as i myself am bad with words, i don’t consider “he said this word instead of that” as an argument, unless the person in question is known for dropping those subtle details. it was just “whatever” point.
but i believe that people should at say more “can be” instead of “is”, or “likely” instead of definitely”.
“definition does not explicitly state that that the criminal/perp must be the one doing the physical penetrating.”
kind of expected answer like that.
as for achiles, i meant the one on the team. he literally cannot be physically hurt.
https://thoughtcatalog.com/lorenzo-jensen-iii/2014/08/19-men-share-stories-of-being-raped-by-a-woman-nsfw/
Yeah, that’s the problem with the wording, even the ‘updated’ wording
If anyone is forced into sexual congress against their will or consent, that is rape. And it is just as easy for a woman to rape an unwilling man (conscious or not) as it is a man to rape a woman: all it requires is for the male sexual organs to still receive blood flow and physical stimulation will do the rest
The same reason why female on male domestic violence is a real thing but often gets ignored, dismissed or simply never gets reported
She got consent. She didn’t have to trick him or anything.
I have no doubt he consented to the sex. If he didn’t consent to the mind-wipe, then it is still rape.
And if he has no memory of consent, then legally there were no consent.
video recording! also, prove that something was done.
Now all I can imagine is that for the sake of avoiding allegations archon has a file of every time dabbler recharges complete with legally signed documentation and video evidence, now I just wonder if I could be the person to catalog those necessary documents. Though with the luck of the universe maxima probably has to do it because she is the only one who wont try to take any home.
Wouldn’t taping the act prove that something was done?
One thing nobody say about this “rape” :
What if sex energy is needed, not only to recharge, but simply to live? A succubus could survive without it ?
If it’s necessary to live, the argument about the rape is useless cause she’s acting under the vital obligation to do it….(with a gun pointed to my head, I’m not responsible?)
I don’t know about that logic. To transition to a different sort of danger, lions in South Africa used to eat farmers. (They probably still do, but I don’t have any statistics to back that up, so I’m going with history.) You could say that eating farmers was something they did because they needed the nutrients; it’s not as though lions are sadistic. They’re just predators. Did the fact that the animals are following instinct rather than malice mean that it wasn’t a threat? Or that the farmers would still be alive? Sadly, no. (For the record, I don’t endorse some of the more extreme “solutions” adopted by the humans to counteract the threat, but that’s not relevant right now.)
In the lions’ case, you could ask: “Well, couldn’t the lions eat other things?” In Dabbler’s case, you could ask: “Well, couldn’t she find someone who was, genuinely and without coercion, willing to have sex?” In both cases, the answer has to be yes, with the caveat that the lions don’t choose prey based on moral concerns but rather on availability.
Thus, I’d say that – to avoid this sort of issue – she could go out to any club (strip or otherwise), obtain formalized consent from individuals there, and “recharge” without the shady elements involved. Sure, she might not find the people quite as tasty, but I think from ARCHON’s perspective, she would have to deal.
I get where you’re coming from in that the need to survive presents justification in a sense, but I don’t think it overrides other concerns. Especially not when there are other sources of nutrition she could consume without said concerns entering the picture.
Would wiping his mind of an evening also be rape if there was no sex involved at all?
Rape is pretty much defined as sexual acts without mutual consent. The sex acts in question had consent of both parties. Wiping his memory is a tangential issue.
(to be clear: I’m not saying one way or the other whether memory modification is immoral, just that it is not rape)
Er, I’m pretty sure it’s not. A violation of his privacy/sanctity of mind? Maybe. I could even call it assault. But RAPE?
No. It’s a mind-wiping spell. As far as we are aware there was no coercion beyond flirting. Dabbler’s kiss of uber-horniness was closer to rape than this.
It is Rape… rape is not always sexual, nor even physical. .. it is what is known as Mind Rape… things like memory supression, reprogramming, brainwashing. .. MIND RAPE… and it is just as illeagal as ordinary rape, just harder to prove…
Rape is, actually, always sexual. Without the sexual component it is called assault. Mind rape is more of a colloquialism than an established legal term.
If you know of a law that defines what “mind rape” is, please present your citation.
Probably comes under whatever drugging someone without their knowledge comes under. Since she ALSO had sex with him it would have been like using a date rape drug to rape someone. But Dave says he gave consent before any of her more clearly overpowering abilities were used. (still probably heavily influenced by the not of this world ones she can use to unnatural effect)
Would you make any difference between “rape” and “seduction”? Regardless who seduces whom?
A soldier buddy of mine once said something along the lines of “The difference between flirting and harassment is that one is wanted.”
Considering that the keystone in defining rape is consent, I’d have to say it fits into the above category. Keep in mind though, that seduction does not always involve being physically close to the other person… So unwanted seduction is not always rape.
Mavado, The mind wipe was not rape, or even mental rape. Not that there is such a thing as mental rape or any psychic or comic telepath who ever uses their power is a rapist by your definition.
Jean grey. Mind rapist?
She did to prevent all other women to be ruined for him. It was a kindness, not a brutality.
Agreed.
If removing the memory of consent destroyed the truth of that consent then there are probably some real life brain surgeons who are this type of “rapist”.
Yep. It’s just really disturbing that people are saying ‘this is rape’ – despite that Barberian consented to it… because Dabbler has magic boobs.
News flash – a lot of guys think any boobs that are very good looking are magic. The bikini and lingerie industries probably depends on it. It doesnt mean those industries are reponsible for ‘male rape’ by making the hapless men want to have sex with hot women.
Then when it’s pretty clear that it’s not rape (when DaveB flat out says ‘Barberian consented’ – something pretty clear from reading the dialogue even), they say it’s ‘mind rape’ because Dabbler used an amnesia spell so he couldnt fine-tunely remember the details of last night.
1) She did that so he would be able to have sex with other women in the future without constantly comparing them to the unreachable pinnacle of sexual bliss that is Dabbler.
2) Making someone forget is not something that should even be described as ‘mental rape’. Other than the fact that it sounds like a pretty dumb desciption, it ignores the intent behind what she did, and the effect of what she did. There was no violation. She didnt go deep-scanning his mind and altering his intimate thoughts. She didnt place a sexually violating image in his mind. She made him forget. She did the equivalent of getting him to have an evening of binge drinking, except without any physical damage or trauma to him. And if he was able to remember, I’m pretty sure he’d want to do it again after he was no longer worn out from the experience.
Probably can’t even really be considered an assault (although it would at least be more apporpriate than calling it rape) – because the legal definition of assault is ‘an intentional act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact.’
Break it down a bit.
Intentional act by one person – ok, it’s intentional, but it’s unclear if Dabbler can be considered ‘a person’ since ‘a person’ is legally a human being.
Creating an apprehension – there was no apprehension on the part of Barberian. He didnt even seem to notice what Dabbler was doing and was not apprehensive before, during, or after
Imminent harmful or offensive contact – it wasnt harmful (the legal definition for assault is apprehension of PHYSICAL harm) and there was no physical harm – he just forgot what happened, and he had no way to know that he forgot in the first place. And it wasnt offensive… as stated before, it as actuall a benevolent act for his future mental well-being
You can’t even really call it a battery, since the hammer is not an actual hammer, but is instead a spell, so there wasnt actually an unlawful touching (the definition of battery).
….
As if I needed more ways to prove to people that I’m a lawyer. Heh.
I was just agreeing as far as that memory erasure of consent to have sex and erase those memories (apparently temporarily) doesn’t destroy the legitimacy of that consent.
That would be silly since that’s exactly what the consent was about. If we were to find out she somehow went further than what was stipulated in that agreement then perhaps there was a crime. Given the tricky situation that the man has no memories and therefore can’t witness the consent it would have been wise to have it witnessed and video taped. Harem could probably spare a body to witness that the video wasn’t made up. She has a cybernetic eye so its likely she has half of that equation. She may well have done the other half as well.
And that’s all cool kinky sci-fi/fantasy sex as far as THAT goes.
I do however have to wonder a bit about the fact that certain aspects of her unnatural, to humans anyway, ability to focus other beings on sex and heighten their need can’t be fully shut off. The Boobs are brought up because their inhuman abilities have been showcased to great effect a couple of times now. Against someone who is not your enemy they would work almost as well, just slower and easier to break from with distraction, than her big whammy glamours and what all. Back up ammo for Succubi to still be able to hunt in places where less subtle power use would be detected.
We’ve been given every indication that Sydney is straight (think Dave backed that up as well) and yet she almost fell into them like the Well to Wonderland!XD I think we can all admit that this goes beyond the powers of mortal lady bits. That’s the whole point to her after all.
I think she means well and is doing the very best she knows to do (at this time) in this strange land. I bet she’s a blessed Saint compared to how they swing back home. But what we know of her definitely casts a few shades of grey onto the black and white of the consent of a guy without any kind of built up or special resistance to her passive abilities.
But there is always hope in a comic with magic and futuristic tech. All we need to hear is that she has a spell or device that renders the recipient temporarily immune to her more passive abilities so he can make his decision and just like that we’re all good again! :) Gotta love this genre.
In defense of the debates, I have two points. One: Several comment threads were already unspooling before Dave confirmed that she had asked for, and received, consent. Two: Here, as with most forum environments, the people love their theoretical debates, rhetorical fencing, and implication hunting.
Other than that, I agree that “mind rape” isn’t an offense that would hold up under current law.
You mention that “person” is a human being in the eyes of the courts. However, the courts aren’t aware (please correct me if I’m misremembering) of her otherworldly origins. Were lawmakers to hear about the existence of nonhuman sentient life, I would hope that the definition you mention would expand to “sentient life form”. I can’t guarantee that, no, but I can hope.
I’m just breaking down the definition of assaults to its legal components, which is why I mentioned the ‘person’ aspect.
Even if Dabbler was legally considered a person, what happened still doesnt equal assault because it doesnt meet any of the other requirements. I was just being all lawyerly about it. :)
The mind wipe is assault, if its anything. It is NOT rape, nor does it turn consentual sex into rape, and thats the most ridiculous and poorly thought-out claim I’ve heard in a long time. Cut it out.
Amen to that (plus it’s not actually even assault for reasons I’ve mentioned somewhere else on the forum, though saying assault is a lot closer than the ridiculous notion of saying that mind wipe was rape)
Though TV Tropes goes with a more obvious and immediate level of damage to qualify, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MindRape , Mind Rape has become a fan blanket term for all sorts of non consensual mental invasions.
But sure if you want mind wipe is more like assault with an edged weapon (unless you’re adding stuff back in like mental Frankenstein Monster time) and if you do enough of it to seriously effect current personality its pretty much murder. Doesn’t matter how much everybody likes the new Steve if he’s clearly not the old Steve then Old Steve died. And if New Steve, who thought he was happy, suddenly finds out his life is a lie and his mind a toy stuffed with fabrications? Yeah, that’s gonna do some nasty emotional damage.
Apparently having somebody play with your most intimate SELF is more horrific to some than others, which surprises us just as much as this violent reaction surprises you, to each their own I guess. *shrugs* When the Mind Flayers come I’m hiding behind you for protection! XD
This was also not exactly a mental ‘invasion’ – it was a mental ‘removal’
Closer to hacking than rape. :)
Conscent of a captive, whose freedom depends on the happiness of the person he’s having sex with
This plus the mind wipe is pretty damning.
I’m surprised Maxima and Arianna are ok with this 0.o
Again, the hints are there that he is not considered a combatant. He was probably debriefed and free to go when the offer was made. This is the most logical chain of events. I guess if you are out to try and prove something you can jump to certain conclusions. However considering the webcominc, what we know of dabbler’s personality and most importantly what we have learned about arcswat so far(and of course taking into account that this obviously is not the first time this has come up) the logical conclution would be everything is above board.
Again, if you WANT it to be rape you can make all kinds of suppositions since there is not a lot of information apart form what we see in the comic and Dave’s word. My guess is this will force Dave to write another post op paragraph or two with the next comic or have to explain it in painstaking detail IN the next comic.
Yey…
It would be interesting to know how ArcSwat are getting around this sort of thing. An outside agency could easily turn this to their advantage if they wanted to damage them:
“Law enforcement agency ArcSwat was today accused of harboring a potential serial rapist. According to sources, a consultant to the newly formed agency forced detainees into performing sexual favors, then later wiped their minds of the incidents. The incidents came to light after John ‘the Barberian’ Doe managed to undo parts of the wipe with the help of new technology from ShadyAgencyPosingAsLegitimateCompany Ltd.
ArcSwat has responded by saying that miss Xuriel’s relation with her accuser took place strictly after his release from custody, and that the act taking place in the ArcSwat building has no bearing on the case. Miss Xuriel then made a personal statement that she ‘wiped his mind so that he would be able to enjoy sex with other women even after she rocked his world’.
Mr. Doe could not be reached for comment, but has through his lawyers made the statement that he is chocked by what he has remembered, and that he wishes to work with SAPALC further to try and piece together what has happened to him. The statement went on to say that since he only remembered bits and pieces until he got help, it’s very possible that there are others in his position who just don’t know it.
Supposedly symptoms of this memory wipe is complete mental an physical fatigue. SAPALC have asked us to urge anyone who has experienced this phenomenon to contact them for testing.
In other news: Given the seriousness of the allegation levelled against miss Xuriel, prosecutor M. Edgeworth held a press conference earlier today where he pleged to get to the bottom of this affair and obtain a guilty verdict. Law firm Wright & Co. meanwhile have stated that they believe in their client’s innocence.”
I doubt it will be relevant in the comic, but I could totally see this being a thing in that world.
With Dave’s statement in the page notes about how the wipe would work, this scenario is no longer relevant.
Adict, they’d get around it by the fact that what she did was not rape, and the mindwipe was not rape either. They don’t need some special way to counter the allegation. They’d just need definitions of what ‘rape’ is (or what assault is or battery is) to show that Dabbler did not do any of that. And it’s stuff that a first year law student could argue – and Arianna is definitely not some novice first year law student :)
Not to mention it would imply Barberian pressing charges in the first place, and if they had some way to let him remember exactly what happened, I don’t think he’d be pressing charges – he’d be stalking her or begging her to have sex with him again since no other woman can compare anymore.
Hey, would I have been in his shoes and getting the offer to “recharge” (with) a succubus, even if she said (beforehand!) “Buuut, I will have to erase you memory about it afterwards” along with the explanation why – I would still have been eager to try for the experience. I would even wanted to try after having seen this page that includes getting mind-clobbered with an amnesia-hammer.
Rape, then? Considering it from my side, surely no – not until after I forgot everything, which must include the offer to do it, too.
So, Dabbler would have my absolute conscious consent. Even my wanting. Period. Fullstop. That’s it, and I don’t take it back.
But after I forgot everything, my situation would be different. Not remembering anything about it, but obviously knowing that my body was very much overly workouted(<- is that a word?), I'd feel abused and not comfortable about what might have caused the workout. Is it rape now?
Honestly, I dont know what I would respond to this question. She had my consent, I just don’t remember.
Anyway, a perfectly consentual intercourse would have been turned into rape by erasing one of the partners memory, after the (f)act and quite probably with my consent to do it.
What if she didn’t do it, and a month later I would go to her and ask her to do it, for I realized that I can’t do it with a human woman anymore? It would not have been rape until this point. Not even in the light of her not telling me beforehand how good at it she really is.
So she does what I’m asking for, and *snap*, now it’s rape?
I was thinking about those points, Rock. I know I’m just a name on the Internet, so feel free to disregard the following thoughts.
1) I like the solution proposed in your second-to-last paragraph. Offer the wipe, don’t force it, and – if it really causes problems like Dabbler says it will – the person will probably ask on his/her own.
2) I’m not sure if it IS rape, but it would feel like it. Since we’re dealing with targeted, not general, amnesia, her best practice would have to be setting the “start” tag AFTER the consent. That would mean her partner remembers consent, but nothing that came after. Which, if she told him/her ahead of time, would clear her of legal responsibility.
That said, I’m betting Arianna created a consent form that Dabbler’s supposed to get signatures on.
He could argue “diminished capacity” due to her seductive nature.. If she can’t turn it off, then it might be less of an issue, but if she can and doesn’t, then she’d be looking at rape charges. It would be equivalent of getting someone stoned or drunk and then asking for sex.
We have it multiple times in the comic that she can turn it down. This probably isn’t the first time it’s come up so in universe there is probably already a procedure around this.
Lol having procedures (and probably paperwork) around if you can have sex, how fun.
It’s not diminished capacity (I’m assuming you mean diminished capacity to engage in informed consent) either.
1) He’s well over the age of consent.
2) He has mental capacity to say no. Others have said no to Dabbler before. Heck, Sydney just mentioned she’d stab her eye out. Dabbler has been Gibbs smacked for it. Maxima fights with Dabbler when she gets on her nerves about her sexual nature.
3) Barberian does not have any sort of dimentia or mental disorder which would lead to diminished capacity. The fact that Dabbler’s effect works on EVERYONE but people are able to willfully resist is shown in the ballroom where everyone THOUGHT about having sex with her when she came in with her beholder spell on, but there wasnt some instant orgy happening. They just got horny. They didn’t act upon it, because they were capable of not acting upon it. That shows that even the beholder spell does not create a diminished capacity for informed consent by the potential sexual partner. It’s not like Dabbler slipped him a roofie or something.
4) It’s generally assumed that, as long as the person is of legal age of consent and has no mental disorders, there was consent. You’d have to prove otherwise. And there’s no real way to prove otherwise, especially given how Dabbler doesnt wind up having sex with every person she wants to have sex with. I apologize for ending this sentence with a preposition.
At least it wasn’t a proposition .
It’s also better than leaving your participles dangling.
Dave: I strongly urge a further in-comic explanation. Part of the problem is that we already know that Dabbler plays at the borders of legit. Just her use of her hypnoboobs and willingness to telekinetically grab Maxima’s backside are already borderline at best. (Note that if Max ever wants to file a “hostile work environment” complaint, that act alone, coupled with the fact that Dabbler faced no consequences, would be enough to set her up nicely for life.)
As a result, we’ve got no real reason to assume she wouldn’t just use her power in much the same way Vehemence did on his little team–amp up the guy’s libido, ~then~ ask if he wants to have succubus sexin’s. Furthermore, the mind-wipe would definitely violate several laws on its own (again, unless explicitly consented to beforehand). To the extent that there’s parallels to mundane actions, it’s pretty much all date-rape drugs and the like.
Note: My own assumption was that consent was obtained, because Arianna isn’t likely to allow risks like that. But it should be stated explicitly at some point.
“Hostile work environment”? That’s being threatened by employees/employers.. what dabbler does is straight up sexual harassment…
when i was in the Navy they used to use the Red light, Yellow light, Green light approach to sexual harassment/assault: Green is always “OK” and is NEVER SH/SA.. Yellow is stuff that SOME people COULD consider SH/ and SOME people DON’T consider it to be SH… and RED light stuff is ALWAYS sexual Harassment /Assault…
after i had been out a while, one of my friends had a relative go in the Navy and he related that they supposedly no longer use that. one of the reasons he said that they phased out that system was that there were too many jokes about how “stay at a Red light long enough, it’ll eventually turn GREEN” as a means of continuing SH type of behavior. granted, there were other problems with it as well, but i find that a funny enough reason all by itself.
personally i think what has been SHOWN in-comic is NOT SH… I’ll bet that if Barberian were to be asked right now, if he granted consent, that he WILL remember both giving it, AND the permission for the mind-wipe as well. it would kinda defeat the purpose of ASKING for permission in the first place!… I’m reminded of a pretty good movie called “Paycheck”, where the main character willingly gets his mind wiped after he finishes the reverse engineering of something for a corporation he works with. the rest of the movie is about him thwarting the evil plans of the guys he got hired by, even though he can’t remember WHY he’s doing it… the way it fits here, is that he REMEMBERS granting permission to them to DO the mind wipe, and the reasons WHY they want it in the first place, he just doesn’t know what he DID in the meantime… kinda like what i expect happens here: Dabbler get’s his permission for both the sex AND the mind-wipe, he remembers giving the permission to both, he just doesn’t remember the actual ACT OF sex… poof! no rape has occurred, move along nothing to see here, these are not the droids you’re looking for…
THIS is why you need to be really, really careful about including/using “Good guys” with mind/emotion controlling powers. If it was a villain, it would just be another example of ‘evil’- and Prof X was super-duper-squeaky-clean as a character.
Inhales sharply “Damn Dave, it seems tumblr invaded your comic. Consent before getting hammered and then getting hammered and forgetting….Why does that sound so familiar…”
Mind rape looks fairly likely unless he consented. Physical rape if she used her glamour to any significant degree without informing him and asking him before using it.
She’s a Succubus so crossing that line in search of energy/souls/whatever is preeeetty much their whole thing. She actually seems to care about the welfare and sensibilities (to a much lesser extent than their welfare) of her team mates, seems to be interested in something this experience gains her and is somewhat predictable which makes this much better than all those horror flicks where the government sets up a top secret project to weaponize a captured vampire, Frankenstein’s Monster, demon possessed woman, insane telekinetic, werewolf, giant kaiju, great old one, or whatever their agents caught with its monster pants down.
Not to mention she devoured his vital energies.
Aaand in that state she had him in he most likely would have told her anything she asked without a lawyer present.
Eh, there are just sooo many things wrong with this type of treatment of a prisoner that if super world, who when not being idiots can probably make a ton of money and therefore power in the perfectly legal private sector, spawns a firm of specialist lawyers who in turn develop a group of super investigators who can look into things like client tampering by the super cops Dabbler’s continuing habit of seeing the “enemy” as a buffet (which is probably a perfectly natural reflex for a succubus) will get every one in trouble and maybe get some baddie, now much the wiser, released.
Prooobably not this guy since it kind of looked like they were going to go easy on him in particular but I see her memory ban hammer is somewhat fallible so maybe he is resistant and will manage to regain enough of a fragment to say something, maybe something he thinks is a dream, which would then be investigated by said lawyer group in the future, leading to all of their arrests since the beginning being brought into question? He should be hired as the team stylist just so he knows where his loyalties lie and a group of supers with powers they haven’t found a way to capitalize on yet approached with financial deals to be emergency scooby snacks for the succubus when she gets desperately hungry (succooby snacks?). A first interview where they are made to understand that they must keep what information they are allowed to keep as a secret and that they will be mind wiped if once they hear the final deal whether they agree or not but that this is entirely about informed consent before mindwipe, then markers set in place during the final interview where they get the true scoop on what they are doing and then after they agree to both acts of the succubi in the future in return for cash the final interview that reveals the succubi’s nature is wiped from their memory whether they agreed to be used or not.
Even that’s a really bad idea but since she is obviously going to do it anyway its better than having her just bouncing around willy nilly possibly destroying future and past cases cause she is overconfident in her abilities. IF they hear about it themselves they should challenger her to perform her standard act on a super member of ARCLIGHT and then they can see if they can find evidence of tampering or even break the memory ban hammering effect. If nothing else it might embarrass Dabbler into bringing her A game to this sensitive issue (he started to remember when the effect was still fresh.
I just want to assure everyone that this was all above board. I’ve edited my post under the comic and I’ll revisit this issue in a future page to make sure that’s clear. It’s not that Dabbler and other succubi aren’t capable of abusing their powers obviously, but she’s interested in making the process amicable to all parties.
I jumped the gun a little on this one and have now read another of your comments about his consent and memory returning.
Still, even if she goes to some lengths to make sure its as consensual as possible, while that will make us feel better I’m not sure how it would go over with hostile outsiders if the full extent of her natural and apparently impossible to turn off or ignore abilities, like hypno-boobs ( I love how many serious discussions those things have causes alongside the humorous ones! XD ) became known.
They aren’t officially arrested and he is the one they liked the most so I’m thinking this is going to go well for the most part but I think her built in abilities are so hard on a persons ability to make decisions etc… that just for good practices she should stay away from folk until it is very certain that they are no longer involved in ongoing investigations. I wouldn’t expect her character to make that choice though but if Maxima found out I would expect her to attempt to “strongly insist” that she do so from now on. I’m pretty sure ordinary agents/police would know it is a “bad thing” legally to suddenly have even consensual sex with a civilian witness or suspect involved in an ongoing investigation that you are also linked to even when you don’t have mind altering super powers muddying the issue. Yeah, sooner or later when someone finds out Dabbler’s personal “policy” in this area they will want to correct her.
Those are all speculations on how its going to fall out later by the way. Nothing Dabbler did both before and after your explanation necessarily seemed like a violation of what a character with her unusual non-human cultural and genetic background might do good intentions or no. So I was never saying it was a violation of her character, no matter how wrong it would be for some of the audience, as she might very well do such things not fully realizing the way it was seen by the locals. (she tends to dismiss every objection lightly as “prudes”) I actually would have thought it interesting if she DID have some problems in the consent arena and long term exposure to and conversations with the rest of the human team slowly won her over as that is character growth and character growth is always cool.
To a warrior with magical/psi/energy abilities from NOT earth it might make perfectly righteous sense that an enemy who chose to engage your team in deadly combat for no damn reason is getting off pretty light if all he has to pay for it with is a temporary fuzziness and drained energies before being sent home to do as he pleases. If her idea of right and wrong is mostly just maintaining a balance of consequences for ones choices then he got of light for only having to replace part of the damage he did where he joined a group that could have ended people forever.
The fact that Dabbler labels hers species as “Demon” is of considerable concern to the team (mostly Arianna, let’s be honest) They want to show her doing good before they have to deal with other potentially negative PR aspects.
go with Robert Aspirin’s definition he used in the Myth-Adventures series… it’s been quite a while since i read book one, but if i remember correctly, “Demon” is a misunderstanding?/ misinterpretation of the word for: “a traveler from another dimension” and the “Demon Sun” is a mangled “dimension”… thus they are really nothing but a vacationing traveler going to new places… they are not INHERENTLY “EVIL” nor are they inherently “good” (angels)… they are just like US: good, bad or indifferent, it depends on the individual…
Near as I can tell from my own experience with Japanese media, the Japanese word ‘Oni’ fits in the category you describe.
In English it translates to ‘Demon’ Also ‘brother’, depending on usage, yet in my own opinion, ‘Spirit’ seems a better definition. Oni can be good, ambivalent, or outright evil in their interactions with people in myth.
I have to remind myself of this occasionally when viewing certain Anime. When a character identifies themselves as a ‘demon’ to other characters, (if it is a hero character) it is to remind them that they are “other” or not human, not to say they are evil. Some scenes make so much more sense when viewed this way.
If someone has a little more insight on how Oni, as a word/concept, is viewed in Japan I’d love to hear it.
This CAN’T be the first time this has come up with Dabbler on the team.
(Remember the General who is apparently a Star Trek Classic fan?)
I’m thinking a release/non-disclosure form with video of the consent
and a post event/pre wipe statement (also on video)
Does Dabbler’s ‘recharge’ procedure de-age her? For someone who is 180 years old she currently doesn’t look a day over 150.
And also, walking in and having a stranger’s naked butt on my couch, eew!
(That’s just me. One of the reason’s I have never gone on a cruise is the thought of being locked with a thousand people into a giant floating breeding pit of germs.)
Since Dabbler isn’t human we can’t assume she gets old at the same rate as we do. Given that she’s 180 years old I think we have to assume she doesn’t.
It may be that he’s wearing his pants, but knows he’s going ‘commando’ when he wasn’t the day before.
It looks more to me like the Barberian has wrapped himself up in a blanket; it doesn’t look like he’s wearing a one-shoulder shirt, after all. Quite possible that he’s naked underneath it.
do you go to a movie theaters, or a mall, maybe your church?, heck for that matter how about ever having been an in-patient at a HOSPITAL?!… a LOT of people get more sick IN the hospital than would have if they weren’t a patient at the hospital in the first place! so saying that you won’t go on a cruise, or an airplane trip just because “it’s a germ’s paradise” is a BS excuse, you can catch anything from anybody anywhere at anytime (within the transmission parameters of the disease, of course)… being on a cruise ship or plane don’t mean squat in the overall scheme of things. other reasons like “i get seasick”, or “it’s too expensive”, fine i accept those, but “because i might get sick”, Meh, lame…
if you did not SEE him sitting there naked, but were only told about after some time had gone by, like somebody reminiscing about their first fight and going “oh yeah, how about when Dabb’s banged the Barberian on the couch later that evening… RIGHT where YOU are sitting! in fact”, would you still freak out?
What is this “sick” you speak of.
Is that “not really evil at all just following my friends” super barber?
Yup.
Ok, I loved it. Dabbler is all hyper and energetic now. I bet this is why she and halo get along so well, dabbler only gets this way after feeding time is over, halo gets that way when she is off her meds. :p Also, I dont know whether to pity or envy Barberian. Being ruined for all other women would suck, but… he got to sleep with freaking DABBLER!!!!! AND CANT REMEMBER IT! That should count as a war crime! Couldnt she at least let him remember enough to bask in the glow as he lies there exhausted? You know, make it a bit fuzzy so it doesnt ruin him, but he remembers the mind blowing sex?
Meds, what meds? Meds are for chumps, that nad Sydney isn’t going to get rid of her initiation bonus, with a high chance of additional attacks of opprotunity per turn. That’s just crazy talk.
*that and Sydney
Not remembering is not so bad , the important thing here are the bragging rights !
( Hoperfully he has at least a picture to show for )
Like in those roller coaster rides at amusement parks. That’d be the best souvenir photo of all time.
And both Halo and Dabbler have ADHD :)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA……(whew…inhale)…..HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Oh the hammer space just had me laughing my head off. Superbly done.
Dabbler can feel free to come on to me like that any time she wants to. But no amnesia hammer! I have had (temporary) amnesia twice. Both times as a side effect of anesthesia. And rate them as being the worst experiences of my life!
And that includes having limbs, and other bones, shattered and life-threatening illnesses. If some mafiosi tied me up and offered me the choice between taking a drug which would give me TEMPORARY amnesia or shattering a limb with a mallet, I would choose the mallet, without hesitation!
As for permanent amnesia? *shudders*
Dabbler’s style seems to have changed slightly, in this scene. Not that I mind, as she looks nice either way. She just seems a bit more rounded and softer here. Is that her equivalent of having a bit of a glow to her features, ‘after the event’?
Actually DaveB explained that he will infact remember all of it, just not the parts that would ruin him (see edit at the top)
Unicorn Butt Patrol might not have had much traction in the comments thread, but it kept my friend and I happy for a good long e-mail thread at work. My thanks.
I feeling should suggest, after seeing Dabbler’s current outfit, the world needs to offer women the option of corsets with functional pockets!
Or at least make them more commonly available
I’d say Sydney is a ‘Tony Stark’ type hero, where the super-powers are produced through tools.
(Ignoring for the moment the Genius/Billionaire/Philanthropist part.)
She’s more like someone who bumbled into funny magic ring, that they in no way understand the making or maintainance of initially, which makes them awesomely empowered (heh, Empowered is actually an example of that I think https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empowered ) as long as they remember to wear the ring or suit whatever.
Tony Stark’s mind is so amazing it probably qualifies as a built in super power allowing him to understand not only his suit (which he created) but also the situation and technologies around him in ways that no ordinary joe of the street, even one with an operator’s manual, could hope to. (at combat speeds no less) And then when he finds he desperately needs some new ability there is a very good chance HE CAN JUST BUILD A DEVICE THAT DOES THAT maybe even squeeze it into a new suit eh?
Sydney’s gots what she gots and has to play a guessing game to upgrade (which will end when she runs out of the built in options cause she can’t recreate them). It gives some artificial sense of growth and choice but its nothing on Tony who has the real deal.
Don’t get me wrong. In some ways we are still getting to know Sydney. Maybe with her self styled ADD based bonuses and abilites plus other things we will learn about her she could be said to bring more to the table than just spirit and courage (insert heroic traits here) but I would put her more in the category of a green lantern who had a particularly great natural imagination when using the super toy some aliens gave him rather than Tony Stark who’s genius is his REAL super power.
I would say Sydney is more of a Green Lantern hero. No superpowers of her own but well matched to the ones given to her by the object(s) she found.
“Greatest American Hero” style Super? *g* (Oh Lord, I am old!)
got it on DVD finally!… we ain’t THAT old…
Age is a state of mind.
And I prefer to live out of state.
I’ve been out of my mind for so long that I’m also prematurely aged…
Sadly any sex with Dabbler could technically be considered rape on her part. I doubt she could dial it down past below a 10. She has hypnotic boobs. Even if she dial down the lust aura as much as possible she would have little if any trouble getting consent and given her nature it would always be suspect. Pretty much when she does the deed with him she has started something which will lead to psychological damage for him consent or not. Given her stated anatomy she probably could ruin a man for human women. Clearly this is not an ideal option. Erasing it at a point where he remembers giving consent will make him feel cheated. Erasing before that will cause him to question what happened to at least the time he lost and if he doesn’t remember consenting he may feel like he did not. It’s clearly a no win scenario really.
The psychological damage part is the reason she blocks his memory, to prevent that.
But DaveB’s edit at the top explains your question. He will eventually remember everything, except for the details that would spoil him for all future ‘encounters’
So probably it’d come back soon as an old memory, that he can look back at and be happy
Yes I see that.
Thanks for the edit Dave Nice to see you gave him that little bit of dignity. Sort of a get drunk and screw situation then. Just enough to enjoy it but not quite enough to remember every detail and a helluva headache when you wake up.
Dabbler’s hair looks oh so much better this way.
“Out of courtesy”?
Her expression in in the 3rd to last panel suggests courtesy had little to do with it. Combine that with how non-consensual the sex looked and . . .
of course her removal of his memories without asking is text book “mind rape” so I shouldn’t be surprised.
As DaveB explained, it was all concencual, including the memory thing.
Read the edit at the top
Is it odd I’m worrying that much about this guy now? I just had a thought where he was actually gay before she got her powers into him and if he gets his memory back the confusion will damage, possibly destroy, his committed long term relationship (if it can make a straight guy feel depressed he will only be able to sleep with human women its got to be bad bad!) where they had just managed to complete a deal for a genetic child of his partner and will be raising their little bundle of joy as soon as they are delivered. Yes, that’s a ridiculous amount of unsupported back story its just the kind of thing that the mind rape topic does to me.
a) Word of Dave says Barberian consented, with no trickery involved. Since the question of consent to the memory erasure was already in play when DaveB spoke up, he presumably intended to cover both issues with that statement.
b) You’re stereotyping by assuming the male hairdresser is gay.
b) how can you tell he isn’t? it might be a stereotype that hair dressers are gay (which i haven’t heard about) but just because its a stereotyped, doesn’t automatically invalidate the possibility.
but on another hand, dabbler probably would select someone straight, before gay, just to maximize the harvest.
You can tell that he isn’t by seeing that he did the Horizontal Tango with a woman
i do not know what “horizontal tango” is, but if you are saying that he doing it with her is a prove that he is straight, i will have to remind you about what everyone else has already said.
her boobs are hypnotic.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/601
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/607
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1432
it doesn’t matter to her whether you are male female gay or straight.
only only how much she can drain you.
https://tinyurl.com/lcbc8vf
A) Yup, I’ve seen that since writing this.
B) Nah, actually you are the one doing that by assuming that I was doing that. I didn’t even call him the Barberian or refer to that in this comment. In fact later in the paragraph I said, “unsupported back story” which was my way of saying my mind was just drumming up nightmare fuel based on the more horrific possibilities of her power. Finally, the true source of my “what if he’s actually gay” scenario were the early comics where the joke was made that when Dabbler turned her “lust for me” rays on you, if you were a sexual being at all, then you wanted her whether you orientation allowed for that or not. That was the true introduction in comic of her character and kind of sticks in the mind when I see her. She can literally turn you gay or straight functionally for that session whatever the long term effects on your psyche.
You probably didn’t mean anything by it, and I don’t really care (but I like nitpicking as much as the next sort and this involved my favorite topic = ME! XD) so just take this as clarification that I would have been worried about this scenario whatever his profession because her casual use of such powers give me the squicky cweeps sometimes! (when I make the mistake of thinking about them too much as I did today)
I think Sidney needs an adult.
I am an adult!
Imagines Dabbler saying “I’m all the adult you’ll ever need.”
Just because Dabbler’s demonic/alien/whatever else heritage may make her hundreds or even thousands of years old at this point doesn’t mean she’s really an “adult”…Age & maturity are too different species of animals.
O.o
Her species could even have the dreaded Second Puberty! :0 (given show/comic logic it should occur about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the way through the series?)
yup, take elves as an example. they can live hundreds to thousands of years, but the other side of the deal is that they mature much MUCH longer. in one game it takes the character millenia, to reach lvl1.
Would Sidney count as super powered? Or would she have to use her orbs? Maybe one of the unknown ones is a super endurance orb.
She has her own form of infinite energy in ADHD though.
Also she has a big telekinetic tentacle
Technically speaking, Sydney is NOT super-powered…Only the orbs are.
Also, Sydney’s ADHD wouldn’t count as a super power either because all human beings are born with some degree of it. It lasts until they learn how to focus their attention on specific aspects of the surrounding environment; the ability to mentally focus on a potential danger does seem to be something of an evolutionary advantage….
Ha, finally spotted Dabbler in Panel 3, which explains where she appears from in Panel 4. That was confusing for a while.
Speaking of the effect of Coriolis forces on teleportation and etc. IMO, you’re much better off not trying to explain all the details. Just say “This happens, because super powers.” The more detailed the explanation, the more you’re just inviting nit-pickers to attack.
Everything is relative damn it. She can choose to port relative to herself or relative to a place she knows or sees. Easy.
We’re not attacking though, we’re nitpicking because we love nitpicking.
It’s just a form of analyzing the comic, milking all the details about it. And than keeping on going, because your brain won’t stop
I wonder which Dabbler finds more interesting. Teasing Sydney about sex or Sydney.reactions to her toys.
I think teasing Sydney (anyone) about sex is more interesting, but Syd’s reactions to her toys are more fun!
I understand rape is a serious issue and that this comic by itself can be misconstrued, but I just don’t get how anyone could jump to the worst possible conclusion in a generally light hearted comic about superheroes who work for the good of the country. Just seems like people take some things far more seriously than they should nowadays.
There is a very large difference between “call attention to possible unfortunate implications” and “jump to the worst possible conclusion.” Near as I can tell, most of the commenting posts fell in the former category and it was certainly how mine was intended.
Since DaveB has now reacted to the matter, I personally consider it as being attended to and therefore a moot point for the time being.
They jump there because they’ve been trained to, essentially, to the point too many are mindlessly trying to equate no memory of something consensual with rape. Its not an improvement when people go from insensitive on a subject to hypersensitive and mindless, and its pissing me off, so today the comments section gets my Captain Acerbic aspect.
AH… you’re also one like me that thinks society (in general) has become TOO P.C. and it’s clouding the ACTUAL problems we need to solve, with the mindless drivel molehills the media loves to hyper-exaggerate into being a Mt. Everest of a “problem” when it’s actually nothing…
She’s a succubus. Most succubi are rape machines (except the one on Lost Girl, who is more of a Mary Sue). We also know that she has magic boobs which affect people’s minds to make them want too have sex with her. Furthermore, for an officer to arrest someone and have sex with them is very questionable regardless of all that.
You don’t even have to invoke the amnesia to see something questionable about that.
Wow I must say the face work is superb this page. I don’t know what you did, but i like it :D
Thanks!
Ah. I was curious who Dabbler’d have to draft into doing that particular ‘job’ for her. =_=
It seems more than a little unethical to use a man who is currently under sort-of arrest for this… What do you call the state that someone is in when getting debriefed with the option of arrest upon non-compliance?
Not that I expect Dabbler to care about ethics.
I’d say Dabbler is being ethical in that she at least takes steps to not “ruin him” just to recharge herself. What I find questionable are her morals though…
she is a hyper intelligent succubus. she has none.
but because she is hyper intelligent, she does realise when something causes trouble, and unfortunately, often she intend to.
Cant really apply human morality to inhuman beings like succubi, aliens, and doppelgängers that said she does seem to limits the damage so she does have something like morality, ethics and empathy.
its called being careful, trying not to cause everyone to go on a witch hunt for you.
it has nothing to do with being good or evil or morality in any way as far as we can see.
well, except for the whole “not ruin him for human women”, but that’s only what she herself said, which doesn’t necessarily have to be true.
LOL, I really like how his hair stays flat! X(
Thor, Beta Ray bill, Elmer Fudd, now Dabbler. Is the magic hammer society having a recruiting drive
Yes, its a part the convention they hold every year this time in Vegas called, “Hammer Time!”
You forgot Susan from EGS.
I haven’t said it enough lately so cause it just occurred to me to do so, “I love this comic. Thanks Dave!”
Dave you wrote yourself in a corner here… :)
there is no way this could not be considered Rapey. By Dabblers very nature her ability to affect how others react to her means that she is always doing this to others.
Well, it can’t go right all the time for everyone. There may be some eventual conflict over this, depending on which path I want to go down.
Sydney is doing a very good job of resisting
She’s lower quality nutrition than an inherent super and Dabbler is trying hard to play nice with her new team. She still almost dove into Dabbler’s cleavage once while Dabbler was not only not trying but was actively having a normal conversation with her. Prolonged exposure combined with being warned about the effect probably increases resistance to passive abilities over time.
I don’t think so.
For starters it’s not a new problem. I could bet that a lot of people between us has met, or has been told about, someone who is described as “irresistibly attractive”. Also we likely have seen, or have been told about, people acting around someone else like a “mindless foul”. Can you assert that those (and others) are just expressions? How could anybody be sure, here in our normal universe, that is NOT being affected for a person charm in an overwhelming way? Is every highly attractive person a default rapist then?
Anyway, in the unlikely case that she had no way to deactivate her attractiveness, it is not an unavoidable problem. Dabbler has hypnotic boobs? She put a folding screen between them. Is her voice like an enchantment? She gave him the proposal in writing. Is her mere presence compelling? She left the room until he decided. Whatever it was a workaround could had been made.
But all this is irrelevant. The most important thing is that DaveB, the maker of this universe, the-one-who-was-there, have plain asserted that. It. Was. All. Consensual. Then we know for sure that Dabbler HAS a way to do NOT be a rapist.
How else could we need?
FULL video proof.
Harkker. It’s not rapey. At all. Informed consent means not rapey.
I can picture Barberian opening a boutique in the ARCHON tower complex, in honor of his rise to semi supporting cast status. Some of these supers hair must be a PITA to cut or style, after all, and a skilled pair of hands using the adamantium shears would be comforting.
Re an earlier comment in the ‘was it rape’ hyperthread, Dabbler didn’t use TK to grope Max’s tush during Sydney’s interview, that was just that her 2nd set of arms were being rendered invisible by her illusion.
And yay on being able to remember even a filtered version of a night with Dabbler. Without that, it was really hard to see an upside to Barberian agreeing without some coercion being used. ‘So.. I wont remember any of this, relative hot stranger, and will feel like roadkill tomorrow? Trying hard to see an upside here for me’
I need an Amnesia Hammer. How do I conjure one?
Already showed you three times, have you used it on yourself again? o_O
Could it be your teaching methods that needs a bit of work?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=umQm6xNsI6U#t=6
I think you may have taught him the version that automatically hammers the summoner.
That reminds me of an old story from folklore.
A man found himself sitting with his head sagging, supported by his hands. He was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree alongside of the road. He had no idea how he got there nor could he even remember his name. “Must have been one heck of a party, but I don’t feel hung over,” he thought.
Lifting up his head, he noticed for the first time that an aged old crone was standing in front of him. She asked, “Well now, what is your third wish?”
“My third wish? I must be imagining this, but if the usual situation is that I get three wishes, what happened to the first two?”
Rolling her eyes, the old crone replies, “You didn’t like the results of your first wish, so you used your second wish to undo the first wish. Now you only have one wish remaining.”
Still thinking that he might be dreaming or hallucinating, the man says, “What the hell? I wish to know who I am & how I got here.”
While casting the third wish, the old crone chuckles softly. Just before disappearing forever, she says, “Strange…That was your first wish.”
I like this new Dabbler.
Loving panel five, with Dabbles rubbing up against Sydney like a well-fed kitten :D
Is Dabbles’ bustier outfit real? Or just a hologram like her corset from yesterday?
I largely copied it from an image I found online (though I added the pouches to the side and the way the skirt attaches, so it’s probably real.
No, didn’t mean ‘is it possible to buy that outfit for real’, but seeing how her corset (with the ticker-tape design across the top) was just a hologram, was wondering if this was as well
No I know, I was being oblique.
You haven’t decided yet? :D
Spectral Hammer!
I really like the way Dabbler is drawn in panel 4, pretty and very sexiful (give yourself a point if you get the reference). Pretty good in panel 6 too, the borderline creepy smile is amusing.
That pun about getting debrief is the BEST.
With all the comments about how “rapey” this was I thought I should add a thought. Dabbler is acting like a human who just had a delicious and high energy meal which is exactly what she did. Vampire bats drink the blood of other mammals but no one calls that rape. She exists and needs to feed to survive or at least thrive. There is no other way for her to get this energy. She got consent and he will be fine given a day or two. Yes it doesn’t fit nicely into the perceived “Moral Code” of some people but SHE”S NOT HUMAN! You can’t expect her to have the same values and morals as any human. Hell she treated him FAR better than we (generally) treat our food animals. Did you get consent from the steer that hamburger came from? Or from the plant you stripped of it’s embryonic offspring? And you know most guys would have said yes to all aspects of that transaction and gone back for more so where exactly is the rape? (sigh)
Sometimes I despair of humanity but at least there are no MRAs chiming in with their nonsense.
I always get permission from the cow before I eat the McDonalds hamburgers.
I don’t bother getting any permission from the chickens before eating those nuggets though, because those dang chickens are just asking for it. Little clucking tramps.
The chicken says, “Well, cluck you too, @$$hole!”
;)
“Clucking Bell – if you enjoy it the chicken didn’t die in vain!”
And I’m resisting the temptation to cite the “meaty bovine quadruped” in “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”.
Oh, wait…
If she doesn’t have the morals of a human and can’t be expected to act like a human, she is owed about as much respect as a bacterium and everything necessary should be done to make sure that, in her lack of human morals, she doesn’t hurt someone. I fail to see “she doesn’t have human morals” as an excuse. A rabid dog also doesn’t have human morals.
And “consent” for a prisoner is questionable, unless we’re supposed to believe that 1) he could leave without penalty and 2) she screened off the effects of the hypnoboobs on him.
Actually it could be said that dogs have morals. As pack animals they must interact with the rest of the pack so they have to follow the societal rules of the pack which are their morals. I specifically said human morals because she has morals just not the same as yours. I did not say she had NO morals. Assuming someone who does not have the exact same morals as you have no morals is akin to assuming she isn’t as smart because she’s not human. I run into this same attitude when religious people assume atheists have no morals. That is just as ridiculous.
What happens if Dabbler “recharges” from someone with regenerative powers? What about a humanoid energy being? A biologically-accurate android? Does she have any special vulnerability or resistance to incubi? Do incubi have a special vulnerability or resistance to her powers? What if she “recharged” with someone else who feeds on love? Is there any difference to her between lust and love, and if so, what is it? Can she “recharge” from an artifact of love energy a la the crystal heart from MLP: FiM? What if she “recharged” with an avatar/deity of love?
So many questions! Please answer some of them?
With super powers comes a whole range of new possibilities for her. It’s one reason she’s hanging around Earth.
With great power comes great opportunity to orgasm?
Aww man, no straight answer to any of them?
DaveB’s answers are straight.
Pointing you straight towards the looney farm.
WTF? Is this just straight up rape? *reads author comments*.
Ok, so consent, but… like, there’s such a power differential. Its like prison guards x prisoners. Can consent even be real between succubus and their victims? Ugh…
Sydney, that amnesia shit will be a lot less cute when she uses it on you. Dabbler is a fundamentally alien creature, and the fact that she’s hot as hell distracts our heroes from it. Pay careful attention.
Can consent even be real between a guy six foot tall and two hundred and fifty pounds and a girl five feet tall and one hundred pounds soaking wet?
But you did raise a very important fact: Dabbles isn’t human, she didn’t need to require consent, but she did anyway. Did you get consent from the cow when you drank milk? Or the chicken when you had an omelette?
Pretty much given Dave’s explanations she picked a guy unlikely to turn down sex with a hot women, avoided actively using her powers gave him enough of an info dump to make a reasonably informed choice and then stunned him with the amnesia hammer afterwards it ends up the level of hot drunken sex instead of the end all be all experience it likely was.
That’s like asking if BDSM is assault & battery if there’s mutual consent; if the “victim” doesn’t report it as a crime to be tried & punished by the court, can the law do anything about it? Some people actually WANT what they’re getting & that’s what “consent” is all about.
What I want, what I think, what I like or dislike is irrelevant because it’s not having any effect on me. The only consent that matters is up to the participants.