Grrl Power #605 – Telecoitus
Honestly, I have no idea what the other 4 could be. As excuses go, how do you beat “I can’t have sex with you because I’m somewhere else.” That’s hard to top without magic or superpowers being involved. The only thing that comes to mind immediately is some sort of body swap situation. “I can’t have sex with you with Lauren’s body!” or a gender bender situation, or something involving both.
Deus looks weird in panel 2. I don’t have actual face blindness but I have trouble recognizing people sometimes. Not really people I’ve met, but I have a lot of trouble placing actors I’ve seen before unless they meet a certain distinctiveness threshold. Even then, put a wig on them and I’m easily flummoxed. My wife is the polar opposite. She’s like an organic IMDB. We can be watching an old movie and some kid will say a single line and she’ll snap her fingers and say “that was Heath Ledger when he was 7” or something. 9 times out of 10 she’s right. More like 19 out of 20 really. The way I see it, everything about the human mind exists on a spectrum, sexual orientation, math skills, ADHD, all that stuff. If actual Prosopagnosia (face blindness) is a 1 and my wife is a 9 (at least), I’m like a 3 – 3.5 maybe.
The hard thing about being an illustrator who has a hard time with faces, (not just drawing them, although certainly that too) is when I draw a face and it looks weird, it’s sometimes hard for me to figure out what’s wrong with it. In this case I think he looks, I don’t know. Puffy maybe? I think his nose is too big – although he’s supposed to have quite a nose and chin/jaw on him. It’s still too wide? I don’t know. Actually, he reminds me of Matt Smith, like his face is too big for his… face. Oh well.
The painting behind them is the cover to Space Witch, which is the second Star Justice book that I’ve been going on about. I just needed something to fill the frame and ran out of time to paint my own thing.
This page colored by Keith.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Dues’s little magic trick would have got me laid so much in highschool/college once word got around. Girls like to share stories and other girls get curious.
Its not just Dues’s face, on this page in general he comes across as extra thick and stocky to me.
Makes sense. The dude is ripped on top of being one of the smartest non super/mystical person on the planet. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was on the level of Hiro. If you know what I mean.
Deus has paid his dues.
Used to be he sued for them.
[insert Shia clapping gif]
[OK]
Daphne hopes he comes across that way too. – zing-
Dues & Harem playing the game of crosswords: If he goes down, she comes across.
I take this as evidence that not just anyone can hit Deus in the face. All the more reason to think it was Vale.
Perhaps that was how she sucked his brains out, and replaced them with a servant of the Great Old One?
Which Great Old One?
Cthulhu? Ghatanathoa? Jeff?
It was Jeff wasn’t it…its always Jeff…
The oldest great redwood, in the world!
And here is his terrifying servant!
Nice Space Witch poster in the last panel.
yeah… DAMN
Moving forward to 16+?
Probably not, going by these guidelines. Sex is allowed, so long as it is not gratuitous or violent. Let alone these tastefully discreet precursor scenes.
Ever singe they introduced PG-13, things have just gone….weird.
You can get insanely violent stuff, that’s ‘fine’ as long as there’s limited blood. Because we should show that violence doesn’t have a consequence?
But if a nipple shows, everything blows up, near self destructs, even when there’s no sexual context about it, its a nipple.
Take the first resident evil movie (2002), there were people up in arms about the nipple showing, heck it got edited out last I checked in some versions.
My brain hurts trying to make sense of the rating systems of late.
+1. The Hollywood code, and the rest of US, is sexually repressed and violently promiscuous. I suspect tge code itself is at least partly to blame.
At least R/16? deadpool e.t.c. rated movies are picking up, and selling great, so they don’t try to do the whole silly PG-13 weirdness.
The only thing bleeping up or covering up for example nipples has ever done is increase the focus on what is being said/shown.
And the whole “think of the children” yeah…they learn to swear in school and then there’s the internet…
The second movie picked up where the first one ended. And they re-shot that scene, without anything indiscreet showing.
Twats (or otherwise).
ahhh.. been so long since i’ve seen them and don’t want to rewatch that I couldn’t remember.
The Second Evil Dead?
It picks up where the first one started…yeah its Rebequel, it redoes the first movie in short order removing most the characters and then continues where it left off…
heck the third movie redoes the ending of the second movie,
Nope, Resident Evil: Apocalypse.
Here is a relatively tasteful shot of Milla Jovovich, in the scene in question.
Heh, note how they cover the nipple, butt not the ‘down-below’
Not sure how I read that wrong, late night eyes, too much computer screen. *Resident Evil…Evil Dead* yikes on my part.
but on the topic, the ratings thing has always been weird.
I mean back when Wizards could get a (PG) rating *PG-13* didn’t exist yet, movies like Friday the 13th part 3 had to tone back on violence to avoid an X rating…and by today’s standards, Wizards would be Rated R, and Friday the 13th part 3 can be shown on tv so long as the sex scenes are cut out…and the sex wasn’t even what the ratings board was looking at to make it an X-rating back in the 80’s it was the violence.
Wait, there was sex in a Friday the 13th movie? o_O
In the immortal words of Sophie Devereaux: “I can see her hoo-haa, sir! Her hoo-haa!”
Think heavy influences of Puritan version of Christianity. You get more overt violence in the Bible than sex which is given as an abstract euphemism in such words as “begot”.
Just as the so called “Pro-Life” group are really Pro-Birth so that they can be Biblical concerning the Death Penalty (blood-for-blood atonement) and still claim they only believe in life. Well not exactly. Pro-Birthers want babies born. Especially white ones but any will do. And neither the Constitution nor a woman’s life figures into making sure if your a pregnant you must give birth. Some want the death penalty for those who abort, who block a chance for insemination etc. They are scary people.
And since we are a barbaric country sex and naked human bodies are very very very “bad” while righteous violence is A-okay.
End of message…..
But, “begat” just means “produced” or “was parent of”. That’s not an actual euphemism for sex, unless you’re doing something wrong. Or, is ‘giving birth’ now also an abstract euphemism for sex?
Plus, there is plenty of sex in the Bible. Not so much in the small portion included in the ‘standard readings’ for church services, but not much violence there either.
Go read “The Song of Songs” – also known as “Canticles” or “The song of Solomon”. It’s in the Bible, and it’s basically an entire chapter of King Solomon talking about how hot his wife is and how much he enjoys having sex with her.
I figured out how to reconcile the conservative attitudes on pro-life, pro-gun, and pro-death-penalty:
They only care about life *before* it leaves the womb.
“Pro Life” is an intentional misnomer, it is “Pro Birth” which allows them to also be Biblical for the death penalty. Why they are against sex ed, non reproductive sex etc. They deman every female who is impregnated must come to term. Which means that every female becomes a brood mare for Christians.
Well the largest pro-life group in the U.S. is the Catholic Church, which also opposes the death penalty as part of the Consistent Life Ethic. They also support state-funded welfare and other public services to support those families that can’t support themselves.
In fact, Catholic Social Teaching matches up better with the traditional Democratic platform than Republican, excepting a few hot-button social issues. Not surprising, since both social liberalism* and Christian Democracy are in the center of the global political spectrum, and almost certainly agree more often than not.
*In the political science use of the term.
The best example I know of regarding the double-standards regarding violence and sexuality in media was the time I heard about an episode of Hannibal that came under fire by the network due to a scene involving two half-flayed nude corpses… the execs got pissy, not because of the two murder victims’s backs being shown as peeled down to the bone with spine and ribs exposed, but rather because the bare asses of the two dead people were fully visible. It was eventually allowed to air after the FX department covered the offensive nudity… with some extra shreds of bloody flesh…
Dreadful, truly dreadful!
*discreetly licks lips*
Back in the day, a woman showing even so much as her navel was taboo & could get a TV show shut down. In the old I Dream of Jeannie series, the studio had to modify Barbara Eden’s costume so that it would cover her belly button.
But she managed to sneak it out there…In scenes when she would put her hands on her hips, like with a gesture of indignation or self-assertation, She’d push down on the waistband during that gesture & Whoops! There it is! The censors missed it pretty much every time she did it, so it still shows up on the archived episodes.
Heh. Subversive girl power. Nice to know that was going on underneath the superficial appearances.
Mind you if the actress had not ‘owned’ the outfit and felt comfortable with it, I doubt she could have given as convincing a performance as she did. My memories of the show made me think that she loved the role.
And have thought about it from the documentary film, about the TV series Bewitched, where we get to see that there was a real witch who the the TV series was based on. Who ironically enough gets to be the actress in the remake!
So it is easy enough to see how a genie would be comfortable in her traditional garb, and chaffing when forced to cover up more than she felt happy with!
As we recently had speculation that Vale might have gained her powers by being exposed to the rest of the geode water that did not spill on Maxima, I spotted the reference to Maxima getting a lot of sunlight in this scene. So, if Vale is more of an indoors girl (matching her hanging around in Deus’s office all the time) that could explain why her environmental manifestation of her power could be different, even though they both had the same trigger. If that is indeed how Vale gained her powers, of course.
I doubt Vale got her powers from the geode. I don’t think Vale is a super or a human, as I’ve said before. I’m just not sure if she’s an artificial creation (high tech android or android/symbiote or android/nanotech combination, like in that New 52 Supergirl comic sorta), an alien in a human ‘shell.’ a magical being in a human shell (think Puck from Disney’s Gargoyles), some sort of ancient bound goddess or some sort, etc.
I guess there’s the possibility that she’s an artificial creation that was enhanced by the geode though, somehow.
I am not a proponent of the geode theory, but saw that as something which could support it, for those who do.
A point which can support the android angle though is the fact that there is no robot faction amongst the supernaturals. Meaning that there is an area that human gadgeteers could dominate. Whereas if there had been an alien race of robots, or a well established galactic industry cranking out advanced AIs, then low-tech human ones should stand no chance.
Or, approaching it from another angle, there could be robots and androids from various sources, but they may have just been blackballed from forming a Twilight Council faction. Perhaps the magical constructs did not like the technological versions trying to muscle in on their turf? In which case Earth, with its love of technology and love of robots in a wide variety of media, may appeal as a safe haven.
And Deus, keeping his eye open for new recruits, could have snapped up one who could pass as human.
I think the geode is the source of Vale’s powers (speculation) can be tossed in the rubbish bin along side “Deus is Prometheus”
neither has any real basis in either concrete clues or symbolic clues, if anything the geode only comes across as the typical containment vessel of something long buried deep in the Earth, and not its self a source of power…if anything there is more evidence it is a seal for something powerful.
fun to speculate, but on either of those I could claim Sydney is the avatar of the Lord of Nightmares, Dabbler is secretly an Architect of Magic bored with infinite power so playing superhero, Sydney’s orbs are a baby Yog-Sothoth, the universe is a video game, or Harem is really a projection of an old man in a coma.
OK, allow me to present things which do provide clues. Not proof, but stuff that should keep the idea out of the bin.
Firstly we do have a direct connection. Deus is Vale’s boss and is in possession of the geode. He has spent time and resources in investigating it. Vale spends most of her time in the room where it is on display. So has been exposed to it.
Secondly Vale does have super strength (or something comparable to that). So there is some overlap in apparent power sets between Maxima and herself.
Thirdly Sciona was freaked out about how tough Vale was. Bearing in mind that she hung around with Wyrmil, who can rip reinforced steel doors out of their frame, like they were tissue paper. So she has experience with the relative power of extraordinary individuals. Not to mention having super strength herself (holding Sydney up one handed, even with her arm broken).
Fourthly symbolism can be drawn in by Deus desiring both Maxima and Vale as trophy supers. We can also see that Deus does have collections (such as the weapons on display). No collection would be complete if you only have part of a set. If they are indeed both geode girls, Deus would have great satisfaction at having both parts of the set.
Frequently seeing Vale in Deus’s trophy display room, and that being where he attempted to recruit Maxima, provides circumstantial support of this symbolic connection.
Unlike your other examples all these elements are present in the comic. Plus there is likely to be a story reason why Deus has the geode and showed it to Maxima. So this provides a credible solution to what that may be. And I cannot think of anybody making alternate proposals, about that, which have more credibility than this one.
Symbolic clues yes, but some are not as great as others.
1: Vale spends time NEAR Deus, we have seen her plenty of times outside his office following him as his bodyguard such as the tv interview and the vault. His spending time somewhere denotes his body guard spending time somewhere. His investigations of it by Occam’s razor relate back to Maxima; how he discovered THAT connection is up for debate.
2: I wouldn’t even consider this evidence, we have seen several supers with varying degrees and variations of super strength and flight; if anything they are more likely standard super powers most supers get in one form or another. One could point out Hiro, Stalwart, Barbarian, as having powers like Maxima too. If anything a similar power set could also be related back to Deus being obsessed with Maxima so hiring someone with similar powers to stay close to him at all times.
3: She wasn’t freaked out by how STRONG Vale was, she was freaked out by the fact she impaled her through the head and chest and all it did was slightly disrupt Vale’s form who didn’t even acknowledge it. She was “sick of these supers” as her response to the strength, but not freaked out till the darkness within Vale of Shadows type moment.
4: This one could make sense, collectors are like that, Pokémon 2000 comes to mind with a guy wanting all the legendary birds and Lugia and doing anything to have them at any cost. However he also collects many things, just saying he wants to collect powerful supers or at least one of each type of super could be as easily speculated, with Maxima being an S class with a near full set of S-cape + powers as the ultimate trophy to his collection.
5: I will add something, “the trophy room”. I don’t see a trophy room. If anything it looks like he has his office, meeting rooms, and possibly hallways of his floor covered in these trophies. We saw swords, necklaces, bobbles of all sorts, mostly easter eggs/homages, but any number of items he has could be magic, Maxima didn’t even blink at the suggestion Sciona could be after one of his swords, and he finger quotes “replicas”, for all we know he could have a Muramasa demon blade situation and Vale is some Aku or Amatsu Mikaboshi ancient evil that was sealed in one of the swords. Which would just as easily cover the other symbolic clues that could lead to a geode situation. heck even the *two people granted powers by items in my collection working for me* would cover the collection bit.
1. Spider Man only needed to be bitten by his radioactive spider the once. Maxima only needed to be splashed the once. Vale has had regular exposure and has a boss who employs laboratories full of mad scientists willing to do more than just let it sit in the same room as her.
2. It is a matching data point amongst a set of other contributing circumstantial evidence. The other examples you give lack any such, so can be discounted.
3. She was subtly freaked when she was casually pushed back. And the subtle display of power was freaking out the readership. But Sciona subsequently getting kicked out of the building upped the anti. Although I do agree that other aspects were contributing to that. But I did indicate that overall this was because Sciona was tough. Which also encompasses the defensive capabilities.
Note that Maxima is similarly resilient, albeit that it manifests in a different way. Vale can let her head be cut open. Maxima can casually stand in a nuclear-like explosion. These are both top end defensive powers. In addition to the kick-arse super strength.
5. The weapons display was quite clearly a collection of like objects. He is not just displaying random stuff. Plus he was keen to point out to Sydney that they are not replicas. Deus wants the best.
That certainly includes Maxima. And Vale has been demonstrating that she too may be at the peak of the super pyramid. Making a common origin, when one is readily at paw, plausible.
Do you think the succubus gets the pervy power up from the other her near her?
or does she just think that other her is turned on?
do the other b odies get turned on as well? i mean they seemingly feel pain.. so it seems like autonomic feelings are shared to some extent…
It would be hilarious of she knew every time she was doing hanky panky in some other body
I think Dabbler probably would, simply because mentally there is only one Harem, so Dabbler will be feeding off her emotions, even sitting at that table. Her porno sense will be able to easily pick up the emotions Harem is feeling.
Quality of nutrition though I imagine it will be diminished by the lack of any physical act occurring in her vicinity. So rather like feeding off someone watching porn or listening to phone sex (but not going beyond that).
Harem: Ahh nng- Wa-haait! St. St-ha-h-hap!
Deus: Hrm? Am I doing something wrong?
Harem: N-Nh! No! Oh, no! It’s nhh.. Not you! It’s… just…
*back in the conference room, Harem is looking over her shoulder – At Dabbler, who is… LEERING back at her. Her ears are erect and quivering*
Harem: .. I think… I have a voyeur…
Heh. Yea.
And that is why I think Dabbler has her best poker face on, right now. She is a hundred years old, plus change. Dabbler knows full well not to distract or make her dinner otherwise feel uncomfortable. Not when she isn’t in a position to join in and increase the yummyness.
Daniel here. I don’t think Dabbler is putting on a poker face right now, I think it’s more Harem & Dues haven’t really started yet, so there’s nothing much to pick up on, maybe “Ooo, they have a cute butt, I’d love to…….and………then….” levels of energy from meeting-Harem. but I’m guessing next page will focus on Meeting-Harem & how she starts reacting, with Dabbler becoming more & more interested in what the young lady next to her is emitting…
That makes good sense.
How does a velociraptor, in a human costume, get so insightful?
Is it because you always have to curb the drooling, until you can catch dinner alone?
Daniel here. I’m Human, though apparently I’m a noticeably more intelligent example. The “Raptor” is the attempt of Screwball (the Cybertronian in a Human suit) at making a custom icon off a picture I commissioned. Might convince him to use a pic of him some day, if he can get over the fear of his old boss…
…And it’s not drooling I gotta control, it’s my re-occurring urge to pummel Screwball with a baseball bat for all the stuff he gets up to deliberately…
Aww how adorable.
The full picture, rather than the mental image of Screwball being pummelled with a baseball bat!
I, for one, think Dabbler is getting disgusted with Harem. This boring meeting is turning her on? What is wrong with that girl?? I’m sure Dabbler is very open to almost any form of erotica or arousing media… but marketing? No. Just, no.
Not sure if Dabbler would be disgusted, or be impressed…. “teach me oh master!”
Turned on? By marketing?? Must be something I’m not getting… WOW. She is… REALLY enjoying it! How…? I mean, Arianna is kinda cute, for a straight human, but SO vanilla…
DABBLER.
Oh, hey, Max! Great meeting, huh?
What are you doing.
Who me? Well, I’m… um… well..
You’re FEEDING, aren’t you? What did we agree upon?
Hey, I promised no preying on the supers, but she’s putting out a seven-course smorgasbord over here! It’d be rude not to partake!
Heh, well it would make two in the room. Dabbler probably only turns up to the boring events because she knows Arianna will be doing a ‘When Harry met Sally”.
Maybe he is a super, but his power is only to remove clothing.
Usually not considered of use in combat or business.
There are some really awesome powers out there, but who said they all have to be nuclear level…
Entirely plausible.
Deus’ power is phase shifting, and he has fine control over it. It’s why he can laugh Sciona in the face, pull a bra through a woman, or sneak into a competitor’s R&D to steal technology.
Or survive someone firing a bullet in the middle of his forehead at point blank range.
That’s my point about Vale being one of the only ones who could have hit him. I’m pretty sure she’s a master of nasty surprises.
Removing the enemy’s clothing would be very useful in combat, particularly if it can be done from a distance- infantry suddenly without body armor would be easy to take out.
…not to mention the power of “defeat by modesty”, removing their ability & will to fight by removing their clothes…
…And yes, that is a TV Tropes link, enter at own risk… :P
Gah! Warning before the link please, not after.
*trying to claw own eyes out*
Removing my clothes wouldn’t stop me from moving to kick ass. I like being naked. So I am comfortable with it. I forget sometimes that most don’t think the way I do. Its much easier in Europe than here in the USA on that front. So doing so can be most effective most of the time. For torture it is required. Just in how it is done before the act begins.
Vale does seem to have abilities that don’t add up to him just being a normal human. Unless he is such a master of the misdirection or even creating false images of himself…
Well Dave has already introduced a fabrikinetic with the power to manipulate and make clothes.
And clothing/armour removal in combat does not have to be done at a distance. Not when the enemy does not expect to be attacked by clothing ninjas!
I dunno…Dues might be able to use it in combat. If he’s confronting some super-heroine with body-modesty issues (like Sydney, for example), he could start doing that & severely distract his target. Sort of “catch them with their pants down,” as it were.
O.o
This was an excuse that I received, “I can’t have sex with you, because your penis is too big.”
BEST! TURNDOWN! EVER!
I’m still tickled every time I think of it.
Did you get caught voyeuring?
Naw. A lady that I with whom I am friends. It was a casual, joking request for sex, and her response was inspired. No matter how true, or untrue the turn-down is, how can a guy not walk away with his self-esteem bolstered?
:)
For all you kids out there, Deus pulled what we old folks call a “Fonzie”.
Thank you for bringing back that memory for me. :-)
How much do you suppose Dab was tingling during that meeting?
A lot.
Dab seems not to be noticing. Even Daph herself seems somewhat bored. I’m thinking she has shifted her focus so much to the body with Deus, that the one in the meeting is likely close to ‘porting into an “off-state.” She’s probably only maintaining enough focus to maintain focus (so to speak) hence the reason Dabs isn’t picking up anything.
At best it would be like walking into a very large room with one (and only one) of those tiny plug-in scented room “deodorizers”. If you are really lucky, and you walk right next to it, and it was freshly opened, you might be able to smell it. (either that, or you’ve got a great nose, or you are really sensitive to that particular scent) But usually they do very little.
There is something to be said for your focus concept. But I think it breaks down under closer examination. Importantly Daphne only has the one mind. So she is thinking the same things with all of her brains.
Obviously there must be some lower functions which are used to control the limbs and interpret the senses, which have to be separate for each body. However, unlike normal human minds, Harem does not have to just focus on one task or area of interest (now talking about her conscious mind, rather than the relatively autonomous tasks like walking). She can literally do five completely different tasks at the same time.
So she has the same amount of focus capability that any normal human has, in every body. If she did not she would not be able to study five different subjects, at the same time, and still pass the exams the same as other students do.
If you need to feed on sexual energy, but work in an environment where that is banned (during office hours) you too would learn to avoid looking lecherous when an opportunity snack presents itself. Because if you freak out your lunch, it will stop feeding you and avoid you in future!
Me, I think things between Deus & White-Harem aren’t enough for Meeting-Harem to give off more than a “Oooo, I’d like to {fantasize, fantasize, fantasize}” kinda vibe at the moment. I think next page, as Deus & White-Harem start getting busy, the comic will stay with Meeting-Harem & show her reactions, Dabbler (next to her so she’s in panel too) picking up on things quickly…
…Alright, it’s more Daniel the Human’s theory, but I kinda helped with it…
Yea, I could well see it going that way. Consider me persuaded.
Given that this is GrrlPower, an excuse might be “I can’t have sex with you – I’m your gender-swapped father from the past when I took that pill that would turn my sterile if I had sex for the next week!”
What? It’s plausible. I remember some sort of story where some person wound up being the son of a time-travelled version of himself an a time-travelled gender-swapped version of himself. I forgot what the story was… might have been a cartoon.
On an unrelated note, if anyone had a backstory where time travel could be involved to explain how he knows what he knows, I’d put money on Deus :). He’s very David Xanatos-ish in that respect :).
All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein is the classic example. There was also a film loosely based on it, called Predestination
The Heinlein book yeah, that’s what I was thinking of :)
All You Zombies is also a mighty fine song :D
and then there is longshot of the x-men who is a clone of his time traveling future self. how ever that works.
I’m comparing to page #603 panel 3, the face in #605 actually looks more narrow overall. The biggest difference I see is the cheeks – in #605 the cheeks are much bigger and come down to level with tip of his nose, while in #603 two pages ago they come about halfway from his eyes to tip of his nose.
If Harem is bored, shouldn’t Dabbler be even more bored? She doesn’t even have a normal life to be worried about. Oh, wait. Dabbler is sensitive to people having sex, and she’s sitting next to Harem, who is having sex elsewhere. So maybe Dabbler isn’t as bored as she looks?
Who says Harem is only having sex with one alternate body?
Maybe the other three said, “I’ll be in my bunk.”
We have made our prediction at the bottom of the page. Daniel the Human & I think Meeting-Harem isn’t “warmed up” enough for Dabbler to pick up anything other than fantasy-level arousal. Which, considering the company they keep (especially Math), wouldn’t be that unusual…
The MEETING is boring. Harem is not necessarily bored herself. In fact, being the new experience-addict she is, I suspect she finds ways to avoid ever being bored. Panel 1, case in point.
I bet Dabbler’s porn sense is going crazy right now…
Harem is going to get her self in alot of trouble playing with fire here like this and honestly i can say she has it coming.
…as it were.
And going. And in the kitchen. And on sentry duty.
I wonder if the facial expression thing is just that Deus doesn’t look smug or disappointed for once? He’s being supportive (ironically, given his trick later on) and almost gentle instead, though his scar makes it tricky to come through clearly.
Interesting. I felt the same when viewing the scene, and have been waiting for someone else to comment on that.
Barring the scar. I have gotten used to that enough that it does not even register, unless a comment draws it to my attention.
I think I’m pretty good with face recognition, but by a similar scale I’m probably a 2-3 for aphantasia. When I try to visualize something, the best description I can come up with is that it’d be like a video game with no shadows, and everything the same shade of black. You can sort of make out the outlines of things, but there’s no color or texture
That is awful. Interesting to know how other people think and see the world though.
I am at the other end of the scale. And clinically diagnosed at that. I have hyperphantasia. The researchers were desperate to get me in their laboratory to study me.
Obviously I declined. I could see the nerve weasels all too clearly!
I am at my best when in that semi-lucid state on almost waking up. At which point I am able to keep myself in that state and control my dreams. Lucid dreaming is incredible, when you can alter everything to your whim, rather than in the chaotic way that normal dreams do.
Quite often I will choose to become a dragon, and fly. Mind you mostly I like flying in one way or another. A common variant is to leap, floating in the air and drifting down. I guess like in low gravity. That is an awesome feeling though. Especially as I can populate the landscape with any scenery I like. Be that the hills around my village, leaping from rooftop to rooftop in Varna or London, or bounding through snow in Antartica.
My paws get chilly doing that though. There are disadvantages with having such true-to-life imagery.
And, as a pup, my nightmares were epicaly terrifying!
Worst part about lucid dreaming (even semi-lucid), is dying. Have to kill a dream self twice or would never wake up (which is the opposite of many, erroneous, beliefs about lucid dreaming)
In one of them, was captured by some enemy, could see friendly troops attacking butt there was some sort of magical energy shield up preventing them from getting through, butt it was only slowing them down, butt the enemy only needed to hold me long enough for the dream to end and would be trapped in there forever, so, did the only thing available to me: die
In another, had been tied to some sort of table with tubes placed in various places, a couple of them was the inner thigh, pull those out to allow that body to die allowing me to wake up. The interesting thing is, could feel the fluids leaking from the tubes as faded from the dream world butt was completely dry in the ‘real world’
One problem have with flying: getting back down again! Oh, and power lines crisscrossing the sky, no matter how big the gap, also end up hitting the wires, and they sting!!
Next time just wave your hand and get the power pylons to walk out of your way. Control the environment, do not let it control you.
The former stuff sounds more like regular dreaming, but with an element of being aware that you are asleep. So the lack of control does make your label of ‘semi-lucid’ quite apt.
As a pup my nightmares were terrifying, and I too could not wake up. But could recognise that it was a dream and not reality. So shouted out to my mum “I am having a nightmare, wake me up!” Which she did. That happened a couple of times before I learnt how to snap out of such nightmares.
Not that I stopped having nightmares, but when I was aware they were such, I had that option. Sucks that you had to find such a rough way out yourself!
There are no pylons, it’s just a grid of wires criss-crossing the sky, they are not attached to anything except possibly each other
There was no other way out, was trapped in the dream body, and the only way out, was for that body to die, wasn’t really a problem as can easily create a new one
The reason for the ‘lack of control’, was because they preventing me from acting, and again, they only had to hold me long enough for the dream-portal to close, after that, would have been stuck in the dreams possibly forever, no matter how powerful
The source of that prevention though comes from within. Even though it may be subconscious. But, even if it feels insurmountable, that is within your power to control. Feel the confidence that you can overcome it and you can succeed!
In the outside world we get constrained by others. To the extent that we loose confidence in our ability to change things. Then we start to bind ourselves. When we desire to do something, we feel that it is impossible to change things. Then list the excuses. These thought patterns then become ingrained. Dreams are the place where these internal conflicts are resolved.
If you realise that, then you can alter the real world, through your dreams. First you gain the confidence by controlling your inner environment. Once you have weakened the shackled that confine you, even in the waking world, you can have the dynamism to seek out a way to change your situation.
When you next should find yourself in a lucid dream anyhow.
I have died in my dreams. The only thing that ended, besides that particular dream series is the dream itself. Which I am happy that is over with.
Started with a roaring theropod dinosaur that I somehow know is after me. The dreams never finish and always in a different setting. Oh and the beastie is closer. On the last one I am wearing a rocket belt inside a cave. A roomy cave full of equipment. But no one else but me. So I could fly but not very high so of course when I landed the creature timed it right and “CHOMP!” That ended the dream and anymore of those pursuit dreams. As to what it all means I need to work out what the symbology means.
Well, that’s where we obviously differ in dream-opinions: personally believe that the Dream World is real, and have actually chatted with two other people who have been in there, people haven’t met in this life yet (one was someone met a couple lifetimes ago, and got them into serious trouble, butt after ‘meeting’ again in this life, everything got sorted, the other one has actually shared dreams and was teaching me how to control the dreams, doesn’t help that each time is literally a clean slate for me, no memories of previous dream-experiences :()
Nothing I said would preclude the dream-world being real. If you did not have a connection to it then you could not travel there. And if you were, justifiably, describing the dream as being ‘semi-lucid’ then you did have some control over what was happening there. My own experiences would provide evidence that greater control can be achieved.
So long as you convince yourself that you cannot influence things further though then you will not be able to. Which brings us back to getting the confidence that you can achieve it and you can.
And if you think that belief has no way to influence a real world, just look at the placebo effect. It is so powerful that every credible scientific study (of the relevant types) needs to have a control group. Precisely to negate the known, measurable and significant effects that placebos can provide.
These are real physiological changes happening to things in the real world. Your body, if there is a doctor (or herbalist or other trusted individual) who convinces you that you are taking. Or you can make the changes in somebody else’s body, if you happen to be the one who is in a position of trust.
And it is not just convincing the body to do its own healing thing. Because we can see that the nocebo effect is just as powerful (the causing of harm by similar techniques). And, at its most bizarre, you can even say ‘this is a placebo, but it will make you better’ and that too can have a measurable improvement in survival and recovery rates!
Your only problem is your fear of succeeding. So concentrate on the small changes that you already know you have control over, and build your way up. Each greater change you make, the more confidence you can gain.
Even if you have the fear of getting trapped, and need to prioritise escaping, do so in a way that allows you to flex your own power. Bound over to the exit, or fly to it. Force the portal wider as you pass through. Use these options to avoid dying. That is definitely something to avoid in a real world.
Speaking of ‘forcing portals wider’, use to have trouble getting through doors in dreams (they would always be too small), simple solution: reach down to the skirting board, and push that and lift the whole wall up :D
You don’t understand: dying was the way out
Dream physics may not be the same as Awake physics, butt some things can not be forced, namely, the Exits. You must have seen “Sliders”, or even “Inception”? In “Sliders” they had to find the Exit or they could not leave, in “Inception” they had something in there to allow them to wake up, now, imagine being prevented from reaching the Slider portal just long enough for it close again, or someone taking your Inception-item and putting it somewhere you could never find
Heck, even “The Matrix” had those telephones
It is though a dangerous way out. With dreams being a reflection of our waking state. Plus, if you consider the dream world to be real too, then there is an even greater risk from that angle!
Just think of ‘reassuring’ news articles that say ‘… who died peacefully in their sleep’, to realise that it may end up invoking a different kind of exit!
I had been considered to be risk from sleep apnea (where you stop breathing periodically, whilst asleep). Plus, whilst awake, have almost drowned twice in my life. Each time knowing the mental struggle to stay awake and alive was absolutely vital to doing so. So this is not an idle warning.
What you are experiencing in your dream could be representative of a struggle to stay alive (for that or another reason). There could only be a hair’s breadth between the two different types of ‘exit’, when our subconscious mind is interpreting these things.
It is better to find safer imagery and to manipulating the environment is the way to do that, as with your ‘lifting the skirting board and wall’ technique. :-)
I’m honestly surprised Dabbler’s porno senses are tingling in the meeting room panel.
They possibly are but it’s Harem. They probably go off at that level all the time.
Yea, with her libido comment, it seems likely that this will be a daily occurrence for Dabbler. I put a low estimate on that on the grounds that Dabbler and Harem will not always be in the same room together.
I would actually guess that each of the 5 Daphnes (Daphni?) have sex at a higher than average frequency. 1st She is literally “super” attractive. 2nd She has the strength and teleport abilities that allow her never fear any kind of sexual violence. 3rd Hormones of a fit 19 year old with the life experience and confidence of 57 years of life lived.
Yea, makes sense. Don’t forget that she also has the free fitness of supers, in addition to the stamina that youth gives. So she could have sex more frequently than normal, without impacting on her work unduly. Well, in a sense of being too tired to fulfil her duties. As opposed to any compromising of unit efficiency, due to jealousy et al.
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one bugged by this ^^
I’ve got the same level of semi face blindness as Dave but I’m like his wife in that I can recognize voices like crazy (also voices change less over time, lots of times I recognize someone from Star Trek or X-Files who is now quite different looking).
Please excuse me while I burn the website down, sow the ashes with salt, and then rip my eyes out and soak them in boiling sulfur. This strip ranks way up there among “things that I NEVER want to see at any point EVER.”
I’ll take Random Wanderer’s strip please.
Always be sure to remove your eyes before soaking them in boiling sulfur. Otherwise it stings like the dickens.
Well in case you are afraid that it will get worse (if you are still around to read this) I don’t think that things will get any more graphic than we see above. Dave does want to keep his 13 rating, so I imagine that we will not see anything too explicit.
Mind you the rating provisions are actually quite broad in this area. I think Dave tends to self-censor more than is required. Perhaps to offset the fact that sex is discussed in detail. But such is always done in context and can be viewed as educational.
However we consistently see frothy bubbles and other censorship in showers, so the comic does have a safe track record.
Sooooo when Vehemence got his arms blown off by Maxima, that was fine, and when Sid used her Henticle to pile drive a non-tank super into a parking lot, that was fine, but consensual foreplay (presumably leading to consensual sex between two adults) is horrifying?!? What an interesting set of priorities.
* I forgot that we have also mutilated a Hill-Billy who was apparently right to hate/fear the monsters.
Oh but he made such a pretty shade of wallpaper!
Truly mouth-watering.
Hunh…just had a thought….what if Harem has been lying about how exactly her powers work?
I mean I can’t think of a real reason but…it’s made a nest in the branches of my mind now and won’t stop the DAMN CHIRPING!
Wait…thats a bird outside…..carryon!
What makes you believe Daphne has been lying? o_O
Well it does appear that Harem has been betraying Archon (revealing information is not the same as ‘keeping an eye on Deus’). So it is possible that Harem never did intend to remain loyal to Archon, but only joined up for the kicks. In which case she may have invented limitations that she does not have, in order that when she parts ways with them they will not know everything there is to know about her.
Mind you even Sydney contemplated concealing information about her orbs, in case she has to fight Maxima. But, in her case, the motive is fair, in that she is using her genre-savvy knowledge that Maxima will doubtless someday get an evil twin or be mind-controlled into working for a villain or put on a helm of opposite alignment.
Only someone who is over-confident (and an idiot) would reveal everything about their powers
We also (for obvious reasons) don’t actually know what she reported in every jot and tittle, nor do we know what exact tests were performed. Its possible she could have been honest as well and yet STILL not have been honest.
I don’t know….maybe it’s just my natural paranoia bubbling up…
Ok so… I know this has probably been asked before but what is Deus’ last name? Is it Vult? or is it Ex? cause hes the head of Machina Industries but its lacking that Ex for the full pun and I doubt he’s not self aware enough of himself to resist that pun
That giant ‘X’ on his face completes the pun
Yea, although it was an inadvertent pun, as Dave did not create the image with that in mind.
what about his last name? it seems like too good a pun to let by without it being Vult.
Oh that very likely was. But I forget how Dave phrased it, in his comment. So I would not want to say with certainty.
Dave does have rather a fondness for names that are play-on-words. Peggy, Hiro, Maxima, Mr Amorphous (we do not have a separate name from his call-sign), plus Scarlet and Crimson (being ways of describing blood).
One that appears to be a pun, but which was likewise unintentional was Scoville. Dave was unaware of the connection of that name with measuring the spiciness heat of food.
Timentes. Everyone thinks he’s a big egotistical jerk, but when push comes to shove he’s just another God-fearing citizen.
(Quod erat terribilis. Et videbunt de me.)
Lol.
I often have trouble with faces, but I can recognize someone’s pickup at 100 yards.
I recognize my buddy’s pickup without even seeing it. I’m not a super, it just backfires a lot.
If someone gives me a lift, I have to actively memorise the colour and shape of the car, otherwise I would not remember it when we get back to it. Even if it someone who I have known for years, and walked past their car, in their drive a hundred times!
And then I promptly forget it. Per the Sherlock Holmes principle that it is not something I need to know. I treat all moving vehicles as deadly weapons that are a threat. I do not diminish my wariness by trying to spot if the person driving knows me. Getting them to wave would only increase my chances of dying!
*sees a nasty car and chases after it, barking*
Two things:
1. Take a better look at the eye on the left side of that panel (his right eye, but on our left). It’s too small. The other eye is a little small, but that one on the left is way too small. If you cover it up with your mouse cursor (size it so that the cursor just does that)…you can see the eye is way too small for the socket horizontally.
2. The distance between the bottom of the eyes and the top lip of his mouth is a bit too long. The proportions are almost okay, but not quite, and with the eyes too small, that adds to the slight distortion. However, overall, the head is in good proportion, maaaaybe a little narrow.
BUT…don’t try to shorten the head. I mention the eyes thing first, because if you dropped them down a titch more below the brows and made them larger (not like spooky/creepy anime eyes large, but just…more on the left and a little more on the right), I think that would actually fill in the space with better proportions, and you wouldn’t have to fix anything else. We’ve already established in panel 1 that he has a longer than usual nose/cheekbone range, vertically. Fix the eyes so they’re not so small, and that’ll fix the problem. (Eyes are practically on a drawing layer all on their own, far easier to fix than an entire head shape, so that’s the other reason why I suggest fixing them, not the nose or the cheekbones or the head overall.)
Actually “I can’t have sex with you because I’m not really here” could be on number 2.
If someone used either a hologram or a Hard Light Construct or an Illusion… And right in the middle of the naughty… Poof.
Also I’m surprised that Harem doesn’t trigger Dabbler’s Porn Sense, when her other body is having sex.
I can so see Sydney pulling that one!
I commend this to DaveB.
Real life girl power news. Mutant clones are taking over the world! Well the underwater parts of it, anyhow.
Nice trick!
I once read a trick for working out what is wrong with a drawing, and that is to view it in a mirror; or in the case of a digital drawing you use a mirror tool. That way you see it as if for the first time, and the problems become much more obvious.
However: This trick is also a good way to magnify tiny problems with a drawing that you are completely unaware of, so use it judiciously or it may damage your self-esteem!
“How did you get it around my arms? i dont understand!”
*music from Queen* “Its a kind of magic”
One dream one soul one prize one goal
One golden glance of what should be
In before he has some kind of relic which allows him to see what the other Harems are seeing. Seems like it would be part of his master plan somehow.
I think panel 4 was just a regular cut-to-another-scene, as opposed to being anything that Deus would be able to see himself. Just in case that is what you were getting at. The dialogue in panel 4 itself actually gives us the clue that this was before Sydney joined Archon. So long before Deus got his hands on a couple of rooms full of artefacts.
But, if you are just getting at the fact that this scene would inspire Deus to want to obtain such an artefact, then, yea, I am down with that.
Oh, I figured the panel was just a cut to another scene. Just that Deus would not mind having such an artifact or already has one. :P
….Is this a hyper intelligent version of Eric Mathews from Boy Meets World?!?
So regarding the face recognition thing — the face in panel two looks absolutely correct to me, but it’s not a facial expression I’m ever expecting to see from Deus. Specifically it’s “Horny Yet Tender” and that’s an element of vulnerable that he doesn’t regularly achieve.
I do like that Deus does check to see if Harem wants to continue.
Daniel the Human & I have made our prediction!!
Next comic will entirely/mostly be in the meeting, focusing on Harem (with Dabbler in shot too), with Harem slowly “enjoying the meeting” more & more. Dabbler meanwhile starts noticing something’s up with Harem as it progresses, enjoying the meeting herself, feeding off Harem’s good vibes, maybe even throwing in a “That good huh?” type comment after. If it jumps back to “current” events, we can expect to have Max comment along the lines of “For {BLANK}’s sake, THAT’S why you were acting that way in the meeting?!?” type response…
Alright, it was mainly Daniel the Human thinking all that up, but I did help a little…
about Deus, in panel 2 his “aura” and face demeanor looks “soft, more sensible” and is probably what threw you off
I think conveying the emotions is the higher priority. The page works because that has been achieved.
Hmm, 4 excuses that could rival (I am in multiple places at once, one of which is in a meeting, and we all feel what the others feel).
let’s see, cutting out any variant of *I am soul sucking monster/life drainer and if I’m not careful I could drain your life force* which may be more common.
Lets see…
1: I am you from the future/alternate timeline possessing this body so as to prevent a time paradox.
2: Vagina dentate
3: I’m actually a hologram/mannequin/golem and smooth around the bend.
4: I am mentally and emotionally connected to a giant monster and too much excitement might awaken them to destroy the world.
Does no one else find it gross that a middle-aged man is diddling a 19 year old? A teenager, half his age, whom he is old enough to have conceived? Anyone?
….maybe I’m the only one who is turned off by teenagers…
It’s a matter of statistics. Find the bell curve of male:female age differences for procreational/recreational purposes, and 20 years isn’t even one of the outliers. Take Donald Trump and Melania – she’s 47, he’s 71.
It’s a thing. Some guys like younger women. As long as the women are “of age”, there’s nothing to be upset about.
As a counter to your statement, that particular individual definitely qualifies as an outlier in multiple ways, and should not be used as a metric for normalcy, and I find Dabbler’s personality closer to normal human than his.
He he.
Not especially. I’m 43 and engaged to a 21 year old. As long as they’re all consenting adults, where’s the harm?
None. Be they 19 or 21 they are physically and emotionally mature.
It is how two people get along that is the most important thing. I have always gotten on better with people who have an age difference to me (be that older or younger). They have different experiences, that makes associating them more interesting than the comparatively similar experiences from my own age group.
Seize what happiness life sends you. People who do not like the idea of such relationships need not have them. But their disquiet should not be allowed to interfere in the enjoyment of life that others find.
Michael Douglas is 25 years older than his wife
The rule of thumb is “half your age, plus 8 years”.
I can now date Christina Ricci…
Wednesday Addams? That poor little girl. You might find her to be more challenging than you think!
I actually knew a guy (trained in stage magic) who could remove a girl’s bra, entirely, without them realizing it. He’d be chatting, wait for them to look startled/alarmed, reach into his pocket and ask, all casual like, “Oh, I’m sorry, was this yours?” One in three. One in three would be intrigued and he’d get lucky. The other two would usually dump their drink on him, I’d chew him out, lead her away from the table, and I’d get lucky.
*Excuse me sir want to see a magic trick?
– Sure, I guess
* “Pulls out a shiny ball of light”…is this your soul sir?
-I…what?
* Right, you wouldn’t know…okay how about *pulls out a human skull*, Is this your skull sir?
– bbble blluk “collapses head, falls over dead”
* Right, right, humans need their skulls to live; have to remember that.
Vale, please stop doing that with customers!
A girls got to eat!
This was the point at which Deus suggested Vale stop trying to start up friendly conversations with visiting people.
Did he ever try that trick on a girl who wasn’t wearing a bra in the first place, and if so, what happened?
Meanwhile,where are Vale and Sciona??? What are they up to?!?!?
Good questions, betting on them making out
Jus remember, that this is a couple weeks back, PS (Pre-Sydney)
So you think they would get a head start? Or c… ant you see Vale being into tusk love?
I wonder why Sciona would not remember Vale though? Or her boss, for that matter.
Called it!!!
Meant that in the current time, Vale and Sci-fright were making out, butt on this page, it’s a couple weeks back, before Sci-fright regained her girlish looks
He is a man with skills, and they are many-fold.
He is a man who can fold his destiny.
Finding a man who can fold his own laundry has been the destiny of many a woman (a destiny that has eluded many more)