Grrl Power #606 – Boring meeting? Try orgasms why not?
Hi and welcome to Grrl Power. If this is the very first page of the comic you’ve ever seen, you might be a little confused. Allow me to explain. First, read the previous page. That chick with the white hair? That’s the same chick with the strawberry blonde hair on this page. And the one with the yellow blonde hair. See, there’s 5 of her in total. Actually, it’s more accurate to say there’s one of her, she just has 4 extra heads, torsos, and the associated limbs.
Also Dabbler can sense tantric energy. Dabbler is the purple one.
For everyone else… uh, welcome back. I’ve wanted to do this page since the day I thought of Harem. Only took me 8 years to… Holy crap have I been doing this comic for that long? Wow, 8 years in August. Yikes.
This is the second page I’ve tried to color without inking first. I thought it wasn’t faster, but when I was about halfway done with the page when I realized that both times I’ve tried it, I was working on double pages. The other one was the funhouse boob mirror page. So it may actually not be all that much slower. I’ll have to experiment further.
If you haven’t seen it, I posted my Valentines Day Sex Drive thing yesterday. So click on it for boobies! Actually, click on it to see all the other participants, and follow those links for a cornucopia of boobs. Possibly some dongs as well. I haven’t checked out all the action yet.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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.
Yeah, this was a tactical error…
Or a calculated risk? Who knows…
The risk she took was calculated, but man is she bad at math
Math would REALLY like to have been involved.
It’s only a tactical error if there was a consequence to it.
Max and the entire team (except dabs, who approves) never really noticed, so by definition she got away with it. Ergo no error.
I can only ask… What flavour of soda did blondie order at that café?
Passion fruit
Also known as “opening a can of f**k @$$”
0.0
“It’ll fill you with voyeuristic glee!”
And now I want to see the commercial that phrase belongs in lol
Sounds worth getting a TV for. ;-)
You can just watch commercials on youtube.
I do sometimes. For nostalgia purposes. And some can be funny.
But if you are going to watch a top quality pornographic advert you really want to see it on a TV and not a monitor. Regardless of whether that is being streamed on YouTube or broadcast through the ether carried by Mammon’s demons.
Hmm, what flavour is Spit-Take Cola anyway?
Floor.
“I’ll have what she’s having.”
Waitperson looks around at empty cafe. “Who?”
Ooo, discrete exit, leaving behind an oddly-scented wet-patch…
Teleportive exit, even more discrete.
Hence the ‘discrete’ part :D
*maxima stares at the armory design department*
“Why did you replace smoke bombs. with these”
“Well they’re part of a package”
“What package?”
“The insta-flate inflatable doll. First she appears, then she squeals. Then she vanishes into the puddle of liquid that..”
“Never mind. I don’t want to hear more.”
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/playstationallstarsbattleroyale/images/4/45/Avatar_ratchet_clank_1.png/revision/latest?cb=20120905225745
this guy has one of those, but i forget what they called the weapon
Plastic toy weapon (danger of choking risk in young children)?
Uh oh.
I sense a disturbance in the force!
The sexual apocalypse is upon them!
P.S. Just as well this bit has flashed back to Pre-Sydney. I guess that Peggy must be about to swoop in and give Harem some Status Quola.
“Death… by snoo snoo”
If you have to choose how to go extinct, please bear this option in mind.
Snoo snoo with the staypufft would be a leetle dangerous though
I’d hate to be the janitor that has to do the clean up afterward…
This page is full of avatar-image-worthy faces :D
Should I know the other person in panel ten?
Must be early for the food court to be nearly empty.
No, just a random customer
A limitation of my time. I would have preferred to have that scene more populated.
Was she meant to resemble Android 18 from DBZ?
No, hah, I can see it though.
Now that’s got to be difficult to hide. So do they all get a simultaneous orgasm or can she suppress it to a degree?
she has only one mind. so they all have one. When multiple of her are having one at the same time, it’s going to be a quite strong one. Now I think it is interesting she can suppress it mostly in one of the bodies but apparently takes to much concentration to do it with more of them.
Its a matter of desperation. She likely doesnt care that the one stranger in the coffee shop hears her anywhere near as much as not wanting to have a screaming orgasm in front of literally everyone she works with in the military/police/special forces group. Its like trying to keep the noise down when you are in an apartment as opposed to having someone sleeping in the same room as you too. You CAN keep equally quiet, but keeping it to inside the apartment is easier than keeping it from waking up the next bed so it stands to reason only one case would get the full “silent” treatment
It’s also possible that trying to suppress it in one or more bodies makes the reaction more intense in the others.
Apparently, if she is managing to suppress it at all, it’s a very low degree…
:P
to be fair Dabbler’s part ‘cubi so for her Harem’s probably currently “lit up like a Christmas tree” due to the Tantric Energy she’s outputting. almost no one else seems to be have taken note before she pushed Dabbler (likely their eyes were on the people speaking)
I’d imagine it’d be very easy for multiple of her selves to have orgasms.
I’d even say she’s probably arranged for all five of them at once to have one, considering her libido and flare for experimentation.
It’s clear that even one of her bodies in a heightened state of arousal puts the others in a heightened state, so if she’s arranged for all five to be pleasured in one sense or another I could easily see that as one approaches orgasm the others would be brought along with it and she gets the experience of 5 body’s climaxing all at once
Yes and no. Only the body actually involed has one in the physiological sense but the sensation is felt by all.
involved
+1
And now the answer to what nobody asked: Is Deus doing his job? Yes, he does.
With GUSTO I’d say…………..
And here i was wondering why his version of Harem dressed like that around him………
And why she is “dating” him.
dabbler likes the sacks to the conference.
“The meeting was boring. The buffet? INCREDIBLE!”
Admit it, this was inspired by “When Harry Met Sally”.
Hahahahahaha, did you see the other quote earlier, they said I’ll have what she’s having.
I just thought of a question, if he concentrates hard enough, can Mr Amorous, become MS Amorous?
Hmm, sounds like… another “Dabblers Science Corner”! For SCIENCE!!
Quit squirming Morph, your girlfriend will love the added possibilities (so will Les)
I asked this a long time ago in a comic far far in the past. DaveB said at the time that he can reshape or resize parts of his body but he can not do the full Mission Impossible body double of someone else.
I took that as he has not enough control to look like a specific person. Like he can look like somebody else but not enough to look like Clooney to fool people knowing him.
Possibly so. Although looking at how crude Mr Amorphous’s control looked to be in the battle, having very blobby shapes, and wibbly wobbly limbs, I am guessing that any appearance alteration runs the risk of looking cartoonish.
Something which would counter my own argument though would be that in the heat of battle Mr Amorphous would not be bothered about ‘how well defined and cool does this look?’. Whereas if he is not fighting for his life, and has time to sit down in front of a mirror, he may be able to do better.
Maintaining such alterations though, without them relaxing and starting to look like a bad plastic surgery job, would probably take a lot of practice. Something which I do not think that Mr Amorphous has done (or, at a minimum, gotten enough practice to do so reliably). My supporting evidence being that both he and Achilles had to get spells cast on them to provide a disguise at the bank.
In that case they were not trying to impersonate any specific individual. On the contrary, as that would be framing them for being a bank-robber! So I think we can be confident that Mr Amorphous would have to put in a lot of practice to gain realistic appearance alteration as a power stunt.
That was noit my point, redistribution of mass. Like he can shift it around, however his skeleton is fixed.
Only the author can say for sure. Personally though, going by the fact that Mr Amorphous cannot shapechange (as in become another species, grow gills or change his nature other than by stretching) I do not think so.
He certainly could make his breasts bigger though, and likewise make his hips rounder. So I daresay he could do a good drag act at the Christmas party. But he would lack the changes that hormone replacement regimes would provide.
For instance he would still have facial hair (if confining ourselves to just the most visible cues, rather than dealing with emotional and other physiologically affected changes that would also occur).
Let alone the full-blown gender change that a true shapechanger would have no difficulty achieving. They can repurpose organs into the different versions that each gender forms.
So I think Mr Amorphous might be able to pass for Ms Amorphous, with a bit of practice. But not if anyone paid close attention or interacted with him in more than a cursory way.
At the moment anyhow. Who knows how he may be able to refine his abilities with training and practice?
Didn’t think they meant actually gender-change, just shape-change externally
Well I covered the full gamut, both his capabilities for external changes and the internal ones. So folks can pick whichever aspect they choose.
He can change his skeleton, he did so on the track course when Peggy told him not lengthen his stride.
I don’t know, but I’m sure Brooke will appreciate the dropped letters if he goes about it the right way.
Okay, you commented on Deus’ face looking ‘odd’ to you last page, butt Ari’s face looks completely wrong here
Seems to be the colouring that seems…..off?
Yeah, and just a general flat-ness to it, none of the defining features we have come to enjoy
Yeah I think that goes for every character in this page, they all look a little ‘off’. But is the artist trying a different style which IMO, stick with the inking first, it looks 1000x better than this flat shaded effort. Might be faster but it sacrifices the quality of the comic for that speed. Arianna in particular looks horribad.
I second the Arianna comments. She looks well below-par here.
As for the others, they are indeed different, because of the experiment you mention. I disagree though that the difference makes them look bad. To the contrary I absolutely love how Harem’s face turned out in all the initial panels!
Bearing in mind this is said as someone who is most definitely not a fan of Harem. But I do have a bit of a bias in that the ex, who was the one I got closest to having a permanent relationship with, had freckles (a lot more prominent than Daphne’s though.
Likewise I think Dabbler and Maxima turn out well here. So I do not think that Arianna alone looking bad is ‘sacrificing the quality of the comic’. That is just an issue of experimenting with the style until Dave finds something that works for each character. Which we have seen Dave do very successfully before.
In particular if it does result in significantly less production time for the comic, then the effort of perfecting this style is profound. It will improve Dave’s quality of life, straight up. Freeing up time for his family is essential. Especially given that we know he is a workaholic enough to have taken his tablet with him to carry on working on holiday!
Reducing the chances of him having a stress-related breakdown is also good from our community point of view. We know of more than one comic creator who has suffered from the stress of keeping to hard-to-maintain deadlines consistently. Plus it also frees up some time for Dave to hit the ‘to-do’ list.
Which includes fixing the cast page, publishing a printed version of Chapter One and fixing the various retcons Dave has decided on (adjusting Maxima and other individuals rank, changing Jiggawatt’s hair from white, in her first appearance, and so on).
All in all I think seeing through the experiment is well worth it, if there are significant time savings to be had. The change in style is only something that stands out on first seeing it. Once any odd problems, like Arianna’s appearance, are corrected we will fast forget that it has changed. Going by the previous experiment anyhow (and factoring in my various grumbles about things I did not like).
when did he decide do change ranks? so does everybody get demoted? A Lt.Col. is a bit much for command of a team, even if it’s SpecOps. A Major would be more appropriate. That would put Hiro down down to Cpt.. That would be fine, as the rest of them are Lt.s and lower.
Originally, she was listed as a full Colonel with the insignia of such, that was before the helpful readers pointed out the error
Yup, for anyone who wants to go back to when Maxima is pointing at her rank insignia and saying her rank, to Sydney, it shows those of a Colonel. Those of us who follow the comments know that should be considered to be a Lt. Colonel now instead. But it will take Dave (or if he makes a lot of money somehow, a paid minion) to go in and change both the dialogue and the art.
Since Dave got the advice on a more realistic rank for Maxima, given her age, experience and current responsibilities, he has consistently shown the correct rank. But the oldest images need to be corrected. Likewise for a few of the other cast members. Plus various omissions (like chokers being forgotten or Tubey not being visible when it should have been).
I really like how it looks for Harem’s face in this scene (the style fits the content).
So, this is Dabbles first day? Kinda had the impression she had been around Archon for longer
This is a way flashback.
Which therefore requires that Harem has been seeing Deus for a very long time as well.
Way back in an era that was B.S.
(Before Sydney, but still quite a bit of BS though)
Can make out all the shadowy figures in panel face-tablet: Dabbles, Brooke, Morph, Les, Hiro, Maxi, Ari, Anvil, the bald Space Marine (he has been introduced, just can’t remember his name), and Math
I wonder what this meeting is about…?
Looks like Sydney might be attending class.
This is a direct continuation of last page, which said at the top it was some time in the recent past and they are talking about ‘once we go public’ which means it is before the day of the press conference, the day Sydney was discovered.
The meeting is about the press conference or how things will change afterwards (that is what I think at least) and Sydney is probably in the comic store hoping for enough customers to not go bankrupt and dodging questions about the suspicious poster tube she carries everywhere.
Also, Dabbles seems to have never met the Daphnes before
He he. Nice call on how the previous scene would progress, for the folk(s) saying that.
Love the art on the expressions for Harem’s first three portraits, ending with the flushed face. Helped by the fact that I am a fan of freckles, and Daphne’s are too light to stand out well in longer shots.
Totally agree. She really is adorable here.
First: Meeting Harem is not fooling anyone.
Second: Harem’s Kryptonite is revealed, again. Major distraction for one, is a major distraction for all.
Oh, Dabbler can feel that.
Yeah she’s getting lunch with her meeting.
I remember the comic where Dabbler said she was “genuinely curious” what would happen to the Daphnes if one had an orgasm to Sydney.
That implies that Dabbler is unaware that Harem is orgasming, but only aware she’s releasing a lot of tantric energy. I wonder if her “genuine curiosity” is to confirm her suspicion? Or if she just thinks that Harem’s turned on by the thought of going public?
From Dabbler’s comment it seems that, at the time of this scene, she had only just joined the team. So may not have been aware of Harem’s capabilities at that time (especially as assigning “X” to watch her shows that Archon were being cautious about dealing with her).
So possibly Dabbler may have, at the time, just put this down to Harem having a curious enthusiasm for briefings. Or maybe Arianna.
Subsequently Dabbler would have found out about Harem, but by the time of speaking to Sydney may have forgotten this incident, amongst the many other things she had been experiencing on a new world.
Which beats saying ‘uh oh, continuity error’. ;-)
Dabbler and her “porno sense” was tingling, even if she didn’t know what was happening directly.
No, Dabbles was curious about what would happen to the other Daphne’s if Dabbles ‘zonk’ed Daphne
Good distinction.
Not orgasm. She said she was curious what happened if she bonked one of the Harem’s on the head with that memory-hammer.
Aww, how sweet. Taking an euphamism in the innocent context. Sadly in this case “Zonked” was not intended to convey being bonked with a memory hammer. Rather the other kind of bonking.
To be fair I too had forgotten how the comment was phrased. But here is the context:
Whereas, on the linked page, the memory hammer is not mentioned at all. So the under-comic comment only has the sexual comment to draw upon, rather than the more innocent alternative.
Not to mention the earlier usage on the page, by Harem, establishing it as a sexual term.
Dabbler: Hey, look! Dinner AND a show!
Thanks for the explanation about not inking DaveB. I was just looking through to see if there had been someone else colouring, or something to explain the change in the feel of the art. Loved the results, they give a kind of softer feel appropriate to the scene.
There was a noticeable difference though. But one which I am sure would not stand out if you choose to stick to it. It was just the transition from the normal one which stood out.
I realize that this comic is big on cheesecake (and beefcake) and doesn’t usually shy away from discussions of… things mature (and incredibly good looking) adults get up to. This is just a little more explicit then I was expecting.
I kind of feel like this is pushing the comic’s rating from “T for Teen” to a hard T-for-teens” with the emphasis on haaaaaard (suggestive tone of voice optional).
With that many As, the suggestive tone is most certainly not optional.
These are teens with the modern internet. A cartoon “O-face” is really risqué anymore. Nothing kids didnt see in an Herbal Organics shampoo commercial in the 90s
I’m not really objecting to the depiction of it, I’m just stating that it kind of caught me off guard.
Sort of like that shot of the superhero-fight at the restaurant where Math knifes the guy in the teeth.
The topic may be explicit, the imagery, however, is not.
And considering books aren’t rated and even a kid can read steamiest kinkiest romance novels you can imagine, imagery is all that matters for ratings, and thus, this particular comic could be rated ‘E’ for everyone even. The previous one might require a ‘T’ though.
Yea, I have been reading sci fi and fantasy since a very young age, and started to buy my own at about age eight. A fair number of which had graphic and indeed extreme sexual material in them. What with guys with multiple sexual organs, inter-species romance and sex, bondage fetishes and some genuinely disturbing things amongst the mix.
All the while silently laughing at my peers who were chafing at the censorship that they were being put under!
This scene is approaching the question of how a super power would affect someone’s sex life, and doing so in a very credible fashion. Plus showing how awkward it could be living five separate lives, but being aware of all of them at the same time. What is a perfectly normal relationship then becomes an embarrassing complication.
As a youngster I shied away from some of the more disturbing stuff. But this page is just dealing with normal, healthy, sex, and tactfully depicting it. So I think it would just be provoking interesting lines of thought, much like the scene in ‘When Harry met Sally’.
OK and maybe a … ahem … cold shower. But that is normal. So I do not see anything unhealthy here. Just mentally and (variably) emotionally challenging. Which is good. Shifting a topic from being veiled by taboos, to one that we can think about and discuss is beneficial to society and individuals within in.
Of course more sensitive individuals may find this to be too much for them, and possibly go elsewhere. Which is a shame. But hopefully they will miss the comic and, when they feel they are ready for the challenges, come back in due course.
There’s something different about visual and literary depictions though- it’s why TV shows and movies have ratings but libraries don’t. One of my favorite novels of all time has in it’s concluding chapters a graphic description of torture on par with anything you’d see in the saw movies or something like that. I first read it when I was about twelve and it didn’t phase me. Meanwhile, to this day I still get the heebie-jeebies for anything anywhere NEAR that awful in a movie, especially if it’s something done to someone’s hands.
There certainly was for me. My mental imagery is far more graphic than mere movies (of that era in particular). Especially for my passion which was science fiction and fantasy. I was walking in Westeros and Essos decades before they were brought to TV screens, in a Game of Thrones!
Plus in a film you are just a passenger. When reading a novel you have the luxury of being able to explore the landscape and situations as you go. Shutting the book and letting the scenes unfold beyond the words the writer put on paper.
After you leave a movie theatre though, you only have your fading memories to go by. The intense connection is broken. Unless something traumatic etches it in your memory, I do grant. But books can have just as much of an impact. They just do not look as exciting to a news editor trying to pick footage or photos about what scandal to stir up next.
That’s a societal indoctrination towards anything sexual being a taboo speaking for you. We’ve had startlingly violent confrontations, depictions of extreme pain and suffering, talks of killing like it was zero issue for anyone involved, and I have seen zero complaints on the issues of murder, destruction, and violence.
So a tasteful depiction of a woman in orgasm does not rate a worthwhile complaint, I feel.
It wasn’t a complaint. Also, my other big “oh geez!” moment was during the fight at the restaurant when Math knifed that guy in the teeth. And I commented on that, too.
It is fair to do so. The comic does push various boundaries. Giving feedback when you think it is stretching ratings is fine. Plus it helps Dave to judge how much of an impact his writing is having.
Oh bother. Even on multiple reads I start laughing out loud…and am reminded not everyone is that vocal. usually.
Good ol’ Porno Sense. It really is the best sense to have tingle.
I would like to wish everyone a happy new year’s eve (or at least those of you on the Chinese calendar). And to Yorp, I know every dog has his day, but starting tomorrow you will have an entire year. https://chinesenewyear2018.com/zodiac/dog/
Gee, I read the comic and I was going to post, “Are we really on the third page of this stupid joke that was barely worth a quarter page as it is?? But then I read the A/N at the bottom that it’s a joke you’ve been wanting to do this page for 8 years. Well, ah, god bless I guess. I really do this this sequence could have been tightened up in the writing phase, though. You ended up basically explaining the entire joke before showing this page, reducing its impact by a lot. The whole sequence reads a lot stronger if I skip from page #604 directly to #606. It’s simply funnier to go directly from “But one does but one must.” to Harem orgasming in the conference room.
And… then you would have people complaining about the sudden scene-change with no explanations (although, personally, could have done without the Abby getting Deus’d scene :( )
I have to agree, it’s funnier without #605.
But then again, you’re stuck with a decision between comedy and cheesecake, which way to decide? If Dave hadn’t made it yet, I’d suggest skipping #605, but with him having already made it, I wouldn’t remove it.
Without that scene I think a number of folks would not get the intent, and would need it explained to them. Trust me on this one, I have had to spell out such all too often in the past. So Dave is sensible to have that precursor. Plus having it on a different page helps keep things a bit more socially acceptable.
That page was the ‘bedroom’ this one is the ‘office’. The separation has a purpose for the more sensitive readers. Yet allows everyone to keep up with the plot, without having to dive down into the comments to find out what the heck is going on.
Likewise Dave was very sensible in putting a detailed explanation at the top of his blog. Shared thoughts and emotions are not something easy to draw. It does rely on the reader having followed the character details, to date, and remembering the powers and abilities involved. Plus, as with the page in question, having sufficient clues to put all the pieces together.
Granted many readers will not need the page you suggest omitting. But enough would that I feel its inclusion is warranted.
Finally I do not think that page was principally cheesecake. It was showing important character development, in particular for Deus. His sensitivity genuinely surprised people, so that is something important to understanding him. Even if, as always, it is left to the reader to decide whether he is being genuine in his behaviour, or just putting on an act.
As a standalone joke, it might work better without #605. As part of comics with realistic characters, however, I would say it’s better with it.
The bra trick is also foreshadowing. Without that, future events with Deus could look like… what he calls himself. Which is probably why he calls himself that.
Don’t have a problem with #605 except for Abby getting Deus’d, it makes sense that she is getting Deus’d, just personally don’t like that idea
Guesticus. She is not your waifu. Let the woman enjoy her sex life.
Didn’t say she was, or that she couldn’t
what’s stronger? five deshantis’s having an orgasm or one dabbler O?
How about Dabbler giving 5 Harems orgasms?
How about Dabbler recharging from 5 Harem orgasms?
Dabbler makes use of sophisticated neural-controlled prosthetics. From which it is not a huge leap to having a remote-controlled body. So it is entirely possible that Dabbler could whip up four of such, and hook herself up to them.
Whilst, even with genius intelligence, would probably not be able to control the other bodies undertaking different tasks, it should be possible to do so for very similar ones. Especially if they are mostly instinctive in nature.
So Dabbler could get five times the snacking power that way, if she chose. And Harem has a high libedo, and supers are more inherently nourishing for succubi. So Harem could make a veritable banquet for Dabbler.
If it were not for that pesky ‘no teammates’ rule, of course.
Technically, controlling several remote bodies might be fairly easy for her depending on how skilled she is at AI. Having the other bodies following her intent and basic actions, while making personal decisions on how to carry them out for their specific task (the assigned Daphne), should be well within her capabilities.
Oh easily so. But would having robots give her the visceral connection that she needs to feed?
Ugh count it up Dabbler has four arms and a mouth it is very possible.
…
Heck it might have even been a required course in Succubi school for Dabbler.
She use to have a tail as well, so could have pleasured herself at the same time
Now THAT is what the Valentines Day Sex Drive pic should’ve been!
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2766/comment-page-2#comment-630833
Called it!! Called it!!!
“Enjoying” the meeting, with Dabbler picking up on it…
Alright, alright, Daniel the Human got it right. But I helped…a bit…
Ditto.
Also, Panel 12 – there’s that leer I was talking about…
I called it as Harem having simultaneous multiple orgasms, but didn’t try going into any other…details.
Well done to y’all.
I like art, it says so much. the meeting room goes kind of gray as they start.
then even dabbler gets a floor show.
still
And… this is when Maxi gave Dabbles the order “No Snacking on Team-mates” :D
Whilst Maxima can give that order to avoid actively taking part, such as when Dabbler snacked on Barbarian, I really cannot see it being applicable in this kind of circumstance. Dabbler has ‘porno sense’. Whilst it may turn out that she has something akin to mental ‘eyelids’ that allow her to block it off, that seems unlikely.
Succubi need tantric energy to stay alive. So it seems implausible that the means of sensing that and absorbing it would need to have an ‘off’ mechanism.
In my mind it would therefore be more akin to hearing, so even when you don’t want to listen to the neighbours humping, you don’t have a choice. But also combined with breathing. You may be able to have some control over holding your breath, but it does not take long until the instinct to stay alive overrides that conscious attempt to stop!
So, to extend the analogy, if we pick up a nasty smell, we can stop breathing temporarily, whilst we move away to somewhere else. In this case though Dabbler is required to stay in the meeting, so would have no choice but to accept the free smorgasbord.
The evolutionary ability to close a sense seems to be tied with how likely that sense is to be overstimulated to the point of damage or the likelyhood for a source to be poisoned.
So raises the question…
Is their porno-sense poison? And if so, how rampant is it on 4chan?
How much do succubi have to worry about… tainted love?
Humans can close their mouths when they have had enough to eat. I assume succubi can do something similar, after all wouldn’t want to become a fat succubus. By the way, don’t google fat succubus.
There is a difference between eating physical food and using the senses to detect that in the first place. Obviously sight is the most important one for humans, to locate their food. Whilst other, superior animals, use their sense of smell. But even the feeble olfactory skills of humans are necessary to determine if the food is good or not. But smell cannot be turned off.
So far we have had no indication that the succubus feeding is separate to their porno sense. To the contrary, the very fact that Dabbler is banned from having sex with her team-mates strongly supports the premise that she cannot turn the feeding off.
Maxima would not impose a harsher rule than is necessary. So I feel confidant that if Dabbler did have the ability to control this, then the ban would just be on feeding on sexual partners in the team. Likewise even if Maxima did not consider the option, we have had several indicators that Dabbler wants the ban overturned, so would have suggested that lesser restriction herself.
Succubi could still exercise self-restraint in avoiding sexually rich areas, once they have had their full, if there is a risk of over-indulging. If not the situation has a self-correcting mechanism, in that fat succubi would scare away their food! Barring a niche group of specialist fetishests, I guess.
Although a hungry succubus can always make use of her feminine charms.
Although it will be interesting to see if the next page does continue to show that Daphne ends up being physically and emotionally drained. If that effect is applicable even to such low-level passive observation, as well as with full-blown sex, then you could well be right.
Was meaning the “No Actively Snacking on Team-mates”, remember, this is also Dabbles first time meeting the rest of the team
haha, read that as “corporal dashpants”
Lol.
I’m not sure how ‘recent’ this recent past was. Dabbler has been on board long enough to fight Max to a tie, have her (lack of) sword skills known to the team, start an office bingo pool and have number of items crossed off, ogle her reflection in Max’s skin, learn some Terran magic spells, make a friend in the motor pool, and build a few hand-held guns (both rail and tickle).
Yea, I guess Dabbler’s dialogue does imply that this is shortly enough after she arrived that Dabbler was not aware of Harem’s (regular) …. incidents… before.
Although, from the previous page, we know that Arianna’s (off-screen) comment means that this was before Archon went public (ergo being before or, at the very latest, on the day that Sydney arrived).
Sparring could only take a few minutes, which could resolve both your first two qualms. Likewise an office bingo pool. Although I am not sure it was established that Dabbler initiated it – she may have just signed up to it. It seems too specific a work-custom for her to have picked up on that shortly after arriving. Unless, I guess, someone suggested organising a team event and she looked up some options?
I really do not think we have had any hint that Dabbler learnt her magic on Earth (if though your logic is based on spoilers you may know from her previous adventures in Waterworld, then that is fair enough). Without the latter though I cannot recall any comment, or scene, which implied that she did not have magic previously.
Certainly demons and magic are oft associated, so I don’t think there would be an inherent implication that she could not have had magic before. Although I would grant that most regularly demons are portrayed as being the targets of magic, used to summon and bind them. That though would not in itself preclude the possibility of magic-using demons.
Not to mention the fact that we know succubi have racial magic (or a racial ability that has such an appearance) being their disguise ability.
Further Deus’s reveal about Earth being poor in illusionists implies that illusionists are more common off Earth. And thereby that other types of magic may well be common elsewhere too.
As for the hand-held guns, she may well be the ‘build a inter-stellar faster than light communicator, from a few bits of household equipment in a couple of days’ kind of alien. Plus there is nothing to say that she cannot have created those weapons before even coming to Earth.
Wasn’t the tickle gun just something she was toying with making? I cannot remember the context it was mentioned in, other than it being around when she was saying that she had insufficient non-lethal options available.
Wereworld, not Waterworld
That’s why Obie specified Terran magic
She had already built the Rail gun, because she mentioned using it to shoot stuff out of orbit (or was that the Sticky-tape gun?)
… Railbow to shoot satellites, Entangle-wrap could be used to tow asteroids…
The entangle-wrap is just a specific type of ammo. I recall Dave mentioning that because Dabbler does not have the patience to mass produce such that she only has a few rounds of each of her specialist types of ammo.
I have not compared the looks of the weapon, in the respective scenes (the press demonstration and the gunfight at the Steak House carpark™ respectively), but I assume that it was the same basic weapon in both cases. I certainly picture it that way in my memory.
The fact that both the basic operation and the special ammo are satellite related though means it is so likely I won’t bother double checking.
Thanks for pointing out my name mix-up Guesticus.
If Dabbler has specifically learnt Terran magic, which of her spells are Terran, and where did we learn about her doing that?
No, the Railbow and Tangle-Wrap guns look different
K.
Still special ammo types though. :-P
The point being that Dabbler would only be able to wrap up so many enemies, before having to try another tactic. And to stop it getting boring.
Yeah, we saw her use up her supply minus one (that she was keeping for a party later) getting Kevin gift-wrapped
Also worth noting the discussion in the previous page is Arianna likely beginning to prep for the reveal process. A PR drop of that magnitude takes a LOT of time to prepare for (and sooo many spreadsheets that Arianna will later have to revise). So this could easily be months before Sydney if not a year or more.
Agreed. Although passing the act that created Archon will have taken months,* and only after that had passed would the funding to start construction of the Archon HQ have been unlocked. It is of a structurally unique design, having much reinforcing to cope with anticipated super battles.
So it could not have just been a random office building bought for them and repurposed (or if it was it has since been massively modified and enhanced). Meaning that (either way) months of work would have been necessary, at a minimum.
During which time Arianna would have had plenty of opportunity to hone her presentations, in between running shotgun on any ongoing issues that needed hushing up, prior to the official reveal.
* Albeit that it must have been done behind closed doors for the press to be unaware of it. But hiring their top PR person would have been very high on the list of priorities, for an organisation knowing that there would be public controversy from the outset.
Possibly Arianna may have been hired before even Maxima was! General Faulk (and the political master he serves) would want to have a full briefing on whether having a unit of supers led by a super to be politically advisable or not.
Hmmm. Referring to Mr. Amorphous as Mr. Amorous. Would that constitute a Freudian slip?
He he.
Here is the inspiring comment, to save others having to search for it too.
I wonder how flexible Mr Amorphous’s stretching is? Clearly he will have no problem satisfying Heatwave. But could he, for instance, stretch skin to make a slip? Or other skin, from his feet, to make it appear that he was wearing (flesh-coloured) slippers?
How many Harems out of five does he rate?
@DaveB
Did the choker’s on Harem disappear on purpose? I get why the one at Dues’s may not have one (not being tracked while there), but the one in the store? For a few minutes I thought only Strawberry had one, but I see in the the who’s who they all have them.
Probably intentional for Blondini to not be wearing hers, seeing how DaveB put a fancy gold-link necklace on her
Agreed. Clearly she is in civilian clothing there, whilst the choker is part of her military uniform. Harem is required to have one body on duty and in uniform, literally at all times. However, just like anybody else, once she is off duty she can wear what she likes.
Moreover as the chokers are primarily communication equipment, if one is able to communicate with one Harem one is in effect communicating with all of them, thus only one needs to wear one. However this brings up another thing; is there a range limit on Harems link up?
Harem’s teleport is limited. So, with her having some range limitation, in her powerset, it is possible that there is a similar one for her telepathy.
I can’t remember if there was something in canon about whether her telepathy functioned through the shield? If so that would have likely been when Harem was getting a lift from Halo’s shop. And if it did, that would support the fact that Harem can still function even if one or more are not connected.
However if going by the properties implied by Dabbler describing Harem’s brain as being quantumly linked, then no there should be no limit. The theory in physics is that if you have two quantum linked particles they will always be in the same state, no matter how far they are separated. Dabbler’s description implies that Harem’s brain is made up (in part or in whole) of such particles.
However even if Harem does not have a range limit, her chokers are human technology and do. So it is worth having more than one body with a choker, so that she does not have to worry about which body has reception and which does not.
In the mini comic at the bottom of 1913 Dabbler says she doesn’t know what happens to the other Harems if she “zonk”s one of them. This page seems to show she does know already.
Dabbles hasn’t “zonk”ed a Daphne yet, she simply ‘tasted’ someone else ‘zonk’ing her
Yeah the “zonk”ing is from draining their energy not just the physical act. If one of Daphne’s bodies runs a marathon the other 4 are fine but they might share a tantric energy pool so Dabs might drain all 5 (or she might not).
…. Ooooo, I was wondering about that comic, but this explains Dabbler’s comment nicely. Headcanon accepted.
Liiiitle bit of a continuity error. Max asked about this in #604 (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2764) and the implication was that Max hadn’t dealt with this issue before. But this, which should be a flashback, makes it pretty clear the issue has come up (pun intended).
Your comment would only be upheld if Maxima realises that Harem is just making a cover-story. Although we have the comedic double entendre slip up with “Just banged… uh, banged my toe on something…” that is not enough for us to say that Maxima has realised what is actually happening. Plus Daphne has provided a credible excuse, for her looking … um … agitated.
Bearing in mind that both Maxima and Arianna will have their attention focused mainly on the ongoing presentation, rather than staring at Harem, to figure out what her deal is.
@Dave Barrack: And what an amazing 8 yrs. it’s been. Seriously thanks for making this amazing webcomic. Thank you for putting the work into making this fic.
+606
Yeah I’ve seen this in other comic art when they colour without inking and I’m personally a general fan of how it turns out. Just feels somehow more natural and… “warm” is the only word that comes to mind. Maybe smooth.
My only criticism is that it isn’t Sandy in the background of the 10th Panel (page 2, panel 4) as blonde Harem screams out her satisfaction… Sandy dropping her phone into a soup bowl that is XD
:-D
A bit of a tangent, and probably will never happen in the continuity of the comic, but… What if one version of harem gets pregnant? Do they all experience the symptoms? Or just the one? Are all of the teleport clones pregnant, or just the one? Cause five bodies experiencing morning sickness would leave quite the mess in the restroom… Also what would happen to the child if the one carrying is ‘dematerialized’ to amp up the other teleport clones?
As far as I know, the bodies only share sensory input, not physical conditions. I think that if one body got pregnant, only that one body would be pregnant. However, if any of the symptoms passed the threshold they might spill over to the other bodies. As far as what would happen if the pregnant body dematerialized… That’s a very interesting question!
Assuming the child was below Harem’s teleport weight limit, the child would also dematerialize harmlessly and be held in stasis.
Yup, both to your reply and the observations and deductions in the previous one.
as much as i hate deus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8A4CoKiAsc
She? I’ll have what HE is having!
Heh. Good point.
Can’t disagree. Deus does really seem to have it all. Looks, skill, genius mind, powerful body, charisma, bedroom skill (holy crap), power, wealth. Are we sure he isn’t a super?
Not sure no.
At the very least though ‘wealth is his super power’. ;-)
And smugness, don’t forget the S-Class level of smugitudity
Hard to type. Laughing too much!
Did he kill his friend? Or just knock him out? o_O
The report indicates that they have not been found, so we do not know. Most likely unconscious, but the alternative is possible.
Assuming that he is still alive though he will be in need of medical attention. But even if he avoids that it should not be hard to find someone with a brick-shaped indentation in their head. :-D
(Me, sympathetic about the plight of robbers inflicting injury on themselves? Not in the least. Poetic justice makes me laugh. This is actually funnier than when Del Boy fell down!)
Panels 1, 3, and 4 might be the best panels in this entire comic so far.
Panel one reminds me of that “Frozen” girl
You talking about the bird in your refrigerator again?
Not this time, Ahna (who is also a Freckled One)