Grrl Power #797 – Bust-a-gestalt
Before you read this page, put on some dance music. Oh, you already read it? Well, just do it retroactively in your head. Here are a few choice clubby musics that also happen to feature fit ladies working out:
Progressive Psytrance 2017, ProgPsy July 2019 Mix, Psychedelic Trance with Hula Hooping.
I’m sure you guys have your own favorite dance music, but the above videos are highly relevant to my interests so I thought I’d share.
I almost posted this page without the one word bubble. Actually without the sound effects either. Just to be… artistic I guess? I have faith that most of you would have figured it out, but, eh, work either way.
It’s tough for Varia to stay under the radar. Not as tough as Maxima, obviously. Even Anvil has it harder most of the time, and honestly, if Varia really wanted to stay incognito, she could have worn a version of that gaussy shirt of hers that had gloves and a longer cut.
For anyone unfamiliar with Varia, she gestalts with anyone she touches. (Except Maxima, apparently because her skin is weird) She gets a fixed power with each person, and the person she’s touching gains immunity to her powers, so she can still hold hands with them and not burn/freeze/irradiate them.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Does Varia’s powers works only with humans? did she ever tried it with aliens? Vampires? Living constructs (like that armor guy)?
What if it have nothing to do with DNA but more with spirits/souls?
Varia, like the other recruits (barring Sydney) was kept out of the loop about the existence of aliens, vampires and other supernaturals. As such she will not have (knowingly) formed a gestalt with any. And I imagine that Archon will have taken steps to prevent that happening accidentally. Firstly because it would create an unknown risk, because they have no idea how she would interact with non-humans. Secondly because it may have created an incident which exposed the existence of the Veil.
The latter being monumentally important it would be a far higher priority to avoid that than to satisfy any curiosity from conducting the experiment. Plus Archon was working to reveal aliens and others in due course, so it was just a matter of being patient.
Clearly, just recently, the presence of aliens has been established. However the one known ship was in Africa, so Varia would not have had access to them. Since then the ship carrying Halo has arrived locally, thus affording the opportunity. However we have been following those events closely and have not observed Varia trying to form an alien gestalt. And I doubt very much whether the author would do such an important event off screen.
So it what may happen is still up for speculation.
Personally I suspect that aliens will be different to humans in some way. Perhaps not reacting at all. Or maybe all members of a given race react in exactly the same way? Perhaps Succubi will grant Varia healing powers, whereas Alari may give her plant control powers?
Or it may reverse who gains the gestalt power and it is the alien who gains a temporary super power?
I imagine she’ll probably have touched Dabbler, so that she knows what she’ll get from her teammates. It’d probably be mentioned if nothing had happened, like with Maxima. Of course, since we haven’t seen it, I could be wrong.
It would have been amusing to see Varia go to shake hands with Trenticle. Sydney told her he was “undercover” or some nonsense, so she might have been polite enough to want to introduce herself to a fellow Archon member, no matter how weird he looked. And that would have answered the “gestalts with non-humans” question.
Not only non-humans, but non-humanoids sapients in general.
…where did Trent go anyways?
He’s playing Octodad.
I like Trent. I hope he will be back.
They probably got returned to their own dimension.
Succubi have an actual class on tentacles, and if Dabbler couldn’t come up with a spell to send them home the Twilight Council certainly could.
I’d like to think Trent is hanging out at Sydney’s appartment eating TV dinners and watching earth television, but that would be silly. Sometimes silly is a good thing.
Am actually curious to know if she can do such thing with animal. *pet cat turn into fire*
If someone is a good Teaser, she becomes a Fire Cat.
I had that book!
All the way until Morning has Broken?
I’m guessing they work on aliens at least.
Back in https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-324-she-should-put-all-those-answers-on-a-shirt/
she says that the only other one her powers don’t work on is Maxima. She doesn’t know that Dabbler is an alien, but she does know Dabbler is on the team, so she has probably tested all the core team members.
Does Varia’s power only work with SKIN contact?
Like, if she stuck her finger in Maxima’s mouth (or vice versa) would something happen???
Or if a guy stuck… his… nevermind, I’ll stick with the finger/mouth as the other example may be a bit too risque for television. (-___-)
If Varia stuck her finger in Maxima’s mouth, she might find out if spanking is her thing.
What power does she get from Sidney?
I don’t believe it’s been confirmed… BUT on the page she tried touching Sydney, The Halo Balls started revolving around Varia as well, though no one noticed at the time.
So, educated guess: she touches Sydney she can use “The Spaceship Balls”!
Which means, since Varia’s power just needs skin-to-skin contact, that means 4 balls at once! That’s shield, propulsion, life support and something else at the same time. Seems perfect for spaceshipping
Maintaining skin-to-skin in a combat situation would be fairly difficult if not impossible without some kind of contraption. Which could still be fairly unwelcome in a combat situation… So let’s say 3 balls, with either Varia or Sydney using one hand to hold the other by a wrist. That way they can let go if needed for freedom of movement, and that’s still a fairly significant increase in capability.
I can imagine a situation now; “Ok, Varia, you just keep the shield up, I’ll fly and shoo… Oh, shit, I’m sending out the light bee so we can teleport behind them and then open fire.”
Two relatively easy ways for their hands to be free:
1) They both wear open back shirts and sort of belt themselves together.
2) They interweave legs while wearing shorts and flying.
Easier, wear short sleeves and lock arms together.
Wonder twin powers activate!
Really, it would be something as simple as binding their ankles together.
I was unaware that the strip of cloth used to get participants ready for a three-legged race counted as a contraption. Just make sure they’re wearing shorts or tearaway pants and then all you’ll have to worry about is battlefield mobility & co-ordination.
Meh, two for one shirt back to back – now the issue here would be coordination but all limbs would be free.
There would be no blind spots except for the limits of peripheral vision in a 3D environment, like up and down, relatively speaking.
No no no, you guys are all forgetting how small Sidney is.
Sidney would just ride piggy back on Varia while wearing shorts.
Though this might tire Varia out….
Sydney:- “Master-Blaster!”
Maxima:- “But how do we get Dabbler into a chainmail dress?…..Who am I kidding, she probably has her own!”
I really hope this never happens Sydney is retardedly overpowered as is.Thankfully so far the storys not relied too hard on action cause at the Rate Syd gets level ups shes gonna be one shotting Goku in the tournament of power within a year.
sort of becomes her in a way…
the balls think she is part of her and revolve in a bigger circle encompassing both other than that nothing else noticeable.
who knows maybe she becomes Super ADHD Girl and go….oh shiney
It’s possible that Halo was merely being polite and making sure to not hit her…
Dave has confirmed previously that the extended orbit was significant.
Ohhh, so in a future comic, varia will be grabbed by Halo because she’s falling but cannot operate the flight ball because she’s got the shield orb in the other hand and varia grabs the flight ball on reflex??
woops, did I just ruin it and now he has to rewrite the script?
HAHAHAHAH
sorry
not sorry :P
(-___-)
Plus it was drawn in such a way that Sydney being oblivious to what was happening was part of the LOLs.
Personally I like the fact that everybody present missed spotting that. Such things do happen, even with important events. No matter how much folks may be certain they would notice something profound happening. If their attention is diverted any crowd can miss things. And they were focussed on Varia, not Halo’s orbs.
Sydney was thinking “NOWHAMMY!NOWHAMMY!”, maybe her balls picked up on that and did just that: did not whammy Vahriah
Damn right! Don’t panic. Just Lean In to Fate’s little swerves. XD
Is it just me or does it look like her breasts got bigger when she transformed into the metal(?) version of herself?
Also no pun intended he looks hot as Lava Woman.
Possibly because the metal she transformed to was Tit-anium?
…that pun hurt.
im going to have to revoke your pun card for blatant use of a lethal pun in non hostile situations…
Really? I can’t believe you missed the obvious puns. First guy makes Varia hot, the girl gets her wet and second guy gets her nipples hard. :P
+1
I’m just amazed that nobody has commented on how she’s just burning up the dance floor….
OMFG, I just realized the dance metal-Varia is doing with that guy is The Robot. That is goddamn adorkable. :D
Nice catch, I didn’t realize that.
Have to say, this page really makes me smile. Not only are there monster-girl-esque transformations, but they’re having fun with it? I just love that.
She’s being metal, water, and fire. So… clearly, she’s…
In her element.
*sunglasses and rock screams*
That’s the most well-grounded pun so far, even though you’re putting on airs.
Kinda curious how far that immunity goes.
If she goes intangible while touching someone and walks through a wall do they follow, or face plant? She isn’t ‘hurting’ them after all.
What about flight? Is she basically just a Kite, hanging on to someone on the ground? Or do they fly along with her as a part of the gift?
They gain immunity to her powers, not immunity to walls. So a face plant will happen, all other things being equal. However Varia may gain a ‘group walk through walls’ power, which grants the ability to both Varia and anyone near (or touching her). In which case her gestalt partner would gain the same immunity she would logically get, namely immunity from accidentally phasing through the floor. However the granted power should also be passed on, thus allowing all recipients of the power to ‘walk through walls’ (and probably floors too, when such is intended).
Flight may work fine if it is ‘group flight’ and thereby granted to her partner too. If not she probably better hope they are light enough for her to lift them up.
Dave has confirmed that the Grrlverse does contain some supers with useless powers. So it is perfectly reasonable that some of Varia’s gestalt powers will be either useless, very weak or only useable in very specific circumstances. For instance being able to turn methane atmosphere into oxygen (or cyanide). Or make underwear fit more comfortably.
Yup, Varia could get work with a department store, if her partner wanted to as well. But there are slightly better uses of her powers.
Sometimes the more useless the power appears, the more creatively it can be used. But I have to admit, I’m having a hard time dreaming up any use for prehensile eyelashes.
They keep the gnats and mosquitoes out of her eyes of course.
Everyone knows that.
Now you’ve just got me wondering what an ‘immunity to walls’ power would look like. Probably really useful for motor racing on tight circuits.
What if she turns into rubber while touching someone with a latex allergy? Technically the allergy occurs not because the offending stimulus is harmful, but because the immune system acts like it is.
Wait, latex Varia?
Must
Not
Say
blowed
up
real
good…
I think it like with all others they would be immune to her specifically as while she is rubber she for a time a non dangerous entity to her gestalt partner
she may become a plant-based latex instead, thereby not triggering the allergy (can’t think of what it’s actually called)
Natural latex comes from the rubber tree, the allergy is to the proteins it contains. Synthetic rubber doesn’t trigger the latex allergy because it contains no proteins, but can cause reactions to other chemicals it contains. There’s talk about using other plants, but it stands to reason that some people would eventually become allergic to their proteins anyway.
Of course, I don’t know if she’d give off those contents even if she had them. We can’t even tell if she’s getting water on the other girl’s hand in the last panel.
All Latex, comes from plants!
Depends what definitions the field you’re working in uses. In textile processing, and presumably in other similar applications, latex is a class description for chemicals that are stable as a liquid without needing a solvent, and whose molecules can link up to form a coherent network when activated (usually by heat, some by UV). But yes, the term initially came from natural rubber latex, which comes from the sap of certain trees.
Im saying fly along with her,A lot of powers are super user friendly in this universe and her powers already got possibly the biggest inconvenience out of that cast as is since she needs someone else as a component or shes just a normal person with a wierd accent.
It occurs to me that if this power is Rogue style on-contact… if she can’t control whether or not it happens… that’s got to make sex really awkward
Or really awesome.
Well, DaveB said that Varia’s partner would become immune to whatever power she picks up, so “bursting into flames” guy won’t burn, and that might make for some exciting sex, but his bedding isn’t similarly immune unless he likes to sleep on asbestos (in which case his life expectancy is probably not that great and he deserves the thrill despite his poor life choices regarding ticking).
There’s other flame-resistant materials besides asbestos. Nomex for example.
I’m actually not sure if the stuff they make flaming juggling clubs out of is actually fire-proof, or just protected by wicking. But it would give one hell of a rug-burn.
Asbestos is far from the only option and not so dangerous if you don’t cut or work on it, but you’re right it’s a good idea to first figure out her gestalt with you, before touching each other near furniture or other living beings.
And there are forms of asbestos that aren’t dangerous.
Ah! But that’s not something they want you to know. Well actually it’s not so much of a conspiracy as just that even the safe versions of asbestos tend to release dangerous fibres when you work on them. Take something like fibrolite sheets. These are perfectly safe as long as you do not cut or break them, but once you take a saw to them they release asbestos fibres that tend to stay suspended in the air for a long time.
So in short asbestos is a fantastic material that unfortunately can be very dangerous for your health.
Heck, for that matter, there’s a famous type of bed that is, incidentally, fireproof…
Checking other bed types . . . Flammable, flammable, actually burned periodically to control pests, flammable. Ooo, metal frame with.. flammable.
Ok, there you have it. The only fireproof bed type I could easily spot is:
Bed of Nails.
Or a bed of coals – they can’t hurt you if you’re already on fire.
Was that a dirty joke?
No, was just thinking of firewalking on a layer of actual coals, commonly referred to as a ‘bed of coals’. It was more of a bed pun, but mostly an excuse to link to that Dr McNinja shirt.
Dave, does the number 800 have any cultural or numerological significance?
The lady in the purple/blue dress is certainly making Varia wet.
…
I’ll see myself out.
*Splat!*
It’s a waste of a perfectly good club if you don’t have some fun before it explodes.
Just start calling her Ma Bell, because Varia has sooo many people that just want to reach out & touch her right now…
Wow. Imagine Varia in an ’80s hair metal band. ‘Crowd Surfing’ would be so much fun with her!
For the kids in the room, it was a thing where singers would do a ‘stage dive’ (meaning off the stage into the crowd), and the crowd would actually catch them, and pass them around the room over their heads, supported by usually ten to twenty random hands of fans who were into that game.
Think of the way sheep get packed into a little herd so tight that a sheep that really wants out of the middle literally has to get on top of the herd and walk across the other sheep. Only with drunk humans instead of panicky sheep.
Though, really, it doesn’t have to be crowd surfing. She’d be loads of fun in any kind of group grope.
The problem with that is only the person who touched her gets the immunity.
The kids in the crowd a few inches from her still get telekineticaly hurled over the horizon, or zapped by particle beams, or catch fire…
OK, this page makes me ask: If Varia gestalts with Sydney the orbs become shared, or something like that. But no genetic gestalt happens as far as they can tell (except maybe she’s suddenly able to eat the hottest foods on the planet?) Does that mean the orbs interfere with what her “natural” gestalt would be?
Unless Sydney has a distant ancestor of the species that created the orbs. Already established that aliens have been to Earth before. Be one hell of a coincedence she would find them, but if Sydney has a genetic key to the orbs it would explain why only she can can use them and why Varia can too when in contact.
Actual question about Varia’s powers…
What happens if two or more people are touching her at the same time?
The universe gets reset
I think it depends on the kind of powers.
If they can coexist like telikinisis and invinsibility than she will just have them both, but if they can’t like lava body and wood body will either keep switching or go to some middle like lower parts lava, higher parts wood.
Is that blonde guy Goose?
was varia not new? has she been disclosed to the public?
Sydney spent two months not existing.
Whelp, so much for low key night out…. Wait…. what happens if she tries to take someone home?
If she bring home the fire trigger and water trigger they may cancell eachother out. Or there will just be a lot of steam.
What would be funny: Somebody in Archon that Sydney knew before her Veil Exception was actually not human or even humanoid. Imagine going back to work and learning your janitor is leaking more puss than he is wiping up.
Follow-up to some discussion a few pages back about too-skinny supers – well done Dave on proportions here, Varia seems to have a perfectly* normal ribcage and enough room for the lungs and internal organs Decollete keeps in hammerspace.
* well statisically it’s probably kinda short and makes her abdomen look elongated, but within normal human ranges. I mean adverbially, not superlatively
Decolle is a Succubus and therefore not human. So why should she have human standard thoracic organs?
Because mimicry requires looking as identical as possible to successfully avoid detection? Maybe it’s covered under The Veil; it can apparently handle tails and head wings just fine.
Questions…
What is dance?
What is its purpose?
What is ‘dance music’?
What does make it ‘dance music’?
This seems like a joke, but it’s still fun to answer seriously.
What is dance?: moving in a ritmical or special manner in most cases based on piece of music.
What is its purpose?: stimulation or preformation of social interaction and entertainment. It’s also used for more therapeutic purposes.
What is “dance music”? Either music played specifically for dance by electrical instruments or music meant/used for dancing on.
What does make it “dance music”?”: that a normal human can normally dance on it. This is commonly achieved through a few means known to me a. the music is simple, but has little to no moments of total silence and b. the rhytm is around the speed a human can comfortable move their whole body with inbetween beats for the more advanced dancers.
I’m not really an expert, but it covers the basics pretty adequate.
Quite a lot of jokes are funny if taken ‘seriously’.
But this answer was better than expected.
I’d never imagined a dance therapy before. Thanks.
Also, for the rhythm, I guess coefficients would do the thing as well.
Buuut… wouldn’t ‘dance music’ invoke the desire to move/dance?
While one could argue that. In practice I’ve experienced that a., that is not how the term is commonly used and b. music meant for easy dancing is often written such way for this specific goal.
She is So getting invited to every rave that craves a walking lightshow.
Thought that was Math in the background in the fourth panel.
A cross between Math (the eyes) and Goose (the hair)
If she touched someone and turned Radioactive everyone is fucked, even if the person she’s touching is immune as soon as she let’s go the lingering radiation gets them and her.
Or, she simply doesn’t turn into something toxic or environmentally hazardous
Turning into a flame girl indoors is a enviromental hazard.
Not if it doesn’t produce heat, The Human Torch is (usually) safe to have in doors (he’s not fully house broken, butt he’s trainable)
That would be interesting in a Wildcards way but I think we can safely say that if shes in Archon her powers have already proven to be mostly safe to the public in general.Heck truth told her becoming the human torch in a packed nightclub should already have badly hurt some people since ive never seen a club where you werent squashed in with like 5 plus people almost touching you at any time.
The only ones there in disguise are Harem and Sydney…..and the others are not since they’re not well know.
Is Daphne in disguise though?
Butt, yeah, the others aren’t in disguise because they have no reason to hide who they are (well, Vahriah might in future, to stop groupies turning into gropies)
Her theme song will become “Touch-a touch-a touch-me” from RHPS :P
So if she is fighting some villain, grabs hold of him to try to incapacitate him, no matter what cool power she gets from touching him, the villain gets immunity from said power? That seems limiting.
Only from that power, and that was simply to prevent the donor (who may not have any powers of their own) from instantly dying (or worse)
Also presumably she gets immunity to their power, although I’m not sure if that was ever expressed/implied? Not that it would help much if their power is something like “fire aura” since she couldn’t get close enough to grapple.
So she’s not a solo player. She’s still an enormous resource, especially outside combat. Imagine if holding the hand of [person] gave her the ability to duplicate matter, or reverse aging or… or… or…
But on the other hand, suppose she finds a particular person who gives her a really good superpower…but that person is a civilian who can’t just uproot themselves from their life to be Varia’s power battery. That would be a major downer.
Makes me wonder if when she touches someone with a blatant power she becomes immune to that persons power in return.If so Archon should give her a million classes with Math so the team has a solid counter to 80% of random supers =).As I recall the few supers shes touched so far have given her powers loosely related to their own powers(The most loosely related was that new guy with the really rubbish adrenaline rush quasi bullet time perception power who wound up giving her a better power than he already has).
The person Varia is touching gets immunity to the power she manifests. The building doesn’t. A power of metal-bending would still let her handcuff them with a bit of rebar, it just wouldn’t let her do it using their own surgery pins.
You know what I love doing with Long Running comics that you have been following for ages…
Click that “FIRST” button. Its a shock and awe moment to see how far the artist/author has come from their beginnings to their now…
Just a random thought that came to mind.Are 90% of powers all from the same source or is there a range of supers out there that Varia wouldnt be able to get a power based on theirs?So far the only person immune to her weve seen is Maxima I think though shes less a super and more a transhumanist lifeform based on how massively she got biologically changed.
is know one noticing that the last guy went for the booty grab to turn her metal.
Poor guy. He lost the genetic lottery, so he can never cop a feel on Varia.
So, the person who’s touching Varia is immune to the power she unlocks…but what about everyone else standing in moshing distance of the lady who suddenly turns into a woman-shaped blob of gravity-defying magma? Wouldn’t they still get torched? Or if she gets radiation powers, wouldn’t she give sunburns and/or cancer to the entire population of the club, minus one?
“Psychedelic Trance with Hula Hooping” is already removed.
Weird.
I figure she got the metal from a fan of Electric Wizard.
Varia: Oh, that puppy is soooo cute! Yes you are cute. [ Touches the dog ]
Puppy: Yip! Bark! Bark!
Varia: Damn it! It’s okay folks. I am not really a werewolf.
Even if the person shes touching isnt affected, seems super dangerous to do it a crowd without knowing what power you’ll get.
If I had gestalt powers, I would probably avoid large crowds like that and dress very conservatively.
Just seems like a huge risk. I know the person she touches is immune, but the other people around her (in a very crowded club) are not immune.