Grrl Power #997 – Deadlock
Panel 1: It checks out because now he knows an appreciative succubus.
It’s going to vary from fantasy-verse to fantasy-verse, but putting someone under a geas to “Deliver this to the king” versus “See that the king receives this” may or may not be the same thing. In the Grrl-verse, magically compelling particular behaviors has roughly the same rules as dealing with a grumpy genie. Wishing to “make me one with everything” is far more likely to result in a violent explosion than achieving enlightenment.
There are a few ways around this. One is to make the underpinnings of the spell far more complex. A “spirit of the law” clause, as it were, but as some people pointed out last page, even the most thoroughly worded “Don’t kill me” command doesn’t prevent two succubuses from Strangers on a Train-ing the others’ master.
Another way is to make the subject want to obey. This presents an escalating challenge the more of a dick you are to them, and again, writing a spell to make them find any sort of mistreatment acceptable or even deserved quickly becomes as challenging as airtight obedience spells. It’s easier to just train them from the get-go that they’ve done something to deserve their fate, like telling them that in a previous life they were a witch that caused plagues or a demon footsoldier that ate babies or whatever.
So this is the solution they came up with. Tie the succubus’s life to her master and hope she doesn’t hate you so much that she accepts her own demise as a reasonable price to pay. And as Dabbler pointed out, there are considerable benefits to the bond, mostly for the master, and there’s more stuff that she didn’t get a chance to get into, like hooks in the bond to make it easy for the arch-mage to also make the succubus his familiar, which grants sense-sharing and other bonuses.
So… not to completely spoil any notable story events I have planned for page 1000, I was wondering what you guys think Sydney’s bling might look like once she’s officially graduated to private. I know most privates aren’t going to have a massive ribbon rack (is that what it’s called?) but most boots don’t get to participate in the first official action of a new branch of the military, be a key player in the defeat of Vehemence, fight mannequin bots while defending foreign (The Twilight Council’s legal status is complicated) dignitaries, get stranded in space, rescue refugees, return to Earth, fight alien mercenaries. You know, stuff like that.
Really, I just need an idea of how many ribbons she might have accrued so her uniform doesn’t look like she stole it off a master sergeant or something. There was also a page a long way back where someone brought up the idea of a medals, and I’ve no idea where that discussion is buried. I think non-military people like myself are kind of out of the loop when it comes to medals, because the only time we hear about them (short of having an enlisted family member or friend) is when the really big ones get handed out, so I really couldn’t guess if anything she’s done is worth a bronze cross or an orange star? No, wait, that’s a Lucky Charm.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
Just have to finish up the missing sex scene, then it’s off to the proofers.
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I am pleasantly surprised that we’ve made it this far into the comments without someone making the obvious joke about a “massive ribbon rack” in a superheroine comic.
Now that that’s out of the way, I’m also surprised no one has mentioned Max’s dress uniform medals at the press conference (followed by Hiro’s and General Faulk’s on the next page). Obviously they all have way more experience and rank than Sydney, so even as an unusually-experienced recruit she should have far fewer medals.
Ye, but now that aliens are publically acknowledged, there is probably going to be a slew of new medals for that. If getting classified medals is a thing (where you have the medals but you having them and their existence is classified), then Sydney probably would get a bunch for the alari incident, more so if it becomes unclassified.
Yeah, well, Halo doesn’t seem to have a massive some other sort of rack to attract such jokes.
I think TempoDiValse is right, and it’s likely that Maxima will be getting a fair number of retroactive medals that she simply couldn’t have before because explaining them would be awkward in certain high clearance zones. “What do you mean you can’t tell me how you got that medal because I don’t have need to know? I’m your goddamned boss!” and all that.
Rarely is your boss going to ask you how you got your medals. Either the citation is in your record, or it’s redacted. You get to wear them anyway – there’s enough else there that it’ll all blend in.
The spooks that do stuff so unacknowledged that they’d not be able to wear medals for it don’t get any, they get stars on a wall in DC and that’s it.
Since a bunch of the guys are recruited from existing military services, I’d recommend googling pictures of ‘promotion ceremony’ and ‘retirement ceremony’ from the various services, and copying about 85% of the on-average medals from the right branch per character based on their rank when they transferred. Bonus points if you identify the right career field, some get more than others, so a Lt Col in the Air Force who is a doctor is gonna have like 3 beyond the ‘good boy’ ones. A Lt Col, Air Force, spec ops pilot will have maybe 12 more. And the services are varyingly stingy, Navy gives out a tiny number (but lots of other uniform bling), AF gives them out like candy (but almost no other uniform bling).
After that little research project, come up with ‘Campaign Medals’ for things the public would know about. Make it easy, take the campaign medals from old, old wars (Spanish American, anybody?), change up the colors and move some of the bars in or out, and there ya go. There’s individual-achievement-medal overlap in the services (achievement, commendation, meritorious service, etc), so you’ll need a custom one for this new branch for each of those – or you can play it like the Marine Corps – they often use the Navy’s medals. But since your highest rankers were AF, I’d just use the AF’s medals.
I’m not sure those two are the same. Their teeth are very different. Could be stylistic change, could be different demon of same line. Not sure.
The actual villain pre-pictured may be yet to come.
NVM, responded to wrong comment, sorry.
It… actually doesn’t always work that way. You get your tour of duty medals of course and being a super it would be easier to wrap those up, special assignments and so on. However you also get medals for meritable conduct and the like, again this would be slightly easier to achieve as a super not being quite as vulnerable.
Finally, there are medals that cannot be displayed so there’s no guarantee they were not given medals… elsewhere. Now if you were going to put together a team to oversee special operations using supers… do you think that they’d go for Regular army or do you think they’d go for people who’ve done a few tours with something like Delta Force? Maybe commanded/strategized for them? In this instance, I’m not surprised she’s more highly decorated.
Of course Dabbler have a extremely long tounge.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-838-ill-have-the-wedgie-salad/comment-page-1/
That one makes me laugh every time. “Oh God, it’s like a tape measure!”
I am wondering about a new interpretation of Dabbler’s flashback to her (presumed) double-cross of Tom, at the end of the press conference when Max was showing off her skills. At the time it read like Dabbler was wondering if Max was somehow related to the banished demon, but maybe she was considering a new candidate for the position of her master.
Always figured she was flashing back to what they said: that massive burning would herald their return
I’m also wondering what, exactly, the history there is, seeing how buddy buddy they are now.
I’m not sure those two are the same. Their teeth are very different. Could be stylistic change, could be different demon of same line. Not sure.
The actual villain pre-pictured may be yet to come.
Ok so this explains why Dabbler is a slave, but Tom calling her a slave as an insult would still be rude as fuck. What with the double … “… … Slave.” It appears that Tom put a lot of emphasis on that word. The ‘it isn’t rude if it’s true’ sentiment, which seems to be what is in play here, doesn’t really hold water. If you go up to an amputee and call them a cripple, then you are definitely being an asshole even if you don’t put as much emphasis on the word as tom did.
Maybe it’s just a cute couple thing that they do.
Couples can get weird like that sometimes.
Much as I don’t want to defend Tom, there’s obviously a lot of context behind him using that term that prevents me from concluding he’s just being a terrible person (though still not ruling out he’s being at least somewhat rude). Not only is it technically correct, as Dabbler has been explaining, but given that she’s obviously still on good terms with him there’s probably a significant personal component to the term as well.
Given the last couple pages of exposition, this seems more like a relationship of equals sharing power, but due to technical requirements there still has to be one of them ‘in charge’ – more like pilot and co-pilot than the original origins of literal slavery. This terminology comes up in modern Terran tech as well – implementing a multi-drive computer system requires allocating the roles of master and slave hard drives, even though the actual hardware may be identical. One drive isn’t better than the others, just filling a different role. However as the term ‘master’ still has some negative overloads in the larger context of society, there’s been an effort in recent years to replace the default term ‘master’ with ‘main’.
If the term is used in that context, it sounds like there is a definitive technical requirement in their relationship that Dabbler has been neglecting, and Tom was just be reminding her of her responsibilities in a way that also references in shorthand his track history of not abusing his position or failing to fill his role in supporting her. In fact he said earlier “we have a pact, you are overdue honoring your side.”
…or he may just be a tool. But I doubt Dabbler would be putting up with him if that were the case, let alone give him the warm reception that took place.
Whichever version of translation ability they are using, it is one that does translate connotation and uses words that would mean the same thing to both groups, such as Tom being a fiend, there being devils and demons, etc. As such, I believe it improbable that the connotations for whichever word they are using that is being translated to ‘slave’ would be too far off from the actual connotations of the word slave.
Like yeah, there could be different cultural connotations of the word that would make it significantly different than the english word slave, but if so, then why wasn’t it translated to a different word?
“… why wasn’t it translated to a different word?”
Translation is a foul and evil-tempered maze of abominable traps for the unwary. For example — and I quote — “Ciao!”. This is a variant of Italian schiavo “(your obedient) servant,” literally “slave,” from Medieval Latin sclavus “slave”. So, “See you later, slave!”
I’ll also make the point that English is not Tom’s first language, and (with no respect to mages) translation devices are probably no better than our own, possibly worse. Dabbles has aready admitted that English is maybe her 350th language… she is probably as conversant in English as Tom.
An even better example is the English treatment of “love”. Ancient (koiné) Greek had at least four words directly translatable to “love”, and all used in their specific context. English cannot translate any of those, and even the closest foriegn word (French “aimer”, “to love”) comes to us as something along the lines of “amiable” > “friendly”.
Both Tom and Dabbles literally have no English word for what appears to be a freely given, perhaps contractual, quasi-marriage. Marital indenture?
Schiavo? As in *Terry* Schiavo? Jeez!
At school, we had one lad named Henry Bastard.
Did he try and spell it “B*stard”? Pronounced ‘Bis-tard’ (RIP Rick)
Not that I ever saw, but the school staff were careful to not call him by his surname. Considering this was in a British colony… I do remember he liked it pronounced “Bassted”.
Mrs “Bouquet” (Spelt B-U-C-K-E-T) would… Well she wouldn’t be proud of that, because she’s a vivious narcessistinc bitch. But you get the reference.
I’d have named my kid A. Real Bastard, or if a daughter, Ariel Bastard. I had a friend in school, Dick, not short for Richard, who went by the nickname Tiny…
“but if so, then why wasn’t it translated to a different word?”
Because perhaps, and just go with me here for a moment, infernal beings from the greater galactic civilization do not worry that much about political correctness of modern-day United States on a backwater planet like Earth. :)
Somehow that sound just SO plausible…
The terms used to refer to the IDE devices’ roles would only make sense if the primary drive had to relay the instructions to the secondary drive for them to function. But the cable looks like it goes to both, rather than terminating at the first drive and then beginning an independent cable to the second, such that it’s more likely just selecting which device should listen to a request. Further supporting this is the existence of the highly non-standard three IDE device cable, which worked out some dodge to have both the primary and secondary bits being turned on to mean talking to the third drive – something that would have needed support code in the primary device to work if it really was in some way a ‘master’.
I don’t know the actual drive interactions, I’m just inferring from the bits that I know that I’ve stated above. I recognize I could be wrong. It just doesn’t feel like it.
The master/slave terminology in database replication and hard drives is generally replaced with primary/secondary The master -> main thing is specific to git as far as I know—and makes much less sense, since “master” there means “master copy” not “master of a slave”.
It’s a bit confusing as they are also acting like a genuinely loving couple. Perhaps Tom acts more bad than he actually is. It would be funny of he is actually a very reasonable and caring boss and a great loving husband to Dabbler despite acting like a stereotypical demonlord.
So far, it looks more like DABBLER is the one who’s been treating TOM badly! (#176)
” but Tom calling her a slave as an insult would still be rude as fuck.”
I think when someone is committing to a lifelong commitment to make sure that YOU DONT DIE, and never takes from you outside of emergencies, while always letting you take from him, you can deal with the extremely rare case of a rude word being said.
P.S.
(as sung to the Lone Ranger theme)
I was right, I was right, I was right – right – right!
I was right, I was right, I was right – right – right.
I was right, I was right, I was right – right – right!
I was riiiiiiiight, I was right – right – right.
and three rights make a left. that makes 6 lefts. Da comrade.
And three lefts make a right, so 6 lefts makes 2 rights, which makes a U-turn.
This turns out not to be the case in the U.S. Two lefts make a U-turn,as long as they are close enough together for the width of the road. Which is not always the case, either.
Two rights is still a U-turn in a cloverleaf interchange.
no no, it’s more of an umlaut
*grin*
>while always letting you take from him
That seems a bit presumptuous.
Dabbler needs his permission to take any energy from him and they haven’t talked at all in a while at least.
On the other hand this arrangement would let him know if she was ever in dire need of help.
That communication not only goes both ways, but a basic knowledge of morse code would let them communicate via that link by micro-takes.
Presumably at any distance, and across planes.
Morse code phone sex. — …. –..– -… .- -… -.– -.-.– / — …. –..– / -… .- -… -.– -.-.– / — …. –..– / -… .- -… -.– -.-.– / -.– . .- …. -.-.–
Hey, no talking ditty in public.
‘S only ditty if I sing it.
Seconded, also the presumption of it being rare that tom insults dabbler is unfounded. We’ve seen them interact for all of 5 minutes, and previously they had some sort of fight that led to dabbler hiding for a period of time.
“econded, also the presumption of it being rare that tom insults dabbler is unfounded.”
meh I don’t think it’s presumptuous – we have nothing else showing that he’s been rude to her. The last time they interacted she sent him into a fiery pit, and when he finally found her again, he didnt attack her – he just wanted to talk to her. The interaction she’s been having with Tom seems to imply that, despite the last time they met up was a fight, overall they seem to have a good relationship where she actually seems to LIKE Tom and appreciate ‘her guy.’
“That seems a bit presumptuous.”
I didnt say she WAS taking from him. I said ‘letting her take from him’ because it’s seeming like he’s actually good to Dabbler from how she’s appreciative of him as a master in this arrangement.
Although the ‘letting her take from him’ does not also mean the loot that she took from him when they apparently had their fight, during which Tom was sucked down into a fiery hole.
I admit it’s presumptuous though, but I’m basing it on the idea that he doesnt seem to abuse this power he has over her shown in panel #6.
PS – I was right :) hehe
>I didnt say she WAS taking from him.
You kinda did though?
Why else would you mention it if you didn’t think it was good enough reason for Dabbler to ignore a rude comment?
>PS – I was right :) hehe
About what? No one really guessed this origin for succubi.
“Why else would you mention it if you didn’t think it was good enough reason for Dabbler to ignore a rude comment?”
Because it’s implied from what he said in the last panel that he gives her a lot of sway in the relationship.
And btw, Dabbler DID ignore being called a slave. Probably because she didnt consider it rude – just factual. She literally said to Maxima ‘It’s fine. I -am- a slave.” Why else would she say ‘it’s fine’ other than that…. it was fine. ie, she was fine with ignoring it.
“About what? No one really guessed this origin for succubi.”
I literally did, last strip.
I’ll give you my exact quote:
“Because the slaves started killing their mage masters, the archmagi put a archmaster level magical condition on them that if they had no master, they would die. Then infernals got around that problem with a docietal system of institutionalized quasi-slavery where they had freedom but were still ‘technically’ slaves as far as the spell was concerned.”
Just call me Pander, Reader of the Future.
Also next week’s lotto numbers will be….
I more think it’s just implied that he respects informed consent in energy transfer, but whatever.
>And btw, Dabbler DID ignore being called a slave.
I know. Never really contested that.
>I literally did, last strip.
Fair enough.
“I more think it’s just implied that he respects informed consent in energy transfer, but whatever.”
Seems like giving a lot of leeway to a ‘slave’ if the master is respecting informed consent. Almost as if the ‘slave’ relationship was perfunctory as far as they both were concerned, just to get around the magic limitation placed upon succubi by archmagi 12,000 years ago.
“Never really contested that.”
You kinda did though? When you wrote:
“Why else would you mention it if you didn’t think it was good enough reason for Dabbler to ignore a rude comment?”
I said that because it was the premise of the person you were talking to.
They said it was a rude comment.
You replied that Dabbler could tolerate some rude language if “someone is committing to a lifelong commitment to make sure that YOU DONT DIE, and never takes from you outside of emergencies, while always letting you take from him”.
“You replied that Dabbler could tolerate some rude language”
What I meant by that is that what someone considers a ‘rude word’ might be quite different when said by someone who had done so much to make sure that you DO NOT DIE HORRIBLY from a condition for which they were not responsible for creating whatsoever while rarely asking for much, if anything, in return.
For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txuWGoZF3ew
For some reason, make a guess why… Dillon does not seem to mind being called that. :)
Well, okay, if that’s what you meant.
So is that why you tagged a random post whining about predicting something?
I have no idea what you’re talking about here.
You realize she’s a capital L Lust Demon who might enjoy the sexual, romantic and emotional connotations that come from the term in certain communities AND that she has had that term her entire life as a fact of her life in the same way we have the terms ‘instinct’ and ‘air’. Coming from Tom it could be literally any number of possibilities up to and including ‘Hey, we had a deal, contractee’ to ‘Hey, I’m going to sensuously remind you mere moments after fornication that I am also in charge of you in a relationship where we enjoy playing with dominant/submissive dynamics using a term with connotations that you as a Lust demon are likely to enjoy.’
On the topic of bling, after fifteen years in the Army I know exactly what Privates get. Two ribbons. Just two. The Army Service Ribbon and the National Defense Service Medal.
And a buck private doesn’t even get rank, you don’t get the “mosquito wing” single chevron until you hit Private Second Class. We call PV1s “fuzzies” because the spot where rank would normally velcro (excuse me, hook and pile tape) on is usually bare, leaving just the fuzzy patch where something should attach. Technically there’s a blank square they could use to cover the fuzz, but most don’t bother.
Now, since it’s possible to make Specialist before even leaving basic training if a new enlistee has enough outside qualifications, there’s no actual reason Sydney would be treated this way. She could become a Sergeant due the special criteria of having terrifying superpowers, or even be direct commissioned as an officer like a doctor or lawyer.
Also relevant to applicability of my wisdom, such as it is, the military organization here gives off Air Force vibes more than anything, so Army specific stuff may not even be relevant.
Don’t forget marksmanship. Small arms and rifles. She should have those 2. And combat action. And with the time dilation maybe a good conduct ribbon. So 6 all together
She was wounded in combat while fighting Squidward, which makes her eligible for a purple heart if Max nominated her. That makes a potential total of seven. A couple of criteria involved but the one most likely in this case is:
…Has been wounded or killed, or who has died or may hereafter die after being wounded:
(5) As the result of an act of any hostile foreign force.
http://www.recognizethesacrifice.org/purple-heart-criteria.html
Also, though nobody has mentioned it, Dave probably should know the following (Air Force derived general knowledge):
Every medal has a ribbon version that is worn in lieu of the actual medal on Service Dress uniforms (the military equivalent to a business suit…appropriate for occasions up to and including testifying before Congress). However, not every ribbon has a medal associated with it. So this is the biggest rack of awards one will typically have.
Although full-size medals are awarded and initially pinned on the uniform they happen to be wearing during the award ceremony (or for the big’uns, hung around the neck), they are typically not worn again.
On formal uniforms (Mess Dress/Dress Blues/what have you…the military equivalent of a tuxedo) miniature versions of the medals are worn hanging from a rack and no ribbons are worn.
On the note of quantity. It depends. I know an e-6 who went through afghanistan that if they wore everything it would cover the chest, and an e-7 with a total of 3. It depends heavily on what your unit was assigned and your role in that unit. On that note many choose to only wear their top 3 most significant for simplicity.
It doesn’t matter how many medals one has, one always also has ribbons. This makes the ribbon rack always bigger than the medal rack. And in the Air Force, although there used to be ‘some, all, or none’ for ribbon racks, a revision of AFI 36-2903 did away with that around 2000 and made ‘all’ mandatory. This status persisted until I got out in 2008, so it may not be that way now.
It should also be noted that I never said how many decorations any one person should have, just that within the quantity each individual has been awarded, the larger (available) rack is always the ribbon rack. If you were intending to respond to the OP or someone else in the thread, that’s fine, but you did reply to my comment.
I had some stray college credits when I enlisted, so I technically was a PV2 when I arrived at Reception at Basic…however, I wasn’t allowed to WEAR it until I arrived at AIT. Of course, everyone else was PV2 by then as well, but I had a two-month head start with respect to time in grade. Same for making PFC and SPC (my final rank). Time in grade as a SPC resulted in me, despite being not promotable, getting NCO’s quarters that became available in the barracks all to myself for the last six months or so of my one and only 4-year term.
So it seems that modern succubus society (which clearly seems to be free from their old masters, I’m guessing next page will explain that the modern solution is to transfer ownership to a friend) has been unable to fix the hole. And they’re probably trying very hard.
I’m curious when this problem starts. Do succubi need a master from birth? We know that there are baby succubi, like Tamatha, and she grew up without a master (or at least without knowing about it). And now she has an adult succubus as a mentor, not master. Can succubi count as master to other succubi? Is that the solution?
Is transferring ownership akin to marriage for succubi? Your succubus parents not just figuratively, but literally giving you away at the altar.
Came here to ask this same question – I am now very curious on how Tamatha and the other non-adult Succubi are created, and how Succubus parents fit into the picture. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-792-vitamin-t/
> has been unable to fix the hole. And they’re probably trying very hard.
I wouldn’t be surprised if trying to fix the hole was made illegal at the same time they were recognised as independent living beings. Because everyone would be scared of the artificial race that’s a master infiltrator/spy/assassin as soon as they finish puberty, and would probably want some way to keep them in check and not have them instantly take over all worlds.
Just because they’re demons doesn’t mean they aren’t as suceptable to being swayed by “robots take over the world” fiction as us.
Also, seriously: Succubi as presented here are terrifying, and if I’m right, we’ve so far only seen Dabbler on “super-juice” while she’s draining magic at a rate that would kill er in a few hours. Imagine how powerful she would be without that drain.
Well, it’s not like they chose to be that powerful.
It’d be weirdly fucked up to stop an entire race from freeing themselves from slavery because of the way their slavers built them.
Yes, but this is demon society we’re talking about.
They don’t need to be moral paragons or anything.
That would be… extra awful. Just when they achieve legal independence, to make them not only dependent, but make it illegal for them to even seek freedom from that dependence?
I think Xuriel is presented as an unusually powerful succubus, and that most of them aren’t all that high on the power scale, on a universal scale, so I wouldn’t think there’d be much pressure to control them, any more than any other demon.
I’d expect that there’s a substantial portion of the succubi community working toward that end. But I imagine that the hole is in some manner very difficult to repair and intentionally so. I mean, when you are chaining your magical servant to you with magic, and said servant also has the ability to cast magic on their own, you gotta be very careful about how you make that chain and you know it.
Personally, I prefer my strategy: not binding magical creatures to serve me. Full stop. It’s a lot simpler, and feels like it’s less likely to get me killed.
Evil Overlord List #48: I will treat any beast which I control through magic or technology with respect and kindness. Thus if the control is ever broken, it will not immediately come after me for revenge.
I was so about to post that but was trying to figure where I should post it.
+1 internet.
I too wondered about “born” succubus. According to an earlier panel, their mother feeds them a special hormone and they have to feed. Do they have to gain a master before they can leave their mother’s care?
All succubus are born now. The created succubus that Dabbler is talking about are from tens of thousands of years ago. All succubi today are descendants of those succubi, who were born (albeit through apparently a very convoluted means, based on what we heard during the press conference, with primary and secondary biological mothers who never meet each other, etc.).
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-762-this-presser-is-about-to-get-a-lot-more-exciting/
(See Panel 6)
I keep thinking the canon for the comic was changed with this explanation of Succubi
I don’t see anything in the comments on this, but forgive me if it was already asked.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-789-an-underage-succubus-walks-into-a-bar/
Her mentor is another succubus. To my knowledge, the identity of her bound master was never even hinted, let alone disclosed.
She says at some point in her convo with Sydney that young succubi are basically like normal girls till puberty. Maybe the hole in the soul develops proportionally with their heritage?
Yeah, this is one of those things that you’d feel would be important enough to need to disclose. And yet, I can easily imagine it feeling like one of those things that you really would not want to mention to anyone at all… until you find yourself in the situation where one of the most powerful people you know wants to behead the person keeping you alive, because he reminded you that he’s keeping you alive in front of her, and she doesn’t understand what he just said in the context that you understood it because of this missing detail.
This is possibly an Archon security hole right up there with employing a teleporter who also pops out clones at odd intervals, so even if you know how many you needed to keep track of 10 minutes ago, and you know where all of *those* instances of her are, you *still* don’t know for certain where she is at all times.
ummm I’m a pretty hyper-sexual person, but sense-sharing with a succubus sounds like setting up a mind-shredding feedback loop
Presumably initially intended for the infiltration side of the job. And if it works on a substitution rather than an addition basis (i.e. you only experience one set of senses at a time, but you can choose whether it’s the set in your body or hers), then that could avoid the feedback in … direct interaction scenarios.
definitely would need the swap rather than add option lol
wonder how many mages got their minds shredded before people stopped using additive sense sharing with their familiars
Panel 2: The way some gals eat candy or ice cream in public should be against the law…But I’m damm-sure glad it’s not.
Ahem.
*takes deep breath*
I WAS 100% RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!
:)
Nice to see that you aren’t letting petty victories go to your head. :D
Yes I know. I am very humble.
*does a victory dance with confetti and fireworks*
After all, it’s just a minor thing that I predicted might happen. Not something to brag too much about.
*waits as the Blue Angels Flight Team flies overhead in a choreographed aerial display of writing out PANDER WAS RIGHT in skywriting, followed by a thousand ninjas jumping out with placards displaying ‘PANDER WAS RIGHT’*
You have to keep a level head about this stuff, after all. It’s not like it really matters or it’s a competition or something.
*accepts Trophy for Most Spot-On Prediction Ever in the History of Everything*
so just pandering to yourself are ya.
*has one team of ninja hit squads put down a couple of the banners to go after you*
Free target practice? Why thank you, now you pander to our ego. LoL.
*I don’t really have ,more puns, but been sitting on that one till it felt appropriate* LoL
We loves ya.
Yeah she’s pretty good to have around.
Also, your representatives haven’t been stamping my frequent victim card lately, who do I talk to about that?
You know perfectly well that we discontinued that particular promotion!
Love it. Reminds me of a good vindictive quote from Support Your Local Sherriff:
To make a Futurama referfence “that just raises further questions”
namely tied to the reproduction issue again. At what age does this self destructive lifeforce to mana conversion kick in?
In other words how soon do they need to be *collared* after birth? Is it like a Marvel mutants thing and the powers kick in with puberty so not long after they need to have this binding made.
Usually the whole magical creature drains its self so must be bound to someone is done with spiritual entities (or something reasonably similar), and the constant energy drain will weaken and then banish them back to their own world, or leave the physical vessel that was made for them a desiccated husk.
having a leah/restriction/limitation trait like this built in as a species trait raises these questions of how soon they need it, and does it get worse with age till they have to have a master ect…
*edit: just checked out page 1 of comments. Looks like this was brought up and answered by DaveB already.
Perhaps the hole only opens up them moment they have sex for the first time? In wich case Decolette better explain to her young charge that she now needs to find a master.
I think you just came up with a plausible reason for a succubus who takes a vow of abstinence like the succubus nun from Sydney’s imagination.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m imagining in Panel 2 that Dabbler is:
1. holding the swirly popsicle still
2. while her tongue twirls around the length
3. and she continues talking without impediment.
Dabbler did mention, a few pages ago, the Speaker spell used by Peoples who lack the requisite mouth parts for non-magical speech. There’s nothing to say that Peoples who can speak ‘normally’ can’t also learn to use magical Speech, for when their mouth is … otherwise engaged.
Magical or physiological, I could easily believe that succubi having the ability to use their mouths for pleasuring someone while still retaining the ability to talk dirty with perfect clarity.
So, not so much slavery as life-long mana bond-mates with one superior partner. Or like marriage, pre-mid-20th century.
Dave, the term is ‘negative mana generation’ not ‘mana pool’ as she can theoretically be filled up. Incidentally, I recall one book series that had that happen to the main character. He was going to go the old school spell blade build, but winds up completing a hidden quest and turned into a mana vampire which permanently sets his mana regen to zero and causes HP damage when he runs out. Kind of a spoiler for a first book though, but does seem fun. Is explicitly a vidja game tho.
So how does that work for juvenile succubi? Wouldn’t that mean that they have to have a master or die? How do succubi procreate and pass on the hole to the offspring that would “die in less than a week”? Not trying to troll, just trying to understand the grrlverse.
Sounds more like a certain story I know the more this goes on!
…Is Thoth eating marshmallows? Is he roasting ’em first?
He’s… curiously examining one before trying to figure out how to eat (seeing how he has no throat for it to enter his digestive system… if he even has a digestive system)
On the subject of rank I was thinking it might be wise for Sydney to become a Warrant Officer. She can’t actually disclose her full range of abilities to anyone not cleared to know about them so sticking her in the basic (I think the term is Enlisted) rank system is going to lead to her being (as I understand it) under the command of everyone with a higher rank.
What do the military knowledgeable people who read this comic think about my proposal? Should all the Arc field staff be warrant? Just Sydney? Am I completely wrong about this being a good idea?
It’s all up in the air, really. Much of rank depends on when you got in, and ARC-SWAT being so specialized means there likely aren’t age limits for enlistement or commissioning. Maxima as a 34-yr-old O-5 is highly ambitious, but just barely conceivable real-world even notwithstanding her special skillset. The only one that -really- has me wondering what’s going on is Achillees. Unless he is a particularly recent pickup, he’s an E-4 in his 50s? I’d love to see the admin action that took a stripe or four.
Without makign this a full-on mil comic, I’m just picturing Sydney having to deal with crafting performance review bullets, the painfully slow cyberawareness training, and all the under mundane stuff that her, ah, pace of thought would have no time for.
WO status is intriguing, but putting Halo above an E-9 is… disconcerting…
Achillees May have only recently joined the military (comparatively) explaining his lower rank.
Weren’t Achilles, Mr. Amorphous and Heatwave vigilantes before joining Archon?
Yups, and joining Archon was their “Join or never see the light of day again” moment
Digit was in that group as well.
Was she? Thought it was just the Troublesome Trio
I realise there are problems with the idea but that’s inherent to how ranks work, unless I really misunderstand it an O-1 (is it O for officer or C for Commissioned?) is always above said E-9 but are expected to show some sense and listen to such people.
As I see it everyone in ARCSWAT is pretty much a specialist in their own powers and WOs are how such complications are dealt with which is why I thought it was worth making them all warrants. Sydney already knows about stuff like aliens being on Earth which probably doesn’t justify giving her a warrant on its own but I’m not an expert on the subject matter.
Ummm, no. “Warrant Officer” is a debated position these days, and even the originators (the Pommies) seem to have royally stuffed it.
Warrant Officers are technically NCOs, as they have been — wait for it… — APPOINTED under a WARRANT to a responsible position. In my Dad’s day, a WOII (Company Sergeant Major) would be literally responsible for the welfare of 1000 soldiers. The Regimental Sar’Major oversaw and coordinated all the CSMs in the Regiment.
As early as 1707, the absolute minimum qualification for Warrant Officer was literacy and numeracy, since from the beginning they were looking after stores of some description. Later practice began to look for leadership qualities, since the Sar’Major’s word was law, thus promotion to at least Corporal (in the Army) was a required qualification. In the Navy, these would be Standing Officers such as Gunner, Bosun or Carpenter.
Siddles would probably make a good WO, but she needs a lot of ground-pounding to be eligible.
Could an organisation like ARC-SWAT make everyone a warrant officer? It’s likely that any time they’re interacting with the other branches it’s a situation ARC is intended to deal with so I see some sense in the lower ranks of ARC being able to call the shots if no commissioned officers are on the ground as long as they get it drilled into them that they shouldn’t assume they always know best.
No, it doesn’t work that way. I’m making a guess here, that the US Armed Forces work more or less like the Poms do. Warrant Officers — Sergeant Majors — are responsible for minor details like uniforms, beds, showers, food, transport sometimes, education and training… Think Human Services. And making sure the ammunition arrives.
My Dad spent probably half of WWII in classrooms or heading up training establishments. Yes Warrant Officers do get to see action, but most Regimental and higher Commands try to minimise that kind of waste.
I had opportunity to join some dots while we were sampling some lagers one day, he confessed he was courmartialled prior to leaving Mombasa for Delhi, because he refused his cholera jab. Asked why, he said “Do you see all those soldiers there with swollen left shoulders? Do you think they can swim?”
“Sergeant, why would they want to swim?”
“Because we’re going to Delhi by sea, and the Japanese have submarines.”
“Oh.”
It is my understanding that that court-martial led to all immunisations being either planned months ahead of sea travel, or given after arrival. That’s what Sar’Majors do.
So they cant kill their master, but whats to stop them from tying them up and rendering them comatose for long periods of time, say… decades?
I have seen this come up in some series regarding summoned demons, sapient familiars, spirit partners, and such. Where the master was a pain, (or by accident), and *somehow* ended up in a coma, or in a trance; so the (magical being) ends up either posing as the summoner or is basically a free agent keeping what they really are a secret and their “master” under lock and key.
-sometimes a well to do adventurer trying to save this master may discover they really were just a shitty person after all and regret trying to save them.
I wonder who Decolette’s ‘master’ is?
Whoever he or she is, they give her a lot of freedom as well apparently.
Sydney, as usual, cuts straight to what’s important.
“Ferget the Deep History and Succubus Hole-Plugging questions of life and death! I wanna know how a demon with no lips can get so kissy-kissy!!”
Okay, so some questions do remain when thinking about it.
1: When did reproduction start with Succubi?
(as in before or after this stage, because if before there should be a “sister species” with many of the same powers without the limitation.)
2: What were the pre-limiter construct lifespans? Are there some still around if indefinite?
A sorcerer using a technique like this on living beings is incredibly dark when you think about. Like installing a kill switch in yourself (If I ever die for any reason *even not by their hand* then my (android, bio-android, homunculus, magical creature, ect…) will die shortly after.
I mean I can see it as an attempt at a safety net (you don’t dare kill me) but if someone else does it, or by accident, or if the construct has an ally that doesn’t believe this is real and is trying to save them…
but at least none of those mages were powerful enough to do this to an entire world, bonding every synthetic material to their own mana so if anything happened to them every single machine and synthetically produced via nanites or whatever object in the entire world would dust right there and then resulting via accidents countless deaths (train, air ship, boats, go poof, the support structures of many major buildings, along communication tech, ect….) also resulting in an era of chaos as people scramble for resources, power struggles, and whom ever can reinvent stuff the fastest drawing power via populations to them…
yep, good thing no one who could have the power to do that would, and spell casters are limited pulling this crap on their own familiars, and at most their magical moving castle like with Howl, or just castles for so many evil magical overlords. A collapsing castle because the magic holding it together and the death of their constructs is bad enough.
Rhulan:*glares*
So….. Do baby Succubi link to their moms? Do they get to *pick* their master at all? is the relationship transferrable? if Tom dies suddenly, can Dabbler just link to the nearest person with sufficient magic control and good character references?
Wait a second what about Tamatha does the same thing apply to her as well? Or does she get her energy from her parents like her mother and her mentor and do they get energy from her like a symbiosis kind of thing.
If all succubus and incubus are created creatures so was Tamatha made by a sorcerer or sorceress or did her mother just make a womb in order to have a baby.
Also all the adult succubus we have seen have a caller but she doesn’t, is that a rite of passage thing for succubus when they become an adult. Also has there ever been a succubus who have tried to figure out a way to work out that weakness in their biology, you know find a way to fill that hole in their soul without needing a master or mistress.
> Wishing to “make me one with everything” is far more likely to result in a violent explosion than achieving enlightenment.
Or a burger with the lot…
Question – what happened to the succubus decendants of succubi Who existed BEFORE they created the mana hole safeguard?
Hunted and killed by the evil mages maybe, just to be safe from a potential threat.
This seems to be the base of the question several, including myself, have been asking.
the background hasn’t touched on even when sexual reproduction entered the story.
Yeah. I just think that, from an evolutionary standpoint, pre-curse succubi would have a better survival rate than post-curse succubi, so I’m trying to figure out what happened to all those pre-curse succubi. Were they all killed off? Was the curse such that it automatically affects ALL descendant succubi, whether offspring of pre- or post-curse (I had assumed it was more like individualized programming that got passed on biologically through reproduction).
It’s just a big blank spot that would change a lot if there was a group of succubi that are not affected by the curse and, therefore, do not have to be slaves in order to survive.
I am wandering if this relates to the natural succubus thing.
like if there are two lines of Succubi. Or if the pre-curse types didn’t require the tantric energy to survive or whatever so simply aren’t called succubi but are one of the other seducers like Lillim, Rusalka, Bolotnitsa, Kikimora, Leanan Sidhe, ect…
They were ready to meat their makers!
Dammit that’s a pun but a very smart one…
…every once in a while…
Don’t make it a habit of making good, SMART puns. I have a lot of ninja who depend on me for employment.
I know, I get a referral fee from Iga’s every time you send them here. It pays for their lunch.
So, obvious plot hole with Dabblers history, are sccumbi born slaves now? I thought there was some sort of civilization of them, with young ones being raised and growing up somehow. But if they are more like symbiotes to another civilization, how is this handled? Escecially with your comments saying that collars are more like engagement rings. Modern sccumbi are ‘plugged’ and very limited magic ability until they find a master or something?
I asked my brother in the 80s what his ribbons were for after basic. He had just a few, maybe three. He told me that those ribbons were given to everyone who completed basic training in the air force. When he exited military service he had the same number. Not surprising, since he was pretty bad at most things (lets just say he wasn’t allowed to drive a jeep and something about hitting a pole to the front of the jeep while backing up in a deserted lot).
Sydney should have the basic three (or what ever number) from completing basic training as everyone has said. She should also have the marksmanship ribbon if no one ever found out she was cheating using her new and improved glasses. She would probably get a medal for her contributions (she was instrumental in taking down Mr Aggro and holding off the Behemoths on the alien planet). I have no idea what her status would be when she encountered Sciona. Didn’t she and/or others technically die in another timeline?
BTW: Hey Dave, when are we gonna get a rogues gallery?
When someone pays him enough to hire a helper to do all the fiddly shit he hasn’t been able to do in years (like fix the cast page, that hasn’t been updated since the webic started)
I guess they were eager to Meat Their Makers.
TL;DR Sydney should have a lot more questions for Dabbler since she was there for a lot of my points.
This calls to question a lot of the succubus exposition we’ve gotten with dabbler already. What about tantrict energy? After the first super brawl, Dabbler explained that it’s basically like food for her people, but now we know that they ALSO need a mana sugar daddy(intentional phrasing). Which isn’t really contradictory, but it seems out of place now. And what about “natural” succubus line we got in the twilight counsel? If all succubus are created beings, what does a “natural vs unnatural” succubus imply, and it sounds like Dabbler is a created succubus and the other lady(forget her name) isn’t. Also, let’s not forget that literally the first time we saw Thoth was him being banished by dabbler and her stealing from him. Couldn’t he… Idk. Stop her? Suck all her mana out? She does have a VAST bag of tricks and tech, but a lot of it seems based in magic, which seems to be her go to. Also also… Dabbler has/had parents. I know it seems like most succubus in this universe are just really advanced flesh golems, that need bodies to be made, but you’d think she’d be made from home grown body parts and nascent soul fragments to avoid the whole “You took my body and/or soul to make a sex toy!” thing.
And then there’s the news guy who actually asked the Dalai Lama to make him one with everything… and then in a later interview, told it again and fed him an actual pizza. *facepalm*
In my defense, the boss didn’t say not to amputate all 4 of his limbs and leave him out in front of a hyena nest like some sort of delicious, non-ambulatory meat snack.
For military ribbons.. honestly, just go https://ezrackbuilder.usamm.com/rack-builder/select-branch
Most ribbons in the military are sort of similar across branches, decide what award that person would get, add it on, with the builder, and poof, there you go.
After 6 years of non-combat service, I had a rack of about 7 ribbons.
But, Sidney would have, at minimum
1 Service Ribbon (for being in the service)
1 Markmanship Medal (with bars under it for different weapons she qualified with)
medals based on how “Awesome” the different above and beyond activities she did (for army, standards are Army Achievement, Army Commendation, Meterious Service, etc)
How does this stiry fit with the kid succubus that was introduced a few story arcs ago? She seemed oblivious to the whole succubus lifestyle shouldn’t she have a owner?
That was the very first comment, and the subject of much of the discussion on the first page of comments.
This kind of evolution-style world building always makes me wonder. I don’t know the chronology here, but I do know that demons(presumably including succubi) live for a very long time. There’s no way the mana hole solution was instantly adopted everywhere. Therefore, there could well be “pre-patch” succubi running around with no restrictions on their behavior and no need for a permanent partner.
Just notice Tommy boy is eating or thinking about eating a marshmallow?
The talk about Sydney getting awards led me to this page explaining how someone could achieve Lance Corporal in the Marines within a year of beginning boot camp.
https://marineparents.com/marinecorps/promotions.asp
If ARCSwat is close to this, it isn’t so far fetched for Max to be addressing Sydney as Corporal in the near future. Especially if you count meritorious promotion.
… I’m not sure if this is already mentioned and I apologize if it was… but:
What’s stopping a succubus from securing a new master before betraying her old master? Backstab, then do the evil overlord laughing over his dying body even as she transfers to the new master?
I feel like this may fall into the category of (you can only stuff so much into one hole)