Grrl Power #1195 – Ratio matters
I paired the tallest guy on the team with the two shortest women (excluding Sydney) because the thought amused me, but I admit that I probably drew Ren a little big here. He’s actually shorter than Anvil, at 6’5″. Peggy is 5’4″ and Seneca is 5’5.” If they were standing, then I drew it about right, with them coming up to somewhere between his shoulders and chin, but sitting, half of that height difference would be lost. It still amuses me.
One thing I’ve almost definitely overlooked in the comic is that I really can’t imagine Seneca being where she is in her career without having at least one tattoo somewhere. I’m not sure I ever said what branch she came from before Maxima poached her, but I’m thinking she was a Green Beret? I just googled that, and at the time this page is going up, only four women have ever become GBs. Maybe in the Grrl-verse that number is a little bit higher, but it seems a little unlikely she would have up and jumped into a newly created branch after an achievement like that. Although Maxima is kind of impressive when you meet her for the first time, and also there’s a decent chance that meeting was also when Seneca first learned about supers. Also it’s entirely possible she was getting a lot of sexist flak from others in her squad/group/division, or whatever organizational unit makes sense for GBs. After all, if the military is good at one thing, it’s being a total boys’ club and also being terrible to female soldiers and totally dismissing their complaints of harassment and sexual assault. So maybe Seneca figured having a female commander who could kick literally anyone’s ass might be an improvement. Also the pay was a lot better.
My point is, she’d probably have at least some Army tattoo, something denoting her company/platoon/squad? A GB specific tattoo might not be in the cards, as being easily identified as such could be a poor idea? Maybe save that one for after you’re retired or at least promoted out of field work. Maybe she’s got a company tat on her butt?
Maxima seems surprised here that so far no one is freaking out about what’s happened (and if that bugs you, give it a few pages, I can only fit so much in each strip) but keep in mind, she didn’t exactly order people to sit with their lust buddies, but that’s exactly what’s happened. There isn’t anyone sitting on opposite sides of the auditorium glaring at anyone else. Actually, everyone seems to have a lingering case of the handsies. If she hadn’t called the base to this meeting, there would probably be a lot of cuddling going on right now – cuddling with a lot of post-coital “Wow I can’t believe we just did that.” and “What got into us?” and “Is this going to be awkward now?”
The fact is that immediately explaining what happened is probably keeping the overall anxiety levels down. Honestly, there’s probably quite a few people in the building that figured with their resident house succubus, they’re surprised something like this hadn’t happened sooner.
The August vote incentive is up! Yeah I know it’s late, so hopefully I’ll manage to get some bonus (read: overdue) incentives up as I attempt to catch up.
Oh no! Sydney’s been injured! A Wampa may or may not have been involved, I’ll leave the exact nature of the incident up to you. It’s not relevant to the picture. And before you’re like “Dave, Bandaged Rei is one thing, but floating unconscious in a bacta tank is probably an even narrower fetish.” just check the picture out.
The Patreon version has nudes and variants, and a comic that reveals something interesting about the orbs.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. 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.
Not going to lie, Onyx is a really cool superhero name for Ren. Or Skyscraper for that matter.
He might have a new nickname later: “Cervixshaper” or “CervixScraper” XD
The Pelvic Bomber, Thrust of Doom, KABLASM, Obsidian Spearhead, The Vagomancer, … , THE FINISHER!
From hereon in, I am no longer calling Ren Blulk, and will instead call him Kablasm.
I have spoken.
I am happy with this result.
Kablasm is indeed the best, though I have to admit that Vagomancer has a lot going for it too.
So, he makes things explode?
Gonna have to overrule you: Sen already named him
Only his own thing.
He makes at least a few things explode, yes.
Fear his wand!
Onyx… would be an awesome superhero name… EXCEPT that you’re essentially calling him ‘Black’, which is bound to set off a few alarms. I’d be okay with it, but expect attacks.
You… do know that many people actually have that as their name, in the Real World, right?
And not just strippers or crappers, right?
I agree with you
Dave, Every so often you come up with a gem of a phrase but you outdid yourself today.
The “onyx skyscraper” is great but “ibuprofen for my cervix” is an absolute, over-the-top gem!
My problem here is… Who is Seneca? Who is Ren? Why should I care? For the record, I did see their introductions in the comic, I did see all of their scenes, the questions stand. I can’t seem to accept them as members of the cast because they’ve in no way been involved in the worldbuilding of the story.
It’s like Dave showed us these people, “Here, here’s some new characters, you care about them now, right? Ok, moving on…. ”
I don’t care about them because I don’t know who they are, they’re “not my friends” like Sydney and Maxima and so on, they’re… I dunno, intruders. They’re here, they’re having a scene, why should I care?
Give us something to bite into, Dave. Connect them to the main storyline and main characters, or just let ’em fade into obscurity.
They’re not new. We met Ren when Sydney was introduced to other recruits, and he fought Vehemence in the quarry scene.
Tell us you haven’t actually read the comic without telling us you haven’t actually read the comic.
I’m not the person you’re replying to, but I’ve read strips as they came out for a few years now. Which means it might have been 6 months or a year since the last time I saw Seneca. And since I can’t find her on the cast list, I have no idea who she is, if she has superpowers, what she did the last time I saw her, etc.
she doesn’t have superpowers, but she does have a major craving for sweets
And that’s what the character tags are for, below the page, so you can quickly review other pages where a particular character has appeared. DaveB added features like that, and the Who’s Who, because he has the same problem with comics he reads, where he can’t remember who the minor characters that rarely appear are.
Right, but “you can research them” is not a compelling reply to “I don’t remember these people well enough to care about them”. “Getting information” does not equal “caring”.
Seneca has no superpowers, but like Peggy, Shawn, and Goose she has extraordinary abilities as a soldier that make her the elite of the elite. She also holds the record on the firearms training course (I’m assuming aside from Maxima).
Tell us you didn’t read the comment properly without telling us you didn’t read the comment properly.
Seneca is part of ARC-Swat, non-super who is extremely good at firearms and hand-to-hand fighting, like Peggy, Goose (Duke Nukem), and Shawn. She has an addiction to sweets and is Sydney’s Firearms Trainer when Peggy isn’t around.
Ren (formerly known as Blulk or Black Hulk, now forever known as Kablasm, so sayeth me) is an Archon cadet Super who’s power involves his adrenaline (hence why people call him Ren) making him superhumanly strong, fast, and durable. The more adrenaline, the stronger, faster, more durable, and faster at healing he gets. He starts at about 10x a normal human and then just starts escalating in physical abilities from there, based on his adrenaline. He’s been able to go toe-to-toe with Vehemence, and has actually done well in spars against even Maxima, which she mentioned to him was an impressive feat.
They’ve both been in the comic for quite a while – years actually – although they’re not main characters.
Here is where you are wrong: Dave made no such demand that you care about any of his characters.
You are perfectly entitled to consider these three as bit characters who are only in the comic for this one scene to illustrate the point that the lust aura did not force anybody to do anything they did not at some level wanted to do.
Not every part of a story has to be about the protagonist. B, and even C cast exist in stories for a reason.
And the notion that every plot point has to loop back to the protagonist is what ruined the star wars fandom for me (though in that case it is not so much a notion as it is a fanactical obsession). I rather not see that happen here.
Regarding the relative sizes of Ren, Peggy, and Seneca, remember that women have much more leg in relation to torso that men. I’m on the extreme end of that ratio difference in that I have never been able to perform 69 on a woman performing on me, one or the other has to take a break and wait until the other gets within reach. It’s one of the annoying things about this body having the proportions of Fred Flintstone. My old GF was 5′ nothing and most of that was legs, we were in separate zipcodes trying to do 69.
Guys in Forces do not get tats while serving. Their job is to go places and do things where that kind of identifying mark will get people killed.
Came here to make this comment
Is it just me or did Dave forget to color Ren’s eyes in panels four and six?
It’s just you. In panel 4 she is looking to the side, so her irises are barely visible. In panel 6 they are the same gold as in panel 2.
Ren, not Sen
His eyes are dilated in panels four and six because of what Sen is saying
That was a clunky, clunky page, ngl. Also no idea who seneca is.
Welcome to the comic, care to read the Who’s Who?
How DARE anyone affected not be raging at Parf and regretting what happened?!?!
Get a grip clutchers, we have only heard from five people involved so far, and two of them didn’t even realise anything external was involved in the process
As DaveB, give it time and we will hear at least one regret (feeling bad for Jiggs already, she seemed happy :( )
I find the people demanding that nobody be upset equally as annoying as the people demanding that everyone be upset.
Just saying: have faith in DaveB and wait
Pretty sure that Mr Amorphous DOES have a problem with what happened, since he’s in a loving relationship with Brooke (Heatwave) and this has caused him to cheat on her and have an affair with Jiggawatt, who seems pretty smitten with Mr Stretchy Parts’ abilities in the bedroom.
We have no indicator that there is anything wrong between Morph and Heatwave, certainly as fuck not an affair (which implies this was not a one-off, and also not something caused by the Aura)!
His facial expression heavily implies that he’s not exactly thrilled about this outcome. Why do you think this was not a one-off? He very much seems to not be happy about this, unlike Jiggawatt.
Was saying, calling it an affair implies this was not the first time
What makes you assume it wasnt?
Because there has been no indication that there has been any problems between the two
I’m very confused by your reasoning.
There has been no indication that there has been any problems between Mr. A and Heatwave, and therefore I should assume that he’s cheated on Heatwave with Jiggawatt before now?
That doesnt make sense.
Generously, we have to at least acknowledge that Mr. A wasn’t opposed to the thing.
I think it’s unlikely that Parfait’s aura actually forced anyone to do anything they didn’t already want on _some_ level…but, just we were talking about with the disguise gadget Max used to have her night out, there’s clearly some violation of consent that happened. A magic roofie is still a roofie, as I said before. The question here, is complicated by her potential (probable?) lack of willful intent to act.
Unlike some people here, I don’t think Brooke is “too slow or “not sharp enough” or “not bright enough” or wtf ever, to understand that her guy wasn’t acting entirely in his right mind, and I also imagine that she also smart enough to understand that her guy probably also finds other women in addition to herself attractive and desirable.
He probably feels guilty as hell, and is currently wrestling with himself about exactly how good his self-control is, and the strength of his own character as a committed partner. Not _entirely_ fair, but very understandable for him to have that sense. Brooke _will_ be hurt, I expect, on at least some level, even though I do expect she’ll forgive him.
The person I am more concerned about is Jiggs. No matter the case, unless she is somehow super vulnerable to this sort of thing, or she had previously _already_ arranged some understanding, she ought to be showing at least _some_ sort of apprehension or concern over the fact that she just fucked her coworker’s boyfriend.
“Generously, we have to at least acknowledge that Mr. A wasn’t opposed to the thing.”
This is true. According to Decolette, it’s a nudge, not a mind control order. Still, it’s a nudge that Mr. A would likely never have done without the extra push. I’m not saying Parfait did a crime (no mens rea involved) – I’m saying that of all the people gathered here, Mr. Amorphous seems to be the one who has regrets about what happened because it’s something he would not have normally done, absent the aura and the ‘nudge.’ A lot of people have temptations and do not follow through on them, and this is probably a temptation Mr. A had but never followed through on because he loves Brooke and is in a committed relationship.
“Unlike some people here, I don’t think Brooke is “too slow or “not sharp enough” or “not bright enough” or wtf ever, to understand that her guy wasn’t acting entirely in his right mind,”
I don’t think Brooke is the ‘brightest bulb’ (it takes her longer to figure things out than most people) but that doesnt mean she’s an idiot or unable to understand what happened. Still I think it’s very likely that she would be emotionally hurt about it – and the idea that there’s not someone DEFINITIVELY to blame for this (like she was able to be with Harem and the kissy-face prank) makes it a little worse because there’s no one to direct that anger or at least disappointment at.
“very understandable for him to have that sense. Brooke _will_ be hurt, I expect, on at least some level, even though I do expect she’ll forgive him.”
I agree here as well that she’ll be able to forgive him since it wasn’t something he would have done sans the aura. I’m just concerned about how Jiggawatt seems VERY attached to him after the fact, when there’s no longer any aura being used.
“she ought to be showing at least _some_ sort of apprehension or concern over the fact that she just fucked her coworker’s boyfriend.”
Yes, this definitely.
In a lot of ways that’s sort of the worst combination.
Heatwave is going to have bad feelings about this. We already know how she feels about sharing her guy, so feelings about this incident are fairly unavoidable. Realizing that her guy wasn’t in his right mind and that therefore her own feelings are arguably “wrong” isn’t going to make them go away. It would only make her feel like she doesn’t have the right to feel those things or the right to express them.
And that’s how simple anger gets transformed into simmering resentment, volatile moodiness, and/or depression. If those are the alternatives it would be better for everybody IMO, including her, to have the anger and the rage without reservation, and get it out into the open.
I don’t think any moderately intelligent adult with an ounce of empathy would even suggest that Brooke wouldn’t has a right to her feelings, or that ad feelings were “wrong,” or otherwise unacceptable.
Speaking for myself, I would give her exactly what I’ve people in much more mundane situations: a clear statement that her feelings are valid, and that she has a right to them, and that she is not responsible for, or “to blame” for those feeling, and completely unstinting emotional support.
I always tell people, “you feel what you feel,there’s no controlling that. Emotions do not yield to reason.”
You have been kinder and more mature about the feelings of people who are “wrong” than the vast majority of humanity. Kinder and more mature than I expect anyone to treat Brooke, at any rate. Bless you for that.
It came after years of experience and reflection upon that experience.
One thing I will recommend about truck driving, it does give you time to think.
This is why extenuating circumstances do not affect the guilty verdict, only the degree of punishment.
The fact that mr Amorpheus was ‘nudged’ does in no way make Brooke’s feelings of deep hurt wrong. He did something that he promised to her he would not do. Her feelings about that are real, and justified, regardless of the cause of Amorpheus’ behaviour.
Dunno, what’s the standard punishment for somebody goofing off and having sex when they’re on duty at a guardpost?
That seems like a fair indication that there’s a pretty severe loss of judgement involved
It is very unlikely that either Mr. A or Jiggs were On Duty, let alone On Watch.
Sorry, I wasn’t meaning them.
I was meaning the person in the booth in the foyer, I assume they’re military
Even if they aren’t military having sex while you’re working in a glass booth strikes me as pushing things.
Wait a minute… aren’t you one of those who was going on about how everyone was being ‘forced‘ (or manipulated or mind-controlled) into having sex against their will? And now you are saying that Morph was okay with this? o_O
Is that what I said?
Go and find the post where you think I said that, bring it back, and we can discuss it.
I mean, this is a building full of probably the most attractive people in the STATE. This is an Olympic Athlete Hotel situation. Most people aren’t going to be upset that they were given an excuse to fuck their hot coworker. We’ll probably get at least one case of post-nut concern about the dubious nature of consent under what could be seen as Succubus Date Rape drugs but…
I really don’t like how everyone is piling on Dave for having a little sexy fun in his comic, all this outrage and discomfort I’m seeing in the comments is really bumming me out. For what it’s worth Dave, I’ve been enjoying the comic, and I think many others have too, even if they aren’t the kind to pop into comments and speak up.
So other people having a different opinion or emotional reaction to you “bums you out”. Should you being bummed out affect other people’s feelings?
For me, the big problem is: if you are not equally offended by what has happened, then you are scum who either condones what happened, or is guilty of doing something similar (and that includes DaveB)
i definetly am scum that condones adults going at it when having mutual hots for each other… like for real sidney herself demostrated that the lust aura just makes u hornier its not a drug that makes u unable to say i dont consent
Pretty much this, some of these perspectives are just completely deranged, I had Hamish basically accuse me of being a rapist on another comment chain. These people are not operating from a psychologically-sound position.
Yes, it should bum you out specifically Torabi. You and you alone should have a terrible day because of this.
The issue isn’t “a little sexy fun” it’s that people were pushed towards sex by a magical effect
It affected the person in the foyer enough that they were willing to go for it when on duty and effectively abandon their post while on duty
That raises serious issues about consent
That’s pretty much where I’m at. I’m all in favor of consenting adults having whatever kind of fun they like.
But I have some consent-shaped problems here. I recognize that my consent hangups are not everybody’s, but the consent issue is so serious and personally important to me that I never even went home with anyone who’d even been drinking alcohol in the same evening. Hell, In the course of my singledom I had several occasions where drunk women who were hot as hell propositioned me straight out, and told them ‘no, you’re too drunk to be starting something like that.’
And yeah, mostly had them be annoyed at me for the ‘rejection’ the next day and the offer, sadly, never repeats. But I’d rather have someone annoyed at me for rejection and the offer never repeat, than have someone wake up with me with regrets and feeling taken advantage of. That’s a type of conflict I absolutely never want to be in with someone I’m attracted to, no matter what.
See, that’s my problem here. It’s not about the sexy fun. Sexy fun is FINE. It’s about the consent.
is thermonuclear TMI a thing? I think thermonuclear TMI should be a thing.
let me fart the song of my people for you.
I love this arc. I do hope there is no seriously bad endings for the Lust-couples even if it only ends as FWB’s.
I see so many potential romantic spin-offs or “filler” arcs I am not avers to see in the future.
More personal info on the rest of the team is needed and “dating scenes” is perfect for a info dump.
Love the series and you are very good at drawing forward the silent meanings in the scenes. (pun intended)
…I just realised this, but did Sydney just tank a succubus’s lust aura at point blank range without losing control?
this has been said severa times in the comments by dave and in pointed at in the comic the lust aura makes u horny it doesnt change your sexual orientation nor does it makes drug u out, she was horny af and said so but she wasnt interested in parfait
She did, but she lost a fair bit of her ablative armour in the process …
Oh I love how this is playing out so far :D
The sexy bits, how Sydney is setting (and teaching) Parfait about boundaries, how Maxima is handling this as the serious issue it is (consent and coersion), how the vibe is that this was a positive and mutual thing…
This is beautifully done
Wasn’t there a chapter where dabbler explained she did something or other to mitigate resentment? I don’t remember what was in the chapter other than dabbler forgot the word resentment. Can someone look it up and tell me the chapter number?
Not resentment, it was so they wouldn’t be spoilt for hyu-mon females (and it was more forgetting the details not the sex itself)
It was just after the Restaurant Rumble with the Barbhairian (or whatever nickname readers gave him)
It’s page 287 where Dabbler doesn’t know a good word for “lingering bad feelings”, to which someone suggests “resentment”. This is in reference to the spell she put on Jabberwocky, which she says is “designed to taper off gradually to minimize” resentment.
Yeah, depending on things, that might be a natural part of succubus lust magic, and explains why everyone is being chill
HA!! Spongebob is in one of the back tanks on the incentive.
gotta have some way to soak up the….leftovers
DaveB, pretty, pretty please, would you kindly update the cast page to include all these other awesome characters? I know it’s a bit of work, but we’d really, really love it!
(Add a quick reply if you agree, folks! Doesn’t have to be much, even just a ^ will do!)
It’s a time thing for him. He can spend hours updating the who’s who, or he can work on the comic. Decisions, decisions.
Me, I’d be happy with a couple weeks of lower-quality comics so he can update the who’s-who.
Hmm, so we’ve seen the various scenes with ArcSWAT, but what about the other side of the building with the public? That could be all kinds of bad
That’s probably where Ari is: Maxi has no jurisdiction over the civvies, but Ari probably does
People fight and try to kill them, because they were affected by aggression aura. “It was not their fault or intent, they were magically influenced and to them, it seemed like perfectly fine thing to do at that time due to that magical brainwashing. Even if they now, without the effects try to justify why it was logical thing to do.”
People are affected by lust aura and all of them screw each other.
“Oh no, just because we were under magical effects of lust aura, and our actions made sense to us at that moment, and now we are trying to justify what we did as if we wanted to, doesn’t mean anything bad happened. It was just perfectly normal, it is not as if we were not basically raped without consent after being magically brainwashed.”
This whole thing doesn’t sit well for me because of this double standard and I am even think Maxima is not serious enough about the issue.
Also, their magic defense sucks. One sleep aura and they are ducked.
There’s two different assumptions that could be being made here and neither are necessarily true.
1. That both types of auras magically influence people in the same way.
2. That the argument for the aggression aura was correct.
I read the aftermath of the aggression aura as people realizing that there’s an absurd amount of legal tomfoolery that would make it entirely too difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were able to control their actions and thus chose this outcome, so they just accepted it and saved money and time trying to actually prosecute people for their actions. Regardless, the aggro aura could function by making you aggro against people while the lust aura just increases your own lust, one would artificially add targets and the other would just make you more likely to act on your preexisting feelings. Those are very different in the context of agency.
I love the mention of ibuprofen in here. As any military member or veteran will attest to, the military miracle drug is Motrin. Bad headache or sprain, take 2 200 mg of Motrin. Got a severe back strain, here’s a script for 800 mg of Motrin. HOLY SHIT! Half your femur is sticking out of your thigh. We need 2,000 mg Motrin shot Stat and start IV fluids.
DaveB has repeatedly admitted he knows next to nothing about the military, so he went with the pain medication drug that he (and a large percentage of readers) would be familiar with (or at least recognize the name)
While it’s nice she got what she wanted, repeatedly, it’s genuinely insensitive of her to not recognize Max’s point that external influence means even her own partners may secretly not have been as mutually consenting and be harboring regrets. It’s a very serious issue and why a private therapy session is warranted.
Kind of tiresome how true to life it is to hear someone go “I don’t have or see the problem” and assume that means there couldn’t possibly be a problem for anyone else — Okay, you’re happy, so shush and let people finish covering the important stuff!
So, she can’t state that there is no resentment between those three?
And she did say that she can’t speak for everyone, but that doesn’t mean she can’t speak for no one
I tend to wonder if ARC has great counselors and they already have the squads comfortable with themselves in both mind and body so they don’t have all the hangups present in these threads.
AFAIK sex is the best way to minimize a PTSD creating incident in that it diverts the minds from creating a single response trigger of what occurred. It’s just incredibly inconvenient in the field. BTW psychedelic drugs are second.