Grrl Power #1196 – Max chill
Max went into this expecting a lot of bickering and “he did this and that to me” and “she started it” and closed off body language and lack of eye contact, so she’s a little exasperated by all the snuggling and everything seeming to be working out. (Again, if it seems like everyone is too laid back about this, give it a few pages.)
I’m actually not sure what the dress shirt worn under dress purples would look like. I know in the USAF there’s a sort of “casual dress blues” that’s a short sleeve shirt with rank and epaulettes and nametags and the like, but that’s obviously not what is worn under a jacket, cause all that stuff would get pressed into your skin by the weight of the jacket. But it’s also probably not just a white dress shirt you can buy at Macy’s… is Macy’s still in business? (one quick googling later) Huh, I guess they are. It’s been a while since I was in a mall. Anyway, there’d probably be rank epaulettes and branch identification or something on the dress shirt worn under the jacket. I don’t know how often officers in dress uniforms sling their jacket over their shoulders or hang them on the back of a chair. I’d guess not all that often, so maybe it’s not a critical detail.
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.
Maximas concerns are understandable.
Hell yeah, even in a normal workenvironment one bad joke or one co-worker who doesn’t pull his weight can mess up the the team interaction. Let alone if there are intimate relations endingin a bad seperation.
ummm… yeah… But this is very much not a normal working environment…
There’s the bit where the whole organisation is run along the lines of the US military, with its strict rules.
On the other hand, there’s this rag-tag band of supers who have to deal with Outrageous Danger on a regular basis which requires…. a lot more flexibility… than the US military usually offers when it comes to engagements.
And really… Innuendo and sexually charged jokes that would definitely get you into problems elsewhere are run-of-the-mill daily occurrences in ARC-SWAT at least.
Even before Parfait had her Episode, she and Sydney were positively drooling over the Beefcake at the gym, for instance. The shower posters. Harem *vorp*ing the shirts off the males. Dabbler and her antics. Matt and his very explicit advances…
The list goes on.
As far as I can tell, ( and Arianna made some things clear in the beginning ), the peeps there are expected to keep things Professional when on duty or in uniform.
Anything beyond that is more along the lines of “Don’t Do Stuff That Crashes Morale Or Inhibits Your Performance”.
This, very much.
Just to add to what BlokeinClogland said, there’s actually real-life precedent for sex being allowed in non-standard working environments. NASA’s plans for heading to Mars explicitly allow the astronauts to have sex with each other, so long as they don’t jeopardize the mission. When you stick people together in a tiny capsule for potentially years, it’s unreasonable to NOT expect them to get it on.
The US Navy’s general operating procedures with intimate relations are “don’t get an std or pregnant, otherwise get your job done”. The reactions of the team in general are exactly what I would expect, Maxima and Sydney are the standouts. Sydney was almost unaffected despite being right next to Parfait and Maxima went from chill to seething anger, rather the opposite reaction that the aura is supposed to elicit.
Sydney was aware of what was happening and actively declining the urges it engendered, and Max went to “Someone/something is suddenly being inflicted presumably over a wide area and almost certainly without consent, is this hostile action specifically, or just extremely misappropriate abuse of power?”
It would seem that Maxima is missing the boat entirely. The more important issue is the danger of an aura negatively affecting the performance and viability of the team. There have now been two incidences of these auras, one somewhat benign the other incapacitating. Some major thought and planning needs to occur to strategize in the event of future occurrences.
Hoping Mr. A will speak up next comic page. Was expecting it to come up after Max asked the whole room. ah well full steam ahead
I was hoping that he’d speak up soon, too. And where’s Heatwave?
Have they definitely searched the whole building and found everyone?
In the words of the old song, someone could be having a Heatwave.”
Yes, yes, wait a few pages – but on this page, it ought to be obvious to any remotely competent leader that asking a group, in public, “was any single one of you not ok with this” is the best way to ensure that anyone who was NOT in fact ok with it would feel too intimidated to say so.
Maybe someone will speak up, but if so that’s despite Max’s efforts, not because of them.
Especially since the first to speak up were okay with it. There’s going to be a real reluctance to put forward a dissenting opinion.
And Heatwave? When she finds out about this, I’m calling bullshit if she does NOT attempt to assault Parfait or even Sydney for it. She has consistently been shown to be jealous to the point of threatening violence on someone perceived to have given Mr. A a freakin’ kiss. (I hadn’t realized that was Mr. A in the seats with Jiggawatt until others mentioned it.)
And honestly? If the argument is that she should forgive Mr. A because he was under the effect of Parfait’s aura, than that necessarily is making the argument that the sex was NOT consensual, and that the folks who’ve expressed concerns about that are utterly correct. If Mr. A was just really horny and made a conscious decision to cheat on Heatwave, then… well, I’m not going to say he deserves to get flash-fried, but I don’t think he has any right to be surprised about it, either.
IF Heatwave will assault anyone over this, it will be poor Jiggs, you know, the one who actually had sex with Morph
after such a gung-ho denial of any problems, he might have trouble voicing concerns in this public environment… of course, he’s also a pretty self-confident man, but in that case he probably would have talked to Jiggawatt already
Yes, a little too laid back. Definitely waiting for whatever is happening in a pages.
Something about panel 3 worries me though. Maybe I’m paranoid but it smells like it’s setting up for an answer/explanation that probably won’t like.
Kinda like old school “after school special” vibes, yeah.
ah, yes. The ” Major thing happened, and we would be remiss in not addressing it and potential problems or consequences going forward” of a major organization running into the personal “Stop trying to make problems where there are no problems!” of individuals.
and both being sort of right.
Eh… I really do hope there’s more to it than this. I know, I know, wait a few pages. But right now it really feels like we ran into the issue of “what are we gonna do about all these folks being mentally manipulated into having sex with each other” and just.. shrugged. Nope, no issue here, everyone is just fine with it! No more questions, next phase of the comic!
Again, I know he said wait a few pages… but I really hope there’s a good explanation
I think a large part of that really could be just that it happened after-hours. So when everyone grabbed whomever was closest for sex, it was with people they already wanted to hang out with beyond being forced to for work reasons. Many of these groups were already basically exploring the possibility of being couples, and this just was a jump-start.
It would have been a very different thing had it happened during the day.
Given that several didn’t just grab the nearest person, instead texting significant others or turning to porn and self-pleasure, I’d imagine that the aura needed preexisting sexual attraction to work. It broke down reservations, rather than made people onto mindless rapists. Which helps explain why Sydney could resist it while at ground zero.That said the group is lucky that Archon has exhaustive mental health screenings and background checks, because an aura that reduces inhibitions while increasing libido could easily have created a rapist if it affected certain types of personalities.
“Breaking down reservations” is, frankly, the actual problem. Some people don’t want to have sex, even when they might find a particular person attractive, because of various reasons. “Breaking down” their reservations is, simply put, coercive sex.
If someone doesn’t want to have sex with another person, then no amount of horny is going to change that
If someone does want to have sex but the only thing holding them back is society and military orders, then that’s different: because they would be having sex if not for those two manufactured obstacles
I can’t see how a “good explanation” can justify the ignoring the potential danger to the entire operation that has been exposed for the second time.
First and foremost is a plan to counter the problem of mind control potentially disastrous incapacitation of the entire team in a battle. Sydney was able to avoid succumbing. How did she do it? Is it teachable? All the “tools” are readily available to investigate the phenomena: Sydney, Parfait and Dabbler.
Dave could definitely show therapy shots of various characters. Some could be concerned about pregnancy, others about how the event would affect pre-existing relationships, others about whether the desired relationship will continue now that the aura is over.
There’s likely to be almost as many reactions to the event as there are people on the base.
I think everyone should be ordered to see the doctor/therapist whether they particularly want to or not.
Now whether a therapy montage is entertaining or not is another question….
ok, either this is post nut chill or there is little post nut clarity. I’ve been told post nut clarity happens to women. I recommend someone cook some post nut chili fast. Not Sydney. never Sydney. we will not forget the pot memorial after she tried to enter the chili cook off.
I think Max’s own intimacy issues may be at play here, or is that unfair?
A little unfair. She’s been a (female) miliary officer for a while and has probably seen her share of emotional conflicts within units. And sex based relationship can be highly destabilizing. And abusive when implicit power imbalances from rank/position.
Then there’s the non-miliary Human Resources aspects. Which is a similar issues, but less critical to “unit readiness” because hanky panky in the office aren’t influencing microsecond reactionary life & death choices. But will impact overall performance, and again the power imbalance and abuses do appear.
And yes, Max has personal views, is aware she has personal views and bias, and is professional enough to try her best not to let it influence her job as a military officer, and manager of a gaggle of hot singles.
A bit, yes.
Nobody can entirely compartmentalize themselves (barring people with straight up mpd, maybe) so there’s always going to be some bleed over between the professional & the private.
That said, Max is their unit commander, and has responsibility for them, and _to_ them, to keep everyone safe. I’ll say again, treating this as something akin to a HAZMAT spill is probably the way to go.
It must be admitted that V’s aura was different. It was the aura of a “bar fight”, not a murder, plus the situation was Us vs. Them. Now the aura directed the companion’s weapon at another companion and fired
All that is true but the real issue is the aura causes “acting under the influence” – super weapons not in total control of their actions.
This is not being addressed.
it must be admitted that V’s aura was different. it was the aura of a bar fight, not a murder, plus the situation was Us vs. Them. now the aura directed the companion’s weapon at another companion and fired
There might be a point of similarity, it seems both the lust and violence aura seem to have a “tapers off to prevent lingering resentment” feature. Much like the succubus charm.
tbh that sounds even worse. “I will influence/dominate your behavior and you will be happy about it after the fact”. More than Mind Control indeed.
Sounds to me like there are magical effects in place to…. buffer any negative reactions after the main effect wears off. Which makes sense.
I think it was alluded to when Dabbler kissed Jabberwocky in the restaurant fight. maybe residual aura effect making everybody more laidback
That would seem to be likely; A protective feature so that succubi wouldn’t continually be hounded by pissed off victims who had second thoughts after the mind control wore off.
Holy Crap, First ?
Well My guess is Max is just annoyed she didn’t get some as well.
Especially after her night out.
Not first, just the result of the sever not posting comments as soon as they are sent in.
Dabbler probably considers herself to not have had sex in a while every morning upon waking up, even if her partner of last night ist still snuggled up to her.
“Haven’t drunk any water in a while.”
Didn’t Harem just have Sex a few days ago in comic time?
She’s also got 5 bodies worth of libido so maybe that particular body didn’t have any in a while. And since she mentioned keeping one body ‘pure’ there’s always at least 1/5th of her that didn’t have sex in a while.
Honestly, if it wasn’t for your multiple hints to wait for a few pages I would’ve chalked everyone’s laid-back-ness up to “Anything other than everyone (but Sydney) giving clear affirmative consent is a trigger topic, so let’s steer clear as much as possible.” because that’s how it’s done in By the Book comic as well.
I do wonder though how Sydney was able to completely resist that lust aura, even though she was at ground zero. I mean, when Dabbler was first introduced to her she wasn’t able to resist, and when Dabbler warmed her up after she fell into cold water, she didn’t resist either and went straight for her Edward Dakimakura, so something major must’ve changed within her that wasn’t obvious until now. Or Sydney has special advantages because she’s the one who summoned Parfait.
She’s alert to what’s going on now, so the moment she gets horny anywhere near a succubus she knows something unnatural is happening.
Whereas most of the crew didn’t even know there was one on the base. Hard to make your saving throw if you don’t know you should roll the dice.
I see, that makes sense because Maxima was able to resist as well (aside from the physical reaction, but we can’t control that).
Those hints may be something else. Like, angry Ariana storming into the room, complaining that it all ended too quickly and she wasn’t satisfied at all!
Which could easily be solved by a tailored Dabbler Special… Possibly at a time/venue of her choosing.
Y’know.. Music, dinner, candlelight, a dab of lust enhancement. Beats all those pills and ointments… And far less risky if it’s done by a Professional Succubus.
“But that’s obviously not what is worn under a jacket, cause all that stuff would get pressed into your skin by the weight of the jacket.”
It does. We deal.
Dear Maxima,
This is your Vagina. Please start using me or I’ll be forced to sue for neglect.
We once met a prudish Nun, and based on what her vagina told, you make HER look like slut by comparison. I’m sick of not action due to your hang ups over made up bullshit scenarios.
Get Laid. Get some Self-Esteem. And for the Love of God, GET A BIKINI!!!
Max went out incognito and had a hook-up not too many comics ago.
True, but having a one-nighter does NOT end the need, in most cases it only makes the desire even harder to deal with. With my bad back and my wife’s breathing, it’s very hard to “partake” often, but we still have the need, rather tricky… :/
I do believe that was the same night in-universe as this comic, and they never got past drinks
No, no it’s not: this is the same night as the meeting in DC to talk about the Dungeon Farms
We already had the Morning After when Maxi arrived back and Dabbles and Anvil were both all over her to hear the sticky details
Well, somebody told Max that her skin felt “weirdly silky and slippery“. It’s left to the reader to guess who that might have been, or under what conditions.
ah yes, the man-goblin-homunculus she found.
I am fine with this comic having characters with different preferences regarding how frequently they want to have sex and how inclined they are towards casual hook-ups.
Conservatives like Maxima are important so that the characters can play off of each other.
Maxima isn’t Conservative, she holds way too many overt progressive viewpoints, and expresses them in an extremely activist manner
It’d be more accurate to call her an insecure misandrist, given how often the assumes the worst in people, especially men
Alex clearly meant “conservative” in regards the topic of sexual activity.
Max isn’t an “insecure misandrist,” she’s an extremely attractive woman who has a lived-experience that has included getting hit on & sexualized (which is common for women in general), and as such, has developed – in her own words – a “hair trigger.”
I know it’s difficult, but try getting out from behind your own eyeballs, and picture the world from someone else’s perspective.
Actually, that is what one would call an “insecure misandrist”, as she’s essentially using the fact that people find her attractive to automatically see the worst in them, and thus be hostile to even the slightest compliment. While at the same time, she herself has no problem objectifying others in the exact manner she accuses them of doing
Essentially holding everyone else, especially men, to the highest standard possible, while been rather lax on herself
All the while constantly coercing her subordinates and colleges to basically over-explain every interaction and decision they make, lest they face her “righteous indignation”
That’s a p big misconstrued view of how Max acts.
Has she ever really been mad at someone for finding her attractive?
She has quite literally reacted hostilely to people even so much as commenting on her looks, or even just mildly flirting with her
You really do not understand, and it shows.
I’m not really surprised, but it is both tiring, and fucking boring.
You. You’re boring.
Uh-huh
Didn’t we just have a bar scene where she showed immediate hostility to any guy who so much as looked her way, had to put in great effort just to be nice to a guy who chat with her, after said guys sister went through the effort of getting on her good side, and even then he constantly had to over explain just about everything he said?
But, oh no, we should sympathize cause people find her pretty. Nevermind that she possesses high level authority, is a highly decorated member of the Military, is incredibly rich, one of the most powerful supers on the planet, a beloved celebrity and lives a life full of adventure.
Plenty of people would kill to be even one of those things! Maxima quite literally has it all, and she’s still miserable and has a hair trigger temper to basically any comment she doesn’t like
Her self-consciousness issues are HER problem, yet she keeps making it EVERYONE ELSE’S problem
If I met someone like her in real life, I don’t care how attractive she is, I wouldn’t want anything to do with her
The lack of self-awareness in this comment is genuinely S-Tier.
My brother in Christ (said the Pagan-atheist) a person “like her” would not want anything to do with a guy who prioritizes “how attractive she is.”
The rank, wealth, power, etc., are completely irrelevant in a discussion about “woman does not wish to be treated like a literal sex object.” In point of fact, it’s pretty obvious that part her willingness to talk to Doctor McFireman was because he explicitly acknowledged her very clear indications that she wasn’t looking to hook up.
The fact that Max is very privileged in the desirability department, as well as in other ways, does _nothing_ to invalidate her desire to not be objectified, or reduced to her body. The fact you’re struggling with this tells me that you feel entitled to do exactly that to other people, based a genuinely warped version the fallacy of relative privation.
None of which is surprising, and all of which is just _so_ utterly banal.
“She’s super hot & rich & powerful, I’m _entitled_ to treat her like sex object & have my fantasy of consequence-free lewdness & misogyny humored, and if not, she’s just a ball-busting man-hater!”
Grow up.
She wasn’t “overly hostile”. She just turned down their advances until she clicked with one of them.
She was blunt, at worst.
@Bharda – But noone has actually objectified her, yet she’s still inherently hostile to others, even if what they said had nothing to do with her. People in general are quite respectful to her, yet still feel the need to walk on eggshells around her and constantly over explain themselves
Even Sydney has needed to do this on multiple occasions
@DuffenBlaster She literally gave them a death glare just for looking in her general direction
@Titan
“I didn’t see it myself, therefor it doesn’t exist.”
Also not a great argument, Mr. Sir.
The worst I can remember is her kind of harshly asking if Hiro was propositioning her.
You forgot that annoying customer in Sydney’s old store
Ugh.
Maxima is not a prude, and has never been depicted as one.
She has an understandable aversion against being ogled, and being an extremely eye-catching, near proportionally perfect, human female, she has been subjected to such pretty much since she developed her skin condition.
Yes, she is a strident feminist and could do with a little more nuance there instead of seeing every interaction, at first, as an attempt of suppression of women. We haven’t seen enough of her backstory to know if this behaviour is understandable.
Regarding this briefing.
Max clearly operates under the assumption that ‘succubus aura equals a form of mind control’ and goes with the (correctl) principle of ‘deal with it right away before guilt and shame have a chance to set in’.
She is supportive and takes great care to not cast blame or shame on anybody, extending mental support to anybody who needs it.
What the past two pages show is that she is learning that Parfait’s aura did not, in fact, work as she thought. It lowers inhibitions and makes people within its range of effect horny. Two groups, so far, have expressed that they did not feel particularly manipulated and are not unhappy with the resulting pairings. This may change in next week’s page when,and if, mr Amorpheus has a chance to speak up. Crimson and Hiro (?) look at least embarassed in some of the frames, so they may have mixed feelings as well about what happened.
All in all, the page shows Max being the responsible commanding officer dealing with the aftermath of an unfamilar assault, and this entire arc also shows that these auras, even the non-violent ones like that of a succubus, can be nasty and powerful.
So, yeah.
Cheers, well said.
…I am very interested in DaveB’s vampires now. Traditionally, the state of being undead rules out biological functions and foibles, be it breathing, eating, or…ahem, an interest prorecreational gymnastics.
And you can bet if she didn’t act quickly, some fans calling her insecure right now would instead be calling her negligent.
Struth.
Yes, truth
I admit, the flippancy, played for laughs-ness and “Lol don’t care” attitudes are starting to get pretty grating. I’m more that ready to get to the serious side of this and put it all behind us.
Especially so I don’t need to see any more “LOL ARE YOU TRIGGERED GRANDMA?” “DON’T CLUTCH YOUR PEARLS SNOWFLAKE” comments.
I stand able, and to a point, agreed with.
I’m certain we’ll get there. ^_^
I expect we’ll have a bit of time spent on Sydney and Parfait first. Sydney is in fact the hero of this whole affair, and deserves praise for her response. And I think she’d get very peeved at anybody who went after Parfait for anything she did. Then Heatwave can come in looking for Jiggawatt.
Frankly, I don’t see the point in seething that everything largely turned out okay. I wish you the best of luck with sorting out your feelings on the matter, because this doesn’t exactly seem healthy. My general advice is that if the internet is upsetting you, maybe go for a nice walk outside and smell the roses. This is sincere advice, just to be clear. I find it usually helps with clearing your head and coming back in a refreshed state.
“I’m not bothered, therefore nobody should be either,” is bad argument.
“I’m bothered therefore everyone else should be too” is equally bad
Fallacy of False Equivalency.
You do realize that if you are going to assert that this is different somehow, it is beholden on you to point out why?
And if your issue is just that he seems to be putting words in your mouth, then I have to point out you’ve been putting words in mine.
“I am not bothered,” indicates no particular need for consideration or respect for sensitivity to a given subject.
“I am bothered,” does.
As a mayonnaise American, the word n* has no particular power over me, and I am, to that extent, “unbothered” by it.
Other people, at whom that term has been directed in a vicious and harmful manner, _are_ “bothered” by it, and as such, I show consideration, and not only do not employ it, but react punitively towards those who _do_.
I _could_ be one of those jackasses who insists that “it’s just a word,” and say that “nobody should be offended by just a word.”
Have I made the point, or do I need to break it down further for you?
That isn’t my “argument.” My position, in so much as I can be said to have one, would be “Getting vexed/worked up over things turning out okay, in a less-than-serious work of fiction, no less, strikes me as unhealthy, and I recommend getting some fresh air if this is really impacting your mood.”
Not everything ought to be serious business, you know. Going for a nice walk is just healthy advice, esp. if the internet has been getting under your skin over something unimportant.
Well considering everytime someone brings up concerns about the situation that’s the kind of response they get, it shouldn’t be surprising, especially since your response seems to boil down to:
“Gee aren’t you mad about something that doesn’t actually bother me, you should go touch grass.”
It doesn’t bother you, you feel it is unimportant, so you think they should drop it and go outside and not be bothered by it. Even though you don’t even know to what extent it bothers them or if they are” seething”.
They’ve just voiced a concern and said they are annoyed at being treated flippantly. Seems fair to me.
Please don’t run with the words Bharda’s been putting in my mouth. The salient point isn’t whether or not it bothers me. It’s whether or not it’s healthy for it to bother you (using “you” in the general sense). Getting worked up over not-so-serious story developments in internet webcomics (where no fictitious characters were really harmed, at that) strikes me as unhealthy, and I do recommend going outside and getting some fresh air if your mood is significantly impacted by this sort of thing, because it actually helps.
And I used the word seething because the post demonstrated considerable agitation and vexation that seems to have lasted some time, in my view at least. That post appeared to be channeling some semi-repressed anger.
I’m using the words from your posts specifically as what I’m drawing from.
You are assigning worth and value to the situation at hand, you feel it is not an important situation to be upset or bothered about and are advising the other person to go outside so that they are also unbothered and not upset. Your position is that it is unhealthy to not do so.
This still boils down to : I value this as unimportant to be bothered by, do not be bothered by it.
Whether this is your intended position doesn’t matter.
This isn’t event getting into how poorly text communicates actual investment or feelings, especially between strangers.
> I’m using the words from your posts specifically as what I’m drawing from.
Except if that were the case, you would be quoting me. But you are not. You are artfully rewording my stance to your own liking.
>You are assigning worth and value to the situation at hand, you feel it is not an important situation to be upset or bothered about and are advising the other person to go outside so that they are also unbothered and not upset. Your position is that it is unhealthy to not do so.
>
>This still boils down to : I value this as unimportant to be bothered by, do not be bothered by it.
No, you are willfully distorting and misrepresenting my position at this point. You do not “boil it down” by stripping my position of its actual point and shifting the operating criterion for why you should try relaxing (you are switching up the basis for whether or not you should take a breather from “whether or not it’s healthy for it to bother you” to “whether I personally value this as unimportant to be bothered by”). That’s just being disingenuous.
>Whether this is your intended position doesn’t matter.
Really now? So what I’m saying doesn’t matter, only how you choose to read it? You know, if you’re just going to argue with your own strawman impressions of me, there are better ways for you to play with yourself.
You’re saying “2 + 2”, and people are responding back “So you’re saying 4?”
…
That was an incredibly vacuous analogy. You could respond to literally any claim of being misinterpreted with this, and it’d be an equally empty reply. Anyway, that which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Please tell me you are smarter than this. Don’t make me feel like I have to “speak your language” by spouting equally inane analogies like “No, I’m saying the sky is blue and you are saying it must be red.” This is just “nuh-uh, I’m right” but dressed up slightly to pretend we’re being smart somehow.
@Titan
Or, instead of trying to deflect, you try explain “the difference.”
Your defensiveness is telling.
I have to quote you vertabim now? Ok.
“Not everything ought to be serious business, you know. Going for a nice walk is just healthy advice, esp. if the internet has been getting under your skin over something unimportant.”
->you do not consider this a serious issue, that it is unimportant, demonstrating both that you arent bothered by it and do not consider it something to be bothered by
“Getting worked up over not-so-serious story developments in internet webcomics (where no fictitious characters were really harmed, at that) ”
->Again you do not consider the development as serious, you consider it not worth being upset over because it is fictitious and funny comic besides.
Your advice follows up that they should step away, go outside, relax and become unbothered as well.
Your position was that it is unhealthy to become upset over this comic.
But this came from someone voicing concerns on the subject matter and how it is being handled, and how flippantly people react to those concerns. Whether or not the comic itself is “not so serious” isnt really the issue, because the subject matter is to them.
You simply stating its unimportant and not serious, therefore not worth being upset and therefor unhealthy over, is still essentially telling them to go outside and get over it, dont be bothered by it.
They voiced a concern and said they are annoyed at being treated flippantly, you responded by assuming they were unreasonably upset, seething in your own words, and needed to be told go touch grass for their own health.
That is a subjective assessment, which brings it back to “I’m not bothered, therefore nobody should be either,” again.
To be frank, “I’m not bothered, therefore nobody should be either” is just you projecting. It isn’t what I’m saying.
Oh? Then what, specifically, explicitly, precisely, and exactly _are_ you “saying?”
The way you ask that question does not fill me with confidence that this conversation is headed anyplace good.
My position, in so much as I can be said to have one, would be “Getting worked up over not-so-serious story developments in internet webcomics (where no fictitious characters were really harmed, at that) strikes me as unhealthy, and I recommend going for a nice walk and getting some fresh air if this is really impacting your mood.” The underlying point is really that you should sort out your feelings and find a good way to relax if you are getting upset/bothered in unhealthy ways (as opposed to indulging or stewing in it).
Here’s a philosophical question for you: Should people generally avoid things that make them upset, or does getting upset serve some purpose? Or perhaps put another way, is the purpose of emotion to spur you to avoid something, or to motivate you to change it?
Obviously it depends on the circumstances. Sometimes being upset does manifest as a desire towards avoidance. Sometimes it manifests as a desire towards confrontation and action.
So here’s the deal: other people in this discussion are interpreting what you’re saying as “if you feel upset, that means you should exit the discussion”, whereas their position is that feeling upset is what motivates them to participate in the discussion.
Further, they suspect that your suggestion that they leave the discussion isn’t actually out of honest interest in their well-being, but is instead an attempt to silence their viewpoint.
Even if your statements are taken as honest expressions of concern, they come across as patronizing, which isn’t much better.
Torabi, that sort of malicious misinterpretation is plainly untrue. There were plenty of other posts expressing similar views, including Emma’s above, and I obviously didn’t take issue with any of them. The only major difference between those posts and this one is precisely the state of being so very agitated, which is what motivated me to reply and advise against further indulging such sentiments, precisely because it does not help (fixating on your vexations has a way of worsening your mental state), and that it would be better to clear your head. Just because you may want to indulge the negative sentiment doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea, after all.
As for accusations of patronizing conduct, etc., you will have to forgive me if I do not find this casting of aspersions and tendency towards framing another’s words in a hostile light to either come from or lead to a productive place, given the amount of strawmanning that has already transpired. In all honesty, I gave my advice, and I suppose you can take it upon yourself to misinterpret my words and insinuate whatever you please if you so prefer, but I will say plainly that this was sincere and very valid advice and if you choose to take issue with that that really just reflects on you. It’s just advice and you can take it or leave it, after all. There is really no need to take affront at it.
You are literally just repeating yourself, as if repetition was an argument.
“Not-so-serious” is a purely subjective assessment, or do you imagine you have some objective standard by which to evaluate the validity of people’s reactions?
>You are literally just repeating yourself, as if repetition was an argument.
With all due respect, you just asked me what exactly I was saying. So I gave you just that. An explanation of what I previously said, not an argument. If you find the answer I’ve given you to lack other qualities you now demand, then the fault lies with what you were asking for. I hope you are not generally in the habit of problematizing and being argumentative anyway when people give you exactly what you asked.
>“Not-so-serious” is a purely subjective assessment,
This is just “Well that’s just your opinion” rephrased. Also, it is incorrect, as this is not a *purely* subjective assessment. And just to be clear, seriousness here does not refer to the severity or gravity of the issue at hand but rather where the storyline lies on the range of comedic/silly/lighthearted to dead serious. And I maintain that this plotline was indulged more for silliness and comedy.
>or do you imagine you have some objective standard by which to evaluate the validity of people’s reactions?
This is not about people’s reactions, but I do have an objective standard. Authorial intent, for one (1194 blurb):
>I know some people are finding this storyline a little squicky, which really wasn’t the intent. What Parfait did wasn’t malicious or even intentional – which doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences, but I certainly can’t guarantee this will all play out to everyone’s satisfaction. I mean, obviously nothing that starts of with a lust aura incident could possibly have a satisfactory conclusion for everyone. It’s just too serious of a topic for some people, for any number of reasons.
>
>The whole comic is supposed to be that slice of life, lighter side of being a superhero. Obviously sometimes there have to be villains who do pretty terrible things, but I try not to dwell on that stuff.
The author confirms that it is not his intent for the recent storyline to be handled in a too serious manner and that the comic is intended to be on the lighter side of things rather than dwelling on terrible stuff.
For another, you can note the presence of jokes and silliness in many of the pages in this storyline as well as the overall lack of darker consequences as objective evidence that the storyline is indeed being played more for silly/comedic/lighthearted purposes than serious ones.
I hope that satisfies your query.
Anonymous:- some people don’t want you (general you) to explain what you meant, because then they would be proven to be wrong in their attack (just wait and see what “no you” comment Bharda will reply with)
Lol, it’s “unhealthy” to lightly criticize a webcomic?
I don’t know if this is advanced level gas lighting or just very poorly worded.
There has been nothing ‘light’ about the criticism towards the comic and even DaveB the last couple pages
Yeah but this comment was. Which is the one being talked about.
It’s not the statement but the underlying emotion that is unhealthy.
It does seem a little out there that no one was concerned at all.
So the succubus lust aura wears off slowly and includes a “don’t blame me” thing.
Dabbler mentioned this for one of her other mind control effects right after the fight with V. So that back then was a focused version of this.
That casual dress blues is what’s worn under the jacket, sometimes it’s the long sleeve version, and sometimes you don’t have the name tag or ribbons on, but you can get in trouble for not having those on if anyone catches you. Usually people leave the various bits and bobs on because you put them on right after cleaning and who’s going to do the extra work of taking them off and on, especially when there’re positioning guidelines you have to follow.
It’s a dress shirt in the color of the branch. A pale green shirt for the Army, and pale blue for the Air Force. I don’t know if Marines and Navy are different.
If you kick it up a notch, to tuxedo level, it’s a white dress shirt.
Formal full dress usually is a white shirt without any rank/personal identity tags. under the jacket.
Insignia are unnecessary on the shirt because, when formal full dress is prescribed, it is not permissible to remove the jacket.
In the Navy and Marine Corp it’s;
an undershirt,
a white dress shirt,
dress jacket with all the epaulets etc,
then an overcoat if it’s expected to be cold.
I’m guessing from the dress we’ve seen that Archon follows the Navy method of dress for formal occasions but almost no uniform otherwise. That’s a little surprising but if everyone was running around in BDUs or Coveralls with different colors based on their powers or job then it probably wouldn’t be as visually interesting.
The teams general relaxed pov on sexual relations is also very Navy although I don’t think that’s intentional.
“(Again, if it seems like everyone is too laid back about this, give it a few pages.)”
I’m glad to see there will be some exploration of the more complicated side of such a scenario, even if a few pages is like a week or three.
How far did the aura extend? 500 feet? 500 miles? Maybe Max should turn on the TV…
So far we’ve seen the super heroes with super powers. Assume a normal bell curve distribution.
Are there not so super powers like “kill plants with a touch” or “sours milk within 10 feet”?
It got far enough ‘down’ the building to reach the entrance/reception area, hence the steamy security booth. And the ARC building isn’t short. But the aura didn’t hit Max and Dabbler till they were inside, so wondering if the building is warded but the effect ended up being keeping the aura IN instead of keeping it out as Parfait was already past the safeguards.
I wonder if this will turn out to be a Chekov’s Gun?
If Dabbler can weave into the communication collars a charm of protection against such auras, and the team has to take down another base like the one hidden under the parking garage sub-basement, even a 500 foot radius aura being slowly ramped upwards could be quite effective at making bored officers take their eyes off the security camera feeds they are meant to be monitoring.
Which raises an interesting ethical question.
Is it ethical to deliberately push this aura onto a villain you’d be willing to kill, but will capture alive if convenient? It is a step beyond forcing Vehemence watch Dabbler skipping, because it could result in intercourse. What about if you know the aura will also affect the bad guy’s janitors and other staff who many not have had a lot of choice over leaving their employment?
I cannot speak for any branch but USAF. But when I was in there was the short sleeve blouse worn by itself. Then the long sleeve could be worn by itself but had to be worn under the dress jacket.
All of which had your appropriate rank, ribbons etc.
But in four years we also had our uniform guides changed three times. So take it all with a grain of salt.
Maxima is supposed to be an Air Force Lt Colonel, so your recollection is relevant. The biggest difference between class A and B is whether the jacket is worn. The shirt should light blue instead of white. One detail that’s clearly wrong is that female shirts would button the other way.
Respectfully, you keep saying give it a few pages. How many, exactly, is a few pages?
5 years later: “Look, I just need to finish up this fight, and then the post-fight wrap-up, and then a cutaway to see how Deus’s moonbase is coming, and then introducing a new major character to replace Math, but then a few more pages after that and you’ll see.”
I read Freefall, and it took around 20 years to cover like 2 weeks in the comic. To recall a conversation one character had with another 2 days ago in universe, you might have to go back 7 or 8 years in real time. If by comparison DaveB keeps “a few” to mean 25 or less it’s a win.
I mean, the Macy’s Day parades haven’t stopped yet so it safe to assume they’re still doing rather well.
Poor little Parfait looks like she feels so bad about the situation
She probably does, but I suspect that it’s probably more a combination of “I failed to control myself like an actual adult,” and some culture shock, than anything else.
I am absolutely certain that she’ll be addressed.
Thats a little unfair revealing something only on Paetron
Meh – yes and no. This is presumably what Dave does for a living – he’s entitled to not give absolutely everything away for free.
I don’t have patreon, but if it is what I think that it is then it can also be inferred from the vote image.
*possible spoiler warning*
Notice how the orbs remain with Sydney’s body in the tube, despite that her consciousness appears to be piloting the rental unit body. So she doesn’t have control over her orbs when not using her own physical body.
I appreciate the spoiler warning and reciprocate with one of my own: Major Spoiler Alert. The orbs seem to able to distinguish between being asleep, being unconscious, and “mind transfer”.
Will they do this every Thursday though?
I notice some people were alone and responded by acting alone. Others were alone and called a specific person to meet with. Has anyone been in the room with someone and left that room to go find someone else? Do any of these people have monogamous relationships with others, fiances, or just don’t like engaging in casual hookups? Reminds me of events in “Brave New World.”
Well, it would have been assumed Morph and Heatwave were in a monogamous relationship, and yet we saw him being snuggled by Jiggs a few pages back
Maybe Max is just jealous that her crew got busy and she’s been left high and dry for months?
You meant, left high and dry by her own personal choice?
Nah. You had me in the last page but you lost me here on the second panel. The last page were people dealing with their feelings. The second panel here feels like the author proselytizing. It turns from a story about characters to an author overexplaining the situation almost to make a point. The moment you said “as americans I mean” really underscored this. It was totally unnecessary. The next paragraph then turns into rationalization of the situation rather than emotional introspection.
You’re not wrong in the statement, I just got taken out of the story. I still think you can make the point but it needs to be more about her feeling and not rationalizing.
I couldnt put my finger on it, but yes it did feel like the author was just using Seneca as a mouth piece here.
You might be surprised to discover that some people talk like that, explicitly contextualizing what they say, in order to be clear that they not attempting a broad generalization.
It’s relatively common in certain locales & social groupings, particularly where you have/may have a number of out-group individuals present/participating. For example, the literal space alien & the young demon on stage, neither of whom have a lot of experience with Terran cultures, and so may benefit from the specification of explicitly having it pointed out that “we,” in this case, refers to a particular cultural grouping, broadly called “Americans.” That may seem cumbersome to you (or any number of other people), but it is often best to establish clarity at the outset, rather than trying to correct misconceptions later on.
Basically, I think Seneca was speaking at least somewhat for the benefit of others.
Yeah, Macy’s hasn’t been moopsied by venture capitalists yet, the way Circuit City, Toys’R’Us and Sears were.
All good and well, but I’m really interested in what Mr. Amorphous has to say, since he’s the only one of them who is in a committed relationship with someone not present.
Ok, both Seneca and Harem are saying the same thing, Parfait DIDN’T mind control everyone, just gave them a nudge to give in. Like the difference between my kissing my wife on the neck and a full-on tickle-attack. So the biggest issue was the fact Parfait was pushing Sydney into having sex and Sydney wasn’t into girls, even under the influence. There might be some issues with a few of the connections and how quickly they all gave in to the urge, but for the most part, no harm done. Heatwave might be the only real problem then, but with help, she might deal with it all. It’s a shame that Hiro and Max wasn’t there together, we’ve all “shipped” those two for a while. The non-fraternization rule was to prevent the older high-ranker from ordering any of the service women to “serve” them. SG-1’s O’Neal and Cater are good examples of why that can be bad, they were in love but could never so much as say it. And neither of them ever married anyone else.
My only real gripe is you described Brooke as “a problem.”
The problem isn’t her, a person, it’s the fact that Mr. A (presumably) violated her trust. Yes, there are very definitely extenuating circumstances, but that’s part of what needs addressed.
We shall see.
I was talking about her feelings about what happened with Morph, NOT that SHE herself is a problem. I thought everyone else would understand. Don’t put words in my mouth just so you can raise hell. You’d have a great career in the news media….
Or Tik Tok…
So you’re saying if people don’t put words in your mouth by guessing at what you meant to say, rather than take your words literally, then they’re putting words in your mouth?
It wasn’t an accusation. I don’t think you did it “on purpose.” It’s just a thing that emerges from the English language.
And this is just the ARC ‘exceptional individuals’ meeting. There is a buildings worth of normals support personnel having their own meetings about now.
The Origin of ARC: Babies! Spin-off webcoming to begin in 9 months time!
Given normal human variations that should be 8-10 months for full-term and as early as 6 months for Preemies.
Who else wants to know/see how Arianna weathered the effects of the aura? We saw her make a desperate booty call. Maybe she’s still affected?
We also know these type of meetings are her bread and butter, what’s keeping her?
Doc might be doing a few pregnancy checks the next few weeks.
Imagine Harem trying to figure out how she got one of herself preggers when it was purely sybaric.
Albeit alien sybaric?
A preggers lineup of the heroes would be a total winner for incentive. One side would have the “No longer A club.”
Max’s face when requisition for creche and breastfeeding rooms cross her desk.
Especially if it’s Arianna pushing the paperwork in maternity clothing.
Arianna is no longer affected, but considering her partner is already here …
Parfait looks up in panic as her stomach growls…
She forgot to feed…
She didn’t forget, her meal said “no”.
Since she did eventually shut down the aura, I assume Dabbler gave her an infusion of tantric energy. Presumably, being a well equipped adventurer, Dabbler has a supply of succubus recovery potions, and it’s already established that young succubi get by with magically charged foods.
So I guess she got a bag of Lust Gummies, or something like that.
Two-manchus? Chinese gummies. 69 in a bag. Some are cream filled…
Nope, no problems here… Can we leave now and go have more sex?
So my two bets are
1: There is a lingering aura effect that might take some time to wear off, basically a sort of safety release valve kind of thing that the aura has to prevent massive mood swings.
2: The aura can’t really make you want something you are truly opposed to. It can absolutely make you do something you RATIONALLY know is risky as hell, but (with Seneca as an example) make you attracted to a gender you’re not into on some level.
And these are obviously not mutually exclusive.
But Maxima is still right in that one of the main reason for fraternization policies isn’t about the relationship when it’s going good, but all the headaches when the relationship goes BAD. A couple being distracted and covering for each other can cause SOME problems, but two people loathing each other over a break up working in the same unit can be a nightmare for EVERYONE.
Fraternization policies exist for another reason as well, when women first started to act in the military, they were ordered to “do anything necessary to boost the men’s moral” so once that came to light, those policies were enacted. It was mostly WWII brass that partake, but it did happen. Ask any WAC from that time period. It works both ways too, which is why Max said what she did to Hiro that time they both had their clothes blown off.
I could picture them getting together, with how strong they both are and both are VERY tough, I could see after they were done Hiro would lift up a bit, and start to say something when a floor tile hit him in the head, they both look up and there’s a hole through 4 floor floors up, with a “norm” hanging on for dear life 2 floors up…