Grrl Power #1228 – NO2 you don’t!
There’s a fair bit of disagreement as to what would really happen if Sydney pulled her little stunt IRL. For instance, turning all the Oxygen into Nitrogen, well, first off, is she turning O, or O2, or is she breaking up CO2 into C1 and two O1’s or one O2? The atmosphere doesn’t usually have a lot of free-range O1 floating about. Pure Nitrogen will either bond with other N’s to become N2, and the stuff at the edges of the transformed area would likely become NO2, which I believe is your basic laughing gas/whippet fuel. Also N is lighter than O, so it even without wind, Sydney’s transformation zone wouldn’t stay put for too long, though the difference isn’t so much that you’d suddenly get a bunch of swirling wind. Maybe a breeze.
Also, “The Bends” only occurs under pressure, just breathing a bunch of nitrogen at one atmosphere would likely just make you dizzy and pass out. I don’t know what the exact procedure was in that execution in Alabama, but no way should it take 22 minutes for someone to suffocate. I assume venting the room and replacing the O2 with N2 took the bulk of the time, which IMO probably negates any arguments about this method being humane. I can only imagine a 1790’s French Revolutionary watching all this through a time portal, leaning on his guillotine, shaking his head. I’m not suggesting we reintroduce the guillotine or anything, only that those definitely takes less than 22 minutes to kill someone.
Anyway, I’ll leave the exact science behind Sydney’s nitro-stunt intentionally slightly vague, because 1) I myself don’t know exactly what would happen, and 2) That way I can’t be too wrong about it. :D
Sydney’s being glum because the EMS guy probably gave her an earful, and also she thought she’d come up with “that one trick supervillains hate.” I mean, she has… just, she probably shouldn’t deploy it too often.
The new vote incentive is up! Crimson and Scarlett have a present for Ingsol!
It’s them, they’re the present. They’ve decided that “Sire-versaries” are a thing and Ingsol has to be convinced this is a good idea each time. Everyone thinks his pair of names-that-are-synonyms-with-red sirelings who are both women and who were both turned in that age range that ensure peak hotness means he’s a dirty old man, but he actually isn’t. It just worked out that way. And don’t forget that while it looks like there’s a 25 year age gap between the girls and him, it’s actually much worse, as he is 700 years old, while Scarlett is something like 180 and Crimson is only 40. But at the same time it’s meaningless as they were both fully adults when they got turned, so it’s all copacetic.
As usual, Patreon has the pair of them in various states of undress.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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It’s interesting to see speculation ending in “legally has no rights” based on what appears to be an alternate reality.
If I recall correctly, Parfait *invited* Sydney to summon her. And it was explicitly stated that she’s expected to roam and to return “home” (or at least to Tom) once she’s harvested some mana. That’s why she was at Syd’s store – to harvest some in a controlled and consensual manner.
And I’m also pretty certain DaveB hasn’t given us enough on “demon’s standards” for any of us to making such flat statements as to what is and is not acceptable by demon’s standards. Personally, I suspect your understanding of the situation is a bit off, but that’s just my personal take – maybe I’m totally off base, too. YMMV
Cue cliche sitcom plot line:
Saving her life through a kiss means they are married now in her culture.
Does it still count if you put their live(s) in danger in the first place?
You know… I THINK that I heard about some some places that it does. Can’t think of them off hand though, not sure if real or fiction. It ‘sounds’ like fiction, but I am with Mark Twain about Fiction and Truth. :p
“one body and one mind.” the phrase is really apt for what is going on right now ….
Kind of suffering from scene change whiplash here, I feel like we skipped entirely too many steps between “Everything is going wrong,” to “Anyways, then everything turned out OK.” Also, was forehead-flame even involved in any of this? I’m really lost, this may also be a symptom of this comic’s alien/demon designs tending to be kinda busy and similar in color so it all sort of becomes a blur after awhile.
Yeah it is a bit jarring as she was in the background only of a few shots and was mentioned last page by one of the others who had stuck behind the main ones of this group
Now that I go back I can see she was there, it’s just kind of strange having a character who didn’t say anything and only appeared in a few backgrounds to abruptly be someone we should be paying attention to. Probably would have been wise to have her say something at some point prior so we’d notice her.
Wait wait wait, so you have a problem with mystery? Everything has to come with a tag and an explanation? If this is some sort of attack, her staying in the background is the whole IDEA of the operation. Two bits she’s a bodyhopper.
Yes, she was, saw her attacking Sydney a couple (she was the one with her back to the audience)
You are not alone. Feels like trying to watch soap opera episode 133 (without watching any prior episodes) and getting overloaded by spam of names, old grudges and past plotlines without any kind of explanation or connection between them.
After some heavy thinking I think I know what is going on. It’s still amazing (=unbelievable) coincidence that the merc we already saw somehow a) predicted that some no-name highschool gang is going to visit Earth for a fight b) will meet with Sydney c) had enough time to plan and execute the bodynapping before the visit. She did have enough self-preservation instinct to ask about Max, but still goes through with her plan with Harem around. She must have some VERY fast means of escaping with her victim planned.
I have some doubt that she intends to skip to Sydney as other posts suggest. That would leave Tenri’s body behind and she must return that (otherwise it’s SO MUCH JAIL for both her and her partner). So maybe some drugged kiss…
And of course after I finally decide to post it, I do it on wrong page. This was meant for the next one. Sorry. Give me the edit/delete button!
Attempted possession to try and gain control of the orbs, maybe?
I mean, she JUST said “I’m of the opinion that cheating is always allowed” so…
Definitely. We’ve seen those demons before and they can hop bodies. Real question is whether we get “evil halo” for an arc, or if Sydney’s… Sydney-Ness causes the would be owner of a new body to go insane and/or get expelled by the sheer wtf-ery that is Sydney mind.
I went back, the other demon like this “threw” the fire at the dragonbornesque guy, FWIW.
That scene seemed to imply that they can’t directly control a sapient host body though only these mindless bioframes.as the lizard guy was still in control and talking to her.
It’s possible the earlier one was just being polite and letting the lizard keep control, since they were allies / flirting with each other. Restraint on that count being what keeps people willing to pull your…fire…out of the…fire? By the same token, though, if involuntary possession was a possibility I would have expected a little hesitation, and I didn’t get that sense, so I’m not sure this is likely.
Didn’t she also tell him if it comes up that is was a consensual cohabitation? Kinda implies it could be done nonconsensual.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-931-escape-from-new-york/
DaveB actually goes into detail on this a bit in the blurb.
DaveB: “So, is she possessing him? And if so, why didn’t she just toss herself onto Maxima’s head?
The answer is… kind of, but not really. Basically, she’s not “high level” enough to straight up possess someone. Right now, she’s somewhere between a Trill symbiont, sharing knowledge and memories, and Steve-Martin-bonked-on-the-head-by-a-mystic-bowl. They’re still separate entities, and both have control if the other one doesn’t object. She, and most of her species are relegated to passenger if the host doesn’t want to play along. The more advanced members of her species have increasing levels of primacy, but as Lapha alludes to, other races aren’t copasetic with being possessed, so her people have adapted to be artisanal meat jockeys. Which is to say they grow customized blanks, and pilot those around.”
and Tenri here is supposedly a just out of high school just barely a legal adult member of Parfait’s friends group so unless she is doing as telepathic bit, showing rather oddly that she is talking out the flame not her mouth, or plans to hop onto Sidney’s head knowing she can’t control her just to show this, chances are slim she should be able to and thus unlikely to have planned to go after a potential S class *if not high A class* Super.
“She’s been withdrawn ever since…”
This may not be the aerolith they think she is.
given the short notice, same day Parfait posted online she was at the comic shop, it would be a stretch for it to be Lapha or someone else for a pre-meditated attack given this friend group rapidly came together to go there in what was probably only an hour or so. Unless Tenri is like a space cop after graduating or a bounty hunter as well as just taking advantage of the opportunity.
“she’s been withdrawn ever since before Brelix decided to…”
that wording tells me its been an on-going thing and may be a personal thing between them, since before Brelix decided to bond with a succubus perhaps, maybe Tenri has a thing for Brelix, or Parfait… this brings up what she is saying here about no cheating in love or war, and this may actually be making a pass on Sidney or showing Sidney that she’s pregnant with a psionic child of one of the others which could explain the “complicated” part about who she is if this species reproduces as an energy being, like splitting or budding kind of reproduction or trying to implant her offspring onto Sidney and had been intending to do this to one of the others but the battle has caused her to go into labor….
brain tangents aside, the full thing with what she said right before on this page tugging Sidney in close to kiss her has more of a romantic entanglement feel to it than an attack.
i think Parfait might be pissed if Tenri tried anything unsavory with Sydney; hopefully it’s just a simple demonstration of her racial abilities and doesn’t lead to ARC getting involved
There’s the possibility of the orbs just pulling out a “NOPE!” on any mind control and this being the moment we find out. There’s a more distinct probability of this resulting in a Sydney moment. Welcome to entering a mind on ADD. Also known as “I inspect the Malkavian’s mind” kind of screw ups.
I would expect that “old yeller” would have something to say about that, given it’s clearly linked to such things as astral projection, astral vision, teleportation by swapping space with an illusion of yourself, etc.
After verifying that Maxima is not coming?
Yes. Archon *really* needs to tight up its security policy. There is no reason to tell an unauthorized person anything about any asset. “I don’t know” or “I can’t say” should be the default.
Also, if Archon does not *know* that the flamehead species bops between bodies, it might benefit from debriefing Dabbler on “What can this species do to us?” … or buying the Encyclopedia Galactica.
“WHY DO WOMEN KEEP KISSING ME?!?”
I kissed a girl and she liked it. And then another. Except they actually keep kissing me, and they keep NOT ASKING FIRST, which is NOT OK.
Stop smirking Math, or I’ll vorp you onto a planet where females don’t exist and leave you there.
Do not invoke rules 34 and 35 on Math. He probably already crossed beyond those lines.
Arianna: I warned you when you became a superhero, you’d have to deal with being popular.
Syd: Well, yeah, but not THIS kind of “popular”!
Wait … Isn’t Tenri from awhile back? The energy being that needed a new body? With her bigger, I think vaguely reptilian friend? She seems awful familiar…
Same species but no. That one was named Lamph or something on those lines and a mercenary. This one is from Parfaits friend group from school.
I thought the name was Lapha.
Is a Space Kiss anything like a French Kiss?
Oxygen is lighter than nitrogen, so shouldn’t changing oxygen to nitrogen cause a thermonuclear explosion? Our mr. big guy should be pretty exploded by now methinks.
Sydney’s orbs laugh at conservation of energy – she already has reactionless flight and a beam weapon that can turn a square mile of desert into glass, you think she can’t handle a tiny little atomic reaction?
I’m not a physicist, but I don’t think so. It’s a significantly different reaction going on.
The classic nuclear explosion (and the only one I’m familiar with enough to explain) is Uranium, where the nucleus is hit by a stray neutron, and it subsequently releases 2-3 neutrons in response. These neutrons can then hit other nuclei, so with enough density each nucleus will react and hit more than one other nucleus in response – like an exponential number, it starts off slowly but rapidly grows faster and faster, each nucleus hit increases the rate of energy being released. This increase is what creates the explosion, rather than a nuclear reactor where the aim is to keep the rate at exactly 1:1; a steady, constant output of energy.
Converting Oxygen to Nitrogen… well I’m not sure exactly how it could be happening, as it’s not really something that we encounter much in nature. Stable elements really don’t like being turned into other elements – that sort of thing generally requires a stellar body or some other massive power source. Given that the atmosphere around them is 80% Nitrogen, the easiest way to achieve this would be a simple filter – expelling oxygen so only nitrogen remains.
If the orb is actually turning Oxygen into Nitrogen… first up Oxygen is actually slightly *heavier* than Nitrogen, having an atomic number of 8 rather than 7. That means it needs to subtract a proton from the Oxygen. If those protons go flying off into anything in range, then that is radiation. Officially it’s apparently called “proton radiation”, and appears to be used in cancer treatments as an alternative to traditional radiotherapy, but I know next to nothing about that so you may as well just read the Wikipedia page yourself rather than my hamfisted attempt to rephrase it. Long story short, not healthy for any living creature in the vicinity. However, this radiation will not trigger other molecules to decay themselves, so wouldn’t create a sustaining chain reaction such as in a nuclear power plant, let alone an explosion. The radiation would stop as soon as she stops her transmutation ball.
Actually a Physicist here (though I’ve become a programmer after PhD).
You’re overthinking it a bit. In regular fission, you have the issue that the exponential behavior means the risk of unwanted runaway reactions, which is a problem mostly due to intended processes malfunctioning.
In a powerplant you need to regulate the rate in order that energy is produced consistently without damaging the equipment nor Just dyitoff.
In a nuclear weapon you need to first store the material safely until ignition and then keep it at a supercritical mass for long enough to actually explode. Since it would be easier for the combined parts just to fall apart from the pressure generated by the heat up or, given a slow enough reaction, just melt into a more spread out shape, you end up with those fine-tunes constructions that use explosive make the fission material dense enough to produce a runaway reaction that doesn’t leave enough time for melting or popping apart before enough energy to make it explode.
If you could just suddenly force a change of all the atoms, you wouldn’t need to be concerned with any of that. The exponential runaway reaction is how you manage to change a lot of atoms at once before the material falls apart in more harmless ways. It isn’t the goal in itself.
So yes… If we’d think of nuclear physics here as “turning one oxygen atom into one nitrogen atom” (one proton and one neutron less each, also one electron) we’d have a pretty huge energy output.
Also consider that in that case we make an orders of magnitude larger change than during a fission or even a fusion reaction. Those keep the total number of core particles constant, and release energy from how they are more or less.bound together. We just outright annihilate mass. That’s a mass loss of a bit more than 20 grams per cubic meter, equivalent to about 2 Petahoules of energy.
For comparison: Google quotes the Hiroshima explosion as about 0.02 Petajoules and the State Bomba, the largest hydrogen bomb ever tested, as about 200. Also, it was a lot more than ONE cubic meter of air.
Of course changing the amount of matter like that also violates some conservation laws, so we might as well also ignore energy conservation. Or tune it down to say “we rearrange 7 oxygen atoms into 8 nitrogen atoms” bringing it down at least to regular fission levels, and then we’d have to be more precise about the numbers to even be sure that there is energy OUTPUT at all.
nth tech is handling all the fiddly little excess neutron and proton bits.
And then Sydney gets poisoned, or infected with a space-alien ride-along, or… I dunno, something sinister probably. As I remember it, that particular kind of alien has an ability to effectively hop onto another person’s body and ride them like a taxi.
50 feet is 15 metres for the mjority of the globe with a pressure 2.5 atm or 2528 HectoPascal.
Nitrogen narcosis could occur but not usually become noticeable at depths less than 30 metres (98 ft).
Diving much beyond 40 m (130 ft) is generally considered outside the scope of recreational diving.
High-pressure nervous syndrome occurs a about 500 feet (150 m) using heliox a breathing gas mixture of helium (He) and oxygen (O2) to prevent nirogen narcosis.
…and now Sydney’s soul is pregnant with a little body-hopping flamelike transdimensional alien who will need to get a bioarmor to inhabit when it grows up.
D’awwwwww
All because one of glibph’s halves is in love with Sydney for kicking ass.
D’awwwww
Threesome with Trentacles follows offpage.
D’ewwwwwww
Just like in that old show “Burn Notice”, they didn’t reveal how every thing was done, they left parts of the process of whatever Michael was doing out in an attempt to prevent morons from successfully replicating it
Earth’s atmosphere is 78% nitrogen. All Sidney had to do was push the oxygen out of the area.
She already has the ability to create various gases on demand. Extrapolating that to selective atomic level control of the surrounding environment seems excessively powerful, even by her orb’s standards. So probably only a few more upgrades away?
Yes, that was my thought too. Maxwell’s Demon is way cheaper than massive transmutation coupled with massive neutron/gamma ray absorption to keep from killing everything for miles around.
Yep, transmutation of elements is certainly possible and has been done on an industrial scale for plutonium. Now consider the environment around said transmutation and consider how “friendly” said environment is to life.
It made a big bubble underwater, in the archon pool.
Is this where we learn what the unknown ball does? Is it some kind of anti hack guardian where it protects the host from mental attacks that would cause it to behave abnormally? And by abnormal, I mean outside of the subjects normal behavior which we all know is not everyone else’s normal…especially Sydney’s.
Haven’t we seen aliens like Tenri before? I think it was when Sydney went to the dyson sphere.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-686-interstellarnet-famous/
That looks like a different one of those aliens. They come up now and then.
This is at least the third. 1) The reporter 2) the merc in NY with the lizard boyfriend 3) this one.
get tamaraned on
I has a very bad feeling about this….. oh dear I’ll go get the popcorn!
*Insert Wendy Peffercorn joke
does the joke go ‘Who is Wendy Peffercorn’? *ding ding ding*, that was our Double Jeaopardy question, so you now have…oh, two bucks!
I assumed demons just had a different relationship with oxygen.
If Daphne grapples Sydney, teleports a second body to grapple Tenre and goes ask Dabs what is going on or even calls in Prat she gets a military good job award.
I don’t know what it would be in ARC but I’m sure there’s a few IRL inspirations.
Ah, lovely… a possessing entity. This is going to get good
Hi, I just started bingeing this five days ago, and predictably, that implies that I still remember the opening strips of this webcomic. So maybe I’m the only one who sees it this way, but this is the LONGEST origin story l’ve ever seen! Thirteen and a half years?!?! Are we ever going to get back to the in-story “present” from “a few months ago?”
People bring it up occasionally, and some of them seem quite upset about it, but it’s pretty clear that the story has gone in a different direction and that framing device has been dropped.
And body snatcher plot line 1: GO.
I was thinking that too but the orbes stay withe the mind of Sydney and not her body.
Demonic body posession in order to aquire super powers?
Nitrogen gas is harmless to humans at STP no matter the concentration. We use this for actual high end fire suppression systems. The danger comes from the fact that the 02 content of air gets displaced in an undetectable manner, meaning you can’t tell if you’re in the safe range or the kill people range.
For human’s it’s called inert gas asphyxiation, I had my share of moment’s with that fighting factory fires, Halon is the preferred gas for a fire-suppression system, it eats the oxygen in the air! As with any exposure, your body thinks it’s breathing air, and it’s hard to hold your breath in that case. If you do, you go into a panic because you inhaled, but got nothing from it. When the helium balloon gag got started, many people had to have EMT’s come out to treat them for IGA, because everyone thought they were dying. Which was partly true, but all they had to do was get away from the exposure and breathe! In the case of Halon however, once it’s in the lungs you have minutes to get pure oxygen pumped in or you. will. die.
Hmmm… I think that was the alien that had tried to grab Max in NYC. By kissing her, the flame of life force of her species can jump bodies and come into control of Sydney and her powers. Things just got VERY dicey! I wonder if Sydney is starting to feel like Doctor Who, girls did seem to want to kiss him during both David and Matt…
except that unless there is a very contrived and coincidental way for her to have known about this trip there is no way this could be her in any normal way.
Tenri here is from Parfait’s friend group from demon high school, they knew where Parfait was because Parfait posted about it on the demon internet. The friend group then organized the same day to go get her to try and take her before the succubus matriarchs to lodge a complaint about Thothogoth “claim jumping” the selection line.
That said DaveB had stated in that page’s blurb that this species on average can’t actually possess someone and can’t complete control of them unless fully trained, Lapha who was the mercenary that went after Maxima was stated to not be able to, only to hitch a ride on another’s body, hence their species needing to make bioframe bodies to use; so chances are this just out of school one won’t be able to pull off possession either.
Makes me wonder what her plan actually is then, maybe she wants to sell the information or maybe her people have a legend about the orbs and she’s about to lore dump.
Slightly off topic (but it is on this page)
The link to: “The Webcomics I Like…but are usually NSFW”
is the best way to get to Oglaf because it is unsearchable.
Thanks!
If you vote for Grrl Power and go to the webcomic list it’s on the first page of that as well.
Less than 500 votes needed for third place.
I just realized she’s a huge hypocrite. She didn’t make with the space lobster first!
Is it the second time Sydney get non consensually kissed today?
Not sure whether The Parfait Incident was before or after midnight, but almost certainly “within 24 hours.” She’s having a rough time of it.
That would be inert gas asphyxiation. Nitrogen can’t cause narcosis unless it is compressed.
Not to be confused with “The Bends” (Formerly known as Caisson’s disease)
Unexplained is better than stupid expenation
Also someone bring Syd the no horny bat !
So one of these flame aliens is gonna try and kidnap Sydney…fat chance though. I believe the orbs will recognize the alien influence and go dormant. Which means they and Sydney won’t be going anywhere, really. Might be interesting to see.