Grrl Power #1257 – Oversight by Knismesis and Gargalesis
You’re handsier than a:
- Frat bro whose dad is a judge.
- A TSA agent desperate to make his contraband quota.
- A happy ending competition.
- A blind guy lost at a nudist resort.
- A beloved actor from your childhood who is suddenly blowing up on Twitter. You know. For those reasons.
- Saruman’s sweatshop. (Cause they’re making Saruman merch and his symbol was that white handprint)
Of course, Lapah didn’t say “Patty-Cake Convention,” as she probably has no idea what patty-cake is, but since patty-cake is a child’s game and not some folksy metaphor or sage aphorism, the translator was able to substitute what she really said, which translates more literally like “Slappy Worms.” It’s a game like patty-cake, but involves more cooperative finger twining like a two-person “Here is the church and here is the steeple,” but is otherwise a kids’ game that someone from Lapha’s corner of the galaxy would be familiar with.
Maxima allowed Dabbler to “patty-cake” Lapha for about 4 more seconds after the end of this page, then pulled them apart. Max may not like or trust Lapha yet, but Lapha is one of her subordinates now, so she gets equal protection, and Dabbler is someone who everyone on the team needs to be on DefCon 3 around.
Sydney’s getting antsy for some action, I guess. Honestly, this arc that started with Parfait getting summoned to the base took quite a lot longer than I imagined, which means that after doing this comic for 14 years, I’m still terrible at estimating the length of story arcs. So hey, consistency!
The new vote incentive is up!
Every so often I get the urge to try and draw Maxima all properly shiny, and this… isn’t my favorite attempt if I’m honest. I’ve been sitting on this for a little while doing little tweaks, and decided to finally publish it cause I’m already behind on these. The next one will (almost definitely) resume the trend of including a little mini comic to extend the scene a bit.
As usual, Patreon has some outfit variations as well as sans flagrante.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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“hey remember to behave or we’ll use you as a test subject”
The last few pages have been nothing but things that are vaguely unethical. You keep hand waving it away but these are the type of things that would easily cause civilized alien races to cut ties with earth. Performing magical surgery against their will to remove vital bodily functions, threats and coercion if they refuse to be your prison slave, and now using prisoners as test subjects if they misbehave. It’s all said in a very relaxed manner but these really aren’t the type of things any budding diplomatic country should be caught doing if they want to be seen as anything but savages. The “We didn’t sign a treaty so we don’t need to give you alien rights” attitude is not how a hero should behave. It’s all honestly been completely shameful
Then just stop reading, ffs. The writer isn’t obliged to cater to your worldview and you’re under no obligation to keep reading. It’s really that friggin’ simple.
Screw off. It’s called criticism and it is a necessary thing for any author This from a world building stand point is terrible in the reaction of the people supporting them Not only would it be a PR disaster if it leaked(PR being something they have established they care a lot about) but would see them condemned internationally. This 100% something people would protest over(people will protest over anything really). You can not just do whatever you wish with prisoners especially when everyone in the world is staring at you and judging your actions. This is not even mentioning how alien civilizations would react. If you are going to make yourself a hard fantasy style story these are things that must be considered
I don’t actually care for the things you’ve mentioned because, yeah, it does all edge on corruption and abuse. But considering demonic societies are members in good standing with galactic society with all their proclivities for far worse shenanigans, I think that the alien civilisations are more… westphalian than than you’re envisaging.
Note that it’s *Dabbler* who has been making the ‘do unethical things to you’ remarks, not any of the people in actual authority. I find it entirely plausible that this is what’s happening:
Dabbler: [makes unethical statement to Lapah]
Max, thinking: hm. That’s unethical and can’t be allowed to stand. On the other hand, it’s bad to call out your subordinates in front of prisoners, and I don’t know as much about this situation as Dabbler does. I will talk to her in private first, find out what she’s talking about, then evaluate what to do about it — if there isn’t a good reason and she’s simply being a demon then I’ll tell her to stand down and tell Lapah that I’ve told her to stand down. If there *is* a good reason then we’ll go from there.
Ahh but Demons are Galactic Powers, Earth is the dinky backwoods. USA acts like that but they don’t like it when a country that isn’t selling them Oil does so.
Maybe the author is setting something up. Maybe it’ll forever remain an unexplored plot point. Either way, the amount of ego you have to have to believe that your specific criticism are necessary for the author and that the author has some obligation to conform to your specific worldview borders on narcissistic. Get over yourself.
>threats and coercion if they refuse to be your prison slave
She did do the crime and gets to choose between prison and work release. I don’t really see the problem there.
Even criminals have rights and protections in civilized countries. She should be punished but that requires a legal framework to decide on how. Max does not have the authority to be judge, jury. and executioner.
Remember that Archon is a branch of the military, and when it comes to attempts at external interference, the military is SIGNIFICANTLY less willing to give the perpetrators a chance at defending themselves in the legal system. Generally speaking, an offer to join them is the best you’re going to get.
Max isn’t acting in that capacity. And besides; Lapha tried to specifically take advantage of this planet’s system not being ready for her. Now she reaps the consequences.
Honestly, only a 20-year sentence or work release after making two attempts on the life of foreign government agents is crazy good.
Assuming they actually let her go at the end of the 20 years, and doubly assuming “letting her go” doesn’t just mean she can leave with the bioroid while still being trapped in it.
“b-but they would do THAT!”
Oh yeah, because they’ve been absolute paragons lately. Especially Dabbler. /s
Most likely they would let her go.
Dabbler isn’t in charge of her release, Max is. And, aside from the baseless insinuation you’re levying right now, she’s proven able to let go of violent acts against her.
The ring ain’t on MAXIMA’S finger.
Let’s just be glad that it looks as if Dabbler prefers mostly adhering to a planet’s legal system to just doing whatever she wants, probably because the sexual prospects are better that way. I mean not just actual sex, but also enjoying the ambient energy, like what that other succubus gal did way back at the club. I bet she’s 100% aware that raping someone, even as a punishment for trying to take that ring off of her, would plummet her energy harvest towards zero because people would be disgusted with her, which is probably also why she took it on herself to wreck herself on mana potions to save Parfait from a fate like that.
But Maxima is Dabbler’s superior and, ultimately, does what she says when ordered to.
And unless Dabbler cares so much about keeping Lapha to invest in multiple, long term mind control spells, I don’t see her making an issue of it.
Even her aura wouldn’t be enough since it’s too temporary and short range.
That isn’t what’s happening here at all. Max is acting solely within the role of “police” here, and this is very similar to what happens every day around the real world. She isn’t “judge, jury, or executioner” in any form whatsoever.
A criminal with skills and/or knowledge is caught red-handed. The criminal is given the choice to 1) stand trial for their crime and, because they are obviously guilty, face several decades in prison; or 2) work with us, but because we still don’t trust you (yet), we will impose restrictions on you while you do so.
I really only see Max as the ‘executioner’ here – we don’t know the decision process behind the scenes, just the outcome, and she probably wouldn’t take such drastic steps without some input. Also, the way Dabbler whispers the information makes me think she took some of those modifications upon herself.
Then you have to think back to the station and the reaction to the death and dismemberment of the muggers – it seems the universe at large is pretty OK with extreme forms of punishment.
Didnt Core get slapped with a littering charge thoe? ^^
Not when there on a back water world like earth they don’t since earth in the comic doesn’t have a official alien prisoner treatment policy, do remember that Lapah isn’t a actual lifeform that most of earth would recognize as a lifeform, at best she’s like A.i that gained sentient by accident. sorta like EDI in mass effect, so yeah your “even criminals have rights” is basically invalid in this case
I’d like to point out that neither Dabbler nor Detla are earthlings, while the earthlings are actually pushing for everyone to do “the right thing”.
It does feel ironic though that Detla used to remark on our punishment system to be more on the revenge than reform side (see https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-939-i-double-dog-promise-to-be-good/ ), but then resorts to bisection herself, but I am actually able to relate to that, because if I was personally assaulted (or my family) I would love to get a chance to hurt (or even torture) the perpetrator, which is why it’s important that we have laws against that and it seems as if the Stygans have a similar issue.
In Detla’s defense, considering she was unaware of Lapha’s presence, it’s also unlikely she was aware that bisecting her at the moment would be lethal. At worst, she was looking to break Lapha’s stuff.
There is a reason why the sentencing portion of a criminal case is decided by a judge and not the victim. A victim can never be impartial about a punishment. When she was talking about prison being more about punishment she was being impartial, when she was trying to have lapha turnd into two peaces of meat she was acting as a victim.
It’s not inconsistent it’s just sometimes emotions are powerful.
Also did detla know that would kill lapha? Or did she think she would just move to a new body so it would he like blowi g up her car.
“The last few pages have been nothing but things that are vaguely unethical.” So par for the course with a U.S. law enforcement agency.
Given how many places veer into “wildly unethical”, “completely corrupt”, or downright “brutally totalitarian”, I’d say that “vaguely unethical” is a commendable track record, actually.
Given the collective charges she has in both where that succubi uni is and out in space at large, I suspect that her time on earth might be a kiss on the cheek, all things considered as far as ethics goes.
ITYM “shameless”.
Lapha isn’t a diplomat. She’s a mercenary slaver.
And if what we’ve seen is any indication; the rest of the cosmos isn’t especially more moral than earth is. So I doubt the arguably unethical method of restraining a national security risk will cause any ties to be cut.
Once you start deciding some people don’t deserve rights, pretty soon nobody has rights.
She is being given more rights than expected considering the current situation.
realistically she would either be thrown into an empty cell or straight up killed because the information she has in her mind could literally trigger an alien invasion of earth, she is getting light
For me, it hasn’t been a “Time to stop reading” issue, but it is noticeable and a little self-reflection by some of the parties involved would not be unwelcome. *Smash cut to one year later and an ‘Are we the bad guys’ sketch*
Sydney already did a ‘Are we the baddies’ self-reflection joke a couple of comics ago. :)
A point of note: the author (in a previous commentary) noted that what Dabbler did to Lapha is based on a similar sealing method that is typically used for aetholiths who violate the “Don’t possess people against their will” rule. I suspect this part is functionally the same as the punishment Lapha would be given if handed over to the space authorities. The “emotional shock collar” part (I think don’t think Dabbler’s “Think of it as an experiment” tease is meant to state it’s actually experimental – she’s already aware of what it will do) may be unique, but it’s hard to say. I think operant conditioning is often a part of rehabilitation of criminals, so may well be in frequent use in the space criminal justice system, although Dabbler’s method is markedly more invasive than the generic “Reward good behavior, punish bad behavior” method. But then, “markedly more invasive” seems to be a general trend for succubi.
Operant conditioning is not used as part of the rehabilitation process, because it’s really expensive.
You have to watch the subject all the time. When it does something you don’t want, you have to punish. The punishment doesn’t have to be much, but it does have to happen *one hundred percent* of the time.
Likewise with rewards for doing something you want. The reward doesn’t have to be much, but it does have to be *reliable*.
Also, both have to happen *right away*. So even the most thoughtless can associate the bad/good thing done with the punishment/reward.
It’s how you train pets basically (and I suppose toilet training children). Watching adults that much just doesn’t happen. The justice system decided that increasing the punishment when it catches wrongdoing to cover the less than 100% chance of being caught is just as good.
It’s not.
That kinda sounds like it’s attempted, it just isn’t done very well due to the constraints you mention. It’s possible the space justice system has solved that particular issue, possibly using the same sort of method as Dabbler is here. Obviously it doesn’t override free will, as otherwise Lapha wouldn’t have continued to be a criminal (I forget if it’s been stated, but it strikes me as quite unlikely that she hasn’t gone through the justice system a time or three), but it might make rehabilitation more likely than our cruder methods.
The ultimate point is I don’t think the legal system – ours or the one up in space – would have much of an issue with Dabbler’s methods here (with the exception of her getting excessively handsy, which humorously seems like more of an issue to us down here than it is to the space community at large). The tickle effect might be considered Cruel and Unusual Punishment – more Unusual than Cruel – if it’s ever triggered (and Dabbler was telling the truth about it), but that’s more just because it’s an option we don’t have access to and thus isn’t in common use (making it Unusual).
From what I remember, the reverse is actually true. The rarer the reward is (to some limit), the stronger the behavioral modification. Skinner’s experiments showed that if you reward a rat every time it pushes a lever, it will soon get bored and stop pushing the lever. But if you develop that connection that the lever might produce a reward, but make it rarer, the behavior actually increases. This is a considerable factor in gambling and addiction. It’s actually the anticipation of a reward that triggers dopamine, not the reception of the reward itself. Receiving a reward actually suppresses the dopamine system, but failing too often to to receive a reward suppresses the anticipation.
The fear of a punishment can work the same way. If a punishment is too reliable, it simply becomes a “cost” to be evaluated, and gamed around, rather than something to fear. It’s the risk of the unknown, the possibility of getting punished, that generates the fear. A smaller, but unreliable punishment can be a bigger deterrent than a large, predictable one. Again, within certain bounds.
I feel so sorry for the interstellar slaver who was introduced as trying to kidnap someone solely for the money, and who doubled down by trying to hold Sydney hostage. Really. My heart weeps for the poor, innocent criminal who would CERTAINLY not do the same thing again 20 years down the road given the slightest opportunity.
What are your alternatives to deal with an alien individual that came to earth to kidnap valuable personal, steal secrets of state and put the future diplomatic relations in peril given Lapha capabilites.
First, reach out diplomatically to whatever political entity they’re a citizen of. Then, put them in the legal system. It’s not hard.
She has national secrets in her head.
No chance in hell she gets off planet, or even to another country, without building up enough trust that she won’t spill anything.
That would result in a massive invasion given that the secret that Sydney posses Nth technology would be out. Your solution destroys our planet.
So all it would take to destroy a planet would be to suggest that someone on it has Nth tech? No requirement that it actually be true or proven to be true? Someone could just lie about it, and get the same result?
No, but a information about Nth would be investigated. A lie would yield no results, the true would be found out sooner or later and kickstart every greedy hands out there trying to get it. From individuals to organizations.
first an foremost.: this IS Dabbler’s doing,. Not Maxima. AND Dabbler is a “Civilian”. so she don’t have to follow “the rules.” tho i do see Maxima asking her to.
The problem with “how a hero should behave” is that you end up with Dr Who and Batman type characters that have a body count in the thousands and millions because they value their own personal morality score card over the lives of bystanders.
A short list of charges for Lapha includes kidnapping, slavery, attempted murder, sexual assault, and that cohabitation thing she does I suspect has some very rape like charges attached to it.
So yeah, a short leash and working off her charges on earth rather then what the demon uni would give her might just be a kiss on the cheek in comparison.
There is also the fact that Maxima is NOT a hero. She is a Lt. Colonel in the US military. Her moral compass in addition to the points Integrity, Responsibility, Compassion, and forgiveness has 4 additional points: Mission Objective, Geneva Suggestion, Acceptable Casualties, and Collateral Damage. She may actively want to be heroic but she is a soldier with all the baggage that comes with it.
I’m surprised Dave B. hasn’t had an old soldiers arc where Maxima, Peggy, or Anvil encounters a former enlisted that they were the CO of who can’t adapt to civilian life and isn’t getting the help they need, they use their influence to get them started on the path to better, something awakens a latent power, and then the hardships they face lead them to make unlawful choices and put them into conflict with their former benefactor. I get why he hasn’t. It is hard to write that scenario well.
This is actually a very insightful post.
A lot of the comedy of this comic comes from the clashing personalities of the professional military Maxima and the superhero wannabe Halo.
Lapha is a career criminal who attempted to kidnap government agents to sell them into slavery, twice, and stole classified information from Sydney’s brain. And she’s well versed in technology unknown on Earth, and can jump bodies. It’s not about if there’s a treaty, it’s that she’s a dangerous criminal and proved herself to be an ongoing threat.
People keep saying stuff like this as if anyone doesn’t know it. You still accord people their rights even if they’re accused of heinous acts, otherwise all you have to do to take away someone’s rights is accuse them of heinous acts. We have a courts system for a reason.
what do you think would happen to you if you try to kidnap an FBI agent and manage to snatch some nuclear launch codes and the exact radar cross section of the F-35 and then have a plan to escape to Russia but you are stopped before you can get in the plane (while you are still holding the FBI agent hostage BTW and making threat that you are going to kill him unless they give you what you want) what do you think would happen to you under those conditions?
honestly i think if you get thrown in an empty cell it would be far too good
BullCityFats, you are confusing something major. She is not “accused” of those acts, she was CAUGHT doing those acts. carso150 makes a good analogy for you.
The reason these things need to be repeatedly stated is because some are making arguments for ethical treatment as though they are dealing with someone under the presumption of innocence.
The thing is, to anyone who wasn’t there, there’s no difference between “accused” and “caught in the act”. Should we just take the words of police without question, or do we have trials and demand evidence?
When has Dabbler even been a Good Person? She’s always lingered from Morally Ambiguous to Shits and Giggles. She might not be outright evil, but she’s certainly not squeaky clean either.
1) Police (and the military) are allowed to lie to people to get what they want, with very minimal limits.
2) Prosecutorial discretion means that prosecutors can decline to prosecute at their will, for basically any reason or no reason. You don’t even need to sign a plea deal.
This means that Max can lie or exaggerate about what would happen to Lapha if she doesn’t volunteer to work for Archon, and that if she DOES choose to work for Archon, the relevant judicial authorities can just decide not to prosecute her, even if Archon couldn’t protect her through other legal means. All of this is 100% normal in U.S. law, which is among the more fair legal systems in the world.
3) Lapha is a career criminal with few if any ties to any particular world. No one is going to risk annoying the Fel-carrier-killing backwater over her. They probably wouldn’t even do anything if Archon drafted a non-criminal or two…or a thousand, depending on who they were and where they were from.
News Flash: They aren’t heroes, they’re just Supers. Who are part of the United States Military. You know, the country unwilling to grant the International Criminal Court/ the Hague jurisdiction in relation to US troops because of the human rights violations/war crimes they have been committing. Especially in regards to treatment of prisoners.
It is however *totally* consistent with how USA behaves irw
Ah, someone’s first experience with military ethics instead of hero ethics.
You are grossly misrepresenting the situation and making massive assumptions about the standards of galactic society that we have seen fairly little of in the comic.
Lapha’s organs aren’t messed with, she is under restrictions in her body-hopping abilities because she has a proven, RECENT track record to body-hop to unwilling hosts to then use them as hostages. That ability is restricted for the safety and the rights of bodily autonomy and mental privacy of others. If you have a track record of lashing out at people and trying to bite judges sentancing you, you will be restrained and even muzzled even in the most civilized countries on Earth. If you are a malign actor that will harm people, there is nothing uncivilized in preventing you from harming others.
Lapha was not threatened with bodily harm if she rejects Max’s offer. Just 20 years in prison, which she richly deserves. In fact, Max very deliberately did not allow body harm to befall on Lapha’s person regardless of her choice to work for Archswat or not.
That this is an experiment is conjucture and maybe even a lie on Dabbler’s part . But even if not, it is noted that this is a variation of a standard process to handle criminal Aeoliths. Meaning that Archswat is not that far off of the galactic standard. How far off will depend on the details, which we do not have, either what Dabbler’s modification is (and whether it is worse than galactic standard or whether it is more warranted because Earth technological security did not accomodate for aeoliths) and what said galactic standard you are talking about EVEN IS.
To you I want to point out two further things:
1. If Lapha was not an alien but a human super with similar powers? She likely would have been treated in a very similar way. What we see is the regular process for supervillains in the series that have also broken the law. The difference here is that Lapha has no citizenship anywhere and therefore not actually entitled to any legal protection.
2. Lapha banked her plans on Earth being a galactic backwater that is unrepared for her technology and her Aeolith body-hopping abilities, both of which she abused to attempt commit heinous crimes. She is now getting the conseqvences of a backwater having no legal processes to handle someone like her and the only person able to handle her abilities is behaving unprofessionally because there is literary nobody else.
Could this be handled better? Sure, if there was a process for it and yes, Archswat should try to be better. But overall, galactic society would be “you had an aeolith body-hop to your trusted enforcers, prevented it from committing suicide when it was pushed out of its hostage, put it back into its original body and did not violently and horrificly executed her in a brutal fashion? Wow, I know some places where she would be!”
I forgot to finish my sentence.
I would not be surprised if Lapha was brutally executed for what she did. There are places on Earth where she would be.
I would also be not surprised if there are places in the comic’s galaxy where she would be enslaved into some gizmos with no choice given to her. Or even deleted for just what she was.
yeah, i agree with this one. the more i read about this team’s methods, ESPECIALLY with Dabbler involved, the less i like the characters. dabbler is a LOT more poisonous than anyone realizes, i think. If you want to break things down into archtypes, she’s the “loki” of the group…and i’m talking classic Loki, not the angsty anntihero british boy he’s become in modern media thanks to Tom Hiddleston. One day she’s going to go too far, get caught with her hand in some forbidden cookie jar….then EVERYONES gong to find out just how many contingencies she has.
While it can certainly be problematic in real life (Operation Paperclip anyone?), the Boxed Crook trope is very common in fiction, to the point that it has dozens of examples on TV Tropes.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BoxedCrook
Hell, there are a ton of examples just in the Super Hero genre, let alone books, video games, TV, etc. See Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal for instance.
Yeah. Not shameful. In a world where there are superpowers talents, exceptional aliens and etc…
It would have to be fluid and able to do these things by calling dabbler poisonous. You are simply showing that you do not understand the scope of what’s being shown before you. You should imagine the current world structure being introduced to a universal society that is chaotic and orderly in parts. If you’re not able to do that, then don’t be upset by this comic. Simply stop reading it.
You sure she didn’t get the patty-cake convention from Sydney’s memories? I could see Sydney saying that line.
my goodness, why’s this dessert look so mashed up, and why is it covered in fingerprints? oh, that? It’s a patty-cake.
I could see patty-cake as a form of eye-hand coordination for children of any eye-hand bearing species.
If they vocalized like humans they’d have some sort of rhyming game to go along with it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2lOX-ccvxs
consistency is good. we like the consistent pages. the consistent art improvement is also good. the consistent lame arguments in the comment sections….. are not DaveB’s fault.
we need more puns. and appropriate uses of actual food.
it occurs to me with Lapha after Dabbler’s ring we have some potentially very naughty LOTOR jokes. lets keep the humor handy please.
Yes that could get out of hand.
C’mon, you guys, get a grip, or I’ll have to palm this off to someone who can hand-le it.
This has a familiar ring.
Yes but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
I want to send ninja it squads after all of you but I don’t know what LOTOR means. I know what LOTR means, but not LOTOR, and I feel like if LOTOR does NOT mean Lord of the Rings, I would be sending ninja hit squads for the wrong type of puns.
If this turns out to be LOTR puns, I will just send double the amount of ninja hit squads.
… bleeping typos. (I used to play LOTRO) would it help if I suggested that I wanted references to well-fed women singing (Ring cycle) and Samara (who now works the computer system for Villain Support). in addition to LOTR? or would that just start another round? possibly a suspicious link or two?
I don’t follow about half of what you said but I’m sending triple the ninja hit squads to you just because.
Overdosing on ninja squads is a bad hobbit.
I’m sending pirates after you as well now.
which ones- the red ones? or the eyepatch wearing keyboard warriors in many places? or the cover stealers? (these are getting kind of rare since so many books are bought online)
In fact I’m sending ninja hit squads, pirate hit squads, zombie hit squads and koala hit squads all after you.
Pirates, ninjas, zombies? C’mon people. Get a hand-le on this already! I could count on both hands the number of times this thread has been dangled from your fingers before our tempted eyes! Shame!
Mia is getting the mimes.
aiming for a silent kill, eh?
I think the extra O is the ring itself (it’s a sneaky little thing…).
I like your thought. would you believe me if I said its true?
(insert Get Smart reference)
So a quick google search tells me that the somatosensory cortex deals with sensation, and the cingulate cortex deals with pain.
Honestly, I expected Dabble to put in something like a multi-orgasmic knockout, but that makes sense.
Yes to the somatosensory cortex, but the anterior (i.e. the front part) cingulate cortex seems to be involved in a lot of functions, including attention, reward anticipation, decision-making, impulse control and emotion.
Combined with her comment on “operant conditioning”, I’m thinking less Jack Bauer and more Malcolm McDowell’s character in A Clockwork Orange.
This is Dabbler… She’s put in the ultimate punishment/reward BDSM gimmick as a training tool.
Don’t forget one of the outfits Cora flipped through when showing off her hard-light prosthetics to Sydney.. That one was designed by Dabbs to …Have Some Fun… Or the not-jokingly mention of the Tentacle Closet in Cora’s ship…
If anyone should be able to make full use of one of the oldest BDSM Training tropes, it would be Dabbler.
I’m pretty sure that Xuriel see Halo as a friend and not only a teammate , she is like a second Parfait to her…
Naïve more benevolent than her , young and unspoiled …
And Lapha had done serious breach of Succubus savoir vivre , she got into Sydney pants before her and had had access to every raunchy detail of her sexual life … Before her.
It’s a terminal offense , worthy of at least a full Donatien Alphonse François* remedy according to a Succubus…
*Marquis de Sade
yeah dabbler sees sydney as an actual friend, not only a teammate but someone she respects and likes, honestly i could see dabbler pulling something similar to what cora did to that asshole if she had less restrictions
“Access any technology”. So Lapha will fall down twitching if she picks up a TV remote unsupervised?
Worse if she walks on the trottoir or brushes her teeth.
Technically, all tools are technology; knives, hammers, anything that was crafted to be used as a tool. People have sytarted using the word to mean “electronics, but only certain kinds of electronics popularized after a vague date.” So “technology” to most people includes computers but not radios, smart phones but possibly not cell phones and definitely not landlines, etc.
So if Dabbler is using the word (translated) the same way, she means technology beyond Earth’s current level.
“There’s also be a surprise penalty.” I’m assuming that needs an edit, thinking that a word was left out during a momentary clash of ideas.
Sooo…. what happen3d to Laphras tail? It seems to be missing now.
Noticed that as well.
Somatosensory cortex: senses
Cingulate cortex: reward-based decision-making
Operant conditioning: Conditioning based on reward and punishment
That sounds remarkably like she’ll sexually assault Lapha into compliance. IE “Mindbreak” if you’re a hentai fan. (“Nuh uh!!” in 10… 9… 8…)
Just googled the alt-text. Come on Dave, this doesn’t even slightly look like tickling is what is gonna happen. Feels like you KNEW someone would point out the grapey-ness.
Or Dabbler could block those cortexes and send Lapha in a sort of sensory deprivation during a full body lock-up.
The Star Trek novel “Ghost Ship” deals with something like that, where a russian crew has been kept fully conscious in suspended animation by some force-entity. Data can communicate with that entity, LaForge can see the outlines of the people and Picard has to deal for a few days with a similar situation that the russian ship crew has been going through for the last 300 years.
It turns out that deprivation is even worse than torture (sliding into the worst memories and nightmares and nothing is stopping that) and the force-entity is convinced to let the crew go (it kept them “alive” because it didn’t know better).
It’s a bit “Ghost in the Shell” and the Lord of the Rings army of the dead that gets a release at the end by Aragon.
But i could be off by a bit, it has been about 30 years since i read that novel.
You’re mostly correct. The crew aren’t in suspended animation, because they’re dead, hence the name ghost ship. Rather their spirits/consciousness are being kept in the ship. Assuming you meant suspended animation in the traditional sense of physical bodies. Picard’s sensory deprivation experiment to see what the crew was going through is based on real-life sensory deprivation. Very similar to the type Picard is described using but of course much lower tech, there have been experiments involving that very thing. And it’s fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Without stimulation to your senses it starts to have immediate effects. Within five minutes you’re already starting to slightly lose touch of reality. Time stops having any meaning for you and minutes become hours. Hours become days. Without the external stimulus to process your brain turns inward and basically starts making stuff up in desperation for something to work with. Like a waking dream but far, far more intense. You hallucinate, vividly. You start to see and hear non-existent people, creatures, many things. It pulls from your memories and you can swear you’re seeing and/or talking to people you know, even ones who’ve passed away.
The longer you stay in a sensory deprivation tank the worse it becomes and the longer it will take for you to decompress and readjust to the real world once you’re out. The experience changes you. Picard’s experience as described in the novel? That’s a real description of what can happen. It’s not fiction. It was based on real stuff.
A side-effect of that research and finding out what it does also leads to a horrifying realization. If you were ever to be reduced to the sci-fi classic brain in a jar, you’d undergo the same process. And it’s been estimated you would be irrevocable insane after two weeks.
Also, Fun facts about that novel: It was the first TNG novel released, and the ship on the cover that’s representing said ghost ship is the original Battlestar Galactica model upside down.
Considering Dabbler’s cultural background, it’s hardly surprising. Considering that Lapha tried to kidnap metahumans to sell into slavery – REPEATEDLY – it’s hard to feel too sorry for her, when she’s being threatened with that.
And considering that the threat is conditional (“it won’t happen unless you try to escape your imprisonment or turn the tables on us”), it’s about on par with a prison guard brandishing a rifle and saying, “this gets used if you try to escape or harm one of us.” Whether you think BDSM themed sexual violation is better or worse than simply KILLING Lapha is an interesting morality debate. But either way, this is Dabbler letting Lapha know that her actions have already had consequences, and future actions will have further consequences.
Don’t think there’s really any debate. Can that aforementioned guard sexually violate the prisoner in lieu of shooting them? No.
Can they LEGALLY? No. Should they be punished for doing so? Absolutely, yes.
But would the course of action that results in potential long-term mental anguish (albeit with potential for recovery) be fundamentally worse than the guaranteed cessation an individual’s existence, their capacity to feel sensations or emotions, their capacity to reason, to think, to remember, to hope, for all of eternity? THAT is what’s debatable.
I mean, considering these are meant to be Police officers, even if militarized and super powered version of police, then its legal bearing is entirely relevant.
Otherwise you are saying they get to have special dispensation to ignore the law, event hose designed to keep them accountable and in check.
What J said. Which is worse? To inflict a potentially traumatic experience upon a dangerous person to stop them from continuing their harmful behavior? Or to end their very existence and destroy any hope for their reformation, along with any future joys or accomplishments they might have had?
Either way, Lapha’s in this current position because SHE TRIED TO KIDNAP AND SELL PEOPLE INTO SLAVERY. If her position becomes even worse, it will be because she couldn’t quit while she was behind. Don’t start none, won’t be none.
Those aren’t the only two options.
If I understand what Emma is saying, then I still don’t think that ‘rape’ as a punishment for trying to escape is acceptable. Even for what Lapha tried to do. Especially since disabling her bioroid motor functions would already have stopped her.
Try to put it in the idea of a human being. Law authority puts you in jail for some sort of serious crime. You are put behind bars. You manage to figure out how to escape the jail, and are grabbed by the guards before you can and raped for trying to do so as a way to ‘reform’ you to not try to escape again, even though the guards had already captured you and prevented you from being able to escape.
That would be really evil and be a ‘are we the baddies’ moment.
I will note, though, that Lapha seems to not be ‘offended’ by it beyond ‘don’t condescend to me’ which makes me think that in space, people tend to have punishments that, on Earth, would be massive human rights violations and downright evil behavior by jailors.
I feel like everyone has forgotten about the Alari nanny disks.
Very true.
Although I didn’t bother mentioning Alari tecnology and behavior because neither Lapha or Dabbler are Alari, and I believe that Alari are not actually members of the Xevoarchy and are at odds with the galactic government from what Dabbler has mentioned when on Alar (or were not prior to their near-destruction by the kaiju alien invaders).
There seems to be a pretty obvious issue being overlooked in this weird “Guard rapes vs guard kills” discussion. If you’re in a position to rape someone, you’re by definition in a position to stop them without killing them (because you have to do that first). Now, the guard would be more likely to get away with killing the escaping prisoner, but that’s due to the difficulty of proving that they reasonably could have stopped them without resorting to lethal force. A situation where you somehow actually have the choice between rape and killing typically requires outside contrivance, and arguably the fault is more on whoever contrived it to happen than on the one who does it.
If Dabbler has setup the punishment to be some form of sexual assault on Lapha, that’s evil… but I don’t see how a succubus would consider that a deterrent, and she knows Maxima would be very angry if she did that, so I’d take the title at its word that the deterrent is tickling.
I really don’t see Max signing off on what amounts to rape as a punishment. Dabbler whispering it implies she’s keeping it a secret from the others, but it’s already been demonstrated that Max has super hearing, and Dabbler knows it. My guess is that the punishment is something much less dark, and Dabbler whispering it – as well as refusing to say what it actually is – is just her messing with Lapha, making the latter think that it’s a sexually-themed punishment (or otherwise getting her mind to concoct whatever is the worst option) and that the others are unaware of it. It’s possible she’s managed to pull one over on Max, however, and will find herself in a good deal of trouble if it ever activates.
HOnestly, this tracks. Dabbs and other succubi would get a little boost from Lapha thinking the punishment is some kind of sexual mind-grenade thing and trying to imagine what it is.
Odds are *very* high that Max & Dabbs talked through containment options off-screen, including what should happen to Lapha if she goes out of bounds.
I also wish people would stop trying to apply human standards to nonhumans. It’s silly when we do it to animals, and more than silly when dealing with fictional critters that may not even be carbon-based lifeforms. Like, even for casual discussions we we should remember that the whole universe isn’t comprised of WASPs, just like Earth isn’t.
These comments make WAAAAAY more logical sense than all the “OMG DABBLER’S RAPING SOMEONE AND MAX IS LETTING HER DO IT!!!!!!” comments.
But one should never let logic and reason get in the way of a good outrage.
I think I’ve said it before, but the phrase I always think of when these observations come up is “Worst take speedrun, any%.” A lot of the commenters are masters at it.
Dave has my sympathies here. I have a web serial where a few people have done the same thing.
Or the flip side, where an MC is reasonably humble in the face of deities after having established in conversation with other characters that he had indeed messed up which was why he was sealed away, I have had readers upset that the MC wasn’t more defiant.
There’s always people at any given extreme, no matter how little it makes sense.
To be fair, on Earth, doing that to a human would be a massive human rights violation.
Now, on Earth and comparing it to the treatment of animals when the animals are punished, we do have the difference that humans are sapient, while other animals are (probably) not. But these aliens are also sapient, so it would be argued that ‘human rights’ extend to any sapient species. And even among animals, there are some things you cannot do without it being animal cruelty or other outright criminal behavior in a legal capacity. You don’t torture a dog as punishment, or you don’t pull the teeth out of a cow for example (even if with the cow you’re eventually planning on slaughtering it for its meat).
(I’ve mentioned this next part elsewhere but not sure it if went through)
I will note, though, that Lapha seems to not be ‘offended’ by it beyond ‘don’t condescend to me’ which makes me think that in space, people tend to have punishments that, on Earth, would be massive human rights violations and downright evil behavior by jailors.
And I will also note that Dabbler did whisper the last part to Lapha most likely because Maxima would NOT approve of it, since she holds to military justice codes and United States laws for proper behavior and punishment of prisoners.
Actually performing the acts that have been repeatedly mentioned in the comments here by people with *very* vivid imaginations would be a human rights violation. But the hover-text specifically mentions scientific terms for types of tickling, which is hardly a human rights violation. I could totally see temporary incapacitation by tickling as a punishment thought up by a succubus and approved by Max.
But a police agent being untruthful and hinting/implying that the punishment would be much worse than reality is not. The police are totally allowed to lie to you, which is why you should *NEVER* allow the police to question you without your lawyer present.
The comparison to animals is really pointless. The only comparison would be to creatures with full self-awareness *and* that are capable of complex thought and communication.
In addition to Lapha not being offended by the implied punishment, we have to remember that actual literal *demons* are included in intergalactic “society”. Things that are justifiably considered human rights violations and/or war crimes here would be laughed at in a demon society.
Whispering: Max has super-hearing, and Dabbler knows this. The fact she whispers the last bit is actually evidence that the threats are being greatly exaggerated because Lapha doesn’t know about Max’s super-hearing.
“But a police agent being untruthful and hinting/implying that the punishment would be much worse than reality is not.”
This is true.
“The comparison to animals is really pointless. The only comparison would be to creatures with full self-awareness *and* that are capable of complex thought and communication.”
I brought up the comparison to animals because someone else did, and I was explaining why it was not the same as comparing to sapient alien species for that purpose. :)
“The police are totally allowed to lie to you, which is why you should *NEVER* allow the police to question you without your lawyer present.”
Totally true too (with the exception of entrapment of course). But yes the police are allowed to lie in order to get a confession.
“In addition to Lapha not being offended by the implied punishment, we have to remember that actual literal *demons* are included in intergalactic “society”. Things that are justifiably considered human rights violations and/or war crimes here would be laughed at in a demon society.”
Yet again, also true.
“Whispering: Max has super-hearing, and Dabbler knows this. ”
It’s not really confirmed whether or not Max has super hearing. Every time it’s been mentioned, it’s always been ‘does she or does she not have super hearing?’ Like when Harem asked that at the pool, and there was no answer given, or when they were hearing what the Council was saying in the aftermath of the Black Reliquiry Guardian fight.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-545/
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-560-questions-of-security/
For entrapment, you have to prove that you would not have done the thing without the police agent doing things that actually enable you or make it easier.
I’m not a lawyer, but as far as I know the police can even say “Go on, do the thing. I won’t arrest you.” Still not entrapment.
Now if the policeman does something like obtain a pistol and hand it to you and says “Go on, shoot that guy.” then that’s entrapment.
Entrapment is kind of like self-defense. It puts the onus on the defendant to prove entrapment, instead of the prosecutor to prove guilt.
“For entrapment, you have to prove that you would not have done the thing without the police agent doing things that actually enable you or make it easier.”
I’m aware. I was very specific in what I said by saying that police are able to lie ‘in order to get a confession.’
But no, if the police say that you’re allowed to do something and that you won’t get arrested, then you do it and you get arrested by them, that IS entrapment, since they had to lie to you in order for you do to the criminal action, which you otherwise would not have done.
“Entrapment is kind of like self-defense.”
It isn’t, aside from it being both entrapment and self-defense being affirmative defenses in a criminal case.
While it may indeed be the case in reality, Entrapment and Self Defense being cases where the defense has to prove such occurred is ass-backward. It’s supposed to be “innocent until proven guilty” – the onus should be on the prosecution to prove what happened was not Entrapment or Self Defense, not on the defense team to prove it was.
Except they’ve already established that you’re guilty of the crime. Proving entrapment or self defense doesn’t prove that you’re not guilty, only that you shouldn’t be held responsible or punished for it.
In comic 545, DaveB has said that officially, Max has good hearing, but nothing superhuman. So, she probaly doesn’t hear what Dabbler is saying here.
There is also the chance that Dabbler is just spooking her into behaving with threats she has no intention of carrying out.
So, Dabbler has a higher passive perception than my D&D Rogue does…and his is 17!
More likely the “ring” (which is a physical manifestation of the spell, not a metal ring) alerted her that the person linked to the ring was suddenly highly focused on the ring.
I think it may be more that Dabbler has had over a hundred years of experience dealing with slippery types.
She knows how they think, and this was a chance to both warn her of consequences for escape attempts, and also get some innuendo in there.
It’s like many parents know how just how kids think after a while.
“No, I’m not reading your mind. I just know how you think.”
did everyone forget..? Dabbler IS psychic!
IE: she Can read minds.!!
I don’t know that’s been established.
Please let us know what issue stated this. Or even which arc it came up in.
It has been established that, as a succubus, Dabbler can detect people’s state of arousal (or detect them when they’re aroused), but I don’t remember her being explicitly telepathic…
Not specifically telepathic, but she can determine what your sexual fantasies and preferences are. That’s not too far from telepathic, she might be able to game the rules a bit on the edges, too.
I wouldn’t call it “psychic”, but she does have “brain tentacles” that she can use to read people’s minds.
Fair points from Brett and Torabi but I don’t think either of them apply to this situation, where Dabbler seems to intuit that Lapha is thinking about the ring.
Einnseanaire and M have given much more believable explanations than ‘she’s psychic’, which hasn’t been demonstrated to the level that would be required to explain this situation.
“Remember when we use to fight supervillains?” Isn’t she really only a couple months into recruitment at this point (14 years later)? And already nostalgic?
A lot of things have happened in a very short time. The mind tends to consider that a longer time than it actually was, especially comparing it to a previous, less hectic time.
Even more, Sidney experienced very difficult things, so the gap between experienced is even wider.
Syd’s sense of time does seem to dilate, (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-687-a-friendly-tongue/) but a fair number of defeated opponents are already changing course, even Thothogoth. Makes me wonder if Archon’s first encounter with Xuri was a clash?
Now I want to see a supervillain called “Slappy Worms”. The Wyrmil/Cooter mashup might do.
“No one has ever (willingly) escaped Dabbler’s unguligrade scissor lock”
Which begs the question of how many have ever actually tried.
something something insert pun about cutting to the chaste
Something has familiar ring to it.
I’m not sending a ninja hit squad to hypnobubbles because that was just lazy.
So palmvos gets hypobubble’s ninja hit squad as well. That makes 4 ninja hit squads for palmvos.
so 4 times round the mulberry bush.
…what happened to her tail? Doesn’t she have a tail? I was sure she had a tail…
There is absolutely a tail missing from panel 5.
Dropped it behind the bed as a flight reflex when Detla spooked her.
/headcanon
The ancient superpowered being now acting in the role of prison guard (Dabbler) who is currently 1) sexually assaulting and 2) conducting “research” on a prisoner is more than a little “problematic”. It’s not just that Dabbler has very little effective oversight (she does not; Max is not stopping her right now), or that this “research” is done in the absent of the ethical review now expected of research involving human subjects (IRBs are a thing for a reason), or that Dabber seems to be describing/threatening mind control. It’s that this is mustache-twirling levels of evil, and the comic is playing it for slice-of-life comedy, blissfully unaware of the moral implications.
**TL;DR** Dabber is not a good prison guard. The sexual assault and abuse of power problems are really bad.
Dabbler’s blase attitude toward sexual consent is not new territory for this comic, so I won’t belabor the point, but even a libertine ethical stance towards sex should not condone trampling over consent. Modern law and ethics generally agree that even small touches or words can constitute serious instances of sexual assault/harassment/etc.
Often, sexual misconduct is driven or made much worse by power dynamics. The failure of the victim to “fight back” may be taken as permission by an abuser, when in fact the victim’s circumstantial vulnerability means the best survival strategy may appear “passive” to outsiders.
More significantly, the power dynamic between guard and prisoner makes everything worse. Our frame of reference should not be workplace harassment (as bad as that is), but Abu Ghraib, or concentration camps where prisoners of war have been tortured, or civilian prisons where inmates are raped or beaten with impunity. Prisoners are made to be incredibly vulnerable (and for good reason, given security risks), and therefore there must be serious institutional controls over guards to ensure that guards respect basic rights and human dignity (and the dignity of non-human persons, in the context of this story).
Such rights must be respected even for serious criminals. The fact that someone has committed murder, rape, etc., does not change that. This must especially be upheld by the guards in their own thoughts about the work they do; a guard who stops believing in the personhood of the prisoners will naturally treat them like animals or objects instead. This makes it incredibly easy, psychologically, for the guard to inflict harms that, in any other context, would be easily seen as cartoonishly evil.
Are you SURE what Dabbler is telling Lapha is true?
I want to point out a few things.
1. Dabbler isn’t supposed to be a prison guard. That was not her description. She is a consultant for odd things and this is one of those things. I will admit to you readily that this is unprofessional behavior of her. But this is a bad situation that Archswat was entirely unprepared for and easily could have gone way worse. Considering that, it ended far tamer than it could have. Everything was improvised and seat-of-the-pants situation where you cannot expect things to be done properly and with all due concerns paid attention to.
2. We do not know pertinent details, namely what is exactly Dabbler’s surprise and how much does that deviate from galactic standards. Or the extent of Lapha’s powers over technology and how much of a potential threat she may be. It may well be that without these safeguards she could do something like access Archswat’s computer systems simply by being in the same builidng and hold it hostage. Lapha has proven that she will use such tactics to gain negotiating levereage no matter the potential harm she may do to others. Dabbler’s “surprise” may be unethical but if what she did really is taken from some standard galactic countermeasure for Aeoliths, she may not have invented this operant conditioning response but merely tinkered her own version of it. We do not know.
Should Max tell Dabbler to knock it off, have her hand over the ring to a more trustworthy supervisor to Lapha as well as allowing whatever legal processes that have to happen to be allowed to happen? Maybe even make a note that Max wants a procedure in case such a situation happens again be laid out in advance, possibly for all of Earth? Sure, absolutely. But this was an unideal situation that they managed to resolve as ideally as Max had the tools to solve them.
I’m seeing a lot of complaints about how Lapha’s treatment is going, however, Lapha has proven herself to be a risk of not only members of an elite para-military force, but willing and able to damage public property and citizens of the planet for money/power. Add in the fact that she now has critical top secret info that puts Earth and Archon in even greater risk, she’s lucky they didn’t just outright kill her or leave her to rot on that stand. Dabbler IS a succubus, it’s how they are, and on other worlds her behavure would be at least ignored, if not expected and even welcomed.
Max can and will stop Dab’s IF she feels it going to far, but but both her and Sydney are just not feeling it, yet.
Lastly, THIS IS A COMIC STRIP, it’s not real, accept it and enjoy the humor instead of nit-picking to death something that’s only for fun, that most readers enjoy, if you don’t like what’s being depicted in the comic, THERE’S the damn door, careful, it shuts fast.
not an elite para military force, an elite military force archon is the 6th branch of the US military in this world
Max and Hiro are the ONLY true military minds in the bunch, the rest do (mostly) follow orders and get whatever job needs done, done, but do you honestly think Dabbler is military? Harem? For that matter Sydney? If anything, Arc-swat is a mercenary/military group. I have little doubt Max gets paid in one week that most of us would make in our life time. When Sydney seen her first check she LOST her mind!
Their job without a doubt it the most stressful and taxing job anyone can have, with as great a risk to life and limb as any Navy Seal team deployed. If not worse. So the term “military” is largely for the “powers that be” to feel safe having them. And if you think about it, Lapha has proven she’s not the brightest bulb, she was about to make a grab for Dab’s ring just seconds after she turned her back to Lapha. In a room with both Sydney and MAX right there! So it only makes sense to have VERY strict control on her until she either wises up or is back on that stand watching “The Price is Right” re-runs.
You clearly have no idea what sort of shenanigans military folk tend to get into. The behaviors of most of Arc-SWAT fit fairly well within what such individuals tend to get up to, although it is a bit exaggerated for humor. The odd ones out are Dabbler, Math, and Sydney. Dabbler and Math seem to function more like civilian advisors and contractors, and Sydney is, well, Sydney. Max is also much more permissive than I think most CO’s, although it’s possible we just don’t always see all the punitive measures she takes (like when Sydney and Dabbler mocked her upon entering the room and she made them run laps until Sydney was about to vomit).
Sydney IS military, she has a rank and eventually we know for a fact she gets to become a corporal, others also have a confirmed rank like Anvil and Mr. Amorphous are lieutenants, heatwave, Achiles and Harem for that matter are corporals, jiggawatt is a private, etc
The only two civilian contractors are Math and Dabbler, the rest are in the proper military structure, so yeah they are the sixth branch of the US military
Now I will give you this, Maxima keeps a much more relaxed environment compared to most CO’s in the military but honestly when you are dealing with superheroes you probably need to be a little more permissive than most, egos are likely high and some privileges need to be granted is a fact in the story that the reason why the arc swat salary is as high as it is is because supers tent to prefer to go into the private sector rather than the military because its safer and it pays better
also im not discusing Laphas treatment honestly she gets out almost too light for the shit she tried to pull out
I should add that it has been clearly shown that Max and her CO is always on the watch for new talent to combat the ever increasing issue of supers and aliens that are cropping up more and more. So traying to recruit someone even as “dirty” as Lapha. Not only gives her a chance at redemption, but fills out the rants of Archon to better handle the unknowns in their job. If you think about it, it’s no different than the FBI, CIA, NSA, and so on getting all getting their “computer specialists” from the hacker community. Each one has a “handler” ready to cuff-n-stuff them if they so much as log on to Facebook. Lapha is a mind hacker, how would you handle that?!?
I do appreciate the writing value of having Lapha just…have a bunch of pop culture references in her head now. No more having to worry about “wait, would she have watched-” YES. The answer is now yes.
Oh, why start now? Lapha was the last threat they faced, she got effectively disarmed in a single strip.
Maybe I misunderstood what you meant, but to me it sounds like you feel our heroes aren’t facing any real threats anymore, and that’s something I can agree with. I would LOVE to see another fight like the one with Vehemence, where Max&co. actually seem to have a chance to lose!
So I am guessing…total loss of voluntary motor control, followed by spontaneous multiple massive orgasms? Knowing Dabbler, she might just trigger Meg Ryan moment just for Shits and giggles…
You know, I dont particularly feel sorry for Lapha, due to her history as both a slaver and hostage taker, but I am feeling very icked out by the continued unethical treatment of a prisoner by the people who are supposed to be the good guys.
I understand Dabbler not being human, or particularly tied to being a police/military officer or the general concept of human ethical stands, but I would atleast expect Maxima to be putting more of a stop to what seems to be potentially cruel and unusual punishment.
Im not expecting them to be all friendly with Lapha and be perfect saints, but all prisoners have rights and protections and seeing them just kind of…disregarded and joked about seems incredibly tone deaf considering the state of policing in the modern day, especially in the USA.
Its a gut reaction, but Im getting unpleasant feelings seeing the “good guys” act like this.
To be fair, she isn’t a “prisoner” here until she goes through legal proceedings and is convicted, which, considering all the odd circumstances, could take years. She is currently “jailed”, and the level of threat to national security she poses is so immense that it necessitates this level of security, and it is within their jurisdiction to enforce that security. Really, the only somewhat unethical thing being done here is Dabbler’s surprise penalty, which seems like it is being done without the knowledge of the chain of command. So Dabbler may be a little out of line, but that doesn’t condemn anyone else. We already know what she’s ok doing that’s unethical for the greater good ( the afterglow field). Everything else here seems to be above board and probably was conferenced with higherups by the book off-panel, but that’s boring so we don’t need to see that.
That just sounds like they threatened her into comying rather than arresting her and allowing her to be sentenced properly, implementing their own punishment and control system. It sounds shady and unethical, even if they are technically not doing something illegal.
And even if Dabblers little punishment, which I don’t think is a cute and funny as Dave seems to think it is, is secret and not her something perscribed by the rest of the team or higher ups, there’s still the question go why she, as a temp. consultant, was still given the reigns. Especially with her track record proving she doesn’t align with Earth or USA moral/ethical standards.
It feels either shady or a slapshod, neither of which makes ARC look very good.
Her tail is missing.
If the “good guys” continue to act like this… I liked the comic for the most part but I’m close to deleting my bookmark and forgetting about it after the last few pages.
Just so much yikes. I have no respect for Dabbler or Max any more, they’re just two abusive pieces of shit; this isn’t fun or interesting, it’s just deeply off-putting.
its straight up stated that maxima does pull dabbler away from lapha since she works for them now and as such yes she gets equal protection as the rest of the team (from dabbler)
That is somewhat better, and does put Max in a slightly better light, but it wasnt in the comic and not everyone reads authors notes. It wasnt even a little side piece that gets added in the borders of the comic.
It also doesnt do much about the implied threat of some form of torture in response to any unwanted action from Lapha, especially when disconnecting control of her body would be enough to prevent those actions.
I also question the sensibility of Dabbler even being the ring keeper, and not someone with an actual rank and not a “consultant”. She seems literally the most likely person to abuse it, as this scene kinda shows.
is not like they have much option to be perfectly honest, dabbler is the only one with the technological/magical know how to do something like this, the only option that it occurs to me using modern day tech is to throw her in a completly empty concrete cell with a really big steel door and no electronics in a mile radius just in case and just let her there for a couple of decades
also lets remember her long list of crimes, she is basically getting out with a kiss in the cheek
Using Dabbler to lock Lapha down initially makes sense, that’s more or less what you’d expect out of a techno-magic-alien consultant.
But keeping her as someone’s personal warden does not.
Lapah absolutely knows what patty cake is, she’s got that whole computer memory thing and a complete copy of Sydney’s memories.
Max this is sexual harassment and you know it, why have you not put a stop to it?
she does, read the description
Thanks I missed that first read through.
Yay, action! Yes please – I like a good side quest, but sometimes they’re more of a side series of marathons.
Also, at what point does Sydney earn her first stripe?? Waaaaaay back in strip #4, Max referred to Sydney as “Corporal”. But at graduation she was a private, not an NCO. (She also somehow went from recruit to corporal in a few short months…still wrapping my head around that one, and I’ve been reading Girl Piwer since it first started.
The rank structure appears wonky. Max is a lieutenant colonel, which in the US army would generally be in charge of hundreds of people. Most of the other people we see who have ranks are either lieutenant or captain. There’s a couple of corporals. Where’s all the other ranks?
I suppose ARCHON has a big building and there’s lots of other people in it with the other ranks. But Sydney and Max in other branches would likely almost never interact. There may even be rules against it (I’m not American and have never been in the military, but I have heard a fair bit about inappropriate relations between officers and enlisted).
Yes story reasons and these are the ones OGH wants to write about.
I suppose because supers are all one-offs, there would be reason for some sort of combined civilian/military structure to attract them to sign up.
The suggestion that they are under military discipline might help with antsy officials wondering what to do with these people.
Usually with military you want multiple units. In case of mutiny you want somebody able and willing to put down the mutineers. So I postulate that there’s at least one other unit of supers out there, if not now then pretty soon.
I’m not sure what they could do about Maxima though. I imagine that causes worry in some circles. Deus’ current antics would not calm them down.
Speed and action always attract me Fun Games
Why am I getting strong Foreshadowing Alarm Bells? Like a Chekov’s Gun has just been cocked and is ready to fire in one of two ways?
And we all remember the patty-cakes scenes from ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’.
Remember when the orbs needed to be “recharged” or were getting less active? Would now be a good time to go back to that story? Or was her upgrade supposed to fix it and it wasn’t explained in panel? It’s been a while so I don’t think it’s relevant now but I wonder if it can come up again.
Handsier than the green-haired, horned, striped chick on the cover of Tamer: Enhancer 2. (Because it kind of looks like she’s grabbing the guy’s ass.)
Cortexes… why do I feel like I should kno-Oh. OH. Oh~ That… yeah, Syd may have a point about villainy there. Been playing too much DDO, sounds like how the Yjuan-ti mind control works is described. AM(c) would be proud.
Didn’t Lapha have a tail?
yes it is tucked in lest it be told.
If Lapha were to come from behind with a lead pipe(or a ball bat)and bring it down on Dabbler’s head…?!?
Dabbler probably has an antileadpipeinator ready.
Provided it hasn’t been neutralised by some sort of animal secret agent.
If Dabbler had a nickel for every time her defensive plans were spoiled by some sort of animal secret agent, she’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. Right?
Indeed.
Speaking of, where’s my pet echidna?
Oh, there you are Edna.
Interesting that Dabbler has basically taken on the job of being Lapha’s mother.
“No, you can’t do that. No, not that either.”
When you put it that way, it sounds all kinds of wrong. Like the setup for “hot for mom” porn.
Which – knowing Dabbler, and possibly Lapha (per Sydney’s shocked/intrigued flashback) – doesn’t mean that you’re wrong.
Question – given that their bodies are constructs or victims, do aetholiths even have a gender independent of the body they’re currently riding?
Re: Pattycake, just need to Google Frank Drebin quotes. Like a blind man at an orgy, I’d have to feel this one out.
OK, but am I SUPPOSED to be wishing I was in her position? If Dabbler suddenly wrapped her legs around my waist, and started whispering into my ear while caressing my face, I wouldn’t hear a single thing she said.
She could tell me literally anything, and I’d just nod and say yes please
Panel eight, Dabbles’ horny-croissant looks like the teeth from one of them Mortal Kombat characters
dabbler is looking very sexy hot in panel five. :P
Noted continuity error:
Panel 5 has Dabbler wrapping legs around Lapha’s wait, while her arms are free.
Panel 6 appears to show Lapha’s arms restrained by the legs, or she would likely have them crossed in front of her defensively. Dabbler’s lower set of arms are holding her by the biceps, but that doesn’t explain Lapha’s lower arm position.
Panel 8 shows Lapha still has free use of her arms.