Grrl Power #997 – Deadlock
Panel 1: It checks out because now he knows an appreciative succubus.
It’s going to vary from fantasy-verse to fantasy-verse, but putting someone under a geas to “Deliver this to the king” versus “See that the king receives this” may or may not be the same thing. In the Grrl-verse, magically compelling particular behaviors has roughly the same rules as dealing with a grumpy genie. Wishing to “make me one with everything” is far more likely to result in a violent explosion than achieving enlightenment.
There are a few ways around this. One is to make the underpinnings of the spell far more complex. A “spirit of the law” clause, as it were, but as some people pointed out last page, even the most thoroughly worded “Don’t kill me” command doesn’t prevent two succubuses from Strangers on a Train-ing the others’ master.
Another way is to make the subject want to obey. This presents an escalating challenge the more of a dick you are to them, and again, writing a spell to make them find any sort of mistreatment acceptable or even deserved quickly becomes as challenging as airtight obedience spells. It’s easier to just train them from the get-go that they’ve done something to deserve their fate, like telling them that in a previous life they were a witch that caused plagues or a demon footsoldier that ate babies or whatever.
So this is the solution they came up with. Tie the succubus’s life to her master and hope she doesn’t hate you so much that she accepts her own demise as a reasonable price to pay. And as Dabbler pointed out, there are considerable benefits to the bond, mostly for the master, and there’s more stuff that she didn’t get a chance to get into, like hooks in the bond to make it easy for the arch-mage to also make the succubus his familiar, which grants sense-sharing and other bonuses.
So… not to completely spoil any notable story events I have planned for page 1000, I was wondering what you guys think Sydney’s bling might look like once she’s officially graduated to private. I know most privates aren’t going to have a massive ribbon rack (is that what it’s called?) but most boots don’t get to participate in the first official action of a new branch of the military, be a key player in the defeat of Vehemence, fight mannequin bots while defending foreign (The Twilight Council’s legal status is complicated) dignitaries, get stranded in space, rescue refugees, return to Earth, fight alien mercenaries. You know, stuff like that.
Really, I just need an idea of how many ribbons she might have accrued so her uniform doesn’t look like she stole it off a master sergeant or something. There was also a page a long way back where someone brought up the idea of a medals, and I’ve no idea where that discussion is buried. I think non-military people like myself are kind of out of the loop when it comes to medals, because the only time we hear about them (short of having an enlisted family member or friend) is when the really big ones get handed out, so I really couldn’t guess if anything she’s done is worth a bronze cross or an orange star? No, wait, that’s a Lucky Charm.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
Just have to finish up the missing sex scene, then it’s off to the proofers.
November’s vote incentive is updated, in case you missed me posting about it on Friday. Here’s a link to a dedicated post about it if you want to comment.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
People keep bringing up all those awards and medals and shit that Sydney would be getting while she was on Alara Prima, forgetting one, very vital piece of information:-
NO ONE CAN CORROBORATE ANY OF IT!!!
It’s just the word of a rookie who was left behind when the portal closed. She didn’t even sacrifice herself to save the others, Maxi simply wasn’t able to reach back far enough or fast enough to drag Sydney back safely, Sydney was frozen in Mr Buble getting pelted by the flying skulls of Sci-fright and Pals
And while it was weeks for Maxi and the rest of the Universe, for Sydney, it was probably only a couple hours
Her uniform would have some minor damage consistent with shrapnel impact, and her team knows she was being shot at as they were portaled away… It’s not clear what onboard recording her collar might have, although it appears to be primarily a comm and GPS, neither of which would work away from Earth networks…
Cora may have recorded something from orbit, but even if her ship picked up the final explosions or somehow identified ‘new’ craters from the final volley or dead kaiju in the brief minutes they were in orbit, there’s nothing to prove Sydney was involved.
…yeah, it’s pretty much just her word at this point for everything beyond surviving. :(
Surviving may or may not warrant a medal or citation or something, but beyond that? Nope
And Cora would have to know what sort of damage had been done to the planet prior to the Earth reverse-invasion
Also, we don’t know if the Alari weren’t able to put up some sort of a resistance before being futiled back to the stone ages, so dead kaiju may not mean as much in Sydney’s favour
Three new activated points in her power diagram is certainly proof that something went down in a huge way. She came back able to open wormholes to other solar systems and can now outfly Max, neither of which was true before that experience.
Good call, this seems like pretty good proof something significant happened, although exactly what would still be unknown. On the other hand, she also got a point for cutting loose with an existing power, and another for sharing her feelings in therapy, so it’s hard to make a rock-solid case that points are only awarded for huge events.
I like it when I get one of these unofficial awards , it does not happen too often , it is a rather personal appreciation between persons who respect each other , not requiring an act of congress , but once I got one from a second level supervisor for a job well done , another time a general gave one to every member of my unit. They are pretty , but they are usually carried out of sight. https://www.schlockmercenary.com/assets/img/uploads/UAHCC/UAHCC-v0.99.pdf?k=38c09d17b6
Huh, wonder if Krona could fix that.
The first time we see Tom he is being sucked into a vortex, defeated by Dabbler, and she says she is going to take his stuff. Just a lover’s quarrel? Still weird that she felt the need to loot him….
and then she imagines him when Maxima is doing the demonstration as though she thinks Maxima may be an agent or something of him, but hand waves the thought away. and we also have Cora’s statement about avoiding him.
So something is going on that the two of them are skirting around.
Personally, I suspect they’re in a very roleplay-heavy relationship.
thinking something along the lines of the Super Mario theory?
-for those that don’t know, while there are a ton of variations of this theory ranging from kidnapping fetish too Peach is a goddess being placated by heroic play acting; the base theory is that Peach, Mario, and Bowser (even if no one else is in on it) are basically indestructible super beings (of some sort) and are pretending the whole time. At the end of the day none of them were *usually* being serious which is why after they can enjoy (friendly) games with each other
-also why in Odyssey Peach was able to snub Bowser and Mario both at the end (supposedly just playing along as usual till that point, only realizing they were being serious at the end and turning them both down; hence why she can go on a worlds tour in post game without any worries.
So Dabbler is being an adventurer, Thothogoth an overlord, and she plunders his keep on various worlds; earning herself local respect and cash, and he gets to play out being a big boss with someone who isn’t genuinely trying to kill him; or would be so little threat as to be boring.
Presumably the succubus and the demon overlord keep things spicy by roleplaying as a suburban couple with 2 kids, dead-end jobs, and crushing debt from student loans. Next weekend they’re going to start the evening by arguing about how the minivan got scratched and then move on to how long his mother has to stay with them for the holidays.
I remember seeing a skit on youtube where a bunch of Dungeon and Dragons characters played a tabletop game where they play normal people, and the quest in question was something like ‘Going over to your friend Bill’s house to feed and walk the dog, water the plants, etc, while he’s out of town.’
I forget the name of it. It was something like ‘Houses & Humans’ or ‘Humans & Households’ or something like that.
—
Okay I just found out the skit. It’s actually a series of skits by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, called ‘Humans & Households.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGVC6-Bohqk
same for World of Warcraft ….. er now Workcraft …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msmRwlg23Qc
I am suspecting the mentality behind their arrangement may fall a tad into the mental uncanny valley territory.
Which is hard to write admittedly, basically having a sapient being that while sapient thinks just slightly differently than a human does so that conversations or prolonged contact can be surreal and creepy to the average human.
-however differentiating between this as a natural thing (such as a species whose mental state does not automatically see faces in things like humans, or whose imagination is not tied to memories so abstract what-if scenarios of past events to predict future ones is off the table for their inventive process)…and differentiate between that and just a difference in culture.
culture shock is a thing, but sapient mental-state shock feels like prolonged exposure would be a whole other level. Its bad enough when the aliens see differently, have a different audible range, extra means of communication, but also add while sapient have such different instincts that they simply can’t approach some subjects the same way humans could.
Aliens can be hard to write. The trick is to write something that thinks as well as, or even BETTER than a human being, but not LIKE a human being.
I dunno. I’m a fan of the ‘Humans are Awesome’ and ‘Humans are Space Orcs’ or ‘Earth is a Deathworld’ genres. Because usually humans are the ‘default average’ creatures who manage to somehow keep up despite being overall inferior biologically and sometimes technologically, and all aliens have some sort of superpower, like in Star Trek or Star Wars or Stargate SG-1 or Starcraft or DnD. :)
Reminding me once again that this forum needs to maintain a list of reading recommendations. I’ve found several favorites here over the years.
Pretty much the entire Jenkinsverse is a fanfic of ‘Humans are Awesome’ + ‘Earth is a Deathworld/Space Australia.’
I particularly liked this little dialogue on reddit’s ‘humans are weird but awesome’ thread:
Alien: “I’m sorry, what did you just say your comfortable temperature range is?”
Human: “Honestly we can tolerate anywhere from -40 to 50 Celcius, but we prefer the 0 to 30 range.”
Alien: “……. I’m sorry, did you just list temperatures below freezing?”
Human: “Yeah, but most of us prefer to throw on scarves or jackets at those temperatures it can be a bit nippy.”
Other human: “Nah mate, I knew this guy in college who refused to wear anything past his knees and elbows until it was -20 at least.”
Human: “Heh. Yeah everybody knows someone like that.”
Alien: “……. And did you also say 50 Celcius? As in, half way to boiling?”
Human: “Ugh. Yes. It sucks, we sweat everywhere, and god help you if you touch a seatbelt buckle, but yes.”
Alien: “……. We’ve got like 50 uninhabitable planets we think you might enjoy.”
Alien: “You’re telling me that you have… settlements. On islands with active volcanism?”
Human: “Well, yeah. I’m not about to tell Iceland and Hawaii how to live their lives. Actually, it’s kind of a tourist attraction.”
Alien: “What, the molten rock?”
Human: “Well, yeah! It’s not every day you see a mountain spew out liquid rocks! The best one is Yellowstone, though. All these hot springs and geysers from the supervolcano–”
Alien: “You ACTIVELY SEEK OUT ACTIVE SUPERVOLCANOES?”
Human: “S**t, man, we swim in the groundwater near them.”
Alien: “And you say the poles of your world would get as low as negative one hundred with wind chill?”
Human: “Yup, with blizzards you cant see through every other day just about.”
Alien: “Amazing! when did you manage to send drones that could survive such temperatures?”
Human: “… well, actually…”
Alien: “… what?”
Human: “…we kinda……. sent……….. people…..”
Alien: “…”
Human: “…”
Alien: “…what?”
Human: “we sent-”
Alien: “no yeah I heard you I just- what? You sent… HUMANS… to a place one hundred degrees below freezing?”
Human: “y-yeah”
Alien: “and they didn’t… die?”
Human: “Well the first few did”
Alien: “PEOPLE DIED OF THE COLD AND YOUR SOLUTION WAS TO SEND MORE PEOPLE???!?!?!?”
—–
There’s also another genre called ‘Humans are Scary in how Friendly they are.’ Another example from Reddit:
It occurs to me that as much as “humans are the scary ones” fit sometimes, if you look at it another way, humans might seem like the absurdly friendly or curious ones.
I mean, who looked at an elephant, gigantic creature thoroughly capable of killing someone if it has to, and thought “I’m gonna ride on that thing!”?
And put a human near any canine predator and there’s a strong chance of said human yelling “PUPPY!” and initiating playful interaction with it.
And what about the people who look at whales, bigger than basically everything else, and decide “I’m gonna swim with our splashy danger friends!”
Heck, for all we know, humans might run into the scariest, toughest aliens out there and say “Heck with it. I’m gonna hug ‘em.”
“Why?!”
“I dunno. I gotta hug ‘em.”
And it’s like the first friendly interaction the species has had in forever so suddenly humanity has a bunch of big scary friends.
—
“Commander, we must update the code of conduct to include the humans.”
“Why? Are they more aggressive than we anticipated?”
“It seems to be the opposite Commander. Just this morning a crewman nearly lost their hand when attempting to stroke an unidentified feline on an unknown world. Their reaction to the attack was to call the creature a “mean kitty” and vow to win it over. Upon inquiry, it seems they bond so readily with creatures outside their species that they have the capacity to feel sympathy for an alien creature they have never seen before simply because it appears distressed. I hate to say this commander but we must install a rule to prevent them from endangering their own lives when interacting with the galaxy’s fauna.”
“I see what you mean. So be it, from now on no crewman is allowed to touch unknown animals without permission from a superior officer. And send a message to supplies about acquiring one of these “puppies” so that their desire to touch furred predators can be safely sated.
Let’s be honest, the humans would ignore the hell outta that rule whenever alone.
“So I hear that you’ve just recruited a human for your ship.”
“Yes, it’s the first time that I’ve worked with these species, but they come highly recommended. Say, you’ve worked with a few, what tips can you give me? I’d hate to have some kind of cultural misunderstanding if it’s avoidable.”
“The first rule of working with humans is to never leave them unsupervised.”
“Wait, what?”
“I’m serious. Don’t do it. Things. Happen.”
“But wait, I thought that I heard you highly recommended that every crew should have at least one on board?”
“Absolutely, and I stand by that. Humans are excellent innovators and are psychologically very resilient. If you have a crisis, then a human that has bonded with your crew properly can be invaluable. Treat your human well and you should get the best out of them as a crew member. Their ability to get on with almost any species is legendary.”
“But Toks, didn’t you just say…”
“The trouble is that they will potentially try to bond with anything. If you leave them unsupervised, you have no idea what kind of trouble they can get themselves into. It was sheer luck that the Fanzorians thought that it was funny that the human picked up the Crown Prince to coo at him.”
“Crown Prince Horram, Scourge of Pixia?”
“The very same. Surprisingly good sense of humor. But don’t even get me started on that one time with the Dunlip. Al-Human wanted to know if they could keep it. As a pet.”
“A Dunlip? You mean the 3-metre tall apex predators from Jowun?”
“Yup. Don’t leave your humans unsupervised.”
“I’ll uh, take that under advisement.”
“Seriously. Get a supply of safe animals for the humans to bond with or they will make their own. I mean, they will try to befriend anything they come across anyway, but without any permanent pets they can get… creative. Don’t even get me started on the time one of them taped a knife to one of our auto-cleaners and named it Stabby.
Three weeks in and when we finally caught the wretched thing, half the humans on crew tried to revolt about us “killing” Stabby by removing the knife.
“How… how did you resolve that sir?”
“Glaxcol made a toy knife out of insulation rubber and strapped that on instead. Quite a creative solution, I suppose.”
“And that sated the humans?
“Worse.”
“Worse?”
“They thought it was so funny they made a second one, strapped false eyes on springs to both and held mock battles. Then decided Stabby and Knifey were in love and now none of them will allow the others to stage fights between them any more.”
“So, if I supply my Humans with safe bonding pets they will behave better when on other planets? Where do I get safe bonding pets?”
“Realizing the havoc their species created with their bonding needs, Earth has been kind enough to create an intergalactic ‘pet’ shop as they call it, the order forms are on the bridge.”
“If they get a pet this should prevent any knife welding auto-cleaners?”
“Yes…”
“You don’t sound very reassuring.”
“Well… You have to understand that some of what humans find attractive about their ‘pets’ is actually what makes them dangerous. Not all of what they consider ‘safe’ is what we would consider ‘safe’.”
“OK… I am getting a little nervous about this.”
“No, no, it’s fine, I’m just saying you should maybe keep an eye on what they order. Ask them to describe the creature before they get it. For example, the first time I had a human on board I let them order a pet without checking what it was.”
“What happened?”
Well, when it arrived it was a 25 pound fanged and clawed feline creature called a Savannah Cat. My entire crew was terrified of it, it was agile and could easily have seriously injured someone, but the human had no fear of it. They insisted on carrying it around like a child, and they would squeeze it’s ‘beans’ as they said, forcing the creatures claws out, and then they would show people it’s deadly claws while saying, and I quote, ‘look at its adorable claws, this is what it uses to kills things, isn’t it cute?’“
“Seriously?”
“I have also heard stories from other crews that their humans ordered canines that weigh as much or more then they do, and they sleep next to the giant creature.”
“You are not making me feel better with these stories…”
Wish we could invite comments, and this also adds to why I think humans would be the goblins of space, pets, invent absurd things, ride giant wolves.
Pretty hooked on the Jenkinsverse (aside from a couple weird detours in the last few months), which I did learn about here. I’ll have to look into Humans are Friendly, but I actually ran across a Humans are Space Orcs compilation a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Also look up ‘Earth is a Deathworld’ because those are hilarious as well. The idea being that humans have no idea how hostile Earth truly is compared to other planets which are able to support life until they actually go to those other planets. And other aliens are terrified of stepping foot on Earth. And when they find out that humans find a part of Earth to be dangerous, some huge continent-sized island called ‘Australia’ they’re even more terrified of that place. Anywhere that a HUMAN would find things to be scary must be the most scary place in the universe!
Do you have any examples where it’s both of those combined?
There’s no reason why they can’t go together, after all :)
(Also, I almost passed out from laughter at the “humans are friendly” example)
I am a fan of humans are space goblins, middle size, tinkerers but not as smart as others, vicious, first into a fight and over run anything they can but are fodder to the stronger species forcing humans to run it serve resulting in humans inhabiting dark rocks no one else wants. Oh and will eat just about anything.
“So wait, you’re telling me they put this chemical in their drinks intentionally? It’s a deadly poison that makes our heart chambers explode!”
“Yeah, the human actually got hit with a poison dart but it just made her very hyperactive and she said it was like a ‘caffeine shot.’ Apparently that’s what they call it. Caffeine. It’s a regular staple of many human beverages. The human on our ship says she can’t even function in the morning until she’s had a cup of liquid just LOADED with the stuff. She calls the drink ‘coffee.’ We have to wear a hazmat suit when bringing the stuff to her quarters – even the scent is enough to send some species on board into shock.”
“They really should learn not to handle such things. They need to put themselves in our appendage-coverings. What if they ingested something which is harmful to THEM? How would they like that?”
“Oh, they love that.”
“… what?”
“Yeah, apparently there’s this thing called ‘capsaicin’ and it’s some sort of chemical that literally causes their nerve receptors intense pain. They coat it on their food sometimes. It clearly hurts them but our human seems to LOVE it. They call themselves a ‘spice-eating maniac.’ She said it’s just like her favorite fictional character on something they call a … ‘webcomic.'”
And then there’s alcohol and phycadellic drugs…
I would think that Max believes that Sydney is too honest to ‘pad her resume’ as it were, she fully admits to her screw-ups and, if anything, downplays her actual achievements.
That being said, her plans from her first day, for dealing with For-Whom-the-Bell-Curves and Kevin definitely deserve recognition, as does her generally positive interaction with the Twilight Council in dealing with the Black Reliquary(?) incident. (I almost just typed ‘vault’ and had to change it – if I have the opportunity to use the phrase ‘Black Reliquary,’ I will as often as possible). Also, possibly the New York incident, but that one is debatable.
I haven’t commented here in literal years but now I have a question. Or, rather, a question, an assumption, then another question.
Question: Were Succubi advanced enough during their rebellion/assassination phase to breed? Actually, do they even breed NOW? We know Dabbler was a teenager or equivalent at some point, but not if she has parents or was born in a vat.
Assumption: Law of Averages being what it is, there is roughly zero percent chance that literally no mage EVER was interested in a male-morph succubi. Ergo, there should be a breed of incubi around somewhere even though we’ve never seen them on-screen, even if they are staggeringly rare.
Finally, the question at hand: Could the post-soul-mutilation succubi not just breed the implanted defect out of their species with the succubi that freed themselves? Or, heck, did the free succubi ever form a stable breeding population in the first place?
This of course raises the moral issue of eugenics, but there’s a vast difference between preferring specific traits in a mate and killing or sterilizing someone over perceived defects. One is normal human interaction, albeit more consciously selected than usual, and the other is a monstrous tribute to moral bankruptcy.
So, anyway. Doable?
“We know Dabbler was a teenager or equivalent at some point, but not if she has parents or was born in a vat.”
Actually we do know that Dabbler had parents. She even started talking about her parentage during the press conference before the Fel invasion.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-762-this-presser-is-about-to-get-a-lot-more-exciting/
(Panel 6)
Dabbler: “…think my father had four arms, or maybe six, but my secondary biological mother never met him”
So Dabbler has at least one biological father and at least two biological mothers, however the heck THAT works. Probably a vat like you suggested, or a surrogacy deal.
“there is roughly zero percent chance that literally no mage EVER was interested in a male-morph succubi. Ergo, there should be a breed of incubi around somewhere even though we’ve never seen them on-screen, even if they are staggeringly rare.”
Well then there is not a zero percent chance. :) It’s just the chances are exceedingly smaller, the larger an amount of archmagi there were. The more archmagi, the more likely at least one wanted a male succubi (incubi). But there still is a chance there are none,
“This of course raises the moral issue of eugenics, but there’s a vast difference between preferring specific traits in a mate and killing or sterilizing someone over perceived defects.”
Eugenics is problematic on Earth mainly because of the Nazis. Before the Nazis, eugenics was seen as being a lot less evil, much like how we view how we breed other animals and grow plants for advantageous traits. Other species on other planets might not have had anything like that in their history.
Heck, even some aliens who DID have a bad history with eugenics might see it as an overall positive thing because they might have ‘taken it back from those who corrupted the science’… like with Kryptonians in DC Comics.
Krypton was a eugenic society, as well as based on arranged marriages for genetic advantages (there was a Master of the Birthing Chambers and weird stuff like that). During the reign of the Military Guild, the Kryptonians were pretty awful as a species and conquered 80+ planets. When the Science Guild took over, they stopped the whole conquering and war-setting, dismantled the Kryptonian armada, and eliminated even most interplanetary trade except for on Kandor. They kept the eugenics though, because it allowed Kryptonians to have extremely long lifespans, very little disease, and a population that had excellent overall health. So for a planet ruled by a Science Guild, they probably thought ‘this part is good as long as we stop with the psychopathic conquering everyone else mindset that the Military Guild had.’
The House of El was just old-fashioned and married based on love and, at least with Kal-El, was born naturally without genetic manipulation (and without being born in a birthing chamber). Kara’s parents also married for love instead of genetic compatability, but she was still genetically enhanced as an infant and her ability to process sunlight was superior to Kal’s as a result. At least according to Loeb’s run in New Earth and in the New 52 run.
Another thought comes to mind all this.
So clearly the demons are familiar with the concept of a species (or) race being created or modified resulting in a new species (or) race.
So one of the theories about the origin of Supers could be occuring to Dabbler *hence her interest in supers beyond sexual*, and would be understandible to other demons; although other aliens wanting to invade Earth should also consider it.
Presented very early on in the comic was the idea that supers can’t be natural, too many repeating traits for mutations; so something may be tampering with the human genome somehow for some reason. Now given that supers are breaking the laws of known physics, even as far as beings like Thothogoth know them, then it stands to reason that if something did make supers then they are 3rd tier or above.
So by invading Earth, any of these aliens should consider the possibility they would be interfering with the experiment, entertainment, avatar memory suppression vacation, or whatever of one of these Ancient First One Physics is malleable to us, type of civilizations/entities. Thus ending up on their bad side.
My theory is that Earth is where the Nth are roll playing to avoid boredom. The supers are all reincarnated Nth, with their memories suppressed for the duration of the game. The super powers are generated by hidden Nth tech.
And most of us are just NPCs, though sentient ones.
Has someone or everyone made a crack about “soul-kissing” yet?
And also just realize in panel one that’s one of the french knights from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
We’ve got a new supreme sword technique for finding lost children. It’s called Hiya Kiddo.
At what point do we start noticing that the new comic is late?
At 11pm PST
Never. Our Mother raised us better.
Wait what about that teen succubus that was in puberty is she bonded to
Word of DaveB is that Tamatha isn’t bonded to anyone yet. The working theory is that the ‘hole’ activates gradually, and generally only becomes acute enough to need plugging after the Succubus has reached the age of legal maturity (which was carefully not stated, to avoid nit-picking over different legal jurisdictions).
This is a deeply fucked up mode of existence for Succubi. Even if I ignore the notion of them being property/slaves/forced labor, this sort of binding imposes the kind of power dynamic that makes consent between two people dicey at best. I’m really hoping Dave handles this in a good way so I don’t have to be all “but you wrote her that way!” in response.