Grrl Power #929 – The technicolor yawn is in the eye of the beholder
Since I am not talented enough to draw something so beautiful that you all throw up, I’m going to say Umbrivions use some sort of psychic attack to distract prey and their prey’s friends with double rainbow levels of visual cortex rapture. Some sort of beholder style psi-aura that only works with eye contact, like a weird gorgon.
Oh man, imagine a spell that temporarily turns the visual cortex into a pleasure center for the brain. That would be a weird spell certainly, but I think it’d be a lot worse than a sphere of darkness. Instead of no input, everything you look at makes your eyes flutter and your knees buckle. A sword comes flashing at your face and catches a glint of sunlight, and you’re like “Aw fuck, so good, just like that baby!” If that spell swapped the function of your visual cortex and pleasure center, you’d be blind and jizzing yourself every time you looked at a bright light… then if someone flicked your nipple, you’d see a burst of… leaves? I don’t know what a nipple flick would translate to visually. Dancing pastries?
What I’m saying is that in a world with magic, there would be some fucking messed up recreational spells.
This page partially exists because I felt a little bad that Henchwench had a pretty amazing run, where Robert Nava’s cameo only got a single page. But there’s other story stuff I wanted to do to wrap up this Times Square sequence, (which is almost done, hang in there) so it’s not just a pity cameo or anything. :)
Star Justice 12 is indeed out! The audiobook version will be out when the narrators can get to it, probably a month or two.
Oh, wait, that’s not the cover. That’s the fan-art one I did that MSE showed his artist and said, “Do this, but better.” (You can click on the thumbnail to see my art, and the link to the e-book to see the final.) To be fair, he definitely succeeded. I actually think mine is pretty good, but it lacks the final one or two passes needed to make it “professional” looking. The proportions need that Liquify filter tweak, the lighting could use another pass, as could Juliette’s hair. Also the background is atrocious. It looks like an obligatory placeholder, which it basically was.
The new vote incentive is up! 
Maxima won (or lost) the draw this time. There are several clothing/non-clothing variants over at Patreon, including a special version with guest art direction from JJ Abrams. (Yes, there’s a ton of lens flares, hah hah. I amuse myself.) The a-cups will return next month, so please enjoy this offering in the meantime.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
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Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
I wonder btw if we can see soon improved char bio …I mean …with all new characters added to it
That’s been on the to-do list for literally years, and keeps getting bumped in favour of pages. There’s also the question of spoilers, as the cast has accumulated a lot of people beyond the ‘core’ members of ARC who were revealed relatively early. I think there’s a reader-maintained Wiki somewhere, if the lack is a significant problem for you.
Well there is a solution to the avoiding spoilers thing – kick it down to the fans to do the test – the web monkey for the layout and the DAVE for the final QC and approval before any entry goes live.
Less work for the DAVE and the fans have something else to do.
I am willing to participate in crowd-source fan effort
I bet I’m taller than all four of you
Put together? Unlikely.
Also, todays GP is 150 minutes late….
The power these ethereal tentacles have to appear as though they are a middle aged white 30s undercover mobster is clearly on of great power
Nah, it was the only Human-suit that would fit that they had in stock at the time.
He’s white? Always figured him to be Polynesian
definitly polynesian
I like that ‘Umbrivion’ sounds like someone saying ‘oblivion’ through their gag reflex, which is now my head-canon for how Lapha’s translator chose what to render in English.
You have a head cannon? Where do you get heads of suitable calibre?
I know which bridge the trolls live under and just wait for them to go out on their rounds.
Also, I think it actually means this, but no reason it can’t be both. ^_^
Or maybe this
*seeing image of weird tentacle alien* why am i thinking of Dabbler meeting this person?
You know Dabbles & have two functioning brain cells to smack together.
I don’t think it is brain cells that Dabbler would smack together.
First thing that came to my mind is maybe Pinky has some cuttlefish dna. Some do that color strobe to confuse/mesmerize their prey. Maybe the beautiful colorful sparkles did something similar to her.
Umbrivions are Sqids!
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff100/fv00083.htm
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fc01346.htm
Same “nurturing response”, different reasons?
The Umbrivion alien isn’t using his translator. It’s possible that he used the wrong word, and meant hideous instead of beautiful.
Legit wonder how closely related they are to Vorlons.
I’m now convinced this is Kosh on vacation.
nah, if it was a Vorlon every (or almost every) sentient species would be seeing them as something religious that they believe in thanks to some overly convoluted and really unnecessary gene modifications they spread around so their psionic light would interact with the faith aspects of other species.
Thanks to Babylon 5 I started to really explore the ideas of sub-ascended and different tiers of ascended species. You really felt that the Vorlons and Shadows were the youngsters races of the “First Ones”, that said I always felt they hinted at that there were other species before or above even the First Ones (like the demon crabs for instance that even the Vorlons feared)
Oh, dear, SnakeDude vomited in his helmet! That can’t be fun, regardless of species.
Plus side, at least he cannot see the Umbrivion anymore…
I really hope SnakeDude has a purge function on that helmet.
https://www.space.com/24835-spacesuit-water-leak-nasa-investigation.html
Nanites that take care of accidents, like this. John Ringo’s has helmets in the Posleen was that do that. keep it nice and clean and give you a shave as well.
Never heard of a Psychic attack that involves the target looking at the attacker. I figured it was more like when you look at Pennywise and his Dead Lights.
it is a common explanation for some great old ones, like Cthulhu (seeing as how 100 years on the horror theme isn’t something that really scares people anymore *the idea of not being alone in the universe and humanity knowing they are not the center of everything and there is no higher power that will save you doesn’t have the same impact as it did in 1920*, so the driven insane by seeing a great old one is explained today as a psychic influence that enters through the eyes by looking at beings that exist only partially in the visible dimensions…
to be fair though attacking the brain through the eyes isn’t all that far fetched, it is both a weak point in the brain’s defenses as not only the least insulated points but with almost direct connections. You can even use lasers through the retina to hit the nerves to trigger affects on the brain.
Fun fact image data from the eyes is processed by the emotion area and the image area of the brain in parallel. From a study where patients who were blind due to cerebral lesions on the vision area matching the facial expression of pictures placed in front of them.
Could be a highjacking of the viewer’s consciousness, using the awareness of the subject in the visual cortex as an entry point. If the viewer is looking at the subject, then psionically searching their brain for an image of the subject may allow a sort of neural mapping on the fly, allowing the subject to correct for unfamiliar brain structures as instinctually as a human calculates the ballistic trajectory of a thrown rock.
Also, way back when we first met him, I was completely certain that his species was nauseatingly hideous and extremely egotistical and engaged in an impressive degree of self-delusion.
Sounds a bit like the MacGuffin from Snow Crash.
Wait, why are they throwing up? What’s so disgusting?
They’re not experiencing disgust. They’re looking at something that their brains perceive as both incredibly beautiful, but also unsettling. Lots of things can cause nausea that aren’t disgusting, such as motion sickness or intense emotional distress.
I imagine they are throwing up for the same reason you feel stomach pain when upset, the brain gets overloaded, doesn’t know how to process the extreme emotion so translates it as physical distress.
In this case it’s a racial trait, because cameo
You know how you pull the wings and drumstick off to eat a cooked chicken? Umbrivions don’t cook their chicken. Everything tastes like chicken. I don’t think lizard boy is going to be having his fun times. He may actually be the main course after the appetizer there.
I see I am not the only one that got that impression that this looks like he is trying to eat her.
I really hope that’s wrong, one think that really squicks me is sapient beings casually eating other sapient beings.
They’re in a tour group together and were bantering during their first appearance – the group is at least civil if not actual friends. He/it’s just using manipulator appendages to grab someone attacking someone in his tribe.
that is what I keep telling myself,
but that image of the larger being with what looks to be a large opening surrounded my flaps with tentacles coming out of it dragging the smaller being towards them brings up so many carnivorous fantasy plants images, heck I could add a few moments of Batman being attacked by Poison ivy’s plants.
all that said, there is no way Archon standing like fifty feet away isn’t noticing this scene breaking out.
How do you feel about octopus on the buffet?
868 “Yes is truly. Such beauty am I that all undigest.
So aliens seem to be completely comfortable with being the always-on-call militia, like Athenians all carrying swords. Sweet.
or they are space cops,
or *hey you just shoved my friend into a trash can so I am going to kick your ass.
Going to go with the second
If they are those space-cops, that’s even more reason to execute all agents of the Xevogency (or whatever the fuck they are called) if they ever set foot on Dirt
Maybe not all aliens – just the ones not afraid to explore uncivilized backwaters planets.
#NotAllAliens
Before reading the note by DaveB, i had assumed that just after she said So beautiful was an offscreen consumption of Lapha.
Umbrivions seem much like “The Medusan’s” from The Original “STAR TREK” series. Season 3 Ambassador Kollos.
But with a less severe side effect of seeing them.
More like the Vorlons from B5 when they are not in their nicey-nicey-adore-me lightshow mode
So, am I the only one mentally pronouncing the Lizard man’s name as”Gorram” as in the curse word from Firefly?
OK, so this effect seems likely to be a carry over from this apparently plant/flower based alien race’s early feeding strategy. They probably get nutrition from partly digested food, so they needed a way to make animals “feed” them without hurting the animals themselves.
except that vomiting is uncomfortable, can be painful, and causes animals to lose their meals.
We have things on Earth that due to a poison taste disgusting, or emit an aroma that causes nausea; which vomiting is a natural response to rid the body of such toxins.
it is properly used as a defense mechanism because animals exposed to this will learn to AVOID IT. So the exact opposite reaction of wanting anything to come close to it.
plants that want to attract prey or get animals to eat their fruits to spread seeds, or pollinate them use sweet scents, tasty fruits, sweet dew, and other tactics that would be appealing to the animals.
if every time you were around something it made you suddenly projectile vomit out your gut, regardless of “it looks pretty” especially in a I need to eat and conserve energy to survive scenario; you will learn to avoid that thing real quick.
I dunno. People can get addicted to the darndest things, even if it makes them barf or worse.
Either way, plants may be very unsentimental about the harm they do to animals, so long as there’s another animal coming along to feed them
Its not about the plant caring, it’s about such a tactic being counter intuitive and real world examples of the same effect (nausea and vomiting) being used as a defense mechanism against being eaten. People getting addicted is irrelevant as humans are the exception to the rule thanks to using trial and error via experimentation to determine what they can handle like eat this plant die, take one drip of the poison loosen bowels to clear up constipation, and mix with other things. As a survival mechanism a plant that causes discomfort is likely to be avoided by most animals. We can argue however as this is a sensory overload of bliss and this is a mobile life form that the effect partially stuns and then forces something to become preoccupied with throwing up. A potential skill for a predator to have, not to eat vomit but to eat the creature vomiting. Hence the this looks like a vampire plant with legs trying to eat her vibe. I hope he is just restraining her and wouldn’t try to actually eat her. But the point is this particular ability is more akin with dazzling then debilitating prey to make catching then easier.
“Counter-intuitive”? It depends on your intuition. Some people will accept vomiting as the price of ecstasy – that’s why there is so much vomit in the rest rooms of bars.
“Real world examples”? We are literally – not figuratively – talking about something from another world.
There are plenty of species that consume food digested or partially digested outside of the stomach – part of human digestion takes place in the chewing; spiders liquify their victims’ innards before slurping them up. All the Umbrivions *might* be doing is getting an animal to pre-digest for them.
“People getting addicted is irrelevant as humans are the exception to the rule” – I have no idea why anyone would think that humans are the only creatures that can get addicted.
“stuns and then forces something to become preoccupied with throwing up” – why would this be good predator strategy? If your intent is to consume the victim, why not just continue the stunning?
It’s impossible to say with alien biology, but earth plants don’t bother with the complicated digestion system that animals have. If this thing has features for killing victims, masticating the flesh, digesting the meat, absorbing the products of digestion, and evacuating the waste products – then how is it different from an animal?
we literally have no reason to even be talking about it eating vomit other than one or two commenters saying it, as the blurb DaveB has under the comic describes it as a predatory action. stunning the prey. I am trying to discuss the mechanism of this, but we keep getting side lined explaining why it makes more sense to stun (immobilized because you can’t stop throwing up counts as part of that as anyone who has had painful forced abdominal contractions can tell you, like myself. )
eating fermented fruit or monkeys biting millipedes aside, the point on humans being the exception was about how humans have learned to harvest and control *to limited impulse actions on part of those partaking* their poison intake, while in the majority of the animal world anything that makes something else vomit is doing so as a defense mechanism and few creatures would like to experience that pain again, I have gone to several doctors about gastro intestional distress, and if I found out some delicious food was causing it I would stop eating that food*
also on the good predator strategy, forced vomiting is not only painful but uses up a great deal of stamina, we assume here the prey will go through this cycle of dazzled and abdominal contractions and/or nausea every time they look back at the Umbrivion, so its not a one off, slowing the prey to escape while making them keel over in pain as they eventually dry heave and compress their own diaphragms in pain.
the plant stuff is being brought up because you all are calling it a plant, the blurb doesn’t call it a plant, neither does the comic, I am explaining that it can’t be like a plant, and that everything being discussed based on those two assumptions.
eats vomit,
and
is plant
are based on absolutely nothing presented.
You’ve obviously never seen a crow=d of birds drunk on pyrocantha berries. I have.
Heh. I just _knew_ the thing in the fat guy suit would turn out to be something of Lovecraftian bizarreness.
I know, right!? It’s always the one in the tropical print shirt too!
So looking at an Umbrivion is basically like an acid trip that gives you severe motion sickness? Hard pass.
sounds like an oculus riding simulator.
I still can’t help but see Big Bang from the Society of Virtue.
Or Steven Seagal with just a goatee.
Ever get the feeling you’ve just stepped into another party’s adventure?
I can’t understand why so many are discussing vomit while I contemplate the variations of the line, “get your butt out of that hole”.
I thought there would be more discussions over psionic vs optical influences on the minds of other life forms…
See, in my experience, the Big Bang is an annual sex party.
Physics and Astronomy nerds are fun.
I have to remark that given this Umbrivion looks to have three large tentacles as its primary means to manipulate things that on the handicap to be a tool user degree *a scale based on how well a sapient species can handle precision works with its manipulation limbs/or other means to manipulate the world around it*, I’d say they look 3rd degree (noting 1st degree pretty much means screwed because no matter how smart they are they have no useful means to manipulate the world around them and have to use those smarts only for planning, and 2nd degree is one floppy means like one soft mouth of a soft can’t support much weight pseudopod),
3rd degree is tentacles without suction cups or clasps of any kind, they have to wrap around and squeeze to hold onto anything…so in other words can move objects, but it is one hell of a long road to counting seeds one by one or fine tuning anything by hand, having to make extra tools on that path that do what creatures with hands *let alone opposable digits like the human thumb, or bird talons could do), although pincers seem to have an even greater advantage than opposable thumbs and other flexible fingers, especially if an organism has lots of pincers or pincers within pincers in super claws…nature favors the crab…give it smarts and complex pincers *more so than the average crab* will have a serious tool making advantage.
but back on the Umbrivion here, yeah, it looks like tool development was one hell of an uphill battle, but at least it looks like they weren’t double screwed by also being an aquatic species (underwater prevents so many more hurdles to tool development, especially complex tech; to the point it is reasonable to believe a marine based sapient species may not even consider what is possible to develop out of water and hit a serious bottle neck on their tech development.
It’s probably just as well for humanity that the big-brained aquatic species (cetaceans and octopusses) don’t have access to fire, so no metals, no gunpowder, no electricity; and in the case of the cetaceans, nothing to grab tools with. A world where they could harpoon us back or hunt us for sushi would be interesting, in the bad sense of the word.
cephalopods got so screwed, to the point it almost looks like a curse.
due to a limitation in their blood’s ability to process oxygen and sodium regulation, cephalopods are one of if not the only group of mollusks to have no fresh water or land dwelling relatives. on top of that the aquatic environment and their tentacles give them no advantage with simple tools, which gives no incentive to advance those tools; they don’t know what they could end up making because they have no need for the basic versions, although one would think some where an octopus would figure out to use a broken piece of shell to cut a potential predator but…can detach limbs and has ink so no incentive, also non-social so no organizing into brainstorming groups to get new ideas flowing; the short life span definitely doesn’t help with any of this.
On the contrary; evolution made them fit their ecological niche so well they didn’t need tools.
Humans had to keep getting smarter and building better tools because A) We’re terribly inefficient at hunting, even moreso than our primate cousins, and B) that led to a general tendency to massacre eachother for resources. The latter is why human technological development has been at a logarithmic rate. Virtually every major leap in science and technology has come from an empire or other militarily superior nation whose resources were devoted to killing/ruling/suppressing its citizenry and/or neighbors more effectively.
Our brains’ functionality is not even close to catching up with our breakneck pace of technological development. Said technology can already be used to rapidly wipe out the whole human species (CRISPR AIDS?); meanwhile global I.Q. has been dropping in recent decades along with a simultaneous decrease in population expansion. So, ya know, I’m sure it’s fine.
Point is, some species’ critical flaws may paradoxically catapult them to the space age.
that isn’t on the contrary, that was my point (aside from cephalopods not expanding into other territories), their biology and abilities negated the necessity to make simple tools. They have no reason that they could know of to go to step one of tool modification when their bodies are so well made to deal with their environment, threats, and prey.
the screwed part is because they don’t have the incentive or drive to make tools they won’t ever advance beyond where they are. Plus the other issues with the environment limiting how useful simply tools would even be.
“On the contrary” referencing “they got screwed.”
Unless their niche changes rapidly due to, um I dunno, massive human infestation (lmao), they have no reason to advance. Humans must advance or eventually face oppression and collapse as China’s 18th century technological stagnation shows. Cephalopods have no such problem; at least not on a scale they could contend with.
It’s like giving a spoiled kid a trust fund. I mean, from our perspective it’s a shame, but trust fund kid doesn’t give a shit. They don’t feel screwed at all. Why do we need to feel bad for them?
I partly point this out because it’s a major issue in modern society. We note others’ disadvantages and focus on those while ignoring exingent circumstance. Not every net negative is worth fawning over.
Cephalopods are typically quite happy where they are. It’s not a curse and they’re not screwed. Some would even argue knowledge is itself a curse. Just let ’em swim and live as they do.
Don’t trust the dolphins. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Generation Films, it’s that those aquatic mammalian terrors are just waiting for the right moment to strike. Their inability to come onto land the only thing protecting us from total cetacean domination.
Hightower is suddenly even more badass than I thought he was. And I already knew he was badass.
I wonder if robosnakes nickname was “max”
Waiting for my free ice cream …
Yeah, he usually uploads way before now.
So, he is a mix between a Flerken and a Medusan that causes Undigestion instead of insanity?
(This is for Dave if he sees it.)
I think a better explanation would be that those clear flower like petal things are capable of showing colors in ways both extremely beautiful but also not meant to be visible to any species eyes, therefore making you absolutely fascinated but also causing your body to reject you’re ability to be seeing what you are and leading to a biological freak out and vomiting.