davebarrack
patreon
Grrl Power #1348 - Do as I telepathy, not as I do
🕑 Added 2025-04-17 10:00:30 +0000 UTCThank you for the support! You guys and grrls are awesome!
I might be overdoing it a little with how good looking this guy is supposed to be (and granted, that profile view isn't really doing him any favors, but roll with me on this.) But as the Mythbusters say, if something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing.
That said, making a succubus arch her back at you does not carry the highest difficulty factor in the known universe. They were explicitly made to be sex slaves, once upon an age ago. Those instincts are still in there, especially for the younger ones. (Not inappropriately young ones. I mean the sexually mature, newly collared ones.) Dabbler is 187, which is well past the journeyman succubus stuff, but she's still a little on the young side.
Fun fact, "average" or "mean" is the sum of all numbers in a set divided by the number of numbers, "median" is the middle value in a data set that's been sorted small to large, "mode" is the most commonly occurring value in a data set. They all have their uses and flaws. A "trimmed mean" is often the most representational function, because it excises the top and bottom 10% of the data set before you calculate the average. This is useful because let's say you want to figure out the average salary at Twitter. Well, let's say most software engineers there earn 90K, most general office staff earns 60K, most building staff like janitors earn 30K. But there's this one asshole who earns $4 billion dollars a week, and if you have 100 staff total, that one cyberdouche is going to wildly throw off your average calculation, thus "trimmed mean" becomes useful.
I bring all this up because while succubi can be very long lived, their age distribution is a little odd. Vampires have a pretty predictable population falloff with age. Tons of young ones that don't make it ten years (or even a year) because after getting turned, the think they're immortal and the toughest thing on the streets, then after all the impetuous punks get dusted, the decline becomes a little smoother. Figure about a 50% drop-off in population in the first decade, then the ones that make it past that first filter tend to be better survivors, so maybe 60-70% make it to their first century, and their survival rate tends to drop by about 10% per century after that. i.e. about 50% of the remaining population makes it to 200, 40% make it to 300, 33% make it to 400, 25% make it to 500, etc.
95% of succubi make it to 100. They spend a fair amount of that time being "sheltered" for lack of a better term, by their "master," who, in this day and age of a vigilant and vengeful council of Succubus Matriarchs, ensure that fledgling succubi are all but coddled. After their first century, a lot of them will have set out on their own, often outliving their masters. There's a lot of different paths for succubi, so survival rates vary, but major drop-offs in population don't really start occurring till about 300. They're not innately ageless, but if their tantric magics are well-developed and they have a steady diet, they can become functionally ageless. But the older they get, the more likely they are to get embroiled in ancient magics, high-level politics and other hobbies that can become dangerous. The "trimmed mean" of succubus ages is somewhere in the early 400's. The "mean" age is right about Dabbler's age. The "mode" is like... well, that's probably not a useful number because any population will always skew extremely young unless there are weird gaps in birthrates. Which does happen to succubi since they tend not to have children till they're out and about and independently established. But the number would still be something like... 12?
Comments
Anton Schleef
Most notably isn't necessarily the country with the most pronounced degree of decline. The US does have their mode age the highest, but of the ones where the mode age is above 20 the US actually has the highest percentage of population as newborns, so despite the very high mode age it actually is suffering from the problem to the least severe extent. The country suffering from it to the most severe extent is China, despite having a mode age that's somewhere around the late 20s or early 30s (which is one of the youngest of the countries suffering from the problem).
Triad Draykin
Wouldn't it most notably be South Korea? They're so far gone that Kurzgezagt made a video about it.
eddi_TBH
People forget the "Too Much Of A Good Thing" effect.
eddi_TBH
Who is about to pour the beer on Dabbler's head. Too bad it will backfire. +10 to Seduction for wet look, +10 for wet T shirt.
eddi_TBH
I don't think Max has slapped one away before. She didn't know it would hurt that much. Although Dabbler will probably ask first next time.
eddi_TBH
There may be ways to use objects full of mana as batteries. Even if they need some mana to trigger them.
eddi_TBH
Being part succubus it's really impossible to tell. Mostly Ellie's lack of style is driving her nuts.
eddi_TBH
Dabbler just cannot stand to see such an unprofessional seduction.
Shade Jones
I wonder how much of Dabbler's reaction is involuntary and how much is intentional flaunting?
Anton Schleef
Are you absolutely certain that any population will always skew extremely young on the mode? There are a few countries (most notably the US) that are experiencing population decline right now, and the mode is well into adult-hood. If I'm remembering the figures I'd seen correctly the mode group for the US is currently in their 40s, though it may be 50s or 60s. Yeah, at the best they're flirting with children no longer being an option for them without age discrepancy shenanigans, but are most likely past that point.
Anton Schleef
@IvyReed I'm fairly certain Dabbler wasn't on the receiving end of a hypno-type effect until he talked directly to her. So maybe a subconsciously directed hypno-effect to his gaze or voice?
Anton Schleef
It's the fact that those "totally secure private comms" are half-way to a "severe security breach" that gives her problems. There are things she knows that Dabbler isn't cleared to know. Dabbler also knows this, which is why she only used one eartacle. Oh, and the fact that if Dabbler uses both she can potentially alter Max's memories, which creates yet another set of security problems. Is Max's reaction a bit over the top? Yes. Is it understandable knowing her position? Also yes.
Anton Schleef
Oh, wow. I'd missed that over laughing at how Dabbler just went all 'dumb broad' mode after the guy talked to her.
Eric Loken
Max gives Dabbler a smack on the back of the head, "I believe the question was 'where is the art'."
Tim
Dabbler uses BLOOMPH! Effectiveness.... to be determined.
Erin Palette
@Andy Liss nah, being gay won't matter. If Dabbler's glamour & hypno-boobs can make straight women question their sexuality, they'll affect gay men the same way.
Opus the Poet
Dabs has never dealt with comliness as high as that. She's overwhelmed.
Opus the Poet
Damn, Xuriel. Let the guy get off his bike first.
Mark Magagna
Did she fail the save, or is she just acting like she did? Or perhaps she's doing the equivalent of "hold my beer" to Ellie.
Mark Magagna
There's "totally secure", but if it means getting into an isolation pod naked and oiled up with the other person (otherwise you don't fit) you might still hesitate.
Mark Magagna
From other strips even if you have an appreciable amount it still takes a long time (decades) to become a good mage. Long enough that many human mages have gray hair because they get that old before they get good enough to slow their aging down. So you're going to take additional years or decades to get to the starting point? It may also be why most mages in this setting are non-human, or space people. Both have rather longer lifetimes.
Themew
Nuuuuu~! Pouty Ellie! Any qualms with Zoinking council members in a threesome?
Themew
Hypno toad EYES activated~! *Blink blink* <3 =3
Samuel Evans
Small question from an earlier page here. You've said in the page where Sydney summoned Parfait, that in order to learn magic she'd need to have an "appreciable" amount of mana. If someone doesn't have that, does that mean they can never learn magic? Or can you still train, you just need longer doing the basic exercises to build up to that appreciable level?
IvyReed
Pretty sure, based on Dabbler's blinking, HE'S the one with hypno... I guess it's his chin? cheekbones perhaps?
IvyReed
Dabbler was so distracted by the powers of the bicycle man she approached him; revealing what the backside of her T-shirt says to Maxima... whoops!
Andy Liss
that because he Gay and immune to her Mighty Hypno-Boobs
Brett Peirce
*smack*
Stephen Gilberg
Now picturing a Vogon succubus.
A Patreon of the Ahts
Hmm! You'd think Max would be all over the "Totally secure private comms channel" thing...
Justaguy
His gaze is a little high for "hypno-boobs" to be working.
You_With_The_Face
If Dabbler had to make a WIS save against a hot guy, would it be at disadvantage because of her succubus nature, or because the guy is hot?
TexasTies
I really like how Max looks in panel five. That's an excellent 3/4 drawing of emotion right there. Well done.
Opus the Poet
By the time we quit the game his comliness was 48, well past god tier. Well into "riots in the streets" tier. I had to take a disadvantage and that's what I rolled.
Marc Vun Kannon
Given the way Ellie is looking at her in that last panel, Dabbler may not get much beyond the age she's at now.
Czarzhan
Actually, it probably did and she won't show it except for her firefighter beau getting lucky tonight...
Czarzhan
It's funny how, if we hadn't seen the eartacle whisper in panel 2, Dabbler's actions might not have seemed unusual. I wanna see it affect Max.
Michael Obert
Never underestimate the power of the look of the Bishonen, the unreasonably chiseled and handsome or any other guy with a Comeliness score of 20+. Plus, we all fail will saves sometimes, Dabbler 😊
