Grrl Power #265 – In summation…
One of the (few) drawbacks to having an especially active community here in the comments is that a page or two following a big reveal will generally be retread or just confirmation of what’s been discussed by you guys. It’s stuff that needs to be said in the comic anyway since not everyone reads the comments and also there’s the book version to think about. I’ll reiterate one thing I said in the comments for the previous page since it’s easy to miss, is that while Vehemence can draw power from any sort of violence, from a mugging to an earthquake, violence with intent is higher quality and better ‘tasting’. Presumably it comes with lots of Vitamin V. Also there’s a finite amount he’d be able to absorb from something as violent as an earthquake since the range at which he can absorb the energy from is limited. A 2000 mile long fault line’s no good to him if he can only absorb stuff from… well, I haven’t decided his range, but it’s well under a mile. Localized violence is better.
I really wanted this page to be a double page, as Vehemence’s speech took rather a lot of room, but I think I’ve kind of gotten into the habit of trying to make every page I can a double. I’ve done 7 of them in the last 10 pages, and it’s been a little stressful. Burnout is far too dramatic a word, but making this page and the next singles was almost like a vacation for me. By vacation, I mean I didn’t have to draw all day Sunday as well as the other 6 days and it was nice. I did some chores, went to the gym… then spent the rest of the day coloring the vote incentive anyway, but the point is that I wasn’t under the gun trying to get a page finished so I wouldn’t be behind on Monday which is when I write and start penciling new pages.
There were several suggestions in the comments that the team take a break and power up Dabbler to match V’s level, and Dabbler alludes to it here. It would be an epic bait and switch if I just suddenly changed the comic into a 20 page lesbian orgy right now, but… nah. :)
The question is, if Vehemence is so powerful, or at least so potentially powerful, how did Arc-LIGHT not know about him? Granted they haven’t done a great job tonight anyway, but in Vehemence’s case, he’s mostly just hung around in the background gathering power and never really needed to join in. What’s he going to do, get powered up during a race riot, then leap out and start attacking looters? He’d pulp anyone he hit, and while killing someone is usually a pretty violent thing, a dead rioter can’t continue rioting.
Even when he hung around underground super fight clubs, which given the low incidence of super powers are rare, but they still happened, he’s got nothing to prove. He’s just there for the meal. He’s revealing himself now mostly because as debuts go, this is a pretty good one, and also right now he’s so amped it’s like he’s been snorting Excedrin.
Here are some fun links for you. This one makes envious of the gals, cause whereas girls can wear basically anything without anyone batting an eye, guys are generally limited to 2-3 kinds of shirts and either pants or shorts, meaning there’s a whole range of geek wear I’m shut out of, like this Baroness tank dress. Though even if I was a girl, I’m not sure I would traipse around in something quite that sheer, though maybe it’s only partially see-through under studio lights. And probably direct sunlight, but then how often do proper geeks get exposed to that? Anyway if you’re within a decade of my age that site may have a few gems for you.
Here’s a quite funny webcomic I found, Deathbulge. As with a lot of webcomics, it takes a few strips to find it’s footing but is solid once it hits its stride. The RSS seems to be broken unfortunately, but it’s worth going through the archives IMO.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome which I can’t live without anymore, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
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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.
Is she refering to her two right or her two left hands?
Yes…
you for got to add in the obligatory [Kosh] and [/Kosh] to your answer…
Sounds almost like he gains energy at an inverse square (or inverse some kind of power) of the distance, which makes a lot of sense. 2000 mi away? Barely feel anything at all. Fist in your face? Full energy absorption!
Once again a proof that magic becomes better with math
Yup. There’s a significant falloff to it.
Y’know, he doesn’t have to go to all this trouble to get his wheaties. He could just move to Detroit.
Better yet, vacation in the Middle East.
Or a Justin Bieber concert.
Nah, that would only work if he drew power from the collectivized lust of thousands of underage girls… which is frankly ever more disturbing than the “powering up via 50-person parking-lot orgy” idea.
That’s violence to my ears.
So the question is: How long can he hold on to this power?
Reading between DaveB‘s lines, apparently quite a while if he doesn’t use it. If he’s been hanging around fight clubs and the like doing the slow power up, waiting for a chance to debut, the I imagine it’s like gas in your cars’ tank. Just sits there until you start the engine.
Noting that gas in the petrol tank will, if left for a while, evaporate or, if left for a REALLY long time, separate out and become unusable.
Actually, gasoline (or “petrol” if you’re European) is hydrophillic, which means that it will absorb moisture out of the air. So not only will it evaporate a bit, but it will also become increasingly mixed with water over time. And running an engine with waterlogged gas is seriously bad for the engine.
You can thank me for ruining most post-apocalyptic movies ever later. ;-)
Gas… good one :)
So how about… a few weeks, mayhaps? And handing out a little moderate amount of violence himself might be enough to keep the pool fresh… Also, without supers fighting in his range, he got charged with amounts he could practically find everywhere. So no big loss.
“in”->”within”
Even if his “cooldown time” is measured in mere hours instead of days, that still makes him *very* formidable…
V’s level of intelligence has also been confirmed by Dave; with all of the little clues shown since he first appeared standing off & watching since the fight started (even before Sydney spotted him & Comm-Orb spoke with him), people were already suspecting that Vehemence is the real mastermind of this fight. He’s even shown his own knowledge of “genre-savvy” when he acknowledged Sydney’s own knowledge (& exploitation) of it.
Vehemence is what the Hulk *could have* been like if he had adult-level intelligence & truly accepted (& enjoyed!) what he is.
Basically, V is like the Maestro, minus the harem.
Except he’s not smart/humble enough to keep his power to himself. Now they have what they need to know to take him down. I personally vote for Sydney’s force field trapping him till he runs out of air and passes out.
I say we start a Drinking Game.
Lets start with:
* 1 Shot every time someone suggests Sydney traps someone in her force field (at least until Dave decides to unlock said upgrade).
* 1 Shot every time someone suggests Peggy shoots someone with her freaking cannon.
* 1 Shot every time someone suggests ARCSWAT tried to murder someone.
Someone says use a power that none of the characters have, finish your drink.
That is an extremely good question.
Simple immediate answer is that we don’t know (yet). He seems pretty dern confident, however, so the inference is that he can stay powered up for a while.
Maybe the thing to be considering are ways to disrupt or “pollute” this power-up (sugar in the petrol, so to speak). Or there is the use of psionics – preferably in a non-violent mode, I reckon.
C’mon, Sydney. It’s all up to you.
Sugar does not dissolve in gasoline, so ends up just staying as a pile on the bottom of the fuel tank, doing nothing to the engine (Mythbusters tested and busted). Sugar dissolves in water or alcohol (polar molecules). You would need something that dissolves in oil that could gum up the engine; I am just not sure what off the top of my head.
I was speaking figuratively there.
The MAIN thing to take away from that is “What could be done to short-circuit / taint / disrupt / drain / negate / generally #### up or otherwise mess with the energy that V has already built up?”.
Actually, the question is how much can he take before his tank catastrophically fails
… And is having that catastrophic failure happen actually a GOOD thing?
Huge range of possibilities as to what would happen then. The event might shrivel V into a 98-pound weakling, it might tear open a rift into a particularly nasty dimension, it might turn Arianna into a more considerate and responsible human being, it might detonate V like a nuclear bomb, it might transform everything within a mile into tapioca pudding, it might do any or all of these things. We just don’t know.
Does tripping him count as violence?
If done with the intent to harm, annoy or inconvenience, I’d say yes.
so they need a drunk hero that keeps making him trip without wanting to? hehe
that kind of tripping someone may be considered humorous by most people, but it’s still violence. It’s in the same kind “slapstick” humor you’d find in movies & on-stage. Think “Keystone Cops” & you’ll get the idea.
While a harmless (to him) trip doesn’t give him much energy & probably isn’t very “palatable” to him, it’s still vehemic energy he can use.
at this point i would suggest stuff that turns his strengh against himself.
tai chi quan comes to mind or aikido
and then…pray his “batteries” run low.
Those arts, while not violent in and of themselves, usually causes major violence to the opponent. Aikido’s idea of helping the person along and adding to their energy usually winds up in a break or dislocate. Not really non-violent from the opponent’s point of view.
it seems it’s violence itself that powres him not pain so it could work.
but otherwise why halo isn’t just putting him in a force bubble and let him “hang there”? giver her enough spicy food and she will be ready for it. hehe
All he’d have to do is knock her out, or pry the orb from her hand, and he’d be free. And even Sydney’s yoga hwarf would power him up if it was done with the intent of harming him.
she doesn’t have to be inside the forcefield as far as i know to put a forcefield aroudn something.
so she actually keep him away from the team. hoping he isn’t worse than a duracell bunny lol.
As far as we know, yes she does, as all pages have shown her to be inside, including the test against Maxi’s beam. Which means ‘oh look, another trophy to the collection’.
DaveB stated clearly that she has to be inside. There have been 5.76*10^25th suggestions about her using her defensive power as an attack so far, every one of them ignoring the fact that the Word Of God is that she has to be inside the force field.
She -has- a telekinesis power. That’s what her “Lighthook” really is. We may wonder what he could do about it were she to loop it around one of his ankles and hold him up in the air. It really doesn’t matter how strong or tough he is, while dangling in mid air he’s harmless.
Well, we could wonder, except that he’s already demonstrated that he can twist out of the Lighthook’s grab.
She had it wrapped around his arm and torso. He had leverage. The move to take would be simply to wrap it around his ankle, and hold him up in the air, dangling by his ankle. No leverage. Don’t let him touch anything. He’d be completely impotent.
Logically, it should work. He hasn’t shown any powers that would help him a bit in that situation. It would be a fairly amusing way to take down the Avatar Of Violence.
I suspect that DaveB would consider it a bit too simple of a solution to what is supposed to be an enemy more powerful than Maxima.
Actually, I can’t see it work any better. He’s still grounded, he’s much stronger, and made even worse since it’s on only one ankle. He’ll likely just walk and tug her along even moreso than before, and I wouldn’t be surprised he will trip her up with a hard yank. Put it around two legs is a little more viable as you take his balance off, but I still can’t see her lift him up or keeping her grip around him long enough for any comical flailing. And even if you lift him up, I can’t see the molestorb remaining steady enough while he resists against it.
Wrap tentacle around ankle. Lift. Straight up in the air. Hold Vehemence in the air in a hold similar to a hangman’s noose but around his ankle rather than throat. He’s off the ground, has no leverage, and really can’t do much but flail his arms and legs around.
The thing is that he has no way to resist this at all. Being really strong and tough doesn’t help him in any way.
He may have other abilities he has not shown yet. He seems to know a lot about magic. He might be able to do some kind of spell that would get him free. Based on the abilities he has shown so far, he’d be helpless against a telekinetic with a brain.
Gotta hand this one to yoou. He has an unreal arm to body length ratio and more than enough power to simply do a hanging situp to thelighthool, then he just has to pull himself towards sydney, bam, comedic win prevented.
Again, ArcMage, the problem is the lifting part. If all you got is the ankle, he can pull back instinctively with just his leg. He still has leverage. At the least, one ankle will not do if you’re even gonna attempt this, which is more than likely why Sydney tied up his arms and upper body in the first place. Then there’s the assumption that the tentacle can even remain still or retain its grip while carrying him, assuming it manages that.
Incorrect. Aikido is inherently non-violent. It can be used to achieve violent results, depending on how the opponent’s energy is redirected, but if the intent is only to deflect, then the violence of the attack is nullified, and no violence is added by the action.
Math would probably be Vehemence’s most formidable adversary. Too bad he’s out.
Within the record-breaking number of comments in the previous comic, the best suggestion I’ve seen is…
…cover him in itching powder.
Need to drop him in a truck of beanbags. Nobody could escape from that.
Or maybe drop him in a room with very plush wall-to-wall carpet…That has 15′ DEEP carpet. He falls in, gets trapped in all those fibers & there’s nothing violent about it.
…Unless you bring in the proverbial “50′ woman” in a maid outfit & a very large vacuum cleaner…
But why would Dabbler do that? Call on the 50´ maid i mean.
Oh come of it, you know she knows one. Probably works for one of her fellow hedonists.
Well DaveB does know the writer for https://www.giantgirladventures.com/ , maybe they could do a crossover? :)
So here’s a question: What exactly counts as violence?
A roit is offcourse a violent thing, but what about fights between trained martial artists? There’s no hate, or violent thought in Math’s head if he fights, only calm, calculated moves. Would such a fight count as violence for him?
My gues would be: no. And if true, that’s his weakness. That’s how you’d have to fight him
An earthquake doesn’t have violent thought either. It’s ultimately just two huge slabs of rock colliding. So by analogy would dropping a rock to the ground be violent?
I’d say that matters of what consititutes a deliberate act would come into that.
Even if that would work, which I doubt, he’d still feed off his own violence. Plus Math is down for the count. The solution isn’t that simple. Launching him into space might be difficult at this point, we don’t know if he has additional powers he can use at this point… and spacing him seems like an unsatisfying way to handle it. I’m curious to see what Dave has up his sleeve.
We need more info from Dabbler… what counts as violence?
Hitting someone? If the hit was by accident? etc etc… more info is need it to make counterplan.
The World Health Organization defines violence as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation”
Good enough I would think…
…rules out earthquakes (no intent, no aggression), accidents (no intent, no aggression – the response to accidents on the other hand may be a different story…)
…includes some harsh language (threat of violence with accompaning agression/intent; or in some cases psychological harm, though it likely would merely whet his appetite I presume), calm martial artists (while possibly lacking in aggression, there still is more then enough violent intent)
That could work actually, as a definition. The question is of course is if Dave takes his definitions from WHO?
The question *really* is: what definition of “violence” do the users of vehemic energy use?
Besides, is there anyone from the WHO actually *here* to see this fight? Probably not, so why would *their* definition actually have anything to do with it?
Earthquakes are included as per artist’s comment… (I must admit that I think this is a bit far out, but then again, considering the possible results of an earthquake, even if no living beings are harmed at all, it is not much different, by and large, from an army with tanks and cannons that levels a city to the ground.)
noun
1.
swift and intense force:
the violence of a storm.
2.
rough or injurious physical force, action, or treatment:
to die by violence.
3.
an unjust or unwarranted exertion of force or power, as against rights or laws:
to take over a government by violence.
4.
a violent act or proceeding.
5.
rough or immoderate vehemence, as of feeling or language:
the violence of his hatred.
6.
damage through distortion or unwarranted alteration:
to do editorial violence to a text.
Dictionary seems to think natural forces are in. I think the author did fine working out the rough outline of his powers.
And this was a reply to shadow scout and showed up as such originally. What the heck is up with this crazy ass comment system?!!!
Buuuut, DaveB has already said (1st try at quotes)
nope. Here it is plainly.
” that while Vehemence can draw power from any sort of violence, from a mugging to an earthquake, violence with intent is higher quality and better ‘tasting’”
I’d say it depends on just how closely V’s abilities adhere to the definitions of violence as specified by the WHO.
In a way, the best way to fight him is through basic restraint. Not violent restraint, not beating him into unconscousness, but just wrapping him in something and keeping him there, without doing anything else. Granted, there would be the violence that he directs at the restraints, but there would be no outside violence.
In this case, their best bet is either Max giving him a full-armour hug (immovable!) or somehow tieing him up with Achilles. Potentially, Anvil could grab onto him and just start absorbing all the kinetic energy of him pushing against her, but it’s been shown that she doesn’t really absorb Kinetic Energy as much as she absorbs Impact.
Combine all of those plus the light hook, Dabblers techno wraps and lust aura, and anything else they can bring to bear. This attack formation shall hence be known as “Group Hug!!” :D
I think you mean Mr. Amorphous. Achilles is indestructible, but I don’t think he’s flexible enough or strong enough to be used as an improvised restraint. Certainly not by V.
In any case, we don’t know if Mr. Stretchy has a limit that he can reach. Even the strongest rubber can only be pulled so far before it tears, and if you’re human rubber, that would be kinda painful. As for full armour Max, I don’t think it makes her more solid, just more resistant to damage, so she would have to split between armour and strength. Otherwise V would just pry his way out.
I have no idea if an Anvil hug would work or not.
Aww, and I was so hoping for Maxima and Halo sitting around singing protest songs.
I am torn between Country Joe McDonald and the Fish with “What are we fighting for?” and John Lennon “Give peace a chance”. Paralytic with laughter might be a result. Hard to sell mirth as a deterrent from a PR angle but I am sure Adrianna would give it a go. Stand up (comedy) to the bad guys?
I wonder if he can be taken out with knock out gas?
You don’t have to beat him, just stop him.
I think chemistry is the way to beat Vehemence, wear him down with fatigue and such. Since he bleeds and can be cut, poisons and toxins would be the way to go. Give Peggy a rifle with enough tranquilizer darts to take out a herd of rampaging rhinos, and the drugs will likely have a stronger effect than the violence used to inject them.
Or give Sydney the drug hypo and let her use Lighthook to keep injecting Vehemence until he collapses. If he dies, he dies, but considering he just masterminded and confessed to a terrorist act and has used lethal force?
The trouble with gas is that it spreads, which might mean less effect on him and poisoning the parking lot. Would nerve gas work on him?
Of course, a “fun” notion would be to mix some pure capsaicin into a bottle of vinegar and just pour it on him. No violence, pure pain.
I’ve read about gas that can be absorbed by the skin so you don’t have to inhale it. I believe it’s what cops use in mob situations. It’s not intended to be violent, only to STOP violence. They can try that.
One problem with knockout gas/tranquilizers and such, and the reason the police don’t use them, is that they can, and do, kill. That pic you may have seen of prez Putin with the tiger? The tiger died from too much tranquilizer.
So you dose V up with knockout gas (presumably you’d have difficulty getting a needle that is capable of piercing his skin at this point). You need to use a massive dosage since he’s all powered up. He passes out after passing this tolerance threshold and starts bleeding off his stored energy. As his power goes down so does his threshold and resistance. This could very well result in his death due to overdose of tranquilizer.
Might be worth the risk at this point, but getting him to sit still long enough to inhale enough gas to do anything is probably difficult.
My next line of questioning would be, why? Are you evil? Do you plan on taking over the world? So you’ve got power now, what do you plan on doing with it?
At this point I lean towards that he is “I fought them because they were there.” kind of guy.
Agreed. What I’m getting at is trying to get him to question WHY he’s doing it himself. If you can create self doubt in him maybe he would be less inclined in the future.
It’s the basis for a lot of magic in fiction, if you get the caster to doubt their powers, their power will weaken.
Perhaps some psionic power (empathy perhaps) that can infuse Vehemence with a sense of Apathy would work…But no one in Archon has displayed a purely psionic power yet.
Magic (spell or item) that could use Apathy as a weapon like that could also work, but does Dabbler have something like that? There’s also Gwen, Archon’s (resident? only?) purely human magic user too; she’s even here at the fight currently shielding/cloaking members of ARCLight while they gather info during the fight. Does she have something in her Spellbook or Bag of Holding that could perform the same effect?
Yeah, I know it sounds a bit counter-intuitive, but I think “weaponized apathy” is the best bet they have to finish this *quickly* because pretty much any other method will mean keeping Vehemence *contained* somehow until he drains his battery storage. This could take a looong time, because he can continue to power up even as he tries to break out…That means more violence.
Dabbler does have a “sleep” or “apathy” spell which she used against Glowbug. Sadly, it does not seem strong enough to deal with Vehemence at his current power level.
actually… at his PREVIOUS power level… he’s INCREASED it quite a bit since then with his and Maxima’s “Love-Taps” with each other…
Uh… oops?
But a comment I made last time still stands – he isn’t regenerating, so he does take significant injury, so while he is dangerous short term, in the long term he will be broken down at an early age like a lot of pro athletes in contact sports. That doesn’t help the team right now, though.
Well, that means if they shoot him with the pew-pew orb, he’ll likely stay down. I don’t think he is quite tough enough to tank it yet.
Is tickling someone untill he dies of laugh counts as violence?
Possibly. Tickling is activating the same nerves that indicate pain. Just not strongly enough to register AS pain.
Aaaand with that comment, I keep hearing the voice of Roger Rabbit: “Keep it up, Eddie! You’re killing them! You’re slaying them! You’re knocking them dead!”
Now we need a user of Gluttonic energy, able to eat an entire Country Buffet out of business and possibly the energies of other “users”, like the tantric energy of Dabbler or the vehemic energy of Vehemence.
Oh, or like Greedic energy. The guy just enters any house of parliament or bank and explodes with power ;P
You mean ‘Avaric’ energy? (ie: Avarice)
How about mortic or doloric energy? power from death or pain seems like an awesome villian power.
Isn’t one of Dabbler’s hands cybernetic?
Is that a solution to the problem?
Teleport him to Mt. Everest and let him figure it out?
It lets her teleport her own stuf, which presumably also have a matching teleporting device build in, between 2 points (lab, and hand)
It’s not a universal transporter
That’s an idea – get Opal to help out with a portal, in return for a lighter sentence (V did just clobber her, after all).
I favour Death Valley…
Hmmm. It was stated near the beginning of the fight that more super-bads turned up than Archon was aware existed. Vehemence got them together with “a few phone calls and a chick that makes portals, ” implying that it was easy and quick for him to do so. I must conclude the super-criminal fraternity seem to have much more on the ball than Archon does. Or maybe I’m trying to read too much logic into a superhero universe!
Actually, it was said there were more ‘combat capable Supers’ they thought lived in the US. But considering the Portal Chick, it’s pretty easy to pick them up. And you don’t even need to know all of them, just the few with connections to get them all together.
More to the point, Glowbitch has a distinctly non-American accent…
I’m curious, a lot of these characters have been shown to have great physical strength but none of the villians or heroes have displayed any real psychic power. Sure Maxima can shoot blasts of energy and use pillars to grind people into the ground but how does she handle someone getting in her head?
We know that Dabbler has fought Maxima to a standstill, while she has a lower power rating.
So yes, it looks like Maxima is weak against magic
Ummm….. I thought Halo was the one who fought her to a standstill. wasn’t that what the elbow in the ribs was all about during the press conference????
No, that was Dabbler showing off to Sydney, in the way of “I’m the one she mentions here, just for your information.”
Nope, to fight her to a standstill Max would have to go “MAXIMUM MAXIMA!!!” and She never did while testing Syd’s shield.
Makes sense. After all,
“Magic must defeat Magic!”
Can Sydney put him in her force field, then she and Maxima can tug him up to the edge of space, then just pitch him into orbit, and drop the field?
Every indication we have ever had about that field is that Sydney has to be INSIDE the field.
To be fair, it isn’t a suffocation by field comment, so not quite a trophy here. On the other hand, it is still all kinds of problems, starting with V being inside the field with Sydney to begin with.
And another trophy is waiting for Cpt . Obvious .
Way ahead of you
If she uses a big shield and does a loop to slingshot it could work but that depends on how high vehemence can jump
Right then: Maxima hugs Halo, she puts up the shield (with V still outside) and grabs V with the Lighthook. Max carries Halo + cargo to somewhere less comfortable and drops him off. A volcano / Antarctica / remotest point of the Pacific etc.
V feels the molestorb, and begins resisting. Shake enough and everyone will come crashing down.
Not if Dabs is instructing Sydney over the radio on wrap procedure.
It’s less an issue of wrap procedure and more an issue of the assumption he’s not gonna move.
still think one of Syd’s unknown orbs will come into play.
It would be interesting, but a little convenient, if one of the mystery orbs allowed her to absorb someone else’s power. Then she could take Nemesis power and fight him that way.
Remember that orb that Halo accidentally “Levelled Up” at the end of the media demo? Guess what THAT did! That orb is actually a Power Sink (which is why is doesn’t display any outward ability) and the new ability she accidentally gave it was to absorb things like the energy Dabbler or Vehemence use to power their abilities. All she has to do is get within range and touch him with it and *POOF!*, instant power-down!
Of course, she doesn’t know this, and it will likely be found out by accident (as it seems she does most things concerning the orbs.
At least, this is *MY* theory. DaveB can’t let those 2 orbs remain mysteries FOREVER!
DaveB has already stated (somewhere back in the comic history) that he’s already decided what those two “mystery” orbs do & even plotted out what every single dot on Sydney’s Skill Tree is for. While he probably DOES also have some general idea of where, how & when to reveal this info, I bet he also enjoys the idea of laughing at us while we try to figure it out…
:P
Actually, the “accidentally” leveled orb was the “truesight” orb, not one of the two “mystery” orbs. We don’t yet know what that skill point will do.
Yeah, it was the Comm/Truesight orb. Afterwards, she told Dabbler that she grabbed that orb to see if it could show her what all those dots mean.
In my opinion that would be a bit like a “Who dun it?” where it’s revealed on the last page that the murderer wasn’t the butler, the loopy uncle who dives for pearls in the pond, the estranged daughter who has taken a job as a maid under a false identity, the father of that little girl the victims aunt killed in a hit and run and who has disguised himself as his daughter in a wheelchair or the vicar who only ventures outdoors at night and keeps being discovered in young girls bedrooms all over the county. No, it was the editor of the local paper for a town in northern Italy that was first mentioned on the last page as he was found sleeping under the victims bed.
The key, it seems to me, is to suspend him high in the air where he has no purchase, then allow him to wind down. A strong telekinetic should be able to do it.
Making him massless would work too AND provide some hilarious antics as he hits something and puts himself in orbit. (Weightless won’t work by itself, but would be a good start on denying him purchase.
Really, while ARC-swat may not have someone with the right power, Vehemence is highly vulnerable to the right superpower.
Unless he has some magic powers to give him movement without purchase, of course…
Probably why he took out Vektor.
Yup, I was thinking the same thing.
Sydney has the tentacle. The question is whether she’s patient enough to pick him up and just hold him.
V has demonstrated the ability to tug Sydney along slowly when matching his strength against the Lighthook as well as being able to wiggle out of it with a little finesse.
That was before he got powered up to greenland, if she tried grappling him now I would think he’d turn her into a human ball and chain affair, with her force field being the ball as he swings her around. So probably not the best strategy
Only way I see that working is if Halo could grab him by one appendage (ie: one ankle) and get him off the ground quick enough. Would surely need some sort of distraction to have any chance of success.
That probably won’t work. Vehemence is already waaay stronger than what it would take for him to bend at the hips & knees to get his hands on the end of Sydney’s Lighthook. From there, he certainly has enough strength to just rip it off his ankle…He already escaped the Lighthook once, even BEFORE Maxima jumped in & “super-charged” him to his current level.
Sydney should use verbal violence and let him tire himself out on her shield.
You Do realize that each punch he hits the shield with will only make him stronger right? Like he says in the comic, he punches you? makes him stronger, you punch him? Makes him stronger, Anyone punches anyone or any variation thereof? Makes him stronger.
No amount of punching short of one that launches him off of the planet, past orbit and into outer space is going to resolve this :P
..”Makes him Stronger” … You do realize that too much of a good thing can make things go very very bad for you when taken to extremes. How extreme would extreme be though? Does he end up muscle bound as he powers up more? [now I’m getting a Gynostar vibe]
Does his power start reaching the point where he is smashing atoms and killing himself with radiation with each little movement or just turns himself into an atom smasher and blow himself, and the surrounding area, into nuclear slag?
As you even pointed out, what is his upper limit? Does he even have one? And punching against the shield will likely at least maintain his reserves as opposed to skyrocket his power as there is no direct violence pointed against him, so it will be a looooooong time before he reaches some kind of theoretical limit. As he even said, don’t even bother stop fighting as they are way beyond that point.
Also raises the troubling question of what happens IF V exceeds his energy storage limits.
It is plausible that V himself doesn’t know (guessing this is the most “powered up” he has ever been). Huge range of possibilities, I’d say, ranging from the mildly comedic to the downright Apocalyptic – and until it actually happens, we won’t know..
question here is what’s v baseline stats his monologe here seems to imply that its not high. also the fact he spent 90% of the battle powering up / gathering information.
im gonna assume he works like lung from worm(https://parahumans.wordpress.com/)
While the effect is similar, the mechanism are different. Lung only gets boosted if he’s personally involved in a fight. V can just mooch of the mayhem around him, and only get involved if he wants / has to. Also it appears that V can store energy for a bit, whereas Lung starts to deflate once there’s no more fighting going on.
The really interesting question is what V can do with his stored power. Does it go mainly into physical prowess, or does it also amp up resistance against other stuff, such as heat/cold, radiation, poison, asphyxiation, etc.? What other uses does he have? Mobility powers, energy blasts?
I still think V would go down pretty quickly against a decent thinker, master or stranger, so it’s too bad the team mostly consists of blasters and brutes.
So long as his capabilities remain unknown, I’d still advocate chucking him into the ocean to cool off. Even if he can swim super fast, there’s little opportunity for quality violence thousands of miles away from land, and he’ll have to spend some of his energy to get back.
The bussing in of the reporters shows that Archon has its fair share of movers, and I still maintain that Max or Kenya could give him a really good punt, so it should definitely be doable.
what I meant is lung fresh in a fight is a whole lot less dangerous then lung at full strength (ie 2-3 hours/days into a fight) I assume the same is true for v.
base stats = power grade 3 expert human
full stats = power grade 10 or above penumbarate
dabbler as on the other hand dosnt rely on her succubus powers so her base power is higher
I wonder if a peace circle of love and understanding, or being trapped in a giant bounce-house, might counter the energy? I do wonder if it works that way, does the opposite energy/emotion drain the battery, like trying to run a DC motor on AC. I know it’s not likely to happen, but I think it would be a little ironic if Dabbler gave him a hug, maybe even a hug with boob-hat, and the non-violent, mildly sexual, action powers him down, and her up.
If Dabbler had her way vibrators would be part of the standard issue uniform, so the whole team can help with emergency power-ups.
A series winding DC motor will run just fine on AC since the poles realign in time with the armature. From an electrician knowledge to your brains.
If he has powers similar to the HULK, Why not just use tranquilizers or sleeping gas to knock him out.
Or better yet, burn piles of marijuana around. That will mellow him out.
Or paintball/squirting guns with a DMSO/THC cocktail.
He’s not powered by anger or rage, but by violent acts or events. An earthquake can work, to a point, but he only gets a relatively tiny portion of such a thing as the effects of a quake are usually spread out over many miles, and he cant nom on energy that far out.
Calming him down probably wont do much, he’s not draining the Emotions of sentient creatures doing violence, I figure, but rather the cast of spiritual/metaphysical energies that are a bi-product of physical events. For types like Dabbler, it’s naturally hard to get sexual energy out of a situation that doesnt involve sentient and emotion-driven beings, but for violence that is another story. Might still require living beings to generate the energy, otherwise he could hypothetically hang out near an exploding volcano and soak up the violent eruption triggered by liberal application of explosives and some geology.
Knocking him out would be nice.. assuming he cant just use his energy stores to fight off the drug, which is likely.
his Eye notably is still fucked up though. He might simply be too tough at this point to pop the other one with a bullet. While it could be that he’s not healing the other because doing so would deprive him of energy by reversing the effects of violence, but I dunno.. if your powers are driven by the power of violence.. I do not think the ability to heal is a card in your deck, seems counterintuitive. Much like how I do not think Dabbler could use her tantric energy control to turn someone Off of sex, reinforce their desire to be chaste etc (unless as part of some kind of pleasure-denial, to save for later, scheme). its just counter to the nature of the energy they are working with.
So, getting his other eye if possible might at least blind him without the ability to easily recover. Then again if he can sense as well as manipulate violent energy, he can probably sense everyone at the parking lot now that has been involved in “feeding” him.
I’m definitely siding with the readers who expect Sydney to earn her promotion and/or the big guns moniker by being pivotal to taking V down though, any outcome at this point that does not involve V simply leaving is going to require a Sydney solution.
Well, it’s not like the Federal Government (& even the local LE authorities) don’t already have a lot of marijuana available, just sitting in their Evidence Lockers…AmIrite?
:D
Has anyone suggested using Death Toll as a meat shield?
Yes last update.
Sweet.
Thing is that also counts as violence, and eventually Vehemence would probably become to strong even for him
At one point Death Tolls powers decided the best counter to Anvil was an electric zap but during another it was to drain all of Anvils stored power. So the longer they used him as a shield against V the better the chances his power would decide (however it does that… ) that draining V was the best counter to his attack strategy.
But all this is pie in the sky because his power probably needs him to be awake and then it would be hard to make him cooperate.
I pointed out he was a general solution to any super you don’t know how to beat.
Also there’s the small probablem that he’s knocked out, missing teeth, bleeding, and a whole bunch of other injuries
Also he’s an asshole. Important to remember.
Well, that attitude comes pretty easily when he happens to have a combat knife sticking out of his own @$$hole…
However, Death Toll’s powers *can* be overwhelmed by too much incoming attacks & he happens to be unconscious right now…Which poses some sticky legal ramifications on using him as a “meat shield” without his consent. Then again, maybe his powers *require* that he’s consciously *aware* of incoming attacks. Military or not, super or not, ARCSwat *does* have the Law to answer to.
Well, Deathtoll is only a solution to supers who attack Deathtoll. Which no one who knows tolls powers would do. He is pretty much useless for stopping people from anything other than attacking him.
Angry sex, Dabbler. ANGRY SEX!!!
*Raises hand* I volunteer! ;)
me 3-googlplex
LET THE SEXYTIMES COMMENCE
That might be…bad.
Angry sex would be sufficient to empower both Dabbs & V, but V already has a huge lead on power buildup over Dabbler. Plus, it would be likely to provide a continuing self-feedback loop on BOTH of them!
The bad part would come when all those accumulating energies reach critical-level…I doubt much of the city would be left after that point.
Granted, but once he’s spent, you know he’s gonna be a-nappin’.
The. Biggest. Orgasm. Ever.
On a side note, Max’s nose looks all SORTS of broken and painful…
Under the circumstances, that is hardly surprising.
In universe, this is actually the case.
I hate to be the one to suggest it, but maybe they should put just him inside Sydney’s shield until he runs out of air and passes out.
Except that, at least at this stage, Sydney would have to be in there with him.
And it’s getting really tiring to point that out over and over again.
No, you’re NOT the first person to come up with that
They don’t read comments. But they post them… We need to figure out what these types of people DO read and then arrange to have this information posted there.
I think at this point it probably would take being brought up in comic, and Sydney going all ‘NOPE, NO WAY, NOT HAPPENING’ for them to recognize it,
But wait! What if you lock him in the forcefield with Sydney and she uses the unknown orb to hypnotise/seduce him? He finds the shortness of breath that lovers do…. He might be onto something!
That might work…If that indeed happens to be what either of the two “mystery” orbs do. DaveB already *knows* what they do & even has Sydney’s entire skill tree plotted out.
Sydney’s already *tried* to find out/figure out what they do, even before the comic story got started. considering how resourceful & genre-savvy she is, I think she would have already tried to find out if mind/emotion control could be an orb-power or not.
So naïve. Dave knows nothing – he scans these comments fervently looking for an idea for the plot to continue. Sorry Dave, I’m calling you out, bro.
Sydney should pin him down with her orbs,its not like she needs her powers to fight any other villain.
He will just push them away. I think its been discussed and its generally agreed the “immovable” aspect of her orbs show earlier on with Maxima is a special function that only works to keep them near Sydney.
But I don’t think the author has commented on it so… maaaybe. (or maybe he is just ignoring it till he can think of a reason to keep her orbs from being that overpowered)
“Sydney should just pin him down with her orbs.” Yeah, you might want to re-phrase that.
Well, with Sydney’s attitude being what it is, I have to admit that for being female, she’s got a lot of balls…
No!
I refuse!
Not going to say anything about teabags…
Darn it. Foiled again…
Green,Black,White,Oolong . Maybe a nice Earl Grey.
I usually go with warm Black Tea & a spoonful or two of honey…
…MMMMMM….
There is a pretty easy solution: throw him into the ocean or into the middle of a desert. Guessing by what we’ve seen so far, he’ll be OK.
He will waste all his energy trying to get back to civilization. It will take quite some time but Maxima can just hover out of his reach while he does.
Revealing your secret to your power is still a stupid move. He just given the key to the team on how to defeat him. He could have squashed half the team while he was talking. He should have not done it unless he’s a fatalist.
He seems to be the warrior type. He is enjoying the fight for itself and its not even clear at this point if he has any NEED for a victory. I’ve speculated in the past that he does but its by no means sure. He could be dragging it out because he is really enjoying this.
Yes, but even if he was solely motivated to just see all the violence, why would he reveal something that would potentially sabotage the victory and potentially also shortcut the violence? Just because he doesn’t NEED victory doesn’t mean he doesn’t WANT it.
If I were to rationalize, I think it would be because all the power he has now is getting to his head and he isn’t thinking clearly. Or he is more stupid than he appears.
Yes, he thinks he has them dicked and so revealing the source of his powers helps keep it “fun” for him by maybe increasing his risk a small percentage. (he says there is nothing they can do but he seems a little genre savvy so he, deep down in his geeky heart, doesn’t believe that)
There is also the possibility that he is almost literally drunk on power and not thinking straight.
Here’s hoping Sydney’s new yellow orb power shows weaknesses.
Also, the last page got over 800 comments. I think it is safe to say that we are hyped for this event.
Awwww but then she can do the cool “power susser” thing. Coming up with your own strategy is a big part of the fun of these comics. IF she gets her strategy half handed to her by an orb it kind of sucks the joy out of the discovery…
What if Anvil just lets him pound on her while she absorbs the kenetic energy? Of course they will have to trick him maybe with a Max likeness provided by Dabbler. Sydney could cover the switch by making her shield opaque.
That also makes him stronger though.
So eventually she’s going to run out of capacity, or he just hits to hard even for her
Not if she doesn’t fight back.
No, his own violence makes him stronger too.
Then why would he need any other violence? No I think he needs others to be violent. A battery can’t charge itself. He needs vehemic energy to charge up. If he could charge himself he’d always be charged.
His own violence is him hitting others in this regard, not violence against himself.
That is why he would get too strong even for Anvil, regardless of if she fights back or not. The only difference would be the amount of time it would take.
I think he needs awesome violence with intent from sentient beings in order to reach whole new levels of power but his own violence acts as a “maintenance charge”. He gets to act without loosing anything but probably wouldn’t push him out of his current level very fast.
Higher quality (which DaveB has also described as “nutritious”) means he is getting something more from violence with intent. How much more is just speculation but he did go through some trouble to set this all up rather then just going to an empty field somewhere and setting off progressively larger explosives until time to head to fight Maxima’s team. I covered all this in a massive post at the end of last update and included the two quotes DaveB had made then.
Thank you though for keeping me informed. I do indeed miss things as Guesticus often points out! XD
Actually, Vehemence doesn’t have to go through any special effort to charge up on violence. Just walking through a bad part of town is fairly likely to have some sort of violence within his range of absorption.
Then again, maybe he’s been “earning his source of living” up to this point by being the chief leg-breaker for a loan shark, for all we know.
He already expressed his delight when he saw the news demonstration on TV. He maybe got bored with only the occasional “meal” of Vehemic energy, even though he might have been getting a decent paycheck on top of that. In comparison, he just invited himself to pig out at a free, all-you-can-eat buffet.
While I started with wog statements I have built enough guesswork on top of them, that has yet to be confirmed by the comic or DaveB, I can understand why people don’t see what I am going for. (even though I have restated in many times in many forms both long and short)
Facts:
I know he can get charges from all kinds of violence.
I know he gets a higher quality charge off of violence done with intent.
I know he needs to be within a certain range (“well within a mile”) to feed efficiently off of violence.
I know he can feed off his own violence (with intent).
Guesses:
I think his body uses up his charge at a higher level depending on where his current tank is at. Its possible he can lower his use of energy but that would leave him with lowered defenses. So its safe to say he is feeding on his tank heavily whenever he is standing within range of uber supers like Maxima or snipers (now that he knows about that). Even if he can lower his intake when unneeded I kind of think there is a limit of how well he can do that or he would have tanked up on more easily had violence and then put a cork in it after each event till he had enough to take on Maxima or just done the ever increasing explosions in the field idea I said earlier.
He has no innate defenses without that energy so whenever he has them he is feeding on his reserve of juice so he has to act within a reasonable time frame.
His own punches probably return a decent chunk of the energy he used. Possibly all of it. So he has no reason not to act. It costs him nothing. Probably doesn’t add much though so he simply doesn’t loose anything by attacking.
___________________
All I’m trying to say is I believe he means it when he says this like Christmas for him. This brings a magnitude of violence with intent together in a tight area that would otherwise be difficult to set up. Its a rare opportunity to power up to unheard of levels because of how efficient and high quality the energy transference is here.
Some have been acting like he is overpowered in all the many ways he can juice up but I believe he needs to carefully set things up like this in order to reach such levels that he can act without fear of say – having his head blown off let alone an eye blinded.
The end of your statement sounded like you would agree but just in case I misunderstood you or in case somebody else reads and decides to respond I thought I would be more thorough. (you have no idea how many people have quoted DaveB at me like I wasn’t building my arguments on those very same quotes. Frustrating!)
Any violence, whether it involves people or not will make him stronger by a little… That said I imagine its something like your average adventurer gaining xp from slain foes problem.
Once you get enough levelups from killing goblins, said low level critters stop providing you with a meaningful reward, you’d basically have to grind for days, weeks, eventually months or even years to gain anything meaningful.
Or you can go to the mountain of doom, smash your way through the increasingly powerful tiers of enemies untill you throw down with the big bad dragon and gain a metric bumpload of xp that’ll level even your overpowered self up to new heights. (Maxima and her team being the dragon and company in this case).
But yeah sure, if he was the rediculously patient type he could probably just park his ass next to a jackhammer, plug it into the city grid and watch it hammer holes in the ground for a few years to get similair results to what he now achieved in an afternoon. Doesnt make it a terribly viable strategy if he wants to get anywhere and have fun doing it
I bet his energy trickles away much faster than that. His body is constantly using that energy to reinforce his natural abilities as soon as he gets it. Maybe he can lower his energy metabolism (for lack of a better term) a bit through some kind of monk-like training or something but I bet he is always using a little. In fights like this he is probably burning through it real fast as his body is ready to take on that .50 cal all the time (he didn’t know it was coming) and is now repelling Maxima’s attacks.
So he’s fine once he reaches a certain level and as long as he is fighting the dragon. But if the dragon just circled in the air just out of effective range long enough (long enough to be damn boring unless you were worried about being eaten by a dragon) he would eat his own charge keeping up his defenses. If pounding rocks does much more charge than he needs to replace what he used to make the punch then I’m wrong of course but its how I would write him since it makes him have to act more and strategize more which is just more fun to read.
Well, how about just giving him a hug instead?
He has absorbed enough energy to initiate the violence himself.
If you’re strong enough to hug him now, you’re stronger than anyone else on the team.
I’m thinking Peggy needs to snipe out that other eyeball. Kind of hard to hit what you can’t see, unless you’ve got some crazy force powers or something.
He’s probably to the level now where that won’t work as well as it did last time.
Sometimes, the best solution is the most straightforward one. I second this proposition
Just commenting to say your Gravatar is freaking awesome, the bunny making a shadow hand…
Aaaand Dabbler is comparing the amount of violence to an orgy =)
Totally called it.
Either way, anyone who would’ve been caught up in it would be thoroughly fu**ed…
^ This :-D
Okay does Scoville or any Arc Light team have a “bobble” capability, you know encapsulation?
Because a Time Out for this guy seems the best solution.
Nopers. And thanks to the careful way you asked that you avoided Captain Obvious’s wrath. :)
Careful air juggling with a high speed setting to launch him into space is the closest suggestion to a time out that might work so far. Though darn risky cause you still are powering him up on the way up and have to get in range of his arms.
Okay… I see 3 possible ways of beating him.
Number 1: Pot-Man! The Hippie Hero! He only has 3 powers… the ability to grow the best pot in existence, the power to summon bean-bag chairs and snacks and making anyone else unable to say “Nah man I don’t do that.” Just get Vehemence high as a kite and all our problems are over.
Number 2: Use the goop from Ghostbusters 2, if it can make New Yorkers hold hands and sing it will have Vehemence giggling and hugging tree’s and telling flowers how beautiful they are.
Number 3: Super charge Dabbler with love power and have her do her things on him. Preferred battle cry for option 3 “Everybody Grab some Butt!” but I am open to better ones.
1) We’ve seen him choking on debris so gases are the next best try to effect him. Sydney will probably come up with it since her shield has been trying to suffocate her off and on during the fight (probably cause she is breathing too hard with nerd joy) so air supply issues would be on her mind.
The most adorable part of this suggestion is that it’s yet another one that doesn’t need superpowers / magic to work. Mundane solutions for the win!
1: V has already been in the middle of enough concrete-based dust clouds to lay some actual bricks when he next uses the bathroom, he could more than likely scatter any cloud of gas with a wave or clap of his hands hulk-style and he is Probably too tough for needles to work at this point. That or getting charged up like this is making him overconfident like a druggie getting his fix for him to not be mindful of them trying this kind of attack, dabbler’s bound to have some recreational substances and exotic delivery methods/tools they could try if chemicals have a chance of doing him in now.
2: the goop from Ghostbusters 2 was an energy-reactive substance. When exposed to the righteous wrath of the judge it revived the ghosts of two murderers he had sentenced to the chair. The stuff they sprayed on purpose on some people to get them unpossessed by the big bad in that movie I believe had been pre-charged with positive emotions/energy. Odds are if you fired the stuff on V, he’d supercharge it with extreme violent tendencies and you’d basically give him an army of vehement spirits and ghosts to overrun the whole city.
It must be done, for a Halloween comic or something at least!
Also, regarding number 3: I do not expect there to be any way short of the author’s playfully suggested 50 page sexy spinn-off chapter for dabbler to garner enough energy to match V, But maybe she can use her experience with being a creature who innately uses/feeds on a type of energy to know or figure out an exploit or counter to V’s abilities.
His lungs may be tough enough now to push crap out that would finish most mortal beings but he is still absorbing oxygen I would assume. If we can get a strong enough chemical in, say one that normally kills, it might start using up his charge to constantly fight it and he would only get a small power up off a canister releasing it, sadly with intent so I guess that would help him more, nearby.
Seems worth a try.
Ah, I am guessing you are referring to that, now banned, fire extinguisher used in computer rooms and data vaults that binds with oxygen thus asphyxiating the fire. It think it is called HALON … oh gosh, I wonder if Dave is planning on this just for the bad pun potential?
Halon is not banned, only the versions most destructive to the environment. I have a Halon fire suppression system in my race car.
In self-contained environments, such as inside of buildings, it’s still in use. When I was in the Navy, our computer rooms were equipped with Halon systems. Even though the Halon itself is non-toxic, it’s still a bad idea to enter an enclosed room before discharged Halon has had time to settle…At least, not without also wearing your own self-contained air supply. You can still breathe without it, but you’ll still suffer from oxygen deprivation & suffocate.
No, I just meant anything deadly to humans but your idea is much better if they have it.
What they need is some kind of power sink or negation, like when Death Toll drained all of Anvil’s reserve. I’ve been thinking one of Sydney’s unknown orbs might deal in some sort of energy conversion or manipulation, so she really might be the one to take him down at this point.
I think DaveB said his world wasn’t gonna have any universal power negators so an orb being devoted to such seems unlikely. Though if it messed up Sydney’s team as much as it did the enemy then maybe he would reconsider…
Just because there are no Universal power negators, doesn’t mean that a power specific one couldn’t be whipped up by our favorite furry, four armed tinker (bell :P)
Sounds fine by me. I was just talking about the likely hood of DaveB making one of the orbs effectively a universal power negator.
It wouldn’t be Universal *AT THIS TIME*. Remember the “Level-Up” at the end of the Media Demo arc? The orbs aren’t at their full power yet. I’d be willing to bet that that orb *IS* a Power Sink, and they just don’t know it yet. The tricky part is getting it into contact with Big V so it can sap him.
Possible but that would make it effectively a universal power negator. I just got the impression that DaveB prefers, from his comments, to make characters work out a special negator for each type of problem.
You could be right, there’s just a very limited list of ability types the remaining two orbs could have, given certain traits that have been demonstrated (no augmentation of her natural abilities) and a couple basic assumptions (no two orbs will grant similar powers, for example). I was already thinking something toward the former anyway. Something that can siphon power from hotspots, as it were, possibly superpowering the other orb she’s currently holding, or maybe just as an independent ability.
They probably don’t augment her bodies natural abilities directly because the creators had multiple body types in mind as users so made it more of a tool then a direct empowerment.
She has nothing for healing yet as well.
Sometimes I wonder if the Copy Cap wasn’t a hint of orbs to come.
Yeah, I’m not saying it doesn’t make sense, just that it narrows down possibilities for the orbs. Healing was on my list for the seventh, but I’m more inclined to think it’ll be able to heal others, if it’s herself or others. Just a guess, though.
Seems to me there’s a detail missing in all the various suggested countermeasures: there’s nothing saying that hulking out is all Vehemence can do.
He says he’s a innate user of Vehemic magic (frickin’ fantastic name btw) so that also qualifies him as some kind of mystic.
That’s the part that would worry me. Not just that he probably can’t be taken in a brawl, but that he might have some uber-spell in mind. After all if it was Dabbler and an orgy, would anyone be worried about her powering up her bladework?
Guesticus believes innate means natural or inborn ability so he might not have to be a monk or whatever to use it. But on the other hand he didn’t have to waste any time learning how to do it so he has tons of time to learn other ways to attack/defend or other nasty tricks. Maybe that is why he knows so much. Whenever he is sitting around absorbing free violence energy he keeps from getting bored by reading a book. :)
You’re actually not the first person to suggest it. While indicators so far have him pegged as a smart brute, some have pointed out the possibility of having other powers on hand (Observer said he’s probably a wizard). So, yes, it would be quite worrisome if there’s more to his arsenal than being beefy.
I’m among those who have him pegged as being trained in mystic lore and quite probably able to do magic, he might not be an archmage but between knowing about mystic terms.. Knowing that succubi exist well enough to figure out that Dabbler is one and not just an innate user of, in her case, tantric energy like he’s a vehemic one… Yeah, the dude knows way too much about supernatural stuff to be uneducated, and its not like the comic hasn’t shown that people who study or research mystic lore exist, Sydney’s interview introduced a scholar who knew things but demonstrated no supernatural talents himself, and a spellcaster who does Not have the superhero powerup and isnt a combat operative. Stands to reason more exist in the world and if V is not one of them he has definitely been talking to some
The best resolution I can think of still involves infusing Vehemence with a sense of Apathy. There seem to be a notable lack of Empaths/Telepaths/Psychics in ARCSwat, but what about mage-types?
Ah ha, there’s Dabbler, of course, but her use of Tantric energy is more inherent than anything else due to her partial Succubus heritage. Does she know spells or possess items that can infuse (specifically) a sense of Apathy? And since V has already shown that he can easily resist Dabbler’s sleep spell, it would also bring to question how powerful of a spell or item would need to be capable of causing Apathy in him.
But then again there’s also Gwen, Archon’s (primary? only?) resident mage. Her primary introduction was back here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/428, but she also happens to also be present at this fight too; she’s the one that’s been maintaining a stealth/cloaking spell that’s been covering up ARCLight members as they’ve been gathering info during this fight. Does Gwen have something (spell or item) that would infuse Apathy on Vehemence?
Since DaveB has this all scripted out to some level in advance to what he posts, all I can do is guess what might already be in his mind at this point…Much like everyone else here does anyway.
P.S.
Here it is, only the FIRST page of comments & already Capt. Obvious has TWO trophies waiting for him to pick up…
ಠ_ಠ
Gwen is Zeph’s apprentice.
I think she has more magic aptitude then Zeph though. He is more of an adventurer who stayed alive so long he has learned his way around a spell or two and understands how all the rest are supposed to work but Gwen is the one with the most magic juice once she is finished training. I think that is a good way to say it.
Yeah, that’s the impression that I got from the way Dave wrote Gwen & Zeph into the comic earlier…Zeph is a *scholar* of magic but having no real ability (or aptitude) for *using* magic, while Gwen (with the ability/aptitude) actually uses magic. That’s why I used question marks with describing Gwen as the “primary?” or “only?” resident mage. So far, Dave hasn’t confirmed any other actual magic *users* working with Archon.