02/16/09 [DMFA #973] - piddle self and run

[Tapewolf]

That is just sheer awesome.

I'm not necessarily saying it becomes more pleasurable--yeah, I did give that impression, I know--but at best it becomes less loathsome, if you take my meaning.  In other words, one becomes desensitized to it, to the point where it becomes like swatting flies.

True, though Dan has already made a career out of killing people even before he was a 'Cubi (so to speak).

Personally, I hope he realises that 'Cubi powers can be damn useful for defending or protecting your friends, not just for committing random acts of evil.  As Janus has already mentioned, he's probably not going to be too happy about this afterwards, but right now it looks like his best bet.  Besides, she's already decided to murder him.

This episode might be one of the keys to his coming to terms with what he is.  In the meantime, he looks awesome.

[Ren Gaulen]

...Don't make him angry. You won't like him when he's angry.

I always knew that Dan can be badass when he gets serious!

[Kaerou]

Eeeeee!

Badass Dan is badass.

*grabs popcorn*

[Madmann135]

Regina better hope Kria catches up quickly... or she is in a world of trouble. I think she failed her moral check.

Presumably Kria will have SOMETHING to say about Regina being killed in her home... of course, knowing her, it might be "Why, Dan, you are so sexy when you are mad."

What makes your post even funnier for me is that I am betting Kira would say something similar to that.  Dan does have many things going for him in his badassery moment.  
1 - He has a focused look that is just as intimidating as the dragon heads and wing talons.
2 - Even his dragon heads look angry.
3 - He's coming around a corner, speaking with doom, dread and destruction in his voice... that's +10 badass points right there.  For some reason when I read this comic I hear Dan speaking in a calm manner which makes the upcoming implied butchering more eerie.
4 - He's carving into a stone column with a talon.
5 - Dan herd her...
6 - ...Regina attacked first.
7 - Mad says the scariest type of anger is the restrained type... Mad thinks that Dan is pulling that off quite well.  Restrained anger gets +15 badass points

Half of me is betting if Aaryanna saw Dan this moment she would glee over in love/lust.

[Tapewolf]

4 - He's carving into a stone column with a talon.

Is he going to pay for fixing that?

[Ren Gaulen]

7 - Mad says the scariest type of anger is the restrained type... Mad thinks that Dan is pulling that off quite well.  Restrained anger gets +15 badass points

..I feel that if he releases this anger now he'll blast the entire hallway. Or develop mind bullets.

4 - He's carving into a stone column with a talon.

Is he going to pay for fixing that?

Knowing Kria - most likely.

[Janus Whitefurr]

7 - Mad says the scariest type of anger is the restrained type... Mad thinks that Dan is pulling that off quite well.  Restrained anger gets +15 badass points

..I feel that if he releases this anger now he'll blast the entire hallway. Or develop mind bullets.

ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA....ORAAAAA!

[Ren Gaulen]

..I feel that if he releases this anger now he'll blast the entire hallway. Or develop mind bullets.

ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA....ORAAAAA!

Regina is no Dio, she won't even be able to answer to that properly.

[Rank]

A great update.

I wonder how Kria will react to the situation. Will she allow Dan to keep going? Though I doubt Regina means much to her, she may feel somewhat responsible for her.

I think Kria will allow Dan to chase after Regina for while, if only for entertainment. Regina would be the one to clean things up anyways I'm sure.

And Fi should probably be paying more attention to Dan... It'd be interesting if Fi notices what's going on and decides to go find Abel to help calm him down.

[Ren Gaulen]

I have a crazy theory that Regina would find enough spirit in herself to try and take on Dan, only making him even angrier though, and then Kria would have to step in and stop Dan from killing Regina by kicking his ass to snap him out of berserker rage. She will then find some way to convince the youngsters to stop trying to kill each other (at least in the house. ). I'm probably expecting too much, but I would love to see Kria do something cool.

..Actually, she might step in even before any actual fight begins and put the fear of god into Dan and Regina to make them come to their senses.

[Michael Chandra]

I have to ask, what is the webcast game thing that Amber mentioned in her rant.

And my response to the comic.   

This one.

And I never understood that "if you kill him, you will be just like him" trope. Dan is fully justified in killing Regina for murdering innocent beings and planning to kill more, whereas Dan only kills when he has to. And write now, I can't think very clearly for some reason, so I'll have to come back to this in a bit.

Didn't the comic cover that one before? Like here through here?

Also: SQUEEEEEE!!!

And if the headwings didn't tip her off, she has a lot to learn.

[!KCA]

Regina has learned the following in the last few minutes.

1. Kria is having a meeting with a cubi Representative.
2. Daniel Ti'Fiona is here. (You could almost hear her mind starting to crack.)
3. Dan is now a cubi. (If she knows what wing-heads mean, make that "Dan is now a rather powerful cubi.")

Conclusions that can be drawn from Regina's perspective include:

- I just picked a fight with a [powerful?] cubi rep who has a grudge against me and can read my mind.
- I may have ruined whatever negotiations Kria was involved in.

I like to think the reason that Regina can form a coherent escape plan is that her higher brain functions have shut down in self-defense to prevent her from realizing just how badly screwed she may be. 

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I didn't notice, last night...

.. the tentacle head over his left wing looks excellent.

And I make that either four or five tentacles, depending on if the two claws currently gouging the pillar are a single tentacle with two claws, or two tentacles; the pillar in the way makes it hard to tell, but judging by the previous panel, two. Which makes it five in total.

And, of course, by the next panel we see him, he'll likely have changed. Oh, well...


Wonderful strip, though, Amber. Full marks.

[Naldru]

My gut feel is that he won't kill Regina because that would be awkward for the plot.  Not only would it be awkward with Lorenda and Kria, it looks bad to kill a quivering mass of jelly.  My guess is that Regina will have to pay an additional weregild in the form of service, a service that she will find considerably more painful than death.

[Michael Chandra]

Not sure how fitting it would be if he'd corner her, slam her into a wall, explain to her the things he could do to her, and then go "but I won't", with the principle of that now she knows fear.

[Jack McSlay]

Wow dan ACTUALLY acting like a cubi. That's new. I wonder what would be Aary's reaction if she were there.
Then, if she nearly defeated him last time, What would have stopped Dan back then? hmm

[Wanderer]

I have to ask, what is the webcast game thing that Amber mentioned in her rant.

And my response to the comic.   

This one.

And I never understood that "if you kill him, you will be just like him" trope. Dan is fully justified in killing Regina for murdering innocent beings and planning to kill more, whereas Dan only kills when he has to. And write now, I can't think very clearly for some reason, so I'll have to come back to this in a bit.

That trope is badly overused, to the point that it has lost practically all of it's meaning. It has to do with the idea of someone who fights evil because the things that evil has done are WRONG, so it must be stopped. If, in the process of fighting that evil, the "good" person does exactly the same sort of things that the evil person did, isn't it then the job of someone else to say of the good person "no, this is wrong and he must be stopped"?

But it's been taken and abused, with characters saying "if you do X you will be just like me/him/her" even though X may have nothing in common with what the evil person did. If an villain plunders, rapes, and murders a whole town, the hero tracks the villain down, and just as he's about to kill the villian, the villain says "if you kill me, you'll be just like me." Za?? No. No, he will not. There are worlds of difference between the two. Yet a lot of fiction treats that as a valid argument, and teaches that as the moral lesson.

[Nerikull]

DAN SMASH! 

Hehe, angry and shirtless Dan. You just have to love it.
I have to wonder if he's "eating up" all the sudden fear from Regina...or am I thinking of another 'cubi clan?

*slinks back to the shadows*

[Tapewolf]

DAN SMASH! 

Hehe, angry and shirtless Dan. You just have to love it.
I have to wonder if he's "eating up" all the sudden fear from Regina...or am I thinking of another 'cubi clan?

It's interchangeable.  Clans and individuals seem to have preferred emotions that they are better at absorbing, or that give them more of a kick, but those aren't the only emotions they can take.

[inuhanyo]

Ohh, this is even better than I imagined, when I visualized Dan going "full" Cubi.

Demons have the advantage in most Demon vs Cubi fights because the average Cubi is deficient in fighting skills.  Dan's aventuring career covers that, though he may not get maximum use out of his new powers.  But he is more badass now than when he killed DP.   Regina is so toast.

I expect Regina doesn't understand, even now, just how bad her situation is.   Because I think she is too ignorant to understand the implications of dragon headed tendrils on a cubi, and of just how dangerous Dan is, just as an adventurer.   She was still judging him by how he was six years ago.

Panels #3 and #4 constitute a Presence Attack, in Champions terms.  Violent action, display of power, higher presence from cubi form, plus soliloquy.   Oh yeah.  I do like seeing Regina scared, she needs to have fear put into her.

DAN SMASH! 

Hehe, angry and shirtless Dan. You just have to love it.
I have to wonder if he's "eating up" all the sudden fear from Regina...or am I thinking of another 'cubi clan?

It's interchangeable.  Clans and individuals seem to have preferred emotions that they are better at absorbing, or that give them more of a kick, but those aren't the only emotions they can take.

Dan's optimum is in combat, doing the right thing, for the good of many. 

[Tapewolf]

I don't suppose there's any chance of an Evil Death Dan wallpaper or something?

[Jack McSlay]

Demons have the advantage in most Demon vs Cubi fights because the average Cubi is deficient in fighting skills.  Dan's aventuring career covers that, though he may not get maximum use out of his new powers.  But he is more badass now than when he killed DP.   Regina is so toast.

You forget the skin hardening, claw sharpening and high endurance of demons. To which extent Regina is good at these, I don't know, tho

[Mao]

I don't suppose there's any chance of an Evil Death Dan wallpaper or something?

Or maybe one of a terrified Regina?

[Akisohida]

Wow..just..wow. o.o Scary Dan is scary!

The rage..It's not a beserker rage..It's a 'I'm so pissed that my emotions have pretty much shut down and left me thinking crystal-clear..Run..now..' rage. Wheeee!

[Paladin Sheppard]

I request one of the more technically/graphically talented peeps turn panel 4 into a lolcat pic with "Scary Dan is Scary" as the text...

[Anri]

Tikki: it appears that your avatar was cropped from somewhere. May I see the original image?

Indeed it is, it's another character of mine as drawn by a friend. The original while not x-rated is also not appropriate for here unfortunately.

*ahem* For something more on-topic I've been thinking. Dan. Not only pissed off but also in good command of his powers... and drat, while distracted by House of the Dead Overkill, it seems I was beaten to this punch.

[Turnsky]

my new wallpaper

[Anri]

Somehow that wallpaper, while simple, captures the feeling quite well. ;3

[Turnsky]

less is more, after all. 

[Paladin Sheppard]

Good stuff Turnsky