Prince Charon
Just zis guy, you know?
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Energy-eating.
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Energy-eating.
He offered me a tithe of pain and suffering in exchange for a trivial amount of help in overcoming the New Gods and guaranteeing that I would maintain this sun.
"Do you have a better idea?"
"Of course I do. Otherwise I'd have tried to kill you with the opening bombardment. Though it does rely on you being rationally self-interested and not just a total maniac. I've been disappointed before on that score."
"Tell me."
I carefully draw the Sword of the Fallen from its scabbard.
"This blade was created to kill things that can't die. It does this by nullifying their exotic energies and causing them to reincarnate as mortals. If you allowed me to use it on you, you would survive and be freed of the need to feed on the huge amounts of energy you do now. Though you would obviously be weaker, you could then seek ways to re-empower yourself that didn't come with the same drawback."
"And what would stop you killing me once I gave up my power?"
"We need you to repair the universe. I assume that you know what you did to shrink it?"
"You looks rough."
"How I looks-" He opens his eyes and the glow is a little brighter. "-is but a tiny fraction of how I feel."
No, that's fine.
Thank you, corrected.
And Here... We... Go!Where You
Stood
By New God standards, it's not much. A simple spear. But shot from a New God bow by an archery-focused New God it has a little more kick to it. Artemis looses in the direction of the sun, her aim guided by the probe array.
...'Ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go...
Impressive that she can get that feedback. I suppose that's necessary when shooting at something beyond the range of the good old eyeball.I kicked myself after I spotted it, but given everything else that's been going on, noticing the fact that despite its level of illumination the sun was far smaller than it should be wasn't all that far up my list of weird things. The Earth is habitable despite that due to being a great deal closer. What happened to the extra mass? No idea.
Artemis nods. "I hit it, but-."
Oh, my god, it's Starbreaker! Gold star to Stsword!A translucent figure appears just in front of us. Pale red skin, short black hair with a noticeably receding hairline, skin tight black body stocking with a black cape and a collar which must obscure his vision if he turns his head left or right. Red boots which extend to the tops of his calves, red gloves which extend to near his elbows, a white belt and a white starburst on his chest which reminds me of the logo of the Japanese version of Dr. Light. His ears are slightly pointed and his eyes.. glow the colour of the sun which serves as his backdrop.
You will. If only because he'll tell you...He looks… Tired. His eyes aren't fully open and he doesn't appear to be focusing well. His clothing isn't as tight as I thought at first glance; it's flopping in places, as if it stretched in the wash. Either that or the wearer shrunk. Though it's possible that the spear sticking out of his chest has something to do with that.
I have no idea who he is.
You're a cheeky one, General Grayven..."Hello there."
The figure… Blinks, looks in my direction and then closes its eyes for several seconds.
I would guess he's had better days. Years... Millennia..."You looks rough."
"How I looks-" He opens his eyes and the glow is a little brighter. "-is but a tiny fraction of how I feel."
Oh, boy... This is why you don't poke the grumpy energy vampire..."Good show. That's what you get for killing the universe."
"True as that may be, I'm still more than strong enough to add another godling to my tally." He raise his right hand to the spear impaling him and.. it vaporises, the material simply vanishing. "Do you have something you wish to say, or are you simply offering yourself to me?"
Good man, Grayven, you've got him monologuing. What was your plan, Starbreaker? Do tell us..."Before I do that, I'd like to know what happened. We've had to piece things together from very little, and I'm sure that we've missed some things. And I doubt that you've been overwhelmed with conversational partners recently."
"True again. And yet I find that I do not care for it. In short: I won. But I misjudged the nature of the game. I absorbed all of the energy in the universe and it was glorious. Briefly. All too briefly."
'Nice job breaking it, hero', indeed... I bet Brainiac Five had something do do with this..."Because once all of the energy is gone, what do you eat next?"
"Yes. Originally, I ate slowly enough that it wasn't a problem, feeding on the fear and pain of worlds before throwing them into their sun. But when I came to this region, the United Planets fought… Better than anyone I'd fought before. They did… Something to me which exacerbated my hunger. Whereas before I ate to please myself, now I was constantly ravenous. I was forced to drain more and more systems to sustain myself, long after everyone had stopped resisting. I was reduced to draining power from the spatial dimensions themselves!"
Why? What would that prove? He'd just starve to death faster. And he does not strike me as one comfortable with the idea of his own mortality."And it amounted to nothing. As the universe shrunk and shrunk around me, I was forced to hide in the last remaining system. The only place I couldn't drain directly because my powers have been deluded into treating it as part of my body."
"Okay, but why couldn't you just smash it to pieces manually?"
And that's why the rings are dead. He leeched them dry as part of his passive effect. I bet every moment the people have of a strong emotion is like a feast to him..."What makes you think I couldn't?" He manages a small smile. "The material is useless to me, but the emotions they radiate give me some relief. Those I can feed upon."
"Did any of them contact you?"
Now, if he were to stop eating things like inorganic technology, maybe that can be changed..."Melmoth did, him and Aurakles. When I told him the story, he seemed quite taken with my lifestyle. I believe that I inspired him. He offered me a tithe of pain and suffering in exchange for a trivial amount of help in overcoming the New Gods and guaranteeing that I would maintain this sun. I assume that you do not intend to continue that deal."
"Couldn't if I wanted to. The time machine left this era and ended up being destroyed in our relative past. Unless an earlier version of it jumps forward, you're out of luck."
Heh. There's only one way down from where he is. And it's not the path he wants to take..."Unfortunate. Still, I imagine that the Sheeda will feel at least a little despair if I kill you."
I nod. "Probably. For a while. But that's all temporary, isn't it? A microcosm of your foolish overindulgence in the rest of the universe. Once you've eaten all they can provide, what do you do next?"
Yeah, tone down the creepiness a little, man.
By people he honestly had some measure of trust in, too."Do you have a better idea?"
"Of course I do. Otherwise I'd have tried to kill you with the opening bombardment. Though it does rely on you being rationally self-interested and not just a total maniac. I've been disappointed before on that score."
No sudden moves, G-man. Don't want him killing you by accident..."Tell me."
I carefully draw the Sword of the Fallen from its scabbard.
Oh, he's a smart one. Not smart enough to avoid this whole situation, but hey, no-one's perfect..."This blade was created to kill things that can't die. It does this by nullifying their exotic energies and causing them to reincarnate as mortals. If you allowed me to use it on you, you would survive and be freed of the need to feed on the huge amounts of energy you do now. Though you would obviously be weaker, you could then seek ways to re-empower yourself that didn't come with the same drawback."
"And what would stop you killing me once I gave up my power?"
Don't underestimate DC Universe"We need you to repair the universe. I assume that you know what you did to shrink it?"
"Yes. But there isn't enough power to undo something on that scale."
Better than a slow lingering starvation as the Sheeda die off. Compared to one quick sting..."On the contrary: there is a way to get more power from the Bleed. But there isn't enough material to build enough generators to satiate the being who ate the universe."
"So you expect me to let you stab me."
...Yeah... Don't count on rationality from him..."Or you could go and join the titans on the Source Wall. They can't be destroyed. If eternity staring into space is what you actually want, that option has been available to you since you got here. Or you could keep going as you are, and eventually the Sheeda will die, and then you will too. So my question is:-"
I smile and fan out my right hand.
"-how rational are you?"
Still, I suppose you could consider it an honour to be part of the mass that starts the next universe... Hell, he could probably survive a big bang..."Killing you sounds more appealing."
"Lots of people say that. And I'd make a fight of it, but against a being who killed the universe I think I'd probably lose. But… Then what?" I shrug. "Killing me might give you a short term boost, but it doesn't fix the core problem. You're still stuck here, in a dead universe."
Heh. Basically offering him quite the dilemma. Play along in the hope of getting free, but work with people you clearly can't stand, or keep on rolling as you have been."There are other universes."
"Sure, but you're not stuck here because you can get to one. You're stuck here because you can't. And I can't build a portal because I can't adjust what I know about portals to the altered physical laws your actions have produced. And frankly, I'm not eager to unleash you onto anyone else."
Admit it, the whole episode was so you could use that line, wasn't it?"And what will you do if I choose the status quo?"
"Try to work out how to kill you. Kill you or die trying. And in either case, you don't get what you want. Would you like some time to think about it? We've got a clock based on beetles."
'Nice job breaking it, hero', indeed... I bet Brainiac Five had something do do with this...
Still, I suppose you could consider it an honour to be part of the mass that starts the next universe... Hell, he could probably survive a big bang...
Well. Well, well, well... I honestly wasn't expecting Grayven to offer him a chance to escape his situation. I suppose he's still useful, but they all know as soon as his usefulness expires, so will he. But the thought of that chance. That's got to niggle at him. Guess we'll see tomorrow what his answer is...
To be completely fair I don't know that much about the DC universe, I know it better than I know the Marvel universe, but I'm pretty sure Galactus is from Marvel.
To be completely fair I don't know that much about the DC universe, I know it better than I know the Marvel universe, but I'm pretty sure Galactus is from Marvel.
It's not that he is useful, it's that fighting him would be a bad idea.
Also, the United Planets idea of fighting him was to make his hunger worse? Brilliant idea.
I was reduced to draining power from the spatial dimensions themselves!
We need you to repair the universe. I assume that you know what you did to shrink it?
Yeah I know, I was just saying that he would become very similar to Galactus.
To be fair he was about to kill them and the only thing they may have had to give him trouble is the thing that made him hungrier and would pain him.
For all we know the hunger thing could have been an accident.
Why on Earth would you assume that? He's an uber vampire. He drains. That's his one and only trick. Do you know how your body extracts nutrients out of your meals? Why would he? Would knowing how help you put those nutrients back into those meals somehow?
Lot of Grayven assumptions this chapter.
More ridiculous than all the other DC nonsense?Do you know (or care) how ridiculous that sounds? You drained 'space'?
My guess was that it was meant to weaken him- the more energy he has the more powerful he is, so take away the energy take away the power.
Unfortunately it looks like they didn't realize that his energy vampirism could keep up with his new metabolism, making it a case of "Gone horribly right."
He can also give energy. He turned Shadow Thief into Uber Shadow Thief.
Although why Gravy would just assume that he can do that when his DC trivia skill check failed him, well I agree, that's a bit odd.
Now, a mechanism to consume space and get energy out of it is beyond human understanding, but I could see it being possible even in the real world, somehow.
"Melmoth did, him and Aurakles. When I told him the story, he seemed quite taken with my lifestyle. I believe that I inspired him. He offered me a tithe of pain and suffering in exchange for a trivial amount of help in overcoming the New Gods and guaranteeing that I would maintain this sun. I assume that you do not intend to continue that deal."
Even Galactus has his limits, small though they may be, that he either can't or won't break. This guy doesn't seem to have them at all, and when dealing with a true omnivore with little-to-no morals that isn't a good thing.
Mr. Headgear is also pop control for The Celestials, Discount Nekron here is/was just an ass.
Whenever my roommate's hoarding tendency gets the better of her the space in our flat gets 'consumed' and as a reaction my anger temporarily spikes.
So it would probably take at least a two step conversion process to get useful energy out of it: 'space consumption' > 'Red generation' >??? = free electricity?
Maybe once Grayven is done fixing his parallel's Bad Future he could pay us a visit?
edit:
At very least this chapter gave us a (very unsatisfactory)reasonexcuse for 'why do Sheeda do their very best to one up Drow' and 'why they never relocated to Past'. Melmoth is a dick (and the Queen is either ignorant of the deal or dumb).
What I don't get is why the fuck would he honour the deal with Vamp-Ra? He's many, many things that end with -opatic and -ist but honourable he isn't. Why not give Vamp-Ra a down payment (a few generations of Sheeda suffering), prepare, tell him you're going on an extra big Harvest and relocate almost everyone to the Past (maybe after geasing the ones you left behind into a mass-suicide)? Vamp-Ra just confirmed that he's stuck in this era/universe, what's he gonna do with no-one to feed on and the only way out gone? Melmoth could've had his cake and eaten it. Get his New God invaders problem resolved and get to be hailed as a saviour by his own people. His other big problem will just die of starvation soon after they leave and his only food source kills itself.
Melmoth may have kept his promise just because he's an utter bastard and wanted to be as evil as he can be, and screwing over his subjects by making them engage in atrocities that will only prolong their death is a pretty evil thing to do.
This is by far the most likely (and the most disappointing) answer. The only problem is it doesn't quite gel with his stated "plan" for the Columbians (or at least the Warlocks). He claimed he wanted to ensure backups in the past and that he wanted to offer them way to Earth post-latest Harvest so they would accept him as their god-king or whatever. The thing is, if he really wanted that, he could've done it with the real Sheeda that already accepted him as their ruler not do this pointlessly complex and roundabout plot with the Columbians.
I hate Chaotic Evil Antagonists because nothing they do has any real sense or purpose in-universe. They only do whatever the author wants them to do to further the plot with no real explanation how they survived so long or why would they want it in the first place.
I've looked at the Vamp-Ra's profile pic again and it looks like he and Klarion have the same hairstylist.
I wonder if that's their only connection or if Zoat will turn this into some (even) weird(er) time loop with depowered Vamp-Ra unwittingly becoming Klarion's descendant and idol.
Well the Sheeda were apparently created through this guys DNA, and Klarion is descendant from a Sheeda, so maybe the hair is some genetic quirk.
Since this is comicbookverse anything can procreate with anything else, biology be damned, so it is quite possible that Vamp-Ra managed to knock up the ancestors of both Plastic Man and Klarion I suppose.
While I'm sure it won't come up because of Zoat's antipathy for post flashpoint comics, but DC showed that Starbreaker had a daughter.
Countess Belzebeth, the Planet Eater Lass.
She worked for a renegade Controller and dated Hal Jordan for a while. He's probably done worse.
Presuming it isn't just an affectation of hers, they apparently call themselves Luciphages: the light eaters.
DC showed that Starbreaker had a daughter.
Countess Belzebeth, the Planet Eater Lass.
She worked for a renegade Controller and dated Hal Jordan for a while. He's probably done worse.
Oh my god, I was joking! What is she a 'countess' of? And who the hell was the mama? Why do so many alien living weapons want to get in Earthlings' pants?
edit: judging by her moniker her mother might've been a member of whatever species gave birth to Matter-Eater Lad? Were Sun-Eaters based on them perhaps?
Ten years ago I had a three-year-old child and was working from home in an apartment in Arkansas.How many of your friends from 10 years ago do you remember? The ones you dropped out of contact with (for whatever reason; your parents moving city or something) that is?
Do you know (or care) how ridiculous that sounds? You drained 'space'? What's next? If you drain 'roundness' all of the pizzas around you start turning squarish?
Now, a mechanism to consume space and get energy out of it is beyond human understanding, but I could see it being possible even in the real world, somehow.
Ten years ago I had a three-year-old child and was working from home in an apartment in Arkansas.
But to answer the question? Every. Single. One of them.