Wapsi Square Forum

Jabberwonky wrote:Take a close look at the two vamps positions...Dreddy on the left, Glasses on the right...in panel three, Glasses is on the left and Dreddy is on the right...they are reacting to something coming from the opposite side of Monica...Van Helsing with a stake in each hand has just popped around the corner...

Or, Monica has just brushed between them (after the "Excuse me") and they are staring after her as she walks away.

This whole encounter seems odd. Vampires are so often portrayed as superior, confident predators. You usually don't see one react to a stranger with dread.

Dave wrote:This whole encounter seems odd. Vampires are so often portrayed as superior, confident predators. You usually don't see one react to a stranger with dread.

yeah, but then again Phix said something about them being the "mosquito's of the supernatural world" again, another difference from RL Myth, where there are usually very few of them.

i'm thinking that it's not fear, but surprise! i think that they were confidently, smugly loitering there, deciding their next victim while disguised by some sort of SEP field that most mundanes automatically blank out and just walk around them without even seeing them standing there at all, the surprise comes from the fact that Monica even SAW them in the first place!

Mmm. Welcome to the Jungle, Girls. Just be glad that the top predator doesn't recognize you for what you are. I just wish it had been Shelly that saw them first, though I am interested to see how this goes.

And i still miss Tsillah!

scantrontb wrote:

Dave wrote:This whole encounter seems odd. Vampires are so often portrayed as superior, confident predators. You usually don't see one react to a stranger with dread.

yeah, but then again Phix said something about them being the "mosquito's of the supernatural world" again, another difference from RL Myth, where there are usually very few of them.

i'm thinking that it's not fear, but surprise!

Fear, my friend... definitely fear, and I think I know why. Monica is "carrying" and the vampires can tell!

Tina didn't just give Monica coffee. Remember, she had bagels on sale today - see Monday's strip - and I think Pablo was pulling off a "Chekhov's nosh" setup by showing us that. Tina sold Monica at least one garnished bagel, and she has it in her handbag. This is what's scaring the vampires.

It might be a garlic bagel - garlic is a well-known vampire repellant.

It might be cream cheese (as somebody wondered on Monday) but as far as we know vampires are not lactose-intolerant (that's Oscar's issue).

I'm betting it's a smoked salmon bagel that's causing the fear.

Vampires dread lox.

Okay, so we have the following in the "Our Vamps Are Difference Because" category:

1) Daywalkers. Apparently these two are not affected by sunlight, since they're out on the street in the morning.

2) Not suave. Well, at least these two have clearly lost their cool, so they are not multi-hundred unflappable villians whose xanatos gambit you have triggered.

3) Not all powerful. At least they aren't Hamilton/Ann Rice level powerful, because they are clearly afraid of something to drop an S-bomb like that. It makes one wonder what they are afraid of.

Clearly, the vamplings see a threat. If that threat is Monica, or something behind her... is something we'll have to wait for tomorrow to determine. Then again, Euarale is the president of Monica's Fan Club... that implies there are more members. Could she have just encountered a couple more fangirls? That doesn't necessarily mean they don't see her as a threat. As has been poited out to Monica, she is scary enough to frighten gorgons.

*goes back over that last sentence and facepalms, then makes his usual transfer through PunPal*

Anyways, at least they don't sparkle. For which we are eternally grateful.

Hey, you never know, maybe they could get together and form a band... the Grateful Undead

*Deposits one Gibson into the pun vault*

Really though, if they aren't referring to Monica, then this could be M's chance to prove just how dangerous she really is, if something decides to try and jump her.

Dave wrote:Vampires dread lox.

If the pun jar doesn't accost you, I will...

Hmm.. *pondering* Is that a facial expression of sheer terror, orr.. star-strucked-ness?

By the by, íf the girls are vampires in the "classical sense" then the fiery astral Monica would, indeed, lead to sheer panic.

Remember: Stake through the heart, daylight, ór fire (!) are the standard ways to remove a vampire from existence... In thát case, they are looking "pure Death"in the face here..

ShneekeyTheLost wrote:Could she have just encountered a couple more fangirls?

I think you mean fang girls.

Also, they're not sparkling so I don't think they're real vampires.

TlalocW

Jabberwonky wrote:

Dave wrote:Vampires dread lox.

If the pun jar doesn't accost you, I will...

(Deposits $3.99 in the Pun Jar - accost of a dozen bagels at Mucho Mocha)

ShneekeyTheLost wrote:Okay, so we have the following in the "Our Vamps Are Difference Because" category:

1) Daywalkers. Apparently these two are not affected by sunlight, since they're out on the street in the morning.

2) Not suave. Well, at least these two have clearly lost their cool, so they are not multi-hundred unflappable villians whose xanatos gambit you have triggered.

3) Not all powerful. At least they aren't Hamilton/Ann Rice level powerful, because they are clearly afraid of something to drop an S-bomb like that. It makes one wonder what they are afraid of.

Clearly, the vamplings see a threat. If that threat is Monica, or something behind her... is something we'll have to wait for tomorrow to determine. Then again, Euarale is the president of Monica's Fan Club... that implies there are more members. Could she have just encountered a couple more fangirls? That doesn't necessarily mean they don't see her as a threat. As has been poited out to Monica, she is scary enough to frighten gorgons.

*goes back over that last sentence and facepalms, then makes his usual transfer through PunPal*

Anyways, at least they don't sparkle. For which we are eternally grateful.

Hey, you never know, maybe they could get together and form a band... the Grateful Undead

*Deposits one Gibson into the pun vault*

Really though, if they aren't referring to Monica, then this could be M's chance to prove just how dangerous she really is, if something decides to try and jump her.

1) The sunlight weakness is fairly recent, and is mainly an invention of modern fiction. It very seldom shows up in folklore.
2) True, but on the plus side, they also don't seem to be the "woe is me, I have to kill to survive" whiners Rice made popular. Seriously, those guys are just embarrassing.
3) A Hamilton/Rice type vampire would also have gone up in smoke (and good riddance). On the other hand, Dracula(arguably even more powerful) could go out and about any time he felt like it; he didn't have access to all of his powers during the day, but it definitely never stopped him.

Whichever type of vampire they are, I hope they're new regulars, and not just turning up for a Halloween arc.

Whats with the 'Sparkling'? Come on, Haven't you people read "Vampire Cheerleaders"???
They use the Highest SPF sunscreen, use Tanning beds, and drink from Mountain Dew Code Red bottles to disquise the fact they're Drinking BLOOD.

My2Cents wrote:

davids4250 wrote:I think they see Monica's astral self.

Definitely seeing Monica astral self, and they look terrified.

The question is do they run, surrender, or prostrate themselves.

YES! In Reverse order.

At the rate Minneapolis is becoming occupied by supernatural beings, Ghostbusters will be setting up a field office there any day now!

So - Monica walks down street, passes (unknowingly) two vampires, and continues on. Vampires recognize and are shocked by M's presence.

1. Vampires recognize Monica - Wanted poster? Danger - avoid this human? Warning: The legendary Imp of Doom!! etc...
2. Vampires see her aura -- Who the hell is that??? We need to run/pursue/find out more/prepare for xyz...
3. Pair of well read Biblothiki fangirls just saw their dreamboat happen by -- Squeee!

Yep -- a lot of ways this can pan out.

Prof Sai wrote:Perhaps it is that Monica appears to only come up to their waists? Is she 3 foot tall now?

The pair are probably both pushing 7'. (So THAT'S how the Minnesota Lynx won the title last year...)

Monica's (unknown to herself) reputation strikes again!

Wapsi wrote:You've seen them before. =) http://wapsisquare.com/projects/pablowa ... als-color/

Thanks for that! I was trying to go back through the blog posts on your site to find the vamp girls to do a comparison (once I figured out they weren't the dragon slayers), but I couldn't find the image.

Jay-Em wrote:Hmm.. *pondering* Is that a facial expression of sheer terror, orr.. star-strucked-ness?

By the by, íf the girls are vampires in the "classical sense" then the fiery astral Monica would, indeed, lead to sheer panic.

Remember: Stake through the heart, daylight, ór fire (!) are the standard ways to remove a vampire from existence... In thát case, they are looking "pure Death"in the face here..

You know, I was going with surprise...and in light of the fact that these ladies are out and about in the daytime (I'm on auto-draft to the PunJar, so don't worry), I don't think that this mythos has vampires dying in daylight. However, you're right that M still wields another classically powerful weapon against the bloodsuckers. I'd forgotten (for half a second or so) about her wielding astral fire. I bet that fire stings a bit more than regular flames! Maybe these ladies can see that she holds an "ultimate" weapon.

They thought they were invisible, but they forgot to cross their arms in front of them to signal that.

Seriously, though, I think they're reacting to being seen, not seeing what Monica is. Though it could be both.

My guesses as to Wapsivamp powers/restrictions...

1) don't burn in daylight (100%)
2) invisible, and other limits in daylight (75%)
3) will burn in the sunshine Monica can bring (99.9%)
4) in mirrors [!] their visibility is questionable (90%)
5) not affected by symbols of faith (80%, exc. smoking mirrors heh heh heh)
6) not repelled by garlic (35%)
7) are repelled by water or running water (60%)
8) metamorphs, probably to bat and/or smoke (70%)
9) blood drinkers... (65%)
10) ...but actually feed off human energy (85%)
11) hypno-stare (99%, lookit those shiny peepers)
12) need an invitation to enter a human domicile, or bleed from the eyes (100%)

I'd always love to know what enforces that barred-from-the-human-home caveat. It's like magnets, I'm more a Faraday than an Insane Clown Posse.

Which makes me think...

13) They wander the earth 24/7, and have no grave or home to return to (55%)

ShneekeyTheLost wrote:Okay, so we have the following in the "Our Vamps Are Difference Because" category...

"Each of us is unique, it's a vampire thing."

Also, without Pablo's meta a few weeks back, we wouldn't even know they're vampires yet. We'd be taking bets which one was Justin's werewolf ex.

Mark N wrote:

nerf-dweller wrote:Let's see Monica is geting her _morning_ coffee. That's morning as in dayLIGHT. And we see two vampires. You know the kind that usually need SPF 10000 sunscreen to be out in dayLIGHT. I hope that we are enLIGHTen soon. As I'm feeling a bit LIGHTheaded trying to figure things out.

I doubt it is the sunscreen. I do believe we are looking at the twisted reveal of 'myth vs reality' that Paul is so very good at giving us.

Also, the Pun Jar is looking very intently at you.

Depending on who you ask, sunlight vulnerability diminishes with age. My favorite vamp Mythos thus far comes from Ann Rice. Goes very nicely with demons, et al.

donoho wrote:

Mark N wrote:

nerf-dweller wrote:Let's see Monica is geting her _morning_ coffee. That's morning as in dayLIGHT. And we see two vampires. You know the kind that usually need SPF 10000 sunscreen to be out in dayLIGHT. I hope that we are enLIGHTen soon. As I'm feeling a bit LIGHTheaded trying to figure things out.

I doubt it is the sunscreen. I do believe we are looking at the twisted reveal of 'myth vs reality' that Paul is so very good at giving us.

Also, the Pun Jar is looking very intently at you.

Depending on who you ask, sunlight vulnerability diminishes with age. My favorite vamp Mythos thus far comes from Ann Rice. Goes very nicely with demons, et al.

One of my favorite takes on them was Pratchett's one, where the wampires (or at least one family) trained actively against their weakness, the best being the holy signs show cards. Was going right until they encounter Granny Weatherwax !

surely, if they were looking at M, their eye-line would be lower? they may be looking past her....