#315 “Smackdown”
POW! Right in the kisser!
The Monster Under the Bed by Brandon Shane is licensed under a
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The Monster Under the Bed
“Embrace your fear.”
POW! Right in the kisser!
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Ouch! Lovers’ quarrel
A few terms come to mind when i think about Nightmare, but insipid is definitely not one of them.
Sociopath BF with a low estimation of the queen bitch. Of course he’s going to smack her about when she does something wrong. Betcha it’s not the first time either.
The inappropriateness of physical violence aside, lots of sentences start with “I” that aren’t “I myself did it”. Like “I don’t know, but…” or “I heard that…” or “I bet…” or “I don’t think it matters” or….
Terminus is fully aware of Nightmare and Shadow’s feud. He’s probably stoked it for his own purposes. The guy is a Machiavellian sociopath. I expect him to start a full on villain rant just before he feeds Nightmare to some nasty, Noxian predator (seeing that there are no railway tracks and out of control locomotives available).
What did the four fingers say to the face?
Agreed James. And Terminus, this is why you have backup plans. There should be several ways you can get Tim to Nox. And hearing that your lover has been imprisoned is one of the better ways to do so.
An officer and a gentleman does NOT hit a lady. Clearly, he is neither. And therefore HE MUST DIE.
And not for the murder?
Considering the lack of uproar when Teminus took out 2 high level members of the guild, I figure it’s just business as usual.
Can we be certain that Morty is dead? Sure, we saw him take a bump to the noggin and get carried off by Terminus and Nightmare, but might they be keeping him locked up somewhere? It may have been over three years ago for us, but in ‘comic time’ it was practically last week.
Well, according to Terminus (and probably Nightmare) one of these dudes killed the other and ran away, and there’s no contradictory evidence. Of course, Moonie does smell a rat, but that’s all.
What would you expect them to do?
Remember, Terminus does not act suspiciously in public. His ambition is secret. He made an exaggerated reputation as lecherous dolt. Which worked for him, in that the high-ups would simply shoo and dismiss him if found sneaking around, and/or not suspect his interest in chasing some girl on the wrong side of a portal. Also, the two people who presumably knew him the best are unavailable now.
So, Terminus may be inept at these covert shenanigans compared to professional sneaks or even to cheap psychopaths, but until his promotion he didn’t cause much trouble nor attract much attention, so has an advantage of head start.
This how mediaeval politics was done and has overtones that remain in the modern political world.
And he’s lost probably the only ally he actually has
Slapped her so hard it triggered duck face.
That rancid piece of pig shit! I hope Nightmare has something in store for him.
I think he just lost Nightmare has a coconspirator.
You know, suddenly I don’t like this guy anymore…
(That was sarcasm, it’s a line from MST3K)
in times of crisis we learn who are enemies are, AND IT’S HIM
I’m… honestly on the fence here. On the one hand, I don’t condone violence against women under any and all circumstances. But on the other hand… I really don’t like Nightmare for numerous good reasons.
Why women specifically?
Termite just signed his own death warrant. He just doesn’t know it yet.
Nightmare may be evil, but she’s not, y’know, Evil. Terminus is Evil. I can’t wait for Shadow to disembowel him.
How so?
Thus far Nighmare demonstrated malice spontaneous and premeditated.
Terminus didn’t show any inclination to hurt anyone as such. His problem is habit of biting more than he can hope to chew. I mean, their whole mess started because he is a half-wit tackling a matter that clearly requires full wit, some diplomacy, plus lots of sweat (some of which probably should be cold). Then he gets rather insecure, perhaps as a result of inability to think things through.
Other than this, they are about equal match, and equally self-important. The King and Queen of Dunning-Kruger Kingdom in their world.
Note, though, that Nightmare’s evilness has been fairly petty. She’s out for herself, and has a mad-on towards Shadow, but isn’t a Big Picture Evil in that her own goals are basically “more comfort and recognition from Moonlight (or whatever the head of the women’s guild is). Ergo, small-“e” evil.
Terminus has always had big plans which basically end with him as the biggest rooster in the henhouse, with Noxians ruling the Humans and himself ruling over everyone. He showed zero regret when he killed the old men’s guild master by accident, only seeing that his timetable needed adjustment, using it to usurp the position of leader from the appointed successor, framing said successor for the murder he himself committed. He sees everyone as a tool to be used to that end – including his Human paramour (who may or may not be pregnant with a hybrid herself) – and has shown himself able to Speed Chess his plans when things go wrong. All of this lead to capital-E Evil.
If I had to choose, I’d say Nightmare is Ventress to Terminus’s Dooku, or her Vader to his Palpatine.
That said, I can’t dispute your breakdown of his personality. He’s showing his petty side this scene, because he sees Nightmare’s own pettiness as disrupting his carefully laid plans. It’s the same moment of weakness from when he killed the guy.
I suspect the next page will show him coming to a the seeds of a plan for how Shadow being in the dungeons could work to his advantage to get Tim’s blood (or other bodily fluid; blood is traditional, but maybe the door needs bile, phlegm, or urine?).
If she hasn’t already, wait until she finds out about his other lovers.