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Via Dolorosa Page 21
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Via Dolorosa Page 21

on August 6, 2017
Chapter: Book 9: Via Dolorosa
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Discussion ¬

  1. Schlump
    Schlump
    August 6, 2017, 1:29 am | # | Reply

    Looks like she did an autopsy.

    Wonder why the local marshal or sheriff hasn’t come knocking at Dr. Black’s door.

    • Dogma
      Dogma
      August 6, 2017, 11:29 am | # | Reply

      Assuming medical standards in NTO are similar to the those in the real Wild West, death on the operating table would be pretty unremarkable.

      What’s more interesting to me is that, unless she’s using the newly deceased as subjects, it seems unlikely that she would have had a problem with Hunter bringing in subjects for her work on the fever. A fact which lends credence to the idea that was his methods (presumably seduction) which she objected to.

      Of course, there remains the possibility that she knew he could resurrect her, and explicitly told him not to. Being turned into an undead monster against your will would probably make you pretty angry.

      • RyGuy
        RyGuy
        August 8, 2017, 2:28 am | # | Reply

        That’s my thought exactly, only I think she also hates herself. When she shot that dying boy, she expressed an attitude that can only be called “nihilistic”. He begged her to “ply her trade”, and she killed the boy, saying she did. If a doctor now considers murder as the cure, it is plain she is in utter despair. If the reverend could send her to traditional hell, she would not object, because she thinks she deserves it. I think her primary objective in killing him is that when he dies, she dies. I think wizards normally bind the wills of the elemental wights they make to their own will, enslaving them, but Hunter wanted her to be her own self, not grasping her self loathing until her first attempt to kill him.

  2. ScholarOfFortune
    ScholarOfFortune
    August 6, 2017, 7:57 am | # | Reply

    Looks like she was practicing on fixing someone’s spine. If the local law enforcement were to show up, I suspect the change would be grave-robbing.

    And I love Vane’s rock-solid confidence in her ability to escape in the last panel.

  3. Just_IDD
    Just_IDD
    August 6, 2017, 8:11 am | # | Reply

    I was under the impression that she gave John Hunter a steel spine so if she’s heading into town for some parts she maybe need something extra for this guy steel spine. Although leaving somebody on the operating table like that it’s kind of odd so I don’t think he’s still with us.

    • Dchil
      Dchil
      August 9, 2017, 7:00 am | # | Reply

      I am under the impression that this is not a common body modification for her, but instead she did it as an engineering exercise and for love.

      Inexperienced engineering isn’t always right the first time….

  4. Karyl
    Karyl
    August 6, 2017, 6:23 pm | # | Reply

    I read this sequence as she took a spine from someone else and inserted it into him, maybe with a metal sheath to keep it from contacting his skin directly. I think she’s also advising him to quit talking and get going, as she knows the society will be after him soon, as will she as soon as she gets loose!
    As always, the details are stunners, down to carpets, draping of fabrics, the bedspread, etc etc!

  5. Emanon
    Emanon
    August 6, 2017, 7:43 pm | # | Reply

    *sigh*

    I actually love the look of them as a couple… I wouldn’t mind a comic of how we got to this point after this comic finally ends.

  6. Honzinator
    Honzinator
    August 7, 2017, 9:40 am | # | Reply

    She has almost certainly been vivisecting … that’s arterial spray on her coat. My sympathy for her is fading fast, even if she is merely assuming that her patients will die anyhow, so why not.
    At best, the fellow was on the way out anyhow, or had recently died on the table, and just happened to be roughly Hunter’s build and size, and she then cut open his back to examine a spine … but I don’t think so. She deserves her damnation, as does he.

    • Schlump
      Schlump
      August 7, 2017, 12:49 pm | # | Reply

      She’s like an Old West version of Jack the Ripper.

      Vanity the Scalpel? Vanity the Knife?

      With her ex-husband Hunter the Torch (“ex” assumes “death do us part”, which also assumes that Vanity died during her change to whatever she is now) .

      A nice place like Alcratraz or Devil’s Island or Patmos in Roman times would suit the two of them just fine. Put them in the same cell as punishment. (With all flammables removed from the cell, of course). Have water pipes that could splash the cell with water to put out any attempts by Hunter or Vane to burn things when they get into a domestic squabble.

      Guard 1 “They are fighting again.”

      Captain of the Guard: Sigh. “OK, put out the fires again.”

      Guard 1 Turns a valve and the sound of rushing water is heard. Sounds of irritation come from the cell. Turns the water off after a minute. “OK, you two kids from the 9th Circle, knock it off and let the other prisoners sleep.”

      • Honzinator
        Honzinator
        August 8, 2017, 10:21 am | # | Reply

        Couldn’t Hunter burn … her? Maybe not. A cell of some stone like marble, not flammable limestone, might work … and small portions of food, since it burns, and regular flooding to wear everything away, and removing her from his presence when he, but not she, needs to sleep. That could work, Schlump.
        I suggest The Canaries over Patmos … where prisoners so wretched they are forgotten until their rediscovery by the Portuguese were sent.

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