Yes, as I understand it, it can kill you. Tone can, in theory, command you to do anything, if you can’t fight it. Tone resistance is so critical because Tone is so strong. It’s interesting that he managed to down an Anyr and a Talmi
@ Rippy
Based on what I’ve seen in this comic, I would say part of the Tone’s strength kind of comes from the…oomph that the user puts into it. Or at least that’s the impression I’ve gotten. Remember when Levana (Veled’s daughter) went to stop her little brother’s attempted kidnapping? She screamed “ENOUGH!” with a bunch of tone that caused even White Noise to land on his butt and stop fighting momentarily. Other Tones that have been resisted have occurred during more casual conversation (such as when Arikos tried to Tone WN into picking him for Lieutenant) and then we have this guy, putting a similar level of force behind the shouted Tone as Levana did.
Maybe it corresponds to stress and adrenaline? Humans in real life have been known to pull off otherwise-impossible physical feats when under the effects of a good adrenaline rush. Maybe Celeste can overcome even a crowd full of resistant species if they Tone while under the effects of their biology’s equivalent to adrenaline. Levana certainly would have had that going from being in a fight, and this guy here seems to be genuinely in fear for his life right now so I wouldn’t be surprised if he had that little boost, too.
@Shad: all that is true – but let me add a wrinkle – If you don’t have tone resistance, the only defense is audio-deadening – earplugs, distance, anything that cuts the fidelity of the sound. A Tone command to suicide, against most people, can kill any and everyone who can hear it – numbers are no defense – Celesti aren’t “exerting themselves” more, just speaking louder. Emotion helps, in the same way speaking passionately helps get the message across. A single Celesti, with enough superb audio equipment, could kill every person on a planet, and not break a sweat, assuming everyone was within range of a sufficiently good fidelity speaker-unit. Numbers mean nothing.
What I was referring to was the fact that some species specifically have Tone Resistance – the ability to hear Tone in its Commanding mode and ignore it. Celesti have it normally, as do Touched, but Anyr and Talmi also possess it naturally. In those cases, it becomes a battle of wills, in essence – The capacity to understand what’s being ordered, and to control the resulting impulses. As these are star org grunts, talking to their boss, such resistance is probably pretty low.
Your example with Levana was much more to the point – almost no one wanted to sit – And White Noise specifically mentions being further trained to resist, as he did when Arikos tried to Tone him into taking the celeste on as his second. That one has a lot presence to her – though WN might have just choosen to not fight it, since it help accomplish his objective at the time.
@ Rippy
Fascinating. I’m not sure what to say except this is all very interesting to learn and my guess is probably wrong. Though now I wonder if maybe the Startle Effect is a contributing factor to the successful Toning of Anyr and Talmi.
I think it IS safe to say no one in that crowd was expecting he would scream/Tone them so suddenly and forcefully. And I imagine it would be easier to resist if one isn’t caught off-guard/startled like that. In my head I’m seeing it as the difference between someone calmly, during a normal conversation, telling you not to move versus a cop suddenly busting into the room screaming “FREEZE!”
Maybe if it had been any other command, the resistant species might have resisted after the initial surprise had worn off. But with a death command it’s kind of…tricky to recover from that.
Or I could just be reading too much into it and yeah, it’s just the fact that these are Star Org grunts trained to obey…
It seems like he just made some brand new problems for himself. I don’t think that red eyed blue fellow is going to be very happy when he gets up.
Wow. Rude.
Is that blue guy with his head getting stepped on…the same one who’s soul Veled tried to feed to Sunny earlier in the comic?
The tone says “Drop dead” …That is a scary powerful ability.
If anyone needs a reminder, I’m thinking the new Dead Inside might be the same dude from here: https://www.lastres0rt.com/2008/10/i-admire-a-leader-who-can-face-her-critics/
Well this’ll end well, how many others shattered to?
Wait, are they gonna need to call in the Terminators again!?
Someone is gonna need lot of plastic bags tonight
is Tone actually capable of commanding instant death like that or are they only stunned?
Yes, as I understand it, it can kill you. Tone can, in theory, command you to do anything, if you can’t fight it. Tone resistance is so critical because Tone is so strong. It’s interesting that he managed to down an Anyr and a Talmi
@ Rippy
Based on what I’ve seen in this comic, I would say part of the Tone’s strength kind of comes from the…oomph that the user puts into it. Or at least that’s the impression I’ve gotten. Remember when Levana (Veled’s daughter) went to stop her little brother’s attempted kidnapping? She screamed “ENOUGH!” with a bunch of tone that caused even White Noise to land on his butt and stop fighting momentarily. Other Tones that have been resisted have occurred during more casual conversation (such as when Arikos tried to Tone WN into picking him for Lieutenant) and then we have this guy, putting a similar level of force behind the shouted Tone as Levana did.
Maybe it corresponds to stress and adrenaline? Humans in real life have been known to pull off otherwise-impossible physical feats when under the effects of a good adrenaline rush. Maybe Celeste can overcome even a crowd full of resistant species if they Tone while under the effects of their biology’s equivalent to adrenaline. Levana certainly would have had that going from being in a fight, and this guy here seems to be genuinely in fear for his life right now so I wouldn’t be surprised if he had that little boost, too.
This little bastard’s bark really is worse than his bite.
@Shad: all that is true – but let me add a wrinkle – If you don’t have tone resistance, the only defense is audio-deadening – earplugs, distance, anything that cuts the fidelity of the sound. A Tone command to suicide, against most people, can kill any and everyone who can hear it – numbers are no defense – Celesti aren’t “exerting themselves” more, just speaking louder. Emotion helps, in the same way speaking passionately helps get the message across. A single Celesti, with enough superb audio equipment, could kill every person on a planet, and not break a sweat, assuming everyone was within range of a sufficiently good fidelity speaker-unit. Numbers mean nothing.
What I was referring to was the fact that some species specifically have Tone Resistance – the ability to hear Tone in its Commanding mode and ignore it. Celesti have it normally, as do Touched, but Anyr and Talmi also possess it naturally. In those cases, it becomes a battle of wills, in essence – The capacity to understand what’s being ordered, and to control the resulting impulses. As these are star org grunts, talking to their boss, such resistance is probably pretty low.
Your example with Levana was much more to the point – almost no one wanted to sit – And White Noise specifically mentions being further trained to resist, as he did when Arikos tried to Tone him into taking the celeste on as his second. That one has a lot presence to her – though WN might have just choosen to not fight it, since it help accomplish his objective at the time.
@ Rippy
Fascinating. I’m not sure what to say except this is all very interesting to learn and my guess is probably wrong. Though now I wonder if maybe the Startle Effect is a contributing factor to the successful Toning of Anyr and Talmi.
I think it IS safe to say no one in that crowd was expecting he would scream/Tone them so suddenly and forcefully. And I imagine it would be easier to resist if one isn’t caught off-guard/startled like that. In my head I’m seeing it as the difference between someone calmly, during a normal conversation, telling you not to move versus a cop suddenly busting into the room screaming “FREEZE!”
Maybe if it had been any other command, the resistant species might have resisted after the initial surprise had worn off. But with a death command it’s kind of…tricky to recover from that.
Or I could just be reading too much into it and yeah, it’s just the fact that these are Star Org grunts trained to obey…
In the land of the chimera Angels, the tone deaf man is king. Or, alive, in this case.