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Slice of supernatural life YA comic PG-13 to R
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"A Bit Of Darknes"
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A Bit Of Darknes
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A Bit Of Darknes

by Paul Taylor on April 23, 2010 at 12:00 am
Story: Wapsi-Archive
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Discussion (83) ¬

  1. Jim
    April 23, 2010, 12:02 am | # | Reply

    Tell her , Tina .

    BTW , double shot of espresso for me , please .

  2. ziggy78eog
    April 23, 2010, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    It would have been better if she pulled a Godfather III and yell, “every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in!” I am telling you it would have worked.

    • Xiutecuhtli
      April 25, 2010, 11:35 am | # | Reply

      What with Shel waving her fists like that, give her an obsidian axe and a skull mask and she could probably pass for Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli.

      • seananners
        July 9, 2011, 6:06 am | #

        where whould you get the axe?

      • BMonk
        December 22, 2024, 12:59 pm | #

        Monica is an archeological scholar. She likely knows, or can find out, where an expert flint knapper lives who could make one.

  3. Fairportfan
    April 23, 2010, 12:16 am | # | Reply

    To paraphrase a comment i just posted over at Pibgorn:

    Shelly: 0
    Tina: 1

    • Fairportfan
      April 23, 2010, 12:19 am | # | Reply

      Tina really seems to be enjoying her role as bearer of … glad … tidings/buzzkill.

  4. Alex C.
    April 23, 2010, 12:19 am | # | Reply

    I express faint disappointment that Shelly likes americanos, my least favoured coffee drink.

    As an aside, Monica’s outfit and body language since arriving at the coffee shop reminds me of what she was like during the early days of the strip.

    • jwhouk
      April 23, 2010, 8:11 am | # | Reply

      Well, it makes sense, given that she is Americano.

      • Linux Learner
        November 16, 2010, 8:51 am | #

        I would certainly say that M’s expression in Panel 1 is just full of win.

  5. Biker Matt
    April 23, 2010, 12:51 am | # | Reply

    I think Monica and Shelly are finally settling into the addition of supernatural elements as “normal,” really living up to the title of “Supernatural Slice of Life.”

    And Fairportfan? Shouldn’t that be pallbearer of glad tidings/buzzkill? 😛

    • Fairportfan
      April 23, 2010, 2:12 pm | # | Reply

      Hisssss!

  6. LW18 (LADYWOLF)
    April 23, 2010, 1:09 am | # | Reply

    I don’t know about you all, but I can’t wait to see where this story takes us. 😀

  7. hewolf
    April 23, 2010, 2:25 am | # | Reply

    As a side note, Monica in Glasses is Adorable!

    • jwhouk
      April 23, 2010, 8:11 am | # | Reply

      Yeah, but which pair? Her hex pair just screamed “DORKCITY!”

      • Heather D
        April 23, 2010, 11:30 am | #

        these work for me. They suit her face and her profession pretty well.

  8. Plain Jane
    April 23, 2010, 4:34 am | # | Reply

    As an aside: Tina can’t get married. Polygamy/polyandry laws prevent it.
    =-_^=

    • Biker Matt
      April 23, 2010, 7:25 pm | # | Reply

      sorry, but one of my roommates is legally married to three people (my other roommate), and gets away with it because there’s still only one body the law recognises. And think of the benefits wih the supernatural elements present/subject to introduction!

      • jwhouk
        April 23, 2010, 9:50 pm | #

        There’s a whole bunch of Utah and polygamy jokes sitting there, but I’m not touching them.

  9. Ponyhome
    April 23, 2010, 6:23 am | # | Reply

    I can’t say how much I’m looking forward to Tina being a central character.

    • Ponyhome
      April 23, 2010, 6:24 am | # | Reply

      Reading that back, that sounds doubtful. Let’s try again. I am SO looking forward!

  10. scopescanner
    April 23, 2010, 7:24 am | # | Reply

    Why didn’t Tina offer too “Change Things Up” for Shelly too? Tina gave Shelly her usual.

    • txmystic
      April 23, 2010, 9:53 am | # | Reply

      It was Nudge that offered the mocha to Monica, not Tina…

    • eschmenk
      April 23, 2010, 1:20 pm | # | Reply

      Shelly didn’t need to have her demons weakened. Shelly already defeated them.

      • Fairportfan
        April 23, 2010, 2:14 pm | #

        Shelly’s demon – Creepy Little Girl – seems to work *with* her … albeit with the maximum amount of sarcasm and snark possible.

      • eschmenk
        April 23, 2010, 2:56 pm | #

        I think that this one means that the demons were destroyed and this one means that the girl is something other than a demon. In fact, she lists 3 ways in which she is different. Also, in a strip that would be very hard for me to find, Shelly said she got rid of her demons, then Monica said that she had put hers to work on other tasks. IIRC, the conversation was in the coffee shop probably around 2006 – early 2009 if someone wants to look for it.

      • Fairportfan
        April 23, 2010, 5:48 pm | #

        No, i think that, in the first strip when CLG says the demons were “combined into me”, she means exactly what she says – the demons were combined into one entity, and she’s it.

        And in the second strip, she says she’s “separate from the demon world” – but only because of Shelly.

        So Sarcasm Girl (as i see i called her back then) is sort of Shelly’s equivalent of Tina’s Steering Committe – except that she’s all of Shelly’s demons integrated into a single, more-or-less sane and benevolent gestalt.

      • eschmenk
        April 23, 2010, 11:04 pm | #

        I think we are pretty much in agreement, but I’d say the “more-or-less sane and benevolent gestalt” defined herself as a conscience, rather than a demon, and I would accept that, although she was made from demons and still guides Shelly like they did. I may have been misinterpreting “separate from the demon world”, though. If that means “separated from the demon world”, then that could include the closing of Shelly’s doorway, which Paul said was related to those pages:

        Shelly created a doorway but it was slammed shut on the demon side thus:
        http://wapsisquare.com/comic/puts-up-with-you/
        http://wapsisquare.com/comic/what-are-you/

        I took it to mean that the girl was not in the same category as everything related to the demonic realm (including the demons).

        I’m still confused about the doorway, though. Paul said:

        As for Shelly, what happened to her during her vision quest was the creation of her “conscience” that is autonomous in her own realm (the boiler room) that she can change to her liking, free of the demon realm. However she still can’t enter into our universe, other than to council Shelly as Monica’s demons do.

        But what Jin says here makes it sound as if the doorway to the vision realm was created by the vision quest. That seems very different than creating a separation from the demon world. Also this was the strip I was thinking of earlier. It makes it seem as if Shelly’s original demons were around until recently. Anyway, I’m confused by all of this.

      • txmystic
        April 23, 2010, 4:41 pm | #

        Who is the demon in this one and in this one that is giving Shelly and Monica advice? Clearly, if she is being sucked through the doorway, she is one of the demons that honored the “deal” that Bud alludes to in this one, right?

      • eschmenk
        April 23, 2010, 5:46 pm | #

        As I understand it, the one behind Monica was Monica’s doubt. She didn’t get sucked in, because she was only appearing to Monica and thus wasn’t really outside, despite the way it looked and she still messed with Monica a little here after the doorway was locked. She was in on the deal, though, as you can see here.

        The one with a face like mask and got sucked in was one of Jin’s demons, possibly Jin’s doubt. This shows the two demons (Jin’s and Monica’s) interacting. Here is Jin’s demon with Jin. I think that may have been the earliest we saw her.

      • Fairportfan
        April 23, 2010, 5:56 pm | #

        Interesting.

        After Tina shows up and ,a href=”http://wapsisquare.com/comic/naughtynaughty/”>convinces the two Doubts of the error of their ways, it’s the Committee of the Whole speaking …

        But, after ward – here and here, it’s Nudge – or another solo – ‘splainin’ things…

      • txmystic
        April 23, 2010, 6:25 pm | #

        I thought the first time we saw Jin’s doubt was when the golem girls found Monica’s doubt in the basement and stuck her into Jin’s stomach, resulting in this. So after Jin sent her to where she didn’t know where, did this now-evolved doubt demon become the rampant queen?

      • eschmenk
        April 23, 2010, 7:56 pm | #

        @txmystic. I think those were two completely different demons all along. I think Monica’s doubt just kept doing what it was good at while it was inside Jin. When Jin got rid of it, I assume it just managed to find it’s way back to Monica. I don’t think how that happened was really explained.

        I think the rampant queen demon was one of Jin’s demons all along, although I’m not so sure it was specifically her doubt (I wish I hadn’t suggested that), but it seemed to be the most prevalent of Jin’s demons, just as Monica’s doubt was the most prevalent of Monica’s. I think she just became the “rampant queen” just because she saw the opportunity to seize control of Monica’s doorway and did it.

        Putting Monica’s doubt in Jin allowed the two sets of demons to create a communication link with each other, which also allowed Jin and Monica to read each other’s thoughts. Somehow closing the doorway inside Monica shut that ability down. It may be that this communication link helped Jin’s demon spot the opportunity that Monica’s doorway represented or helped her seize control of it, but I don’t know.

      • eschmenk
        April 23, 2010, 11:31 pm | #

        @txmystic: Monica’s doubt returned to Monica with information from Jin’s mind.

        @fairportfan: Another case of an individual demon saying something interesting.

      • SoWhyMe
        April 24, 2010, 12:58 am | #

        I don’t think the demon which Jin sent to who knows where was Monica’s doubt. It was some sort of morbid self-loathing demon who Monica cast out of herself. Which, on refleaction, was pretty mean since the poor thing didn’t have anywhere else to go. There’s are few things sadder than a homeless demon living in your basement. That is, until it got in Jin when it was poited into her. Since Jin sent it away for good, it couldn’t have been Monica’s doubt, because that demon showed up later, as has been shown.

      • eschmenk
        April 24, 2010, 11:38 am | #

        Monica calls her “self doubt” here and talks about knowledge that doubt brought back to her that only Jin would have known. (Apparently, Jin needed to be reminded of it, though.) Brandi said that the demon belonged in Monica.After the incident in the Club Cerberus Tina concluded that Monica must have shared her demons with Jin. (Actually, it was Bud who did it, but Jin and Monica partially correct Tina without blaming Bud.)

        I think the way Monica’s doubt acted self-loathing is analogous to the way Monica’s panic panicked when she heard Bud coming. I’ll agree that doubt’s personality isn’t very consistent, though.

      • txmystic
        April 26, 2010, 10:25 am | #

        SoWhyMe has a point, IIRC the “cast out’ demon that was placed into Jin was the one whose speech was written bacwards in the balloon, and I think it had more of a self-depricating quality more akin to self-loathing than self-doubt. But yes, something did return to Monica with info about Jin.

        Perhaps several re-reads are required, much like any richly crafted tale!

      • Paul Taylor
        April 26, 2010, 10:39 am | #

        Yep, doubt did return to Monica, here making her return known to Jin while more under the thumb of Monica’s control.

      • eschmenk
        April 26, 2010, 1:07 pm | #

        Where?

    • BMonk
      December 22, 2024, 1:01 pm | # | Reply

      Shelly, as demonstrated by last night, is already changing things up. And she’s willing to help, even if she is being dramatic about it. Not like M.

  11. The Old Wolf
    April 23, 2010, 7:27 am | # | Reply

    Tina said “we”. Awesomeness cubed! 😀

  12. sco3tt
    April 23, 2010, 7:46 am | # | Reply

    And . . . here . . . we . . . GO!

  13. Maarvarq
    April 23, 2010, 9:35 am | # | Reply

    Did Tina just call Shelly a drama queen? 🙂

    • SoWhyMe
      April 24, 2010, 3:22 am | # | Reply

      No, a bad actor.

      • Fairportfan
        April 25, 2010, 7:58 pm | #

        That term has a rather different implication in Birtish English than the meaning i’m fairly sure you intended.

  14. txmystic
    April 23, 2010, 9:56 am | # | Reply

    I guess nudge is only going to come out for monica, at least for now. And monica still has not accepted the mocha, has she?

    One other thing…not only is the counter painted with icons now, but it seems to be taller?? Is Shelly that short?

    • oof
      April 23, 2010, 10:59 am | # | Reply

      I think Tina’s just so jazzed about being part of the party, she’s ‘jacknifed’ up onto the counter… note the locked arms, and shoulders holding her weight.

      • Jim
        April 23, 2010, 11:43 am | #

        Yeah . That’s what I was thinking .

      • txmystic
        April 23, 2010, 1:54 pm | #

        I got that about Tina jacknifing (and she looks really good doing it, too, I might add), but look at the counter…it seems to be as tall as Shelly’s shoulders…

      • Biker Matt
        April 23, 2010, 7:33 pm | #

        I think Shelly’s standing parallel to the nearest point of the bar (maybe a little farther back), as evidenced by Monica’s greater relative height, so it’s waist-to-ribcage height.

      • oof
        April 25, 2010, 5:52 pm | #

        ..OR Shelley’s falling to her knees in mock-drama.

    • kingklash
      April 23, 2010, 11:06 am | # | Reply

      Comanches aren’t very tall, usually. About average height, kinda stocky, known to be good fighters, and these days, not really people you want to brawl against. There are height exceptions, and Shelly would count among them.

      • txmystic
        April 23, 2010, 1:56 pm | #

        Ahhhhh…it just seemed that Shelly was taller in days of yore…I’m prolly making too big a deal of it and will stop now. 😉

      • Fairportfan
        April 23, 2010, 2:15 pm | #

        What about days of mine?

      • bmonk
        January 19, 2012, 1:05 pm | #

        Days of mine only count if you’re getting yore out of the ground.

      • Xiutecuhtli
        April 23, 2010, 4:16 pm | #

        Days of my what?

      • txmystic
        April 23, 2010, 4:30 pm | #

        “yore”=”your”

      • Fairportfan
        April 23, 2010, 5:41 pm | #

        Ummm, i think that’s what Xiu meant…

      • Xiutecuhtli
        April 24, 2010, 11:58 am | #

        Dearie, it appears yer missing several essential cultural reference points.

    • eschmenk
      April 23, 2010, 2:09 pm | # | Reply

      I think Shelly is fairly short. I picture her at around 5′ 4″ or a little less. I think it’s easy to forget that she is small, because of how strong she is and the fact that Monica and Jin are even shorter. She’s a little shorter than Bud, who isn’t that tall, either, and significantly shorter than Tina, Brandi and Katherine, I think.

      @Fairportfan: Paul confirmed that Shelly messed up her hair to make it look like the grill did it. Her hair tends to be pretty wild normally, though.
      —
      Shelly probably had no chance of fooling Tina, who can read auras, but she didn’t even fool Monica, who has a cute smirk on her face. 🙂

      • txmystic
        April 23, 2010, 4:33 pm | #

        Yeah, here’s the one that gives the perspective I was after, so she is shorter than I thought…

  15. Fnord
    April 23, 2010, 10:07 am | # | Reply

    Ooo … Fanservice! No … wait … too much drama … never mind!

    😉

    • BMonk
      December 22, 2024, 1:03 pm | # | Reply

      A true fan will find service no matter how much drama needs to be ignored.

  16. Tyler Tinsley
    April 23, 2010, 10:14 am | # | Reply

    Monica is SO CUTE with those glasses and hair!

  17. kingklash
    April 23, 2010, 11:11 am | # | Reply

    Does this mean the Demon Conglomerate/Amalgam/Comprise/Gestalt/Whole Ball O’Wax are resigned to go along for the ride?

  18. NikkTemplar
    April 23, 2010, 11:28 am | # | Reply

    I’d totally date Tina.

    • D. Walker
      April 23, 2010, 12:17 pm | # | Reply

      Pssh, such a silly concept this “dating”.

      You either mesh with someone or you don’t. Spending time getting to know each other should be a natural thing that just happens, not some planned and over analyzed process called “dating”, originally stemming from “setting a date” to get together.

      Which isn’t to say I don’t agree with you on principle. Tina attracts me like mad, even with all her bizarreness. If I were in that world, I’d be curious to see if I held any interest for her as well.

      ~D.

      • Jim
        April 23, 2010, 12:46 pm | #

        Word .

      • Opus the Poet
        April 23, 2010, 1:37 pm | #

        But I would still go out with her. Being in someone’s company and enjoying it does not imply romantic connection, it just means you like being together.

      • Fairportfan
        April 23, 2010, 2:21 pm | #

        Indeed.

        (Susan is asexual, Justin is gay and Dan, aside from being a squirrel, is the cartoonist…)

      • The Old Wolf
        April 24, 2010, 5:22 am | #

        Awesome panel, thanks for the pointer.

    • The Old Wolf
      April 23, 2010, 1:51 pm | # | Reply

      If I lived in that world, which would be so much more interesting than my own reality, I’d love to have any one of these characters as friends and/or as etc.

      • txmystic
        April 23, 2010, 1:58 pm | #

        emphasis on the “etc.”, Old Wolf? 😀

      • The Old Wolf
        April 24, 2010, 5:19 am | #

        ♬ Walks away whistling ♬

      • D. Walker
        April 23, 2010, 7:47 pm | #

        Plus the perks – POIT!

        ~D.

      • SoWhyMe
        April 24, 2010, 1:08 am | #

        You just haven’t found the right place/group in this reality. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio …

      • The Old Wolf
        April 24, 2010, 5:19 am | #

        Oh, well, you’re right for all that. I’m more than satisfied with my life at this point – I was speaking in very subjective terms. But fantasy exists and is popular for many good reasons…

      • kingklash
        April 24, 2010, 11:57 am | #

        It’s been my experience that not all of it is fantasy, at least not as most would define it. But this is a Quantum Universe, all points of view are valid. Just depends on where your head is at, Relativity speaking.

  19. Jim
    April 24, 2010, 10:33 pm | # | Reply

    If not a statue of Tina , a big Mucho Mocha coffee mug (maybe with Tina on it) , would be pretty sweet , as well .

    • Fatuncle
      April 25, 2010, 5:05 pm | # | Reply

      Oh, yeah! Coffee mugs with pictures, always a seller!

  20. Kidnapkid
    April 25, 2010, 9:47 pm | # | Reply

    I miss Monica’s boyfriend. And Jin’s hasn’t been around for awhile either.

  21. Jon
    August 21, 2010, 11:43 am | # | Reply

    There goes Shel’s afterglow!

  22. Anjel
    June 17, 2011, 3:52 am | # | Reply

    I’ve noticed that Shelly’s biceps seem to be getting rather ginormous recently! O.o Scary…sexy….sexry? I don’t know, but DAMN! I guess the woman that can lift and throw a v8 engine like nothing should be rather disturbingly tough looking, though.

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