Aaah, but one little nudge can also be all it takes to get you started on something good. For example, trying out a new drink that you might wind up liking better than what you’re used to!
I would assume that Nudge is the sort of entity that likes to set events in motion, whether they be good or bad.. sort of a force of chaos, if you will. But I suppose I’ll have to wait and see if that assumption is accurate!
I have to agree with you on this on. Nudge is revealing potential secrets of other Demons. Nudge is ALSO showing interest of stirring up change and setting things in motion.
I wonder how much this Demon knows, and how they are going to use (Or withhold) that knowledge.
Well, it’s not the whole collective of Tina that is answering – It’s just the one who is called “Nudge.” So maybe the collective could be “Legion” when they are not “Tina.”
So, just what is Nudge? It cannot be a demon. If it was, then it would count itself amongst the numbers. Nudge would be saying “we”, and not “they”. By using that pronoun, Nudge is saying, in my opinion, that it is separate from the rest of the group, speaking as an outside observer, as it were. A few days ago, one of the voices did say that another had appeared from no where, perhaps that was Nudge.
Nudge is definitely a demon. It’s the voice inside your head that says, “Ooh, you should totally try that!” Or, perhaps, “Why don’t you turn the alarm clock off and go back to sleep? They won’t miss you at work today.”
Nudge is a bit more direct (and, perhaps, more diabolical) than Doubt, because she says things like “Take the apple!”‘ while Doubt says, “Is it REALLY wrong to take the apple?”
Nudge is the one who got soul-less Tina up off the slab and back on her feet. And, if you think of it, she’s actually a perfect “ringleader”, as she’s the one who not only pays the most attention to details but she encourages her tormented soul to try new things.
I’ll bet that Tina 1.0 had a recurring thought: “Dangit, I wish I could just learn how to make coffee right!”
This I have to respond to. Tina(Nudge) seems to be referring to the demonic populous in general when she says “they.” if you remember correctly a team of demons is assigned to any one person. And if that old Jin, Monica, Doubt double teaming interaction serves my memory right there has to be a whole population of demons so that they don’t routinely double team.
So “They” is the whole demonic populous but (Nudge) does say “we” in one instance, the important one, “The more predictable they are, the more damage we can do.” Referring to herself as a part of that demon populous, part of the original “Tina demon team.”
I see no grammatical reason why Nudge cannot be a demon, based on what Nudge says.
We talk about humanity all the time, without placing ourselves outside it, why can’t demons do the same? “Goodness, people are so nosy!” is no different than “Locked in demons will never admit it…”
White chocolate mocha sounds nice but in my experience does not taste very nice 🙁 Then again when i had it they seemed to have added extra sugar which made it extreamly sweet and not at all nice.
White chocolate in general is just a bit of (chocolate) flavoring added to the cocoa butter and sugar plus milk. I’d think that the coffee flavors could easily overpower the chocolate. So mocha, in general, by me, should be real chocolate, or even dark choc with the coffee, plus maybe one or two other spicy additions.
The thought occurred to me that it might have been created by Jin out of herself, which would explain why part of Jin is missing. I would have thought it might serve to lock in Tina’s demons, but can’t explain why she didn’t have it on here. The demons seemed to be totally uncoordinated then, though. Every other time there has been a group filter, even if a demon is managing to bypass it.
I just had a thought – Monica shouldn’t take that White Chocolate Mocha from Nudge/Tina. She’ll be bouncing off the walls, and Doubt will be playing with her like Silly Putty ™.
…which makes Nudge a trickster, a sleight-of-hand magician. While one hand is playing nice and offering white-chocolate goodness, the other is pushing the black stuff towards her. Nudge is. EVIL. And who was it that warned her about Evil beings getting you to do stuff?
Sounds about right. I wondered what that blackness was. Looks kinda gooey. The hand by her face gives me the impression she just lifted her hand away from in front of her face to reveal the Nudge creepy eyes. In a moment she might put her hand back, then remove it again to reveal the usual Tina creepy eyes, emphasizing the transition between personalities.
But the problem with Nudge pushing it towards M is that she cannot harm a (living) person – not without severe consequences, which she knows by hard experience. So she may say things to people, but will not act to harm them. She lets them choose harm themselves, but it’s by their own free will, not by her action.
I have that sense of foreboding with this Nudge, it is trying to seduce Monica by plying her with a much more decadent beverage than her usual…and again it is speaking for the group after the group has expressed that not all are on the same page. Is Nudge new, or has it just been dormant since the accident, waiting for the right moment to reveal itself?
I suspect Nudge has been kept in check by the others over the years, or has been “assigned to menial housekeeping tasks” (akin to what Monica does to Doubt).
Either that or the committee in Tina’s head has a rotating chairperson (chairdemon?) policy, and Nudge finally got back at the controls…
Indeed. The explanation of how Nudge has taken over the reins is bound to be very interesting. Certainly Tina’s appearence is much altered when Nudge is in control, and it makes me wonder aloud again (I brought this up on the day Tina ordered pizza) who was the entity that spoke for the group so many times in the past, such as here and here…in each of those cases, Tina looks downright human in comparison to when Nudge speaks…
For reference, recent examples are here and here. But what is going on here or here? It may just be that Nudge alone is alarmed at what is happening with Jin, but any demon or the demons collectively can make Tina look very different.
The ‘quite-obvious’ and ‘letmehelpyou’ moments look like moments of clarity to me.
Sometimes we experience those moments when we are thoroughly focused and ‘of one mind’ so to speak.
I’ve had those moments. Some were beautiful and sublime and served to improve my state of mind in general. Others were horrifying enough to give me the cold sweats. The aforementioned two look like the latter.
The ‘deal-me-in’ one looks like Nudge stepping forward to play it’s hand. I don’t know which demon ‘sunnydaffodil’ is but it’s probably another one altogether.
My understanding is that when Tina speaks, it’s a consensus by the Collective, while at other times just one or other demon speaks, “out of turn” as it were. So the speaker may not be chair of the collective, just the one who blurts out their contribution. Maybe Nudge became chair when she pushed – nudged – the others to get off the morgue slab when Tina died and lost her human soul?
I think Tina may have been referring to Monica’s demons that are locked in now that Monica’s doorway has been sealed. The white chocolate mocha may be intended to weaken them, by opening Monica up to new things.
I’m not understanding what’s going on with Tina’s right hand. It looks like coffee or black liquid is spurting out of it in the last panel. Perhaps she is blocking something? Perhaps the black stuff only belongs in the overlaid panel that includes Monica. Tina seems to be right handed, but she already has her hand down and is waving with her left in the first panel, so her pose in both panels is a bit strange. I can’t tell if it has any meaning or not. I also have no idea what would have landed in her lap, except possibly anchovy pizza.
Ohh, maybe it was the anchovy pizza (part of it) that landed in Tina’s lap. She seemed to be wearing different shorts afterward. The white chocolate mocha would be analogous as something new and different to try. (People who actually like anchovy pizzas might think so, anyway.)
Tina’s demons have different tastes; they could have different dominant hands too.
She works in a coffee shop; could it be something as prosaic as coffee? Or something far more insidious and darker? Pablo mentioned above the possibility that it is being attracted to her, and she’s warding it off.
@Paul: Thanks for adding the transcript. It’s already indexed by Google, so searching for “white chocolate mocha” wapsi returned this page (even before my comments).
Wait. Nudge just said that the more predicatble people are, the more damage a demon conglomerate can do. Monica has always been predictable in her coffee order, so by offering her white chocolate mocha, is Nudge trying to alter Monica’s predicatbility and thus minimize whatever carnage Monica’s personal demons can cause (an act of altruism)?
Is this then the advice she must pass along to Jin? To be more unpredictable? Isn’t she already??
I agree with your first paragraph. Monica’s Doubt, in particular, would try to keep Monica from trying new things. If Monica tries new things and it works out well, it teach Monica to pay less attention and weaken Doubt. Nudge wants Monica to be more daring and active with respect to Jin’s problem. Note how she says, “a partial solution to help you help your friend”, so I don’t think it’s about helping Jin directly. If we are looking through Monica’s eyes, Doubt would make things look foreboding for Monica. That may be what Paul is showing. Monica has know way of knowing how much to trust Nudge.
I suppose it’s possible that the cocoa butter in the drink is a hint, but I doubt it.
Nudge seems like an adult who never grew up. The kind always trying everything, regardless of the risks. The one whose last words are often: “Hey, y’all watch this!” This can be both bad and good. Bad, as in shoplifting on impulse, good in getting us out of the caves and exploring the world. Without Nudge type demons we might not be enjoying this comic over the internet on our personal computers as you are doing right now. Of course some uf us might live a lot longer too by not being pushed to do bungy jumping, mountain climbing, street racing, etc..
That’s wrong, or at least there is more to it than that. I’m not sure how far you are through the archives, so I don’t want to say what’s right, but to me there is a big plot point there.
The artwork in today’s strip reminds me a little of this one and this one plus the next two. It’s as if Paul may be drawing some of the negativity that Tina / Nudge is trying to overcome. I noticed that a couple of times it appeared in the lower-right corner.
I like that the demons are being named finally, almost a fractured personality disorder situation. What caught me by surprise is the nature of demons. I’d always assummed them to be creatures of chaos, the ultimate incarnations of freedom, bringing the downfall of people because their goal, to bring a world without limitations, is anethama to orderly beings.
It is through chance that, from among the various individuals of which each of us is composed, one emerges rather than another. – Henry de Montherlant, 1931
I’ve always wondered, when people reply with qoutes, do they take the time to look up something pertinent, or do they have it clogging up their brains for however long passes until they find it’s of use?
Usually, it’s in memory, and then you go look it up to make sure that you’ve gotten it right. But in this case, I was reading a tale by Dorothy Sayers; that quote was the chapter header, and seemed so apropos …
Nudge doesn’t seem too bad. On the other hand, one nudge is all it takes to push you off a cliff
Aaah, but one little nudge can also be all it takes to get you started on something good. For example, trying out a new drink that you might wind up liking better than what you’re used to!
I would assume that Nudge is the sort of entity that likes to set events in motion, whether they be good or bad.. sort of a force of chaos, if you will. But I suppose I’ll have to wait and see if that assumption is accurate!
Tis what I was thinking.
Chaos ain’t bad, all change comes from Chaos. I like Nudge.
I like Chaos, i don’t like white chocolate mochas.
I also like chaos and I also don’t like white chocolate mocha but then again I hate coffee
I have to agree with you on this on. Nudge is revealing potential secrets of other Demons. Nudge is ALSO showing interest of stirring up change and setting things in motion.
I wonder how much this Demon knows, and how they are going to use (Or withhold) that knowledge.
So, Paul, you do read the comments and use the strip to answer questions we raise!
So , Nudge introduces herself .
I would have thought her name would be “Legion”. 😉 “Nudge” is an interesting name indeed.
Well, she did mention giving the others a nudge.
Monica looks as if she got up on the wrong side today.
Or maybe it was the dish…
Well, it’s not the whole collective of Tina that is answering – It’s just the one who is called “Nudge.” So maybe the collective could be “Legion” when they are not “Tina.”
And so we have Tina 2.0 beginning to explain herself while Shelly pursues other interests. I wonder when Katherine will join the plot development?
Wow…
I love Tina’s character.. and I love the new eyes…
I think those are probably Nudge’s eyes.
Does Monica understand about the difference between Nudge and The Collective?
Nudge. I like this one already. 😀
White chocolate mocha! Can I have marshmallows with that. : )
So, just what is Nudge? It cannot be a demon. If it was, then it would count itself amongst the numbers. Nudge would be saying “we”, and not “they”. By using that pronoun, Nudge is saying, in my opinion, that it is separate from the rest of the group, speaking as an outside observer, as it were. A few days ago, one of the voices did say that another had appeared from no where, perhaps that was Nudge.
Nudge is definitely a demon. It’s the voice inside your head that says, “Ooh, you should totally try that!” Or, perhaps, “Why don’t you turn the alarm clock off and go back to sleep? They won’t miss you at work today.”
Nudge is a bit more direct (and, perhaps, more diabolical) than Doubt, because she says things like “Take the apple!”‘ while Doubt says, “Is it REALLY wrong to take the apple?”
Nudge is the one who got soul-less Tina up off the slab and back on her feet. And, if you think of it, she’s actually a perfect “ringleader”, as she’s the one who not only pays the most attention to details but she encourages her tormented soul to try new things.
I’ll bet that Tina 1.0 had a recurring thought: “Dangit, I wish I could just learn how to make coffee right!”
Tina described herself this way… perhaps Nudge is the entrepreneurial spirit. 🙂
Long time reader first time poster.
This I have to respond to. Tina(Nudge) seems to be referring to the demonic populous in general when she says “they.” if you remember correctly a team of demons is assigned to any one person. And if that old Jin, Monica, Doubt double teaming interaction serves my memory right there has to be a whole population of demons so that they don’t routinely double team.
So “They” is the whole demonic populous but (Nudge) does say “we” in one instance, the important one, “The more predictable they are, the more damage we can do.” Referring to herself as a part of that demon populous, part of the original “Tina demon team.”
I see no grammatical reason why Nudge cannot be a demon, based on what Nudge says.
We talk about humanity all the time, without placing ourselves outside it, why can’t demons do the same? “Goodness, people are so nosy!” is no different than “Locked in demons will never admit it…”
~D. Walker
White chocolate mocha sounds nice but in my experience does not taste very nice 🙁 Then again when i had it they seemed to have added extra sugar which made it extreamly sweet and not at all nice.
White chocolate in general is just a bit of (chocolate) flavoring added to the cocoa butter and sugar plus milk. I’d think that the coffee flavors could easily overpower the chocolate. So mocha, in general, by me, should be real chocolate, or even dark choc with the coffee, plus maybe one or two other spicy additions.
Okay.
Paul – how long ago did you script this strip?
…and are we finally going to get a little info about the choker?
The thought occurred to me that it might have been created by Jin out of herself, which would explain why part of Jin is missing. I would have thought it might serve to lock in Tina’s demons, but can’t explain why she didn’t have it on here. The demons seemed to be totally uncoordinated then, though. Every other time there has been a group filter, even if a demon is managing to bypass it.
And Nudge explicitly denied that it holds Tina’s head on! A trickster god wouldn’t lie to us, would she?
Re-reading, I notice I was wrong. Nudge only denied that Tina’s head fell off into her lap this morning.
The choker is completely decorative, check.
Creepifying…
And somewhat sensible at the same time.
River definitely comes to mind, here.
I can kill you with my brain…
you look better in… black and white.
I just had a thought – Monica shouldn’t take that White Chocolate Mocha from Nudge/Tina. She’ll be bouncing off the walls, and Doubt will be playing with her like Silly Putty ™.
Nudge is so manically cheerful.
That would be creepy early in the morning even from a 100% human person.
Well, Tina is manically cheerful. By choice.
As she says in this page, and the next few days: https://wapsisquare.com/comic/peoplewantthat/
*takes a few steps back*
The splash of darkness creeping up Monica’s legs do not instill much confidence in the future…
Yeeeeesssss, I noticed that too… (see sense of foreboding in my comment below)
…which makes Nudge a trickster, a sleight-of-hand magician. While one hand is playing nice and offering white-chocolate goodness, the other is pushing the black stuff towards her. Nudge is. EVIL. And who was it that warned her about Evil beings getting you to do stuff?
Sounds about right. I wondered what that blackness was. Looks kinda gooey. The hand by her face gives me the impression she just lifted her hand away from in front of her face to reveal the Nudge creepy eyes. In a moment she might put her hand back, then remove it again to reveal the usual Tina creepy eyes, emphasizing the transition between personalities.
But the problem with Nudge pushing it towards M is that she cannot harm a (living) person – not without severe consequences, which she knows by hard experience. So she may say things to people, but will not act to harm them. She lets them choose harm themselves, but it’s by their own free will, not by her action.
The black stuff might be coffee? 🙂
Yes . I too , like the panel transitions .
You’re assuming it’s coming from Tina and not being attracted to her. 😉
Yes, the shadow is fantastic. It give such depth to the scene.
I have that sense of foreboding with this Nudge, it is trying to seduce Monica by plying her with a much more decadent beverage than her usual…and again it is speaking for the group after the group has expressed that not all are on the same page. Is Nudge new, or has it just been dormant since the accident, waiting for the right moment to reveal itself?
I suspect Nudge has been kept in check by the others over the years, or has been “assigned to menial housekeeping tasks” (akin to what Monica does to Doubt).
Either that or the committee in Tina’s head has a rotating chairperson (chairdemon?) policy, and Nudge finally got back at the controls…
Indeed. The explanation of how Nudge has taken over the reins is bound to be very interesting. Certainly Tina’s appearence is much altered when Nudge is in control, and it makes me wonder aloud again (I brought this up on the day Tina ordered pizza) who was the entity that spoke for the group so many times in the past, such as here and here…in each of those cases, Tina looks downright human in comparison to when Nudge speaks…
For reference, recent examples are here and here. But what is going on here or here? It may just be that Nudge alone is alarmed at what is happening with Jin, but any demon or the demons collectively can make Tina look very different.
The ‘quite-obvious’ and ‘letmehelpyou’ moments look like moments of clarity to me.
Sometimes we experience those moments when we are thoroughly focused and ‘of one mind’ so to speak.
I’ve had those moments. Some were beautiful and sublime and served to improve my state of mind in general. Others were horrifying enough to give me the cold sweats. The aforementioned two look like the latter.
The ‘deal-me-in’ one looks like Nudge stepping forward to play it’s hand. I don’t know which demon ‘sunnydaffodil’ is but it’s probably another one altogether.
Ah, I forgot that I’d named her Deceit back then.
I miss the old forums.
Hm. It interesting that Tina says that hurting people would be “like burning ants with a magnifying glass”.
That seems to imply that she’s potentially quite powerful.
My understanding is that when Tina speaks, it’s a consensus by the Collective, while at other times just one or other demon speaks, “out of turn” as it were. So the speaker may not be chair of the collective, just the one who blurts out their contribution. Maybe Nudge became chair when she pushed – nudged – the others to get off the morgue slab when Tina died and lost her human soul?
Did I mention , Tina’s my favorite character ?
Nudge has to be one of the demons, she seems to imply that she is not “Locked In” and therefore not one of the collective, or We.
I think Tina may have been referring to Monica’s demons that are locked in now that Monica’s doorway has been sealed. The white chocolate mocha may be intended to weaken them, by opening Monica up to new things.
Say no more, squire, say no more.
I’m not understanding what’s going on with Tina’s right hand. It looks like coffee or black liquid is spurting out of it in the last panel. Perhaps she is blocking something? Perhaps the black stuff only belongs in the overlaid panel that includes Monica. Tina seems to be right handed, but she already has her hand down and is waving with her left in the first panel, so her pose in both panels is a bit strange. I can’t tell if it has any meaning or not. I also have no idea what would have landed in her lap, except possibly anchovy pizza.
Ohh, maybe it was the anchovy pizza (part of it) that landed in Tina’s lap. She seemed to be wearing different shorts afterward. The white chocolate mocha would be analogous as something new and different to try. (People who actually like anchovy pizzas might think so, anyway.)
Tina’s demons have different tastes; they could have different dominant hands too.
She works in a coffee shop; could it be something as prosaic as coffee? Or something far more insidious and darker? Pablo mentioned above the possibility that it is being attracted to her, and she’s warding it off.
I love that story about the woman , who’s choker kept her head on . Been quite a few years since I read it . Can’t remember the title or author .
Something like “The Green Ribbon” from the book “In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories”?
There was also “The Locket” story from “Campfire Tales” (1997 film) (still pic: https://wickedhorror.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/campfire-tales-locket.jpeg)
They’re Heeeeeeerrrrrrreeee….
…and they’re changing my Oooooooorderrrrrrrrr……
Long time reader, first time commenter.
@eschmenk – I hope this doesn’t change anything deep, but I’m a righty and I drink with my left hand.
@Paul: Thanks for adding the transcript. It’s already indexed by Google, so searching for “white chocolate mocha” wapsi returned this page (even before my comments).
Wait. Nudge just said that the more predicatble people are, the more damage a demon conglomerate can do. Monica has always been predictable in her coffee order, so by offering her white chocolate mocha, is Nudge trying to alter Monica’s predicatbility and thus minimize whatever carnage Monica’s personal demons can cause (an act of altruism)?
Is this then the advice she must pass along to Jin? To be more unpredictable? Isn’t she already??
I agree with your first paragraph. Monica’s Doubt, in particular, would try to keep Monica from trying new things. If Monica tries new things and it works out well, it teach Monica to pay less attention and weaken Doubt. Nudge wants Monica to be more daring and active with respect to Jin’s problem. Note how she says, “a partial solution to help you help your friend”, so I don’t think it’s about helping Jin directly. If we are looking through Monica’s eyes, Doubt would make things look foreboding for Monica. That may be what Paul is showing. Monica has know way of knowing how much to trust Nudge.
I suppose it’s possible that the cocoa butter in the drink is a hint, but I doubt it.
Errg!. Monica has no way of knowing…
Nudge seems like an adult who never grew up. The kind always trying everything, regardless of the risks. The one whose last words are often: “Hey, y’all watch this!” This can be both bad and good. Bad, as in shoplifting on impulse, good in getting us out of the caves and exploring the world. Without Nudge type demons we might not be enjoying this comic over the internet on our personal computers as you are doing right now. Of course some uf us might live a lot longer too by not being pushed to do bungy jumping, mountain climbing, street racing, etc..
Maybe it was Nudge saying “Let’s see how close I can follow that bus”…
That’s wrong, or at least there is more to it than that. I’m not sure how far you are through the archives, so I don’t want to say what’s right, but to me there is a big plot point there.
The artwork in today’s strip reminds me a little of this one and this one plus the next two. It’s as if Paul may be drawing some of the negativity that Tina / Nudge is trying to overcome. I noticed that a couple of times it appeared in the lower-right corner.
I like that the demons are being named finally, almost a fractured personality disorder situation. What caught me by surprise is the nature of demons. I’d always assummed them to be creatures of chaos, the ultimate incarnations of freedom, bringing the downfall of people because their goal, to bring a world without limitations, is anethama to orderly beings.
It is through chance that, from among the various individuals of which each of us is composed, one emerges rather than another. – Henry de Montherlant, 1931
I’ve always wondered, when people reply with qoutes, do they take the time to look up something pertinent, or do they have it clogging up their brains for however long passes until they find it’s of use?
Usually, it’s in memory, and then you go look it up to make sure that you’ve gotten it right. But in this case, I was reading a tale by Dorothy Sayers; that quote was the chapter header, and seemed so apropos …
Ooo … Fanservice! Harry Potter glasses on a busty latina … woo-hoo!
😉
You dork! 😉
Not to mention that one of the women in the second panel is a virgin! Oh, baby!
Really? I always prefer a woman who knows what the heck she’s doing. Saves a lot of time and instruction.
Well, they probably didn’t have an archangel instructing them, though. I suspect you underestimated just how much of a dork Fnord was trying to be. 😀
TAKE THE MOCHA! TAKE THE MOCHA!
FINE! if noone will say it, I will
A CHALLENGER APPEARS!
NEWCOMER NUDGE!!
The Nuge? Ted? Where’s my Cat Scratch Fever loincloth?
I love white chocolate mocha’s! There my fav!
Ah good, its officially started, just took one nudge. Nice last panel blend too.
The eyes are the windows to the soul…and the blacklights are definitely switched on!!
In D&D terms, I’m thinking Nudge is chaotic neutral…
That seems to be the default for tricksters. Some are just chaotic, of good or evil, or even other alignments, but the default is CN.
Pablo, looking back at some of the old wallpapers……ones that have been on the site for a long time…..Just how long has Nudge “been around” ? =D
Whoa never mind just noticed it when looking through some of the 2005 comics!
Note the font and color being used for Nudge. Now look back over the run of the strip.
I don’t think Nudge is one of Tina’s (conglomoration of)demons!