I was originally tempted to think that Shelly should fully manifest to Justin, to show him that she’s not making crazy claims, but it’s too late for that now.
Shelly’s only option here is to ride this out, and let one of her friends try to act as go-between.
And before things continue, Justin must somehow be given the means to defend himself.
===
Justin, far from deserving the shellacking he’s received here, in fact represents Shelly’s salvation. He’s hurt her in the only he can, emotionally, and she must learn to accept that.
Shelly must be made to understand that Justin’s initial swat is hard-wired human mating behavior. Best will in the world, if they continue together, he will do stuff like that over and over.
She must also understand that if she is going to hang out with humans, even have sex with them, they will routinely surprise her, offend her, hurt her feelings, sometimes by accident, sometimes in fun, sometimes maliciously.
She doesn’t have to put up with all of it, but she must be limited to a human scale response.
I’ll say again: Justin isn’t the bad guy. Justin is the grievously injured innocent party. He is Shelly’s best chance for salvation.
Even if Shelly loses him, she has a chance of learning a crucial lesson.
I think we’re mostly in violent agreement here, refugee.
One of the tragic things about this particular fracas, is that fact that Shelly really does know the sorts of things you’re saying she needs to understand. She’s been freaked out for days about the fact that her sphinx side is manifesting itself, beyond her conscious control. She’s scared of herself. She knows very well that she’s dangerous to people near her, and really really wants to get this sort of impulsive and aggressive sphinx strike-out behavior back under control. She went looking for help with this, and in fact she’s succeeded in hooking up with the one entity in the strip (Phix) who can give her the help and training she needs to manage her new status.
Shelly knows all this intellectually. I’d say that her human side knows it emotionally. Her sphinx side doesn’t get it yet… Justin’s little swat-on-the-butt came too soon, before Shelly’s new learning process could kick in.
As per yesterday: there ain’t no bad guys here… just unforeseen consequences, the Devil’s own ration of really bad timing, and human nature.
I’ve been thinking and I just realised that, from a human’s point of view, most of Shelly’s sphinx reactions are similar to PTSD. Maybe she should use that as a cover if someone normal gets too close? She could even explain that she’s seeing a Dr Phix to try and deal with her issues.
In fact, being tossed into an alternate dimension for 80,000 years of undying isolation and exile, going through a major physical metamorphosis, seeing 56 other versions of yourself die, and then being crammed back into your previous body and life with two sets of memories and two morphing forms would rank fairly high on the “traumatic” and “stress” scales. Calling it PTSD is really a pretty stone-accurate diagnosis.
mm. but it sort of runs both ways, too, you know? shelly has the trauma of watching herself die over and over, and being alone in the forest for so long.
justin has the “OMG crazy girlfriend!” trauma going on. and after a really bad (as in, medical attention needed) relationship, i *get* that those situations can definitely give you the PTSD too. BOTH of them need space to get over this, no matter if forgiveness occours or not.
If this is “for real” (and I’m not convinced of that) I can see only two outcomes in Shelly’s favor.
First: Shelly suppresses the temptation to go full sphinx and Justin walks, teaching her the valuable lesson of thinking before acting.
Second: Shelly does go full Sphinx and by some miracle Justin comes to the conclusion that “Hey, this is a cop’s dream; a Significant Other I _don’t_ have to worry about!”
I just hope Paul is far more imaginative than I am.
I can foresee one other possible outcome that would work in Shelly’s favor, though it is more funny than plausible. Justin flees before Shelly can transform and decides he needs a drink. At the bar he encounters Bud, recognizes her, and, after a few drinks he ends up telling her what happened. Bud realizes what happened (I’m a sphinx would be a total give-away for her) and manages to at least patch things together.
You have to admit that it was inevitable that one of the guys wouldn’t handle it well. I think that this will be the guy who walks away and doesn’t come back as a love interest. And Shelly, don’t shapechange. Not now. Not to show him wtf is going on. Just bad idea. When he panics and finds out that you are bulletproof it’s gonna be really hard to explain away why he discharged his firearm.
He apparently doesn’t seem to have his sidearm with him–not that we’ve seen so far in this exchange, anyway; he looks like he’s dressed for exercising. And it has been previously explained upon Shelly’s return from the time forest is that she is a human/sphinx hybrid, subject to mortality, and not invulnerable at all. Good thing his gun is apparently not with him; he could conceivably kill her if he panicked and shot her.
Doesn’t he tell it in the first panel? “Anything you say now…” So, my reaction mirrored ShadOBabe’s: Show, don’t tell! (And I didn’t even have that in school, seeing as I’m from Germany :D.)
#&@* IT! #&@* IT I SAY! Personally, I find all this hand wringing to have become tedious. Just sit on your hands and wait. I have a feeling no one is going to be happy with the outcome whatever it is.
I think we’ve missed something incredibly simple here. There’s one other possible explanation for Justin’s behavior that I haven’t seen anyone consider.
He believes her.
Yep. His reaction fits.
When he saw what she did, he said it was proof she was crazy. Now, tell me one experienced cop that would think that? Name one experienced normal person?
No. I’d immediately think she was on some really dangerous narcotic. Justin, however, has seen druggies before, and he’d know all the signs, so it’s extremely doubtful he’d think that.
Then there’s the claws. Yep, the claws.
Now, last clue: Justin admitted that he’s some kind of ‘crazy magnet’. Now, if what Shelly did is what he calls ‘crazy’ then I’m guessing that it is his defense mechanism. His refusal to accept what he has just witness as anything other than insanity. Which then suggests that he may have witnessed something like this before.. and on more than one occasion.
In conclusion, I believe Justin has already witnessed the ‘crazy side of the Wapsiverse’ and was hurt… repeatedly perhaps. As a result, he labeled it as ‘crazy’ or ‘insane’.
What’s I think is needed here is a bona-fied supernatural therapist. Do we happen to know anyone qualified?
I was originally tempted to think that Shelly should fully manifest to Justin, to show him that she’s not making crazy claims, but it’s too late for that now.
Any such action will appear to Justin as “You’re! Going to! LOVE ME!”
Shelly’s only option here is to ride this out, and let one of her friends try to act as go-between.
And before things continue, Justin must somehow be given the means to defend himself.
===
Justin, far from deserving the shellacking he’s received here, in fact represents Shelly’s salvation. He’s hurt her in the only he can, emotionally, and she must learn to accept that.
Shelly must be made to understand that Justin’s initial swat is hard-wired human mating behavior. Best will in the world, if they continue together, he will do stuff like that over and over.
She must also understand that if she is going to hang out with humans, even have sex with them, they will routinely surprise her, offend her, hurt her feelings, sometimes by accident, sometimes in fun, sometimes maliciously.
She doesn’t have to put up with all of it, but she must be limited to a human scale response.
I’ll say again: Justin isn’t the bad guy. Justin is the grievously injured innocent party. He is Shelly’s best chance for salvation.
Even if Shelly loses him, she has a chance of learning a crucial lesson.
I think we’re mostly in violent agreement here, refugee.
One of the tragic things about this particular fracas, is that fact that Shelly really does know the sorts of things you’re saying she needs to understand. She’s been freaked out for days about the fact that her sphinx side is manifesting itself, beyond her conscious control. She’s scared of herself. She knows very well that she’s dangerous to people near her, and really really wants to get this sort of impulsive and aggressive sphinx strike-out behavior back under control. She went looking for help with this, and in fact she’s succeeded in hooking up with the one entity in the strip (Phix) who can give her the help and training she needs to manage her new status.
Shelly knows all this intellectually. I’d say that her human side knows it emotionally. Her sphinx side doesn’t get it yet… Justin’s little swat-on-the-butt came too soon, before Shelly’s new learning process could kick in.
As per yesterday: there ain’t no bad guys here… just unforeseen consequences, the Devil’s own ration of really bad timing, and human nature.
You may want to edit that link as it’s trying to go to Wapsi Square and YouTube simultaneously.
Whoops! I forgot that nobody can edit so here’s the link:
You’re going to love me
Thanks for correcting the link.
Sometimes it’s better (and easier) to show rather than to tell.
I’ve been thinking and I just realised that, from a human’s point of view, most of Shelly’s sphinx reactions are similar to PTSD. Maybe she should use that as a cover if someone normal gets too close? She could even explain that she’s seeing a Dr Phix to try and deal with her issues.
Good analogy, Francisco!
In fact, being tossed into an alternate dimension for 80,000 years of undying isolation and exile, going through a major physical metamorphosis, seeing 56 other versions of yourself die, and then being crammed back into your previous body and life with two sets of memories and two morphing forms would rank fairly high on the “traumatic” and “stress” scales. Calling it PTSD is really a pretty stone-accurate diagnosis.
Thank you.
When put that way I’m wondering how much of her reaction is her sphinx nature and how much is due to events.
mm. but it sort of runs both ways, too, you know? shelly has the trauma of watching herself die over and over, and being alone in the forest for so long.
justin has the “OMG crazy girlfriend!” trauma going on. and after a really bad (as in, medical attention needed) relationship, i *get* that those situations can definitely give you the PTSD too. BOTH of them need space to get over this, no matter if forgiveness occours or not.
If this is “for real” (and I’m not convinced of that) I can see only two outcomes in Shelly’s favor.
First: Shelly suppresses the temptation to go full sphinx and Justin walks, teaching her the valuable lesson of thinking before acting.
Second: Shelly does go full Sphinx and by some miracle Justin comes to the conclusion that “Hey, this is a cop’s dream; a Significant Other I _don’t_ have to worry about!”
I just hope Paul is far more imaginative than I am.
I can foresee one other possible outcome that would work in Shelly’s favor, though it is more funny than plausible. Justin flees before Shelly can transform and decides he needs a drink. At the bar he encounters Bud, recognizes her, and, after a few drinks he ends up telling her what happened. Bud realizes what happened (I’m a sphinx would be a total give-away for her) and manages to at least patch things together.
Shelly: Shapechange. Right now.
You have to admit that it was inevitable that one of the guys wouldn’t handle it well. I think that this will be the guy who walks away and doesn’t come back as a love interest. And Shelly, don’t shapechange. Not now. Not to show him wtf is going on. Just bad idea. When he panics and finds out that you are bulletproof it’s gonna be really hard to explain away why he discharged his firearm.
He apparently doesn’t seem to have his sidearm with him–not that we’ve seen so far in this exchange, anyway; he looks like he’s dressed for exercising. And it has been previously explained upon Shelly’s return from the time forest is that she is a human/sphinx hybrid, subject to mortality, and not invulnerable at all. Good thing his gun is apparently not with him; he could conceivably kill her if he panicked and shot her.
Doesn’t he tell it in the first panel? “Anything you say now…” So, my reaction mirrored ShadOBabe’s: Show, don’t tell! (And I didn’t even have that in school, seeing as I’m from Germany :D.)
jae. try my explanation below.
(does the ‘j’ stand for ‘joan’?)
Just a thought here…
If Justin didn’t just curse (almost everybody assumes it was he); then who did?
What if were M?
Phix?
Tina?
Bud?
A fellow cop who happen to be watching? (ouch on that plot)
whoever else?
Shelly’s explanation only confirmed Justin’s belief that every woman he attracts is crazy. Words aren’t gonna work anymore.
Re: Shelly, first frame ==> Awsome!
#&@* IT! #&@* IT I SAY! Personally, I find all this hand wringing to have become tedious. Just sit on your hands and wait. I have a feeling no one is going to be happy with the outcome whatever it is.
GUYS.
I think we’ve missed something incredibly simple here. There’s one other possible explanation for Justin’s behavior that I haven’t seen anyone consider.
He believes her.
Yep. His reaction fits.
When he saw what she did, he said it was proof she was crazy. Now, tell me one experienced cop that would think that? Name one experienced normal person?
No. I’d immediately think she was on some really dangerous narcotic. Justin, however, has seen druggies before, and he’d know all the signs, so it’s extremely doubtful he’d think that.
Then there’s the claws. Yep, the claws.
Now, last clue: Justin admitted that he’s some kind of ‘crazy magnet’. Now, if what Shelly did is what he calls ‘crazy’ then I’m guessing that it is his defense mechanism. His refusal to accept what he has just witness as anything other than insanity. Which then suggests that he may have witnessed something like this before.. and on more than one occasion.
In conclusion, I believe Justin has already witnessed the ‘crazy side of the Wapsiverse’ and was hurt… repeatedly perhaps. As a result, he labeled it as ‘crazy’ or ‘insane’.
What’s I think is needed here is a bona-fied supernatural therapist. Do we happen to know anyone qualified?
tl;dr
ikr?
OK. Now I REALLY want to punch him…….