Now the question we are left with: Is Connie the other she is referring to? (I just bet that she is and if so is Phix partially responsible for her as well?)
Shelly’s Companion, the fusion of her personal demons that became one and described herself as the closest thing to the mythical conscience that we would would ever see. Hence, “conscience” = “Connie”, as she never named herself.
Connie (that’s Shelly’s creepy-little-girl demon Companion, rufi) certainly seems like the likeliest prospect… as a few people had suggested over the past few days. A single being, created by the fusion of a group of personal demons. She once referred to herself as Shelly’s conscience, and the nickname has stuck hereabouts.
I don’t think we know enough about Tsillah to entirely rule her out, but she doesn’t seem to fit the pattern.
As to Phix’s partial responsibility for Tina’s current status… could be that Phix had a role in setting the punishment for these demons, after their rulebreaking led to Monica’s accident and Tina 1.0’s death. I have the sense that the normal sphinxly reaction to that sort of demonic misbehavior would have been to destroy the demons… somebody decided to give them a break, and it might well have been Phix.
Phix was also involved in Shelly’s Time Forest exile, but I don’t see a direct relationship to Tina in that.
Hmm.. If Phix was “the decider”here, I wonder hów high Phix actually is in the hiërarchy of Sphinxes.
She may be wáy higher-up than we were led to believe.. Could her position of head-librarian actually be about “tje highest office” a sphinx can get?
AND íf she was also partially responsible for Conny/Creepy, and that’s a big “‘if” , how come that she was so fierce on Nudge? Given the fact that Nudge (and Brandy..as she stated “that plan was reálly good”..) were partially responsible for the existence of Creepy..
Every question generating even móre questions.. glorious!
If memory serves, she was pretty low at the start because she was against the killings (hence why she ended up being tricked/stuck in the library).
But, now she can roam free and it’s the other Sphinxes that are in the library.
So I would be willing to assume that she out ranks the others now. By a lot. Being put in control of a library for….how many years+dealing with two time loops (the machine and the time forest) can do that for you. 😀
dont think its connie… she is not visible to humans..
unless phix is thinking about finding her a shell to inhabit?
And Tina is a dead human shell, animated and made to look alive by her many demons…
The GGG are clay shells animated by the ancient glyph magic.. one that has been made ‘nearly human’
are ‘shells’ the common factor??
and Monica… is she ‘the one’ descendant of a powerful aztec god, or just the right person at the right time to help fix ancient things that went wrong?? not enogh facts about her….
I think we are missing a point in Phix’s comments. She didn’t say that this ‘other’ would become what Tina will become. I think she meant that the other is as far along as she will go but Tina will go farther than that. Connie is perfectly integrated as a person without being human, She does not need to evolve any farther. Tina on the other hand has reached a point where her evolution is about to make a “real little girl” and Phix just cut her strings.
Now I’m wondering if this is foreshadowing a future arc and/or character, or if this is infact a past character that we aren’t yet aware has such an aspect.
I doubt she’d be talking about Shelly like that (her current student) or Monica (who has been referenced as being 1 step away from turning out like Tina more than once). So now I’ve got something to ponder over the weekend.
Dangit, you posted that while I was looking up a link to remember how that girl’s name was spelled (thought of it while posting, heh).
But now that it is mentioned, yeah … Connie. A group of demons fused into one entity. But in her case, the host still lived, so no chance to gain corporeal form of their own.
I wonder if it is Connie. Connie is already very well intergrated with herself and seems like she’s been providing guidance to Shelly through moral, and personal, crises. So why would Connie be making further journies that way? It seems more likely it would be Shelly who is making the journey and will eventually integrate with Connie and reach a place sorta like wisdom. You gotta admidt whe’s a who lot more prone to thinking and not just reacting anymore. Also the way Phix worded it makes it sound like Tina knows this other as well. But like all of us I’m just taking a guess.
Connie, as I recall, is still pretty tightly attached to Shelly, so she’s still got some maturing to do as an independent entity. The Tina Gestalt didn’t have that problem because the original died.
Phix’s comments make be believe that the whole ‘independent demon Gestalt’ is a new thing, and needs careful rationalisation before the PTBs
Yeah. Phix has seen and interacted with CG (during Shelly’s time in the forest, me-thinks), but the way she’s talking here didn’t quite sound like she was referring to CG, at least to me.
The whole “another close to what you may become”. That doesn’t sound like CG. Aside from being demon in origin and still habitually providing advice, that seems to be about where the similarities end. Tina is still a host of numerous demons, whereas CG is a fusion (aka they still retain their independence in Tina, whereas CG they no longer exist as individuals but instead the CG entity). Tina’s powers seem to interact with the world at large, whereas CG seems to only have an impact on Shelly. But most importantly (to me at least), the Sphinxes were scared/wary of CG during Shelly’s time in the Forest. There seems to be no indication they’d have any reason to fear Tina (in fact, most would probably try to kill her on sight as one of the old “possessed humans”).
“There’s another close to what you may become”? Hmmmm … sounds like this isn’t the first time Phix has seen this type of evolution occurring and she is watching it as if it were an ant farm. Who was the “other” I wonder?
::blinks::
Tsillah?
“That boy is our last hope.”
“No … there is another …”
I’m thinking there’s a typo there. It reads like there’s a missing word. There’s another close to what you may become. There’s a missing noun (another person, another being, another step). I’m thinking he’s missing the word “step,” because that’s what makes the sentences flow better. This is another step towards Phinx’s anticipated or planned development for her.
I was referring to the Obi-wan/Yoda exchange, but I think semc was referring to the line in the strip … and yeah, it may sound confusing until you say it a couple times, and think about it.
So, the question now is does she celebrate because the sword of damocles isn’t hanging over her head anymore? Or does she panic because her safety net has been removed?
Yeah, probably both. The fear can go away (mostly)… but what occurred with Becky seems to have really stirred up Tina’s sense of personal responsibility, and that can keep you awake at night just as much as fear can. (Yeah, I know Tina doesn’t really sleep… substitute an appropriate state of being, please 🙂 )
The wording does feel a little off, but most people are interpreting it as “there’s another person who is similar to what you may become” – probably referring to how Shelly’s demons have merged into a single entity.
And just like with the vaunted Harmonic Convergence (remember that one?) and all the other predicted events like this, guaranteed afterward when nothing happens they will pick something that happened somewhere in the world that day as proof that it wasn’t all hype we just “misinterpreted it”.
Just like how if you want some real fun do some searching and read all the discussion of how Nostradamus’ predictions were somehow to have come true based on one event or another. And people can;t even agree on that.
I remember back in the 80’s when people were claiming Qaddafi (is that how we’re spelling it now? it keeps changing … spelled it Khaddaffi back then) was the target of Nostradamus’ prediction of a man in a blue turban starting the war that would end the world or something like that. The war hawks pushing us to go after him loved that one.
Was hilarious watching some of the fanatics try to use that as anecdotal evidence one minute then trying to debunk psychics the next.
Similar fun can be had watching Christians of various stripes trying to interpret definitively the Revelations of John and similar apocalyptic material.
Your comment reminds me of the alum who went back after ten years to visit his college profs. Noting that his Econ prof was working on a test for the same class he’d taken a decade before, he asked to see it.
To his surprise, he remembered every question had been on his own final. He pointed out that surely, after just a year or two, all the students knew what questions he would ask, if he never changed them.
“Don’t worry,” the prof smiled as he replied, “in Economics, we always ask the same questions, but we change the answers every year.”
From the look of her in the last frame, Tina has just had one of those moments when the whole world… everything you think you know… picks itself up and twists around into a new shape. Nothing is quite what you thought it was, ever again.
Pretty amazing. In one sense, the cliffhanger has been entirely defuzed… and in another, a whole new abyss has opened up right outside Mucho Mocha’s front door.
Yeah, love the “What just happened?” look on Tina in the last panel.
Shelly and The Companion were both in Tina’s shop defore the Time Forest incident, and Connie was drawn kinda ‘ghosted in’. I don’t think it was ever made clear if anyone other than Shelly could see her that day.
Oh, also, she was introduced to the group upon Shelly’s return from the Time Forest, but I think Tina was too busy freakin’ at the new sphynx to notice…
I’m still not convinced that Connie is the one Phix was talking about… Connie is attached to Shelly (not running loose and appearing separately), and she’s been what she is for a long time (even if you don’t take the time spent in the Forest into account). It’s not like the melding of Shelly’s demons into one entity is that new.
She said originally she was a pretty low level Sphinx. Her term as the Librarian, and her dealings with Monica and Shelly, as well as her specialized knowledge regarding Tina and Nudge, may have changed that.
They’re still spirals, but she’s looking more uncertain than earlier. On the other hand, spirals are a lot more human-like than some of the things we’ve seen in Tina’s eyes.
How do you draw spirals in the eyes of a character that always has spirals for eyes? Paul seems to have pulled it off in the last panel, where Tina’s right eye (her right) has lost its Slinky tension.
Living without constant surveillance can be terrifying if it’s all you’ve known for awhile. But after all, that’s a good place to be.
Yes! It’s the loss of control that Tina has experienced. “Struggling with a moral dilemma” is the very definition of loss of control. Suddenly Tina’s in new, uncharted territory. Before, she’s been the one dispensing advice; now, she’s in the same situation as most of us humans, making it up – and risking getting it wrong! – as she goes. Before, she was an adviser, with no real skin in the game; now, she’s a full-time player, with literally everything to lose.
Oh, and I’m sure this isn’t the end of this arc, in one sense or another. Keep on keeping on, Paul – this is getting really GOOD!
It appears that the next step on Tina’s journey is fusion… forcing or coaxing all those demons, and her body, to become a single entity (like “Connie.”)
I hope Phix doesn’t train Shelly in how to become a machiavellian bitch. Of course, that does seem to be the nature of Sphinx (Sphinxes? Sphinxi?) If Shelly does become an orchistrator of events, I kinda feel for het boyfriend.
No, her look is as if the cop busted her for 60 in a 45 then, after looking around to see if anyone’s watching, challenged her to a race to see who buys coffee while they swap car stories.
Oh no! The absolutely worth thing you can tell someone who consider themselves as wild “bad” untamed band of rogues .. is that they are dull domesticated humanitarian(s).
Doing so usually only spite em to do something to prove how “bad” they really are. I can only imagine what “bad” thing Tina could come up with. I bet the next customers may find that their coffee oddly spiked with salt 😀
It’s Paul’s fault. He keeps drawing Phix more lovely each dang time. I wasn’t going to color another picture for a while. I really had things to do, but Phix strongly suggested I color her yesterday. So here she is (maybe my next Gravatar), happy Friday everybody. Namaste.
K so lets review. Tina is the framework to compare the other two…
Tina- A group of demons who committed a good deed, however this deed caused Monica to get hurt (as well as kill the host), and as result, the demons are stuck to Tina in this timeline. They no longer remember past existences, and are possibly mortal. Other demons are envious. Tina 2.0 was first brought back to life by Nudge, who lead the demons into being good and “blowing sunshine up everyone’s ass” as a Barista. The demons were satisfied with this lifestyle, and as such continue to live it.
Connie, is a well controlled embodiment of Shelly’s demon collective as a single “person”. She acts as Shelly’s guide, claiming to be her conscience. Shelly is normally the only person to see her, however Connie can become corporeal, and talk to people outside of Shelly. Shelly has no control over how Connie acts or thinks, however Connie cannot control Shelly. She seems to have also lost memories of possible past existences, and is definitely mortal, as she has stated she will die with Shelly.
Dietzel-
Monica’s dog. Despite a lack of thumbs, can open doors with locks/chains on them. He often “responds” to Monica in a way that makes it seem he understands her. He loves pizza, much like Tina, and can order it on his own. The pizza girl is a possible crush. He can watch T.V., changing the channels using the remote. He also sometimes brings Monica’s attention to things she would have otherwise missed, and has been crucial to some plot points.
Both Connie and Dietzel seem like possible candidates for Phix’s sentiment..
most likely his ancestors… (with a few ‘enhancements’ so they are more useful than just pets;..:) )
but then there are quite a few unanswered questions about monica… Or is it just that her family go right back to the top lanthians… Hogwarts has nothing on them! :p
deitzel seems more like a ‘familiar’, I’ll bet he prefers the quiet life, unlike Brian from ‘family guy’… 🙂
Could Phix’s “responsibility” for Tina 2.0’s condition be because she was tricked into shredding the book that allowed Nudge to escape the library, and it was Nudge that got Tina 2.0 off the slab at the morgue?
Or is there more going on that we have yet to see…?
Brrr. At lunch today I was reading the last few chapters of Clarke’s SF novel Imperial Earth and came across the following passage:
There were moral obligations and uncertainties behind every act. In the long run, a man could only obey the promptings of that mysterious entity called Conscience and hope that the outcome would not be too disastrous. Not, of course, that one could ever know the final results of any actions.
Happy Synchronicity Day, everybody… I guess it came on Friday the 13th this year 🙂
If true, the (pre)demons would not have been humans (strictly speaking) but could have been a somewhat similar race of sentients, probably not from Earth… extraterrestrial or extradimensional.
By splitting their selves, they might have gained immortality, but sacrificed the sorts of internal conflict and complexity which (we may now be told) are what lead to personal balance, morality and ethics, empathy, conscience, etc.
Or, it’s possible that demons have always originated as primal, singular forces or impulses… sort of a Platonic ideal, enshrined in energy as a Being. Perhaps, throughout history, it has been the chance (or deliberate) combination or fusion of multiple demons which has been the origin of all non-demonic intelligent beings such as humans… we might be the result of demons “growing up” and “growing together”? Perhaps that’s what makes us more than “just animals”?
Biologically, humans are already colonial organisms on a couple of different scales (more bacterial cells in our bodies than mammal, and our eukaryotic mammal cells are themselves a fusion of at least two different cell lines). Mentally/spiritually… maybe also?
In any case, Phix does seem to be in favor of Tina’s current and future maturing. This will be very interesting to watch!
ah, but there was a special ST:NG episode involving an alt-universe enterprise, with tasha.. (memory fails me the rest… 🙁 ) – so it was manged to give her an honorable send off… 🙂
Errrrr….. legalities of such a venture? I wonder what the heck she’s talking about
A collective of demons becoming (essentially) a human?
“I will have a plausible sounding reason not to mess up – or end – your life. Ta-ta!”
hmmm…
” don’t tell anyone, but you are free to do what you want…. 🙂 “
So the Phix is in?
Yeah, I know…. *clink*clink* (two doubloons and a florin…)
…Making a conscience. One alone made the other sphinxes nervous. But two? And one with its own body? This is going to get VERY interesting.
Phix as Probation Officer… Tina’s free!
Now the scary part begins.
Tina is part of Phix’s activism after all.
Now the question we are left with: Is Connie the other she is referring to? (I just bet that she is and if so is Phix partially responsible for her as well?)
Who’s Connie again? Apologies in advance for my ignorance!
Shelly’s Companion, the fusion of her personal demons that became one and described herself as the closest thing to the mythical conscience that we would would ever see. Hence, “conscience” = “Connie”, as she never named herself.
It’s quite possible that, had Jin gotten there a few seconds later, what happened to Tina would have happened to Shelly.
Though as a Sphinx, that may have been a rather interesting situation.
Connie (that’s Shelly’s creepy-little-girl demon Companion, rufi) certainly seems like the likeliest prospect… as a few people had suggested over the past few days. A single being, created by the fusion of a group of personal demons. She once referred to herself as Shelly’s conscience, and the nickname has stuck hereabouts.
I don’t think we know enough about Tsillah to entirely rule her out, but she doesn’t seem to fit the pattern.
As to Phix’s partial responsibility for Tina’s current status… could be that Phix had a role in setting the punishment for these demons, after their rulebreaking led to Monica’s accident and Tina 1.0’s death. I have the sense that the normal sphinxly reaction to that sort of demonic misbehavior would have been to destroy the demons… somebody decided to give them a break, and it might well have been Phix.
Phix was also involved in Shelly’s Time Forest exile, but I don’t see a direct relationship to Tina in that.
Hmm.. If Phix was “the decider”here, I wonder hów high Phix actually is in the hiërarchy of Sphinxes.
She may be wáy higher-up than we were led to believe.. Could her position of head-librarian actually be about “tje highest office” a sphinx can get?
AND íf she was also partially responsible for Conny/Creepy, and that’s a big “‘if” , how come that she was so fierce on Nudge? Given the fact that Nudge (and Brandy..as she stated “that plan was reálly good”..) were partially responsible for the existence of Creepy..
Every question generating even móre questions.. glorious!
If memory serves, she was pretty low at the start because she was against the killings (hence why she ended up being tricked/stuck in the library).
But, now she can roam free and it’s the other Sphinxes that are in the library.
So I would be willing to assume that she out ranks the others now. By a lot. Being put in control of a library for….how many years+dealing with two time loops (the machine and the time forest) can do that for you. 😀
She’s either too high on the food chain to be questioned or so low she slips under the radar.
I thought Connie was not visible to humans???
but to demons and other beings that can normally see such beings, she can make herself known. For example: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/little-elemental/
My favourite “Connie moment” (i can’t find it to link at the moment) is the deadpan bit with the bell in the Tina/Shelly/Nudge confrontation.
Connie is kind of connected to Shelly, so I don’t think she’ll become human…but Jin is becoming human again…does that apply to what Phix is saying?
dont think its connie… she is not visible to humans..
unless phix is thinking about finding her a shell to inhabit?
And Tina is a dead human shell, animated and made to look alive by her many demons…
The GGG are clay shells animated by the ancient glyph magic.. one that has been made ‘nearly human’
are ‘shells’ the common factor??
and Monica… is she ‘the one’ descendant of a powerful aztec god, or just the right person at the right time to help fix ancient things that went wrong?? not enogh facts about her….
I think we are missing a point in Phix’s comments. She didn’t say that this ‘other’ would become what Tina will become. I think she meant that the other is as far along as she will go but Tina will go farther than that. Connie is perfectly integrated as a person without being human, She does not need to evolve any farther. Tina on the other hand has reached a point where her evolution is about to make a “real little girl” and Phix just cut her strings.
Thanks for the mind blowing, have a nice day
“I’d risk to say”? Is that anything like “I daresay”?
At first glance, i thought that was Bud in Panel One.
Yes, somewhat inconsistent in bust lines lately.
Holy crap I didn’t see that the first time. Phix just deflated in Panel one.
hmmm, guessing, but the risk may be her boss, while daresay may mean ‘I may be wrong but…’
“Aiee, bwuh… you’re not gonna kill me/us?”
Phix: “No, not at this time..and get a change of bloomers, as your bravado is betrayed by the iffy smell surrounding You..”
😛 😀
Heehee…bloomers….:) I haven’t heard that word in ages. Thanks for the laugh!
hmmm, maybe needs extra strong ‘demon Febreze’… 😀
Sort of the reverse of the “stink god” in Spirited Away perhaps?
Don’t forget the “Yay, yay, yay, we ‘re still alive! Squirrel!”
“Another close to what you may become”
Now I’m wondering if this is foreshadowing a future arc and/or character, or if this is infact a past character that we aren’t yet aware has such an aspect.
I doubt she’d be talking about Shelly like that (her current student) or Monica (who has been referenced as being 1 step away from turning out like Tina more than once). So now I’ve got something to ponder over the weekend.
I think she’s talking about Connie.
Dangit, you posted that while I was looking up a link to remember how that girl’s name was spelled (thought of it while posting, heh).
But now that it is mentioned, yeah … Connie. A group of demons fused into one entity. But in her case, the host still lived, so no chance to gain corporeal form of their own.
Tina 2.1 may be breaking that barrier.
I wonder if it is Connie. Connie is already very well intergrated with herself and seems like she’s been providing guidance to Shelly through moral, and personal, crises. So why would Connie be making further journies that way? It seems more likely it would be Shelly who is making the journey and will eventually integrate with Connie and reach a place sorta like wisdom. You gotta admidt whe’s a who lot more prone to thinking and not just reacting anymore. Also the way Phix worded it makes it sound like Tina knows this other as well. But like all of us I’m just taking a guess.
Hmm..now You mention the “well integrated”-bit … *pondering for a bit*
New character, or an old stay.. Dietzel? 😛
thats what this thread has me thinking… I mean, demons love pizza right? and dietzel may not have been making googly eyes at the pizza girl….
Connie, as I recall, is still pretty tightly attached to Shelly, so she’s still got some maturing to do as an independent entity. The Tina Gestalt didn’t have that problem because the original died.
Phix’s comments make be believe that the whole ‘independent demon Gestalt’ is a new thing, and needs careful rationalisation before the PTBs
Yeah. Phix has seen and interacted with CG (during Shelly’s time in the forest, me-thinks), but the way she’s talking here didn’t quite sound like she was referring to CG, at least to me.
The whole “another close to what you may become”. That doesn’t sound like CG. Aside from being demon in origin and still habitually providing advice, that seems to be about where the similarities end. Tina is still a host of numerous demons, whereas CG is a fusion (aka they still retain their independence in Tina, whereas CG they no longer exist as individuals but instead the CG entity). Tina’s powers seem to interact with the world at large, whereas CG seems to only have an impact on Shelly. But most importantly (to me at least), the Sphinxes were scared/wary of CG during Shelly’s time in the Forest. There seems to be no indication they’d have any reason to fear Tina (in fact, most would probably try to kill her on sight as one of the old “possessed humans”).
Can you imagine if Tina were to blow a raspberry at Phix? I think a tentacle would slip out!
Dangit, hasn’t anybody taught you that ever since we learned about rule 34 we have to be careful what we think?
I am gonna be scared to google ANYTHING at this rate …
A quick check shows that it’s too late.
where? where??? even with safe search off, only one dubious thing… just DONT leave out the fruit!!!! :O :O
Don’t look here. Hey, I said don’t look! Oops, too late now…
ahhh 🙂 I thought you meant google… ctrl-D… 🙂
… oh my.
::ponders::
If Paul made some original prints of the modified strips on Wyvern’s link, I bet he could ::cough:: “stimulate” some income.
::drops a tentacle plushie (yeah they make ’em) in the pun jar::
OK, probably a really Dumb Question, but what is Rule 34?
“If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions.”
Is there porn involving a list of rules, including Rule 34? (Maybe Gödel too, for all I know.)
http://rulesoftheinternet.com
Learn it, Live it, Love it!
A phrase You do not want to google for if You do not want Your childhood heroes defamed in the most unsettling way possible.
really, better believe us old Web-addicts..
Yuppers. I will never be able to think of Felix the Cat the way I did as a child again.
Thank you all, very much. I are now edumacated.
Ahh.. you were just elected ?? With access to the Public Trough .
“There’s another close to what you may become”? Hmmmm … sounds like this isn’t the first time Phix has seen this type of evolution occurring and she is watching it as if it were an ant farm. Who was the “other” I wonder?
::blinks::
Tsillah?
“That boy is our last hope.”
“No … there is another …”
Nevermind, FPF nailed it above, I think, heh.
I’m thinking there’s a typo there. It reads like there’s a missing word. There’s another close to what you may become. There’s a missing noun (another person, another being, another step). I’m thinking he’s missing the word “step,” because that’s what makes the sentences flow better. This is another step towards Phinx’s anticipated or planned development for her.
No, i think it’s “There is another” (as mentioned above) as in Luke and Leia.
I was referring to the Obi-wan/Yoda exchange, but I think semc was referring to the line in the strip … and yeah, it may sound confusing until you say it a couple times, and think about it.
So, the question now is does she celebrate because the sword of damocles isn’t hanging over her head anymore? Or does she panic because her safety net has been removed?
Both!
Get really drunk and totally naked then wake up the next morning after the apocalypse and wonder just what sins you’re gonna pay for!
I approve of this plan. 🙂
Yeah, probably both. The fear can go away (mostly)… but what occurred with Becky seems to have really stirred up Tina’s sense of personal responsibility, and that can keep you awake at night just as much as fear can. (Yeah, I know Tina doesn’t really sleep… substitute an appropriate state of being, please 🙂 )
‘course she sleeps! just like your favorite car does… :E
“There’s another close to what you may become.”
Either that’s bad grammar on Paul’s part or I am not going to understand that for another three weeks.
There are concepts that English grammar was not designed to deal with.
Heck, there are concepts that Humans aren’t designed to deal with.
If something other than ‘human’ exists, I have yet to meet it.
Sure you have. They just didn’t tell you. 😛
Cats…Cats can deal with concepts humans can’t…they just chose not to. 😛
and you know how I love me the cats!
Cats? Communicate? Hah.
they walk among us…. 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muMcWMKPEWQ
The wording does feel a little off, but most people are interpreting it as “there’s another person who is similar to what you may become” – probably referring to how Shelly’s demons have merged into a single entity.
Don’t worry too much about it.
Paul is just going all Yoda on you. 😛
And just like with the vaunted Harmonic Convergence (remember that one?) and all the other predicted events like this, guaranteed afterward when nothing happens they will pick something that happened somewhere in the world that day as proof that it wasn’t all hype we just “misinterpreted it”.
Just like how if you want some real fun do some searching and read all the discussion of how Nostradamus’ predictions were somehow to have come true based on one event or another. And people can;t even agree on that.
I remember back in the 80’s when people were claiming Qaddafi (is that how we’re spelling it now? it keeps changing … spelled it Khaddaffi back then) was the target of Nostradamus’ prediction of a man in a blue turban starting the war that would end the world or something like that. The war hawks pushing us to go after him loved that one.
Was hilarious watching some of the fanatics try to use that as anecdotal evidence one minute then trying to debunk psychics the next.
Similar fun can be had watching Christians of various stripes trying to interpret definitively the Revelations of John and similar apocalyptic material.
Your comment reminds me of the alum who went back after ten years to visit his college profs. Noting that his Econ prof was working on a test for the same class he’d taken a decade before, he asked to see it.
To his surprise, he remembered every question had been on his own final. He pointed out that surely, after just a year or two, all the students knew what questions he would ask, if he never changed them.
“Don’t worry,” the prof smiled as he replied, “in Economics, we always ask the same questions, but we change the answers every year.”
Sphix is partially responsible for what Tina is now … Does that include the demons, spiders and tentacles?
well it could be when she knocked nudge out of her.. and then the rest started liking humans… 🙂
From the look of her in the last frame, Tina has just had one of those moments when the whole world… everything you think you know… picks itself up and twists around into a new shape. Nothing is quite what you thought it was, ever again.
Pretty amazing. In one sense, the cliffhanger has been entirely defuzed… and in another, a whole new abyss has opened up right outside Mucho Mocha’s front door.
Neat way to end a week!
Yeah, love the “What just happened?” look on Tina in the last panel.
Shelly and The Companion were both in Tina’s shop defore the Time Forest incident, and Connie was drawn kinda ‘ghosted in’. I don’t think it was ever made clear if anyone other than Shelly could see her that day.
Oh, also, she was introduced to the group upon Shelly’s return from the Time Forest, but I think Tina was too busy freakin’ at the new sphynx to notice…
I’m still not convinced that Connie is the one Phix was talking about… Connie is attached to Shelly (not running loose and appearing separately), and she’s been what she is for a long time (even if you don’t take the time spent in the Forest into account). It’s not like the melding of Shelly’s demons into one entity is that new.
Maybe its Dietzel. ;-p
Ah, but Phix says: there’s another close to what you may become. She isn’t saying that they’re identical.
Just consider Connie the Prototype, and Tina a later production model.
It’s not as if the YF-16 produced in 1973 has the same capabilities as the F-16F
Not the first time a visit form Phix had this effect on Tina.
But, thankfully, this visit won’t result in a breakdown for Tina like the first visit did.
Does Phix speak for all of the sphinxes? If she does, that would mean that Phix is pretty high up in the hierarchy.
She said originally she was a pretty low level Sphinx. Her term as the Librarian, and her dealings with Monica and Shelly, as well as her specialized knowledge regarding Tina and Nudge, may have changed that.
Or she might have lied. Phix does that.
I don’t think she actually LIES so much as … massages … the truth.
No no…
She tells the truth…
From a certain point of view.
😛
Or she could have been handed a notice of her responsibilities from the higher-ups in the sphinx hierarchy…
Am I imagining it or has Tinas eyes gotten a little more human?
They’re still spirals, but she’s looking more uncertain than earlier. On the other hand, spirals are a lot more human-like than some of the things we’ve seen in Tina’s eyes.
How do you draw spirals in the eyes of a character that always has spirals for eyes? Paul seems to have pulled it off in the last panel, where Tina’s right eye (her right) has lost its Slinky tension.
Living without constant surveillance can be terrifying if it’s all you’ve known for awhile. But after all, that’s a good place to be.
Because the readers care about these things: 12 Problems That Only Busty Girls Have
Thank you for that link Wyvern, and also may I add another?
Its a collection of every bewb pic ever taken from Instagram.
*borderline NSFW*
http://boobstagram.fr/
Aÿeee!!.. plus trop pour pauvre moi.. “y”et “y” et “y” et.. et.. et.. “click” :O >_<
*'s evanouie, gemir doucement..*
*faints, softly moaning*
So you slip into French when in boob overload? 🙂
Or this one – http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3499
My best friend posted that on my Facebook yesterday. 🙂 She knew I’d understand.
I knew I liked something about Tina.
hehehe..
Tina is now truly “Bafflement incarnated”
Phix would rather convert them than kill them, it would seem.
Now I’ve got flashes of Necromongers (sp?) trying to indoctrinate people going through my brain… 🙁 I haven’t even watched that movie in ages…
Yes! It’s the loss of control that Tina has experienced. “Struggling with a moral dilemma” is the very definition of loss of control. Suddenly Tina’s in new, uncharted territory. Before, she’s been the one dispensing advice; now, she’s in the same situation as most of us humans, making it up – and risking getting it wrong! – as she goes. Before, she was an adviser, with no real skin in the game; now, she’s a full-time player, with literally everything to lose.
Oh, and I’m sure this isn’t the end of this arc, in one sense or another. Keep on keeping on, Paul – this is getting really GOOD!
So, look’s like Tina’s world just completely turned around now.
*Goes to magic trunk of storage and grabs his Mad Hatter outfit*
*Checks pocket watch*
CHANGE PLACES!!!
It appears that the next step on Tina’s journey is fusion… forcing or coaxing all those demons, and her body, to become a single entity (like “Connie.”)
It will be interesting to see what happens.
I hope Phix doesn’t train Shelly in how to become a machiavellian bitch. Of course, that does seem to be the nature of Sphinx (Sphinxes? Sphinxi?) If Shelly does become an orchistrator of events, I kinda feel for het boyfriend.
Consider how Shelly MET her boyfriend.
I’m going to buck the trend and wonder if it might be Katherine Gilchrist. After all, she doesn’t have the normal-est of eyes.
Or teeth, for that matter.
I miss Katherine. 🙁
If anything ever said “WhuhdafugginHUH?”, it’s Tina’s expression in the last panel…
Now that’s just sneaky, Phix. LOL
Tina’s look in the final panel is like someone who’s been caught doing 60 in a 45, and the cop lets them off with “just a warning.”
No, her look is as if the cop busted her for 60 in a 45 then, after looking around to see if anyone’s watching, challenged her to a race to see who buys coffee while they swap car stories.
Win!
Oh no! The absolutely worth thing you can tell someone who consider themselves as wild “bad” untamed band of rogues .. is that they are dull domesticated humanitarian(s).
Doing so usually only spite em to do something to prove how “bad” they really are. I can only imagine what “bad” thing Tina could come up with. I bet the next customers may find that their coffee oddly spiked with salt 😀
She might even replace their “double Sumatra Mandheling with a depth charge” with Folger’s Crystals.
It’s Paul’s fault. He keeps drawing Phix more lovely each dang time. I wasn’t going to color another picture for a while. I really had things to do, but Phix strongly suggested I color her yesterday. So here she is (maybe my next Gravatar), happy Friday everybody. Namaste.
Like!
Excellent !! Congrats..
Glad you guys liked it, and thanks for the positive feedback.
Way To Go Phix!
Phix makes me smile. 🙂
K so lets review. Tina is the framework to compare the other two…
Tina- A group of demons who committed a good deed, however this deed caused Monica to get hurt (as well as kill the host), and as result, the demons are stuck to Tina in this timeline. They no longer remember past existences, and are possibly mortal. Other demons are envious. Tina 2.0 was first brought back to life by Nudge, who lead the demons into being good and “blowing sunshine up everyone’s ass” as a Barista. The demons were satisfied with this lifestyle, and as such continue to live it.
Connie, is a well controlled embodiment of Shelly’s demon collective as a single “person”. She acts as Shelly’s guide, claiming to be her conscience. Shelly is normally the only person to see her, however Connie can become corporeal, and talk to people outside of Shelly. Shelly has no control over how Connie acts or thinks, however Connie cannot control Shelly. She seems to have also lost memories of possible past existences, and is definitely mortal, as she has stated she will die with Shelly.
Dietzel-
Monica’s dog. Despite a lack of thumbs, can open doors with locks/chains on them. He often “responds” to Monica in a way that makes it seem he understands her. He loves pizza, much like Tina, and can order it on his own. The pizza girl is a possible crush. He can watch T.V., changing the channels using the remote. He also sometimes brings Monica’s attention to things she would have otherwise missed, and has been crucial to some plot points.
Both Connie and Dietzel seem like possible candidates for Phix’s sentiment..
How bout Katherine? The shy girl–in the museum basement, IIRC? Black eyes?
most likely his ancestors… (with a few ‘enhancements’ so they are more useful than just pets;..:) )
but then there are quite a few unanswered questions about monica… Or is it just that her family go right back to the top lanthians… Hogwarts has nothing on them! :p
deitzel seems more like a ‘familiar’, I’ll bet he prefers the quiet life, unlike Brian from ‘family guy’… 🙂
Could Phix’s “responsibility” for Tina 2.0’s condition be because she was tricked into shredding the book that allowed Nudge to escape the library, and it was Nudge that got Tina 2.0 off the slab at the morgue?
Or is there more going on that we have yet to see…?
Hmm!
A cute touch I just noticed. Look what’s written on yhe Mucho Mocha blackboard, and exactly bisected by Tina’s neck in the last frame.
Yup… you do just that, Tina… what you wrote, is now your own path and challenge… blown sunshine doth boomerang 🙂
Brrr. At lunch today I was reading the last few chapters of Clarke’s SF novel Imperial Earth and came across the following passage:
There were moral obligations and uncertainties behind every act. In the long run, a man could only obey the promptings of that mysterious entity called Conscience and hope that the outcome would not be too disastrous. Not, of course, that one could ever know the final results of any actions.
Happy Synchronicity Day, everybody… I guess it came on Friday the 13th this year 🙂
Very intriguing idea!
If true, the (pre)demons would not have been humans (strictly speaking) but could have been a somewhat similar race of sentients, probably not from Earth… extraterrestrial or extradimensional.
By splitting their selves, they might have gained immortality, but sacrificed the sorts of internal conflict and complexity which (we may now be told) are what lead to personal balance, morality and ethics, empathy, conscience, etc.
Or, it’s possible that demons have always originated as primal, singular forces or impulses… sort of a Platonic ideal, enshrined in energy as a Being. Perhaps, throughout history, it has been the chance (or deliberate) combination or fusion of multiple demons which has been the origin of all non-demonic intelligent beings such as humans… we might be the result of demons “growing up” and “growing together”? Perhaps that’s what makes us more than “just animals”?
Biologically, humans are already colonial organisms on a couple of different scales (more bacterial cells in our bodies than mammal, and our eukaryotic mammal cells are themselves a fusion of at least two different cell lines). Mentally/spiritually… maybe also?
In any case, Phix does seem to be in favor of Tina’s current and future maturing. This will be very interesting to watch!
As Miser Shen (from Hughart’s wonderful Bridge of Birds) said as he was dying,
“Immortality is only for the gods. I wonder how they stand it?”
Such an enigmatic creature Phix can be at times, eh?
… The mention of Connie makes me aware that somehow I seem to have either missed or forgotten an entire story arc. Gotta fix (Phyx?) that.
Creepy girl is creepy.
Well, that possibility is definitely better than how it turned out in the Evil Skin episode of ST:TNG, heh.
Intriguing idea.
ah, but there was a special ST:NG episode involving an alt-universe enterprise, with tasha.. (memory fails me the rest… 🙁 ) – so it was manged to give her an honorable send off… 🙂
agh, too early here for spelling..
Crosby did make a few guest appearances on ST:NG, but it seems she is enjoying being a wife, while hubby does the films… 🙂
Yay! Graduation! Oh crap…now what?
Um… I feel stupid, but these last few comics have left me very confused. What happened between “Hook Up” and “Just Forget”? Am I missing something?
I’m so confused…
You know, I just realized how she gets her eyes like that… It’s all of the demons looking out the eye sockets at once.
Awww, here you go, have a cookie.
Every time I come through the archives I’m struck by just how amazing panel 2 is.