He may need a minute or two to arrive with the right mindset…
Some people go “AFK” when there loved ones attempt suicide. It’s can be good or bad but it still takes time to form the Correct Emotions you are trying to convey.
(Personal XP times 3)
Ooooh..that would lift -up Jin’s spirit.
I am afraid of what will happen if Alan gets angry about her attempt. Or leaves her.
Anger is not what she needs now, but, indeed, the smell of fresh roses and soft cuddles are exactly what the doctor ordered me thinks.
I dunno, but Alan didn’t strike me as the vengeful type. I feel too that he has something great in store. After all, he was the one totally accepting of Jin’s schizophrenia.
Someone who can do that, has a much bigger heart than given credit for.
Shelly is not ambivalent about her relationship. She is just the opposite. She is trying to figure if Justin would be able to handle the fact that she is a supernatural being and just didn’t know it. remember she was going on that “he” doesn’t need this crap not “I” dont need him. In fact her last line was that she does needs him.
Oh he can’t be with me, because it’s not safe/because I’m not human anymore. (insert other negative reasons)
Oh but I do want him with me, because I “love”/care for him. (insert positive reasons)
She both wants to break up and not break up with him at the same time. Hence, why she went to talk to Heather to try and find out if her judgement is impaired.
Let’s face it, Shelly really didn’t have a problem before making decisions. Part of the tomboy/impulse side of her. But having gone what she went through has thrown her for a loop and dampened that side to such a degree that she herself has become flustered about it.
I agree with the ‘adobe’ interpretation — a name with flash for a given reader — but the link both is and isn’t broken.
That link works fine from a bookmark or if pasted into the address bar, but the site redirects you to a blank ‘honesty’ page if it’s embedded in a link and clicked upon.
@Fairportfan: The picture was probably already in your browser’s cache. At first, your links didn’t work, but I found the picture here: http://nmphotojournal.blogspot.com/2006/02/house-with-prayer-flags.html. (That’s the page that contains the picture.) Now your link works for me, but it’s just getting the picture out of the cache. Try clearing your cache and see what happens.
Actually, I’m not sure those are “prayer flags” in the usual sense (e.g. Tibetan Buddhist or similar).
They look more like Mexican festival flags. My wife and I spent a bunch of time looking for a place to buy some (for her artwork projects) when we were in Albuquerque last fall. Finally succeeded after many attempts… but trying to find Tibetan prayer flags might have been harder.
Alan is waiting at the house with a big dinner of comfort food of some kind and one portion run through a blender so her sore face isn’t strained trying to open up and chew solid food…
I like that thought too, but anger is a more realistic reaction. He may have hit his snapping point. It is extremely hard (and utterly heartbreaking) to know that you have to help someone that you love, want to live. And it’s terrifying on a visceral level to be in love with someone who is suicidal. See their name come up on your phone and wonder if they’re calling to say hi or calling with another suicidal episode. It can feel like a prison, you have no way of knowing whether the person you love will be ALIVE the next day. Think about that, what it would do to a person after months or years. Alan showing up with flowers and a smile is cute but I won’t be surprised when he has some angry but VALID things to say to Jin.
Chris, you’ve got a painfully valid point there… been there, done that to some extent. My wife was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago, the treatment was rather brutal, and she was seriously depressed and intermittently suicidal for most of the first year. Getting her through that was, without doubt, the toughest battle I’ve had to fight in my life.
I still get the chills remembering the “Ok, I’m going to sleep now… will she be here and alive in the morning?” moments.
We won that round – she’s still here, I’m still here – and I hope for Jin’s sake that Alan hasn’t hit his personal “It’s all too much for me” overload point… but I could understand it if he has.
yeah, I’ve been there too. I had an episode of survivors guilt after my last tour overseas, spent 6mo in a bottle, and crawled out after trying to do what Jin tried. Pulled the trigger 5 times, all miss-fires, and pointed at the tv for the 6th try…..BOOM! and a large .45 cal hole in my tv.
Its funny about having those issues, I was embarrassed, scared, angry, standoffish, and just about every thing under the sun. I wanted, and didnt want help, felt like no one listened, etc. Even the shrinks with the military didnt help. So after my try, I drug up the will power to beat it.
Five misfires, and then one into the TV? That’s in the same league as an intervention by a high-speed horizontal-traveling Golem Girl to convey the message that This Just Really Is Not Your Time Yet!
Have you heard Johnny Cash’s story of his experiences in Nickajack Cave in 1968?
Nickajack Cave is a huge cavern system near the Tennessee/Georgia line, now partly flooded by Nickajack Lake, created by a dam built in 1967.
In 1968, Cash had played a show in Atlanta and was driving back to Nashville, when he was stopped (likely in Kennesaw Georgia, i’d guess), for drunk driving. (And he’d probably had a few pills, too.)
The local sheriff held him in jail overnight without booking him, and, in the morning, when Cash had sobered up, the sheriff told him that the reason he wasn’t booking him was that his wife had attended Cash’s show, and had enjoyed it immensely – that she loved Cash’s music and thought he was the best singer out there.
And he didn’t want to disillusion his wife by booking her hero for public drunk and DUI.
“So you head on up the road, and you think about that,” were (more or less) his parting words.
This was before I-75, so Cash was driving up old US 41, which ran near Nickajack Cave. And it was a Sunday, early in the day whe he got there..
And nobody was around.
So he parked his Cadillac in the tourist center parking lot, and walked into the cave, without a flashlight or other light.
And he kept walking. He didn’t keep track of where he walked in the dark, nor of what turns he made.
And when he was too tired to walk any further, thoroughly lost, feeling low, hungover and sorry for himself, he sat down to wait to die.
As he later told it, after a while, it seemed as if a voice told him basically “Not your time yet, boy. Get your sorry self up and get out of here.” (My version, not his.)
And, he said, he stood up, started walking, and walked himself out of that cave.
And that was the beginning of Johnny Cash picking himself up and getting (more or less) straight and living another thirty-five productive years…
Sometimes the message does get through.
And, sometimes, like Justin Wilson’s story about the coonass who complained that he had had faith in the Lord to save him from the flood, but he drowned anyway, the message doesn’t connect:
“And the Lord, he say, ‘Dummeh! I send a jeep and a boat and a helicopter…'”
My heart sings for you and your wife, Dave. I’m glad you two were able to pull through that together. <3 I had to walk away from the man I loved, because his mental state and the relationship was destroying us both. So unhealthy for the two of us. But dammit did I try. I think about him almost every day and hope he's all right. Dammit, now I'm crying.
Thanks, Chris. I’m sorry your guy wasn’t able to pull himself out of the pit… but sometimes that’s just what happens, and you’re not to blame for your (hard) decision to take care of yourself rather than being sucked downwards forever. As Hermann Hesse pointed out in Siddhartha, none of us can spare anyone else of their responsibility to live their lives. We can help each other along the big walk through life, but we can’t “do it” for one another – we each have to walk our own journey and learn our own lessons. Occasionally, that means that we have to walk apart, even when it hurts.
Based on today’s strip, I’d say you really did call it, about what Alan was going through! He, too, knew what he could and could not handle. Fortunately, it looks as if the situation is in the “can handle” category (cue grin and tears here… I don’t think there’s a standard emoticon for that yet).
1: Feeling very, very sad for Jin at this moment.
2: Congratulations on 10 years of Wapsi, Paul. Looking forward to the next 10, like no kidding.
3: Adeobie: Hm, that’s an unusual name. A.D.O.B.? Ancient Date of Birth? The mind boggles.
I saw your suggestion. It’s cute, and you could be right, but I’m not certain. A name spelled “adeobi” would not be pronounced “adobe” but rather ah-day-oh-bee, so until I see confirmation from Paul, I’m open to other options.
It does suggest that Jin had a sense of humor when she was setting up her current identity. If the others are using names other than Oduya and Budur, it hasn’t come up.
Hmmm. Perhaps this is an older form of the word. It went thru Coptic, then Arabic, then old Spanish.
From the Online Etymology Dictionary
“1739, Amer.Eng., from Sp. adobe, from oral form of Arabic al-tob “the brick,” from Coptic tube “brick,” a word found in hieroglyphics.”
Alan has always been very level with Jin, and has been quite adept at getting her to trust him…but despite all that, would he still feel betrayed by her attempt and not come?
Alan freaked out at Jin the last time she spoke of dying. It’s a sensitive subject for Alan, and despite how Wapsiverse tends to portray them, Men are not beyond pettiness. Alan may just be having a rageout or freakout moment and not able to deal with Jin at present. Not every male can handle Wapsi-girl drama like Kevin.
To be fair, Kevin has a job that allows him to get away from the WapsiGirl drama for weeks at a time. Guys can only handle so much estrogen powered drama before having to get away before they snap and start climbing tall towers with high powered rifles.
it would help if males tended to actually say they were getting close to the end of their teather instead of completly freaking out on a seemingly random way.
A friend of mine once said, “I love my husband dearly, but he only seems to have three emotions. He’s happy, he’s angry, or he’s horny. And I’m not even sure horny is an emotion.”
And now he’s not on his way there. So it’s either an accident or he can’t cope it with any more.
There’s a third possibility which could be quite ugly, and would change the direction of the strip markedly. But it may be the moment for that. Jin is mortal, the CM is gone, and the world itself passes a meta-benchmark.
Paul has said there are no occult conspiracies. But there are still mortal men obsessed with power in Wapsi Square. How could there not be.
Tina once warned Shelly about not having backup plans if the wrong people found out their secrets. Tina went without friends and lovers, not just because she was a spooky thing, but because she still had the intelligence to know she was the daughter of a drug lord. Her connections were dangerous going in.
But because of this suicide attempt, word is spreading: Mayahuel walks the Earth again, and Jin Adeobie is now vulnerable.
Somehow Jin has lived 100,000 years and wound up a naive pushover to herself.
Happy 10th anniversary Paul!
Wapsi Square! Woo hoo!
“A game of chess” has been framed. Next, I will ask if the people at Dreamhaven Books and Comics would like to display it on a wall.
I like the comic very much and have been following it for some time.
Today I was thrilled to see how the border of the panel overlaps with the picture… which I think works excellently and conveys so much about the mood and the theme of today’s panels
Thank You for Your ideas and the comic.
Really done very well.
Halls in hospitals, especially the old-fashioned ones, built in the 70’s, have this incredible desolation to them.
Frame 2 is about as sad&lonely as it can get.
Is this what it has come to? Sacrificing all to save a world, daring to fall in love again -after being horribly betrayed- losing friends time&time again, stuck in a groundhog-dayfrom hell.
Getting a wish fulfilled and still end-up all lonely….. 🙁 No Fair!
I hope Alan comes in, running, all disheveled because he had some stupid accident, involving a pizza, a broomstick, and a small rodent. (don’ ask.. ‘s a bit like Monica’s bag that once caught fire 😛 )
It’s not just a hospital hall – it’s a HUGE, EMPTY hospital hall “shouting” desolation and insignificance. The cold stark floors and walls amplify the aloneness and abandoment that Jin must feel.
I wonder, though, did Bud tell Alan she tried suicide, or just that she has been banged up. The suicide thing doesn’t seem like something one would tell someone over the phone, and Bud is not all that close with Alan as such. Seeing Jin all pathetic like she is might soften him up for the really bad news so he doesn’t go off the deep end about it.
Heck, if she did, perhaps he stopped off for an engagement ring to give her more of a reason to live. Somethings afoot in any event. Alan is too stand up a guy to simply drop her without a word. He’d tell her to her face. Especially now that he knows she can no longer do him great bodily harm just by breating on him.
Alan – “bud is it? whats happened”
Bud – “Jin is in hospital”
Alan – “…psychiatric?”
Bud – “no infirmary”
Alan – “wait … what”
Bud – “she is now human and deicded to kill herself. she is at XYZ general” (hangs up)
Alan – “wait..what?”
I think alan is used to her weirdness… being declared ‘human’ would be taken with another pinch of salt…
we will have to wait for monday to see…
I may have missed it somewhere, about exactly HOW human she is??? how far can Apotropaic magic go? she is just a clay doll brought to life, with a powerful perception filter so doctors see what they expect… Will the ‘cosmic generator’ help her get a family and grow old with alan??
or more like jack harkness, where she cannot ‘die’ but everything else??
Alan’s been brought up to speed on the golem situation and has no reason to think that Jin could be physically harmed by anything in modern-day Minneapolis. Unless his talk with Bud was longer and more detailed than would be reasonable given Bud’s earlier reaction, he’s not likely to be worried for her physical well-being. On the other hand, as pointed out above, he may well be nearing his drama tolerance.
She would have had to tell him about the nearly being human thing, otherwise there would be no need for her to be in the hospital and nothing would have made sense to him.
First, congrats to Paul for ten years. It’s been one hell of a ride. I started reading about 2008 and once I got hooked did the archive binge. It’s been great seeing the evolution of the art and the gradual reveal of the overarching plot. I love the characterizations and the small slice of life moments that emphasize the overall wierdness Monica and crew are dealing with. The Current arc is a perfect example. Most other authors would have had become Jin human, everyone would have noted it and gone on as if nothing had really changed. Paul gives us something that feels real. I hurt for Jin and Bud, because despite the utter unreality of the situation, Waspi is so well realised that it feels RIGHT. I empathise with folks who existed only in Paul’s imagination. I thank you, sir, for deciding to share them with the rest of us.
Happy 10th Paul. You have made a long haul and created a great universe for us the reader to peer into. I just hope you can keep doing it for many more years to come.
Yes, congratulations on ten years and a big THANK YOU to Fairportfan; I first read about Wapsi following one of his links on my most favorite comic, several years ago.
Congratulations Paul on a great strip, wildly funny at times, dramatic and scary as well!
It keeps you coming back, due to many back stories and threads – a winning formula! 🙂
Well Happy 10th Paul and Wapsi!!
And as for the, comic today? WOW… poor Jin. I kinda hope that he is out doing something nice for her like some people suggested, but what if something horrible happened to him? Bud did say he was on his way. What if he got mugged?
Mugged? Could it be the return of that guy who kept trying to mug Shelly and … oh dear god, I’ve gone blank on her name. The one who works at the radio station now who we met at the Iowa Plow.
Would have to be a real one. If that over educated idiot tried to stop Alan i think he would be in the same hospital having a broken jaw wired and having his weapon surgically removed from his ass.
Just gotta say… ouch, Bud. Whatever she said in anger to Alan, it was not worth it. I hope he’s just delayed or something because if he’s breaking up with Jin because of something Bud said, what she said was totally, completely out of line (as SoWhyMe mentioned).
I don’t think Bud said anything bad to Alan. Bud said that he was on the way. Alan is either upset, out trying to do something nice for Jin, or something bad happened to him.
Why Oh Why! does nobody remember THIS strip: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/cantbehurt/
Allan was perfectly willing to leave Jin right then and there but was talked OUT of doing so by Bud… this time Bud wasn’t there to provide that delay for Jin to snap out of it and really try to talk to him again… nope, this time he’s GONE…
The thing is, at that time he knew nothing of Jin’s situation and what she’s been through. He does now and has been doing his best to help keep her on an even keel. I doubt he would call i quits now. For that matter, I doubt many give up on their beloved over just one suicide attempt. The knife thing wasn’t a serious attempt.
I think you’re right about that. Alan was taken down the rabbit hole and knows… things; that should mean he is close enough and trustworthy enough to warrant the benefit of the doubt that why he isn’t there yet is not his fault.
That time he was going to walk out on her because he thought she was messing with his head and not because of the suicide attempt, He thought she was playing a mean spirited game with his feelings then. This time he would take it more in the proper stride. Alan is portrayed as one of the good ones, I doubt that he is running away from her.
1) I agree, something must be up with Alan. Hope it’s something good.
2) Happy 10th anniversary on Wapsi Square, Paul. I hope we are nowhere near the end.
Maya came out of the door on the right. That’s clear from her position relative to Jin in panels 3 & 4.
It’s not unusual for a discharged emergency room patient to be parked in the hall in a wheelchair while waiting for someone from patient transport to show up and wheel him/her to the exit. The hospital wouldn’t LET someone as badly banged-up as Jin actually walk out, they’d wheel her out.
The male figure in the first panel isn’t the doctor, it’s the discharge nurse. He might well have a noticeable accent, many of the nurses in my (Chicago suburban) local hospital do.
*Hoisting a big frothy mug of Root Beer* Congratulations on ten awesome years of Wapsi Squares and may the next ten years be just as great!
And if Alan has bailed on Jin just when she needs him the most the he better find a hole to crawl in and pull it in on himself because when “M” and the others find out, it’s dead man walking for Alan.
Why does Jin have a pharmacy? I know the doctor is speaking in the sense of ‘the one you normally use’, but why would Jin have that, either? It’s not as if she’s needed drugs before this… Does she even have medical insurance? I imagine filling out the paperwork for her was interesting. “Date born?” “Uh… let’s just say she’s 20.”
One assumes that Jin has perfectly-acceptable paperwork and ID – after all these go-rounds she has to have figured out how (given the amount of money and the contacts she’s developed) to set that sort of thing up.
And, when the administration people ask for a pharmacy to fax scripts to, you just name the one most convenient for you to access.
First off, Happy Anniversary! May there be many more cliff-hanger Fridays to come. Secondly, poor Jin. I just hope traffic was bad and that’s why Alan isn’t there.
I really like the “stillness” of these panels — quite powerful. To me it evokes the stunned realization of something that’s now lost forever – in Jin’s case, maybe several things.
I have a raging suspicion, wondering where that bullet went when the gun went off. Maybe it’s nothing, but I fear for they’re neighbors, if they have any. Also, Alan probably was just delayed or had a previous trauma with a suicide or something. I’m not expecting angry. Maybe depressed. I’m thinking Niagara Falls.
It’s also a muzzleloading blackpowder flintlock (or similar) pistol — really not very powerful – rather low velocity (though it would have done the trick if Bud hadn’t acted). Wouldn’t take much of a wall or ceiling to stop it.
Even if she isn’t on the top floor, if the building was built in the last 30-40 years, it has thick concrete as the floors, ribbed on the underside for strength. For a cheap builder the thinnest areas would be 4 to 6 inches thick, 3 or 4 feet at the ribs.
It would take a really powerful rifle, let alone a pistol to get through it.
(Yes, I used to set pans to pour just that sort of thing)
Okay Bud said she called him and that he was coming.
So it’s not a matter of him runing for the hills, guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the bloody blue blazes got in his way.
If Paul subscribes to the worst case writing notion that many use, Alan will be dead. There is a school of thought for creating compelling drama which says, “think of the worst thing which could happen to the character and make it happen.”
Fortunately, Paul seems to subscribe to the “I’ll come up with an amazing something no one will see coming and make that happen” method.
– Alan is arrested by officer Tightbuns. Shelly is amused.
– Bud gives the Sun an Atomic Wedgie. Global Climate change ceases.
– Tepoz, fresh from a Vermouth tasting session, assists Jin’s wheelchair down a flight of stairs.
– Monica and Mayhuel butt heads and exchange harsh words in Glyph. Jin’s Safe word is accidentally activated. Or her Combat word. Maybe both. Complications ensue.
– Brandi arrives with a roll of toilet paper and TP’s the immobile Jin, sticking out her tongue at the end for effect. Nyah.
– Amanda arrives with camera and her Journalist/Blogger hat on. “So! What’s it like?” she asks, cleverly. Mayhuel decks her.
-Phix, realizing she may not get another chance to reveal her secret crush on Jin, has incapacited Alan and flys in, laying a dead moose at her feet.
-Shelly also brings a moose and the worst cat fight ever results.
-Alan is waiting outside with Amanda, telling Jin it’s over and he is with Amanda now. They get into his car and May makes a diamond of it.
-Monica, hearing of Jin’s stupidity, brings Dietzel with her and has him pee on Jin’s leg, after which she poits her into the depths of a longshoreman’s porta-potty. May is both appalled and entertained.
-We find out Alan has been kidnapped by Crispy Girl and forced to make smores for her.
-Alan was out drinking heavily when Bud called. He races out to the street when he thinks he sees Jin. He then spends 20 min. comforting a drinking fountain, trying to stop it from crying, before being arrested.
Hmm..that last one sounds decidedly like a true experience.. a bit like the meter-cupboard we plucked a pissed friend from…he thought it was the toilet. Giving the fact that it was a 220v metering station, we thought it wise to steer him away from it.. 😀
I am for the following: improving on Atomic, I’d say Alan did some serious speeding, and got a ticked from officer tightbuns. Alan then explains that one of Shelly’s friends is seriously hurt, and at the hospital. Alan and Officer tightbuns then go, in convoy, lights&siren blazing, to the hospital.
Or, he’s simply stuck in traffic, or another bridge fell down, or another NG-fire…. Minneapolis seems a magnet for small-scale disasters.
I thought I was pretty sure what was going to happen when Jin and Shelly met, but this week throws that into a cocked hat.
Will the new mature Shelly have the calm to deal with Jin in a tender manner? Or be, understandably, royally pissed off that she spent 80,000 years and untold lives to get the dingus that made her human. And her response it to stick a gun in her mouth within 5 minutes of that happening?
Oh, yeah. Happy Anniversary, yadda yadda. 10 years of wonderful strips, yadda yadda. 10 more or we’ll drown your koi fish, yadda yadda.
Where’s the cake?
Okay, this got ate once, lets see if it happens this time. (I think I misspelled my addy)
I thought I had a handle on how the meeting between Jin and Shelly would go until this week. How is Shelly going to react to Jin’s suicide attempt? She gave 80,000 years and an unknown number of lives to get the dingus prepped and back to her. And within five minutes of getting it installed she attempts suicide?
Will the more mature Shelly be understanding or go ballistic?
I’m so confused…
I would imagine Shelly has become quite the expert on self-murder. Stepping away from immortality is just a very sow suicide, and puts the course of life in perspective.
She’s the closest to Jin’s real age. I think they’ll get on fine, ultimately. How Creepy sees Jin is going to be interesting, and possibly very revelatory.
I keep imagining upcoming dialogue, and Paul still surprises me 19 times out of 20. The protagonists have a wealth of reactions and a depth of character that always allows for that.
….however funny that would be, and You’ll have a nice bit of sate after that ( rosted pork on a stick, covered in rich, hot&spicey peanut-sauce, for those that are not familiar with the Dutch-indonesian kitchen)
Well, there’s a much more important global matter really — curing Jin as a person was totally insignificant compared to the need to neutralize Jin the insane, totally loose cannon, super powerful, indestructible golem.
It, indeed, depends on the amount of growing-up Shelly has done.
However,base character traits have a habit of bubbling back up when extremely resting/stressy situations arise.
Shelly is bound to blow a fuse, but I hope she has the maturity to do the ranting and cussing at home, takes a few breaths,and then and only then confronts Jin.
On the other hand, Shelly could have a much deeper understanding of Jin than ever before.
I could see that Shelly herself might have tried to off herself whenrealizing she wasn’t aging and seemed to be a prisoner of the magic-tree realm for eternity.
2nd note: He is not her Husband nor family, he will be stopped in the lobby by the helpful staff… and Since she is being discharge, he may have been told to wait.
There is no way in hell Alan is just going to abandon Jin when she is in need. His character and integrity are much more than that. He was willing to leave Jin in “Can’t be hurt” only because he thought she was playing games with him – being indestructible yet pretending to attempt suicide. Even then his anger was short lived.
He has shown time and again limitless patience and bottomless understanding. It is not in him to abandon someone or leave someone without saying why. At the very least, Alan would show up and express his fear and anger over her behavior.
I fully concur with SoWhyMe. I think people are selling Paul short. He has something coming up that will be truly amazing that none of us has seen coming. I am betting on at least three cliffhangers next week!
Alan?
I don’t think he can hear me…
🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzypOnklG60 for reference.
He may need a minute or two to arrive with the right mindset…
Some people go “AFK” when there loved ones attempt suicide. It’s can be good or bad but it still takes time to form the Correct Emotions you are trying to convey.
(Personal XP times 3)
Okay the strip was sad, but we can still celebrate 10 years of Wapsi. The first strip was posted ten years ago today!
Salute! 10 Years and counting!
Also — Jin Adeobie. Adobe? Family name for a clay golem?? Very cute!
And yes, Jin is now dealing with consequences.
I am absurdly pleased that I noticed that on my own. Also, Woooooo, Tenth Aniversary!
Happy big 1-0, Paul.
Nice to see they still make milestones like they used to.
Is it really the anniversary? Happy 10th if that’s true!
And as for today’s strip – OUCH. No prescription is going to be able to help THAT hurt.
There are prescriptions that will take care of ‘that’, but you are not ‘free to go’ if you need them.
Trying one of the prescriptions for “that” is what got her hurt in the first place – one lead pill delivered intracranially.
My law-enforcement / military inspired sense of humor is sick enough that I literally laughed out loud at your phrasing.
Oh, hell.
Something has delayed Alan.
Perhaps he’s had an encounter with the Bat-winged Hamburger Snatcher.
🙂
I think he’s out blowing his bank account by buying up all the roses he can find and filling her house with them for her homecoming….
Ooooh..that would lift -up Jin’s spirit.
I am afraid of what will happen if Alan gets angry about her attempt. Or leaves her.
Anger is not what she needs now, but, indeed, the smell of fresh roses and soft cuddles are exactly what the doctor ordered me thinks.
I dunno, but Alan didn’t strike me as the vengeful type. I feel too that he has something great in store. After all, he was the one totally accepting of Jin’s schizophrenia.
Someone who can do that, has a much bigger heart than given credit for.
Besides, if Alan tries to pull a “I’m outta here” he will have to deal with an over-sized lioness named Brandi hunting him down.
Not to mention a large racked pixie teleporter named Monica and a muscle bound demi-sphinx named Shelly.
Who’d then have to deal with an irate Bud telling them where they can stick their anger at him.
Considering how livid she is, it wouldn’t surprise me one damned bit if she stood up for Allan to the rest.
Also doubt that Shelly would get involved with this, considering her own ambivalence right now towards being in a relationship with a regular human.
It would just hit too close to home.
Shelly is not ambivalent about her relationship. She is just the opposite. She is trying to figure if Justin would be able to handle the fact that she is a supernatural being and just didn’t know it. remember she was going on that “he” doesn’t need this crap not “I” dont need him. In fact her last line was that she does needs him.
What you described is pretty much ambivalence.
Oh he can’t be with me, because it’s not safe/because I’m not human anymore. (insert other negative reasons)
Oh but I do want him with me, because I “love”/care for him. (insert positive reasons)
She both wants to break up and not break up with him at the same time. Hence, why she went to talk to Heather to try and find out if her judgement is impaired.
Let’s face it, Shelly really didn’t have a problem before making decisions. Part of the tomboy/impulse side of her. But having gone what she went through has thrown her for a loop and dampened that side to such a degree that she herself has become flustered about it.
OK, you did it. You got me to break cover.
I’ve been reading this strip for YEARS, and though I’ve been tempted, I never came out of the shadows of lurkerdom…
But you did it. I didn’t think ANYbody else remembered the batwinged hamburger snatcher
For those of you, like me, who have no idea what that is:
http://www.danoneillcomics.com/pdf/batwinged/index.pdf
Original source of the term “magic cookie” – as in “cookies” on your computer.
Harvey Krishan what’s your sign?
Peace and love, there is still time!
Spare change before you bring me down –
Harvey Krishna’s back in town!
Arrgghhh
First line, spelt correctly:
“Harvey Krishna what’s your sign”
First, second, neutral, park,
Hie thee hence, you leafy narc!
Well, that’s from Bored of the Rings rather than Odd Bodkins but it seemed to fit 🙂
This is bad.
Wait, this is the first time we’ve heard Jin’s last name, isn’t it?
Say it out loud and think of New Mexico.
That link is dead for me.
Weird. Works for me. I checked it. And i just checked again.
Try this: http://www.newmexicophotos.com/blog/photos/prayer-flag-house.jpg
That one isn’t working either. See if this link works.
Doesn’t work for me… seems to redirect to a blank page with the word “honesty” in the URL.
Possibly that blog does not allow its images to be accessed, except from links within the blog site itself?
I agree with the ‘adobe’ interpretation — a name with flash for a given reader — but the link both is and isn’t broken.
That link works fine from a bookmark or if pasted into the address bar, but the site redirects you to a blank ‘honesty’ page if it’s embedded in a link and clicked upon.
Yeah – probably a site that’s set up to not allow hot-linking.
WOnder why it works for me, though?
It worked for me.
Which link worked? Fairport’s or mine?
@Fairportfan: The picture was probably already in your browser’s cache. At first, your links didn’t work, but I found the picture here: http://nmphotojournal.blogspot.com/2006/02/house-with-prayer-flags.html. (That’s the page that contains the picture.) Now your link works for me, but it’s just getting the picture out of the cache. Try clearing your cache and see what happens.
Yeah – realised that when i came back later.
Actually, I’m not sure those are “prayer flags” in the usual sense (e.g. Tibetan Buddhist or similar).
They look more like Mexican festival flags. My wife and I spent a bunch of time looking for a place to buy some (for her artwork projects) when we were in Albuquerque last fall. Finally succeeded after many attempts… but trying to find Tibetan prayer flags might have been harder.
Adobe as a last name for a clay golem. As in no longer built like a brick house?
Alan is waiting at the house with a big dinner of comfort food of some kind and one portion run through a blender so her sore face isn’t strained trying to open up and chew solid food…
I like that thought.. still..
Awwww..poor Jin. Well, Alan warned You to not pull off stunts like You just did….
I like that thought too, but anger is a more realistic reaction. He may have hit his snapping point. It is extremely hard (and utterly heartbreaking) to know that you have to help someone that you love, want to live. And it’s terrifying on a visceral level to be in love with someone who is suicidal. See their name come up on your phone and wonder if they’re calling to say hi or calling with another suicidal episode. It can feel like a prison, you have no way of knowing whether the person you love will be ALIVE the next day. Think about that, what it would do to a person after months or years. Alan showing up with flowers and a smile is cute but I won’t be surprised when he has some angry but VALID things to say to Jin.
Ow.
Chris, you’ve got a painfully valid point there… been there, done that to some extent. My wife was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago, the treatment was rather brutal, and she was seriously depressed and intermittently suicidal for most of the first year. Getting her through that was, without doubt, the toughest battle I’ve had to fight in my life.
I still get the chills remembering the “Ok, I’m going to sleep now… will she be here and alive in the morning?” moments.
We won that round – she’s still here, I’m still here – and I hope for Jin’s sake that Alan hasn’t hit his personal “It’s all too much for me” overload point… but I could understand it if he has.
yeah, I’ve been there too. I had an episode of survivors guilt after my last tour overseas, spent 6mo in a bottle, and crawled out after trying to do what Jin tried. Pulled the trigger 5 times, all miss-fires, and pointed at the tv for the 6th try…..BOOM! and a large .45 cal hole in my tv.
Its funny about having those issues, I was embarrassed, scared, angry, standoffish, and just about every thing under the sun. I wanted, and didnt want help, felt like no one listened, etc. Even the shrinks with the military didnt help. So after my try, I drug up the will power to beat it.
Glad you made it through, Songdog!
Five misfires, and then one into the TV? That’s in the same league as an intervention by a high-speed horizontal-traveling Golem Girl to convey the message that This Just Really Is Not Your Time Yet!
Have you heard Johnny Cash’s story of his experiences in Nickajack Cave in 1968?
Nickajack Cave is a huge cavern system near the Tennessee/Georgia line, now partly flooded by Nickajack Lake, created by a dam built in 1967.
In 1968, Cash had played a show in Atlanta and was driving back to Nashville, when he was stopped (likely in Kennesaw Georgia, i’d guess), for drunk driving. (And he’d probably had a few pills, too.)
The local sheriff held him in jail overnight without booking him, and, in the morning, when Cash had sobered up, the sheriff told him that the reason he wasn’t booking him was that his wife had attended Cash’s show, and had enjoyed it immensely – that she loved Cash’s music and thought he was the best singer out there.
And he didn’t want to disillusion his wife by booking her hero for public drunk and DUI.
“So you head on up the road, and you think about that,” were (more or less) his parting words.
This was before I-75, so Cash was driving up old US 41, which ran near Nickajack Cave. And it was a Sunday, early in the day whe he got there..
And nobody was around.
So he parked his Cadillac in the tourist center parking lot, and walked into the cave, without a flashlight or other light.
And he kept walking. He didn’t keep track of where he walked in the dark, nor of what turns he made.
And when he was too tired to walk any further, thoroughly lost, feeling low, hungover and sorry for himself, he sat down to wait to die.
As he later told it, after a while, it seemed as if a voice told him basically “Not your time yet, boy. Get your sorry self up and get out of here.” (My version, not his.)
And, he said, he stood up, started walking, and walked himself out of that cave.
And that was the beginning of Johnny Cash picking himself up and getting (more or less) straight and living another thirty-five productive years…
Sometimes the message does get through.
And, sometimes, like Justin Wilson’s story about the coonass who complained that he had had faith in the Lord to save him from the flood, but he drowned anyway, the message doesn’t connect:
“And the Lord, he say, ‘Dummeh! I send a jeep and a boat and a helicopter…'”
My heart sings for you and your wife, Dave. I’m glad you two were able to pull through that together. <3 I had to walk away from the man I loved, because his mental state and the relationship was destroying us both. So unhealthy for the two of us. But dammit did I try. I think about him almost every day and hope he's all right. Dammit, now I'm crying.
Thanks, Chris. I’m sorry your guy wasn’t able to pull himself out of the pit… but sometimes that’s just what happens, and you’re not to blame for your (hard) decision to take care of yourself rather than being sucked downwards forever. As Hermann Hesse pointed out in Siddhartha, none of us can spare anyone else of their responsibility to live their lives. We can help each other along the big walk through life, but we can’t “do it” for one another – we each have to walk our own journey and learn our own lessons. Occasionally, that means that we have to walk apart, even when it hurts.
Based on today’s strip, I’d say you really did call it, about what Alan was going through! He, too, knew what he could and could not handle. Fortunately, it looks as if the situation is in the “can handle” category (cue grin and tears here… I don’t think there’s a standard emoticon for that yet).
1: Feeling very, very sad for Jin at this moment.
2: Congratulations on 10 years of Wapsi, Paul. Looking forward to the next 10, like no kidding.
3: Adeobie: Hm, that’s an unusual name. A.D.O.B.? Ancient Date of Birth? The mind boggles.
Look up – both Atomic and i have commented on where it comes from.
(Hint: What are Golems made of?)
I saw your suggestion. It’s cute, and you could be right, but I’m not certain. A name spelled “adeobi” would not be pronounced “adobe” but rather ah-day-oh-bee, so until I see confirmation from Paul, I’m open to other options.
Actually, it could as easily be “aid-o-bee”.
I was thinking it was pronounced like “Ah-dyo-BEE.” But that’s just because I’ve known lots of people with weird/hard-to-pronounce last names.
I don’t think the silent “e” fits that spelling.
Working backwards, the pronunciation of adobe is given as ə’dəʋbɪ in the Collins English Dictionary.
It does suggest that Jin had a sense of humor when she was setting up her current identity. If the others are using names other than Oduya and Budur, it hasn’t come up.
Hmmm. Perhaps this is an older form of the word. It went thru Coptic, then Arabic, then old Spanish.
From the Online Etymology Dictionary
“1739, Amer.Eng., from Sp. adobe, from oral form of Arabic al-tob “the brick,” from Coptic tube “brick,” a word found in hieroglyphics.”
Hmm, given all those transitions and the disparity between spelling and pronuciation of some names I’ve seen, for all we know it’s pronounced “Jones.”
I just say it’s pronounced Smith, they’re all silent!
Alan has always been very level with Jin, and has been quite adept at getting her to trust him…but despite all that, would he still feel betrayed by her attempt and not come?
i ain’t buyin’ it. Something else happened…
Bud specifically said “He’s on his way here.”
So, yeah.
Alan freaked out at Jin the last time she spoke of dying. It’s a sensitive subject for Alan, and despite how Wapsiverse tends to portray them, Men are not beyond pettiness. Alan may just be having a rageout or freakout moment and not able to deal with Jin at present. Not every male can handle Wapsi-girl drama like Kevin.
To be fair, Kevin has a job that allows him to get away from the WapsiGirl drama for weeks at a time. Guys can only handle so much estrogen powered drama before having to get away before they snap and start climbing tall towers with high powered rifles.
it would help if males tended to actually say they were getting close to the end of their teather instead of completly freaking out on a seemingly random way.
talking helps!
But that’s part of our charm. Just like wild mood swings for women.
Okay, I’ve gone through the ‘Men’s Handbook’, twice. (It’s more of a pamphlet really) and I see nothing under feelings except ‘horny’ and ‘hungry’.
A friend of mine once said, “I love my husband dearly, but he only seems to have three emotions. He’s happy, he’s angry, or he’s horny. And I’m not even sure horny is an emotion.”
“He’s on his way here.”
And now he’s not on his way there. So it’s either an accident or he can’t cope it with any more.
There’s a third possibility which could be quite ugly, and would change the direction of the strip markedly. But it may be the moment for that. Jin is mortal, the CM is gone, and the world itself passes a meta-benchmark.
Paul has said there are no occult conspiracies. But there are still mortal men obsessed with power in Wapsi Square. How could there not be.
Tina once warned Shelly about not having backup plans if the wrong people found out their secrets. Tina went without friends and lovers, not just because she was a spooky thing, but because she still had the intelligence to know she was the daughter of a drug lord. Her connections were dangerous going in.
But because of this suicide attempt, word is spreading: Mayahuel walks the Earth again, and Jin Adeobie is now vulnerable.
Somehow Jin has lived 100,000 years and wound up a naive pushover to herself.
Or, y’know, Bud related it wrong. She was stumbling over her words in a way that would have been charming in another context.
Happy 10th anniversary, Wapsi Square!!!
Loneliness.
Seldom better portrayed in popular art.
Here’s one, though.
Wow, thanks for the reminder. Wonderful album, great song. For those who haven’t, take the time to find it and listen.
Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Session
Happy 10th Anniversary Wapsi Square!
On a side note – don’t forget to vote – the nunber seems to have crept up a little lately .
Happy 10th anniversary Paul!
Wapsi Square! Woo hoo!
“A game of chess” has been framed. Next, I will ask if the people at Dreamhaven Books and Comics would like to display it on a wall.
Hi,
I like the comic very much and have been following it for some time.
Today I was thrilled to see how the border of the panel overlaps with the picture… which I think works excellently and conveys so much about the mood and the theme of today’s panels
Thank You for Your ideas and the comic.
Damn 🙁
Haunting, this. Incredibly, deeply haunting – the sadness, heartache/heartbreak, loneliness is palpable; damn close to tears here.
Excellent art and story, Paul. Absolutely excellent.
Okay. Open this link in a background window or tab, and then re-read the comic while it plays…
Really done very well.
Halls in hospitals, especially the old-fashioned ones, built in the 70’s, have this incredible desolation to them.
Frame 2 is about as sad&lonely as it can get.
Is this what it has come to? Sacrificing all to save a world, daring to fall in love again -after being horribly betrayed- losing friends time&time again, stuck in a groundhog-dayfrom hell.
Getting a wish fulfilled and still end-up all lonely….. 🙁 No Fair!
I hope Alan comes in, running, all disheveled because he had some stupid accident, involving a pizza, a broomstick, and a small rodent. (don’ ask.. ‘s a bit like Monica’s bag that once caught fire 😛 )
It’s not just a hospital hall – it’s a HUGE, EMPTY hospital hall “shouting” desolation and insignificance. The cold stark floors and walls amplify the aloneness and abandoment that Jin must feel.
Wonderful artwork.
er, yep, usually the result of p ing everybody off.. :/
Okay
I thought he might break up with her
I thought he might be angry with her
never in a million years would I think he would not show.
Something has delayed him.
Bud said “He’s on his way.”
Don’t worry.
He’s right outside with every rose in town. 😉
that could become a problem. Maybe she’s allergic to roses?
seriously though, that could take the story into new place, poor Alan hurt from hurrying to get beside his love.
Happy Tenth Wapsi Square!
Waiting outside for a dramatic reveal might backfire if May just poits her out.
Sometimes, no answer IS an answer.
Walking away might be Alan’s.
I wonder, though, did Bud tell Alan she tried suicide, or just that she has been banged up. The suicide thing doesn’t seem like something one would tell someone over the phone, and Bud is not all that close with Alan as such. Seeing Jin all pathetic like she is might soften him up for the really bad news so he doesn’t go off the deep end about it.
Heck, if she did, perhaps he stopped off for an engagement ring to give her more of a reason to live. Somethings afoot in any event. Alan is too stand up a guy to simply drop her without a word. He’d tell her to her face. Especially now that he knows she can no longer do him great bodily harm just by breating on him.
Imagine the conversation
Alan – “bud is it? whats happened”
Bud – “Jin is in hospital”
Alan – “…psychiatric?”
Bud – “no infirmary”
Alan – “wait … what”
Bud – “she is now human and deicded to kill herself. she is at XYZ general” (hangs up)
Alan – “wait..what?”
Exactly
I think alan is used to her weirdness… being declared ‘human’ would be taken with another pinch of salt…
we will have to wait for monday to see…
I may have missed it somewhere, about exactly HOW human she is??? how far can Apotropaic magic go? she is just a clay doll brought to life, with a powerful perception filter so doctors see what they expect… Will the ‘cosmic generator’ help her get a family and grow old with alan??
or more like jack harkness, where she cannot ‘die’ but everything else??
Alan’s been brought up to speed on the golem situation and has no reason to think that Jin could be physically harmed by anything in modern-day Minneapolis. Unless his talk with Bud was longer and more detailed than would be reasonable given Bud’s earlier reaction, he’s not likely to be worried for her physical well-being. On the other hand, as pointed out above, he may well be nearing his drama tolerance.
She would have had to tell him about the nearly being human thing, otherwise there would be no need for her to be in the hospital and nothing would have made sense to him.
You’d think…
Happy 10th anniversary, Wapsi Square!
First, congrats to Paul for ten years. It’s been one hell of a ride. I started reading about 2008 and once I got hooked did the archive binge. It’s been great seeing the evolution of the art and the gradual reveal of the overarching plot. I love the characterizations and the small slice of life moments that emphasize the overall wierdness Monica and crew are dealing with. The Current arc is a perfect example. Most other authors would have had become Jin human, everyone would have noted it and gone on as if nothing had really changed. Paul gives us something that feels real. I hurt for Jin and Bud, because despite the utter unreality of the situation, Waspi is so well realised that it feels RIGHT. I empathise with folks who existed only in Paul’s imagination. I thank you, sir, for deciding to share them with the rest of us.
Second, Dang blarsted flargedy blargedy CLIFFHANGER!
Happy 10th Paul. You have made a long haul and created a great universe for us the reader to peer into. I just hope you can keep doing it for many more years to come.
Awwww! Poor Jin.
Yes, congratulations on ten years and a big THANK YOU to Fairportfan; I first read about Wapsi following one of his links on my most favorite comic, several years ago.
Yup. Same here.
Congratulations Paul on a great strip, wildly funny at times, dramatic and scary as well!
It keeps you coming back, due to many back stories and threads – a winning formula! 🙂
following one of your..
Heh. Neighbourhood comics pusher, that’s me.
Alan’s probably at the entrance of the hospital… in his car… with roses.
Well Happy 10th Paul and Wapsi!!
And as for the, comic today? WOW… poor Jin. I kinda hope that he is out doing something nice for her like some people suggested, but what if something horrible happened to him? Bud did say he was on his way. What if he got mugged?
Mugged? Could it be the return of that guy who kept trying to mug Shelly and … oh dear god, I’ve gone blank on her name. The one who works at the radio station now who we met at the Iowa Plow.
Heather.
No I meant a real mugger. Not just the over educated idiot that was studying people’s reactions to getting mugged.
Would have to be a real one. If that over educated idiot tried to stop Alan i think he would be in the same hospital having a broken jaw wired and having his weapon surgically removed from his ass.
Precisely.
Then again, did anyone call him?
Bud called Alan. She said so yesterday.
She also said “He’s on the way.”
Just gotta say… ouch, Bud. Whatever she said in anger to Alan, it was not worth it. I hope he’s just delayed or something because if he’s breaking up with Jin because of something Bud said, what she said was totally, completely out of line (as SoWhyMe mentioned).
I don’t think Bud said anything bad to Alan. Bud said that he was on the way. Alan is either upset, out trying to do something nice for Jin, or something bad happened to him.
Why Oh Why! does nobody remember THIS strip: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/cantbehurt/
Allan was perfectly willing to leave Jin right then and there but was talked OUT of doing so by Bud… this time Bud wasn’t there to provide that delay for Jin to snap out of it and really try to talk to him again… nope, this time he’s GONE…
The thing is, at that time he knew nothing of Jin’s situation and what she’s been through. He does now and has been doing his best to help keep her on an even keel. I doubt he would call i quits now. For that matter, I doubt many give up on their beloved over just one suicide attempt. The knife thing wasn’t a serious attempt.
I think you’re right about that. Alan was taken down the rabbit hole and knows… things; that should mean he is close enough and trustworthy enough to warrant the benefit of the doubt that why he isn’t there yet is not his fault.
The last panel here: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/iwontletyou/ is pretty telling though.
However, this strip and this strip makes it clear that, for Alan, her attempting suicide was a matter of trust for him.
Whoops! I got my e-mail address wrong in my previous post.
That time he was going to walk out on her because he thought she was messing with his head and not because of the suicide attempt, He thought she was playing a mean spirited game with his feelings then. This time he would take it more in the proper stride. Alan is portrayed as one of the good ones, I doubt that he is running away from her.
Happy 10th Paul!!!!! Great cliff hanger for the weekend.
1) I agree, something must be up with Alan. Hope it’s something good.
2) Happy 10th anniversary on Wapsi Square, Paul. I hope we are nowhere near the end.
So the 10th anniversary strip is also a Friday cliffhanger? Wow, thet’s what I CALL forward planning!!!
1st things first: Happy Anniversary, Pablo! 10 years of following Monica and her adventures, and many more for the future.
Second: No one’s commenting the obvious? “Where’d Maya come from? She didn’t poit in…”
Third: I’d almost be disappointed if she were only waiting for Alan.
Maya came out of the door on the right. That’s clear from her position relative to Jin in panels 3 & 4.
It’s not unusual for a discharged emergency room patient to be parked in the hall in a wheelchair while waiting for someone from patient transport to show up and wheel him/her to the exit. The hospital wouldn’t LET someone as badly banged-up as Jin actually walk out, they’d wheel her out.
The male figure in the first panel isn’t the doctor, it’s the discharge nurse. He might well have a noticeable accent, many of the nurses in my (Chicago suburban) local hospital do.
Right, May probably had to make a quick trip to the little golem’s room first.
*Hoisting a big frothy mug of Root Beer* Congratulations on ten awesome years of Wapsi Squares and may the next ten years be just as great!
And if Alan has bailed on Jin just when she needs him the most the he better find a hole to crawl in and pull it in on himself because when “M” and the others find out, it’s dead man walking for Alan.
Not if Bud intercedes they won’t.
Monica she could disarm with simply asking her if Kevin would have the right to be angry with her, if she’d try to off herself.
Shelly has her own doubts about dating a mortal guy, so it’s unlikely she’d want to get involved as it hits too close to home.
Brandi.. Well a full time Bud rant and her responding to that with her own rant and then Bud responding again..
Should give more than enough time for him to get scarce again. 😛
Congratulations on 10 years!
Poor Jin.
Why does Jin have a pharmacy? I know the doctor is speaking in the sense of ‘the one you normally use’, but why would Jin have that, either? It’s not as if she’s needed drugs before this… Does she even have medical insurance? I imagine filling out the paperwork for her was interesting. “Date born?” “Uh… let’s just say she’s 20.”
Jin gave him a pharmacy to send the prescription to just at that visit. Other than that, she normally never had to use one before.
One assumes that Jin has perfectly-acceptable paperwork and ID – after all these go-rounds she has to have figured out how (given the amount of money and the contacts she’s developed) to set that sort of thing up.
And, when the administration people ask for a pharmacy to fax scripts to, you just name the one most convenient for you to access.
First off, Happy Anniversary! May there be many more cliff-hanger Fridays to come. Secondly, poor Jin. I just hope traffic was bad and that’s why Alan isn’t there.
Paul,
Congratulations on and Thank You for 10 Years of Wapsi!
Did the you of 10 years ago imagine your accomplishments and fans of today?
I really like the “stillness” of these panels — quite powerful. To me it evokes the stunned realization of something that’s now lost forever – in Jin’s case, maybe several things.
HAPPY TENTH ANNIVERSARY TO WAPSI SQUARE and to YOU,PAUL. Lets hope for 10 times 10 more years of great Art and Stories.
I think the gravity of the situation has just hit Alan…. or will once he sees Jin.
As for what happens next, only Paul and his muses know for sure….
Oh congrads on 10 years of web comic fun. 🙂
Happy Wapsi-versary!
I have a raging suspicion, wondering where that bullet went when the gun went off. Maybe it’s nothing, but I fear for they’re neighbors, if they have any. Also, Alan probably was just delayed or had a previous trauma with a suicide or something. I’m not expecting angry. Maybe depressed. I’m thinking Niagara Falls.
She lives in the penthouse, so there are no neighbors in the direction of fire.
It’s also a muzzleloading blackpowder flintlock (or similar) pistol — really not very powerful – rather low velocity (though it would have done the trick if Bud hadn’t acted). Wouldn’t take much of a wall or ceiling to stop it.
Even if she isn’t on the top floor, if the building was built in the last 30-40 years, it has thick concrete as the floors, ribbed on the underside for strength. For a cheap builder the thinnest areas would be 4 to 6 inches thick, 3 or 4 feet at the ribs.
It would take a really powerful rifle, let alone a pistol to get through it.
(Yes, I used to set pans to pour just that sort of thing)
I’d be more afraid if it was a Flexible Bullet.
Okay Bud said she called him and that he was coming.
So it’s not a matter of him runing for the hills, guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the bloody blue blazes got in his way.
Given what I know of the area, traffic on I-35W and I-94 is quite likely what made him late.
Aw.
If Paul subscribes to the worst case writing notion that many use, Alan will be dead. There is a school of thought for creating compelling drama which says, “think of the worst thing which could happen to the character and make it happen.”
Fortunately, Paul seems to subscribe to the “I’ll come up with an amazing something no one will see coming and make that happen” method.
OKay
so over the weekend we need to list everything nasty that could happen so by default what will happen will be fabulous 🙂
Hmmmmm…..
– Alan is arrested by officer Tightbuns. Shelly is amused.
– Bud gives the Sun an Atomic Wedgie. Global Climate change ceases.
– Tepoz, fresh from a Vermouth tasting session, assists Jin’s wheelchair down a flight of stairs.
– Monica and Mayhuel butt heads and exchange harsh words in Glyph. Jin’s Safe word is accidentally activated. Or her Combat word. Maybe both. Complications ensue.
– Brandi arrives with a roll of toilet paper and TP’s the immobile Jin, sticking out her tongue at the end for effect. Nyah.
– Amanda arrives with camera and her Journalist/Blogger hat on. “So! What’s it like?” she asks, cleverly. Mayhuel decks her.
Your turn.
Those were great!
-Phix, realizing she may not get another chance to reveal her secret crush on Jin, has incapacited Alan and flys in, laying a dead moose at her feet.
-Shelly also brings a moose and the worst cat fight ever results.
-Alan is waiting outside with Amanda, telling Jin it’s over and he is with Amanda now. They get into his car and May makes a diamond of it.
-Monica, hearing of Jin’s stupidity, brings Dietzel with her and has him pee on Jin’s leg, after which she poits her into the depths of a longshoreman’s porta-potty. May is both appalled and entertained.
-We find out Alan has been kidnapped by Crispy Girl and forced to make smores for her.
-Alan was out drinking heavily when Bud called. He races out to the street when he thinks he sees Jin. He then spends 20 min. comforting a drinking fountain, trying to stop it from crying, before being arrested.
Hmm..that last one sounds decidedly like a true experience.. a bit like the meter-cupboard we plucked a pissed friend from…he thought it was the toilet. Giving the fact that it was a 220v metering station, we thought it wise to steer him away from it.. 😀
I am for the following: improving on Atomic, I’d say Alan did some serious speeding, and got a ticked from officer tightbuns. Alan then explains that one of Shelly’s friends is seriously hurt, and at the hospital. Alan and Officer tightbuns then go, in convoy, lights&siren blazing, to the hospital.
Or, he’s simply stuck in traffic, or another bridge fell down, or another NG-fire…. Minneapolis seems a magnet for small-scale disasters.
I thought I was pretty sure what was going to happen when Jin and Shelly met, but this week throws that into a cocked hat.
Will the new mature Shelly have the calm to deal with Jin in a tender manner? Or be, understandably, royally pissed off that she spent 80,000 years and untold lives to get the dingus that made her human. And her response it to stick a gun in her mouth within 5 minutes of that happening?
Oh, yeah. Happy Anniversary, yadda yadda. 10 years of wonderful strips, yadda yadda. 10 more or we’ll drown your koi fish, yadda yadda.
Where’s the cake?
hmm
if stinky drowned the fish would it be classed as homicide?
Octocide? Cephalocide?
You were supposed to bring the cake. Didn’t you get the memo?
Durk!
Durk!
Durk!
Too much overtime the past couple of weeks…somewhere I’ve got a great recipie for a butterscotch cheesecake…
Will this do?
Gingerbread
2 TBS Vegetable Oil
3/4 cup Brown Sugar (dark preferred)
2 eggs – beaten
1 cup Molasses (dark)
2 cups Flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Ginger
1 tsp Baking Soda dissolved in:
1 cup Hot water
Cream sugar and oil, beat in eggs.
Add the hot water/soda, mix, add molasses, mix.
Add flour and beat.
Well greased pan in 350F/180C oven, not too close to burner. 45-50 minutes — check with toothpick.
Okay, when do you add the ashes to the mix?
Okay, this got ate once, lets see if it happens this time. (I think I misspelled my addy)
I thought I had a handle on how the meeting between Jin and Shelly would go until this week. How is Shelly going to react to Jin’s suicide attempt? She gave 80,000 years and an unknown number of lives to get the dingus prepped and back to her. And within five minutes of getting it installed she attempts suicide?
Will the more mature Shelly be understanding or go ballistic?
I’m so confused…
I would imagine Shelly has become quite the expert on self-murder. Stepping away from immortality is just a very sow suicide, and puts the course of life in perspective.
She’s the closest to Jin’s real age. I think they’ll get on fine, ultimately. How Creepy sees Jin is going to be interesting, and possibly very revelatory.
I keep imagining upcoming dialogue, and Paul still surprises me 19 times out of 20. The protagonists have a wealth of reactions and a depth of character that always allows for that.
That’s “slow” suicide.
No one wants to see sow suicide.
….however funny that would be, and You’ll have a nice bit of sate after that ( rosted pork on a stick, covered in rich, hot&spicey peanut-sauce, for those that are not familiar with the Dutch-indonesian kitchen)
Well, there’s a much more important global matter really — curing Jin as a person was totally insignificant compared to the need to neutralize Jin the insane, totally loose cannon, super powerful, indestructible golem.
It, indeed, depends on the amount of growing-up Shelly has done.
However,base character traits have a habit of bubbling back up when extremely resting/stressy situations arise.
Shelly is bound to blow a fuse, but I hope she has the maturity to do the ranting and cussing at home, takes a few breaths,and then and only then confronts Jin.
On the other hand, Shelly could have a much deeper understanding of Jin than ever before.
I could see that Shelly herself might have tried to off herself whenrealizing she wasn’t aging and seemed to be a prisoner of the magic-tree realm for eternity.
*Testing/stressy*. Grrrrrr
IPads are great for browsing, but typing, frankly, sucks monkey’s a$$
Alan last seen Here:
1st note: Bud called him, Call his cell, again.
2nd note: He is not her Husband nor family, he will be stopped in the lobby by the helpful staff… and Since she is being discharge, he may have been told to wait.
PBH
Goddess
Try a Get creative with a post/link and the whole post turns into a link…
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/stay-away/
PBH
Awwww… I still love that comic.
I want a guy like Alan!! XD
Well, first you have to be a girl like Jin.
Well that’s not fair!! I have to be loony to get the sweetheart guy?
Wait… maybe I AM qualified!! XD
And the Scarecrow said to Dorothy,
“Now I know I have a heart — because it’s breaking.”
There is no way in hell Alan is just going to abandon Jin when she is in need. His character and integrity are much more than that. He was willing to leave Jin in “Can’t be hurt” only because he thought she was playing games with him – being indestructible yet pretending to attempt suicide. Even then his anger was short lived.
He has shown time and again limitless patience and bottomless understanding. It is not in him to abandon someone or leave someone without saying why. At the very least, Alan would show up and express his fear and anger over her behavior.
I fully concur with SoWhyMe. I think people are selling Paul short. He has something coming up that will be truly amazing that none of us has seen coming. I am betting on at least three cliffhangers next week!