I know right? What I want to know is why it corrected to that.
Seriously, compare to words “blimp” and “glomp”. Only the last two letters are the same. Wouldn’t make more sense if it had corrected to another word beginning with “g”?
Look at your keyboard at the proximity of the “g” and “b” keys, ditto the “i” and “o”. That’s how the Otto correct works, its not so much a spell checker as a typo catcher.
it really does help 😀
i still remember the utter delight i felt when my manager at my last work place used the word ‘LAG’ for the computer system being slow.
and no-no one in my office barring me actually played online computer games 😛 i was the one who influenced that 😀
in the future you shall be known as
Shadobabe
Creator of Blimping!
Hmpf. Has nobody ever bought somebody else a Blimpies Sandwich?
Granted, we don’t have that chain here in Fort Smith, but I have heard of it. I’d rather be Blimpied than McD’d.
@Opus the Poet June 7, 2011 at 12:32 am
I know that modern (even old spell checkers) also use rules on sounds (like being told “eau” and “oh” sound similiar). Also “G” and “B” do have similar sound characteristics, and advice to ventriloquist has long been, as “B” sounds are hard to make without moving your lips, to replace every “B” with a “G” — i.e. most ventriloquists say “A gottle of geer” rather than “a bottle of beer”.
Best laugh I’ve had in weeks. Thanks, ShadOBabe. Hey, it could have been a lot worse… and as a linguist, it’s exciting to be present at the creation of a new lexical item! 😀
Blimping – When you hug someone you’ve missed so very, very much so very, very hard, the rest of their body expands and inflates like a blimp. Similar to squeezing a balloon in the middle and having both ends swell.
And who hasn’t seen that in a cartoon somewhere? Now we have a name for it! (Applicable to fathers and boyfriends alike). Thank you, ShadOBabe! You are now officaly an Internet Meme Creator.
What really makes it, ShadOBabe, is the Led Zep reference in the comic + the fact that your gravatar at this writing is a screaming Bud. How many Nazi vehicles is she responsible for destroying?
You know…for half a second I read your angry/frustrated post in a South Park voice…and even knowing you are female, you sounded in my head like Cartman. Weird way to start my day.
^^That.
I meant a “tender, understanding -motherly- hug”not a “squeeze the life out of someone because you’re elated that a plan worked-out and a friend is finally back”-hug.
I really have a feeling Creepy Girl/Conscious is going to do something to kill the drama, or be that therapeutic/loving hug she needs soon, before family and/or boy.
What a unique problem to face. How do you avoid telling the people that you love that you have been away for 80.000 years in less than the span of a second. A new definition will have to be made for a person having “that faraway look in her eye”
Sad Shelly is sad, but at least she has clothes now. Though the question is what is she upset about exactly. Is it the 80k year absence or something else/more?
Sometimes you learn things about the world and about yourself that drive a wedge between you and those who don’t know. Shelly’s experience included quite a few of those things. In time, she can learn to compensate, and be just as close with those around her as she was before, but it will be hard until then.
Shellys problem is the same one veterans have when coming back from a war zone. Not PTSD, per say, but the fact that they have changed. Their experiences have left them different people. There’s the old saying that you can never go home. Shelly may have all her memories back, but she’s seen too much and changed too much to slide easily into old (really old) routines. I think that Monica’s crankiness and sadness from the previous strips is pecause she sees this. Tina is the same, once she realized Shelly wasn’t a threat to her. For Bud it’s less of an issue because she’s already lived tens of millenia. There’s less empathy there. I think Shelly’s in for some rough times as she tries to readjust.
Some have labeled this “Mission Letdown” and it is a problem. People tend to let their job become their life and when that job is over they lose a reason for being.
The best cure I know of is work therapy, just get out there and do something, the harder the better.
I think the WWII vets did better in this aspect because they saw themselves as citizens first, and wanted to get home and get on with life, and they did.
The flip side, which did not go so well, was that they never really talked and came to grips with the horrors they had endured, and so they suffered a form of PTSD that they never had a chance to get over, because they didn’t want to inflict that suffering and pain on those they loved.
@ Bmonk The good thing about the WWII vets was that there were so many and WWII affected soo many people. There wasn’t a block on any street in America that didn’t lose somebody in The War. Most guys of a certain age had this experience in common with everybody else. Even if there were people that didn’t understand there was the VFW or the Lions Club or Masons where there were people that did. I’ve been fortunate to know quite a few WWII vets growing up and none of them would talk much about it. I also know that they were absolutely disgusted how the Vietnam vets were treated; and yes they were all different when they came back according to to the relatives. The ones who were there, understood. The ones that weren’t couldn’t.
Post WW2 Bill Mauldin cartoon – Willy, sweating, with his son, talking to the girl in a movie theatre box office,m posters for a war film in the background:
“Damn right it was realistic. Gimme my money back.”
Perhaps she is lamenting how she was somebody when she was a sphinx. For 80,000 years she was the guardian of the tree. She had the respect (and fear) of even other sphinxes. She saw wonders and was a wonder herself. Now what? She’s a human trapped in a human body, destined to live and die a human life. She could feel like it’s all over. Trapped or not in the forest, this is a big comedown for her. How can you come back to this when you’ve done that for far, far longer than your former human life. This must all seem so meaningless now.
That’s a very good theory, though Shelly did choose to return, even though she couldn’t remember what she was returning to at the time. So was it a bad decision based on whim or curiosity? She essentially was alone for those 80k years, (not counting CLG for company), maybe the loneliness got to her, yet she could still regret what she lost in the forest. Tough one to call.
comfort food needed. Large pizza, and maybe she can ask Tina if she has a spare bottle of wine she could send over. Or maybe a pint of blackberry cabernet sorbet.
Next day, go the the yoga center and terrorize her unsuspecting kickboxing students. Then track down Officer tight buns, warn him his luck hasn’t changed, and he should think very carefully before bedding down with an 80,00p-y/o cougar.
Vade Retro Satanas!!!! *glares menacingly towards freezer filled with B&J*
Aww…C’ mon, don’t do that to me. I am as helpless towards B&J Caramel Sutra and/or Chunky Monkey as M’s alter-ego is towards Dr Custard…. I just lost 10 lbs. by not having 1 x 500cc B&J per week….. 🙁
Buuut..Shelly may flourish by a bit of NY-fudge, or cookie-dough.. She has earned it. (together with plenty of hugs&kisses)
Ooo…cutting out the ice cream is hard. Especially where I am…Texas summers make ice cream consumption mandatory for survival.
Of course I’m the idiot who scheduled her wedding for mid-autumn so that her dress fitting has to be in August…which means losing weight in summer. *shakes head* Sometimes I forget to use my brain.
i just recently discovered ‘coconutterly fair’
man that flavour is guaranteed to vanish from our freezer if i was to buy it (and into my belly) so i’m kinda glad i live with my folks and they fill the freezer to the brim 🙂
Danzier, I never heard of Monty-Python-flavored Ice Cream. I’m just glad it’s not Crunchy Frog, or Cockroach Cluster. And certainly not the Spring Surprise . . .
Sadly, not. I checked the trope pantheons, and they have not yet been declared gods of ice cream. Clearly, not enough tropers have eaten Cherry Garcia.
Were it me, the first visit I would make would be to dear old dad. Lay it all out and get some answers. Her sudden hair growth should be proof enough for him. A visit from CG might be in order too. Little Ms Enforcer might loosen him up as needed.
I think she should talk to her father, but not to get answers. Unfortunately, he is unlikely to have any answers she wants. On the other hand, Shelly is very close with her dad. He can at least offer support, and if she can’t trust her own father to not think of her as a monster, then who can she trust? On the other hand, he might pass out. He has been known to do that, and though it would be funny, it wouldn’t exactly help the situation. But, then again, she might think he deserves to know. Now I’m just confusing myself.
Maybe due to her newfound sphinxhood (and finding the reason she liked being a guardian her whole life), she might join officer tightbuns in a similiar profession now, or maybe on the side?
Shelly a cop… anybody? 😀
I think what she really nees right now is someone who is calm and empathetic to just be there for her and let her know that she’s not alone.
By process of elimination, I suspect Phix and/or Brandi would be the best at that.
If you’re interested, here’s the process of elimination:
Monica’s too quick to get annoyed, Jin’s too unstable, Bud doesn’t seem to have the empathy she needs to cope with things at this point in time (she may be able to help later on), Tina’s too new at the supernatural herself to be able to give the reassurance she needs, Heather’s out of the loop so doesn’t even know what’s going on, Amanda, like Bud, is too practically minded to be much help, etc.
Phix seems to be a good choice be she is a sphinx, she remembers all the timelines and has intervened in a responsible way in them (just like Shelly had to). However, she has to balance that with her library duties.
Yeah, on a crate When I came back from the cremation of my Dad, I slumped down like that on a shopping crate in my gangway/hall completely drained, so, i can relate for a bit..
At a moment like that You’re so overwhelmed, that you’ll need to sit down, no matter the place (if that makes any sense..)
Yes. Everything empties out. Sorrow, sadness, loss, energy, the will to continue. No room at the moment for joy or even a smile. You feel like a shell with a shadow of a thought in it. It takes a while to move or to think. Even you mind rattles around in your head, like a pea in an ashcan. Lousy, lonely feeling. It needs more than a hug, alot more.
Paint bucket. Grandma. I missed saying good-bye to her by one appointment I chose not to cancel but should have. And yeah, “empty shell” is not hollow enough.
Aunt. Basement Floor. I had been trying to convince her to stop smoking for years. I thought I accepted it when I saw her in the hospital thinner than her bones… I couldn’t get low enough to the ground, so I just cried…
Yeah.. I’ll have my trusty tissue-box close by. (I am a lot like Darren in that aspect..I even look like him, AND I’ve been a 4th-grade teacher, would You believe it?…)
She’s back home in a stangers home. It’s hers but it belongs almost to someone else. Someone she simply hasn’t been in a long time. It’s almost like she’s going through a mourning period. She’s lost the person she was and can’t get her back. So now here she is trying to come home and be someone she simply can no longer be.
When going back to re-visit old haunts and former dwellings, I’m always struck by how small they seem now; they always seemed ‘the right size.’ I think it’s just my personal space is a different shape, now – somewhat literally in her case.
“Going Home” is the impossible dream. If you’ve been away for long, things will have changed, and you will have changed, and Home as you knew it is gone.
I went to France for two weeks. When I got back my landlord had died of knee surgery complications. The place I grew up changed a lot while I was away for 12 years. Now it’s been obliterated by a tornado. When I got back here from four days in California, I discovered that here had changed–a monster storm tore out all the trees.
We are lucky to feel that we have gotten back Home after a quick run to the store for bread–life can change that fast. Home is an illusion…but it’s the most cherished illusion I can think of.
Home is where your heart is, where you hang your hat, but mostly it’s an idea in your head. So you can actually carry it around with you if you want to.
oops. That was supposed to be a reply to Danzier – and these lines were supposed to be bold, too:
it’s just the night cuts through me like a knife
would you care to stay awhile and save my life?
would you care to stay awhile and save my life?
i don’t know what made me say that
i’ve got this funny sense of humor
you know i could not be downhearted it i tried
it’s just that going home is such a ride
would you care to stay till sunrise
it’s completely your decision
it’s just that going home is such a ride
going home is such a ride
going home is such a ride
going home is such a low and lonely ride
would you hang your denim jacket
near the poster by picasso
do you sleep on the left side or the right
would you mind if i leave on the light
would you mind if it isn’t too bright
now i need the window open
so if you happen to get chilly
there’s this coverlet my cousin hand crocheted
do you mind if the edges are frayed
would you like to unfasten my braid
shall i make you in the morning
as cup of instant coffee
i will sweeten it with honey and with cream
when you sleep
do you have dreams?
you can read the early paper
and i can watch you while you shave
oh god the mirror’s cracked when you leave
will you come back?
you don’t have to answer that at all
the bathroom door is just across the hall
you’ll find an extra towel on the rack
on the paisley patterned papered wall
there’s a comb on the shelf
i papered that wall myself
that wall
myself
would you care to stay till sunrise
it’s completely your decision
it’s just the night cuts through me like a knife
would you care to stay awhile and save my life?
would you care to stay awhile and save my life?
i don’t know what made me say that
i’ve got this funny sense of humor
you know i could not be downhearted it i tried
it’s just that going home is such a ride
going home is such a ride
going home is such a ride
isn’t going home is such a low and lonely ride?
Perhaps she’s just depressed by the old wall-phone and lack of furniture, and not due to 80,000 years trapped in a mini-hell due to her own foolishness?
I noticed: the phone (and it’s use) bring Beatific things; being beside the phone brings Communication Breakdown. Which surely describes Shelly at the moment.
And judging by the odd smirks and general calmness of Bud throughout this whole affair, it is possible that Bud’s little “excursion” into the demon realm to retrieve May might have involved an encounter with Shellinx.
Though, granted, this is conjecture and will likely be proven wrong down the road, like most of my attempts to predict this plotline. (>^_^)>
Don’t think so – if it were, i’d expect Bud to know more about The Thing Your Aunt Gave You Which You Don’t Know What It Is, and to be not-surprised when Shelly was suddenly naked…
Happened to me too. Granted, I was MIA for about a year (I disappeared shortly after the first meeting of Tina & Phix). That’s what we get for leaving. (>^_^)>
*leaves the hugging to txmystic, takes chair, plops down in front of Shelly, hands over tea, remains silent and waits patiently for Shell’ to start talking.*
Hugging&listening are indeed the only things one can do in a situation like that.
Brings a bottle of my grandfathers home brew- dark october bock German style chew then swallow beer. Brewed for family and only the closest of friends.
they mentioned the fish from hell in the wiki article
the angler fish
apparently the little jaws monster is the female and the male is this tiny little newt thing which attaches itself to the female and acts kind of like a parasite.
then again if i was a guy there is no way in hell i would go near a female of my species if she had teeth like that unless i was small enough to go through the damn gaps!
In the perpetual dark of the bottom of the deep oceans, the likelyhood of the male angler fish finding a female is so remote that if they do find one they hook up permanently.
About the blanket octopus again…
They use the barbs of the pourtugese manor war jellyfish as weapons?
Tool using?????
I was actually looking up elephant octopus I think a while back, and saw this one. Was too cute. Was really into marine life during my last few biology degree years. ^.^
I’ll tell ya, in my perspective, a lot of what she’s feeling will be filtered through her heritage as a Comanche. Depending on how Traditional her family is, there are things that will help with her healing. A good session in a sweat lodge does different wonders than a sauna, but that helps too. She might see local medicine men or women and get smoked/smudged/cedar’d whatever term your familiar with, that blessing with smoldering cedar, sage, or sweetgrass.
Of course, as a Comanche, she might just need a big hunk of beef cooked over a open flame to brighten her mood.
I’ve heard of “being away too long”, but this takes the cake.
…and now that I think of it, that last frame reminds me of something. (And, if I can find it in the archives, I’ll post it here…)
Found it:
I just can’t help feeling left behind.
Awww, she’s wearing Monica’s 8-ball tee. XD
But on another note, I’m feeling sad for Shelly again. I hope we get to see her blimp her dad or Officer Tight Buns.
STUPID FRIGGIN’ AUTO CORRECT!!!!
I meant glomp!! Jeez… XD
that heavens for that….
I should really consider turning the auto correct off. It is going to really get me in trouble one of these days.
Or at the very least learn to inspect my posts before hitting send.
I wonder what “blimping” someone would look like… 😆
Aaaaaand it begins… I hate my life. XD
it just mildly worried me that her dad OR officer buns would be involved with the blimping.
I’m just glad it didn’t split the difference…”Gimping” someone sounds NAAAASTY! >_<
*hugs shadobabe*
you may have discovered a new word for for internet folks to use there.
I know right? What I want to know is why it corrected to that.
Seriously, compare to words “blimp” and “glomp”. Only the last two letters are the same. Wouldn’t make more sense if it had corrected to another word beginning with “g”?
Hmmm..would it look like that poor sod that had a compressor-hose up his You-know-what by accident??? (true story!!)
@Paula
Oh, yippee!! I can die happy now!! XD
*covers head with paper sack*
Look at your keyboard at the proximity of the “g” and “b” keys, ditto the “i” and “o”. That’s how the Otto correct works, its not so much a spell checker as a typo catcher.
Rule 34 may apply.
That’s a good point.
Damn technology.
But I still love it!! (even if it does repeatedly try to turn my “awwww”s into “asses”)
@shadobabe
it really does help 😀
i still remember the utter delight i felt when my manager at my last work place used the word ‘LAG’ for the computer system being slow.
and no-no one in my office barring me actually played online computer games 😛 i was the one who influenced that 😀
in the future you shall be known as
Shadobabe
Creator of Blimping!
Hmpf. Has nobody ever bought somebody else a Blimpies Sandwich?
Granted, we don’t have that chain here in Fort Smith, but I have heard of it. I’d rather be Blimpied than McD’d.
What I first think of regarding blimping would be for a really fat person to land on you. Possibly in a sexual context.
@Opus the Poet June 7, 2011 at 12:32 am
I know that modern (even old spell checkers) also use rules on sounds (like being told “eau” and “oh” sound similiar). Also “G” and “B” do have similar sound characteristics, and advice to ventriloquist has long been, as “B” sounds are hard to make without moving your lips, to replace every “B” with a “G” — i.e. most ventriloquists say “A gottle of geer” rather than “a bottle of beer”.
“Oh the Humanity”
Best laugh I’ve had in weeks. Thanks, ShadOBabe. Hey, it could have been a lot worse… and as a linguist, it’s exciting to be present at the creation of a new lexical item! 😀
Blimping – When you hug someone you’ve missed so very, very much so very, very hard, the rest of their body expands and inflates like a blimp. Similar to squeezing a balloon in the middle and having both ends swell.
And who hasn’t seen that in a cartoon somewhere? Now we have a name for it! (Applicable to fathers and boyfriends alike). Thank you, ShadOBabe! You are now officaly an Internet Meme Creator.
That was so funny I blimped myself.
What really makes it, ShadOBabe, is the Led Zep reference in the comic + the fact that your gravatar at this writing is a screaming Bud. How many Nazi vehicles is she responsible for destroying?
IT’S. NOT. MY. FAULT!!
It took me a long time to find it but I imagine blimping someone would look a lot like this
Well, blimps are pretty pimp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik9WEW2o8FA
There’s a site for that.
Autocorrects don’t always go by how close the words are – but how close the KEYS are.
Take a look at your keyboard, and it’s choice will make more sense. ^^
You know…for half a second I read your angry/frustrated post in a South Park voice…and even knowing you are female, you sounded in my head like Cartman. Weird way to start my day.
blimp you guys, I’m going home…
Yeah, I bet wearing a shirt for the first time in nearly 80,000 years would be weird. :p
Love the effect of the back lighting in the first panel.
I’d imagine the shirt would be a bit baggy around the chest, if that’s Monica’s shirt.
Somebody – Bud? – tried it on and it looked as if it were squeezing the breath out of her like a boa constrictor.
Yeah. Monica’s 8-ball shirt seems to carry its own brand of magic.
I mean, look how tiny it is when not worn:
http://wapsisquare.com/comics/2006-08-16-cutenstretchy.gif
That’s the strip i was thinking of.
Paul keeps implying that M’s magic potential is greater than any of the others. Squeezing into that shirt may be evidence of it.
Unstable Molecules!
it sucks when people let a good reference slide so in the name of good will…. I see what you did there, true believer.
That’s just what I was thinking. Does that mean that Wapsi Square takes place in the Marvel Universe?
EXCELSIOR! Feel better now?
there was another “stretchy tee” that had a tiny flower on it…
when M tried it on, the “cute little flower” wasn’t so cute…
Home alone?
aww sweetie
*hugs shelly*
and panel 4 is marvelous 🙂
And compare the last here to panel 1 here…
Yup…”breakdown” indeed.. Whaddayamean “symbolic giveaway” (like a big blaring neon sign next to the phone…)
I really want to hug the big lug….. I wonder why no-one tried that at M’s….
Somebody did hug her at M’s. Big girl – horns on her head.
that hug included licks
shellinx might be trying to repress that..
^^That.
I meant a “tender, understanding -motherly- hug”not a “squeeze the life out of someone because you’re elated that a plan worked-out and a friend is finally back”-hug.
eh.
I’ll take whatever I can get.
*coughs*
missed that 🙂
thanks for the point out 😀
I missed it too. Great catch Jay.
My first thought upon seeing it was “Who tried to cover Zeppelin this time?” It was only when I calmed down that I noticed the actual importance.
Maybe covering a zeppelin could be another definition of “blimping”?
Yeah, I noticed that, too. 🙂
sad homecoming is sad -.-
80,000 years of emptiness catching up to her. This will take a while to get back into anything like a routine.
Wonder if Officer Huggy is around?
Sad.. to a certain degree. It’s more that she’s finally alone again in her old home, without the noisy chatter and distractions of her friends around.
I always call that “buzzing-down” Like after a busy day, I need time to let the buzzing of impressions settle down.
First panel is cute, last panel is gorgeous, and tells all…
Oh, and the phone-panel says it all too “breakdown..may..be..fine”
I really have a feeling Creepy Girl/Conscious is going to do something to kill the drama, or be that therapeutic/loving hug she needs soon, before family and/or boy.
Ah, yes – a tender gluteopedal moment with Connie.
Maybe “pedogluteal” might express it better…
She’s come a long way from blowing up a BBQ grill…
What a unique problem to face. How do you avoid telling the people that you love that you have been away for 80.000 years in less than the span of a second. A new definition will have to be made for a person having “that faraway look in her eye”
Her faraway look is going to scare the people who can perceive it I think…
And this is the dump I live in? I really am a loser.
LOL!! Way to be all sentimental.
Well at least she didn’t come home to dirty dishes. XD
Ewwww! That would be awful!
Thankfully she’s either a clean person or Officer TightBuns is an excellent boytoy who cleans up after her. 🙂
I have all this, while 56 others were rewarded with annihilation.
Call the man, sweetie!
does she remember him?
i mean how long have they dated?
Does she remember how to use the phone?
Sad Shelly is sad, but at least she has clothes now. Though the question is what is she upset about exactly. Is it the 80k year absence or something else/more?
Monica thought that she had a hard time explaining things to Kevin.
Shelly’s is a couple of orders of magnitude larger…
“Shelly’s problem is…”
Sometimes you learn things about the world and about yourself that drive a wedge between you and those who don’t know. Shelly’s experience included quite a few of those things. In time, she can learn to compensate, and be just as close with those around her as she was before, but it will be hard until then.
Shellys problem is the same one veterans have when coming back from a war zone. Not PTSD, per say, but the fact that they have changed. Their experiences have left them different people. There’s the old saying that you can never go home. Shelly may have all her memories back, but she’s seen too much and changed too much to slide easily into old (really old) routines. I think that Monica’s crankiness and sadness from the previous strips is pecause she sees this. Tina is the same, once she realized Shelly wasn’t a threat to her. For Bud it’s less of an issue because she’s already lived tens of millenia. There’s less empathy there. I think Shelly’s in for some rough times as she tries to readjust.
Some have labeled this “Mission Letdown” and it is a problem. People tend to let their job become their life and when that job is over they lose a reason for being.
The best cure I know of is work therapy, just get out there and do something, the harder the better.
I think the WWII vets did better in this aspect because they saw themselves as citizens first, and wanted to get home and get on with life, and they did.
The flip side, which did not go so well, was that they never really talked and came to grips with the horrors they had endured, and so they suffered a form of PTSD that they never had a chance to get over, because they didn’t want to inflict that suffering and pain on those they loved.
Shelly went to see the elephant…
@ Bmonk The good thing about the WWII vets was that there were so many and WWII affected soo many people. There wasn’t a block on any street in America that didn’t lose somebody in The War. Most guys of a certain age had this experience in common with everybody else. Even if there were people that didn’t understand there was the VFW or the Lions Club or Masons where there were people that did. I’ve been fortunate to know quite a few WWII vets growing up and none of them would talk much about it. I also know that they were absolutely disgusted how the Vietnam vets were treated; and yes they were all different when they came back according to to the relatives. The ones who were there, understood. The ones that weren’t couldn’t.
Post WW2 Bill Mauldin cartoon – Willy, sweating, with his son, talking to the girl in a movie theatre box office,m posters for a war film in the background:
“Damn right it was realistic. Gimme my money back.”
Agreed. And I don’t think she and Officer Tight Buns are as close as M and Kevin, either, which makes it worse.
It’s amazing how no one remembers Justin’s name.
Justin isn’t as fun as Officer Tight Buns though
which is why it sticks…
I remember it. “Officer Buns” is more fun to type.
Perhaps she is lamenting how she was somebody when she was a sphinx. For 80,000 years she was the guardian of the tree. She had the respect (and fear) of even other sphinxes. She saw wonders and was a wonder herself. Now what? She’s a human trapped in a human body, destined to live and die a human life. She could feel like it’s all over. Trapped or not in the forest, this is a big comedown for her. How can you come back to this when you’ve done that for far, far longer than your former human life. This must all seem so meaningless now.
Did I miss something? Who said she was trapped?
Shelly was trapped in the forest for 80,000+ years. She could not return (for whatever reason) until all the cycles had passed in reverse order.
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/so-fragile/
here you go.
That’s a very good theory, though Shelly did choose to return, even though she couldn’t remember what she was returning to at the time. So was it a bad decision based on whim or curiosity? She essentially was alone for those 80k years, (not counting CLG for company), maybe the loneliness got to her, yet she could still regret what she lost in the forest. Tough one to call.
One of the girls needs to call Officer Buns and send him over – don’t explain, just tell him SHelly’s in a really bad place.
If he’s worth her time, he’ll be there for her.
I don’t think any of the other girls know who he is. As far as we have seen she hasn’t introduced him to any of them.
She’s certainly discussed him (quite probably in horrific detail) with Monica and possibly Tina…
To bad the details of his name probably didn’t go past “Officer Hot Buns”
His name is Justin. However, she hasn’t mentioned his name to her friends on panel, if that’s what you mean.
comfort food needed. Large pizza, and maybe she can ask Tina if she has a spare bottle of wine she could send over. Or maybe a pint of blackberry cabernet sorbet.
Next day, go the the yoga center and terrorize her unsuspecting kickboxing students. Then track down Officer tight buns, warn him his luck hasn’t changed, and he should think very carefully before bedding down with an 80,00p-y/o cougar.
I wonder if she’s forgotten the effects of chocolate and ice cream. Reintroductions needed!
ben and jerrys
anything flavour…
those people should be proclaimed gods…
Vade Retro Satanas!!!! *glares menacingly towards freezer filled with B&J*
Aww…C’ mon, don’t do that to me. I am as helpless towards B&J Caramel Sutra and/or Chunky Monkey as M’s alter-ego is towards Dr Custard…. I just lost 10 lbs. by not having 1 x 500cc B&J per week….. 🙁
Buuut..Shelly may flourish by a bit of NY-fudge, or cookie-dough.. She has earned it. (together with plenty of hugs&kisses)
oops. so that’s what B does..interesting… (feigning ignorance, because accepting that forgetting a /b is too embarrassing..) 😆
Ooo…cutting out the ice cream is hard. Especially where I am…Texas summers make ice cream consumption mandatory for survival.
Of course I’m the idiot who scheduled her wedding for mid-autumn so that her dress fitting has to be in August…which means losing weight in summer. *shakes head* Sometimes I forget to use my brain.
i just recently discovered ‘coconutterly fair’
man that flavour is guaranteed to vanish from our freezer if i was to buy it (and into my belly) so i’m kinda glad i live with my folks and they fill the freezer to the brim 🙂
which only allows the tiny tubs access…
I’m with Charles Schultz and most of his characters: I just don’t like coconut. So I’ll pass.
Offer me some Pralines and Cream, though. . . .
Hmm. Does anyone remember the Monty Python flavor they did? My third all-time favorite ice cream flavor ever. 😀
Danzier, I never heard of Monty-Python-flavored Ice Cream. I’m just glad it’s not Crunchy Frog, or Cockroach Cluster. And certainly not the Spring Surprise . . .
Look on TV Tropes… I do believe they HAVE been declared gods…
Sadly, not. I checked the trope pantheons, and they have not yet been declared gods of ice cream. Clearly, not enough tropers have eaten Cherry Garcia.
Were it me, the first visit I would make would be to dear old dad. Lay it all out and get some answers. Her sudden hair growth should be proof enough for him. A visit from CG might be in order too. Little Ms Enforcer might loosen him up as needed.
i don’t think i would
much as i would want answers (if she doesn’t have them already) i would be too afraid he would think of me as a monster…
I think she should talk to her father, but not to get answers. Unfortunately, he is unlikely to have any answers she wants. On the other hand, Shelly is very close with her dad. He can at least offer support, and if she can’t trust her own father to not think of her as a monster, then who can she trust? On the other hand, he might pass out. He has been known to do that, and though it would be funny, it wouldn’t exactly help the situation. But, then again, she might think he deserves to know. Now I’m just confusing myself.
“Wow, Shelly! You can change like that? We won’t need engine hoists any more!”
Maybe due to her newfound sphinxhood (and finding the reason she liked being a guardian her whole life), she might join officer tightbuns in a similiar profession now, or maybe on the side?
Shelly a cop… anybody? 😀
Hmm.she’s a bit too prone to exploding to be a cop. A good cop is a calm spirit..although.. if she learned calm.. On second thought: Not a bad idea..
A little bit of wine, a convenient billboard with a view of the skyline, and who knows… a good photography session could develop… again.
I think what she really nees right now is someone who is calm and empathetic to just be there for her and let her know that she’s not alone.
By process of elimination, I suspect Phix and/or Brandi would be the best at that.
If you’re interested, here’s the process of elimination:
Monica’s too quick to get annoyed, Jin’s too unstable, Bud doesn’t seem to have the empathy she needs to cope with things at this point in time (she may be able to help later on), Tina’s too new at the supernatural herself to be able to give the reassurance she needs, Heather’s out of the loop so doesn’t even know what’s going on, Amanda, like Bud, is too practically minded to be much help, etc.
Phix seems to be a good choice be she is a sphinx, she remembers all the timelines and has intervened in a responsible way in them (just like Shelly had to). However, she has to balance that with her library duties.
I wouldn’t rule out Brandi.
Sorry, I should have been clearer:
Phix has to balance helping Shelly with her library duties so may not be able to give Shelly the time she needs.
Or BrandY. (c8
on the off chance that I might have broken the interweb.
Not yet. Better luck next time. (See: http://www.collectedcurios.com/spiderandscorpion.html, number 073 for a weird interpretation.)
If you break it too many times, you might get banned, you know.
According to the cast list the shortened form of Brandilyn’s name is “Brandi”.
She looks an awful lot like CG in panel 5. But I sort of know the feeling.
on the crate?
Yeah, on a crate When I came back from the cremation of my Dad, I slumped down like that on a shopping crate in my gangway/hall completely drained, so, i can relate for a bit..
At a moment like that You’re so overwhelmed, that you’ll need to sit down, no matter the place (if that makes any sense..)
Yes. Everything empties out. Sorrow, sadness, loss, energy, the will to continue. No room at the moment for joy or even a smile. You feel like a shell with a shadow of a thought in it. It takes a while to move or to think. Even you mind rattles around in your head, like a pea in an ashcan. Lousy, lonely feeling. It needs more than a hug, alot more.
Yeah, that. Twice. Glad it’s not just me.
Take a breath. Cry. Find something — anything thing to do for a bit. Clean. Sort the shelves. Laundry. Sleep. Then get up and try to get going again.
Eventually, you notice sunshine and flowers again.
When Shelly decides to bake bread or something, then she’s on her way.
wow guys 🙁
*group-hugs jay-em, kaibyo and atomic*
In my family we call that having a dead battery. Time and attention seem to be the only cures.
Paint bucket. Grandma. I missed saying good-bye to her by one appointment I chose not to cancel but should have. And yeah, “empty shell” is not hollow enough.
The Shadow is closer. Stanza V after the prickly pear.
Aunt. Basement Floor. I had been trying to convince her to stop smoking for years. I thought I accepted it when I saw her in the hospital thinner than her bones… I couldn’t get low enough to the ground, so I just cried…
Sad. Reminds me a lot of when Tina goes inactive, too.
tina actually ‘goes’ somewhere though..i think…
i wonder if shelly visits the basement?
What would be really great, if Phix suddenly materialized behind Shelly, sat down, and hugged her. No more, just that picture…
I can really imagine that Phix took the role of surrogate-mom to Shellinx, having been through banishment herself, and bringing her experience…..
*sigh* I am a sucker for melodrama… 😛
That would be famazing. I don’t mind if that’s the only panel for tomorrow.
I think shellinx would start crying
i don’t think she would be the only one..
Yeah.. I’ll have my trusty tissue-box close by. (I am a lot like Darren in that aspect..I even look like him, AND I’ve been a 4th-grade teacher, would You believe it?…)
I like that vision. Comforting.
Totally can’t wait for her to rape her boy toy police b/f… ^.^
Assuming/hoping nothing dramatic happens that she breaks it off with him. 🙁
I have to admit that i had a thoroughly reprehensible “Oops – don’t know my own strength any more” vision when i read “breaks it off with him”…
O.o
How will she explain the sudden long hair?
“weave”, and no toucing the hair for boy-toy….
Or she can simply cut it.
She’s back home in a stangers home. It’s hers but it belongs almost to someone else. Someone she simply hasn’t been in a long time. It’s almost like she’s going through a mourning period. She’s lost the person she was and can’t get her back. So now here she is trying to come home and be someone she simply can no longer be.
*sniff*
good empathy there 🙂
i spect you’re right.
When going back to re-visit old haunts and former dwellings, I’m always struck by how small they seem now; they always seemed ‘the right size.’ I think it’s just my personal space is a different shape, now – somewhat literally in her case.
“Going Home” is the impossible dream. If you’ve been away for long, things will have changed, and you will have changed, and Home as you knew it is gone.
I went to France for two weeks. When I got back my landlord had died of knee surgery complications. The place I grew up changed a lot while I was away for 12 years. Now it’s been obliterated by a tornado. When I got back here from four days in California, I discovered that here had changed–a monster storm tore out all the trees.
We are lucky to feel that we have gotten back Home after a quick run to the store for bread–life can change that fast. Home is an illusion…but it’s the most cherished illusion I can think of.
Home is where your heart is, where you hang your hat, but mostly it’s an idea in your head. So you can actually carry it around with you if you want to.
oops. That was supposed to be a reply to Danzier – and these lines were supposed to be bold, too:
hmmm. Apparently it was a reply to what i meant it to be – my off-center avatar fooled me…
“Home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in” – Robert Heinlein
Dory Previn – “The Lady with the Braid
dammit – i’ve been catching myself whistling that song for an hour and a half now.
i wonder if she will feel the need to plant a tree in the back yard…
I get what you’re saying, but she lives in a studio apartment. Those tend to be rather lacking in backyards.
A nice, crinkly and bent bonsai in the sitting-room could do too..
Just make sure no one touches it. She might get a little over-protective.
Perhaps she’s just depressed by the old wall-phone and lack of furniture, and not due to 80,000 years trapped in a mini-hell due to her own foolishness?
Pathos
That’s a great word for a situation like this..
I sort of hear Vangelis’ Prelude in the background…
Wow, that’s a great song. Thank you for sharing it.
I wonder how she can fit into Monica’s clothes wihtout giving them the “Lou Ferigno” treatment…
She’s had 80,000 years to do some otherworldly consulting. Probably got in touch with Barry Allen… 😛
Here’s the strip i was thinking of – it’s a Magic 8-Ball shirt…
(Thanks to Sonicthunder for finding it…)
No worries mate. Glad I could be of some help.
I wonder if anyone else noticed the word “BEATIFICS” on the side of the phone. Interesting word to appear in this comic.
I noticed: the phone (and it’s use) bring Beatific things; being beside the phone brings Communication Breakdown. Which surely describes Shelly at the moment.
The Beatifics is a Minneapolis band. Albums include How I Learned to Stop Worrying (1996) and The Way We Never Were (2006).
Besides 56 Shellies and Phix, did she have any other visitors while she was there? 80,000 years in solitary would drive anyone mad…
At least a few other sphinxes – she mentioned meeting some of the apos…
Nudge, apparently. Various other Sphinxes who did NOT like being around Conscience. Those are all she’s mentioned…
You always have your own best friend. CLG was there the whole time. Talking to her had to be at least interesting for the last 2000 years.
And judging by the odd smirks and general calmness of Bud throughout this whole affair, it is possible that Bud’s little “excursion” into the demon realm to retrieve May might have involved an encounter with Shellinx.
Though, granted, this is conjecture and will likely be proven wrong down the road, like most of my attempts to predict this plotline. (>^_^)>
Don’t think so – if it were, i’d expect Bud to know more about The Thing Your Aunt Gave You Which You Don’t Know What It Is, and to be not-surprised when Shelly was suddenly naked…
I think I have one of those. I’ve been trying to get rid of it for years, but it just won’t stay gone.
Mine even came back from a vacation in Somebody Else’s Problem land.
For those wondering what the heck that was all about – try here.
And remember – two beers is too few, four is too many.
Getting back to a “normal routine” is not going to be easy for her.
Music is the cure. Pick up your bass, Shelly. That’s what I do when I’m at a loss for what to do next.
Interesting. My old avatar is gone and apparently someone on WordPress has acquired my login. See what happens when you don’t post for a while?
/me nods.
Happened to me too. Granted, I was MIA for about a year (I disappeared shortly after the first meeting of Tina & Phix). That’s what we get for leaving. (>^_^)>
♥ hugs Shelly ♥
*leaves the hugging to txmystic, takes chair, plops down in front of Shelly, hands over tea, remains silent and waits patiently for Shell’ to start talking.*
Hugging&listening are indeed the only things one can do in a situation like that.
Hides in the hall so Shelly won’t feel crowded; brought cookies/biscuits with chocolate chips. The soft kind that are easy to eat.
Brings a bottle of my grandfathers home brew- dark october bock German style chew then swallow beer. Brewed for family and only the closest of friends.
I’m both sad for Shellinx and still kind of in mourning for the Shelly that set Shellinx free.
Poor multiple Shellys. *sigh*
Paul:
Kudos on this observation of a very human Being.
LEESKRA:
Sorry to be off-topic, but is your avatar a walnut octopus?
There’s a weird fact about them.
Sexually Dismorphic.
and another word i had to google.
if my search browser ever gets checked i might get into trouble 😛
Well…. Humans are to a degree, but the “Blanket Octopus” is unusual to the extent that the male and female are different.
they mentioned the fish from hell in the wiki article
the angler fish
apparently the little jaws monster is the female and the male is this tiny little newt thing which attaches itself to the female and acts kind of like a parasite.
then again if i was a guy there is no way in hell i would go near a female of my species if she had teeth like that unless i was small enough to go through the damn gaps!
In the perpetual dark of the bottom of the deep oceans, the likelyhood of the male angler fish finding a female is so remote that if they do find one they hook up permanently.
About the blanket octopus again…
They use the barbs of the pourtugese manor war jellyfish as weapons?
Tool using?????
I was actually looking up elephant octopus I think a while back, and saw this one. Was too cute. Was really into marine life during my last few biology degree years. ^.^
I’ll tell ya, in my perspective, a lot of what she’s feeling will be filtered through her heritage as a Comanche. Depending on how Traditional her family is, there are things that will help with her healing. A good session in a sweat lodge does different wonders than a sauna, but that helps too. She might see local medicine men or women and get smoked/smudged/cedar’d whatever term your familiar with, that blessing with smoldering cedar, sage, or sweetgrass.
Of course, as a Comanche, she might just need a big hunk of beef cooked over a open flame to brighten her mood.
Panel 4 followed by panel 5. All I can say is…WOW! Such a powerful play on emotion!
Been there. Done that. It’s so sad. She is so pretty. I think she will be OK though. At least I hope so…
I think the RSS feed is broken, it only shows comics from about a week ago?
I’ve had Troy, my tech and server technician, we can’t find anything wrong with the RSS. Not sure what the problem is.
Whole site’s runnin’ a bit slow (as of 12:28 AM 6/8). Something heat related?
🤔Surely it’s not just me, but it seems that Shirley’s breast size (in proportion to her chest-circumference) has been …inconsistant lately. 😕