At least she has met a sphinx before so it may not seem quite as terrifying this time as it would be otherwise. And, of course she knows she’s not really there. Still, it might have been prudent if she had put on a depends before starting this.
Not likely that it’s Phix. Not likely it is a real sphinix either. This is happening is the spirit world not real world. Unless Shel was transported in time this is her spirit at the tree. It is likely the spirit of the tree can take any shape it wants as well. So it took the image3 from her mind. After all a proper quester needs to be challenged to gain entry to the information they are seeking. As to knowing her I would bet it is shel’s spirit nature that is being reconized, not shel herself.
The other side of this coin is shel may have been here before in a previous cycle.
I don’t think that’s the tree taking a new shape. I believe the Sphinx is coming from the other direction. Note that Shelly is turned away from the tree in panel one.
I would agree this is probably not Phix, and not real (although where etheric artifacts are concerned, what’s real?). But the “I know you” sounds personal. Since she starts out growling “Huumaan” we know she’s not talking to Conscience or the demons that made up Conscience, whatever it is knows Shelly in some connection. And it may not be related, but I remember Nudge said she was told to lure Shelly into the woods, which nearly killed her. That suggests something powerful wanted to interfere with Shelly’s destiny. Musclehead may be even more important that we’ve been lead to believe, so far…
Possibly not apotropaic. The word means “protecting from evil” or “warding off evil.” Monica’s previous mention of apotropaic sphinxes talks about the ones from Hindu cultures where the sphinx is a protector. This is also the ancient Egyptian attitude about sphinxes. The Greek legendary sphinx is a violent, gluttonous monster, not a ward against evil.
This distinction is even talked about earlier in the comic when Phix explains how members of her kind trying to protect the people from demons walking around in human bodies devolve into simple killers.
Phix, I think, would certainly count as an apotropaic member of her kind, but this one may not.
Phix exists outside of time (or something like that) which is how she was not included in the calendar resets so it’s possible that this early Phix could know Shelly from the current Phix.
I don’t know. It might be better to “negotiate” with a being which knows you than a stranger who has no interest in your well being. At least it’s a good conversation starter.
The Confusion Corner is in Mucho Mocha, Tina’s coffee shop. We all get coffee and/or tea (drink of choice) and sit there when befuddled, bantering about what is so confusing. There are plenty of chairs; come join us!
I’m guessing this isn’t our Phix, but an entirely new one. I don’t remember Phix being the last of her species. It’s not she travels around in a blue police box with Nudge in tow as a companion, lol.
Jay-Em: nice ref, but it was not the library that did that.. it was the ‘trees’ they used for the books.. 🙂
Phix’s library is much, much older, and is Apotropaic, not tree-based.. 😛
I agree…this isn’t our Phix…which is really problematic when you think about it. Didn’t Phix let us know that she was the pacifist of the sphinxes? This beastie could well be a mean one…
Speaking of Phix’s younger and more violent days, I still wonder how long a sphinx lives? We know Phix has been around for quite a while because of being stuck in the Library, but no one ages in there anyway. It’s not really clear if she is immortal anyway (immortal but can die that is). Or do they just live a very long time?
I don’t think Phix was always a pacifist. That seems to have come over her at a point in her “career”, but it appears she has killed many people at some time. She was not the one at the gates of Thebes (except for one day), but she had a history before that.
I don’t think that’s Phix; I think an Apatropaic sphinx would be out of place in this mythology – but then again, the real world hasn’t studied mythology (much)….
..and given that we already know about the tree being (or representing) Yggdrassil, we’re dealing more with Norse than Celtic mythos. I don’t think this Sphinx is good news. Nobody, but nobody in the Norse Pantheon was anyone I’d ever want to meet. Even the “good guys” made H. Himmler look benevolent.
Good point–but between world tree/Yggdrasil and sphinxes we are already moving into the realm of universal archetypes, where individual mythoi begin to merge.
Ok mergers… do you want to meet up with the Greek / Norse Fates? You know, the ones that (according to the Norse) live at the base of the World-Tree. The Greek version I could maybe deal with. Surt would scare the doo-doo outta me.
And remember the riddle Phix axe’s the newbies to the Library is –
“I never see your face, yet I see it every day. You can see me all around you, in the treetops is where I play.”
Yes, that’s always the risk when dimension hopping. Like when Bud went to fetch Maya. Poor Shelly could experience years of life and death struggles before the relic is snatched from her hand. Not likely in this case since we are seeing what is happening, still …
It’s several orders of magnitude too small for Yggdrasil. Yg has several WORLDS in it’s branches.
..that doesn’t mean that it is any less important. IIRC, there is a particularly old oak that is considered to be the ‘middle of Ireland’. There is also supposed to be a lake that drains away once a decade to show a massive tree that grows down there. Oak, Hawthrone, and Ash were supposed to be homes to fairies (and also used to make witches brooms and various druidic ritual items.)
he gravestone with the tree in the Irish graveyard in the house that Jack built^H^H^H^H ^H^H^H^H ^H^H^H^H ^H^H^H^H^H picture that Amanda found said “Yggdrassil” on it…
This sphinx, like the banshee, also looks like it has it’s brain busted, it’s bonkers, it’s mental cogs have packed up, and taken the last train off the planet….
Ai.. that bad? One of those “It was really great party , but after 23:00 things are a bit fuzzy”
(mind You, I am referring to our own home-made elder-berry-wine that got up to 14%…with hardly a hangover the next day, just a falling-over after the fourth glass 😆 )
Sorry..family-secret. My dad did all the wine-making and tasting and falling-over, and finding the right type of yeast and additives, so he didn’t get a hang-over 😆
The base trick is finding a warm place in the room where the temp is stable when the fermenting starts to take place, and a lot of stirring of the original sludge. That, and a couple of good wine-locks/syphons for the french 40L wine flasks to pour the filtered wine-sludge in(dunno how they’re called in english). After that, do not move it and let it bubble and plop away.
You also need to have a understanding family that isn’t too perturbed by fart-sounds and loud bubbly sounds from the large wine containers standing in the corner.
If you want a more “woody” or cognac -dry- taste, you’d want to leave some of the stems of the elder-berries in. Using stems, is a taste to be aquired. You can either hate it or love it, there’s no in-between.
Wow..I am amazed how much I actually picked-up from the years of wine-making of my dad..
On the “hangover’ bit. It wan’t as much a “no hangover’-wine as it was a minor hangover-wine without the really terrible bits the next morning.
No heavy headaches, no nausea, yet still a sense of sahara in the tongue region, and legs that suddenly seem to have lost muscle, but that was about the worst it would get. 😛
Natural ingredients and no chemicals used on- and around the fruits used. That’s about the ghist of good, hangover-lean wine.
In the real world of wine, that nice hangover-lean wine is always the most natural (and often the most expensive)
But hey, I am no “vinologist”.. I never bought the stuff, we had our own 🙂
I’m going to say this is the true heir to the Sphinx throne deposed long ago by the current set of losers in charge. This Sphinx princess/queen got imprisoned long ago and Shelly has gotten close to freeing her several times before getting interrupted by the calendar machine.
That’s my ridiculous theory and I’m sticking to it!
*puts down protractor and dividers, steps away from Wile E. Coyote style blueprint*
My research indicates that a ‘Monica Sphinx’ would find it very difficult, if not impossible to achieve a true ‘belly landing’.
It just won’t touch the ground…
Hey! I’m hindererd by idiom&reality here.. In the world of flight, there is no such thing as a “boobie-landing”..And if there were, The FAA would prolly’ ban it’s mentioning.
Athough the Grumman Goose is the closest to a “boobie-landing” craft I can imagine.
hmm
the sphynx took care of the errant demons. they prolly had a major discussion about what occured with the calender machine at the time so i suspect every sphinx would ‘know’ of shelly monica and the golem girls.
theyre prolly quite famous in the supernatural world 🙂
Spoilers? No idea what you’re talking about, it was fun reading it back then for *us*, why should it not be fun for others now? Remember, *you* read it with the blessing(?) of hindsight (an exact science).
the spoilers people have put in the comments when theyve gone back to reread them. not the comics. the comics never have spoilers. only teases.
named all the golem girls before their names were mentioned in the comics for one. and in fact called them golems.
calling tepoz a blue smurf before he was first drawn in colour..
Oh, and “glyph”? Just a technical term (used for these things you’re reading *right now*, for example: letters. Those are abstract. An actually displayed “e” (the shape of it) is called a glyph)
I don’t know for certain, but I doubt anyone would read the comments as they read the comics. There are well over two thousand of them, after all. It would be a chore just to get through them all, let alone be distracted by comments. Once one has gone through them, going back and reading comments should be fine as they simply clairify/amplify/distort/critize/extrapolate/beat to death points made in the given comic or the series as a whole.
I don’t think we’re getting a Phix fix here. There are other sphinxes in existence.
That apparent guard other things.
What was the second tree in the Garden of Eden? Immortality, IIRC. Supposedly the guardian was an angel with a flaming sword that turned every direction, but if he/she’s out sick, we can get a sphinx from the temp agency.
Sphinxes do seem to have inserted themselves into everything in the Wapsiverse haven’t they? Sort of like lawyers. Just that they are also jury and executioner as well. A bunch of Judge Dredds basically, only not as nice.
There is a resemblence in the eyes and eyebrows of the top insert of shelly and the bottom panel of the Sphinx’s eyes-eyebrows. Could it be a remote ancestor of Shelly got a bit of Sphinx nooky? They can, after all, at least look like a human female. Could they also birth a human-like being given a dose of human sperm? Over suceeding human-human generations, most Sphinx characteristics could have been minimized, yet still be there in some way like … oh, I don’t know … inhuman strength?
“Moth-er! Did you eat my GF … again!?”
“Why, what would make you think that dear?”
“Well, there’s the blood on your face and on the kitchen walls!”
“It’s not blood, dearest, it’s ketchup. We had trouble opening the bottle.”
“Ok, then explain her shoe I found.”
“What about her shoe?”
“It still has her foot in it, mother!”
“Wow! Will you look at the time. I’m Late for my bone carving clas … I mean my quilting circle!”
“Mother!”
“Oh, and I’ve found the nicest Sphinx I want you to meet. Her name is Mankiller, but don’t let that put you off, she has a great, um, personality and comes from a wonderful collective.”
“Mom, I told you I want to be with a human.”
“Well, if you insist on that nonsense, at least try to find a meatier one.”
“I knew it!”
“Gotta go … same time next week?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Tootles, precious. Mama loves you.” *cheek peck*
Okay. Major thoughts from the comments posted here.
First, every sphinx is unaffected by the passage of time and it’s many versions of reality.
Second, since she didn’t know her name, that’s not our Library Phix.
Third, this brings up the possibility that Shelly has been here before. So as proposed this is the tree she saw in her trip down the rabbit hole or…
Fourth, in one of the many versions of the world, Shelly DID this trip before. This way the Sphinx would have met Shelly before, problem is it could have been from time loop v26.0 and our Shelly from v38.0 has not actually been on this ride before.
Anyone have a headcount on what version of the world we got up to before the calndar machine was given a send off by Bud?
Good point the loop reset occurs in 2012, so this could have happened before…but if the calendar machine was not fixed in those previous loops (a given), why would Shelly have made this trip? Would they not still be focused on the broken machine?
Yeah, they didn’t start on this quest until Jin started to loose it because they had destroyed the calendar machine. Without having destroyed it, Jin wouldn’t have gone off the edge, and the need for this quest would not have arisen.
That’s a good point. That means, except for Jin, this is not uncharted territory. The rest of the world is still going about it’s business much as it would have in other loops. This would mean Jin would have “future” knowledge of what is likely to happen as far as that rest is concerned. She could have known about Stinky and the sub explosion since those events are independant of the relic hunt. Bud would likely have gone in and explored regardless. I suppose the relec would not have held so much significance though. She could have still saved it because of the bullet holes and skeletons, deducing it was somehow significant. Thus they might have gone down this path even if they weren’t trying to fix Jin. So she could have knowledge of possible outcomes even now. Fooling with time has so many quirks.
Regardless of who the Sphinx really is and how she knows Shelly (I agree that it is not Phix), is Shelly prepared to answer her riddle before she has a chance to explain what she is doing there?
Another query: How in the hell did the Nazi U-boat people get the relic away from this Sphinx??
They cut off her nipplies (Hey, they were nazi’s, not the most squeamish people around)..made her really co-operative..and possibly somewhat annoyed… Or was it The Comics-Code that did the cutting?.. :-/ ..
The Comics Code Authority is pretty sharp, but is it sharp enough to cut off a sphinx’s nibbly-bits?
And who, as with the cat and the bell, gets the duty of walking up to her with a cigar cutter?
Let me answer that question with a quadruple redundant negative -in the hope some grammar-nazi, somewhere, goes fetal- : There ain’t no nipplies nomore on the sphinx…don’t you see?
You know, the sphinx may not be any more real than the banshee. Just another one of the tree’s little test/jests. If it’s being drawn from Shelly’s mind then, of course, it would be patterned after the only sphinx she knows.
in every story i know of a major dangerous object was placed out of humnaitys hands but somewhere that they could have access to it when ‘the time was right’
its possible some science professor was at the right level of knowlege and walked into it. pity about the rest of us really ^^ just kinda those things activated early normally mean the world going boom.
I hope that auto-links; I’ve forgotten how to code it. Yes, I will be in remedial code school for eternity…but I didn’t turn the comments into italics this time!
**runs away**
Fi fi fo fum, I smell the blood of an English m … no wait .. is that some Native American with just measure of Irish? Maybe a hint of German or Austrian? No umm … *snif snif*
I do not think this is Phix, for the simple and stupid reason that she isn’t wearing glasses, and Phix always wears glasses.
And I note with amusement that despite the number of card-carrying members of the League of Lechers in house, almost no comments about the sphinx being au naturel have been made.
Well, I think this Sphinx is meant to be very scary. The addition of glasses would kind of reduce that effect by making her look more bookish or motherly. That or, if it is Phix, this may be before she developed the need for glasses. Time seems to be quite fluid in this series.
THANK YOU! Thank you, thank you, thank you….and many apologies. There are a few people within the sound of my computer that will curse your name for this…
No, no, no, NO!! And here I thought we had gotten “phix” puns out of our systems already. But noooo … looks like they will be a phixture around here for a while yet.
Perhaps when the Sphinx says “I know you” she is referring to an ancestor of Shelly’s she knew in the past. Someone who looks much like Shelly does now (maybe even her mother?). Someone in her blood line anyway. This would help explain why Shelly was allowed access via the relic.
What I thought too.
I wouldn’t be too surprised if Shelly’s Mom was something more than a “linguist”. After all..she was the one that gave Shelly the statuettes, so crucial in phixing ( 😀 sorry..couldn’t help myself) the calendar-machine.
In this story-arc, Shelly seems to be the hub, not M, for a change.
All this tends to explain why sphinxes are reputed to be so evil-tempered. I mean, if yours were bare, and dragged on the ground, wouldn’t you be sore?
I once overheard a orderly talking about a recent trip he’d made to Germany. He said he had found many of the people to be brusk and even short tempered with him. At least compared to what he was used to. He went on to say he finally figured out why when he had to use a public restroom. What they call toilet paper we would call crepe paper.
Oh crap . . .
I second that!
thirded!
eww tmi
ok this is the second time I have been scared to read this comic
At least she has met a sphinx before so it may not seem quite as terrifying this time as it would be otherwise. And, of course she knows she’s not really there. Still, it might have been prudent if she had put on a depends before starting this.
re:
DJ
April 29, 2011 at 1:52 am | Reply
thirded!
A Sphinx-demon? this could be–ummm–interesting?
Holy wow. Apotropaic Sphinx. Is that Phix when she wasn’t so proud of herself? Holy wow.
Not likely that it’s Phix. Not likely it is a real sphinix either. This is happening is the spirit world not real world. Unless Shel was transported in time this is her spirit at the tree. It is likely the spirit of the tree can take any shape it wants as well. So it took the image3 from her mind. After all a proper quester needs to be challenged to gain entry to the information they are seeking. As to knowing her I would bet it is shel’s spirit nature that is being reconized, not shel herself.
The other side of this coin is shel may have been here before in a previous cycle.
I would go so far and say that the artefacts intelligence uses scartactics to keep people out but has no real power over them at all.
For Monica Jin is very scary while shellys scariest moment so far must have been meeting sphix.
Personally, I don’t think meeting Phix was that terrifying to Shel, but I could be wrong.
I don’t think that’s the tree taking a new shape. I believe the Sphinx is coming from the other direction. Note that Shelly is turned away from the tree in panel one.
I would agree this is probably not Phix, and not real (although where etheric artifacts are concerned, what’s real?). But the “I know you” sounds personal. Since she starts out growling “Huumaan” we know she’s not talking to Conscience or the demons that made up Conscience, whatever it is knows Shelly in some connection. And it may not be related, but I remember Nudge said she was told to lure Shelly into the woods, which nearly killed her. That suggests something powerful wanted to interfere with Shelly’s destiny. Musclehead may be even more important that we’ve been lead to believe, so far…
Am I the only one who thinks this “Sphinx” looks like M?
If she does, she’s missing two of M’s defining attributes. 🙂
Specificly the face.
Possibly not apotropaic. The word means “protecting from evil” or “warding off evil.” Monica’s previous mention of apotropaic sphinxes talks about the ones from Hindu cultures where the sphinx is a protector. This is also the ancient Egyptian attitude about sphinxes. The Greek legendary sphinx is a violent, gluttonous monster, not a ward against evil.
This distinction is even talked about earlier in the comic when Phix explains how members of her kind trying to protect the people from demons walking around in human bodies devolve into simple killers.
Phix, I think, would certainly count as an apotropaic member of her kind, but this one may not.
what really creeps me out is that Phix knows her, I wouldn’t want something like that knowing me in any way shape or form
Phix exists outside of time (or something like that) which is how she was not included in the calendar resets so it’s possible that this early Phix could know Shelly from the current Phix.
i always thought that was because she was in the library
I don’t know. It might be better to “negotiate” with a being which knows you than a stranger who has no interest in your well being. At least it’s a good conversation starter.
Better the devil you know…
Ja Phix nu amoi… 😛
Wazzegu me daar? Woar Hej’t euver?
The master at work. Puts up a hella twist on a Friday and now we have to wait… dammit.
… I REALLY hate this guy.
*shakes fist at Mr. Taylor*
Hey, now. Just calm down. Here is a coffee, have a nice seat in the Confusion Corner and all will be well…
*Shakes fist at Mr. Taylor*
“Just calm down” and “Here’s a coffee” don’t really go together all that well, do they? 😉
The Confusion Corner is in Mucho Mocha, Tina’s coffee shop. We all get coffee and/or tea (drink of choice) and sit there when befuddled, bantering about what is so confusing. There are plenty of chairs; come join us!
Yes–luckily, it’s one of those shops that is much, much bigger on the inside than the outside.
Make some room peeps.. *plops down in confusion-corner with latte in hand*
I bet Tina makes a mean green tea.
@jae:
`Depends on whether or not someone has ADHD. 😏
He spiked the comic jar last week. 😉
Love Shelly’s eyes in the big upper panel…
“I know you”
“Really? Where from?”
“Oh, I read your webcomic all the time! Can I have your autograph?”
LOL
+1 on that LOL
OH COOL!
Is that the Mana Tree?
*Facepalm*
No -it’s the Milla Tree.
Fall in, soldier!
I din’t see no uniforms…
In this militia they’re Volun Tree.
But that doesn’t make them free to leaf.
And here I was, thinking it was the peasantree
Oh StJason… For shame… Why couldn’t I have said that first!
I think it’s a member of the infantry…
Oh! The Royal Wedding…it’s a Pageantry!
Pagean Tree?
In this case more of a pagan-tree…
No doubt from all the pagan rituals that seem attached to weddings…
But it is a quest! She is in front of the Erren Tree
(revels in the punny goodness and almost forgives Paul for the massive cliff I am currently hanging off of)
And if I were Shelly at this moment (especially last panel)I would be hoping it was a Lava Tree right about now…
At least the sphinx does love a good entree…
At this point, I hope Shelly and this sphynx will sit down and have a cup of tree…
…what?
This sphinx doesn’t seem to be a treetotaler. She strikes me as more of the hard drinking whistree type.
OH GAWD! Look at what I started! Oh well, there goes that Trent joke I was planning to make.
I’m guessing this isn’t our Phix, but an entirely new one. I don’t remember Phix being the last of her species. It’s not she travels around in a blue police box with Nudge in tow as a companion, lol.
Although wouldn’t it be a weird TV show if they did?
Dr. WTF?
I like that.
That police box better be bigger inside than out…
Wait–that was supposed to be a joke–but it looks like the artifact is bigger inside than out… oh heck. 😀
The Library is quite large, but its doors can be anywhere. A phone booth would not be out of the question, so yeah.
Unless the blue box opens to that nasty library that turns faces into skeletal skulls inside helmets *shudder*
Jay-Em: nice ref, but it was not the library that did that.. it was the ‘trees’ they used for the books.. 🙂
Phix’s library is much, much older, and is Apotropaic, not tree-based.. 😛
@ J-M: That story arc had Phix’s voice in it…
Gurk-gurk-gurk-gurk
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005094/
I agree…this isn’t our Phix…which is really problematic when you think about it. Didn’t Phix let us know that she was the pacifist of the sphinxes? This beastie could well be a mean one…
I agree. This could be bad for Shelly, or Shelly’s spirit.
Remember, it’s the kindly pacifistic librarian sphinx who has the wall of skulls.
Speaking of Phix’s younger and more violent days, I still wonder how long a sphinx lives? We know Phix has been around for quite a while because of being stuck in the Library, but no one ages in there anyway. It’s not really clear if she is immortal anyway (immortal but can die that is). Or do they just live a very long time?
I don’t think Phix was always a pacifist. That seems to have come over her at a point in her “career”, but it appears she has killed many people at some time. She was not the one at the gates of Thebes (except for one day), but she had a history before that.
I don’t think that’s Phix; I think an Apatropaic sphinx would be out of place in this mythology – but then again, the real world hasn’t studied mythology (much)….
Paul has already made reference to apatropaic sphinxes here
I’ve seen several seasons of ‘The Real World’, and I haven’t seen ONE sphinx…
Demons on the other hand…..
..and given that we already know about the tree being (or representing) Yggdrassil, we’re dealing more with Norse than Celtic mythos. I don’t think this Sphinx is good news. Nobody, but nobody in the Norse Pantheon was anyone I’d ever want to meet. Even the “good guys” made H. Himmler look benevolent.
Good point–but between world tree/Yggdrasil and sphinxes we are already moving into the realm of universal archetypes, where individual mythoi begin to merge.
Ok mergers… do you want to meet up with the Greek / Norse Fates? You know, the ones that (according to the Norse) live at the base of the World-Tree. The Greek version I could maybe deal with. Surt would scare the doo-doo outta me.
Why not? Belldandy (Birthandy) is kinda cute, and I hear they all moved to Japan, anyway.
Is that a Shelly Sphinx? Kind of looks like her when she gets *glarey*…mebbeh?
muahahaha …. *winks*
Woo! Plot twist! Lets hope she’s as friendly as Phix….
Also, I believe Shelly’s true place in this story is going to be revealed during this arc…
“Didn’t your band play at the Plow in Des Moines?”
nice
I got plowed once in Des Moines…
Betcha shot a man in Reno, too… 😛
Just to watch ‘im die…
…but somebody distracted me, so I missed it…
…oh, they tried to describe it to me, but it’s just not the same…
And remember the riddle Phix axe’s the newbies to the Library is –
“I never see your face, yet I see it every day. You can see me all around you, in the treetops is where I play.”
Just more tree references, is all….
Gah!
…yet I kiss it every day.
You know, my original answer to that riddle was “a blind ten-year-old?”
In that case “GRRROWWWL…CRU…” wil be the last thing You’ll ever hear…
Yeah, I’m not the brightest in the middle of the night. 😀
Just for fun, I asked my daughter this riddle. She’s 8. She said “…a monkey.” /shrug
I think she needed a safe word/phrase before she went in. Something like “Jerk this friggin relic outta my hand NOW!!”
wonder if you can ‘talk’outside in the real world.
with any luck Bud will be timing it so it would be ‘removed’ in a few minuets.
unless this is actually taking place instantaniously in which case Shelly could be talking to the sphinx for decades before the minuete goes by
Yes, that’s always the risk when dimension hopping. Like when Bud went to fetch Maya. Poor Shelly could experience years of life and death struggles before the relic is snatched from her hand. Not likely in this case since we are seeing what is happening, still …
I think a scream will work just fine.
Or peeing in pants…
Best to be safe: All of the above, plus running away, gibbering in terror, and several other such actions.
“My safe word is ‘apples’.” –http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_(TV_series)
I wonder if the tree is Yggdrasil?
Most likely! The question is whether Shelly follows the path of Percival or Galahad in the quest she’s begun.
It’s several orders of magnitude too small for Yggdrasil. Yg has several WORLDS in it’s branches.
..that doesn’t mean that it is any less important. IIRC, there is a particularly old oak that is considered to be the ‘middle of Ireland’. There is also supposed to be a lake that drains away once a decade to show a massive tree that grows down there. Oak, Hawthrone, and Ash were supposed to be homes to fairies (and also used to make witches brooms and various druidic ritual items.)
he gravestone with the tree in the Irish graveyard in the house that Jack built^H^H^H^H ^H^H^H^H ^H^H^H^H ^H^H^H^H^H picture that Amanda found said “Yggdrassil” on it…
But we don’t really know how big this tree is, cause we can just see it one panel at a time…
She’s begun a quest in a bikini? At what point did she start thinking she was Red Sonja?
At least the Sphinx can be pretty certain Shelly isn’t carrying any concealed weapons. Other than the ones women usually carry anyway.
Hey–those (feminine) weapons are not exactly concealed in that outfit…
This sphinx, like the banshee, also looks like it has it’s brain busted, it’s bonkers, it’s mental cogs have packed up, and taken the last train off the planet….
😆 Thanks Tina for that great line..
I don’t think she looks bonkers. Just the after-effects of a particularly robust tequila tasting event…
Ai.. that bad? One of those “It was really great party , but after 23:00 things are a bit fuzzy”
(mind You, I am referring to our own home-made elder-berry-wine that got up to 14%…with hardly a hangover the next day, just a falling-over after the fourth glass 😆 )
Wooo. Recipe?
Sorry..family-secret. My dad did all the wine-making and tasting and falling-over, and finding the right type of yeast and additives, so he didn’t get a hang-over 😆
The base trick is finding a warm place in the room where the temp is stable when the fermenting starts to take place, and a lot of stirring of the original sludge. That, and a couple of good wine-locks/syphons for the french 40L wine flasks to pour the filtered wine-sludge in(dunno how they’re called in english). After that, do not move it and let it bubble and plop away.
You also need to have a understanding family that isn’t too perturbed by fart-sounds and loud bubbly sounds from the large wine containers standing in the corner.
If you want a more “woody” or cognac -dry- taste, you’d want to leave some of the stems of the elder-berries in. Using stems, is a taste to be aquired. You can either hate it or love it, there’s no in-between.
Wow..I am amazed how much I actually picked-up from the years of wine-making of my dad..
At least it doesn’t require French K-nighits and relatives who are wombats . . .
Just as long as the fart and bubbling noises come from the container and not a family member…
@jay-em
you have a wine recipie which doesnt give a hangover?
people would pay REALLY good money for that.
On the “hangover’ bit. It wan’t as much a “no hangover’-wine as it was a minor hangover-wine without the really terrible bits the next morning.
No heavy headaches, no nausea, yet still a sense of sahara in the tongue region, and legs that suddenly seem to have lost muscle, but that was about the worst it would get. 😛
Natural ingredients and no chemicals used on- and around the fruits used. That’s about the ghist of good, hangover-lean wine.
In the real world of wine, that nice hangover-lean wine is always the most natural (and often the most expensive)
But hey, I am no “vinologist”.. I never bought the stuff, we had our own 🙂
Aw CRAP, Pablo!! That’s how I look on Monday mornings. And about as tractable too!
Now I have to WAIT until Monday morning to see what happens next! Day-amn!!
*sighs*
You never cease to make my brain do somersaults.
Assuming that it is what I think it is… that’s one sickly looking World Tree.
Also, I suspect they’ve done this before…
It’s one sickly world these days.
intersting plot development… could this be another guardian of knowledge? making the tree. the tree of knoledge
…Is that a harpy?
I don’t see any musical instruments…
Aw, C’mon quit harping about spelling
I’m going to say this is the true heir to the Sphinx throne deposed long ago by the current set of losers in charge. This Sphinx princess/queen got imprisoned long ago and Shelly has gotten close to freeing her several times before getting interrupted by the calendar machine.
That’s my ridiculous theory and I’m sticking to it!
That looks an awful lot like Monica. That would scare me more than anything.
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/punishmentenough/
Yeah, but look at Phix in the background of panel 2. Kinda sorta looks like her, huh?
I think a sphinx that looked an awful lot like Monica would have trouble reaching take off speed…
/rimshot
On the other hand, a “belly landing’ would be cushion-y soft and smooth…
/cymbal crash
*puts down protractor and dividers, steps away from Wile E. Coyote style blueprint*
My research indicates that a ‘Monica Sphinx’ would find it very difficult, if not impossible to achieve a true ‘belly landing’.
It just won’t touch the ground…
Hey! I’m hindererd by idiom&reality here.. In the world of flight, there is no such thing as a “boobie-landing”..And if there were, The FAA would prolly’ ban it’s mentioning.
Athough the Grumman Goose is the closest to a “boobie-landing” craft I can imagine.
“Number of landings should equal the number of takeoffs.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booby
Known for their ungainly take-offs and landings…
Jabberwonky: point is.. 😀 😀
it just wont be able to take off, due to being top heavy..:D 😀
slang is different round the world.. ‘boobie’ is spanish ( as well as old english)slang for ‘idiot’
spanish say ‘mamas’ or ‘tetas’ (though that is translated as ‘mountain’ ??)
and it just gets more confusing…… 😛
Hey–the French do it too–like the Gran Tetons…
heh love shellys eyes in the 2nd pannel 🙂
hmm
the sphynx took care of the errant demons. they prolly had a major discussion about what occured with the calender machine at the time so i suspect every sphinx would ‘know’ of shelly monica and the golem girls.
theyre prolly quite famous in the supernatural world 🙂
I gotta say, I really dig what Paul did with this sphinx’s* hair. Looks way cool!
*who may or may not be Phix
I will second your sentiment about the hair on the sphinx. Also, The Stress of Her Regard is also very formidable.
Re-reading the archive at the moment and have to say the artwork has improved but the storylines were always fabulous.
its like timetravel 😀 2003 wasnt so long ago but wow .. the changes 🙂
that and someone REALLY needs to go back and tidy up the spoilers.
its wont be fun for the new folks reading it…
such as the ones which put a persons name before its mentioned in the comic
or mentioning glyphs when it just looks like pretty writing..
Spoilers? No idea what you’re talking about, it was fun reading it back then for *us*, why should it not be fun for others now? Remember, *you* read it with the blessing(?) of hindsight (an exact science).
the spoilers people have put in the comments when theyve gone back to reread them. not the comics. the comics never have spoilers. only teases.
named all the golem girls before their names were mentioned in the comics for one. and in fact called them golems.
calling tepoz a blue smurf before he was first drawn in colour..
those are minor ones…
Oh, and “glyph”? Just a technical term (used for these things you’re reading *right now*, for example: letters. Those are abstract. An actually displayed “e” (the shape of it) is called a glyph)
when i first read the comic and monica spoke in glyph for the first time i didnt understand and was wondering what it was about.
there is a comment on that comic now stating she is speaking for the first time in glyph.
that is a spoiler. not a major one such as the calender machine comments but a spoiler nonetheless.
I don’t know for certain, but I doubt anyone would read the comments as they read the comics. There are well over two thousand of them, after all. It would be a chore just to get through them all, let alone be distracted by comments. Once one has gone through them, going back and reading comments should be fine as they simply clairify/amplify/distort/critize/extrapolate/beat to death points made in the given comic or the series as a whole.
jae: a ‘technical term’ or ‘science’ today, but 2000 years ago it would be called magic or witchcraft..
I don’t think we’re getting a Phix fix here. There are other sphinxes in existence.
That apparent guard other things.
What was the second tree in the Garden of Eden? Immortality, IIRC. Supposedly the guardian was an angel with a flaming sword that turned every direction, but if he/she’s out sick, we can get a sphinx from the temp agency.
It isn’t stated flatly, but one would assume the ‘They’ in referenced here are other apatropaic sphinxes.
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/relish-your-ignorance/
Sphinxes do seem to have inserted themselves into everything in the Wapsiverse haven’t they? Sort of like lawyers. Just that they are also jury and executioner as well. A bunch of Judge Dredds basically, only not as nice.
phix fix
how would you pronounce that out-loud without it sounding like ‘fix fix’
Unless you are calling her ‘Puh-hix’ it would be ‘fix fix’…
You can’t. It’s like the “How much wood would a wood-chuck chuck?” Sound-alike words. (yes, I know it’s a “homophone”)
You should be more open minded on a person’s choice of life partners…
Ba dump bump crash.
Am I the only one who thinks the sphinx looks like Shelly?
There is a resemblence in the eyes and eyebrows of the top insert of shelly and the bottom panel of the Sphinx’s eyes-eyebrows. Could it be a remote ancestor of Shelly got a bit of Sphinx nooky? They can, after all, at least look like a human female. Could they also birth a human-like being given a dose of human sperm? Over suceeding human-human generations, most Sphinx characteristics could have been minimized, yet still be there in some way like … oh, I don’t know … inhuman strength?
I shudder to think of mother-in-law visits and family reunions though. Touchy affairs to say the least.
Or utterly satisfying, depending on how much one likes/hates “family” and “family in law” in general..
“Moth-er! Did you eat my GF … again!?”
“Why, what would make you think that dear?”
“Well, there’s the blood on your face and on the kitchen walls!”
“It’s not blood, dearest, it’s ketchup. We had trouble opening the bottle.”
“Ok, then explain her shoe I found.”
“What about her shoe?”
“It still has her foot in it, mother!”
“Wow! Will you look at the time. I’m Late for my bone carving clas … I mean my quilting circle!”
“Mother!”
“Oh, and I’ve found the nicest Sphinx I want you to meet. Her name is Mankiller, but don’t let that put you off, she has a great, um, personality and comes from a wonderful collective.”
“Mom, I told you I want to be with a human.”
“Well, if you insist on that nonsense, at least try to find a meatier one.”
“I knew it!”
“Gotta go … same time next week?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Tootles, precious. Mama loves you.” *cheek peck*
Okay. Major thoughts from the comments posted here.
First, every sphinx is unaffected by the passage of time and it’s many versions of reality.
Second, since she didn’t know her name, that’s not our Library Phix.
Third, this brings up the possibility that Shelly has been here before. So as proposed this is the tree she saw in her trip down the rabbit hole or…
Fourth, in one of the many versions of the world, Shelly DID this trip before. This way the Sphinx would have met Shelly before, problem is it could have been from time loop v26.0 and our Shelly from v38.0 has not actually been on this ride before.
Anyone have a headcount on what version of the world we got up to before the calndar machine was given a send off by Bud?
Good point the loop reset occurs in 2012, so this could have happened before…but if the calendar machine was not fixed in those previous loops (a given), why would Shelly have made this trip? Would they not still be focused on the broken machine?
Yeah, they didn’t start on this quest until Jin started to loose it because they had destroyed the calendar machine. Without having destroyed it, Jin wouldn’t have gone off the edge, and the need for this quest would not have arisen.
That’s a good point. That means, except for Jin, this is not uncharted territory. The rest of the world is still going about it’s business much as it would have in other loops. This would mean Jin would have “future” knowledge of what is likely to happen as far as that rest is concerned. She could have known about Stinky and the sub explosion since those events are independant of the relic hunt. Bud would likely have gone in and explored regardless. I suppose the relec would not have held so much significance though. She could have still saved it because of the bullet holes and skeletons, deducing it was somehow significant. Thus they might have gone down this path even if they weren’t trying to fix Jin. So she could have knowledge of possible outcomes even now. Fooling with time has so many quirks.
Cookies?
Cookies!
Regardless of who the Sphinx really is and how she knows Shelly (I agree that it is not Phix), is Shelly prepared to answer her riddle before she has a chance to explain what she is doing there?
Another query: How in the hell did the Nazi U-boat people get the relic away from this Sphinx??
They cut off her nipplies (Hey, they were nazi’s, not the most squeamish people around)..made her really co-operative..and possibly somewhat annoyed… Or was it The Comics-Code that did the cutting?.. :-/ ..
The Comics Code Authority is pretty sharp, but is it sharp enough to cut off a sphinx’s nibbly-bits?
And who, as with the cat and the bell, gets the duty of walking up to her with a cigar cutter?
Let me answer that question with a quadruple redundant negative -in the hope some grammar-nazi, somewhere, goes fetal- : There ain’t no nipplies nomore on the sphinx…don’t you see?
There ain’t never were no nipplies on that sphinx no more, nohow!
Hmm..only got to a triple. Have to work on that.
Oookay… I bow to thee oh master.
*falls on ground ,clutches knees and goes seriously fetal, silently shaking*
There ain’t no more cane on the Brazos, neither.
hmmm.. 🙂 but then there are those girls, where they are sooo soft and ‘spread out’, that they can barely be seen… 🙂
I have to ask, what sphynx would be dull enough to get into a position where someone would even think about walking up to it with a cigar cutter???
She does look tremendously hung-over. And we’ve seen where alcohol will even have it’s effects on golem.
“Behold the power of Tequila.”
This message brought to you by the National Drink More Tequila Board.
I knew Tepoz had to be around here somewhere!
You know, the sphinx may not be any more real than the banshee. Just another one of the tree’s little test/jests. If it’s being drawn from Shelly’s mind then, of course, it would be patterned after the only sphinx she knows.
in every story i know of a major dangerous object was placed out of humnaitys hands but somewhere that they could have access to it when ‘the time was right’
its possible some science professor was at the right level of knowlege and walked into it. pity about the rest of us really ^^ just kinda those things activated early normally mean the world going boom.
That’s why it looks familiar…the relic is the ‘Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch’!
Or, at least, the ‘spoon’ on a 10K version of it…
Oh my..so..what You’re saying is that hung-over sphinxes aren’t enough, there will be carnivorous rabbits too????
I believe the reference to Leporidae Carnivora’ is the common Vorpal Bunny…
Run away! Run away!
Like this: http://www.egscomics.com/sketchbook/?date=2011-01-04
I hope that auto-links; I’ve forgotten how to code it. Yes, I will be in remedial code school for eternity…but I didn’t turn the comments into italics this time!
**runs away**
No conversation that starts with “huumaan” is a good one.
especially if it’s “Puuuuny huuumaaaaan”…
I don’t know. Tepoz said it and it didn’t mean much:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/01162002/
but one that starts (or ends) “puny god” will be golden
BTW, MojoJojo FTW!!!
The last monster I saw using ‘Huumaan’ was trying to get his calcinator death ray going…
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046248/
My personal favorite: http://dresdencodak.com/2008/05/02/copan/
…Right, eschmenk?
least she didnt begin with ‘fee fi fo fum’
Fi fi fo fum, I smell the blood of an English m … no wait .. is that some Native American with just measure of Irish? Maybe a hint of German or Austrian? No umm … *snif snif*
I do not think this is Phix, for the simple and stupid reason that she isn’t wearing glasses, and Phix always wears glasses.
And I note with amusement that despite the number of card-carrying members of the League of Lechers in house, almost no comments about the sphinx being au naturel have been made.
Well, I think this Sphinx is meant to be very scary. The addition of glasses would kind of reduce that effect by making her look more bookish or motherly. That or, if it is Phix, this may be before she developed the need for glasses. Time seems to be quite fluid in this series.
Oh, she’s scary all right. If I encountered the lady, I would be doing my very best to put a horizon between us, just as rapidly as possible.
That’s no lady, that’s my sphinx!
/rimshot
As here: rimishot
THANK YOU! Thank you, thank you, thank you….and many apologies. There are a few people within the sound of my computer that will curse your name for this…
Phix…in her younger years mayhaps??? 8-o
AND HOW IS IT SHELLY GETS INTO ONE ‘PHIX’ AFTER ANOTHER??? 😀
She does seem to be phixated on making trouble, doesn’t she?
No, no, no, NO!! And here I thought we had gotten “phix” puns out of our systems already. But noooo … looks like they will be a phixture around here for a while yet.
Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t try to phix it.
But what if the outcome is Phixed?
In that case, don’t we need a Phixed universal library of puns?
Or perhaps a large wallpaper listing all the puns made to date, with a 1080 x 1080 phixal display …
Perhaps when the Sphinx says “I know you” she is referring to an ancestor of Shelly’s she knew in the past. Someone who looks much like Shelly does now (maybe even her mother?). Someone in her blood line anyway. This would help explain why Shelly was allowed access via the relic.
What I thought too.
I wouldn’t be too surprised if Shelly’s Mom was something more than a “linguist”. After all..she was the one that gave Shelly the statuettes, so crucial in phixing ( 😀 sorry..couldn’t help myself) the calendar-machine.
In this story-arc, Shelly seems to be the hub, not M, for a change.
All this tends to explain why sphinxes are reputed to be so evil-tempered. I mean, if yours were bare, and dragged on the ground, wouldn’t you be sore?
I suspect the plethora of phixing puns here isn’t helping matters any.
I once overheard a orderly talking about a recent trip he’d made to Germany. He said he had found many of the people to be brusk and even short tempered with him. At least compared to what he was used to. He went on to say he finally figured out why when he had to use a public restroom. What they call toilet paper we would call crepe paper.
Okay. Creepy Little Girl has met her match. The last few minutes of the new Dr Who episode “Day of the Moon” are scary.
Awwww, a sphynx! They’re a so cute pet! Do I need to buy a birdcage or a cat tree…