You know…..you could tell him that your childhood crush that you never fully resolved/put to rest (or thought you has but they seem to want to creep back) the emotions/issues you had with them going off with some one else just sent you a “I just got married” notice.
Actually, that ought be next. It’s more important that Shelly reassure Justin.
Shelly’s point got made in Alan Moore’s Promethea, the issue set in Tiffereth (sp). There’s sadness in heaven, because it’s “heaven” not “disneyland”.
Zen describes emotions as clouds across the sky. No matter how dark the clouds are, they only temporarily obscure that perfect sky that is always there behind.
Shelly is content. Her sky is perfect. There’s just some clouds right now. Once she sets the stage for what she is and isn’t feeling, it would probably be a wonderful morning, sharing old bittersweet memories. For all the craziness Justin has been through, experiencing some “real life”, even if second hand, could be very nice.
She should just tell him what triggered her mood. Otherwise, he’ll try to fix something that isn’t really broken because he wants her to be happy. Guys like to try to fix things.
Maybe she’s wise enough not to mention the subject of marriage to him first thing the morning, while he’s worried about something that’s upsetting her.
Shelly is also having to be a mentor to Justin. This could be very awkward, but interestingly, it’s what they both need right now. Shelly needs to be able unpack those 80,000 years somewhere in the social sphere, and Justin needs to get up to speed on the paranormal, already. The tail of the last speech balloon is suggestive that it’s Ancient Shelly speaking Words of Wisdom, and relishing the fact that she living some simple truths, and has someone to be frank and honest about them with.
And Justin squirming in fear of obscure and occult complications troubling her. The young ones are always cute when they’re like that.
Justin is just showing normal trepidation when dealing with the one he loves. He knows that for as long as he has known her, she has kept him at arms length but is willing to take him down the rabbit hole with him. He is also harboring his fears that he gained from a lifetime of being a chew-toy to the bargain basement para-normals. All in all he is dong a good job in trying to learn about her and not doing his usual run for the hills approach (and I’m sure he does not know that the GG’s can find him if he did run). 🙂
I wonder how many people look at Shelly here and go “NO YOU IDIOT, YOU’RE RUINING IT FOR THE REST OF US!”
So many people (not just women, men do this too) like to keep their lovers/spouses/etc on their toes by making the other person feel like it’s up to them to make everything right, abusing the natural state of humanity to help one another when we see it’s needed. To reassure them that there’s nothing wrong in a sincere reassuring way can be just as kind as any offer to help.
Yes, but most of us don’t have SOs with 80K+ years of life experience, not to mention the ability to turn into a terrifying mythical creature. Well there’s PMS, but that’s hardly mythical, just terrifying.
I’m not sure that 80K years of limited life counts as life experience. It’s more like a secluded existence with occasional visitors. (And watching yourself die 56 times…)
yeah, but when the Fan Club calls her “The Sage of the Forest”, you kinda think they might know what they’re talking about don’t ya’? those are indeed ‘Words of Wisdom’ (TM) she’s saying in the last panel.
Oh, yeah… and who said her time in the Time Forest was “secluded”… she could have been the star attraction in a 80000+ year long performance at a three-ring circus for all the heck we know. yes there were very few HUMAN visitors, but that says NOTHING about the NON-HUMAN visitors…
Also, perhaps I’m just oddly tuned but I’m wondering what all the fuss is about for Shelley not telling him exactly what is hurting her. He can always just -ask-, and she said it in a circumspect, respectable way that says he’s not remotely to blame.
We are forgetting this is Paul on a friday. Maybe Justin’s stranger danger sense is a tingling and something really is wrong? If we project our own view onto the events we make it easier for Paul to blindside us on Mondays. Remember the shower dream scene??? We’ll find out on Monday. Stay turned. Same Bat Channel. Same Bat Time.
Sometimes you look at the road not taken and it makes you wistful or even sad, wondering about what could have been.
But then, if you were lucky overall, you snap back to your senses – see the road you ended up on and realize what you would have missed if that road not taken had been followed after all.
I look back in my past and see many forks in the road where my life could have gone differently, and in some ways might have been better. But every single one of them makes it likely I would never have met (let alone married) the wonderful woman I now share my life with.
And that would be a damned tragedy. Even if I never would have known it, following those other roads, but I know it now and wouldn’t trade it for the world.
And that’s not counting a lot of other nice things in my life that hinged on following the path that I did, but she is the most important on the list.
I think that’s the sort of moment Shelly was having there.
Him against the wall…? Well, maybe… but also maybe an old outgrown emotional crush hitting the rubbish pile. Shelly just turned a major corner there, in cas you didn’t notice…
I offer money to the jar. The quantum singularity inside looks totally disgusted and appears like it wants to reget my offerings. But then with a shrug it does. Now I just have to figure out which of the possible amounts I was going to put in it actually took. Meanwhile the cat just sits and laughs at me.
Yeah, but at least you stayed to participate in the thread, and engauge in forther conversation. I thought for sure you’d get hammered, go nuts, and bolt. We’d have been denied your sense of irony in the future, and we’d really have been …
All you have to do is feed the Jar enough, bmonk. It’s easy enough, considering the topic. Just take that door, grind it up into a fine powder, and simmer it with plenty of sugar and some pectin…
Maybe you’d better scotch the search for portal butter before things go pear-shaped. Let’s just say that Justin seems to be the apple of her eye at the moment. I’d like to be a fly on the wall for their conversation, as long as it doesn’t get as gooey as maple syrup.
A stile is neither a door or ajar, it is only framous in phroton. It is actually out of step with the field we are talking about and sooner or ladder that will be a problem.
I seem to be out of money for some strange reaosn.
Also, I have to wonder how the rabid anti-Justin camp is treating this whole mess. He’s quite wonderfully tuned to her feelings, and she, it seems, to his…
They’re both a pair of oddballs, but they seem a pair of oddballs meant for one another.
As the old saying goes, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”, and in Wapsi we get the story one piece at a time. Unfortunately for Justin, one of those breaks came right after his freakout and before we got to understand *why* he freaked out … giving people plenty of time to debate exactly what sort of turd he was.
So once the full story was out there, most realized and forgave him … but a devout few just won’t let go of that first impression, heh. Ah well, give them time.
Guess it’s so easy for me, because I’ve been there, myself. Lost a couple possible relationships (ah, those forks in the road again!) simply because I was not yet over what my ex- had done to me and those potentials didn’t want to deal with my baggage – can’t blame them, I wouldn’t expect them to.
Justin got lucky that she had baggage of her own that forced her to bear with him … and now they’ve just about ridden it out. I have high hopes for these two.
Well, it was one of Tina’s constituent demons who made that particular point… but I agree with you. What’s taking place before our eyes here is true emotional intimacy… each of them is baring their heart and soul to the other. It’s exactly what Tina had pointed out was missing from their relationship before… they had sexual passion, but not intimacy and openness.
Not to worry, though… from what we’ve been shown of these two characters, I’m sure there’s plenty of opportunity for sweaty snugglebunnies between them in the near future!
If that were true, Bucc-i, that would make Rule 34 *that* much more disturbing, because it means 4 times as many people are thinking it, and at the same time to boot.
“Enjoy the Journey.” Justin, DUDE! Thats Code for ‘I want you to ravage me and I,in turn, will ravage you….all weekend’. And yes I think Justin should meet Shellys’ Dad,
get married and make babies.
I just had a weird flash-mental-image of tiny baby sphinxes flaying around the room…maybe some of them clawing at daddy Justin while he looks harried. 🙂
“I wanna stay up!”
“Wannastayupwannastayupwannastayup”
“But it’s on in half an hour!!! Pleezpleez”
LISTEN YOU DISGUSTING LITTLE CHEEZBURGER REJECTS, IF YOU AREN’T FLAT AND SOUNDLESS WITHIN TEN MINUTES, YOU’LL HAVE A FRIGHTSHOW THAT WILL KEEP IN YOU IN A STATE OF SHOCK THROUGH NEXT WEDNESDAY.
“but auntie connie–”
THE MOUTH MOVES, BUT NO TEETH ARE BEING BRUSHED. NINE MINUTES.
“Connie” (short for “Conscience”) is the name some of us use to refer to Shelly’s laminated-demon companion… a.k.a. “Creepy Girl” I don’t think Paul has ever given her a name, formally… but the first time she spoke at length to Shelly, she said “I’m the closest thing to a conscience”, and the term has “stuck”.
There are multiple other instances available by googling “flight valkyries kazoo”… including one whole album of war-horse classical music selections by an all-kazoo orchestra.
Consummation is what kills the tension in those stories– because those stories were based heavily around that tension. The standard example is Moonlighting; the counter example is The X-Files where after awhile the playing with whether or not Scully and Mulder would become romantic became a subject of ridicule.
This isn’t a big problem for Wapsi Square. Relationships are not treated as coy audience teasers or recyclable plot hooks here.
Wapsi is a story of sacrifice… though Paul has defined it more broadly. Shelly’s great sacrificeof her youth is behind her, and she is rediscovering its consequences. Many of them turn out to be very positive, after all.
Paul is a father, and children require their own kind of sacrifices. I would trust him to bring such a plot line into this work, the only risk being breaking the standard presumptions of what defines the boundaries of “YA”. That is to say, the least of concerns artistically, (though perhaps not economically).
Actually (check the official records), Lucy and Ricky were ENGAGED before the show opened and MARRIED in the fourth episode (before syndication).
Lucy’s maiden name was McGillacoddy (estimation of spelling, there). While the Gaelic preacher had no trouble with her name, he had to say Ricardo (Ricky’s surname) three times to get it right.
I have always wondered why that episode (and the others of the first month) was never counted among the many ‘classics’ of that show. It is never included in the syndicated series.
However, this isn’t TV. The big difference between webcomics and TV is that webcomics, in general, are about telling a story whereas TV is, usually, about being commercially successful. There is another big difference between TV programmes and webcomics: webcomics are usually created by an artist or two whereas TV is created by a whole team of people.
The practical upshot of this is that TV is less likely to take risks and more likely to do things that to appeal to the target audience. Webcomics are more likely to let their characters grow and for the strip itself to change direction. Let’s look at some examples:
This comic is a prime example: It started out as a slice of life comic about a group of friends. When the GG’s turned up on the scene the comic took a radical change in direction.
Clan of the Cats: That started out as a gag-filled comic. Since then it’s taken a darker, more serious tone.
A Girl and Her Fed: I’m trying not to give spoilers here. Since the ending of the first story, the dynamics of the current story have changed a lot.
Could go either way there, depending on definition. The accelerated growth you mention is in the process of restoring tissue to it’s “normal” state. For more info see previous discussions about why someone who heals the way Justin does still wears glasses. 😉
For the zygote/embryo/fetus they are in their “normal” state, so even if they somehow inherited their father’s accelerated healing, that wouldn’t necessarily accelerate gestation.
The gestation process could be defined as a being going through a change of what’s “normal” rather than a process of approaching the “normal” for a fully grown humanoid.
Or it could mean accelerated gestation … I think we’re talking about a vague enough area that it’s open to artistic license to play around with. Not to mention mixing in a bit of sphinx blood in the kid to REALLY mangle the logic around it. >.<
Whaddayaknow.. Shelly has grown up.
Instead of kicking-up a fuss if things don’t go her way, she finally understands there is a path of learning in life that leads to one conclusion : Carpe Diem
There’s also a glimpse here of why Euryale called her “The Sage”
I really like this development of Shelly.
And to those that want to have an even more precise look at Shelly’s development : Buy.The.Books! With the books it makes all the more sense.
A-comic-a-day has a habit of muddling the underlying flow. The books do not suffer from that.
That was exactly my reaction on reading her words. She really has grown up. More introspective, more thoughtful, more able to express herself, able to respond to Justin’s unease and worry with solid reassurance and self-disclosure (not just an “oh, nothing’s wrong”)… there’s a lot going on here that’s well beyond anything we saw from Shelly prior to her Time Forest experience. It ties in well with what we could see on her face on Monday… the sense that she was at peace with herself.
A lot of this must be from her TF experience itself, of course… I really do hope we get to learn more of the story of The Sage, as that’s not a term I think anyone would have chosen for Shelly as she’d been portrayed earlier. Having matters forced out into the open with Justin was painful, traumatic, scary… and in the end I think it did her a world of good (and him, too).
Heather was right… a person can change, without feeling any different at first.
I truly believe that Shelly’s inate wisdom was clouded by a constant anger against all that she couldn’t control. Anger does that, hence “anger leads to…” etc etc
Every now&then we saw a snippet of that wisdom between the clouds of anger and aggression, but it took the complete helplessness of being zapped to- and consequently getting stuck in- another dimension, to “cure” Shelly of her control-freak habits.
Nice snippett to know: there has been some Psychological research been done on body-builders. The outcome was, basically, that they were revelling in the fact that they could “control” their bodies to such a degree, that “getting Big” was a totally, conscious decision to prove, said control, to themselves, never mind the general public, that sees them as -at least- a bit odd. They’re control-freaks to the umpteenth degree, so to speak.
So picture the Yoda Redux done in CGI – feel better? 😀
I could not see a muppet doing the fight scene with Count Dooku, heh. The part that made me laugh was how after all the jumping and flipping around, he goes back to using a cane … and limps.
Faker. The Jedi Council have a disability program or something? 😛
Lovely. Even being aware of it, sometimes it’s hard to remember that it’s the journey that has value, not the destination. Five stars for today’s strip.
Well, that might have been Justin hitting the door frame, but that wouldn’t turn his head or have him saying “But something’s wrong.” Then he turns back, and something’s coming into the room.
to me he’s got the wary look of someone that has WAY too much experience being placed in compromising positions and not liking it in the least, due to the way Shelly is holding and maneuvering him around, and he’s also wondering if his crazy-meter is broken… as well as the reflexes drilled into him at the Police Academy, to not let yourself be backed into a corner during a call, for self defense/ situational awareness. Then when she relaxes her grip from around his neck, he relaxes as well.
In thinking about what we see here… and about what Shelly has been through in her life, and Justin in his, and what the two of them together have experienced recently… I was reminded by yet another wonderful story by one of my favorite authors.
Theodore Sturgeon, “Slow Sculpture”.
I won’t spoil it for you, if you haven’t read it… I’ll just say that once you do, you probably won’t think of the simple question “What’s your name?” in quite the same way ever again.
Highly recommended, and (I think) quite relevant to what’s going on between these two.
This whole week reminds me so much of Avril Lavigne’s “Im with you”:
I’m standin’ on the bridge
I’m waitin’ in the dark
I thought that you’d be here by now
There’s nothing but the rain
No footsteps on the ground
I’m listening but there’s no sound
Isn’t anyone tryin’ to find me?
Won’t somebody come take me home?
It’s a damn cold night
I’m tryin’ to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand?
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I’m, I’m with you
I’m with you
Hmm hmm hmm
I’m looking for a place
I’m searching for a face
Is anybody here I know?
‘Cause nothing’s going right
And everything’s a mess
And no one likes to be alone
Isn’t anyone tryin’ to find me?
Won’t somebody come take me home?
It’s a damn cold night
I try to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand?
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I’m, I’m with you
I’m with you
Yea yea
Oh, why is everything so confusing?
Maybe I’m just out of my mind
Yea eee yeah, yea eee yeah
Yea yee yea, yea eee yeah,yeah
It’s a damn cold night
Tryin’ to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand?
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I’m, I’m with you, yea
I’m with you, yea
Take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I’m, I’m with you, yea
I’m with you, yea
Take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I’m, I’m with you, oh
I’m with you
I’m with you
It could still be argued that death is the destination, even for someone who doesn’t believe in any form of afterlife. Of course, this argument really works best when death is experienced after a long life (i.e. dying of old age).
I’ve heard older people who have lived long, full lives (particularly those whose bodies are starting to fail or whose friends and family have already passed away) say that they look at death as a kind of sigh of relief, a form of closure. In that respect, death is a destination no matter what happens (or doesn’t happen) afterward.
Make that ‘a common thread of experience’ and I can agree with you, for wisdom is innate in a being and governs how one is effected and reacts to the lessons of experience.
Experience is simply something you gain AFTER you need it.
On the other hand, Benedict’s monks are encouraged “to keep death daily before your eyes”–and so we should not be surprised by it, or see it as the end of everything.
could she possibly be any more cryptic ?
Got the same problem with girls here in real life… either spit it out what’s bothering you, or don’t bring something like that up if you don’t really want to talk about it.
Seems to me she did OK in describing it, given what’s actually going on for her.
She wasn’t just tearing up over “losing” Owen. She’s thinking through all of her life – everything that’s brought her to where she is now – and is reflecting on the pain, sadness, changes, loss, and on the upside of her experiences as well (gains, growth, understanding).
You can’t always sum up what you’re feeling in a few words and “spit it out” and have it make sense. Even the Cliff Notes version could require a substantial “let’s sit down and talk”; heck, it took Monica about an hour and a half to bring Kevin up to speed, some time ago, and that was for a much shorter span of life-experience than Shelly has been processing.
i kinda agree with both of you, and i kinda dis-agree with you Dave, sorry…
sure she can’t say what’s on her mind in a FEW words… that’s cool by me. but when somebody asks you “what’s wrong” and you start to spiel on about “how the sky is cloudy and it’s just an emotional journey I’m going thru right now” I’d get that “HUH? WTF?” look on my face too… Instead, if she had said something to the effect of “oh, it’s nothing you did (or didn’t do), it’s just that i got some pictures of my best friend on his wedding, and it reminded me about how he didn’t really know i had a crush on him till it was too late… I’m just feeling a bit bummed out, no biggie…” THAT would set my mind at ease knowing a bit about EXACTLY what was the problem, AND that since she’s OK… voila’ i can either request further info, and get set for a long talk. or i can accept what she gave and say “OK” and get on with my breakfast, and life continues…
as for Monica taking an hour to tell Kevin, well, she’s a girl… they (stereotypically) tend to talk alot… whereas Shelly is a TomBoy, and tends to act like a guy, who can pack a huge amount of info into a very few words. i wouldn’t expect Shelly’s tale of the entire Time Forest Saga in it’s entirety to take much longer than the same amount of time Monica took to tell Kevin her tale, even though it was a vastly longer time frame involved.
Actually, the way I always understood it was this –
Things such as life and relationships don’t really *have* a destination. Just as you were asking “how will you know when you arrive”, you won’t because you never will, there is no real end point.
But as humans we tend to focus on goals, on milestones – and on an eventual objective at the far end, even if reaching it means picking a new objective and moving on again.
The whole point of that phrase is to remind us that while keeping your eyes on the horizon is good overall, you gotta remember to look around where you’re at, because that’s actually the important part.
Shelly’s dialogue is strongly reminiscent of– even word-for-word quoting– advice on how to approach mindfulness meditation. Being able to accept emotions without them clouding your judgement, efficiency and well-being.
Essentially, it allows you to focus on achieving goals with less stress and second-guessing stemming from natural but distracting emotion. Happiness is not a destination. Concrete goals can be. This from a woman who spent an eon charging a vimana cell.
“Destination” doesn’t have to be absolute; it doesn’t have to be stationary. It can be as simple as where you are right now. If life is a journey, then Shelley’s journey has brought her to where she is — with Justin, and happy with that, but also with thoughts both good and bad about how she got there. Her life will go on, and so will the journey, and her present “destination” will become part of the journey that has arrived at wherever she may be at that point in the future. Hopefully, she’ll still be happy.
That reminds me of the writer’s rule that every book must start and end with a moment of peace and contentment, however brief. In the same way, a destination may be only for a moment.
I feel the same way with any webcomic that I finish the archives on. You get in a rhythm of just reading and reading … then bang! Gotta wait for updates.
Of course, that’s all the more reason to every once in a while go back and start over from the beginning, watch it all evolve again.
Kinda like some of us had to do with Wheel of TIme. Wait 2-3 years for the next book, bide your time by rereading the series AGAIN. Good times, tho.
if i were told that her past was sad and that her emotions change and happiness is not where she’s headed but that she’s happy now … in those words…… I’d think that she just swallowed a shirley maclaine book and was coughing it back up. that being said.. 🙂
She wouldn’t know she’s content if she didn’t go through discontent.
Very well said.
Agreed!
You know…..you could tell him that your childhood crush that you never fully resolved/put to rest (or thought you has but they seem to want to creep back) the emotions/issues you had with them going off with some one else just sent you a “I just got married” notice.
Just saying….
Actually, that ought be next. It’s more important that Shelly reassure Justin.
Shelly’s point got made in Alan Moore’s Promethea, the issue set in Tiffereth (sp). There’s sadness in heaven, because it’s “heaven” not “disneyland”.
Zen describes emotions as clouds across the sky. No matter how dark the clouds are, they only temporarily obscure that perfect sky that is always there behind.
Shelly is content. Her sky is perfect. There’s just some clouds right now. Once she sets the stage for what she is and isn’t feeling, it would probably be a wonderful morning, sharing old bittersweet memories. For all the craziness Justin has been through, experiencing some “real life”, even if second hand, could be very nice.
Yeah….that’s a lota words. X3 Beautiful they may be, they can be missed when a person can’t get the meaning right away.
“Speak small words and short sentences when I am one assurance away from freaking the fuck out” – should go on a morning coffee mug IMOP. X3
thats very true… his subconcious is expecting the ripping, its not expecting soft niceness…. :O
She should just tell him what triggered her mood. Otherwise, he’ll try to fix something that isn’t really broken because he wants her to be happy. Guys like to try to fix things.
So does Shelly (mechanic when not being Muscles McAwesome), so maybe that’s why she’s not telling him? 🙂
Maybe she’s wise enough not to mention the subject of marriage to him first thing the morning, while he’s worried about something that’s upsetting her.
Shelly is also having to be a mentor to Justin. This could be very awkward, but interestingly, it’s what they both need right now. Shelly needs to be able unpack those 80,000 years somewhere in the social sphere, and Justin needs to get up to speed on the paranormal, already. The tail of the last speech balloon is suggestive that it’s Ancient Shelly speaking Words of Wisdom, and relishing the fact that she living some simple truths, and has someone to be frank and honest about them with.
And Justin squirming in fear of obscure and occult complications troubling her. The young ones are always cute when they’re like that.
Editnote: And the word “is” still exists. It just took a break there for a minute.
Justin is just showing normal trepidation when dealing with the one he loves. He knows that for as long as he has known her, she has kept him at arms length but is willing to take him down the rabbit hole with him. He is also harboring his fears that he gained from a lifetime of being a chew-toy to the bargain basement para-normals. All in all he is dong a good job in trying to learn about her and not doing his usual run for the hills approach (and I’m sure he does not know that the GG’s can find him if he did run). 🙂
It’s not the destination that makes us who we are, but the journey itself.
I wonder how many people look at Shelly here and go “NO YOU IDIOT, YOU’RE RUINING IT FOR THE REST OF US!”
So many people (not just women, men do this too) like to keep their lovers/spouses/etc on their toes by making the other person feel like it’s up to them to make everything right, abusing the natural state of humanity to help one another when we see it’s needed. To reassure them that there’s nothing wrong in a sincere reassuring way can be just as kind as any offer to help.
Yes, but most of us don’t have SOs with 80K+ years of life experience, not to mention the ability to turn into a terrifying mythical creature. Well there’s PMS, but that’s hardly mythical, just terrifying.
You hit that one right on the head (especially the last part)
I’m not sure that 80K years of limited life counts as life experience. It’s more like a secluded existence with occasional visitors. (And watching yourself die 56 times…)
yeah, but when the Fan Club calls her “The Sage of the Forest”, you kinda think they might know what they’re talking about don’t ya’? those are indeed ‘Words of Wisdom’ (TM) she’s saying in the last panel.
Oh, yeah… and who said her time in the Time Forest was “secluded”… she could have been the star attraction in a 80000+ year long performance at a three-ring circus for all the heck we know. yes there were very few HUMAN visitors, but that says NOTHING about the NON-HUMAN visitors…
People often forget that there is a huge difference between 30 years of experience and 1 year lived 30 times.
Who are you and what have you done to Shelly?!?
This, in a very good way.
Also, perhaps I’m just oddly tuned but I’m wondering what all the fuss is about for Shelley not telling him exactly what is hurting her. He can always just -ask-, and she said it in a circumspect, respectable way that says he’s not remotely to blame.
We are forgetting this is Paul on a friday. Maybe Justin’s stranger danger sense is a tingling and something really is wrong? If we project our own view onto the events we make it easier for Paul to blindside us on Mondays. Remember the shower dream scene??? We’ll find out on Monday. Stay turned. Same Bat Channel. Same Bat Time.
Boy, Paul is a great story-teller. He doesn’t even have to have a cliff-hanger Friday to be suspected of having a cliff-hanger Friday.
He has us well trained.for paranoia Fridays!
is it Friday?… yes.
is there still a question that needs an answer?… yes.
viola’ we have a cliffhanger Friday!.
Sometimes you look at the road not taken and it makes you wistful or even sad, wondering about what could have been.
But then, if you were lucky overall, you snap back to your senses – see the road you ended up on and realize what you would have missed if that road not taken had been followed after all.
I look back in my past and see many forks in the road where my life could have gone differently, and in some ways might have been better. But every single one of them makes it likely I would never have met (let alone married) the wonderful woman I now share my life with.
And that would be a damned tragedy. Even if I never would have known it, following those other roads, but I know it now and wouldn’t trade it for the world.
And that’s not counting a lot of other nice things in my life that hinged on following the path that I did, but she is the most important on the list.
I think that’s the sort of moment Shelly was having there.
Very well said – gets to the heart of the matter .
What went “Thunk!”?
Him against the wall.
Because his ladyfriend is a hoss.
Like.
Except she’s more a cat. A really, really big cat.
With really big wings – and very sharp Talons .
Him against the wall…? Well, maybe… but also maybe an old outgrown emotional crush hitting the rubbish pile. Shelly just turned a major corner there, in cas you didn’t notice…
His, back hit the wall.
Him agaist the edge of the door. That way later he can claim. ‘Hey Doll. I been framed!’
I offer money to the jar. The quantum singularity inside looks totally disgusted and appears like it wants to reget my offerings. But then with a shrug it does. Now I just have to figure out which of the possible amounts I was going to put in it actually took. Meanwhile the cat just sits and laughs at me.
Cats don’t laugh, it’s beneath their dignity… they sneer…
This cat has an exemption, since it doesn’t know whether it’s dead or alive until someone looks.
When it comes to door-frame puns, I like your stile.
(drops into the Pun Jar a nail, for want of which a kingdom was lost.)
Well, you nailed that comment. Yeah, you left it open and I bit.
Yeah, but at least you stayed to participate in the thread, and engauge in forther conversation. I thought for sure you’d get hammered, go nuts, and bolt. We’d have been denied your sense of irony in the future, and we’d really have been …
Can anyone screen this door thread?
I’m afraid were in a bit of a jamb. We’ve reached a threshold of sorts.
[runs away from the suddenly voracious pun jar]
All you have to do is feed the Jar enough, bmonk. It’s easy enough, considering the topic. Just take that door, grind it up into a fine powder, and simmer it with plenty of sugar and some pectin…
Just toss in a copy of Monster’s Inc. Lots of doors for it’s crunching pleasure. 🙂
Still. it’s not worth getting keyed up over. So calm down or it’s curtains I tell you! Curtains!
Yummy recipe for Door Jam, Dave. Been trying to think up a portal-related pun for peanut butter; my search will have to spread wider.
Maybe you’d better scotch the search for portal butter before things go pear-shaped. Let’s just say that Justin seems to be the apple of her eye at the moment. I’d like to be a fly on the wall for their conversation, as long as it doesn’t get as gooey as maple syrup.
A stile is neither a door or ajar, it is only framous in phroton. It is actually out of step with the field we are talking about and sooner or ladder that will be a problem.
I seem to be out of money for some strange reaosn.
prose or not, a stile is only an easier way to climb a fence… 🙂
illiad: Unless he hits you with a musical spell, of course.
Must be a turnstile, because this thread has me dizzy now. ::wobbles::
Also, I have to wonder how the rabid anti-Justin camp is treating this whole mess. He’s quite wonderfully tuned to her feelings, and she, it seems, to his…
They’re both a pair of oddballs, but they seem a pair of oddballs meant for one another.
I’m sure they’ll tell us…and/or have some wild theory about this. 🙂
As the old saying goes, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”, and in Wapsi we get the story one piece at a time. Unfortunately for Justin, one of those breaks came right after his freakout and before we got to understand *why* he freaked out … giving people plenty of time to debate exactly what sort of turd he was.
So once the full story was out there, most realized and forgave him … but a devout few just won’t let go of that first impression, heh. Ah well, give them time.
Guess it’s so easy for me, because I’ve been there, myself. Lost a couple possible relationships (ah, those forks in the road again!) simply because I was not yet over what my ex- had done to me and those potentials didn’t want to deal with my baggage – can’t blame them, I wouldn’t expect them to.
Justin got lucky that she had baggage of her own that forced her to bear with him … and now they’ve just about ridden it out. I have high hopes for these two.
KISS THE SPHINX! DOOOOO EEEEEEEET!!!!
Personally I far prefer the fact that he -isnt-, really. Like Nudge said, sometimes the sex can be almost as good as the communication.
Well, it was one of Tina’s constituent demons who made that particular point… but I agree with you. What’s taking place before our eyes here is true emotional intimacy… each of them is baring their heart and soul to the other. It’s exactly what Tina had pointed out was missing from their relationship before… they had sexual passion, but not intimacy and openness.
Not to worry, though… from what we’ve been shown of these two characters, I’m sure there’s plenty of opportunity for sweaty snugglebunnies between them in the near future!
All of camera – of course – which means we have the pleasure of our own imagination . (CENSORED)
And his next question is, “Who are you, and what have you done with my Shelley?”
Grrr, Tristan ninja’d me.
At any given time somewhere in the world, 4 people will have the same exact idea at the same time! Its simple statistics yo.
and it’s also given that 74.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot to prove a point, too…
If that were true, Bucc-i, that would make Rule 34 *that* much more disturbing, because it means 4 times as many people are thinking it, and at the same time to boot.
“Enjoy the Journey.” Justin, DUDE! Thats Code for ‘I want you to ravage me and I,in turn, will ravage you….all weekend’. And yes I think Justin should meet Shellys’ Dad,
get married and make babies.
I just had a weird flash-mental-image of tiny baby sphinxes flaying around the room…maybe some of them clawing at daddy Justin while he looks harried. 🙂
Soundtrack: “Ride of the Valkyries” played on a kazoo…
And they’d have the perfect babysitter too.
“I wanna stay up!”
“Wannastayupwannastayupwannastayup”
“But it’s on in half an hour!!! Pleezpleez”
LISTEN YOU DISGUSTING LITTLE CHEEZBURGER REJECTS, IF YOU AREN’T FLAT AND SOUNDLESS WITHIN TEN MINUTES, YOU’LL HAVE A FRIGHTSHOW THAT WILL KEEP IN YOU IN A STATE OF SHOCK THROUGH NEXT WEDNESDAY.
“but auntie connie–”
THE MOUTH MOVES, BUT NO TEETH ARE BEING BRUSHED. NINE MINUTES.
@Yamara – do you have to practice at being able to be disturbingly scary, or is it an awesome and useful natural talent? ❓
Aunt Connie?
Which one is that?
Somehow (and I’m sure you all know I love this comic) I can’t remember who you are referring to.
Connie is Shelly’s companion and as the shadow girl said, sister.
By the way Yamara, that was perfect. I should try it on my niece and nephew
“Connie” (short for “Conscience”) is the name some of us use to refer to Shelly’s laminated-demon companion… a.k.a. “Creepy Girl” I don’t think Paul has ever given her a name, formally… but the first time she spoke at length to Shelly, she said “I’m the closest thing to a conscience”, and the term has “stuck”.
You might search the collected works of Spike Jones. If anyone has done it, it would be he (cf “Flight of the Bumblebee” on a tuba!)
Wow. Easier to find than I thought:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym4JMsYeCwg
There are multiple other instances available by googling “flight valkyries kazoo”… including one whole album of war-horse classical music selections by an all-kazoo orchestra.
Did you mean ‘flying’, or did you mean ‘flaying’, as you have it?
Different mental images, each….
Of course, little baby half-sphinxes (-sphinges?) could both fly and flay simultaneously.
Whooops! Should have read further before hitting the reply button.
“Flying” or “flaying”?
*checks copy of the Codebook*
aw, mine doesn’t have that! It left out “all weekend”.
Can’t tell if it’s an earlier edition or what…
See, that’s why I went with the digital on-line version.
You think that they should have a reasonable number of babies? They do make a cute couple…
I stand by my “I’m gonna have a KITTEN!” prediction. I just don’t have a close time-frame on it yet…
“I love Lucy” was cancelled so quick after Lucy and Ricky got married it makes your head spin.
It was definitely doomed after Little Ricky was born.
All good show should suffer such disasters after main characters marry.
Because in Soaps, marriages never last? All characters are ultimately minor adjuncts to the shocks and the drama??
Consummation is what kills the tension in those stories– because those stories were based heavily around that tension. The standard example is Moonlighting; the counter example is The X-Files where after awhile the playing with whether or not Scully and Mulder would become romantic became a subject of ridicule.
This isn’t a big problem for Wapsi Square. Relationships are not treated as coy audience teasers or recyclable plot hooks here.
Wapsi is a story of sacrifice… though Paul has defined it more broadly. Shelly’s great sacrificeof her youth is behind her, and she is rediscovering its consequences. Many of them turn out to be very positive, after all.
Paul is a father, and children require their own kind of sacrifices. I would trust him to bring such a plot line into this work, the only risk being breaking the standard presumptions of what defines the boundaries of “YA”. That is to say, the least of concerns artistically, (though perhaps not economically).
Actually (check the official records), Lucy and Ricky were ENGAGED before the show opened and MARRIED in the fourth episode (before syndication).
Lucy’s maiden name was McGillacoddy (estimation of spelling, there). While the Gaelic preacher had no trouble with her name, he had to say Ricardo (Ricky’s surname) three times to get it right.
I have always wondered why that episode (and the others of the first month) was never counted among the many ‘classics’ of that show. It is never included in the syndicated series.
However, this isn’t TV. The big difference between webcomics and TV is that webcomics, in general, are about telling a story whereas TV is, usually, about being commercially successful. There is another big difference between TV programmes and webcomics: webcomics are usually created by an artist or two whereas TV is created by a whole team of people.
The practical upshot of this is that TV is less likely to take risks and more likely to do things that to appeal to the target audience. Webcomics are more likely to let their characters grow and for the strip itself to change direction. Let’s look at some examples:
This comic is a prime example: It started out as a slice of life comic about a group of friends. When the GG’s turned up on the scene the comic took a radical change in direction.
Clan of the Cats: That started out as a gag-filled comic. Since then it’s taken a darker, more serious tone.
A Girl and Her Fed: I’m trying not to give spoilers here. Since the ending of the first story, the dynamics of the current story have changed a lot.
Sorry:
For AGAHF:
The dynamics in the current story are very different to the dynamics of the first story.
problem…
a bady… or a litter.
TheDoctor: Forgive me, but I think the word you are looking for is ravish, not ravage.
Depends on if you do it right. 😀
And we’re talking a mating between a sphinx and a hyper-healing human. Just another reason I think he had it right the first time. ::snicker::
hmmm… Hyper-healing… that brings up a possibility I don’t want to consider (but now must).
Healing (especially for trauma) involves growth of healthy tissue to replace damaged tissue.
Growth within the womb involves exceedingly rapid growth (MUCH faster than ‘healing’).
If she should conceive by him and his ‘hyper-healing’ gets involved with the growth of the child…
A on- or two-month full term pregnancy??
Could go either way there, depending on definition. The accelerated growth you mention is in the process of restoring tissue to it’s “normal” state. For more info see previous discussions about why someone who heals the way Justin does still wears glasses. 😉
For the zygote/embryo/fetus they are in their “normal” state, so even if they somehow inherited their father’s accelerated healing, that wouldn’t necessarily accelerate gestation.
The gestation process could be defined as a being going through a change of what’s “normal” rather than a process of approaching the “normal” for a fully grown humanoid.
Or it could mean accelerated gestation … I think we’re talking about a vague enough area that it’s open to artistic license to play around with. Not to mention mixing in a bit of sphinx blood in the kid to REALLY mangle the logic around it. >.<
Clue flashback, and segue into the revelations of the Library journey!
Cue, darn it… At least i spelled Segue right.
Whaddayaknow.. Shelly has grown up.
Instead of kicking-up a fuss if things don’t go her way, she finally understands there is a path of learning in life that leads to one conclusion : Carpe Diem
There’s also a glimpse here of why Euryale called her “The Sage”
I really like this development of Shelly.
And to those that want to have an even more precise look at Shelly’s development : Buy.The.Books! With the books it makes all the more sense.
A-comic-a-day has a habit of muddling the underlying flow. The books do not suffer from that.
That was exactly my reaction on reading her words. She really has grown up. More introspective, more thoughtful, more able to express herself, able to respond to Justin’s unease and worry with solid reassurance and self-disclosure (not just an “oh, nothing’s wrong”)… there’s a lot going on here that’s well beyond anything we saw from Shelly prior to her Time Forest experience. It ties in well with what we could see on her face on Monday… the sense that she was at peace with herself.
A lot of this must be from her TF experience itself, of course… I really do hope we get to learn more of the story of The Sage, as that’s not a term I think anyone would have chosen for Shelly as she’d been portrayed earlier. Having matters forced out into the open with Justin was painful, traumatic, scary… and in the end I think it did her a world of good (and him, too).
Heather was right… a person can change, without feeling any different at first.
I truly believe that Shelly’s inate wisdom was clouded by a constant anger against all that she couldn’t control. Anger does that, hence “anger leads to…” etc etc
Every now&then we saw a snippet of that wisdom between the clouds of anger and aggression, but it took the complete helplessness of being zapped to- and consequently getting stuck in- another dimension, to “cure” Shelly of her control-freak habits.
Nice snippett to know: there has been some Psychological research been done on body-builders. The outcome was, basically, that they were revelling in the fact that they could “control” their bodies to such a degree, that “getting Big” was a totally, conscious decision to prove, said control, to themselves, never mind the general public, that sees them as -at least- a bit odd. They’re control-freaks to the umpteenth degree, so to speak.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” – Yoda
One reason why gambling is so popular is not just the glee of winning, but the anticipation of winning — that is, the journey.
When you learn to distinguish the journey from the goal, you become wiser. Or, as someone wise once said:
“Do the ends justify the means? Well, they damn well better, or what’s the point!?”
Unless I’m mistaken, Grover was an artificial character (a muppet) on Sesame Street.
Who is this “Obvious puppet with Grover’s voice”?
Yoda
So picture the Yoda Redux done in CGI – feel better? 😀
I could not see a muppet doing the fight scene with Count Dooku, heh. The part that made me laugh was how after all the jumping and flipping around, he goes back to using a cane … and limps.
Faker. The Jedi Council have a disability program or something? 😛
Lovely. Even being aware of it, sometimes it’s hard to remember that it’s the journey that has value, not the destination. Five stars for today’s strip.
“Thunk!”
Well, that might have been Justin hitting the door frame, but that wouldn’t turn his head or have him saying “But something’s wrong.” Then he turns back, and something’s coming into the room.
Or out of the doorjamb.
to me he’s got the wary look of someone that has WAY too much experience being placed in compromising positions and not liking it in the least, due to the way Shelly is holding and maneuvering him around, and he’s also wondering if his crazy-meter is broken… as well as the reflexes drilled into him at the Police Academy, to not let yourself be backed into a corner during a call, for self defense/ situational awareness. Then when she relaxes her grip from around his neck, he relaxes as well.
In thinking about what we see here… and about what Shelly has been through in her life, and Justin in his, and what the two of them together have experienced recently… I was reminded by yet another wonderful story by one of my favorite authors.
Theodore Sturgeon, “Slow Sculpture”.
I won’t spoil it for you, if you haven’t read it… I’ll just say that once you do, you probably won’t think of the simple question “What’s your name?” in quite the same way ever again.
Highly recommended, and (I think) quite relevant to what’s going on between these two.
This whole week reminds me so much of Avril Lavigne’s “Im with you”:
I’m standin’ on the bridge
I’m waitin’ in the dark
I thought that you’d be here by now
There’s nothing but the rain
No footsteps on the ground
I’m listening but there’s no sound
Isn’t anyone tryin’ to find me?
Won’t somebody come take me home?
It’s a damn cold night
I’m tryin’ to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand?
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I’m, I’m with you
I’m with you
Hmm hmm hmm
I’m looking for a place
I’m searching for a face
Is anybody here I know?
‘Cause nothing’s going right
And everything’s a mess
And no one likes to be alone
Isn’t anyone tryin’ to find me?
Won’t somebody come take me home?
It’s a damn cold night
I try to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand?
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I’m, I’m with you
I’m with you
Yea yea
Oh, why is everything so confusing?
Maybe I’m just out of my mind
Yea eee yeah, yea eee yeah
Yea yee yea, yea eee yeah,yeah
It’s a damn cold night
Tryin’ to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand?
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I’m, I’m with you, yea
I’m with you, yea
Take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I’m, I’m with you, yea
I’m with you, yea
Take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I’m, I’m with you, oh
I’m with you
I’m with you
(sorry for the lengthy post)
It could still be argued that death is the destination, even for someone who doesn’t believe in any form of afterlife. Of course, this argument really works best when death is experienced after a long life (i.e. dying of old age).
I’ve heard older people who have lived long, full lives (particularly those whose bodies are starting to fail or whose friends and family have already passed away) say that they look at death as a kind of sigh of relief, a form of closure. In that respect, death is a destination no matter what happens (or doesn’t happen) afterward.
gully foyle is my name
terra is my nation
deep space is my living place
and death my destination
Life has many destinations, from which the next journey begins.
Well said. I always felt that life was a series of journeys joined by a common thread of wisdom.
Make that ‘a common thread of experience’ and I can agree with you, for wisdom is innate in a being and governs how one is effected and reacts to the lessons of experience.
Experience is simply something you gain AFTER you need it.
often, you won’t know you’ve REACHED a destination until you have left on another journey.
Life is nothing if not a grand journey filled with other grand journeys… some finished, some fulfilled, and still others not yet.
Life is a journey… and the destination really, really sucks.
(Despair. com pic of Grim Reaper standing over a gravestone with this caption)
Sometimes, walking through a graveyard and reading gravestones can be quite enlightening.
I will always remember one with a chuckle.
It said: “Huh? What happened?”
On the other hand, Benedict’s monks are encouraged “to keep death daily before your eyes”–and so we should not be surprised by it, or see it as the end of everything.
could she possibly be any more cryptic ?
Got the same problem with girls here in real life… either spit it out what’s bothering you, or don’t bring something like that up if you don’t really want to talk about it.
Seems to me she did OK in describing it, given what’s actually going on for her.
She wasn’t just tearing up over “losing” Owen. She’s thinking through all of her life – everything that’s brought her to where she is now – and is reflecting on the pain, sadness, changes, loss, and on the upside of her experiences as well (gains, growth, understanding).
You can’t always sum up what you’re feeling in a few words and “spit it out” and have it make sense. Even the Cliff Notes version could require a substantial “let’s sit down and talk”; heck, it took Monica about an hour and a half to bring Kevin up to speed, some time ago, and that was for a much shorter span of life-experience than Shelly has been processing.
i kinda agree with both of you, and i kinda dis-agree with you Dave, sorry…
sure she can’t say what’s on her mind in a FEW words… that’s cool by me. but when somebody asks you “what’s wrong” and you start to spiel on about “how the sky is cloudy and it’s just an emotional journey I’m going thru right now” I’d get that “HUH? WTF?” look on my face too… Instead, if she had said something to the effect of “oh, it’s nothing you did (or didn’t do), it’s just that i got some pictures of my best friend on his wedding, and it reminded me about how he didn’t really know i had a crush on him till it was too late… I’m just feeling a bit bummed out, no biggie…” THAT would set my mind at ease knowing a bit about EXACTLY what was the problem, AND that since she’s OK… voila’ i can either request further info, and get set for a long talk. or i can accept what she gave and say “OK” and get on with my breakfast, and life continues…
as for Monica taking an hour to tell Kevin, well, she’s a girl… they (stereotypically) tend to talk alot… whereas Shelly is a TomBoy, and tends to act like a guy, who can pack a huge amount of info into a very few words. i wouldn’t expect Shelly’s tale of the entire Time Forest Saga in it’s entirety to take much longer than the same amount of time Monica took to tell Kevin her tale, even though it was a vastly longer time frame involved.
Actually, the way I always understood it was this –
Things such as life and relationships don’t really *have* a destination. Just as you were asking “how will you know when you arrive”, you won’t because you never will, there is no real end point.
But as humans we tend to focus on goals, on milestones – and on an eventual objective at the far end, even if reaching it means picking a new objective and moving on again.
The whole point of that phrase is to remind us that while keeping your eyes on the horizon is good overall, you gotta remember to look around where you’re at, because that’s actually the important part.
Shelly’s dialogue is strongly reminiscent of– even word-for-word quoting– advice on how to approach mindfulness meditation. Being able to accept emotions without them clouding your judgement, efficiency and well-being.
Essentially, it allows you to focus on achieving goals with less stress and second-guessing stemming from natural but distracting emotion. Happiness is not a destination. Concrete goals can be. This from a woman who spent an eon charging a vimana cell.
“Destination” doesn’t have to be absolute; it doesn’t have to be stationary. It can be as simple as where you are right now. If life is a journey, then Shelley’s journey has brought her to where she is — with Justin, and happy with that, but also with thoughts both good and bad about how she got there. Her life will go on, and so will the journey, and her present “destination” will become part of the journey that has arrived at wherever she may be at that point in the future. Hopefully, she’ll still be happy.
That reminds me of the writer’s rule that every book must start and end with a moment of peace and contentment, however brief. In the same way, a destination may be only for a moment.
Oh rats. Now I’m all caught up. Now I too, am awaiting the updates. *sighs* All good archive trawls must someday end.
welcome to the club! i just recently joined around the holidays so i know exactly how you feel.
I feel the same way with any webcomic that I finish the archives on. You get in a rhythm of just reading and reading … then bang! Gotta wait for updates.
Of course, that’s all the more reason to every once in a while go back and start over from the beginning, watch it all evolve again.
Kinda like some of us had to do with Wheel of TIme. Wait 2-3 years for the next book, bide your time by rereading the series AGAIN. Good times, tho.
if i were told that her past was sad and that her emotions change and happiness is not where she’s headed but that she’s happy now … in those words…… I’d think that she just swallowed a shirley maclaine book and was coughing it back up. that being said.. 🙂
I am still wondering how they got back from the Library.
Justin is a nice guy and a good cop. That said, he’s as neurotic as a toddler in a haunted house on Halloween!