Yeah, he’s putting the Shelly-shaped peg right into his usual round hole. Predictable, conventional… perhaps inevitable, for him… and oh so very unfair.
Her expression in the last frame is utterly heartbreaking. Damnit, she’s had 80,000 years of loss and loneliness… she does not need or deserve this one on top of all of that.
Sure it is ‘fair’… but he doesn’t give her a chance to say anything. It is fair, but shallow.
Perhaps he’ll cool down and re-think it. He’s lying to himself too… he attracts ‘crazy’ ‘cuz that’s what he is looking for and suited for. At some point, he’s going to realize that he likes crazy, or change his ways, like where he looks for chicks.
It aint over til it’s over and it may not be over just yet. Thing is he doesn’t seem the least bit interested in what happened to the bag or any of the rest of it. That’s just not normal, even in this extrodinary circumstance.
He’s basically moved on to denial. He’s doing his best to shove the whole thing into his “insane category” and forget about it because it doesn’t fit into his worldview. That way he doesn’t have to think about it. The more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that things don’t add up, and people don’t seem to like it when things don’t add up.
Moved to denial? More like self preservation–he did see what she just did to the punching bag after all, and he IS bleeding. I too would make for the exit quick, fast and in a hurry.
Well if she loved him, she shouldn’t have kept so much of herself from him. ‘Like you’d tell me.’
And to be fair, she came within millimeters of literally disemboweling him. Denial, suppression, unfair whatever you want to call it, this is probably safest for him.
He was a lecherous slime ball from the beginning. Shelly deserves better, but I also agree when Shelly finds someone worthy of her, she needs to be up front him. If your willing to share your body with him, you should be willing to let him know you’re a sphinx.
As I recall she was the one who blew up a grill to get HIS attention. Lecherous: Having or showing excessive or offensive sexual desire. Personally I don’t think either were to that level.
@ShirouZhiwu
Well, then women are slimy and lecherous since they have been doing that for ages.Feed on male weakness by having sex with teacher to get better grades. Pretend to be weak and incompetent to get guys to pay attention to them. Put their arms around them to teach them bowling or golf, etc. Playing dumb to get physical contact without appearing to be a slut is a classic female move.
You’re not the first to seem to think that about him, but I don’t recall him being slimy before. Yes…he did attend her classes and act like a noob for the attention, but (as was pointed out) she blew up her grill every spring to get him to come over.
*shrugs* They seemed to be a decent match when you get down to it.
@Dusty668 – While I certainly agree with your point intellectually, I tend to think it’s harder to be completely open and honest with the people you love than with complete strangers. If a stranger judges you, who cares? If your loved one becomes repulsed by something you secretly loathe or fear about yourself, it hurts.
So yes…she should have been honest with him about herself. I actually think she would have gotten there, but I don’t think she was really ready for that step just yet. That level of honesty would imply a very deep and long-term relationship. She tends to fear those connections iirc.
There are a couple of other factors which complicate things for Shelly, re the “Tell Justin the truth” issue (and I agree, if they’re going to be together, she has to do so).
Issue the first: Shelly is only gradually coming to terms with the full truth about herself. She didn’t know that she was part-sphinx until the Time Forest incident. It was some time thereafter that she had her first spontaneous sphinx-transformation (the spider nightmare). It’s only been in the past few days (Wapsi time) that she’s been aware of the fact that her sphinx side is trying to assert itself, and that other people are at risk as a result. It’s a hell of a lot to deal with in a short period of time… she’s going through some serious, worrying personal changes, and figuring out how and what to tell Justin cannot be easy.
Unfortunately, if what we’ve seen in this last week is realsie, events have overtaken her.
Issue the second: there’s no “half-way”. In order for her to tell Justin enough about what’s going on to protect him, and actually have him believe her, she’s going to have to tell and show him damned near everything: and it’s not just her secret! Lots of other people are involved, and (if Justin goes all Lawman and starts blowing whistles) are likely to be seriously affected: Monica, the GGs, Tina, all of their guys. Due to his position as a (presumably “sworn”) police officer, Justin is probably the riskiest person to introduce to all of the Weirdness that they’ve had to deal with yet… his personality entirely aside. Even if there are MIB hanging around to try to keep a lid on things, it could become very messy.
To date, I can’t recall Shelly ever having been the one responsible for deciding to bring a new outsider into the fold. Monica has done it (Amanda, and Shelly herself I think), Jin has done it (Alan), Bud initiated it with Kevin after the Great Hangover Sleepover Poit, but it’s not something that Shelly has ever done (I think). It’s a huge responsibility, and she may not feel up to it… at least, not without discussing it first with Monica and perhaps some of the others… and, as I said, events appear to have overtaken opportunities here.
In any case, however it goes, I think the Lid of Indecisiveness has been blown completely off of the cauldron. If what we’re seeing is real, Shelly either has to bid Justin goodbye, or show him the truth and persuade him to stay. If what we’re seeing is a simulation/projection, it should certainly be intense enough to persuade Shelly that she must do A or B before disaster actually ensues.
Just exactly how do you tell someone you’re a sphinx? Be honest with him? How? “Oh, by the way, just thought I should let you know: I’m a sphinx. And as long as we’re alone in this arena, let me prove it.” *POOF*
How do you think the average person is going to react, let alone the average law enforcement officer, who is trained to react in a certain way in certain threatening situations?? Kevin, Alan and Amanda in the Wapsiverse are very much the exceptions, not the rule. The readers can only suspend disbelief for so long vis-a-vis characters’ reactions to finding out the truth about the various supernatural goings-on, and I’m sure Pablo knows it. Something had to go haywire eventually. I always felt Justin was a bit on the superficial side to begin with.
Yep, looks like muscle damage too. When the adrenalin wears off breathing is going to hurt a lot, then the shock will set in.
Justin hardly felt anything when it happened, so he probably thinks it is just some minor fingernail scratches on his skin. But sphinx claws are sharper than razors, and infinitely stronger.
Ooo…good point. I wonder if he’ll really write her off as crazy when he realizes how bad the injury is, or if he’ll start to rethink what it would have taken to make that happen.
Okay, what part of “He’s a POLICE OFFICER” don’t certain people understand? There are VERY SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES for willfully endangering an officer. In doing so, Shelly would not only put herself at grave legal risk, but also Monica, Phix, Tina, the Golem Girls, and everyone else connected with them in the ensuing investigation.
I agree with you… to a point… if they were DOING THAT DURING THE PERFORMANCE OF HIS JOB, then yes, Shelly’s in a heap o’ trouble… HOWEVER, A) he was NOT doing his job at the time. B) Technically he sexually assaulted her. (the butt spank) and C)she was in a Gym/Dojo (whatever) in a combat stance when he distracted her by that aforementioned butt spank and HE KNEW IT WAS GOING TO DO SO, and because she didn’t know it was him (it could have been anybody!) she immediately retaliated in SELF DEFENSE… and luckily had the reflexes in order to “pull her punches” and not seriously hurt him… SO… if it did go to trial HE would be the one vilified by the press and SHE would be fine.
OOPS! posted too soon… anyway, Yes… there are some “irregularities” involved, such as how the punching bag “exploded” and how deep the cuts were if she only had “human nails” vs “sphinx claws” but those would be shuffled under the rug by the press (and defense) in order to fry the “Rapist Cop VS. the Innocent Female Victim”… Facts-be-damned, Yes, the whole thing would become a Media farce and the Feces would Impact upon the Rotary Atmosphere Impeller. but Monica and everyone else would come out fine, Shelly would have her 15’s of fame, and Justin could possibly be fired after all is said and done, or at the very least, He’ll be transferred to somewhere “less sensitive” than in his current position “in the public view” and into a desk job somewhere where the media will forget about him sooner.
This looks like Justin’s understandable response. As much as people might say he’s not understandable.. he’s bleeding from a (from his perspective) playful interaction with someone he’s been on recently less functional than ‘before’ ground. She’s been distancing herself since the sphinx element, rather than enlightening him. This sort of response to violence shouldn’t be surprising, even if it is heart rending.
Next up, Shelly’s emotional state loosens her sphinxness, followed by Friday cut away from the action.
Justin – I apologize. I did hurt you, and you’ve every right to leave. I ask only that you take one last look at me before you go.
(Dun dun Dunnnn!!!!)
Since the last time we met, I was called away for a very, very long time. 80,000 years. I’ve only been back a few weeks, and I’m far from settled for what I’ve had to deal with in all that time. And I’ve hurt you in the process. I hope some day you can forgive me. I want you to feel safe and be safe. And if someday you want to talk about this — some day when we’re both calmer — I’d be glad to explain more. Until then, please know that I’m sorry. Farewell.
It takes a whole man to love a powerful woman. Cougers are enough to put guys on edge but a 80K year old Sphinx? Poor fellow has to have time to adjust. Fair or not she’s a full fledged creature of power and will never be able to hide it. She needs to let him in on the truth or she’ll never able to get close to a mortal soul.
YES! But will she be able to bring herself to do it after what’s just happened? Speed to door, block it with full sphinx body, truthful disclosure/emotional enema?
The only way I can see her convincing him she is not crazy is to let Shellinx out completely. But what would that do? I’m afraid that Shelly is screwed, unless this is some training simulation of Phix’s.
Not to spoil your pun, but Bud may be be the last of the potent poitables that should be added to this mix. Unless you want to see goat-on-sphinx action.
I have to wonder what the thinking process was concerning the person/people who put a goat (or a snake) on the same level as a big cat. I mean, a predator, like any of the big cats, are magnificent in their own right and scale up well when giant size. But a goat? Come on. You have to really embellish a goat to bring it up to the same level. They should have just stuck with the big cats or big dogs like wolves, mixing and matching as needed. Leave the barnyard animals out of it.
Snakes scale up pretty well; dragons, giant fossils to back up the stories. So many fantasy villains turn into a giant snake, it’s been a trope before there were TVTropes.
But goats… yeah. They’re more pastoral than barnyard, and the domestic ones are sweethearts.
Mountain goats are tough buggers. They’re kind of the moose of the ancient Greek world. They’ll retreat, but they’ll fight too, and know how to exploit high ground.
And they have square eyes and are oddly intelligent. It’s disconcerting. With a big cat or snake staring at you it’s a basic, “I’m going to die.” Looking into a goat’s eyes it’s more, “This is an alien. What the hell.”
According to NCIS tonight (season 5, disk 2, episode: Chimera) a Chimera is, in Greek (?) mythology, a creature with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon. There’s the GGs’ forms… but I still think the person who told the story to begin with looked around and saw a picture of a lion and his neighbor’s goat and some kid suggested a dragon. 😀 Conglomerates by committee.
Puns aside, Connie might do it, too. She’s physically scary enough she could probably cut through Justin’s emotional turmoil, and sharp tongued and verbally hard hitting enough to get him to listen.
But I don’t think she’s going to intervene. This is Shelly’s to win or lose on her own.
I suspect either a)the average female lets out all the crazy and it’s a tempest in a teacup, or b) the average female lets out only a little bit of the crazy…
I want to be a novelist, so I suspect I also have a larger dose of crazy… 😉
eh, some of us exhibit all the crazy (as seen by my 18 yr old’s eternal comment “why cant i have a NORMAL mom?”) and save the terrifying for Very Special Occasions. as also evidenced by said kid: “you know…dad gets angry and i get wary. YOU get angry and i want to run away and hide, even though all you do is tell me the truth.”
Justin got just a glimpse of Shelly’s sphinx side. He knew she had a temper (remember when she got mad and threw an engine block across the garage?) and was awfully strong, but he thought she was human.
Now he has a set of scratches that would do a grizzly bear proud.
Although there is the slight possibility of Justin not making it out the door, I don’t doubt that he will. And it is probably for the better. Shelly deserves better.
Justin will get his comeuppance eventually. At some point he should realize the illogic of “everybody else is crazy but not me’ and change his attitude. But not now. And maybe never – some people’s denial is very strong.
Shelly is hurting – badly – but I think she is hurting from the idea of rejection more than the loss of Justin specifically. Shelly has enjoyed playing with Justin but she never has seemed to be in love with him. Her grief is for the loss of the dream of “Justin the relationship” – which is very real and valid grief – but not the same as grieving for “Justin the person”. “Yesterday” she said “I just want to share me with someone” – not “Justin” but only “someone”. This is very telling. She is not scared of but does not want to be alone. Not being scared of being alone is quite different than not wanting to be alone.
Hopefully, someone will enter her life that is strong and caring enough to be her mate.
“Justin will get his comeuppance eventually” Really? Why?
Justin is acting perfectly NORMAL in this situation without any of the insight and history that we, as readers, have.
All he knows of Shelly is that she’s athletic, a little kinky, attractive and not a moron. As a policeman I’m sure he’s run into all sorts of people and situations that have made him naturally cautious. This would include those “crazies” that he seems to attract.
For those who say that maybe it’s Justin, have you ever seen a cop groupie? They aren’t always right in the head. Usually they like the imagery of what they think a cop is, or they like the ‘power’ that the cop represents. Some just like the neanderthal attitude that some cops have.
In any event, I think that the reader comments here are pretty unfair to Justin. I am not saying Shelly ‘deserves’ ill treatment or to be unhappy, but good grief, what would you do if you were walking up to a woman (or man) with a punching bag, you smacked their butt and they did the following:
– swipe/claw the bag in half so quickly that it looked like it exploded.
– swipe/claw YOU and leave some fairly large lacerations
This from someone who had *seemed* perfectly normal. As someone mentioned yesterday, people on drugs or with unstable mental state;s can do extraordinary physical things. Maybe if Shelly had said “I have a black belt in XYZ martial art style” she could have gotten away with the bag, but not the claw marks and ripped flesh.
Step outside your knowledge of the history of the comic and think about this as if *you* saw someone react and do the things Shelly did, to you, not someone else. Then tell me if his reaction is too quick or mean or whatever else.
I can bet that 99% of the people here would be running, not walking, to the door. The other 1% would be backing away, trying to make sure they didn’t turn their back to the other person while still intending to escape.
I guess my reaction toward Justin is based on a couple of things. First, I acknowledge what we’re seeing drawn out *CLINK* over several days of updates is happening in the span of minutes in Wapsi time. This is hitting them both hard and fast emotionaly with little room to think. Justin was certainly justified in his initial reaction. From his perspective, a playful swat on the butt earned him a chest full ‘o claws. I can’t really blame him for that. The “Don’t touch me!” I can certainly understand.
What bothers me is his follow up to that. Shelly is obviously distraught. She’s crying on the verge of breaking down. She’s pouring her heart out to him. This is a woman Justin has had an intimate physical relationship with. We’ve seen them together in loving moments. And while her reaction is extreme, It’s the first time she’s done something like this. And what is Justin doing? Instead of wondering what’s wrong or what could be bothering her enough to provoke this reaction, he mentaly writes her off and paints her with the colors of his past experience as one more crazy he shouldn’t have gotten involved with.
So yeah. Don’t let the door hit you where the Sphinx shoulda bit ya Office Tight Buns.
Although I would like to see his reaction to a full on Sphinx out. There’s your crazy.
Need to remember, he’s been through this before, probably multiple times. No doubt he forgave more than one of those crazies, only to have her be okay for a while then let the crazy out again. They probably cried and everything too. He’s had to harden his heart to that out of self preservation.
Yeah, I know. And how many domestic abusers promise “It will never happen again”? Not the same thing exactly, but to Justin it probably feels like it. He’s obviously been on this ride before and his past is shaping how he reacts to her. He’s going to miss out on a good thing because he can’t see past his preconcived notions of how things are. So, yeah, I’m being a little judgemental towards him, I guess. It’s just frustrating as Hell to watch this happen to somebody I care about, even if she is a fictional character.
Agreed. Not understanding the Justin “hate”. They both have issues communication would resolve. That resolution being neither positive nor negative, just a solid point to move forward from.
Now would be a great time for her to go “Wanna see crazy?” SPHINIFY “How’s this for crazy Justin?!”
Not that it would change the outcome. He’d just run off terrified instead of pissed. But at least she’d be acting out instead of crying. :'(
Can’t stand it.
Um, not to a LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER. Major mega-trouble. Justin would probably go straight to the FBI. It’s already been stated in the comic by Euryale that the Government knows what’s going on and has THUS FAR been pretty much letting them police themselves. That could change abruptly. If she did “sphinx out” in front of Justin, she’d be well wise to do it when he’s unarmed: She is a human/sphinx hybrid, and therefore very killable, even in sphinx form.
Not to worry. With her speed, she can grab the gun before he can even unsnap the holster strap. Heck, she could disarm a whole squad in the time it takes to blink. And I mean take their weapons, not their limbs.
Fossegrim and david4250 – Reposted from yesterday since it was so late:
While it is true that the comments here are almost 100% reasonable and respectful, this is not true for all web comics. Some can get downright nasty – such as Doonesbury on goComics. Even a non-political strip such as Luann has its occasional flame wars.
It’s funny that this thread started. For the past couple of days I have been thinking about how this strip has developed into a venue for intelligent discussions among a disparate community of readers. A lot of us migrated from goComics’ Pibgorn but not all. A couple of years ago there would be, at best, single digit number of comments, frequently none. Now typically there are hundreds of daily comments – many extremely insightful of human nature – almost always interesting and entertaining, and sometimes exhibiting mind blowing talent for word play that rivals the best professional writer or comedian in existence.
I think it is mostly the depth of character development, plot complexity and self consistency, attention to details (such as connections to historical real life events), and Pablo’s skillful creativity that elicit our interest and engagement with the story and characters that he has brought to “life”. Witness the frequent emotional connections of the posters with the characters that is so evident in these comments.
Mid last century comics had a pretty bad name. Although reading them wasn’t supposed to grow hair on your hands, it was thought to be as bad an influence. Funny how we didn’t seem to grow up to be such deviants after all. In fact it looks we’re mostly fairly stable, intelligent, tolerant and aware human beings.
And may I add that this comic has the most interesting and observant group of commentators of those webcomics I follow! Having first found Wapsi Square back in the Magic 8-Ball T-Shirt days, this series has maintained a delightful internal consistency as the plot lines developed and matured. Moreover, the comment threads have equally grown along with the story, fed by the many readers like myself who have become intimate with the whole tale.
N.B the “They’re Talking” comment of yesterday — a reference to a bar scene some 8? years ago, but still fresh today! The loss of the Blank Label forums is behind us by several years now, but the beat goes on.
So a toast to you all — long timers, lurkers, and those fresh from the archive crawl! Well done ladies and gents!
And thanks to PabloWapsi for the tales before and those to come!
Hum. Once I discovered the comic, I started bouncing around the internet to see what people were saying about Wapsi. A few reviewers complaints were that the “plot is to covoluted and hard to follow” and “large parts of the story are unexplained”. I kind of like that there aren’t walls of text and Paul dosen’t feel the need to spoon feed us every little detail.
Not to be elitist (well, maybe a little) I think understanding and enjoying Paul’s creation takes a bit more than the average intelegence, which maybe weeds out some of the more ill mannered folks lurking out there on the internet.
I agree. It’s a bit like the “Buckaroo Banzai” movie… a lot is going on, which you don’t really appreciate unless you’re willing to really pay attention and work at it a bit. If you are, it really rewards you. If you are not, you spend a lot of time saying “Hunh?? What the *bleep* are they talking about?”
It’s almost the antithesis of a very great deal of popular fiction and drama… which frequently has exposition thickly laid on with a trowel, or which is laden with stuff which is not just unexplained, but arbitrary and self-inconsistent.
Wapsi is absolutely the most engaging work of imaginative fiction I’ve encountered in years.
Very well put, Skulker, and I wholeheartedly agree. I wish all webcomic forums were like this. I’d be willing to bet that part of it may be that the reader base may be a bit older than average and therefore a bit more mature? Just a guess, though (coming from a 44-y.o. male)
Probably… the last time I can recall the subject of reader age coming up, several of the regulars said they were in their 50s (I’m 56 myself). The demographic here isn’t the stereotypical comic-reader “teens and twenty-somethings, and nobody over 30” by any means.
It is a little odd sometimes that being 20 makes me one of the younger posters here. I agree that this is one of the friendlier webcomic fandoms around, and I wish that more were like this.
There are others about your age. Havent seen Kramegame around in a while, but he’s 19 or 20. ShadOBabe recently turned 21. We had someone called Artemisia who said they were 16ish.
At least I (at 25) get to call you a young whippersnapper. Now, quit hanging around here and get a job! Get a haircut too! Kids today … why in my day …
It’s denial. He’s taking all of the things that don’t add up and shoving them into the corner so he doesn’t have to think about them. It’s fairly common among people exposed to enough weirdness that they can no longer convince themselves that they didn’t notice it.
Because of his own lousy experiences coupled with the fact that his pea brain is having trouble processing what has really happened. It’s defaulted to something more familiar to channel his anger through.
Justin is coming across like a projection of Shelly’s fears!
And all this time. Where is Shelly’s scary little friend at? One would think that she’d at least try to help prevent something like this from happening to begin with?
That’s what I said yesterday, and why I still don’t think it’s him. This whole thing could be entirely in Shelley’s head, either an “exercise in control” with Phix, or something that started with Connie saying “here’s what you’re really afraid of…”
If it’s not real then Paul is just jerking his readers around and that’s not good either. He’s already done so with the shower scene. If this is another one, then there is no point in ever analyzing anything in the comic since it could just be another imagined occurance. At least anything to do with Shellinx anyway.
SoWhyMe, I don’t think it’s quite the same. We do have a bit more reason to think this time that it’s a set-up: Phix came and said “There’s something we need to work on” and we can do it back at the library.
This could be what she needs to work on: control in the crisis.
I read the shower scene as highlighting Shelly’s fears of what could go wrong and setting us up for this. I don’t think it’s a dream or projection or any other kind of simulation. I think this is very real.
If this is in fact real, Shelly does get one thing out of it… a valid reason to say I TOLD YOU SO! to Connie. What has happened here is (modulo the “unexpected come-on in the shower” vs. “unexpected swat on the butt” detail) almost precisely what Shelly was catastrophizing about. Arguably worse, in fact, due to Justin’s injury.
And that line of argument does support the “It must be a simulation/projection” hypothesis… in that it’s so close a match to just what Shelly feared would happen. If true, then the only big mystery is “Why doesn’t Shelly know that?”, per my suggestion about it being a sort of deliberate hypnotic trance or something similar.
Well, we may know by Friday, and (if not) will probably know by next week. I don’t imagine Paul would run us through months of a “season that was all a dream”.
Most definitely it’s partly denial, and partly anger adrenalin pumping through his body. Which usually lasts for only a few minutes, so your probably right in doubting that he’ll make it to the door.
So, if he does manage to walk out that door, how does he explain that injury without seeming crazy himself. Surely a doctor would wonder how it happened. It’s a little bit hard to ignore that sort of weirdness once it leaves its mark on you so to speak.
I’m expecting the doctor to take a swab of his blood and, on analysing the DNA, ask if the person or thing that attacked him was part human and part cat (probably in a disbelieving voice).
I could see him having Abby Sciuto as his doctor, except that DC is a little far to go for a checkup. (19-hour drive with a stopover for lunch…ask me how I know 🙂 )
Well, I’ve driven from here to that city (Minneapolis) and I’ve driven from here to DC and on to Baltimore. It can be done in a day but I don’t reccommend it.
Really big dog or someone’s exotic animal pet tiger. Leapt up with forelegs on his chest, then slipped and began to fall down, claws got stuck, were pulled through flesh and muscle by the animal’s weight. Plausible enough that few doctors would question it much. Although they’d probably insist on a tetanus booster.
Off topic:
@Fairportfan: Apparently my mailman was confused. My downstairs neighbor has the same last name as I do, and I keep getting her mail, so I’ve had some chats with him about what names he can put in my mailbox. He wasn’t sure what to do with the box. Hehe.
FWIW, I forgot to mention it so it’s my fault. Sorry… Hi, my name is Liz S., and I’m a Wapsi addict… 😀
I’m not an addict. I haven’t taken several trips through the archives. I don’t keep returning to the site to see if there are new comments. I have never replied to comments months after they’ve been made.
No….. “Justin” isn’t reading like a traumatized human. He’s reading like a projection of Shelly’s fears. I don’t think Justin is present at all, only his image.
“Every time! Every time, this happens! I meet a nice girl, we get real cozy, and then BAM! I catch her off guard and she destroys a punching bag and slices open my chest! What is it this time, huh? Werewolf? Vampire? Shapeshifting chupacabra? Why can’t I ever meet a regular girl?? Screw this, I’m gonna go date Brandi! Or Tina! Or Bud! There’s plenty of normal women in this city I can date!!”
I can’t help feeling that had he dated Bud instead of Shelly (i.e. he and Shelly had never got together) they would have lasted. The big problem that both Shelly and Justin have is that neither of them reacts well to surprises — in Shelly’s case she reacts by trying to destroy the threat and Justin tries to avoid the threat.
Bud, on the other hand, has seen how much damage her anger could cause so she’s a lot more restrained and, crucially, slower in her approach. Bud would have been better at hiding strange things and, when it came time to have The Talk, she would have done it in a way that is non-threatening.
Why are you thinking he’ll not date the three of them?.
…
” Oh!, Bud ended up to be a loon too, her friend is a bit calmer though..Maybe???”
…
” Both of them are the craziest chicks I ever met. At least I got decent coffee from meeting them, and the barista seems nice”.
…
*google through internet*
“I’m pretty sure there is a monastery that accepts former cops… Ohh this one in the andes looks nice… And there is this May person living here whom I can contact”
…
a padded cell later
“The horror, the horror”
Seeing this early makes me antsy. Anywho, I like the idea of it being a Phix test, or a “Justin walks out the door” plot direction (he needs to see just how bad his wounds are, or think about how dumb he sounds). Otherwise, I think a big reveal from Shelly seems a bit soon/anticlimactic/repetitive? On top of that, isn’t she at a gym? Why would we want her to go sphinx if she’s in public? (granted, it’s very possible she’s at home). Regardless, Paul’s done a great job so far. I’ll trust him to take his story the right direction 😀 *grabs popcorn*
P.S. If he snuck up on her, it’s *almost* his own damn fault. Not quite, but almost. After being around enough martial artists in my lifetime, I’ve learned that you just *don’t* sneak up on people.
I, and a few others, made that point yesterday. And, come to think about it, he got to know her in a sneaky sorta way, after meeting her in the line of duty. And he has been seeing a blond loony around on his patrol as of late…
Hrm? How is it Justin’s fault for sneaking up and smacking her on the butt? Shelly has never claimed nor shown signs of being a trained combatant or martial artist. At most she maybe did some “Tae Bo” type exercise classes.
Sure she’s athletic and buff but so is he. He *is* a trained cop, and likely feels he can handle himself fairly well in the self-defense area.
What is the normal reaction to smacking someone on the butt (who has never mentioned being a martial artist?) They whirl around and look shocked, or move away as they turn to see who was there, or worse case they take a swing at you. All at “normal” human speed, and which Justin could likely handle.
Shelly reacted as Sphinx speed, which we know from the bar fight scene is incredibly fast, and not-normal. So from all Justin knows of Shelly she should not have been able to do that, hence the reaction.
uh, they’re in a gym… SHE OWNS… and where… SHE TEACHES KICK BOXING.
I find it rather obvious that somebody who teaches martial arts may know a thing or two about it and Justin WOULD KNOW she teaches it.
The fact that it’s after hours means he knows her well enough to know she is not one to mess with… though the ‘pat on the bottom’ should have been safe… if she had known he was there.
Shelly works at Punk Yoga which is owned by another character we haven’t seen in a while. I’m not sure if she’s an employee or contractor, but she doesn’t own it…
Mina, she is at a gym, but it’s the Yoga studio where she teaches kick boxing (for exercise, I believe). She has access to it after hours. It’s likely that she and Justin are the only ones there, and if she, oh, I dunno, turns into a sphinx, there wouldn’t be anyone else to see it.
I’m now a lot more curious about the other “insane women [he seems] to be attracted to”…
On different note, is this scene the first time in the comic that we’ve seen Shelly cry? I seem to recall that in the past she’d twist these feelings into anger.
Shelly will not pounce on him, that’s a given. She’s still hugging herself, or hiding her hands as she fears to upset him any further or is not trusting herself not to harm him any more, or both.
Panel two has him leaning forward, and her leaning back, just as if she was afraid of him hitting her. Yet his arms are depicted down, shoulders relaxed. So I read her posture as someone who feels guilty about something; shelly keeps on fueling his worst fears.
He’s a cop, he’s trained to read body language. Her verbal denials are constantly contradicted by her posture. Many, all?, of his past relations included loony girls which we, readers, assume ended all badly for him.
It’s not like he cannot cope with shelly being herself and human; it’s like all the signs are pointing to yet-another-heartache and this time he failed to read them, despite his prior statements otherwise.
We, readers, knows a lot more than he does, I feel bad with some harsh judgment passed upon the guy for something he doesn’t know.
Now if I were to foretell where this will go; I’d think they’re going to regroup and recover individually. Maybe they’ll end up together again, or not, but right now they’re just hurting one another.
Ya know, she could – er – ‘really impress’ 3 birds with one stone here (didn’t want to invoke the ‘k’ word), because neither Jacquie or Luci (especially Luci) know she’s now her own best 4-legged friend – and has a spookygirl sidekick! If this is Punk Yoga; she could also wind up being their new Mascot!
Possibly not, if this indeed being enacted after-hours and they are there of their own accord then Jacqui shouldn’t have anything to worry about, IMO. now if this is happening during business hours, and there are other students around… Yee Gawds! she’s got problems… but i highly doubt that due to the whole butt spank, thing.. Justin the COP is very attuned to public opinion on matters of “Propriety”, and “Appearance in the Public’s View” he would Never have done that… unless it was as a demo of some sort… but then why would Shelly be surprised by it… hmmm, logic is in pretzel twists now… AAgh!
We have had days to analyze what happens and Justin has had about a minute. He is still reacting not thinking. The fact is, his adrenalin hasn’t worn off and he may collapse before the door. Still early to call how this is working out and he has issues from his past in relationships, but who doesn’t but lucky people. Maybe they both need to work through this.
Well, yeah, maybe he faints, and next thing he knows is that he’s in a hospital-bed, with Shelly nextbto him on one of those -almost deliberately-uncomfy chairs.
Could be.
All I know, is that I am mightily intrigued how this is going to play out..
I am left with the impression that Justin’s reaction is a result of a serious trauma in his past. His jump from what-the-hell-just- happened to you’re-crazy is just too quick.
Just, um… he ought to know you NEVER tell a crazy person they’re crazy; it’s an instigating statement, and Shelly’s last reaction shows instigation has big painful results. I think he’s heartbroken too, and is emotionally overreacting. If he and Shelly don’t make it through this, he’ll never trust a girl again.
Shelly’s heart is broken – for the moment. It seems that Justin really needs to take a hike and clear his head. Once the adrenalin levels have come down, and – as someone upstairs suggested – the “Sherlock Holmes” training kicks in, he may start to realize that two and two are adding up to five.
That, or Monica, or Phix, or Tepoz, or Creepy Little Girl may show him that he hasn’t even begun to see crazy, and that he’s got a good thing going with Shelly.
Or he discuss the incident with somebody and they point out that his story isn’t credible as it isn’t humanly possible as the amount of kinetic energy needed to vapourise a punchbag is exceptionally high)? Also, if she had turned around and slashed him, her momentum would have been such that she would have slashed him into 5+ pieces then gone through him.
-Shinx? Is that a Jewish sphinx?
-From the old saying “doesn’t know shinx from shinola”
-Just put the dishes in the kitchen shinx.
-No, it’s “shinx.” It’s like “mink” but cheaper.
-Is that what Shelly is?
They won’t go in the right place until (if) my original comment (that I was replying to) is approved. It triggered an alarm because it had 2 links instead of one.
Thanks for spotting that error — it looks like I replaced a grammatical error with a spelling one. As I said, I don’t know where my brain is today.
Bucc-i, I enjoyed your comment (and didn’t notice the error until you pointed it out). I take it that you’re meant to imagine it to the tune of Bleeding Love?
Ps.
If the original comment does get approved (it’s the one pointing out why it’s not a great leap to imagine that Phix may be one of Justin’s sarge’s exes), look down rather than up for Bucc-i’s comment.
I think Shelley needs a quart of Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food, and a nice long phonecall to Owen. Wasn’t he her best friend forever before he and Lakshmi forgot about the rest of the cast?
She has lots of other people she could talk to (who she’s closer to): Monica, Tina, Bud or Phix. She wouldn’t talk to Owen or Heather about this because they’re both out of the loop.
I don’t know what she feels she needs (i.e. sympathy, practical advice, distraction, etc). Bud will probably be the best at sympathy, Phix would give her practical advice, Monica would probably find a way of distracting her and Tina’s would probably ask questions around her feelings.
Sometimes, having someone out of the loop is good. They don’t have any preconcieved notions of what’s going on. And there are some friends you can pick right up with, as if there wasn’t any time bewteen the last time you talked.
Heck, if she can’t talk to Owen, I bet she could talk to her Dad. She does work in his shop after all, so he’s local.
Come to think of it, if this breakup goes through, Justin will be so turned off by crazy girls that Bud won’t stand a chance with him, even if these guys don’t realize the three-way social network. Even if Justin is chronically attracted to crazy girls, this will just be too fresh.
Cold … cruel … self-serving jock … while I don’t blame him one bit for wanting to protect himself, but that does not mean that poor Shelley doesn’t deserve an abundance sympathy and comfort. It just means that Officer Justin is obviously not the one to give it. If this were a RW situation, I’d be comforting Shelly – bloody talons and all. After all, she’d be the lesser of two monsters.
I think you’re being a bit harsh on him.
SHE PUT GASHES IN HIS CHEST. He’s injured, scared and pissed. No he isn’t acting like a saint. He’s NOT a saint. He’s a normal, mortal man with past wounds when it comes to relationships and even if it was an accident, she gave him lacerations.
He’s being irrational right now, but that don’t mean he’s a bad person or anything.
I’d be angry too if someone cut me like that. Even if it was an accident. I’d probably forgive them eventually, but yeah, I’d be ticked.
I’m not heaping any blame on either of them. This is a big, unfortunate accident. Hopefully they’ll both be okay soon.
Crazy, but that’s how it goes
Millions of Demoms living as foes
Maybe it’s not too late
To learn how to love
And forget how to hate
Chest wounds not healing
Life’s a bitter shame
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train!
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train!
I’m gonna Go!
I’ve listened to Demons
I’ve listened to fools
I’ve watched all the Shinxes
Who make their own rules
One person conditioned to rule and control
The Golem Girls sells it and you live the role
Chest wounds still screaming
Driving me insane
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train!
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train!
Like Panthro once said in the original Thundercats series, “Time to go in with teeth bared and fur flying!” Whether or not this is a Phix-Test, Shelly has to let the cat out of the bag now or never. It will make the Portal Cloth removal feel like a summer breeze, but has to be done.
While Shelly is not “crazy”, but her full situation is bizarre enough to qualify for the term. Justin has intuitively recognized the “crazy” quotient here has gone way, way up. If he stays, he knows he’s going down the rabbit hole. He thinks this one goes where all the other ones have gone and that’s the only place where he’s wrong.
But he has nothing to really tell him different so he can be forgiven for jumping to a conclusion. Shelly, as long as she’s acting the part of an emotional wreck, is fulfilling Justin’s expectations nicely.
The hardest thing for her to do is let Justin go and talk to him later when he’s calm enough to actually ask “what the hell really happened back there?”
So, what would a sphinx’s preferred spices, condiments, and beverages be under these circumstances? Ketchup? Spicy mustard? A couple of rafts of grilled asparagus spears? 80-thousand-year-old eggs, courtesy of the Time Forest Gourmet Supply company? Crème brûlée for dessert, with the top lovingly caramelized by a toasty puff of plasma-breath by a blond golem?
Not fava beans and chianti, surely… that combination has been done to death.
[Man, this is macabre stuff to be talking about… Gallo’s humor, perhaps?]
You’re right, there is a double standard at work. I don’t wish to be offensive, but the reason that double standard exists in real life is because, in general, women aren’t as large or physicaly strong as men are. The culture as a whole tends to dissmiss violence done to men by women. It’s not right, but there it is. There are ,of course, exceptions. I realize it shouldn’t apply here because Shelly certainly IS the exception and was even before her transformation. But, like Justin, our perceptions of the world around us are shaped by what we experience in it. There’s also the fact that Shelly is one of the main protagonists and we tend to take her side.
And if a “normal” Shelly had simply whirled around and punched him in the nose, I think Justin would probably be reacting pretty much the same way with accusations of crazy and whatnot. As several folks have pointed out the thing that seems most jarring is how easily he’s dismissing clearly supernatural events. Like the heavy bag vaporizing, Shelly moving faster than the eye can see and lacerations on his chest a tiger could have put there.
If this were a fit of rage, I’d have no sympathy for the attacker regardless of gender. The fact is that it was the reflexive response of a startled person. That’s the kind of thing that tends to be forgiven in real life. I won’t deny that the double standard exists, but it is hardly the only reason, or even the main reason that Shelly is getting sympathy from the readers.
Without being in the know, the only conclusion Justin can reach is that she just slashed him deeply with at least two knives which had been and are again well concealed. If he [i]doesn’t[/i] cut and run, he’s too insane to make a good mate.
Situation as it stands – there is no place in Shelly’s life anymore for a lover that isn’t in the know.
“There is no place in Shelly’s life anymore for a lover that isn’t in the know.”
I am glad to see at least one person here who is capable of seeing this situation through Justin’s eyes.
We know who and what Shelly is. Justin does not.
What Justin does know, as a former cop, is what happens to women whose boyfriends and husbands hurt them, for any reason other than true accident.
Eventually, they end up dead.
I am trying to imagine what the response here would be if a non-magical girl in the story found herself under attack by a male with Shelly’s powers and instability. I’m sure there would be universal sympathy for the girl.
Where’s the equivalent sympathy for Justin?
There are a few folks up thread who have also mentioned that if Shelly wants to fix this, she must manifest, must show that there really are extraordinary circumstances here.
She must show him that she needs his help controlling this.
She must (and I bet this sticks in a lot of craws) show she’s willing to submit to him, somehow give him the power to control her, because she’s shown she cannot guarantee to control herself.
She’s a stick of leaking dynamite, and best will in the world, she’s just demonstrated she cannot be trusted in any normal sense of the word.
I can see through Justin’s eyes, and he is really reacting fairly normally, given what he knows. I just haven’t liked him from the beginning. Even though he’s normal (whatever that is), he’s still a jerk.
With respect, refugee, Shelly does need a drill sergeant. That has been established. But it cannot be Justin.
He can’t be guarding and watching her the whole time. That’s abuse, as Justin must know, and besides, his job to guard Minneapolis. He needs his lover to have his back, not the back of his hand, let alone this vice-versa.
Shelly needs a drill sergeant. You do not take your drill sergeant home, and you certainly do not take him onto the battlefield. Because the point of training is to be self-reliant and reliable to those who trust you, whatever form your squad takes.
PS – Submission-to-the-husband theory no more “sticks in the craw” of anyone, than the flat earth theory troubles the satellite communications industry. Just those who keep practicing it, as your domestic violence observation should make clear.
Um–concealed where? She isn’t wearing enough to conceal one knife, let alone two. She’s wearing what appears to be a strapless sports bra and athletic shorts–both practically spray-painted on. And Justin himself acknowledged the humanly-impossible exploded punching bag. At some point Justin is going to have to process this and realized that what happened to him wasn’t explainable by normal human methods.
http://www.punchanpie.net/daily/20071017.html
This was a break up over a week and I wonder if this is what Shelly is going to do here.
So few moments together, and is she just going to let him go?
How can she hold him back? Does she show him what she truly is? How do you tell him what’s real when it’s so unreal?
She may just have to let him go.
Or y’know, airlift him to the ER…
The only thing I’m certain of is that this storyline is tugging on everyone’s feelings… based on the number of comments. Which is sincere props to Paul.
Yeah, part of me is still hoping that all this is some kind of simulation training that Shelly is unaware of. It would be nice if on Friday we hear a voice saying, “Library, end simulation” as if it were the Holodeck on Deep Space Nine, or something like that, and have it end with a bewildered/relieved/indignant Shelly realizing that she’d been had. It would make sense to have her face her worst fears first. After that, everything else would be comparatively easy. It would be cool if I was right, since I will have called this pretty early Monday morning–don’t know if anyone cited this possibility before me.
Oh poor Shelly. I love reading this artfully crafted comic and have been doing so for years. And I love reading the insightful comments as well. This is the first time I’ve felt so moved I had to say something.
Poor Shelley just got back. She has barely had time to readjust. In her eyes she hasn’t even seen him in forever….to not have told him yet is not a large transgression. Any sane person would walk away from her, which is why it is important that they establish a connection first.
Given everything I have seen about his character, I can’t see him walking away permanently. Surely he will see he startled her, she was horrified she hurt him, and he never gave her a chance. That’s not crazy! Logically a woman who you sneek up on who acts defensively probably has a damn good reason!
I sure hope he comes back! But then again not all in life has a happy ending.
Sure, Shelly “just got back” but to JUSTIN, she goes from his slightly weird girlfriend that he can joke around with, to this standoff-ish, moody, violent CRAZY person… just because he spanked her BUTT… all in a matter of DAYS!! remember Shelly LEFT, and CAME BACK the EXACT. SAME. SECOND… give or take a bit of off-panel time lapse, of course.
and there is where you’re wrong… this isn’t about LOGIC anymore, it just went into the EMOTIONAL realm and you can’t win an emotional fight with logic…. AARGH, I can’t find the link where Monica and her Demon Doubt, i think it was Doubt… says the exact same thing…
ever snuck up on a traumatized woman? or spanked some chick’s butt in a bar? chances are they won’t like it. they might haul off and slap you. she didn’t know who it was.
There’s a basic problem here. Shelly is only half human, and her cat/sphinx instincts are kicking it at bad times. If the punching bag hadn’t got in the way and slowed down her swing (no thanks to her), he’d have been disemboweled. (Or disheartened?)
Shelly needs a mate of her own species/species mix. It’s not just about Shelly and Justin. Superman and Lois Lane wouldn’t have worked out either — different species.
I don’t know. According to the story line sphinxes and humans mated in the distant past. That’s how Shelly got her sphinxy half in the first place. Seems like she could mate with a human since a full blooded sphinx could and she’s much more human than they.
As to Superman and Lois, it could be both Kryptonians and humans share a common ancestor eons ago. Many planets could have been populated by the same species of being. So could it be with sphinxes and humans for that matter.
Man it never fails to happen. I love this web-comic and the characters in it. I also like looking at the comments because almost every time i see a post its like everyone is a psychiatrist, and their views are pretty cool to read. An although i feel pretty bad for Shelly please man keep up the good work.
So many people called it.
Yeah, he’s putting the Shelly-shaped peg right into his usual round hole. Predictable, conventional… perhaps inevitable, for him… and oh so very unfair.
Her expression in the last frame is utterly heartbreaking. Damnit, she’s had 80,000 years of loss and loneliness… she does not need or deserve this one on top of all of that.
a little honesty from her up front could have helped prevent this. I can’t blame him personally. What is he supposed to think?
It’s entirely fair.
She’s lied to him from the beginning. She’s STILL lying.
Sure it is ‘fair’… but he doesn’t give her a chance to say anything. It is fair, but shallow.
Perhaps he’ll cool down and re-think it. He’s lying to himself too… he attracts ‘crazy’ ‘cuz that’s what he is looking for and suited for. At some point, he’s going to realize that he likes crazy, or change his ways, like where he looks for chicks.
Let’s unpack that a little. The Lost Girls have all been lying, and continue to, to most of the world.
And there are reasons for that.
Unfair and unjust reasons. And that’s part of why we root for them.
Secrets. When Truth and Justice need some time apart.
I don’t think Shelly has told Justin any significant un-truths.
She has certainly left stuff out.
Is that “lying”?
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/leavingdetailsout/
It aint over til it’s over and it may not be over just yet. Thing is he doesn’t seem the least bit interested in what happened to the bag or any of the rest of it. That’s just not normal, even in this extrodinary circumstance.
He’s basically moved on to denial. He’s doing his best to shove the whole thing into his “insane category” and forget about it because it doesn’t fit into his worldview. That way he doesn’t have to think about it. The more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that things don’t add up, and people don’t seem to like it when things don’t add up.
That rings especially true when the person doing the adding is a trained investigator as all police are supposed to be.
So, for the stages of grief, he’s showing anger and denial, while she’s showing bargaining and depression?
But she’s denying that it’s her who did this, which is not a good development.
I didn’t read it as her denying that she attacked him. I read it as her denying that she’s sweet and normal on the outside but crazy on the inside.
She’s not crazy on the inside. She’s sphinxy on the inside. It’s different. 😛
Moved to denial? More like self preservation–he did see what she just did to the punching bag after all, and he IS bleeding. I too would make for the exit quick, fast and in a hurry.
It absolutely kills me to think that Shelly would have this happen to her. She never meant to do this, and she certainly did love him.
She deserves better than this.
Well if she loved him, she shouldn’t have kept so much of herself from him. ‘Like you’d tell me.’
And to be fair, she came within millimeters of literally disemboweling him. Denial, suppression, unfair whatever you want to call it, this is probably safest for him.
He was a lecherous slime ball from the beginning. Shelly deserves better, but I also agree when Shelly finds someone worthy of her, she needs to be up front him. If your willing to share your body with him, you should be willing to let him know you’re a sphinx.
As I recall she was the one who blew up a grill to get HIS attention. Lecherous: Having or showing excessive or offensive sexual desire. Personally I don’t think either were to that level.
I’m not really seeing the “lecherous slime ball” thing.
Me neither. Don’t get me wrong, he ain’t my favorite person right now, but up to this point he’s been alright.
wapsisquare.com/comic/gripping-story/
Playing stupid to get more physical contact with the teacher is not slimy and lecherous?
@ShirouZhiwu
Well, then women are slimy and lecherous since they have been doing that for ages.Feed on male weakness by having sex with teacher to get better grades. Pretend to be weak and incompetent to get guys to pay attention to them. Put their arms around them to teach them bowling or golf, etc. Playing dumb to get physical contact without appearing to be a slut is a classic female move.
You’re not the first to seem to think that about him, but I don’t recall him being slimy before. Yes…he did attend her classes and act like a noob for the attention, but (as was pointed out) she blew up her grill every spring to get him to come over.
*shrugs* They seemed to be a decent match when you get down to it.
That is part of the problem. They are both alike to much of an extent. It is a destructive behavior path.
@Dusty668 – While I certainly agree with your point intellectually, I tend to think it’s harder to be completely open and honest with the people you love than with complete strangers. If a stranger judges you, who cares? If your loved one becomes repulsed by something you secretly loathe or fear about yourself, it hurts.
So yes…she should have been honest with him about herself. I actually think she would have gotten there, but I don’t think she was really ready for that step just yet. That level of honesty would imply a very deep and long-term relationship. She tends to fear those connections iirc.
There are a couple of other factors which complicate things for Shelly, re the “Tell Justin the truth” issue (and I agree, if they’re going to be together, she has to do so).
Issue the first: Shelly is only gradually coming to terms with the full truth about herself. She didn’t know that she was part-sphinx until the Time Forest incident. It was some time thereafter that she had her first spontaneous sphinx-transformation (the spider nightmare). It’s only been in the past few days (Wapsi time) that she’s been aware of the fact that her sphinx side is trying to assert itself, and that other people are at risk as a result. It’s a hell of a lot to deal with in a short period of time… she’s going through some serious, worrying personal changes, and figuring out how and what to tell Justin cannot be easy.
Unfortunately, if what we’ve seen in this last week is realsie, events have overtaken her.
Issue the second: there’s no “half-way”. In order for her to tell Justin enough about what’s going on to protect him, and actually have him believe her, she’s going to have to tell and show him damned near everything: and it’s not just her secret! Lots of other people are involved, and (if Justin goes all Lawman and starts blowing whistles) are likely to be seriously affected: Monica, the GGs, Tina, all of their guys. Due to his position as a (presumably “sworn”) police officer, Justin is probably the riskiest person to introduce to all of the Weirdness that they’ve had to deal with yet… his personality entirely aside. Even if there are MIB hanging around to try to keep a lid on things, it could become very messy.
To date, I can’t recall Shelly ever having been the one responsible for deciding to bring a new outsider into the fold. Monica has done it (Amanda, and Shelly herself I think), Jin has done it (Alan), Bud initiated it with Kevin after the Great Hangover Sleepover Poit, but it’s not something that Shelly has ever done (I think). It’s a huge responsibility, and she may not feel up to it… at least, not without discussing it first with Monica and perhaps some of the others… and, as I said, events appear to have overtaken opportunities here.
In any case, however it goes, I think the Lid of Indecisiveness has been blown completely off of the cauldron. If what we’re seeing is real, Shelly either has to bid Justin goodbye, or show him the truth and persuade him to stay. If what we’re seeing is a simulation/projection, it should certainly be intense enough to persuade Shelly that she must do A or B before disaster actually ensues.
Just exactly how do you tell someone you’re a sphinx? Be honest with him? How? “Oh, by the way, just thought I should let you know: I’m a sphinx. And as long as we’re alone in this arena, let me prove it.” *POOF*
How do you think the average person is going to react, let alone the average law enforcement officer, who is trained to react in a certain way in certain threatening situations?? Kevin, Alan and Amanda in the Wapsiverse are very much the exceptions, not the rule. The readers can only suspend disbelief for so long vis-a-vis characters’ reactions to finding out the truth about the various supernatural goings-on, and I’m sure Pablo knows it. Something had to go haywire eventually. I always felt Justin was a bit on the superficial side to begin with.
Flesh, torn — Heart, broken.
Hardly a fair exchange.
Then again, it’s not anywhere near Friday!
We finally see the gashes in his chest.
Being falsely accused of something is one of the worst things there is.
NOW! Now, Shelly … turn into a sphinx and show him you’re not crazy. Talk isn’t going to do it. It’s time for action!
That gash on his right chest does look as if will require stitches… there’s some skin hanging loose.
Yep, looks like muscle damage too. When the adrenalin wears off breathing is going to hurt a lot, then the shock will set in.
Justin hardly felt anything when it happened, so he probably thinks it is just some minor fingernail scratches on his skin. But sphinx claws are sharper than razors, and infinitely stronger.
Ooo…good point. I wonder if he’ll really write her off as crazy when he realizes how bad the injury is, or if he’ll start to rethink what it would have taken to make that happen.
This feels too much like dumping Amanda in Lake Someplace to prove sanity, but I bet Paul can pull it off.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. She should turn into a Sphinx and block the exit to keep him from leaving and explain what she is.
Okay, what part of “He’s a POLICE OFFICER” don’t certain people understand? There are VERY SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES for willfully endangering an officer. In doing so, Shelly would not only put herself at grave legal risk, but also Monica, Phix, Tina, the Golem Girls, and everyone else connected with them in the ensuing investigation.
I agree with you… to a point… if they were DOING THAT DURING THE PERFORMANCE OF HIS JOB, then yes, Shelly’s in a heap o’ trouble… HOWEVER, A) he was NOT doing his job at the time. B) Technically he sexually assaulted her. (the butt spank) and C)she was in a Gym/Dojo (whatever) in a combat stance when he distracted her by that aforementioned butt spank and HE KNEW IT WAS GOING TO DO SO, and because she didn’t know it was him (it could have been anybody!) she immediately retaliated in SELF DEFENSE… and luckily had the reflexes in order to “pull her punches” and not seriously hurt him… SO… if it did go to trial HE would be the one vilified by the press and SHE would be fine.
OOPS! posted too soon… anyway, Yes… there are some “irregularities” involved, such as how the punching bag “exploded” and how deep the cuts were if she only had “human nails” vs “sphinx claws” but those would be shuffled under the rug by the press (and defense) in order to fry the “Rapist Cop VS. the Innocent Female Victim”… Facts-be-damned, Yes, the whole thing would become a Media farce and the Feces would Impact upon the Rotary Atmosphere Impeller. but Monica and everyone else would come out fine, Shelly would have her 15’s of fame, and Justin could possibly be fired after all is said and done, or at the very least, He’ll be transferred to somewhere “less sensitive” than in his current position “in the public view” and into a desk job somewhere where the media will forget about him sooner.
So, place your bets, folks. Does he make it out the door? If not, why?
Still going for my previous assessment.
This looks like Justin’s understandable response. As much as people might say he’s not understandable.. he’s bleeding from a (from his perspective) playful interaction with someone he’s been on recently less functional than ‘before’ ground. She’s been distancing herself since the sphinx element, rather than enlightening him. This sort of response to violence shouldn’t be surprising, even if it is heart rending.
Next up, Shelly’s emotional state loosens her sphinxness, followed by Friday cut away from the action.
Oh his response is perfectly understandable. It’s just “not fair” because we like Shelly…and it’s “stupid” because we know what’s really going on. 🙂
Holding to my Mona-Lisa-smile secret bet from Monday.
It looked slightly less likely yesterday, slightly more likely today.
My bet:
Justin – I apologize. I did hurt you, and you’ve every right to leave. I ask only that you take one last look at me before you go.
(Dun dun Dunnnn!!!!)
Since the last time we met, I was called away for a very, very long time. 80,000 years. I’ve only been back a few weeks, and I’m far from settled for what I’ve had to deal with in all that time. And I’ve hurt you in the process. I hope some day you can forgive me. I want you to feel safe and be safe. And if someday you want to talk about this — some day when we’re both calmer — I’d be glad to explain more. Until then, please know that I’m sorry. Farewell.
I like that one Atomic, That would be a nice scene.
After seeing the gashes, he may not make it to the door because he collapses from blood loss/shock.
Then the scenario would go, by my guess:
Justin tries to leave, faints and collapses.
Shelly carries him outside the gym using her strength, transforms to Sphinx and carries him to a handy emergency room.
Justin wakes on the way, revived temporarily by the rush of cold air, sees her sphinxified, faints again.
When he comes to in the hospital, he thinks it’s all a dream.
If he does make to the ER;
ER Doc: What happened to you?
Justin: My crazy ex girlfriend did this to me.
Beat banel as ER Doc stares incredulously at Justin.
ER Doc: You were in a relationship with a mountain lion?
I’m sorry, but I laughed too hard at this. This is good because what is happening at the moment isn’t funny.
I’ve heard of guys dating cougars, but this is ridiculous.
Does 80,000 years qualify as a ‘cougar’ or something else entirely?
And I did have a thought as to why Justin reacts the way he does in the following day’s strip. It will be interesting to see if I am correct.
Ouch. His chest lacerations are painfully visible now. Maybe Justin is being unfair but Shelly literally slashed open his old emotional wounds.
It takes a whole man to love a powerful woman. Cougers are enough to put guys on edge but a 80K year old Sphinx? Poor fellow has to have time to adjust. Fair or not she’s a full fledged creature of power and will never be able to hide it. She needs to let him in on the truth or she’ll never able to get close to a mortal soul.
Well now. To save all, there’s only one thing left:
Give Justin an inkling of what he really is dealing with by going Sphinx…
Or not, and then that’s that. To be totally realistic, it couldn’t have been prevented I guess.
Shame, but utterly realistic.
She could still beat him to the door. That would be a start.
YES! But will she be able to bring herself to do it after what’s just happened? Speed to door, block it with full sphinx body, truthful disclosure/emotional enema?
The only way I can see her convincing him she is not crazy is to let Shellinx out completely. But what would that do? I’m afraid that Shelly is screwed, unless this is some training simulation of Phix’s.
I’ll bet that Paul is enjoying all the back-and0 forth in the comments.
I don’t know. I get the impression he doesn’t much care.
You’re angling for another hug from him aren’t you?
One was quite enough. Besides, I don’t think that’s gonna do it.
Oooh, better be flowers this time, eh? Has Paul been hugging another grump?
Well, take heart. Valentine’s day is around the corner.
Valentine’s day? Patooy! I fart in the general direction of Valentine’s day.
And now we will taunt Arbor day a second time!
I’d prefer a box of chocolate to flowers. 😀
@Bmonk…. Woot, Woot… another Chocoholic!… though i usually wait till the day-after sales and get more chocolate for less.
This would be a good time for Bud to show up. That or a certain someone to poit these two into the library to help ‘Phix’ this mess. 🙂
Oh, my wooden nickle is in the pun jar.
Not to spoil your pun, but Bud may be be the last of the potent poitables that should be added to this mix. Unless you want to see goat-on-sphinx action.
Mmmmm …… Shoot, now I know I’m a sick puppy. lolz
Goat-on-sphinx action?
Who would want to see that?
I have to wonder what the thinking process was concerning the person/people who put a goat (or a snake) on the same level as a big cat. I mean, a predator, like any of the big cats, are magnificent in their own right and scale up well when giant size. But a goat? Come on. You have to really embellish a goat to bring it up to the same level. They should have just stuck with the big cats or big dogs like wolves, mixing and matching as needed. Leave the barnyard animals out of it.
Snakes scale up pretty well; dragons, giant fossils to back up the stories. So many fantasy villains turn into a giant snake, it’s been a trope before there were TVTropes.
But goats… yeah. They’re more pastoral than barnyard, and the domestic ones are sweethearts.
Mountain goats are tough buggers. They’re kind of the moose of the ancient Greek world. They’ll retreat, but they’ll fight too, and know how to exploit high ground.
And they have square eyes and are oddly intelligent. It’s disconcerting. With a big cat or snake staring at you it’s a basic, “I’m going to die.” Looking into a goat’s eyes it’s more, “This is an alien. What the hell.”
According to NCIS tonight (season 5, disk 2, episode: Chimera) a Chimera is, in Greek (?) mythology, a creature with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon. There’s the GGs’ forms… but I still think the person who told the story to begin with looked around and saw a picture of a lion and his neighbor’s goat and some kid suggested a dragon. 😀 Conglomerates by committee.
Puns aside, Connie might do it, too. She’s physically scary enough she could probably cut through Justin’s emotional turmoil, and sharp tongued and verbally hard hitting enough to get him to listen.
But I don’t think she’s going to intervene. This is Shelly’s to win or lose on her own.
… AND THEN YOU LET ALL THE CRAZY OUT!
And this is different from the average female how?
I didn’t know they made females in “average”.
Of course there are average females. Worse yet, 70% of them think they’re above the average.
So…what’s the common denominator with all those “crazy” women you know?
*You Are*
Coincidence? I think not.
You’re right, it’s not coincidence. It’s family. I have the paperwork to prove it.
Cal, Alan made a similar point when he first met Jin.
It is interesting to see how the point looks when said by a guy the audience is sympathetic to (see also the next page and the “first set” happened on the previous page).
I suspect either a)the average female lets out all the crazy and it’s a tempest in a teacup, or b) the average female lets out only a little bit of the crazy…
I want to be a novelist, so I suspect I also have a larger dose of crazy… 😉
Everyone’s crazy here. It’s just that some of us are more willing to admit it than others.
HEY! I resemble that remark!
Agreed. I’d say more but I haven’t finished gnawing through the straps yet this morning.
… cheerfully humming “Foam, foam on, deranged, where the weird one a cantelope flays” as he prepares his breakfast…
*clink*
‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ said Alice.
‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the cat. ‘We’re all mad here.’
eh, some of us exhibit all the crazy (as seen by my 18 yr old’s eternal comment “why cant i have a NORMAL mom?”) and save the terrifying for Very Special Occasions. as also evidenced by said kid: “you know…dad gets angry and i get wary. YOU get angry and i want to run away and hide, even though all you do is tell me the truth.”
its good to be the mama. 😉
Justin got just a glimpse of Shelly’s sphinx side. He knew she had a temper (remember when she got mad and threw an engine block across the garage?) and was awfully strong, but he thought she was human.
Now he has a set of scratches that would do a grizzly bear proud.
Likely he doesn’t know about the engine-toss.
He does know about smashing the alarm clock to flinders and scorch marks….
Although there is the slight possibility of Justin not making it out the door, I don’t doubt that he will. And it is probably for the better. Shelly deserves better.
Justin will get his comeuppance eventually. At some point he should realize the illogic of “everybody else is crazy but not me’ and change his attitude. But not now. And maybe never – some people’s denial is very strong.
Shelly is hurting – badly – but I think she is hurting from the idea of rejection more than the loss of Justin specifically. Shelly has enjoyed playing with Justin but she never has seemed to be in love with him. Her grief is for the loss of the dream of “Justin the relationship” – which is very real and valid grief – but not the same as grieving for “Justin the person”. “Yesterday” she said “I just want to share me with someone” – not “Justin” but only “someone”. This is very telling. She is not scared of but does not want to be alone. Not being scared of being alone is quite different than not wanting to be alone.
Hopefully, someone will enter her life that is strong and caring enough to be her mate.
“Justin will get his comeuppance eventually” Really? Why?
Justin is acting perfectly NORMAL in this situation without any of the insight and history that we, as readers, have.
All he knows of Shelly is that she’s athletic, a little kinky, attractive and not a moron. As a policeman I’m sure he’s run into all sorts of people and situations that have made him naturally cautious. This would include those “crazies” that he seems to attract.
For those who say that maybe it’s Justin, have you ever seen a cop groupie? They aren’t always right in the head. Usually they like the imagery of what they think a cop is, or they like the ‘power’ that the cop represents. Some just like the neanderthal attitude that some cops have.
In any event, I think that the reader comments here are pretty unfair to Justin. I am not saying Shelly ‘deserves’ ill treatment or to be unhappy, but good grief, what would you do if you were walking up to a woman (or man) with a punching bag, you smacked their butt and they did the following:
– swipe/claw the bag in half so quickly that it looked like it exploded.
– swipe/claw YOU and leave some fairly large lacerations
This from someone who had *seemed* perfectly normal. As someone mentioned yesterday, people on drugs or with unstable mental state;s can do extraordinary physical things. Maybe if Shelly had said “I have a black belt in XYZ martial art style” she could have gotten away with the bag, but not the claw marks and ripped flesh.
Step outside your knowledge of the history of the comic and think about this as if *you* saw someone react and do the things Shelly did, to you, not someone else. Then tell me if his reaction is too quick or mean or whatever else.
I can bet that 99% of the people here would be running, not walking, to the door. The other 1% would be backing away, trying to make sure they didn’t turn their back to the other person while still intending to escape.
I guess my reaction toward Justin is based on a couple of things. First, I acknowledge what we’re seeing drawn out *CLINK* over several days of updates is happening in the span of minutes in Wapsi time. This is hitting them both hard and fast emotionaly with little room to think. Justin was certainly justified in his initial reaction. From his perspective, a playful swat on the butt earned him a chest full ‘o claws. I can’t really blame him for that. The “Don’t touch me!” I can certainly understand.
What bothers me is his follow up to that. Shelly is obviously distraught. She’s crying on the verge of breaking down. She’s pouring her heart out to him. This is a woman Justin has had an intimate physical relationship with. We’ve seen them together in loving moments. And while her reaction is extreme, It’s the first time she’s done something like this. And what is Justin doing? Instead of wondering what’s wrong or what could be bothering her enough to provoke this reaction, he mentaly writes her off and paints her with the colors of his past experience as one more crazy he shouldn’t have gotten involved with.
So yeah. Don’t let the door hit you where the Sphinx shoulda bit ya Office Tight Buns.
Although I would like to see his reaction to a full on Sphinx out. There’s your crazy.
Need to remember, he’s been through this before, probably multiple times. No doubt he forgave more than one of those crazies, only to have her be okay for a while then let the crazy out again. They probably cried and everything too. He’s had to harden his heart to that out of self preservation.
Yeah, I know. And how many domestic abusers promise “It will never happen again”? Not the same thing exactly, but to Justin it probably feels like it. He’s obviously been on this ride before and his past is shaping how he reacts to her. He’s going to miss out on a good thing because he can’t see past his preconcived notions of how things are. So, yeah, I’m being a little judgemental towards him, I guess. It’s just frustrating as Hell to watch this happen to somebody I care about, even if she is a fictional character.
Agreed. Not understanding the Justin “hate”. They both have issues communication would resolve. That resolution being neither positive nor negative, just a solid point to move forward from.
Now would be a great time for her to go “Wanna see crazy?” SPHINIFY “How’s this for crazy Justin?!”
Not that it would change the outcome. He’d just run off terrified instead of pissed. But at least she’d be acting out instead of crying. :'(
Can’t stand it.
Um, not to a LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER. Major mega-trouble. Justin would probably go straight to the FBI. It’s already been stated in the comic by Euryale that the Government knows what’s going on and has THUS FAR been pretty much letting them police themselves. That could change abruptly. If she did “sphinx out” in front of Justin, she’d be well wise to do it when he’s unarmed: She is a human/sphinx hybrid, and therefore very killable, even in sphinx form.
Not to worry. With her speed, she can grab the gun before he can even unsnap the holster strap. Heck, she could disarm a whole squad in the time it takes to blink. And I mean take their weapons, not their limbs.
Ouch…
I am SO sucked into this storyline right now. Hope there’s a good payoff.
I’ve no doubt that it’ll be a doozy of a ending. 😉
Right. It’ll be a real letdown if this turns out not to be real. But it won’t be the first time.
Fossegrim and david4250 – Reposted from yesterday since it was so late:
While it is true that the comments here are almost 100% reasonable and respectful, this is not true for all web comics. Some can get downright nasty – such as Doonesbury on goComics. Even a non-political strip such as Luann has its occasional flame wars.
It’s funny that this thread started. For the past couple of days I have been thinking about how this strip has developed into a venue for intelligent discussions among a disparate community of readers. A lot of us migrated from goComics’ Pibgorn but not all. A couple of years ago there would be, at best, single digit number of comments, frequently none. Now typically there are hundreds of daily comments – many extremely insightful of human nature – almost always interesting and entertaining, and sometimes exhibiting mind blowing talent for word play that rivals the best professional writer or comedian in existence.
I think it is mostly the depth of character development, plot complexity and self consistency, attention to details (such as connections to historical real life events), and Pablo’s skillful creativity that elicit our interest and engagement with the story and characters that he has brought to “life”. Witness the frequent emotional connections of the posters with the characters that is so evident in these comments.
Mid last century comics had a pretty bad name. Although reading them wasn’t supposed to grow hair on your hands, it was thought to be as bad an influence. Funny how we didn’t seem to grow up to be such deviants after all. In fact it looks we’re mostly fairly stable, intelligent, tolerant and aware human beings.
And may I add that this comic has the most interesting and observant group of commentators of those webcomics I follow! Having first found Wapsi Square back in the Magic 8-Ball T-Shirt days, this series has maintained a delightful internal consistency as the plot lines developed and matured. Moreover, the comment threads have equally grown along with the story, fed by the many readers like myself who have become intimate with the whole tale.
N.B the “They’re Talking” comment of yesterday — a reference to a bar scene some 8? years ago, but still fresh today! The loss of the Blank Label forums is behind us by several years now, but the beat goes on.
So a toast to you all — long timers, lurkers, and those fresh from the archive crawl! Well done ladies and gents!
And thanks to PabloWapsi for the tales before and those to come!
Blank Label.
There’s a name I’ve not heard for quite some time.
/obi wan
I miss having forums. This is okay, but it makes for poor community cohesion.
Hum. Once I discovered the comic, I started bouncing around the internet to see what people were saying about Wapsi. A few reviewers complaints were that the “plot is to covoluted and hard to follow” and “large parts of the story are unexplained”. I kind of like that there aren’t walls of text and Paul dosen’t feel the need to spoon feed us every little detail.
Not to be elitist (well, maybe a little) I think understanding and enjoying Paul’s creation takes a bit more than the average intelegence, which maybe weeds out some of the more ill mannered folks lurking out there on the internet.
I agree. It’s a bit like the “Buckaroo Banzai” movie… a lot is going on, which you don’t really appreciate unless you’re willing to really pay attention and work at it a bit. If you are, it really rewards you. If you are not, you spend a lot of time saying “Hunh?? What the *bleep* are they talking about?”
It’s almost the antithesis of a very great deal of popular fiction and drama… which frequently has exposition thickly laid on with a trowel, or which is laden with stuff which is not just unexplained, but arbitrary and self-inconsistent.
Wapsi is absolutely the most engaging work of imaginative fiction I’ve encountered in years.
Very well put, Skulker, and I wholeheartedly agree. I wish all webcomic forums were like this. I’d be willing to bet that part of it may be that the reader base may be a bit older than average and therefore a bit more mature? Just a guess, though (coming from a 44-y.o. male)
Probably… the last time I can recall the subject of reader age coming up, several of the regulars said they were in their 50s (I’m 56 myself). The demographic here isn’t the stereotypical comic-reader “teens and twenty-somethings, and nobody over 30” by any means.
It is a little odd sometimes that being 20 makes me one of the younger posters here. I agree that this is one of the friendlier webcomic fandoms around, and I wish that more were like this.
There are others about your age. Havent seen Kramegame around in a while, but he’s 19 or 20. ShadOBabe recently turned 21. We had someone called Artemisia who said they were 16ish.
At least I (at 25) get to call you a young whippersnapper. Now, quit hanging around here and get a job! Get a haircut too! Kids today … why in my day …
Uphill, Both ways, in the snow….
Don’t be silly. Only one way had snow. The other had molten lava and a really narrow ledge.
No!
Something isn’t right here. Justin seems suddenly too composed as he’s spouting off about the insane women he seems to be attracted to.
It’s denial. He’s taking all of the things that don’t add up and shoving them into the corner so he doesn’t have to think about them. It’s fairly common among people exposed to enough weirdness that they can no longer convince themselves that they didn’t notice it.
Because of his own lousy experiences coupled with the fact that his pea brain is having trouble processing what has really happened. It’s defaulted to something more familiar to channel his anger through.
I think Justin’s problem is projection.
BINGO BANGO BONGO POP CORN!
Justin is coming across like a projection of Shelly’s fears!
And all this time. Where is Shelly’s scary little friend at? One would think that she’d at least try to help prevent something like this from happening to begin with?
That’s what I said yesterday, and why I still don’t think it’s him. This whole thing could be entirely in Shelley’s head, either an “exercise in control” with Phix, or something that started with Connie saying “here’s what you’re really afraid of…”
If it’s not real then Paul is just jerking his readers around and that’s not good either. He’s already done so with the shower scene. If this is another one, then there is no point in ever analyzing anything in the comic since it could just be another imagined occurance. At least anything to do with Shellinx anyway.
SoWhyMe, I don’t think it’s quite the same. We do have a bit more reason to think this time that it’s a set-up: Phix came and said “There’s something we need to work on” and we can do it back at the library.
This could be what she needs to work on: control in the crisis.
I read the shower scene as highlighting Shelly’s fears of what could go wrong and setting us up for this. I don’t think it’s a dream or projection or any other kind of simulation. I think this is very real.
If this is in fact real, Shelly does get one thing out of it… a valid reason to say I TOLD YOU SO! to Connie. What has happened here is (modulo the “unexpected come-on in the shower” vs. “unexpected swat on the butt” detail) almost precisely what Shelly was catastrophizing about. Arguably worse, in fact, due to Justin’s injury.
And that line of argument does support the “It must be a simulation/projection” hypothesis… in that it’s so close a match to just what Shelly feared would happen. If true, then the only big mystery is “Why doesn’t Shelly know that?”, per my suggestion about it being a sort of deliberate hypnotic trance or something similar.
Well, we may know by Friday, and (if not) will probably know by next week. I don’t imagine Paul would run us through months of a “season that was all a dream”.
Probably part denial, but from the looks of those wounds he must also be going into shock.
Lets see if makes it to the door.
Most definitely it’s partly denial, and partly anger adrenalin pumping through his body. Which usually lasts for only a few minutes, so your probably right in doubting that he’ll make it to the door.
Not all four shirt slashes are bleeding.
I revise my earlier statement about how many stitches he’d need.
*tips hat*
So, if he does manage to walk out that door, how does he explain that injury without seeming crazy himself. Surely a doctor would wonder how it happened. It’s a little bit hard to ignore that sort of weirdness once it leaves its mark on you so to speak.
I’m expecting the doctor to take a swab of his blood and, on analysing the DNA, ask if the person or thing that attacked him was part human and part cat (probably in a disbelieving voice).
I could see him having Abby Sciuto as his doctor, except that DC is a little far to go for a checkup. (19-hour drive with a stopover for lunch…ask me how I know 🙂 )
You’ve done it (driven between that city and DC)?
Well, I’ve driven from here to that city (Minneapolis) and I’ve driven from here to DC and on to Baltimore. It can be done in a day but I don’t reccommend it.
Really big dog or someone’s exotic animal pet tiger. Leapt up with forelegs on his chest, then slipped and began to fall down, claws got stuck, were pulled through flesh and muscle by the animal’s weight. Plausible enough that few doctors would question it much. Although they’d probably insist on a tetanus booster.
The index and middle fingers are the ones that do the most damage in a rake/slash/claw attacks.
I know this from a painful personal experience.
Off topic:
@Fairportfan: Apparently my mailman was confused. My downstairs neighbor has the same last name as I do, and I keep getting her mail, so I’ve had some chats with him about what names he can put in my mailbox. He wasn’t sure what to do with the box. Hehe.
FWIW, I forgot to mention it so it’s my fault. Sorry… Hi, my name is Liz S., and I’m a Wapsi addict… 😀
Hi Liz, Welcome to Wapsi Semi-Anonymous. Here at W.S.A. we do not focus on blaming ourselves for our addiction but downright revel in it.
I’m not an addict. I haven’t taken several trips through the archives. I don’t keep returning to the site to see if there are new comments. I have never replied to comments months after they’ve been made.
No, that’s not me at all!
😉
Neither have I…
.
.
.
.
*therapist adjusts glasses*
hmm.. That denial has to be adressed some time..
That denial does not have to be addressed. It’s perfectly comfortable a-naked.
If there were “alerts” to comments replied to later, I’d go back. Otherwise, once the day has passed…
Sometimes, though, there’s an empty space, and te comments just write themselves.
Oh, I’m reveling… and laughing at my confused postman. This is the first time I’ve got mail addressed to my screen name and he was so confused… 😀
(Crime busters today, We’re Mad tomorrow.)
No….. “Justin” isn’t reading like a traumatized human. He’s reading like a projection of Shelly’s fears. I don’t think Justin is present at all, only his image.
Like Luke facing Vader in the tree on Degoba.
Oh poop, I know way too much about pop culture.
Don’t worry. You spelled “Dagobah” wrong, unlike me…I am already a lost case.
So, for You there is still hope 😀
“Every time! Every time, this happens! I meet a nice girl, we get real cozy, and then BAM! I catch her off guard and she destroys a punching bag and slices open my chest! What is it this time, huh? Werewolf? Vampire? Shapeshifting chupacabra? Why can’t I ever meet a regular girl?? Screw this, I’m gonna go date Brandi! Or Tina! Or Bud! There’s plenty of normal women in this city I can date!!”
You made me laugh quite a bit with that one.
Now that’s funny.
Not to mention that tall redhead in the library! She’s sure to be lots of fun!
I can’t help feeling that had he dated Bud instead of Shelly (i.e. he and Shelly had never got together) they would have lasted. The big problem that both Shelly and Justin have is that neither of them reacts well to surprises — in Shelly’s case she reacts by trying to destroy the threat and Justin tries to avoid the threat.
Bud, on the other hand, has seen how much damage her anger could cause so she’s a lot more restrained and, crucially, slower in her approach. Bud would have been better at hiding strange things and, when it came time to have The Talk, she would have done it in a way that is non-threatening.
Sorry for the poor grammar.
Why are you thinking he’ll not date the three of them?.
…
” Oh!, Bud ended up to be a loon too, her friend is a bit calmer though..Maybe???”
…
” Both of them are the craziest chicks I ever met. At least I got decent coffee from meeting them, and the barista seems nice”.
…
*google through internet*
“I’m pretty sure there is a monastery that accepts former cops… Ohh this one in the andes looks nice… And there is this May person living here whom I can contact”
…
a padded cell later
“The horror, the horror”
So, after his breakup with his girlfriend for sprouting fangs, he’s going to…
…date that crazy girl with the fangs.
Never. Make. Detective.
Seeing this early makes me antsy. Anywho, I like the idea of it being a Phix test, or a “Justin walks out the door” plot direction (he needs to see just how bad his wounds are, or think about how dumb he sounds). Otherwise, I think a big reveal from Shelly seems a bit soon/anticlimactic/repetitive? On top of that, isn’t she at a gym? Why would we want her to go sphinx if she’s in public? (granted, it’s very possible she’s at home). Regardless, Paul’s done a great job so far. I’ll trust him to take his story the right direction 😀 *grabs popcorn*
P.S. If he snuck up on her, it’s *almost* his own damn fault. Not quite, but almost. After being around enough martial artists in my lifetime, I’ve learned that you just *don’t* sneak up on people.
I, and a few others, made that point yesterday. And, come to think about it, he got to know her in a sneaky sorta way, after meeting her in the line of duty. And he has been seeing a blond loony around on his patrol as of late…
Hrm? How is it Justin’s fault for sneaking up and smacking her on the butt? Shelly has never claimed nor shown signs of being a trained combatant or martial artist. At most she maybe did some “Tae Bo” type exercise classes.
Sure she’s athletic and buff but so is he. He *is* a trained cop, and likely feels he can handle himself fairly well in the self-defense area.
What is the normal reaction to smacking someone on the butt (who has never mentioned being a martial artist?) They whirl around and look shocked, or move away as they turn to see who was there, or worse case they take a swing at you. All at “normal” human speed, and which Justin could likely handle.
Shelly reacted as Sphinx speed, which we know from the bar fight scene is incredibly fast, and not-normal. So from all Justin knows of Shelly she should not have been able to do that, hence the reaction.
uh, they’re in a gym… SHE OWNS… and where… SHE TEACHES KICK BOXING.
I find it rather obvious that somebody who teaches martial arts may know a thing or two about it and Justin WOULD KNOW she teaches it.
The fact that it’s after hours means he knows her well enough to know she is not one to mess with… though the ‘pat on the bottom’ should have been safe… if she had known he was there.
Shelly works at Punk Yoga which is owned by another character we haven’t seen in a while. I’m not sure if she’s an employee or contractor, but she doesn’t own it…
Mina, she is at a gym, but it’s the Yoga studio where she teaches kick boxing (for exercise, I believe). She has access to it after hours. It’s likely that she and Justin are the only ones there, and if she, oh, I dunno, turns into a sphinx, there wouldn’t be anyone else to see it.
I’m now a lot more curious about the other “insane women [he seems] to be attracted to”…
On different note, is this scene the first time in the comic that we’ve seen Shelly cry? I seem to recall that in the past she’d twist these feelings into anger.
We’ve seen her cry before. I think the first time was here, way back in 2004.
Go on shelly. think of him as a mouse and POUNCE.
then tell him how you spent your summer.
Then again creepy might not let her.
if he cannot deal with shelly being herself and human how can he possibly deal with shelly being more than human.
Shelly will not pounce on him, that’s a given. She’s still hugging herself, or hiding her hands as she fears to upset him any further or is not trusting herself not to harm him any more, or both.
Panel two has him leaning forward, and her leaning back, just as if she was afraid of him hitting her. Yet his arms are depicted down, shoulders relaxed. So I read her posture as someone who feels guilty about something; shelly keeps on fueling his worst fears.
He’s a cop, he’s trained to read body language. Her verbal denials are constantly contradicted by her posture. Many, all?, of his past relations included loony girls which we, readers, assume ended all badly for him.
It’s not like he cannot cope with shelly being herself and human; it’s like all the signs are pointing to yet-another-heartache and this time he failed to read them, despite his prior statements otherwise.
We, readers, knows a lot more than he does, I feel bad with some harsh judgment passed upon the guy for something he doesn’t know.
Now if I were to foretell where this will go; I’d think they’re going to regroup and recover individually. Maybe they’ll end up together again, or not, but right now they’re just hurting one another.
I’m with you. She’s just hurt him, offered help and first aid but been rejected, and now she’s grieving.
Pouncing would be too much like what got her into trouble in the first place.
Ya know, she could – er – ‘really impress’ 3 birds with one stone here (didn’t want to invoke the ‘k’ word), because neither Jacquie or Luci (especially Luci) know she’s now her own best 4-legged friend – and has a spookygirl sidekick! If this is Punk Yoga; she could also wind up being their new Mascot!
Shutting up now…. 😀
I suspect punk rockers may think a sphynx is too emo… or, you know, a mascot is. 😉
*runs away*
Tell that to Justin’s chest. Punk Yoga may have finally earned its name.
Speaking of which, if this is the studio, and that is the real Justin, and Shelly is an employee, Jacqui may be in for one helluva liability suit.
Possibly not, if this indeed being enacted after-hours and they are there of their own accord then Jacqui shouldn’t have anything to worry about, IMO. now if this is happening during business hours, and there are other students around… Yee Gawds! she’s got problems… but i highly doubt that due to the whole butt spank, thing.. Justin the COP is very attuned to public opinion on matters of “Propriety”, and “Appearance in the Public’s View” he would Never have done that… unless it was as a demo of some sort… but then why would Shelly be surprised by it… hmmm, logic is in pretzel twists now… AAgh!
The hard questions are going to start once Justin enters the emergency room to get patched up. What kind of animal did that?
Also? Branding all your crazy women with the same crazy? Is just crazy.
no, unfortunately that what happens WAY TOO OFTEN…
We have had days to analyze what happens and Justin has had about a minute. He is still reacting not thinking. The fact is, his adrenalin hasn’t worn off and he may collapse before the door. Still early to call how this is working out and he has issues from his past in relationships, but who doesn’t but lucky people. Maybe they both need to work through this.
Well, yeah, maybe he faints, and next thing he knows is that he’s in a hospital-bed, with Shelly nextbto him on one of those -almost deliberately-uncomfy chairs.
Could be.
All I know, is that I am mightily intrigued how this is going to play out..
I am left with the impression that Justin’s reaction is a result of a serious trauma in his past. His jump from what-the-hell-just- happened to you’re-crazy is just too quick.
Just, um… he ought to know you NEVER tell a crazy person they’re crazy; it’s an instigating statement, and Shelly’s last reaction shows instigation has big painful results. I think he’s heartbroken too, and is emotionally overreacting. If he and Shelly don’t make it through this, he’ll never trust a girl again.
Which is always a wise move regardless.
Shelly’s heart is broken – for the moment. It seems that Justin really needs to take a hike and clear his head. Once the adrenalin levels have come down, and – as someone upstairs suggested – the “Sherlock Holmes” training kicks in, he may start to realize that two and two are adding up to five.
That, or Monica, or Phix, or Tepoz, or Creepy Little Girl may show him that he hasn’t even begun to see crazy, and that he’s got a good thing going with Shelly.
Or heaven knows what.
Or he discuss the incident with somebody and they point out that his story isn’t credible as it isn’t humanly possible as the amount of kinetic energy needed to vapourise a punchbag is exceptionally high)? Also, if she had turned around and slashed him, her momentum would have been such that she would have slashed him into 5+ pieces then gone through him.
Given Phix’s current interest and the general attitude Sphinx’s have I can’t shake the feeling that Justin’s sarge is one of Phix’s exes.
I meant “general attitude Shinxes have”.
Where is my brain today?
^^^ Up there. 🙂
-Shinx? Is that a Jewish sphinx?
-From the old saying “doesn’t know shinx from shinola”
-Just put the dishes in the kitchen shinx.
-No, it’s “shinx.” It’s like “mink” but cheaper.
-Is that what Shelly is?
Okay, I’ll stop.
Shoot! That should have gone with Francisco’s comment, above.
WTH? Even that correction didn’t do right. Let’s see if this goes in the right place.
They won’t go in the right place until (if) my original comment (that I was replying to) is approved. It triggered an alarm because it had 2 links instead of one.
Thanks for spotting that error — it looks like I replaced a grammatical error with a spelling one. As I said, I don’t know where my brain is today.
Don’t trip Francisco, I spelled it as Shinx too in my epic comment above. I blame global warming!
Bucc-i, I enjoyed your comment (and didn’t notice the error until you pointed it out). I take it that you’re meant to imagine it to the tune of Bleeding Love?
Ps.
If the original comment does get approved (it’s the one pointing out why it’s not a great leap to imagine that Phix may be one of Justin’s sarge’s exes), look down rather than up for Bucc-i’s comment.
Note: I believe we established somewhere that his sergeant is female….no?
*ahem* *rattles the jar*
those were BAD. so bad i’m giggling. 😉
I sense a huge NOOOOOOOOOOOO! coming.
Like this?
LALALALA*that never happened*LALALALALA
Denial. It ain’t just a river in Egypt.
Yeah, my feet are wet and I can see the pyramids. And I will not start another anti George Lucas rant. Really I won’t.
aaand now he’s bleeding again.
I don’t think he stopped.
look at the last page; no bleeding. the page before; bleeding. im over extra with continuity due to too much star trek and too little star wars.
I wondered whether Leona Lewis’s Bleeding Love would be appropriate but, after checking the lyrics it doesn’t fit with this situation.
Sooooooo, now Bud makes her move? What will Justin think of her “crazy” once she “lets it out”?
Get a clue, Brosephus…
Every comic this week has made me want to go and give Shelly a big comfort hug.
Ah, his glasses aren’t actually bent, after all.
I think Shelley needs a quart of Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food, and a nice long phonecall to Owen. Wasn’t he her best friend forever before he and Lakshmi forgot about the rest of the cast?
She has lots of other people she could talk to (who she’s closer to): Monica, Tina, Bud or Phix. She wouldn’t talk to Owen or Heather about this because they’re both out of the loop.
I don’t know what she feels she needs (i.e. sympathy, practical advice, distraction, etc). Bud will probably be the best at sympathy, Phix would give her practical advice, Monica would probably find a way of distracting her and Tina’s would probably ask questions around her feelings.
Have I got Phix and Tina mixed up?
Sometimes, having someone out of the loop is good. They don’t have any preconcieved notions of what’s going on. And there are some friends you can pick right up with, as if there wasn’t any time bewteen the last time you talked.
Heck, if she can’t talk to Owen, I bet she could talk to her Dad. She does work in his shop after all, so he’s local.
Come to think of it, if this breakup goes through, Justin will be so turned off by crazy girls that Bud won’t stand a chance with him, even if these guys don’t realize the three-way social network. Even if Justin is chronically attracted to crazy girls, this will just be too fresh.
Cold … cruel … self-serving jock … while I don’t blame him one bit for wanting to protect himself, but that does not mean that poor Shelley doesn’t deserve an abundance sympathy and comfort. It just means that Officer Justin is obviously not the one to give it. If this were a RW situation, I’d be comforting Shelly – bloody talons and all. After all, she’d be the lesser of two monsters.
I feel mean for pointing this out but this has happened before.
Now I’m picturing Mama Bear Brandi giving Justin the same lecture. Oh I WANT to see this one.
Sure you would. You’d be doing what the rest of would be doing … in the bathroom rinsing out your shorts.
I think you’re being a bit harsh on him.
SHE PUT GASHES IN HIS CHEST. He’s injured, scared and pissed. No he isn’t acting like a saint. He’s NOT a saint. He’s a normal, mortal man with past wounds when it comes to relationships and even if it was an accident, she gave him lacerations.
He’s being irrational right now, but that don’t mean he’s a bad person or anything.
I’d be angry too if someone cut me like that. Even if it was an accident. I’d probably forgive them eventually, but yeah, I’d be ticked.
I’m not heaping any blame on either of them. This is a big, unfortunate accident. Hopefully they’ll both be okay soon.
“There ain’t no good guys, there ain’t no bad guys.
There’s only you and me and we just disagree.”
That’s the flavor of a lot of the worst tragedies and relationship breakups. Everyone’s responsible, and no one is truly to blame.
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/justus/
Crazy, but that’s how it goes
Millions of Demoms living as foes
Maybe it’s not too late
To learn how to love
And forget how to hate
Chest wounds not healing
Life’s a bitter shame
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train!
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train!
I’m gonna Go!
I’ve listened to Demons
I’ve listened to fools
I’ve watched all the Shinxes
Who make their own rules
One person conditioned to rule and control
The Golem Girls sells it and you live the role
Chest wounds still screaming
Driving me insane
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train!
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train!
Like Panthro once said in the original Thundercats series, “Time to go in with teeth bared and fur flying!” Whether or not this is a Phix-Test, Shelly has to let the cat out of the bag now or never. It will make the Portal Cloth removal feel like a summer breeze, but has to be done.
While Shelly is not “crazy”, but her full situation is bizarre enough to qualify for the term. Justin has intuitively recognized the “crazy” quotient here has gone way, way up. If he stays, he knows he’s going down the rabbit hole. He thinks this one goes where all the other ones have gone and that’s the only place where he’s wrong.
But he has nothing to really tell him different so he can be forgiven for jumping to a conclusion. Shelly, as long as she’s acting the part of an emotional wreck, is fulfilling Justin’s expectations nicely.
The hardest thing for her to do is let Justin go and talk to him later when he’s calm enough to actually ask “what the hell really happened back there?”
and listen to the answer.
Only one thing to do – Sphinx out and eat him.
That’s why she’s crying. She was saving him for dinner.
(That’s a lot to eat for lunch.)
So, what would a sphinx’s preferred spices, condiments, and beverages be under these circumstances? Ketchup? Spicy mustard? A couple of rafts of grilled asparagus spears? 80-thousand-year-old eggs, courtesy of the Time Forest Gourmet Supply company? Crème brûlée for dessert, with the top lovingly caramelized by a toasty puff of plasma-breath by a blond golem?
Not fava beans and chianti, surely… that combination has been done to death.
[Man, this is macabre stuff to be talking about… Gallo’s humor, perhaps?]
Manwich mix.
If Shelly were a guy who attacked his girlfriend in a fit of startled rage, NO ONE would feel bad for him.
Hypocrisy much?
Yeah. This isn’t Twilight, after all.
You’re right, there is a double standard at work. I don’t wish to be offensive, but the reason that double standard exists in real life is because, in general, women aren’t as large or physicaly strong as men are. The culture as a whole tends to dissmiss violence done to men by women. It’s not right, but there it is. There are ,of course, exceptions. I realize it shouldn’t apply here because Shelly certainly IS the exception and was even before her transformation. But, like Justin, our perceptions of the world around us are shaped by what we experience in it. There’s also the fact that Shelly is one of the main protagonists and we tend to take her side.
And if a “normal” Shelly had simply whirled around and punched him in the nose, I think Justin would probably be reacting pretty much the same way with accusations of crazy and whatnot. As several folks have pointed out the thing that seems most jarring is how easily he’s dismissing clearly supernatural events. Like the heavy bag vaporizing, Shelly moving faster than the eye can see and lacerations on his chest a tiger could have put there.
If this were a fit of rage, I’d have no sympathy for the attacker regardless of gender. The fact is that it was the reflexive response of a startled person. That’s the kind of thing that tends to be forgiven in real life. I won’t deny that the double standard exists, but it is hardly the only reason, or even the main reason that Shelly is getting sympathy from the readers.
Without being in the know, the only conclusion Justin can reach is that she just slashed him deeply with at least two knives which had been and are again well concealed. If he [i]doesn’t[/i] cut and run, he’s too insane to make a good mate.
Situation as it stands – there is no place in Shelly’s life anymore for a lover that isn’t in the know.
“There is no place in Shelly’s life anymore for a lover that isn’t in the know.”
I am glad to see at least one person here who is capable of seeing this situation through Justin’s eyes.
We know who and what Shelly is. Justin does not.
What Justin does know, as a former cop, is what happens to women whose boyfriends and husbands hurt them, for any reason other than true accident.
Eventually, they end up dead.
I am trying to imagine what the response here would be if a non-magical girl in the story found herself under attack by a male with Shelly’s powers and instability. I’m sure there would be universal sympathy for the girl.
Where’s the equivalent sympathy for Justin?
There are a few folks up thread who have also mentioned that if Shelly wants to fix this, she must manifest, must show that there really are extraordinary circumstances here.
She must show him that she needs his help controlling this.
She must (and I bet this sticks in a lot of craws) show she’s willing to submit to him, somehow give him the power to control her, because she’s shown she cannot guarantee to control herself.
She’s a stick of leaking dynamite, and best will in the world, she’s just demonstrated she cannot be trusted in any normal sense of the word.
I can see through Justin’s eyes, and he is really reacting fairly normally, given what he knows. I just haven’t liked him from the beginning. Even though he’s normal (whatever that is), he’s still a jerk.
With respect, refugee, Shelly does need a drill sergeant. That has been established. But it cannot be Justin.
He can’t be guarding and watching her the whole time. That’s abuse, as Justin must know, and besides, his job to guard Minneapolis. He needs his lover to have his back, not the back of his hand, let alone this vice-versa.
Shelly needs a drill sergeant. You do not take your drill sergeant home, and you certainly do not take him onto the battlefield. Because the point of training is to be self-reliant and reliable to those who trust you, whatever form your squad takes.
PS – Submission-to-the-husband theory no more “sticks in the craw” of anyone, than the flat earth theory troubles the satellite communications industry. Just those who keep practicing it, as your domestic violence observation should make clear.
Um–concealed where? She isn’t wearing enough to conceal one knife, let alone two. She’s wearing what appears to be a strapless sports bra and athletic shorts–both practically spray-painted on. And Justin himself acknowledged the humanly-impossible exploded punching bag. At some point Justin is going to have to process this and realized that what happened to him wasn’t explainable by normal human methods.
You could do the same thing with single edged razor blades between your knuckles, and they’d be pretty easy to hide even in a small bikini..
http://www.punchanpie.net/daily/20071017.html
This was a break up over a week and I wonder if this is what Shelly is going to do here.
So few moments together, and is she just going to let him go?
How can she hold him back? Does she show him what she truly is? How do you tell him what’s real when it’s so unreal?
She may just have to let him go.
Or y’know, airlift him to the ER…
The only thing I’m certain of is that this storyline is tugging on everyone’s feelings… based on the number of comments. Which is sincere props to Paul.
Awwww…. There’s still time. He’ll think it over, come back and apologize…. -sigh- Please? -pout-
I don’t think so. Not this week anyway.
Yeah, part of me is still hoping that all this is some kind of simulation training that Shelly is unaware of. It would be nice if on Friday we hear a voice saying, “Library, end simulation” as if it were the Holodeck on Deep Space Nine, or something like that, and have it end with a bewildered/relieved/indignant Shelly realizing that she’d been had. It would make sense to have her face her worst fears first. After that, everything else would be comparatively easy. It would be cool if I was right, since I will have called this pretty early Monday morning–don’t know if anyone cited this possibility before me.
I forsee a psychological snap in her near future. One that is almost Jin worthy.
Oh poor Shelly. I love reading this artfully crafted comic and have been doing so for years. And I love reading the insightful comments as well. This is the first time I’ve felt so moved I had to say something.
Poor Shelley just got back. She has barely had time to readjust. In her eyes she hasn’t even seen him in forever….to not have told him yet is not a large transgression. Any sane person would walk away from her, which is why it is important that they establish a connection first.
Given everything I have seen about his character, I can’t see him walking away permanently. Surely he will see he startled her, she was horrified she hurt him, and he never gave her a chance. That’s not crazy! Logically a woman who you sneek up on who acts defensively probably has a damn good reason!
I sure hope he comes back! But then again not all in life has a happy ending.
Sure, Shelly “just got back” but to JUSTIN, she goes from his slightly weird girlfriend that he can joke around with, to this standoff-ish, moody, violent CRAZY person… just because he spanked her BUTT… all in a matter of DAYS!! remember Shelly LEFT, and CAME BACK the EXACT. SAME. SECOND… give or take a bit of off-panel time lapse, of course.
and there is where you’re wrong… this isn’t about LOGIC anymore, it just went into the EMOTIONAL realm and you can’t win an emotional fight with logic…. AARGH, I can’t find the link where Monica and her Demon Doubt, i think it was Doubt… says the exact same thing…
Was it Doubt who said it or Tina?
not a very kind welcome to the comment section….
ever snuck up on a traumatized woman? or spanked some chick’s butt in a bar? chances are they won’t like it. they might haul off and slap you. she didn’t know who it was.
There’s a basic problem here. Shelly is only half human, and her cat/sphinx instincts are kicking it at bad times. If the punching bag hadn’t got in the way and slowed down her swing (no thanks to her), he’d have been disemboweled. (Or disheartened?)
Shelly needs a mate of her own species/species mix. It’s not just about Shelly and Justin. Superman and Lois Lane wouldn’t have worked out either — different species.
I don’t know. According to the story line sphinxes and humans mated in the distant past. That’s how Shelly got her sphinxy half in the first place. Seems like she could mate with a human since a full blooded sphinx could and she’s much more human than they.
As to Superman and Lois, it could be both Kryptonians and humans share a common ancestor eons ago. Many planets could have been populated by the same species of being. So could it be with sphinxes and humans for that matter.
Read “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex” by Larry Niven; it would probably change your mind about Kal-El and Lois.
Man it never fails to happen. I love this web-comic and the characters in it. I also like looking at the comments because almost every time i see a post its like everyone is a psychiatrist, and their views are pretty cool to read. An although i feel pretty bad for Shelly please man keep up the good work.