Oh wow, I sound really cynical. That’s not my intent at all. I giggled at the title (which was all that would load for about five minutes, stupid snowstorm) and then saw the comic and it made me cry, too. I’m right there with Shelly. Justin will have some serious soul-searching to do now, and Shelly will too. This is so deep it hurts.
The way he flinches back, looking in total fear at her hands..no..not good..!
Poor Justin too. again he sortof succeeded in being a crazy-chick magnet. At least, that must be one of his thoughts, together with :”Did I bring clean undewear to the gym?”
Unless the boy’s a MIB, he’s gonna need some time. Even if he is, the question “When exactly were you going to tell me you were a feral sphinx?” will be high on his agenda.
If Justin is the guy that Bud was flirting with, he may seek refuge with the “more normal” crazy-acting girl.
Little does he know.
The wildcard in all this is Justin’s crazy-girl attraction. Which way that ultimately goes with Shelly. This could be a turn-on once he wraps his head around what’s happening.
Imagine a bench-clearing brawl between Bud and Shelly over Justin and how many city blocks they could level.
The MIB thing could be. It would explain why he keeps getting sent to check on the UFOs the GGGs create. OTOH, if he is one, he would already know about Shellinx. Still, even if he knows, his current surprise may be caused by the fact she attacked him rather than her being a hybrid sphinx.
I think his MIB status would be known to Bud & Brandi. That is to say, if he were one, he’d be briefed and debriefed about Shelly. Bud would not therefore be in the dark about his being Shelly’s bf, as she certainly seems to be.
I think that you are right and I also think that he is fine and she instinctively held back just like she did at the bar (they lived with minor injuries and no one saw what she did). But if he does accept things the way we all seem to hope he does then I can see this idea of Miss Mab’s (http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_1075.php) happening at some point in time.
I’m begining to believe that, while not an MIB himself, he was ‘steered’ into meeting her, and possible they were both unknowingly influenced into a relationship. ‘Being right for each other’ AND being accepting of truly profound differences and wierdness.
Otherwise, I’m afraid it’s gonna be “Officer Case? Smith with the Federal Marshall’s office. I have something I need to show you – ” ))PFLASH((…..
And he wakes up in his squad car in the MPD garage.
i’d go for some of that action! jk, seriously though this was inevitable, just wait until bud has the heart to tell him that she’s an earth rending golem born of pure unadulterated hatred. that’s literally one missed anniversary away from the bloody apocalypse.
I’d be lion if I didn’t admit those were pretty good puns.
Shelly looks like she’s close to caterwauling, and Justin is about to invoke the sanity claws.
If that’s forty stitches apiece I’m getting a new doctor. My daughter’s doctor put eight stitches into a 1″ cut on her forhead, and Justin’s approximate chest diagonal is 26″, so Justin would need about 208 stitches per slice… and that’s only if the cuts are shallow. If Shelly cut deep, he’s going to need his insides sewn together first, and the skin sutures after that.
Your doc will have put in a lot of stitches so they could use a finer suture material to minimise scarring as it’s a facial wound. It varies depending on the nature of the wound 🙂
She went through a phase of wanting to be a shark, headbutting and fake biting everything in sight. This was what ended it. She ran head-first into a piece of playground equipment while at school–one of those speaking tube gizmos that look like little parascopes you talk into–and hit it hard enough that it sliced her forhead wide open.
It suddenly occurs to me that head injuries run strong in my family… o.0
… or perhaps a lot of butyl cyanoacrylate tissue glue?
A lot of it.
A couple of caulking guns full of it.
If she did slash him, some really serious repair work of one sort or another is going to be required… he’s going to be off the job for weeks of healing.
Yeah, the labs have been turning out lots of sterile duct tape recently.
Scientists carefully radiation-sterilize male rolls of duct tape in the labs, release them into the wild, and they compete with feral fertile males for the attention of the female duct tape, reducing the size of the next generation.
It works amazingly well… it’s why we haven’t seen those big herds of duct tape overrunning our cities and infringing upon peoples’ personal freedom.
Dave — Thank you for that explanation! I’ve been wondering about that. Ah, those fond memories of those little silver rolls bounding down the street in pairs during spring time…
My parents never came out and said just what they were doing, just that “they liked each other.” That was enough. Of course, you tell the kids these days about back when you were young — they don’t believe you. Humph.
But… the duct tape is a primary food source for the chainsaws! If the duct tape numbers go down, what will the poor chainsaws eat? Could you look at a starving baby chainsaw (they’re so cute when they’re little!) and not be moved? Please… save the chainsaws!
Ok, you started the entire ‘sterile duct tape’ pun line. You get to lug the barrel which replaces the pun jar for those ‘god-awful’ jokes you led them into.
bmonk, you don’t have to worry about the disappearance of the wild Nauga. There are actually plenty of them out there, just well hidden in remote areas. It seems they are very adaptable and learned to deal with hunting. Their many defensive techniques include almost chameleon-like blending into their surroundings. Indeed, Naugahide very well!
The number of stitches depends on where the injury is and how important it is that nothing shows. When I got a three-to-four inch gash on top of my head at age 5, the ER doctor closed it with only four stitches because my hair was going to hide the scar. Doctors will use LOTS more stitches per inch for facial wounds than for those on the torso, and more for torso wounds than for those above the hairline. About one stitch per centimeter is normal in areas which are hidden by summer clothing.
I’d just like to point out no amount of stitches will be need if she pulled back before slicing his skin. It looks to me as if the only damage done was to the shirt, which I believe can be thrown out…
What happened to Shelly’s shirt in panel 1? It looks like its half off, but then it isn’t in the final panel.
Btw, LOVING the plot line. If Shelly loses this guy… She is probably going to go into another depressive swing.
I think we’re seeing her with her upper body twisted slightly from our line of view, and possibly still somewhat in motion, so her top is twisted a bit and appears asymmetrical.
This could certainly drive Justin away completely, and Shelly will very probably beat herself up badly if it does (for being a sphinx, for going sphinx on him, for hurting him, for not telling him sooner, for not easing him out of her life quietly without telling him… for everything she did or did not do). This could end up driving her further away from her own humanity, if she feels she can’t trust her human side to remain enough in control to protect even her friends… she might permanently isolate herself.
If he is strong enough to deal with the situation, perhaps after an initial freakout and backing-off, then this incident and the very abrupt raising of the truth-level between these two could seriously deepen their relationship.
So, it’s now “up or out” for Justin and Shelly, in a really big way. No more fence-sitting, no more superficiality.
His upper chest should be in ribbions from the slash. The male chest is NOT that flat especially if he works out often. The basic muscle curves and the slashes in the shirt are not possible. There should be slashes in the skin ranging from a bear scratch to maybe a CM deep in the middle, or deeper. Even if he fliched away the shirt looks to tight to have been hanging loose for the claws to pass without touching him. It is only due to the miricle of special effects by Paul that Justin is still in one piece and Shelly is not madly dialing 911. If you boubt guys stand up, suck that belly in and trace the slashs across you shirt. The bottom placement of them makes men wonder if they do indeed have spare ribs.
Not sure Jin slashing of a guard and Shelly ripping Justin’ shirt, at least, qualify for the same treatment. I have this nagging feeling for a long time that Justin is a bit more than your usual run of the mill cop.
Let’s see if he starts bleeding coming Monday; given his shirt, he should.
Meh…if she pulled back after starting, she could have caught shirt only, and the shirt could have moved with her as she pulled further away (since her claws would have already pierced it), allowing her to continue ripping the shirt, but not touch Justin’s delicious bod. 😛
yep, a properly trained watchdog at least is capable of shredding your clothes while not even puncturing your skin (and yet even still controlling you by holding you in its bite). I know that from personal experience, and I won´t forget that pricky feeling.
on the other hand, we are talking about a cat here.
. . . and a cat who, by definition, is not properly trained, at least in controlling her shape-shifting. Whether she can control her slashing is another question.
Which reminds me of the cat who used to slash Snoopy’s house every so often.
It had to happen sooner or later. The girls as a whole have been bucking the odds by finding understanding guys who can deal with the crazyness. And both Kevin and Allen had time to get to know thier respective girlfriends (and in Allen’s case, fall for her) before the wierdness smacked them in the face. And it was never this terrifying. Justin just got a face full of angry Shellinix, and she still dosen’t look quite human.
hasn’t been just guys, tho. I seem to remember Monica giving Amanda a ‘crash course’ in ‘poiting’ which washed all her doubts away about Monica’s sanity.
Whoof. Not a simulation. I guess if Shelly didn’t pick the opportunity to have The Talk with Justin, then the opportunity decided to pick itself.
At least he’s alive (unless his heart has actually stopped, and his frozen-rigid body has yet to notice). I rather expect his first words to be a Curly Howard “Nnngungg, nnngungg, NNNGUNG!!”
I love the first two panels… it’s an utter boggl, portrayed in stereo. Make your own stereoscope… just look at the two panels and cross your eyes until the two images fuse. Not exactly a 3D effect, but amusing nevertheless.
I used to scare away boys by crossing my eyes at them (3rd grade). I’ve always loved testing…optic ability, I guess… I got my eyes lazered about six years ago, and I haven’t been able to cross them properly since then. 3D stuff, including magic eye pictures, never show up right any more. I’m still trying to get that back.
And fwiw, my right eye sees more red tones and my left eye sees more blue ones.
I just tend to notice such images… early training, I guess. My grandfather was an eye surgeon, my grandmother an optometrist… they had a bunch of classic old optical equipment around, including a stereoscope viewer and dozens of stereo-image picture cards. I enjoyed these sorts of early 3D photos and by the time I was 10 I had learned the eye-crossing method of viewing them without the viewer apparatus. Simple, cheap amusement!
I actually tried this myself, but found the two heads were not quite close enough to the same size to combine them. Maybe if I had glasses on. . . .
I have unusual problems combining my eye images anyway, due to a childhood in glasses. (long story deleted) Short version: I’m more aware of my separate eye-pictures, but find it harder to combine them. And I tend to use whichever eye is closer to the thing I’m looking at, or the hand I point with.
Hey, maybe he won’t take the supernatural so badly. Open minded or no, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn’t be a bit freaked out at nearly being disemboweled by their significant other for flirting
Is it bad that I find the look on Justin’s face hilarious? I mean I realize he has every reason to be frightening, and that the implications of what is happening is sad for all involved, but for whatever reason I find that look of sheer horror to be funny.
I think yesterday’s last panel showed just the first two parts of Shelly’s reflexive sphinx-strikeout (slashing or striking the punching bag, and whirling into attack position), and that we are intended to infer the third part by the aftereffects we see now. We can tell that it took place, and that Shelly probably managed to pull her attack just short of actually slicing Justin’s skin.
Her strike might have been the sort of reflexive paw-swat that cats make sometimes when annoyed – enough claw and force to scratch and sting, but not intended as a serious enough attack to disembowel.
I think its more like in those Kung Fu movies or anime. Where the guy slashes a sword at something far away, and cuts it.
I heard it explained as the pressure from the slash is what actually cuts the object.
I love the story line but I’m lost on this one. In 80K years of contemplation as a Sphinx and she never learned that she can take her time in response to just about anything? She watched herself die and less of a reaction. Why’s she so jumpy? At that age she should be used to her skin, power and all.
She spent that time without being round people. Sphinxes, in the WS universe, are prone to react quickly and without thinking. That is backed up if your remember how Nudge got Phix to become librarian.
Remember, she’s still recovering from how her sphinx-side took over in the bar allowing her to knock out 3 guys. She obviously isn’t comfortable in her skin yet.
Besides, in the Time Forest she was in sphinx mode most of the time…not human-hiding-sphinx mode. Plus I doubt she had anything to really startle or anger her there the way other people can. Frustrate and sadden her? Yes. Anger and startle…not likely. Especially when your own death happens in front of you 50 some-odd times.
“Holy flapping scrith,” says Justin. Or words to that effect.
“Holy flapping scrith,” says Shelly. Or words to that effect.
“What the hell just happened?” asks Justin.
“Boohoo,” says Shelly.
Choose your own adventure!: a) Justin runs away screaming, turn to page 12. b) Justin hugs Shelly but still looks like a deer in the headlights, turn to page 15.
c) Shelly runs away while Justin stands there awkwardly, turn to page 42. d)Justin falls apart in bloody chunks, turn to page NO I WOULD’T REALLY HAVE THAT AS AN OPTION WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!!
“Oooh fu- – – udge!”
[narrating as asult] “Only I didn’t say ‘Fudge.’ I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the ‘F-dash-dash-dash’ word!”
I have an eight year old daughter. My language censor is firmly in place. Also, I can’t just switch to, say, French swears, because my MIL speaks French and would go crazy, or Spanish swears, because my Mom speaks Spanish and would go crazy, and I don’t know any other foreign language swears.
And, on Monday, we learn that Paul has decided to give us a week of filler pinup panels, or switches to an interlude involving Katherine and several spiders, or has five days of guest-artist strips all involving Kwispie the penguin with wings of bacon, or …
Reasonable, check.
Calm and unflappable? Um…
HIS GIRLFRIEND JUST WENT ALL WEREWOLF ON HIS BUTT.
What thought processes are still operational in his head right now are trying to
a) Reconcile “reality” as he knew it with shape-changing / what-the-heck was that
b) Get past the “I almost died just now” mental lock (happens to even the very best trained. Been there)
c) Determine fight – or -flight response
Given how fast she moves, he may still be trying to figure out what just happened. He slapped her ass, the bag exploded, something barely missed him… and now she’s facing him, which seems too quick but that’s one of the lesser mysteries… As I read him, his first question is likely to be “Are _you_ OK” since that’s the one question that makes sense no matter what the other answers are.
If this is the secondmost, what do youu consider the first?
If the shower scene that only had 211 comments for the entire weekend. We’re already at 205 and it is still early Friday.
Maybe it’s because that’s where I came in on the Wapsi story… but for whatever reason, that segment and what we’ve since learned actually took place are permanently lodged in my brain and elsewhere. For me this is one of the most poignant sections of the whole Wapsi storyline.
A NSFW comic that has been on hiatus while the artist moves into a place with internet access. And fixes/replaces the computers that died when previous abode lost internet access permanently.
Beryl is a blond character with “assets” that make M look like Shelly, great-grand-daughter of Mom Nature herself.
Well, it could have been worse. If she’d actually slashed him in half (which I don’t think quite happened) she could easily have killed him.
True, no loud scream to deal with. On the down side, there’d have been lots of blood to clean up, a body to dispose of, and the horrible reluctant conclusion that the least-awful solution involves going fully sphinx-form and locating a really big bottle of ketchup.
Is there such a thing as comic whiplash? Wednesday we were observing Brandi calmly making pancakes for Bud. Two strips later we are speculating on a major catastrophe.
Actually, I live on one of the great waterfowl migratory routes – and the flock of wild duck tape flew over in October on their wat to overwinter in Mexico – where they are cruely exploited by the rural inhabitants, keeping their herds of 1950’s era vehicles running….
Maybe he’ll faint now and she can pass it all off as a dream he had after he hit his head when he fell. Oh yeah, she’ll have to hit him on the head too.
What if it’s a partial simulation? What if Shelly is in a gym like area and “Justin” is actually a projection from his mind (mediated by Phix to give realistic reactions to various scenarios)? To Shelly it feels real but it’s just a dream (or a nightmare) to Justin.
If that’s the case then, when they next meet Justin may state that he had some weird dreams and Shelly suddenly looks sheepish and guilty.
On the one hand, yes. I agree. On the other hand, what part of boyfriends who just accept the weird and supernatural instead of flipping out is normal? Kevin and Alan may not be supernatural, but they have super powers of their own. Acceptance on that level is not normal.
On the other hand, what part of boyfriends who just accept the weird and supernatural instead of flipping out is normal?
*giggle*. Julie, did you really mean to offer up one of the best straight lines a stand-up comic could ever expect to receive?
I’m not saying that it’s true, but many followers of the “Men are fom Mars, Women are from Venus” school of thought would simply tell you that this is precisely what all boyfriends have to do, all of the time.
… and, conversely, that almost all girlfriends are amazingly good at dealing with stark irrationality, insanity, and blinkered Philistine pig-ignorance without losing their cool.
But think about it. The crap that boyfriends deal with from women…it’s annoying and stupid and wallet-draining…but most men deal with it, so it’s not really weird and it sure as hell ain’t supernatural. 🙂 My point still stands…
…and if you’re a stand-up comic, you may use my line. 😛
Shredded shirt, and her claws came nowhere near him? If Wapsi was ten times darker, I’d expect first panel of next comic to be Justin doing an impressive reinactment of the opening to the movie ‘Cube’.
I will have nightmares about that movie for the rest of my life, and I only watched half of it. C2 I haven’t seen at all, so I can safely pretend it’s a documentary about an expanded Rubix cube.
Horror and I don’t get along well at all. Weird I can do, fantasy I can do, even NCIS’s blatent on screen deaths only creep me out a little. But I just can’t do most horror. I don’t sleep enough because I get nightmares, and I know my limits.
I seem to remember a certain doll/god of drink who got this whole ‘supernatural’ shebang going.
While some people may say he is not a boyfriend, i recall Monica’s initial reaction wasn’t very encouraging to him (and that reaction continued for some time).
In fact, her first response was a quite effective attempt to get rid of him. (a bus ride to Utah)
Poor Shelly. Last panel, the tears and the curled lower lip really hit’s home. Can somewhat relate to the situation too.
Best friend decided to scare me, came up and put me in a bear hug. Few years of martial arts, a little MMA training for fun and some general survival courses I’ve taken kicked in and resulted in him on the ground with his arm behind him and my knee firmly planted in the center of his back.
Much the same look and statement when I looked down and realized exactly who was pressed into the concrete. Poor Shelly, I still don’t live that down and it’s been 4 years.
You’re not alone in that sort of reaction. On one particularly crappy day, a fellow who had the tendency to be overly “huggy” caught up with be from behind while walking down a hallway. He put his arm around me and grabbed my shoulder. Three-quarters through the same-side thumb grab and rotate out led to a very awkward posture moment.
On the bright side, he hadn’t fallen completely over backwards!
When people scare me I jump about six inches and scream like a … train whistle or something… I scare away my attackers with a vocal assault on their eardrums.
I wish I could scream piercingly. My voice won’t do that…even when I’m frightened. I recently discovered that my instinctive reaction is to flail uselessly and swear like a sailor.
I used to hit, too. Then I got married. Then he had a nightmare that woke me up when he punched the wall. I was between him and the wall. Thus began the no hitting policy.
SPOILERS: ….Monday we will discover Shelly is with Phix in the Library and they are on some sort of…. ‘Holodeck’, pardon me for going all STNG, but Phix did say she was going to help “The kid”.
I think it more likely that Phix is teaching Shelly the “phase” technique she used on Tina/Nudge.
This would be a great way to “safety” the sphinx so that Shelly shreds anything but human flesh.
I would not be surprised if Monday is not with Shelly and Justin at all, extending the cliffhanger for a while. Possibly back with Bud and Brandi?
And all the comments about duck tape really quack me up.
One could make a good case that Justin’s swat, actually was an act of battery. Not quite assault “under color of authority” since he’s not currently in uniform, but still… a well-trained police officer should know better than to ever strike another person except in actual self-defense or in a consensual training situation. There are too many ways that can go wrong, and too many eyes watching the police for it to be a habit an officer can afford to acquire.
What Justin did was actually rather stupid, even if Shelly were not a sphinx. Shelly’s not the only person responsible for what just happened.
Actually, assault and battery is the combination of two violent crimes: assault (the threat of violence) and battery (physical violence). This legal distinction exists only in jurisdictions that distinguish assault as threatened violence rather than actual violence. (I have too many friends in law careers)
so in this case the crime would be simple battery. The inclusion of against a law officer might be a moot point since he came up to her from behind without notice and without any trappings of the job. (The coming up from behind without warning might even push out the battery charge, but not likely.)
I’m not endorsing battery, or assault or any kind of physical abuse, but if Justin is willing to smack Shelly on the butt in a semi private situation, I’d say it was a pattern of playful physicality that the two of them have established. She handcuffed him to her bed the first time they had sex for Pete’s sake. Pre Shellinx, I would see Shelly responding with some playfull sparring move or throw while making some lame innuendo about him “getting it” or something. Unfortunately, that Shelly has been replaced by Shellinix, who, like most cats, HATES being startled.
Minnesota hasn’t had the death penalty for a century, so Justin couldn’t know he was dating an executioner.
“Let us bar this thing of Vengeance and the Furies from the confines of our great State; Let not this harlot of judicial murder smear the pages of our history with her bloody fingers, or trail her crimson robes through our Halls of Justice, and let never again the Great Seal of the Great State of Minnesota be affixed upon a warrant to take a human life. . . .”
Even if that isn’t the man himself standing there in this scene, Justin is dating an executioner. That is not something Kevin has had to deal with.
Well said. And from past conversations with Tina, Shelly and Justin hadn’t really gotten past a superficial physical relationship. Allen was a lot closer to Jin when he learned her true nature than Justin and Shelly are to each other, I think. And, irony of ironies, Allen no longer has to deal with a significant other who could rip him in half if she had a bad day. Shelly, on the other hand, is a long way from being “safe”.
No such irony, sorry. M informed either Brandy or Shelley that drawing the Pinocchio Glyph “leaves some powers, while taking others away”. Jin may be vulnerable, that’s true. A lot infact since she’s not used to it. Surely she’s no longer a threat to the other golems, the sphinxes, and maybe even Tina and M, but she surely can do short work out of Allen.
And that’s not even counting all the nifty tricks she must have picked up through the millennia.
I’d get off with a blacklisting and never be able to work in Hollywood, thus leaving me with a near-to-useless Tv/Film degree.
…
Maybe I’ll keep the fine, at that rate.
Is he the author of the rebooted “Fuzzy” story? Haven’t read that yet, myself… I was referring back to the original canon by H. Beam Piper (and the tribute “Fuzzy Bones” by William Tuning, which I actually preferred to Piper’s own long-lost third story).
I just finished Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi if that’s the one you mean. It was pretty good and I enjoyed all of his Old Man War series. I need to get Little Fuzzy from the library now. (There, put it on hold. Gotta love the internet!)
Bob Hamm was the original author of ‘Little Fuzzy’.
The book was published after his suicide.
Several other very good SF writers took to the story line and wrote “Fuzzy Sapients”, “Fuzzies and other People”, “Fuzzies are people too” and other very good books.
Then Bob’s second book was found (I forget the title) and 20 years after “Little Fuzzy” (only 3 months for the story line), Little Fuzzy gets to go on an adventure without “Pappy Jack” and discovered the ‘big ones’ were quite smart at teaching fuzzies how to live in the woods (which they had already been doing for thousands of generations).
That’s when Little Fuzzy met Wise One, Big She, Other She (who was renamed ‘Carries bright things’), Stabber, and others.
@Valkeiper – that’s the first time I’ve ever heard the name “Bob Hamm” used with reference to any of the Fuzzy stories. The copies I have were all published under the name “H. Beam Piper”, and that’s the name I’ve always seen used (e.g. in the forwards to Tuning’s “Fuzzy Bones” and Mayhar’s “Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey”.
Wikipedia seems to confirm this (including Piper’s unfortunate suicide) and makes no mention of Bob or Robert Hamm.
I concur. I have a copy of the first edition paperback, and it’s also under the name of “H. Beam Piper”. I can’t even find a reference to an author “Bob Hamm” in any relation to the Fuzzies.
That look on his face is primal terror, the kind that’s programed into our genes. Right now any of the “turned on” related equipment is entirely non functional, I’d wager.
Funny story. I once saw this enacted in real life on a small scale. At one time I had a very nurotic cat that was easy to startle. I also had a friend who enjoyed startling her to get the reaction. Hissing, spitting and growling, all that jazz. My friend was kind of a jerk. I asked him to stop and after threats of kicking him out of my home and never inviting him back, he did. The next time he visited, the cat ran and hid in the bedroom and we sat down to BS and drink a beer and whatnot. After an hour or two I glanced up at the halway leading back to my bedroom and there was the cat in stalking mode, crouched low, moving slowly and deliberatly toward my friend with her eyes fixed on him. I felt the hairs on my arm stand up and quietly called my friends name. He turned and locked eyes with the cat. For a second or so you could see the primal fear response kick in as his inner caveman recognized the feline features in hunter/killer mode. For that second, it didn’t matter that his earstwhile killer was a ten pound house cat. It scared the piss out of him.
Now imagine what Justin is feeling. He just had his girlfriend exibit the feline features that trigger that primal terror and she’s a helluva lot bigger than ten pounds.
Cats are scary. After living with a truly psychotic cat for two and a half years, I can only handle cats in doses…or in funny or cute internet pictures. Now I’m so jumpy around them it provokes an attack.
It sorta works the other way, too. When my wife and I bought a house around 15 years ago, we learned that the property was part of the territory of one of our neighbors’ cats – an old fluffy black fellow, who we quickly realized was entirely deaf (we called him “Deaf As A Post”). He couldn’t hear us coming at all. The first time I walked around the back of the house to where he was dozing in the sun, he jumped about a foot into the air and dashed back away from me and glared.
I just froze where I was, talked to him quietly for a while, and then slowly continued walking to where I’d been going. He moved away along the fence and watched me, but didn’t run. During later encounters I tried not to walk into his proximity until I knew he’d seen me, and always showed respect for his “space”.
Fairly quickly he learned that I meant no harm, was willing to tolerate an approach and my slow hello-scratches under the chin, and soon became our fast friend and began issuing ankle-rubs. Eventually he got to the point where we could walk around with no concern for his presence and he didn’t mind us coming upon him suddenly at all… apparently he’d decided that we were allowed to share his territory.
So, there is hope that Shelly’s sphinx-cat reactions will tame down with time, once she becomes more comfortable with her new set of boundaries.
I was given a kitten as a gift. When I’d had her about two months, hubby and buddy were playing with airsoft rifles in the house (!!) and decided to use her as target practice. After that she stuck to me like glue and hissed and spat at them… and attacked hubby any chance she got. She had all her claws, but she never ripped any sizeable holes in him.
Meanwhile, inlaws have two cats that hissed and bit everything (declawed front, poor critters). The orange one has decided I’m on his team so long as I pay due respect via ear scratches ever visit. The white one’s the most fear-filled critter I ever saw, and today she rubbed against my arm by her own volition. First contact! 😀
It’s always cool when you win the trust of a cat. We’re big mammals and African wildcats, the progenitors of the modern housecat, occupy a middle to lower spot on the food chain. In their natural enviorment, critters our size eat them. When you realize you’ve gotten past eaons of geneticly programed self preservation instincts and made a friend, it kinda invokes the warm and fuzzies.
Now Shelly has to get past Justin’s basic self preservation programing. This moment will be what stands between them. No matter what else happens from this point, he’ll have to deal with the fact that his girlfriend is a leathal predator who could kill him in an ungaurded moment. Having Shelly as a GF would be like having a Bengal Tiger as a pet. You might love her with all your heart, but it dosen’t change the fact that she could hurt you without even meaning to.
At the very least, I think the relationship has to go on hiatus until Phix helps Shelly get Shellinix under control.
Comanche, dear child. Comanche. While we do have taditionally used animal spirits, we can also just be aggro normally. With Shelly still keyed up over her barroom blitz, she be on hair-trigger already. She needs to overcome her fear of unvoluntary evisceration of loved ones, and that will mean learning how to maintain form over function. Before her Sphinxation, she might have punched the ever-living technicolor hell out of his gut. Now, it is beyond Serious Business.
Before Justin can run, she needs to say “There are things you need to know. I am not the strangest thing you will have seen by tomorrow.” Then pull out a cell and call Monica. “M? I’m at Punk Yoga, could you poit over here, please?”
Pulled it at the last second.
He will be okay after some hot makeup sex…
I honestly don’t think so. I think Shelly knows it, too. The tears forming in her eyes are heartrending.
Yes. You can just hear her unspoken inner dialog… “Oh f*** oh no oh no Justin oh God what have I done?!!”
Yeah, who really wants to crawl in bed with Mac the Knives? Justin’s leaning back in the bottom panel, infering a lack of cuddly responses.
Oh wow, I sound really cynical. That’s not my intent at all. I giggled at the title (which was all that would load for about five minutes, stupid snowstorm) and then saw the comic and it made me cry, too. I’m right there with Shelly. Justin will have some serious soul-searching to do now, and Shelly will too. This is so deep it hurts.
Well, according to the song there is a line forming – on the right, as I recall.
Sex is the last thing on either of their minds.
Nope..not this time I am afraid.
The way he flinches back, looking in total fear at her hands..no..not good..!
Poor Justin too. again he sortof succeeded in being a crazy-chick magnet. At least, that must be one of his thoughts, together with :”Did I bring clean undewear to the gym?”
Shelly’s best hope is that this is just shock.
Unless the boy’s a MIB, he’s gonna need some time. Even if he is, the question “When exactly were you going to tell me you were a feral sphinx?” will be high on his agenda.
If Justin is the guy that Bud was flirting with, he may seek refuge with the “more normal” crazy-acting girl.
Little does he know.
The wildcard in all this is Justin’s crazy-girl attraction. Which way that ultimately goes with Shelly. This could be a turn-on once he wraps his head around what’s happening.
Imagine a bench-clearing brawl between Bud and Shelly over Justin and how many city blocks they could level.
The MIB thing could be. It would explain why he keeps getting sent to check on the UFOs the GGGs create. OTOH, if he is one, he would already know about Shellinx. Still, even if he knows, his current surprise may be caused by the fact she attacked him rather than her being a hybrid sphinx.
I think his MIB status would be known to Bud & Brandi. That is to say, if he were one, he’d be briefed and debriefed about Shelly. Bud would not therefore be in the dark about his being Shelly’s bf, as she certainly seems to be.
If he survives, he’ll make great MIB material.
If.
I think that you are right and I also think that he is fine and she instinctively held back just like she did at the bar (they lived with minor injuries and no one saw what she did). But if he does accept things the way we all seem to hope he does then I can see this idea of Miss Mab’s (http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_1075.php) happening at some point in time.
I’m begining to believe that, while not an MIB himself, he was ‘steered’ into meeting her, and possible they were both unknowingly influenced into a relationship. ‘Being right for each other’ AND being accepting of truly profound differences and wierdness.
Otherwise, I’m afraid it’s gonna be “Officer Case? Smith with the Federal Marshall’s office. I have something I need to show you – ” ))PFLASH((…..
And he wakes up in his squad car in the MPD garage.
That would be sad.
You mean this wasn’t foreplay?
i’d go for some of that action! jk, seriously though this was inevitable, just wait until bud has the heart to tell him that she’s an earth rending golem born of pure unadulterated hatred. that’s literally one missed anniversary away from the bloody apocalypse.
Only if he’s a Klingon.
He’s looking a little paleface.
>Clink<
That could have been a catastrophe!
Why, the poor boy is catatonic!
I Shelly is feline fine.
*deposits credit card into the pun jar*
I cat keep up with all these puns… and for me, that’s claws for concern.
>clink, clink<
I’d be lion if I didn’t admit those were pretty good puns.
Shelly looks like she’s close to caterwauling, and Justin is about to invoke the sanity claws.
[clank, clank]
Actually, he’s looking a bit Shell shocked!
(Hard to believe no one else said this – especially you pros!)
*hands you an internet*
Potentially 160 stitches later (40 per slash):
S – “I’m really sorry about that Justin. I’ve been really wound up over some stuff lately and I completely overreacted.”
J – “Um, yes, and I apologize for surprising you like that. I know I don’t like having my focus broken when it’s something important.”
S – “Thank you. It’s been something I’ve been wanting to share with you, but I don’t quite know how.”
J – “So maybe this is a start?”
… dun dun DUNNNNNNN……!
If that’s forty stitches apiece I’m getting a new doctor. My daughter’s doctor put eight stitches into a 1″ cut on her forhead, and Justin’s approximate chest diagonal is 26″, so Justin would need about 208 stitches per slice… and that’s only if the cuts are shallow. If Shelly cut deep, he’s going to need his insides sewn together first, and the skin sutures after that.
Although, I like your take on the potential conversation.
I’ve just been marathon-watching NCIS lately.
i’ve been watching marathon spartacus
I’ve been marathoning Dexter – though that probably isn’t very helpful in this situation… 😀
I’m not sure I want to know what situation would ever be appropriate for a Dexter mindset. 🙂
Although I just went through all six episodes of Sherlock, so I’m a bit similarly warped at the moment. 😀
Your doc will have put in a lot of stitches so they could use a finer suture material to minimise scarring as it’s a facial wound. It varies depending on the nature of the wound 🙂
She went through a phase of wanting to be a shark, headbutting and fake biting everything in sight. This was what ended it. She ran head-first into a piece of playground equipment while at school–one of those speaking tube gizmos that look like little parascopes you talk into–and hit it hard enough that it sliced her forhead wide open.
It suddenly occurs to me that head injuries run strong in my family… o.0
… or perhaps a lot of butyl cyanoacrylate tissue glue?
A lot of it.
A couple of caulking guns full of it.
If she did slash him, some really serious repair work of one sort or another is going to be required… he’s going to be off the job for weeks of healing.
Do they make sterile duct tape?
Yeah, the labs have been turning out lots of sterile duct tape recently.
Scientists carefully radiation-sterilize male rolls of duct tape in the labs, release them into the wild, and they compete with feral fertile males for the attention of the female duct tape, reducing the size of the next generation.
It works amazingly well… it’s why we haven’t seen those big herds of duct tape overrunning our cities and infringing upon peoples’ personal freedom.
Dave — Thank you for that explanation! I’ve been wondering about that. Ah, those fond memories of those little silver rolls bounding down the street in pairs during spring time…
My parents never came out and said just what they were doing, just that “they liked each other.” That was enough. Of course, you tell the kids these days about back when you were young — they don’t believe you. Humph.
But… the duct tape is a primary food source for the chainsaws! If the duct tape numbers go down, what will the poor chainsaws eat? Could you look at a starving baby chainsaw (they’re so cute when they’re little!) and not be moved? Please… save the chainsaws!
Atomic, are you sure that they didn’t say those rolls were “stuck on each other”?
If there aren’t enough rolls of duck tape to go around, who’s gonna bandage the nauga wounds?
Ok, you started the entire ‘sterile duct tape’ pun line. You get to lug the barrel which replaces the pun jar for those ‘god-awful’ jokes you led them into.
bmonk, you don’t have to worry about the disappearance of the wild Nauga. There are actually plenty of them out there, just well hidden in remote areas. It seems they are very adaptable and learned to deal with hunting. Their many defensive techniques include almost chameleon-like blending into their surroundings. Indeed, Naugahide very well!
** tosses ingot into the pun vat **
Doesn’t look like she marked him…just his shirt. Hope all is not lost between them…the heartbroken look on Shelly’s face, OMG. :*(
The number of stitches depends on where the injury is and how important it is that nothing shows. When I got a three-to-four inch gash on top of my head at age 5, the ER doctor closed it with only four stitches because my hair was going to hide the scar. Doctors will use LOTS more stitches per inch for facial wounds than for those on the torso, and more for torso wounds than for those above the hairline. About one stitch per centimeter is normal in areas which are hidden by summer clothing.
I’d just like to point out no amount of stitches will be need if she pulled back before slicing his skin. It looks to me as if the only damage done was to the shirt, which I believe can be thrown out…
No tossing of that shirt! It’s the beginning of Sphinxware ™ worth a fortune!
What happened to Shelly’s shirt in panel 1? It looks like its half off, but then it isn’t in the final panel.
Btw, LOVING the plot line. If Shelly loses this guy… She is probably going to go into another depressive swing.
I think we’re seeing her with her upper body twisted slightly from our line of view, and possibly still somewhat in motion, so her top is twisted a bit and appears asymmetrical.
This could certainly drive Justin away completely, and Shelly will very probably beat herself up badly if it does (for being a sphinx, for going sphinx on him, for hurting him, for not telling him sooner, for not easing him out of her life quietly without telling him… for everything she did or did not do). This could end up driving her further away from her own humanity, if she feels she can’t trust her human side to remain enough in control to protect even her friends… she might permanently isolate herself.
If he is strong enough to deal with the situation, perhaps after an initial freakout and backing-off, then this incident and the very abrupt raising of the truth-level between these two could seriously deepen their relationship.
So, it’s now “up or out” for Justin and Shelly, in a really big way. No more fence-sitting, no more superficiality.
My thoughts exactly.
I’d put a nickle on Paul not wanting to distract from the shock by showing her chest.
Does he *Look* OK?
Well, he looks un-perforated…
Or un-lacerated.
If her claws are really sharp, he might have been seriously slashed and just not started to bleed yet… see Yamara’s 12:31 link…
I hope not, and that she did manage to pull her swipe back just enough to miss…
His upper chest should be in ribbions from the slash. The male chest is NOT that flat especially if he works out often. The basic muscle curves and the slashes in the shirt are not possible. There should be slashes in the skin ranging from a bear scratch to maybe a CM deep in the middle, or deeper. Even if he fliched away the shirt looks to tight to have been hanging loose for the claws to pass without touching him. It is only due to the miricle of special effects by Paul that Justin is still in one piece and Shelly is not madly dialing 911. If you boubt guys stand up, suck that belly in and trace the slashs across you shirt. The bottom placement of them makes men wonder if they do indeed have spare ribs.
Not sure Jin slashing of a guard and Shelly ripping Justin’ shirt, at least, qualify for the same treatment. I have this nagging feeling for a long time that Justin is a bit more than your usual run of the mill cop.
Let’s see if he starts bleeding coming Monday; given his shirt, he should.
look back to the previous strip.
see how louse his shirt is?
it is very possible her claws got only cloth and/or very little skin.
I think Paul should clarify this next strip by Justin saying “I… I didn’t like that shirt, anyway… WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?!”
Meh…if she pulled back after starting, she could have caught shirt only, and the shirt could have moved with her as she pulled further away (since her claws would have already pierced it), allowing her to continue ripping the shirt, but not touch Justin’s delicious bod. 😛
yep, a properly trained watchdog at least is capable of shredding your clothes while not even puncturing your skin (and yet even still controlling you by holding you in its bite). I know that from personal experience, and I won´t forget that pricky feeling.
on the other hand, we are talking about a cat here.
. . . and a cat who, by definition, is not properly trained, at least in controlling her shape-shifting. Whether she can control her slashing is another question.
Which reminds me of the cat who used to slash Snoopy’s house every so often.
Physically? More or less…yeah he’s alright. Mentally? ………
With that look on his face, i’m wondering if we’re going to meet the first Wapsi guy to lose his sh*t over the supernatural…
Lord I hope not…
It had to happen sooner or later. The girls as a whole have been bucking the odds by finding understanding guys who can deal with the crazyness. And both Kevin and Allen had time to get to know thier respective girlfriends (and in Allen’s case, fall for her) before the wierdness smacked them in the face. And it was never this terrifying. Justin just got a face full of angry Shellinix, and she still dosen’t look quite human.
Yeah…what Boxilar said.
hasn’t been just guys, tho. I seem to remember Monica giving Amanda a ‘crash course’ in ‘poiting’ which washed all her doubts away about Monica’s sanity.
>clink, clink<
I’d call that more of a splash course myself, but I’m no expert.
Poor Shelly.
Whoof. Not a simulation. I guess if Shelly didn’t pick the opportunity to have The Talk with Justin, then the opportunity decided to pick itself.
At least he’s alive (unless his heart has actually stopped, and his frozen-rigid body has yet to notice). I rather expect his first words to be a Curly Howard “Nnngungg, nnngungg, NNNGUNG!!”
I love the first two panels… it’s an utter boggl, portrayed in stereo. Make your own stereoscope… just look at the two panels and cross your eyes until the two images fuse. Not exactly a 3D effect, but amusing nevertheless.
I can’t get ’em to line up–just their shoulder cross, making a two-headed shocked thingus.
Haha! That’s pretty cool. Why on earth did you try that in the first place though? 🙂
I used to scare away boys by crossing my eyes at them (3rd grade). I’ve always loved testing…optic ability, I guess… I got my eyes lazered about six years ago, and I haven’t been able to cross them properly since then. 3D stuff, including magic eye pictures, never show up right any more. I’m still trying to get that back.
And fwiw, my right eye sees more red tones and my left eye sees more blue ones.
I just tend to notice such images… early training, I guess. My grandfather was an eye surgeon, my grandmother an optometrist… they had a bunch of classic old optical equipment around, including a stereoscope viewer and dozens of stereo-image picture cards. I enjoyed these sorts of early 3D photos and by the time I was 10 I had learned the eye-crossing method of viewing them without the viewer apparatus. Simple, cheap amusement!
I actually tried this myself, but found the two heads were not quite close enough to the same size to combine them. Maybe if I had glasses on. . . .
I have unusual problems combining my eye images anyway, due to a childhood in glasses. (long story deleted) Short version: I’m more aware of my separate eye-pictures, but find it harder to combine them. And I tend to use whichever eye is closer to the thing I’m looking at, or the hand I point with.
I dunno, it could still be a simulation, just one that Shelly wasn’t informed of…
Uh oh.
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/peopleyoucareabout/
That had better be Nudge in there.
Sufferin’ succotash.
And along those lines:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/fixingthingsthatarebroken/
I still get the feeling that the effect of that one was magic and not actually claw work.
It would have been a nice effect if that one strip of cloth that got disconnected from his collar went “fwip” in that last panel.
Eh, I think it may have ruined the moment.
Hey, maybe he won’t take the supernatural so badly. Open minded or no, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn’t be a bit freaked out at nearly being disemboweled by their significant other for flirting
Is it bad that I find the look on Justin’s face hilarious? I mean I realize he has every reason to be frightening, and that the implications of what is happening is sad for all involved, but for whatever reason I find that look of sheer horror to be funny.
I have to admit, I giggled at panel 2 before I saw the shredded shirt. That’s pretty much what *my* reaction would be in that situation.
Something is wrong. Yesterday’s comic showed Justin well out of range of Shelly’s Big Slash. Today his glasses are off and his shirt has been cut.
So what’s the deal?
Did Shelly assault Justin before her Sphinx mode turned off? So far Paul hasn’t accounted for those missing 24 inches between claws and shirt…
Maybe tomorrow?
I think yesterday’s last panel showed just the first two parts of Shelly’s reflexive sphinx-strikeout (slashing or striking the punching bag, and whirling into attack position), and that we are intended to infer the third part by the aftereffects we see now. We can tell that it took place, and that Shelly probably managed to pull her attack just short of actually slicing Justin’s skin.
Her strike might have been the sort of reflexive paw-swat that cats make sometimes when annoyed – enough claw and force to scratch and sting, but not intended as a serious enough attack to disembowel.
Not disemboweled? Tell that to the punching bag.
Shellinx is fast, really really fast.
Ever seen a viper attack? Take that times 10.
She can knock-out 3 guys before a dropped glass hits the floor, before the mentioned glass has fallen more than a couple of centimeters.
I think its more like in those Kung Fu movies or anime. Where the guy slashes a sword at something far away, and cuts it.
I heard it explained as the pressure from the slash is what actually cuts the object.
The question is will Justin freak out and run or did he just catch a case of Cat Scratch Fever?
I Vote Cat Scratch Fever!
Oops!
I love the story line but I’m lost on this one. In 80K years of contemplation as a Sphinx and she never learned that she can take her time in response to just about anything? She watched herself die and less of a reaction. Why’s she so jumpy? At that age she should be used to her skin, power and all.
She spent that time without being round people. Sphinxes, in the WS universe, are prone to react quickly and without thinking. That is backed up if your remember how Nudge got Phix to become librarian.
Remember, she’s still recovering from how her sphinx-side took over in the bar allowing her to knock out 3 guys. She obviously isn’t comfortable in her skin yet.
Besides, in the Time Forest she was in sphinx mode most of the time…not human-hiding-sphinx mode. Plus I doubt she had anything to really startle or anger her there the way other people can. Frustrate and sadden her? Yes. Anger and startle…not likely. Especially when your own death happens in front of you 50 some-odd times.
All good points. I’ll just wait and see what happens next. The girl needs a guru. Where’s Phix!
Justin: Understandably freak out about the ‘claws’ getting close to you.
Shelly: Pull your hands back in, tears in eyes, look like beaten child.
Justin: Put on policeman’s thinking cap. “…You had claws. And then you didn’t. What’s going on here?”
Shelly: Unbelieving stare. Bawl.
INCREDIBLY AWKWARD SITUATION.
We can only hope.
Although it would be a good bit of balance if the super-natural girlfriend thing goes awry for a change.
At the moment, I belive Justin has pulled one of these numbers:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/05242002/
“Holy flapping scrith,” says Justin. Or words to that effect.
“Holy flapping scrith,” says Shelly. Or words to that effect.
“What the hell just happened?” asks Justin.
“Boohoo,” says Shelly.
Choose your own adventure!: a) Justin runs away screaming, turn to page 12. b) Justin hugs Shelly but still looks like a deer in the headlights, turn to page 15.
c) Shelly runs away while Justin stands there awkwardly, turn to page 42. d)Justin falls apart in bloody chunks, turn to page NO I WOULD’T REALLY HAVE THAT AS AN OPTION WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!!
LMAO! Win! Both of you! 😀
Aggg! Weekend cliffhanger. Still not used to them even after all this time!
Aww f…rigerators. Paul please please please give us a weekend update this shock is kiling me.
“Oooh fu- – – udge!”
[narrating as asult] “Only I didn’t say ‘Fudge.’ I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the ‘F-dash-dash-dash’ word!”
I have an eight year old daughter. My language censor is firmly in place. Also, I can’t just switch to, say, French swears, because my MIL speaks French and would go crazy, or Spanish swears, because my Mom speaks Spanish and would go crazy, and I don’t know any other foreign language swears.
So, yeah, Ralphie, you keep working on it. 😉
Look up Russian ones. From the friends I have they are some good ones.
Tune in next week!
Same Bat-time!
Same Bat-channel!
And, on Monday, we learn that Paul has decided to give us a week of filler pinup panels, or switches to an interlude involving Katherine and several spiders, or has five days of guest-artist strips all involving Kwispie the penguin with wings of bacon, or …
*whack
Stop giving him ideas!
Oppsie doo..dle .. ..
..
..
..
Inderdation…. Oh my..
Well, people were clamouring for a cliffhanger. This one is as good as any.
Poor Shelly. Let’s just hope that Justin is as a good cop should be: Calm, unflappable and reasonable.
Reasonable, check.
Calm and unflappable? Um…
HIS GIRLFRIEND JUST WENT ALL WEREWOLF ON HIS BUTT.
What thought processes are still operational in his head right now are trying to
a) Reconcile “reality” as he knew it with shape-changing / what-the-heck was that
b) Get past the “I almost died just now” mental lock (happens to even the very best trained. Been there)
c) Determine fight – or -flight response
Perhaps his first words will be, “Alrighty then … no more butt slapping. Got it.”
… followed by a glance downward and, “JEEZUS CHRIST WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY SHIRT!?”
THEN it sinks in…
Given how fast she moves, he may still be trying to figure out what just happened. He slapped her ass, the bag exploded, something barely missed him… and now she’s facing him, which seems too quick but that’s one of the lesser mysteries… As I read him, his first question is likely to be “Are _you_ OK” since that’s the one question that makes sense no matter what the other answers are.
I think this cliff hanger has to be right at the top.
I think I can honestly say that this is the second most intense cliff-hanger involving Shelly that we’ve ever had.
If this is the secondmost, what do youu consider the first?
If the shower scene that only had 211 comments for the entire weekend. We’re already at 205 and it is still early Friday.
I’d agree with Casey. For the most-intense Shelly cliffhanger, I’d nominate Friday the 13th.
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/done-here/
Maybe it’s because that’s where I came in on the Wapsi story… but for whatever reason, that segment and what we’ve since learned actually took place are permanently lodged in my brain and elsewhere. For me this is one of the most poignant sections of the whole Wapsi storyline.
@Dave
Yeah, that’s the one I was talking about.
“Poor Shelly. Let’s just hope that Justin is as a good cop should be: Calm, unflappable and reasonable.”
…and hopefully wearing Kevlar.
I don’t think a Kevlar vest with beryllium inserts would have done any good.
Besides, who would where that to the gym for training or (as Justin seems to have expected) fun and games?
NO ONE expects the Spanish Inquisition!!
Our chief weapon is stealth and catlike reflexes! Two–Our two main weapons are stealth and catlike reflexes and overreaction!….
I think he would settle for a comfy chair about now…
Hmm.
Oopsie Doodle.
And Beryl Thunderstrom is nowhere in sight….
??
A NSFW comic that has been on hiatus while the artist moves into a place with internet access. And fixes/replaces the computers that died when previous abode lost internet access permanently.
Beryl is a blond character with “assets” that make M look like Shelly, great-grand-daughter of Mom Nature herself.
here’s the link http://www.antelucan.com/tanktop/?p=index&q=last
Warning, more boob jokes than you can shake a stick at. Seriously. No, really. I’m serious here.
Ah. Thanks.
Excuse me… but did somebody say bOObs?
This is as about as bad as a worse case scenario can get for Shelly at this moment.
They’re going to hear the scream all over the city.
Well, it could have been worse. If she’d actually slashed him in half (which I don’t think quite happened) she could easily have killed him.
True, no loud scream to deal with. On the down side, there’d have been lots of blood to clean up, a body to dispose of, and the horrible reluctant conclusion that the least-awful solution involves going fully sphinx-form and locating a really big bottle of ketchup.
That would have been a worst-case scenario.
Is there such a thing as comic whiplash? Wednesday we were observing Brandi calmly making pancakes for Bud. Two strips later we are speculating on a major catastrophe.
And it can’t have been a week since we were debating the proper music and choriography for a barfight, can it?
The term you’re looking for is Mood Whiplash.
Well according to that, they’re going to break out in a case of the giggles. I’m not sure I can see that happening…
you did see that bit about the sterile duct tape, right?
Now I did. I stand corrected.
It suddenly occurs to me…
…who the heck else is in the gym right now?
Well, Paul, obviously, he’s the one drawing it. 😉
I’ll go get the duck tape to patch the fourth wall….
Get a feral one this time–that sterile duct tape has no staying power; it’ll be gone like *that*!
Actually, I live on one of the great waterfowl migratory routes – and the flock of wild duck tape flew over in October on their wat to overwinter in Mexico – where they are cruely exploited by the rural inhabitants, keeping their herds of 1950’s era vehicles running….
I think I’ll go lie down, now….
Gah – ‘flocks’ and ‘way’. Stupid fat fingers.
im hoping it will be another dream or like peeps said yesterday – some sort of training session.
Define “Okay.”
Maybe he’ll faint now and she can pass it all off as a dream he had after he hit his head when he fell. Oh yeah, she’ll have to hit him on the head too.
Just a love tap right?
You know, I was half expecting him to transform into something other which could go toe to toe with a sphinx.
I’ve got a wild theory:
What if it’s a partial simulation? What if Shelly is in a gym like area and “Justin” is actually a projection from his mind (mediated by Phix to give realistic reactions to various scenarios)? To Shelly it feels real but it’s just a dream (or a nightmare) to Justin.
If that’s the case then, when they next meet Justin may state that he had some weird dreams and Shelly suddenly looks sheepish and guilty.
I don’t think Paul would double up on an idea like that, and we’ve already got Creepy-as-Justin-in-the-Shower.
Ever see American Werewolf in London? He wakes up from one nightmare into another one.
Ok, that look on his face rather dispels the whole Justin might be a Supernatural being as well.
Darn.. Had been hoping he might actually be an Androsphinx, and he would’ve been the first non-normal boyfriend to the girls as well.
That’s something that’s also still missing. Someone just as much in the Know, if not even more so than the ladies themselves.
On the one hand, yes. I agree. On the other hand, what part of boyfriends who just accept the weird and supernatural instead of flipping out is normal? Kevin and Alan may not be supernatural, but they have super powers of their own. Acceptance on that level is not normal.
On the other hand, what part of boyfriends who just accept the weird and supernatural instead of flipping out is normal?
*giggle*. Julie, did you really mean to offer up one of the best straight lines a stand-up comic could ever expect to receive?
I’m not saying that it’s true, but many followers of the “Men are fom Mars, Women are from Venus” school of thought would simply tell you that this is precisely what all boyfriends have to do, all of the time.
… and, conversely, that almost all girlfriends are amazingly good at dealing with stark irrationality, insanity, and blinkered Philistine pig-ignorance without losing their cool.
I didn’t mean to…Not really. 😛
But think about it. The crap that boyfriends deal with from women…it’s annoying and stupid and wallet-draining…but most men deal with it, so it’s not really weird and it sure as hell ain’t supernatural. 🙂 My point still stands…
…and if you’re a stand-up comic, you may use my line. 😛
Us guys are simple..
Feed us.. Make us feel good (whether it be physical or emotional).. Be loyal.. And we’ll charge the Gates of Hell for a lady.
Jin has that thing, that makes Alan go gaga.
Kevin gets to deal with the Epic Rack of Doom.
Supernatural weirdness?? Baah.. Psssh…
The gains far outweigh the costs.
Now the whole near disemboweling thing..
That’s a far bigger problem, as it goes against the whole make us feel good.
😛
Yeah, soiled undies are quite uncomfortable.
Shredded shirt, and her claws came nowhere near him? If Wapsi was ten times darker, I’d expect first panel of next comic to be Justin doing an impressive reinactment of the opening to the movie ‘Cube’.
*fingers in ears*
LALALALALAAA I CAN’T HEAR YOU LALALALALA THAT MOVIE WAS NEVER MADE LALALALA JUST A SILLY NIGHTMARE LALALALALA!!!
What, you prefer Cube 2????? 🙂
I will have nightmares about that movie for the rest of my life, and I only watched half of it. C2 I haven’t seen at all, so I can safely pretend it’s a documentary about an expanded Rubix cube.
Horror and I don’t get along well at all. Weird I can do, fantasy I can do, even NCIS’s blatent on screen deaths only creep me out a little. But I just can’t do most horror. I don’t sleep enough because I get nightmares, and I know my limits.
good gods yes, woman! life can be enough of a nightmare, why deliberately watch stuff that gives you the brain spasms in the middle of the night??
and NCIS rawks, i love and deploy the gibbs-love-smack to the 18 year old all the time. 😉 (and he says “yes, boss” after i do it, too, hee!)
@Fallconskat–Souds like you have a senior field agent in the works! 😀
Cube is not the only movie to do that. But, of course, it’s only been shown happening to males, as usual.
~raises fist and screams~ FRIDAAAAAAAAAAY! Paul is good at making one hate Friday.
And actually look forward to Monday.
First non-normal boyfriend?
I seem to remember a certain doll/god of drink who got this whole ‘supernatural’ shebang going.
While some people may say he is not a boyfriend, i recall Monica’s initial reaction wasn’t very encouraging to him (and that reaction continued for some time).
In fact, her first response was a quite effective attempt to get rid of him. (a bus ride to Utah)
Well, he isn’t a boyfriend to any of the ladies, now is he?
Now he may be one of the few male non-humans in the Know, and they may consider him a friend, but he still isn’t The Boyfriend.
Not like Kevin or Alan anyway.
So, does he draw his sword, and have to chase her through the city?
Does her question count as a riddle?
Define “sword.”
*groan*
I doubt hs could find his “sword” right now, unless he went upstream…
Poor Shelly. Last panel, the tears and the curled lower lip really hit’s home. Can somewhat relate to the situation too.
Best friend decided to scare me, came up and put me in a bear hug. Few years of martial arts, a little MMA training for fun and some general survival courses I’ve taken kicked in and resulted in him on the ground with his arm behind him and my knee firmly planted in the center of his back.
Much the same look and statement when I looked down and realized exactly who was pressed into the concrete. Poor Shelly, I still don’t live that down and it’s been 4 years.
You’re not alone in that sort of reaction. On one particularly crappy day, a fellow who had the tendency to be overly “huggy” caught up with be from behind while walking down a hallway. He put his arm around me and grabbed my shoulder. Three-quarters through the same-side thumb grab and rotate out led to a very awkward posture moment.
On the bright side, he hadn’t fallen completely over backwards!
When people scare me I jump about six inches and scream like a … train whistle or something… I scare away my attackers with a vocal assault on their eardrums.
Maybe I should take kickboxing.
I wish I could scream piercingly. My voice won’t do that…even when I’m frightened. I recently discovered that my instinctive reaction is to flail uselessly and swear like a sailor.
Well, that works too sometimes.
I used to hit, too. Then I got married. Then he had a nightmare that woke me up when he punched the wall. I was between him and the wall. Thus began the no hitting policy.
AH!… Like Sydney does here:
http://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/224
or the next few pages.
Well… without the guns and chilis and I’ve never called anyone a …milkshake… but kinda…
SPOILERS: ….Monday we will discover Shelly is with Phix in the Library and they are on some sort of…. ‘Holodeck’, pardon me for going all STNG, but Phix did say she was going to help “The kid”.
I think it more likely that Phix is teaching Shelly the “phase” technique she used on Tina/Nudge.
This would be a great way to “safety” the sphinx so that Shelly shreds anything but human flesh.
I would not be surprised if Monday is not with Shelly and Justin at all, extending the cliffhanger for a while. Possibly back with Bud and Brandi?
And all the comments about duck tape really quack me up.
[ahem!]
>clink<
Has anybody else thought of the possibility that Justin might be a sphinx also, because that’s the feeling I get from the look on his face.
I’ve mentioned before that he could possibly be an Androsphinx..
But the current situation kinda downs that hypothesis in a fiery blaze.
Um…is assaulting a police officer a criminal offense in Minnesota?
I would imagine so. It is the case pretty much everywhere else on the world as far as I know…
Before you can make that charge stick, the prosecution must prove:
First, the assailant KNEW the target was an officer before the assault began.
Second, the assault was planned.
Third, the assault was intentional.
‘Reflexive assault’ is almost summarily dropped from litigation because of those pre-requisites.
Yeah. I think that one’s a federal deal.
One could make a good case that Justin’s swat, actually was an act of battery. Not quite assault “under color of authority” since he’s not currently in uniform, but still… a well-trained police officer should know better than to ever strike another person except in actual self-defense or in a consensual training situation. There are too many ways that can go wrong, and too many eyes watching the police for it to be a habit an officer can afford to acquire.
What Justin did was actually rather stupid, even if Shelly were not a sphinx. Shelly’s not the only person responsible for what just happened.
Even before she was sphinxed, startling Shelly that much was a Bad Idea – kickboxing instructor, remember?
But the problem is not that he made contact and she riposted.
The problem is the secret that was revealed in her reflexive response.
Actually, assault and battery is the combination of two violent crimes: assault (the threat of violence) and battery (physical violence). This legal distinction exists only in jurisdictions that distinguish assault as threatened violence rather than actual violence. (I have too many friends in law careers)
so in this case the crime would be simple battery. The inclusion of against a law officer might be a moot point since he came up to her from behind without notice and without any trappings of the job. (The coming up from behind without warning might even push out the battery charge, but not likely.)
I’m not endorsing battery, or assault or any kind of physical abuse, but if Justin is willing to smack Shelly on the butt in a semi private situation, I’d say it was a pattern of playful physicality that the two of them have established. She handcuffed him to her bed the first time they had sex for Pete’s sake. Pre Shellinx, I would see Shelly responding with some playfull sparring move or throw while making some lame innuendo about him “getting it” or something. Unfortunately, that Shelly has been replaced by Shellinix, who, like most cats, HATES being startled.
It is not that cats hate being surprised, it is that they REALLY enjoy shredding the poop out of peoples hands.
Minnesota hasn’t had the death penalty for a century, so Justin couldn’t know he was dating an executioner.
“Let us bar this thing of Vengeance and the Furies from the confines of our great State; Let not this harlot of judicial murder smear the pages of our history with her bloody fingers, or trail her crimson robes through our Halls of Justice, and let never again the Great Seal of the Great State of Minnesota be affixed upon a warrant to take a human life. . . .”
Even if that isn’t the man himself standing there in this scene, Justin is dating an executioner. That is not something Kevin has had to deal with.
I’m starting to find more respect for Alan.
Well said. And from past conversations with Tina, Shelly and Justin hadn’t really gotten past a superficial physical relationship. Allen was a lot closer to Jin when he learned her true nature than Justin and Shelly are to each other, I think. And, irony of ironies, Allen no longer has to deal with a significant other who could rip him in half if she had a bad day. Shelly, on the other hand, is a long way from being “safe”.
No such irony, sorry. M informed either Brandy or Shelley that drawing the Pinocchio Glyph “leaves some powers, while taking others away”. Jin may be vulnerable, that’s true. A lot infact since she’s not used to it. Surely she’s no longer a threat to the other golems, the sphinxes, and maybe even Tina and M, but she surely can do short work out of Allen.
And that’s not even counting all the nifty tricks she must have picked up through the millennia.
On an entirely unrelated note, much has been made of Monica’s taste in fine whiskeys (Macallan, no?), and here’s a nice FYI map of whiskey flavors!
http://bigthink.com/ideas/41781
Thanks Atomic. I prefer a good Bourbon or Tennessee Whisky myself. Knob Creek or Makers Mark if I can get it, Wild Turkey 101 if I can’t.
She could just play it off that she’s been learning Tiger Style Kung Fu!
Tiger Style is a physical demading martial art. So Tiger Style martial artist are usually musclular in appearence. So its not a hard story to sell.
Quick. Blame it on SOPA.
um… no, in this case internet censoring didn’t play a factor in the shredding of Justin’s shirt.
Good try, though. 😉
I don’t believe I wrote that. /shame
*didn’t play a part in
OR
*wasn’t a factor in
Not both.
See, now, if SOPA had passed, you wouldn’t have been allowed to make that mistake.
But if you did, the MPA would be able to fine you $10,000.
I’d get off with a blacklisting and never be able to work in Hollywood, thus leaving me with a near-to-useless Tv/Film degree.
…
Maybe I’ll keep the fine, at that rate.
Face-marks are still there…that’s going to make it harder to play this off as something minor and/or harmless.
Allergy to bag stuffing?
I haven’t seen it in color, so I’m not sure just how different she looks…
Fangs too, fang you very much.
Ow!
And she owes him a new shirt!
And probably new pants! 😉
Poor fellow … Shelly seems to be channeling my ex-wife …
That must have been some marriage you had there.
Justin: “YEEK!!!!” (hitting a note three octaves above C8…)
Justin is a Zarathustran Fuzzy?
Love it! He sure looks cuddly enough, I suppose.
No, but at this point, he could probably speak to them so they could understand…
Nah, I don’t think Little Fuzzy, Wise One, Big She, Other She, Stabber, or any other fuzzy could help in this situation.
But fuzzy fuzzy Holloway might.
Nice to see somebody else reads Bob Hamm.
Is he the author of the rebooted “Fuzzy” story? Haven’t read that yet, myself… I was referring back to the original canon by H. Beam Piper (and the tribute “Fuzzy Bones” by William Tuning, which I actually preferred to Piper’s own long-lost third story).
I just finished Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi if that’s the one you mean. It was pretty good and I enjoyed all of his Old Man War series. I need to get Little Fuzzy from the library now. (There, put it on hold. Gotta love the internet!)
The first of the H. Beam Piper Fuzzy stories is available in the public domain – I got my copy from Feedbooks. I’s the top book in this search:
http://www.feedbooks.com/search?query=little+fuzzy
For those who like Science Fiction and have not run into H. Beam Piper do yourself a favor and do so – great stuff from a (mostly) forgotten author.
Just old Al.
Bob Hamm was the original author of ‘Little Fuzzy’.
The book was published after his suicide.
Several other very good SF writers took to the story line and wrote “Fuzzy Sapients”, “Fuzzies and other People”, “Fuzzies are people too” and other very good books.
Then Bob’s second book was found (I forget the title) and 20 years after “Little Fuzzy” (only 3 months for the story line), Little Fuzzy gets to go on an adventure without “Pappy Jack” and discovered the ‘big ones’ were quite smart at teaching fuzzies how to live in the woods (which they had already been doing for thousands of generations).
That’s when Little Fuzzy met Wise One, Big She, Other She (who was renamed ‘Carries bright things’), Stabber, and others.
@Valkeiper – that’s the first time I’ve ever heard the name “Bob Hamm” used with reference to any of the Fuzzy stories. The copies I have were all published under the name “H. Beam Piper”, and that’s the name I’ve always seen used (e.g. in the forwards to Tuning’s “Fuzzy Bones” and Mayhar’s “Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey”.
Wikipedia seems to confirm this (including Piper’s unfortunate suicide) and makes no mention of Bob or Robert Hamm.
Can you provide a cite to other information?
I concur. I have a copy of the first edition paperback, and it’s also under the name of “H. Beam Piper”. I can’t even find a reference to an author “Bob Hamm” in any relation to the Fuzzies.
He probably does not know if he should be scared, or turned on.
That look on his face is primal terror, the kind that’s programed into our genes. Right now any of the “turned on” related equipment is entirely non functional, I’d wager.
Funny story. I once saw this enacted in real life on a small scale. At one time I had a very nurotic cat that was easy to startle. I also had a friend who enjoyed startling her to get the reaction. Hissing, spitting and growling, all that jazz. My friend was kind of a jerk. I asked him to stop and after threats of kicking him out of my home and never inviting him back, he did. The next time he visited, the cat ran and hid in the bedroom and we sat down to BS and drink a beer and whatnot. After an hour or two I glanced up at the halway leading back to my bedroom and there was the cat in stalking mode, crouched low, moving slowly and deliberatly toward my friend with her eyes fixed on him. I felt the hairs on my arm stand up and quietly called my friends name. He turned and locked eyes with the cat. For a second or so you could see the primal fear response kick in as his inner caveman recognized the feline features in hunter/killer mode. For that second, it didn’t matter that his earstwhile killer was a ten pound house cat. It scared the piss out of him.
Now imagine what Justin is feeling. He just had his girlfriend exibit the feline features that trigger that primal terror and she’s a helluva lot bigger than ten pounds.
Cats are scary. After living with a truly psychotic cat for two and a half years, I can only handle cats in doses…or in funny or cute internet pictures. Now I’m so jumpy around them it provokes an attack.
I like dogs. 🙂
Great story, Boxilar!
It sorta works the other way, too. When my wife and I bought a house around 15 years ago, we learned that the property was part of the territory of one of our neighbors’ cats – an old fluffy black fellow, who we quickly realized was entirely deaf (we called him “Deaf As A Post”). He couldn’t hear us coming at all. The first time I walked around the back of the house to where he was dozing in the sun, he jumped about a foot into the air and dashed back away from me and glared.
I just froze where I was, talked to him quietly for a while, and then slowly continued walking to where I’d been going. He moved away along the fence and watched me, but didn’t run. During later encounters I tried not to walk into his proximity until I knew he’d seen me, and always showed respect for his “space”.
Fairly quickly he learned that I meant no harm, was willing to tolerate an approach and my slow hello-scratches under the chin, and soon became our fast friend and began issuing ankle-rubs. Eventually he got to the point where we could walk around with no concern for his presence and he didn’t mind us coming upon him suddenly at all… apparently he’d decided that we were allowed to share his territory.
So, there is hope that Shelly’s sphinx-cat reactions will tame down with time, once she becomes more comfortable with her new set of boundaries.
I was given a kitten as a gift. When I’d had her about two months, hubby and buddy were playing with airsoft rifles in the house (!!) and decided to use her as target practice. After that she stuck to me like glue and hissed and spat at them… and attacked hubby any chance she got. She had all her claws, but she never ripped any sizeable holes in him.
Meanwhile, inlaws have two cats that hissed and bit everything (declawed front, poor critters). The orange one has decided I’m on his team so long as I pay due respect via ear scratches ever visit. The white one’s the most fear-filled critter I ever saw, and today she rubbed against my arm by her own volition. First contact! 😀
It’s always cool when you win the trust of a cat. We’re big mammals and African wildcats, the progenitors of the modern housecat, occupy a middle to lower spot on the food chain. In their natural enviorment, critters our size eat them. When you realize you’ve gotten past eaons of geneticly programed self preservation instincts and made a friend, it kinda invokes the warm and fuzzies.
Now Shelly has to get past Justin’s basic self preservation programing. This moment will be what stands between them. No matter what else happens from this point, he’ll have to deal with the fact that his girlfriend is a leathal predator who could kill him in an ungaurded moment. Having Shelly as a GF would be like having a Bengal Tiger as a pet. You might love her with all your heart, but it dosen’t change the fact that she could hurt you without even meaning to.
At the very least, I think the relationship has to go on hiatus until Phix helps Shelly get Shellinix under control.
Police officer or no, He’s about to go running outta there SCREAMING!!! 😯
Meh.
He’ll probably chalk it up to ‘Cherokee Spirit Animal’ crap that he can’t understand.
Comanche, dear child. Comanche. While we do have taditionally used animal spirits, we can also just be aggro normally. With Shelly still keyed up over her barroom blitz, she be on hair-trigger already. She needs to overcome her fear of unvoluntary evisceration of loved ones, and that will mean learning how to maintain form over function. Before her Sphinxation, she might have punched the ever-living technicolor hell out of his gut. Now, it is beyond Serious Business.
NO! dose he look okay?
Before Justin can run, she needs to say “There are things you need to know. I am not the strangest thing you will have seen by tomorrow.” Then pull out a cell and call Monica. “M? I’m at Punk Yoga, could you poit over here, please?”
-poit-
“See? Stranger things.”
With the chain of events surrounding poor Justin and Shelly’s circles I think she would call Bud to poit over and then the real fun can begin.