If there have been 57 Shellys, how many CG/Connies have there been? At least one Shelly died on her vision quest which created CG/Connie. One Shelly/sphinx had a companion. One Shelly planted the Plutonium battery in the tree. One Shelly cut down the tree and retrieved the battery. Did every copy of Shelly have a CG/Connie?
From what I understand this is the first time Tina became what she is and the only time Shelly created Connie. All the time-lines are slightly different until they finally got it right and destroyed the calendar machine.
According to recent revelations, Tina 1.0’s death is directly linked with Connie’s creation, and Tina 2.0 has said that she believes this timeline (the 57th) to be the first one for “the rats” to be “steering the ship”. On the other hand, there are at least two known instances of Connie’s existence (i.e. Shelly#1, the Sphinx; and Shelly#57, the dead one). This seems to indicate that throughout the time loops there was actually more than one Demon-Tina.
hmm
that takes me to the one where he is grabbing his throat after being given the ‘honor’ of being the chimera guardian 🙂
want the bunny slippers one 😀
I found jabberwonky’s profile at ImageShack, but it seemed broken. At least half of his stuff won’t display. 😕 I don’t even know if he had the Tepoz you were looking for there in the first place.
i do like the tepoz avatar.
but i feel like i stole it from you or something so went back to my cat 🙁
she is cute also 😀 just not a blue alcohol-giving cutie 😀
I know, right? Where’s Monica Angry, Monica SMASH!?
Heh, we’re kinda used to her temper. Guess this situation is more depressing to her than angering.
Though honestly her calm attitude is REALLY surprising me. If I was in her shoes I’d probably be a fiery wreck o’ fury. Or at least frustrated at all the crazy supernatural crap that just went down right under my nose.
It is almost like Monica is blaming herself for what happened to Shelly. What is there to feel guilty about? Yes she let Shelly hold it as part of seeing what was up with the relic, but why take the whole load one herself? The result is okay. Very un-Monica like. Give her a towel and a whiskey.
Well it’s not like she’s doing it on purpose. Guilt can simply spring forth. But I think it’s less like she’s blaming herself and more like she’s was completely powerless in all of this. Monica doesn’t like not being in control. And also, she doesn’t like sudden weirdness. She was getting ready to go to the beach and suddenly Bud’s blown up the island, Shelly is a Shinx, she’s had a spat with a supernatural conglomerate on demons, and Shelly has revealed that her and Nudge have been pulling the strings of a plan that has spanned several realities.
I think it’s a combination of M grabbing the relic first and seeing the freaky Jin then Shelly grabbing it and everything that happened to her best friend that has her feeling guilty.
It’s Monica. She always takes the role of ‘mother’ over her friends (well, save maybe Amanda). It may not be her fault, but Monica’s still going to beat herself over any serious harm that befalls Kat, Shelly, Tina, or the GGG.
Without looking at other responses (which, btw Pablo, is one thing that inhales voluminously about this comment method), I would suggest that Monica feels responsible for Shelly’s “imprisonment in time” because if it had not been for her correction of the calendar machine issue, Shelly would have never gotten stuck in the time forest to begin with.
Of course, she fails to understand that Shel had actually gone to the time forest without her multiple times over. And, that Shelly was a Sphinx before she even knew who she was.
So – does this mean Shelly is nearly as old as Bud and Brandi now?
Not counting the loops, Bud & Brandi are 12,500 years old. Counting the loops, Shelly is probably around 80,000 (1450 x 55) and Maya is probably around 93,500 (10,500 + 550 + 1450 x 57)
That brings up a question. There seems to be a period of time when the GGGs were used as guardians and everything was working out. This time had to be before thay went on the rampage. So I wonder, what set them off? Also, who was left after that to separate them and bring them back under control?
No, I think the priest’s made the chimera and it immediately went on its rampage. Later the GGGs were created by splitting it up into the three individuals, who were then used by the by the Lantians who were running the New World pre-Columbian civilizations.
——–
Ignore what I said about Maya’s age. I forgot that time doesn’t work the same in the demon realm. Bud returned quickly when she went after Maya, but from Bud’s perspective it was much longer than that.
The GGGs were apparently dormant during at least part of their existence. I don’t know if you should count that as part of their age or not.
I always wondered–since some cars now have factory-installed fuzzy logic transmissions and such, when will we see the first model with factory-installed fuzzy dice?
Awright!! Creepy Little Girl’s back to being creepy!! XD
I feel bad for Monica though. Instead of her normal freakout mode, looks like we’re going to see her in depressed mode…
Sometimes it’s difficult to find something clean that also fits…I mean it’s not like she could borrow a shirt from any of the girls. They seem to like fairly well fitted stuff, and Shelly’s got serious guns. 🙂
It’s not really that odd that Monica’s reacting badly, everything supernatural so far has been with new people or situations that were weird in the first place. However, Monica and Shelly became friends before the last round of supernatural events. Now Shelly has discovered something that changes her fundamentally — what implications does that have for their friendship?
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. It’s one thing to deal with something weird. It’s another to be used to something and then find that it’s become (or in this case, has been) something completely different.
There’s probably something like survivor’s guilt in there, too. Maybe she’s thinking that she should have learned more about the relic before letting Shelly hold it.
Of all the things Monica has seen and learned and she can’t move past the fact that her best friend is a sphinx? Really? There’s a gollum not too far from her with whom she’s had more than a few good times.
Yeah okay. I highly doubt you’d feel that way if it REALLY happened. It never will, but that’s what imagination is for. And if someone you were friends with suddenly turned out to be a large, immensely powerful, mythological, part-lion-part-eagle hybrid beast after knowing them as your “just another human” friend, I don’t believe it wouldn’t affect you. I mean honestly…
It would affect me alright.
And the first thing I’d ask would be “Now that you can make your own eagle feathers are you finally going to craft that Comanche war-bonnet?”
If my life was already full of gods, gollums, sphinxes, demons and…what are we going to classify Jin’s mom as? Honestly, Katherine is weirder than this. I just don’t see how this is any different. I mean I totally get what you mean about her being the one semi normal thing but…I mean she knew that Shelly was different and connected to this stuff. At least now she knows exactly how Shelly is connected. I’d be relieved another piece of the puzzle was falling into place.
Right. I mean. how much more is Monica going to have to take? It’s literally just one thing after another for her. She tries to have a normal life as well, but something like this keeps happening to her. From here on, she will be wondering what all her friends really are. Any quirky behavior by any of them will set her off to expecting some new announcement from them concering their “true” nature. It’s got to foster paranoia in her at some point.
OTOH, I think she is not going into an hysterical fit over all this currently because it’s all only been words. Shelly says she’s a sphinx. Okay, fine, but right now she just sees the same Shelly she has always known. That’s comforting. Something like that will not seem totally real to Monica unless she actually transforms into a sphinx in front of her. It’s like your friend telling you they have cancer. “But you look just fine, how can that be true?” When they are in the hospital bed, emaciated, with tubes and electrodes coming out everythere, it becomes real to you.
It’s not that it’s any weirder than the others–just give the poor girl (Monica) a little time to adjust. News, even good news, can be disconcerting, especially for the first few minutes.
Roll with it?
You know I would.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about people it’s that I can never say I really know them. There’s always something there to surprise me and that’s the way I like it.
I think you’re focusing on the wrong aspect here. I may be wrong, but as Monica stated, her feelings are stemming from sadness and guilt. She feels that she’s at fault for letting Shelly be trapped in the forest for 80,000 years (regardless of fault, Monica still blames herself).
She’s also sad at how this will affect Shelly. Consider what we know of Sphinx’s. Phix is considered to be an ‘extremely’ nice and gentle Phix, and she runs around greeting everyone by threatening to kill them (Monica, Shelly, Tina, etc.). Who knows what turning into one of them and being exposed to their kind has done to Shelly over the 80,000 years. I may be far too much of a pessimist, but I feel Monica recognizes that the Shelly she knew and loved is forever gone, replaced with someone new, and that alone is more than enough reason for sadness.
Who says that the Shelley that Monica grew and loved has disappeared? As Shelley herself said, she is the same person. She remembers everything, both her life before the forest, and during.
She’s still the same person. I agree with many others, that Monica feels responsible for what happened to Shelley because she 1) didn’t have precognition to know what would happen and 2) didn’t stop Bud from having Shelley use the artifact at all.
This reminds me… Bud had that “knowing smile” back when she encouraged Monica to grab the artifact, which translated to Monica not objecting to Shelley doing the same. When Shelley returned Bud seemed unfazed by Shelley’s news and even seemed to know how the Lanthian artifact worked.
I’m thinking that Bud at least knows much more about what happened than she is mentioning currently.
You and I are not the same person we were when we were ten the ones we made after that changed the way we see the world and so the way we interact with it.
Now think about how Shelley just spent 80,000 years living a different life. Yes she remembers her past but there’s no way that she could come out of this unchanged. If at the very least there’s going to be a lot more wings and claws when Shelley gets angry.
Shelly may retain all the memories of her pre-sphinx days now, but that does not mean she’s lost the 80,000 years of development from her time as a Sphinx.
Even with just these past few comics, we’ve seen an unusual amount of calmness from Shelly, not to mention the lack of obscenities (which Shelly usually blurts at the drop of a hat) and general openness with her feelings (Shelly guarded her feelings and the existence of CG from everyone, including Bud and Monica. Now she had no issue just revealing CG to both of them like it was a new bra).
Aside from Shelly blowing up at Shelly Prime (#1 cycle Shelly, whatever we call her), we’ve seen little to none of the usual Shelly’s personality in her current post-sphinx form. Now, that could all change as updates continue, and Shelly could revert back to her pre-Sphinx personality, but at the present moment it appears we have a brand new, much more mature version of Shelly to deal with, not the same brash impulsive Shelly Monica & Bud once knew.
Interesting thought. Bud did have that timeframe where she was with May in the Demon Realm (when the Calendar machine was destroyed, between jumping into Monica and exiting via Shelly). Bud did confirm that May and her were in there for far longer than the few seconds she vanished from the Wapsi-world.
It could be that, during her time in Demon-Realm, she encountered Shelly, Phix, Nudge, or someone else and was informed of this whole “Shelly is a Sphinx” affair to some detail. This would also explain why she manipulated things earlier in the comic to ensure Shelly was voted to go with her to find the artifact (under the excuse that the artifact may control golems).
This page and the ones following seem to indicate that secret plans were brewing between Bud and Shelly. Jin is smiling throughout, and Brandi seems mostly out of the loop, if you’ll pardon the pun. Monica and Amanda don’t seem well informed at all.
I suspect this is an extension of Bud and Shelly’s clandestine operation for the CM shutdown. Considering her conversation before during and after with CG in that scene, Shelly may have been tipped off (by the multiple-Brandi pages) over what would have to be done.
@Yamara: IIRC, one of the first things in Brandi’s book was the instruction to tear out the last few pages without looking at them? Maybe that’s where the ‘Shelly is a Sphinx’ and ‘Artifact Magic Forest’ spoilers were written.
@NOTDilbert Shelly is saying in the present episode that she didn’t know she was a Sphinx, though she knew she was stronger than the average bear. But I think Bud figured it out back at the beach party. She’s not acting at all surprised at the news.
This brings up a question that I’m not going to pose, because I think that would lead a real spoiler.
Beacons of normalcy are over rated under normal conditions, and straight up liabilities in Monica’s life. Super powers of some kind can keep a person alive.
Dude. if it’s been more than 3 minutes COMIC time i’d be surprised. chill out everybody, this is a HUGE amount of explaining to do, and a long time in REAL time because of the MWF post times. WHEN you guys read this in dead tree format (hint hint…) it will seem very quick I’m sure.
We all know that she’s creepy and doesn’t back down from a fight. But we have yet to see her in one. We know she scares Sphinx(s)( not sure on the plural on that one). I’m wondering if its just cuse she is a creepy little thing or does she have some power to back it up.
well most of them are women…and Shelly is comfortable.
and after a short archive binge while waiting for the update last night, i can safely say that none of them have issues with sexuality…
If boobs hang about freely, it is only about the first couple of minutes that it’s sexually enticing. Sit on a “clothes optional” beach ,or, overhere in Europe about any regular beach at a lake or at sea, and You’ll see soooo many boobs, that it completely loses every bit of enticement.
The more You see it, the less interesting it becomes. Heck, inthe Victorian age they even covered piano-legs, because it could remind men of ankles….. Now think about that when going on, and on about Shell’s boobies. 😐
♬ Piano legs must now be covered with care
He ordered all the trees cut down because their limbs were bare.
He arrested a cook for beating an egg, now doesn’t that take the coin?
The Czar, the Czar, the Czar of the Tenderloin!
Oh, the Czar of the Tenderloin!
With great propriety
He ruled society
And the girls all shunned the society
Of the Czar of the Tenderloin! ♬
I think Shellynx said something explaining about how only she was unable to die…I could be entirely wrong though…I didn’t medicate this morning so my brain is firing in too many directions at once to remember stuff. 😛
“all the memories of pre-sphinx Shelly 57 instantly return” confirmation just seems too convenient of a MacGuffin.
the brain works in mysterious ways… just look at amnesia, some people can get into an accident and live the rest of their lives as someone else. then there are those cases where they live like that for a while, and suddenly smell something (like fresh cut grass) or eat something, and they start to remember who they were, right up to the last few minutes before the accident. Consider this long term amnesia…
and it was discussed yesterday that CG looks like the fears of the person she interacts with, and while M can control her Doubt, she might still fear a hostile takeover one day…
Perhaps being back in her body on earth in the mundane 3D world has returned her perceptions to normal. Remember, when she first got to the time forest she was dressed as Shelly, but could have evolved very quickly into Shellinx, thus making her perception different there. maybe 80000 years felt more like a few decades as a sphinx than as a human who cannot die…I can believe that her memories and sense of time might be location-dependent.
Ala the “perception of time goes faster as you grow older” argument? Wouldn’t that make the remaining 30-70 years of Shelly’s mortal-human life go by like a blink to her?
There you go again, being all literal and stuff . . . I come up with this wonderfully fantastic theory with Marcel Proust in it, and you go on about Web browser behavior. :p
OK, forthwith you’ll be known as Sonic “Picky” Thunder.
Still, I’m dissappointed too. I was hoping for much re-entry drama from a slower transition back to old Shelly. Surely there will be some changes in Shelly’s character but this sudden dismissal of the 80K experience is a let down. At least it’s sinking on on Monica but that won’t last long. But then it aint my story to tell, fortunately.
I don’t necessarily think that Shelly’s over any readjustment issues. After all, she’s always struck me as someone who is too enthusiastic about fixing things immediately to actually fix them (without a bit of help from a more people-wise person).
Or Jacqui or Shelly’s Dad. Shelly does still work as an instructor for Jacqui and a mechanic for her dad. Both have known Shelly her entire life (longer than Monica, Bud, Tina, or Amanda have). She’s forced to encounter the two of them again at some point, and they’ll definitely notice a change in personality.
*cue fanboy squeal* This means we might get another Jacqui cameo! *cue Stimpy voice* “Oh Joy!”
Possibly Shelly’s keeping a “stiff upper-lip” not to burden her friends with her ordeal. She is still is too proud for that, I think.
I still feel there’s a volcano rumbling, and Shelly’s coping with the sudden (after 80000 years “suddenly” home again sort of “sudden”) change, will eventually lead to some outburst or breakdown.
She may be a sphinx, learned her purpose, and is perfectly happy with that, but she’s also a human. A human that was ripped out of her former existence, and thrust into her worst nightmare: loneliness, with only the occasional visit. (unless Phix&Shell had their “girl-time” once a week for tea and scones.. 😛 )
Buuuut.. if “sphinxness” changes one’s mental make-up, it is of course fully possible that time becomes wholly different from what we perceive.
Good point, but I’m thinking Shelly is afraid of the very thing that is happening right now; losing Monica’s friendship because Monica is thinking “I don’t know you anymore!”
Based on Paul’s response to me below, the truth of what Shelly said may be in question. Shelly may be fibbing to make Monica stop worrying. If so, Tina should see through it, I think, because she will see the truth by looking at Shelly’s aura.
I remember what one soldier (I think that he was a PTSD sufferer) said about the drug:[1]
He said that he was dead against such a drug because traumatic events are meant to effect you. If you could be in a war and not be affected by it then you are probably going to become a monster. If you are in an accident, the fact that it has scarred you emotionally means that you are more likely to drive more carefully next time. Trauma and pain is part of being human, and we diminish ourselves if we can just turn that off.
It’s worth considering his words — both in RL and when reading the strip.
[1] In an interview on CBC’s World at Six. Please also bear in mind that I am doing this from memory so I apologise if I’ve mixed his interview up with somebody elses. I’m sure that he talked about the war scenario and I think he talked about the accident one.
I wonder of Jacqui is ‘enlightened’ enough tp notice the change in Shelly’s aura? Or, even funnier, if Tattoo Girl (Can’t remember her name right now, sorry) could see it?
yesterday everything was calming down and today monica has kinda gone back to stress so shelly is having to ‘act’ abit more lievly and its making creepy..well…
I’m beginning to wonder. She evolved her form into a sphinx inside the time forest, but upon her return to earth was back to her normal human form. She might need some lessons from Phix…
*Shelly gets handed a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, looks down*
-Waugh!!! What happened to my feet…
*Monica giggles*
-You ding-dong, that’s just my Garfield furry-slippers.
*Shelly blows out some air,seriously relieved*
-Sjeezus Frack.. I thought I’d changed without thinking.. Imagine the dumb-ass look on people’s faces when that would happen in MOA.. Hotdarnit, Nudge’s books warned me of that…
*Monica gives “busty-mom” hug*
-Aaah..and You are cursing again…welcome back!
Tina: …
Tepoz: “Hey! Down here!”
Nudge: “Might be a good time for a sphinx joke.”
Monica’s Kitchen Table: “I wonder if now would be a good time to reveal that I’m actually a sentient wooly mammoth?”
Tina: Sphinx 😯 ,run, no, stay, no, panic, no, yes, maybe…..no no no not “on top of spaghetti’ slink away ,go make coffee..run..Sphiiiinx!!!! Ruuun! GUYS stop this, we gotta work together!!
M: It could have been me.. Luckily I only got a freaky banshee..NO, Shelly’s hurt..there’s something off.
Bud: Please don’t mention “Island” or “Sub” please please please.
Tepoz: What if I summoned 20 cases of Bud, 10 cases of Coors, 10 cases of Heineken, 1 case of Smirnoff.. That should lighten M’s spirit… 😆 😆
To be honest, I don’t drink, (haven’t had a drop since a small “conflict” many moons ago in an officer’s mess, got out of hand and, left a couple of people with broken limbs…. ooops..) so I am not too versed in what constitutes a “good drink” 😳
Actually, I think the only named alcohol Tepoz has ever summoned (at least while we were watching) was Pulque; or can you count Bud, Brandi, and Jin? 🙂 …oh, and Shelly’s “perfect martini”.
To be honest, I missed those too. Ever since Nudge left the DC, they’ve been absent…shame..they were fun. The “on top of spaghetti’ one, to get Tina out of bed, still has me in stitches.
Don’t you remember when Mon took Kath to meet Darren, and Kath ordered a wheat beer and Monica asked for a Scotch Ale in a *blank* glass run in warm water?
I doubt a beer would do it in this situation, since its a pretty stressful one…
CG is like a mood ring? When she goes next to Tina she should turn plaid.
In thinking of her fellings, she has guilt and sadness.
If she was angry, who would she take it out on?
Herself? No wait, there you have it, that’s called guilt.
Plaid if we’re lucky. CG and Tina are, quite literally, complete opposites (willingly constructed VS possessed, demon-fusion VS demon-committee).
It’ll be like forcing matter & anti-matter into the same space. You’ll either destroy the galaxy, or end up with an evil Tina with a goatee. In either case, we’re all doomed. DOOOOOMED
I thought the matter/anti-matter reaction area was limited to 15…something. Miles or kilometers but I can’t remember which. The whole first half of one of the Star Trek books layed out all the math for it…
I think one of the girls needs to give Monica a reassuring hug and tell her that everything’s going to be all right.
In the last panel she looks like she could use that right now…
Shelly in Panel 2: “But I’ve always felt that I was a guardian of sorts.”
First thought: Huh? When has she ever indicated that she felt like a guardian? When did she ever act in a way that indicated she felt like a guardian? Her returning memory must be defective.
Second thought: Oh, yeah, there was a little bit about being the bully that protected Owen while in grade school. That must be the justification for it.
Third thought: But that was just in grade school! She also was supposed to guard the four dolls, but she sure didn’t seem to take that seriously. At least she didn’t throw them away, but she just played with them and used them for cracking walnuts (/comic/veryimportant/ January 2, 2007). She just threw the little hammer she was given in a box until she got it out to tell it that she hadn’t forgotten about it 🙄 (/comic/andyou/ April 24, 2008). She had a really crappy attitude toward it (comic/shesuseful/ April 29, 2008). She generally avoided people and pushed them away from her. All of that is definitely not guarding. All of that is saying that Shelly had no interest in being a guardian.
So how did not guarding anything since grade school make her feel like a “guardian of sorts”? Damned if I know! Let’s even modify what she said and say that she meant, “But I’ve always felt that I should be a guardian of sorts.” Maybe her personal issues got in the way of acting like a guardian. I can’t even make that work! If she wanted to act like a guardian, but she psyched herself out or whatever, why didn’t we see signs of that? We saw her bring up plenty of other emotional stuff, but never that one.
I call bullshit on the second panel.
This kind of stuff really make it hard to suspend disbelief. Are we supposed to be happy that Shelly is delusional? Is that supposed to be a good sign? Maybe I’m wrong, but I find it hard to believe that the second panel is supposed to indicate that Shelly’s restored memories are defective. But if I’m not supposed to read it that way, then I feel like I’ve been insulted as a reader. It’s as if it was assumed that I wouldn’t notice the discrepancy between what Shelly is saying and the way she acted in the past.
I don’t know about all of that, but my first thought was that Shelly was just saying stuff to make Monica feel better. I could be wrong, and your concern/theory could be correct…but it’s another thought to add to your list, yes?
OK, didn’t see this before I replied to myself. I didn’t even know that you were around.
OK, I suppose so. A white lie, in other words. Or I suppose “always” could mean “the entire time I was in sphinx form”. They seem like stretches to me, I can’t rule them out, either.
Shelly had always considered herself a bully, rather than a guardian. But this morning before you posted, believe it or not, I hit the “Random” button for the first time, and got this:
Also check out her face in first panel of the next strip.
It’s not unreasonable to think that she was a frustrated guardian without a clear purpose. She certainly didn’t understand what she was, why would she lie about the rest from the perspective of adulthood?
Excepting of course for the hint Paul posted below.
I totally forgot about that. I actually remembered this event, but Shelly didn’t do any sort of a “Get behind me Heather. I’ll take care of him.” Heather was the one pretty much in charge there.
Characters can lie and just be wrong, of course, but Shelly is the only one who would remember all of the stuff that Shelly learned over the last 80,000 years. (Nudge, a trickster, might remember some of it, but should she be trusted?) Shelly’s memory, of at least of at least the new stuff, needs to be pretty damned good. If she’s just remembering real-world stuff now because she’s thinking about it and it’s relevant now, there isn’t any reason why one group of memories would be more reliable than the other.
HAHAAA!! *triumphant grin* CALLED IT!!! (multiple posts)
Aw..c’mon let me indulge myself for a bit.. 😆 But most of us already, instinctually knew something was off…
Shelly is holding up to not worry her friends, but her inside is crying, crying from happiness to be back, crying about the suffering and loneliness she’s been through. It’s just too much, and she’s running on adrenaline.
CG is playing “tough-chick’ like Shelly always did when confronted with feelings and deep emotions.. proof that CG is indeed a “Shellifestation” 😛
Examining a webcomic as each panel appears is only so productive. Paul has carefully set up a situation where a main character became 80,000 years old. I think I can wait a few weeks to see what he wants to do with that.
So, which is it?
Does she actually remember what occured just 10 min. ago and is happy about it so everything’s OK? Seems Paul says no to that possibility but I may be misinterpretating things.
Or is she faking remembering anything recent just to make Monica feel better?
Or does she actually remember things recent but is not really happy and faking good cheer for Monica’s sake?
And here I thought there was no cliffhanger this Friday.
Oh wait, she remembers being about to go to the sandbar thing, so I guess she really does remember. I suppose that only leaves the third possibility. Nevermind.
Well, it could also be that she remembers the sandbar, but not where she lives or what she did that morning. As a matter of fact, she would probably have to be reminded of things or to actively search her memory to remember a lot of things. The sandbar may have been easier to remember (or even something she never forgot) because it was related to the relic that she presumably never forgot.
I think Paul is saying that Shelly is sugarcoating things and exaggerating rather than flat-out lying.
The honest answer to your question is no, she did not seem artificially sparkly, because I have no frame of reference for her now. She’s too sparkly for the old Shelly under normal circumstances, but I don’t know how different Shelly’s personality is now, and these are not normal circumstances. (I realize that this is actually the same Shelly as the old one, but by “new” and “old” I mean new and old personality.) It seams that there is at least somewhat of a personality change because she seemed more mature and responsible, so who knows how much her personality changed? I would have to get a new baseline to know that. This might have been normal behavior for the new Shelly personality, for all I know.
The other, and probably bigger issue is that I’m expecting her to act abnormally for a while. This wasn’t close to normal Shelly behavior, either. She seemed to be in shock there and was very unresponsive. If she did that, I would expect her to go through other unusual behaviors as she recovers, which would likely include a giddy phase. Her current behavior could simply have been that. And really it did seem like a continuous mood swing. Shelly didn’t stop at a plateau for any length of time. If her mood was swinging, I had no way of knowing how far it was going to swing on the other extreme. She still is not acting as giddy as she was acting stunned before, so to me her apparent mood is still within a very reasonable range. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if she acted somewhat as if she were manic-depressive and swung back and forth between two extremes for a bit with the swings just damping down.
I would also expect that she is probably still trying to get her bearings and wouldn’t be comfortable enough trying to manipulate anyone else even in a positive way until she got used to being back. I would expect even a normally manipulative person to take a little while to remember to be manipulative under the circumstances.
But, OK, now I know that her behavior is somewhat artificial right now.
Gah, I can’t do it. I have to say something. I am a fan of vampire literature–Dracula, The Historian, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Anne Rice’s variations, and a few others. I have long considered and spent serious time building my own vampire-and-other-monsters-inhabited universe. I have it just about right, and I have some stories that it will be just what I need to tell them.
And I liked the Twilight books, I admit it. They were a fun read and a neat twist on the idea…until the teenage fanbase got their fangs into it.
Now I’m forced to set my world and stories on the back burner and wait for the explosion to die down and the fires to go out before I put this world out there. I want it to be taken serously, and any attempt at publishing it now would have to fight through the “another post-Meyer spinoff” mentality. GRRRRRR.
No offense ment to Ms. Meyer; I have tons of respect for anyone who can get a finished novel sold, and she has several. I’m simply lamenting the timing.
All of which goes to say, Shelly’s sparkle must come from some awesome toothpaste, not from refractive skin. 😛
*pats arm* here now, here now.. The great thing about teen infatuations is that it’s a flash in the pan. It’ll die down the moment they become twens, and as far as I know them, if they are even the slightliest literature inclined, they’ll start reading the classics. (All girls in my direct circle did..)
Admittedly, I truly hate the way a teen girl’s eyes glaze-over when “Twilight” is mentioned. At that particular moment they are “prey” of a different kind: “Prey” of commerce, and their birthday-wishlists get really REALLY expensive. 😛
I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about the mis-use corporations make of girls in their most vulnerable and impressionable years. A lot of girls go into this psychosis-like state where they have easy-triggerable crush after crush, and that’s the moment the vultures zoom in….
Aaand, I admit I’d rather have them read real classics, instead of those mass-produced spin-off books. The originals are mostly palatable, but the moment companies smell money, they hire all sorts of failed bread-writers, and the writing slams down to a completely formulaic, moronic, simpleton level.
im just happy teenagers and people are reading ANYTHING at the moment..
seems to me not many people read now adays (y’know other than coleen/jordan and mills & boon)
so let em get their teeth into something thats fanbased and see if we can get em nudged towards the other stuff and hooked on that..
tv is a good way to do that sometimes i will admit..
game of thrones is a book series and i am tempted to read it (when the series gets cancelled due to low ratings…)
Thanks, Jay-Em. There’s not much I rant about, but I do get a little cranky when things I work on get derailed by Progress. Or Hollywood.
And Paula, you’re right to some extent. The trouble with movies getting kids to read is that a lot of times the kids just watch the movies, and then anything that got changed in the scriptwriting, filming, locations, etc. becomes a point of contention.
Maybe it’s just me, but Monica’s statement in panel 3 smacks of a sort of self absorbedness. Shelly’s fine, yet she’s worried about her own feelings on the matter instead of just looking to Shelly herself. Not saying that’s how it is, just how I’m perceiving it.
To be fair to Monica, she tried worrying about Shelly first, but Shelly kept brushing it off as if it wasn’t necessary once she got out of her initial shock. While Shelly was still in her initial state of shock, Monica was all about Shelly.
Exactly! M knows on an instinctual level something is “wrong” with this “happy daffodil” that Shelly does. And, as M’s character goes, she’s internalizing that in the shape of guilt, sadness.
That’s an interesting thought that I did not have. I suspect that’s not necessary though. Monica would probably assume that anything new to her that was that major pretty had to be like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, so something must have gone wrong. She just doesn’t know what it is yet. She probably not completely convinced of that, but she’s not completely unconvinced, either.
I’m pretty sure you meant this link. Your’s is broken.
Meh, Nudge didn’t seem to know to talk to her that way at first, either. It’s just that Nudge was the only one who would push hard enough to break through Monica’s mental barrier. A couple of pages later a gray voice says the wrong thing to Monica. Or maybe it really was the right thing and the collateral damage / hissy fit was something that just needed to happen before Monica could move on. 😕
All the rebuttals have a point, and I’m not saying Shelly is as right as rain as she puts on. My point of consternation lay in Monica’s expression of her worry, if that’s the case, as being turned back to herself instead of just saying she’s worried about Shelly or explaining why with reasonable arguments to Shelly’s previously mentioned ‘sparkle’.
@Locuranis: I agree with your interpretation, but I don’t understand your consternation. Some people analyze and talk about their feelings; some people don’t. Why wouldn’t Monica behave the way she is behaving? To me, it’s normal behavior for Monica, but would have been fairly odd behavior for Bud and very unusual behavior for Jin.
If Monica gets stuck like that for very long, then it would be a problem. People who do that over and over again are annoying and sometimes ridiculous *cough*emo*cough*, but other than that it’s fairly normal and possibly healthy.
Monica doesn’t seem to have problems talking about feelings, but seems to mis-assign them, and in turn appears to have an ‘I’ problem as a result. That’s my consternation really. It’s a personality quirk that’s come up before with her in other situations, i.e. when Tina mentioned that model not liking to be ignored but having no problems ignoring others, something Monica had to admit to being a fault of hers as well. Normally, given it’s a comic and Monica should have some personality flaws to give her depth, I don’t think twice about it. But with the current situation, it just jumped out at me moreso than usual is all.
I was leafing through the hard-copies, and something suddenly struck me: Shelly NEVER let herself be truly sad, never truly mourned her Mother’s death. Ever since that fateful event, Shelly was only angry and defiant. Kicking and screaming at all that didn’t go her way, just to keep away any feeling of helplessness.
I have the vague inkling we are going to see a lot of delving into Shelly’s mourning-process. Her grief about all that happened to her since her childhood could finally be adressed without her -by times petulant- tantrums.
Her 80000 years of solitude will have a profound impact on her dealing with her deep-seated grief and sadness.
Shelly has always been this loud, somewhat obnoxious character, but that was all a “shell” (!!!…) to hide behind. She admitted as such to officer tightbuns.
Well, suffice to say: The coming week will be interesting.
It was an important moment. Not because she cried, but because she finally let someone in on her feelings, but it took a deep girl-crush to get her that far.
I think Heather is the only one to see Shelly break-down like that.
(I was such a cute story-line though. Funny enough -looking at the date- it played-out when my lil’ sis met the girl she is now married to…)
You, I’m wondering who is left who’s actually *really* normal (so far). Discounting the “fringe” characters (Owen and Lakshmi spring to mind), I think it’s… Amanda and Katherine. Though I can’t think of Kath as normal (not with those scary all-black eyes). Now, what will Amanda turn into or turn out to be? And if she stays normal… wouldn’t that feel crazy for her?
Today I watched five good-sized goldfish diligently dig a hole in the rocks in the bottom of their tank, move a plastic plant, and put the rocks back. No joke. It was a little disturbing.
i used to have 2 fish and i had to take away their bridge as one of them would stay under it and not let the other near it 😛
in fact would attack the other each time it came near.
Katherine is *NOT* psychotic. She’s just three degrees off the rest of the world. She does incredibly brave things, like collect spiders because they scare her, and using her goldfish to give her the courage to go out to the beach and have fun! Not obvious that I identify with her strongly. Not obvious at all…:-D
^^ That’s not to say that she was always having an episode, though. Some of the time she was just acting weird. Still, she was off of her meds when she was actually arguing with Oscar, as opposed as just talking to him. There is a Hint of God in the comments a couple of pages earlier, too.
Having an illness such as she does, means that life is a struggle for Katherine, so it is brave of her to carry on, despite it. I think there is much more that Paul could do with her character and the struggles that she goes through, but of course he has a bunch of other interesting characters, too.
I think there’s been some serious adjustments going on for <a href="http://wapsisquare.com/comic/03222004/" title="this" to end up like today’s comic, Say 80K years worth of ,i>adjustments?
Well, like they say, nothing is idiot-proof to a sufficiently talented idiot. Meaning me. 😀 😛
@Eshmenk: Nah, interwebs-breaking is just a hobby for now…Although if there are any interwebs-designers out there looking for a sufficiently talented idiot to test their programs, make me an offer. 😀
Now that I think about it Shelly’s setup for one hell of a case of post traumatic stress syndrome. With Paul cryptically chiming in, I think Tina is going to be important to the story in near future. That is once Tina’s gotten over the shock of Shelly’s sudden again. Tina’s going to see that beyond the facade of normality that Shelly’s is putting forth.
You’re probably right, but I don’t think it’s PTSD that we’re dealing with. It isn’t usually something that is easy to hide. That’s not to say that she doesn’t have issues from all this. It’s just that I think we’ve stepped far enough outside of the realm of normal human experience, that we are no longer dealing with normal mental health problems.
I was tempted to answer Paula‘s question and just let her think I had intentionally misconstrued it, but at some point it starts to be mean. 🙂
@The Old Wolf: My memory wrt the origin of Mogg’s grandmother was a bit fuzzy, but you use hqiz enough for me to remember that you invented your own faux swear words. Actually, I thought at first that you even invented Mogg, but I see that less verbose oaths involving Mogg were in Freighter Tails.
@Paula: they do sound similar. 🙂 My parents had a very small movie collection and no TV channels, so there are about fifty films I know by heart–but I still haven’t seen Dr. Who.
No, not really. It’s “creative cussing” that doesn’t count as a pun.
On cussing and replacement verbs: Reading OldWolf’s eloquent, though somewhat impenetrable and elaborate, use of locum invectives..well..suffice to profess, I needed my trusty thesaur to de-code it…And here I thought I was pretty versed in complex locutions and vocables…
i think im going to hell for when i giggled at the batman and robin scene where robin goes ‘holy metal platform batman’ and george clooney (aka batman) just looks at him and robin goes ‘well its metal and it has holes in it…’
or something similar.
ive only watched it once but that line has stuck in my brain.it might not have been copied correctly however 😉
Personally Jay-Em I think we are on the launch pad for another wild ride. Be sure your seat-belt is secure and the tray is in the crash position! Moog help us all.
Well, that’s the confusion-corner for ya’ You’re in good company, and sometimes learn new words…. *takes a bite froma blueberry-muffin while looking smug* 😆 😛
Maybe not overly related to this specific strip, but I have been trying to figure out a timeline for the events in Wapsi. This strip seems to suggest that there is a noticeable difference between real world time and comic time. The golem girls had been introduced 5 1/2 years earlier in real world time.
Naturally, I can’t establish anything exact, like dates or years, but it would be nice to have a general idea when events occurred in relation to each other.
Of course, it’s also entirely possible that Paul is using a “soft” timeline, and things like seasons don’t match up with how much time has passed, in which case my task is impossible.
Also worth noting, that speculation on this will help reach Jay-Em’s goal of 1000 comments.
well
over a 2 weeks have gone by in real time and only 5mins in wapsi-world
i was trying to work out the timeline at one stage also
such as when we see strips with monica in followed by ones with jin and alan…are they set at the same time or different days?
i kinda gave up as i dont think you CAN work it out.
barring the one where monica is getting pizza, shelly and bud are meeting and Brandi has met with Jin .. those three storylines intermix and end with Monica going to the market.
Well, the first step in working out a timeline is to identify the major points in the story, then simply put them in chronological order. In a first pass, you have to ignore the 80K year side trips and 1450 year cycles. Then you can go back and approximate the time between the initial major events. As things progress you can make better approximations and revise the chart, perhaps adding additional events as you go.
I think he is using a soft timeline. Monica is not ten years older than she was in the first strip, but there have been about ten winters probably. I wouldn’t try to make too much sense out of it.
I would also put backgrounds in the same category. Cracks in walls or stacks of skulls are not necessarily there, IMO.
@Danzier: That is weird. But since goldfish are a type of carp, maybe this will make it seem a little less weird:
Carp feed by sucking up mud from the bottom ejecting it and them selectively consuming items while they are suspended (McCrimmon 1968). The feeding galleries of carp are easily recognized in shallow waters as depressions in the sediment (Cahn 1929).
The same source talked about them digging up plants to get at the tubers. That’s a different type of carp, though and I don’t know why they would bury the plant or fill in the hole. 😕
My guess is they would want the ground to look undisturbed otherwise it could tip off their prey or, even worse, any predators around that they’re there.
Given the nature of their prey, I suspect it’s more likely to be because of the latter. If a predator notices something different…
My guess is that one of them suddenly thought, “Oh! Look! There is a mound there! Maybe there’s food there. I will try there instead.” Soon, the others thought, “Hey! It looks like that one might be having better luck than we’re having here.” It also could be that once they all tried eating the plant and found out that it wasn’t food and it fell into the hole, it was in their way or for some other reason made the hole a bad place to try to find food, so they switched elsewhere. It also could be that the hole was a good place to drop the rocks, because they would fall further there and give them a better chance to spot any food as it fell. Or maybe it’s just a random coincidence. 😕
😀
The fish tank was in my sister’s college admissions councilor’s office, and she saw it too…we joked that they did it because they were college fish. :p
I accidentally posted a comment (with links in) on yesterday’s page rather than today’s. It contains links to how Shelly reacted when she thought that Monica wasn’t who she thought she was.
From the other page: “When you think about Shelly’s concerns about Monica and recent events….”
There’s a fair amount of irony there, some of which took a while for me to appreciate. Is that what you meant?
The question of who someone is comes up fairly frequently, now that I think about it. 🙂 Here’s one example. The GGGs, Maya and Tepoz all turned out to be golems. The person Monica thought was her great-grandmother was really Maya. The GGGs were once a chimera. Jin was also Tochtli, had a faux time traveler persona, and perhaps had other identities. Maya, Tochtli and Tepoz were believed to be gods. The barista, Tina, turned out to be a “conglomerate of emotional and psychological elements with an entrepreneurial spirit”, with Nudge thrown in for good measure. She’s also the dead daughter of a drug lord. Nudge turned out to be a trickster. I’m probably forgetting other things.
BTW, good catch yesterday on the first appearance (I think) of CG.
Thank for you for the compliment. I’m not sure if it is the first instance. I came across it on an archive crawl and, on comparing the date with the comments that I had read, got a bit of a surprise.
Come to think of it, I think you’re on to something: Identity does seem to be a major theme of Wapsi Square.
😀
“NOTICE
PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR,
Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance.”
Moni doesn’t need to get too hung-up on this, it’s all part of the “DynaMan Good-Looking Young People From All Walks Of Life” paradigm. Just because its’ somebody else’s experience, doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of it.
Someone, somewhere, in the last few weeks’ comments, has mentioned Terry Pratchett and a story called The Man Who Folded Himself. I had the rare opportunity to work my way through a bookstore and picked up a few of Mr. Pratchett’s books–and a book on scriptwriting, Star Trek, and 1960s L.A. called “The Trouble With Tribbles” by David Gerrold.
First off, thanks very much for the reccomendation of Mr. Pratchett’s work–it’s better than I expected, and I expected a lot. 😀
Second, I read through Mr. Gerrold’s book (which I’d had when I was young and lost) with a lot of enthusiasm, including the “About the Author” section. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the man who wrote my favorite STTOS episode also wrote “The Man Who Folded Himself”!
my fav star trek book atm is
‘Vulcan’s Heart’ by Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz
Its about Spock and Savak getting married and Spock going to Romulus to help reunification.
I don’t think that’s what she meant. David Gerrold wrote a book about the episode, including how it was produced. It looks like there may have been a couple of printings. Here is one. It looks like there may have been a series of books with different authors covering different popular episodes. It looks like David Gerrold wrote a couple of other ones.
Hmm. I’m not so sure about that. I Googled “Martian flat cats”, not because I doubted the accuracy of what Fatuncle said if he was serious, but because I wasn’t sure there wasn’t a joke there that I was missing.
Anyway, I learned a few things. David Gerrold didn’t just write the book about the episode; he wrote the episode. He was still in college when he submitted the idea, I think, and maybe while he did the script. In his book, he says that he didn’t intentionally copy from The Rolling Stones and he was thinking more of rabbits in Australia, but he had read Heinlein’s book. Right, Danzier?
Giant quote from the above-mentioned Tribbles book: Chapter 9, pages 250-253. […] indicates non-critical passages removed by me to keep this short-ish. I also didn’t add the footnote about Ellis Parker Butler. Any typos are mine.
“The similarity between tribbles and flat cats was unmistakable.
[…]Many of STAR TREK’s fans are also Heinlein fans. And one of the most frequent questions that crops up among them is:’Were you influenced by Heinlein’s Flat Cats when you wrote the Tribbles? Is that where you got the idea?’
In all honesty, I must admit that if I was, it was a subconscious influence. Had I realized what I was doing, I either would not have done the story or would have worked to minimize the similarities.
[…]The problem was solved with a phone call. Either Gene Coon or Gene Roddenberry, I’m not sure which, called Robert A. Heinlein and told him about the script. ‘We have a young kid here who’s just done his first script. It’s a very good one and we want to use it, but it’s a lot like part of The Rolling Stones and we want to clear up any hassles before they start…’
Heinlein was very gracious about the whole thing.[…] He simply said that he didn’t see that there was any kind of a problem at all. But he would appreciate a copy of the script.
[…][In a letter to Gerrold,] He also said, and this I quote: ‘Let me add that I felt that the analogy to my flat cats was mild enough to be of no importance–and we both owe something to Ellis Parker Butler…and possibly to Noah.’
[…]If the legal department of Desilu (now Paramount) Studios, a department that specializes in avoiding plagiarism suits, says that it’s okay to film the episode, they’d better know what they’re talking about. Every script is checked before it goes on the air. When a studio is investing that much money into a piece of film, they can’t afford to leave anything to chance. Had there been even the slightest question of similarity or infringement, Heinlein would have been paid for his rights or the story would not have been filmed.”
@Eshmenk:
Yes, he was in college. He got 3 credits and graduated on the strength of “Tribbles” and his notes on the process. He had once read Heinlein’s book(s).
Eshmenk: I suspect Gerrold ran across it very early on – Rolling Stones was published in 1952. When I saw the Star Trek episode, I was shocked. I pulled my copy of Stones and reread it, and came to the conclusion the they had to have gotten permission from Heinlein — the tribbles’ birth rate, and other details, were right out of the book.
Yep, that’s the book. I had the black-cover version as a kid, but the one I have now has a red cover. I think that’s the only difference. (Inside it says “Sixth printing: June 1976”)
For what it’s worth, I saw quite a few young ladies with Monica’s measurements (perhaps not quite as short) during a recent visit to Las Vegas. I have no idea whether or not they were 100% organic, but they were eye-catching, to be sure.
Honestly, in my short life, I’ve seen Mon’s figure becoming more and more common… IT’S THE HORMONES I TELLS YA! THEM COWS GITTING ALL MEATY WIT STERIODS AND JUNK! IT’S UNHEALTHY! 😆
RGBh FTL–mucho creepy; had some farmers in to a biology class to talk about giving cows hormones and gunk and it wierded me out. I say, give them lots of social time and a huge family and a dietician and a good vet, and all is well.
Part of it is that we just haven’t managed to get started on any point of speculation. Come on people.
How long will it take for Shelly to talk about how the Sacred Forest experience really affected her?
Who will that conversation be with?
How will Amanda react to this?
How will Monica respond when she discovers Dietzel and Nudge’s love affair?
I guess next week will start the “coping with 80000 years gone”
My berst bet is that it still will be Monica that’s the first to get close again to Shell. After all, when in the “Heather-crush” phase, Shelly went to M in the middle of the night when having a nightmare.
What’s more intrigueing thoug: What does Daddy Wahnee know? How does Mommy Wahnee fit in this sphinx-business??
Now taking all opinions on cathode ray tubes and the variations in quality between digital and analog, and electric and acoustic, and Dietzel and Nudge, and Jin and Tonic…
I was very surprised Friday morning by how few comments there were. Part of it was the late update, I think, but it’s hard for me to know how much was due to that or how long lasting the effect was.
In any case, if we need a scapegoat, let’s start blaming that.
I think that the main reason is that most of the recent strips have been answering more questions than they’ve been presenting. Most of our comments, especially on weekends are speculation of some sort, and we haven’t had very much of that. Of course, now I’m speculating about the lack of comments, so…
56 upon a times ago…
ooh
could be a parady of ‘how i met your mother’
but it would be ‘how i met your mother and surprise! she was a sphinx’
which would be cool.
(never watched the programme but the adverts look good 😛 )
If there have been 57 Shellys, how many CG/Connies have there been? At least one Shelly died on her vision quest which created CG/Connie. One Shelly/sphinx had a companion. One Shelly planted the Plutonium battery in the tree. One Shelly cut down the tree and retrieved the battery. Did every copy of Shelly have a CG/Connie?
From what I understand this is the first time Tina became what she is and the only time Shelly created Connie. All the time-lines are slightly different until they finally got it right and destroyed the calendar machine.
According to recent revelations, Tina 1.0’s death is directly linked with Connie’s creation, and Tina 2.0 has said that she believes this timeline (the 57th) to be the first one for “the rats” to be “steering the ship”. On the other hand, there are at least two known instances of Connie’s existence (i.e. Shelly#1, the Sphinx; and Shelly#57, the dead one). This seems to indicate that throughout the time loops there was actually more than one Demon-Tina.
…and back to being creepy. Jesus. Glad to see Shelly all…peppy again, though.
Also, I somehow doubt it was a 12:00 upload…just sayin’.
hm yeah, when i refreshed at 8:10 UK time (about 2 am wapsi time, may have missed it while replying..) it was still june 2..
meh, blame the server/ net latency… 😛
I think she’s a cutie-pie, I want one.
Yup, she’s cute. And just creepy looking. She’s actually pretty nice. Or sounds nice, at any rate, in this instant. 😉
Anyone who calls a friend “the big lug” can’t be all bad–or all creepy either.
So how would a PatchTogether doll be colored? Hypercolor (grins) …she changes color depending on her temperature? 🙂
I want a soft doll, about 12 to 16 in tall. One side, Connie, flip it over and the other side CG..
i want your avatar
<3 tepoz
Paula, follow the link and you should be able to grab it from there…
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/577/14004295.png/
hmm
that takes me to the one where he is grabbing his throat after being given the ‘honor’ of being the chimera guardian 🙂
want the bunny slippers one 😀
thank you tho 😀
Paula, if you just want it as an avatar, here it is at 80×80 pixels: http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/221084d19e27391dcea2ef6659fe3d97
I found jabberwonky’s profile at ImageShack, but it seemed broken. At least half of his stuff won’t display. 😕 I don’t even know if he had the Tepoz you were looking for there in the first place.
yay 😀 thank you 😀
Try this one. I like Tepoz, but I don’t less than three Tepoz, so enjoy…
http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8277/bunnyslippersgrav.png
to be truly honest i wanted the one where monica hugs him but no one has ever coloured him and my version wasnt as good so 🙁
after consideration
i do like the tepoz avatar.
but i feel like i stole it from you or something so went back to my cat 🙁
she is cute also 😀 just not a blue alcohol-giving cutie 😀
What, no pyrotechnics?
I know, right? Where’s Monica Angry, Monica SMASH!?
Heh, we’re kinda used to her temper. Guess this situation is more depressing to her than angering.
Though honestly her calm attitude is REALLY surprising me. If I was in her shoes I’d probably be a fiery wreck o’ fury. Or at least frustrated at all the crazy supernatural crap that just went down right under my nose.
Maybe she’s grown up a bit.
Monica doesn’t seem comforted at the prospect of 80,000 years worth of stories.
It is almost like Monica is blaming herself for what happened to Shelly. What is there to feel guilty about? Yes she let Shelly hold it as part of seeing what was up with the relic, but why take the whole load one herself? The result is okay. Very un-Monica like. Give her a towel and a whiskey.
Well it’s not like she’s doing it on purpose. Guilt can simply spring forth. But I think it’s less like she’s blaming herself and more like she’s was completely powerless in all of this. Monica doesn’t like not being in control. And also, she doesn’t like sudden weirdness. She was getting ready to go to the beach and suddenly Bud’s blown up the island, Shelly is a Shinx, she’s had a spat with a supernatural conglomerate on demons, and Shelly has revealed that her and Nudge have been pulling the strings of a plan that has spanned several realities.
She’s probably tired…
“Shelly is a Sphinx…”
Sorry, typo…
So, what, she won’t be evolving into a Luxio? Shucks.
I think it’s a combination of M grabbing the relic first and seeing the freaky Jin then Shelly grabbing it and everything that happened to her best friend that has her feeling guilty.
It’s Monica. She always takes the role of ‘mother’ over her friends (well, save maybe Amanda). It may not be her fault, but Monica’s still going to beat herself over any serious harm that befalls Kat, Shelly, Tina, or the GGG.
Yes–even when the harm is past and done with. Or potential harm. Mothers do worry and fuss about that sort of thing.
Without looking at other responses (which, btw Pablo, is one thing that inhales voluminously about this comment method), I would suggest that Monica feels responsible for Shelly’s “imprisonment in time” because if it had not been for her correction of the calendar machine issue, Shelly would have never gotten stuck in the time forest to begin with.
Of course, she fails to understand that Shel had actually gone to the time forest without her multiple times over. And, that Shelly was a Sphinx before she even knew who she was.
So – does this mean Shelly is nearly as old as Bud and Brandi now?
Not counting the loops, Bud & Brandi are 12,500 years old. Counting the loops, Shelly is probably around 80,000 (1450 x 55) and Maya is probably around 93,500 (10,500 + 550 + 1450 x 57)
That brings up a question. There seems to be a period of time when the GGGs were used as guardians and everything was working out. This time had to be before thay went on the rampage. So I wonder, what set them off? Also, who was left after that to separate them and bring them back under control?
No, I think the priest’s made the chimera and it immediately went on its rampage. Later the GGGs were created by splitting it up into the three individuals, who were then used by the by the Lantians who were running the New World pre-Columbian civilizations.
——–
Ignore what I said about Maya’s age. I forgot that time doesn’t work the same in the demon realm. Bud returned quickly when she went after Maya, but from Bud’s perspective it was much longer than that.
The GGGs were apparently dormant during at least part of their existence. I don’t know if you should count that as part of their age or not.
Whew! I was starting to get the shakes!
hmm
od suggest decafe but since its a wapsi addiction…
no idea what the remedy could be.
rereading archives perhaps? 😀
Eyes!
Embryo, DNA, and a UFO?
Are her eyes DICE?!
Heh, I don’t think so. But I can see why you’d think that. XD
hm, is it something like the ‘silver eyes’ that Tina some times has ??
Nah, it’s “x-mas ornaments in hollow-skull”-mode again. Apparently the natural states of creepy demons.
If they were dice, I’d be afraid that someboy would try to use Little Sister’s head to try an roll a Critical.
I, on the other hand, like my dice fuzzy. 😛
I always wondered–since some cars now have factory-installed fuzzy logic transmissions and such, when will we see the first model with factory-installed fuzzy dice?
Well, if I’m perfectly honest, I’ve never had fuzzy dice. I had fuzzy 8-balls hanging from my rearview mirror! 🙂
I like my dice fuzzy too, and while at it, I’d like a ’69 Camaro to fit around those fuzzy dice….. 😛
It’s probably just me trying to make a pattern out of something, but it sure looks to me like she has a dollar sign on her left eye.
If CG were a golem, I would like to think that they were glyph language programming instructions. B-)
Awright!! Creepy Little Girl’s back to being creepy!! XD
I feel bad for Monica though. Instead of her normal freakout mode, looks like we’re going to see her in depressed mode…
isn’t there like 5 stages or something.
denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance
we’ve seen the first 4 so far.
next week should be acceptance.
I really Do like her much better now!
she seems better than before.
but she’s also alive which is helping alot i think ^^
didn’t realise how much i liked the character til i saw her melt on a rock…
Odd that Monica seems to be the most perturbed by the “Shellinx-affair”
Still.. Something’s brewing with Shelly. She’s…too “daffodilly” about those 80000 years as a sphinx…
I feel a bit like Monica after the CM-fix, when she was shooting pencils in the ceiling “waiting for the next shoe to drop”
*nervously bites nails, and looks over shoulder*
On that note: On to 1000 comments of speculation this weekend. 😆
I accept the challenge!! X3
Is this a dare? Woo-hoo!
poor shelly, STILL hasnt had time to find a tshirt… 🙂
If only all of them could have that problem.
86000+ years of being topfree, its probably not an issue to her, and clothing in general may feel wierd again.
Sometimes it’s difficult to find something clean that also fits…I mean it’s not like she could borrow a shirt from any of the girls. They seem to like fairly well fitted stuff, and Shelly’s got serious guns. 🙂
Monica probably has room for Shelly to fit–except for her shoulders.
@Illiad: Shelly gets a new tattoo that reads, “I turned into a sphynx and I didn’t even get a lousy t-shirt!”
Like!
It’s not really that odd that Monica’s reacting badly, everything supernatural so far has been with new people or situations that were weird in the first place. However, Monica and Shelly became friends before the last round of supernatural events. Now Shelly has discovered something that changes her fundamentally — what implications does that have for their friendship?
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. It’s one thing to deal with something weird. It’s another to be used to something and then find that it’s become (or in this case, has been) something completely different.
I suspect that she feels sad because she feels she has lost her best friend and guilty because, intellectually, she wonders if she’s being unfair.
There’s probably something like survivor’s guilt in there, too. Maybe she’s thinking that she should have learned more about the relic before letting Shelly hold it.
Shelly had 80000 years to have a freak out and then get use to the idea of being a Sphinx.
Of all the things Monica has seen and learned and she can’t move past the fact that her best friend is a sphinx? Really? There’s a gollum not too far from her with whom she’s had more than a few good times.
Also. Still naked. Sigh. 😛
Maybe after 81K years nude, Shelly’s just comfortable that way.
Naked don’t bother her.
Plus it’s been what…fifteen-thirty minutes Wapsi-time?
The Golem girls were freaky from the very start. Her best friend was one of those beacons of normalcy. And now bam, she’s a Sphinx.
You’re telling me you’d just roll with it if YOUR best friend was suddenly revealed to be a Sphinx?
Why yes. Yes I would.
I did just fine when my best friend told me she was a sphinx. I just loved her the way she was. 🙂
Yeah okay. I highly doubt you’d feel that way if it REALLY happened. It never will, but that’s what imagination is for. And if someone you were friends with suddenly turned out to be a large, immensely powerful, mythological, part-lion-part-eagle hybrid beast after knowing them as your “just another human” friend, I don’t believe it wouldn’t affect you. I mean honestly…
It would affect me alright.
And the first thing I’d ask would be “Now that you can make your own eagle feathers are you finally going to craft that Comanche war-bonnet?”
If my life was already full of gods, gollums, sphinxes, demons and…what are we going to classify Jin’s mom as? Honestly, Katherine is weirder than this. I just don’t see how this is any different. I mean I totally get what you mean about her being the one semi normal thing but…I mean she knew that Shelly was different and connected to this stuff. At least now she knows exactly how Shelly is connected. I’d be relieved another piece of the puzzle was falling into place.
Right. I mean. how much more is Monica going to have to take? It’s literally just one thing after another for her. She tries to have a normal life as well, but something like this keeps happening to her. From here on, she will be wondering what all her friends really are. Any quirky behavior by any of them will set her off to expecting some new announcement from them concering their “true” nature. It’s got to foster paranoia in her at some point.
OTOH, I think she is not going into an hysterical fit over all this currently because it’s all only been words. Shelly says she’s a sphinx. Okay, fine, but right now she just sees the same Shelly she has always known. That’s comforting. Something like that will not seem totally real to Monica unless she actually transforms into a sphinx in front of her. It’s like your friend telling you they have cancer. “But you look just fine, how can that be true?” When they are in the hospital bed, emaciated, with tubes and electrodes coming out everythere, it becomes real to you.
It’s not that it’s any weirder than the others–just give the poor girl (Monica) a little time to adjust. News, even good news, can be disconcerting, especially for the first few minutes.
Roll with it?
You know I would.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about people it’s that I can never say I really know them. There’s always something there to surprise me and that’s the way I like it.
Exactly!
I think you’re focusing on the wrong aspect here. I may be wrong, but as Monica stated, her feelings are stemming from sadness and guilt. She feels that she’s at fault for letting Shelly be trapped in the forest for 80,000 years (regardless of fault, Monica still blames herself).
She’s also sad at how this will affect Shelly. Consider what we know of Sphinx’s. Phix is considered to be an ‘extremely’ nice and gentle Phix, and she runs around greeting everyone by threatening to kill them (Monica, Shelly, Tina, etc.). Who knows what turning into one of them and being exposed to their kind has done to Shelly over the 80,000 years. I may be far too much of a pessimist, but I feel Monica recognizes that the Shelly she knew and loved is forever gone, replaced with someone new, and that alone is more than enough reason for sadness.
Who says that the Shelley that Monica grew and loved has disappeared? As Shelley herself said, she is the same person. She remembers everything, both her life before the forest, and during.
She’s still the same person. I agree with many others, that Monica feels responsible for what happened to Shelley because she 1) didn’t have precognition to know what would happen and 2) didn’t stop Bud from having Shelley use the artifact at all.
This reminds me… Bud had that “knowing smile” back when she encouraged Monica to grab the artifact, which translated to Monica not objecting to Shelley doing the same. When Shelley returned Bud seemed unfazed by Shelley’s news and even seemed to know how the Lanthian artifact worked.
I’m thinking that Bud at least knows much more about what happened than she is mentioning currently.
Time changes people.
You and I are not the same person we were when we were ten the ones we made after that changed the way we see the world and so the way we interact with it.
Now think about how Shelley just spent 80,000 years living a different life. Yes she remembers her past but there’s no way that she could come out of this unchanged. If at the very least there’s going to be a lot more wings and claws when Shelley gets angry.
What dex said.
Shelly may retain all the memories of her pre-sphinx days now, but that does not mean she’s lost the 80,000 years of development from her time as a Sphinx.
Even with just these past few comics, we’ve seen an unusual amount of calmness from Shelly, not to mention the lack of obscenities (which Shelly usually blurts at the drop of a hat) and general openness with her feelings (Shelly guarded her feelings and the existence of CG from everyone, including Bud and Monica. Now she had no issue just revealing CG to both of them like it was a new bra).
Aside from Shelly blowing up at Shelly Prime (#1 cycle Shelly, whatever we call her), we’ve seen little to none of the usual Shelly’s personality in her current post-sphinx form. Now, that could all change as updates continue, and Shelly could revert back to her pre-Sphinx personality, but at the present moment it appears we have a brand new, much more mature version of Shelly to deal with, not the same brash impulsive Shelly Monica & Bud once knew.
Regarding your comment on Bud:
Interesting thought. Bud did have that timeframe where she was with May in the Demon Realm (when the Calendar machine was destroyed, between jumping into Monica and exiting via Shelly). Bud did confirm that May and her were in there for far longer than the few seconds she vanished from the Wapsi-world.
It could be that, during her time in Demon-Realm, she encountered Shelly, Phix, Nudge, or someone else and was informed of this whole “Shelly is a Sphinx” affair to some detail. This would also explain why she manipulated things earlier in the comic to ensure Shelly was voted to go with her to find the artifact (under the excuse that the artifact may control golems).
Interesting thought Ozymandous.
This page and the ones following seem to indicate that secret plans were brewing between Bud and Shelly. Jin is smiling throughout, and Brandi seems mostly out of the loop, if you’ll pardon the pun. Monica and Amanda don’t seem well informed at all.
I suspect this is an extension of Bud and Shelly’s clandestine operation for the CM shutdown. Considering her conversation before during and after with CG in that scene, Shelly may have been tipped off (by the multiple-Brandi pages) over what would have to be done.
Likely tipped off with a great deal of precision:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/techtalk/
@Yamara: IIRC, one of the first things in Brandi’s book was the instruction to tear out the last few pages without looking at them? Maybe that’s where the ‘Shelly is a Sphinx’ and ‘Artifact Magic Forest’ spoilers were written.
@NOTDilbert Shelly is saying in the present episode that she didn’t know she was a Sphinx, though she knew she was stronger than the average bear. But I think Bud figured it out back at the beach party. She’s not acting at all surprised at the news.
This brings up a question that I’m not going to pose, because I think that would lead a real spoiler.
Beacons of normalcy are over rated under normal conditions, and straight up liabilities in Monica’s life. Super powers of some kind can keep a person alive.
Dude. if it’s been more than 3 minutes COMIC time i’d be surprised. chill out everybody, this is a HUGE amount of explaining to do, and a long time in REAL time because of the MWF post times. WHEN you guys read this in dead tree format (hint hint…) it will seem very quick I’m sure.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m really getting to like Connie.
She’s solid as well as scrappy.
I wouldn’t mind having her as one of my troops.
We all know that she’s creepy and doesn’t back down from a fight. But we have yet to see her in one. We know she scares Sphinx(s)( not sure on the plural on that one). I’m wondering if its just cuse she is a creepy little thing or does she have some power to back it up.
I’m getting the feeling that we’re being seriously spoiled with topless Shelly.
I just love that the characters are not treating it as anything out of the ordinary. Nice to see they have such healthy attitudes! 🙂
well most of them are women…and Shelly is comfortable.
and after a short archive binge while waiting for the update last night, i can safely say that none of them have issues with sexuality…
If boobs hang about freely, it is only about the first couple of minutes that it’s sexually enticing. Sit on a “clothes optional” beach ,or, overhere in Europe about any regular beach at a lake or at sea, and You’ll see soooo many boobs, that it completely loses every bit of enticement.
The more You see it, the less interesting it becomes. Heck, inthe Victorian age they even covered piano-legs, because it could remind men of ankles….. Now think about that when going on, and on about Shell’s boobies. 😐
♬ Piano legs must now be covered with care
He ordered all the trees cut down because their limbs were bare.
He arrested a cook for beating an egg, now doesn’t that take the coin?
The Czar, the Czar, the Czar of the Tenderloin!
Oh, the Czar of the Tenderloin!
With great propriety
He ruled society
And the girls all shunned the society
Of the Czar of the Tenderloin! ♬
Wait..if Shelly is a sphinx and always was..then why did 56 of her die when they should have been immune to radiation?
Or is part of the difference that this time around was the first time Shelly’s great-great-ancestor got it on with a sphinx?
I think Shellynx said something explaining about how only she was unable to die…I could be entirely wrong though…I didn’t medicate this morning so my brain is firing in too many directions at once to remember stuff. 😛
you be right
back a few strips shellinx says shortly after shelly died that shellinx was unable to die in the forest.
(now we know she could have been shreaded by the apos if not for creepy but thats besides the point)
Well remember that Bud is part of the Chimera and can’t die but she has gotten reset along with everyone else except for Jin forgetting everything.
Aw. Drama averted.
I was really hoping there’d be more long-lasting impact on the character of Shelly due to an 80,000 year vacation in a dark, secluded forest.
Seems all we’re really getting though is a more mature Shelly who can from now onward spout as much exposition as Bud and Jin when needed.
Call me picky, but the “all the memories of pre-sphinx Shelly 57 instantly return” confirmation just seems too convenient of a MacGuffin.
– – – – –
On a far more positive note: I love how CG seems to be channeling Doubt in the last panel. Down to the eyes and everything.
“all the memories of pre-sphinx Shelly 57 instantly return” confirmation just seems too convenient of a MacGuffin.
the brain works in mysterious ways… just look at amnesia, some people can get into an accident and live the rest of their lives as someone else. then there are those cases where they live like that for a while, and suddenly smell something (like fresh cut grass) or eat something, and they start to remember who they were, right up to the last few minutes before the accident. Consider this long term amnesia…
and it was discussed yesterday that CG looks like the fears of the person she interacts with, and while M can control her Doubt, she might still fear a hostile takeover one day…
Perhaps being back in her body on earth in the mundane 3D world has returned her perceptions to normal. Remember, when she first got to the time forest she was dressed as Shelly, but could have evolved very quickly into Shellinx, thus making her perception different there. maybe 80000 years felt more like a few decades as a sphinx than as a human who cannot die…I can believe that her memories and sense of time might be location-dependent.
Ala the “perception of time goes faster as you grow older” argument? Wouldn’t that make the remaining 30-70 years of Shelly’s mortal-human life go by like a blink to her?
@kramegame: Exactly. Remember, it only took Marcel Proust one bite of one madeleine, and we got À la recherche du temps perdu.
CTTOI, maybe that’s where all this “have a cookie” business began. Madeleine memories FTW!
I do believe its ‘internet slang’ .. usually you give someone one of your sweets/ chips/ biscuits to make them feel good..
A ‘cookie’ is an internet variable, so the website knows you have logged in, or how many things you have selected…
it is also a biscuit, hence the saying… 🙂
There you go again, being all literal and stuff . . . I come up with this wonderfully fantastic theory with Marcel Proust in it, and you go on about Web browser behavior. :p
OK, forthwith you’ll be known as Sonic “Picky” Thunder.
Still, I’m dissappointed too. I was hoping for much re-entry drama from a slower transition back to old Shelly. Surely there will be some changes in Shelly’s character but this sudden dismissal of the 80K experience is a let down. At least it’s sinking on on Monica but that won’t last long. But then it aint my story to tell, fortunately.
It seems CG is a walking mood ring now.
I don’t necessarily think that Shelly’s over any readjustment issues. After all, she’s always struck me as someone who is too enthusiastic about fixing things immediately to actually fix them (without a bit of help from a more people-wise person).
well what shelley said hasn’t been put to the test yet. I for one weant to see how her cop boy toy deals with this.
Or Jacqui or Shelly’s Dad. Shelly does still work as an instructor for Jacqui and a mechanic for her dad. Both have known Shelly her entire life (longer than Monica, Bud, Tina, or Amanda have). She’s forced to encounter the two of them again at some point, and they’ll definitely notice a change in personality.
*cue fanboy squeal* This means we might get another Jacqui cameo! *cue Stimpy voice* “Oh Joy!”
hmm? well i dont think ‘humans’ may notice any difference, except that she has been working out a bit more??
Possibly Shelly’s keeping a “stiff upper-lip” not to burden her friends with her ordeal. She is still is too proud for that, I think.
I still feel there’s a volcano rumbling, and Shelly’s coping with the sudden (after 80000 years “suddenly” home again sort of “sudden”) change, will eventually lead to some outburst or breakdown.
She may be a sphinx, learned her purpose, and is perfectly happy with that, but she’s also a human. A human that was ripped out of her former existence, and thrust into her worst nightmare: loneliness, with only the occasional visit. (unless Phix&Shell had their “girl-time” once a week for tea and scones.. 😛 )
Buuuut.. if “sphinxness” changes one’s mental make-up, it is of course fully possible that time becomes wholly different from what we perceive.
Good point, but I’m thinking Shelly is afraid of the very thing that is happening right now; losing Monica’s friendship because Monica is thinking “I don’t know you anymore!”
hence CG’s comment… yep sounds about right…
at the same time, could be a bad thing, because it means that Shelly might still have abandonment issues…
Based on Paul’s response to me below, the truth of what Shelly said may be in question. Shelly may be fibbing to make Monica stop worrying. If so, Tina should see through it, I think, because she will see the truth by looking at Shelly’s aura.
Given Paul’s reply, below, I think that we can assume that Shelly isn’t exactly being honest.
However, what I wanted to say was, given the recent news about a drug that can remove the negative emotions from a memory, had Shelly been totally honest, it doesn’t seem that big of a MacGuffin.
what the frak??
‘bliss’ is real????
They’re working on for PTSD sufferers.
I remember what one soldier (I think that he was a PTSD sufferer) said about the drug:[1]
He said that he was dead against such a drug because traumatic events are meant to effect you. If you could be in a war and not be affected by it then you are probably going to become a monster. If you are in an accident, the fact that it has scarred you emotionally means that you are more likely to drive more carefully next time. Trauma and pain is part of being human, and we diminish ourselves if we can just turn that off.
It’s worth considering his words — both in RL and when reading the strip.
[1] In an interview on CBC’s World at Six. Please also bear in mind that I am doing this from memory so I apologise if I’ve mixed his interview up with somebody elses. I’m sure that he talked about the war scenario and I think he talked about the accident one.
OK, so Creepy Girl is showing Monica’s mood, not Shelly’s today. Monica is having dark thoughts, so CG is dark.
OMG!!! We must keep CG the hell away from Jacqui!
Jacqui: Nice weather we’re having!
Monica: “AHHH TOO BRIGHT TOO BRIGHT!!!!! SHELLY GET HER OUT OF HERE!!!!” 😆 😆
Jacqui: Calm down, and have this fermented banana…
I wonder of Jacqui is ‘enlightened’ enough tp notice the change in Shelly’s aura? Or, even funnier, if Tattoo Girl (Can’t remember her name right now, sorry) could see it?
I approve of this concept.
To quote an old starfleet captain: “Make it so!”
its possible she always has – just we’ve seen her interacting more with shelly
i said fear yesterday
its prolly just strong emotion
actually reading what paul wrote
maybe she is still projecting shelly.
yesterday everything was calming down and today monica has kinda gone back to stress so shelly is having to ‘act’ abit more lievly and its making creepy..well…
So you are thinking that Shelly is stressing over Monica’s reaction, but she’s hiding that? Meanwhile CG is reflecting Shelly’s true fears?
This is really creepiness, but it’s obvious who she is mirroring here. I’m not sure if that’s just two people angry at each other, though.
This is reallyThis is not really
Hey, why not say the opposite of what I mean? 🙄
yea you are prolly right there
yesterday she was adressing bud directly. and not creepy
today she gone back to monica. and creepymode
Aww. Well said! Some mornings are harder than others. 😉
it is possible that this is all taking place on a bank holiday monday
🙂
Do we know yet if Shelly can change her form back to a Sphix?
I’m beginning to wonder. She evolved her form into a sphinx inside the time forest, but upon her return to earth was back to her normal human form. She might need some lessons from Phix…
Nudge can lend her the book.
On that notice: We haven’t seen Shelly’s feet…..
*Shelly gets handed a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, looks down*
-Waugh!!! What happened to my feet…
*Monica giggles*
-You ding-dong, that’s just my Garfield furry-slippers.
*Shelly blows out some air,seriously relieved*
-Sjeezus Frack.. I thought I’d changed without thinking.. Imagine the dumb-ass look on people’s faces when that would happen in MOA.. Hotdarnit, Nudge’s books warned me of that…
*Monica gives “busty-mom” hug*
-Aaah..and You are cursing again…welcome back!
😛
So I wonder what is going through everyone else’s mind that is in the room?
Monica: “What Crazy thing are my friends going to turn in to next?”
Bud: “Thank god, everyone forgot about the beach!”
Shelly: “I need my NIGHTSTICK in a bad way!!!!”
Whoa, dude…
tepoz: hey, dont put that tshirt on yet… >:P
Tina: …
Tepoz: “Hey! Down here!”
Nudge: “Might be a good time for a sphinx joke.”
Monica’s Kitchen Table: “I wonder if now would be a good time to reveal that I’m actually a sentient wooly mammoth?”
Win. 🙂
Borg: Resistance is futile!
Q, wearing a Spock outfit: “Fascinating.”
Shelly: *continually resisting urge to hug everyone to death* Don’t cry, Dzjeezus please, don’t start crying now.. Keep grinning, Keep babbling..
Tina: Sphinx 😯 ,run, no, stay, no, panic, no, yes, maybe…..no no no not “on top of spaghetti’ slink away ,go make coffee..run..Sphiiiinx!!!! Ruuun! GUYS stop this, we gotta work together!!
M: It could have been me.. Luckily I only got a freaky banshee..NO, Shelly’s hurt..there’s something off.
Bud: Please don’t mention “Island” or “Sub” please please please.
Tepoz: What if I summoned 20 cases of Bud, 10 cases of Coors, 10 cases of Heineken, 1 case of Smirnoff.. That should lighten M’s spirit… 😆 😆
Ewww. I would hope Monica has better taste in beer than that and that Tepoz knows it.
Oh, to have my Very Own Tepoz, so i could have freshly-drawn pints of Old Peculier or Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter whenever i wanted.
Or true draft dry cider…
To be honest, I don’t drink, (haven’t had a drop since a small “conflict” many moons ago in an officer’s mess, got out of hand and, left a couple of people with broken limbs…. ooops..) so I am not too versed in what constitutes a “good drink” 😳
Fairportfan you’re a man after me own heart! Or at least my taste buds!
Actually, I think the only named alcohol Tepoz has ever summoned (at least while we were watching) was Pulque; or can you count Bud, Brandi, and Jin? 🙂 …oh, and Shelly’s “perfect martini”.
If it’s as hot there as here – Sam Adams Summer Ale.
Beer from Tepoz is the best, it’s free!
Now see, Mozart would have turned this into a 6-minute quintet, full of ingenous counterpoints and turns of musical phrase, simply because he could. 😛
Aw dangnabbit, now I need to hear the Wapsi Concerto.
i love the tina conglomerate discussions.
we need more of those 🙂
To be honest, I missed those too. Ever since Nudge left the DC, they’ve been absent…shame..they were fun. The “on top of spaghetti’ one, to get Tina out of bed, still has me in stitches.
Don’t you remember when Mon took Kath to meet Darren, and Kath ordered a wheat beer and Monica asked for a Scotch Ale in a *blank* glass run in warm water?
I doubt a beer would do it in this situation, since its a pretty stressful one…
*coughs*thistle glass*coughs*
Thanks….for some reason I can never remember yesterday. The day before and anything preceding is fine though, which is weird…
wow, that… that ended up in the wrong spot…
Paula dear, are you taking anything for that chronic cough? 😉
CG is like a mood ring? When she goes next to Tina she should turn plaid.
In thinking of her fellings, she has guilt and sadness.
If she was angry, who would she take it out on?
Herself? No wait, there you have it, that’s called guilt.
Plaid if we’re lucky. CG and Tina are, quite literally, complete opposites (willingly constructed VS possessed, demon-fusion VS demon-committee).
It’ll be like forcing matter & anti-matter into the same space. You’ll either destroy the galaxy, or end up with an evil Tina with a goatee. In either case, we’re all doomed. DOOOOOMED
Evil Tina with goatee > Do Not Want! <
I thought the matter/anti-matter reaction area was limited to 15…something. Miles or kilometers but I can’t remember which. The whole first half of one of the Star Trek books layed out all the math for it…
i so want her to stand next to tina now 😀
I think one of the girls needs to give Monica a reassuring hug and tell her that everything’s going to be all right.
In the last panel she looks like she could use that right now…
Maybe Creepy Girl will give her one.
monica glomp 😀
Shelly in Panel 2: “But I’ve always felt that I was a guardian of sorts.”
First thought: Huh? When has she ever indicated that she felt like a guardian? When did she ever act in a way that indicated she felt like a guardian? Her returning memory must be defective.
Second thought: Oh, yeah, there was a little bit about being the bully that protected Owen while in grade school. That must be the justification for it.
Third thought: But that was just in grade school! She also was supposed to guard the four dolls, but she sure didn’t seem to take that seriously. At least she didn’t throw them away, but she just played with them and used them for cracking walnuts (/comic/veryimportant/ January 2, 2007). She just threw the little hammer she was given in a box until she got it out to tell it that she hadn’t forgotten about it 🙄 (/comic/andyou/ April 24, 2008). She had a really crappy attitude toward it (comic/shesuseful/ April 29, 2008). She generally avoided people and pushed them away from her. All of that is definitely not guarding. All of that is saying that Shelly had no interest in being a guardian.
So how did not guarding anything since grade school make her feel like a “guardian of sorts”? Damned if I know! Let’s even modify what she said and say that she meant, “But I’ve always felt that I should be a guardian of sorts.” Maybe her personal issues got in the way of acting like a guardian. I can’t even make that work! If she wanted to act like a guardian, but she psyched herself out or whatever, why didn’t we see signs of that? We saw her bring up plenty of other emotional stuff, but never that one.
I call bullshit on the second panel.
This kind of stuff really make it hard to suspend disbelief. Are we supposed to be happy that Shelly is delusional? Is that supposed to be a good sign? Maybe I’m wrong, but I find it hard to believe that the second panel is supposed to indicate that Shelly’s restored memories are defective. But if I’m not supposed to read it that way, then I feel like I’ve been insulted as a reader. It’s as if it was assumed that I wouldn’t notice the discrepancy between what Shelly is saying and the way she acted in the past.
I don’t know about all of that, but my first thought was that Shelly was just saying stuff to make Monica feel better. I could be wrong, and your concern/theory could be correct…but it’s another thought to add to your list, yes?
OK, didn’t see this before I replied to myself. I didn’t even know that you were around.
OK, I suppose so. A white lie, in other words. Or I suppose “always” could mean “the entire time I was in sphinx form”. They seem like stretches to me, I can’t rule them out, either.
Shelly had always considered herself a bully, rather than a guardian. But this morning before you posted, believe it or not, I hit the “Random” button for the first time, and got this:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/05142003/
Also check out her face in first panel of the next strip.
It’s not unreasonable to think that she was a frustrated guardian without a clear purpose. She certainly didn’t understand what she was, why would she lie about the rest from the perspective of adulthood?
Excepting of course for the hint Paul posted below.
I totally forgot about that. I actually remembered this event, but Shelly didn’t do any sort of a “Get behind me Heather. I’ll take care of him.” Heather was the one pretty much in charge there.
Characters can lie and just be wrong, of course, but Shelly is the only one who would remember all of the stuff that Shelly learned over the last 80,000 years. (Nudge, a trickster, might remember some of it, but should she be trusted?) Shelly’s memory, of at least of at least the new stuff, needs to be pretty damned good. If she’s just remembering real-world stuff now because she’s thinking about it and it’s relevant now, there isn’t any reason why one group of memories would be more reliable than the other.
“Unreliable Narrator”
Shelly is trying to keep Monica from worrying. Doesn’t she seem just a bit too sparkly to you?
HAHAAA!! *triumphant grin* CALLED IT!!! (multiple posts)
Aw..c’mon let me indulge myself for a bit.. 😆 But most of us already, instinctually knew something was off…
Shelly is holding up to not worry her friends, but her inside is crying, crying from happiness to be back, crying about the suffering and loneliness she’s been through. It’s just too much, and she’s running on adrenaline.
CG is playing “tough-chick’ like Shelly always did when confronted with feelings and deep emotions.. proof that CG is indeed a “Shellifestation” 😛
Well, yes.
But she has always been given to mood swings…
Heh. I was going to say. “Which ten minutes?”
Examining a webcomic as each panel appears is only so productive. Paul has carefully set up a situation where a main character became 80,000 years old. I think I can wait a few weeks to see what he wants to do with that.
So, which is it?
Does she actually remember what occured just 10 min. ago and is happy about it so everything’s OK? Seems Paul says no to that possibility but I may be misinterpretating things.
Or is she faking remembering anything recent just to make Monica feel better?
Or does she actually remember things recent but is not really happy and faking good cheer for Monica’s sake?
And here I thought there was no cliffhanger this Friday.
Oh wait, she remembers being about to go to the sandbar thing, so I guess she really does remember. I suppose that only leaves the third possibility. Nevermind.
Well, it could also be that she remembers the sandbar, but not where she lives or what she did that morning. As a matter of fact, she would probably have to be reminded of things or to actively search her memory to remember a lot of things. The sandbar may have been easier to remember (or even something she never forgot) because it was related to the relic that she presumably never forgot.
I think Paul is saying that Shelly is sugarcoating things and exaggerating rather than flat-out lying.
Thanks for the answer Paul. I appreciate it.
The honest answer to your question is no, she did not seem artificially sparkly, because I have no frame of reference for her now. She’s too sparkly for the old Shelly under normal circumstances, but I don’t know how different Shelly’s personality is now, and these are not normal circumstances. (I realize that this is actually the same Shelly as the old one, but by “new” and “old” I mean new and old personality.) It seams that there is at least somewhat of a personality change because she seemed more mature and responsible, so who knows how much her personality changed? I would have to get a new baseline to know that. This might have been normal behavior for the new Shelly personality, for all I know.
The other, and probably bigger issue is that I’m expecting her to act abnormally for a while. This wasn’t close to normal Shelly behavior, either. She seemed to be in shock there and was very unresponsive. If she did that, I would expect her to go through other unusual behaviors as she recovers, which would likely include a giddy phase. Her current behavior could simply have been that. And really it did seem like a continuous mood swing. Shelly didn’t stop at a plateau for any length of time. If her mood was swinging, I had no way of knowing how far it was going to swing on the other extreme. She still is not acting as giddy as she was acting stunned before, so to me her apparent mood is still within a very reasonable range. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if she acted somewhat as if she were manic-depressive and swung back and forth between two extremes for a bit with the swings just damping down.
I would also expect that she is probably still trying to get her bearings and wouldn’t be comfortable enough trying to manipulate anyone else even in a positive way until she got used to being back. I would expect even a normally manipulative person to take a little while to remember to be manipulative under the circumstances.
But, OK, now I know that her behavior is somewhat artificial right now.
Sparkly? She’s not a sphinx! She’s a GD ‘Twilight’ vampire!
🙂
i think shelly would kick edwards butt 😛
human OR sphinx ^^
… :\
Gah, I can’t do it. I have to say something. I am a fan of vampire literature–Dracula, The Historian, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Anne Rice’s variations, and a few others. I have long considered and spent serious time building my own vampire-and-other-monsters-inhabited universe. I have it just about right, and I have some stories that it will be just what I need to tell them.
And I liked the Twilight books, I admit it. They were a fun read and a neat twist on the idea…until the teenage fanbase got their fangs into it.
Now I’m forced to set my world and stories on the back burner and wait for the explosion to die down and the fires to go out before I put this world out there. I want it to be taken serously, and any attempt at publishing it now would have to fight through the “another post-Meyer spinoff” mentality. GRRRRRR.
No offense ment to Ms. Meyer; I have tons of respect for anyone who can get a finished novel sold, and she has several. I’m simply lamenting the timing.
All of which goes to say, Shelly’s sparkle must come from some awesome toothpaste, not from refractive skin. 😛
@ danzier
*pats arm* here now, here now.. The great thing about teen infatuations is that it’s a flash in the pan. It’ll die down the moment they become twens, and as far as I know them, if they are even the slightliest literature inclined, they’ll start reading the classics. (All girls in my direct circle did..)
Admittedly, I truly hate the way a teen girl’s eyes glaze-over when “Twilight” is mentioned. At that particular moment they are “prey” of a different kind: “Prey” of commerce, and their birthday-wishlists get really REALLY expensive. 😛
I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about the mis-use corporations make of girls in their most vulnerable and impressionable years. A lot of girls go into this psychosis-like state where they have easy-triggerable crush after crush, and that’s the moment the vultures zoom in….
Aaand, I admit I’d rather have them read real classics, instead of those mass-produced spin-off books. The originals are mostly palatable, but the moment companies smell money, they hire all sorts of failed bread-writers, and the writing slams down to a completely formulaic, moronic, simpleton level.
/old dude rant 😆
im just happy teenagers and people are reading ANYTHING at the moment..
seems to me not many people read now adays (y’know other than coleen/jordan and mills & boon)
so let em get their teeth into something thats fanbased and see if we can get em nudged towards the other stuff and hooked on that..
tv is a good way to do that sometimes i will admit..
game of thrones is a book series and i am tempted to read it (when the series gets cancelled due to low ratings…)
Thanks, Jay-Em. There’s not much I rant about, but I do get a little cranky when things I work on get derailed by Progress. Or Hollywood.
And Paula, you’re right to some extent. The trouble with movies getting kids to read is that a lot of times the kids just watch the movies, and then anything that got changed in the scriptwriting, filming, locations, etc. becomes a point of contention.
on the ‘black jewels’ facebook group we have been contemplating what would happen if hollywood got their paws on the rights.
bad tings i suspect.
its a dark story anyway but i am sure hollywood would make it worse..and miss out important stuff
(is still peeved about peeves)
@Paula, June 5, 07:43 (comment time zone):
That leads me to worrying thought: What if Hollywood got their hands on Wapsi Square?
Actually, I already have made a few guesses but, as it’s getting late here, I’ll save that for another day.
“Sparkly”? I thought she was a sphinx, not a vampMeyer! 😛
Maybe it’s just me, but Monica’s statement in panel 3 smacks of a sort of self absorbedness. Shelly’s fine, yet she’s worried about her own feelings on the matter instead of just looking to Shelly herself. Not saying that’s how it is, just how I’m perceiving it.
She had a sense of self-absorbedness too towards the end of the CM story line…it could just be a thing she does. 🙂
To be fair to Monica, she tried worrying about Shelly first, but Shelly kept brushing it off as if it wasn’t necessary once she got out of her initial shock. While Shelly was still in her initial state of shock, Monica was all about Shelly.
Exactly! M knows on an instinctual level something is “wrong” with this “happy daffodil” that Shelly does. And, as M’s character goes, she’s internalizing that in the shape of guilt, sadness.
That’s an interesting thought that I did not have. I suspect that’s not necessary though. Monica would probably assume that anything new to her that was that major pretty had to be like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, so something must have gone wrong. She just doesn’t know what it is yet. She probably not completely convinced of that, but she’s not completely unconvinced, either.
pretty had to bepretty much had to be
Interesting – flipping back from your link, i hit this strip.
What’s interesting is the fact that the first two panels are the full Collective talking and the final is just one ,,, likely, i think, Nudge.
I wonder if Nudge was the one who knew how best to communicate with Monica…
I’m pretty sure you meant this link. Your’s is broken.
Meh, Nudge didn’t seem to know to talk to her that way at first, either. It’s just that Nudge was the only one who would push hard enough to break through Monica’s mental barrier. A couple of pages later a gray voice says the wrong thing to Monica. Or maybe it really was the right thing and the collateral damage / hissy fit was something that just needed to happen before Monica could move on. 😕
All the rebuttals have a point, and I’m not saying Shelly is as right as rain as she puts on. My point of consternation lay in Monica’s expression of her worry, if that’s the case, as being turned back to herself instead of just saying she’s worried about Shelly or explaining why with reasonable arguments to Shelly’s previously mentioned ‘sparkle’.
@Locuranis: I agree with your interpretation, but I don’t understand your consternation. Some people analyze and talk about their feelings; some people don’t. Why wouldn’t Monica behave the way she is behaving? To me, it’s normal behavior for Monica, but would have been fairly odd behavior for Bud and very unusual behavior for Jin.
If Monica gets stuck like that for very long, then it would be a problem. People who do that over and over again are annoying and sometimes ridiculous *cough*emo*cough*, but other than that it’s fairly normal and possibly healthy.
Monica doesn’t seem to have problems talking about feelings, but seems to mis-assign them, and in turn appears to have an ‘I’ problem as a result. That’s my consternation really. It’s a personality quirk that’s come up before with her in other situations, i.e. when Tina mentioned that model not liking to be ignored but having no problems ignoring others, something Monica had to admit to being a fault of hers as well. Normally, given it’s a comic and Monica should have some personality flaws to give her depth, I don’t think twice about it. But with the current situation, it just jumped out at me moreso than usual is all.
I was leafing through the hard-copies, and something suddenly struck me: Shelly NEVER let herself be truly sad, never truly mourned her Mother’s death. Ever since that fateful event, Shelly was only angry and defiant. Kicking and screaming at all that didn’t go her way, just to keep away any feeling of helplessness.
I have the vague inkling we are going to see a lot of delving into Shelly’s mourning-process. Her grief about all that happened to her since her childhood could finally be adressed without her -by times petulant- tantrums.
Her 80000 years of solitude will have a profound impact on her dealing with her deep-seated grief and sadness.
Shelly has always been this loud, somewhat obnoxious character, but that was all a “shell” (!!!…) to hide behind. She admitted as such to officer tightbuns.
Well, suffice to say: The coming week will be interesting.
Just my E0.02 🙂
Well, there was this, but it proves your point. If she broke down then, she wasn’t past it yet.
It was an important moment. Not because she cried, but because she finally let someone in on her feelings, but it took a deep girl-crush to get her that far.
I think Heather is the only one to see Shelly break-down like that.
(I was such a cute story-line though. Funny enough -looking at the date- it played-out when my lil’ sis met the girl she is now married to…)
You, I’m wondering who is left who’s actually *really* normal (so far). Discounting the “fringe” characters (Owen and Lakshmi spring to mind), I think it’s… Amanda and Katherine. Though I can’t think of Kath as normal (not with those scary all-black eyes). Now, what will Amanda turn into or turn out to be? And if she stays normal… wouldn’t that feel crazy for her?
You know, there’s a “know” missing after the “You” ;-P
heh what i was thinking 🙂
amanda has a cat that seems similar to dietzel however..
and katherine has a very intellegent beta fish..
perhaps non-magical people start off with magical pets to help them get used to the loopyness? 😀
shelly was always a sphinx so never needed any 😀
Um, I don’t think that fish is any more intelligent than any other. Katherine just thinks it is because she’s psychotic.
I wonder when anything will come out of that or her idea to artificially create a situation that would make Monica have an adventure.
Today I watched five good-sized goldfish diligently dig a hole in the rocks in the bottom of their tank, move a plastic plant, and put the rocks back. No joke. It was a little disturbing.
Not as disturbing as a dog that can order pizza, and hit on the pizza-girl… 😯
That is somewhat disturbing. Especially since it appears to be an organized activity.
what did they do to the plant?
i used to have 2 fish and i had to take away their bridge as one of them would stay under it and not let the other near it 😛
in fact would attack the other each time it came near.
@Paula: They moved it from the spot in between the hole and the rock pile into the hole and then put the rocks back in the hole too. 😯
hmm
nice 🙂
animals are cool 😀
Katherine is *NOT* psychotic. She’s just three degrees off the rest of the world. She does incredibly brave things, like collect spiders because they scare her, and using her goldfish to give her the courage to go out to the beach and have fun! Not obvious that I identify with her strongly. Not obvious at all…:-D
No, she is psychotic and got worse when she stopped taking her antipsychotic medication.
^^ That’s not to say that she was always having an episode, though. Some of the time she was just acting weird. Still, she was off of her meds when she was actually arguing with Oscar, as opposed as just talking to him. There is a Hint of God in the comments a couple of pages earlier, too.
Having an illness such as she does, means that life is a struggle for Katherine, so it is brave of her to carry on, despite it. I think there is much more that Paul could do with her character and the struggles that she goes through, but of course he has a bunch of other interesting characters, too.
One of these days, I might actually finish this reply. 🙄
This is the correct link to Katherine being off her meds: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/another-adventur/
Hang in there Monica! With all you have accomplished before this is just another challenge to overcome.
I think there’s been some serious adjustments going on for <a href="http://wapsisquare.com/comic/03222004/" title="this" to end up like today’s comic, Say 80K years worth of ,i>adjustments?
Well poop, missed an angled bracket and bolluxed everything up. At least I didn’t break the Internets though.
Yeah, I have some serious job security in interwebs breaking. 😀
As have I, but breaking a complete line of comments, is a most laudable achievement that I, as of yet, still haven’t surpassed.. 😆 😛
What I want to know is if you guys have found a way to get paid for it. 😀
Well, like they say, nothing is idiot-proof to a sufficiently talented idiot. Meaning me. 😀 😛
@Eshmenk: Nah, interwebs-breaking is just a hobby for now…Although if there are any interwebs-designers out there looking for a sufficiently talented idiot to test their programs, make me an offer. 😀
Now that I think about it Shelly’s setup for one hell of a case of post traumatic stress syndrome. With Paul cryptically chiming in, I think Tina is going to be important to the story in near future. That is once Tina’s gotten over the shock of Shelly’s sudden again. Tina’s going to see that beyond the facade of normality that Shelly’s is putting forth.
You’re probably right, but I don’t think it’s PTSD that we’re dealing with. It isn’t usually something that is easy to hide. That’s not to say that she doesn’t have issues from all this. It’s just that I think we’ve stepped far enough outside of the realm of normal human experience, that we are no longer dealing with normal mental health problems.
i’m curious as to what stories shelly can tell
i suspect she would well..slightly gloss over the multi-shelly-killings and the apos encounters.
so what else could have happened that she could tell about? 🙂
Bubbling Potted Daisy Phix? You know, if she meant that literally, that would probably be a very interesting story. 😆
heh
maybe her and phix played practical jokes on the apos 😛
Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past her… and with Nudge’s help they could do some pretty serious pranking…
I’ve been hanging back for a while, letting this queue up some pages in backlogs.
One: While I know that Shelly isn’t dead, I’m still sad that Shelly’s dead.
Two: Pablo… *SMACK* Don’t ever scare me like that again, you bastard!
*claps*
you have much willpower!
ad point two: trust me, it’s much worse if you see it happen the day the page was released and not when playing catch up via the archives… 😀
what Leak said, because it was on a Friday…imagine having to live for two days on a strip like that, not knowing what the crap was going on….
By the sacred skull of Mogg’s grandmother, I love this strip. <3
Indeed ♥
whilst it sounds awsome and i wish i could remember it just to use in normal conversation..
where does this ‘moggs grandmother’ stuff come from?
Two generations before Mogg.
No, three. 😛
Well, if she meant Mogg’s grandmother’s stuff, then it’s two, but if Mogg’s grandmother was the stuff, then it’s three.
:p
i ment as you both know very well..where does the phrase come from 🙂
i have only heard something similar as a line in Galaxy Quest
😈 The expression came from the The Old Wolf.
Really, it did. 😀
ok
well
thats pretty darn cool 🙂
@Paula–Isn’t the Galaxy Quest line “By Grabthar’s Hammar, by the Sons of Mardok, you shall be…avenged!”
Holy hqiz, someone actually read that. And remembered it. *sheds a tear* 😀
I was tempted to answer Paula‘s question and just let her think I had intentionally misconstrued it, but at some point it starts to be mean. 🙂
@The Old Wolf: My memory wrt the origin of Mogg’s grandmother was a bit fuzzy, but you use hqiz enough for me to remember that you invented your own faux swear words. Actually, I thought at first that you even invented Mogg, but I see that less verbose oaths involving Mogg were in Freighter Tails.
@danzier
yup
see .. similar 😀
grabthars hammer
moggs grandmother 😀
@Paula: they do sound similar. 🙂 My parents had a very small movie collection and no TV channels, so there are about fifty films I know by heart–but I still haven’t seen Dr. Who.
I’ve been known to occasionally pull a “Holy smokes and some potato pancakes, Batman!”
Do I have to pay the pun jar for really bad mixed metaphorical cussing?
No, not really. It’s “creative cussing” that doesn’t count as a pun.
On cussing and replacement verbs: Reading OldWolf’s eloquent, though somewhat impenetrable and elaborate, use of locum invectives..well..suffice to profess, I needed my trusty thesaur to de-code it…And here I thought I was pretty versed in complex locutions and vocables…
i sometimes consider learning manderin in order to swear ala ‘firefly’
i think thats the best way around it 😀
possibly not manderin but another language 🙂
i think im going to hell for when i giggled at the batman and robin scene where robin goes ‘holy metal platform batman’ and george clooney (aka batman) just looks at him and robin goes ‘well its metal and it has holes in it…’
or something similar.
ive only watched it once but that line has stuck in my brain.it might not have been copied correctly however 😉
😀 😀 “Holey rusted metal, Batman!” And I laughed my head right off.
That, and sadly, Batgirl’s costume did Not have nipples, for some reason…
Bubbly and bright… Yeah, Shelly is channeling Tina.
…wait…
Oh no.
exactly! I am only “un-worried” if Shelly goes on a litany of invectives and vituperations.
Until that moment arrives, I’ll worry. 😆
Personally Jay-Em I think we are on the launch pad for another wild ride. Be sure your seat-belt is secure and the tray is in the crash position! Moog help us all.
Yeah, that ^^ *straps on helmet -left from days in the service- and ducks behind sandbags, waiting for the sh..storm that’s inevitable*
Save me a place in the confusion-corner, ’cause I’m afraid I am gonna need it the coming weeks.
We’ll build you a bunker from pillows and a nearby tabletop.
Yes, please, I would appreciate that.. (a pillow-bunker ,that is.)
i had to google those words 😛
Well, that’s the confusion-corner for ya’ You’re in good company, and sometimes learn new words…. *takes a bite froma blueberry-muffin while looking smug* 😆 😛
Maybe not overly related to this specific strip, but I have been trying to figure out a timeline for the events in Wapsi. This strip seems to suggest that there is a noticeable difference between real world time and comic time. The golem girls had been introduced 5 1/2 years earlier in real world time.
Naturally, I can’t establish anything exact, like dates or years, but it would be nice to have a general idea when events occurred in relation to each other.
Of course, it’s also entirely possible that Paul is using a “soft” timeline, and things like seasons don’t match up with how much time has passed, in which case my task is impossible.
Also worth noting, that speculation on this will help reach Jay-Em’s goal of 1000 comments.
well
over a 2 weeks have gone by in real time and only 5mins in wapsi-world
i was trying to work out the timeline at one stage also
such as when we see strips with monica in followed by ones with jin and alan…are they set at the same time or different days?
i kinda gave up as i dont think you CAN work it out.
barring the one where monica is getting pizza, shelly and bud are meeting and Brandi has met with Jin .. those three storylines intermix and end with Monica going to the market.
well 5 mins or 80k years depending on your viewpoint ^^
5mins10mins.
Well, the first step in working out a timeline is to identify the major points in the story, then simply put them in chronological order. In a first pass, you have to ignore the 80K year side trips and 1450 year cycles. Then you can go back and approximate the time between the initial major events. As things progress you can make better approximations and revise the chart, perhaps adding additional events as you go.
I think he is using a soft timeline. Monica is not ten years older than she was in the first strip, but there have been about ten winters probably. I wouldn’t try to make too much sense out of it.
I would also put backgrounds in the same category. Cracks in walls or stacks of skulls are not necessarily there, IMO.
You’re most likely right, but I’ll double-check next time I’m bored and read through the archives.
I must say, Monica looks super-cute, in the first panel.
@Danzier: That is weird. But since goldfish are a type of carp, maybe this will make it seem a little less weird:
The same source talked about them digging up plants to get at the tubers. That’s a different type of carp, though and I don’t know why they would bury the plant or fill in the hole. 😕
My guess is they would want the ground to look undisturbed otherwise it could tip off their prey or, even worse, any predators around that they’re there.
Given the nature of their prey, I suspect it’s more likely to be because of the latter. If a predator notices something different…
My guess is that one of them suddenly thought, “Oh! Look! There is a mound there! Maybe there’s food there. I will try there instead.” Soon, the others thought, “Hey! It looks like that one might be having better luck than we’re having here.” It also could be that once they all tried eating the plant and found out that it wasn’t food and it fell into the hole, it was in their way or for some other reason made the hole a bad place to try to find food, so they switched elsewhere. It also could be that the hole was a good place to drop the rocks, because they would fall further there and give them a better chance to spot any food as it fell. Or maybe it’s just a random coincidence. 😕
😀
The fish tank was in my sister’s college admissions councilor’s office, and she saw it too…we joked that they did it because they were college fish. :p
I accidentally posted a comment (with links in) on yesterday’s page rather than today’s. It contains links to how Shelly reacted when she thought that Monica wasn’t who she thought she was.
From the other page: “When you think about Shelly’s concerns about Monica and recent events….”
There’s a fair amount of irony there, some of which took a while for me to appreciate. Is that what you meant?
The question of who someone is comes up fairly frequently, now that I think about it. 🙂 Here’s one example. The GGGs, Maya and Tepoz all turned out to be golems. The person Monica thought was her great-grandmother was really Maya. The GGGs were once a chimera. Jin was also Tochtli, had a faux time traveler persona, and perhaps had other identities. Maya, Tochtli and Tepoz were believed to be gods. The barista, Tina, turned out to be a “conglomerate of emotional and psychological elements with an entrepreneurial spirit”, with Nudge thrown in for good measure. She’s also the dead daughter of a drug lord. Nudge turned out to be a trickster. I’m probably forgetting other things.
BTW, good catch yesterday on the first appearance (I think) of CG.
Yes, that is what I meant.
Thank for you for the compliment. I’m not sure if it is the first instance. I came across it on an archive crawl and, on comparing the date with the comments that I had read, got a bit of a surprise.
Come to think of it, I think you’re on to something: Identity does seem to be a major theme of Wapsi Square.
😀
“NOTICE
PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR,
Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance.”
So I guess theme is ok, then?
Oops, forgot the citation: By Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens) in the beginning of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”.
heh
that should be in every book created..ever 😀
Moni doesn’t need to get too hung-up on this, it’s all part of the “DynaMan Good-Looking Young People From All Walks Of Life” paradigm. Just because its’ somebody else’s experience, doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of it.
99% off-topic:
Someone, somewhere, in the last few weeks’ comments, has mentioned Terry Pratchett and a story called The Man Who Folded Himself. I had the rare opportunity to work my way through a bookstore and picked up a few of Mr. Pratchett’s books–and a book on scriptwriting, Star Trek, and 1960s L.A. called “The Trouble With Tribbles” by David Gerrold.
First off, thanks very much for the reccomendation of Mr. Pratchett’s work–it’s better than I expected, and I expected a lot. 😀
Second, I read through Mr. Gerrold’s book (which I’d had when I was young and lost) with a lot of enthusiasm, including the “About the Author” section. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the man who wrote my favorite STTOS episode also wrote “The Man Who Folded Himself”!
You guys are awesome.
trouble with tribbles was based on a book??
cool 😀
my fav star trek book atm is
‘Vulcan’s Heart’ by Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz
Its about Spock and Savak getting married and Spock going to Romulus to help reunification.
Its pretty cool 🙂
“trouble with tribbles was based on a book??”
I don’t think that’s what she meant. David Gerrold wrote a book about the episode, including how it was produced. It looks like there may have been a couple of printings. Here is one. It looks like there may have been a series of books with different authors covering different popular episodes. It looks like David Gerrold wrote a couple of other ones.
aww
phooey
Tribbles were indeed based on a book. The idea originated in Robert H Heinlein’s The Rolling Stones. The tribbles were Martian flat cats.
Hmm. I’m not so sure about that. I Googled “Martian flat cats”, not because I doubted the accuracy of what Fatuncle said if he was serious, but because I wasn’t sure there wasn’t a joke there that I was missing.
Anyway, I learned a few things. David Gerrold didn’t just write the book about the episode; he wrote the episode. He was still in college when he submitted the idea, I think, and maybe while he did the script. In his book, he says that he didn’t intentionally copy from The Rolling Stones and he was thinking more of rabbits in Australia, but he had read Heinlein’s book. Right, Danzier?
I better stick this in quick:
Giant quote from the above-mentioned Tribbles book: Chapter 9, pages 250-253. […] indicates non-critical passages removed by me to keep this short-ish. I also didn’t add the footnote about Ellis Parker Butler. Any typos are mine.
“The similarity between tribbles and flat cats was unmistakable.
[…]Many of STAR TREK’s fans are also Heinlein fans. And one of the most frequent questions that crops up among them is:’Were you influenced by Heinlein’s Flat Cats when you wrote the Tribbles? Is that where you got the idea?’
In all honesty, I must admit that if I was, it was a subconscious influence. Had I realized what I was doing, I either would not have done the story or would have worked to minimize the similarities.
[…]The problem was solved with a phone call. Either Gene Coon or Gene Roddenberry, I’m not sure which, called Robert A. Heinlein and told him about the script. ‘We have a young kid here who’s just done his first script. It’s a very good one and we want to use it, but it’s a lot like part of The Rolling Stones and we want to clear up any hassles before they start…’
Heinlein was very gracious about the whole thing.[…] He simply said that he didn’t see that there was any kind of a problem at all. But he would appreciate a copy of the script.
[…][In a letter to Gerrold,] He also said, and this I quote: ‘Let me add that I felt that the analogy to my flat cats was mild enough to be of no importance–and we both owe something to Ellis Parker Butler…and possibly to Noah.’
[…]If the legal department of Desilu (now Paramount) Studios, a department that specializes in avoiding plagiarism suits, says that it’s okay to film the episode, they’d better know what they’re talking about. Every script is checked before it goes on the air. When a studio is investing that much money into a piece of film, they can’t afford to leave anything to chance. Had there been even the slightest question of similarity or infringement, Heinlein would have been paid for his rights or the story would not have been filmed.”
@Eshmenk:
Yes, he was in college. He got 3 credits and graduated on the strength of “Tribbles” and his notes on the process. He had once read Heinlein’s book(s).
Eshmenk: I suspect Gerrold ran across it very early on – Rolling Stones was published in 1952. When I saw the Star Trek episode, I was shocked. I pulled my copy of Stones and reread it, and came to the conclusion the they had to have gotten permission from Heinlein — the tribbles’ birth rate, and other details, were right out of the book.
Yep, that’s the book. I had the black-cover version as a kid, but the one I have now has a red cover. I think that’s the only difference. (Inside it says “Sixth printing: June 1976”)
For what it’s worth, I saw quite a few young ladies with Monica’s measurements (perhaps not quite as short) during a recent visit to Las Vegas. I have no idea whether or not they were 100% organic, but they were eye-catching, to be sure.
Honestly, in my short life, I’ve seen Mon’s figure becoming more and more common… IT’S THE HORMONES I TELLS YA! THEM COWS GITTING ALL MEATY WIT STERIODS AND JUNK! IT’S UNHEALTHY! 😆
RGBh FTL–mucho creepy; had some farmers in to a biology class to talk about giving cows hormones and gunk and it wierded me out. I say, give them lots of social time and a huge family and a dietician and a good vet, and all is well.
In the past there has been a riot when hormones ,fed to chickens, appeared to trigger puberty in girls too soon, so I wouldn’t be too surprised.
To me ,as an old dude, it also seems that girls get bigger boobs nowadays than I remembered from my high-school days..
Like Homer Simpson once said, “It’s all the beef hormones and flourescent lighting,”
im begining to wonder if the boob increase has something to do with the clothing available nowadays
its possibly holding us in and filling us out via the cut in someway…
So it’s Sunday and we’re still no where near our goal of 1000 comments…
Part of it is that we just haven’t managed to get started on any point of speculation. Come on people.
How long will it take for Shelly to talk about how the Sacred Forest experience really affected her?
Who will that conversation be with?
How will Amanda react to this?
How will Monica respond when she discovers Dietzel and Nudge’s love affair?
I guess next week will start the “coping with 80000 years gone”
My berst bet is that it still will be Monica that’s the first to get close again to Shell. After all, when in the “Heather-crush” phase, Shelly went to M in the middle of the night when having a nightmare.
What’s more intrigueing thoug: What does Daddy Wahnee know? How does Mommy Wahnee fit in this sphinx-business??
Now taking all opinions on cathode ray tubes and the variations in quality between digital and analog, and electric and acoustic, and Dietzel and Nudge, and Jin and Tonic…
drops random valuables in the pun jar
ive been helping 😀
That’s a bit of an understatement. At the time of this post, you had 44 comments, and 14% of all the comments on this page were yours.
I was very surprised Friday morning by how few comments there were. Part of it was the late update, I think, but it’s hard for me to know how much was due to that or how long lasting the effect was.
In any case, if we need a scapegoat, let’s start blaming that.
I think that the main reason is that most of the recent strips have been answering more questions than they’ve been presenting. Most of our comments, especially on weekends are speculation of some sort, and we haven’t had very much of that. Of course, now I’m speculating about the lack of comments, so…
yay shelly with long hair again!
80k years
man her hair grows SLOW
(or as previous people have said it grew that long then she turned into a sphinx)
i actually prefered it short.
I just noticed with this reading that there is a dollar sign and a yen sign on Connie’s left eyeball…