Well, back when they discovered Monica had Phoenix blood and just resets when she dies, she was 29 and i seem to recall that it was implied that she’d age more-or-less normally, but she could reset to 29 whenever she wanted by “dying”…
You would be surprised how common it is for people to look “young for their age” though. Be good to your skin, wear sunscreen, combine that with good genetics and it can be quite startling. At 42, with no makeup on, a coworker at my new job who was in his late 40’s guessed my age at 22. My boyfriend is just over 5 years younger than me and when he has facial hair he looks like he is the older of the 2 of us but if he shaves he looks much younger. We both come from families full of people who look young for their age. I have a friend who is 3 years older than I am, but she looks like she is about 10 years older than our actual age. So, yeah, they have time.
Nobody believes I’m 55. Even when I didn’t shave my head and was half grey, even with a silver goatee people are like “You’re 40-45, right?” I got carded until I was thirty. I don’t feel 55. . . at the same time my brain is screaming “We were just 25 yesterday!” my joints and ligaments are crying “Are you sure we’re not 80?”
It runs in my family on my mom’s side. Her grandpa died at 107, her father drank himself into an early grave at 86, and her alcoholism and self-abuse for her first forty years (longer for her smoking) led to her dying at 96. When I was 14 everyone thought I was thirty, and nowadays everyone thinks I am between thirty and forty. (I’m 56.) Looking “young for their age” definitely happens, and not just to the Howard Foundation…
And there are makeup techniques that can make you look older. Other methods just involve moving to a location where people don’t know you and adjusting the dates on your documents.
wordo/typo: third panel, Shelly: People would talk about your for decades.
About your what? your death? your end? or is it just “yours”? or just “you”?
You read things, you witness an events, or multiple events, that takes place in a short stretch of time. But you read it over months, or years, so how long does it take? (About half of “Lord of the Rings” takes place in a single month.)
Thanks to Bitcoin personal inheritance is even simpler.
The real trick is not to let Big Government get a sample of your DNA. They might not have the capacity or inclination now, but at some point they’ll start pairing up what they have on file with what they find automatically, and that will peg you.
It helps that apparently MIB and Big Government presently have a cozy relationship, but just how far does MIB reach?
SSSSHHHHH……………..!!!
They don’t know this.
Let them think they still are.
Owen and his amazon wife (forgot her name) came back and (hopefully) will be featured in some more high-jinks.
Has anyone mentioned to Shelly’s dad that both his mom and his wife are still alive? Granted, they’re a Sphinx and a Titan…. Especially given Phix’s frequent visits to Minneapolis. Wouldn’t she be curious about him? And most importantly, who was his father?
“Gregory, I have something to tell you.”
“What is it, darling?”
“Remember that scene in Oedipus…”
“You’re not my mother, are you? I’m pretty sure you’re not my mother…”
“No, I was talking about the Sphinx.”
“Oh, yes.”
“That was me.”
“…!!!…”
“and I’m pregnant.”
*THUD*
This is why I keep nagging for him to at least colour-fill some hair colours. His characters are hard enough to tell apart on a good day. :/
(Thank goodness for the tags.)
She gained and lost them from one panel to the other! 😛
(though I would say the 2nd panel is more consistent with Shelly’s character design throughout the series. She’s been very near to completely flat-chested since day one.)
If they ever do this for real (probably not unless we start doing some BIG time-skips) big, flashy death scene that people talk about for years is pretty much the exact opposite of what you’re trying to achieve.
Really, you want to “move away” to another city where you’re unlikely to bump into any mundane person who knew you (and the Library has branches and connections everywhere, so you can still keep up your relations with your para-buddies). Quietly file a death certificate onto a computer system without going through any actual meat-person to question who filed it and when, then arrive in your new town in your new identity and meet your new neighbors.
Honestly I think applying for the new IDs and new SSI numbers would be trickier, since you’d have to verify not just a death, but your new life up to the point you’re applying for… but all told, I would suppose all of this would be best done by a contact with some half-decent hacking skills going into the government websites…
(slaps forehead) Or, you know, just asking Bud over at the MiB to use her COMPLETELY LEGITIMATE access to those government sites to set you up with your new identity, like they’re probably ALREADY doing for 100 immortal or semi-immortal paras per year, and have been since before many of the current governments were existent. (Not sure why I didn’t think of that first.)
Was a smidge confused for a bit. Where was Shelly’s immortality mentioned? I suppose it makes sense, while as a human-sphinx she would be mortal, but being basically a quarter titan she may have gained immortality via Bia.
If they’re in their 40s but look in their 20s then I’d say it’s already time to worry.
Well, back when they discovered Monica had Phoenix blood and just resets when she dies, she was 29 and i seem to recall that it was implied that she’d age more-or-less normally, but she could reset to 29 whenever she wanted by “dying”…
And while Shelly is eternal, her mother has some tricks I am relatively sure can make it look like she is getting older
You would be surprised how common it is for people to look “young for their age” though. Be good to your skin, wear sunscreen, combine that with good genetics and it can be quite startling. At 42, with no makeup on, a coworker at my new job who was in his late 40’s guessed my age at 22. My boyfriend is just over 5 years younger than me and when he has facial hair he looks like he is the older of the 2 of us but if he shaves he looks much younger. We both come from families full of people who look young for their age. I have a friend who is 3 years older than I am, but she looks like she is about 10 years older than our actual age. So, yeah, they have time.
Nobody believes I’m 55. Even when I didn’t shave my head and was half grey, even with a silver goatee people are like “You’re 40-45, right?” I got carded until I was thirty. I don’t feel 55. . . at the same time my brain is screaming “We were just 25 yesterday!” my joints and ligaments are crying “Are you sure we’re not 80?”
You sure your not a member of the Howard Foundation.
It runs in my family on my mom’s side. Her grandpa died at 107, her father drank himself into an early grave at 86, and her alcoholism and self-abuse for her first forty years (longer for her smoking) led to her dying at 96. When I was 14 everyone thought I was thirty, and nowadays everyone thinks I am between thirty and forty. (I’m 56.) Looking “young for their age” definitely happens, and not just to the Howard Foundation…
And there are makeup techniques that can make you look older. Other methods just involve moving to a location where people don’t know you and adjusting the dates on your documents.
wordo/typo: third panel, Shelly: People would talk about your for decades.
About your what? your death? your end? or is it just “yours”? or just “you”?
Wow, if it wasn’t for the tags I’d never have known that was Monica. Been awhile since you drew her huh?
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/being-childish/ for a reminder !
her ‘size’ seems similar, allowing for the bikini, but what happened to her eyebrows?? 😀
And her nose?
Thought Monica was in her fifties by now. But it’s an issue of *when*, ’cause I don’t know what year it is in the strip.
I think everything since the last time skip is set in the contemporary “now”.
But should Paul put another time skip in, then what we currently think of as the ‘now’ will become the recent ‘then’. Again.
You read things, you witness an events, or multiple events, that takes place in a short stretch of time. But you read it over months, or years, so how long does it take? (About half of “Lord of the Rings” takes place in a single month.)
But the other half of LOTR takes place over several decades.
It took me some time to realize this was M…she looks as though she could pass as Acacia’s sister here these past few days.
MIB probably has several manuals on how to blend in as an immortal.
Comanches like to go down swinging. Shelly’s arranged “death” will be one of the greatest fights ever.
I bet Castela would help her put on a good show. Plasma beams, inter-dimensional horrors. Bud could melt the continent. No. Wait.
Thanks to Bitcoin personal inheritance is even simpler.
The real trick is not to let Big Government get a sample of your DNA. They might not have the capacity or inclination now, but at some point they’ll start pairing up what they have on file with what they find automatically, and that will peg you.
It helps that apparently MIB and Big Government presently have a cozy relationship, but just how far does MIB reach?
I think at this point, what the government has on Monica is either the real data (sub-titan) or the cover (human).
Also, Monica is probably never going to a non-para friendly doctor ever again.
Like the sci-fi movie “Gattaca” right?!
Ask Jin…didn’t she have over 50 loops of >1700 years during which she had to do the same thing?
Hey, hey, hey!
SSSSHHHHH……………..!!!
They don’t know this.
Let them think they still are.
Owen and his amazon wife (forgot her name) came back and (hopefully) will be featured in some more high-jinks.
Owen and Lakshmi. I have, however, forgotten their daughter “Ms. Yummigasm”’s name…
Their daughter is Ms. Roxanne Albrecht.
Well, if they’re at the Poseidon Pool, maybe they’ll run into Digit and Valerie.
I thought shelly was Jin for a second
For me, it was the opposite… i knew that was Shelley, it was Monica that i thought was supposed to be Bud!…
This sounds like something the MIB would have a hand in accomplishing. Identity papers, property disposition, etc.
Has anyone mentioned to Shelly’s dad that both his mom and his wife are still alive? Granted, they’re a Sphinx and a Titan…. Especially given Phix’s frequent visits to Minneapolis. Wouldn’t she be curious about him? And most importantly, who was his father?
A very brave Comanche.
Which inspires an interesting thought — what if Phix is currently with a half-Sphinx/half-Museum-Director child‽
“Gregory, I have something to tell you.”
“What is it, darling?”
“Remember that scene in Oedipus…”
“You’re not my mother, are you? I’m pretty sure you’re not my mother…”
“No, I was talking about the Sphinx.”
“Oh, yes.”
“That was me.”
“…!!!…”
“and I’m pregnant.”
*THUD*
Was confused for a moment and didn’t realise who the blonde was until I figured it out from the context. You really have changed Monica’s looks. 🙂
This is why I keep nagging for him to at least colour-fill some hair colours. His characters are hard enough to tell apart on a good day. :/
(Thank goodness for the tags.)
Looks like Monica lost a couple of cup sizes and Shelley gained them.
Does that mean… Shelly is pregnant?
She gained and lost them from one panel to the other! 😛
(though I would say the 2nd panel is more consistent with Shelly’s character design throughout the series. She’s been very near to completely flat-chested since day one.)
If they ever do this for real (probably not unless we start doing some BIG time-skips) big, flashy death scene that people talk about for years is pretty much the exact opposite of what you’re trying to achieve.
Really, you want to “move away” to another city where you’re unlikely to bump into any mundane person who knew you (and the Library has branches and connections everywhere, so you can still keep up your relations with your para-buddies). Quietly file a death certificate onto a computer system without going through any actual meat-person to question who filed it and when, then arrive in your new town in your new identity and meet your new neighbors.
Honestly I think applying for the new IDs and new SSI numbers would be trickier, since you’d have to verify not just a death, but your new life up to the point you’re applying for… but all told, I would suppose all of this would be best done by a contact with some half-decent hacking skills going into the government websites…
(slaps forehead) Or, you know, just asking Bud over at the MiB to use her COMPLETELY LEGITIMATE access to those government sites to set you up with your new identity, like they’re probably ALREADY doing for 100 immortal or semi-immortal paras per year, and have been since before many of the current governments were existent. (Not sure why I didn’t think of that first.)
If you plan ahead 20-25 years, Bud won’t even have to back date the birth certificate or SSN request.
Was a smidge confused for a bit. Where was Shelly’s immortality mentioned? I suppose it makes sense, while as a human-sphinx she would be mortal, but being basically a quarter titan she may have gained immortality via Bia.