It’s a conversation about grief for a lost friend.
When my father died, many of his friends came to the wake. They all wanted to talk to me, to tell me stories about him, to explain things they felt. I realized that it wasn’t really me they were talking to, it was that I was the closest connection they could still get to him. It was him they wanted to speak to except that they couldn’t any longer. So they talked to me instead. I listened and nodded and did my best to laugh at the appropriate places.
Jin is doing the same thing, she’s trying to look for a connection to a lost friend. Tragically, it’s worse for her, because the friend is (technically at least) still alive, but no longer remembers her.
Ok, I missed getting to the comic yesterday so I’m a day late, so I have to say I’m so So SO glad that Jin’s hair is back to something that doesn’t look so much like Shelly. Please keep it!
Just finished reading the whole thing, start to finish. Took me three days. I think I remembered to go to work somewhere in there. Now It’s 12:01 AM. Time has reset…
I do not have words to express the amount of WOWage here! Mr. Taylor, you are a genius.
I don’t think we can rule out Jin and Tina being friends in this loop. Once Tina was killed, her demons wouldn’t have known who her friends were. Jin didn’t know what Tina’s demons were doing before the accident and might not have known what they were doing afterward.
@Fairportfan:
I don’t think humans have a “destinies” in Wapsi Square (other than Jin’s manipulations), nor are they affected by the other time loops. I think it was probably more that Shelly needed someone to be close to and to somewhat replace her mother. Jin could have fulfilled that role, rather than the folk singer (forget her name) in other time loops.
Something that would have connected Jin and Shelly was that they were both missing mothers. I don’t know if Shelly would have been missing her mother in other loops, though.
It would be interesting if Jin (disguised) was a childhood friend of Shelly in the current loop. That’s not what people are thinking, but I don’t think I could rule that out.
jwouk, remember that Monica could have had one of three close friends, qualified to stick the key into her at the critical moment. So, patterns are similar, but not always the same.
That wouldn’t sound right coming from Jin though. It’d be like she was suddenly veering off the subject, that being her relationship with Tina and Shelly.
I don’t think we should feel too bad for Jin. After all, she got to be with Tina for a longer time, cumulativly, than any of us get to be with our friends or lovers. Under many more different circumstances as well. We get one shot and when they’re gone, they’re gone.
The people Jin met during the different runs of the calendar machine were like different variations of a musical theme. It’s unlikely that there was any guaranty that they would like her at all, let alone become her friends or lovers.We are not talking about emotional involvement, not the manipulation of the imortal politicians, which was probably more like a straightforward business deal. Also, having to alienate friends (Shelly) and lovers (Sullivan) for the greater good cannot have been easy, to say the least.
On a totally unrelated note: Somebody please tell me that this isn’t a tea bag in panel three…
“lapsang souchong tea bags” googles out to about 23,500 – they definitely exist.
Since she doesn’t get many requests for it, there’s no reason to stock the highest quality. And since she keeps hers simple, she wouldn’t know the finer points of tea preparation.
I think that Tina’s demons generally feel unsure about operating in the human world, so she often tries to gloss over things that confuse her so that she seems more normal. But Jin’s really pushing this so sooner or later Tina’s going to have to ask Jin to be upfront and explain why she’s talking about Tina’s inactions with other folks from the neighborhood in prior lives they’ve lived. For most folks that would really freak them out, but Tina’s already so far off the norm that it probably won’t phase her that much.
Now this kind of Quantum Quandry is what made Jin a bit mad over (and over and over and over) the many resettings. Imagine how many shufflings of friends and circumstances, all leading to the same conclusion, she had to witness before it came to Now. How many versions of Monica’s group of cohorts, of various hook-ups, of lovers, of sidekicks, she saw. And now, it’s settled, but the current conglomeration of people, like a big squiggly molecule, isn’t quite what she thought was going to work. I wonder how many versions of everybody she was fond of, and she lost them trying to set things right.
Actually, I was just about to say the worst part was watching her friends be hurt in various ways over and over and not daring to do anything to prevent it (even though she could have) for fear of screwing things up. Possible example: Shelly’s mother dying.
Personally, I think she is probably looking forward to not knowing what will happen any more. She’s going to have to find a different source of income, however. Her time traveler shtick won’t work anymore.
She doesn’t need either. She has resources saved up. She could be collecting interest that would equal, in minutes or days, what some people make in years or life times. One never knows beyond the fact she was given wealth, and has saved it somewhere so she wouldn’t ever have to worry about money. Hence why she never had to get a job. Which that would also make an interesting point, should the comic creator REALLY be screwing with us in saying that is Maya in “Better Protection.” A skilled assassin walks into your throne room, dices your guards, and says she has knowledge of the future. That’s one hell of an interview, as is alluded to in the previous comic, and a way to get in good with a politician, as Jin said she did, to amass wealth. But, of course, Paul says that is Maya, not Jin dicing the guards.
I read this line “I knew you were important somehow, but that wasn’t it. You and Shelly …” as meaning “I knew you were important somehow, both you and Shelly …”
I was going to post something to the same extent of what you said here. As of present day, we now see how both were integral to fixing some broken things, one to fix/destroy one, the other to fix another. I tried to be too vague to count as a spoiler.
Jin is trying to rekindle a friendship that may not have even existed this time through. The broken rift between their last panels looks like it might be merging together now. Nice touch, Mr. Taylor.
Frankly I don’t see the point in rekindling a friendship with “Tina” since she isn’t actually in there. Just a group of demons who were with her in the same body. They happen to know stuff about her life and they influenced her when she was in command of the the body, but they are not Tina. Never were, never will be.
But they ARE something/someone. And we call them/her/it “Tina.” Might THIS be an alternate of a past “Tina” that Jin knew who was ALSO a collection of demons, or is the rat’s steering the ship something UNIQUE to the most recent cycle? If the events were repeated, wouldn’t the “rats” still have lost their memories of previous time-loops?
Was it not stated previous to this page that it was Tina’s Demon’s that CHASED Monica in front of the bus? Which did lead to a bunch of people being hurt, including Tina herself dieing?
Is Tina confused yet?
I’ll see her confused and raise you a mindboggled.
So just where is Jin taking this conversation?
Universe n-1, where n = a few reboots ago, the one where we got to the big boss and Brandi almost finished her journal.
It’s a conversation about grief for a lost friend.
When my father died, many of his friends came to the wake. They all wanted to talk to me, to tell me stories about him, to explain things they felt. I realized that it wasn’t really me they were talking to, it was that I was the closest connection they could still get to him. It was him they wanted to speak to except that they couldn’t any longer. So they talked to me instead. I listened and nodded and did my best to laugh at the appropriate places.
Jin is doing the same thing, she’s trying to look for a connection to a lost friend. Tragically, it’s worse for her, because the friend is (technically at least) still alive, but no longer remembers her.
I dunno, but she is breaking down the separation between them as shown by the panels getting closer, and finally trying to overlap.
Tina can bring me green tea anytime .
Ok, I missed getting to the comic yesterday so I’m a day late, so I have to say I’m so So SO glad that Jin’s hair is back to something that doesn’t look so much like Shelly. Please keep it!
Just spent hours reading this comic from the beginning. Fantastic work!
Just finished reading the whole thing, start to finish. Took me three days. I think I remembered to go to work somewhere in there. Now It’s 12:01 AM. Time has reset…
I do not have words to express the amount of WOWage here! Mr. Taylor, you are a genius.
Right, I’m officially freaked out. The random avatar I was just assigned above looks… just… like… me.
They’re watching…always watching…just out of the corner of your eye. That little flicker that you don’t quite see – that’s *them*…. 😀
Seriously though – you look like Phix? Neat!
Well, minus the wings… and she has better fashion sense than I do… 🙂
“You and Shelly…”
Were lovers
Is that what she was going to say
Whoa. Could that explain the … urges … that Shelly felt but never actually managed to carry through on?
Her destiny was to love Tina – the real Tina – but that Tina didn’t exist in this reality. So she felt as if she should love a woman, but…
Oh boy… so Jin was Shelly’s friend in one of the former loops, and Tina was her other “best buddy” – not Monica?
I don’t think we can rule out Jin and Tina being friends in this loop. Once Tina was killed, her demons wouldn’t have known who her friends were. Jin didn’t know what Tina’s demons were doing before the accident and might not have known what they were doing afterward.
@Fairportfan:
I don’t think humans have a “destinies” in Wapsi Square (other than Jin’s manipulations), nor are they affected by the other time loops. I think it was probably more that Shelly needed someone to be close to and to somewhat replace her mother. Jin could have fulfilled that role, rather than the folk singer (forget her name) in other time loops.
Something that would have connected Jin and Shelly was that they were both missing mothers. I don’t know if Shelly would have been missing her mother in other loops, though.
It would be interesting if Jin (disguised) was a childhood friend of Shelly in the current loop. That’s not what people are thinking, but I don’t think I could rule that out.
jwouk, remember that Monica could have had one of three close friends, qualified to stick the key into her at the critical moment. So, patterns are similar, but not always the same.
That wouldn’t sound right coming from Jin though. It’d be like she was suddenly veering off the subject, that being her relationship with Tina and Shelly.
I don’t think we should feel too bad for Jin. After all, she got to be with Tina for a longer time, cumulativly, than any of us get to be with our friends or lovers. Under many more different circumstances as well. We get one shot and when they’re gone, they’re gone.
But, conversely, she has so much more lost to mourn.
The people Jin met during the different runs of the calendar machine were like different variations of a musical theme. It’s unlikely that there was any guaranty that they would like her at all, let alone become her friends or lovers.We are not talking about emotional involvement, not the manipulation of the imortal politicians, which was probably more like a straightforward business deal. Also, having to alienate friends (Shelly) and lovers (Sullivan) for the greater good cannot have been easy, to say the least.
On a totally unrelated note: Somebody please tell me that this isn’t a tea bag in panel three…
“We are not talking about emotional involvement…” Did you mean the opposite?
Ooo, look, a tea bag!
Are teabags a no-no to tea purists?
Damfino.
“lapsang souchong tea bags” googles out to about 23,500 – they definitely exist.
Since she doesn’t get many requests for it, there’s no reason to stock the highest quality. And since she keeps hers simple, she wouldn’t know the finer points of tea preparation.
Ahem. “We are talking about emotional involvement” .
Oops! Didn’t see this. :=/
I think that Tina’s demons generally feel unsure about operating in the human world, so she often tries to gloss over things that confuse her so that she seems more normal. But Jin’s really pushing this so sooner or later Tina’s going to have to ask Jin to be upfront and explain why she’s talking about Tina’s inactions with other folks from the neighborhood in prior lives they’ve lived. For most folks that would really freak them out, but Tina’s already so far off the norm that it probably won’t phase her that much.
Of course, Tina knows about the calendar machine and the loops…
Those discussions amuses me a lot.
Oh, love the comic too.
Now this kind of Quantum Quandry is what made Jin a bit mad over (and over and over and over) the many resettings. Imagine how many shufflings of friends and circumstances, all leading to the same conclusion, she had to witness before it came to Now. How many versions of Monica’s group of cohorts, of various hook-ups, of lovers, of sidekicks, she saw. And now, it’s settled, but the current conglomeration of people, like a big squiggly molecule, isn’t quite what she thought was going to work. I wonder how many versions of everybody she was fond of, and she lost them trying to set things right.
And the worst part is, she can’t be Miss Fix-It-Up anymore.
Actually, I was just about to say the worst part was watching her friends be hurt in various ways over and over and not daring to do anything to prevent it (even though she could have) for fear of screwing things up. Possible example: Shelly’s mother dying.
Personally, I think she is probably looking forward to not knowing what will happen any more. She’s going to have to find a different source of income, however. Her time traveler shtick won’t work anymore.
Well, the banks are a candy store for anyone who can poit in and out at will.
She doesn’t need either. She has resources saved up. She could be collecting interest that would equal, in minutes or days, what some people make in years or life times. One never knows beyond the fact she was given wealth, and has saved it somewhere so she wouldn’t ever have to worry about money. Hence why she never had to get a job. Which that would also make an interesting point, should the comic creator REALLY be screwing with us in saying that is Maya in “Better Protection.” A skilled assassin walks into your throne room, dices your guards, and says she has knowledge of the future. That’s one hell of an interview, as is alluded to in the previous comic, and a way to get in good with a politician, as Jin said she did, to amass wealth. But, of course, Paul says that is Maya, not Jin dicing the guards.
“Tina, I am your mother”
I read this line “I knew you were important somehow, but that wasn’t it. You and Shelly …” as meaning “I knew you were important somehow, both you and Shelly …”
I was going to post something to the same extent of what you said here. As of present day, we now see how both were integral to fixing some broken things, one to fix/destroy one, the other to fix another. I tried to be too vague to count as a spoiler.
Jin is trying to rekindle a friendship that may not have even existed this time through. The broken rift between their last panels looks like it might be merging together now. Nice touch, Mr. Taylor.
Frankly I don’t see the point in rekindling a friendship with “Tina” since she isn’t actually in there. Just a group of demons who were with her in the same body. They happen to know stuff about her life and they influenced her when she was in command of the the body, but they are not Tina. Never were, never will be.
But they ARE something/someone. And we call them/her/it “Tina.” Might THIS be an alternate of a past “Tina” that Jin knew who was ALSO a collection of demons, or is the rat’s steering the ship something UNIQUE to the most recent cycle? If the events were repeated, wouldn’t the “rats” still have lost their memories of previous time-loops?
Yanno, this does bring something up from “Pre-crisis”… Tina wondered how she got “stuck” in the timeline. Who did Tina’s demons “hurt”?
…I have a feeling that Jin might have a clue within a few days here.
(My $0.02 – Tina was the reason for the “premature ejection” in the previous go-round, which caused either Shelly or Monica to be hurt.)
Was it not stated previous to this page that it was Tina’s Demon’s that CHASED Monica in front of the bus? Which did lead to a bunch of people being hurt, including Tina herself dieing?
Um…is anyone else wondering where Tepoz is? We haven’t seen hide nor hair of him for quite a while now…
He was with Monica just last week http://wapsisquare.com/comic/no-other-shoe/
Are you missing him already? 😉
-flap- She never finished her thought… >_<;;;