Get This Sorted 2013-10-9

[DilyV]

ONE OF FIVE WINGED BEINGS PROPHECIED TO BE WHAT?! WHAT????!!

Think Kurt Russel in "Big Trouble in Little China": 'WHAT will come out no more??'

Oh, and I like the whole not gonna kill Tina thing. But Where. Is. Georgette?

"Do the eyes!"

SHAZOWIE!!!!!

Let's go!
Becky?!

Belly, Belly, Belly, Belly!

[Julie]

SOOOO glad that this wasn't a Friday cliffhanger! Then again, with my hiatus last week, I'd have come in after tomorrow's page was posted if nothing had caused an update delay. I never would have gotten this as a cliff hanger anyhow...but I'd have had LOADS more catch-up reading to do since you guys would have gone nuts in here theorizing about what the heck Tina was talking about and whether or not Jet is sitting in front of Tina's counters or if she somehow was teleported elsewhere. So still super glad that this wasn't a Friday cliffhanger.

Wait...does that mean that all of the Friday cliffhangers will be on Wednesdays now?? Granted, I halfway expect that Paul isn't planning each of them to be cliffhangers...so we'll probably still get some...but it's nice to dream. (And I sincerely hope that Paul's not so hooked on leaving us hanging that he does fillers and pin-ups to get his cliffhangers "back on schedule" as scantronb proposes!)

Now would be the perfect time for a scene change. I've always wondered what it would be like to watch a forum explode.

That is eeevil!

ONE OF FIVE WINGED BEINGS PROPHECIED TO BE WHAT?! WHAT????!!

Think Kurt Russel in "Big Trouble in Little China": 'WHAT will come out no more??'

That reference deserves a hug! *HUGS!*

Holy flapping scrith, is everyone in this universe a supernatural of some sort? Except maybe Pizza Gal?

Well, we already knew that Tina and Monica were supernaturals/paranormals...Jet still seems to be a normal human who just had some serious ICK inside her screwing around with her demon covey...and we still have a decently long list of other fully human characters we've already met (Amanda, Jacqui, Heather, Owen, Lakshmi, Pizza Girl, Daren, Kevin, Alan, and M's Boss)...so I think we're good on the supers to normals ratio.

[DilyV]

lots more here...

ah, found the 'eyes'... http://wapsisquare.com/comic/do-the-eyes/

We can haz badonkadonk nao?

[Radical_Knight]

"...one of five winged beings prophesied to be..." Oh cripes, NOW what?!

Rrrgh.

Anyhow, it's cool that Mon knows Tinas Commandment doesn't apply in this case. Demigods are perfectly able to look after their own selves; I just hope Tina snaps out of her hysteria soon enough to understand that.

This looks to be the next step up from the four horsemen of the Apocalypse... or not.

[meisdadoo]

Aaaand... prophecy is Job Zero. Folks, always remember: Prophecy is time travel. Information that comes from the future. Sometimes it's smarter to shut that the hell up.

Or, it comes from Apollo (in the Greek tradition, and who knows whether he may show up in the Wapsiverse). It could be more a vision of "what the Powers have decided to make happen" than "what shall be, because in the future it has already happened."

But, yeah, even there it's often best to keep your lip buttoned. Tiresias did (feeling that there was no point talking about what he saw, since it couldn't be altered). Cassandra had a terrible time of it, having been cursed by Apollo that no one would understand or believe her prophesies. (A good lesson there... if you ever made a bargain with a god, don't try to renege on your half of the deal!)

Those of us who are not blessed/cursed by such vision of what is to come, might as well act as if we have free will and can reshape the future. We may be right, may be wrong (I don't think anyone has ever truly settled this question despite thousands of years of debate) but it seems better to act as if this were true. There's nothing to lose, thinking this way... and potentially a lot to lose if we "surrender to fate" and give up whatever freedom to change things that we do possess.

Now Playing: the theme music for today's Wapsi Square strip: Grand Funk Railroad "Get It Together". A bit shrill but it seems to fit.

Katsumoto: You believe a man can change his destiny?
Algren: I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed.

"Difficult see, always in motion the future is. . ."

[Yamara]

Holy flapping scrith, is everyone in this universe a supernatural of some sort? Except maybe Pizza Gal?

It's sort of like, "My Blue Heaven," when Steve Martin realizes that he's not the only mobster that has been relocated by the FBI to his small town.

TlalocW

Well, to be fair, Tina has been "out of the coffin" for awhile now, like Julie's sayin'. But it's also fair to be surprised by how deep her clown car goes.

I gotta say, I liked the strip better when Monica was merely a young human with some special abilities and surrounded by supernatural beings that complicated her life, rather than her being one herself. I don't like her nearly as well as a demigod. Just sayin'.

That's a common feeling in reading bildungsroman, or coming-of-age/YA stories. We identify with a character, even envy them their chances, and when they mature, or at last succeed, we're happy they made it through their troubles.

But if the camera lingers, or the story marches on, we get to see the character we loved make other decisions, more adult decisions. Like real life, they change, their chances change and often narrow, and we don't always identify directly with them anymore. Their earlier selves changed us in ways their older selves perhaps cannot.

What you miss most in Monica, I'd guess, is the anticipation. Compare Katherine: We always wanted her to come out of her shell, and, yyyikes. Doctor Ubermom was completely unanticipated, and yet a passionate, involved Katherine now feels right and inevitable. Monica had an opposite curve: She was likable, nerdy, a tough handle on her mind and condition, always wanting to be open and helpful-- but there's been an undercurrent of menace as to her destiny, for a long long time, certainly since the GGs showed up to "complicate her life". Tepoz's balance of keeping her in the dark, and his terror of knowing what she was becoming, that was his reason for being in the story at all.

A comic foil, sure, but terrified nonetheless. How much does Monica already know when she demands more answers out of me? And once I speak, what will she do then?

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/gottenhere/

That was in 2008, but it goes back farther. Those "special abilities" meant Monica has been a doombringer all along.

We got to know her when she was young for a reason. We like her. We're supposed to like her. I try to keep that in mind as I watch her come into her own.

[kingklash]

Up in my corner web, waiting to see what mayhem the morrow brings.

[illiad]

lots more here...

ah, found the 'eyes'... http://wapsisquare.com/comic/do-the-eyes/

We can haz badonkadonk nao?

well, if you wanna be her BF, you will be even more than her just sayin she is 'just a clay doll'....

[zeebaneighba]

Holy flapping scrith, is everyone in this universe a supernatural of some sort? Except maybe Pizza Gal?

It's sort of like, "My Blue Heaven," when Steve Martin realizes that he's not the only mobster that has been relocated by the FBI to his small town.

TlalocW

What you miss most in Monica, I'd guess, is the anticipation.

No. It's the old Superman problem, that making him invulnerable made him a lot less interesting. Monica's a lot less interesting as a demigod - she really isn't all that distinctive from the rest of the troupe. Shelly too. The fact they were human and vulnerable in this exploding minefield of demons and unbalanced supernatural beings was a big part of their appeal. I guess I would have preferred to see Monica mature and develop by gaining wisdom and greater understanding of how to use her limited powers, rather than giving her a whole bunch of new ones out of the Marvel catalog.

[Yamara]

For what it's worth":

Clue Number One: Make a habit of struggling with moral dilemmas.

Clue Number Two: Tar

Oo! Nice catch! Or is it reminder? Too old to remember, too young to die and frune at the source.
But a nice one, whatever it was!

Clue Number Three: A block and a save!

I leave it to you happy pundits to digest and expound.

Aha. Yes. Very good clues indeed. But "a block and a save"? A block, sure.





O, but I am not sure that we can call what Monica does "A SAVE"

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/dontyouwonder/
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/imstillinhere/

Um... yeah... before that...

I'm at a loss as to Georgette's location too... does Tina have carvings like that inside the shop? ... This would be near whatever wall Monica and Jet fell back against unless Tina somehow moved them after she put Monica to sleep...

WILD, UNFOUNDED (and probably totally wrong) THEORY: Georgette was the Tar, Monica just tortured/killed her, and now has to go to Xibalba to fetch her back.

Hey, hey, hey, calm down, you two.
New Georgette is both a floor wax and a dessert topping.

[Catawampus]

Hmmm. "One of 5 winged beings...." Now I'm wondering how many winged beings we know. Phix, Shelly, Tina (are her wings even real/functioning), Astali, Pratt (again, wings not real). That's 5 but they don't all make sense in context.

Don't forget the most dreaded one of all. . .

So, now we get to wonder whether the "I" in "I'm one of five" refers to Tina as a composite being, or just one member of the Tina herd, or both. Or maybe Tina includes all five, and this is just one of the five speaking individually. Or we're misunderstanding because she's being less than totally coherent in her distress, and rather than being one out of five beings with wings, she's one out of an undetermined number of five-winged beings. Or she's one out of five beings who has been shot in the arm, and thus has been winged. Or my blood-sugar is low and I need to eat lunch to keep my mind from rambling too drastically.

I'd say that Tina's eyes are not actually eyes.

Given that they tend to dematerialise at night, leaving an empty space for spiders to crawl into or tentacles to creep out of, I'd say that that is quite likely. At least, not eyes like those on ordinary animals, and not actually needed for sight. Rather, some sort of manifestation of Tina's will. They might not even be physically there. Which leaves the question of where the original Tina's biological eyes have gone. . .perhaps she has a roving eye?

But I expect that at the moment, they look odd simply because she's crying so much.

Aaaand... prophecy is Job Zero. Folks, always remember: Prophecy is time travel. Information that comes from the future. Sometimes it's smarter to shut that the hell up.

Hmm, how many times has prophecy appeared in these stories so far?

There was the whole calendar machine time-loop mess, with various individuals leaving clues for themselves and for other people. In this case, the clues ended up being vital to solving the problem. This is also the only case where the mechanism of how the prophecy was sent is sort of explained.

There was the one about "six special women who will defeat an evil". That one ended up coming to pass, though none of the people involved in making it happen seem to have really known about the prophecy until after the fact.

Then there was the one about Bia's descendent "setting the powers right", which is presumably the one that Brandi is referring to later. I think that we're still waiting to see how that one ends up playing out.

Now we have another. I can't think of any others at the moment.

[NOTDilbert]

To those who have been grouping Pizza Girl in with the Mundanes....

If she's any relation to Pizza Delivery Girl over at QC, she's NOT a Mundane....

Oh, and, Georgette may be in Monica's Covey Space now, having to deal with HER inner demons -
Wait, would Mon's covey be celebrating? Arguing? Going fangirl over Jet? Fighting a NEW Tar trying to establish in Mon's Covey (which might explain some of the external anguish....

I never guess right....

[Dave]

Clue Number Three: A block and a save!

I leave it to you happy pundits to digest and expound.

Aha. Yes. Very good clues indeed. But "a block and a save"? A block, sure.

The implication I took from this discussion, and the one with Nudge which followed, was that the soul which was blocked from leaving (Tina's) became part of Conscience... that it's the "spackle" which fused Shelly's covey of demons into a singular "coven" entity. If my reading of this is correct, Tina's soul can be said to have been "saved" - it's still around, although it's not part of Tina 2.x at all.

[Yamara]

Clue Number Three: A block and a save!

I leave it to you happy pundits to digest and expound.

Aha. Yes. Very good clues indeed. But "a block and a save"? A block, sure.

The implication I took from this discussion, and the one with Nudge which followed, was that the soul which was blocked from leaving (Tina's) became part of Conscience... that it's the "spackle" which fused Shelly's covey of demons into a singular "coven" entity. If my reading of this is correct, Tina's soul can be said to have been "saved" - it's still around, although it's not part of Tina 2.x at all.

Shelly does say, "You were told to block Tina's soul's doorway as well." And it's not a bad deduction, since she was speculating about what "element that made Tina Tina". But that doesn't mean she's right. Connie is deliberately prevaricating about Tina, until Shelly hits on an explanation that won't reveal something Connie knows about Tina. That "Gotcha" has always sounded like a double entendre (triple pun, really: Connie is the cup, and Shelly the ball).

Connie didn't want Shelly to know what really happened to Tina. Shelly certainly hadn't figured it out before. Connie starts to lose it here, even starting to cry, but Shelly is focused on how Connie was made-- and so the conversation turns away from why Tina's soul is missing, since Shelly thinks it's a part of Connie now. Never been established why a "Coven" would need two souls for the spackle-- Connie is attached to Shelly but not to Tina as well-- and Katherine seems to prove that multiple souls can congregate without demons spackling them together.

Connie witnessed what happened to Tina right after Connie was made, as strongly suggested here. And it must be something ugly enough to have been kept from Shelly, at least up to that point.



Maybe Tina's soul going AWOL really had something to do with a Jaguar Girl, who seems to be able to enter coveyspaces while unconscious, and destroy whatever she finds there.



Maybe Monica's been at it ever since.

[DilyV]

lots more here...

ah, found the 'eyes'... http://wapsisquare.com/comic/do-the-eyes/

We can haz badonkadonk nao?

well, if you wanna be her BF, you will be even more than her just sayin she is 'just a clay doll'....

I was referring to the strip before Do the eyes, here:

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/in-layers/

In the last panel one of her demons says "We can haz badonkadonk?"

[Wyvern]

To those who have been grouping Pizza Girl in with the Mundanes....

If she's any relation to Pizza Delivery Girl over at QC, she's NOT a Mundane....

Pizza Delivery Girl is totally not Penelope, okay? Unless she is.

But in Wapsi Square, we actually don't have any reason to think Dylan is unaware of the supernatural. (Does everyone remember she is a named character?) She can take pizza orders over the phone from a dog, and is willing to deliver to him; that's not terribly common.

Of topic, you guys should check out this Nudge and Phix chase video.

[shadowinthelight]

Never been established why a "Coven" would need two souls for the spackle

My guess: Souls are powerful so stopping one from going wherever they go upon death probably takes a lot of effort. Stopping Shelly's soul left her demons in a weakened enough state that they were overwhelmed when hit by Tina's soul.

[MerchManDan]

To those who have been grouping Pizza Girl in with the Mundanes....

If she's any relation to Pizza Delivery Girl over at QC, she's NOT a Mundane....

Pizza Delivery Girl is totally not Penelope, okay? Unless she is.

According to my headcanon, Pizza Girl is indeed NOT Penelope...but IS, in fact, Sara!! Disappeared from the comic rather suddenly, allegedly eaten by an allosaurus BUT in actuality acquired strange new powers somehow related to delivering pizza and shall henceforth be the superhero known only as PIZZA GIRL.

[scantrontb]

Of topic, you guys should check out this Nudge and Phix chase video.

that song mix, and timing of the scenes/panel changes was great!, the first time thru when I watched it, there were a few spots where I was listening to the music and anticipating the next panel, but it felt "off" somehow... until the scene ACTUALLY changed, and the point in the music was spot on for that point in time of the action in the panel... after that first run-through, when I re-watched it, it flows much more smoothly in my mind now...

[lake_wrangler]

Of topic, you guys should check out this Nudge and Phix chase video.

that song mix, and timing of the scenes/panel changes was great!, the first time thru when I watched it, there were a few spots where I was listening to the music and anticipating the next panel, but it felt "off" somehow... until the scene ACTUALLY changed, and the point in the music was spot on for that point in time of the action in the panel... after that first run-through, when I re-watched it, it flows much more smoothly in my mind now...

Thank you kindly. I worked hard, to get to that point. And even then, there are a few places where I feel there is a split-second discrepancy between what I was looking to achieve and what I managed to achieve... But it certainly was fun to make.