Warmin Kiss 2012-08-10

[MrFireDragon]

i think that all the talk about titans gorgons and the such being dangerous is a bunch of BS, they are powerful yes, and it seems like quite a few have issues to say the least. but they are capable of conscious thought, they are responsible for their actions, if they didn't want to be menacing, or if they didn't want to be angry at the drop of a hat then they wouldn't be, they would fight their nature, they would change who they are to suit who they want to be. this isn't an ability that only humans can use, it's an ability of being able to comprehend the consequences of being a total halfwit! while shelly might now have an interesting transformation that she can't fully control, and she might have a nagging in the back of her head that tells her to be angry and self righteous ultimately it's up to her to act on it. self restraint isn't impossible to achieve even when you weigh 2 tons and can smack cars out of the way like they are basket balls, it's tho consequences of the actions that keep you from doing that, having a violent nature is no excuse to be a murderous little twit, in fact it means that you should know better!

although I agree to some point with you, the problem here is really what Euryale just showed.... what we consider an "oops" moment like stepping on someone's toes or being mad and bumping into people by accident or during a rage fit letting your hands fly all over the place and poking someone accidentally in the eye..... that same situation on a titan, sphinx, gorgon, god, etc.... would mean something much much worse to a regular human being. She may not be dangerous for her circle of friends, but she does a whole world to interact with. So, that might be the issue here.

[Dave]

Also... did we ever figure out WHY Euryale has such a Southern belle accent?

I don't think so. Presumably she lived in the South for some time, but we don't know when or where.

American Southern dialects have their origins in various regional dialects from the British Isles, plus some influences from African language speaking styles. Euryale's dialect seems to be fairly current (and pronounced!) but it's entirely possible that she came by some of it while living in the Isles a few centuries ago. She's old enough, and we don't know where she's been hanging.

[Mark N]

i think that all the talk about titans gorgons and the such being dangerous is a bunch of BS, they are powerful yes, and it seems like quite a few have issues to say the least. but they are capable of conscious thought, they are responsible for their actions, if they didn't want to be menacing, or if they didn't want to be angry at the drop of a hat then they wouldn't be, they would fight their nature, they would change who they are to suit who they want to be. this isn't an ability that only humans can use, it's an ability of being able to comprehend the consequences of being a total halfwit! while shelly might now have an interesting transformation that she can't fully control, and she might have a nagging in the back of her head that tells her to be angry and self righteous ultimately it's up to her to act on it. self restraint isn't impossible to achieve even when you weigh 2 tons and can smack cars out of the way like they are basket balls, it's tho consequences of the actions that keep you from doing that, having a violent nature is no excuse to be a murderous little twit, in fact it means that you should know better!

They are dangerous because they still use their abilities as a reflex mechanism, and the fact that reflex can operate faster than reason increases that danger. The sentience of the being is not an active defense from autopilot as we learned from Shelly and Connie's time in the Time Forest that the Sphinx are cold blooded killers in spite of their intelligence.

[Mark N]

Also... did we ever figure out WHY Euryale has such a Southern belle accent?

I don't think so. Presumably she lived in the South for some time, but we don't know when or where.

American Southern dialects have their origins in various regional dialects from the British Isles, plus some influences from African language speaking styles. Euryale's dialect seems to be fairly current (and pronounced!) but it's entirely possible that she came by some of it while living in the Isles a few centuries ago. She's old enough, and we don't know where she's been hanging.

Euryale may also have spent the last couple of centuries in the mountains of the U.S. as well. The Southern Drawl is very easy to pick up and hard to drop once you do.

[Julie]

i think that all the talk about titans gorgons and the such being dangerous is a bunch of BS, they are powerful yes, and it seems like quite a few have issues to say the least. but they are capable of conscious thought, they are responsible for their actions, if they didn't want to be menacing, or if they didn't want to be angry at the drop of a hat then they wouldn't be, they would fight their nature, they would change who they are to suit who they want to be. this isn't an ability that only humans can use, it's an ability of being able to comprehend the consequences of being a total halfwit! while shelly might now have an interesting transformation that she can't fully control, and she might have a nagging in the back of her head that tells her to be angry and self righteous ultimately it's up to her to act on it. self restraint isn't impossible to achieve even when you weigh 2 tons and can smack cars out of the way like they are basket balls, it's tho consequences of the actions that keep you from doing that, having a violent nature is no excuse to be a murderous little twit, in fact it means that you should know better!

although I agree to some point with you, the problem here is really what Euryale just showed.... what we consider an "oops" moment like stepping on someone's toes or being mad and bumping into people by accident or during a rage fit letting your hands fly all over the place and poking someone accidentally in the eye..... that same situation on a titan, sphinx, gorgon, god, etc.... would mean something much much worse to a regular human being. She may not be dangerous for her circle of friends, but she does a whole world to interact with. So, that might be the issue here.

Bingo! Which, by the way is why I'm okay without seeing the characters in this story turn into super heroes of some sort. They are flawed and prone to fits of anger that triggers their powers in ways that make them more relatable and interesting...and dangerous to the rest of the world. They are exercising "great responsibility" with their "great power" just by virtue of staying off the public radar as best they can (and with the help of the MIB). Heck, if you want to see them do something to better the world somehow, just go back through the archives and review the whole Calendar Machine fiasco.

[Dave]

although I agree to some point with you, the problem here is really what Euryale just showed.... what we consider an "oops" moment like stepping on someone's toes or being mad and bumping into people by accident or during a rage fit letting your hands fly all over the place and poking someone accidentally in the eye..... that same situation on a titan, sphinx, gorgon, god, etc.... would mean something much much worse to a regular human being. She may not be dangerous for her circle of friends, but she does a whole world to interact with. So, that might be the issue here.

Right you are! It's the same reasoning behind the good advice that you should never throw a "fake punch" at a trained martial artist (especially a half-trained one!) Their combat reflexes are likely to outrun their conscious thought processes, and you'll end up on the ground with a broken whatever before you (or they) realize what's happening.

An example from classic SF - George O. Smith's "Highways in Hiding" (a.k.a. "Space Plague"). A strange virus-like "Mekstron's Disease" causes its victims' flesh to change into something like a crystalline allomorph - chemically identical to normal human flesh, but much harder and tougher (and, as a convenient side effect, the muscle strength increases proportionally). If you survive the infection, you're super-strong and nearly invulnerable... and faced with the same problem that Bud alluded to... "People are like soap bubbles to me"

A newly-recovered Mekstrom could expect to spend weeks learning how to move around normally in the human world, without making obvious gaffes such as ripping off doorknobs, putting hands through doors and walls, tearing off car doors and stomping the brake pedal right out through the fire-wall, shredding their clothing while dressing, snapping pencils in half when trying to write, etc. Their home was usually a complete wreck by the time they were ready to go out in public.

[Fairportfan]

Hmmm. Maybe i'm a little slow, but i just noticed - when did Monica's legs wind up 'round Eurayle's waist?

[Dave]

Hmmm. Maybe i'm a little slow, but i just noticed - when did Monica's legs wind up 'round Eurayle's waist?

Sometime during the mmmmmMUAH I would guess - probably right at about the M

It looks as if this could only have happened between the two frames. Monica was standing on her own two feet yesterday, before she was frozen. First frame today, Euryale's left hand is stabilizing Monica's neck; right hand is not visible, but what shows of her arm position suggests it's out of sight behind Monica's head/neck. There's no indication that Euryale is lifting Monica upwards. Euryale is leaning towards Monica... not a stable position at all, if Monica were already off of the floor.

Second frame today, Euryale is leaning backwards, clearly supporting Monica's weight in a hug (sort of a two-person teeter-totter arrangement) and Monica's legs are entirely off of the floor.

So, it looks to me as if Monica's legs were probably still on the floor until the moment when she "thawed out". At that point it would be natural for her to sag downwards and fall if not supported, so Euryale caught her and scooped her up.

Euryale did warn Monica that she's a "hugger", and we've seen that's definitely true. She might possibly have developed the habit, as a necessary part of keeping her accidental freeze-victims from falling down on their butts when she warms them up again. And, I imagine she rather likes it

[donoho]

So this is where everyone went...

If the freezing didn't distract her, waking up lip locked and straddling Euryale should.

[Yamara]

I know that Wapsi has always been about extraordinary people trying to live normal lives, and I don't want that theme to be abandoned entirely, But if Shelly doesn't step up and start playing in the big leagues where her power will make a difference, then she'll be no better than her mother.

This. Every once in a while I ask Pablo, "when is Monica going to wake up and realize how staggeringly powerful she is?" He is always cagey in reply. I just keep wondering when she is going to have her "Spider Man Moment" and realize that with great power comes great responsibility, even if it is unasked for. Same goes for Shelly and the GGGs.

Shelly (57) has always been the reluctant hero, resisting her calling to the point of turning it into bullying others, even accidentally: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/05162003/

Compare Shelly (1)'s wanting the glory of drawing the sword from the stone, despite being entirely naive about the rest of the myth cycles: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/all-my-life/ (Even she didn't really want the title of hero, though. She just wanted to help fix the Calendar Machine.)

"Our" Shelly performed her tasks out of the duties of friendship, not because she ever wanted anything to do with grand majesty of a paranormal cosmos. Bia wasn't wrong that the Time Forest burned her humanity away: She had forgotten her origin entirely. But her memories flooded back, her humanity was not lost; perhaps because her Conscience never left her, and/or the Relic could only return her to herself in that way. And so Phix's caution that her humanity will show her right from wrong is the real takeaway in this scene of the chess match of the powers: Phix understands Shelly is still very human, and Bia does not.

This at least gives mankind a new, if small, home court advantage in those big leagues.

As for Monica, I suspect that several of those last 56 spins on the Calendar Machine... did not end well because of her. Jin's suggestion/Dave-Mason-reference to Monica that there ain't no bad guys, "just you and me" has always stuck with me. "We're just us..." or "We're the only two villains."

Euryale isn't wrong to warn Monica about the guardian paranormals, but Mon being thwarted too often is itself a dangerous thing to do. One of the most powerful moments in rereading Wapsi is when Monica uses Glyph to command Bud to remember her brutal death. She can still do that stuff at anytime (indeed, at their first meeting, Phix praises her for not using Brandi as a goon against her) but M has too much respect for the girls to do that. But when she doesn't get respect in return, and is cut out of loops, and is misdirected, she rightfully loses her patience. And this edges right up against the sum of all fears, as Bud seems to be feeling in this installment: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/feeling-better/ Was M suggesting some fun, or threatening to override her will? Or both?

A great deal of effort has been spent in domesticating humans. I doubt we'll ever be entirely tame. But if we are to stand among these ancient untame beings, we're going to have to muster the courage to face them, run with them and even stand up to them from time to time. And that cannot happen only when it's all safe to try.

[jwhouk]

Also... did we ever figure out WHY Euryale has such a Southern belle accent?

More likely, the question is, "Why NOT?"

[MerchManDan]

Hmmm. Maybe i'm a little slow, but i just noticed - when did Monica's legs wind up 'round Eurayle's waist?

Looks like Mon is wondering that exact same thing.

[WilliamCA]

I think there two points made in this comic.

1. Monica doesn't realize that sweet talk and kindness doesn't help everyone when they are in a period of deep emotional trauma and strife. Sometimes you need to leave that person alone and let them cope.

2. The beings that Monica is co-existing with are powerful and dangerous. No matter how humane they act they are still very dangerous beings with the power to level cities and kill million, if not billions on a whim. While these beings may be kind and loving, they are still sentient, emotional entities who can fly off the handle like any normal person would.

In just the last three weeks we've had several examples of seemingly normal people going on shooting sprees for no truly logical rhyme or reason. In several comics the GG have joked about incidents where they brutally killed someone for a simple insult or destroyed a ancient civilization for shits and giggles. There's a reason why so many of Monica's friends live in fringe realities or off-side planes of existence. They cannot cope with the miseries of that humanity must deal with without getting themselves into a level of trouble that might spell the doom of a large number of humans.

[Fairportfan]

2. The beings that Monica is co-existing with are powerful and dangerous. No matter how humane they act they are still very dangerous beings with the power to level cities and kill million, if not billions on a whim. While these beings may be kind and loving, they are still sentient, emotional entities who can fly off the handle like any normal person would

"He's not a tame lion..."

[waldosan]

i think that all the talk about titans gorgons and the such being dangerous is a bunch of BS, they are powerful yes, and it seems like quite a few have issues to say the least. but they are capable of conscious thought, they are responsible for their actions, if they didn't want to be menacing, or if they didn't want to be angry at the drop of a hat then they wouldn't be, they would fight their nature, they would change who they are to suit who they want to be. this isn't an ability that only humans can use, it's an ability of being able to comprehend the consequences of being a total halfwit! while shelly might now have an interesting transformation that she can't fully control, and she might have a nagging in the back of her head that tells her to be angry and self righteous ultimately it's up to her to act on it. self restraint isn't impossible to achieve even when you weigh 2 tons and can smack cars out of the way like they are basket balls, it's tho consequences of the actions that keep you from doing that, having a violent nature is no excuse to be a murderous little twit, in fact it means that you should know better!

They are dangerous because they still use their abilities as a reflex mechanism, and the fact that reflex can operate faster than reason increases that danger. The sentience of the being is not an active defense from autopilot as we learned from Shelly and Connie's time in the Time Forest that the Sphinx are cold blooded killers in spite of their intelligence.

i'm no foreigner to the reflex action, personally if i let something like reflexes get in the way of reason or my actions then I'd have killed someone by now, i decided that whether by accident or not that was unacceptable. it's not about trying to keep your nature from affecting the people around you it's about keeping yourself from affecting the people around you, i've personally fully accepted that I'm a bloody twit who given half a chance would gladly beat someones face in for a dollar, and in response to that I'm able to say that i've never allowed myself a chance! Shelly having trouble with being a sphinx mostly stems from her believing that she's still mostly human, a human couldn't keep a sphinx from doing something even if a human wanted to (where does a 2 ton sphinx sit? anywhere it wants to!) she needs to accept that she's not a human anymore because if she keeps trying to take on the instincts and thus reflexes of a sphinx from the standpoint of a human then she isn't going to win. she needs to be a sphinx and deal with being a sphinx as a sphinx. sphinx sphinx sphinx.

personally i see Phix walking away rather than tearing up her local surroundings as a very safe and sane thing to do. i still stand by my convictions that accident or not hurting someone because of your violent nature is inexcusable, i hold myself to this and so far it's worked quite nicely. now if they actually deserved it (cough) bia (cough) then it's a good reason to flex your muscles and bump somebody through a wall. the point is they might be dangerous but their danger is in no way different than a socially maladjusted punk who decides to sit behind the wheel of a 2 ton pickup truck. they can both do about the same amount of damage because of a reflex trigger and the only real difference is that one is drunk before noon more often.

[NOTDilbert]

I just noticed that one of the portaits on Phix's wall o' skulls has been defaced by someone with a marker or crayon, etc.
Wonder if it's anyone we know?

[Geek_on_call]

♫ "I kissed a girl and I LIKED IT!"♫..... Sorry.
Point taken Euryale. Now Monica will 'poit' herself over to Kevins just to...'CONFIRM HER HETEROSEXUALITY'.

Nothing confirms a woman's Heterosexuality like another woman providing foreplay.

[Geek_on_call]

Hmmm. Maybe i'm a little slow, but i just noticed - when did Monica's legs wind up 'round Eurayle's waist?

Looks like Mon is wondering that exact same thing.

It's a body reflex thing.
Never mind her legs. How did short Monica's breast get on top of tall Eurayle's??

[Fairportfan]

Never mind her legs. How did short Monica's breast get on top of tall Eurayle's??

Euryale had picked her up in the first panel...

[Julie]

2. The beings that Monica is co-existing with are powerful and dangerous. No matter how humane they act they are still very dangerous beings with the power to level cities and kill million, if not billions on a whim. While these beings may be kind and loving, they are still sentient, emotional entities who can fly off the handle like any normal person would

"He's not a tame lion..."

Win!