Land Sakes 2012-12-03

[Yamara]

So it appears to me that Monica is mostly the product of outside intervention.
She has been manipulated to this point in the story.

Nimrod has something there. Monica has been created as surely as the GGG's were created and for the same reason: as a weapon.

Indeed, there, Nimrod does. And taking a cue from Atomic's delightful Air Force anecdote, it needs to be stressed that having to face the fact that she was a football, "just getting by", was what really set her off.

Monica is usually fine with her ice creams and small self-improvements and parsable island adventures. Nudge's bitching was indeed "nothing"... between friends.

But not to the undomesticated jaguar, alone within. And the nigh-mocking praise in today's installment seems directed at same.

And the mildly twisted way these guys are trolling her? If I was that distraught and I had the power to poit, I wouldn't stick around for it.

Good catch. Monica would not want to stick around for it. But master trolling isn't about getting someone to leave... it's about finding a live one, and making them stick around and lose their shit.

Someone in there is too proud and/or too deeply wronged to take a diss, or Nudge would not have been fried.

We thought that the story was about getting the gold from Smaug. In reality it was introducing The One Ring. Getting rid of the Calendar Machine was important, but getting the spike in Monica's head was more important. The more I read Wapsi, the more impressed I get.

Especially since The One Ring's intro was a rewrite of an originally far less vicious scene.

Ever read the original Riddles In The Dark? Tolkien recast that chapter of The Hobbit as Bilbo lying about how he got the Ring. And so Professor T. masterfully recast his silly buffoonish Gollum from his children's book into the tortured mirror of the Bagginses--who wrestled not just with manifest evil but with their own denial.

Paul T. is publishing in a different time and media, but the masterstrokes come from similar inspirations. Retcon? Cerebus Syndrome? Nuts to that. It just works like he knew it all along:

Nudge-nudge.

Wink-wink.


Say no more.

[Fairportfan]

Wink-wink.

Heh. I like the one two days before that, when Paul took notice of a certain thread of speculation amongst the fans...

[Mark N]

The key just unlocked the regeneration powers and fixed them to that point when it was stuck in her head. Otherwise she'd return to being a baby.

That's what I gathered anyway.

Actually Paul stated that the Key is the source of her Phoenix blood so it causes the regeneration and locks her into her current age when killed. Before the spike dead was just dead for her.

[Nimrod]

Well from the previous forum there had been a extensive discussion about her "dodging" the bullets and within that conversation the actual nature of Monica's doorway ability was reviewed. From that talk the consensus was that she instinctively was protecting herself by slipping into "Doorway Mode" which is simply the inverse of her "Poit Ability".

I've read you say this before, Nimrod. All I can say is that I do not remember any such consensus in the comments section (and I'd read it through all the way a couple of times before it was taken off-line).

And, what you suggest is not what Shelly and Bud had concluded. Shelly discusses the incident with Monica here, and it's clear that Bud, Shelly, and Monica had all come to the conclusion that Monica had actually poited the bullets away just before they touched her skin, or "caused them to graze somehow".

No mention of "doorway" at all in that discussion. No hint that the bullets went "through" Monica (doorway or otherwise).

It's an interesting interpretation you have, about "doorway mode", but you are the only commenter/forumite I have ever read who seemed to hold that point of view.

Oh, I see your confusion - the consensus I speak of was the prevailing theory held from the moment of the whole bullet adventure in Cairo till the supposition between Bud and Shelly a rather long span of strip time. After that alternate theory (which has some literal holes in it) the consensus started to unravel. It was the subsequent various interpretations and the lack of the author's ratifying any one of them that eventually made the "Bud / Shelly" supposition the "explanation".

I would point out that the two characters only made a bet that Monica would come to their conclusion not that their conclusion was correct.

Also the biggest hole in the presented theory, and one pointed out at the time in the original conversations, is that the bullet poit or bullet graze effect does not explain how shots fired behind Monica could penetrate both sides of her clothing unless the bullets did pass through her. Also - and this was not my point, someone mentioned that Monica lacked then the level of control to effectively Poit fired bullets and that a passive "Doorway Mode" was a simpler explanation.

The more complicated and vague Bud/Shelly theory only holds more weight as it is the theory written into the story-line. So, I am good with that even though the "Doorway Mode" is simpler and fits with more story elements of what followed.

I just must like the idea that all Monica's super powers stem from one source and not multiple external actions by others.

[Mark N]

I kind of always thought that she has E.S.P. and another level of her consciousness did the poiting, just like how she poited Jin and herself from the volcano without realizing it.

[Atomic]

Self Preservation Poiting of bullets and etc discussed Here. This includes volcanoes, it seems!

[Dave11]

"... you stand on common ground with us all now." Means?

All it means is " one of us, one of us, gooble gobble, one of us, one of us"


(I can't believe no one else thought of that!--does the pun jar take paypal?)

Yamara's working on the PunPal Mobile App now...

[Jürgen A. Erhard]

I fucking give up. I just give up.

Confusion Corner's over there.

[bmonk]

Sorta like being a skilled martial artist, in a way. You have "equipment" that the average human does not (even if it's just training and skill and experience, rather than something paranormal) and therefore have an additional responsibility.

Actually, that's a good working definition of a profession: a job or calling that entails its special ethical demands due to the vulnerability it puts the customer (or bystanders) in. Such as doctor, teacher, lawyer, accountant, clergy, counselor, martial artist, police officer, soldier . . .

the cannon of Wapsi

I hereby propose this as Monica's new nickname.

Yes--one rarely sees a woman of her caliber.
[drops a set of dum dum bullets in the pun jar]

In other words, her worst fear is getting stuck doing the family business, which may happen to take place in a hellish environment. We saw her dropped in her dad's hot tub. And is even now being subjected to slide shows of what her cousins are doing and who/what they are married to ("And are you seeing anyone special, Dear?")

Good Lord! (choke) I'll take the lava pit...[/quote]
Had to lol on this one! Reminded me of a melodrama we put on one year at camp--I even got to play the hero. The dastardly villain Mr. Whiplash gave poor victim Miss Buttercups her choice: She could choose the Train Tracks ("Oh noooooo!"), or the Buzz Saw ("Oh noooo!"), or marriage to Mr. Whiplash ("I'll take the buzz saw!")

Phix is teaching Shelly how to be a sphinx. Monica has started taking Jaguar 101. Maybe they can commute together!

And that's the common ground where they all stand -- amazing powers as part of their being.

Good idea--maybe on the daily commute they could compare ideas on their new superhero costumes?

Heh. "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex".

Not the best idea.

But Niven never considered a woman who could poit the wee wrigglers into a suitable container--perhaps a green kryptonite sphere?

[Julie]

Yes, clarification is necessary before I can pry myself out of the confusion corner (or maybe I just ate too many of these darn cookies...they keep appearing!!)

Sorry! I can stop baking them if needed.

[davids4250]

And that's the common ground where they all stand -- amazing powers as part of their being.

Good idea--maybe on the daily commute they could compare ideas on their new superhero costumes?

Heh. "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex".

Not the best idea.

But Niven never considered a woman who could poit the wee wrigglers into a suitable container--perhaps a green kryptonite sphere?[/quote]

Are you saying that Monica is a big bore? And how would she avoid getting the top of her head blown off by said wrigglers? Her timing would have to be phenomenal!

[Fairportfan]

And that's the common ground where they all stand -- amazing powers as part of their being.

Good idea--maybe on the daily commute they could compare ideas on their new superhero costumes?

Heh. "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex".

Not the best idea.

But Niven never considered a woman who could poit the wee wrigglers into a suitable container--perhaps a green kryptonite sphere?

Are you saying that Monica is a big bore? And how would she avoid getting the top of her head blown off by said wrigglers? Her timing would have to be phenomenal![/quote]
Actually, i think that the original thing i was responding to was comparing Kevin and Monica to a normal guy and Supergirl.

Xenia Onnatop wouldn't be in it, compared to Supergirl.

[bmonk]

But Niven never considered a woman who could poit the wee wrigglers into a suitable container--perhaps a green kryptonite sphere?

Are you saying that Monica is a big bore? And how would she avoid getting the top of her head blown off by said wrigglers? Her timing would have to be phenomenal!

Well, I didn't quite put it that way--as somebody else said, she has some big guns...

As for her timing, if she can poit away bullets (or let them pass through her being, whatever the mechanics might be), keeping her crown attached to her head would not be too much more difficult. On the other hand, she'd better get them near the source, before they have a chance to spread out--or it may be much tougher to get all of them--and even one or two could be a problem

[Nimrod]

Self Preservation Poiting of bullets and etc discussed Here. This includes volcanoes, it seems!

I appreciate the second posting of the link to the strip where the Bud / Shelly theory was put forward - but within the context of the story line:

1) What is put forward is Bud's / Shelly's theory as to how the whole bullet event might have happened.
2) The "bet" for the case of beer was whether or not Monica would or could be pushed to share their vague theory not that she would determine what she actually did.
3) They were not attempting to actually describe the mechanism just describe what Monica might have accomplished inadvertently.

Everyone appears to be focusing on the "Case of beer" strips and not going back to the actual bullet event strips.

If taken in the context of a person reading Wapsi in sequence as the strip slowly unfolded over time, the duration from the events depicted during the Cario jump all the way up to the Bud + Shelly bet puts it in context much better than simply posting the "Case of beer".

I agree that there must be some automatic, totally out of Monica's conscious control self-preservation action happening. Whatever that mode is remains undefined in the strip. The conclusion that Monica is prodded to reach still lacks the definition of what she is actually doing. I know this is a difference of nuance, but the "Case of beer" strips only show that Monica assumed that she was somehow "poiting" bullets not that she actually did it. Bud and Shelly were themselves unsure and assumed that Monica did not share their opinion in lieu of a more "scientific" explanation.

It is much easier to prove that she did not do something than she actually did something. So far - nothing in the Wapsi strip says that she did not function as a doorway during the bullets yet the perforations of her clothing do show that she did not "poit" them. The very "Case of beer" strips actually reinforce that.

And if someone says that she could have "poited" the bullets from one side of her body to the other that is no different than acting as a doorway as I summarized above. That is unless Mr. P says so.

I so enjoy discussing these finer points.