Wapsi Square Forum

Been thinquing (dangerous, I know). Mon is very fragile right now, subject to violent, unexpected mood swings. What if the realization that she was, or may have been, set up sends her into another Jaguar Girl rage? In the Library, she could not seriously harm Phix, and probably not Tsillah, but Eiryale? Maybe that is why they brought her to the Library?
Just a thought.

Give Phix's question mark I doubt the boiling lava was Nudges worst fear, and so does Phix. I suspect Nudges worst fear is being ignored. Thee is a lot of demanding of attention in what Nudge does. It can be dangerous attention but still attention. Makes you wonder of Nudge is ever off stage, even when in hiding. Bets that Nudge slipped that fear to the front so Monica could act on it.

Now when did Monica become a mind reader? How else could she pick out Nudges worst fear???

And another thought - was the (apparent) random digression introducing Pratt and McBride actually all that random?

Fairportfan wrote:And another thought - was the (apparent) random digression introducing Pratt and McBride actually all that random?

I can see incarceration being high on Nudge's list of things not liked. And two new MIB agents sent to Minneapolis? I think Fairport may be on to something...

Jabberwonky wrote:]
I can see incarceration being high on Nudge's list of things not liked. And two new MIB agents sent to Minneapolis? I think Fairport may be on to something...

Or, not, as the case may be.

Nice avatar.

zachariah wrote:Give Phix's question mark I doubt the boiling lava was Nudges worst fear, and so does Phix. I suspect Nudges worst fear is being ignored. Thee is a lot of demanding of attention in what Nudge does. It can be dangerous attention but still attention. Makes you wonder of Nudge is ever off stage, even when in hiding. Bets that Nudge slipped that fear to the front so Monica could act on it.

Now when did Monica become a mind reader? How else could she pick out Nudges worst fear???

Being indefinitely stuck in searing hell should be near the top of anyone’s list.

Phix acts like she wishes she thought of it.

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!!)

I think they are comparing Monica favorably to themselves.

Quotes of approval:
Eyrale: She was decisive as a cobra! Quicker too! –- Decisive as a cobra, not a bad description of Eyrale.
Tsillah: She has the mind of a sociopath but the heart of a lion. –- Is there something about Tsillah that is going to be very worrisome?

yada yada.... nudge may be 'dead' in the conventional sense, but in demigod-land she is just stuck in hades...

now think of the most disgusting, 'they love doing it' ,criminal ... would you not like to get rid of them indefinitely??? let you breathe a bit easier while caring for your loved ones???

that is what Phix is talking about... :/

A thought- maybe Nudge's worst fear is being alone. She just got dropped on an island by herself in the middle of nowhere (ending up in the volcano may have been incidental). After all, being a trickster god requires other people- with no one to talk to or play pranks on, that would be a miserable existence indeed.

Someone poit her a volleyball. Let's see what happens.

Boxilar wrote:

ShadOBabe wrote:All of this seems like they're really just screwing with her...

It's more than that. All of them, especially Phix, are trying to drive home that beings of great power screw up. Eyrale accidentally freezes people. Phix gets pushed past her breaking point and lashes out. They all have lethal potential, bit it doesn't make them care any less or keep them from regretting the things they've done.

Monica apparently had decided on some level that All Phix was was a souless monster. And that probably has a lot to do with her denial. Phix is a souless monster because she's powerful if Monica is powerful, she must be a souless monster too. The ladies are doing some cognitive realignment.

Yeah, I get that.
But I mean, right at this very moment they all just seem to be screwing with her. There's a reason behind it, but the somewhat smug smiles and bits of praise they're giving her all while she's still in horror over the idea that she's a murderer (as far as she knows, anyway)... and the fact that all the "compliments" really sound like BAD things. She's a "cobra" a "sociopath"... They're driving home the point that she's not really any different from them, but in a very twisted kind of way.

Yeah, they're totally trolling her.

"... You stand on common ground with us all now."
"That's right sugah!! Welcome to the "monster" club!!"

To be honest, though... What would they do if this backfires?
I know it probably won't, but seriously!! It's entirely probable that a person in this situation would just simply break, panic, and in her case, poit away. Like all the way to Mexico and just hide curled up in a fetal position. I'm glad Monica is getting her long overdue piece of humble pie, but if I was in the same boat, my flight instincts would have kicked in and I'd be getting the hell out of there so I can break down in peace.

Aleister Crow wrote:A thought- maybe Nudge's worst fear is being alone. She just got dropped on an island by herself in the middle of nowhere (ending up in the volcano may have been incidental). After all, being a trickster god requires other people- with no one to talk to or play pranks on, that would be a miserable existence indeed.

Someone poit her a volleyball. Let's see what happens.

LOL!! I hope that's it!!
That would actually be kind of hilarious.

Nudge: Oh, for the love of the ancients... it is so BORING HERE!! Someone talk to me!! I need attention!! I need pranking suckers!! I need stimulation!! A gameboy, a book, a piece of string!! SOMETHING!!

Bathorys Daughter wrote:I fucking give up. I just give up.

I think Bathorys Daughter has a concise summation of the event ... I dunno where this thing is going.

Fatuncle wrote:

Bathorys Daughter wrote:I fucking give up. I just give up.

I think Bathorys Daughter has a concise summation of the event ... I dunno where this thing is going.

Just maybe the original events that landed Nudge in the library are recreating them selves. Nudge was exiled for rubbing her cleverness into the other gods faces too much after all. I haven't really seen any change in her behavior at all. This recent round of poking and prodding might be enough for others to ban together to solve the nudge issue for good.

Other option:

It's a foul ball out of left field and it strike the pun jar. The jar breaks. That makes it a home run and a jarbreaker. With a mightly warping of reality the 10 Trillion Hindu gods appear in Nicolet Mall for cyber monday and they have to deal with them. That sounds like something wicked Paul might drop on us Friday.

Sounds like someone was using Tsillah's shadow-warping abilities and the Bibliothiki as a holodeck-analogue. Still want a definite answer on Nudge.

Today's strip helped to gel a nagging question I have had for a while about Monica and her ever-growing list of special abilities.

Just how many of them are actually innate powers and how many have been given to her... let me see.

1) Being born with Irish + Mexican heritage resulting in her unique physique = so far per the canon of Wapsi this has not had any outside influence and thus we can still keep that in the random (out of her control) column. (However Jin may have had some hand in it)
2) Learning to read The Glyphs (i.e. The Glyph Reader) = That was done to her by intervention by an outside supernatural source with their own motives so that was done to her.
3) The "Poit / Doorway" Ability = This appears to be her base ability however it appears to only have come to the surface through some special circumstances.
4) The "Phoenix" regenerative Ability = This has been the direct result of using the key / knife on her head essentially locking her "Doorway" ability in feedback.

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 wrote:Today's strip helped to gel a nagging question I have had for a while about Monica and her ever-growing list of special abilities.

Just how many of them are actually innate powers and how many have been given to her... let me see.

1) Being born with Irish + Mexican heritage resulting in her unique physique = so far per the cannon of Wapsi this has not had any outside influence and thus we can still keep that in the random (out of her control) column. (However Jin may have had some hand in it)
2) Learning to read The Glyphs (i.e. The Glyph Reader) = That was done to her by intervention by an outside supernatural source with their own motives so that was done to her.
3) The "Poit / Doorway" Ability = This appears to be her base ability however it appears to only have come to the surface through some special circumstances.
4) The "Phoenix" regenerative Ability = This has been the direct result of using the key / knife on her head essentially locking her "Doorway" ability in feedback.

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

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.

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

And, I think that has a good deal to do with why she has been in denial about her true dangerousness.

It isn't her. It isn't even things that she chose. It's things that were done to her, from a very young and vulnerable age. And, in most cases, they've been traumatic things, or things which had traumatic consequences... involuntary confinement to a mental institution, near-fatal injury, betrayal, stabbing, other near-death experiences.

PTSD, anyone?

This latest little psychodrama may have successfully broken through her denial, but it's going to be adding another thick yummy layer of trauma-frosting to the cake.

Nimrod wrote:the cannon of Wapsi

I hereby propose this as Monica's new nickname.

I have a feeling that, if Nudge and Tsillah are related, the story of her greatest fear is more, shall we say, Prattchetarian. I can imagine a similar relationship to what Death and his granddaughter have in the Diskworld books.

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?")