Wapsi Square Forum

Aaaand.. Another convergence, another thread connected.

I like how this tapestry is developing.

Jay-Em wrote:Aaaand.. Another convergence, another thread connected.

I like how this tapestry is developing.

Yup, Paul weaves the best tapestries ever.

jwhouk wrote:What's interesting is: if she spent her 15th B-day there, that was relatively recently... like, about the same time Jet was getting raped.

Sixteen years ago.

Mark N wrote:I guess we can say that Suzi has been doing "community Service" for quite a long while.
This also fits what I have been thinking all weekend of where this bombshell was going. It is not unheard of for a facility to have the occasional animal slip through the cracks, especially the underfunded ones (I wonder if the facility was in the US or Mexico (it makes a big difference about 20 years ago)).

Sixteen years, as she just turned thirty-one.

Probably Mexico, since the bus thing happened in Mexico.

Props to ChattaStarhawk, DilyV and Atomic for totally calling it. I was among those who were hoping it wasn't true, but now in retrospect it fits that this would have been part of her past. Too bad she had to relive the experience via the tar, though. Poor Monica! The only solace I can think of there being is her newfound strength as the Jaguar Girl, and her ability to truly empathize with Georgette having gone through it herself. Twice.

Hmmmm...I just caught myself saying "truly empathize"...that raises an interesting question...even if someone has not gone through a traumatic experience and feels empathy for one who has, is that empathy received in the same way as it would if given by someone who shared a similar experience?

Oh, and Suzi strikes again...I'm thinking we might get more of her backstory as part of this...interesting bits about her past comes from here and the next two.

BTW, I just came across this while looking for the Suzi comics...I had forgotten that Monica's ability to see one's worst fear and act on it is part of her superpower. Not certain if, given today's revelation or her admission to some sociopathic tendencies, if she wants to try to rein that in or be more like Suzi?

I knew it had to be something other than the Tar. "I was raped while in your head trying to help you" would just be one more thing to add to an already crushing load of guilt.

NOTDilbert wrote:"So, how did he die?"

"Well, they found his dismembered jaw on the roof, and his blood-drained body was found smashed on the sidewalk out by the front entrance."

"My God...."

"Yup. Cause of death: Complications from a bout of influenza."

Because, what ELSE are they gonna put in the records......?

Coughed so hard his jaw fell off? Sounds legit.

NOTDilbert wrote:"So, how did he die?"

"Well, they found his dismembered jaw on the roof, and his blood-drained body was found smashed on the sidewalk out by the front entrance."

"My God...."

"Yup. Cause of death: Complications from a bout of influenza."

Because, what ELSE are they gonna put in the records......?

"Fatal complications from advanced hubris and sociopathy."

This has been really hard to read. This page in particular. I had a similar experience to Monica/ Institutionalized as a young teen, sexually assaulted while there. It took me a long long time to come grips with it and heal. That I have managed to get through this storyline without freaking out is a testament to how far I have come. Paul, I want to express my appreciation for how sensitively you have handled this story arc.

I knew there was something providing the intensity behind her statement, "I'm a rapist's worst f***ing nightmare!"

NOTDilbert wrote:"So, how did he die?"
"Well, they found his dismembered jaw on the roof, and his blood-drained body was found smashed on the sidewalk out by the front entrance."
"My God...."
"Yup. Cause of death: Complications from a bout of influenza."
Because, what ELSE are they gonna put in the records......?

I would have thought the old standby:
"Cause of death: Suicide."

*SPOILERS AHEAD. Wow. No wonder Monica has trust issues! Her parents who she trusted put her in an institution for her own good where she was repeatedly raped. Her best friend Shelly stabbed her in the head with a magic spike. Her mentor in all but name, Phix, lost it and killed AND ate another sphinx in front of her. Eurayle, froze her TWICE, and then one of her guardians PUNCHED her heart out of her body. Then and then Tina calls her into a situation where she is in effect RAPED again. Tina better channel her psychiatrist training because both these girls need some professional help. DAMN! Thankfully it's Monday. This comic never is boring and continually amazes me.

txmystic wrote:Hmmmm...I just caught myself saying "truly empathize"...that raises an interesting question...even if someone has not gone through a traumatic experience and feels empathy for one who has, is that empathy received in the same way as it would if given by someone who shared a similar experience?

There is at least one aspect of this empathy which is probably common between these cases. Our brains actually have some "hard-wired" circuitry which seems to enable us to "feel" another person's experiences as if they were our own: Google-search "mirror neurons" for details.

The empathy is surely stronger/ deeper / more powerful when there are memories of a similar experience to draw upon. As its most intense, I imagine that empathy becomes difficult to distinguish from PTSD.

EDIT: and in reading subsequent replies, I see I probably misinterpreted your question... you were asking about how differently the person-being-empathized-with would take the offer of empathy. My guess is that it depends... some would accept empathy even from someone who had not personally undergone the same experience, some would reject all empathy from everyone, many are in the middle. It's going to be as widely varied as the range of personalities and experiences make it. One size does not fit all.

KnightDelight wrote:

NOTDilbert wrote:Because, what ELSE are they gonna put in the records......?

I would have thought the old standby:
"Cause of death: Suicide."

There's gotta be a flowery phrase of medical Latin which translates to "An acute case of just deserts", although I suppose that the Medical Examiner might not have known enough about the overall situation to consider using it.

KnightDelight wrote:I would have thought the old standby:
"Cause of death: Suicide."

He died of natural causes. His head was torn apart, his body smashed up, and his blood all drained out, so naturally he died after all of that.

Yamara wrote:http://wapsisquare.com/comic/12312004/

Yeah, I immediately thought of that after hearing "straight jacket".

It still begs the question - how in Hades did Monica manage to return to something resembling "normalcy" after that? Jin-tervention?

jwhouk wrote:

Yamara wrote:http://wapsisquare.com/comic/12312004/

Yeah, I immediately thought of that after hearing "straight jacket".

It still begs the question - how in Hades did Monica manage to return to something resembling "normalcy" after that? Jin-tervention?

Her inherent Jaguarishness

So very sad to find out that the people who guessed that M was referencing a past experience were correct. I can't really say I'm surprised, but I'm definitely sad...and sickened...and really looking forward to something lighter once this arc is done. This particular plotline has been harder for me (emotionally) than just about every other one Paul has given us. I've even taken intentional breaks from reading daily just in hopes that I'd be able to blow through the rest of it in one go instead of experiencing in their pain little by little over several days. That's not to say that I don't think this has been a wonderful segment of story. I think that it's been brilliantly handled, both by Paul and all of us in the forums...it's just been hard.

txmystic wrote:Hmmmm...I just caught myself saying "truly empathize"...that raises an interesting question...even if someone has not gone through a traumatic experience and feels empathy for one who has, is that empathy received in the same way as it would if given by someone who shared a similar experience?

I would venture that the empathy would not be received in the same manner. A lot of people (especially is they are still caught up in the emotional experience) would likely react to empathy from someone who has not had a similar experience, either verbally or mentally, with, "You don't really understand. How could you possibly understand? You just feel pity." Depending on how close to the experience they are (time-wise) they may even have trouble accepting empathy from a fellow victim. At least...that's what I've seen in my limited experience.

Fairportfan wrote:Also - minor quibble - "strait" jacket (as in "tight" or "narrow") rather than "straight" jacket.

I had occasion once to do a bit of research on this, and apparently both are used interchangeably. I've read documents from contemporary sources and going all the way back to the mid-19th century where the spelling "straightjacket" was used by professionals.

NOTDilbert wrote:"So, how did he die?"

"Well, they found his dismembered jaw on the roof, and his blood-drained body was found smashed on the sidewalk out by the front entrance."

"My God...."

"Yup. Cause of death: Complications from a bout of influenza."

Because, what ELSE are they gonna put in the records......?

I'd go with acute malaria. Those mosquitoes were hungry.

KateKane wrote:This has been really hard to read. This page in particular. I had a similar experience to Monica/ Institutionalized as a young teen, sexually assaulted while there. It took me a long long time to come grips with it and heal. That I have managed to get through this storyline without freaking out is a testament to how far I have come. Paul, I want to express my appreciation for how sensitively you have handled this story arc.

As far as I know, my entire family was killed by rockets from an attack helicopter when I was a toddler, leaving me an orphan. Years later, my wife was raped to death, my home burned down, and my baby daughter thrown into the fire while I was away trying to protect some other people from other bad things. If I were the overly-sensitive and unstable type, these last couple of storylines at least would probably have left me catatonic. Using tragedy in entertainment media can be done well, or it can be done poorly. Done poorly is when it's just a quick and cheap trick shoe-horned randomly into the story to cause a sensation and gain attention for the author. Done well is when it develops naturally in the story and brings attention to the tragedy, how it can affect people, and how people cope or don't cope with it. The former will probably just offend and turn away people who have experience with the problem themselves, the latter can help those people explore the problem and perhaps come to grips with it.

Dave wrote:There's gotta be a flowery phrase of medical Latin which translates to "An acute case of just deserts", although I suppose that the Medical Examiner might not have known enough about the overall situation to consider using it.

I spent years as a Medical Examiner for the Armed Forces and a major US metropolis. The closest I've ever seen, albeit still not "just deserts" was when a colleague gave a cause of death as "misadventure."

As for this case, I was told once by an Asian friend that he thought persons of his particular culture could die from loss of face. Maybe that's what happened here.