Wapsi Square Forum

Nudge, I don't think Monica QUITE understood what kind of monster Phix was until she saw her painting the floor with what was presumably Medeia's entrails!

Well, Phix has regained complex language skill, AND has not eaten Nudge! (Yet)

I wonder... does Nudge really believe/feel what she is saying, or is she applying her powers of sardonic cross-statement to prod a bit at Phix? After she exhibited such concern and compassion about Shelly, her who-cares response here feels a trifle out of place to me...

Dave wrote:I wonder... does Nudge really believe/feel what she is saying, or is she applying her powers of sardonic cross-statement to prod a bit at Phix? After she exhibited such concern and compassion about Shelly, her who-cares response here feels a trifle out of place to me...

I think she already has a number of different directions for this conversation already mapped and decision-treed. Being a Trickster, she probably does this routinely. I am reminded of the stage magician doing card tricks - there are 52 possible 'reveals' depending on what card the audience member picks.....

So, Lil Miss S'plodyhead was a drama queen and was named after a character in Greek drama. No wonder she got such a dramatic exit. (drops a set of Thespian masks in the pun jar)

Odd. Monica has directly helped save Nudge's life twice now (from Phix during Nudge's reveal and from Tina & Shelly when Nudge first debuted her human form). Also, she kept Tina safe for the longest while during Nudge's stay inside Tina, primarily from Phix (before Phix was aware of Nudge) and Bud.

You'd think Nudge would have caught on to Monica a bit by this point (especially considering how good Nudge is supposed to be at reading people). Unless she heard of Monica's shunning of Shelly and put two and two together (fairly likely, considering Euryale did and Nudge has been shown to be crazy perceptive when it comes to people and gossip, to say nothing of her bond with Shelly), yet missed the "I farted" makeup. Especially when Monica's really just as much a monster as the rest of you, she just looks more normal.

NOTDilbert wrote:

Dave wrote:I wonder... does Nudge really believe/feel what she is saying, or is she applying her powers of sardonic cross-statement to prod a bit at Phix? After she exhibited such concern and compassion about Shelly, her who-cares response here feels a trifle out of place to me...

I think she already has a number of different directions for this conversation already mapped and decision-treed. Being a Trickster, she probably does this routinely. I am reminded of the stage magician doing card tricks - there are 52 possible 'reveals' depending on what card the audience member picks.....

Nudge set all this in motion by her reveal of Bia's actions in front of Phix and Monica. This was a much steeper reveal for M than closing one eye and seeing a smiling friendly monster with horns.

"Nice is a weapon." -Tony Millionaire, Maakies

sonicthunder wrote:You'd think Nudge would have caught on to Monica a bit by this point (especially considering how good Nudge is supposed to be at reading people).

All part of Nudge's mind games. Has to nudge Phix to realize how much it affected Monica. Remember this happened two weeks before the party. Right now Monica is still hyperventilating adn looking at the shunny side of life.

......OOOhkay! I think I see what Nudge is doing here (least I think I do). Nudge outs Bia to be Shelly's mother as well as revealing the her dad is Phix's son whom Bia forced(?) Phix into giving up to grow up a normal human.....okay. Need to break out a score card, a slide rule, and a abacus to keep track of who's doing what to who here.

sonicthunder wrote:Especially when Monica's really just as much a monster as the rest of you, she just looks more normal.

That's true. And it's obvious she does not fully accept that yet.

Hence Phix's concern. Nudge was on the lam for Earth 55; but Phix got to see Monica 55 fail spectacularly.

Wonder what that was like to see.

Nudge's definitely playing the trickster she is. Probably trying to nudge Phix into going out and meeting Monica...
She's her granddaughter's best friend, after all...
(God, my head's still spinning from all the revelations around Shelly)

Oh, btw...
So this sphinx was a female? (Well, she did seem to have breasts, some people even mistook her for Nudge at the time).
Previously I thought the males had goat's heads, but it seems it's a full race or at leas an ethnic group among sphinxes?
I'm pretty confused now about the whole sphinxology...
So the apos are a subgroup? What is Phix?

I must say I was a bit worried that Phix would fall into some angsty "What have I done?" human drama bullshit once she recovered from her episode, but it seems pretty clear that no fucks are being given and that this is being treated as par for the course. Phix is not human and should not have the psychology of a human.

Good on you Paul for not going the weaksauce route with your storytelling. Characters don't need to be relatable to tell a good story.

Dave wrote:I wonder... does Nudge really believe/feel what she is saying, or is she applying her powers of sardonic cross-statement to prod a bit at Phix? After she exhibited such concern and compassion about Shelly, her who-cares response here feels a trifle out of place to me...

Trickster, remember?

NOTDilbert wrote: am reminded of the stage magician doing card tricks - there are 52 possible 'reveals' depending on what card the audience member picks.....

Magician's adage: "It's all in what the audience perceives. If you know seventy-two ways to discover the card and only one to reveal it, you know one trick. If you know one way to discover the card and seventy-two reveals, you know seventy-two tricks."

Guess it wasn't the mint jelly after all.

Stigmartyr762 wrote:......OOOhkay! I think I see what Nudge is doing here (least I think I do). Nudge outs Bia to be Shelly's mother as well as revealing the her dad is Phix's son whom Bia forced(?) Phix into giving up to grow up a normal human.....okay. Need to break out a score card, a slide rule, and a abacus to keep track of who's doing what to who here.

You would need a very complex flow chart to figure out the relationship orbits in this comic. Yes, Monica's in the middle, but oh MY how things fly away after that.

Mortals may not have teeth and claws, or the ability to poit or destroy worlds, but all of us have an element of the monstrous within us. Part of life's battle is keeping that part at bay, and knowing when to let it out. The supernaturals don't seem all that different to me.

Atomic wrote:Guess it wasn't the mint jelly after all.

What? No Shake with that? Nice cameo of 'FryGuy' BTW.

The Old Wolf wrote:Mortals may not have teeth and claws, or the ability to poit or destroy worlds, but all of us have an element of the monstrous within us. Part of life's battle is keeping that part at bay, and knowing when to let it out. The supernaturals don't seem all that different to me.

They're just a lot more relaxed about letting the monsters out. Their long lives give them a perspective we will never have. Otherwise by all that we've seen they are no wiser or better than humans. If they did not have earth shattering powers this would resemble and other all girl drama/comedy on network TV.

<clink in the jar>. I'll let you guess why.