Like Dreaming 2012-11-29

[Bathorys Daughter]

Actual possession by another entity (demon or otherwise)? A psychological fugue state, or an "alter" (secondary peronality) coming to the surface? Some direct side effect of the Phoenix blood... like a "roid rage" kicking in?

Shelly said much the same thing when she was describing how she felt when she punched those guys at the bar. Must be something going around.

[txmystic]

I think Nudge is OK. My feeling is that this is an elaborate scheme to force Monica to get over herself and realize that she is no better than Phix at controlling her superpowers. She just needed to be shown that in just such a way as to make her think she had inadvertently destroyed a demigod.

Of course, I could also be oh so wrong. Are there any cookies left in the confusion corner, Julie?

[txmystic]

Actual possession by another entity (demon or otherwise)? A psychological fugue state, or an "alter" (secondary peronality) coming to the surface? Some direct side effect of the Phoenix blood... like a "roid rage" kicking in?

Shelly said much the same thing when she was describing how she felt when she punched those guys at the bar. Must be something going around.

Maybe this is also how things are for those who are raised as "normal" humans but discover their latent powers sometime in early adulthood. Then again, lack of control seems to be a recurring theme here...Shelly, Monica, Phix, and the vampire zombie hunters...BTW, what happened with those two?

[Mark N]

I think Nudge is OK. My feeling is that this is an elaborate scheme to force Monica to get over herself and realize that she is no better than Phix at controlling her superpowers. She just needed to be shown that in just such a way as to make her think she had inadvertently destroyed a demigod.

I think you are right about Nudge, but I also think she is doing this because Monica is going to be needed to stop something nasty that is coming soon.

[Jay-Em]

The Wapsi Gang in the Realm of the Dead to rescue Nudge would make an awesome story arc....

Wapsi Alighieri's The Semi-Divine Comedy? Sounds like some good post-modern literature to me!

If that is what we are getting, I pray that it will be like "Inferno" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It's the most hilarious, and thought-provoking variation on Dante's Divina Commedia I ever read. The book is my absolute favourite.

Niven & Pournelle's barmy modern-time Inferno would fit remarkably well in the Wapsiverse.

[davids4250]

I agree that this is a scheme to get Monica to realize how powerful she is. Euryale showing up at just the right time, with such a set speech aimed right at Monica, is a little too coincidental, just plausible enough to make Mon think. Monica was set up. (In a good, necessary way.) And it looks like the lesson struck home.
Now to get Nudge out of the lake of fire. I suspect Bud is in on this, too.

Edit: If Euryale was really as angry as she seems, the snakes would be out, but they are not.

[zachariah]

(Deposits a large handful of slugs in the Pray-o-mat, in Zelazny's honor)

EEEeeewww!

It's either that or sit back with a big bag of Karma-corn while the soul is weighed to see what your next incarnation will be. Better hope it is mahatmasamatman at the scales. BTW the slugs are fake coins, not the slimy crawling kind. Very old slang.

Puts two lit joss sticks in the pun jar to compensate.

[Boxilar]

I think Nudge is OK. My feeling is that this is an elaborate scheme to force Monica to get over herself and realize that she is no better than Phix at controlling her superpowers. She just needed to be shown that in just such a way as to make her think she had inadvertently destroyed a demigod.

Of course, I could also be oh so wrong. Are there any cookies left in the confusion corner, Julie?

As I said in yesterday's thread, I'm worried. We have conformation that, 1: Demigods can die and 2: Monica can kill them. This could be an elaborate plan to teach Monica a lesson. I still think Nudge went in half cocked and wasn't quite ready for what the New and Improved Monica is capable of. And with all the tragic backstories, we have yet to see a present day on screen death of one of the cast. Don't get me wrong, I don't want Nudge to die. I like her. But with Monica denying her true power up to this point, I think someone getting hurt was inevitable. After all, Shelly was deathly afraid of letting her feral nature loose and hurting someone and if Justin weren't a Titan, she still would have killed him. Monica wasn't even acknowleding it as a possibility. Some lessons are painful. Killing your friend by accident is the worst.

As Dave said, even if Nudge survives, this is not going to be fun.

[Boxilar]

Actual possession by another entity (demon or otherwise)? A psychological fugue state, or an "alter" (secondary peronality) coming to the surface? Some direct side effect of the Phoenix blood... like a "roid rage" kicking in?

Shelly said much the same thing when she was describing how she felt when she punched those guys at the bar. Must be something going around.

It's a common feeling when your flight or fight response kicks in. I've had two points in my life when i felt almost as though someone else was acting for me, almost like I was along for the ride.

It's pretty scary after the fact.

[Yamara]

Is there anyone on this strip who even remotely looks like Xenu?

Actual possession by another entity (demon or otherwise)? A psychological fugue state, or an "alter" (secondary peronality) coming to the surface? Some direct side effect of the Phoenix blood... like a "roid rage" kicking in?

Shelly said much the same thing when she was describing how she felt when she punched those guys at the bar. Must be something going around.

This isn't the same problem that Shelly has, which is always happening when she is wide awake. The key words for M are repeated in the title.

All those poor nights' sleep? Someone awakens when Monica is not.

Nudge was goading that Someone to get a reaction during offhours. I would guess that Someone is a god attached to M who doesn't appreciate being teased for a history of "just getting by".


T minus 22 days.

[MerchManDan]

....the vampire zombie hunters...BTW, what happened with those two?

If you mean Pratt & McBride: They're vampires, but not zombie hunters (at least, we have yet to see them hunt zombies). Lately, they were conversing with Tsillah - who is suddenly with Mon. So they may be nearby.
If you mean Cheerleader & Librarian: They're zombie hunters, but not vampires (at least, we have yet to see them...do whatever vampires do in this universe). Lately, they were...uh...here.

[lake_wrangler]

DON'T LOOK IN HER EYES!

What? Someone had to say it...

Too late!!

DON'T LOOK Ethel, err, MONICA!
Too late! She done got iced!

[as363]

Speachless..

[Sphinx-Napped]

And then nudge pulls Michigan j, Frog and start singing as she reappears, just as are favorite ice eyes wielding gorgon that looks good in dress that we all known and love starts dancing with Monica... i will be over here with the rest in confusion corner..

[chibichibi01]

DON'T LOOK IN HER EYES!

What? Someone had to say it...

Too late!!

DON'T LOOK Ethel, err, MONICA!
Too late! She done got iced!

You have won the internet.

[Julie]

Wow. OK.

So, Mon is indeed capable of killing a semi-divine being. Which Nudge happens to be.

Now, the $64,000 Question: Did Nudge survive her dip into what appeared to be Mount Doom?

My thoughts exactly I'm SO nervous for Nudge!!

Like I said the other day, if she killed Nudge she can go to the realm of the dead and get her back. Maybe.

Wonder who's in charge of the Afterlife, nowadays? I bet the rule is STILL "No Backsies".

Thank you very much for giving me a light-hearted giggle after the "oh dear God" I've been reeling in from today's comic. As for who's in charge of the Land of the Dead...I bet Charon would know.

Of course, I could also be oh so wrong. Are there any cookies left in the confusion corner, Julie?

I always have cookies here. It's my favorite go-to food when I'm all tense and upset about the comic.

I agree that this is a scheme to get Monica to realize how powerful she is. Euryale showing up at just the right time, with such a set speech aimed right at Monica, is a little too coincidental, just plausible enough to make Mon think. Monica was set up. (In a good, necessary way.) And it looks like the lesson struck home.
Now to get Nudge out of the lake of fire. I suspect Bud is in on this, too.

Edit: If Euryale was really as angry as she seems, the snakes would be out, but they are not.

Oooo...you're right! Euryale's snakes aren't showing, so maybe there's hope for my favorite Trickster!!! *crosses fingers*


And I just want to add that Cliffhanger Fridays are rough, but Cliffhanger Thursdays are worse! It's the price I'll have to pay for going out of town for the next five days. Nudge's status (alive or dead) better be good and resolved by Tuesday or Wednesday (not sure precisely which day I'll be getting back to my computer).

[Jabberwonky]

Like I said the other day, if she killed Nudge she can go to the realm of the dead and get her back. Maybe.

Wonder who's in charge of the Afterlife, nowadays? I bet the rule is STILL "No Backsies".

Thank you very much for giving me a light-hearted giggle after the "oh dear God" I've been reeling in from today's comic. As for who's in charge of the Land of the Dead...I bet Charon would know.

Hades and his wife Persephone...

[Mark N]

And I just want to add that Cliffhanger Fridays are rough, but Cliffhanger Thursdays are worse! It's the price I'll have to pay for going out of town for the next five days. Nudge's status (alive or dead) better be good and resolved by Tuesday or Wednesday (not sure precisely which day I'll be getting back to my computer).

Someones needs a cellphone with internet access.

[TlalocW]

Monica's been able to poit herself and others for quite some time now - even sending Amanda to a non-firey lake. And if Nudge is a demi-god, then they don't appear to be poit-proof. Monica has poited Nudge, Tina, and Shelly along with herself several miles above the Earth, and she presumably wasn't at demi-god-killer-level at either of those times (both times Nudge looked distressed indicating that she could at least be hurt). So unless improved targeting = capable of killing demi-gods, I think Euryale is referring to either...
1. Monica's new powers, of which maybe we haven't seen all of yet
2. Crossing through a moral doorway of sorts where before she would never want to harm someone but now doesn't have that "limitation"

So questions about Nudge's well-being aside, how are the various supernatural creatures going to react to a 4'10" busty human immortal who can't be killed (for long) capable of destroying them? Surely not all of them are friends and fangirls and won't like hearing the news, and the friends and fangirls may find themselves not being that anymore.

On Edit: It seems maybe Euryale has been practicing keeping her powers in check as well since she seems about as emotional as we've ever seen her, and there's no turning anyone to ice. And if Nudge is dead, even though Monica is a Jaguar Girl, capable of walking both in the land of the living and dead, she has no experience with the latter, but look who's there - Tsillah, whose daddy (Death) sent her to be a liaison.

TlalocW

[lake_wrangler]

You have won the internet.

I would like to thank the Academy; Jabberwonky and ShadeOBabe, for the inspiration; as well as my dad, for my sense of humor, and my brother, for refining said sense of humor...

Although, in retrospect, I think I should have been slightly more subtle, by only including the last line (Too late! She done got iced!) and omitting the first one, leaving their original comments as the lead on. It's only once I was at work that it occurred to me...