My Attention 2013-01-22

[DilyV]

An accident that was no accident. I do believe Monica just became Queen of the Library. Or is that "Princess"?

Anyways, I ask you to look at today's installment, and then look back to, say, this comic.

Notice some similarities?

I still contend that our two "kittehs" are related somehow.

Or tricked into taking Nudge's place maybe? I don't think Phix is getting out of the library any time soon... I'd have to go back in and reread everything carefully... but the referenced comic makes me think that Nudge just got her ticket out of the library...

[donoho]

Attention and respect. Not a bad combination at all.

Starkruzr... we learned about M's Jaguar Girl nature in the last couple of months (Shelly broke the news to her), although there have been hints for years. The jaguar was believed to be able to walk in both the land of the living and the land of the dead... it's an intermediary spirit/animal... and we now suspect that this is a role Monica may be going to play. She's effectively immortal thanks to the Phoenix blood that was in the key-blade she was stabbed with, during the shutdown of the Calendar Machine, so she can die and be reborn.

And Love! a.k.a Pumpkin.

[kingklash]

Cats do not give respect, or head-bumps, lightly. At this point, though, I think either Monica or the Library ought to give Phix a cookie, for a change. A lesson well-learned should be a lesson well-rewarded.

[ChattaStarhawk]

I was under the impression that the calendar machine wasn't so much destroyed as it was FIXED to stop the looping effect. It was only at that time, when the CM was dialling itself into correctness that Bud could extract Jin's mama from the loop.

Nope, sorry; Bud squashed the heck out of the CM when they were both in the demon realm. She brought the non-functioning golf-ball sized CM back and tossed it into the Sun, where it turned into a cloud of random plasma particles.

Bud explains it here.

[Dave]

I was under the impression that the calendar machine wasn't so much destroyed as it was FIXED to stop the looping effect. It was only at that time, when the CM was dialling itself into correctness that Bud could extract Jin's mama from the loop.

That turns out not to be the case.

The gang had thought, initially, that they would have to fix the CM, but realized that just shutting it down entirely was the way to go (sorry, I don't have the link to that particular day's strip handy). If I recall correctly, they decided that it was probably unfixable... it would resist alteration, and that their counterparts in earlier loops had tried to correct its malfunction and had failed.

That's why the "mirror ball" method was abandoned at the last moment, and Bud got Shelly to stab Monica with the key. This turned Monica's demon-portal into a powerful one-way drain into the Demon Dimension, where Jin's mother Mayahuel had been trapped while Earth went through the cycles. The CM was sucked into the vortex, neutralizing its powers, removing it from Earth and thus preventing it from recycling time again.

Bud dove into the Demon Dimension after it, crushed the CM into a tiny pellet (just to make sure it could never work again), found Mayahuel, and brought her and the crushed CM back to Earth via Shelly's tattoo.

Bud eventually tossed the crushed CM into the sun. As a result, she met and developed a bit of a crush on Shelly's boyfriend (not realizing that the two knew each other).

See, it's simple. Clear and straightforward, right?

... and reading what I wrote, I'm struck by the fact that I must sound like a complete raving lunatic to anyone who isn't already familiar with the Wapsi story. Wapsi is... complex and interesting.

And, yeah, you're right... there's a lot of "setup" going on, to put these people (human and otherwise) together in the right places at the right times. I doubt that we really know who is doing it all. We've been shown clearly that Brandi is one of the chessmasters of the game; we have our clear suspicions about Bia; there may be others whose manipulations haven't been clarified yet.

Complex and interesting indeed. I love this strip!

[Mark N]

Or tricked into taking Nudge's place maybe? I don't think Phix is getting out of the library any time soon... I'd have to go back in and reread everything carefully... but the referenced comic makes me think that Nudge just got her ticket out of the library...

Only flaw here is that Phix and Nudge are not stuck in the Library. It gave them both total freedom to come and go as they liked.

[Fairportfan]

Panel Three - seen that exact pose/expressions so many times with the new kitten and two of the adult cats in the last week or so...

[KnightDelight]

I kinda had a feeling it was gonna go this direction.

Monica was right, the members of this particular social circle are more animal than human or humanlike; more primal than civil; more direct than modest. In that kind of environment you do not ask for respect, you command it. Animals do not debate about who the alpha is, they make it clear through pure show of force. Phix is an animal with human cognition not a human with animal tendencies (devouring that apo should be evidence enough of that), so Monica's display of force established the pecking order and made it clear that she is not to be fucked with.

Animals respect power and dominance above all else, Phix is simply being true to her nature.

That's a very good point. Despite their long lives, creatures like Phix or the demons are animal first and foremost. That's probably why sphinxes are chosen for their jobs. They play at being civilized when it suits them (as do demons), but they delude themselves that they are civilized. Phix reacts rather than reasons. She didn't ask "What are those insects doing here!?" She just reached out to swat them. Once you treat creatures like Phix as the feral creatures they are, you understand how to really get along with them. It's just like when humans interact with animals. The animals are predicable and, treated like what they are, we can get along with even dangerous ones well, gaining their respect and even affection. Don't know how much Nudge fits into this pattern. Or even Bia for that matter.

In this case, Monica is trying to educate Phix in what it really means to be civilized. I'm not sure it's going to take though. Perhaps it shouldn't since it could make Phix much more vulnerable. Who knows though. Monica may not be the only one here to undergo a metamorphosis. Phix could end up being the Aslan of this story, with the same eventual fate.

I wonder if all Sphinxes are, at some point, thrown into the world of dangers to sink or swim (like Shelly). Those that survive are fit to be members of the society. It would explain their fundamental animalistic mentality.

[Stroth]

Hmm.. I wonder if the fang twins are still passed out/"oh shit"-ing in the background... or have they run away?

Oh, they're still there. If two big predators are squaring off with each other front of you then you hold perfectly still and pray that they don't notice you. Running just means they'll notice you and might switch them from Alpha Dominance mode to hunt/chase/kill mode. And you definitely don't want that.

[Fairportfan]

Hmm.. I wonder if the fang twins are still passed out/"oh shit"-ing in the background... or have they run away?

Oh, they're still there. If two big predators are squaring off with each other front of you then you hold perfectly still and pray that they don't notice you. Running just means they'll notice you and might switch them from Alpha Dominance mode to hunt/chase/kill mode. And you definitely don't want that.

"You should never run from anything immortal. It attracts their attention." - The Last Unicorn

[bmonk]

Hmm.. I wonder if the fang twins are still passed out/"oh shit"-ing in the background... or have they run away?

Mosquitoes wait while the bigger forces in the room settle their conflicts--or else hide somewhere. But at least for a while they are safe from being actively pursued and swatted.

[Mark N]

That's a very good point. Despite their long lives, creatures like Phix or the demons are animal first and foremost. That's probably why sphinxes are chosen for their jobs. They play at being civilized when it suits them (as do demons), but they delude themselves that they are civilized. Phix reacts rather than reasons. She didn't ask "What are those insects doing here!?" She just reached out to swat them. Once you treat creatures like Phix as the feral creatures they are, you understand how to really get along with them. It's just like when humans interact with animals. The animals are predicable and, treated like what they are, we can get along with even dangerous ones well, gaining their respect and even affection. Don't know how much Nudge fits into this pattern. Or even Bia for that matter.

In this case, Monica is trying to educate Phix in what it really means to be civilized. I'm not sure it's going to take though. Perhaps it shouldn't since it could make Phix much more vulnerable. Who knows though. Monica may not be the only one here to undergo a metamorphosis. Phix could end up being the Aslan of this story, with the same eventual fate.

I wonder if all Sphinxes are, at some point, thrown into the world of dangers to sink or swim (like Shelly). Those that survive are fit to be members of the society. It would explain their fundamental animalistic mentality.

When passing judgment on the Apos actions we must remember that first and foremost there is an undeniable (well to the people paying attention to history at least) truth;
"Civilization is an illusion; a game of pretend. What is real is the fact that we are still animals driven by primal instincts. Civilization crumbles whenever we need it most. In the right situation, we are all capable of the most terrible crimes. Imagine a world where this was not so; imagine a world where every crisis did not result in new atrocities, where every newspaper is not full of war and violence. This is to imagine a world where human beings cease to be human." From the film The Invasion.

[DilyV]

Or tricked into taking Nudge's place maybe? I don't think Phix is getting out of the library any time soon... I'd have to go back in and reread everything carefully... but the referenced comic makes me think that Nudge just got her ticket out of the library...

Only flaw here is that Phix and Nudge are not stuck in the Library. It gave them both total freedom to come and go as they liked.

But Phix is STILL the librairan... so though she can come and go, she is still tied to the library. Though she seems to have issues with it, it seems to me that it is somewhat of a sought after position by other apos... hence, Phix gets a McDemon rib lunch every so often...

[DilyV]

That's a very good point. Despite their long lives, creatures like Phix or the demons are animal first and foremost. That's probably why sphinxes are chosen for their jobs. They play at being civilized when it suits them (as do demons), but they delude themselves that they are civilized. Phix reacts rather than reasons. She didn't ask "What are those insects doing here!?" She just reached out to swat them. Once you treat creatures like Phix as the feral creatures they are, you understand how to really get along with them. It's just like when humans interact with animals. The animals are predicable and, treated like what they are, we can get along with even dangerous ones well, gaining their respect and even affection. Don't know how much Nudge fits into this pattern. Or even Bia for that matter.

Nudge fits the hole in the stain glass window... Bia fits the hole in the stone wall of the library. LOL

I tend to agree with your point on Phix's reaction to Pratt and McBride... but then, she referred to them (vampires as a species) as mosquitoes before... As such, you have to ask yourself this: Do we, as humans try to understand mosquitoes? No. When one lands on us, we crush it without thought and probably with more than a few explatives. I'd say that puts all of us in the same mindset as Phix from time to time.

[Fairportfan]

But Phix is STILL the librairan... so though she can come and go, she is still tied to the library. Though she seems to have issues with it, it seems to me that it is somewhat of a sought after position by other apos... hence, Phix gets a McDemon rib lunch every so often...

Phix and Nudge were assigned equal responsibility for the Library - hence Nudge's "We're gonna be roomies!" and Phix doing the horseshoe trick.

[illiad]

When passing judgment on the Apos actions we must remember that first and foremost there is an undeniable (well to the people paying attention to history at least) truth;
"Civilization is an illusion; a game of pretend. What is real is the fact that we are still animals driven by primal instincts. Civilization crumbles whenever we need it most. In the right situation, we are all capable of the most terrible crimes. Imagine a world where this was not so; imagine a world where every crisis did not result in new atrocities, where every newspaper is not full of war and violence. This is to imagine a world where human beings cease to be human." From the film The Invasion.

I dunno though... In the UK at least, most newspapers use sensationalism about war & violence to get their readers to buy their papers, knowing that the real story is far more boring than their reports...
" a world where every crisis did not result in new atrocities" would have to be one where people are more intelligent and would think things through, before acting.. trouble is, that is very much lacking due to much propaganda, misunderstanding and plain mis-information, going back 2000 years or more...

true, we are still animals driven by primal instincts - the problem comes when we are forced to live in little boxes, far away from anything natural, forced to get up before the sun, get home long after it has set, just to afford the small pleasures in life....

[lake_wrangler]

Fínally Phix sees M as something worthy of respect, and not just an adorable child.

Phix: Aww, my Pumpkin's all grown up and making her stand... I'm so proud of her... *snif*

I still contend that our two "kittehs" are related somehow.

Of course they are: they both have the same "daddy"... goes by the name of Paul, I believe...

[Jabberwonky]

Fínally Phix sees M as something worthy of respect, and not just an adorable child.

Phix: Aww, my Pumpkin's all grown up and making her stand... I'm so proud of her... *snif*

I still contend that our two "kittehs" are related somehow.

Of course they are: they both have the same "daddy"... goes by the name of Paul, I believe...

[Wdot]

Of course we're all "animals." I look at the supernaturals in this particular comic as aliens. Klingons in particular would be an apt comparison. IMHO

[KnightDelight]

I half expected today's comic carry on with the theme from the previous day with Phix just repeating herself:

"You hit me!"
"Yes, because I needed to get your attention.
"You hit me."
"I needed you to listen to what I have to say and you weren't ..."
"You hit me and knocked off my glasses"
"Phix, if you'll just listen to what ..."
"I think they're broken. Do you know how hard it is to get glasses that large?"
<two handed face-palm>

As such, you have to ask yourself this: Do we, as humans try to understand mosquitoes? No. When one lands on us, we crush it without thought and probably with more than a few explatives. I'd say that puts all of us in the same mindset as Phix from time to time.

This is true but if that mosquito started to talk to me (assuming I'm not crazy) I would not just swat it without a second thought. I would realize it is a fellow sentient being and worthy of more respect than that, no matter it's size or species, making it a far different case. I think that's the great difference. Phix is not dealing with actual bugs, but thinking beings. Even for her, that should deserve a slower approach than thoughtless killing, but it doesn't.