I literally just got back from BLFC! So now I’m uploading the comic and then going to bed!! Hah hah!
Thanks to everybody who stopped by at BLFC and said hello! I am so tired but the show was so much fun. I bought roughly 5 million enamel pins.
Anyway here’s a new comic page!
61 Comments
No you are rubbish, mysterious voice!
Fiddlesticks! Fiddlesticks, I say!
Acceptable substitute for “And I hate you, random councilmember!”
Humbuggery! Humbuggery and flapdoodle!
Trumpery!!! (In the *original* sense of the word — which, okay, is pretty much identical to the modern political sense of the word…)
I’ll show you rubbish! I’ll rubbish you!
Balderdash!
What’s all this poppycock and codswallop?
It’s twaddle, that’s what it is!
Harry Potter and the Big Ol’ Cat Monster
I’m envisioning Madam U being the one. And it’ll be followed by accusatory pointing and “You’re all having me on, aren’t you? Think it’s funny to play such a trick on the visually handicapped?”
Well, maybe not that but somehow I suspect it’s her anyways, since it took so long for ‘Rubbish!’ to come out of the peanut gallery. ;)
But whatever it is, I feel sorry for them, because surely Ravi will open his big fat smarty pants mouth and spew forth a soul-withering discourse on why it /isn’t/ rubbish. :D
My bet is on one of the Nemians. Probably tge male sitting one appart from the lady with flowered horns.
And the accusatory pointing being directed at a nearby wall.
It may NOT be her, considering she runs a business selling what medallions exist. She would be the one to gain the most profit by selling a NEW medallion for, let’s say, manticores.
Unless the new medallions were being sold someplace else, in that case she’d have some compatition which could hurt her prices. I think that’s kind of a big logical leap for this conversation, so I’m guessing madam U is not the one shouting.
Well, we *did* have a flashback on how prone sphinxes are to wring every last copper out of their customers … which is to say, not at all … so Madame U’s vision of going out of business with a JATO helpfully attached would be rather well-founded.
I disagree. She’s *one* sphinx, and that flashback also told us making medallions is complex and takes a long time. Madam U’s business is not under threat.
She is the last bleeding sphinx, and you think that she could sell medallions by herself to anyone? A covert operation is not run by blasting entrepreneurial advertisements from the skylights.
I don’t know if it’s really her, buuuut at the same time she’s probably seen medallions come and go over a loooooong time, she -might- have insight to the rarity of sphinx ones… or potentially a perceived nonexistance. Y’know, not saying it’s true and all, but rumor can be a powerful thing.
Also, hey, they’re -both- Grecian critters. Could be some meaning in there too!
I was recently going through the “Word of God” page on the wiki, and at some point Kory answered a question about the rarity of sphinx medallions with, “Madam U probably has one or two in her shop.” It hasn’t come up in the comic, so it may have changed since then.
(In case anyone doesn’t know, “Word of God” is the TV Tropes term for “things the author said about their work that aren’t in the work itself”.)
She has healed folks in the past… perhaps Madam U’s blindness is no longer permanent?
No, YOU’RE rubbish!
I beg your pardon?! I’m recyclable if I’m anything! Ha-RUMPH.
Looks like Madam U is doing her equivalent of squinting really hard at something! Kinda hoping whoever yelled is someone that hasn’t spoken yet, which so far would either be the Satyr, the White Stag, or the Centaur looking person.
Actually… my bet is on Nuala, the Nemean Lion.
Here’s hoping I’m wrong. Calming down a super-strong nigh-invulnerable lion won’t be easy.
Oh my goodness, look at Barnaby’s dainty little paws on Michelle’s medallion. He’s so adorable. I find it amusing that the comment section can’t stop talking about floof, so Kory brings in one of the floofiest creatures alive.
I mean, if you don’t keep an angora rabbit trimmed it can turn into this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angora_wool#/media/File:EnglishAngoraRabbit.jpg . It’s like a pillow with a wiggly nose.
Awww… all I can say is CUUTE FLOOFYYYY!!!!
The floof times are upon us, my fellow readers. Beware the cuddlepocalypse!
La Muerte Peluda!
It’s a Tribble! Run away!
*whisper* I believe it’s writen Lamassu :)
Not quite enough pins, need more pins.
Barnaby seems to be smart enough to examine Michelle’s medallion before jumping to a definite conclusion
Hmm… My bets on the Centaur making that exclamation. We haven’t heard a thing from them yet so now’s about time.
I know Ravi promised to be silent, but I think this is a situation where he would be helpful, since the council really believes they’re being tricked. He might know something that could convince them it’s not an optical illusion or prank.
Or at least ONE member of the council thinks they’re being tricked. (I’m still betting on Nuala.)
Seems that Orville’s already a believer. He called her a sphinx even before Michelle confirmed it.
Well he *is* a Bugbear. If anyone would know a Sphinx on sight, it would be one of those.
Honestly I think the only reason she hasn’t pinged the entire Bugbear nation is that they haven’t ever *felt* a Sphinx before so they don’t know what the weird thing is, just that there’s a weird thing.
I find it hilarious that Madame u has zip all knowledge as to what is going on for once. Kings under the earth, she seemed a know-it-all before!
Medallions are her profession. Sphinxes aren’t.
Whoa… Michelle still has glowy eyes. Less ‘trapped in her own head’, but glowy. Niiiiiiiice!
Come on people! This is hard for her, push the naysayer out of the room and get down to business. Also I wonder if sphinx’s have a kind of telekinetic power, seems fine manipulation would be difficult in full form otherwise, which would make creating the first medallions tricky.
One thing of note about Michelle is how she doesn’t seem able to focus on others very well right now…
“Rubbish! You’re clearly an Egyptian sphinx!” lol
Look at how startled Madam U looks! She’s not used to being so caught off-guard by something, I’d wager. :3
Wow. First time I’ve seen Madame U be wide-eyed surprised at something.
I notice that the “Rubbish!” shout didn’t happen until after Michelle said “…I guess maybe y’all should be aware of it?” (IT being the new info she’s trying to sort out.) Perhaps the unspecified voice (and I’m thinking it’s Orv, just because he’s more aware of the magical undercurrents…. the hoodoo, if you will… that he sensed “from Finn’s direction” when the others apparently didn’t) is saying “Rubbish” that no one else needs to be aware of everything new in Michelle’s head right now? Perhaps a desire for “plausible deniability” in whatever conflict may arise.
—Or, it could be Madame U, because she has “all surviving sphinx medallions in her possession and none are missing so this must be a hoax.” (Is she aware of the surviving dragon(s)? and working undercover to see if the sphinx medallion ever recognizes anyone?)
Glad you had fun at BLFC!
What I wonder is what those black spots at the tops of her eyeballs are. Places where the eyelids detach from the eyeball? They don’t look anything like human medial canthi, and Alec doesn’t have them.
I also wonder what that red spot on Barnaby’s paw is. Did the medallion bite him?
I’m betting eyelashes.
If you zoom in on the last panel it’s actually Barnaby’s purple jacket collar sticking out from behind his paw, even though it looks red.
Oh yeah… and I kinda saw a dragon back home too… just sayin’…
Hmm, I wonder what Mr. Bunny is examining closely in that final panel…?
Can we take a moment to appriciate how the Bugbear is just like: “Goddamnit Finn.”
Why are her eyes glowing? Is it because she now has all of that new information?
I’m pretty sure it’s ’cause she finally accessed the power source of the Sphinxes. The human eyes was probably just ’cause she and her family had been cut off from it for so long.
What? Your eyes DON’T glow when you get lots of new information? How DO you read at night, then?
Michelle:”Here, I’ll prove I’m a sphinx by curing this snake woman’s blindness with my powers.”
Everyone: “Aaggh! Nooooo–!”
Proving our gal Michelle is a true sphinx is easy. Let her assume her human form, take her medallion, and move it out of range. If she spontaneously becomes a sphinx, she is a genuine sphinx, since she can not access the medallion to disguise herself. A transformation spell would not work as a disguise under these circumstances since Anthony became feathery when touching a medallion for just a few seconds. The strong medallion magic broke the weaker transformation spell. Michelle’s medallion would have made short work any transformation spell. Actually, just moving her medallion out of range should do it, but the bit where she suddenly becomes a sphinx is more dramatic and fun.
On the other hand, it would be more dramatic and fun (at least for us,) if Michelle had to prove herself by going on a quest beyond the Desert Where Camels Die to the Mountains of Jade and Light, to find the ancient Monastery of the Non-Human Monks and speak to the Grandmaster of the Enlightened who would write her a note. (“Yes, Michelle Jocasta is a real sphinx.”) He would know by moving her medallion out of effective range.
Okay, I am just being plain silly now. I had better shut up.
Of course you are being silly. Ravi already left the monk enclave and moved back to civilization.
This kind of thing is one of the few places where I think comics can sort of fall down hard in terms of storytelling conventions.
In a movie, or a book, you pretty much never have any doubt who is making an interjection from ‘off screen’ unless it’s a completely new party making their entrance.
In web comics, it is sometimes used as an easy way to create a cliffhanger before the next episode…But if the speaker is someone who’s already spoken, then the audience should know who that is. And generally, even in the worst-written superhero comics where it’s someone making their debut appearance, the speaker then gets given a splash page and the cliffhanger isn’t ‘who said that?!’ but rather is ‘what is that person going to do next?!’
My money’s on ‘Rubbish!’ coming from the nice red-eyed thing from page 12:
https://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/illumination-3-page-12/
Even when others of this group have ‘exclaimed’ their word-bubbles weren’t done exactly like the ‘Rubbish!’ one, besides the red-eyed things.
It might be one of the ‘silent until now’ folks, but my money’s on red eyes. :)