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Wow, I didn’t think he’d apologize for that.

Same…though I’m glad he did. That was something that had been grating on me for years. I had thought that the narrative itself was attacking Michelle for being upset and confused with her new body and confusing life, as though she didn’t have a right to be reeling in shock, or feeling afraid. I’m glad it wasn’t.

Ooooh noooo! This page is too cute! I’m getting the giggles!

May they have many babies, which will be those odd criosphinx with the goat heads, and live in a hobbit style house, and make medallion-shaped gingerbread cookies every anniversary of their parents meeting, which they will crack in half and share with each other. I pronounce this my wish.

It was stated before that the offspring between two mythical creatures will end up being one or the other. Cross breeds only happen when something’s gone pear shaped, like Ike’s situation.

Aaaaah this is quite refreshing… I was always kind of bummed about how Greg had reacted in that situation. (And Jim. And, kind of, Merial.) Which, you know, is easily explainable by the fact they’re teenagers still figuring everything out (does anyone ever stop soing that, really?), but, I think, it was kinda hard to parse, without more context, whether or not Greg was meant to be “giving it straight” to poor Meesh or just lashing out. I always get a bit sad when characters who are legit going through a hard time are meant to learn to “be grateful and shut up” so this is a very sweet moment to me. ^U^

Also: absolute cutesssssss

Well, there’s certainly one thing Michelle can do once she figures out these funky sphinx powers and learns the techniqes; fix Greg’s medallion. Heck, she might be able to make new ones, given time, which mean there’s some hope for the resident harpies and the wonderlanders.

It’s more complex than just fixing it, I’d wager, otherwise, where’s the drama…

My money is on greg offering up his half-broken one so Michelle has a partially functional medallion to experiment with, along with a subject… and Michelle has to break it entirely to get Greg a functioning one.

Manticores need medallions. They look so sad every time we see them, living as second-class folk among the larger folklander population (I now came up with a name for the hidden peoples in the comic, so what?), having to cut their tails off and not use thumbs, the glorious right of all sophont beings. I feel for them

The drama is in reaching the point where she could perform that kind of magic, with the payoff being that she can fix Greg’s medallion.

It’s entirely possible as well that it’s harder to fix a medallion than to craft a new one– the magic’s already imprinted on the person, so you’re probably working with an active, programmed, and complicated spell as opposed to just making a newly-minted medallion and using the already-established magic spell to make it functional. So you have an *entire process* of not just learning, but having to potentially adjust to factors that never came up during the sphinx’s era, to provide tension.

Let’s not forget about making a medallion for poor Anthony. That is, if she really did receive all that knowledge. So far we’ve only seen visions of how Wosret and Jocasta went into hiding. We don’t know for sure that all the knowledge about how to create medallions was included in the infodump. I agree that it probably was, but once again I will remind people that it is too early to start making assumptions about what Michelle will be able to do.

Oh wow. I literally just left a comment on the page where Jim tells Michelle to “stop whining” calling out this exact thing like a week ago about how much it bothered me that everyone treated Michelle like she was being a whiny brat when she turned.

I feel so vindicated. I’m really really happy this was brought up because, like I said in that post, it had literally bothered me for years.

Well, in their defense, she was being whiny. I don’t think I would’ve snapped at her like that (I’m known for being level-headed), but I don’t know. Eventually it would get on even my nerves. Also, Greg and Merial were right: They were trying to give her the support that they never had, and Michelle was having a pity party for herself.

In her defense, it was justified. After all, she had been raised thinking she was human, then whoosh, everything changed. And on top of that, unless there are other sphinxes out there, she is the sole heir to all their power (though she only discovered that recently).

I’d hardly call it a “pity party”. I’ve gone back and read the beginning more than once and it seems like the majority of Michelle’s complaints were “My life is in constant danger from demons and I wish it wasn’t. I almost got killed the day I turned and on multiple occasions since then. Also I’m a cat/bird person now and was not literally last week. That’s also troubling.” and people being like “God, could you stop WHINING?”

I agree with Katy. Frankly, Michelle had every right to associate her turning with terrible things. She was attacked and nearly killed by a horrifying monster the SAME day it happened. The monster was chanting the name of the thing she’d become while trying to maul her. She was dealing with trauma and probably some form of depression. But since she was a teenage girl, she was called whiny and vapid for it.

Oh man, I’m so glad he apologized! That particular scene always bothered the hell out of me, because yeah, Greg had a right to be frustrated, but Michelle was still newly turned as well as scared. Like, getting told about how others have it so you don’t necessarily wallow in self pity isn’t a *bad* thing, but right at that point it didn’t feel right to me. (also Michelle is adorable, blushing like that <3)

I dunno. I’ve seen a few errant comments about the behavior of the main cast in the earlier parts of the story and I think we have to remember that they’re all college kids. They barely know how to handle their own nonsense, and having somebody else — who, especially to Jim and Merial, had a far easier time with all this than they did; a support network right out the gate, no family treating them like monsters — suddenly heap their nonsense on you can get real frustrating. They didn’t really handle the situation particularly well (any of them), but that’s one of the things I’ve loved since I first found Skin Deep all those years ago; the characters all feel *real*.

It might not have been the emotionally supportive, ‘right’ response, but it was the ‘real’ response, and I would much rather have characters that feel real rather than right.

Enter Jim standing at the door way and he sees Greg and Merial sitting together and then he gets a misjeavious smile on his face.
[Jim]
There’s something going on around here
I’ve been watching and the signals are clear
A nervous laugh when she brushes his skin
The sweaty palms, the big dopey grin
Hmmm Hmmm Hmmm
With a giggle and a flip of her hair
I smell the pheromones in the air
Making goo goo eyes over their food
They need my help here in setting the mood
(Oh you don’t believe love is blind’
Well I got some friends who think otherwise. And here they are. Direct from my imagination)
[Lily Snodgrass, Elenore McLean, and Merial]
Three Blind Mice
[Jim]
Watch your step girls
[Lily Snodgrass, Elenore McLean, and Merial]
Three Blind Mice
See how they run
[Jim]
You got to turn up the heat
You got to butter the pan
[Jim with Lily, Elenore, and Merial]
You got to make a move and don’t be afraid
[Jim]
Reach for her hand
And maybe give her a kiss
[Jim with Lily, Elenore, and Merial]
She’s waiting for a move to be made
[Jim]
You got to
[Lily, Elenore, and Merial]
Got to
[Jim]
Got to
[Lily, Elenore, and Merial]
Got to
[Jim]
Got to
[Lily, Elenore, and Merial]
Got to yea
[Jim]
You got to make a move
[Lily, Elenore, and Merial]
You got to make a move
[Jim]
You got to make a move
[Lily, Elenore, and Merial]
You got to make a move
[Jim]
You got to make a move
[Lily, Elenore, and Merial]
You got to make a move
[Both]
Yea
[Jim]
(Spoken in a deep voice) Greg
I know you can’t hear me right now,
but if you could I would want to say a few things to you I am in your corner buddy,
but you have got to tell that girl
what you are feeling deep down.
You may not get another chance.
So just go on now. Just open your heart and
[Greg]
Umm Princess
[Jim]
Here we go
[Michael]
Yes Shrek
[Jim]
Oh he’s gonna tell her
[Greg]
I uh
[Jim]
I can’t take this
[Greg]
Well I was uh
[Jim]
Uh Huh
[Greg]
I was wondering
[Jim]
Ok
[Greg]
I was wondering
[Jim]
Spit it out!
[Greg]
Are you gonna eat that’
[Jim]
Man what is wrong with you
(singing) You got to make a move
You got to shift into gear
You got to buckle down and give it a whirl
The scene is set right out of a book
With a sunset and a beautiful girl
So you’ve got to
[Lily, Elenore, and Merial]
Got to
[Jim]
Got to
[Lily, Elenore, and Merial]
Got to
[Jim]
Got to
[Lily, Elenore, and Merial]
Got to yea
[Jim]
You got to make a move.

That is what is going through my head right now. Totally love the page Kory.

If anyone is curious about where the page is: Chapter 3 or Issue 3 Page 19. It was originally drawn on April 10, 2011.

You can tell how honest Greg is here by the fact that the words “beautiful mythical goddess” came out without his usual embarrassment or even realising the complimentary factor of what he said and the effect it might have… it was just an honest statement of fact as he sees it These two have seemed somewhat reserved up until now and this may just push things along a little…

Are Greg’s eyes always yellow now?

I was distracted from the cuteness by the revelation that in the remake of the old panel, Greg’s eyes are blue, like always (or so I thought) but then in the present, his eyes are yellow. Have his eyes been permanently yellow since Michelle accidentally changed them for him? :)

I think if you look closely, they’re actually goat eyes sometimes, but I don’t know if they’re always that way. I guess he has to wear contacts on the outside now. Extra points to the artist for remembering that tiny change in the flashback.

It’s impossible to see here, but yes. He has proper yellow/gold goat eyes now. Square pupils and all. They changed from their original blue when he and Michelle had a lovey-dovey moment back in Missouri at Merials cabin.

Michelle literally knocked the blue from his eyes with a kiss.

Of course, if she got the sphinx powers, and the sphinx memories, she could fix his amulet.

I’m not convinced of that. You’re making the assumption that when she accessed those racial memories that all the necessary spell knowledge (which Tim has already said is incredibly complex) and jewelry-making knowledge were placed in her head. What if the racial memories didn’t include that?

Michelle can learn jewelry-making from any number of sources. For example, if I wanted to, I could probably go down to Books-a-million or one of the local craft stores and pick up a book, or just find how-to videos on YouTube. On the other hand, the spell that goes into the medallions is something that only the Sphinxes knew. If the memories didn’t include that, then the secret of medallion-making may still be lost forever.

Having said that, I think the memories probably DID include the spell, and it’ll just take her some time to sort through all the memories to “unlock” it. But we shouldn’t start making assumptions.

You’re forgetting that the father she doted on made jewelry. I’d be surprised if she doesn’t have any of his pieces with her.

I think you misread what I’m saying. Yes, she can learn to make jewelry that looks just like the medallions. I would not be surprised if she learned a few bits and pieces just by watching her father. But if the spells that need to be placed in the medallion weren’t part of the infodump, then the secret of medallion-making is still lost.

Freakin’ GIGANTIC ‘Awwwwwwwwwwwwww’ moment; these two are so adorable together! And good for you, Greg– personal growth all around! I probably would’ve snapped at Michelle too, she was eyeballs-deep in self pity and not very willing to see anyone else’s situation at the time.

Now, Michelle? Kiss him. Stanley won’t mind.

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