To be fair to the Library, most of its patrons are there checking out regular books. I think one of the Twilight books came out in 2006, I bet that one is popular in the Avalon.
To be fair to the Library, most of its patrons are there checking out regular books. I think one of the Twilight books came out in 2006, I bet that one is popular in the Avalon.
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Setting unrealistic expectations for yourself there Meesh
then again we are all a bit guilty of that
Mythical and human history here we go!
The terror of webcomic time: having to remember later down the line what media your characters have been exposed to, and what doesn’t exist yet.
I wonder what 2000s animated films the cast would like…
For starters, the first two Shrek movies were already out…
The first of the Temeraire novels, /His Majesty’s Dragon/, was published in 2006.
/Phantom/, the penultimate novel in Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, was published in July 2006.
The TV adaptation of the first book (as Legend of the Seeker) was only an announced intention.
“How to Train Your Dragon” (followed by its sequels) wouldn’t come out for a few more years. The books that inspired them, however…
The books that inspired them are completely unrelated to at least the first movie, and had significant differences the entire time (original Toothless can easily be carried on Hiccup’s shoulder, Hiccup can understand Dragon, and their island were traditionally Dragon Tamers, raising their Dragons from stolen eggs). And while I’m not certain, I suspect they didn’t have the same widespread appeal before the movies as they did afterward.
I feel the same way about “The Bad Guys” Movies & Books, though I haven’t read any of the books and barely saw parts of the first Movie when it was on TV.
I think that demon had a point, that is a ton of luck charms
Well, it makes for an in-universe reason for Plot Armor.
“She wasn’t born under a lucky star, folks just keep gifting her working Good Luck charms. On the plus side, they work as jewelry, and she has enough of them at this point that she can accessorize for any occasion.”
I bet madam u made an offer or two for authentic pieces
I suspect that Madam U likely sold her a few of them.
She lookin purdy
You might still do.
it will just not be the 1st book.
or the 2nd, or any of the first 10 000
and it wont be books alone…
but reading culture, fiction, propaganda and context, discourse, events…
Eventually it will help.
I’m just loving all the little things in Michelle’s hair.
According to Murphy’s Law it will be the last book she’s looking into, regardless in what order she’s going through them!
B-)
By the same law, it could also have been the first one she picked up but she overlooked a detail.
So many ways to fail…!
That isn’t Murphy’s Law (anything that can go wrong, will go wrong). That’s common sense, because once you get what you’re looking for you tend to stop looking!
…of course, the same logic is what results in internet echo-chambers.
Clarification: It will be the last book after looking into all the other ones!
8-)
The coro!laries to Murphy’s Law say Murphy was an optimist, and even when you think nothing can go wrong — something will go wrong…
Welp, not everyone in the Avalon can just go outside and check out books at any other library. It’s likely that it’s not the reason why the Avalon library exists, but it’s a good reason for it to exist at least.
At least there are no mythical creature social networks (yet, at the time of the comic). All the interspecies polirics would suddenly reinvent themselves in the worst ways…
There should be librarian spells for this! 8-)
L-space?
The ebook /Bearly Awake/ by D. R. Dean (2016) is set at a university for the paranormal and supernatural. The library has some ghostly assistant librarians. If you treat them with courtesy and respect, they can be very helpful.
And that’s just the documented history. I see how Ike’s personal project ties into this.
Noticed Michelle got a whole new assortment of talismans, including a SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS square
Cool stuff! I remember learning about those things years ago from a LEMMiNO video on YouTube.
Thank you! I’m familiar with the square but I wouldn’t have noticed she had one if it wasn’t for sharp-eyed commenters like you… :)
She needs gossipy old journals…
And most of those are probably kept securely in-family.
As someone who’s spent seven to eight years working as a small-town librarian/historian, the most upsetting thing is when someone asks for a piece of town history that you’re pretty sure you have, but that you don’t have _enough of_ to satisfy their curiosity.
The first warriors arc was finishing up around then i bet they were popular there maybe even inspiring a few folk to try out that idea from the reader questions a while ago hehe
I just love how mundane the lives of 99% of all other mythical creature’s are and then here is Michelle trying cope with being the main character, lol!
I WANT that spiral staircase in my house..
I want a HOUSE! Apartments are just too small. Every wall is covered in shelving units.
She’s wearing a Sator Square!! What a cool thingy
man, only one year time skip? they look like they aged by 10 XD
I am reminded of a movie quote: “It’s not the years, it’s the miles.”
(Though, in this case, the miles appear to have been circular.)
We already knew this, it was stated at the start of the chapter.
The context of the quote was a response to Marian’s comment about how much Indiana Jones seemed to have aged.
I think this is the first time we’ve seen Michelle in her human form in a casual setting with her eyes ignited and I’m wondering about the significance. Is it just frustration or is it something more?
Many real-world creatures that are nocturnal or crepuscular (active at dawn & dusk, like cats) have a reflective layer called tapetum lucidum in the back of the eye. Kory’s sphinxes have one that’s especially reflective, and it seems to manifest any time they’re not in absolutely human form.
So, frustration or anger or fatigue, or simply distraction, can result in conspicuous eyeshine.
…I’m pretty sure it’s just a magic thing. Since in Kory’s universe, the Sphinxes are THE most magical beings out there. And right now, Michelle is the only active Sphinx tapping into that power…
So, what I’m getting from this is that mythical creatures neve write anything down.
Elves thinking “oh, I’ll be alive forever!” and never passing their skills down.
The Star League thinking “oh, we’ll never fall!” and blackboxing all their tech.
Mythics being “oh, we’ll remember our history and traditions the way we always have” and never writing anything down.
Victorian brits never bothering to write down what the third table condiment is because they just assume it’ll always be a thing…
This is how stuff gets lost to time! D:
In this case, I think it’s paranoia even more than complacency. They’re afraid of writing stuff down that could be dangerous in the wrong hands. Ike, the resident expert on research difficulties, summed it up in 2023 RQ #19 by saying “It’s bad!”
Eyeshine is restricted to the pupil, it doesn’t cover the iris and sclera. And it’s just reflected ambient light, but her entire eyeballs are giving off a soft light like a glowstick. It also seems connected to the shared sphinx power, her eye glow went crazy for a bit after she touched the phoenix egg and connected to the power for the first time, so I’d figure it’s some kind of sphinx magic thing rather than just normal eyeshine.
I’m just referencing (by memory) Kory’s contribution to Almost Real (Volume 5, as I recall). It was an analysis of the anatomy and physiology of sphinxes, including artwork that should be very familiar.
And you’re quite right about ordinary eyeshine, as my sister’s pooty-tats just reminded me this evening. But the operative word here may be “ordinary.” There’s not much about a sphinx that’s ordinary.
As someone trying to study Queer history of the mid-century outside of Stonewall, I feel ya there Michelle
Michelle’s reference to trying to learn 800+ years of history in a year strongly implies that her Hell Tour was short, or she would have been trying to accomplish it in only a few months.
We already knew it was short.
The first page of this arc stated it was October 2006 (https://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/the-monsters-loose-page-1/)
The first page of Obverse and Reverse stated it was September 2005 (https://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/obverse-reverse-chapter-1-claws-that-catch/)
You apparently misunderstood me. We knew when she went through the hellmouth to Limbo, and we knew what the weather was like when she returned to Earth, and we knew when this story arc started. But we didn’t /know/ there wasn’t a time differential to make her apparently short Hell Tour correspond to a longer period of time on Earth. That possibility could have meant her quick return wasn’t until summer of ’06 instead of September ’05.
This must be how Sven van der Plank feels piecing together the mess that is Inner Sphere history.
Is that the library from the Munich Rathouse?
Maybe Michelle should, I dunno, take a break? Perhaps play some tabletop games? The hobby should still be alive and well in 2005.
It’s crazy to think this first came out before I was allowed internet access and now I’m about to graduate college.
Is the librarian a big orange furry being with long arms who will disappear you if you call him a m… I mean a person. Really , I said a person.
Are you referencing Terry Pratchett? It’s been a while since I read that book.
This page reminds me how quiet the world used to be. Like, I don’t have to know everyone’s business or have the world screaming at me.
They both look so much older on this page, I almost didn’t recognize them