Skip to content
Kory has broken her drawing arm and can't draw for awhile! Please read the news post below for updates!

The Monster’s Loose page 74

The Monster’s Loose page 74 published on 53 Comments on The Monster’s Loose page 74

And that’s the end of Chapter 1! Who is THIS guy?????

Well you won’t find out for awhile because Skin Deep is going on hiatus, as is tradition! Skin Deep will be back in August!

Until then, please enjoy a new Reader Question every weekday starting next Monday, the 11th!

In other news, I’ll be at Comic Con Oakland this weekend! Table E10! Come on down and say hello!

53 Comments

“Wosret will help you”

“not sure about that one dad”

But yeah all right let’s go! What’s his beef? Is he hoping the species will die out in some kind of recompense? Does he find Michelle’s work dangerous to the masquerade? Is it good ol’ Sphinx Racism? Let’s fine out!

Are those shackles?

I think they are heavy, ancient bracelets – very probably infused with magic
Also, there Hamsá’s hands inscribed on them and probably some naẓar (blue eye or turkish eye) too – both protection symbols

I imagine those would be good symbols in which to root a spell for averting attention, since that’s already how they’re supposed to work (drawing the evil eye away from the wearer). Seems like a good way to avoid notice when your entire species is presumed extinct.

Rough to be in suspense about whether or not he’ll clarify or not.

Because that’s super vague, does he mean investigating what happened to the sphinxes, is it the whole bit about the party, is it just making medallions anymore?

I’m assuming a mix, but mainly revealing that sphinxes still exist and making medallions. Fair bet he’s also mad about her giving Bloodcarver a medallion, if that is indeed one of the two she’s made. (I assume she did, and that seems to be the comment section consensus for who the guy at the start of the chapter was.)

I don’t really understand how the sphinxes’ memory/magic pool works, so there’s a chance he’s

A) mad that she’s got a share of it (there was some commentary a while back about how being the only sphinx would make one REALLY powerful, and if the share is equal, then more sphinxes there are, the less powerful any individual sphinx is)

B) aware that she’s (probably, I assume) at least considering offering medallions to other dragons. Dragons in particular over other “monster” species, though that’s not to say he’s only mad about the dragons.

Michelle doesn’t know how to access the memories; he probably does. I don’t know if they can access other living sphinxes’ minds through this link (based on what we saw in the flashbacks, probably not?), but if it is possible… well, that’s where possibility B comes from.

We don’t really know yet how well known she’s become and how well her efforts are known outside of the main group (and Ravi, and the council). Does all of Liverpool know? That could explain how rumors made their way to Chisisi. Or did he just notice someone else in the sphinx power grid, and he spent the last year figuring out who and where she was?

ALSO: while the “mad about the power drain” thing is totally possible, I don’t yet feel any reason to believe that’s the case. I mean, he COULD be upset about it, but not, like, Highlander mad about it, yanno?

TL;DR: Possibility A is a possibility, but it’s not my expectation at this time.

Oh the suspense!

Sure I’m up for some good old-fashioned speculation. Chisisi here seems angry and annoyed, but not desperate to hoard all the sphinx power for himself. I feel like if he couldn’t stand sharing, he would have to be outlandishly greedy and would have tried to hurt Michelle just so he could be all-powerful.

My guess is he’s been working on medallions on his own and taking a very slow, methodical approach to learning how they work and how to make more, and sees Michelle’s attempts as reckless and dangerous. This would mirror Jocasta’s and Wosret’s dynamic in the past to an extent. Chisisi might have been studying this subject for years and has decided that he doesn’t want his long-term goals ruined by (in his view) a fool stumbling through amateur hour.

He says he’s the last Egyptian sphinx but I wonder if he has some human family who knows about any of this. Would be an interesting contrast to Michelle’s small family.

I assume this is going to lead to some very big problems at the Halloween party. Very, very big problems.

Hum.

This guy seems very sure of himself. And he has a definite opinion based on whatever he knows. But does he really know more than Michelle knows? Or just a different subset of the whole?

Either way, I think it would be beneficial to compare notes. That will inevitably start with the bits that strong opinion is based on. The pair of them however, if each has limited knowledge, can probably put together the parts of dozens of other clues as well. Find out what knowledge is contradictory or concordant, make new inferences or deductions based on combining it, etc.

Regardless of how much of the correct version of history each knows or which bits of other versions, they have different perspective, values, and insights. Each can likely reinterpret things, put together things the other didn’t realize were important, or reach different conclusions about what to do working with different values and the same facts.

If they get really desperate or disagree on matters of historical fact, I suppose the pair of them could go try to talk to Ravi. He’s infuriating and not very helpful, but he does have knowledge and seems friendly. Together they may be able to provoke useful answers by finding some more specific or directed questions to ask him.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Content Footer