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Ellen and Ashley are clearly going to be the best sister-in-laws ever seen in fiction.

http://www.egscomics.com/comic/sister3-290 WE HEREBY DECLARE THE CONCLUSION JUMPING OLYMPICS OF 2018 OPENED.

I don't care about all these people. I want Phill to return. *cries*

Noted. (...Actually, looking at the usage guides on wiktionary, even replacing "transgendered" with "transgender" in my sentence wouldn't have fully corrected it; it probably should have been "transgender people" (minus the preceding "the" of course)...) (A bit of a heads up: it's likely I'll make similar mistakes in the future. I'm not very social, and this forum is pretty much the only community where I have a chance to talk about such things; as a result I'm a bit out of touch with the correct terminology. Please do continue to correct me, but try to be gentle. )

For some reason, knowing that Kevin is Arthur's early work and that he seems to be leaning towards letting Ashley use Kevin for training fills me with joy.

How can you possibly get the two of them confused when Ellen has green hair?!

HA!!! Suck it, Quetzalcouatl! /flex

I have enjoyed a number of comics that center around activities I am not personally engaged in, such as paintball, or experiences I do not share. For some reason, I do tend to find video game digressions more annoying than most. In this case, I think it's just that I'd much rather spend time with the actual characters. However, if this sort of thing is enjoyable for Dan and helps him recharge, then I am not going to say he shouldn't do it! I'll just have to read along and hope I find some charm or interest in them.

And turns out I might be right in this case: He's not distancing himself now, but whether he goes back to doing so or not remains to be seen, he doesn't seem to have any obligation to, but maybe old habits die hard?

OK, so my immediate assumption was "dinosaur" but it seems we're running with dragons, so dragons is what you get. Henceforth, you shall be known as Arthur-nax.

And Ellen is to afraid of bombs.

...or were you thinking of FUS RHODA?

Honestly I did find your comment a bit brusque, and assumed you to be offended. It wasn't all that bad though, and it was for a good cause, so I wasn't planning on holding it against you. Anyway, apology accepted. Your first mistake is in expecting English to make sense.

Had a pair of steroid injection procedures into my back last Friday at the hospital. One was into my lower right side of my back , while the other was into my sacroiliac joint (basically, my tailbone) on my left side. The latter was done to fix, believe it or not, a problem with my left leg. I couldn't lift it onto the threshold of a car in order to enter, or up onto a stool to dry it off after a shower. The pain was excruciating. After the procedure, half my butt was numb for a day (the left half, obviously). I gave it a test the next day. Carefully, I lifted my left leg and put my foot on a chair. No pain! None at all. Today marks four days since the procedure, and I still don't have any pain lifting my left leg. It's almost like I never had any pain there in the first place. The story with my right side is a bit different: just a tiny amount of relief. Still, I consider the left side relief a miracle.

http://www.egscomics.com/comic/sister3-287 Now we must wonder who is Arthur's mysterious daughter?

As I have said before "The Dan that can be understood is not the True Dan"

Gee, none of you think Arthur's daughter is Sybil, the only person we've seen who seems to like him?

Some parts of the EGS story play out like an extended Candid Camera stunt.

If only all humans would ask this question before everything we say and do.

*looks around* Where the hell is /me? He needs to take you down, stat.

I am so ready for Dan to move on to the next thing...

I've finally netted $100 in sales from the CD, MP3, and streaming sales. Not a king's ransom, but money is money. Another thing I've netted is a title I can add to my name - ASCAP! As in ProfessorTomoe, ASCAP. (Not my real title) (No Ass Cap jokes, please)

I'd bet on the fact that when Ellen says that Nanase would demolish half the state looking for her, she's barely exaggerating, and Arthur knows it. I don't know, but I hope it didn't bite them. Turning into a house every full moon sounds inconvenient.

I could think of a number of reasons why Ellen might resent that event as well, chief of which was that Nioi pulled that one on her without her informed consent.

But Arthur, as a Seer, is a "well of power". So while that ring may be a very small catalyst, Arthur should be able to use it anywhere, while other wizards might only be able to use it in high ambient energy areas or drain their own energy reserves. Dan tweeted as such: So maybe Arthur's "wizard with a quirk" was refering to the fact that he also figured out how to make catalysts that let him cast spells, but they either only worked for him or they ended up having very limited use by other wizards. Speculation: Maybe Arthur's being accommodating to Tedd by giving him a lab to research increasing people's resistances because Tedd kinda reminds him of himself when he was younger, trying to figure out magic and such.

Magic resistance could render Sleep spells ineffective. There's only so much space left in the storyline. I remember Dan saying this part is the last non-epilogue one.

Oh. That's what I've been doing wrong. I never bothered making the effort. Eh well, may as well keep the non-effort up, then.

Eh. Frankly speaking, as far as I am concerned Magus is only a bit player.

Yes. Plasma. Exactly. And in quantity. Plus, with control. (The finger writes upon the wall, and, having writ, blows something up as an encore.) The laws of physics aren't polite suggestions, they're vague hints.

It is much, much easier to stampede people into running downhill than it is to lead them into climbing uphill.

I think it's just showing that this experience has been exhausting for her and she's trying to relax and contemplate.

Your Name / Kimi No Na Wa Effing brilliant, and you should watch it immediately.

OK Arthur is now on "The Good Guys" list.

In an amazing display of strategic brilliance, Mussolini and the Italian High Command fail to inform the Italian forces in Africa about this. When British forces subsequently attack them, they are caught completely by surprise and the forces near the Libyan border are swiftly overrun and surrounded by vastly numerically inferior British forces. Many thousands of Italian soldiers are captured without ever having fired a shot. When the time comes to list the great strategic surprise attacks of history, this one will surely hold a special place for coming as a surprise to its own side. To what? To what? I can't handle the suspense. TO WHAT?!?

It's really a pity that most people's knowledge of Helen Keller's life begins and ends with her childhood, because she was a remarkable woman! She was not the first deaf and blind person to learn to communicate; Charles Dickens had already written about Laura Bridgman's achievements there, which is what inspired her family to go beyond the home sign language they'd relied on until that point. But she was the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor's degree, from Radcliffe College in Harvard University, and went on to become a world-renowned author, public speaker, and activist. She campaigned for women's rights and suffrage, labor rights, and socialism, as well as advocating for the disabled. She was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union. She was not a communist but a member of the Socialist Party. When she advocate dfor the disabled, she spoke openly about the link between poverty and disability, such as poor factory conditions and diet, as well as women forced into prostitution contracting syphilis, then a leading cause of blindness. She realized just how lucky she had been to be deaf and blind in a family who could afford to hire specialist teachers and send her to special schools, and fought to help others with disabilities who did not have access to such advantages. She also carried out a secret love affair, and engagement, and almost eloped. She enjoyed music through feeling its vibrations. She traveled to dozens of countries and was friends with fellow radical Mark Twain. She outlived not only her teacher and companion Anne Sullivan, but her successor Polly Thomson, and her ashes were placed next to theirs in the National Cathedral. She was not perfect; she was a follower of Swedenborg and a supporter of eugenics. We tend to picture her in a Victorian or Edwardian setting, but she didn't pass away until 1968! "The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all ... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands—the ownership and control of their livelihoods—are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease." — Helen Keller, 1911

Of course, this page might point to Tedd being ready to come out, at least to her father ... but Elliot and Ellen doesn't know that. It's hard to say ... most gender-fluid people can't get into situations similar to Tedd's ... It's entirely possible Arthur has already figured out Tedd's gender-fluidity and is merely being respectful. (It's also possible that he has no clue, and his referring to Tedd as female in front of Mr. Verres will have no more consequences than Mr. Verres "correcting" him.) The problem comes if he's curious and decides to investigate the matter in such a manner that Mr. Verres becomes aware that there's more to Tedd's female transformations than Mr. Verres realized, or if he otherwise accidentally outs Tedd to Mr. Verres due to his lack of understanding of the situation (and Mr. Verres doesn't take it well). Logically, the best option would be to ensure Arthur is aware of the need of secrecy without giving him more informations than he already has. Except I would have no idea how to do it. Even just saying he's not out implies there is something to be out of ... ... and "hoping for best" is not really excuse, nor is pretending that harm resulting from your inaction is less harming than harm resulting from your action. ... Wait. There is additional issue here. ARTHUR has more information, but Ashley doesn't and explaining anything to Arthur would out Tedd to Ashley. Damn this is minefield ... and Elliot and Ellen are even worse equipped to deal with it than we are.

Yeah yeah. As if the conservative arts are all that much better. Muttermuttergrumble. ... ...what?

Classic. I remember reading Feynman's autobiography where he among other things described his work at Los Alamos. At one point, to his utter astonishment, he received a private visit from Nobel prize winning physicist Niels Bohr and his son, acting as interpreter. Turned out that Bohr had noticed that where everyone else nodded in awe at every pronunciation from him, this young sprat scowled and seemed to worry at his ideas. So he discussed them with Feynman because Feynman actually argued against them and wanted more proofs. Or as another book I read put it, "Recognising your own weaknesses and taking steps to correct them is rare. And praiseworthy." Even if you ARE actually so good that everything you say is true and brilliant ... how can you KNOW if everyone is just nodding? You may get away with it in liberal arts, but for real science, as well as strategy, you need someone who will independently check for mistakes. Because even if you never made a mistake, it just means the first you do will be devastating. ... and in nuclear physics, that is even more worrying than in other fields.

So, Ellen thought about Magus having access to millions, but she didn't say anything aloud. Does that mean she hasn't told anyone else? Or just doesn't want to tell Arthur Arthur? Or was she just trying to be polite not pointing out the flaw in Arthur's optimism?

Catalina: You're a cowgirl? Grace: I'm a Minotaur. Tensaided: Minotaur!!!!

I can testify that the passage of a mere four decades has enacted certain changes in my personality, too. ... it's not exactly exceptional, true.

I should darn well hope so. I even spent an hour and a half explaining my entire master plan to him. With charts and diagrams and everything that my five-year-old advisor had all approved. I think even Mr. Verres would have afforded me a nod of approval for all the effort I put into those charts. The next day I learned that he had escaped my trap and thwarted my unstoppable master plan. I'm glad all that effort didn't go to waste. Especially since I had just put my monocle into place before asking my minions for their report. It takes long and hard training to properly make a monocle drop upon hearing that all one's meticulously laid plans have somehow utterly failed.

So, you were looking for more excitement in life, Ashley? And you've now been on ... is it two dates with Elliot? Has it been as exciting as you hoped? I love her expression ... I also wish I hadn't posted this as a slay it should be in the comic comments thread but there's no delete button

Certainly And that perspective is fully valid. As you yourself say, it differs for everyone. Certainly it is worth noting that Ellen is a fictional character and that your very real lived experience obviously carries a great deal of weight. And I am very glad that you feel that way. It is a sad fact of life that not everyone appreciate its gift equally, unfortunately. And not all do so merely from being 'emo', as it has somewhat dismissively been phrased. There are people who suffer from profound mental illness or have lived through so severe trauma that life seems more burden than gift to them. I myself happen to have some experience in that direction. I suffer from clinical depression and a rather severe anxiety disorder. These days I have medication that allows me to live much closer to a normal existence but earlier in my life both my conditions remained undiagnosed and thus obviously untreated as well. I say this in order to explain that I have personally experienced such an intense state of depression and anxiety that I quite literally no longer really cared whether I lived or died, and as a result very nearly did get killed. This event did convince me to finally seek out psychiatric aid (something I had avoided for years then due to very bad earlier experiences with the system), something my one-day-to-be-wife had repeatedly urged me to do. My point with this is that I fully understand being in a state where one does not really appreciate the gift of life, and the anger one may experience during its aftermath. Suffice it to say that I fully appreciate Ellen's point of view and would happily hold her coat while she explained it to Magus. I think I understand. I can relate to that, too. In fact, I will say this: having been so close to death, I now hold a much greater appreciation for the life I have.

Maybe more like the havoc she would cause while looking. Incidentally, I called it with the security cameras, rather to my satisfaction. It would have felt really stupid if the place didn't have any.

Only a tad bit, not too drastic. Half a inch, inch tops. Matt Cohen era-Susan, ish. Platform shoes, eh? Not the first time, or last.

... that would be better, yes. Although I'm not sure if I notice where it's heading in advance. (It's obvious from hindsight ...) Also, I should really go to sleep already.

Before he knew Seers were a thing, he thought he was a "wizard with a quirk". I think it's safe to say that he long ago decked himself out in all sorts of wand-like devices to enable him to cast an arsenal of spells. I don't think what Arthur can do is of any meaningful use in assessing what Magus might be able to do. Arthur is a seer. One established trait of seers is that they have enormous amounts of magic energy that they can put into the spells they cast (via wands), to the point that it had Pandora going on about Tedd having the power to bend worlds - plural - to his will. A seer being able to overwhelm someone's magic resistance doesn't really say anything about how anyone other than a seer might do. Good point. If Arthur is using that "power to bend worlds" here he would be definitely more powerful than Magus ... also, it might explain why is Terra usually beating Magus. Assuming she's also seer of course. ... unlike just age, which may not prove that much, giving that Magus can easily have better training. Yes, after junior high BATTLE MAGIC school. Or not, of course ... we don't know much about what training Arthur got. It was just speculation that he was jealous of Edward and Noriko being trained by Adrian. Unlike liberal art schools in our universe, battle magic school is teaching something which can be measured and I'm sure they wouldn't bother with school which is worse than being self-taught. So, Magus's claim of being better than Nanase is believable and he may even be better than older magic users with worse training in EGS universe. Hawk to mice, as Pandora said, comparing Magus to Edward and agent Wolf ... You really like to accuse me of stuff like this. However, I refuse to submit to your trick and I repeat that it's obvious he doesn't need to be demigod. Nor the seers are demigods - at least, they were not described that way, although you can say that any son of Zeus (formerly known as Jerry) could claim the title of demigod ...

The tally on reactions to my posts has now reached the Battle of Hastings level. I think I'll commemorate the occasion down at the Bayou. Maybe I'll tap his tree.