Amiable Dorsai

Never thought about it before, but if she can morph her vocal cords, she can have any range she wants.

I'm inclined to believe the same, though that may be projection on my part. This comic leads me to the conclusion that Arthur cherishes the ideals, however imperfectly circumstances may lead him to apply them.

That's the way I took it. Also pretty much the way I first approached the whole idea of transgender issues.

But, wouldn't the solution to the problem be different? Surely, if Edward is not transphobic, but merely ignorant of what he is doing, communication could go a long way towards healing Tedd's pain. This is in no way intended to minimize said pain.

I wonder if his mistrust springs from Arthur's plan to precipitate the change in Magic by allowing it to be exposed. He was quite startled in this comic. Realizing that they are working at cross-purposes, especially if he still does not know Arthur's motivation would certainly fuel a lot of suspicion.

Oh sure, there were a number of strains, including a shortage of easily obtainable tin to make bronze with in the first place. But I tried to come up with a way to cause a catastrophic failure that we could blame on Uryuoms without there necessarily being evidence of their involvement that would persist to the present day.

Hmmm. The Collapse roughly coincided with invasions of the various Mediterranean countries by the "Sea Peoples," a somewhat mysterious group of seafaring nomads whose origin is unknown to modern scholars. It's a bit odd that they were able to overcome armies equipped with (presumably) superior bronze weapons. Uryuom magic might explain it. The Sea Peoples cannot have been all Uryuom because surely even those few scraps of documentation that have come down to us would have mentioned that the invaders weren't human, but a sprinkling of magical warriors might easily have turned the tide.

I hope that's what's going on. That last panel seems quite sinister.

I'm thinking the other is Abraham, fulfilling his pledge by helping to hunt for the final "abomination" of the Dewitchery Diamond. He would have had to pledge his parole, but his personal code of honor, however misguided seems to be up that.

In this strip? Whoever she is, she needs to be someone who is is grumpy, youngish, but old enough to be in training as an agent, has something weird about her hair, and an ability to sense people who are using magical concealment. Someone new, maybe, but if we're to speculate, it should be someone we've already met. My first thought was Jay, who has the attitude, the hair, and could have the ability, but it was rightly pointed out to me that she's a little too young. My next guess is Vladia. Old enough to be in training, sufficiently grumpy, and could have the requisite ability. Best of all, the Magus storyline seems to be heating up, and Vladia has met Ellen and fought Nanase. There could be fireworks. Thoughts?

That's why you learn to keep a lab notebook. It took me years, but I finally developed the discipline to write down my results at the end of the day in a readable manner. It made a world of difference, professionally.

Tedd needs a mentor who can show him how to take decent notes. Germahn would fit the bill. Or, if they still want to have two separate labs, Amanda?

Take good notes! One of those lessons that I had to learn the hard way.

Both the problems of nepotism and age occurred to me, but Arthur is working with a very limited resource. Despite the number we know of, magical persons are rare, wizards even rarer. Sometimes one is stuck with Hobson's choice. But I won't insist that it's Jay. The mystery hair and the attitude made me think of her, but Dan's been very good at throwing me off the scent in the past.

Noriko... I hadn't considered Noriko. I've been thinking that the "trainee" is Jay.