Vorlonagent

I'd agree with this. The issue isn't "betray trust", it's "keep the circle at 8" that the problem now. Depending on how you look at it, we could be as high as 12...

Verres didn't extract a promise but he did set conditions and expectations. "Don't betray my trust and keep the circle at 8. We'll be fine."

Since magical talents are supposed to be rare, it seems unlikely the spider-mage has the "making stuff out of magic" talent. Not a one-shot redshirt of a villain anyway...

Score one for Elliot.

We also just saw a spider-mage conjure magical weapons by the bushel. You don't need to have a magical talent to maake stuff out of magic....but it helps!

That's twice today I have forgotten points of continuity. I don't usually do that...

OK, If you weren't suggesting that Sarah's family has magic in their lineage what did you mean by... ?

Guinias and Hedge are animal/human. Vlad(ia) is a greater seynoulu similar to Grace. You've got to keep straight what EGS effects are due to Earth-magic and which are due to Uryoum-magic. The two don't work the same. Uryouom-magic stuff is the TF Gun, Uryouoms and Seynoulu, Grace's shapeshifting and Ellen's FV5 handbeam. Everything else, including Tedd's watches and gauntlet are earth magic. Probably Grace's brothers are like Grace. They have no earth magic in them, so their transforming is not a "spell" by earth magic terms, so they aren't going to get new spells. A greater Seynoulu like Vladia has more leeway for shapeshift stuff but I'm not sure what it is. Grace isn't a fair judge because she has the genetics of two shapeshifting races in her (Uryuom and Lespuko) so I'm not sure what a Greater Seynoulu is capable by by themselves. Vladia has no interest in finding out. For the first time in her life she's normal and so happy to be such that she has no interest in ever shifting again.

I'm not sure Sarah's family is out of the ordinary when it comes to magic potential. Could you explain what leads you to think they might be?

The problem is politicians wanting to look like they're "doing something" about the problem. I'm pretty sure that bad guys have been mixed in with the Syrian refugees, but telling which from which is difficult because they're refugees and there are so few bad guys. Last I heard about the Syrian refugees flooding into Germany, supposedly 18% were sympathetic to ISIS, but "sympathetic" doesn't mean "terrorist". 999 times out of 1000 it doesn't. Identifying people has to be a nightmare. Refugees aren't going to have all the nice paperwork that a proper immigrant would otherwise be expected to have and they aren't likely to be in the company of people who can say "yes, this guy is from my town." That last part isn't proof anyway because it would be easy for a terrorist to bribe a few genuine refugees to say they've known him all their lives. How to strain the problem cases out of a half-million refugees must be driving the anti-terror experts half-crazy. One thing's for certain. Governments are going to want to keep tabs on the refugees. If the help these nice people were giving refugees had the effect of flying them under government radar, that would be a no-no.

Thanks for the memory refresh.

Do you think you have pantaphobia?

Different topic: Does anybody know how Nanase knows that an Immortal protected Diane at the Christmas party?

...or to take a moment and think to self "How do I salvage this situation?"

Not enough things worry me. I worry about that....

My personal opinion is it's a long shot that Carol is even Marked, really long for her to be a magician who is aware of magic and has spells...

Seynoulu are an uryoum thing. It's the result using an uryoum egg to make a genetic stew. Lesser Seynoulu can have limited shapeshifting between genetic components, Greater Seynoulu had Uryuom genetics in the mix and can shapeshift much more freely, especially once zapped with a TF Gun. We have no evidence that Raven has any Uryouom in his background though it's not impossible, I suppose. We do know Raven is a half-Immortal. If Raven is a component in Susan's and Diane's genes, whether by magic or Uryouom egg (assume 2 parents here), they're 1/4 Immortal and Pandora's grandchildren. Raven, like all half-Immortals (elves) cannot have children normally, but nothing short of time travel is known to be impossible for magic... If we go back to Ellen's Second Life, we know that Archie was a second-gen Seynoulu with back-of-the-head antennae. We're also told those are rare. There's a persistent belief (I share it) that Noah is Archie's dimensional equivalent in our world. Both have light-colored back-of-the-head antennae... Given that we know Grace has no earth-magic at all and Noah does but has not shapeshifted (that we've seen), I'd guess that Noah somehow traded the uruom "magic" that would drive shapeshifting abilities for earth magic. Remember he tried just about every fast route to power to get revenge on Damien for killing his parents. One route obviously worked.

Oh sure. But if a guy and a girl are living together, people can jump to easy conclusions. One wonders if Melissa would get jealous...

A sad byproduct of terrorism...

In the real world, lots of people would wonder if Justin wasn't gay after all...

I think that was early to mid 80s. The 70s were all about white polyester leisure suits...

Assuming Carol is a "magical girl reporter", she might not know it herself. She might not have anything to tell Sarah. So imagine Carol's surprise if Sarah tells *Carol* she has magic... Carol has to be a bunch of years older than Sarah. Carol has finished college and established a career in local news. Carol is 6-8 years older, minimum. Raising the possibility that Sarah, like Elliot, was a "whoops" baby.

If Justin's experience is any judge, older sisters are poor choices of confidantes. We know how Melissa and her sister turned out... Carol is a TV reporter. If Sarah told Carol about magic, could Carol the Reporter honor the confidentiality given to Carol the Sister? Looking at the two from this vantage the similarity between Melissa's sister and Carol is interesting...

Are you sure you want to have to scan your head for malware?

...And I'm finally back on the forums. I'll have an avatar once more when I decide what to have. If Elliot can take pictures, he can take video. Are pictures and video saved to his physical phone? That's before we talk about DOSBox' having been ported to mobile, He could play Doom or Master of Orion. And that's just for starters. IIRC there's a Minecraft port to android/iOS as well...