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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!

Tuscahoma

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Posts posted by Tuscahoma

  1. Posted

    2 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

    Yup, Pandora definitely also thinks higher magic resistance for all would be a good thing.  Here's hoping Tedd can convince the Will of Magic to see it from their point of view.

    Hmm, suppose they made it opt-in instead of opt-out?  That is, everyone is naturally highly resistant to magic, so that spells only have an effect on someone if they actively choose to allow it to affect them?  That would make use of magic much rarer, and eliminate or greatly reduce manipulations such as Voltaire overwhelming Dex with surges of magic power, or Pandora giving people Marks willy-nilly.  It would backfire for Voltaire because he'd end up even less able to affect mortals than they started out.  And it would enforce a code of ethics which Dan seems to be a big supporter of, that Magic not be used on people without their permission.

    That would be fascinating; going further than increased magic resistance, but yeah, much safer than magic is now.

    1 hour ago, Illjwamh said:

    Magic having a code of ethics would be severely limiting from a writing perspective; it would make it exceptionally difficult to create effective villains.

    Now on the other side, villains could still exist, just harder to work around the magical code of ethics.  For example, how many people agree to licence agreements without reading all of the fine print, and believe me, some software license agreements are scary.  Duping people to initially accept spells with unexpected consequences would still be a thing.  Could they opt-out later after the spell is cast?  Could a spell affect the ability to opt-out once cast (thinking something mind-control-y perhaps)?  Also, spells could be cast on things that create physical effects that couldn't be avoided.  Being able to start fires, having claws or strength, etc.

  2. Posted

    3 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

    In biology there's a distinction of r-selective versus K-selective in reproduction.  Species which are r-selective will have a very large number of offspring, but each individual child has a fairly low chance of survival.  K-selective species have a fairly low number of offspring, but they put a lot of effort into each one, so that a much higher percentage of them survive.  Pandora was definitely acting K-selective, having only one child but putting centuries of effort into training him and watching over him (although the watching over may have become intermittent as her stability declined).  I suspect that if Adrian had known about his children he would have been the same.

    I first learned about this many years ago, not from a biology class, but from a filk song, "Daddy's Acting r-selective, Momma's Acting K".  :-)

    Well, I learned about it from SMBC, though with a BS in Math, I suppose it could be expected that I might not know about that, but dang it, I still feel like I should have learned about it, Science Geek rep to protect.

    So perhaps Adrian's descendants, for a while at least, had low fertility but a tendency to watch over their offspring (perhaps an inherited inclination), so less likely for the family to have died out due to disease, poverty, etc.  They might also have had a slightly longer lifespan on average for a couple of generations, Immortal genetics and all.  So, do we consider Adrian's relatively low amount of romantic encounters due to his perception of being unable to father children, or is this also a potentially inheritable inclination.  Given a slightly longer lifespan, how late would Adrian's descendants keep trying for children?  We need numbers if we are going to  properly estimate how many generations between Adrian and Susan and how many potential descendants exist.

    Of course, with the potential number of generations between Susan and Adrian, and the way Susan and Diane resemble each other, resemble Adrian, and Susan's father looks like Adrian, I have to say "What?!"  How much was Magic messing with things? Did a descendant of Adrian resembling him prompt Magic to shape events (similar appearance and birthday's and making sure Diane and Susan had the same inherited affinity)?  Was Adrian's romantic encounter manipulated by Magic.  I am hoping it was a huge set of coincidences that only lead to Susan and Diane resembling each other, cause otherwise, Magic is starting to sound just a bit... creepy.  ;) 

  3. Posted

    6 hours ago, hkmaly said:

    That wouldn't change anything. At least not in how the magic reset will be done. What WILL make big difference, however, and what Voltaire didn't expected, was that Pandora visited Tedd and made him feel much better.

    This I think will be the main cause for Voltaire's plan failing.  Pandora filled Tedd in on her first purpose as a seer, but also let her know what else she could do as a Wandmaker, letting her know that she was a powerful wizard in her own way.  Then Pandora helped Tedd work through some of her issues with regards to her parents by explaining how a parent feels in trying to protect her son in a world with magic.  Tedd also reaffirmed that he had guidance, support and love from his friends, especially Elliot.

    1 hour ago, partner555 said:

    It's also possible Tedd could use this to achieve hers and Pandora's goal of giving magic to everyone. Magic may not want that, but as Elliot says, in the modern age where Magic can't be kept secret, it will have to compromise on it's desire to not be used by everyone.

    True, Magic seems to want to be restricted to a small percentage of people, unlike say, Magus' world.  Given a modern world, Magic might simply make it harder to learn magic; so what if more people learn about the existence of magic if in order to learn it, you have to undergo rigorous training or only a select few people are even capable of having magic.

    Tedd might ask for magic resistance to be increased for everyone, so that regular people can resist magic, but can be the recipients of spells if they are willing.  Thus if magic becomes more well-know but is harder to learn, the magic practitioners who can cast spells that are desirable could actually set up shop.  Just a thought.

  4. Posted

    4 hours ago, partner555 said:

    Why Magus?

    Well Magus is very sure of himself and his magical prowess in our universe, with Elliot and Ashley his hostages (essentially in Elliot's case), so if Magic changes, perhaps that will change, so that both Elliot and Ashley get free.  Just a thought.

  5. Posted

    1 hour ago, Drasvin said:

    If Adrian is correct about how he and Susan are related, then that is a great number of greats in that relationship.

    True, but family stories are family stories.  One I have came from the 1830-1850 era, during the Choctaw Trail of Tears.  I have passed it down to my kids along with the much more recent ones.  Of course, that may just be me, and Susan's relation is even further removed  than mine.

    Right now I am truly amazed at Susan's maturity and empathy in helping both Adrian and Diane.  Can you be proud of a fictional character?

    I do wonder how much Susan will tell her mother about this (I suspect she has been keeping her in the dark about everything so far).

    8 hours ago, hkmaly said:

    ... wait ... scene change? No witnesses shown? Was the mall really EMPTY? And no reaction to immortals lighting up either?

    (Also, yes, totally second purpose of seer. I predicted it would be something related to reset even before, when it wasn't confirmed ... now it almost is.)

    I think we are going to see the fallout of the immortals lighting up, and I think it is related to the second purpose of the seer.  I think Magic has decided enough is enough.  And you know what, I hope Magus and Sirleck are very strongly affected by whatever happens next.

  6. Posted

    7 hours ago, hkmaly said:

    http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2448

    "Your perspective is needed"? ... damn. Seer's second purpose. (Also, really noone outside this forum commented about Tedd holding her head?)

    Susan DIDN'T prevented heart-warming reunion? What else Adrian wanted to do with Diane?

    I really think it is this, but apparently a lot of people think this.  Also that it's the Will of Magic asking for Tedd's perspective before it resets.  But, if Magic resets, and Voltaire anticipated being able to have Immortals and Magic listen to him, perhaps when Magic resets, Immortals reset their laws as well.  Perhaps there really is a Council of Immortals and Magic will be there as well.  Or not.

    I am sure Adrian wanted a heart-warming reunion, and as it's been pointed out, Diane has had her world turned upside down and needs time to process.  Susan realizing this and stepping forward to give her that time almost feels like a sisterly protectiveness, despite the distance in how they are related.  Makes me wonder if their connection goes beyond their similarities of body, mind and birth time.

  7. Posted

    8 minutes ago, Stature said:

    Now to deal with Sirleck. I guess, after a week? There are still those lingering questions at the mall.

    Tedd head-scratching is a small red flag. Or a side effect of first using the wand.

    i guess that is it. The kitchen sink is unclogged.

    Oh my gosh, was Tedd waiting to meet Pandora?  That would be... ouchy.  

  10. Posted

    2 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

    Perhaps you are assuming too much. There are other immortal beings besides the Immortals (formerly known as Fairies), including Heka. The fact that Pandora showed great respect (for Pandora) to Heka kind of indicates that's she thought he was powerful enough to be a threat. I think it more likely that Heka or a group of non-Immortals of immense powers imposed the rules on the Immortals, or at least nagged them into what may be the only agreement they ever reached.

    And maybe the Will of Magic is the power that got the Immortals to make their laws.

    Well, yes, no council (unless I was referring to the other Council of Immortals), though Voltaire is waiting for magic to reset to gain the attention of Magic and Immortals, and while there are other immortals, Immortals seem to refer to themselves by that name without regard to the other types, so yes, I am assuming he wants to get Immortals to change the laws (and Magic also?) since apparently Immortals themselves agreed on these laws.  Though seeing all of the Immortals gather in a council would be cool, and having other immortals gather to watch even cooler.  Chances of seeing that drawn in the near future?  Eh, not so good.

    20 minutes ago, Aura Guardian said:

    I see two options:

    1) The connection of the forced reset

    2) The bloodline connection.

    If it's 1, then I hope she's stomping lots of other immortals in some way, based on how lots of them do terrible stuff. Maybe she's one-shotting Voltaire, please?

    If it's 2, then maybe she's emitting a vampire-killing wave, hence the bullet for Sirleck to have dodged?

    Honestly, I think it's 1, but let me throw this out there.  Pandora was already planning on attempting a refresh and the power of the connection gave her more to work with, but what is she doing that is against immortal law?  Using the power for her own purposes or using it for own purposes to directly affect someone else?  Maybe it's not a vampire-killing blast, but she was sending something specifically after Sirleck and Magus, some magical summons or such.  That would be nice, because I think unless someone notices what those two are up to, there is a whole lot of bad still running around tonight. 

    Also, I would love it if she was also able to send Sarah and Tedd messages of some sort as well, especially Tedd.  Finding a fairy greatgrandmother and then losing her,  ouch!

  11. Posted

    2 hours ago, Illjwamh said:

    In case anyone wasn't sure, this song is posted in all seriousness, rather than to be funny. I'm actually rather choked up over here.

    I hear you.  A little misty-eyed myself right now.  I am old enough now that I am dealing with aging parents, so yeah, good song choice, buddy.

    3 hours ago, Stormtalon42 said:

    Personal theory is she's using her power and the connection to hijack the Reset process in order to actually remain herself through the change.  

    It'd be less of a Reset and more of, I dunno....  Oooh, we can use the word Regeneration, I bet!  

    Say, is that a demonic duck in a funny blue box over there?

    That was my hope as well; Pandora herself had theorized a Refresh was possible, maintaining your Self, but she didn't mention using the power from other Immortals being used to do that.  Oddly enough, hijacking the energy does seem to be a thing you can do since Zeus mentioned what she was doing as being against Immortal law.

     

    3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

    Dan hasn't done much with the witnesses so far. There's no indication any bystander has taken notice of Zeus, and no remarks from the three people who saw Pandora appear floating in air.  And no Carol Brown. Isn't it funny that there's no Carol Brown? Maybe that will change soon.

    Keep in mind that Diane isn't famous like Susan, and Susan turned blond while she was fighting the vampires. People who don't really know her well may not recognize her. And Pandora wasn't floating high in the atrium like Voltaire.

    Plus, the vampires didn't last very long at all.

    If Dan doesn't want this incident to get big publicity, so far he's set up things so there might not be. Which would mean Magic wouldn't have an excuse to change...yet.

    Say, anyone remember Pandora telling her son exactly how he's supposed to remove the magical energy dam she set up?

    Well, I think for this part of the battle, most people have fled, or at least moved away  from the combatants?   Still, there were aberrations in monster form tearing up the mall.  That seems pretty big.  I think Voltaire's Magic Operating System Redo is coming.  Perhaps something Magus and Sirleck do will finish the job.

    Also, with what Pandora did as well, I think if magic resets, and the council of Immortals convene to consider changing the rules, they may very well be disposed to hearing Voltaire out.  Scary.

     

  12. Posted

    Oh thank goodness for forced resets not being quick and automatic.  I had worried Pandora wouldn't have time to say certain important things.  Hopefully she can also let Adrian know to watch out for Tedd since he IS a wizard.

    33 minutes ago, Scotty said:

    I just realized, Diane being Adrian's daughter (and therefore 1/4 Immortal) would mean her magic potential should be higher than Susan's.

    Possibly, though heredity and magic are not always as straightforward as one would hope.  ;)

    51 minutes ago, Scotty said:

    Now on to Pandora, she's stated that she's already sorted out what she wants to pass on to her next self, so maybe she's still hoping to make the Refresh work, maybe use the power sent by the other Immortals to her advantage? Maybe we can have a happy return of Pandora in the future.

    Here's hoping.  If she went in to this battle, already predicting she was likely to intervene and be forced to reset, then she was also preparing to make it a Refresh if at all possible.  Who knows, perhaps receiving all of the power is the actual correct way to power a Refresh, and Immortals are actually supposed to help each other with it.

  13. Posted

    18 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:

    I agree with what Critter Keeper said; this was the bullet Sirleck dodged, which means Pandora didn't kill all of the Aberrations in the world, just in the area (possibly even just those in the mall).

    As for Pandora's reset, whether or not she is capable of fighting it, I expect Pandora to go along with the reset - she was planning on resetting soon anyway. However, even with what little time she has left I expect her tell Adrian he's fathered children, and to try to make it her reset a refresh.

    So, Pandora might not be powerful enough to resist all Immortals forcing her to reset, but is she powerful enough to perform a Refresh instead of a Reset while being pressured into resetting?  On the fly?  Having never done it before and no preparation (that we know of)?  For many reasons, I would say highly unlikely to impossible, but obviously I am hoping she does.

  14. Posted

    3 hours ago, Drasvin said:
    4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

    He would somehow need to arrange her dead so the whatever is his point will be transmitted as part of reasons why she did it.

    Unless his plan is basically make the "why" to be "she killed bunch of vampires to protect people she cares about" and he just hope it will make other immortals realize how bad the laws are. Which seems quite optimistic - based on number of people voting in elections and plebiscites, I would say quite a lot of immortals wouldn't care enough anyway. Still, likely best option he has, so ...

    There are already some, like Zeus, that think the old laws are stupid and there are likely others who would enjoy being able to interact more directly (I imagine H&D wouldn't mind being able to take care of vampires themselves rather than track down a hunter to do the work for them). Voltaire largely needs to get Immortals to start thinking about changing the laws, then he can get their attention and start pushing for whatever his particular direction is.

    The problem I have with Voltaire pushing for changes in the laws is his ease with using Elliot's murder as part of his plans.  Also, H&D's obsessive quest to kill vampires that allows them to use a young Nanase and Susan in that quest.  Or as Pandora summed up good, "to do good things for good people and bad things to bad people".  Immortals are too powerful and their morality too narrow to allow them to interact with humans without very strict guidelines.  Honestly, I would think any human with the power of immortals should have similar limits.  The limits in place now probably came about because of some things perpetrated by Immortals, perhaps even in the name of "good".

    This is kind of like how some people complain about Superman being the big blue boy scout, with this very hard line code of ethics, ethics which I believe he keeps in place to protect the world from himself.

  15. Posted

    17 minutes ago, hkmaly said:
    25 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:
    39 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

    To be more exact: A kid of Tedd and Grace would have a kid with a kid of Ellen and Nanase.

    Also a possiblity. But if Susan has a kid with Matt

    Ma-who?

    I didn't ever considered she might actually end up with him. I still hope for Elliot+Ashley+Susan.

    So Elliot+Ashley+Susan will have a kid?  Not impossible in this universe.  And what about Tedd+Grace+Sarah and their kid?  Those two kids could get together with Ellen+Nanase kid.

    Is this carrying shipping too far?

    20 minutes ago, hkmaly said:
    28 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

    And I hope Dan's subconscious forces him to get Lavender and Edward together and hatch some more siblings for Tedd.

    I second that. The half-siblings from his mother side needs some counterbalance.

    That would be interesting.  Though I think Tedd should meet his other sibling(s) before that and then right after that he gets to tell his mom he is a wizard.

  16. Posted

    22 hours ago, Drasvin said:

    I've wondered how the secret of elves having children works with a female elf. That can't be played off as their partner cheating on them. And there only being male elves (or only male elves being able to conceive children) feels too contrived (Though it is the answer my own brain echoed back at me whenever I thought on this conundrum).

    Well, perhaps females elves are more rare than male elves, who are already rare.  Perhaps the lie that elves couldn't reproduce was accompanied by a lie that one should avoid having a female elf because of some potential bad outcome, so Pandora magically chose to have a male child.  Or perhaps it is not very likely for female elves, or even elves in general, to have children.  Or perhaps children only occur under certain conditions.  We may simply have a paucity of counter-examples for elves not being able to bear children.

    Of course this starts us on the line of questions regarding the whether Immortals can reproduce with each other and the origin of Immortals, but then we start asking other questions such as why are the French Immortals paired when others are singular, why do Immortals seem so solitary, how do they come to agreements for each universe, etc. 

    But that way lies madness...

  20. Posted

    2 minutes ago, Scotty said:

    Joking aside, what would Diane be able to do if she was just now given access to magic?

    When Susan and Nanase were in France, not only did they have a bit more time to prepare, but Nanase was already skilled in martial arts and the idea was that Susan would just give Nanase the weapons and let her do the fighting. Plus there was only 1 vampire back then between the two of them, now it's 5 vampires left and Susan's still not skilled enough to really deal with them unless it's taking them by surprise, and Diane's no better.

    I guess it depends on what her predisposition dictates.  I mean one aspect is obviously the ability to summon weapons that can hurt vampires, summoning the Bane, but does that vampire hunting aspect only manifest one way or does it block out other predispositions?

    If either answer is no, then perhaps she can summon a magic weapon that gives a distance or ranged attack.  The desire to protect herself and Susan might give her a force field.  Given her ability to deduce and notice details, perhaps she could receive enhanced situation awareness to give her battle sense.  Since she is so sneaky, the ability to literally "hide in shadows" (shadow walk) or invisibility (obviously only works if Susan hands her a sword or hammer).  She loves griffins so much now, perhaps she could gain the ability to turn into a griffin.

  21. Posted

    1 minute ago, Tom Sewell said:

    In that case it could have already happened during the car ride in Part 21. Oops.

    Ah yes, thank you, forgot about the timeline difference.  So no obvious change to Magic by that time; those lights that made Sirleck feel like he "dodged a bullet."  Hopefully not Pandora going out in a blaze of glory.  Perhaps just the cheer of doom led by Diane.  Or maybe it was the Change in Magic but it's radiating outward and hasn't reached them yet.

  24. Posted

    57 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

    It could eliminate a lot of stuff--maybe including aberrations. Now that's a weapons-grade get-out-of-jail-free card to play.

    Oy, happening in the midst of battle that would be game changing but it might not eliminate but change aberrations to follow different rules.  Wonder how that would affect Magus inhabiting Elliot's body; might throw him out or worse, make it permanent.

    Hah, I wonder if to change magic's operating system you have to reboot and reinstall (well the Universal equivalent); magic might be halted or nullified while the changes take effect.

  25. Posted

    I do believe that Pandora has resigned herself to a forced reset is all appears lost rather than seeing Adrian, Susan or Diane hurt.  Which yes, would place "Pandora" in danger, but she doesn't want that for many reasons, including trying to stay herself and attempt a "refresh" so that her love for her family doesn't die.  Rather reminds me of when the Tenth Doctor said, "I don't want to go."

    Before that happens, she can provide support in the form of Empower and Advise.  So, she could grant more power to Susan, who could summon more hammers, swords and fairies without running out of juice (I can't imagine she won't come out of this combat without gaining another spell related to fighting vampires, but for the life of me, I also can't imagine which it would be, upgrade to hammers, swords or fairies or something even more exotic; battle fairies with their own swords?).  She can also see the aberrations coming and warn Adrian and Susan.  Honestly, an immortal being present at the battle might make the aberrations think twice about attacking.