hkmaly

As Melissa once pointed out, even a compact-car-sized dragon doesn't have wings big enough to fly without magic. Wings might give some kind of agility bonus, especially at speed. I wasn't saying they fly without magic. Just that they are using wings and would be suboptimal to teach someone without wings. Agree, however it's possible he would be able to put her to sleep even in guardian form ... or use some offensive magic on her.

That's what I was getting at -- Nanase isn't exactly a well-trained expert in flying fisticuffs either. She and Elliot would need to either find an airborne combat expert to train them, or work things out by trial and error, probably with Greg's help. Hmm, maybe he'd have the same sort of insight he had when he invented ASMA in the first place? Nanase probably didn't get any well-trained expert in airborne combat to train her, BUT she doesn't need to do the trial and error stuff because she ALREADY DID. Probably with Greg's help. And, given the number of people with levitation abilities, she might easily be in top ten - not because she's that good, but because there isn't that many people who would even start training that in EGS universe to start with. (Well ... at least on their half. Griffins fly differently, but there may be human flying mages on their half.)

She's not only one. The emotions and views involved are conflicting!

The girls would have joined the Bund Deutscher Mädel. And who says there's only one Nazi universe? GURPS had six official ones the last time I checked. Right. Didn't wanted to imply there's only one. The number is likely infinite. With infinite evil Elliots, despite not every Nazi universe having evil Elliot.

Shade Tail wouldn't want ONLY rational reasons. ... telling them what to think would actually be counter-productive wouldn't it? She described herself as servant. She likely does have SOME position. Wasn't Eva Braun photograph and photography studio assistant? Not general, sure. Actually, lab assistant makes LOT of sense in Tedd's case. Yes ... but would that be worth it? Tedd might been emotionally unstable to the point that he would get HARDER to control if hurt too much. (Also, I think that for real cementing, there would need to be more than Shade Tail's word to convince Tedd.)

Well Noriko was missing in main universe as well. And Edward ... maybe Edward didn't shown to understand Tedd enough. Or maybe he died. Yes. On the other hand, it would hurt Tedd a lot, so General Shade Tail is not likely to do this without being sure - or being forced to. To General Shade Tail disappointment, Nioi is not so easily replaceable as he would like, her almost identical clone notwithstanding. It would likely be better to arrange some accident and kill Nioi without telling Tedd. Or even better, arrange so it seems someone else killed Nioi. Maybe some enemy Tedd was reluctant to eradicate before ... (On a related note: if he was just pretending to not care, it could mean he really didn't known and was punching the bag so much to let off the anger about it. Or, maybe he though he knows where Nioi is but didn't know why.)

I'd agree that Shade-Tail dpoesn't have Lord Tedd on marionette strings. But has striven to be the one Lord Tedd looks to for advice and confidence, meaning that Lord Tedd shouldn't make a big decision without consulting Shade Tail and Shade-Tail's approval. I see Shade-Tail's control as primarily political. I don't think Sahde-Tail is trying for a cult-grade contorl over Lord Tedd's personal life. We are getting closer Lord Tedd doesn't need Shade Tail's approval. But Shade Tail positioned himself as most reliable advisor (if not only advisor), and Tedd is not so confident in his political decisions, so he rarely does something Shade Tail didn't approved. I would expect that's how Sahde-Tail would put it with the goal of keeping Lord Tedd a bit distance from everybody else. I don't think he'd want Lord Tedd to look too much on his subordinates as pets. Shade-Tail is a subordinate! 9at least on the organization chart) Shade Tail is advisor, not pet. Him referring to Nioi as pet is exactly to highlight the difference between them, despite both being subordinates on the chart. On the other hand, he needs to be careful: his own teaching would make Lord Tedd turn against him if he would suspect Shade Tail is not following orders. That "not caring" was what I took as evidence of complacency. Even if Shade-Tail isn't trying to control every aspect of Lord Tedd's life, he should be keeping his finger on the pulse. Yes. Nioi has lot of influence on Lord Tedd. If Shade Tail really didn't knew where she is and didn't cared, he got too complacent. But ... it's possible he just pretended that.

I agree with this, however that doesn't require Shade Tail to be able to outscheme Lord Tedd or being able to turn him into tool. It's just that Shade Tail is more mature and understand the emotions. By keeping Tedd immature, he can't control exactly what will Lord Tedd do, but can be reasonably sure it would be something he likes anyway. On second though ... pain might not be the best word. Shade Tail basically teaches Tedd that only way to have something is to own it. Nioi is not his equal, she's his pet, servant. She will be punished if she would abandon him. That's the way how to prevent abandonment Shade Tail is teaching Tedd. Note that him pretending to not care is important part of hiding how much he influences Tedd. On the other hand, he might be getting little complacent based on how easy it was so far ...

It sounded like people were assuming that all Elliots were born boy/girl scouts. Was just putting out the idea that if there's an Elliot that's the complete opposite, then it must be an "Elliot of Pure Evil". He's probably from that universe where young boys/girls are not becoming scouts but Hitlerjugend because the Third Reich won the war.

"If"? Your multiverse must be very small.

Yes, but you can also be manipulative and still not turn the target into tool. For example, I can imagine General Shade Tail is "protecting" Tedd from some other people who might have positive influence on him. Probably made sure Tedd thinks he ordered him to. But, if Tedd would decide to meet someone else himself, General Shade Tail would just warn him about the risk ... because he doesn't have him under complete control and is not clever enough to have plan which would prevent such meeting without Tedd getting some suspicion. Also, I don't think he would be able to remove Nioi now, unless she will do some mistake.

Agree. Lord Tedd met General Shade Tail sooner ... ... and in fact, maybe it was General Shade Tail who found Nioi for Lord Tedd, although he didn't expected how much influence she will get.

And even if she doesn't (her guardian form knowledge may disappear when the form does), Elliot and Nanase and Greg could work out the basics through trial and error together. She doesn't have the guardian form advanced combat instincts and ability to fly in formation when not in that form, but she's still have lot of experience both in normal flying and in flying with fairy. (Although she technically lost both of those fights ...) That is possible. However, if they would hate being female as much as Magus thinks, would that be fair to him? ... of course, we know Elliot might really jump at that excuse AND that Ellen doesn't mind being female, so ... I would expect she would like to try sometime, but really, it's not like she doesn't have such option. She might not want to try because she's afraid she would like it too much (There is still the question about how do they solve the issue with Nanase's children ...)

Indeed, given how great an influence Grace has had on Tedd, and that General Shade-tail likely still shares all but one parent with Grace and their meeting may have been equally momentous, it's quite possible this Shade-tail is meeting some of the needs Elliot fills and some of the needs Grace fills for our Tedd. ... except he's "filling" them differently, which is pushing Tedd to be more aggressive and vengeful - exactly what General Shade tail wants. (Although SOME needs are likely being filled by Nioi instead.) But that's exactly what I'm talking about. Noone would say our Tedd is Grace's (or Elliot's) tool.

Maybe I shouldn't talk about it either but seriously Elliot you are in dire need of airborne fighting training! Nanase has lot of experience, let her teach you. (Also, yes ; Elliot acknowledged the attempt to prove to Magus women can be strong.) Given how boy scout this Elliot is I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that alternative Ellen/Magus is so reasonable. Yes. And that "reasons" for not using physical forms stronger and still female looks similar to Elliot's "not enough introspective" ... they are really similar. Most of Ellen's counterpoints were related to it being temporary and the issues with magic secrecy. Still, yes, even if Ellen wanted to be male there would still be practical problems. There are just two schools in Moperville, unless she wants to move DGB really can't provide her with new identity this time. So, she would need to temporary switch back to female at least until end of school. Unless she would basically switch with Elliot.

With the emphasis on strength he is likely less clever than Grace. Meanwhile, Tedd is very clever and you need considerably higher intelligence to predict someone's reaction for complete control. And it's more risky ... and the gain is unlikely to be that much greater. (On the other hand, while Tedd is clever he may be too focused on his magitech and is not really using his cleverness for other stuff.)

That's the idea of why Lord Tedd would be a catspaw, he's just a tool for General Shade Tail. Not a tool. General Shade Tail is unlikely to be clever enough to actually control Lord Tedd completely - and he doesn't need to. The term "catspaw" might still apply, though.

Considering Nioi believes General Shade Tail is corrupting Lord Tedd, it's quite possible that, in the spirit of the current story arc's title, Lord Tedd is just a catspaw. ... I think if GST wouldn't be satisfied with his position he would just kill Lort Tedd. He is satisfied with his POSITION. There are other things he's not satisfied with and the things he does to push Tedd in direction he would prefer is what Nioi calls "corrupting".

It's the same thing that confused (and then squicked) Grace -- most people in our society seem incapable of seeing someone naked or scantily dressed without putting it into a sexual context. If not for that, there would be no more problem with less-aestheticly-shaped people being naked or scantily dressed than there would be seeing them more heavily clothed. Surprisingly, people are more tolerant to other people dressed in swimwear (at least near water), despite swimwear often covering just as little as underwear.

So ... Lord Tedd wasn't as clear as Beta Tedd said? I still think it was a test and if he didn't kill anyone it just means all Tedds passed.

There are actually plenty of ways of literally listing that center in phone book in way which makes it look like some convention center for sci-fi and/or movie studio and would still make the real aliens try it - either if desperate enough or because they recognize something people don't. Bonus points, real aliens can walk around freely, provided they pretend they are in costume. It's harder for people from alternative universes because they don't have anything in common. The funny part is that there MAY be something like that on EGS earth ... and it's operated by DGB, so Magus's best choice would be to go with Elliot and ask Edward. Or, well, let himself be captured. (Magus's second best choice is to wait for griffins and ask THEM if they have something.)

Well it's obvious: now when he has body, he can open the phonebook and find an address of local center for helping people lost in other dimensions ... "wait, what do you mean there is no such center on your earth?"

Or someone in Magus's universe. Lord Tedd may not know that she went to the Moperverse, but I'm sure he knows the way she got there. Nioi is his pet, not researcher. She borrowed that ball. It doesn't imply she killed 11 other Tedds. It implies he TRIED to. Others might survived just like our Tedd did. (In fact, wasn't Beta Tedd one of them?) Also, I still consider the possibility the Goo was supposed to be more like test than way to kill Tedd. Sure, he might be dead if he FAILED the test, but in such case he would be too weak to matter. And there is whole warehouse of artifacts just next to him! ... but wait. Those artifacts were supposed to be inert. There is no manual to any of them. They could easily be deadly traps ...

He might know how to get back home, but was just unable to because he was missing an important detail, a physical body. It's not like he'd be able to just ask someone to open a portal for him, right? Usually it's hard to get back if you don't know where you are. Unless the universes are conventionally labelled (possibly with sequence of glyphs) ...

EGS universe might have relatively weak magic users, but I would expect it's nowhere near the weakest universe, and it doesn't really have so much interesting stuff to steal. Anyone with reliable technology/magic for traveling between universes would likely choose more attractive target. Unless he has some specific motive targeting EGS universe ... like Lord Tedd. Magus, however, DOESN'T have any reliable traveling technology. He has little idea how he got here and we still don't know how - or IF - he plans to return. But even that return may not allow anyone else to come here. Of course, it's also possible anyone coming from Magus's universe will end up on spiritual plane like Magus ... that would be quite potent defense