Tom Sewell

Six hours behind the curve this morning in the Silicon Valley. Anyway, there's a whole thread about Pandora being framed over in General Discussion and it's my guess that the mystery won't be unraveled any time soon. It's kind of a theme here: Catspaws. There are three layers of manipulators in the title page: Sirleck behind Pandora behind behind Magus behind Elliot and Ellen (with Diane and Elliot on the sides and maybe between Magus and Pandora). Voltaire isn't even in the picture at all, but we know he's manipulating Sirleck. So we have catspaws of catspaws of catspaws of catspaws... Is that a cat or a centipede?

I've seen the entire series. I think it ran to seven volumes but only five were published in the US. Provided Grace has enough time, a zipper or velcro-closed opening would work, but if she has to morph tail(s) fast, no. Besides, zippers and velcro would chaff and get caught in her fur. A loose flap in back would work, but it would look odd; the loose shirt sounds like a simpler and more normal-looking arrangement.

I think it's more likely uryuom magic tech. Nanotech wouldn't just make one-size-fits-all clothes possible. Self-replicating nanotech could lead to Grey Goo. I wonder if The Shive has any familiarity with Cannon God Exaxxion, a manga which features a lot of nanotech, including some extremely sexy morphing robots. And really awesome guns.

How can Grace have tails without tearing holes in her pants? This is actually a question The Shive brought up in a commentary once, but I don't know if He got around to answering it. My guess is that Grace usually wears low-rise pants under loose tops which hang down past the top of her pants. In all creatures with butt cracks, tails emerge just at the top, and Grace's tail or tails should be able to clear the rise, especially if she bends over. High-rise thongs like the ones I sighted about a decade ago peering over low-rise pants would pose a problem, but I don't think they're in style any more. Possibly the DGB has some need for tail-friendly non-uryuom clothing, so maybe Edward ordered some.

It looks like Ashley's going to be pretty famous at Moperville North, especially after she does her part in Edward's cunning plan. Besides the inevitable appearances of monsters and vampires, maybe we can look forward to: Principal Verrucht asking her to recruit Cheerleadra as a hall monitor That guy from the gentlemen's magazine getting punched out by Elliot or Liz, or maybe hammered by Susan. An offer from Manchester United

This is pretty close to the big climax of a Blake Edwards movie from 1984, Micki and Maude Well, this is Sister III, after all.

So your family immigrated from Xanth?

You have missed out on one of the great Britcoms. Thanks for picking out Edward's offhand remark. Totally missed it, and after I looked at the rest of the arc. Edward's latest cunning plan: Edward: Also, I'm going to manufacture a Cheerleadra sighting somewhere while you're [Elliot] in class and surrounded by witnesses. Obvious solution, and everything's fine so long as Ashley can sell the “only just met her” angle. Earlier at the mall: Floating Elf Jesus (a.k.a Voltaire) (quite loudly): This girl, Ashley, is the potential mate of German Dark I spoke of in my riddle. Since it's part of Edward's cunning plan for Ashley to speak to reporters, at least one of them is going to ask her whether the Immortal was lying about her being Cheerleadra's potential mate. Maybe Ashley can call in the Demonic Duck?

Don't never need to cut it 'cause it stopped by itself! Or someone is covering up which is a much simpler explanation. Of course, simple isn't simple all that often in EGS.

I can't seem to find that "few comics further"; little help? Anyway, we know Elliot can alter his morphed appearance(s) and even the psychology of his special "secret ID" morphs if he puts his mind to it. But when he morphed into Cheerleadra at Salty Crackers, at the dojo, and at the mall, they were all emergency conditions. He knew he had to be Cheerleadra right now or people were liable to be hurt or killed. Given Elliot's luck, when this happens again, there will be loads of people around with cellphone cameras. Anyway, I'm thinking that one of the ways Edward's Cunning Plan might unravel is for the manufactured incident by whomever is performing as Cheerleadra happen at the same time a real emergency demanding the real Cheerleadra occurs at Moperville North. And I'm disappointed that none of you picked up on "cunning plan" being a Blackadder reference in my earlier post.

Ummm, the first time she cast the spell was on the wild boar. So it is canon that Rhoda can change the size of living and non-living things. In fact, the cookie spell might be another spell--Rhoda might actually be awakened, even if she doesn't have a spellbook yet (which Justin apparently doesn't.)

If the title of this storyline is Escape From the Mall, I think we all will be very disappointed if we don't have at least one cameo by Snake Plisskin. Also, I guess Rhoda will never need to look for Large Print editions.

Hmmm... Rhoda can effectively sow minefields of cookies which will shrink or grow anyone who eats them. Good thing the cookie place was out of them by the time of Ashley and Elliot's date. I wonder if clothes grow or shrink too... First question Tedd would ask, of course.

I'm wondering if Ashley (and perhaps Liz) will be in a particular blind spot...

I'm assuming, given the title and their prominent (though not foremost) positions on the cover page of Sister III, The Shive will cast some light upon the questions I'm about to bring up. Why Are There So Many Differences Between Susan and Diane? The short answer: Different upbringings. Diane was raised with an older sibling to compete with; Susan wasn't. Susan has become embarrassed by how much her mother spoiled her. Diane might have been spoiled to some extent, but her desire to get men to spend money on her doesn't bespeak being raised in a mansion. However, we have no clue about the Diane's adoptive parents other than they don't seem to be as well off as Susan's mom. Are they a mixed couple? Are they together? That last one is really relevant. Susan and Diane have different approaches to handling men, but the underlying attitude is fear of getting hurt. Susan tries to avoid men; Diane tries to control them. Now neither of these suggests a strong, reliable father figure. Diane just wouldn't have this attitude if she was satisfied with the father figure she grew up with. Well, I'm interested in this, but I'll move on to something I think more of you might be interested in. Who Are Susan and Diane's Biological Parents? The Shive has put in a few clues, or maybe red herrings, that might lead to answers. Sometime. Maybe. First, in a dream and then a flashback, Susan remembers the woman she found with her father. In the flashback, The Shive actually titles the strip The Woman With Susan's Face. Susan tries to cut off her hair and then her mom dyes it so she won't look like that horrid blond woman. This kind of implies that Susan realized the woman was her birth mother. She hasn't said a thing about it in any strip since, but that is quite consistent in her nature. As of now (7-22-2016 in realworld time), we still don't know if Susan knows or even suspects she was adopted. I hope we don't get adoptichlorians. Susan's dad? Well, her adoptive dad's face is never shown—it's actually blacked out. Now if adoptive daddy was seeing birth mommy, it's not really a stretch to think that adoptive daddy is also biological daddy. Except... Diane wasn't introduced yet. If Susan's dad arranged the adoption of one of his own kids, why not both? The Raven Factor In Death Sentence, Grace notices that the disguise spell Adrian Raven uses to hide her three-tailed form makes her look exactly like Susan. Although Raven tells her half-immortals can't have children, he doesn't say that he doesn't have children. The Shive is very cute about maybe denying that this is more than an amusing coincidence in His commentary. What's your call? Remember, by this time we know that Raven can morph to change his appearance. It would have been a necessity to have maintained the same identity as a (somewhat) normal human for as long as he's been teaching at Moperville South. Also, why exactly does Raven choose to let Diane off when he finds her AWOL from her class in Sister II? He knows Diane isn't the ditzy valley-girl she's channeling; he tells Ellen and Grace right after Diane is gone—but doesn't call out Diane on her ploy to her face. Not proof he has special feelings for Diane, but it would fit very well if he does. Also, in the flashback strip with Noriko and baby Tedd, Raven's face is blacked out just about the same way as Susan's dad was. This time it wasn't in Susan's mind, so the connection is spider-silk-thin. Still... Third Sister? I think The Shive likes ambiguous titles and titles that have multiple meanings. Do Susan and Diane have a third sister? I don't think I would need Alien Space Bats to posit that the third sister is the mysterious sibling of Tedd, whether or not she's Susan and Diane's sibling, and whether or not Adrian Raven is her father. What, surely I'm not the only one that thought that perhaps that's the reason Tedd's parents split up and Tedd's dad hates Adrian Raven? And why Noriko can't face her son? Come on, how many of you out there aren't panting to finally get Full Frontal Noriko? Another candidate for a third sister would be Ellen's Second Life doppelganger, possibly along with Kaoli. They're supposed to meet eventually; maybe eventually is coming up soon. Vladia is Grace's sister, and if she's Gregs New Girlfriend, it gives an excuse to get Greg involved more. Carol Brown is Sarah's sister, and given not one but two Immortal schemers behind the scenes (that we know of) plus Sirleck, it seems pretty likely that Carol will finally get to the scene of the latest weirdness in time to (choose one or more): Find out little sister Sarah knows what's going on Find out little sister Sarah has magic Find out vampires are real in the worst possible way. Get The Government much too interested. Hey, you didn't think Grace's siblings were the only people confined “for their own protection,” did you? So, anyone want to add their thoughts?

If one can read it. We know that Ellen can read Elliot's spellbook (and seems to do it more often) but maybe if you aren't Awakened (and therefore eligible for a spellbook) the book will either have blank pages or the actual ecology of anteaters. And maybe Ellen can only read it because she's Elliot's twin.

Yeah, I realized that and edited my last posting on that subject. But it seems clear enough that Nanase has put off telling Uncle Edward about her suspicions about Diane until this morning. Edward's concern about Diane would have been mostly about whether she would keep The Secret, and since Diane agreed with him about keeping the last incident secret from Rhea, it would have been low on his list of priority worries. Now that Edward knows that Diane has magic potential, he'll should want to test her to find out how great her potential is. He might even be required to do it and (of course) send in a report.

Edward didn't seem to know much about Diane at all until Nanase told him this morning. He'd want to know as much as possible about her magic potential now, and maybe also to confirm that Susan and Diane are not twins.

Now that we know that Edward is going to set up a Cheerleadra sighting when Elliot (or "Elliot") is in class and surrounded by people who recognize him, one very good possibility is that the plan will involve Ellen using her copy spell on Elliot--which could provide Magus with the opportunity he's been waiting for for so long. I've speculated earlier that Magus could be an alternate Elliot, and the result could be Magus possessing Ellen or Elliot. This could eventually lead to Sirleck possessing Magus possessing Ellen or Elliot, something perhaps suggested by Sirleck being the rearmost menacing form in the title page. I have no idea how the rest of the gang, even with Pandora's help, will destroy Sirleck without killing whomever he's possessing. It's a pretty scary scenario. However, there could be comic potential in Magus, Sirleck, or both trying to pose as Elliot, Ellen, or whomever. One thing I think we can count on is that Sirleck instinctively hides his nature as much as he can manage. Speaking of hiding his nature, if Sirleck is bound by the rules set up for aberrations, shouldn't he have to become visible when he actually takes possession of a new host?

Manufacturing a convincing Cheerleadra sighting needs a flyer who can morph or can fly while morphed via Tedd. Grace can fly and morph, but she only flies in three-tailed forms. Also, she can't morph her clothing Ellen might be able to fly if she used her copy spell on Cheerleadra, but it would be an expansion of her powers and we don't know how long the spell would last. It would sort of be doubly awkward if she turns back into Ellen in the midst of the incident, triply if she's flying. Plus, although none of the gang knows about Magus, it could give Magus the opportunity he's been waiting for. Elliot can fly and morph into any female form, but I don't think he can morph directly into any form from Cheerleadra except himself, Mild-Mannered, Goth, and Heidi. However, we do know he can morph from Mall Elliot (and probably any other form) into Cheerleadra. Hey, doesn't this sound kind of like Sailor Moon in the early episodes where she'd use her wand to transform into an identity-hiding form before transforming into Sailor Moon? Once she even turned into a boy. But I digress... Nanase can float, but she's only been shown flying in her angel form. Bringing in an unknown flyer/morpher/hologram/whatever would mean either The Shive waves His wand and has everything done off-camera, or creating a new character. Non-starters. I hope. So, the most feasible plan is probably Elliot being Cheerleadra and somebody else playing the part of Elliot at school. Ellen could play Elliot the most convincingly since she has most of Elliot's memories and literally sleeps with Elliot. Ellen likely wouldn't want to do it because having her own identity is so important to her, but she would do it if Edward convinced her she was the best choice. Grace will probably volunteer immediately, and she'd probably be the funniest candidate, given her squirrelishness. Edward should also see that she'd be the least convincing, especially if he knows about Tedd and Grace switching places. Sarah has known Elliot longer than anyone in the Eight. However, she hasn't been shown as being in contact with Edward and has been warned not to let Edward know she has her spell. Besides, she'd have to skip the one class she'd least want to miss, Art. Nanase dated Elliot for a long time and trained with him, so she could pull off his attitudes and mannerisms well. There are several good opportunities for hilarity here, especially if Susan, Sarah, and/or Ashley don't know that "Elliot" is really Nanase yet. Also, Nanase is clearly a much better student than Nanase and that could be noticed in class. And if that isn't enough, there's always the possibility of absent-minded floating. Isn't about time for the return of that gag? Tedd also knows Elliot extremely well. But, he's Tedd. Can Tedd-Elliot go through an entire day without saying or doing Tedd-like things? Ashley would do it. But going with Edward's plan, her job is going to be supporting the "girl-talk-with-the-pink-haired-girl-who-is-also named Elliot Dunkel" part. Susan could grit her teeth and do it. But Edward might think she'd be better employed as extra support for the Second Elliot theory he's creating. Justin could and would do it pretty well. But like Sarah and Susan, he hasn't been shown in the Edward's council of war yet. How much do you want to bet that there won't be a genuine vampire attack during the hijinks which will totally overturn Edward's cunning plan? (Kudos to anyone who gets the "cunning plan" reference.)

There's a quicker way to find the Dunkel family: Check for lottery winners. Another brilliant Edward Verres plan.

I'd say this renders Edward insufficiently paranoid.

Actually causality may simply be an illusion caused by the limitation of how we perceive the dimension of time. If something from the present or future changed the past, how would the "updated" version of ourselves know? But in EGS, time travel is impossible because The Creator (AKA The Shive) says so. At least until He says differently. And before anyone digs me again, crosstime travel means crossing into an alternate universe, usually one where history unfolded differently. That's been in EGE canon almost from day one.

I read his warnings as "parent cautioning child against into rushing into things" such as marriage and parenthood. Also, Edward has to be afraid that Grace will get drafted into service like Agent Cranium.

Or she could be something like "Jennifer Elliot Dunkel", perhaps with "Elliot Dunkel" being one of those hyphenated names without the hyphen, like Duff Cooper or Spencer Churchill (The male line of Churchills descendent from the Duke of Marlborough died out some generations ago. BTW, this is why the late Princess Diana was related to Winston Churchill.) However, this isn't the big reason why "This is a thing that can happen" isn't likely to be an very effective solution to the problem. At least two witnesses at the Mall who are not Tensaided, Catalina, or Rhoda know who Elliot Dunkel is because they go to Moperville North. And unless Carol is incredibly clueless, she's going to remember that her little sister Sarah had a childhood friend named "Elliot" even if she wasn't interested enough to ask who Sarah's been dating. To really make the pink-haired-girl-Elliot-who-is-not-Elliot-Dunkel dodge work, Edward would have to set up falsified records for Mall Elliot. This is something he did for Ellen and Grace, but that was before he got booted upstairs. Presuming Edward does that, there still has to be a "real" Mall Elliot to seal the deal. This is as doable as Justin's plan to conceal Cheerleadra's secret identity by having Grace pose as Elliot. Of course, this doesn't cover the interesting factoid that "classic Cheerleadra" looks like Ellen. Do you think there could have been any students from Moperville South at the mall who maybe thought Floating Jesus said "Ellen Dunkel"?