ChronosCat

I am too ( @chronosthecat.bsky.social ) but I mostly use it for following/replying to other people, and repost things far more than I create original posts.

If a group of people decide to keep using the former government's money anyway, it would remain valuable for that group. (Though I guess in that case it becomes a commodity itself.)

We had a lot of snow dropped on us the night of the 23rd into Christmas Eve morning; my family and I spent several hours cleaning up the snow. Not exactly what I would have chosen to spend my time on Christmas Eve, even if it did mean we had a proper white Christmas.

I wonder how they work around Waterson's sabbaticals? Some comics are better for binging than others, but owning a collection works better than borrowing one, as you can go at your own pace. Of course if they're all available to read for free online anyway, that works just as well and is cheaper.

In the actual "Cinderella" story, yes, we'll probably see a Fairy Godmother or similar. I was trying to say one was unlikely in the Rhodopis adaption, and given it's already over I was right.

I haven't looked up Rhodopis, so I can't say for sure, but: Prior to this the earliest Cinderella story I was aware of was an ancient Chinese version with a magic fish that assisted the main character*. Also, godparents is primarily a Christian invention (though some non-Christian cultures do have similar concepts). So if there is some magical being helping in this, I wouldn't expect it to be a fairy godmother. * Said magic fish was a reincarnation of the main character's mother, and is eventually killed by the stepsisters but still continues to help as magic fish bones.

As he has explained in more detail elsewhere (such as BlueSky), his knee has been hurting since Saturday, particularly when bent. Sitting at his drawing desk is painful, and propping up his leg just makes his back hurt instead. So he's decided to take it easy for a few days in hopes his knee will recover.

So several people on Blue Sky & Tumblr have suggested this Dragon-Imortal might be Voltaire, and Dan responded to one of them with what would appear to be a deliberately unconvincing denial. Assuming that means this really is Voltaire, hopefully he was forced to reset at some point between this flashback and now. Of course, if Pandora was partially responsible for said reset, it's possible Voltaire remembered it and his actions involving Pandora during the events of the comic (specifically attempts to frame Pandora, his trying to have the Abberations target Raven, and the way he used her to achieve his own ends while forcing her to reset) were an attempt at revenge. Another interesting speculation I've seen is that the "dragon scale" within the Dewitchery Diamond was related to this dragon-immortal. Given that dragons supposedly don't actually exist in the EGS world, and both the Diamond and this dragon are connected to werewolves, that seems pretty plausible to me.

I'm pretty sure there were a few non-canon stories (Q&As or similar) in the main story section where Dan showed up. At any rate, even counting NP and Sketchbook, his appearances are pretty rare.

I didn't have anything* to say about the comic, and I haven't been paying close attention to which reaction thread went with which comic, so I missed that there wasn't a thread for this one yet. * Well, other than "Meow, meow, meow!" but that's doesn't translate very well into English, and I always feel a little awkward posting in feline on an English-language board. While the "original" Dana Nekoshive was a villain in her own game (according to the lore this story dropped on us), now that Dan has been "reincarnated" into the role his goal is to be a good person and avoid the fate Nekoshive would face in the canonical ending to the game. So I wouldn't expect to see villainy from Dan-as-Dana. At any rate, this strip was the end of the story, and we rarely see Dan in the comics, so we probably won't find out much more about Dan's adventures as a non-villainous "villainess".

https://www.egscomics.com/comic/hope-137 (space for spoilers) So now we know why that Mimic wasn't a suicide card (though in retrospect it should have been obvious); Hope set things up so it would get destroyed before the cards underneath it built up to levels that would be dangerous to her. (Hope's Healer card may have also been to offset the cost of the Mimic, though it will take a several turns for Hope to fully recover.)

While usually not on the very top of the head, it's not all that unusual to see a girl with pigtails or a ponytail pretty high up on their head.

Why do I think we will have elections again? I think we'll probably have midterms because I'm fairly confident most of our elected officials would like to at least preserve the illusion of democracy (and I also suspect a large portion of the Republican politicians don't actually want a Trump dictatorship, they're just using him for the sake of their own careers). And we'll probably have another presidential election in 4 years, for the same reasons. Of course Trump might have different plans, but if he cancels all elections (or tries to get a "third term" without a constitutional amendment) I suspect we'd be dealing with a second Civil War rather than Trump being undisputed dictator of the nation (and there's at least a chance that whatever governments(s) rose from the ashes would have elections). Why do I think they will be fair? I suspect for large portions of the country they won't be fair; in many states they already aren't. However so far everything I've heard of that has been done by Republicans to rig elections has been at the state level, and many states are still not in Republican control. It's possible they could manage to rig things on the national level, but with such slim majorities in congress that would mean pretty much every Republican congressperson would need to be in on it. Which is all to say, "Things won't be truly fair, but just maybe they'll be fair enough." Also, as a reminder, I qualified my thoughts on the midterms with "if the democratic system holds on until midterms" and "if the Republicans fail to rig the system any further". I am in fact extremely concerned by the possibility that we might not have any more elections in the US where people's votes matter, I just don't see that possibility as a certainty.

But it wasn't just his base that voted for him, otherwise he wouldn't have had the numbers to win. Also, things were very close in several swing states; if the Republicans fail to rig the system further, small numbers of people changing their minds could make all the difference. For that matter, there's always less of a turnout for midterms, which could also make the difference. And again I'm not saying everything will turn out all right, I'm just saying I think there are still reasons to hope for something other than a worst-case-scenario.

So I've been fighting anxiety and dread ever since the election, and I don't think I'll be able to completely shed this feeling of impending doom until/unless things suddenly turn for the better or we at least see a light at the end of the tunnel. However, I would suggest not giving up on American democracy and freedom quite yet. The Republican majorities in the House and Senate are close enough that a small number of Republican congresspeople refusing to play along could stop some of the worst legislation from passing. (We don't necessarily have to rely entirely on their better natures, either; there may be those who want power but think they have a better chance of getting it through being elected to a higher position than by trying to get in Trump's good graces and/or trying to become his successor.) Last time around Trump's incompetence somewhat limited the evil he could do, and this time he's surrounding himself with others who will likely be similarly incompetent (though admittedly that incompetence could cause its own problems). The states still have a certain level of autonomy, and I expect many state governments to fight to protect the rights of their citizens as best they can (I believe a few governors have even said as much). Both in and out of the government there are plenty of people who are preparing to resist the evil things Trump and his allies have been planning. And if the democratic system can hold on until mid-term elections, there's a good chance the House and/or Senate will turn blue again (particularly if Trump fails to make the economy any better), putting some major obstacles in place to hinder Trump. Of course it might turn out all these things combined aren't enough to save the US, and even in the "best case" I can see at this point things are going to get bad, but it seems to me that if the alternative is despair, it's worth holding onto any sliver of hope one can.