ChronosCat

It could be a special wand, of great power and/or with one or more special spells in it. Of course that wouldn't be obvious on sight (at least not to the readers; the Golem appears to have magic detecting vision), but I can't think of anything that would fit with EGS that it could be that readers would suddenly know exactly what it was and what it meant when they saw it.

Considering that Kevin didn't show up until the Diamond was destroyed, and he was created during the latest magic system, I think it more likely it was the Diamond's destruction that activated him than the reset. I suppose we'll need to wait for Word of Dan or confirmation in the story to know for sure, though. That depends on the dragon and who/what you're comparing it to. There are some reptilian fire-breathing creatures which are fairly weak (but still strong enough to be dangerous to an unarmed human lacking superhuman strength or abilities), such as Alefgard's Wyverns, or Pern's Fire Lizards, though those aren't usually actually called dragons. Often times even dragons referred to as such can still be slain by a well equipped and experienced human warrior with a skillfully wielded sword or well-placed arrow (for instance, the dragons of Alefgard or Middle Earth). Then there are god-like dragons like Shenron, but even they have their limits - Shenron was once killed by King Piccolo, and presumably the likes of Super Saiyans, Frieza, and other beings of similar or greater power could kill him if they were so inclined (he's even afraid of Beerus, the God of Destruction). I'm sure there are more powerful dragons than Shenron (I seem to recall you mentioning them before), but as I haven't encountered them myself, I can only assume they're in the minority. I was specifically thinking the Dragons might have bred with humans, leading to descendants with only a little dragon blood and no knowledge of it (except perhaps a family legend no one believes).

April 26 in EGS History 2011 - Melissa trash-talks the bull dragon; Noah just trashes it. 2017 - Pandora introduces herself to the Immortal now known as Zeus in her Chaos form. It's important to make a good first impression, after all. April 27 in EGS History 2004 - Nanase sleeps on herself. 2005 - Vlad tells Grace to call her Vladia. 2010 - Dan buys an apron. 2016 - Little skulls appear in Grace's eyes. I wonder if she uses her shape-shifting to pull off that trick?

So, some sort of power connected with Ellen woke the Golem and Magpie; this strengthens my theory that both of them, Keven, and likely some as-yet-unseen artifacts were all activated by the energy released by the evaporating Dewitchery Diamond shards. I wonder though, is it a special type of magic which is different from normal magic? Or is it regular magic and it's only the Golem that finds it strange - perhaps they were originally a non-magical robot, or perhaps they normally run on Uryuom Power (or some other alien magic-like power). Upon looking at what was in Diamond's crate (presumably it's wooden core), the Golem seems to recognize what it sees. Could the core have dated back to the same era as the Golem? At any rate, it sure looks like the Golem is going to be the cause of the Eeek after all. I expect it to be a wand, of the more traditional wooden type. It would fit well within the Diamond, and it would be obvious to readers that it's a magical object (so long as they don't mistake it for a random stick) without requiring familiarity with anything besides EGS (or Harry Potter). * Imagines a couple of Daleks singing "What is this Feeling?"* "I LOATH YOU." "I LOATH YOU TOO."

My assumption was that wands that will provide tutoring are something that either did not exist when Keven was created, or were usually much simpler, and so creating something like Kevin required a lot of trial and error. Kevin was likely just one experimental prototype in a series of experiments; it's possible that later they succeeded with a different device. Even prior to today's comic, I suspected that it was the Dewitchery Diamond's explosion (and the subsequent evaporation of its pieces) that activated Keven and the other artifacts; apparently the magic it unleashed fixed something in Kevin. Based on what we know, I can see two likely possibilities: One, Kevin requires a lot of power, more than his creator(s) could provide him, and the Dewitchery Diamond powered him up. Two, magic-based AI is difficult to create, and the same ability which allowed the Diamond to create sentient beings like Ellen allowed its' shards to provide Kevin's mind what it was missing (it might even have given Kevin a soul, if that's something the Diamond was responsible for). Or Dragons might have the ability to shapeshift into a human-like form, and the dragon population is currently mostly in hiding among the human population. There might even be people with dragon blood in the main or secondary cast...

April 25 in EGS History 2002 - Nanase hits Elliot. The "pow" is very loud. 2003 - Susan reveals that her parents are divorced. 2005 - Grace's siblings wish her a happy birthday. 2011 - Noah and Justin hear someone "eek"ing, and both immediately recognize it as Melissa. Does that mean she's in the habit of screaming a lot? 2013 - To paraphrase Ellen, look out ladies, Elliot has been unleashed! 2016 - Elliot finally admits he loves the Cheerleadra form; his spellbook goes "vwm".

April 24 in EGS History: 2003 - Susan reveals that she dyes her hair, and that her full name is Tiffany Susan Pompoms. After looking at the fold-out pinup in an issue of Cat Chicks Magazine, Tedd decides he needs to get some yarn. 2012 - A timer rings signaling that Tedd has been in Grace's form for fifteen hours. 2013 - Sarah refuses to consider the possibility that Elliot felt like a sister to her when in female form. 2014 - While Tedd describes the mechanics of werewolf cards, we're treated to a fantasy sequence of the two of them turning into naked-save-fur anthro werewolves, then back to (now naked) humans. I choose to believe that they both pictured it.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/strechies-18320924 It's a bit cliche, but I still think the best thing to say in a situation like this is, "Meow!"

Kevin may be using the term "wizard" correctly (for the EGS world's terminology, i.e., someone who can learn other people's spells); Ellen may be a magic user but as far as we know she's not a wizard. As for the Golem, I doubt it means any harm. When it first burst out of its crate I assumed it would have a hair-trigger temper leading to Ashely's eek, but considering that it didn't react to having a wand thrown in it's face, I now suspect something else will be causing the eek.

At this point I feel like mentioning that I've always imagined the Duck with a deep gravely voice. Not that women can't have deep gravely voices, but it's rare enough that it makes the idea of the Duck being female even more striking to me.

April 23 in EGS History: 2002 - Nanase wins her match with Elliot, and celebrates with a kiss, much to Sarah's shock. 2003 - Tedd goes into a long spiel about why he's a pervert. 2005 - Justin has a disturbing dream about Elliot turning him into a girl. 2008 - Tedd declares his willingness to snatch skirts to help Susan, while Elliot imagines kicking Damion off a cliff. 2010 - Catalina buys plastic Mjolnir. 2012 - Tedd tells Sarah that she doesn't mind if Sarah takes a peek at her (in male or female form) in private; she also wants Sarah to have the option to publicly humiliate her. 2013 - Sarah tells Susan that she and Elliot broke up; the Susan/Elliot shippers rejoice (one in comic, no less). 2014 - Justin imagines George with pink hair. 2015 - Ashley makes her case against labels. My best guess: it's a combination of being desperate and Justin having meant he wasn't strongly attracted to Tedd rather than he wasn't attracted to Tedd even the tiniest bit. The new haircut might have something to do with it too; Justin probably finds it more attractive than Tedd's old haircut.

I think Kevin can only teach magic to wizards (and only wizards), he can't cast any magic himself, except perhaps in the process of teaching his apprentice (in which case either he doesn't have enough power to harm the Golem or he knows Ashely isn't ready to learn such spells and isn't willing or able to bend the rules on when he can use magic). As for the magpie, first of all we don't know it's going after the Golem - it could be going after a fourth, as yet unseen magical artifact. Secondly, while all these other artifacts activating around it might be what triggered it to act, it's also possible that it had been intentionally shut down and the magic released by the destruction of the Dewitchery Diamond turned it back on. In fact, I suspect that all these artifacts activating now is only related to the Magic Change in the sense that there are more potentially functional artifacts in the facility now than there were earlier in the day; I think it is the energy from the destruction of the diamond that's actually turning everything on. (Which means the same thing would have happened on a smaller scale even if Magus had done his resurrection trick before the Change. Pandora probably knew about this and didn't tell him, hoping to watch the fireworks; she'll be disappointed she missed it.)

As several people pointed out, his personality (and the fact that as far as we know he can't be turned off) could prove far more annoying in the long run than the magic detection wand. Also, given his use of the term "apprentice" in the latest comic, he's specifically designed to seek out and teach one person at a time. He might not be willing or able to detect other wizards when not in "looking for a new apprentice" mode, or he might just give a quick "yeah that's a wizard" instead of the detailed info the detection wand gives. And as Don Edwards said, just because Kevin can detect whether someone is (or has the potential to be) a wizard doesn't mean he can detect other types of magic users.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cowgirls-ashley-18309140 Moo. [space for minor spoilers] It seems out of character to me for Ashley to be in the more dominant position and Susan the more submissive position. Still, it's a non-canon fantasy and it looks good, so I'm not complaining.

April 22 in EGS History: 2002 - Nanase summons a "Demonic Duck of some sort" to distract Elliot in their match. 2003 - Grace is just about to rescue the Princess, when Sarah suddenly appears on the screen. 2004 - Damien tries to set Grace on fire; it doesn't work. Meanwhile at the comic shop, Ellen breaks the fourth wall and Nanase purrs in her hands. 2011 - Melissa defends Cheerleadra with a fifteen E scream. 2013 - Sarah throws a couch at Elliot. Or at least that's what they say. 2014 - Justin imagines Tedd taking off his clothes. 2016 - Grace wakes up feeling well rested.

That's a good point. It's easy to forget Susan has sides to herself she rarely shows. I wonder if she's just roleplaying here, or if she had a mental effect similar to "Pet Kitty" applied to her? Meanwhile her outfit seems to be "furry" without the fur and extra animal features, or footwear. Maybe Catalina's been playing around with mixing-and-matching card effects?

April 21 in EGS History: 2003 - Tedd reveals that he doesn't need his glasses. 2004 - Grace beats up Damien. It's very satisfying to watch. 2005 - Ellen declares she wouldn't say no to being friends with benefits with Sarah - and she feels the same way about almost everyone. If she can feel that way about someone she later described as a sister, one has to wonder who exactly she's not attracted to. 2007 - Mr. Verres tells Wolf and Cranium he'll put them back on the case of the "Egg" when they had more to go on; in the mean time he plans to enlist the assistance of some friends of his. 2008 - Susan shouts that she hates this stupid school and everyone in it - especially Elliot and Tedd! 2010 - Elliot halts a make-out session with Sarah because he feels like he had to transform (in retrospect I suspect there was a different reason he was feeling uncomfortable); he then transforms into an imperfect copy of Sarah. 2011 - Cheerleadra blocks a giant fireball with her body, and is knocked to the ground and injured in the process. On the one hand, Hitler was a very effective public speaker, and he had a lot of drive; it might have been more difficult for other people with similar goals and views to have built so much support (more difficult, certainly not impossible). On the other hand, he also proved to be fairly incompetent as a military strategist, and grew less and less inclined to listen to the advice of his underlings as time went on; if someone else had been in charge of Nazi Germany (or Germany under a similar totalitarian regime) they may well stood a better chance of winning, or at least have been even more costly to defeat.

Wow, Ashley's closing in on Diane. At this rate it shouldn't be too long before you'll have to consider whether to count her as one of the main characters.

Well, he did tend to have himself portrayed in an androgynous fashion in art, so that might not be completely inappropriate.

We already have one parent hiding that they know magic from their child who wound up learning about magic another way (Mrs. Kistune and Nanase), another would be redundant from a meta perspective and a strange coincidence in-universe.

April 20 in EGS History: 2003 - Dan enters "The Messed Up Zone". 2004 - Grace's Omega form is revealed.

I can't recall having any arguments with my characters, but that's partially because I generally just let them do whatever they want, and partially because when I do have a particular outcome in mind I'm not afraid to go back in time and play around with the course of history (i.e., rewrite/revise) until I find one with the results I want. (Although changing history does have it's risks; it's amazing how easy it is to create plot holes that way...)

We definitely can't judge threats and morality until we have a lot more info, but my current read on the situation is that Kevin is abrasive and a bit insulting but he means well, while the Golem is confused and upset but probably not malicious. The problem being that the Golem looks built for strength and/or battle, so if it feels threatened or is inclined to fall back on violence in uncertain situations, things could get messy. I don't think Kevin is an immediate threat unless he somehow escalates the situation or gives Ashley a dangerous spell he doesn't have time to properly teach her to use. It's possible he's able to change shape, though in that case he had to have just done so before appearing before Ashley, which raises the question how he knew to do so and why he bothered. On the other hand, an incompetent magic teacher has a lot of potential for comedy, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was leading up to Ashley somehow getting to keep Kevin (or being stuck with him, depending on how you look at it) leading to wacky hijinks as he tries to teach her magic.

There are two problems with that. First of all, in the real world, after over half a century of searching we have yet to find any alien radio signals. Now this could be because our equipment isn't sensitive enough or we haven't looked closely enough at the right stars (and there are so many stars that it will take a very long time to check them all), but it could also indicate that for some unknown reason life forms that send radio signals into space are fairly rare. (Of course this may be different in the world(s) of EGS, but for the purposes of understanding a fictional world I find it easiest to start with what we know about the real world and then make only those modifications necessary to account for what is seen in the story.) Secondly, radio signals travel at the speed of light through a vacuum, meaning depending on how far away the star in question is, the signal could be hundreds, thousands, or even over a hundred thousand years old (and that's just if the star is in this galaxy). This is fine if all you want is to know if there's anyone out there, but if you're actually hoping to hop in a FTL spaceship and visit them, that delay could prove a bit of an issue.

April 19 in EGS History: 2010 - Susan fails to summon a hammer, but Catalina proves herself worthy by lifting the mighty plastic Mjolnir in Susan's defense. 2016 - We get a possible preview of Rhoda and Catalina's wedding. ... On a more somber note, this is the anniversary of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing...