Darth Fluffy

It can be a healthy choice. Not a fan of greasy pizza, i tolerate pepperoni, if it's ordered, never my choice. Not keen on pineapple on pizza, either. I tend to like heavy on the veggie toppings and some, but light, meat. It's not entirely wrong. There are things in life I have no desire to try. Even foods. Certain cultures are said to find the back end of large spiders delicious. I'll pass; they may be right, but it doesn't seem worth the mental gymnastics to get to where I'd eat one.

I recall even in junior high (middle school today, slightly different age bracketing), the "bad kids" having cigarettes. Some stores or some clerks might not care that they were under-aged, though I think enforcement and consequences for the store are greater today, at least in the US. Recall the flak in the not so distant past over Joe Camel and cigarettes being marketed to kids. Hell, Flintstones used to have Flintstones cigarette commercials with Fred and Barney smoking, you can watch them on You Tube. But I doubt that most kids buy them. They are not cheap. Swiping a few at a time from parents is a common source. By high school, some kids had weed and would get high during school. FWIW, they hid it better than the cigarettes. Alcohol was not so much a school time thing, but there was alcohol at parties. This link was off by one comic. Yeah, I wasn't assuming cigarette manufacturing for one unique customer. You're right, he does. Seems odd, doesn't it? Why are they technologically backward in this one specific wean you off smoking technology? If a dragon says, "Mind if I smoke?" it means something different, doesn't it?

Laws about abortion are passed by majority-male legislatures. You can analyze their health impact. By calling pizza "trash", that seemed to be where Kitty was coming from. I suppose this is going to be Green Eggs and Ham, isn't it?

"We can sell it for $41 for a month's supply." "No, marketing says to charge $141, it will increase the demand."

In WWII, the US, the Soviet Union, and both Chinese factions cooperated against the Axis, and we supplied weapons to Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh in SE Asia. If the need is urgent enough, it can be done. That said, track record is, everyone has covert research to weaponize whatever is available, in spite of overt agreements to the contrary. You don't hired idealistic naive people to perform an Edward function, nor is he portrayed as being that. He might not be privy to the technical details about how each system works, aside from specific need to know examples that come up in his line of work, but he would know a general sense of capabilities and limitations, what various players are capable of, and such. Recall, he convinced an alien warlord to invade elsewhere through exposition; he must have briefed capabilities. I have more trouble with "it's part of the FBI". The FBI is about law enforcement. They tend to get a lot of oversight and FOIA types of scrutiny. If you are hiding that magic exists, you don't have laws about it. I would think a department under the Secret Service (lower profile, already doing specialized missions) (not it's own agency, with a budget line item, you want to hide this under another line item) with more or less direct executive control. We are currently tracking an interstellar asteroid that's right out of Rendezvous with Rama. Scientists that suggest it might be artificial are being scoffed at by a significant segment of their peers. I think there's something akin to change blindness that would allow aliens to show up in lunar orbit unnoticed. (When I say "we", I don't mean "me, personally".) Also, if you recall the golem's flashback to Heka, they've been doing it for quite a while. It's a given that they would have an awareness of stealth technology, should they choose to use it. They could have cloaking; we aren't that far from several approaches to this, I believe there's been prototypes built, and we have biological examples; octopuses in particular. (Yes, it's octopuses, Google it.) We are going to misread each other badly. Skewed motivations that don't intersect at all are going to mislead each of us. We're already doing it, and we haven't even met anyone from another world (that I know of); people and their pets do it all the time. Hell, we do it within our own species.

Not buying panel 2. That's not being a boy scout, that's being unrealistically nonobservant. Although, weirdly, Liz is the only student pictured as smoking. ... at all ... . OK, different universe, tobacco never caught on ... . Actually, the rebel girl started at sixteen; that's kind of late for the stereotype, ... implies few others smoke. Definitely plausible, then. People smoke much less than they used to, declining for at least two generations. It was never as popular in the EGS universe, or the decline started earlier. For that matter, weed is not discussed or implied at all, although the reason I assumed Liz is smoking a cigarette in the goo story is that she is not hiding it; but different universe ... who knows? No mention has been made of what was being smoked. Nah, I'm going to go with, "Assume the norm is similar to our universe unless it's pointed out to be otherwise". Panel 2 still seems unrealistic, but I can suspend my disbelief.

Oops, you're right, it's canon.

I'm pink, therefore I'm ham. ... I think.

We don't know that it is strictly a US government agency. To be effective, it would have to be more like Interpol. What is the good of suppressing the knowledge of magic in one boundary, if all the neighbors let it run wild. It could be based on, "we'll take care of our mess, and trust you to take care of yours", but you can bet they'd still talk. But, yes, there would be a US piece of it, either way. The paycheck and building maintenance would come from federal funds. You are making a good case for why it has to be international.

I googled it after I posted, and Mythbusters came to the same conclusion, the shock wave is lethal to fish.

So, I reference the phrase, "Like shooting fish in a barrel" in my last post on the NP thread, then I realized, that is not actually easy. Assuming a standard wooden barrel (the expression is old) and that you were using small arms. Wooden barrels are thick, and functional ones are well fitted hardwood, so they're tough. A rifle round should have the power to penetrate, or a hefty caliber pistol, but not a small round; leave your .22 at home. You can't see the fish, so your odds are no better than fish cross section over barrel cross section. A steel barrel would probably be no easier. A plastic one would be easier, and you might be able to track the fish. But you already have the fish confined, why are you bothering to shoot it? Just grab it, gut it, and pop it on the grill already.

Ok, I can see that. Hopefully, you learned what actual pizza was before you graduated high school. Pizza with no tomato sauce can work; I suppose it's debatable at what point it's no longer pizza. Greek and Margherita pizzas are common offerings around here. There's a truth in advertising issue going on as well. If you say "Pizza with tomato sauce" and hand me something with ketchup, in my mind, you've lied, allowances made for recent post toddlers. Ketchup can be wonderful stuff, in the right context. I expect it with fries, and will often use some on a burger or chicken sandwich. I don't have any of those all that often. Not all ketchup is equivalent, either, although the major brands are all very similar. More on topic, I like how Mr. LargePizza's "... ought to clear that right up" is coming to fruition. Eh, fish in a barrel, really, but still ...

That doesn't seem to be her style; some of the pieces fit. Smokey was direct. OTOH, I don't see Liz having a driving urge to observe spells to copy them. Seems like something like that would have come up in conversations with Ashley, few though they were on screen in the comic.

Ketchup on Pizza? Who does that?

Liz rocks in panels 4 and 5. She should be Eliot's new sensei and train him to think issues through.

"Eh, Abraham had just attempted to murder a child and wasn't detained yet. In such a situation, basically any corrupt cop could get away with shooting first and asking questions later." He's still an alleged perpetrator until convicted by a court (aside from "It's in another universe, maybe the Constitution is different"). Edward is not even an eye witness (not that that would matter), all he has is a phone report of an incident (assuming nothing like scrying was used, but he could have some way of knowing more than is normally evident).

"People transform" says she's already aware that her setting has magic. She knows Cheerleadra flies, and has likely seen Nanase floating in the hallway. She's also aware of the battle with the bulldog dragon thing. Edward tolerates quite a bit of magic happening in his household, and not everyone was clued in prior to each instance. He might believe he can control the consequences better if it happens at home. You misread "the arc is too long"; it's too long for Liz to be dropped as a non-participant, too much prep time. She's had more exposure in the last couple of weeks than in the first decade and a half. That has nothing to do with my attitude toward the length of the arc; in fact, I am enjoying this one immensely. Evidence: I cared enough to find this forum again. Not apathetic about the outcome. I like Liz as a character, she reminds me of Susan and Diane.

So is Liz going to be at the party or not? I can see her being included as an observer for Ashley's sake, then someone, probably Grace, noticing she's marked. This arc is going on too long for her to just drop off.

Don't make me Spartacus. You wouldn't like me when I'm Spartacus.

"Joy to the world, all the bouys and gulls, ... " Seagulls are my least liked bird, way more so than sky rats. I have occasionally seen them far inland, over the years, and not in any one particular location. But they are worst at the shore. If you have food, there's no such thing as seagull, nor even "a couple of ...".

That degree of narrow-mindedness is painful to contemplate. It had to be in the US, I'm guessing South or Mid-West; but really it could be anywhere here.

Which Book(s)? I don't recall that from Lazarus Long, although, I never read To Sail Beyond the Sunset. It sounds like something Jubal Harshaw would have said (Stranger in a Strange Land). To paraphrase, the best way to lie is to let people deceive themselves.

Yes; the stories are back to back, and the character looks the same. FWIW, I kept reading the NPs just after, and Alice appears soon after (next story line maybe?) with much the same look, although the back of her hair looks close cropped. Harder to tell with the earlier art. I am definitely looking forward to tomorrow's comic.

If this villager is Liz, then so is this one, but this says it's Sarah (same look and occurs in next comic sequence). The arc continues with Liz-like Sarah for a few comics.

"Not what I was looking for" - not splashy, obvious, public? "...many ways that could wind up helping." - from Pandora's PoV, must mean make other people's magic from marks more obvious and public. "... could wind up helping" seems to say that she doesn't know what Liz will do with it, Liz may or may not follow through in a way that forwards Pandora's agenda. "I don't think Pandora would bother marking someone with a spell soo subtle that no one, not even the caster, knows it's magic being used." - When first marked, not knowing about the spell is the norm. Pandora even counts on that as part of her fun. She might mark Liz with a spell that is not obvious, as long as she had an expectation of additional mayhem; "...many ways that could wind up helping" says that is the case. So Chaos is our plumb line. That's going to work out well. ; ) "I'm not big on pretending to be something I'm not" - Liz is probably not going to get transformation magic, ever, because EGS magic is preference aware, and Dan like foreshadowing.