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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!

Darth Fluffy

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Posts posted by Darth Fluffy

  1. Posted

    5 hours ago, hkmaly said:

    Funny?

    I would consider it most logical first reaction. Like, sure, it doesn't seem likely on second though, but I still wouldn't be surprised if someone in comics reacted by such question. Although probably not Grace. Nanase maybe.

    Peculiar for my perception of the EGS universe, not based on our own. Although I think there is quite a bit of truth to this as well, many folks waiting until college to become active. <shrug> Dunno, just an impression.

    I could even take Sarah's "I'm still a virgin" complaint as more about Elliot not taking the initiative than about actually wishing she wasn't a virgin. From what I know of women, never having been one, she wants to feel valued and desired; sex is good, but it's not the main goal. I'm sure YMMV; there's 7 billion of us, with a varied mix of motivations. (I'm assuming they have a similarly populated planet.)

  2. Posted

    4 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

    I think Ellen is just in that situation where she really wants things to go well, really wants everything to be perfect for Elliot's sake, and is thus *way* overthinking everything she says and over-reacting to anything she says that even might be a problem.  She's overswinging and overcorrecting.  Once everyone gets used to each other and calms down, I think things will be fine.

    But before that happens, I wanna know how Ashley reacts to the news that there's a female duplicate of her boyfriend who's into girls.... ;-)

    She already knows Ellen is not Elliot's twin, but was created by the dewitchery diamond. I can't recall her seeing Ellen being obviously affectionate with Nanase. But Ashley not wanting to hurt people should mean she won't mess with their relationship. And wanting to be with Elliot with Elliot as a girl is a pretty low bar. I suspect she prefers part time anyway.

    I do see her as being bonded to Ashley through the shared ordeal, and feeling protective of Ashley, who was after all, a near neophyte in dealing with the supernatural (although , she did well with the griffins.)

     

  3. Posted

    Nothing Ellen's said in the last two comics seems overly awkward; the reactions seem to be a bit exaggerated. Foreshadowing of trouble between Elliot and Ashley? I would not have expected that, but in spite of the mall date starting out so well, Ashley's been stressed and had negative emotional response to their time together, and/or from the keeping of secrets. Maybe Liz was foreshadowing as well.

  4. Posted · Edited by Darth Fluffy
    typo

    15 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

    It's really a shame that this forum style is dying out; for people who are not family and/or close friends I've yet to find a method of communication that suits me better than this style of forum. I like to be able to choose my words carefully and be able to go back and change them if I realize I messed up, I like to be able to read everything on a subject in the order it was said,  and I like to be able to easily go back and look at things that were said days, weeks, or even years ago. Also, being able to not use my real name is essential, as without that mask my social anxiety would be crippling.

    You post what you post, and it is unintrusively moderated, but you don't have a frikkin stupid AI telling you you can only read the top two posts, and you should read these <unrelated bull$#!7> instead. I hate what the big players are doing with (so called) AI. God, I remember way back when I used to get a list of things on You Tube related to my search query. Those were the days.

    And yes, an alias is a nice plus.

     

  5. Posted

    4 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

    Dan seems to be toying with making Susan gay-all-the-way--hey, is Susan the Rosa of EGS?

    I don't see it. She's the token ace, I think she's going to stay there. That said, if she were open to relationship, she could go either way, that's pretty much canon.

  6. Posted

    10 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

    Although there are anachronisms, the best timing for EGS is still 2013-2014, so whether it's on TV now doesn't really matter from that point of view. More importantly, it is usually still possible to watch shows long after they're canceled, either online or through DVD/Blu-Ray/etc. collections.

    As for keeping things from seeming dated, my preference is to give stories specific dates (even if it's the same year it was made). There will still probably be things that make it obvious it's a product of it's time (from attitudes of the writers, to special effects in live action or the style of animation in cartoons/anime), but the details in the story itself tied to a specific time simply become part of the setting. I mean, other than how materialistic the "happy ending" is, I've never heard anyone complain about the first Back to the Future being dated.

     

    I think of it as "a couple of years ago", non-specific, so it's never exactly wrong. EGS started in 2002, and the characters have aged, but not much (but more than many newsprint comics in their era), so there's bound to be anachronisms if you look for them.

     

    10 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

    ...Actually, I tend to have a hard time understanding the complaint that stories are "dated". I mean, sure, it's amusing when a story predicting what the writers saw as the future gets stuff wrong, and annoying when stories get science/history wrong due to now outdated info... And sometimes the social attitudes of the past are hard to stomach (though a lot of those attitudes aren't as restricted to the past as those of us who dislike them would wish)... And I could keep going about specific results of a story being a product of it's time which can make it weird for future audiences... But a lot of time it seems like main complaint is just that a story written years ago that was set in "the present" is clearly set in the time it was written, not the "present" of the person doing the complaining, and that complaint utterly baffles me.

    I think that the rate that happens at is increasing; decades ago I expected stuff to last, now, not so much. two years for consumer electronics is getting dated, five is "We don't support that.", no parts, no special device specific batteries. Even large appliances like washers and driers seem flimsier. So they age out quicker.

    The way we deal with information is changing on some similar cycle. Even this forum style is archaic. Probably why there's so many old timers.

     

     

     

     

  7. Posted

    20 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

    And yet Grace had that dream about being naked in class. I believe that dream happened after MV5.

    Sadly, I remember the show. And the tune. And the words. And the airport. I went with my parents to pick people up at Idlewild. The current Pan Am era "eyesore" was new and amazing. And they had jets; iirc, our local airport only handled props.

    My favorite Fred Gwynne thing was the judge in My Cousin, Vinnie.

  9. Posted

    3 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

    https://egscomics.com/comic/party-041

    A little more foreshadowing

    Another glimpse into Elliot's brain

    But I have one concern.  Will Brooklyn Nine Nine even be on the air by the time this Party story is finished?
    One way to keep the references from seeming a little dated is to use excessively dated references in the first place.
    Elliot should have been watching Car 54 Where Are You

    That might be before Elliot's parents' time.

  10. Posted

    3 hours ago, Scotty said:

    The fact there's a chain that Arthur's warnings would have to go through, means that at some point along that chain, someone might be like "Oh they're just overreacting", ...

    Mostly, not gonna happen, you're talking career suicide, although, we owe our present existence to a few instances of individuals not following their protocol and exercising a healthy level of skepticism at automated warning calling for them to launch during the cold war. Contrary to human nature, these people weren't punished for being sensible.

     

    3 hours ago, Scotty said:

    ... Allies might even think the same.

    Allies tend to fact check, yes. Wonder why they feel that need?

     

    3 hours ago, Scotty said:

    Non allies though? they might think you feeding them false information or trick them into revealing something, they might not respond favourably.

    Of course, they will be predisposed toward disbelief; they will have a delayed reaction as they investigate, but with sufficient mutual interest, they can be persuaded. Recall, in WWII, the Soviet Union sided with Germany initially.

     

     

    3 hours ago, Scotty said:

    I gotta wonder how Assistant Director Leifeld reacted when Arthur told him that instead of magic changing, it got all restrictions removed and all old systems reactivated.

    There is that; credibility up the chain is a factor.

     

  11. Posted

    10 hours ago, Scotty said:

    Arthur was worried about the safety of the staff working there yes, that also translates into worrying about the safety of his agents, he wasn't willing to just rush in to an unknown situation, his worst case scenario was that the facility would be a smoking crater after all, also there are apparently other facilities that housed potentially magic artifacts, and Arthur was cursing the fact that the organization was so compartmentalized that it'd be difficult to warn everyone. so it's not like Arthur was just sitting around doing nothing until the alarm went off, he had soo much he was trying to do, and since he didn't know that anyone would be making a run for the Diamond, of course he didn't have that facility as a priority.

    Good points.

    Compartmentalized, report it up the chain. Someone has oversight, disseminates the warnings. The organization heads notify their alert chains. IRL, you get graded on doing that fast.

    Allies are an additional layer of complexity, but there are protocols in place for that, you follow them. Hell, if you need to, there's protocols for giving enemy states a heads up. Even people you don't have a diplomatic relationship with; you have a third party pre-selected.

    If you expect it might become a crater, you place observers, or at least fly a drone nearby.

    Since those were junk artifacts, you're right , it probably was a low priority facility.

  12. Posted

    10 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

    Security for the unpronounceable facility was hinged on the idea that no reasonable person would believe that such a facility was real.

    The minimal security it did employ was largely for appearance.  It is quite possible that the guard who caught Tedd and Elliot (way back when) had no idea just how powerful the junk in that building actually was.  As far as he was concerned, he caught two teens pulling a stunt by breaking in to a "secret" government warehouse.

    Arthur knew of many things in that facility that, if activated, could became hostile and break out before he could get there with heavily armed agents.  The low level security officers watching the front desk would not be able to stop them.  In that case, you would not have an escaped mystical menace, you would have an escaped mystical menace that had just killed the night watchman.

    I mostly agree with most of what you are saying, but the question still stands, "Did Arthur know that the artifacts were a threat, and if so, why did he not beam the troops in without delay (He, Agent Cranium, and Agent Wolf responded almost immediately when the alarm triggered), or if not, why did he pull out the night watchman and leave the lights on (if he did not perceive a threat)?" He's inconsistent with either assumption of his knowledge.

    The only ground I can see to resolve this, and it's weak, is "It's a hazard, let's pull the guard out; but everyone is tired, let's wait until tomorrow to deal with it." The only thing that supports that is he didn't know anyone would show up that particular evening. Telling the guard to watch from a vehicle might have made some sense.

    It raises another point about how various agents at presumably disparate locations in their off hours were able to simultaneously teleport in on short notice. Kudos on the preparation that went into that level of coordination. (Agent Wolf fell into a crater because it was new and unexpected, that does not invalidate the preparation.)

     

     

  14. Posted

    4 hours ago, Scotty said:

    She wants to talk to him, and then for him to just go home, I expect acknowledgment and apologies would be a part of that discussion.

    Both Ellen and Magus probably think that Arthur wants to imprison him or otherwise prevent him of returning home, what was said about Magus also being a victim was said outside of Ellen and Magus' earshot, so they're making assumptions, Magus might just be laying low for a bit, see what options he has in terms of finding a way home, and probably realize that he needs to come back and hope he can get help, Dan had also said that Magus' initial decision to "fix" Ellen was also based on assumptions and the feeling of guilt for everything, and maybe some time away will help him reflect on that more so that when he does come back and talk to Ellen he'd be prepared to accept whatever Ellen wishes.

    Arthur's intentions are unclear, beyond pursuit and apprehension.  "He made a young woman cry, Sybil" doesn't speak about consequences. Personally, I think Arthur's logic leaves something to be desired. 

    Magus was stuck in between universes, presumably Arthur understands at least the gist of this from the recordings. He overstepped some bounds in his efforts to free himself, but he didn't have options, that should be fairly clear, and he acted responsibly to clean up his mess, within the context of his understanding. He also took out Sirleck, who survived the purge and needed removal.

    Ellen's placing blame on Magus here for the golem also makes little sense. She's technically correct, but the artifacts where on a hair trigger due to a change in magic that just happened, and Magus would not have known about. Arguably, they would have awakened from the ambient magic, but randomly at less convenient times, and by speeding it up, he made it possible for them to be dealt with. <shrug>, Once again, at least he's cleaning up his mess. It is significant that no one got hurt (I'm not counting the golem). And Kevin got a custodian, solving a problem for Arthur.

    Ashley was stressed by the situation, and Magus did have some options in that regard, he could have for instance left her at Elliot's home. I'm not sure that would have been better. It is not really clear that Magus "made Ashley cry"; he was a factor, but so were the unstable artifacts, which Arthur should have known about, he was warned by magic, and though apparently he returned too late to have done much, he could have dispatched agents ahead instead of waiting. He appears to be at least as culpable through his inaction. Considering the massive existential trauma Magus has been through, "made Ashley cry" seems like small potatos; he was considerate of her feelings and sheltered her quite a bit.

    It is not clear what Arthur's authority is in this. Presumably he's bound by some semblance of law, if not law, oversight, as Edward was. "Made a young woman cry", while unpleasant, does not sound like a prosecutable criminal offense. I could see an extralegal, "We need to incarcerate Magus and study him because he's from another universe", but I think they're past that kind of thinking. Also, his supervisor is already sensitized from Edward's overreaction to his subordinates reacting too emotionally to circumstances of their duties. It seems like Arthur is allowing his own emotions to carry him into similar ground. It seems the most that Arthur could do is give Magus a stern talking to; and even that would be a waste. Magus seems to be aware of the choices he's made and the consequences, a lecture from Arthur would add little.

    If he really wanted to contribute, Arthur should track Magus down and offer to help research a way home.

     

     

     

     

  15. Posted

    8 hours ago, Scotty said:

    His encounter with Nanase forced him to think about his oath and what he was about to do, so it would be assumed that the next time the diamond was used, instead of seeking to destroy what was created, Abraham would try to determine if the creation was any threat first and then figure out whether he needs to intervene or not.

    So Magus making Elliot touch the diamond again would likely have triggered Abraham's released, the diamond's destruction would mean that Abraham would never need to go back to stone, and Magus isn't really a threat to anyone, he doesn't have any desire to stay in this universe and just wants to get home, Arthur though, based on last appearance, probably wants to make sure Magus apologizes to Ashley, as Sybil pointed out, it could be argued that Magus was also a victim in all of that, so I don't see Arthur wanting to imprison Magus. Ellen and Magus probably don't see it that way though which is why Magus ran when the paranormal division started showing up.

    Anyway, Abraham had a way of tracking the aura of whomever touched the diamond last which is how he found his way from Britain to Moperville, Magus' aura is probably very similar to Elliot's like Ellen's is (though maybe Ellen's has changed after getting infused with dragon power?) so knowing where Elliot and Ellen are in relation to a third aura might help find where Magus is.

    That works. "Atoning" would be still "Dealing with the mess I created". Presumably then, since the "diamond" is destroyed and Magus is the last one, and Abraham no longer feels compelled to be a statue.

    I know Ellen is pissed at Magus, but I doubt she's without any sympathy. I think an acknowledgement and apology would be enough. Magus, on the other hand, probably wants to avoid all conflict and potential to do damage and incur further dept. He would probably seek out Elliot and Ellen to apologize before he leaves, he knows where they live, but not before he knows how to return to his home universe, for quick getaway. I'm sure we'll see him again.

     

    3 hours ago, ijuin said:

    And Abraham would likely recognize Elliot’s aura, leading to a reaction of “What, AGAIN?! What is WITH you people?!”

    That had crossed my mind. Although "You people" is Elliot.

     

  16. Posted

    8 minutes ago, Scotty said:

    There's this moment where Abraham describes himself as having "lain dormant in stone rising only to destroy the abominations created by the diamond." and that he had sworn to do so.

    It is interesting that he contrasts "lying dormant in stone" with "living". That implies he cannot self-launch out of stone, he has to preset the parameters of his own release. Which makes me wonder, what are the circumstances that would release him to atone. Since he's fixated on the dewitchery diamond, it would probably still be part of the formula.

  17. Posted

    5 hours ago, Scotty said:

    The thing is though, the nature of Abraham's self imposed "hibernation" changed after his encounter with Nanase, it's was no longer "I rise only to reap what I have sown" and now it's "I rise only to atone for my sins" so it's pretty safe to say that Magus is in no danger of getting attacked by Abraham, however Arthur might ask Abraham to help track down Magus.

    I don't recall specifically that Abraham's stoning is a self imposed hibernation, I took it to be an imposed punishment or curse, but it does not seem out of character for him that it could be self imposed. Do you recall if there is a specific place the comic or Dan's commentary said so? I didn't spot the inscription change either. ... it was even lamp shaded in the commentary.

    ... the change in the inscription seems to indicate the statue is self imposed. If it was external, it should not have changed.

    OTOH, having just reread the commentary on the link you posted, I have to say, that hat is not a fedora, the brim is too narrow. It's a trilby.

    ... I don't see how Abraham is going to be aware of events while in statue form to release himself to atone. If he was going to atone to the people he recently hurt, he should have done something more proactive. Hiding in stone form isn't assisting anyone. It's more like he thinks he's atoning by ducking out.

     

    5 hours ago, Scotty said:
    9 hours ago, mlooney said:

    Oh, you mean with some one other than Tedd and/or Grace.

    I know, it goes against everything I believe about.

    I kind of figured that Ellen and Nanase might be doing the nanasty. The level of disappointment when Grace asked to double date seemed to indicate thwarted expectations.

     

     

  18. Posted

    1 hour ago, Scotty said:

    It's assumed that Abraham has already released himself or released by the diamond, or released by DGB wizards as Sybil was going to arrange for Arthur to talk to him.

    Already released himself: I figured he'd be totally unaware while he's a statue; that it was the spell that put him there that was releasing him (like an AI) rather than his own efforts.

    Released by the diamond: That seems particularly plausible, once the diamond is gone, his curse (if it is that) has not meaning. But it also seemed plausible that he could be stuck as a statue. It is also possible that he would awaken to take out Magus. Though Magus is naturally born, from the point of view of this universe, he's a suddenly released duplicate of Elliot.

    DBG wizards: I had the impression that would be a temporary reprieve, but you make a good point, why not leave him freed. If they freed him; maybe they arranged to commune with him still as a statue. It was not entirely clear that they were successful.

    Get Ellen to pop him out: This was stated in this thread (Weirdee, four posts up) and was what my question was asking about. I don't recall any power Ellen has that can release Abraham. Nor Magus, who is also named Ellen. Although we don't have a clear notion of his powers, they seem to be primarily combat oriented. 

    Probably a moot point, I don't think Abraham is scheduled for another appearance.

  19. Posted

    1 hour ago, weirdee said:

    but seriously, the counseling thing, for everybody. in moperville.

    hell, get ellen to pop abraham out of his statue cause his stupid gemerald doesn't exist anymore. get him counseling too.

    How can Ellen release Abraham?

  20. Posted

    36 minutes ago, ijuin said:

    For spaceflight purposes, there are at least two definitions of "where space begins" (i.e. "where the atmosphere ends") that provide useful information:

    First is the Karman Line (used currently as the definition for when a flight qualifies as being a spaceflight, as in the X Prize competition and suborbital space tourism flights). This is the altitude, about 100 km above sea level, at which aerodynamic lift becomes too low to hold up an aircraft that is flying at less than escape velocity. Above this altitude, maneuvering must be done propulsively rather than via aerodynamic control surfaces such as ailerons, and altitude can not be maintained. Air density at this altitude is also too low to provide buoyancy to any reasonable balloon, being about a millionth as great as at sea level.

    The second limit, somewhat higher, is the line at which aerodynamic drag is low enough that orbiting is possible. The altitude at which an orbit will not decay for at least 24 hours is around 150 km. Below this, drag will cause the spacecraft to slow down and dip into the lower atmosphere very quickly.

    In between these two lines is a "no-go" zone in which a vehicle can not sustainably fly without constant propulsion--there is too little lift to hold the vehicle up, and too much drag to allow it to orbit--and within a short time it will descend below the Karman Line.

    Yep, that's why I linked the Wiki article four posts up. The Kármán line is kind of an international standard but wouldn't you know, someone has to be a major hold out.

    The USAF currently uses 50 miles (80 km), approximately the mesopause (85 km, but none of these are exact nor even consistent around the planet nor stable) [The Kármán line is also an approximation.] NASA follows suit with the USAF, to avoid conflicts of "Of the folks in this vehicle, the Air Force crew members are in space, but the civilian crew members are not." It gets weirder. When this revision of NASA's definition of space took place in 2005, three civilian X-15 pilots were awarded civilian astronaut wings, 35 years after the fact, and two of those were posthumous.

    The US Army (which doesn't participate as much in space ops) goes with low perigee for an orbital vehicle, then does not specify an altitude. (The article cites it as "US military", but that obviously leaves out the USAF, and the citation link is to an Army document. This page spells out who follows which rule.) You can read the bloody details, but an additional weirdness is that since altitude is unspecified as is the method of determining perigee, it could mean the 159 km figure for a circular orbit that you cite, of it could mean 130 km, stated to be the lowest possible perigee of an elliptical orbit. (This makes no sense to me. If you have to orbit at 150 km, 130 has too much drag, then that drag should affect you when you dip down to it on each pass in an elliptical orbit. Maybe there's an unstated criteria of how long the orbit will last to be "stable".) [Clearly, the US leads in not having our $#!% together regarding defining space.]

    This definition is of import to distinguish between sovereign airspace and outer space where space law applies. Once the lawyers start their feeding frenzy, I'm sure the weirdness will escalate.

     

  21. Posted

    16 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

    In space, someone might hear you scream,

    But since you only have a period of time slightly less than how long you can hold your breath to do something useful, screaming and hoping someone hears that scream seems like a bad idea.

    I am fairly certain you would not have nearly that long. I can hold my breath under water for a minute without much effort. I have had altitude training in a pressure chamber. One of the "This is why you're doing this" demos was for one person to go off oxygen at a simulated 40,000 feet. (It may have been a little higher, like 42,000; the training was many years ago). They had a Tupperware toddler puzzle, the red and blue ball with the slots for the yellow shapes, and their task when they went off oxygen was to put in as many as they could. They got one in, then froze and started shaking, then the instructor put their oxygen mask back on for them. Seconds of useful activity, at best.

    "In space, someone might hear you scream" was meant to be a reference to the movie catchphrase, nothing more.

    If you want a takeaway, these terms we take for granted, "space", "vacuum", "atmosphere" are somewhat relative terms. The definition of space, particularly where it starts, has changed over time, and has legal implications. Not everyone agrees on the definition. Our moon has an atmosphere; it's tenuous, but it exists, it can be characterized, and it has a wiki article. Of course, relative to some of our neighbors, we  live in a near vacuum ourselves.

    This is not unusual; any field of study will break the nominal vocabulary and require distinguishing new shades of meaning.

     

  24. Posted

    8 hours ago, hkmaly said:

    Strangely, the people around did hear him. And by "people" I mean ... I think there was Superman next to him? Or was it just in this webcomics? I understand the webcomics is making fun from something from deadtree comics but I don't know the original.

    Technically in space, someone could hear you scream, albeit, within a narrow zone, and you'd have seconds of useful consciousness, and it would not propagate well, ...

  25. Posted

    38 minutes ago, Scotty said:

    If this is canon, then the clothes their wearing suggests warmer weather, so maybe this could be placed sometime during the next time skip in the Main Story, and maybe there's been some development with Rich by then, although we do have evidence that Rich apparently did try to be less of a creep with Sarah 2 weeks after the card tourney of Squirrel Prophet, that could have extended to Tedd as well.

    I just noticed, four comics later, Camdin surprises Luke. Someone said they think Camdin is Smokey, I think they're right. There are smokey puffs in the first two panels, and Camdin sort of appears out of nowhere. It didn't seem like it when the comic was first posted, because Smokey hadn't been introduced yet, so there was no context to interpret it that way; it looks like maybe Camdin was just quiet as he walked up from behind.

    Oh, yeah, next comic confirms it.

    Camdin: "I can be sneaky! I just have to do it right."

    Luke: "What, by trying to blend in around bonfires?"

    If that's the case, I don't think Camdin is just a fanboy fishing for information, I think he wants to be able to turn into Cheerleadra.