WR...S

So, ah... time for conspiracy theories to be called for?

...okay, who didn't call it?

So I think we've just left urban fantasy...

I suspect Voltaire may be unseelie...

New theory: Ashley and Tedd are actually the same person.

I think they are transformed, just like Elliot and Ashley, into pallette swaps of one another, as I said.

I think he means that each has become a pallette swap of the other, just like Elliot and Ashley.

Also, there's no reason to think that Magic has anything to do with immortals'/fairies' "magic," any more than with Uryuoms' "magic." Besides, at least one vampire survived Pandora's spell, and who knows how many more.

Meanwhile, Van is happy to have those bloodlines rubberstamp muggles' decisions. Anyway, my Doylist arguments for no reset still hold; since we don't yet know what Magic is actually looking for, I don't really have anything else to say.

Wait, Ashley used to have green hair? I'm an old fogey, and I don't remember that... ...it kind of looks like Ashley's epicanthic fold got split evenly between the two of them. Elliot-as-Ashley has it less, and Ashley-as-Elliot has it more.

Hmm. Well, I think Tedd's got the nuke, all but by pure luck. With one in seven million, there would have been a handful of seers all of recorded history, but only now would exposing magic unleash such a torrent of them. (Makes you wonder more than ever what Magic is - especially in a setting with aliens this doesn't affect.)

My headcanon is that it's Felix with the wand, which she got from Tedd.

Hmm... two observations from a very very Doylist view. I doubt Tedd and Van will ultimately lose. As I said before, it feels so wasteful to spend all this time setting up the various characters' magic to do away with it. Moreover, these millennia-old cycles in fantasy just about always end up being broken before the curtain falls. Magic has already said this is an unprecedented instance, at what we in the real world perceive as a very anomalous time in our history, and Elliot has laid the groundwork for Tedd to build on the latter. I also doubt that Tedd and Van will win this scene; heck, my guess'd be that Van'll be on Arthur's side by the end of his speech. We're clearly being set up for a very compelling argument, and one I don't think Tedd is going to be able to immediately refute to Magic's satisfaction. If we'd heard it in full prior to this point, I'd think this was likely the climax of that thread, but while we've gotten the gist of Arthur's objection from him and Edward, we're about to see it fleshed out in a way we haven't before, which I doubt will be punctured immediately, especially given the presence of an unknown third party, initially on Tedd's side, at an impressionable age. For this reason, I expect that this scene will end with Tedd successfully fighting for an adjournment. It's probably not something Magic wants, given its aversion to letting seers know this was a thing, but she might be able to leverage the fact that there are three of them now, plus a little "humans are social animals!" into a recess to prepare, with the rest of the eight/nine, a case that will ultimately win. (After all, friendship is arguably more central a theme to this comic than transformation is.)

I'm surprised Arthur doesn't already know. I guess Edward's embarrassment is enough to override "full disclosure"? That's... horrifying. Well, we know what two votes will be. Guess Van's the kingmaker here...

Why, if Noriko lives in Europe (which, at least when that fact was established, included the UK), would Van call his mother "okaa-san" to third parties (which I don't think you actually do even in Japanese...), no matter whom he was raised by? He might call her that at home, but he'd still be as much a product of his country of birth as Tedd and Nanase are.

I'm going to say Noriko is Van's mother, only because it's still "Sister."

Here's a question - what happens to Abraham if magic resets? It's pretty much down to two options - he becomes a normal statue, or he becomes a normal human, and I'm not sure which is more likely. It's been suggested that wizards are going to stay wizards, they're just going to lose their spells...

Hmm. I had been wondering about the wisdom of building up all these cool sets of powers and then wiping them all out, but the way Tedd's role is being described, it may not be nearly so thorough...

If magic resets, potentially zero (depending on how Uryuom magic's effects change). ...exactly.

I wonder if the point here is to make sure Tedd's a girl when magic resets, to light a fire under her.

What I think is they'll all still be "playing" because none of them made the decision to stop playing. (And possibly unable to make that decision without an active game because "playtesting!")

With Ashley this close to victory, it suddenly occurs to me one of Susan's rule changes - that players who quit go back to normal even if the game's not over - might have brought its converse along.

The general rule in the US is that you only need to be 18 to get a shotgun; a handgun or large-capacity (11 magazines in my state) rifle you need to be 21. Putting a shotgun in her chest seems like a prudent idea.

So... Pandora now has every motivation to break immortal law, the penalty for breaking which is something she already planned to do centuries ago until putting it off for a reason now moot. ...good luck, Scarfy!

...huh. Well, I was technically right about cutting back to the game, but I kinda figured it was so that no one would question Ashley having her clothes (back) on. So... are we going to do this Schrödinger's nudity until Ashley's hit with a clothing card? Only, by the rules of the game, that'd probably be at least an orbit, and I have to wonder whether anyone who didn't read the Patreon commentary would think to question her toplessness even now, let alone after a few more weeks of this...