Ser Pentrose

As black, I'm pretty sure that the best move is pawn f4, though black is in a decently poor position in general. Elliot should at this point try to take as many pieces as possible, and play for stalemate.
EDIT: Yes, what brings me back to the forums is chess. I should have known.

Here's a little smug, and you can pet it if you like.
x
There's another concern. An area can be very comfortable with a certain flow of water, but if that flow is blocked so there's a buildup and then the buildup is released it can be extremely damaging. (Think of a dam breaking.) Is the same true of magic?
 

We got this evidence to suggest openly say that it IS immortal rules. To summarize: Abraham, whose knowledge of modern world is so bad he doesn't know Lord of the Rings, IMMEDIATELY after learning that Raven is elf states that he can't fight him directly. Raven's reply then proves that Abraham doesn't really understand that rule either, BUT the way he continues makes obvious that yes, his limitations are caused by the fact he is elf.
Also, DGB is US-based organization. Raven was forbidden to serve in military of United States, England, France and Germany, based on what Pandora said. (Might not be complete list.) Given his age, that likely includes at least one side of World War II (possibly both. World Wars AND sides.) - and I'm sure Hitler WOULD utilize mages (hell, there are theories he DID in OUR world) and DGB, if it already existed, would need to counter with it's own mages, so no way would someone from government forbid him to fight.
(US was so desperate it used nuclear weapons when the war looked almost won. Anyone suggesting they SHOULDN'T use some weapon they had before day D would likely be shot as traitor.)

I'm thinking spidervamp's been that way for longer than Andrea's been in this half of the world, but yeah the vampire in France was more human looking, I mentioned before that it could be possible that the forms aberrations when they turn are chosen by them, the spidervamp could have been obsessed with arachnids and the France vampire would have taken a traditional vampire stance. Whether they can change into a more normal form to blend in with crowds and such remains to be seen though. But I'm leaning towards no, once they've changed, they need to keep a very low profile out of sight from the regular populace.
Interestingly enough the is the second vampire that's made the mistake of not being aware of anyone that might get in the way of a meal, the France vampire didn't account for the possibility of Nanase noticing Susan being lured away and coming to her aid, as well as he underestimated how strong she was even without magic at the time. And then the spidervamp, who supposedly may have been in the area for a while, didn't know about Andrea being in that area too, she's not supposed to be the stealthy one and yet she was able to blindside him.

Tanya Huff has a great book which involves a family of "werewolves" who can shapeshift whenever they choose and have many canine traits.  They all tend to wear one-piece sundresses and shorts with elastic waistbands and such, stuff that's easy to skin out of and back into, and there's a general clutter of clothing lying around the house ready for when unexpected visitors show up.  More than once the protagonist detective finds herself stuffing into her purse an article of clothing someone threw off moments before in order to change and go run as their dog/wolf form.
Of course, there are a fair number of people in the nearby town who have guessed their deep dark secret -- that they're a family of nudists....

I think you meant this as a joke but that is pretty much what happens when you often find yourself needing to get dressed in a hurry in your own home.

The birds probably took a look at Elliot and were like "OK now THAT is cheating! Building planes and learning how to control them at least took a great deal of effort."

This gives me a rather strange mental image of some courtroom where magicians are being prosecuted for violating the laws of physics, with infractions against the square/cube law seen as mere misdemeanours whereas something like creating a machine that produces more energy than goes into it is a very serious offence that might result in a protracted stay in jail.

Hmm. Possibility of Abraham being from that half of the world as well?
Also, I'm guessing something vaguely Arthurian for the Griffin world.
Also also, it's pretty amusing seeing "do you know how many laws of physics you're breaking" coming out of the mouth of a flying tiger-bird

It's also possible that it's not rare where Tara comes from, though I think it more likely that it isn't what  makes Tedd a "far more dangerous rarity", though it likely is one aspect of it.
My guess would be that what makes Tedd a rarity is his natural abilities with magitech. I just hope for his sake that he never visits a world wherein such genius is invariably accompanied by madness, as one must follow the laws of the universe in which one finds oneself.

Okay, fair enough, but I am still not happy with having an incompetent and corrupt tax-evading drunkard that spends government money on partying while he is supposed to be at work for our prime minister.

Tedd stated that even though he couldn't have his own spells, he still has magic energy, the glove would be more like a diagnostic and programmer tool that contains a specific spell or set of spells that Tedd can use to program the watches. Of course he's had a lot of help from the excess ambient energy to so just like the watches, that glove might not be very useful anywhere else.

Honestly, I'm not nearly as worried about Tedd's watch-making glove than I am about his gauntlet he made to store magical energy and then give it all back to him at once.
Still, I guess it'll be interesting to find out if either of those things have anything to do with his "dangerous rarity"... We really need a proper word for him. I don't like him calling himself a mutant, and we know he is most definitely not a wizard.
Edit: What the heck?! I clicked Scotty's gauntlet link, and I'm 100% sure that there used to be more to that comic than there is now. Did Dan cut out that page's last three panels for some reason? When did that happen? I read through the entire archive only a few weeks ago and those panels were still there back then.

I figured that was what the white space in the middle of her chest was for. It is the display area, conveniently placed where many eyes are drawn...

Oh dear gods yes, imagine a cute little blond girl (about 7 or 8) going on about how she is so depraved. I did not, at the time, understand why everyone was laughing. I was trying to complain that I was deprived, though for the life of me I can't remember of what I felt I was deprived at the time.

Panel 1: Avatar State! Yip yip! Also, griffon fangirls for the win.
Panel 3: Humans where she's from? ...hey, maybe she's from Magus's home universe. There's a theory.
Panel 4-5: "And thirdly... The laws of physics is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules."
Panel 7: It's okay, Ashley. You're allowed to geek out. Get it out of your system now before it becomes routine.
Commentary: I think we've all had a moment where we've used the wrong word and hoped nobody in the constipation noticed.

Given that Tara is a knight and their persistent mention of royalty I am starting to suspect that their half of the world (Darn you, Dan, EXPLAIN THAT!) is a monarchy with a feudal system of some sort. Possibly a vestigial one with some sort of civil representation. Moreover, I find the reactions of the griffins rather interesting. I have this feeling that they still have Nanase placed in the slot marked 'royalty' in their worldview and that they go along with not calling her 'princess' mostly as polite acceptance of royal caprice. ("Uh, of course, your Majest -- I mean, your Elizabethness -- I mean Elizabeth!")

I strongly doubt that. To me it seems much more likely that they are all built on the same foundation. Elliot's core traits consist of: honesty, empathy and protectiveness. Heidi, Mildred and Gothica would be just as likely to take a bullet for a friend as Elliot himself would be. After all, Elliot is a defender and the whole reason he got a superhero spell is because he dreamed of defending and protecting people.

He seems to transition personalities pretty quickly though, so I don't really think that bleed through is a real danger. The wrinkle is that each personality, though, might not want to switch. Lust-for-life Heidi may not want to turn into stick-in-the-mud Elliot. Though I don't think they're so much separate personalities but different facets of Elliot's core personality, with different traits emphasized or diminished as needed.

I suspect, but have no proof, that each alternate identity counts as a separate person.  My only reason is that it makes sense since these are supposed to be secret identities - their whole purpose is to disguise him.
If he ever wanted to hide from a magic user this ability could be handy.  I wonder though...if he spent too much time as, say, Heidi, would that personality start to become dominant?

Without any equipment, we were trying to lower an old upright piano on casters about four feet from the stage to the house floor.  The suggestions for how we should proceed just kept getting wilder.  And we could not risk damaging the instrument.

Finally, some kid pointed out that the stage door opened directly to an alley with no steps.  The alley sloped to the sidewalk with no steps.  The theatre lobby door opened to the sidewalk with no steps.  There were no steps from the lobby into the house.  And the aisle in the house from the lobby door to the stage had no steps.
I think my expression was very similar to that of Nanase in the last panel.

I can see the conversation being something like this:
 
Diane: So how did you and Elliot get your magic?
Ellen: Well, towards the end of January of last year, Elliot was accidentally turned into a girl by Nanase's cousin. In an attempt to turn himself back to normal Elliot went and touched a magic diamond, him gaining the ability to change forms at will was one side effect of that.
Diane: That explains Elliot, but what about you?
Ellen: Well....You could say I was the other side effect of him touching the diamond.
Nanase: That's right! Your '1st Birthday' is coming up in a couple weeks isn't it Ellen?

Well, Tara and Andrea were still off to the side sharing a moment when the rest decided to meet back at Charlotte's, so they didn't really have a chance to voice their concern and suggest an alternative until it was just Elliot left.
 
Also It did occur to me after my previous post that another possibility that Nanase's fairy doll spell didn't work was either because of Tara with that magic claw that would have dispelled Elliot's superhero form, or the Immortal causing interference to prevent outside magical intervention.

You heard it here first, folks: if you want distortion levels so low as to make a brave man weep, all you have to do is magically merge with your cell phone.

We don't really know how does the magic behind the spellbooks work, but the first thing I would do is see if there is a way to digitize (is that the word?) it, set an app that notify me every time the document has changed, and tell me what lines were added / modified, like Git does. There is a point in time where keeping track of that damn thing, in a physical book, is simply unfeasible, and it would be really annoying well before that point.