ijuin

I'm afraid that I have absolutely no idea who Mr. S. Baldrick is.

Cats used to be worshipped as Gods. They have not forgotten this.

True, but let's not go into the Perfect World fallacy--there are plenty of nations in the present or recent-past that have done a better job at some of these things than the current USA.

Sadly, the world is full of people who are looking for any excuse to feel superior to others.

It seems to me as though dismissing a summon immediately releases all of its remaining energy in one burst.

Catalina also hangs around Salty Crackers Comics, so she'd get exposed to various flavors of geeky fans there as well.

Pandora definitely has very rapid and frequent mood swings, as evidenced by her doing the "monster face" thing for single panels in the middle of a conversation.

Obviously. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Yes, processing power is necessary, but not sufficient.

"Portal" reference. Cave Johnson made a rather infamous rant about making combustible lemons.

Pandora's inner monologue did say that she likes Sarah, so I would think that she would not do anything seriously hurtful to her, though there may be some good-natured teasing or the occasional minor prank. Also, Sarah takes note of Pandora's use of the phrase "apprentice magic user"--Pandora implies that she is going to give Sarah coaching and not simply unlock her magical ability and leave her confused and ignorant of what to do with it. Sarah may learn some useful stuff from her that she would not learn from a Human magic teacher.

Well, now we know why Dan wanted to have the Voltaire-appearing-in-Verres-House scene before showing this scene--it established the nature of Vows for Immortals. It will prove interesting to have Pandora mentoring Sarah . . . By the way, Pandora hasn't yet told Sarah what to call her yet, has she? She might give her name, or she might give a nickname, or she might simply ask to be addressed by a title, such as "Sensei" or equivalent. Hmm, a week or so, huh? It may be the case that by the time Tara and Andrea return (four weeks), the Energy Clog may already be removed . . .

AI isn't just about sheer processing speed--it also needs sufficient RAM (or soft-wired circuits) to simulate all of the thought processes. Then of course there's the software side of things--we don't know enough about how our own intelligence functions to be able to devise algorithms for it, so simply throwing extra processing power and memory at the problem is one of those "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approaches, more or less.

Pandora appreciates the irony of the situation--a wizard who is apparently the "Emissary of Magic" is slow to grasp the issues at hand, while a "D rank talent" understands immediately. Hmm Pandora strikes me as more Triforce of Power than Triforce of Wisdom . . .

I think that a big breakthrough moment will be when Edward finds out that being a girl is part of Tedd's fundamental self/longing, as it must be for Tedd to get marked with that particular spell package. Right now Edward seems to think that transforming is something that Tedd does simply "for the hawtness".

Hmm, perhaps the first extension to her spell would be to control what kind of catgirl she becomes?

Perhaps a NP story (outside of continuity) where a transformation rampage does happen?

In other words, bad but so hot.

The first principle of stealth is to avoid attracting attention. Nothing to see here, folks. Of course, whatever Catalina ends up doing is going to attract more attention than just walking nonchalantly out the door.

It could be, except Catalina and Rhoda did not think to bring or acquire a suitable hat or other garment for concealing her new appearance.

For Susan and Diane to be twins at this point, the birth records would have to have been falsified.

Yes, we would all like not to need to trouble you with such petty chores, and let you focus instead on the business of keeping our discussions civil, a task that is a far better use of your efforts.

What sort of fanfic?

Yes. Pregnancies are almost never precisely nine months long--even discounting conditions that might specifically cause an early or late delivery, there is room for about a week's variation in both directions.

Gorilla marketing? No wonder they went apeshit over it!