Don Edwards

What are the chances that Magus' home universe is the same as our two favorite gryphons'?

Thing is, Sirleck wants to live very comfortably. Passing significant wealth to an unrelated "heir" frequently, without establishing a significant long-term relationship with the "heir", would be difficult. And then having that host do the same just a year or two later... too likely to draw attention. So, while he may occasionally use a host very-short-term (like Ellen and the janitor), he probably prefers long-term hosts. Probably a bare minimum of five years. And I'd go with multiple decades. Remember, his most recent host had at least one human associate (the butler), who showed no sign of thinking that his boss was aging abnormally fast.

Probably there are a few other surviving aberrations. However, in one sense I suspect that nearly-every aberration is the last of his/her kind. Providing for progeny doesn't seem like something that would be high on an aberration's priority list...

There are writers - some of them very good - who have a detailed plan for the entire story before they write a single word of the story, and stick to that plan. However, there are also writers - some of them JUST as good - whose plan is on the order of "a computer programmer meets a dragon - how did that happen, and what happens next?" They start writing before they have an answer to either of those questions. They'll discover the answers, and thus the story, as they go. And every in-between level of planning also occurs. At several science-fiction conventions I've asked panels of writers if they get into arguments with their characters, and if so, how often they lose. I think one writer has denied having such arguments. Which drew disbelieving glances from the other panelists. How often they claim they lose those arguments varies between 70% and 99%.

Your typical aberration probably leaves a rather detectable trail of bodies stripped of either life or soul (or both). Sirleck has found a "better" (well, more efficient) way. I'm guessing he can live off a single victim for decades. That's not much of a trail of evidence.

I kind of doubt that Sirleck is dead (yet). I think Magus is going to make some mistake and Ashley will be critical to the outcome. We also still have Elliot in the scene, and since Magus has recovered he probably should have recovered as well. But we haven't seen him since the first panel of Monday's comic.

I'm afraid that the customer reviews on yours are rather negative... so sorry, I'll pass.

And, in spite of being extremely ditzy in every regard, are very good engineers. Even that would require that (a) {Diane's} Mom know that Adrian is the one who knocked her up and (b) Mom know Adrian's last name. In the situation described, each of those is less than certain to have been the case. Plus, Diane's last name was probably legally changed in the adoption process.

I think we can assume "flammable under non-absurd conditions". After all, with the right fluorine-based chemical even water is highly flammable - and the smoke will melt your lungs, for added fun. (Gotta love a chemical whose molecular structure is both easily pronounceable and a good onomatopoeia for what frequently happens in its presence.) I don't remember Sirleck being told anything at all specific about which immortal Adrian is a child of. I think that was his assumption based on the partial information that Voltaire fed him.

If Elliot's current curse, as interpreted by the Diamond, is being possessed by Magus, then - the unmodified effect - of touching the Diamond would be: 1) A copy of Elliot that 1a) is permanently possessed by Magus, 1b) and can cause other people to be possessed by Magus AND 2) A copy of Elliot that is can turn "I am possessed by Magus" on and off at will. I can't see why either Elliot or Magus would consider #1b or #2 desirable. For that matter, #1a doesn't seem particularly good from Magus' perspective. He doesn't want to possess someone else, he wants his own body. He wants just a copy of Elliot's body, not a complete copy of Elliot's body mind and soul. But Magus said he intends to modify the effect of the Diamond - possibly shattering the object in the process. And he is a reasonably powerful (and at least somewhat educated) magic-user, in his own world. Perhaps he succeeds in producing different effects. ---- As for the comment of Susan's fairydoll spell looking a lot like Nanase's: that's because Nanase made all the inanimate fairydolls that Susan put in her marked box and summons magical copies of.

Well, mathematically, there's an interesting puzzle in relativity. There could be objects traveling faster than the speed of light... that would speed up as they lose energy. These mathematically-hypothetical particles are called tachyons. No such objects have been observed, and we don't even have solid theories on how we could observe them. Another problem is that objects moving faster than the local speed of light lose energy, so most likely these objects would have been losing energy - and therefore speeding up - since the moment they came into existence. Unless there is something generating new ones, they would all be very far away from us; the entire area of the universe that is observable by ordinary means would be tachyon-free and near the middle of a far-distant cloud-shell of tachyons.

Actually, I think a vast conspiracy between the school district and a couple of doctors whom the school district strongly recommends to parents (and may even be school-district employees, or otherwise get paid by the district and thus have incentive to give the results the district wants so they'll continue to be strongly recommended - or if sufficiently corrupt, explicitly get paid under the table for certain results) sounds pretty plausible. You are correct that I don't have the expertise to positively identify just where the situation I described was messed up. That it's seriously messed up SOMEWHERE seems pretty obvious... and establishes that at least one party, the school district, is not to be trusted. But school districts are central players in a pretty high percentage of behavioral-disorder diagnoses: they "recognize" a "suspicion" that a child has one, recommend a doctor to make an official diagnosis, receive a report from the doctor so they can make "appropriate" adjustments to the child's school experience (and maybe get more money from the state)...

In the school district my kids attended, the percentage of kids that the district got extra state money for, because of diagnosed behavioral disorders, was by some amazing coincidence almost precisely the maximum percentage that the state officially considered believable enough that the money would be forthcoming. And it was stable at that level for five years that I know of. Then the state raised the allowed percentage. By about half. It took less than three years for the percentage of kids in the district that had diagnosed behavioral disorders to rise to the new state limit. And it was then stable at that higher level for several years that I know of. I think it's pretty safe to say that the rate of actual behavioral disorders did not shoot up by 50% in three years. And that either the pre-increase or post-increase rate being such close matches to the state cap, let alone both of them, kind of stretches credulity.

Ashley has been notably observant in the past. As for the car missing - maybe the guard was dropped off by a friend or relative. Or lives close enough to walk to work.

And had 26 minor adventures just in 1978 and 1979.

What I hear people say is often much more interesting than what they actually said. My mate occasionally likes to go to the TV listings page and read adjacent (vertically or horizontally) entries as if they are a single show. This can be particularly amusing approaching a something-30 mark, when many of the listings will be oddly truncated to fit in the remaining half-hour slot. "Married... Without a Trace", anyone?

I'm curious how many politically-significant people around the world just died. The ability to see does NOT include the ability to hear. However, Elliot didn't read the entire spell out loud on camera. We don't even know if he's read it to himself. Perhaps the next section of the spell description is about the aural component. (With the spell as a whole possibly being aural, by the other definition of that term.)

That first panel is a callback to the current NP storyline, isn't it? Prediction: this scene will end with Ashley grabbing and attempting to use at least two, but not more than four, of these artifacts, most likely one after another, in an attempt to stop Sirleck from possessing someone - most likely Ashley herself after Magus repels the hijacking attempt. Ashley's efforts will be successful and Sirleck will be imprisoned (trapped in an inanimate object or magical cage) or destroyed, although it's possible that initially nobody will be certain which of the artifacts used (or which combination of them) had that effect. If the above prediction turns out to be correct, it will be my SECOND non-trivial webcomic prediction to be correct. I've only been reading webcomics for about 15 years...

If she walked into that unruly mob of kangaroos and used that power, they'd be a ruly mob of kangaroos. Reminds me of something I read about surveys to determine which nations have the happiest people. Denmark usually scores near the top. Japan likewise scores near the bottom. The US is somewhere in the middle. This is somehow supposed to prove that the amount of socialism that Denmark has makes people happier than the lesser amount that the US has, ignoring the fact that Japan is also more socialist than the US is. But also ignoring that in Danish culture expressing dissatisfaction with one's life in general is looked down upon as antisocial complaining, while in Japanese culture expressing satisfaction with one's life in general is looked down on as antisocial boasting. And in the US both behaviors are accepted to some degree. Failure to account for such cultural differences means that no meaningful conclusions whatsoever can be drawn from the survey results.

Arthur was under the impression that Edward's child was a boy. Then there's this girl that shows up bearing a family resemblance to Edward, of the right age to be Edward's child, and has knowledge which supports the conclusion that she is Edward's child. Boy -> girl. Cognitive dissonance. Surprise. On the other hand... Arthur already knew that this girl is a seer and aware of magic. Otherwise, she wouldn't be in the scene. She's of an age where curiosity tends to be high. And she's Edward's kid. Learning that she's been researching magic, while not exactly a foregone conclusion, is also not particularly surprising. Certainly no cognitive dissonance. At certain times of the year, you can do that before actually entering the store.

Selectively, of course. Contact between foxes and mice tends to be more popular among foxes than among mice.

How did I know where that would go before I clicked it? It is of course possible to guess who Van's father is. It may not be possible to guess correctly. You want an off-the-wall guess? Van's father is some guy Noriko had a fling with in Paris. Then he fixated on her. Learning that she is a powerful magic-user, he sought a way to gain magic in order to better attract her attention - and became an Aberration. Susan killed him. I will note that the timing does not look good for Van being a product of an affair Noriko had while married to Edward. He's too young. So I'll throw out another off-the-wall guess. Van's father is Edward. But we've never (to date) heard of Van's mother. He was conceived while Edward was in Europe briefly on business, and Edward doesn't know he exists. Why bring up that he's foreign? It's pretty doubtful that Arthur could hire someone who isn't even on the same continent as Moperville and couldn't get a work permit to work in the US. Van being a child is one reason he'd be ineligible for that permit, and also a reason (through several different routes, including compulsory-education laws in most US states) why he wouldn't be suitable for the position at this time even if he lived across the street from Elliot.

Prediction for both Winter Olympics: snow and ice.

That depends on the interpretation of "can"... Is physically capable of? Yes, he certainly CAN say no. For that matter, at present the job offer is conditional, and he could very easily just fail to meet the conditions - thus, no job offer. By, for example, NOT arranging his notes into a suitable format and sending Arthur a copy. Heck, it's theoretically possible he'll TRY to meet those conditions, and fail. (I so do not see that happening.) And if he decides he doesn't want to work under DGB, no they can't force him. Do they want to try? Maybe kidnap or threaten Grace? Yeah... bring in a genius researcher and seer by convincing him that you're evil and the enemy of what he holds dear. Anger his friends and relatives - they would definitely be concerned about Nanase, Elliot, Ellen, and Edward, possibly about Susan, Sarah, and Justin. Anger Grace's friends and relatives - her three brothers, Edward (again), Vladia, Hedge, Guineas, Raven. They'd all chat with THEIR friends and relatives - Catalina, Diane, Rhoda, Noah, Luke (and, through him, his circle), Mamase (I think she's still keeping significant secrets), Greg, Agent Wolf, Agent Cranium... I don't know how it might spread from there, or how much of that potential growth DGB would be aware of, but it seriously doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Different interpretation: can Tedd seriously consider saying no? There, I doubt it. It's too good a deal - he gets paid (probably well) to do what he wants to do anyway, he gets equipment and assistance he can't afford on his own, he would have access to (and the necessary contacts to find) whatever relevant expertise DGB may have available which might allow him to get significant results faster...

They can strip medals from individuals and disqualify individuals. It's harder to punish a system. Basically they tried to punish the Russian system for endemic, systematic doping, while leaving a hole for individuals who don't participate in that system. I don't know if they required Russian athletes to be tested for drugs in the opening days of the Games, or not - I would consider it reasonable as a special case, without regard to how they treat athletes from other countries with no similar history of systematic usage of banned drugs.