Xenophon Hendrix

The kid with the baseball cap isn't being reared by Raven.

Thanks, that let me edit.

We really don't know how much being quarter (or less) immortal shows. Ellen was awakened, and Grace is an extremely powerful greater chimera. They might be quite a bit different from a partial immortal in terms of sense perception.

I'm pretty sure that Susan would love to be able to give herself pointed ears when she wanted them.

I can't get this thing to let me edit my posts.

We don't really know how much Noriko cares about her children. We have some idea that she thinks monster hunting is more important than rearing them, but that doesn't mean she doesn't care about them at all. Tedd has been left with Edward, a responsible adult; and Noah, if he turns out to be her child, has been left with Raven, another responsible adult. As for Diane and Susan being related to Raven, I can envision something like this: The mad scientists have a ready supply of Uryuom eggs through Mr. Guyur. They are trying to breed super assassins. One of them has the bright idea, "Hey, instead of making them part animal, let's make them part immortal." "I don't know about you, but I'm not going to approach some guy who probably is half crazy and can turn me into a frog and ask if I can swab the insides of his cheeks." "How about if we use an elf instead of a pure immortal? A quarter-immortal would probably be more controllable anyway." "Half-immortals can't breed with humans." "That's in the conventional way. I bet no one has ever tried it with an Uryuom egg. As far as I can tell, those things will mix together any DNA that gets put into them." "Hmmm, you might have something there. That would be worth trying." So through some subterfuge, Raven's DNA gets acquired and put into an Uryuom egg. The other donors might be one or more human beings. This would mean that Susan and Diane are lesser chimera. They won't have any Uryuom features. Because no animal DNA was put into the egg, they won't be able to change into an animal hybrid. As for expected hair color, who knows? The rules of the EGS universe, which has green, blue, and purple as genetic hair colors, don't follow our own. When the egg is eventually opened, they find a pair of identical twin girls. To the mad scientists' disappointment, they don't appear to be anything special. They don't have pointed ears. They can't make their formula bottles levitate. They can't turn into flocks of crows to attack people who annoy them. Eventually, they are put up for adoption and are given to two different couples. If the above is correct, Susan and Diane actually might be able to shape change to have elf-like features, but they don't know because they have never tried to do such an improbable thing.

InfiniteRemnant, I'm not trying to come up with a mathematical proof; I'm trying to speculate about the future storyline of a fantasy webcomic. Anyway, the Old Hack has stated much of what I would have said myself. Noriko has already abandoned a marriage and a child, so we have no evidence to assume that she would be willing to take over the rearing of Noah once his custodial parents were murdered. We know she wasn't a custodial parent, because Noah has said that his parents are dead. He was referring to the persons who were rearing him. Noriko being one of Noah's gene donors neatly explains how he ended up with Raven. As for how Noriko could be one of Noah's gene donors, the possibilities are nigh endless. For example, a couple of blond greater chimera might have asked her, "Hey, we have this fine egg here and we would like to take a chance on creating the child of prophecy. A few badassed wizard genes could only help. What do you say?"

Assuming Noriko is one of Noah's biological parents, she wouldn't be one of his custodial parents. His custodial parents were murdered by Damian. I suspect Noriko heard about the murder and asked her mentor Raven to take Noah so that she didn't have to give up her very important monster hunting. As for the age gap being proved, I believe it has not, not at all. Anyway, I assume the various Uryuom-egg theories will eventually be proved or disproved. I hope I live long enough to see it. Personally, my quatloos are on Noriko being a genetic donor for Noah and on Raven, probably without his knowledge, being a genetic donor, or at least a genetic ancestor, of Susan and Diane via Uryuom egg. I don't believe El Shive had Grace's disguise look like Susan just for giggles. The author is known to drop a hint that turns out to be important years later (in real time) that looks just like a throw-away bit. See the note on the refrigerator and Elliot talking to the griffin at school for examples.

Noah being Noriko's kid explains why he ended up with Raven. Furthermore, nothing in the comic states that Noriko's other son has to be several years younger than Tedd. Given an Uryuom egg, she could have made a genetic donation at any time. Another thing to consider: given that Noriko presumably talks to Tedd and Edward on the telephone once in a while -- she had to explain why she can't come home even for Christmas -- if she had another son in the conventional fashion, Tedd would almost certainly know that he has a younger brother. But he never mentions it. The author set up the big revelation as a surprise for the readers.

We don't know a whole lot about the early years of the Verres' marriage yet, but we do know that she started examining Tedd for magic potential with the noisy wand at an early age. Inspired by Tedd's seeming lack of magical potential, Noriko could have done something like donate genetic material and not tell Edward about it. She seemed pretty distressed by the thought that he might be a muggle. Another thing I've been thinking about is that the author made it a point to emphasize that Susan, born on December 31, is the youngest of the main eight. Why would he do that? Considering the cutoff ages for starting American schools, the group has an unusually old and clumped age distribution. Might it be to fit in a younger brother for Tedd who is still old enough to be in the same grade? Given that Tedd must have been born in either late November or December, Noah could be almost a year younger and still be in the same grade as Tedd.

With Uryuom eggs, several parents are possible. I think there is going to be some scenario where Noriko is one of Noah's genetic parents, even if she wasn't one of the parents who was rearing him. In a situation like that, Noah could easily be as old as Tedd, or almost as old.

"Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?" --Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

I think it will be comedy gold.

I believe Elliot is assuming that Edward and DGB have done background checks on all of Tedd's friends who are in the know about the paranormal. Way back in one of the early comics Tedd warned Elliot that their phone conversations probably were bugged.

This comic implies that Noriko has more than one son. So far, Noah looks to be the best choice among introduced characters. He is important enough so that when the relationship is revealed it doesn't look like something the author pulled out of his rectum. Furthermore, none of the other important male characters have a mysterious past that has be revealed so far. This does leave the possibility that Tedd's brother is a character that will be revealed later, but Noah has the additional advantage of being Raven's ward. We know that Tedd's parents were at least once close to Raven. He is a reasonable choice to be the guardian of a son of Noriko's who isn't a son of Edward. Finally, we know the group of Edward, Raven, and Noriko have had something to do with Uryuoms and their eggs. We know that Edward was an undercover operative at the company that created Grace and her brothers, and Max and Jeremy sure look to be the result of U-egg experiments. Because Raven owns Max, one suspects that he was at least tangentially involved with the who Uryuom egg case.

coarse ground

I used to read Sluggy, but when I got to the comic where the clown flies off hanging from a ladder from a helicopter, I realized that I had no idea what was going on and hadn't for some time. I quit. I don't think El Shive was just messing with us when Grace's disguise looked so much like Susan. I believe your expectation of U-egg involvement in Diane and Susan's birth is going to pan out. I also still believe that Noah is Tedd's half-brother through Uryuom egg. As for Elliot dreading talking to Edward, that is a small problem compared to the mob scene that is going to be at his house now that he's been outed as Cheerleadra. In his situation, I'd give strong consideration to begging Edward to crash for the night on the couch in his basement.

I wonder if this ability works with other stuff he can carry in his pockets. Laser pointer. TV remote. Would carrying a razor knife give him extendable claws?

My grocery shopping list from last week.

"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." ― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land The strange thing is, that quote is only in the old edition.

Fair warning to anyone thinking about reading Worm, the complete serial is HUGE, well over a million words.

DGB is a branch of the FBI, which in our world can't be joined until one is 25 years old. On the other hand, we know that Edward probably has been keeping the powers that be updated. I can't imagine them wanting potential recruits like the Main Eight to slip away, with the possible exceptions of Justin and Sarah, whose powers haven't been made clear.

I haven't played a new computer game in years. Has Railway Tycoon ever been updated? That one was peaceful.

The "smoked snack stick."

In your base form, do you have great tracts of land?