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https://www.egscomics.com/comic/hope-032 I will be studying Panel Four for vital clues until at least the the next appearance of Lord Tedd Are we to believe Rich & Larry have some sort of insight into how inter-dimensional alien psionics work, or is the stopped clock right twice a day? What is going on tonight to make D10 so excited? Please don't tell me that by just thinking about Boxes, Grace some how connected Hope with Pandora.

https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/fox-063 Yes, Ashley. Yes it does.

https://www.egscomics.com/comic/hope-031 I usually wouldn't bother, but I feel like I ought to say something about the comic rather than just posting the link to it, so: Yay for starburst background in panel two!

https://www.egscomics.com/comic/hope-030 Space for low-key spoilers: Tedd and Grace are looking quite cute today. As I said on Tumblr: I love how Tedd and Grace's new-ish hair styles are both androgynous (in fact I might even call Tedd's feminine-leaning and Grace's borderline-masculine, though they both look great with their current bodies regardless). Combined with their similar outfits and matching pendants, the two look like quite the matched set!

I just noticed that no one has created any NP threads this week. Rather than making several threads I figured I'd just do one for the week. Tuesday, Feb 13: https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/fox-060 Thursday, Feb 15: https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/fox-061 Saturday, Feb 17: https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/fox-062 Space for kinda-sorta spoilers: I like Ashley's form in Tuesday's strip. It's funny both she and Kevin are acting like she was being naughty, when random TFs are par for the course in Tedd's basement. Someone pointed out elsewhere that it's kind of funny Ashely's worried in Thursday's strip that she'll get TF spells instead of the healing spells she wants, when Pandora decided not to give her a mark because all she could give her was healing magic. As for Saturday, all I have to say is: Chibi!

Tedd is still Tedd. His mind goes to spell resistance, his imagination goes... elsewhere.

Tedd's just figured out something important. Either a way for him to get magics spells of his own or a way to train magic resistance, I'm not sure which.

https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/fox-052 So we aren't going to see a nine year old Nanase with a thirty six year old brain? Or a fifty four year old Nanase with a six year old brain? That's too bad. I figure if she was one hundred eight years old with a three year old brain, she would be perfect for current politics.

NP Comic for Thursday, Jan 18, 2024 Ashley made herself tall. No one appears surprised.

NP Comic for Tuesday, Jan 16, 2024 "Where's the beef?" - 2nd panel, lady. In EGS logic, this kind of makes sense, although I wonder what prompted Tedd's cryptic animal form comment. Ashley is being Ashley.

NP Comic for Thursday, Jan 11, 2024 The point of this was for Nanase to retain her ability to think while Fox could still operate independently. Flexing and glaring does not shout "I can work independently" to me. She's keeping the same flexing stance with the same arms, that actually seems to say the opposite. The form does have the advantage of reaching the top shelf more easily.

Nanase is quite invested in her physical strength. Not surprising, she worked hard for it. She would probably need some serious reason to make that exchange.

NP Comic for Thursday, Dec 28, 2023 Nanase wants to tweak the spell s'more. "She's not my maid" sounds like denial to me. Tedd's big eyes in the second panel are amusing. I am curious what particular aspect of Nanase getting bigger amused him. Or was it her verbal response? Ashley is true to form.

NP Comic for Saturday, Dec 16, 2023 Tedd wants a sadistically significant series of tests. Nanase is happy with a proof of concept demonstration. Fox is happy with beating Nanase.

NP Comic for Thursday, Dec 14, 2023 I believe what we are seeing is the young adult apple Nanase not falling far from the maternal tree.

NP Comic for Thursday, Dec 7, 2023 Tedd is shocked that Ashley threw Kevin the Insulting Stick at the golem. I'm shocked that Kevin made it back. Tedd seems to see Kevin as a bit of an oracle, so is presumably learning from Kevin. Kevin is designed by Arthur to instruct new agents, as such has a reflection of Arthur's knowledge. To me this says Tedd could do with some magic instruction from someone who could guide him <sarcasm mode> . . . if only there were such a person available </sarcasm mode>.

NP Comic for Saturday, Dec 2, 2023 The second panel is odd. Probably just dramatic, but it looks like the 'new' version of Nanase is having issues becoming substantial, starting to fade away. The white flame background seems to support this. Probably just stylistic choices, not foreshadowing Nanase evaporating. Just in case, I have a song prepared. "Na na na se, Na na na se, Hey, hey, Goodbye!" Ellen: "Tedd! What did you do to my girlfriend?" Tedd: "It wasn't me! Honest!"

NP Comic for Thursday, Nov 30, 2023 Overly complicated mumbo and jumbo. Ashley then psychs herself out.

NP Comic for Tuesday, Nov 28, 2023 . . . also, I think you can do a trade where you fold your own laundry, and reduce your casting costs entirely, but where's the fun in that? Kevin has a speaking role in this comic. Pretty impressive, for a stick.

https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/fox-031 Does Tedd realize that most academic research papers are not written in the form of video game reviews?

NP Comic for Saturday, Nov 18, 2023 Crazy like a fox. "You know she's a little bit dangerous . . ."

NP Comic for Thursday, Nov 16, 2023 Spell Legos! "L E G O S . . . Happy?"

NP Comic for Tuesday, Nov 14, 2023 You REALLY don't have to explain.

NP Comic for Tuesday, Oct 31, 2023 Hmm. In either the before the change or after the change magic, Kevin makes no sense. What exactly is he? Physically, he is a stick, painted like a traditional stage wand. This makes a little sense, because as a seer, Arthur is a 'wand maker'. But Tedd has long since demonstrated that wands don't have to actually be stick shaped. He does not duplicate the function of 'normal' wands, he is not enabling the caster to use himself to cast a spell via the magical energy he stores. A normal wand would have to be a recording of the spell it can cast, so that's not unlike Kevin, but Kevin has much more knowledge than a specific spell, and can reason about them. This is not wand-like. He's more like a spell book, albeit an open ended one that is not about specific spells. Like if you took spellbook-like knowledge and made a pod cast about it. But even then, not a scripted podcast, more like segments a responsive program that would show short training segments to address specific queries, and even beyond that, incorporated an AI that assesses need and selects the segments. All without having much of a clue about polity and social interaction. And then, he has odd capabilities, like speaking. Why and how? There are alternatives to speaking, he could be telepathic maybe, or create a text display in the air, or have a readout on the side. But clearly, he is speaking and several people hear him at once. He has no apparent sound interaction hardware. Yet he speaks and hears. If this is trivial to do in the EGS universe, why don't all wands have an instructional feature to tell people what they are for and how to operate them? He can't see the video game being played, but he is aware of people and where they are. He has almost no social sense, but he 'tilts himself politely'. Where did he get that notion? And he hovers. That seems like a powerful feature, the kind of thing you'd want to build into lots of stuff, yet we haven't seen many magic items that hover. We've seen people hover, but will was involved. Kevin essentially has no will of his own, other than his teaching purpose; he 'sleeps' when he's not teaching. So why does he hover? It seems that it would use a lot of magic power to do so. It would shorten his useful life if he is using stored power. Is he dependent on ambient magic energy? Is he vampyric? Can Ashley even power him, if he is? Presumably, he is a wand because Arthur is a wand maker, but he has more in common with a spell book than a wand, and he is ambulatory like a golem. He should have been some other kind of object: Teddy bear Brass frog (I'd say a Barbie style doll, but that's too much like the fairy dolls, would be confusing in the comic) A magician doll with a top hat A cell phone app A vinyl record you have to play, but the audio is responsive like Kevin, and the record keeps spinning and does not end until your session is done. An augmentation on a cat or dog A head set with a microphone Kevin also appears to learn. In terms of AI, this is nontrivial; it seems that Arthur is skilled beyond just magic. Gotta say, still not a fan of the character, Kevin. Not seeing that he brings a lot to the comic.

NP Comic for Saturday, Nov 11, 2023 Ashley is beside herself.