story Story: Wednesday, April 6, 2016

[Vorlonagent 442]

We also just saw a spider-mage conjure magical weapons by the bushel.  You don't need to have a magical talent to maake stuff out of magic....but it helps!

[Wildcat 37]

3 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

We have it from Not-Tengu that Noriko looks very much like Nanase. While I wouldn't consider him a reliable source in general, I think on this I'll take his word. Noah looks essentially nothing like Nanase, beyond the basics of being (able to pass as) human.

Noah believes his parents are dead. (I thought I recalled some reference to Noah implying that Damien had killed both his parents, but I couldn't find it again.)

Noah being a child Noriko made via Uryuom-egg in hopes of a proper apprentice after her disappointment with Tedd doesn't fit in several regards. The most obvious is that they aren't together and Noah is Adrian's apprentice. Also, such a scenario would make Noah rather younger than Tedd, but he and Grace have at least one class together - a class that is usually age-segregated (well, year-of-school-segregated) which means he's essentially the same age as Tedd.

 

I favor the possibility that Tedd's brother (a) is at least a couple years younger and (b) lives elsewhere, probably in Europe - considering that we know Noriko has been monster-hunting there.

This and the next page may be what you are referring to. There's a couple of conversations with Raven that might be it as well...

I agree with your conclusions there

[The Old Hack 2,448]

Speaking of soap operas. Some of them are really poorly thought through. In one of them, a character is a mother who near the end of an episode goes to put her twin babies to bed. Then, on the fly, the director decides that having babies on the set is way too complicated and has them removed from the script. The babies are never seen, heard of or even spoken of again. Kind of creepy.

Creepier still. In another soap, a character casually gets to his feet and says he is going to the loo. Once again, he vanishes without a trace and is never spoken of again. It makes me wonder what in the world the poor twit encountered in that toilet. Maybe an Elder God?

Then there's the classic trope where an actor needs to be replaced and their character gets into a horrible accident where somehow the only way to save their life is immediate cosmetic surgery. Cue new actor to replace the old one. It makes me envision an emergency ward where porters roll in a stretcher with a badly injured victim and the accompanying surgeon yells, "Quick! We only have 35 minutes to make him look like Brad Pitt!"

All in all, it is better for one's sanity to not think too much about them.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

The twins, toilet man, and accident victim, were obviously abducted by aliens, and the replacement is a governmet agent covering it up.

...wait...

just had a scary thought.

I know I've been griping about the Soap-opera scenario with the girl's potential mother but it just occurred to me, What if this is a 'skywalker' scenario instead: Hide the twins with trusted friends to keep them away from a family member who's turned against their own? I mean, we know there are types of bloodsuckers that can hijack a person's body...

Edited April 8, 2016 by InfiniteRemnant
new idea, didn't want to double post.

[hkmaly 490]

1 hour ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

I know I've been griping about the Soap-opera scenario with the girl's potential mother but it just occurred to me, What if this is a 'skywalker' scenario instead: Hide the twins with trusted friends to keep them away from a family member who's turned against their own? I mean, we know there are types of bloodsuckers that can hijack a person's body...

Nitpick: We know there are aberrations that can hijack a person's body. We don't know if they are bloodsuckers, Sirleck doesn't seem to be.

5 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:

We also just saw a spider-mage conjure magical weapons by the bushel.  You don't need to have a magical talent to maake stuff out of magic....but it helps!

He MAY have that magical talent. If Noah is Seyunolu, it's actually more likely the spider vampire have this talent than Noah having it.

21 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

I've apparently had the definitions of those two genres backwards for decades then... Whoops...

I though that the main difference is that sitcoms are supposed to be funny.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

1 minute ago, hkmaly said:

21 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

I've apparently had the definitions of those two genres backwards for decades then... Whoops...

I though that the main difference is that sitcoms are supposed to be funny.

If it is, than they've got one job and they're failing it. badly. Neither is even slightly funny.

[Vorlonagent 442]

Since magical talents are supposed to be rare, it seems unlikely the spider-mage has the "making stuff out of magic" talent.  

Not a one-shot redshirt of a villain anyway...

[hkmaly 490]

26 minutes ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

29 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

I though that the main difference is that sitcoms are supposed to be funny.

If it is, than they've got one job and they're failing it. badly. Neither is even slightly funny.

I used "supposed" on purpose. Often you can tell by the laugh track.

[Scotty 1,061]

35 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Nitpick: We know there are aberrations that can hijack a person's body. We don't know if they are bloodsuckers, Sirleck doesn't seem to be.

 

Technically Sirleck is a bloodsucker. Sirleck is a parasitic aberration that latches onto it's victim and taps into their nervous and circulatory systems, so Sirleck is both sucking out the victim's blood, absorbing the nutrients and such, then returning it to the victim to get recycled. I don't imagine Sirleck could live long without a host.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

3 hours ago, Scotty said:

Technically Sirleck is a bloodsucker. Sirleck is a parasitic aberration that latches onto it's victim and taps into their nervous and circulatory systems, so Sirleck is both sucking out the victim's blood, absorbing the nutrients and such, then returning it to the victim to get recycled. I don't imagine Sirleck could live long without a host.

Great, now I'm going to have that image in my mind next time I go to donate blood by apheresis.....

[ijuin 572]

9 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:

Since magical talents are supposed to be rare, it seems unlikely the spider-mage has the "making stuff out of magic" talent.  

Not a one-shot redshirt of a villain anyway...

However, if he was a Wizard (i.e. able to learn spells from others, and not limited to his self-developed ones), then he could very well have learned such conjurations as the production of weaponry. Wizards constitute a minority of Mages, but are not so rare that it's considered surprising.

As for Noriko producing a child via Uryuom egg, I believe that this would only happen after she left Edward--how many husbands are comfortable with the idea of their wives producing a child with a partner other than themselves? Or perhaps her decision to do this is part of what led to them separating?

[Don Edwards 548]

18 hours ago, Wildcat said:

This and the next page may be what you are referring to. There's a couple of conversations with Raven that might be it as well...

No, that page and the previous would require no changes if Damien both parents, or only one. (and the next page - ??? )  His post-Swedekea conversation with Elliot says that both are dead, but nothing that indicates when or how either of them died.

On another note, don't forget that Noriko stayed with Edward and Tedd long enough that Tedd has some memory of being a great disappointment to her. That says to me he was probably at least three or four years old when she left. I seriously don't see Edward telling his preschool son "your mother left because you are such a disappointment".

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

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.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

The issue is still age though. Whenever she left, Tedd becoming withdrawn in her absence would seem to imply he remembers at least a bit about her. Given what Ellen said about memories during the second life plotline, that puts Tedd at a minimum of 4 when she left. If she had had another child before leaving there would be knowledge of said child, or at least hints. The fact that there wasn't would suggest the child came after her departure, and producing a child takes time, at least half a year for a species our size.

Assuming this to be true, there would have to be at least a 5 year gap between Tedd and his younger half sibling, whoever they are.

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

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.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

16 minutes ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

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?

perhaps because the roundabouts way of revealing the twins similar birthdays wouldn't work if he didn't? the cast said it themselves, how many people would actually remember the time they were born?

why is everyone so hung up on egg-theory relatives anyway? while the hidden relative thing works for a few (well, just the twins in my eyes, but whatever), for several of them, particularly Noah, they actually work better if they're NOT related to that many of the other cast members. noah's back story works fine as it is, but him having additional family just raises the question of why he didn't track them down to ask for help during his whole revenge kick. If he had a parent who wasn't dead, it's conceivable he would have tried, but there isn't even a hint of that.

It doesn't actually fill any plotholes, the only important question it would answer would be in a lackluster way, it actually adds a few new plotholes, and it weakens the characterization of the existing cast.

It's newbie-fanfic-level bad writing, it takes away more than it adds.

[SeriousJupiter 49]

Here are my two cents:

- I don't believe Noah is related to Tedd or Noriko

- Tedd's younger brother must logically be at least five or more years younger than him, so I very much doubt it's anyone we know

- I don't think Noriko or Raven have ever had children via Uryuom eggs

- I don't know how Noah can use Earth magic, but I trust Dan will explain it one day

- Why are we even talking about Noriko, Raven, Noah and Tedd? They have nothing to do with this storyline.

Until I'm proven wrong, I'll stick to my theory about Susan's father being her real father and the mistress being the twins' biological mother. One or both of the parents may be vampire hunters, which might explain why they haven't kept in touch with their daughters, but I actually think it's more likely that they simply don't care about them. It's sad, but it's completely possible.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Is it possible that Tedd's missing sibling is an older brother?

If Noriko had a son with another father, she may have left that boy in his father's care while she concentrated on her relationship with Edward.  Then she and Edward had a child thinking that might help save their marriage.  A desperate cliché that rarely works out well in fiction or real life.

This other man may was probably also an acquaintance of Adrian Raven and is yet another significant reason he feels guilt and responsibility towards Tedd.

If this other man was also in the monster hunter business, he could have been disabled (or worse) in the line of duty and was unable to keep raising his son from Noriko on his own.  As their marriage was already falling apart at that point, rather than bring Tedd's half brother into Edward's home, Noriko decided to raise him on her own.

 

[SeriousJupiter 49]

...That's highly unlikely. Raven taught Tedd's parents in high school and I got the impression that they were already together back then. Granted, we don't know how many years passed between their graduation and Tedd's birth, but I believe if Noriko had another son before Tedd, Edward and Tedd would know about it.

[ijuin 572]

I can't locate the page number right now, but Tedd explicitly said that his mother left when he was three.

Also, nitpick, but Tedd being born as a non-spellcasting child of two Mages would make him a Squib, not a Muggle.

[SeriousJupiter 49]

1 minute ago, ijuin said:

I can't locate the page number right now, but Tedd explicitly said that his mother left when he was three.

Really? I don't think I've ever read that before. I hope you'll find the link.

[Scotty 1,061]

1 hour ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

2 hours ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

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?

perhaps because the roundabouts way of revealing the twins similar birthdays wouldn't work if he didn't? the cast said it themselves, how many people would actually remember the time they were born?

Susan was born 10 minutes after midnight, so January 1st for here, Diane would be the elder sister by 20 minutes being born 10 minutes before midnight December 31st.

As for why Dan would make a point to have anyone mention Susan being the youngest. Does there have to be a particular reason other than the fact that just prior to the mention of it, Ellen says "In light of Susan oldness", which would kinda be ironic for referring to someone younger than her. also the fact that Susan seems more mature compared to the rest of the group.

As for why Susan would know when she was born, nothing too suspicious about that, some parents tell their kids that, Heck my photo album has the time I was born plus my weight and length marked down. Even if Susan was adopted Mr and Mrs Pompoms would have to have been given a copy of the birth certificate and any relevant information.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

1 hour ago, ijuin said:

I can't locate the page number right now, but Tedd explicitly said that his mother left when he was three.

Also, nitpick, but Tedd being born as a non-spellcasting child of two Mages would make him a Squib, not a Muggle.

okay, so if that's accurate that reduces the minimum age gap by a year, but that still puts it outside the age range of every character introduced to-date.

2 hours ago, SeriousJupiter said:

Why are we even talking about Noriko, Raven, Noah and Tedd? They have nothing to do with this storyline.

Because somone brought up a since-debunked theory about the twins being related to Raven via eggs, and the topic has spiraled out of control from there.

[Sjmcc13 42]

2 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

okay, so if that's accurate that reduces the minimum age gap by a year, but that still puts it outside the age range of every character introduced to-date.

Is it confirmed that we are talking about a half sibling? what if Noriko was pregnant when she left, and never told them (or just Ted for fear of jealousy due to ted's "handicap"). Of course even a 3 year difference would be to much to be anyone in their high school, without suffering from some accelerated aging and/or skipping a grade or 2. 

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

Well, no. I don't know for certain it's a half-sibling, but a half bloodline relation has a significantly higher probability than a full bloodline relation, simply due to the circumstances you mention being the only ones that could lead to that.