story STORY: Wednesday April 27, 2016

[Drasvin 123]

3 hours ago, SeriousJupiter said:

I very much doubt Ellen could do that. I've always believed that her copy spell only copies appearance, not powers. I think her getting the angel spell when she copied Nanase really was just a bone thrown by God or Magic.

I think Ellen's Copy Beam gives her powers if the powers are intrinsic to that form, like Nanase's guardian form and theoretically Elliot's Cheerleadra form. I doubt it would give her any powers that aren't intrinsic to the form being copied. So she wouldn't get Susan's spells if she copied her form and I doubt she would get Grace's abilities if she copied her, as Grace's abilities are intrinsic to Grace, not any particular form she has (Maybe with the exception of senses gained from antennae if Grace has those out when copied)

[Scotty 1,061]

11 minutes ago, Drasvin said:

I think Ellen's Copy Beam gives her powers if the powers are intrinsic to that form, like Nanase's guardian form and theoretically Elliot's Cheerleadra form. I doubt it would give her any powers that aren't intrinsic to the form being copied. So she wouldn't get Susan's spells if she copied her form and I doubt she would get Grace's abilities if she copied her, as Grace's abilities are intrinsic to Grace, not any particular form she has (Maybe with the exception of senses gained from antennae if Grace has those out when copied)

I wonder if Ellen's copy beam would actually work on Grace in that sense, like it might copy the form, but would it let Ellen use telekinesis or talk to animals? They aren't spells for Grace.

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

31 minutes ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

...phrased like that you could put anyone's name in that sentence and it would be true.

It's not if it could happen that matters, but if it would happen. the question isn't if it's possible, but if it's likely.

I'm pretty sure the author is setting things up for Diane to be marked. My best guess about which way he'll go with it is that the smoke-shaped mark seems to fit Diane's pride in her stealthiness. On the other hand, I have no idea what the circle-rectangle mark might be. On the third hand, Sarah got a mark that wasn't given here.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

9 minutes ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

I'm pretty sure the author is setting things up for Diane to be marked.

Not necessarily, he could just as easily be creating a scenario that gives her a reason to train her abilities. 
Implied training + time-skip can accomplish just as much as a mark can. 

13 minutes ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

My best guess about which way he'll go with it is that the smoke-shaped mark seems to fit Diane's pride in her stealthiness. On the other hand, I have no idea what the circle-rectangle mark might be.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, Prety sure Smoke and Contrast are Luke's two marked friends. The timing is a bit too convenient to be anyone else (two unknown marked people, mentioned in the storyline about looking for marks, where there are two unclaimed marks just kinda left over? Yeah, it's them.)

17 minutes ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

On the third hand, Sarah got a mark that wasn't given here.

yeah, if she gets a mark at all, that's how i'd see it happening. randomly in a side story of debatable relevance.

[hkmaly 490]

4 hours ago, SeriousJupiter said:

The way I see it, once she gains access to magic, she will first be able to learn only spells related to her affinity, and after she's awakened, she could learn spells that reflect her personality.

If she will be marked, the one doing the marking will have some limited choice which it will be. The "spell matching affinity" will always be an option, while "spell matching strong desire" will be option if she had some strong desire at the moment. For some people, there may be multiple desire-based options, but lot of people don't desire ANYTHING strong enough (like Sarah). Similarly, awakening without being marked first might grant her spell which has something to do with the circumstances of awakening - especially if it will be improper awakening like from dewitchery diamond. But her affinity will always be there and if the first spell wouldn't match, the second likely will.

54 minutes ago, Drasvin said:

4 hours ago, SeriousJupiter said:

I very much doubt Ellen could do that. I've always believed that her copy spell only copies appearance, not powers. I think her getting the angel spell when she copied Nanase really was just a bone thrown by God or Magic.

I think Ellen's Copy Beam gives her powers if the powers are intrinsic to that form, like Nanase's guardian form and theoretically Elliot's Cheerleadra form. I doubt it would give her any powers that aren't intrinsic to the form being copied. So she wouldn't get Susan's spells if she copied her form and I doubt she would get Grace's abilities if she copied her, as Grace's abilities are intrinsic to Grace, not any particular form she has (Maybe with the exception of senses gained from antennae if Grace has those out when copied)

Agree and note that while Cheerleadra's flying or superstrength might count, the secret identities, while part of the spell, would certainly NOT be copyable.

29 minutes ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

1 hour ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

...phrased like that you could put anyone's name in that sentence and it would be true.

It's not if it could happen that matters, but if it would happen. the question isn't if it's possible, but if it's likely.

I'm pretty sure the author is setting things up for Diane to be marked. My best guess about which way he'll go with it is that the smoke-shaped mark seems to fit Diane's pride in her stealthiness. On the other hand, I have no idea what the circle-rectangle mark might be. On the third hand, Sarah got a mark that wasn't given here.

I think the marks at that list were marks already used, which does NOT include Diane (or Sarah). The one not yet accounted for will likely belong to Luke's friends.

But yes, Diane is set up to be marked, definitely. It would be very hard to explain how she wouldn't be marked at this point: with the vampires around, they likely ask Jerry, Helena or Demetrius next time they see them, unless Pandora will get to her first.

[Scotty 1,061]

It's not really a question of whether Diane gets marked or not, but a question of who marks her. There are currently 3 sources to choose from:

Pandora, because marking someone else wouldn't be an issue for her, she doesn't care how they use their newfound spells, as long as it's entertaining to her and helps to accomplish her goal of bringing about an "apocalyse".

Helena and Demetrius, because they gave Susan her mark and they're still hanging around and might have seen the spider vamp attack Diane for the same reason the France vampire attack Susan. We already know they have a habit of going out of their way to recruit people to fight vampires.

Jerry, might be a stretch but he's vowed to help Susan and Nanase, he's already helped Diane as a favor to Susan, he might feel that if Diane and Susan are to meet Diane should have the means to learn how to fight vampires from Susan. The things that makes this a stretch though is whether or not Jerry remembers the reason for owing a debt to Susan, Jerry felt that Helena and Demetrius shouldn't have marked Susan regardless of their reasons so he might avoid doing so, unless of course Susan asked him.

 

Another factor to consider is whether or not Helena, Demetrius and Jerry are capable of marking anyone yet, Jerry reset about 8 months before we saw him again at New Years, how long was he actually out of commission? Helena and Demetrius' first appearance was about 2 months prior to Jerry's reset but we don't know how long they had been following Elliot after their improper deaths.

This is another stretch, but there might be a 4th source of Diane's mark, Voltaire, but my guess is he'd only do so if he believes it would aid in his goal of killing Elliot.

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

The marks we were shown don't necessarily have to have been handed out at that point in the storyline. Tedd, for instance, didn't get his mark until later.

As for the two marks being Luke's friends, it ain't necessarily so. It could be, but we have been given little information to go on so far.

[Scotty 1,061]

5 minutes ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

The marks we were shown don't necessarily have to have been handed out at that point in the storyline. Tedd, for instance, didn't get his mark until later.

As for the two marks being Luke's friends, it ain't necessarily so. It could be, but we have been given little information to go on so far.

Yeah, Tedd's mark was seemingly given as an impulsive decision to be nice, but could still be the gender symbol in that list because of foreshadowing. Dan might expect us to think that the 8 marks that were shown are ones that Grace saw in her dream. But we don't know if she saw all of them, just the first 4 and she's confirmed Dex's mark, she was able to deduce that Rhoda has to be marked base on the boar. She has good reason to believe Justin was marked because of his newfound power fighting the fire golem, Catalina's mark though is a complete assumption based on Catalina's general behaviour, but it's quite possible the paw mark might end up being someone else, who knows.

Rhoda, Dex and Justin were marked around the same time, Luke was likely marked around then as well, though maybe a little later, or maybe it took longer for him to find out he was marked and had a spell. If Catalina was marked around the same time as well, it's either taken a long time for her to notice, or she's hiding it really well. Although, she might have been afraid of mentioning it to anyone thinking they would be afraid of her, even Susan or Rhoda. Now that she knows that Elliot is Cheerleadra, she might feel she could tell him about it.

[Wildcat 37]

7 hours ago, SeriousJupiter said:

Heh, I suppose it's possible that Diane could learn to summon all those things, but somehow I don't think they'd be helpful against vampires. The Vampider identified Diane as a hunter, so her affinity is indeed most likely summoning magic weapons. Also, I think affinities are very different from magic marks and other ways of gaining magic. If a person is born with an affinity for a certain type of spell, how could that possibly have anything to do with their yet undeveloped personality or desires? Diane has admitted that she's not a fighter, but her affinity makes her a potential vampire hunter. The way I see it, once she gains access to magic, she will first be able to learn only spells related to her affinity, and after she's awakened, she could learn spells that reflect her personality.

Is there any reason her affinity would be restricted to summoning magic weapons, and not just any summons or summoned item?

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

This comic says Susan has a "natural talent for spells that create objects out of magic," so it doesn't have to be weapons.

[Drasvin 123]

And presumably, any magic object could be used to hurt vampires, just non-weapons probably would not do spectacular damage. (the stun hammers bypassed the vampire's resistances, though they did only stun it still)

Edited May 2, 2016 by Drasvin
Forgot a negative word

[Scotty 1,061]

4 minutes ago, Drasvin said:

And presumably, any magic object could be used to hurt vampires, just non-weapons probably would do spectacular damage. (the stun hammers bypassed the vampire's resistances, though they did only stun it still)

Hmm ok, I'm having one of those moments again where I could have sword it was mentioned that the reason why the hammers worked against the France vampire was because he only preyed on females which allowed for the "offensive to females" requirement of the hammers to be met. I've looked in both Hammerchlorians and Q&A#6 and didn't see anything.

Maybe all vampires are generally offensive to females.

[Howitzer 32]

Just now, Scotty said:

Maybe all vampires are generally offensive to females.

Pretty sure all vampires (at least of the EGS variety) are generally offensive to everyone, regardless of gender.

[Drasvin 123]

2 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Hmm ok, I'm having one of those moments again where I could have sword it was mentioned that the reason why the hammers worked against the France vampire was because he only preyed on females which allowed for the "offensive to females" requirement of the hammers to be met. I've looked in both Hammerchlorians and Q&A#6 and didn't see anything.

Maybe all vampires are generally offensive to females.

http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1093 I think the fact that the french vampire preyed on women allowed them to use the hammers on it, and the hammers' magical nature allowed them to work on the vampire.

[Scotty 1,061]

6 minutes ago, Drasvin said:

http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1093 I think the fact that the french vampire preyed on women allowed them to use the hammers on it, and the hammers' magical nature allowed them to work on the vampire.

Ahh yeah, I only looked at when she was telling them about it at the hotel, should have gone back a couple pages further hehe.

[Don Edwards 548]

4 hours ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

I'm pretty sure the author is setting things up for Diane to be marked. My best guess about which way he'll go with it is that the smoke-shaped mark seems to fit Diane's pride in her stealthiness. On the other hand, I have no idea what the circle-rectangle mark might be. On the third hand, Sarah got a mark that wasn't given here.

I suspected when we first saw that page of eight marks that all eight had already been given at that point. Sarah getting a mark not on that page strengthens this view (but does NOT PROVE it).

Also, the shape does not have to have ANYTHING to do with the power. That's canon, and supported by Susan's mark being the classical symbol for females - which has no apparent relationship to the summoning of objects. (This is a good thing. The one symbol looks to me like two people having sex in a bean-bag chair, and I don't think I want to know what power would go with that.)

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

The shape doesn't have to do anything to do with the power, but making them relevant to the power seems to be Pandora's pattern, except when she was trolling Sarah.

[Howitzer 32]

27 minutes ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

The shape doesn't have to do anything to do with the power, but making them relevant to the power seems to be Pandora's pattern, except when she was trolling Sarah.

Even that one is relevant. The main use for Sarah's power is finding information, ie answering questions.

[partner555 170]

2 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

I suspected when we first saw that page of eight marks that all eight had already been given at that point. Sarah getting a mark not on that page strengthens this view (but does NOT PROVE it).

Also, the shape does not have to have ANYTHING to do with the power. That's canon, and supported by Susan's mark being the classical symbol for females - which has no apparent relationship to the summoning of objects. (This is a good thing. The one symbol looks to me like two people having sex in a bean-bag chair, and I don't think I want to know what power would go with that.)

Actually, Tedd's mark was given during the storyline after that page.

[Don Edwards 548]

50 minutes ago, partner555 said:

Actually, Tedd's mark was given during the storyline after that page.

But its shape still hasn't been given, as far as I can recall.

[Scotty 1,061]

I still think the shape of Tedd's mark is the transgender one in the list. It fits what his spell can do and after the griffon foreshadowing Dan did, I wouldn't be surprised at the mark list having some foreshadowing value as well.

[ijuin 572]

On 5/1/2016 at 10:37 PM, The Old Hack said:

Clearly, a saucer-shaped craft implies that it is being propelled by a teacup.

But to be serious, a saucer shape is good for a landing craft--edge-on it behaves as a lifting body, and flat-on you can use the underbelly as a heat shield for atmospheric entry.

Anyway, when Will and Gill spoke about the TF-Gun being illegal on the Uryuom homeworld, to me it seems that they were speaking in a manner that implied that even on Earth they weren't sure that they were 100% out of the reach of the long arm of the law of the homeworld governments. This would imply that it is not a journey of multiple years to travel between the Uryuom planet and Earth. Also, since we have not been told the human name for the Uryuoms' native star, it is probable that said star is not one of the ones that has a well-known name among humans (e.g. Tau Ceti or Altair or Vega), but rather is one that we only know by a catalog number (e.g. Lalande 21185 or Glise 581).

[The Old Hack 2,448]

1 minute ago, ijuin said:

But to be serious

Spoilsport. *muttermuttergrumble*

[Scotty 1,061]

5 minutes ago, ijuin said:

Anyway, when Will and Gill spoke about the TF-Gun being illegal on the Uryuom homeworld, to me it seems that they were speaking in a manner that implied that even on Earth they weren't sure that they were 100% out of the reach of the long arm of the law of the homeworld governments.

Them owning the TFG wasn't illegal, Will said his family had the TFG before the current laws were put in place and it exempted people that already had one. I do believe that the laws on their homeworld prohibited the use of the TFG which would have been why Will's family brought it with them to Earth. But even Edward saw the potential threat to national security in using that type of TFG. I'm guessing he never told his superiors in the FBI about it or the fact that his son was reverse engineering it, or, if the FBI does know about it, I'd wonder why they haven't tried to take it away from Tedd. Does Edward have that much pull in the FBI, or in the world in fact, that no one dares try to do anything?

[Drasvin 123]

2 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Them owning the TFG wasn't illegal, Will said his family had the TFG before the current laws were put in place and it exempted people that already had one. I do believe that the laws on their homeworld prohibited the use of the TFG which would have been why Will's family brought it with them to Earth. But even Edward saw the potential threat to national security in using that type of TFG. I'm guessing he never told his superiors in the FBI about it or the fact that his son was reverse engineering it, or, if the FBI does know about it, I'd wonder why they haven't tried to take it away from Tedd. Does Edward have that much pull in the FBI, or in the world in fact, that no one dares try to do anything?

Well, Mr. Verres does have enough friends in high places to make him effectively immune to being outright fired from his job, even for something as bad as almost killing a suspect that had voluntarily surrendered. He also is likely to be rather trusted by his superiors as he's been rather open about the various abilities that the main cast has.

Also the TFG might not be outright illegal, just regulated. Authorities that are in on the masquerade have the means of confirming identity even through spells and such that would conceal it, even something like Elliot's Cheerleadra and alter-egos spell, which has clauses that can mess up other spells relating to identity, such as Nanase's fairy doll spell. I could see Edward bending things a little to get his son the licenses and such that would be needed for ownership and/or manufacture of the TFG (probably holding the actual licenses himself as Ted is/was a minor and the US government doesn't let minors hold most licenses)