story Story, Wednesday September 7, 2016

[Scotty 1,061]

http://www.egscomics.com/?id=2246

I guess Nanase didn't go alone.

Also we know Edward is wrong here.

[animalia 64]

Tedd looks sad

[Tom Sewell 268]

I believe they are in Tedd's basement lair. Look at the stairs, the cabinets, and the cheap old metal-framed chair much like I saw around the world when I was in the Navy. It's the most logical meeting place since Edward, Tedd, and Grace all live there.

[Don Edwards 548]

Let's hope there is at least one other Dunkel household in or very near Moperville.

Preferably several with daughters about the right age.

[PrimordialSoul253 8]

1 hour ago, animalia said:

Tedd looks sad

I know.

It seems Tedd is rather sensitive on the subject, given his gender fluidity.  

Makes me wonder if someone will come up with the idea of Ellen copying Elliot's Superheroine form (one of them), so that she can appear in the same place as Elliot at the same time to dissuade anyone from making the connection.

...But if Ellen does use her power on Elliot, wouldn't that mean Magus gets what he wants?

[EmpactWB 21]

1 hour ago, animalia said:

Tedd looks sad

And hot. Sad and hot. He's probably thinking about how his dad would react to his magic mark.

Still, I think Edward has it right in panel 5. Most people will dismiss guy-Elliot in favor of the pink-haired girl-Elliot. Tensaided is an edge case, because he already associated the two and seems to feel that actually knowing a super is way more important than ogling one. 

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

Yeah, one thing that's kinda sweet about Tesaided is that he never seems to show a pervy interest in Cheerleadra.  He's pure fanboy.  I felt similarly about meeting Vincent Ventresca in person -- he was happily married with kids, and I honestly had no desire to do anything sexy, I just thought it was really cool to get to meet the guy who played a character I loved.  I probably squeed at least as much, if not more, about meeting the writer of some of my favorite episodes.  (Now, if it were Darien Fawkes I were meeting, all bets are off.... ;-)

[LazerWulf 15]

37 minutes ago, PrimordialSoul253 said:

...But if Ellen does use her power on Elliot, wouldn't that mean Magus gets what he wants?

Only if Magus is present when she does it, though it's also heavily implied that it needs to be the original transformation beam (at least, IMHO)

 

21 minutes ago, EmpactWB said:

Still, I think Edward has it right in panel 5. Most people will dismiss guy-Elliot in favor of the pink-haired girl-Elliot. Tensaided is an edge case, because he already associated the two and seems to feel that actually knowing a super is way more important than ogling one. 

Catalina would also be a fringe case (see: http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2110), since she knows the real Eliot, and also has her own transformation magic.

[Tom Sewell 268]

20 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

Preferably several with daughters about the right age.

With pink hair, named "Elliot." Yeah, that will work.

[partner555 170]

Edward is being sensible, but there's no doubt going to be some people who'd accept that the superheroine is in fact a guy.

[Gaster 2]

51 minutes ago, partner555 said:

Edward is being sensible, but there's no doubt going to be some people who'd accept that the superheroine is in fact a guy.

Some people might even prefer it, but that's probably inconceivable for Edward.

Poor Ted, he saw his father's strong statement as his personal opinion on sex change. It's like an invisible hand coming out of Edward to stab his own son's heart.

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

58 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

With pink hair, named "Elliot." Yeah, that will work.

 

58 minutes ago, partner555 said:

Edward is being sensible, but there's no doubt going to be some people who'd accept that the superheroine is in fact a guy.

Yeah, I'm not buying Edward's idea so far. I hope he can pull out a much better rabbit than that.

[ijuin 572]

The real test is whether Elliot can keep a straight face and not panic when somebody at school confronts him about it. If Elliot can calmly dismiss the claim as nonsense, then people (outside of those who know him somewhat closely, such as Tensaided and Catalina) will tend to believe him, since claiming that a clearly female character (Cheerleadra) who was clearly seen transforming from a "secret identity" that was also female, is in truth a male, appears ridiculous in light of the fact that almost nobody not-in-the-know knows of Elliot changing into girl forms in the first place.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Am I reading EGS?

We now know what seven of the main eight are doing and where they are within the relatively narrow time window of Sunday morning.

We haven't had this much certainty regarding the whereabouts of the primary cast since Grace's Birthday Party.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

3 hours ago, ijuin said:

The real test is whether Elliot can keep a straight face and not panic when somebody at school confronts him about it.

Yeah... he's pretty much screwed.

[exterminator 37]

People with the same name, it's possible. People with the same name in the same town, it's a bit of a stretch. Someone with the same name, in the same town, with an accurate physical description... yeah, that's not gonna fly for long.

Let's not forget Dunkel is not an English surname. What are the chances most people won't know how to spell it?

Also, I'm surprised Mr. Verres isn't worried when Helena basically said "hey guys, if you want powers just go ask an immortal!"

[mlooney 3,417]

Edward, this seems to be as hair brained an idea as "aliens" wearing tee shirts that say "Homo sapiens", but that seems to work, so the weirdness censor in the EGS universe must be up there with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe's censor.

[animalia 64]

I don't know if anyone here has ever read Mahou Sensei Negima! but one of the things I liked about it was how the wierdness censaor wass justified as a type of magic.

[Scotty 1,061]

6 hours ago, LazerWulf said:

Catalina would also be a fringe case (see: http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2110), since she knows the real Eliot, and also has her own transformation magic.

Well in the first panel the people appear to be college age so the chances of them connecting the dots is low, but in the second panel aside from Catalina and Rhoda, the other 3 appear to be attending MNHS and have heard of Elliot and his reputation in school. So on that page, there is potentially 6 people that believe that Elliot is Cheerleadra, and 3 of them were willing to give an interview to Carol.

3 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Am I reading EGS?

We now know what seven of the main eight are doing and where they are within the relatively narrow time window of Sunday morning.

We haven't had this much certainty regarding the whereabouts of the primary cast since Grace's Birthday Party.

I'm sure we'll see Justin shortly, but yeah, if you look at the day before (So a Date, Playing with Dolls, Question Mark), only Grace and Justin were unaccounted for. If it wasn't for Dan showing us that Pandora went back to Sarah, Sunday would be tied with Saturday.

[Cpt. Obvious 73]

9 hours ago, animalia said:

Tedd looks sad

Well hearing his father say that people doesn't want Cheerleadra to be a man hits kind of close with regards to his own powers and interests. I'm pretty certain that he's not told dad about this new power. Knowing that using the transformation gun to turn female makes his dad uncomfortable I'd guess he's not in a hurry to tell him that now he can do it at will...

(and now I'll get flamed about the gratuitous use of pronouns...)

 

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

32 minutes ago, Cpt. Obvious said:

Well hearing his father say that people doesn't want Cheerleadra to be a man hits kind of close with regards to his own powers and interests. I'm pretty certain that he's not told dad about this new power. Knowing that using the transformation gun to turn female makes his dad uncomfortable I'd guess he's not in a hurry to tell him that now he can do it at will...

(and now I'll get flamed about the gratuitous use of pronouns...)

Nah, Tedd is currently in a male form, I think you're okay using "he" unless/until there's some indication that Tedd is feeling female/wishing he could take female form right now.  Dan has been using pronouns to fit Tedd's form and/or spirit for a while now, I tend to follow his lead.

I suspect part of Tedd's reticence is because he knows that his dad knows the criteria for giving a magic mark -- telling his dad he got a transgender mark would be the same thing as telling him he has a strong desire and/or it's part of his inherent nature to be able to switch gender.

Personally I'm hoping that Tedd's dad isn't as condemning as Tedd fears he'll be.  Edward expressed an honest worry that spending too much time transformed as a girl wouldn't be good for Tedd.  If/when Edward learns more about gender fluidity, or figures out that it applies to Tedd, he might express relief to learn that there isn't anything harmful in it after all.  Maybe even gratitude to the existence of the TFG for sparing him gender dysphoria.  I can see Grace slowly influencing Edward, slipping bits of information on transgender and gender fluidity into conversations or leaving web pages open on the computer for Edward to find.

[Don Edwards 548]

9 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

With pink hair, named "Elliot." Yeah, that will work.

Hair can be dyed, and a girl named Elliot might choose to go by her middle name or a nickname (like Susan does).

Still, yeah, it's a bit of a stretch. But in a world where an obvious alien wearing a shirt that says "Human" is taken to be a human...

[EmpactWB 21]

3 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Nah, Tedd is currently in a male form, I think you're okay using "he" unless/until there's some indication that Tedd is feeling female/wishing he could take female form right now.  Dan has been using pronouns to fit Tedd's form and/or spirit for a while now, I tend to follow his lead.

I think Cap meant using so many pronouns when talking about multiple persons to whom the pronouns could reasonably refer (Tedd, Edward, Elliot). It's pretty clear who they refer to, though.

4 hours ago, animalia said:

I don't know if anyone here has ever read Mahou Sensei Negima! but one of the things I liked about it was how the wierdness censaor wass justified as a type of magic.

I only remember that for flying on the staff. Chisame was pretty freaked out by all the crazy right from her first appearance, there was a school club dedicated to keeping track of the giant glowing tree, and Negi had a spell that was basically the MIB neuralizer (not that I remember it ever working offhand). But with Ashley meeting Tedd, we might get to see the age-changing pills from Negima eventually.

[jonnnney 1]

I think Edward is forgetting/unaware that all of Elliot's teachers and the principal know that Elliot has changed into a girl before.

http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=152

Plus Elliot is already a minor celebrity in the school he attends due to all of his crazy abilities/antics. 

http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1731

[animalia 64]

3 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Nah, Tedd is currently in a male form, I think you're okay using "he" unless/until there's some indication that Tedd is feeling female/wishing he could take female form right now.  Dan has been using pronouns to fit Tedd's form and/or spirit for a while now, I tend to follow his lead.

I suspect part of Tedd's reticence is because he knows that his dad knows the criteria for giving a magic mark -- telling his dad he got a transgender mark would be the same thing as telling him he has a strong desire and/or it's part of his inherent nature to be able to switch gender.

Personally I'm hoping that Tedd's dad isn't as condemning as Tedd fears he'll be.  Edward expressed an honest worry that spending too much time transformed as a girl wouldn't be good for Tedd.  If/when Edward learns more about gender fluidity, or figures out that it applies to Tedd, he might express relief to learn that there isn't anything harmful in it after all.  Maybe even gratitude to the existence of the TFG for sparing him gender dysphoria.  I can see Grace slowly influencing Edward, slipping bits of information on transgender and gender fluidity into conversations or leaving web pages open on the computer for Edward to find.

I think what is happening is Mr. Verres is so overprotective he is accidentally hurting Tedd. He knows how much emotional baggage Tedd has as a result of his mom leaving him and being bullied and he doesn't want that to happen to his son. Combine that with the fact that Mr. Verres job consists of telling blatant lies that obvious aliens are in truth humans, and I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks Tedd is just overindulging in one of his kinks and is worried that may do more damage to his psyche. If he realized it wasn't just a kink but a fundamental part of Tedd's identity I think not only would his attitude change but he would have a "My God, what have I done?!" moment.