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WillikaKillika

Story: Friday, September 9, 2016

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I'm curious about the logistics of the fake Cheerleadra plan. It would be easy enough to scan Cheerleadra and morph into her to create a fake sighting, though such a fabrication would lack Cheerleadra's flight powers. If a true bystander comes across the decoy Cheerleadra, the super heroine wouldn't be able to show off for them. You could also photograph Elliot as Cheerleadra flying somewhere, then publish that from multiple sources the day after while Elliot is in class. A change in weather could ruin that plan.

"You kept saying things, so I had to keep explaining things. Really Elliot, you could have made this a lot quicker for all of us if you could withhold your ill thought objections."

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Ellen's clone beam lets her copy others' spells, as proven when she copied Nanase and was able to cast her Guardian form spell. If Ellen poses as the fake Cheerleadra, she could fly. Or Grace could do it, since she can already fly.

And why wasn't Ashley invited to this meeting? She's involved now.

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1 hour ago, WillikaKillika said:

If a true bystander comes across the decoy Cheerleadra, the super heroine wouldn't be able to show off for them.

Nanase, Elliot, Grace, and Not-Tengu are all able to fly magically with their own spells (and Ellen can with copy). The government's probably got a few fliers and a few illusionists; easy enough to make someone look like Elliot and fly.

Though perhaps they should wait a few days to do it, so it doesn't seem like a reaction to what happened at the mall.

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While Ellen has been known to fly while using her Copy powers, Nanase and Grace, if I remember correctly, have the most reliable access to floating or flying abilities.  Combine that with Tedd's adaptation of Uryuom tech and Agent Veres would have no trouble making The-Unfortunately-Named-Cheerleader-Themed-Superheroine appear somewhere while Elliot was in class at Moperville North.  But that means one or more of Elliot's known associates at Moperville South will be conveniently absent at the moment in question.  How to get around that one...

Transcribed from Moperville Radio, 06:08 AM, Friday.

"...weather on the sevens was brought to you by Moperville Meats in the Shive Plaza on Daniel Avenue."

"We have just received an announcement from Moperville Unified School District.  Moperville South High School will be closed today due to a boiler failure.  This is an ordinary maintenance problem and the school will be running normally on Monday.  There nothing suspicious about this."

"Now we'll get back to our Sports-Talk chat with Wayne Gretzky's Assistant Equipment Manager from the 1977 - 78 Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds..."

Edit: spelling Edited by Pharaoh RutinTutin
Spelling

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It seems needlessly complicated to me to deploy a fake Cheerleadra to be sighted. Fabricating one or several fake reports of Cheerleadra sightings seems much simpler.

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I think there may be an overarching plot inconsistency with Edward getting so involved in order to  protect Elliot here.

When Edward got kicked upstairs, as punishment for being so personally attached to local paranormal matters that he broke protocol by zapping someone who'd already surrendered, this is what Dan had to say in the commentary:

Quote

Since the beginning of the comic, when the main characters have gotten into top secret trouble and needed someone to make it all better, Mr. Verres was there to make it happen. The position he's held has allowed him to manipulate the cover ups to best benefit those directly involved.

This page leaves him with some government power, but he's no longer the person who will be cleaning up after the main characters' messes. That will fall to someone else who just might not be as accommodating and caring as Mr. Verres has been...

Yet here we have Edward planning to manufacture a Cheerleadra sighting in order to protect Elliot, to whom he has a personal attachment because Elliot is his son's lifelong best friend. Doesn't that contradict Dan's "from now on, the gang will have to do without Edward's help" warning? Or am I reading all of this wrong?

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2 minutes ago, TamarTree said:

I think there may be an overarching plot inconsistency with Edward getting so involved in order to  protect Elliot here.

When Edward got kicked upstairs, as punishment for being so personally attached to local paranormal matters that he broke protocol by zapping someone who'd already surrendered, this is what Dan had to say in the commentary:

Yet here we have Edward planning to manufacture a Cheerleadra sighting in order to protect Elliot, to whom he has a personal attachment because Elliot is his son's lifelong best friend. Doesn't that contradict Dan's "from now on, the gang will have to do without Edward's help" warning? Or am I reading all of this wrong?

It could be that he's going to end up doing this, "off the Books" so to say.


What troubles me is that no one's brought up "Rose Eliot" as "Wait, does Mr. Verres watch Steven Universe?"

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Snrk. Now I perceive Edward as that uncle that works for the mafia or a police chief that works for the mafia. :demonicduck:

Falsification of evidence. Now we are onto something that is not much DGB. As long as Ashley (and the double) cooperates, everything will be A-Okay.

7 minutes ago, Vocal said:

What troubles me is that no one's brought up "Rose Eliot" as "Wait, does Mr. Verres watch Steven Universe?"

Chances are slim, since it is most likely that the Rose only pertains to the hair color that Mall Elliot has. You know what? Mess it, I shall start calling Mall Elliot as Rose Elliot.

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2 hours ago, Wanderer said:

Ellen's clone beam lets her copy others' spells, as proven when she copied Nanase and was able to cast her Guardian form spell. If Ellen poses as the fake Cheerleadra, she could fly. Or Grace could do it, since she can already fly.

And why wasn't Ashley invited to this meeting? She's involved now.

The problem with Ellen doing it is she'd be missing from class during that time, and it's possible as some people suggested in the other thread, that witnesses could have misheard "Ellen Dunkel". Or there's a very off chance that someone might figure out that Ellen is Elliot's duplicate.

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I'm sure Edward has enough resources or favors owed to manufacture a Cheerleadra sighting without having any of the teenagers involved. For instance, Wolf and Cranium are probably personal friends in addition to being former subordinates.

Personally, I've always objected to that solution being characterized as "wacky hijinks." Given that no one outside the group knows Cheerleadra's personality, it has always struck me as the easiest and most straight-forward solution.

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2 hours ago, TamarTree said:

Yet here we have Edward planning to manufacture a Cheerleadra sighting in order to protect Elliot, to whom he has a personal attachment because Elliot is his son's lifelong best friend. Doesn't that contradict Dan's "from now on, the gang will have to do without Edward's help" warning? Or am I reading all of this wrong?

Edward may no longer have the authority to order an official cover-up, and may be limited in what resources he may use to undertake a cover-upon his own.  But he still has influence.  Moose and Squirrel Wolf and Cranium still appear quite loyal to him on a personal level and Assistant Director Liefeld would likely brush aside a lot of questions about Agent Verres' activities, up to a point.

Edward most likely knows Exactly how far he push his power before bureaucratic red flags are raised in the wrong offices.

Edit:  Or perhaps I should say Edward THINKS he know how far he can push his power.  Having the FBI turn against one of their own would be an interesting plot development...

Edited by Pharaoh RutinTutin
Relevant detail added

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Manufacturing a convincing Cheerleadra sighting needs a flyer who can morph or can fly while morphed via Tedd.

  • Grace can fly and morph, but she only flies in three-tailed forms. Also, she can't morph her clothing
  • Ellen might be able to fly if she used her copy spell on Cheerleadra, but it would be an expansion of her powers and we don't know how long the spell would last. It would sort of be doubly awkward if she turns back into Ellen in the midst of the incident, triply if she's flying. Plus, although none of the gang knows about Magus, it could give Magus the opportunity he's been waiting for.
  • Elliot can fly and morph into any female form, but I don't think he can morph directly into any form from Cheerleadra except himself, Mild-Mannered, Goth, and Heidi. However, we do know he can morph from Mall Elliot (and probably any other form) into Cheerleadra. Hey, doesn't this sound kind of like Sailor Moon in the early episodes where she'd use her wand to transform into an identity-hiding form before transforming into Sailor Moon? Once she even turned into a boy. But I digress...
  • Nanase can float, but she's only been shown flying in her angel form.
  • Bringing in an unknown flyer/morpher/hologram/whatever would mean either The Shive waves His wand and has everything done off-camera, or creating a new character. Non-starters. I hope.

So, the most feasible plan is probably Elliot being Cheerleadra and somebody else playing the part of Elliot at school.

  • Ellen could play Elliot the most convincingly since she has most of Elliot's memories and literally sleeps with Elliot. Ellen likely wouldn't want to do it because having her own identity is so important to her, but she would do it if Edward convinced her she was the best choice.
  • Grace will probably volunteer immediately, and she'd probably be the funniest candidate, given her squirrelishness. Edward should also see that she'd be the least convincing, especially if he knows about Tedd and Grace switching places.
  • Sarah has known Elliot longer than anyone in the Eight. However, she hasn't been shown as being in contact with Edward and has been warned not to let Edward know she has her spell. Besides, she'd have to skip the one class she'd least want to miss, Art.
  • Nanase dated Elliot for a long time and trained with him, so she could pull off his attitudes and mannerisms well. There are several good opportunities for hilarity here, especially if Susan, Sarah, and/or Ashley don't know that "Elliot" is really Nanase yet. Also, Nanase is clearly a much better student than Nanase and that could be noticed in class. And if that isn't enough, there's always the possibility of absent-minded floating. Isn't about time for the return of that gag?
  • Tedd also knows Elliot extremely well. But, he's Tedd. Can Tedd-Elliot go through an entire day without saying or doing Tedd-like things?
  • Ashley would do it. But going with Edward's plan, her job is going to be supporting the "girl-talk-with-the-pink-haired-girl-who-is-also named Elliot Dunkel" part.
  • Susan could grit her teeth and do it. But Edward might think she'd be better employed as extra support for the Second Elliot theory he's creating.
  • Justin could and would do it pretty well. But like Sarah and Susan, he hasn't been shown in the Edward's council of war yet.

How much do you want to bet that there won't be a genuine vampire attack during the hijinks which will totally overturn Edward's cunning plan? (Kudos to anyone who gets the "cunning plan" reference.)

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, TamarTree said:

I think there may be an overarching plot inconsistency with Edward getting so involved in order to  protect Elliot here.

When Edward got kicked upstairs, as punishment for being so personally attached to local paranormal matters that he broke protocol by zapping someone who'd already surrendered, this is what Dan had to say in the commentary:

Yet here we have Edward planning to manufacture a Cheerleadra sighting in order to protect Elliot, to whom he has a personal attachment because Elliot is his son's lifelong best friend. Doesn't that contradict Dan's "from now on, the gang will have to do without Edward's help" warning? Or am I reading all of this wrong?

He is not protecting Elliot.

He is protecting himself and his office, by protecting Elliot. Anything that shines more light on Elliot shines more light on elliots circle of friends, which could lead to added scrutiny and possible (accidental) leaks involving Veeres himself... 

Besides that I am pretty certain he can easily talk them into directing attention away form Elliot since Elliot knows things they still want to keep secret, and less attention is less chance of spilling secrets. 

Though I doubt he has much to do, probably just give Cranium a Cheerledra clone form watch, and Wolf a Mall-Date Elliot clone form watch, and ask both to be seen in public at the same time, in different locations while elliot is at school.

Of course since we know Wolf is a wizard, he could just ask Wolf to learn the spell, and no need for a clone form ;)

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1 hour ago, Sjmcc13 said:

Of course since we know Wolf is a wizard, he could just ask Wolf to learn the spell, and no need for a clone form ;)

It hasn't been fully explained how wizards learn spells, Tedd said it could be just a matter of seeing the spell in action, but may not be that simple. Wolf may be one of the most powerful wizards in the midwestern US, but I don't think one look at Elliot turning into Cheerleadra would instantly let him do it.

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30 minutes ago, Scotty said:

It hasn't been fully explained how wizards learn spells, Tedd said it could be just a matter of seeing the spell in action, but may not be that simple. Wolf may be one of the most powerful wizards in the midwestern US, but I don't think one look at Elliot turning into Cheerleadra would instantly let him do it.

One would assume reading the users spell book would help, it is a common enough fantasy trope...

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2 hours ago, Sjmcc13 said:

Of course since we know Wolf is a wizard, he could just ask Wolf to learn the spell, and no need for a clone form ;)

Cheerleadra looks like Ellen, which would imply that the form the superhero takes is based on their normal appearance, so Wolf using the spell would look like a combination of Wolf and Cheerleadra (and same for other wizards).

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Manufacturing a convincing Cheerleadra sighting needs a flyer who can morph or can fly while morphed via Tedd.

Also any immortal, though I'm not sure if this would be allowed by immortal law.

8 hours ago, TamarTree said:

Yet here we have Edward planning to manufacture a Cheerleadra sighting in order to protect Elliot, to whom he has a personal attachment because Elliot is his son's lifelong best friend. Doesn't that contradict Dan's "from now on, the gang will have to do without Edward's help" warning? Or am I reading all of this wrong?

It only contradicts this (from a Doylist perspective) if Edward's plan ends up actually working.  My guess is something will go wrong.

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57 minutes ago, Sjmcc13 said:

One would assume reading the users spell book would help, it is a common enough fantasy trope...

If one can read it. We know that Ellen can read Elliot's spellbook (and seems to do it more often) but maybe if you aren't Awakened (and therefore eligible for a spellbook) the book will either have blank pages or the actual ecology of anteaters. And maybe Ellen can only read it because she's Elliot's twin.

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16 minutes ago, chridd said:

Cheerleadra looks like Ellen, which would imply that the form the superhero takes is based on their normal appearance, so Wolf using the spell would look like a combination of Wolf and Cheerleadra (and same for other wizards).

Oh! Ellen's Copy beam spell could be learned by any wizard, then used to copy Cheerleadra until the appropriate time! An illusion to look like Rose Elliot until it was time to 'transform' completes the set-up, and Bob's your uncle! 

As a side note, I'm going to start calling Nanase's dad "Bob".

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2 hours ago, Sjmcc13 said:

One would assume reading the users spell book would help, it is a common enough fantasy trope...

I wonder if there's a spell that could copy spells from one spell book to another. Probably rare or with a high energy cost though.

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1 hour ago, Scotty said:

I wonder if there's a spell that could copy spells from one spell book to another. Probably rare or with a high energy cost though.

That spell was probably written by the ancient Greek Mystic, ΧΕΡΩΧ.

Edit:
Not an ancient Greek mystic. ΧΕΡΩΧ was a Medieval monk.

 

Edited by Pharaoh RutinTutin
Relevant detail added

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16 hours ago, WillikaKillika said:

I'm curious about the logistics of the fake Cheerleadra plan. It would be easy enough to scan Cheerleadra and morph into her to create a fake sighting, though such a fabrication would lack Cheerleadra's flight powers.

Presumably, considering Edward didn't even tried to ask Nanase, he have someone else with flying powers.

13 hours ago, svenman said:

It seems needlessly complicated to me to deploy a fake Cheerleadra to be sighted. Fabricating one or several fake reports of Cheerleadra sightings seems much simpler.

... or that.

13 hours ago, TamarTree said:
Quote

This page leaves him with some government power, but he's no longer the person who will be cleaning up after the main characters' messes. That will fall to someone else who just might not be as accommodating and caring as Mr. Verres has been...

Yet here we have Edward planning to manufacture a Cheerleadra sighting in order to protect Elliot, to whom he has a personal attachment because Elliot is his son's lifelong best friend. Doesn't that contradict Dan's "from now on, the gang will have to do without Edward's help" warning? Or am I reading all of this wrong?

Presumably, this is kind of cleaning up he IS able to do, but other cleaning up might be harder. For example, he wasn't able to do anything with the buldog dragon.

6 hours ago, Scotty said:

Wolf may be one of the most powerful wizards in the midwestern US, but I don't think one look at Elliot turning into Cheerleadra would instantly let him do it.

They can have more tries.

 

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2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

That spell was probably written by the ancient Greek Mystic, ΧΕΡΩΧ.

Not ΞΕΡΟΞ?

In any case, one could perhaps copy a spell from one spellbook to another fairly easily, but that doesn't mean that the other person could actually use the spell.  It hasn't been shown what happens if one tries to write in a spellbook, but the only magic attribute of spellbooks we've seen so far is that magic automatically adds to them, so my assumption is that other than that they're just ordinary books.

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8 hours ago, Sjmcc13 said:

One would assume reading the users spell book would help, it is a common enough fantasy trope...

EGS wizards are apparently somewhat like D&D wizards - they have to study and learn spells, and then cast them via a small ritual. (Although they apparently don't have to prepare spells in advance each day.)

EGS awakened are more like D&D sorcerers - their spells are innate, they just will the spell to happen, and they cannot learn spells the way a wizard does. As one piece of evidence, the fact that they often discover they have a new spell by unintentionally using it.

From what we've seen, the spellbook for an awakened individual contains rather detailed descriptions of what can be done with the spell, but not how to do it, as the individual doesn't have to think about how to do it. That (by itself) would not be much help to a wizard wanting to learn the spell. (Although it might be a very useful supplement to other means.)

I would assume a wizard's spellbook would contain a great deal more information on how.

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18 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

EGS wizards are apparently somewhat like D&D wizards - they have to study and learn spells, and then cast them via a small ritual. (Although they apparently don't have to prepare spells in advance each day.)

Are they?

While we have multiple confirmed wizard, we didn't saw any to learn any spell yet, so we have no idea.

18 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

EGS awakened are more like D&D sorcerers - their spells are innate, they just will the spell to happen, and they cannot learn spells the way a wizard does. As one piece of evidence, the fact that they often discover they have a new spell by unintentionally using it.

From what we've seen, the spellbook for an awakened individual contains rather detailed descriptions of what can be done with the spell, but not how to do it, as the individual doesn't have to think about how to do it. That (by itself) would not be much help to a wizard wanting to learn the spell. (Although it might be a very useful supplement to other means.)

Yes.

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