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Stature

Story Wednesday October 12, 2016

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20 minutes ago, Stature said:

The Apprentice, featuring Pandora as the best trump ever since bridge. :demonicduck:

Let's hope she doesn't get euchred. ;)

 

 

Anyway, huh, Pandora's vowed, and the vow is actually pretty sound, it sounds a lot like the kind of vow she might have made back when she met Blaike. Not the same vow of course, since Pandora would only be limited by Sarah's approval rather than self imposed limitations but maybe she did vow to limit herself for Blaike? Either way I hope Sarah doesn't let this go to her head and she starts disregarding any consequences in a lust for power, and I hope Pandora isn't going to end up toying with that later on, like she said she'll be open about it, but will she word it the same way she did when she first visited Sarah, or will she actually go through with any warnings without the "but hey it could be really fun if you did it!" remarks?

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OK, we need to make a raid on TVTropes1 and remove all "Big Bad" references for Pandora.  Every thing we thought was her, other than the random markings, was Kentucky Fried Immortal.  All she was doing was making the world a better place for her son.  And once pointed out the error of her ways she changed.  Plus she likes Tedd, Elliot and Sarah, that we know of.  I actually suspect she likes all of the main 8 due to their relationship with Tedd.  And she hasn't said any thing about not liking Edward, just not to tell him some things.

My waifu .  Chaotic, but not evil.  Maybe even Chaotic good in D&D terms.

 

1Actually there are several things I want to correct on TVTropes, both for EGS and "The Whiteboard".  Might be my project for tomorrow.

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Well, now we know why Dan wanted to have the Voltaire-appearing-in-Verres-House scene before showing this scene--it established the nature of Vows for Immortals. It will prove interesting to have Pandora mentoring Sarah . . .

By the way, Pandora hasn't yet told Sarah what to call her yet, has she? She might give her name, or she might give a nickname, or she might simply ask to be addressed by a title, such as "Sensei" or equivalent.

Hmm, a week or so, huh? It may be the case that by the time Tara and Andrea return (four weeks), the Energy Clog may already be removed . . .

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"Do this, and you will no longer be Sarah. You will become MAJOR GENERAL SARAH."

"GASP! A major general?!"

Dan's been reading the Dresden Files lately. I'm not sure if that quote applies; maybe something from a different book would have been better and more applicable.

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2 hours ago, ijuin said:

Hmm, a week or so, huh? It may be the case that by the time Tara and Andrea return (four weeks), the Energy Clog may already be removed . . .

2 hours ago, partner555 said:

This seems a bit too easy, even after adjusting how long it'll take. Something is going to happen to interfere with this plan.

Yeah Dan did say the story arc would span the week, but yeah I did speculate that "hell raining down on Moperville" could take place when the wizard attempts to remove the clog, although Pandora didn't say that Sarah needed to go around Moperville using her spell, so it makes me wonder if Sarah using her spell would create a temporary vacuum around her so instead of magic trying to flow towards the clog, it'll flow towards her to fill the gap, and if the flow of magic can't keep up with the number of casts per hour...I guess the analogy for that would be Sarah drinking from a bowl of water through a straw with a slight trickle from the tap filling the bowl, and so Sarah would drain the bowl faster than magic can fill it.

1 hour ago, Aura Guardian said:

"Do this, and you will no longer be Sarah. You will become MAJOR GENERAL SARAH."

"GASP! A major general?!"

Dan's been reading the Dresden Files lately. I'm not sure if that quote applies; maybe something from a different book would have been better and more applicable.

Or he had Pirate of Penzance in the background.

27 minutes ago, exterminator said:

I'm with you. Let's start the "Get Pandora to wear a bikini out of the Big Bad role fund!".

Well, there's a 2 character pinup for you, Pandora (maybe in her teenage form) and Sarah posing in swimsuits together.

 

 

Also had a thought last night after I logged off. I wonder if Sarah will ask Pandora more questions about her, Sarah already knows that Pandora has gone way past her reset point, will she ask about the things she's done over the years? Will Pandora reveal that she's Adrian's mother or will Sarah deduce that on her own? Sarah hasn't met Adrian yet, but she's heard of him being an Elf that tried to protect Ellen and Jerry referred her, Susan and Grace to him as well. I wonder how much Pandora will teach Sarah about Immortals in general, Sarah may end up rivaling Edward in that department. ;)

One more thing, about Sarah's spell, it just occurred  to me that the nature of her spell could be the basis for those "I can guess what's in your purse" magic tricks. Sarah would just go into her snapshot, switch bodies with the person, peek into their purse, then snap out, to the person in front of her, Sarah would look like she's gone into a mental state trying to guess the contents.

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The more I see of Pandora the more I actually like her. Sure she's selfish and crazy she doesn't strike me as a jerk (or Cat's J word if you prefer). She's also intelligent and seems to avoid actively lying for the most part (though she does kinda not give you the whole truth). Also note that she freely and without outside prompting set not one but two pretty comprehensive vows upon herself which didn't have any obvious loophole.

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5 hours ago, exterminator said:

I'm with you. Let's start the "Get Pandora to wear a bikini out of the Big Bad role fund!".

No, we need both.

 

21 minutes ago, PSadlon said:

The more I see of Pandora the more I actually like her. Sure she's crazy she doesn't strike me as a jerk

Kind of like Bob, just crazy enough to be fun?

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I've been doubting the "crazy" part for a while now.  Not that she's completely sane, but really, no one is, and I'm starting to think she's no more crazy than anyone else in this world.  Perhaps Immortals going insane is frequent but not inevitable when they pass 200 years.  Perhaps she's held onto her sanity by holding on to the love of her family, and Immortals usually have to reset because they don't have mortal loves and children very often.  Or maybe there's just a certain personality type that copes with immortality better than typical.  I'll also note that Jerry didn't seem to show any sign of insanity, even though he admitted he was past 200 before his reset.

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I can see two loopholes: 1. Pandora says she will discuss methods she will use with Sarah beforehand, and won't use any methods Sarah disapproves of. It does not necessarily include mentioning all the potential consequences. 2. there is no mention of Pandora being honest.

I do think she's being honest, here, though- she has a good reason to help Sarah, and it wouldn't even be particularly funny to screw Sarah over.

As for the commentary re: guardian forms, I can think of a simple reason it wouldn't work. It was a combination of both whatever Not-Tengu was doing and the Guardian forms that used up the ambient magic in a small area of Moperville. To safely clear the dam, they need to use up ALL of the magic causing the issue. That would take a massive amount more power, and I suspect the burnout from the Guardian forms would cause problems. Combine that with wanting to, you know, keep Magic secret and I  doubt they could do it.

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Nanase and Ellen use their magic enough everyday that being burned out after using the Guardian form might even mean they used less magic overall, taking Guardian form briefly and then using no magic after, than they would have if they'd just kept using magic normally instead.

If making a corporial fairydoll with permanence is such a powerful spell, maybe Nanase could chew up a good-sized portion of the magic build-up too.  And then open a doll shop to sell all the fairydolls she'd be left with.  She'd just have to figure out who to manifest a fairydoll in the presence of, keep them from seeing her, and then fly each doll to the shop before deactivating it and moving on to the next target. ;-)

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19 minutes ago, sstabeler said:

I can see two loopholes: 1. Pandora says she will discuss methods she will use with Sarah beforehand, and won't use any methods Sarah disapproves of. It does not necessarily include mentioning all the potential consequences. 2. there is no mention of Pandora being honest.

I do think she's being honest, here, though- she has a good reason to help Sarah, and it wouldn't even be particularly funny to screw Sarah over.

Pandora's inner monologue did say that she likes Sarah, so I would think that she would not do anything seriously hurtful to her, though there may be some good-natured teasing or the occasional minor prank.

Also, Sarah takes note of Pandora's use of the phrase "apprentice magic user"--Pandora implies that she is going to give Sarah coaching and not simply unlock her magical ability and leave her confused and ignorant of what to do with it. Sarah may learn some useful stuff from her that she would not learn from a Human magic teacher.

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28 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

Nanase and Ellen use their magic enough everyday that being burned out after using the Guardian form might even mean they used less magic overall, taking Guardian form briefly and then using no magic after, than they would have if they'd just kept using magic normally instead.

If making a corporial fairydoll with permanence is such a powerful spell, maybe Nanase could chew up a good-sized portion of the magic build-up too.  And then open a doll shop to sell all the fairydolls she'd be left with.  She'd just have to figure out who to manifest a fairydoll in the presence of, keep them from seeing her, and then fly each doll to the shop before deactivating it and moving on to the next target. ;-)

You could have the Fairydoll Squad, making the little buggers all over the place: Dex, Nanase, and Susan can all make them.

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7 hours ago, Aura Guardian said:

"Do this, and you will no longer be Sarah. You will become MAJOR GENERAL SARAH."

"GASP! A major general?!"

Dan's been reading the Dresden Files lately. I'm not sure if that quote applies; maybe something from a different book would have been better and more applicable.

Given the circumstances, the closest equivalent is Dresden becoming the Winter Knight.

 

Which maybe would cast a slightly sinister vibe to the vow, if he quoted THAT Dresdennish mess.

 

Still. Sarah's got Tedd Experiments teaching her mad sciencery, whilst Pandora teaches her how to become a wizard...

 

She might NEED the time compression simulation magic simply to get the study time to gain power quickly.

 

Then her rule is assured. All hail Sarah, Witch-Scientist Queen Of America!

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Just now, sstabeler said:

I can see two loopholes: 1. Pandora says she will discuss methods she will use with Sarah beforehand, and won't use any methods Sarah disapproves of. It does not necessarily include mentioning all the potential consequences. 2. there is no mention of Pandora being honest.

I do think she's being honest, here, though- she has a good reason to help Sarah, and it wouldn't even be particularly funny to screw Sarah over.

Just now, ijuin said:

Pandora's inner monologue did say that she likes Sarah, so I would think that she would not do anything seriously hurtful to her, though there may be some good-natured teasing or the occasional minor prank.

Yeah, there's nothing about Pandora's inner monologue that would suggest that just saying that so that Sarah feels better about what she's going to be doing. I mean, sure Pandora doesn't want Sarah to be preoccupied with the possibility of success meaning she loses her ability to use magic, though failure would mean the same anyway, But Pandora feels that her vow to help Sarah become a magic user regardless of the outcome is an appropriate payment for Sarah's help.

Also, Pandora's vow was to discuss any methods OPENLY with Sarah, basically, during the course of Pandora helping Sarah use magic, Pandora will have to tell Sarah what she needs to do, and she'll of course have to tell Sarah why she needs to do it, and if Sarah says it's too risky or something then Pandora would need to come up with a solution Sarah does approve of. Sarah's pretty decent at deducing things as well, so maybe there'll be instances where Pandora asks her to do something a certain way and Sarah would be like "what if I did it this way instead?" which ends up being just as valid, Pandora would like that and maybe Sarah would come up with some things that would amuse her too.

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1 hour ago, Vorlonagent said:

You could have the Fairydoll Squad, making the little buggers all over the place: Dex, Nanase, and Susan can all make them.

I literally just realized that if Nanase made enough fairy dolls and Susan got a big enough box, they can have free travel by fairy and infinite kamikaze dolls.

*BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM*BOOM*BOOM*BOOM*BOOM*BOOM*

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Just now, TehEpicDuckeh said:

I literally just realized that if Nanase made enough fairy dolls and Susan got a big enough box, they can have free travel by fairy and infinite kamikaze dolls.

*BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM*BOOM*BOOM*BOOM*BOOM*BOOM*

As far as the comic has shown us explosive despawning is a feature unique to Susan's dolls.

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Nothing like having an unstable, ancient being of unimaginable power as your mentor.

Yall are thinking too small with the dolls thing. It occurs to me that Tedd's watches and other various devices have the means to effectively, evenly, and safely disperse the buildup without catastrophic failure with the use of a distributed network that isn't reliant on exertion on the part of a person.

9 hours ago, partner555 said:

This seems a bit too easy, even after adjusting how long it'll take. Something is going to happen to interfere with this plan.

I mean, there is that other guy plotting his plot of plottiness

and there's still the matter of sirleck and how he relates to all this, in addition to the rest of those parasites hanging around moperville, plus whatever else is happening

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2 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

I've been doubting the "crazy" part for a while now.  Not that she's completely sane, but really, no one is, and I'm starting to think she's no more crazy than anyone else in this world.  Perhaps Immortals going insane is frequent but not inevitable when they pass 200 years.  Perhaps she's held onto her sanity by holding on to the love of her family, and Immortals usually have to reset because they don't have mortal loves and children very often.  Or maybe there's just a certain personality type that copes with immortality better than typical.  I'll also note that Jerry didn't seem to show any sign of insanity, even though he admitted he was past 200 before his reset.

Crazy in a really not emotionally stable sense but not in a mentally incapable of distinguish reality from fantasy or axe crazy sense. It is a sense of crazy with which I am well to familiar. I agree Pandora & Jerry's hobbies probably contribute to their longevity but I suspect there were reasons Jerry decided to retire when he did which were apparent to him anyway.

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I suspect that 200 years is merely a guideline that Immortals agreed is an optimum time to reset, and that there isn't an actual hard rule that Immortals HAVE to reset at 200, Pandora herself was apparently contemplating the possibility of resetting at 150 years old. So I'd says Immortals basically treat is as "if you don't want to reset at 200, fine, just remember that the rest of us can force you to reset if you happen to break any rules." The loophole to that being that it's not breaking any rules if the Immortal doesn't believe it's breaking any rules.

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1 hour ago, PSadlon said:

Crazy in a really not emotionally stable sense but not in a mentally incapable of distinguish reality from fantasy or axe crazy sense. It is a sense of crazy with which I am well to familiar.

Pandora definitely has very rapid and frequent mood swings, as evidenced by her doing the "monster face" thing for single panels in the middle of a conversation.

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4 minutes ago, ijuin said:

Pandora definitely has very rapid and frequent mood swings, as evidenced by her doing the "monster face" thing for single panels in the middle of a conversation.

Grace has been known to do scary faces too. It could just be the fact that since Pandora can shapeshift, she takes full advantage of it to convey feelings, and probably exaggerates somewhat as well.

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