Story Wed Feb 28, 2018

[Scotty 1,061]

1 minute ago, TamarTree said:

No one's brought up Arthur's "foreign child" dismissal of Van. Granted that the boy did kick him and stick his tongue out at him, so I could see the prim-and-proper Arthur being peeved at that, but why bring up that he's foreign? Is he simply concerned about entrusting research for the FBI to a non-American (a legitimate concern, especially given the agency's broadened mandate post-9/11), or is he revealing his personal prejudices?

Well Arthur's strictly going by the fact that he believes that a Seer would be necessary for this task and since he's already taken himself out of the running, the options were someone who's almost an adult and already has invested time and effort into learning this stuff and taken a scientific approach to it, or a 10 year old who is obviously too young Arthur believes Van wouldn't take this task seriously as Tedd might.

Though it's obvious that Arthur knew less about Tedd than we though, he was surprised that Tedd had already been doing research into giving people higher resistances and we know Tedd's discussed it with Edward at least once so either Edward kept that aspect of Tedd quiet, or Arthur doesn't read all of Edward's resports.

7 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Adrian gave that illusion to Grace so she could credibly look like his niece. Why would he do that? Because he didn't want other people to think he's with a young girl. This implies that he didn't need to make Grace resemble him; he could have made her look like anything he thought appropriate.

So why would he have given Noriko his own face? Now that we know that Susan's dad looks like Adrian, it seems even creepier that he would have sex with someone who looks like she could be his sister or his daughter. So as I did speculate quite some time ago, perhaps Susan could have seen herself in the mirror but not really remembered how that blonde woman with her father looked.

Or maybe like Jean Nessman over in C.D. Rudd's I Dream of a Jeanie Bottle, Mr. Pompoms has a website devoted to warning other women what a creep he is.

Speaking of appearances, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if Noriko looks more like her sister now. After all, they both seem to be mothers of two. Plus, Van and Akiko aren't that far apart in age.

Susan was fairly quick to dismiss the fact that her and Diane looked a lot alike (aside from height). So maybe the Illusion Noriko would have would just as similarly be dismissed, if Noriko didn't initially tell Adrian what the purpose of the illusion was for, he could have just put a similar illusion which happened to have a resemblance to himself but slightly different.

[Vorlonagent 442]

44 minutes ago, TamarTree said:

No one's brought up Arthur's "foreign child" dismissal of Van. Granted that the boy did kick him and stick his tongue out at him, so I could see the prim-and-proper Arthur being peeved at that, but why bring up that he's foreign? Is he simply concerned about entrusting research for the FBI to a non-American (a legitimate concern, especially given the agency's broadened mandate post-9/11), or is he revealing his personal prejudices?

This plus Arthur's "i am an American" line aren't sitting that well with me at the moment.  My reasons why would be best taken up on the Politics thread, and we've been down that road once before with Ashley's pre-Goonmanji fanfic.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Hmmm. Phill looks pretty old. Could he be Edward's father? Uncle? There's that doubled consonant at the end of Phill's name; where have we seen that before...

In spite of his obvious and epic influence, wicked tongues have nonetheless claimed that he is a mere philler character.

1 hour ago, TamarTree said:

No one's brought up Arthur's "foreign child" dismissal of Van. Granted that the boy did kick him and stick his tongue out at him, so I could see the prim-and-proper Arthur being peeved at that, but why bring up that he's foreign? Is he simply concerned about entrusting research for the FBI to a non-American (a legitimate concern, especially given the agency's broadened mandate post-9/11), or is he revealing his personal prejudices?

Well, there is the foreign part, but I feel that 'child' is also a considerable part of it. For all his intelligence, Van is rather young to entrust with anything as vital as research into the effect of magic becoming a public part of society as well as manifacturing defences against it. I'd give him a few more years to mature first.

1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

Or for that matter, to what lengths the Brits went to to get America into both World Wars.

I admit that I am somewhat biased as pertains to the Second World War due to the minor fact that US intervention helped free my homeland and ensured that at least some part of my family did not perish in the extermination camps. (To be exact, the part I am descended from -- a fact that is important to me at least.)

Also, I personally feel that ultimately Japan also played some little role in causing the United States to enter World War 2 and so the British alone cannot be entirely blamed for that. Similarly, I hold it that the Zimmerman telegram and the unrestricted submarine warfare together justify the claim that the British do not bear the full weight of responsibility for America's entry into the first World War, either.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

51 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

This plus Arthur's "i am an American" line aren't sitting that well with me at the moment.  My reasons why would be best taken up on the Politics thread, and we've been down that road once before with Ashley's pre-Goonmanji fanfic.

The Moderator: I truly apologise but I do not currently feel able to reopen the politics thread. I am entirely to blame as it is my judgment that it would at this time be too difficult for me to manage to remain aloof in judging potential conflicts. I am very sorry.

~tOH.

[Vorlonagent 442]

4 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

The Moderator: I truly apologise but I do not currently feel able to reopen the politics thread. I am entirely to blame as it is my judgment that it would at this time be too difficult for me to manage to remain aloof in judging potential conflicts. I am very sorry.

~tOH.

No stress.  As i say, we've been down that road and everybody has said what they were going to say. I would only be venting. 

Anybody who is interested and doesn't want to push through politics archives is welcome to IM me.

I took a small action and that balanced the scales nicely.

[Drasvin 123]

So the obvious bet was true. I'm glad I didn't go with the counter-bet. If I had, I would owe people a lot of cookies. Also with the confirmation, Van's line in the previous comic appears to hint that Noriko, on some level, realizes that Tedd might not be magically impaired, but refuses to let the guilt eat away at her.(Some people guessed that, but I wanted to reiterate it here)(Another possibility is she might not realize Tedd's not magically impaired, but has some guilt about abandoning him)

I don't think Van's father will be any characters that we've seen so far. Dan's line, "There will ALWAYS be "I guessed right" congratulatory cookies on the line, darn it.", makes me think that the cookies are on the line despite it being practically impossible to guess. As for where I would put my theoretical wager, I'm guessing another wizard that works at the travel agency that Noriko works at. Van's father is going to be a wizard, because Van is a seer, but Van only threatened that his mum will get the other if they hurt him, not both of his parents. That means that while his father might be powerful, he's not as directly powerful as Noriko, which rules out my first thought which was the head of the paranormal organization of either Britain or France (Though it is possible that Van underestimates how powerful his father is).

Also, while Adrian being Van's father would clarify some things, there are some bits of logic that are missing. The crux of the problem between Noriko and Edward is the seeming lack of an apprentice for Noriko to teach and carry on the family tradition of monster hunting.  So, unless she independently discovered that elves can have children (which I doubt as most Immortals don't even know that), there's little reason for her to seek an affair with Adrian. Secondly, Adrian tries his best to be an upstanding person, so he wouldn't sleep with the wife of one of his students and close friends without a really good reason, which he wouldn't have since he for certain didn't know he could father children(if Noriko wanted to try to get a child from him and knew that elves could have children, then why didn't she tell him?) and would likely become suspicious if Noriko tried to seduce him, as he knew that Noriko desperately wanted an apprentice and heir. I could see him helping Noriko have an affair with someone else if he was worried about Noriko's obsession tearing her apart (which given that her profession is monster hunter, having something weighing on her mind too heavily could be extremely dangerous), though I would imagine he still wouldn't be happy with it.

2 hours ago, TamarTree said:

No one's brought up Arthur's "foreign child" dismissal of Van. Granted that the boy did kick him and stick his tongue out at him, so I could see the prim-and-proper Arthur being peeved at that, but why bring up that he's foreign? Is he simply concerned about entrusting research for the FBI to a non-American (a legitimate concern, especially given the agency's broadened mandate post-9/11), or is he revealing his personal prejudices?

Probably personal prejudices to a degree, though hiring Van could be difficult, even without considering child labor laws. Arthur would need to get him a work visa to work in the USA, and getting Van the proper security clearances would most likely be more difficult due to Van not being an American citizen (as far as Arthur knows at least).

[Tom Sewell 268]

Here's a truly worthy amazing crackpot theory: Van's father is actually the Woman With Susan's Face. How can that be? Do you think Tedd is the only gender fluid character in EGS? Or that only one on the Moperville side of Earth with a gender changing spell? And have you noticed that Susan didn't seem to have any sexual urges until she was turned into a man? Or that Susan seems equally attracted to Catalina and Elliot? Or that Diane is attracted to both Nanase and Elliot?

[The Old Hack 2,448]

34 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Here's a truly worthy amazing crackpot theory: Van's father is actually the Woman With Susan's Face

You call that a crackpot theory? Back on the old Keenspot forums I claimed that it was the Goo that was Tedd's mother. So there.

[Don Edwards 548]

12 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Nah. He is saying that he is old and only returned to solve this particular crisis. Since the situation has now developed beyond the time where it is 'solvable', he intends to retire again and allow younger people with a fresh point of view to take over. As to who gets to be his replacement, my vote goes to Agent Cranium.

As to the speculation about who could possibly be Van's father, please do not be ridiculous. There is only one possible candidate to fill the position.

How did I know where that would go before I clicked it?

9 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

The fact that Dan says it's possible to guess who Van's father is means it's someone we know of, either directly or indirectly.

Two possibilities present themselves.  Either Van's father is someone Noriko knew in Moperville before she left town, making Adrian the prime suspect, or he's someone we know was/is in Europe, preferably England, since she moved there.  Any ideas on the second option?  Demetrius, maybe?

It's possible Noriko discovered independently that Immortals' offspring can have children.  Jerry knew, and passed the information accurately to Zeus.  There might be some record of it somewhere in the DGB archives or through some other source.  An aberration she was killing could have told her, just to stir up trouble.  That would mean Noriko could have seduced (such an old-fashioned word, but it fits) Adrian, and not told him that she was pregnant.  Indeed, if she learned about Elves' heritage and the fact that all wizards and such are descended from them, she likely would have wanted to get as close to the source as possible.

Of course, it's also possible that she either didn't expect to get pregnant but decided to keep it from Adrian, or told him she was pregnant and he didn't believe he could be the father and that's part of why she left town.

It is of course possible to guess who Van's father is. It may not be possible to guess correctly.

You want an off-the-wall guess? Van's father is some guy Noriko had a fling with in Paris. Then he fixated on her. Learning that she is a powerful magic-user, he sought a way to gain magic in order to better attract her attention - and became an Aberration. Susan killed him.

I will note that the timing does not look good for Van being a product of an affair Noriko had while married to Edward. He's too young.

So I'll throw out another off-the-wall guess. Van's father is Edward. But we've never (to date) heard of Van's mother. He was conceived while Edward was in Europe briefly on business, and Edward doesn't know he exists.

3 hours ago, TamarTree said:

No one's brought up Arthur's "foreign child" dismissal of Van. Granted that the boy did kick him and stick his tongue out at him, so I could see the prim-and-proper Arthur being peeved at that, but why bring up that he's foreign? Is he simply concerned about entrusting research for the FBI to a non-American (a legitimate concern, especially given the agency's broadened mandate post-9/11), or is he revealing his personal prejudices?

Why bring up that he's foreign? It's pretty doubtful that Arthur could hire someone who isn't even on the same continent as Moperville and couldn't get a work permit to work in the US. Van being a child is one reason he'd be ineligible for that permit, and also a reason (through several different routes, including compulsory-education laws in most US states) why he wouldn't be suitable for the position at this time even if he lived across the street from Elliot.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

Just now, Don Edwards said:

How did I know where that would go before I clicked it?

Because I am in certain ways very predictable. For example, Phill is my usual go-to character when I wish to make a completely ridiculous prediction of an unknown character's true identity.

[Tom Sewell 268]

5 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Because I am in certain ways very predictable. For example, Phill is my usual go-to character when I wish to make a completely ridiculous prediction of an unknown character's true identity.

Oh, now the Goo isn't good enough any more!

[The Old Hack 2,448]

Just now, Tom Sewell said:

Oh, now the Goo isn't good enough any more!

Not after Noriko actually got named, no. But no matter what, I'd never have chosen her for Van's father, at least not after she was already identified as his mother.

[Tom Sewell 268]

28 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Not after Noriko actually got named, no. But no matter what, I'd never have chosen her for Van's father, at least not after she was already identified as his mother.

So you admit that I'm the champion Amazing Crackpot Theorist?

[The Old Hack 2,448]

1 minute ago, Tom Sewell said:

So you admit that I'm the champion Amazing Crackpot Theorist?

No.

[hkmaly 490]

14 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Nah. He is saying that he is old and only returned to solve this particular crisis. Since the situation has now developed beyond the time where it is 'solvable', he intends to retire again and allow younger people with a fresh point of view to take over. As to who gets to be his replacement, my vote goes to Agent Cranium.

I don't think Agent Cranium - or Agent Wolf - has the qualification. I predict someone new or Edward again.

9 hours ago, Scotty said:

I doubt Van is an Elf, I'm not even certain Elves could also be Seers, though to be honest it's uncertain how many generations on both sides there has to be before the "right mix" of ancestry could be achieved.

His ears don't seem to have the correct shape, yes. But I think Elves can be seers if the mortal parent is wizard and already carries most of the mix.

7 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

7 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Mr. Pompoms

Seems like a stretch to me, but he is a horndog and he has (or had) the money to travel to Europe. And where did Susan get her magic from? Likely from her father, so Mr. Horndog could be a wizard or a monster hunter or both, and if he is and Noriko knows he is, he'd be a good candidate for Noriko if she was trying to do her duty of continuing the family line of monster hunters. Noriko might actually have been married to him when she conceived Van, which sounds like a dandy excuse for future plot points. Hmmm. Seem to be arguing with myself. Well, far from the first time.

Alternatively, Mr. Pompoms has no idea about his ancestry but Noriko looked him up.

6 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

If it is someone we've seen, though, my guess is Mr. Pompoms. We need to find out more about him sometime, and why not address both Susan and Tedd's messed up parental relationships at the same time?

Because it will be TOO messed up?

6 hours ago, Scotty said:

I could probably see a case where Adrian could have done or said something that resulted in Noriko having an affair with someone else, maybe Noriko convinced Adrian to put an illusion on her? If the illusion was anything like the one he gave Grace but with blonde hair, that could account for the whole "other woman with Susan's face" bit. and then Edward found out anyway, either Adrian felt guilty about being a part of the deception and told him or maybe Noriko lied to him about the purpose of the illusion but Adrian still took responsibility for it as an attempt to keep Edward and Noriko together.

I don't think the timeline would fit, however it's interesting idea: Noriko might be able to put on illusions herself, and what if Tedd never seeing her doesn't mean she wasn't visiting from time to time?

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Speaking of appearances, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if Noriko looks more like her sister now. After all, they both seem to be mothers of two. Plus, Van and Akiko aren't that far apart in age.

Noriko presumably has more exercise ... mostly consisting of dodging.

6 hours ago, TamarTree said:

No one's brought up Arthur's "foreign child" dismissal of Van. Granted that the boy did kick him and stick his tongue out at him, so I could see the prim-and-proper Arthur being peeved at that, but why bring up that he's foreign? Is he simply concerned about entrusting research for the FBI to a non-American (a legitimate concern, especially given the agency's broadened mandate post-9/11), or is he revealing his personal prejudices?

He may be concerned with the fact that foreign kid is unlikely to travel to US where the lab will be.

6 hours ago, Scotty said:

Though it's obvious that Arthur knew less about Tedd than we though, he was surprised that Tedd had already been doing research into giving people higher resistances and we know Tedd's discussed it with Edward at least once so either Edward kept that aspect of Tedd quiet, or Arthur doesn't read all of Edward's resports.

Arthur is experienced manipulator. Don't assume he was surprised just because he looked that way. I already implied several times that Arthur might be PRETENDING he doesn't know about Tedd's research ... actually, look again: he was more surprised Tedd is girl than about the fact she's working on understanding magic.

4 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

For all his intelligence, Van is rather young to entrust with anything as vital as research into the effect of magic becoming a public part of society as well as manifacturing defences against it. I'd give him a few more years to mature first.

Arthur doesn't HAVE those years - so he needs to hire Tedd.

3 hours ago, Drasvin said:

Van's father is going to be a wizard, because Van is a seer, but Van only threatened that his mum will get the other if they hurt him, not both of his parents. That means that while his father might be powerful, he's not as directly powerful as Noriko, which rules out my first thought which was the head of the paranormal organization of either Britain or France (Though it is possible that Van underestimates how powerful his father is).

Head of the paranormal might not be as powerful as legendary monster hunter ... and definitely not in the flashy way.

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Here's a truly worthy amazing crackpot theory: Van's father is actually the Woman With Susan's Face. How can that be? Do you think Tedd is the only gender fluid character in EGS? Or that only one on the Moperville side of Earth with a gender changing spell? And have you noticed that Susan didn't seem to have any sexual urges until she was turned into a man? Or that Susan seems equally attracted to Catalina and Elliot? Or that Diane is attracted to both Nanase and Elliot?

Hmmm, possible. Although Diane is irrelevant for this, UNLESS you propose that Woman with Susan's Face is both Van's father and Diane's mother.

... although it would explain why she put Diane to adoption.

2 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

You want an off-the-wall guess? Van's father is some guy Noriko had a fling with in Paris. Then he fixated on her. Learning that she is a powerful magic-user, he sought a way to gain magic in order to better attract her attention - and became an Aberration. Susan killed him.

Counteridea. Van's father is not-Tengu. It's the only reason he survived fight with Noriko - she was holding back. Would explain how he would know so much about her.

Now ... was he actually able to fool her for some time, or did she saw through him from start of their relationship but went along because she wanted the child?

 

[Tom Sewell 268]

6 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Noriko might be able to put on illusions herself, and what if Tedd never seeing her doesn't mean she wasn't visiting from time to time?

Nice idea, but Tedd can see magic, and magical illusions are magic. 

 

[hkmaly 490]

19 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

35 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Noriko might be able to put on illusions herself, and what if Tedd never seeing her doesn't mean she wasn't visiting from time to time?

Nice idea, but Tedd can see magic, and magical illusions are magic. 

Tedd needs to focus on seeing magic. And he's not paranoid enough to check random people on street yet.

18 hours ago, Tuscahoma said:

I have always wondered why Tedd glows when he has an epiphany about Magic and when he feels intense love.  This latter part has never really been explained as part of the description of Seers.

Forgot to react to this ... Tedd glowing is sideefect of him using his seer ability to analyse magic. But it's true we so far don't know why he's activating that ability to help with his love life ... or if that really could help.

[mlooney 3,417]

5 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Tedd needs to focus on seeing magic. And he's not paranoid enough to check random people on street yet.

I've been beaten to the punch.  I was about to say that.

[weirdee 27]

I suspect magic is withholding the info from Tedd to keep her focused on dealing with the immediate issues and to give her some time to process everything. It seems like magic understands what is going on with Tedd, but I guess since Tedd has been expressing herself through magic so often, that magic would probably have a better read on her than other people.

 

Of course, that's still ultimately for what could be considered selfish for magic.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

9 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

That's okay, though, I don't mind not getting any free cookies; I just bought a couple bags of cookies yesterday anyway, so I'm all stocked up.

I lost track of what Girl Scout cookies I'd ordered from whom, so I now have six boxes of Thin Mints.  Well, okay, I had six boxes several days ago, now I've got approximately five and one-third boxes.  But I've only eaten them four in a day except for one time I had eight, so yay me!  ;-)

Of course they're all Thin Mints.  There are no other kinds of Girl Scout cookies!

[mlooney 3,417]

55 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

I lost track of what Girl Scout cookies I'd ordered from whom, so I now have six boxes of Thin Mints.  Well, okay, I had six boxes several days ago, now I've got approximately five and one-third boxes.  But I've only eaten them four in a day except for one time I had eight, so yay me!  ;-)

Of course they're all Thin Mints.  There are no other kinds of Girl Scout cookies!

The one and only thing I miss about working for a living is not having girl scout cookie sales in the office.  It never fails that there would be at least 2 people with daughters/grand-daughters/nieces that were selling...

But you can get damn close to GS Cookies at Walmart and Aldi, so there is that.  

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

On ‎2‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 1:36 AM, Scotty said:

Tedd know's her mom is a monster hunter who's been in Europe for at least 10 years

Does Tedd actually know this?

Zeus, Nanase Mrs Kitsune and Edward know this.

Adrian probably  knows this.

But I don't recall when anyone directly told Tedd that Noriko was anything other than a Travel Agent.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

23 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

But I don't recall when anyone directly told Tedd that Noriko was anything other than a Travel Agent.

Pandora just about said as much here.

[Tom Sewell 268]

8 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Does Tedd actually know this?

Zeus, Nanase Mrs Kitsune and Edward know this.

Adrian probably  knows this.

But I don't recall when anyone directly told Tedd that Noriko was anything other than a Travel Agent.

 

8 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Pandora just about said as much here.

Some implications from PRT and OH in these two posts:

• Tedd didn't know that his mother was a monster hunter, so his parents never told him.
• Adrian definitely knew about Noriko's magic and her magical background; Noriko mentions her frustration with Tedd's apparent lack of magic to Adrian in the only comic where Noriko actually speaks and says for our benefit (because by this time Adrian has known Edward and Noriko for many years) that this shouldn't be because of her family and Edward's family ancestry. And while that isn't any more explicit about that ancestry, it does leave open the possibilities that Tedd's mother, or father, or both know that they are descended from Immortals, perhaps even the Immortal who has called herself "Pandora."
• Pandora knew Noriko was a monster hunter but didn't know if she was really a travel agent or just claiming to be a travel agent. Tedd was an infant in the flashback with Noriko and Adrian, but we know Pandora talked to Adrian fourteen or fifteen years ago when Tedd was around four. We don't know exactly why Pandora didn't speak to or reveal herself to Adrian for fourteen years, but we do know from this that Pandora knew Noriko and Edward were his students

[Scotty 1,061]

7 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

And while that isn't any more explicit about that ancestry, it does leave open the possibilities that Tedd's mother, or father, or both know that they are descended from Immortals, perhaps even the Immortal who has called herself "Pandora."

Noriko could have also been simply referring to both her's and Edward's families having a history of wizards and/or monster hunters, there doesn't need to be knowledge of Immortal ancestry, at best guess Noriko's family might have passed down a legend of their family being "blessed by the gods" that would have been open to interpretation, but not concrete, until now of course.

12 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Pandora knew Noriko was a monster hunter but didn't know if she was really a travel agent or just claiming to be a travel agent. Tedd was an infant in the flashback with Noriko and Adrian, but we know Pandora talked to Adrian fourteen or fifteen years ago when Tedd was around four. We don't know exactly why Pandora didn't speak to or reveal herself to Adrian for fourteen years, but we do know from this that Pandora knew Noriko and Edward were his students

Maybe Noriko used the Travel Agent career as a cover to keep her being a monster hunter hidden from the public. Obviously Edward told Tedd she was a travel agent but maybe it wasn't a complete lie to keep Tedd from knowing what she really was. Pandora's response could have been based on it what Edward said being half true, like Edward saying she's a travel agent, but in reality she's an agent that travels? Or if Noriko had a legitimate side job as a travel agent then Pandora would be simply acknowledging that as true.