Story Wednesday June 12, 2019

[Stature 96]

http://egscomics.com/comic/party-024

Self-esteem: Sunk. (Wow, today is such a fall from Grace  )

The cruelty is in the paneling, Dan. The paneling!

Also, it is hard to imagine everyone having enthusiasm on conversations.

[Scotty 1,061]

I think panel 1 should have immediately given away the fact that it was being imagined, for one, Dan's claiming that the lack of backgrounds is half hint, half being lazy

And two, while Grace has recently been kinda "meh" due to her conflict of keeping Sam's secret. I would think that Rhoda would be more cheerful in the first panel, like this (yeah I know Rhoda's leaving in that scene, but she's still being cheerful with Grace). We haven't seen any reason for Rhoda give a simple "Hey, Grace." without any enthusiasm.

 

That said, I didn't initially think about it until the second panel when Rhoda's reaction to Grace being an alien hybrid was "I got magic!", I would expect the Alien bit to be somewhat more shocking.

[ChronosCat 155]

As of the second panel I strongly suspected this was a fantasy or dream sequence, as Grace being part-alien is still classified, and while Grace doesn't like that she hasn't shown any indications she was considering breaking that masquerade. The telling about magic thing is equally out of the blue (and also in violation of Mr. Verres rules) but with Arthur "admitting" to the existence of magic, and the masquerade in the process of failing, her spilling those beans wouldn't be as big of a deal.

Rhoda's reaction was unexpected, but Dan has a tendency to reuse the gag of someone reacting with little or no surprise to things that ought to be shocking, so while it contributed to the evidence of a fantasy sequence, it was far from definitive.

After reading that panel I checked the panel borders, and was surprised to see that they weren't rounded. Then I scrolled down to read the second row of panels and saw the top of the third row including the edge of the thought bubble between panels 5 and 6 (I mistook it for a normal rounded border, not that it made a difference) and knew for sure it wasn't really happening.

...It's kind of funny how Grace knows/suspects that Rhoda and Catalina know magic, but the remains of the masquerade are preventing the two groups from discussing their magic with one another.

The line in the last panel about Diane and Lucy being super-nice is also interesting. The fact that "Rhoda" says "secretly" implies that Grace doesn't know about their recent character development (or doesn't see Diane's announcement to the school, apology to Justin, and getting together with Lucy as proof they've changed) and yet, she's right.

 

[Scotty 1,061]

Just now, ChronosCat said:

After reading that panel I checked the panel borders, and was surprised to see that they weren't rounded. Then I scrolled down to read the second row of panels and saw the top of the third row including the edge of the thought bubble between panels 5 and 6 (I mistook it for a normal rounded border, not that it made a difference) and knew for sure it wasn't really happening.

Grace was basically imagining how she would go about approaching Rhoda and asking about her having magic, her "sigh" would have been a mix of "that's way to optimistic" and "Edward would kill me if I said anything about being an alien", well, not literally kill, but he'd be very mad about it.  It does make me wonder if Ashley will learn of Grace's heritage at the party, I guess if they do tell her, that would pretty much confirm she's part of the circle.

Just now, ChronosCat said:

The line in the last panel about Diane and Lucy being super-nice is also interesting. The fact that "Rhoda" says "secretly" implies that Grace doesn't know about their recent character development (or doesn't see Diane's announcement to the school, apology to Justin, and getting together with Lucy as proof they've changed) and yet, she's right

She's probably seen Lucy and Diane kissing in the halls like Justin and Nanase have for the past few days, I don't think it's a secret they're together. But Grace has experience Diane being nice in a way, there was Grace's first day of school after she race out of Adrian's class and hugged it out with Rhoda and Diane, she knows that Diane helps Rhoda and is protective of her as we saw with the boar incident, Grace is also likely projecting her own expectations of people, hence the high degree of optimism. But yeah he optimism about Diane and Lucy is pretty much on point, just probably not how she expected.

[Don Edwards 548]

1 hour ago, ChronosCat said:

...It's kind of funny how Grace knows/suspects that Rhoda and Catalina know magic, but the remains of the masquerade are preventing the two groups from discussing their magic with one another.

I would qualify that. Grace could reasonably deduce that "either Rhoda or Catalina" has size-change magic. But I don't think Grace has the evidence to determine, with any confidence, which one has that magic - or whether the other one knows about it.

Confident enough to daydream about it - that takes no confidence at all. But confident enough to talk with Rhoda about it - no, I don't think so.

[Scotty 1,061]

1 hour ago, Don Edwards said:

I would qualify that. Grace could reasonably deduce that "either Rhoda or Catalina" has size-change magic. But I don't think Grace has the evidence to determine, with any confidence, which one has that magic - or whether the other one knows about it.

Grace deduced it from her dreams with the emissary of magic, considering she would get "deja-vu" when she glanced at Justin's, Rhoda's, and Dex's backs and chest, that her dreams conditioned her to know there was something special about them in particular, and knowing that Dex had a mark where she was getting that "deja-vu" sense made everything click that Justin and Rhoda must have marks too, and she must have been told that Catalina was marked as well. My guess as to why Grace didn't have any "deja-vu" with seeing Luke either means he wasn't one of the marks we saw, or the emissary only focused on people that Grace knew personally (Justin and Rhoda) indirectly (Catalina through Rhoda and possibly Tedd and Sarah have mentioned her) and someone known and confirmed marked (Dex).

The fact that they couldn't explain how the boar got big other than by Rhoda causing it to happen herself, got them thinking that Grace was on the right track thinking that Rhoda at the very least was marked, and then  Box told Sarah about the emissary of magic when she went to ask for her help in removing the energy clog. Then when Sarah told Tedd and Grace what Box told her, she obviously mentioned the emissary part cus Grace used that point to back up the idea that Box wasn't lying to Sarah, and it pretty much confirmed that Grace's dreams were an attempt to warn her about magic changing and also confirm that Justin, Rhoda and Catalina had in fact been marked.

[hkmaly 490]

12 hours ago, Scotty said:

And two, while Grace has recently been kinda "meh" due to her conflict of keeping Sam's secret. I would think that Rhoda would be more cheerful in the first panel, like this (yeah I know Rhoda's leaving in that scene, but she's still being cheerful with Grace). We haven't seen any reason for Rhoda give a simple "Hey, Grace." without any enthusiasm.

Yes, her lack of enthusiasm in first panel and then too much of it in other panels is definitely suspicious.

12 hours ago, Scotty said:

That said, I didn't initially think about it until the second panel when Rhoda's reaction to Grace being an alien hybrid was "I got magic!", I would expect the Alien bit to be somewhat more shocking.

Yeah. When you hear something surprising you don't immediately reply with your related secret.

7 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

Grace being part-alien is still classified, and while Grace doesn't like that she hasn't shown any indications she was considering breaking that masquerade. The telling about magic thing is equally out of the blue (and also in violation of Mr. Verres rules) but with Arthur "admitting" to the existence of magic, and the masquerade in the process of failing, her spilling those beans wouldn't be as big of a deal.

6 hours ago, Scotty said:

"Edward would kill me if I said anything about being an alien", well, not literally kill, but he'd be very mad about it.  It does make me wonder if Ashley will learn of Grace's heritage at the party, I guess if they do tell her, that would pretty much confirm she's part of the circle.

Grace being part-alien is definitely more serious secret now than the magic, especially if she's talking to someone who also have magic (although so far she can't prove that, despite being sure). We can directly see it when Edward determines the severity of what Grace said: he was glad that the more serious secret of Grace being part-alien didn't get out and just berated Grace for speaking about magic.

... and, I actually think Ashley will NOT learn of Grace's heritage OR the TF-gun at the party. Or maybe hope. She's not in need to know about that and I'm sure Edward would immediately pointed that out.

 

 

[Scotty 1,061]

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

... and, I actually think Ashley will NOT learn of Grace's heritage OR the TF-gun at the party. Or maybe hope. She's not in need to know about that and I'm sure Edward would immediately pointed that out.

Ashley already knows about the TF-gun thanks to Magus, but they can still pass it off as something Tedd built or something received through Edward's career, without mentioning aliens.

Then again, Edward didn't bat an eye when Elliot met Will and Gill, but then he was probably more worried about what he was leaving for than Elliot knowing about aliens. Also Edward might have expected Elliot to meet Uryuoms eventually anyway considering how often he was over at Tedd's.  Ashley is probably a different story, but it's possible he would allow it considering how close she's going to be to Tedd while she trains to be a wizard and Tedd continues his research, she might wind up in a similar position as Elliot anyway if Will and Gill return again to get a form made up for their baby.

 

[hkmaly 490]

On 6/13/2019 at 2:44 AM, Scotty said:

On 6/13/2019 at 0:51 AM, hkmaly said:

... and, I actually think Ashley will NOT learn of Grace's heritage OR the TF-gun at the party. Or maybe hope. She's not in need to know about that and I'm sure Edward would immediately pointed that out.

Ashley already knows about the TF-gun thanks to Magus, but they can still pass it off as something Tedd built or something received through Edward's career, without mentioning aliens.

She HEARD about the TF-gun. She may not remember it (or remember to ask). And she definitely doesn't know any detail so yes, they should pass it off as something Tedd built without mentioning aliens.

On 6/13/2019 at 2:44 AM, Scotty said:

Then again, Edward didn't bat an eye when Elliot met Will and Gill, but then he was probably more worried about what he was leaving for than Elliot knowing about aliens.

Also, he might though Elliot knows about aliens already. As far as we know, Tedd indeed already told Elliot everything ... he used to mumble a lot so it might not be understandable.

Also, while he tried to explain Grace without mentioning aliens, remember that Elliot was helping him finding something to help Grace.