NP Friday July 26, 2019

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

https://egscomics.com/egsnp/shs-06

In the 1970s, NASA included a shower on the Skylab Space Station.

The result of free flowing water in a micro-gravity environment was not exactly clean.
In fact, it turned out to be such a mess that the later American Space Shuttles, the Soviet MIR, and the International Space Station would not incorporate anything similar.

Even though the system was not successful, academic notes were kept.
If Elliot's interest in this matter was purely intellectual, the NASA records are available.

[ijuin 572]

Of course, that's when the water is floating. Elliot is talking about what happens when only the bathing person is floating.

[detrius 20]

Still no comments on Tedd using Elliot's thigh as a pillow?

It's a rather intimate position for two "best bud" friends.

[Scotty 1,061]

10 minutes ago, detrius said:

Still no comments on Tedd using Elliot's thigh as a pillow?

It's a rather intimate position for two "best bud" friends.

I mean, I kinda made my comment in the main story thread, but yes, it appears that Dan wants us to increase the ship's (Tedd/Grace/Sarah) carry capacity to include Elliot and Ashley.

It's not exactly how Sarah imagined she'd be dating Elliot,even after breaking up with him, but she'd probably consider it a win.

[ijuin 572]

6 hours ago, detrius said:

Still no comments on Tedd using Elliot's thigh as a pillow?

It's a rather intimate position for two "best bud" friends.

I figure that it's because Tedd is in a girl form right now. That prevents any subconscious homophobia reactions that might make them emotionally uncomfortable, while the Westermarck Effect is preventing either of them from worrying about sexual arousal.

[Scotty 1,061]

Just now, ijuin said:

I figure that it's because Tedd is in a girl form right now. That prevents any subconscious homophobia reactions that might make them emotionally uncomfortable, while the Westermarck Effect is preventing either of them from worrying about sexual arousal.

I dunno, Elliot seemed to know that Tedd found him attractive when Tedd went to school female and after the talk they had about it. Yeah, Elliot had some transphobic reactions early in the comic, but Grace had sure Elliot knew that, and the result was well... even Dan suggested in the commentary that Elliot's intentions at the time gave Mall Girl lipstick, a lower neckline in the shirt and a shorter skirt, so we can take from that what we will. Then we have Elliot's talk with Ellen where Elliot pretty much admits that Tedd isn't "just that girly", I mean, those are Ellen's words but Elliot never denied it. As for Tedd, he's had some earlier homophobic thoughts, at first with Justin, then at the idea of Grace being male, despite Tedd being female, but that was due to having been bullied into fearing the idea.

If we go back to Tedd's reaction after hugging Elliot and realizing Elliot's attractive, yeah, at that time I can understand Tedd maybe thinking "I've got Grace, I shouldn't be having these feelings for my best friend" but if this NP is canon and several months down the road from the current main story, then it's possible there might have been some developments that lead to Elliot and Tedd admitting that they find each other attractive and Grace's "Squeeee" is officially added to things that have interrupted the Uryuom Astronaut.

And this was just an accident, but here's further proof of Tedd being attracted to Elliot which probably contributed to Elliot knowing that Tedd's attracted to him (or her, depending on the form at the time). And I know that Tedd told Elliot that there are things he has no interest in doing with him, but that might have been denial given Tedd's reaction to Elliot saying he loved Tedd in a "Frodo and Sam" way and then back into denial on the next page. And "End or an Era" takes place maybe a little over a month ago (maybe 5 weeks) in comic time. So to go from denying any interest in doing things to blushing in under a month (since it's been a couple weeks since Sister 3) that's quite a development. And we know Grace would be fine with it too, she wants everyone to be close with each other.

[ChronosCat 155]

Long ago, Dan stated that Elliot and Tedd would be a couple in any universe where they were compatible sexes and orientations. And there have been plenty of indications in more recent times that Dan ships them.

I'd say at this point the biggest obstacles are that Elliot spends most of his time male and Tedd isn't entirely comfortable being attracted to males, and the fact that they both have girlfriends and have never considered a poly relationship. Considering their summer clothes, this has to be some time in the future if it's canon, meaning there's time for these factors to change.

Alternately this is non-canon in which case anything goes.

15 hours ago, Scotty said:

I mean, I kinda made my comment in the main story thread, but yes, it appears that Dan wants us to increase the ship's (Tedd/Grace/Sarah) carry capacity to include Elliot and Ashley.

It's not exactly how Sarah imagined she'd be dating Elliot,even after breaking up with him, but she'd probably consider it a win.

The only problem with an Ashley/Elliot/Tedd/Grace/Sarah relationship is that Elliot sees Sarah as a sister; I would think that would make things a little too awkward.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

On 7/27/2019 at 0:35 PM, ChronosCat said:

The only problem with an Ashley/Elliot/Tedd/Grace/Sarah relationship is that Elliot sees Sarah as a sister; I would think that would make things a little too awkward.

A poly relationship doesn't have to mean everyone is attracted to everyone else.  The simplest example would be two straight guys and one woman.  The guys have no interest in each other, but they have no problem with both loving the same woman.  (There's a web TV series called "Family" with this premise.)  You can also have the exact same thing, but with the guys also being interested in each other, but it's not mandatory.

Of course, physical closeness doesn't have to equal sexual interaction, either -- I did a massage workshop led by Patch Adams (the real guy, not the Robin Williams version), and we'd have everything from one-on-one to eight or ten people working on one person at once, with no sexual pressure involved for anyone.  "Massage is not a way to get into someone's pants.  If you want to get into someone's pants, tell them, 'I want to get into your pants!'"  Yup, he's quite a character, and we filled a whole room with balloons for him as a thank-you. ;-)

[hkmaly 490]

On 7/26/2019 at 6:27 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

The result of free flowing water in a micro-gravity environment was not exactly clean.
In fact, it turned out to be such a mess that the later American Space Shuttles, the Soviet MIR, and the International Space Station would not incorporate anything similar.

Even though the system was not successful, academic notes were kept.

Of course they were kept. Negative results of experiments are usually more important than positive ones.

On 7/26/2019 at 9:07 AM, ijuin said:

Of course, that's when the water is floating. Elliot is talking about what happens when only the bathing person is floating.

Yes. Also, it IS possible he wanted to check something else as well, despite failing at perversion. Just because he's bad liar doesn't mean he doesn't keep something to himself.

 

[ChronosCat 155]

17 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

A poly relationship doesn't have to mean everyone is attracted to everyone else.  The simplest example would be two straight guys and one woman.  The guys have no interest in each other, but they have no problem with both loving the same woman.  (There's a web TV series called "Family" with this premise.)  You can also have the exact same thing, but with the guys also being interested in each other, but it's not mandatory.

Well, yes, but It seems to me that in the Elliot/Ashley/Tedd/Grace/Sarah group, Elliot would probably be the only one not attracted to everyone else in the group. Grace might be disappointed that not everyone in her group can be with everyone else sexually, and Elliot might feel guilty for complicating the group relationship. Also, being part of a poly group that includes Elliot but not being able to have sex with him might be hard on Sarah, and if Elliot notices that it would be another possible source for guilt from him.

I suppose thinking about it those aren't insurmountable problems, but they are still challenges.