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mlooney

Story Friday April 3rd 2020

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5 hours ago, ijuin said:

"Playing With Dolls" happened three weeks ago, so Elliot might not know yet that Susan has faeries other than Little Na'se.

If they are doing their review videos like weekly they would have been together a couple of times in that time frame.  Granted a lot has been happening in Elliot life so they might have not had time for any reviews.  But assuming they had, he would have seen at least one that didn't look like Nananse but looked like Susan.

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18 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:
20 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Of course, we may still somehow get this girl instead, despite the fact that she SHOULD be at least in different state unless Magus is really lazy.

She should at least be in a different part of town or from a pizza shop other than the one they normally order from as we haven't seen her before. But Magus does not seem to need distance, his is a powerful magic user and has masked the room he's in where the doorway does not exist unless he wants it. He might well still be local, especially if he feels he still owes apologies and favors.

If Magus relies only on his magic and doesn't add some distance from city with greatest concentration of problems in whole U.S. he is, as I already said, lazy.
It's not like he would have problems to return quickly.

16 hours ago, ijuin said:
23 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Well, as a source of Elliot's surprise it makes more sense than the "agender" term. However, I have another idea: does Elliot even know that Susan can summon fairies?

Seriously, recapping is totally necessary and we should have more of it because there is LOT of stuff which might've been missed in "synchronization" of info between main eight.

"Playing With Dolls" happened three weeks ago, so Elliot might not know yet that Susan has faeries other than Little Na'se.

Or that, yes.

10 hours ago, mlooney said:
16 hours ago, ijuin said:

"Playing With Dolls" happened three weeks ago, so Elliot might not know yet that Susan has faeries other than Little Na'se.

If they are doing their review videos like weekly they would have been together a couple of times in that time frame.  Granted a lot has been happening in Elliot life so they might have not had time for any reviews.  But assuming they had, he would have seen at least one that didn't look like Nananse but looked like Susan.

Not only lot is happening recently, I also wouldn't be sure the recorded reviews are good opportunity for Susan to show Elliot her fairies.

 

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53 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Not only lot is happening recently, I also wouldn't be sure the recorded reviews are good opportunity for Susan to show Elliot her fairies.

I meant that they would be together and he would see her fairies before or after they did the recordings, much like he did the transformation before they did their first recording.

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15 minutes ago, mlooney said:
1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

Not only lot is happening recently, I also wouldn't be sure the recorded reviews are good opportunity for Susan to show Elliot her fairies.

I meant that they would be together and he would see her fairies before or after they did the recordings, much like he did the transformation before they did their first recording.

Except fairies are hard to unsummon and she might have reason to not summon fairy without safe way to get it home.

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1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

If Magus relies only on his magic and doesn't add some distance from city with greatest concentration of problems in whole U.S. he is, as I already said, lazy.
It's not like he would have problems to return quickly.

If he has observed how our travel works, he has the financial resources to travel. OTOH, I don't think his fear of the magic police, if any, is as much of a motivation as make amends and get home.

He hasn't really done much wrong for the magic police to be tracking him, as was discussed; "He mad a young woman cry" is a personal motivation for Arthur, but it's not illegal. He doesn't want to deal with them, he scrambled out, but he's not an idiot, so he's probably aware that if he had to, they don't have much on him. He might not want to try to convince them he's from another universe; it would normally be a tough sell.

"Lazy" is not a label I'd pin on him. He showed enormous perseverance in a hostile realm with no resources, and cleverly manipulated a powerful aberration to carry out what he needed done. He seems to be able to take care of himself quite well, and to plan ahead. Actually, for being a counterpart of Elliot, he also seems to be more situationally aware.

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35 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

If he has observed how our travel works, he has the financial resources to travel. OTOH, I don't think his fear of the magic police, if any, is as much of a motivation as make amends and get home.

Also, he can fly.

35 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

He hasn't really done much wrong for the magic police to be tracking him, as was discussed; "He mad a young woman cry" is a personal motivation for Arthur, but it's not illegal. He doesn't want to deal with them, he scrambled out, but he's not an idiot, so he's probably aware that if he had to, they don't have much on him. He might not want to try to convince them he's from another universe; it would normally be a tough sell.

If he actually knew how the DGB works he would ask Edward to help. No, he is NOT aware that they don't have much on him, and he does not want to risk confrontation. Also, that thing about making a young woman cry was mentioned in context that he is also victim ; I would say that if they would want to prosecute they would found reasons.
In fact, what reasons do you think Arthur had for deporting Adrian to Russia?

35 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

"Lazy" is not a label I'd pin on him. He showed enormous perseverance in a hostile realm with no resources, and cleverly manipulated a powerful aberration to carry out what he needed done. He seems to be able to take care of himself quite well, and to plan ahead. Actually, for being a counterpart of Elliot, he also seems to be more situationally aware.

I totally agree that so far he didn't shown to be lazy, which is why I think he IS in different state and won't return to Ellen until he would have little better plan than he has now.

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1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

Except fairies are hard to unsummon and she might have reason to not summon fairy without safe way to get it home.

She also has enough control over them to keep them out of the camera frame.

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47 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Also, he can fly.

If he actually knew how the DGB works he would ask Edward to help. No, he is NOT aware that they don't have much on him, and he does not want to risk confrontation. Also, that thing about making a young woman cry was mentioned in context that he is also victim ; I would say that if they would want to prosecute they would found reasons.
In fact, what reasons do you think Arthur had for deporting Adrian to Russia?

I totally agree that so far he didn't shown to be lazy, which is why I think he IS in different state and won't return to Ellen until he would have little better plan than he has now.

He knows he did not remove anything. He knows he, merged with Elliot and appearing to be Elliot, used the Dewitchery Diamond, and broke it. He knows Ellen was formed similarly, and it was not held against her, although, they did not break it at that time. He can infer that Elliot, Ellen, and Ashley were interrogated, and would have told the authorities what he was up to, that it was benign, that he destroyed a dangerous aberration, and dealt with an immediate spontaneous threat. What exactly would he think they had against him? Abducting Ashley? He ultimately let her choose to participate.

Arthur had no reason that we know of to deport Adrian, apparently, pending revelation of the unstated story behind the falling out. It may have been Arthur being inflexible about some point, or it may well have been at Edwards behest. It's also not clear that he is allowed back in the US, or why he even cares. I don't know 'Why Russia?" - seems dumb, but not enough information.

 

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4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Not only lot is happening recently, I also wouldn't be sure the recorded reviews are good opportunity for Susan to show Elliot her fairies.

I dunno - between the two of them, and maybe with some help from their friends, they could do some really great special effects...

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1 hour ago, mlooney said:

And they could claim it's all CGI.  

A spotlight shining so it only illuminates the fairy, from a different direction than the rest of the lighting, would make the shadows on the fairy look fake.

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4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Also, he can fly.

"Able to fly" is not necessarily the same as "Able to use flight as a means of traveling hundreds of miles out in the open". Range and speed limitations aside, he would need some form of invisibility to remain unnoticed.

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On 4/4/2020 at 0:34 PM, Don Edwards said:

But there's another change in the offing. Not a general rules change, but a change specific to Moperville: at some point the local pool of magical energy will be depleted enough that it's safe to remove the clog, and then low-power magic-users will not be able to do high-power magic (as they already can't, outside of the Moperville area). We know Sarah is - or was at last report - an instance of that. Some of the others are unclear.

Awakened magic users use their own power to cast their spells, so removing the clog shouldn't have any affect on them.

On 4/4/2020 at 7:11 PM, hkmaly said:

I think [Sarah] may be still risking losing access to her spell if the clog would be unclogged now ... but, well, it wouldn't. Noone is currently working on that and it can take weeks before someone will, giving her more time for training.

I believe Pandora implied if not outright stated that Sarah was not likely to grow strong enough to use her spell without high ambient magic before the clog was scheduled to be undone. So I'd say if the clog were undone now Sarah almost certainly would loose access to it. However, Pandora vowed to help Sarah get access to magic, and Immortal Vows continue through reset, so Sarah's loss of magic would only be temporary (assuming there's some other way Sarah could get magic, and Pandora clearly believed that or she wouldn't have made the vow).

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1 hour ago, ChronosCat said:

However, Pandora vowed to help Sarah get access to magic, and Immortal Vows continue through reset, so Sarah's loss of magic would only be temporary (assuming there's some other way Sarah could get magic, and Pandora clearly believed that or she wouldn't have made the vow).

Not only did she vow, she thinks of Sarah as a friend and my include her in her "don't forget about these people" reset.

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23 hours ago, mlooney said:
On 4/6/2020 at 1:28 AM, hkmaly said:

Except fairies are hard to unsummon and she might have reason to not summon fairy without safe way to get it home.

She also has enough control over them to keep them out of the camera frame.

True ; However she doesn't have enough control to ensure they wouldn't be distracting Elliot.

22 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

He knows he did not remove anything. He knows he, merged with Elliot and appearing to be Elliot, used the Dewitchery Diamond, and broke it. He knows Ellen was formed similarly, and it was not held against her, although, they did not break it at that time. He can infer that Elliot, Ellen, and Ashley were interrogated, and would have told the authorities what he was up to, that it was benign, that he destroyed a dangerous aberration, and dealt with an immediate spontaneous threat. What exactly would he think they had against him? Abducting Ashley? He ultimately let her choose to participate.

Actually, abducting Ashley, Elliot and Ellen. Technically, the whole plan was HIS, not Sirlecks's, so they might blame him for that and ignore that he planed it in way which ended up with killing all aberrations involved.

Remember that government agency doesn't need to behave logically. He has no knowledge of actual laws about paranormal, so has no idea if he broke any.

And, again: he decided to escape instead of trying to explain everything to DGB. That, by itself, suggest that he is not willing to risk being captured.

22 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Arthur had no reason that we know of to deport Adrian, apparently, pending revelation of the unstated story behind the falling out. It may have been Arthur being inflexible about some point, or it may well have been at Edwards behest. It's also not clear that he is allowed back in the US, or why he even cares. I don't know 'Why Russia?" - seems dumb, but not enough information.

We did get very short version of the story but with enough details: Adrian entered country using falsified information - specifically, he lied about his age. This sounds like Arthur trying to deport him for technicality, either due to being THAT inflexible, or because the true reason he wanted him out was not legal. Considering Arthur IS currently in US and the "tried", I suppose that it didn't actually happened - maybe Adrian appealed to someone higher or something.

21 hours ago, Don Edwards said:
On 4/6/2020 at 0:14 AM, hkmaly said:

Not only lot is happening recently, I also wouldn't be sure the recorded reviews are good opportunity for Susan to show Elliot her fairies.

I dunno - between the two of them, and maybe with some help from their friends, they could do some really great special effects...

21 hours ago, mlooney said:

And they could claim it's all CGI.  

That would be quite a good way how to get hired as CGI experts.

19 hours ago, ijuin said:
23 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Also, he can fly.

"Able to fly" is not necessarily the same as "Able to use flight as a means of traveling hundreds of miles out in the open". Range and speed limitations aside, he would need some form of invisibility to remain unnoticed.

Yet that is exactly how he got away from the PTTAOLUTASF. Maybe he has invisibility, or knows how to use terrain to limit risk of being spotted.

10 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

Awakened magic users use their own power to cast their spells, so removing the clog shouldn't have any affect on them.

All magic users can use their own power to cast their spells and removing the clog would make it harder. Sarah specifically has so weak talent for so hard spells, Pandora herself was not sure if she gets enough own power to cast her spell without help of ambient magic before or after being awakened, but USUALLY it's before.

10 hours ago, ChronosCat said:
On 4/5/2020 at 1:11 AM, hkmaly said:

I think [Sarah] may be still risking losing access to her spell if the clog would be unclogged now ... but, well, it wouldn't. Noone is currently working on that and it can take weeks before someone will, giving her more time for training.

I believe Pandora implied if not outright stated that Sarah was not likely to grow strong enough to use her spell without high ambient magic before the clog was scheduled to be undone. So I'd say if the clog were undone now Sarah almost certainly would loose access to it. However, Pandora vowed to help Sarah get access to magic, and Immortal Vows continue through reset, so Sarah's loss of magic would only be temporary (assuming there's some other way Sarah could get magic, and Pandora clearly believed that or she wouldn't have made the vow).

I believe she directly stated that, but, as I said, the original schedule is already out.

It's not about "getting magic", it's likely something about ways to train magic when not being able to cast only spell you know. Which is certainly possible, as Elliot was training magic long before getting first spell. Pandora can likely make it faster or at least more fun.

 

 

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2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Actually, abducting Ashley, Elliot and Ellen. Technically, the whole plan was HIS, not Sirlecks's, so they might blame him for that and ignore that he planed it in way which ended up with killing all aberrations involved.

Remember that government agency doesn't need to behave logically. He has no knowledge of actual laws about paranormal, so has no idea if he broke any.

And, again: he decided to escape instead of trying to explain everything to DGB. That, by itself, suggest that he is not willing to risk being captured.

Would they have known that? They could probably come close to surmising the events.

You're right about government agencies, to a degree, the evidence is not difficult to find, but at the root, within some context, the individuals want to be seen in the best light, and will behave to some set of standards or dogma. Accountability helps, and DGB is likely lacking in accountability, just like real world black programs.

The laws about paranormal activity would be hidden as well, so he's not really worse off than the average Joe of the EGS universe. But again, lack of accountability.

Fleeing the scene could be a crime; would seem to be incumbent on DGB to show that he was actually fleeing. Not hanging around when trouble comes does not seem like a crime in and of itself.

Meh, he knows where to find everyone, and we probably haven't seen the last of him.

When he was merged with Elliot, why was he in control? It makes sense for Sirleck, that's what he does, and he wasn't even really in control. But Elliot was still there, and should have been able to resist.

 

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

We did get very short version of the story but with enough details: Adrian entered country using falsified information - specifically, he lied about his age. This sounds like Arthur trying to deport him for technicality, either due to being THAT inflexible, or because the true reason he wanted him out was not legal. Considering Arthur IS currently in US and the "tried", I suppose that it didn't actually happened - maybe Adrian appealed to someone higher or something.

My original take on this was that Arthur was just that bureaucratic, but he was not so when debriefing Elliot, Ellen, and Ashley. I'm inclined to view this as 'hidden agenda'. That said, why Russia? I'd lay odds on geographic ambiguity of Adrian's place of birth, presumably having changed hands over the ages. That happens, right? ;)

 

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5 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Yet that is exactly how he got away from the PTTAOLUTASF. Maybe he has invisibility, or knows how to use terrain to limit risk of being spotted.

Sufficiently to escape the scene, yes. Sufficient to fly all the way to say, the East Coast more easily than simply getting a rail ticket, maybe not.

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19 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:
22 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Actually, abducting Ashley, Elliot and Ellen. Technically, the whole plan was HIS, not Sirlecks's, so they might blame him for that and ignore that he planed it in way which ended up with killing all aberrations involved.

Remember that government agency doesn't need to behave logically. He has no knowledge of actual laws about paranormal, so has no idea if he broke any.

And, again: he decided to escape instead of trying to explain everything to DGB. That, by itself, suggest that he is not willing to risk being captured.

Would they have known that? They could probably come close to surmising the events.

You're right about government agencies, to a degree, the evidence is not difficult to find, but at the root, within some context, the individuals want to be seen in the best light, and will behave to some set of standards or dogma. Accountability helps, and DGB is likely lacking in accountability, just like real world black programs.

The laws about paranormal activity would be hidden as well, so he's not really worse off than the average Joe of the EGS universe. But again, lack of accountability.

Fleeing the scene could be a crime; would seem to be incumbent on DGB to show that he was actually fleeing. Not hanging around when trouble comes does not seem like a crime in and of itself.

Not knowing the law is no excuse. Again: it doesn't need to be logical. It can be catch-22.

There are three totally separate and independent questions. First is if DGB would be legally allowed to prosecute Magus. Second is if DGB - or Arthur - would decide to prosecute Magus. Third is what Magus think about answer to first two questions. And no argumentation about question 1 and 2 is going to answer question 3, because Magus had no opportunity to observe how DGB actually operates.

19 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Meh, he knows where to find everyone, and we probably haven't seen the last of him.

Yes.

19 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

When he was merged with Elliot, why was he in control? It makes sense for Sirleck, that's what he does, and he wasn't even really in control. But Elliot was still there, and should have been able to resist.

Magus has much more magic knowledge and experience. Probably knows how to possess someone as well.

19 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:
22 hours ago, hkmaly said:

We did get very short version of the story but with enough details: Adrian entered country using falsified information - specifically, he lied about his age. This sounds like Arthur trying to deport him for technicality, either due to being THAT inflexible, or because the true reason he wanted him out was not legal. Considering Arthur IS currently in US and the "tried", I suppose that it didn't actually happened - maybe Adrian appealed to someone higher or something.

My original take on this was that Arthur was just that bureaucratic, but he was not so when debriefing Elliot, Ellen, and Ashley. I'm inclined to view this as 'hidden agenda'.

To be fair, it IS possible he was more bureaucratic when younger (it presumably happened more than 15 years ago). However, I still consider 'hidden agenda' more likely.

19 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

That said, why Russia? I'd lay odds on geographic ambiguity of Adrian's place of birth, presumably having changed hands over the ages. That happens, right? ;)

It totally happens. There are places in Europe (and middle east) which changed hand lot of times and were part of no less than four completely different countries. However, I don't think Adrian's place of birth is in or near Russia.

17 hours ago, ijuin said:
22 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Yet that is exactly how he got away from the PTTAOLUTASF. Maybe he has invisibility, or knows how to use terrain to limit risk of being spotted.

Sufficiently to escape the scene, yes. Sufficient to fly all the way to say, the East Coast more easily than simply getting a rail ticket, maybe not.

Getting a rail ticket may not be so simple if you lack cash. So, it's possible his only option was to fly at least to the place where he could recover (part of) Sirleck's money.

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15 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Getting a rail ticket may not be so simple if you lack cash. So, it's possible his only option was to fly at least to the place where he could recover (part of) Sirleck's money.

He obviously had fairly quick access to the money, he ordered pizza.

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18 minutes ago, mlooney said:
35 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Getting a rail ticket may not be so simple if you lack cash. So, it's possible his only option was to fly at least to the place where he could recover (part of) Sirleck's money.

He obviously had fairly quick access to the money, he ordered pizza.

Well he ordered pizza LATER. He didn't had any money when in PTTAOLUTASF or when escaping from there, but he likely flied somewhere where he could get the money and then to some hotel he can hide in.

... thinking about it, he may simply be in city close to where Sirleck hidden the money. Which is unlikely to be Moperville, Sirleck would not go near without strong motivation.

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3 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Well he ordered pizza LATER. He didn't had any money when in PTTAOLUTASF or when escaping from there, but he likely flied somewhere where he could get the money and then to some hotel he can hide in.

... thinking about it, he may simply be in city close to where Sirleck hidden the money. Which is unlikely to be Moperville, Sirleck would not go near without strong motivation.

That's what I meant.  He didn't have money at the PTT..SF but the next time we see him, presumably within a few number of hours he had money.  

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2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Not knowing the law is no excuse. Again: it doesn't need to be logical. It can be catch-22.

It is generally meant that not knowing the law is no excuse if you ought to know it. It is not generally taken to mean, "We have this secret law, and if you violate it, you have no excuse". However ...

 

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

There are three totally separate and independent questions. First is if DGB would be legally allowed to prosecute Magus. Second is if DGB - or Arthur - would decide to prosecute Magus. Third is what Magus think about answer to first two questions. And no argumentation about question 1 and 2 is going to answer question 3, because Magus had no opportunity to observe how DGB actually operates.

My understanding is that DGB essentially is threat response, and operates outside the law.

Of course, if Magus is as powerful as he seems to think he is, they may have a battle on their hands.

 

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Magus has much more magic knowledge and experience. Probably knows how to possess someone as well.

I'm not seeing that as being in his normal repertoire. He saw Sirleck as pure aberration, and that is basically all Sirleck did. Even with Elliot and Ellen, he seemed to feel he'd incurred a debt. I don't see how his power particularly helps him in this case. Will, maybe, but Elliot is strong willed when others are in danger. I'm going to stick with 'it's an anomaly'.

 

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

To be fair, it IS possible he was more bureaucratic when younger (it presumably happened more than 15 years ago). However, I still consider 'hidden agenda' more likely.

He retired once, that can mellow a person.

 

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

It totally happens. There are places in Europe (and middle east) which changed hand lot of times and were part of no less than four completely different countries. However, I don't think Adrian's place of birth is in or near Russia.

I don't have enough information to agree or disagree. Why do you think, "Not Russia?" Where do you think he's from?

His father's name, Blaike is similar to Scottish and English names, but no hits on the Google monster, one syllable, so likely to occur elsewhere. The setting looks fairly generic.

 

 

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