story Story, Wednesday November 23, 2016

[Tom Sewell 268]

Susan knows her father cheated, so the possibility of half-siblings must have occurred to her before. And then there's that "Other Woman With Susan's Face." Either or both could explain why her surprise from the last page doesn't seem to last until this one. Or maybe some time has passed between the pages?

Nanase doesn't seem to have told Susan yet that she suspects that the immortals who were guiding Lady Andrea onto the vampires were the same ones who recruited her and Susan. There's another really big shoe that could drop on Friday.

Another similarity between Susan and Diane is that neither one of them wants to pursue a career in vampire control. Susan doesn't seem to have done any training; at least up until the vampire attacked her, Diane was much more interested in developing a real relationship. 

Maybe Greg will get a couple of new students?

[Scotty 1,061]

6 hours ago, skington said:

In the last panel of the previous comic, Susan is told that Diane existed, and "a vampire attacked her last night for having the same magical affinity as you". Susan then goes wide-eyed.

That part is understandable, the idea of a vampire in Moperville shocked her.

6 hours ago, skington said:

She immediately asks if Diane is OK; then after more exposition, she gets introspective, talking about how Tedd talked about how the ambient magic would attract aberrations, and how after all this time she really should have expected something like this. She's clearly focusing on "same magical affinity as you" rather than "looks and behaves quite astonishingly like you". Ellen ignores this because she wants to tell her that Diane is her half-sister or something; Nanase cuts in and mentions that there have been seven; and at this point Susan freaks out even more and summons a sword. (Whether it's a magic sword, or a normal sword that's nonetheless glowing because it was surrounded magically doesn't really matter at this point.)

The whole reason that Susan's been involved in magic shenanigans is because of a vampire, she probably had been mentally preparing herself for the possibility of having to deal with one again because of what Tedd said though she might have expecting vampires sooner and got complacent, so she would be thinking about that more at the moment. The idea of there having been seven vampires in the area would be even more shocking so yeah she would likely have reflexively summoned the sword, but she wouldn't be completely oblivious to it and Ellen's question was unnecessary because of how obvious it was. Susan's eyebrows were arched in panel 6 when she was surprised, but then they were leveled in panel 8, the hesitation would have been to consider the absurdity of the question and then gave an appropriate answer. Also the glow is probably the effect of the summoning and that's the same sword she summoned back during the goo fight, which was before she awakened so that probably negates the theory that it's a new spell.

6 hours ago, JustBecauseICantDraw said:

And the first time we heard it Elliot had just used a new spell http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=952

The sound effect was associated with the bloodgrem holding the broken broom handle like a sword.

[Scotty 1,061]

5 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Nanase doesn't seem to have told Susan yet that she suspects that the immortals who were guiding Lady Andrea onto the vampires were the same ones who recruited her and Susan. There's another really big shoe that could drop on Friday.

Yeah, after mentioning seven vampires, she'll need to assure Susan that they've already been killed by Andrea and why Andrea was even involved in that. We certainly know that Nanase believes that it was the same Immortals that recruited her and Susan and she wasn't too happy about it, can only imagine how Susan would take it considering she was affected by the ordeal in France more.

5 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Another similarity between Susan and Diane is that neither one of them wants to pursue a career in vampire control. Susan doesn't seem to have done any training; at least up until the vampire attacked her, Diane was much more interested in developing a real relationship. 

I'm not so sure that Elliot is at the top of her priorities anymore, it's a close second, but after talking with Nanase about the possibility of Susan being her sister, Diane's gotta be thinking about the possibility of meeting Susan soon and wondering how that will go.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

Susan et al are apparently alone enough to be discussing magic and vampires, so my big question is, where's Little Nase?  Or Little San, or whichever version she'd be accompanied by.  It's been established that Susan pretty much summons her little one(s) whenever she gets the chance, so I'd expect at least one to be hanging around.  Originally, Susan was only able to summon one thing at a time.  The fact that she was able to summon multiple fairies at once at the end of "Playing With Dolls" makes me wonder if she is now able to summon weapons while still keeping one or more fairydolls active, too.

[GeneralNerd 1]

This strip made me realize something; Ellen told Susan about Diane before, when she first noticed the resemblance, and Susan was pretty dismissive of it then. Could it be Susan already knows about Diane, and it was just that Diane didn't know about Susan?

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

31 minutes ago, GeneralNerd said:

This strip made me realize something; Ellen told Susan about Diane before, when she first noticed the resemblance, and Susan was pretty dismissive of it then. Could it be Susan already knows about Diane, and it was just that Diane didn't know about Susan?

She could have done some thinking about it since it first came up, and just not discussed it with anyone else yet.  Decided on her own not to go looking, or talked with her mom and already found out she was a singleton birth, or just logiced out for herself that a girl who is very similar to her might be a half-sister.  She was still in more of an angry-Susan stage back then, although she'd been getting better, so maybe at the time she thought her dad might still be a part of this other girl's life and she wanted to avoid him no matter what.  It'll be interesting to see which way Dan is going with this.  :-)

[Scotty 1,061]

4 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Susan et al are apparently alone enough to be discussing magic and vampires, so my big question is, where's Little Nase?

They're at Elliot and Ellen's house so I doubt they'd be worry about Mr and Ms Dunkel hearing or seeing anything, they would already know about Elliot's adventure in the mall from the news, and he probably didn't go into too much detail but at the very least he would have mentioned helping the griffin that tried to kill him find her wife and things working out for the most part.

3 hours ago, GeneralNerd said:

This strip made me realize something; Ellen told Susan about Diane before, when she first noticed the resemblance, and Susan was pretty dismissive of it then. Could it be Susan already knows about Diane, and it was just that Diane didn't know about Susan?

3 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

She could have done some thinking about it since it first came up, and just not discussed it with anyone else yet.  Decided on her own not to go looking, or talked with her mom and already found out she was a singleton birth, or just logiced out for herself that a girl who is very similar to her might be a half-sister.  She was still in more of an angry-Susan stage back then, although she'd been getting better, so maybe at the time she thought her dad might still be a part of this other girl's life and she wanted to avoid him no matter what.  It'll be interesting to see which way Dan is going with this.  :-)

I don't think Susan would 100% know about Diane, though she has made contact with her through youtube's (or EGS' equivalent) message system, but she wouldn't have known it was her sister she messaged. I think Susan might have at least considered the possibility that if the woman she caught her father with wasn't the first time he cheated, then there's a possibility that he one of them might have gotten pregnant by him. I don't think Ellen's texts about Diane triggered it though, but then Susan was too preoccupied with other drama so it would have been the last thing she'd want to think about, but after her revelation during Grace's birthday, once the crap about the uniforms subsided, she might have revisited that journal and pondered it.

[hkmaly 490]

16 hours ago, skington said:

She's clearly focusing on "same magical affinity as you" rather than "looks and behaves quite astonishingly like you". Ellen ignores this because she wants to tell her that Diane is her half-sister or something; Nanase cuts in and mentions that there have been seven; and at this point Susan freaks out even more and summons a sword.

Agree, clearly.

16 hours ago, skington said:

Look at panel 6 again. Susan is freaking out, big time. Even in the final panel she's by no means calm. This cannot possibly be sarcasm.

However, that doesn't mean she can't be sarcastic. Being scared doesn't mean you can't tell jokes. Just that you are in no mood to laugh at them.

15 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Nanase doesn't seem to have told Susan yet that she suspects that the immortals who were guiding Lady Andrea onto the vampires were the same ones who recruited her and Susan. There's another really big shoe that could drop on Friday.

If she suspect it just little, she may not mention it. It's not important compared to seven vampires OR long lost sister. Not like they can take revenge on them.

15 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Another similarity between Susan and Diane is that neither one of them wants to pursue a career in vampire control. Susan doesn't seem to have done any training; at least up until the vampire attacked her, Diane was much more interested in developing a real relationship. 

Maybe Greg will get a couple of new students?

Susan DID done training. You think juggling three hammers and a lunch trail is easy? It's possible she didn't planed any career in hunting vampires but she clearly was training to be ready to defend if some vampire would attack her.

Of course, she was training with swords and hammers and wouldn't consider unarmed martial arts. Not sure if Greg could help her with sword training, in fact ...

8 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Susan et al are apparently alone enough to be discussing magic and vampires, so my big question is, where's Little Nase?  Or Little San, or whichever version she'd be accompanied by.  It's been established that Susan pretty much summons her little one(s) whenever she gets the chance, so I'd expect at least one to be hanging around.  Originally, Susan was only able to summon one thing at a time.  The fact that she was able to summon multiple fairies at once at the end of "Playing With Dolls" makes me wonder if she is now able to summon weapons while still keeping one or more fairydolls active, too.

She moved from the video store (where she understandably didn't have fairy) over public streets (where she understandably didn't have fairy) to Ellen's house and would likely plan to leave the house soon, again over public streets (where she understandably didn't have fairy). She could summon the fairy now, but she might've considered easier to not summon it because it will be problematic to unsummon later.

She may change mind if she realizes this will take longer

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

I don't think Susan would 100% know about Diane, though she has made contact with her through youtube's (or EGS' equivalent) message system, but she wouldn't have known it was her sister she messaged.

Yes - Ellen didn't mentioned the name then, so Susan is unlikely to connect Diane with that remark about someone looking like her. In fact, they STILL didn't mentioned the name.

[Scotty 1,061]

14 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Yes - Ellen didn't mentioned the name then, so Susan is unlikely to connect Diane with that remark about someone looking like her. In fact, they STILL didn't mentioned the name.

Even if Ellen had mentioned Diane's name before (which seems to not be the case since in the previouse page it seems like the first time they've said her name in front of Susan) Diane was probably under a different username online.

Actually, aside from Rhoda, no one else knows that it was Diane that was defending Elliot, so it'll likely be Diane that mentions it to Susan when they finally meet.

[hkmaly 490]

9 minutes ago, Scotty said:

22 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Yes - Ellen didn't mentioned the name then, so Susan is unlikely to connect Diane with that remark about someone looking like her. In fact, they STILL didn't mentioned the name.

Even if Ellen had mentioned Diane's name before (which seems to not be the case since in the previouse page it seems like the first time they've said her name in front of Susan) Diane was probably under a different username online.

(Ups. Just noticed they DID mentioned the name. )

We know she didn't. We read the text messages.

And yes, she is unlikely to have username Diane. That one must be already taken.

12 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Actually, aside from Rhoda, no one else knows that it was Diane that was defending Elliot, so it'll likely be Diane that mentions it to Susan when they finally meet.

If she DOES have username (as opposed to posting completely anonymously) then Lucy knows it AND she might've looked at that discussion as well if it was that popular (although likely didn't stayed long). But it's likely Ellen and Nanase don't know that, yes.

[Scotty 1,061]

1 minute ago, hkmaly said:

If she DOES have username (as opposed to posting completely anonymously) then Lucy knows it AND she might've looked at that discussion as well if it was that popular (although likely didn't stayed long). But it's likely Ellen and Nanase don't know that, yes.

That depends on if Diane uses the same username on everything, the IM system they all use and video site would be two separate systems, and as you pointed out, a username she picked for one profile might have been taken for another.

There is also the whole "there's soo many people with the same name but different extra characters tacked on that it can't possibly be the same person" mentality so unless Diane had told Lucy her username for other sites, Lucy might....

...No scratch that, even if Lucy didn't know Diane's username for the video site, she'd still know it was Diane strictly by the context of the posts defending Elliot, Lucy did know that Diane had her sights on Elliot. Hmm...you know, I wonder if Ellen does know that it was Diane that made those posts as well, she is aware that Diane watched the review show, and she did tell Diane that Elliot had recently broke up, while we don't have actual evidence that Ellen has made that connection, it's quite possible she did.

[hkmaly 490]

14 minutes ago, Scotty said:

That depends on if Diane uses the same username on everything, the IM system they all use and video site would be two separate systems, and as you pointed out, a username she picked for one profile might have been taken for another.

There is also the whole "there's soo many people with the same name but different extra characters tacked on that it can't possibly be the same person" mentality so unless Diane had told Lucy her username for other sites, Lucy might....

I read lot of comics. Pretty often I see people confirming "yeah, I'm X on that comic (forum/comments) as well". And I didn't met any other HKMaly yet. Your experience with username like Scotty can be different of course.

Also, if that video site is something big (like youtube) and not specific to just those video reviews, there was likely plenty of opportunities for Lucy to learn what username Diane is using there.

14 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Hmm...you know, I wonder if Ellen does know that it was Diane that made those posts as well, she is aware that Diane watched the review show, and she did tell Diane that Elliot had recently broke up, while we don't have actual evidence that Ellen has made that connection, it's quite possible she did.

How much does Ellen know about that whole incident? She's going to different school ...

[Tom Sewell 268]

That could fit. Or be retrofitted. Tune in tomorrow. Or maybe wait for Part LXIV.

[Scotty 1,061]

3 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

I read lot of comics. Pretty often I see people confirming "yeah, I'm X on that comic (forum/comments) as well". And I didn't met any other HKMaly yet. Your experience with username like Scotty can be different of course.

Well I know a bunch of us had different usernames prior to the great forum death/rebirth earlier this year so we were fortunate to sync some names up.

For example, looking at the Grrl Power comments, Don Edwards uses the same for there and here now but was previously Warrl here, and then MLooney here uses Mike Looney over there.

Over on the Dumbing of Age comments, I've seen a couple EGS related avatars, but none of the names associated with them ring any bells, it is possible that they don't post here but I dunno for sure.

Yeah, my choice of username make it more difficult to keep it the same for everything I do, and some people get lucky and think of a unique enough name to carry everywhere. I had thought I had a unique names for some of the MMOs I played Halbor and Mallakor being a couple, but not after creating those in WoW, I stared seeing them popping up as player names all over the place

[ijuin 572]

As of http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1817 Diane is aware that Susan may be her sister, but Susan so far has no idea that Diane may be related to her.

[hkmaly 490]

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

Yeah, my choice of username make it more difficult to keep it the same for everything I do, and some people get lucky and think of a unique enough name to carry everywhere.

It's not that good. Anyone trying to get some informations about me have it easy.

(Also, tip: using username people find hard to pronounce helps )

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

but not after creating those in WoW, I stared seeing them popping up as player names all over the place

Hmmm ... maybe not playing WoW helps as well

 

[mlooney 3,417]

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

Well I know a bunch of us had different usernames prior to the great forum death/rebirth earlier this year so we were fortunate to sync some names up.

For example, looking at the Grrl Power comments, Don Edwards uses the same for there and here now but was previously Warrl here, and then MLooney here uses Mike Looney over there.

There was a reason why I did that, but I'll be damned if I can remember why. At this point I just go with the auto fill.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

2 hours ago, mlooney said:

I just go with the auto fill.

What ever happened to him?

[Don Edwards 548]

15 hours ago, mlooney said:

There was a reason why I did that, but I'll be damned if I can remember why. At this point I just go with the auto fill.

I started using "Warrl" for personal stuff and "Don Edwards" for work-related stuff, in part, to avoid any work issues over my personal stuff. (I'm politically libertarian and worked in a place where the general attitude is that there's no such thing as a bad government program.)

Then I retired. There is essentially no risk of work issues over my personal stuff. And as I'm writing, and will eventually have something published... the old "any publicity is good publicity" thing kicks in.

[hkmaly 490]

17 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

19 hours ago, mlooney said:

I just go with the auto fill.

What ever happened to him?

Remember that Dan admitted he started with the Lord Tedd parts too soon. Phill will return for his role in defeating Lord Tedd later.

[Stature 96]

On 11/23/2016 at 7:19 AM, The Old Hack said:

Susan's reflexes in general seem excellent, though one must be careful in just how you set them off.

Not only her reflexes, but her guard, too. Yet she might be too wary.

On 11/24/2016 at 8:07 AM, Tom Sewell said:

• Vwoom #1
• “Where the Hell did that sword come from?”

In retrospect, we most likely did not consider her summon seriously since it is the early days of the comic. But lo and behold, her summoning powers are shown from waaay back.

On 11/25/2016 at 2:07 PM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

What ever happened to him?

I miss the girl with the Animal Control on her speed dial a bit more. Phill probably shaved his beard to avoid recognition.