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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!
Stature

Story Monday July 24, 2017

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Just now, ProfessorTomoe said:

To her family, direct and extended. To others, not so much.

That's what makes it so weirdly endearing. I love the fact that her character combines genuine love and affection with a twisted view of the world and a need for excitement. It's a mess but it's one that I have to love.

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16 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

I'm thinking of another possibly relevant Manga: The Familiar of Zero. Louise the Zero has a reputation as the worst and weakest mage at her academy when the story begins. She turns out to be the most powerful mage on her world. And that just might apply to the Tedds.

That is a light novel series not a manga 

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18 hours ago, Scotty said:

You know what, I'm happy I'm wrong about thinking there'd be a scene switch, we're getting to learn more about how wands are made, and how non-seers can make them, and maybe Tedd will ask about the last system change.

Yes. And maybe we get even more exposition in Wednesday?

16 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

So when there is a big magic reset, the available seers record EVERYTHING they can about the new system.

The magic users who are able to adapt to the new system fastest put themselves in positions where they can use this advantage by silencing the seers.

Other seers take the hint and stop recording their insights of the changes in magic.

Although that cycle could be broken if the best seer analyzing the changes in magic was also the most powerful wizard deciding who gets to learn how to use the new magic.

You do realize that in last reset seers didn't had internet to publish their findings on? Silencing seers is wasteful ; if you somehow got in position to be ABLE to do something against seer, who obviously adapted fastest, the logical strategy is to make sure only people you like get the opportunity to read what that seer wrote.

Most likely, after the seers described what they could and died by old age, other people though that the description is complete and there is no need to add anything to it.

9 hours ago, Scotty said:
12 hours ago, WR...S said:

I'm surprised he's so bashful about "that spell"... in private, lately, he's been pretty open about his passion for TG-ness.  Unless it'd be permanent?  That doesn't seem like a blushing matter, though...

I wonder if it's more the fact that he doesn't know much about Pandora to feel comfortable talking about it, despite the fact that she knows a fair bit about him, especially enough to know the spell would be suited for him. To Tedd Pandora is someone he just met and she just mentioned a subject that he's only told close friends about and hasn't been able to talk to his dad about it. So I think the blush is more out of embarrassment maybe?

The fact she knows a lot about him makes it MORE embarrassing. (And that's nothing about the embarrassing when he realize she could observe him ANYTIME).

Not sure what is the point of recording that spell, but maybe it IS just to start with the easiest stuff ...

6 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

A dominant military force suffered a massive and unexpected defeat 500 to 1,000 years before the present (Moperville Time).

The Vikings dominated trade and war across Northern Europe.  Their fall from intercontinental relevance to defeat by the Slavs and the Rus would have been about the right time.

Later academics wrote that the Viking decline was due to changing politics, trade, or even climate in Southern Europe.  Later academics also wrote that magic and other "unnatural" events were merely legends.

Makes sense.

Although I actually think main reason Dan doesn't want to specify how old Pandora is is that he is afraid he will wrote something and historians among us would tell him he's totally wrong. He doesn't KNOW how old Pandora is and is not interested in researching history to place those events.

 

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16 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Not sure what is the point of recording that spell, but maybe it IS just to start with the easiest stuff ...

I want to say that she suggested that spell more on the fact that she knows it's an important part of Tedd being genderfluid. Though "easiest" might be referring to the fact that it's a spell that Tedd's actually cast before.

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1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

Most likely, after the seers described what they could and died by old age, other people though that the description is complete and there is no need to add anything to it.

Rather like the centuries when all science and truth was judged by whether it agreed with the surviving works of the Ancient World.  If your views conflicted with Aristotle's, it was obvious who was the wiser between you and thus who must be right.

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

The fact she knows a lot about him makes it MORE embarrassing. (And that's nothing about the embarrass[ment] when he realize she could observe him ANYTIME).

She's seen it all before, thousands of times.  Well, okay, Tedd and the TFG might even be able to come up with something to surprise her, but she lived through eras when there was a reason for all the jokes about sheep, so probably not shock or dismay....

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

Not sure what is the point of recording that spell, but maybe it IS just to start with the easiest stuff ...

Hmm, is there any way she could have overheard the conversation about helping people who are transgender?  I don't think the timing works out for that.

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

Although I actually think main reason Dan doesn't want to specify how old Pandora is is that he is afraid he will wrote something and historians among us would tell him he's totally wrong. He doesn't KNOW how old Pandora is and is not interested in researching history to place those events.

An excellent Doylist reason to not pin it down.  On the Watsonian side, Pandora may not know herself, as anyone but monks and educated government types likely didn't know much about what year it was and what the politics were.  She seems to have been hanging around regular folks, not kings and monks.  She seems to have known how many years since her last reset, but could easily lose track of outside calendars and events.  Once she's significantly past expiry, there's no good reason to keep track on how much overdue she is.

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1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

Although I actually think main reason Dan doesn't want to specify how old Pandora is is that he is afraid he will wrote something and historians among us would tell him he's totally wrong. He doesn't KNOW how old Pandora is and is not interested in researching history to place those events.

Ellen: "Just how old ARE you?!?"

Adrian Raven: "I don't know; I stopped counting. One does, after awhile." *shrug* "I can certainly tell you that when I was your age--"

Diane: "Dinosaurs ruled the Earth."

Adrian Raven: "No, but the Holy Roman Empire was still a thing. Besides, you're talking seven digits of age; if anything, I'm only flirting with four."

Ellen and Diane: *speechless* O_O

------

That little snippet from my head aside, I notice Tedd seems much more relaxed about magic in general now. He doesn't seem angry about it, at least, which may be throwing a giant wrench into Voltair's plan. Then again, having a explanation as to WHY  - and having an immortal agree that having someone of his lineage wind up as one is BS - seems to have calmed him down about it quite a bit. That, or he's in information overload shock. ^^; (Or, you know, distracted from it.) 

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26 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:
1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

Most likely, after the seers described what they could and died by old age, other people though that the description is complete and there is no need to add anything to it.

Rather like the centuries when all science and truth was judged by whether it agreed with the surviving works of the Ancient World.  If your views conflicted with Aristotle's, it was obvious who was the wiser between you and thus who must be right.

That possibly too (it's not in conflict).

This was nicely described in Pratchett's books: the difference between scientists and philosopher is that philosopher is unhappy when he finds something suggesting his teacher was wrong. The scientist would give a hand for proof that some authority is wrong.

29 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:
Quote

The fact she knows a lot about him makes it MORE embarrassing. (And that's nothing about the embarrass[ment] when he realize she could observe him ANYTIME).

She's seen it all before, thousands of times.  Well, okay, Tedd and the TFG might even be able to come up with something to surprise her, but she lived through eras when there was a reason for all the jokes about sheep, so probably not shock or dismay....

This explanation is true and totally logical and still fails to make it less embarrassing.

29 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

Hmm, is there any way she could have overheard the conversation about helping people who are transgender?  I don't think the timing works out for that.

She didn't need to HEAR it. She correctly predicted Tedd would want to help transgender people IN OCTOBER, months before Tedd found what transgender is.

31 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

On the Watsonian side, Pandora may not know herself, as anyone but monks and educated government types likely didn't know much about what year it was and what the politics were.  She seems to have been hanging around regular folks, not kings and monks.  She seems to have known how many years since her last reset, but could easily lose track of outside calendars and events.  Once she's significantly past expiry, there's no good reason to keep track on how much overdue she is.

That's nice theory, except 1) she remembered the years just fine for first 200 years 2) you need to remember just ONE event to recompute your age anytime later, and even if she mostly hanged around regular folks she would notice something historically significant at least ONCE.

8 minutes ago, Kazzellin said:

Adrian Raven: "No, but the Holy Roman Empire was still a thing. Besides, you're talking seven digits of age; if anything, I'm only flirting with four."

For one, it would be VERY hard to miss fall of Roman Empire, yes. Or discovery of New World.

9 minutes ago, Kazzellin said:

That, or he's in information overload shock. ^^; (Or, you know, distracted from it.) 

He MIGHT also be too tired - or most likely, little of each.

 

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3 minutes ago, Kazzellin said:

That little snippet from my head aside, I notice Tedd seems much more relaxed about magic in general now. He doesn't seem angry about it, at least, which may be throwing a giant wrench into Voltair's plan. Then again, having a explanation as to WHY  - and having an immortal agree that having someone of his lineage wind up as one is BS - seems to have calmed him down about it quite a bit. That, or he's in information overload shock. ^^; (Or, you know, distracted from it.) 

Tedd's at least proved that knowing about his parents and what they expected of him, as well as Adrian's connection, wouldn't make him explode. Sure he still doesn't know all the nitty gritty of what happened to cause his parents to divorce but I doubt Pandora lied about it, the whole "they wanted you to be able to defend yourself" is likely true but Noriko probably also wanted Tedd as an apprentice and Pandora might have knowingly omitted that tidbit. Still I think the biggest piece of info that had any chance of having a negative affect on Tedd might have been the knowledge that his resistance to the wand might have been the wedge that drove his parents apart. And yet instead, he joked about how they must have been disappointed in him. So I think if Voltaire has any chance of succeeding, he might have to rely one someone close to Tedd being killed.

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5 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

That's nice theory, except 1) she remembered the years just fine for first 200 years 2) you need to remember just ONE event to recompute your age anytime later, and even if she mostly hanged around regular folks she would notice something historically significant at least ONCE.

Also note that Pandora was easily able to determine how much time passed while she napped.

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11 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

For one, it would be VERY hard to miss fall of Roman Empire, yes. Or discovery of New World.

He MIGHT also be too tired - or most likely, little of each.

Plus, the holy Roman Empire lasted for a few centuries, so there's plenty of wiggle room in there, age-wise.

This is true. Pandora is looking rather tired, as well.

12 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Tedd's at least proved that knowing about his parents and what they expected of him, as well as Adrian's connection, wouldn't make him explode. Sure he still doesn't know all the nitty gritty of what happened to cause his parents to divorce but I doubt Pandora lied about it, the whole "they wanted you to be able to defend yourself" is likely true but Noriko probably also wanted Tedd as an apprentice and Pandora might have knowingly omitted that tidbit. Still I think the biggest piece of info that had any chance of having a negative affect on Tedd might have been the knowledge that his resistance to the wand might have been the wedge that drove his parents apart. And yet instead, he joked about how they must have been disappointed in him. So I think if Voltaire has any chance of succeeding, he might have to rely one someone close to Tedd being killed.

Except she already mentioned to him that his Godfather was supposed to have trained him.

Voltaire has vowed to not kill Elliot, and given Edward's importance, I think a lot of people would be after Voltaire if Edward was killed due to Voltaire's machinations. Grace, now, that would be another matter entirely. However, Dan doens't like doing mean things to his characters, so I'm hoping everyone but Voltaire and Sirleck, and a bunch of random-encounter vampires make it through the storyline alive. (Please note this doesn't take into account how injured they might be, and, to quote Disney, "You'd be suprised what you can live through.") Whether anyone has career changes result from this will be interesting to see. I think it would be interesting if Raven took over Arthur's job. :D

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18 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Still I think the biggest piece of info that had any chance of having a negative affect on Tedd might have been the knowledge that his resistance to the wand might have been the wedge that drove his parents apart. And yet instead, he joked about how they must have been disappointed in him.

He joked in not exactly natural way. I'm still not sure he processed it safely.

14 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Also note that Pandora was easily able to determine how much time passed while she napped.

... without any obvious external source of time information, yes.

2 minutes ago, Kazzellin said:

Plus, the holy Roman Empire lasted for a few centuries, so there's plenty of wiggle room in there, age-wise.

Yes - if you use "fall of Roman Empire" to determine age, you might end up being few years off, as historians might consider different year than you would. But you wouldn't be THAT much off.

4 minutes ago, Kazzellin said:

Voltaire has vowed to not kill Elliot, and given Edward's importance, I think a lot of people would be after Voltaire if Edward was killed due to Voltaire's machinations.

I'm not sure ANY of Edward's friends would be able to get to Voltaire faster than Pandora.

5 minutes ago, Kazzellin said:

However, Dan doens't like doing mean things to his characters, so I'm hoping everyone but Voltaire and Sirleck, and a bunch of random-encounter vampires make it through the storyline alive.

I'm not sure Dan would actually destroy Voltaire and Sirleck. He almost let Damien survive.

6 minutes ago, Kazzellin said:

Please note this doesn't take into account how injured they might be, and, to quote Disney, "You'd be suprised what you can live through."

Disney? Surprising. Although it get less surprising if you add it was Jafar saying it. Good old times of real villains in Disney ... before Maleficent.

There is also the bit about Discworld elves being VERY good at keeping people alive. (No, that was NOT supposed to be comforting.)

10 minutes ago, Kazzellin said:

Whether anyone has career changes result from this will be interesting to see. I think it would be interesting if Raven took over Arthur's job. :D

I think there would be lot of people objecting to it. Starting with Assistant Director Liefeld, Arthur Arthur, Edward Verres and Adrian Raven. But I guess it still can happen :)

 

 

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2 hours ago, animalia said:

That is a light novel series not a manga 

Actually it's both, and an anime as well; I used to own a dvd of the first series and several volumes of the manga.

 

45 minutes ago, Kazzellin said:

Adrian Raven: "No, but the Holy Roman Empire was still a thing. Besides, you're talking seven digits of age; if anything, I'm only flirting with four."

Eight digits; dinosaurs have been gone for around 65,000,000 years, unless you count birds.

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

And maybe we get even more exposition in Wednesday?

A barrel of it if Edward comes downstairs.

 

2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

You do realize that in last reset seers didn't had internet to publish their findings on? Silencing seers is wasteful ; if you somehow got in position to be ABLE to do something against seer, who obviously adapted fastest, the logical strategy is to make sure only people you like get the opportunity to read what that seer wrote.

Which would probably fit right into Leifield's and Arthur's plans, especially if they take over custody of Tedd. Say, Edward wouldn't be out of town again on some unexplained assignment, would he? Exclusive  services of a von Braun or a Tedd is the kind of thing a lot of extremely black operations have been run to obtain. Ever heard of Operation Paperclip?

 

10 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Yes - if you use "fall of Roman Empire" to determine age, you might end up being few years off, as historians might consider different year than you would.

Historians do use different years here, but none of them use "fall of the Roman Empire" to refer to the Holy Roman Empire. The traditional date for the founding of the Holy Roman Empire is the crowning of Charlemagne (AKA Karl der Grosse) on Christmas Day, 800. However, the title really lost its meaning soon after the death of Charlemagne, and wasn't really revived until Otto I in 962. It was formally dissolved at Napoleon's pleasure in 1806, although the Austrian Hapsburgs managed to hold on to and even expand what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire up until 1920. Possibly marrying yet another Hapsburg princess to Napoleon had something to do with it, although the previous Hapsburg marriage to a French Monarch was cut sort (a head short). It's an old saw that the empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

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17 minutes ago, Kazzellin said:

Except she already mentioned to him that his Godfather was supposed to have trained him.

Yeah, Pandora stated that Adrian was suppose to train him, likely in the same way he trained Edward and Noriko, but in the flashback Adrian states "He might never be you're apprentice, but Tedd will always be your son", so Adrian would train Tedd how to use magic and other stuff but Noriko would give him the field experience.

32 minutes ago, Kazzellin said:

Voltaire has vowed to not kill Elliot, and given Edward's importance, I think a lot of people would be after Voltaire if Edward was killed due to Voltaire's machinations. Grace, now, that would be another matter entirely. However, Dan doens't like doing mean things to his characters, so I'm hoping everyone but Voltaire and Sirleck, and a bunch of random-encounter vampires make it through the storyline alive. (Please note this doesn't take into account how injured they might be, and, to quote Disney, "You'd be suprised what you can live through.") Whether anyone has career changes result from this will be interesting to see. I think it would be interesting if Raven took over Arthur's job. :D

Yeah I don't expect Dan to kill off any main characters, or characters that aren't villains or should be long dead anyway (Blaike). That doesn't mean he wouldn't have an attempt made on someone's life. We've have Ellen and Nanase nearly killed by the goo. Nanase nearly killed by Vlad. Ellen nearly killed by Abraham. Elliot with two attempts orchestrated by Voltaire with Grace, Noah, Greg and Dex being potential collateral damage in the first attempt. Diane and Charlotte by the spider vampire, and now Adrian's life is in danger.

31 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

He joked in not exactly natural way. I'm still not sure he processed it safely.

Maybe, he seemed to be rationalize it, he even stated that Pandora's silence confirmed that his parents were disappointed and that his conditioned fear of the wand should have made it obvious that they'd have been disappointed.

38 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

... without any obvious external source of time information, yes.

I dunno if it's just her stretching as she reformed herself, but in the panel where she states how long she napped, she could have been using a spell to determine the date and how much time had passed, maybe something similar to Abraham's "Modern Knowledge" spell?

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6 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Abraham's "Modern Knowledge" spell?

I think Abraham's "Modern Knowledge" spell was kind of wonky, not surprising when you consider how wonky his enchantment of the Dewitchery Diamond was. Abraham was actually surprised to find two high schools in the same city--larger than any city in Europe was in the era his initial chainmail armor would fit.

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21 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:
22 hours ago, Kazzellin said:

Adrian Raven: "No, but the Holy Roman Empire was still a thing. Besides, you're talking seven digits of age; if anything, I'm only flirting with four."

Eight digits; dinosaurs have been gone for around 65,000,000 years, unless you count birds.

You definitely SHOULD count birds as dinosaurs, but I wouldn't say they rule the earth. So yes, eight digits.

21 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Say, Edward wouldn't be out of town again on some unexplained assignment, would he?

It would need to be LONG assignment if it would be supposed to help with this.

21 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:
22 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Yes - if you use "fall of Roman Empire" to determine age, you might end up being few years off, as historians might consider different year than you would.

Historians do use different years here, but none of them use "fall of the Roman Empire" to refer to the Holy Roman Empire. The traditional date for the founding of the Holy Roman Empire is the crowning of Charlemagne (AKA Karl der Grosse) on Christmas Day, 800. However, the title really lost its meaning soon after the death of Charlemagne, and wasn't really revived until Otto I in 962. It was formally dissolved at Napoleon's pleasure in 1806, although the Austrian Hapsburgs managed to hold on to and even expand what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire up until 1920. Possibly marrying yet another Hapsburg princess to Napoleon had something to do with it, although the previous Hapsburg marriage to a French Monarch was cut sort (a head short). It's an old saw that the empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

Oh, right, the first Roman Empire wasn't just holy.

But wait, you mean Holy Roman Empire was still a thing just hundred years ago? Adrian Raven is definitely older than THAT.

21 hours ago, Scotty said:
22 hours ago, Kazzellin said:

Except she already mentioned to him that his Godfather was supposed to have trained him.

Yeah, Pandora stated that Adrian was suppose to train him, likely in the same way he trained Edward and Noriko, but in the flashback Adrian states "He might never be you're apprentice, but Tedd will always be your son", so Adrian would train Tedd how to use magic and other stuff but Noriko would give him the field experience.

Possibly the idea was that Noriko tries to teach him, finds out she don't know how and then let Adrian to do it.

21 hours ago, Scotty said:
22 hours ago, hkmaly said:

... without any obvious external source of time information, yes.

I dunno if it's just her stretching as she reformed herself, but in the panel where she states how long she napped, she could have been using a spell to determine the date and how much time had passed, maybe something similar to Abraham's "Modern Knowledge" spell?

Possibly. Or she looked at stars. I think you can determine exact time just by looking at pulsars. (Yes) If you can see X-rays, I mean.

21 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

I think Abraham's "Modern Knowledge" spell was kind of wonky, not surprising when you consider how wonky his enchantment of the Dewitchery Diamond was. Abraham was actually surprised to find two high schools in the same city--larger than any city in Europe was in the era his initial chainmail armor would fit.

It also didn't give him culture references. But it allowed him to avoid being killed by car and likely actually get from UK to US, so I would consider it useful.

 

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17 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

It also didn't give him culture references. But it allowed him to avoid being killed by car and likely actually get from UK to US, so I would consider it useful.

It was certainly enough to keep him from constantly asking "what is that?" so he knew what highschools were, but the idea that a city would have multiple places of education was fascinating to him.

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6 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

It would need to be LONG assignment if it would be supposed to help with this.

Not really. He was home on Sunday; now it's Friday. If Voltaire is pulling strings on Leifeld and/or Arthur, quite possible to set up.

Or it could be good-old-fashioned coincidence; Edward himself has seen a lot of that. We can be pretty sure Edward can't teleport or fly or he wouldn't have missed the battle with Not-Tengu. He could just be in Washington, staying overnight because his flight is on Saturday morning. Or maybe he's in Europe meeting with someone he doesn't want to talk to Tedd about yet...

17 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

But wait, you mean Holy Roman Empire was still a thing just hundred years ago?

The last Hapsburg Empire, yes. The last Emperor and Empress were Karl I and Zita. Also the last King and Queen of Hungary.

 

21 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Possibly the idea was that Noriko tries to teach him, finds out she don't know how and then let Adrian to do it.

Possibly. However, it's also quite possible that Adrian was the one who taught magic to Noriko and Edward. Maybe even Nanase's mom, too.

 

25 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

It also didn't give him culture references.

Fashion counts as a cultural reference.  Although the cultural reference of his costume of an old hat and a shabby raincoat isn't the most helpful one for hanging around a school. Anyone remember the cover of Jethro Tull's Aqualung?

Sitting on a park bench
Eyeing little girls with bad intent

 

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