El Goonish Shive VII: The Comic is 20 Years Old, but the Cast is Still 18

[DavidSh]

Maybe something like this quote from The Programmer and the Elves: "It has variables named Shamrock and Rainbow and Misty_Morning_Dew, and some of the most ferocious assembly language subroutines to be found outside the jungles of Borneo."

[PoeticallyPsyco]

On the subject of propulsion via pistol, Conservation of Momentum is I think a more useful metric than Newton's Laws. Firing a pistol will change your momentum by precisely as much as getting shot by a pistol (assuming the bullet doesn't go all the way through your body). Which is to say, barely (when Mythbusters tested this on a pig, it took a rifle at point blank to even cause it to fall off of the hook it was on, much less go flying backwards).

In microgravity (i.e. space), that little bit of momentum might be significant enough to help. It's certainly safer than what they did in The Martian movie adaptation; poking holes in your suit like that would propel you, but it would also almost certainly start you rotating uncontrollably (one of the many reasons they cited in the book when explicitly rejecting that idea).

[KillianHawkeye]

Given Tedd's feelings about getting the glove to work, and given that he never ever expected anyone else to read his code, I'm going to assume there was enough frustration involved in making it operational to invoke the usage of profanity-laced variable names.

[Anonymouswizard]

Nah, every variable is named Grace.

You've seen his Star Trek ship, you know it's true.

[Maat Mons]

And the program has terrible memory leaks because he can't bring himself to deallocate any of the Graces.

[Rater202]

Next NP: Rumors that Grace and Ellen are cheating on each other with Nanase.

[Anonymouswizard]

Next NP: Rumors that Grace and Ellen are cheating on each other with Nanase.

Likely.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be completely shocked if the group started becoming a big polyamorous web. So it's possible that by the end of the 3020s Nananse will also be dating Grace (who may or may not be dating Sarah and/or Sam by that time). Justin, Luke, Elliot, and Ashley will remain in monogamous relationships for representation purposes.

[Rater202]

So... Thought.

Tedd still has the other glove.

The one that shaves away a tiny bit of Tedd's magic and stores it so that it can be pumped back into Tedd later to trigger a Supermode.

The one used to power up the magic vision to see the presence of the whales.

the one that Tedd invented to use to fight alongside the others.

The one that looks suspiciously like the gauntlet that Lord Tedd wears.

Tedd might not be as opposed to weapons as Arthur thinks... And that might be a bad thing.

[Celestia]

So... Thought.

Tedd still has the other glove.

The one that shaves away a tiny bit of Tedd's magic and stores it so that it can be pumped back into Tedd later to trigger a Supermode.

The one used to power up the magic vision to see the presence of the whales.

the one that Tedd invented to use to fight alongside the others.

The one that looks suspiciously like the gauntlet that Lord Tedd wears.

Tedd might not be as opposed to weapons as Arthur thinks... And that might be a bad thing.

That is some Olympic level mental gymnastics there.

[Fyraltari]

Isn't that the same glove?

[Anonymouswizard]

Isn't that the same glove?

No, the enchanting glove stops at the wrist, has few or no visible outside modifications and differently coloured fingers. The gauntlet is longer, has a lot of tech bolted onto it, and is all one colour.

I'm not actually sure if Tedd's thought the implications of his gauntlet through. It's designed to boost his levels of magic energy up to full (ordinary) wizard levels, but it's other functions are unclear (firing beams is a safe bet though). It's possible that Tedd, at the moment, would be fine with less lethal weapons but not intentionally lethal ones.

It's also possible that this is what leads to Lord Tedd.

[Rater202]

That is some Olympic level mental gymnastics there.

Please explain how "Tedd already made a weapon" is a leap to "Tedd might be more okay with weapons than Arthur thinks."

Or how "the weapon Tedd made looks very similar to a signature item of an evil version of Tedd" to "you know, maybe it's a bad thing that Tedd made a weapon."

[Celestia]

Please explain how "Tedd already made a weapon" is a leap to "Tedd might be more okay with weapons than Arthur thinks."

Or how "the weapon Tedd made looks very similar to a signature item of an evil version of Tedd" to "you know, maybe it's a bad thing that Tedd made a weapon."

It's because you're starting out with a false premise. Tedd did not make a weapon. Tedd made a tool that could potentially kill people, and that distinction is significant. Tedd did not set out to hurt people. It's like how Alfred Nobel invented dynamite to aid in mining and construction. Sure, it also is very good at blowing people up, but that's not why it was made, and Nobel isn't a murderer for making it. Neither is Tedd.

The fact that am evil Tedd from an alternate universe uses something similar could not possibly be more irrelevant. They are different people, and bad people using something doesn't taint it forever. Iron Man isn't evil because some of his villains also use armor suits. You're taking a character who has never displayed any violent tendencies and claiming that they're totally ok with making magic weapons to maim and possibly kill people because something they made could conceivably be misused. The fact that you don't realize how nonsensical this is is hilarious.

[Rater202]

Tedd made that gauntlet with the intent of using it the next time someone messed with his friends. That makes it a weapon.

Likewise, Lord Tedd isn't a fully distinct individual. As far as we know, this isn't a mirror universe situation where good people are evil and vice versa: Lord Tedd is being built up as Tedd who started out the same but had different friends and made different choices.

[Gnoman]

I think Tedd would be much more comfortable with being asked to create weapons for the express purpose of protecting people (including the perpetrators, as even the big one's Arthur mentioned are intended for detaining superpowerful threats) than he will be with being tricked into helping them.

[Rater202]

So on a whim, I went back to reread the Escape From the Mall NP storyline(I started from Marker) and...

In Marker, it's strongly implied that Pandora marked Liz becuase, while she didn't find a transformation spell, Liz was able to get a spell that would be "useful" to Pandora's plans.

And this was before she found out that her plans were never gonna work out, so...

That... That's one hell of a Chekov's gun.

[Spamotron]

Today's EGS:NP

Whelp it looks like we're leaving Sillyville for a bit to visit Traumatown.

[Celestia]

Wait, Ashley's been around for seven years!? What the flock?

[Fyraltari]

What is even time?

[Rater202]

What is even time?

An illusion created by the correlation of humanity's imperfect perception of the curvature of space against our rationalization of fact that we're fragile existence hurtling towards our impending death by most likely a slow process of decay but also possibly horrible illness, lack of chemical input, the wrong kind of chemical input, random chance, or something just deciding that we need to be broken.

[Windscion]

Glamourpuss Mrs Dunkel chasing little ball-of-energy Elliot is cute!
Also: Part of why Elliot likes to fight is just burning off excess energy? Makes sense.
Also also: Challenge accepted! Elliot's face when he turn to meet Tony reminds me of the (EGS NP) graces.

[KillianHawkeye]

What is even time?

It's all the time that passes between the odd stuff.

[Kish]

"Weren't limited to cuddles"? Is Dan actually implying that Grace has had dreams about sex?

[Windscion]

Obviously she means transforming into a fluffier form for better cuddles.

[KillianHawkeye]

"Weren't limited to cuddles"? Is Dan actually implying that Grace has had dreams about sex?

Are you implying that this wouldn't be completely normal for most eighteen-year-olds?

Although I'd assume it's more like kissing than leaping to a sex assumption, personally...

[Celestia]

"Weren't limited to cuddles"? Is Dan actually implying that Grace has had dreams about sex?

With the commentary, it sounds like more than just implying.

Also, given her age, it would be unusual if she wasn't having sex dreams.

[Fyraltari]

She's clearly dreamt of kissing, which is how babies are made.

[Anonymouswizard]

"Weren't limited to cuddles"? Is Dan actually implying that Grace has had dreams about sex?

As others have said, it's completely normal for a girl her age. It would be more surprising if she hadn't.

Plus she's been in a relationship with somebody she's living with for a year. She's probably had sex, it's just not important to the comic (compared to pointing out that she has a normal thought process).

[Rater202]

As others have said, it's completely normal for a girl her age. It would be more surprising if she hadn't.

Plus she's been in a relationship with somebody she's living with for a year. She's probably had sex, it's just not important to the comic (compared to pointing out that she has a normal thought process).

I recall, many moons ago when I lurked on Dan's forum back on the old egs site, discussion of a post where Dan claimed that the whole main 8 were virgins... except Tedd and Grace, who he did not answer for either way.

This was in the middle of Sister 2, and I never saw the original post.

Two teenagers in a serious relationship are described by multiple people as "practically married" who are frequently without parental supervision.

Yeah.

Until stated otherwise, assume that Grace and Tedd have had sex.

[Anonymouswizard]

I recall, many moons ago when I lurked on Dan's forum back on the old egs site, discussion of a post where Dan claimed that the whole main 8 were virgins... except Tedd and Grace, who he did not answer for either way.

This was in the middle of Sister 2, and I never saw the original post.

Two teenagers in a serious relationship are described by multiple people as "practically married" who are frequently without parental supervision.

Yeah.

Until stated otherwise, assume that Grace and Tedd have had sex.

I mean, I'm also assuming it for Ellen and Nanase, that one's been actively hinted at IIRC.

But yeah, I've been assuming that it happened by the Grace's birthday party arc, if not right back at the beginning. It was pretty clearly telegraphed.llllllllll