"I mean, it's not even fire or fighting type. That would be worth getting out of bed for! In real life, anyway. It's my least favorite of the gen five starters. Sure, grass type might bore the less enlightened, but there's so much utility to it! And its hidden ability, contrary! Sure, its competitive viability is questionable, but games are for FUN!"

Practice Flee!

I actually wonder if hypothetical immortal two has a point. What he's proposing is potentially dangerous (I assume ankle injuries the most probable negative consequence), but how often when in actual need of fleeing are circumstances going to oblige with a smooth flat track to run on? Even sidewalks and streets have shifting elevations and potential unevenness. Maybe proper fleeing really is a thing to be practiced?

Cutaways

I increasingly have to remind myself that I can use cutaways to convey things. It's something I potentially forget even if I've done it on the same page.

"Ugh, I want to convey that Hope is now confused by Pandora helping at all, but how do I explain that without it being clunky?"

"Didn't you just write three hypothetical immortals hypothetically reacting to Rhoda in danger?"

"I don't see what THAT has to do with anything."

It's actually weird that I need to be reminded. I essentially write cutaways to convey things at the drop of a hat even when I'm not writing comics.

--

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

I have no idea who Celes from Final Fantasy VI is or what outfits she might have worn. There is absolutely no chance any such outfits worn by a 16-bit character would have warped my young mind in any way.

What Changed

This page was delayed, and it's because there was something missing. Though I knew something was missing, I didn't know what exactly it was, and it took me a while to figure it out:

Hope's conclusion isn't any different from what Rhoda already thought had happened.

In the canon EGSNP storyline Escape From The Mall, Rhoda ended up getting a rather long note from Pandora (actual reading of it starts here). For convenience, I'm going to include the entirety of the note after the rest of the commentary (I was going to put it right here in the middle of the commentary, but YE GODS was that a long note!).

The note revealed to Rhoda that Pandora was also the creepy girl who appeared with her on the news at the end of Sister 2.

Basically, Rhoda never believed that Pandora was a purely benevolent being, yet Rhoda remained grateful and wanted to thank her all the same. That's what was missing from Rhoda meeting Hope, and there are so many reasons I think it's important to include.

Now, in the previous page, Rhoda tries to rationalize to Hope why Pandora didn't do more. That might seem strange if Rhoda assumed "sink or swim" all along. My clever explanation covering for past me is that Rhoda was saying that because Hope was upset, and not because Rhoda actually felt Pandora would have done more to save her.

And my clever explanation covering for present me is Rhoda decided it would be best in the long run if she just came clean about her honest feelings.

BAM! As airtight as quality food storage containers!

Anyway, here's the note that Pandora fit on a piece of paper that I definitely would have drawn larger had I written it all in advance and actually looked at it.

Pandora's Note to Rhoda (Retyping this was FUN!)

To Rhoda.

I am a being commonly, and uninventively, known simply as an immortal. It was I who appeared with you on the news, and I who bestowed upon you a magic mark in order to save you from the wild boar.

Admittedly, it was my intent that you would shrink the boar, but first magic usage by reflex makes fools of most mortals, and it worked out okay thanks to your cat.

As it turns out, you are a remarkably potent magic user. Shrinking and growing to the extremes you can with the control you can is a rare talent, and you have power to spare.

Your mark vanished because you no longer need it. You have awakened!

As you use your magic, you will gradually get more and more spells. Detailed descriptions of those spells will appear in this book, though I'm afraid I can't prevent the book from being overly detailed and confusing. At the very least, you will know when you have a new spell.

Assuming you wish to master this magic and gain new spells, I recommend playing with your cat. She has a mark now, and if you play enough, she might awaken as well.

PS - You might find it worrying that I gave yo magic, but know that you are the source of your own magic. I simply gave you access to it, and it is without alignment. It is as good or evil as how it is used.

Doing things with your magic that you don't agree with can even cause spells to misfire or behave strangely, so you're advised to follow your conscience anyway.

--

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

Sketchbook - Just Who is Tri-Squirrel?!

--

- Start of Death Sentence and the encounter with the boar (and Rhoda in glasses!)

- Catalina to the rescue

"I did a good thing!"

"I... DID do a good thing, right?"

"Wait wait wait what exactly did I do?!"

--

- Saturday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

- Previous failing at personal space

"How could I possibly take ten percent of her confidence?"

"I don't know, but that's probably for the best. The ability to drain confidence would be terrifying."

I had difficulty writing this scene before I realized that modern day Rhoda would simply not hold back in this moment.

--

- Thursday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

- Saved from the boar

- Previous silence between Hope and Diane

- When last we saw these three

I considered whether I should bother clarifying when this was happening. I decided not doing so might give the vibe that the awkward silence of the first four panels had been going on for one or more hours, so I figured I probably should.

--

- Tuesday EGSNP

Part 10 begins Wednesday, September 2nd.

- When first we saw Vladia in this arc

- When last we saw Vladia

What, you thought I forgot about Vladia? I didn't forget about Vladia. YOU forgot about Vladia! Except, you didn't forget about Vladia, did you? You were wondering where Vladia was? Vladia was in the other room observing everything. THAT'S where Vladia was. Vladia was there to watch and learn!

She might not have learned what Bishop was hoping for.

Anyway, speaking of Wednesdays, this was originally going to be Wednesday's page, but I felt it worked better to cut away to somewhere else between Monday's page and this page.

Granted, I could have just unleashed a narration box saying "FIVE MINUTES LATER," but I prefer the approach of cutting away to somewhere else to keep people from wondering if everyone just teleported out of the room in panel one.

--

- Thursday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

- When last we saw Saou talking with Mist (and Po) 

- Voltaire and Saou having a nice, friendly chat (when last we saw both of them)

- Po failing to see auras

It's only natural to want one's guard to be guarded. If their guard isn't guarded, who can say their guard will be able to guard them? Ideally, there's a chain of guards guarding all the guards, though for that to work, the guarding eventually has to loop around to the first person being guarded, ultimately making everyone a guard for some other guard.

Bodyguard.

Moving Things Around

It's no longer the norm for me to write a page at the last minute, but this is one such page. Sort of, anyway. I had this moment already partly planned, but wasn't sure where to put it. While working on the intended page for today, I realized that I really wanted to have something else between it and the previous page.

This decision happened right about lunchtime, so... Yeah, the day I made this turned into a bit of a scramble. I'm reminded of why I've been endeavoring to prevent such late starts.

--

- Tuesday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

- "Do you know what a dead drop is?"

"This elegant plan of covert following would involve twigs with leaves held in such a way as to disguise ourselves as foliage. If at any point there were to turn to look at us, we would have frozen in place, leaving them none-the-wiser."

"What if they flew?"

"Then we would have done the best we could and failed, for which there is no shame."

"I'm thinking there should be some shame."

--

- Saturday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

"Why do they still care about Public Displays of Magic" is a question that I will occasionally get. After all, it's been accepted that magic is known about, and that it's (probably) inevitable that people in general will gain access to it. It's a fair question, and panel five is the answer.

In short, they want to keep everything as safe as possible.

In a more cynical short, they want to maintain their control when the balance tips, and they aren't in a position to do that yet.

--

- Thursday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

"We also can't assume that they didn't simply come to this side of reality to pick flowers!"

"You'd accuse them of flower theft?"

"What?"

"Those aren't their flowers. Those are our flowers. You think it's acceptable for them to just travel into our side of reality and mess with our flower ecosystems, our the floral economy?"

"'Floral economy'?"

"Never underestimate the financial impact of tulips."

(I didn't start writing this commentary with the intent of ending on a reference to tulip mania, but here we are.)

--

- Tuesday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

- The moment they could have avoided everything if Tedd had used seer sight (noticing Mist standing around)

- "She already has a three-tailed part-lespuko form, so maybe she's more experienced than I was..." (thought by Grace while approaching Po)

- Angry Po (and Grace talking about the anger on the next page)

A Very Long List

"Can we see this list?"

"What?"

"You said their wellbeing is at the bottom of a very long list, but you only said two things."

"The implication is that everything else is above their wellbeing."

"Everything else being two things."

"There are additional priorities, and all the priorities can be broken down further into several more specific priorities, the end result being a considerably long list priorities!"

"And those priorities are...?"

"MOVING ON!"

--

- Saturday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

- Gandpa Sciuridae from Part 5 of Painted Black

- Sciuridae (skwur-uh-dey, or so past me claimed) from Squirrel in the classroom

- Mist's excuse for standing around (not wanting to upset "the old lady")

- Seer sight seeing through Mist's illusion

I've wanted to simplify Grace's last name since pretty much the moment I had her introduce herself with it, which was way back in December of 2007.

In my mind, Grace actually was talked down from simply going with "Grace The Squirrel," meaning "Thea" was a compromise.

I'm also happy that I got to just casually point out potential antagonists that might be lurking somewhere out there. That's always fun.

--

- Thursday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

- "...it gives me some self defense options." (Tedd meeting Rhoda)

- Panel 3

Tedd chose the shrinking spell for the reasons implied here: It halves the scale of a threat without doing anything else. As far as transformation goes, it's minimalistic and relatively ethical as a defensive option.

Also, it's fun that it winds up being a pun.

Tedd chose this option well before the events of yesterday, however, and it was not intended as a counter to Po or Mist. As Tedd says, they'd basically just shrug it off while gaining a new ability.

Speaking of names...

- A maid reveals Po's name

- Po reveals Mist's name

Just in case anyone was scratching their heads at them knowing Po's name. It did get a brief mention.

Grace heard Mist's name more recently (and there's implied additional "talking" to Tedd off-panel), but I figured I'd include that, too.

--

- Tuesday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

"Also, I think I saw her fly up there."

"Oh. So she's not stuck up there."

- They could have parked a lot closer to the pancake place

Tedd originally went over how someone planning to ambush them would expect them at the parking lot by the pancake place.

As soon as you allow for Mist and Po to somehow knowing Tedd and Grace were going out (or had gone out), however, you also have to allow for the possibility of them knowing where Tedd and Grace parked. There's no rationale to reject the second as impossible if you treat the first as possible.

So Tedd leaves it at "I don't know how they'd know we were there" (downtown or at the parking lot), and focuses on the more compelling evidence, which was:

- Mist not communicating as Mist until Tedd was alone

Nothing about what Mist and Po did was consistent with them expecting to run into Tedd and Grace. Disguised Mist's "mm-HM?!" upon seeing the two could be interpreted as the following:

1 - Mist turning to look at who was approaching, casual as you like ("mm").

2 - Mist completely failing to maintain a poker face upon seeing them (HM?!").

Is that actually what happened? It doesn't have to be, but Tedd seems to think so.

--

- Saturday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

- Rhoda's concerns

- People calling things in

- When last we saw these 4

- Protecting a weird bird from a pie tin

I didn't originally start Part 9 with checking in on these four, but I decided we really should. This also meant we could have them go over what people witnessed instead of Bishop.

TIME!

While EGS is ahead of us in terms of magic technology, our world has gotten ahead of theirs in terms of everyday technology. I've allowed shocking tech advancements given the short timespan of the story, but I see that more as a retcon than actual advancements in such little time.

I don't want to keep doing that, so people trying to do magic stuff in secret at least have the advantage of camera phones not being extra absurdly good yet.

For a bit of additional context, saying "caught in 4K" would just get you confused looks in Moperville.

Behind the Scenes stuff

I'm doing my best to work ahead at the moment. As I write this, I have more two pages sketched, and one EGSNP mostly inked. I'm trying to go with a system in which, most days, I finish an already sketched story page, and make an entire EGSNP. On some days I do other things (sketch, write, sketchbook, etc).

I like this more than previous attempts at this approach because it switches things up a bit. I can take a break from a story page to work on EGSNP. I find I like this more than working on multiple story pages or EGSNPs on the same day.

--

- Thursday EGSNP

- HD of this page on Patreon (members only for two days, then public)

Writing has been afoot, and I decided I only need the one day off before part 9 begins. Huzzah! Story resumes Friday.

- "So long as you can work on that... far away from danger..." (Bishop in response to Tedd's declaration of figuring out how to detect royal auras)

- How the heck Bishop is already there (people reporting Grace and Po flying)

This is Elliot's first interaction with Bishop, and I have to say, FANTASTIC first impression.

--

- Saturday EGSNP

There's one more page to this part, then a short break before part 9 (I'll have figured out how short by the next page. Writing is afoot).

- Why Elliot was there

- Hasn't done much while there, but did learn a thing

Who was that?

"Um, Po?"

"What?"

"Who was that up there?"

"Don't know, don't want to know."

"Shouldn't we at least try to find out who--"

"No."

Tuxedo Cheerleadra

"My work here is done."

"Did you even do anything?"

"Maybe? You were saved at the last second, and I think I delayed the maid's attack. It's possible my presence actually made the difference."

"But it might not have."

"It might not have, but maybe it did. I'm going to hold on tight to that maybe."

--

- Thursday EGSNP

- "Your friend just flew after my friend!"

- Mist being "detained" (and let go on the next page)

Just assume Mist was keeping a strategically respectable distance off to the side since around the time that giant fist showed up.

"I should probably do something, but I don't know what. Also, yeah, I wasn't sure before, but that's definitely another lespuko seyunolu over there. I'm just going to stay here a minute."

--

- Saturday EGSNP

Fortunately, Po was not offended by the idea of not being weapon.

This would have gone very differently if Po took pride in how amazingly weapon she was.

--

- Thursday EGSNP

- Grace created, and given Lespuko DNA, as a counter to Damien (from Part 5 of Painted Black)

I know you don't want to be a therapist, Grace, but if you could turn into a competent one right the heck now, that would be great (start of the Grace and therapy sequence).

A slightly different Grace

If Grace were just a slightly different character, she would have began panel two with, “maybe I shouldn’t, but…”

But Grace is not that character. Grace doesn’t consider the rational possibility that maybe she shouldn’t care about the well-being of the stranger who broke into, and caused damage within, her home.

Grace cares, and she doesn’t think she shouldn’t.

--

- Tuesday EGSNP