The Road Ahead

El Goonish Shive storyline Groups
Previous	Balance

The Road Ahead is the twenty-third storyline group in the main canon of EGS. It began October 19 2022.

It includes the following storylines:

• Brother: Diane keeps her knowledge of magic secret and avoids Adrian Raven, which Lucy notices. Diane decides to talk to Raven but it turns out that he has retired from teaching and left. Noah tells Diane and Lucy that he is Raven's adopted son. Diane decides to go home to Noah to make sure that he can cook to live alone.
• Father: When Diane visits Noah, he tells her about Abraham's history (Sister II) and tells her that Raven and Abraham are on a mission to track down Magus and that Raven will teach at Moperville University later. They also discuss what to tell Diane's family; they decide to wait until Raven comes home.
• Our Future: Susan worries that she will be lonely because all of her friends, and Sarah in particular, are in relationships. When Mr. Tensaided suggests that she might stop working for him to go to college, Susan becomes sad about leaving her work and the school, and Sarah comforts her. Susan gets subtle messages from Zeus about immortal law changing.
• Recruitment: When Arthur reads Susan's file because he plans to recruit her for DGB, he finds that Mr. Tensaided has qualifications to teach at a university and decides to arrange for him to be hired at Moperville University.
• Layers: Edward Verres introduces Lavender to Tedd and Grace by taking them on a double date. When they meet, Tedd learns about uryuom projections. He comes up with a hypothesis about how projections and other forms of magic work and unsuccessfully tries to test it.

Brother

At the party where Diane met Nanase's friends, Nanase asked Diane if she was going to tell her friends her secrets involving magic. Diane thought no one would notice that she was keeping secrets.

Subsequent school days Lucy, Rhoda and Diane's parents asked Diane questions about her behavior and Diane answered evasively. Eventually Lucy, who noticed that Diane was avoiding someone (Adrian Raven, as she learned in Sister 3 that he is her biological father), confronted her about it. Diane denied that she was avoiding someone but claimed to be practicing stealth. Lucy angrily left.

Diane realized that she had to tell Lucy and Rhoda some of her secrets and decided to introduce Susan to them. She also decided to talk to Raven. At this time Noah noticed her. Noah followed Diane while she worried about meeting Raven, the fact that she has non-human ancestry through him, and her relationship with Lucy. She hoped that Raven could come up with a cover story that would allow her to tell her friends and family all secrets not directly involving magic. However, when she asked a teacher for Raven, she was told that he had retired. That made Diane furious and she took her anger out on Noah.

Noah fled but Diane caught him and ended up on top of him. He told her that he is Raven's adopted son and offered tell her where Raven had gone. Then Lucy walked in on them. She thought Noah was an ex-boyfriend of Diane who was bothering her. Noah told her Diane had learned that her father was one a teacher at the school and he was the one she had been avoiding. Lucy became angry about him telling her Diane's secret. Noah fled and told Lucy that he is Diane's brother. Lucy hugged Diane and apologized for her reaction to Diane keeping a secret that was bothering her and Diane apologized for trying to keep her secret with obvious lies. Diane also told Lucy that Raven is her father.

Noah recalled how, as a child, he complained to his father about other children making fun of him for looking girly and about having to keep his seyunolu nature secret. His father reassured him that the human children's views on gender were their problem and that the master of fire revolution would end secrecy.

Grace noticed that Diane was bothered by something and Diane complained, in vague terms, about Noah. Grace suggested that the person who was bothering Diane was unfairly taking out their own issues on Diane in order to reassure her. Diane realized that Noah had issues with secrecy and became angry with Raven for leaving him behind.

She wondered if Noah could cook, so when she met him she asked him about his food situation and if he was old enough to be left alone. She decided to visit him to make sure he could live alone. Noah cried tears of joy over Diane caring about him and hugged her. They were interrupted by the school bell and Noah left.

While Diane thought about Noah, she realized that he had run fast and that she had to run even faster to catch him. While she thought about how she unintentionally used magic to catch him, she passed out and an invisible person caught her when she fell. Diane woke up sitting on a chair outside the school nurse's office. While Diane entered the nurse's office, the person who had helped her left. While lying down in the nurse's office and eating a cookie, Diane thought about her emotional state when she unintentionally used magic, wished that she could ask Raven, and hoped that Noah could help her contact him.

Father

The chapter started with a recap of Adrian Raven's fight with Abraham in the previous year (Sister II#Talon vs. Scythe).

In the present, Diane rang the doorbell at Raven's house and Noah opened the door. Once inside, Noah told Diane about Raven fighting the intruder and Diane didn't tell him that she had already figured that out weeks before (Sister 3 - Catspaws#Part 20: Geminis). Then he told her how Abraham made the Dewitchery Diamond to cure a werewolf and that Raven's father was probably killed by the werewolf spawned by the diamond. Then he told her that Raven's mother, Pandora, had the werewolves killed and mentioned that werewolves were so dangerous that he speculated that she saved the world from a zombie apocalypse. Then Noah told Diane that Abraham had turned into stone to revive when the diamond spawned new monsters and track and kill the monsters, and he tried to kill a student of the school, who was not a monster, for that reason. Diane realized that Ellen was Abraham's target because she is Elliot's duplicate created by the Dewitchery Diamond, but didn't tell Noah. Diane tried to guess what Abraham and Raven were doing now.

Meanwhile, Abraham, who was accompanied by Raven, agent Wolf and Vladia, was tracking Magus.

Noah told Diane that Abraham and Raven were tracking down Magus. His understanding of Magus was incomplete. Diane asked Noah why Raven had retired to volunteer for that mission and Noah told her that the paranormal investigators had arranged for Raven to be hired at Moperville University. Diane got angry that she wouldn't be able to easily escape Raven after graduating school but realized that she had already made the choice to accept Noah and Raven as family. Noah asked Diane if she disliked Raven. Diane said that it felt weird to have a second family, like betraying the family who adopted her. Noah thought she should tell her parents everything. Diane wanted to leave her family out of knowing about magic and didn't want them to know that she is different. Noah suggested that they wait until Raven comes back before telling her family and Diane agreed to that.

Then Diane suggested cooking dinner but Noah suggested that they order pizza instead in order to have more time get to know each other.

Abraham was unsure if Magus was in Arizona, New Mexico or Colorado since his magic only told him the direction. Raven was annoyed by the impreciseness of Abraham's tracking and suggesting that they inform agents in those states. Vladia said that she had already informed the other agents and Raven thanked her, which made Vladia blush.

After Noah and Noah had spent some time talking about The Simpsons trivia, Diane was ready to go home. Noah added Raven's phone number to Diane's phone.

Later Diane called Susan to tell her about Noah.

Our Future

During a gym class at Moperville North High School, Susan thought about the romantic relationships her friends are in: Sarah with Sam (Susan didn't know what Sam looks like), Elliot with Ashley, Diane with Lucy, Rhoda with Catalina, and Justin with Luke. Then she thought Sarah was more interested in kissing Sam than meeting her. She thought about her aversion to sex and realized that it might be because of her issues about getting dirty, and imagined Sarah hitting on her after showering; the thought distracted Susan so that she tripped.

Susan grumbled about her busy schedule, with both school and her work at Tensaided's video rental store, as she struggled to open the stuck door of her school locker. At the rental store Mr. Tensaided asked her when she would stop working there as he thought she would prefer to experience college life and as he considered closing the store.

Next day Susan cried when Sarah approached her at school while she was trying to open the locker they shared. Sarah took away Susan to ask her in private why she was crying. Susan said that she didn't know why she was crying as it didn't make sense, but Sarah said that her feelings were still real. Susan told Sarah how she was sad about leaving her work even though she had wanted to leave and also explained that she was sad that she would leave her school locker when she'd leave school even though the locker door kept getting stuck. Sarah reassured her that it makes sense to be upset about change. Susan said that she would like to hang out more with Sarah. Sarah agreed to hang out more and Susan hugged her. The conversation with Sarah made Susan feel better.

Susan decided to watch a movie with her friends and review it for the review show with Elliot. When she read the comments on the review show she saw ominous comments about change. The username of the comments was "Deus-D-minus-4". Susan decided to talk to Edward Verres. She told Edward, and also Tedd and Grace, that she thought the immortals had changed their laws and showed him the comments and explained that she interpreted them as a subtle message from Zeus implying that the immortals had changed their laws to give themselves more freedom and were now unable to move through walls as a side effect. Edward told her that immortals had been observed unsuccessfully trying to move through walls. Edward asked Susan how she figured it out and Susan explained her thinking, which impressed Edward. Edward told Susan that she took her conclusions seriously and was going to report them to Arthur. He didn't tell her that he thought Arthur would want to recruit her.

After Edward left, Susan, Grace and Tedd further discussed the new immortal law. Susan speculated that the new law is secret. Tedd declared that they had to be prepared and asked Susan if she was up to date on her spellbook. Susan told him that she had a new fairy-summoning spell. Tedd asked her if the fairy summoning impairs her thinking, like Nanase's "Fox" spell does, and Susan said that it isn't that bad if she uses much energy, only summons one, and doesn't give the fairy complex tasks.

When Susan went to bed she worried about the future and whether she was right about Zeus's message. She summoned three fairy dolls to muffle her worried thoughts.

Recruitment

Arthur talked on the phone to the head of Moperville University, who badgered him to help her recruit more teachers as he had previously arranged for the university to hire Adrian Raven. After Arthur ended the call, Sybil gave Arthur Susan's file. Arthur correctly guessed that the reason an immortal had vowed to be her ally had something to do with immortals making Susan kill a monster. Arthur and Sybil also talked about the agency's shortage of agents and mentioned that Cranium had left. Then Arthur saw that Mr. Tensaided has the right qualifications for a job at the university.

While Tensaided was working at his video rental store, a woman wearing sunglasses entered. The woman described herself as mysterious and gave Tensaided a film studies test.

Layers, Part 1

One Saturday, after Ashley and Sarah had finished their magic training, Tedd was happy about them and Elliot leaving as he is introverted and socializing is tiring to him. Grace told him that she is an extrovert (which she realized in the NP storyline Jestful Statement) She elaborated on how she gains energy from socializing and how she wanted to make more friends. She also revealed that she had already made friends and that she had just been invited to a movie with friends Tedd didn't know.

Later, sometime in the spring, Grace told Ellen that she and Tedd were going to meet Lavender; they hadn't been able to meet before as Edward Verres had been busy on his work and Lavender had gone on her sibling's wedding.

Meanwhile, at Moperville North High School, Tedd told Elliot and Susan that he was having trouble deciding on a hairstyle for meeting Lavender (at the time he had shoulder-length hair with bangs reaching his cheeks as he hadn't had a haircut for a long time).

Meanwhile, three goons exchanged their gold for money; the shopkeeper was so intimidated that he didn't ask them for ID as the law required. After the goons, who were the revolutionaries from the Other half of the Main Universe (Saou, Mist and Potestas, who arrived in the storyline Balance#Part 8) left, Saou and Mist talked about their disguises: they used greater projections controlled by Mist, and only the shop keeper saw them as gangsters while cameras would see old women.

Elliot told Tedd to get the haircut he wanted, as Elliot realized that Tedd had an idea but was nervous about it. Tedd confirmed that he wanted a somewhat feminine haircut. Elliot encouraged Tedd to get the haircut he wanted with a peptalk about good masculinity. Many bystanders overheard his speech and cheered at it, which made Elliot embarrassed. He grabbed Tedd's hand and ran away from the crowd. They ran to Ashley and Sarah, who thus saw Elliot and Tedd holding hands.

When Tedd went to school next day he had a feminine hairstyle with neck-length hair and wore a pendant. When Sarah saw him she briefly thought he was transformed. Tedd explained that he wanted a gender-neutral hairstyle that he could use regardless of his gender. When Susan asked him about the pendant, Tedd didn't tell her his main reason to wear it.

Ellen saw a picture of Tedd before she went to bed; she found him good-looking and complained that it was going to mess with her dreams.

Layers, Part 2

This chapter started with a recap of how (as originally shown in Tam Eh Tedd) the uryuoms William and Gillian (who, unlike in Tam Eh Tedd, are shown to be as tall as humans) asked Edward Verres for help inventing clone forms for the transformation gun to make it possible for uryuoms to look like humans, how Tedd volunteered to do it, and how Tedd eventually succeeded in inventing clone forms.

On the evening before they were going to meet Lavender at a restaurant, Grace asked Tedd if Lavender was going to look like an uryuom; Tedd told her that uryuoms have some way of hiding that they are uryuoms without transforming but Tedd hadn't asked them about it because she was shy at first and later was embarrassed about sounding ignorant, and she hadn't asked her father about it since she was confused about her father's supportiveness and worried that anything she said might cause him to change his mind.

On the day they were going to meet (a Friday), Lavender told Edward that she was so grateful for what Tedd had done for the uryuoms that she was tempted to fangirl over him. Edward wanted to keep Tedd's importance to the uryuoms secret from Tedd, specifically the fact that an immortal had told the uryuoms about Tedd role in the magic change that resulted in the uryuoms gaining access to magic. Lavender pointed out that they couldn't keep it secret because Tedd would be able to see that she was using a clone form and because Tedd would meet Lavender's uryuom friends after Lavender and Edward moved together and during their wedding.

Grace explained with many fantasy visuals why they were going to meet at a restaurant.

When Grace and Tedd saw Lavender and Edward outside the restaurant, Tedd was surprised to see that Lavender was in a human clone form and Grace was surprised to see how tall Lavender is. When they met, Lavender told Tedd about projection, the innate illusion magic of uryuoms, and mentioned that rare humans including Tedd can see through projections. Lavender and Grace talked about how Grace had unconsciously used a projection to hide her antennae. Lavender mentioned that the projection would even make Grace's antennae feel like hair. She also confirmed that she was using a clone form. Edward told Tedd that most uryuoms in America were using clone forms based on Tedd's work; this made Tedd happy. Tedd asked his father if he was forbidden from telling him earlier, which Edward confirmed. That made Edward sad.

A flashback showed Edward talking to Lavender about how Tedd's mental health improved as he worked on the transformation gun and about his plans to give human clone forms to all uryuoms. They were overheard by agent Bishop. Assistant director Leifeld ordered Edward to take away the uryuom technology from Tedd. Off-panel Edward persuaded Leifeld to let Tedd keep the transformation gun on the condition that he kept some things secret from him. Back in the present, Edward considered whether to tell Tedd why he had to keep it secret but decided that Tedd might be happier not knowing.

Tedd asked Lavender how closely her clone form matched her projection and Lavender told him that the clone form was made using a scan of the projection, which made Tedd confused that projections can be scanned. Lavender explained that projections make uryuom antennae and tails intangible to not just people who can't see through projections but also to inanimate objects including the scanners used to make clone forms. This made Tedd and Grace even more confused. Lavender elaborated that projections actually make the true forms of uryuoms intangible. Tedd thought about the implications for physics and wondered if quantum physics is relevant. Then a table at the restaurant became ready for them. Before the group entered the restaurant, Tedd told Grace that he was tempted to look up quantum physics and Grace suggested that he should tap his fingers to focus.

In the restaurant Lavender, Tedd and Grace told each other about themselves: Lavender reads fantasy novels, as she starts reading to see how wrong their magic systems are, and then get attached to them. Tedd told her how he learned programming to mod video games. Lavender, like many uryuoms, started working for the government because she wouldn't have to hide what she is. Grace told her that she reads about psychology. Lavender and much of her family are naturally tall and she might have ancestors who were different; Tedd wondered if she deliberately chose her extremely curvaceous look or it was a natural consequence of using a default feminine form, as the latter possibility made him wonder what decides how default feminine forms from cosmetic morph devices make people look. After the two couples left separately, Grace told Tedd that she likes Lavender; Tedd said that he had distracting thoughts that made it hard to get to know Lavender and that Lavender's curvaceous look made him feel inadequate.

On the following night Tedd (who was then in a feminine form) watched videos on quantum physics. Edward told her to get some sleep and gave her a piece of paper with facts about uryuom projections in the hope that it would be easier to sleep with less to speculate about. Tedd thought her father hoped that she could figure out how projections work, so she resolved to do so and watched more videos about quantum physics.

Layers, Part 3

In the morning Tedd was sleeping on a sofa when she was woken by Grace, as Tedd had spent most of the night trying to learn about quantum physics. She had watched quantum physics videos even thought she realized early that it wasn't relevant to uryuom projections because the videos contradicted each other.

Meanwhile, Mist, one of the revolutionaries from the other half of the main universe who were disguising themselves as old women, wanted to instead disguise themself as a young skateboarder but was overruled by the rest of the group as their leader, Saou, explained why it was a bad idea.

Tedd showed a piece of paper with information about uryuom projections to Elliot; it described projection as a roleplaying game mechanic. Tedd also told Elliot that quantum physics is the origin of the notion of a multiverse. Ashley, who was at Tedd's house for a magic lesson with the talking wand Kevin along with Sarah, joined the conversation by pointing out that they knew that other universes exists and Tedd told her about Lord Tedd. Tedd asked Kevin if he knew anything about uryuom projections but Kevin didn't. Kevin asked Tedd what relevance projections have to his magic research, as Kevin saw people as defined by one purpose.

Tedd had an idea about projections, enchantments, the invisibility and (formerly) intangibility of immortals, and Magus's former ghostlike state: all involves layers of reality. He also had an idea for an experiment. He thanked Kevin for inspiring his idea and left to look for something. When Tedd came back to the room where the others were, he passed out. After he woke up, Elliot carried him in his arms. Tedd told Elliot that he had stayed up most of the night and Kevin gave him a lecture about the dangers of overwork. Tedd decided to rest on the sofa and Elliot insisted of carrying him there. While Tedd was resting on the sofa, he thought about the experiment he was planning.

Layers, Part 4

Edward discussed with Lavender whether to tell Tedd that his boss wanted to take the transformation gun away from him, as he thought Tedd might be happier not knowing.

When Edward came home on Monday, Tedd told him about the experiment that he was planning and wanted to show it to his father. Elliot, in a feminine form, was there and so was Grace. Tedd picked up a baseball bat for the experiment, which confused his father. Tedd explained that he was using the bat to store magic energy and mentioned how he had previously (There Be Whales Here Pt 3) been able to see an interdimensional whale when he powered up using stored energy; he had forgotten to tell his father about the encounter with the whale before. Then Tedd told his father about the gauntlet that he previously used to store energy for a power-up (he had stopped using the gauntlet partly because it might remind people of Lord Tedd). He then explained his experiment: he would try to see Elliot's default form by looking at him while powered up. Tedd also explained his hypothesis that uryuom projections, enchantments and the invisibility and former intangibility of immortals all involve the same kind of layers of reality where the interdimensional whales live.

When Tedd powered up for his experiment, Steve noticed it from the Amazon rainforest. Powering up made Tedd's eyes black like Lord Tedd's eyes, which made his father concerned, but Tedd continued his experiment. He couldn't see Elliot's default form yet. When Tedd adjusted his magic vision, he saw something that caused him to close his eyes and look away. He told the others that he saw a flash. Edward reassured Tedd that he didn't have to impress him, as he only wanted Tedd to be happy. He also told Tedd that letting Tedd have uryuom technology was against the rules and that he had to keep the plans to give clone forms to the uryuoms secret as part of the deal to let Tedd keep the transformation gun. Then Tedd turned off his magic vision, which was noticed by Steve.

Tedd asked his father how he managed to persuade his boss. A flashback of how Edward persuaded Assistant director Leifeld began. He summoned several graphs. Not much more of that discussion was shown before the comic returned to the present. Tedd asked his father why he didn't tell him about the deal before and Edward explained that he was worried how Tedd would react. Tedd said his father should have told him and that he was happy knowing what his father did for him. Then Edward left the room.

Elliot and Grace were concerned about Tedd being blinded by a flash. Tedd explained that he wasn't blinded but saw through Elliot's shirt. Elliot complained about Tedd sounding disgusted when he saw Elliot naked and Grace concurred that it made Elliot feel unattractive. Tedd ressured Elliot that he is attractive, which made Elliot blush.

That night Tedd about her hypothesis and how to safely test it. She also resolved to sleep on a healthy schedule.

When Tedd showed Ellen the list of information about uryuom projections, Ellen told him that her "second life" alternate learned at school that uryuoms can choose the appearance of their projections by a method called greater projection.

Hope, Part 1

On a busy street at night a girl with pointy ears was overwhelmed by the conversations of other people and other noise, and tried to block out the noise with her hands. While she was distracted, she bumped into someone. The girl vanished and reappeared somewhere else. Then she thought about her earlier life as Pandora.

While Sarah trained her magic with a training wand that made her use only her own magic energy (Tedd got the idea to make such wands from Kevin in Balance, Part 6), she thought about Pandora.

In a flashback to the first episode of the review show (previously shown in the storyline There Be Whales Here Part 2) Susan ranted about why she likes Star Trek and then, when she remembered that she was recording a review, said that it wasn't for the review. In the present she said that she was distracted while she watched a movie set in high school as it made her think of the fact that she would soon graduate from school. She elaborated on how change, even good change, can feel sad and scary. Elliot asked her if she was going to cut that speech from the review but Susan said that she would keep it.

Mist, one of the three revolutionaries from the other half of the Main Universe (who had gone to the side with Moperville in Balance, part 8), who was looking for royalty using his dream magic (as mentioned at the end of Balance, part 9), tried to use ambient magic energy to check everyone in Moperville in one night. It failed as Mist got stuck in one of the shared dreams (that dream was shown in the NP storyline Parable), and while he found someone who is royalty in the dream (Rhoda), he didn't see what she looks like so he wouldn't be able to find her again. The shared dreams caused the "do I know you" anomaly, where many people to recognize others but few remembered that it was from dreams.

Hope, Part 2

Susan repeatedly double-checked her mailbox after having seen that it was empty because she couldn't stop thinking of the possibility that she had missed something.

The girl who was formerly Pandora visited Salty Crackers Comics. When she saw Justin she recalled what she had thought when she gave him his magic mark: she had wanted the flashy spell to attract attention (Pandora's purpose for marking people was to make the existence of magic impossible to ignore, as hinted in Sister 2 and confirmed in Sister 3 and Marker) and hoped he would accidentally kill someone with it.

She gave Justin a list of Magickal Gatherings cards; Justin asked if she was going to play in the next tournament, which she confirmed. Justin noticed that her list of cards would make a quirky deck, unlikely to be competitive. The girl said Justin's name; he assumed that she knew his name but didn't know how she knew it because of the "do I know you" anomaly. She told Justin that she is named Hope. Then Hope stared at a lamp as she was amazed by the modern technology. Justin noticed that Hope had surprisingly much money to buy Magickal Gatherings cards given that she looked like a teenage girl; he had the thought that she might be a princess. Hope paid with bills in mint condition and Justin checked them for counterfeit. When Justin told her what she would get in change, Hope was startled by that word. Hope recalled Pandora's thoughts about bonding with Sarah as friends.

Then Luke entered the shop. Hope recalled what she (Pandora) thought when she marked Luke; her memories were fragmentary but apparently she had hoped that Luke's magic could help her plan because of his friends, whom Pandora considered delusional (Luke's former friends believed they were chosen to be superheroes, as revealed in Balance, Part 2). Then Hope left. While Hope was leaving the shop, she recalled more information about Luke's spell, but couldn't recall more about Luke himself.

Then Hope entered the room where she lived, apparently through a magical portal. As she lay down on her bed, she thought that Justin and Luke seemed happy, which made her happy for them.

When Luke was walking away from the shop, he was overcome with curiosity and used his spell to check people for magic (as he mentioned in Balance Part 2, he doesn't want to use his spell since he is scared of the magic users he can detect).

Hope, Part 3

Mist told told Saou and Potestas that he wanted to test their staff for stealing magic, as he wanted to use the staff on an evil head of a major company who had mind control magic. Potestas argued against the suggestion as it would endanger their mission. Saou decided to look for more information about the company leader.

Hope, Part 4

Hope trained playing Magickal Gatherings in her room with an opponent with chatbot-like artificial intelligence. Hope was frustrated when she lost. She was planning to play a specific card against Sarah. Then Hope realized that it was already Friday and the tournament would be soon. While Hope was walking to Salty Crackers Comics, she hoped that Sarah would be there and that Tedd and Grace wouldn't, as she didn't feel ready to play the role of godmother to Tedd.

When Hope arrived, Justin told her that it would be an hour before the tournament started. Grace and Tedd were there and Grace approached Hope. Hope ran away and sat down elsewhere in the shop. Then other players arrived, including Larry, Rich and Mr. Tensaided; Tensaided told George that he had a special reason to go to the tournament this evening. Hope was disturbed by the noise of the players.

Then Grace approached Jay and introduced Tedd to her and introduced Jay as a friend (Grace had made many friends at school, as shown in Jestful Statement and mentioned at the beginning of Layers); apparently many of Grace's new friends thought she had made Tedd up to turn them down when they asked her out. Hope realized that she had awakened Jay's magic even though she didn't remember it. She thought she might remember when she awakened Jay if she got closed. Before Jay signed up for the tournament she thought about Grace: she didn't consider Grace and herself close enough to count as friends, she consideered Grace's cheerfulness insincere, she thought Grace has followers rather than friends, and she believed many of them were only interested in dating Grace and would abandon her if they learned that Tedd is real. Then Jay talked to her friend Mark about Magickal Gatherings. Meanwhile, Rich stared at her and Larry told him off for staring. Then they say someone else at the door.

The shop went quiet as Susan entered, for her review show is famous among regulars of the comic shop (or at least among regulars of the Magickal Gatherings tournaments, as noted by the commentary) as Tensaided, Justin, Grace and Larry would often recommend it to them. Jay recognized Susan and knew her name. Mark told her that Susan is an internet celebrity but Jay thought it was the "do I know you" anomaly (indeed Jay and Susan had met in one of Mist's dreams, as shown in Parable). Susan asked Justin for Sarah and Tensaided talked about the Magickal Gatherings deck that he had helped her make. Then Jay approached Susan and Grace and told Susan that she recognized her. Susan told Jay that she thought her name was Jack (Jay used that name in their shared dream), which made Grace alarmed as she thought Jay might be trans and "Jack" might be her deadname. Jay said that she liked the name "Jack" and told Susan that her legal name is Jill. Susan told Jay that she doesn't go by her legal name either (as revealed in Lunchtable Revelations, she changed her name from "Tiffany" after her father cheated on her mother). As they bonded over having changed their names and their hair, Grace was happy.

While Hope worried that Sarah might not go to the tournament, Sarah and Sam arrived along with two other Magickal Gatherings player ten minutes before the tournament would begin; Sam and his friends used to arrive at the last minute (like in Squirrel Prophet) but Sarah had insisted that they should arrive earlier than that.

Hope, Part 5

After Grace hugged Sarah, Sarah greeted Jay. Grace explained that she had told Sarah about Jay because of her hair; Grace was embarrassed as she considered it potentially rude to talk about Jay with other people. Jay told herself that it didn't mean anything that Grace admired her looks (apparently Jay had a crush on Grace).

When Hope saw Sam she remembered what she (Pandora) was thinking when she gave Sam and other trans people magic marks. She became dizzy from noticing Sam, which made Tedd concerned for her. Hope was annoyed that Tedd acted more like a parent to her than she could be for Tedd. Then Justin announced that the tournament would begin soon. As Tedd wondered why Hope got dizzy, he looked for magic with his seer sense and noticed Sam, which made him happy. While Justin read the rules of the Magickal Gatherings tournament, Hope realized that AJ was going to cheat.

Hope, Part 6

In the first round of the Magickal Gatherings tournament, Sarah was paired with George, Sam with Tedd, which made Tedd happy, Susan with Jay, Hope with Mr. Tensaided, and AJ with Guy, one of the players who arrived with Sam and Sarah.

When AJ met Guy he used a spell that analyzed Guy's deck and visualized Guy as an extremely busty cow-girl since Guy had a cow deck. Hope remembered what she (Pandora) was thinking when she gave AJ his spell and felt remorse about helping him cheat at the card game.

When Sam and Tedd sat down to play the game, Sam remembered how they met during a previous tournament (Squirrel Prophet) and how he indirectly implied that Tedd might be trans, which made him embarrassed. Susan was happy to have a chance to get to know Jay but thought that going to a restaurant together would be even better; when she realized that she was imagining something resembling a date, she was embarrassed.

Sarah did badly in her game with George, who reassured her that she played as good as she could. Tedd won his game against Sam.

Susan's strategy in her game with Jay involved monsters that can come back as ghosts, but Susan was playing very passively, which confused Jay until Susan used the spell card "Meteor", which killed all monsters, which allowed Susan to use the ghosts while Jay had no monsters left.

Hope lost her games with Tensaided. She again wondered who Jay is. When she tried to access Pandora's memories of how she awakened Jay, she found that Pandora had blocked memories older than a few years in order to avoid overwhelming her with memories. When she continued trying to access the memory of awakening Jay, she got a painful message saying that it wasn't the right time.

After Sam and Tedd finished their game, Sam told Sarah and Grace that Tedd was outgoing and fun to meet, which surprised Sarah and Grace.

After Susan and Jay finished their game, Susan said that Jay was the only one she inexplicably recognized even though others recognized her. Jay explained that the others knew Susan from her review show, which made Susan embarrassed as the review show fans didn't know what she is like off-camera. Jay reassured her that it's a good thing that she was masked from the perceptions of others. Susan wondered what Jay's words about masking implies about how honest she had been with Susan, while Jay was embarrassed about how open she had been with Susan.

After AJ had won against Guy, he used his spell again in order to enjoy the sight and Tedd saw him use it.

Hope, Part 7

Tedd didn't understand AJ's spell. He recalled a conversation with Elliot about analyzing and copying Elliot's visual highlighting spell, which was hard for Tedd. Elliot suggested that Tedd could copy the spell first to analyze it later. Thus, back at the present at the Magickal Gatherings tournament, Tedd copied AJ's spell to his wristband. The spell showed AJ as a busty and skimpily clothed mermaid. Tedd also learned that the spell gives information about the target's Magickal Gatherings deck. He was confused about the point of the visuals as the spell gives the information about the deck with more clarity than the visuals alone can convey. Then Sarah and Grace approached Tedd and the spell showed them as sexy anime girls (even though Grace wasn't participating in the tournament) and Tedd blushed as he realized that the sexy visuals serve to encourage AJ to use his spell. Tedd also thought about the usefulness of AJ's spell for cheating; it only gives him a slight edge.

In round 2 of the Magickal Gatherings tournament Sarah was paired with Jay, Mr. Tensaided with Tedd, Susan with Rich, Hope with Guy and AJ with George. AJ was intimidated when he saw George with his spell.

Jay thought about what she felt about Susan; as Susan felt like a kinded spirit, she suspected that someone had hurt her. Hope felt guilty about enabling AJ's cheating and was tempted to intentionally lose her game aganst Guy since Guy had lost to AJ, but she decided that she should try to win in order to have a better chance to meet Sarah; she didn't know that Sarah's deck wasn't competitive. Tedd told Tensaided about his card combo that works inconsistently. Susan acted cheerful when she met Rich despite thinking that she should act natural. That made Rich suspect that she was flirting but he recalled what Susan, in her review show, had talked about her inexperience with romance and complained about the view that women are flirting whenever they are smiling, which convinced her than she wasn't flirting. When Jay sat down with Sarah, she mentally listed Susan's known friends. She also thought about her own lack of close friends, which made her visibly upset enough that Sarah was concerned for her.

In the tournament Jay won against Sarah, Tedd lost to Tensaided, Susan won against Rich, Hope lost to Guy, AJ lost to George, and Sam won against Larry; Larry saw that Sam looked more muscular than he used to.

As Jay had won quickly, Jay was bored while waiting for the other games of the round. Then she, Sarah and Grace saw that Susan was stressed. Jay asked her if something was wrong and Susan told her that acting was tiring. Jay asked if she had given Susan bad advice but Susan said that it was't because of that.

Hope, Part 8

As Hope saw Jay after the second round, the mental wall blocking her memories started breaking down but she stopped the memories from breaking through as she wanted to focus on trying to meet Sarah.

Tedd learned that George had won against AJ, which supported Tedd's assessment that AJ's cheating spell doesn't matter much. Justin asked Susan to post the pairings for round 3 of the Magickal Gatherings tournament, and thus Susan and Jay were the first to see the pairings. Susan was paired with Mark, Jay's friend who is a fan of Susan, and Jay was paired with AJ.

When AJ used his spell to look at Jay, Jay noticed him casting a spell, and panicked at the thought of him invading her mind. The light flickered and several people shuddered, presumably from Jay's anger. However, AJ didn't notice that it ha anything to do with Jay. Jay cast AJ's at AJ, and when she realized that it wasn't as bad as she had feared, she laughed. Then she saw Tedd and realized that Tedd had seen that she is a wizard. Grace approached Jay to comfort her. Grace subtly implied that she understood what had happened. When AJ and Jay sat down to play, AJ called a baby. Jay described what AJ looked like to his spell, which spooked AJ so that he tried to forfeit, but Jay insisted that they should play.

Tedd realized what had happened with Jay, which distracted him while he played the game. Justin and Grace talked about Jay; Justin felt they should do something but Grace said that the best thing to do was to be calm and understanding. Susan also realized that Jay had caused the lights to flicker, which made her distracted.

Hope wished she could have done something to prevent the incident with Jay and AJ. She turned in her Magickal Gatherings result; she had lost. Sarah told her that she had lost all rounds too. Justin told them that they would probably be paired in the last round. Hope decided to look at her memory, as she felt she wouldn't deserve meeting Sarah otherwise. After Hope had broken down the wall blocking the memory, she found a chest guarded by a vision of Pandora (her past self), who told her to leave the memory alone as it had nothing to do with her family. Hope summoned a sledgehammer to break the lock of the chest, but Pandora stopped her and said that she lacked determination and that curiosity and feelings of obligation aren't enough. Hope declared that she wanted to avoid Pandora's mistakes and make amends, and summoned an enormous sledgehammer. Pandora disappeared and Hope broke the lock.

Hope, Part 9

Twelve years previously, while Pandora was bored, she sensed someone inflicting magical nightmares on someone else. The magic targeted a girl named Jill (as Jay was called at the time) while she was at a playground. Pandora got angry that someone was harming a child. The attacker, an old man who was hiding in the bushes nearby, made Jll experience Arthur turning into a monster and attack her, apparently in order to make her attack him. Pandora decided to help Jill. As Pandora didn't want to give up her bond to her family by breaking immortal law, her only option was to increase Jill's magic resistance; she had almost no resistance and seemingly no special talent. Pandora, irrational from rage, gave Jill more power than needed and accidentally made the child a wizard, and Jill copied the spell that the attacker was using. Jill's counterattack caused the attacker to run into traffic, and he was killed by a truck while she was connected to him by her copied spell. The use of so much power so fast caused both Pandora and Jill to pass out, and Pandora thought she might have killed Jill. Pandora didn't manage to track down Jill, and eventually she decided to seal away the memory.