[240] Story Discussion - Kat + 3 == Floor

[Aspen d'Grey]

Poor Kat. Wow, nice jump. Eglamores going to talk to Annie about Aly. Aly is (probably) not going to die.

Must run, late for work due to comic. Sorry 4 short post.

[neal]

Nice expression in panel two. I instantly liked him more for that bemused, affectionate smile.

[aoeniac]

Hooray for more Eglamore!

Yeah I would probably feint too if I saw something as hot as that.

[fjodor]

Eglamore and Annie's text balloons look like they are the same colour. Coincidence or not?

[yeochild]

My thoughts:

.If his parents are arriving in two days, then that'd be a school week, not a week week.
.Kershaw? Aly's last name, I presume.
.I get the feeling that Aly's special in some way and Elgamore's in on it. And he's worried that Annie's gonna be in on it too.
.Aly seems to have the . . . something . . . to get up there but not the skill to get down. So he prolly isn't very experienced in slam-dunkin basketball.
.Evidently Aly didn't make too much noise. Some people seem to still be obliviously practicing passing.
.Looks like Elgamore's still awkward over the Reynardine thing. And the calling-her-by-her-mother's-name-as-she-hurtles-off-a-cliff thing. And the her-not-cooperating thing.
.Ya gotta love that smiley cloud. I'm gonna call him Carl the Smiley Cloud! Yaay Carl!

[UbiquitousDragon]

fjodor said:

Eglamore and Annie's text balloons look like they are the same colour. Coincidence or not?

That leads me to the Wild Speculation that Eglamore is Annie's dad, though that really belongs in the WS thread ...

[todd]

Normally, Annie's got a white speech balloon; I don't know what the significance might be of the color change. But whatever the case, it's clear enough that she and Eglamore haven't thawed out towards each other at all.

(So why did he address her? Was it just because she happened to be standing by, or does he - as has been suggested above - want to talk to her about something? Since Annie hadn't done anything but watch as Alistair made his big hoop shot, it's hard to say - so far - how she'd come to his attention.)

I feel sorry for Alistair. He just undermined his dramatic act by getting stuck on the basketball hoop. At least Winsbury hasn't jeered at him over that - yet.

And now we know his surname (I'm a bit surprised that Mrs. Donlan didn't mention that when introducing him to the rest of the class on the first day, particularly given how prominent they tend to be in British boarding schools).

[Boksha]

Maybe she's imitating Eglamore's voice in a sarcastic way?

[Aspen d'Grey]

Nice catch, I agree on the imitating Eglamore's voice.

[mrw]

I found the sight of Aly hanging from the basketball hoop all the more hilarious because someone on the comment board had predicted it!

So it seems Aly's thing is extreme speed, without some sort of flying ability as well. I had been secretly curious if he had any flying ability which might point to a faerie origin.

boksha said:

Maybe she's imitating Eglamore's voice in a sarcastic way?

That's what I was thinking as well, although it does seem a little immature for Annie. (But not for her true age! ;D )

[boredomman]

I thought he was a elf of some sort, because I thought I caught a glimps of a pointed ear...or not, oh well.

[CoyoteKing]

mrw said:

I found the sight of Aly hanging from the basketball hoop all the more hilarious because someone on the comment board had predicted it!

So it seems Aly's thing is extreme speed, without some sort of flying ability as well. I had been secretly curious if he had any flying ability which might point to a faerie origin.

boksha said:

Maybe she's imitating Eglamore's voice in a sarcastic way?

That's what I was thinking as well, although it does seem a little immature for Annie. (But not for her true age! ;D )

It can't be any sort of real flying ability, because then he wouldn't have ahd trouble getting down, unless of course he has a serious aversion to heights.

[Boksha]

mrw said:

That's what I was thinking as well, although it does seem a little immature for Annie. (But not for her true age! ;D )

It is a bit immature, but as far as I can tell she doesn't like Eglamore much to begin with, for pretty much irrational reasons.

As for Aly not being able to get down, I think he wouldn't have trouble getting down if he had full confidence in his abilities, whatever they are. Falling is basically just the opposite of jumping, after all.

[Count Casimir]

Quickly! Everyone Google Alistair Kershaw for WS!

I like Aly's expression in panel 1.

Also, Eglamore might be warning Aly not to exert himself, or show his powers to students.

[yeochild]

Personally, I think that he has perfect control over his powers. It's just that getting up supernaturally could be mistaken for awesome basketball skills, while floating gently down would DEFINITELY blow his cover. I'm guessing he realised that just as he was finishing the slam-dunk . . .

Of course, this is all wild speculation, you know . . .

[todd]

Well, in all fairness to Annie, I can't say that I was too thrilled with Eglamore's "mixed messages" tone when he was giving her that detention slip back in Chapter Nine of "What you did wrong was not breaking the school rules, but get caught breaking them." (And it's a good thing that it was a "straight arrow" like her that he said it to; I'd rather not consider the consequences of one of the teachers saying something like that to Winsbury.)

[mrw]

I always felt he was trying to hint that she was on the right track doing what she was doing, but couldn't overtly or officially say so. In other words, he wanted to say "Good job, just be more careful" but he can't outright say it, so he tried a different way (don't get caught) and blew it.

[todd]

I definitely think that he blew it, though I'm still curious as to which annoyed Annie more: the tone of "What you did wrong was not breaking the rules, but getting caught", or the fact that he brought up her mother in that context.

[alternativeoyster]

countcasimir said:

Quickly! Everyone Google Alistair Kershaw for WS!

Done.

Alister Kershaw (different spelling, but very similar and the last name is rather distinctive) was an Australian author who moved to Paris to enjoy life. There's really very little information on him at all. I don't know whether there's any significance to his name.