3/1/07- YEEEG!

[Boog]

You made me start laughing when I was supposed to be doing homework, thus attracting parental attention. That was a very mean thing you did, Amber.

Well, Dan seems to be having a good couple of weeks for awesome expressions. So, any guesses as to what's up with the spiders?

[MaskedRetriever]

HEE!  Dan can't help himself!

Now of course we gotta ask whether next update will continue with this mess or switch over to Jyrras Crush Number 2:  Ride 'em Cowgirl

[Jim Halisstrad]

Oh my God, did I ever laugh at this one XD

[xHaZxMaTx]

Curse my blurry CRT monitor!   Someone mind typing out what the spider's saying?

[Sunblink]

For HaZxMaT, the spider is saying "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now how abhorred in my imagination it is!"

Oh, I SO needed this laugh, Amber. I was in such a poor mood before. XD You are my hero.

I assume that all the spiders in the basement have all somehow been completely bloated on random Shakespearean quotes, or are all just amazingly eloquent in general. Dang. What the heck's in that stuff they've been eating? I wish that the spiders in my house would do that, it would make me think twice about squishing them. I can already see myself holding up a big tarantula to my Mom and going "Can we keep it? It says The Taming of the Shrew quotes!"

~Keaton the Black Jackal

EDIT to the Spider-Quotes: Oh yeah, and what MaskedRetriever said.

[Faerie Alex]

You made me start laughing when I was supposed to be doing homework...

Me too.

How come all the spiders in the basement quote Shakespeare? (Or possibly Shakesbear, given that they're in Furrae.)

[MaskedRetriever]

I love how the bit where he's talking to Abel is "Here hung these lips I have kissed--"

[Magic]

The lot of the arachnids, they have such exquisite taste.

[xHaZxMaTx]

Ah, thanks, Keaton!

[Stygian]

YES! Yes, yes, yes, yesss...! It's a confirmation! The spiders are in da house, literally!

Thank you, Amber. I think you've made us all very happy with this. Also, note Dan's face in the third panel. Kind of reminds me of myself...

[superluser]

Point the first.  Dan's expression in panel 3 is the best.  Ever.

Seriously, Amber.  Hang it up, you'll never top that one.  Or, if you can top that one, you might want to check with customs before sending something so addictive across the border.

Point the second.  It looks like that's yet another spider.  Is there one for each Shakespeare play (and a separate one for the sonnets)?  It might pay off to send the Titus Andronicus one back to Abel's Story.

Point the third.  Can we get the Henry IV Part I spider?  I want some Prince Hal action.

Oh, and point the fourth: what if these spiders are like the bookworms in The Eyre Affair?  If Amber reads Fforde, I have a whole new respect for her.

(Of course, Fforde's writing does often leave much to be desired.)

[Zedd]

Now thats how you wake someone up!

[Amber Williams]

The Arachspearians are due to get a Demonology 101 article soon, so I'll let a few tidbits slip.

Firstly, despite their use of words, they aren't sentient.  For some reason their language sounds exactly like various Shakespeare works.  Maybe it was due to some magic tinkering, maybe its just coincidence, who's to say.  However they are still only about as bright as a goldfish.

The different colours seem to reflect which type of work they tend to recite. And in actuality they can only recite a certain amount of lines at most.  So sometimes you end up with one who quotes a really obscure verse. (For comic reasons, I chose particularly well-known verses)

The only other unique thing about them is their bites cause completly random reactions. Sometimes it does nothing, sometimes it causes ilness, sometimes it causes one to learn ice-magic or for their nose to turn magenta.  Some like to play a game similar to russian roulette with a pet Arachspearian.  Not recommended though.

Thats about all I'll say for now. Demonology 101 will likely cover any major details.

[Aridas]

It must be an epidemic of some sort. They haven't started popping up til now.

In other news... Matilda-counter has fuzzy dice?

[Stygian]

Absolutely brilliant. I can't say anything else about it, really.

Now, does this mean that if well-prepared, one could actually attempt to use Arachspearians to "learn" or "earn" certain unusual traits? That does sound like a new method that some colleges might try out.

I can see the course descriptions already! "the Arachspearian Bite Programme; smile and hope for the best!"

[Saist]

bwahahahaah

Spider... to the face!

[Akisohida]

In other news... Matilda-counter has fuzzy dice?

I was about to say 'those are not fuzzy dice' but then I looked at her tail. *^.^*

Arachspearian..If I were in DMFA, would I be part Arachspearian?
'Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt'

[Amber Williams]

Now, does this mean that if well-prepared, one could actually attempt to use Arachspearians to "learn" or "earn" certain unusual traits? That does sound like a new method that some colleges might try out.

I wouldn't say well-prepared so much as desparate or foolish.  10-1 the odds are you are going to have a negative reaction (even insta-death) before you get anything remotely good.          And odds are the only good thing you'd get is the ability to see in the dark.  There isn't any real way one can "prepare" themselves. 

Really the only saving feature is Arachspearians are pretty docile and usually need to be provoked before they will bite. 

[e_voyager]

wait was that Dan inspiring terror? wow. *marks his jerk progress card. Dan gets a silver star*

[Aleolus]

Oiyoiyoiyoiyoi!  A gigantic spider who thinks he's Hamlet?  What more could go on?  And more over, how did Dan know that Abel is creeped out by bugs, I wonder?

[rt]

  quite the devlish expression on dan's face there .. there can only be evil thoughts within.

And Arachspearians spiders now, are we looking for excuses to smush them 

[Sunblink]

Oiyoiyoiyoiyoi!  A gigantic spider who thinks he's Hamlet?  What more could go on?  And more over, how did Dan know that Abel is creeped out by bugs, I wonder?

It could've just been by taking the general idea that most people find spiders = ICKY and tormenting. So he might've not known, he probably just followed the fact that NOBODY would be happy to find a big, Shakespeare-quoting spider hanging over your head.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Aisha deCabre]

(Is STILL snicker-laughing.)  Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.  Dan's face is just priceless.

Also, fascinating info on the Arachspearians.  Quite a creative critter, if not beautifully humorous.  If a spider could recite poetry, I daresay I probably wouldn't mind one that size hanging around.  

[superluser]

In other news... Matilda-counter has fuzzy dice?

I don't care about angst or pathos
'Long as I got my Plastic Mythos
Riding on the dashboard of my car.
Through my trials and educations
And my travels through the nations
With my Plastic Mythos I'll go far.

  Plastic Mythos! Plastic Mythos,
  Riding on the dashboard of my car
  I'm afraid she'll have to go.
  Her breath has melted all my snow
  And if I break a pot she'll leave a scar.

(Do you know how hard it is to find a rhyme for Mythos?  Pathos technically doesn't even rhyme.)

[Toric]

Having just been in a production of Much Ado about Nothing, I would pay an obscene amount of money for a pet Dogberry Arachspearian in a cage. "O villain! Thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this." "Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanderers; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and to conclude, they are lying knaves."

[Alondro]

*Charline  *  What Dan did was NOT FUNNY!  It was mean!  Putting a horrid giant spider on Abel.  Meanie.   

*Charles snerks and whispers to Akoshida about what time Charline goes to sleep*  You can wrap her all up!  I can't wait to hear the shriek when she wakes up!   

[Boog]

Having just been in a production of Much Ado about Nothing, I would pay an obscene amount of money for a pet Dogberry Arachspearian in a cage. "O villain! Thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this." "Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanderers; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and to conclude, they are lying knaves."

See now, I'd just want one on general principles. It's a spider whose bite has random effects and quotes Shakespear! That trumps any other awesome pet since anything, ever.

[TheGreyRonin]

Late to the party, but I agree that Dan's expression in panel 3 was the best I've seen on him. Cracked me up good!

[Narethlian]

Ahh, Spiders, Shakespeare(Shakesbeare?) and Electric Six. I have to agree with everyone that Dan in panel 3 is priceless.

-Nar

[Tiny crested flint]

In praise for the third panel I'd like to say "Best. Expression. ."
Buuuuut I just can't seem to make up my mind.  It is indeed the greatest one Dan has ever had, but... there is some real competition with Mab in panel 3 of comic #409.  
Awsome job Amber now go get some nice rest.