El Goonish Shive

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The masterpiece of your Lord and Master. You know you love it.

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El Goonish Shive (EGS for short) is a webcomic by Dan Shive, launched on January 21 2002 It depicts the lives of a group of friends who are currently in their junior year of high school. They are subject to mundane problems of teenage life including disapproving parents, nasty rumours and arbitrary school decisions, and also to problems involving magic, aliens, parallel dimensions and superscience. The characters are complex and believable presentation is attempted despite humorous undertones and a setting where, for instance, females can use Hammerspace. El Goonish Shive is set in the present but is not an editorial strip and doesn't comment on current events.

Storylines are usually long and involved, forming a continuous plot, rarely returning things to the way they were. The chronology of the strip has advanced by a few weeks in five years of production.

Elements of the setting are inspired by a multitude of sources in science fiction, fantasy and mystery, while the setting as a whole is organized and consistent within the comic. For instance, both the existance of transformation guns and that Grace can be a shape-shifting half-squirrel girl have eventually been traced back to the alien Uryuoms. Since the comic's launch, the nature of the humor changed from simple gags like references to “Clerks” or “Dude, where's my car” towards character juxtaposition and acute observations of character behavior.

El Goonish Shive has a small but vibrant forum-based internet community on Keenspot (which it joined on September 10 2003), which contributes relatively large amounts of fanart and discussion on the comic.

Author

The author of El Goonish Shive is Daniel Elliot Shive (born February 18, 1983). Shive regularly participates in discussions with his fans on the EGS Keenspot forum, and often releases information about the storyline and world in which it is set which is never revealed in the comic itself, as well as discussing storyline decisions and alternate paths he might have taken with the comic.

While in junior high school, Shive had drawn a comic starring Matt and Rat<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>, who have appeared in EGS in a few scenes at the beginning of the Sister plotline, and never since June 24, 2002.

Avatar - Shive occasionally draws himself in the comic outside of continuity. He does not use any of the main characters as author surrogate. Instead, his first avatar was a female anthropomorphic squirrel, designed as a mix of the cast’s characteristics (for instance, her hair color was a mathematical average of the characters’ hair colors), not including Susan, who was not considered a main character at the time. After the Sister story arc ended, he switched to a male version and now uses both. The excuse given for this change, and for the avatar being female in the first place, was that any major story arc would affect the nature of the avatar. Since Sister had a transgender transformation basis, the avatar would also be transgendered.

The design for the avatar was not originally intended to be used as Shive's avatar. The original drawing was just Shive having some fun with the idea of merging his main characters, but when the time came to represent himself in the comic, he decided to use that design.

Website content structure

The main page of the El Goonish Shive website<ref name="index.html">Template:Cite web</ref> shows 4 sections of the website prominently in a headline which also includes a link to a New Reader Guide explaining this<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>:

Main section, containing mostly the continuous main plot (outer blue background - some multi-part arcs have their own background)
EGS:NP (NewsPaper) section, containing strips in newspaper format with multi-part side plots (outer black background)
Filler section, containing EGS pictures outside of any plot, often colored, and black & white sketches (outer pink background)
News section, containing Dan's announcement about El Goonish Shive (outer green background)

New content in any of these on the current day will be signalled by having the specific section part of the headline appear in the section background color.

There are exceptions to the above rules: two EGS:NP stories (Magic Comic Shop and Not A Date At The Mall) have been declared part of the main plot<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>, while parts of the main section do not belong into it, because they are guest comics<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>, Q&A sections<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> or side stories outside the continuity<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> before creation of the NP section (including the very first story Introductions<ref name="20020121.html">Template:Cite web</ref>).

The main El Goonish Shive page<ref name="index.html">Template:Cite web</ref> contains several more links, for instance to the forum, and a fanart section.

Plot

Much of the plot is divided into story arcs, while stories of no or little importance for the main stories are narrated outside of the main context of EGS in El Goonish Shive: Newspaper. The most important story arcs are:

Spoiler warning: Just scroll to the links below and read the comic. It's a lot more fun than reading an overview. Srsly.

Introductions (January 21, 2002 - January 27, 2002), non-canonical introduction in which Elliot, Tedd and Sarah first appear and Hammerspace is explained.
Goo, in which Tedd accidentally brings goo to life, and Elliot must destroy it. First canonical story.
Shade, introducing Grace.
Relations, in which
- Tedd finds out that Grace “likes” him,
- Justin and Nanase are introduced,
- Sarah tells Elliot that she loves him and
- Nanase breaks up with Elliot.
Catnip, in which the transformation gun is shown for the first time and Grace’s personality expanded.
Sister†, in which
- Susan is introduced,
- Elliot is transformed into a girl and subsequently, Ellen is created,
- and the goo returns and is ultimately defeated.
Night Out†, which involves a humorous night at the movies in which Tedd and Grace have switched bodies, as well as a serious event in which Nanase realizes she is a lesbian.
Tam eh Tedd, in which the transformation gun is explained, and the Uryuoms first appear.
Painted Black†, in which Elliot is abducted by Damien and rescued by Grace, Ellen and Nanase.
Second Life, Ellen experiences a second life in her dreams, magically given to her by Nioi, who is from another dimention.
Grace’s Birthday Party†, showing the celebration of Grace’s 18th birthday, a party for which the main characters (save for Ellen) switch genders. Towards the end of this arc, Ellen and Nanase begin to develop a romantic relationship.
Hidden Genesis, which takes place two years before the comic begins. This arc explains the origin and backstory of Magus, a shadowy ghost who is suspected to be manipulating events in previous story arcs.
The After Party, the most recent story arc, showing the various activities of the main characters since Grace's party, including revealing to the other characters the nature of Ellen and Nanase's relationship.

†major story arcs with multiple parts.

Recurring themes

Under layers of action, adventure, humor and strange events, a number of serious themes are recurring in El Goonish Shive.

Acceptance of differences includes $#><ual orientations (homo-, bi- and trans$#><uality), non-traditional gender roles and lifestyle choices, and even differences in species (as aliens live on Earth alongside the humans). There are limits if the choices are too extreme, for example Tedd's collection of kinks or Susan's original assertion that all men are $#><-driven and untrustworthy are met with criticism from most other characters. Non-consensual $#><ual acts and fighting except for defense of self or others can be assumed as being strongly rejected by all main characters, as even the character most likely to act in that direction rejects even minor cases (Tedd rejects seeing girls naked without their prior agreement, and Elliot stopped to start fights against bullies over a year ago).

As the main plot proceeds, the characters slowly change in some ways from who they have been before, which mostly happens as growth that enables them to develop fuller personalities and accept their responsibilities(Coming of Age). However, not all changes have been pleasant to the characters, for instance Nanase, who had been introduced as strong and confident, was shaken to the core when she discovered her homo$#><uality (something her mother despises), and is only slowly recovering.

Manipulation appears in different forms, from the humorous to the dangerous. For instance, government agent Mr. Verres hides the widespread presence of Uryuoms by giving them T-Shirts with "Human" printed on it, which seems to work for yet unknown reasons. More dangerous to the characters are the direct mental manipulation by the invisible "Mastermind" and the open question whether the information about Lord Tedd being a villain is correct or was planted.

Small changes can cause big differences. Whenever another dimension appeared in El Goonish Shive, it contained alternate versions of the known characters, who were different in minor key points, for instance Elliot had been born as Ellen in Beta and in Second Life, or little Tiffany in AF04 had not caught her father cheating, which caused the Main dimension Tiffany to go by her middle name Susan and despise men. A large change appears to be that in the Second Life dimension the knowledge about Uryuoms and Seyunolus appears to be public, with lots of Seyunolus at school in Moperville, casting questions on Main dimension practice of hiding their presence.

Cast

Main characters

File:Tedd and Elliot.gif

The first panel of El Goonish Shive, containing Tedd and Elliot

Elliot

Elliot Daniel Dunkel (a play on the author's name, Daniel Elliot Shive) was once an average seventeen year-old boy and student of “anime-style” martial arts. Since the beginning of the comic, Elliot has been transformed into both an anthro-cat<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and a female,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> gained the ability to resume both forms at will thanks to a confluence of technology and magic, had a female duplicate (Ellen Dunkel) split off himself, fought a monstrous blob of goo and been beaten up by an anthro-hedgehog. A level-headed character, Elliot is often the comic’s straight man.

Elliot's best friend is Tedd, who he met when Elliot saved Tedd from a bully back in elementary school. Elliot has a knight in shining armor complex, meaning he feels compelled to help those in need, especially women, even if he doesn't particularly like that person. When this resulted in him saving Tedd, Elliot thought Tedd was a girl. While their friendship has always been and remains platonic in nature, the two often wind up in compromising situations, particularly if one or both of them is female at the time.

Tedd

Tedd Drew Verres is an androgynous teenage boy with a knack for trouble and technology. Tedd is in love with Grace, and is Elliot’s best friend. He wears large electronically enhanced glasses. Formerly shy due to being harassed for his feminine appearance, he has attained a great deal of confidence since being entrusted with developing alien morphing technologies,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which he uses in his spare time for his own amusement.

Tedd’s relationship with Grace has developed quickly during the Relations storyline. He has a furry fetish alongside a number of other fetishes. As such, he likes Grace’s animal forms, mainly her half-squirrel and half-cat forms, though not to the exclusion of herself. Although his role is in many ways that of a typical horny teenage boy with the addition of an obsession with transformation, his core character has forced those who judged him, particularly Susan, to re-evaluate their perceptions.

Ellen

Ellen Danielle Dunkel is the female duplicate of Elliot, who was magically split from him in the Sister storyline. She initially strove to be his “evil twin” when she saw herself as an ephemeral “extra Elliot”, but has since adjusted better into an identity of her own. Elliot considers her his sister, as she now is legally; Tedd considers her a “hot female Elliot”; but how she considers herself remains uncertain, and she did not settle on a self-identity for a long time. Although the origin and function of the Dewitchery Diamond, the object that created her, is unclear, she remains alive and well.

Ellen can shoot a beam from her hand that partially mimics the effect of Tedd’s transformation gun set to “Female Variant #5”. She is bi$#><ual, but uncomfortable with her attraction to men. She is much more playful and flirty than Elliot, whom she has compared to herself as being “like [her] if [she] was being directed by George Lucas”, i.e. rather wooden and deliberate. At the end of the Painted Black storyline, the sorceress Nioi cast a spell on her which has caused her to dream of a “second life” - in fact causing her to experience living the life of a female alternate of Elliot in another dimension, and apparently intended to give her the life experiences she would have had if she had grown up normally. This has led to some unexpected explorations of her personality, the most obvious of which was bringing to the surface her repressed discomfort with finding men attractive, which eventually resulted in her making the decision to act as though she were purely a lesbian.

Ellen and Nanase (who was once Elliot's girlfriend) have shared mutual attraction since the Night Out story arc. They revealed their feelings to each other at the end of the Grace's Birthday Party story arc.

Sarah

Sarah, at the beginning of EGS Elliot’s best friend, has been his girlfriend since the Relations storyline. She is artistic and arguably the most normal character, with no special abilities other than access to Hammerspace, which is available to currently female characters in EGS. Sarah is usually level-headed, considering the number of bizarre experiences she has had, and she rarely loses her temper. She once had an incident involving Tedd transforming her into a catgirl, since which she has been extremely cautious about transformations involving herself.

File:Grace Sciuridae.gif

The first panel of El Goonish Shive containing Grace

Grace

Grace, formerly known as Shade Tail, is a shapeshifting squirrel/alien/human hybrid who spends a good deal of her time as a human girl. She can transform into a variety of forms, including squirrel, half-squirrel, half-cat, half-hedgehog, Tedd, and a human girl and is capable of creating “legion” forms, which are combinations of two or more forms. Having been genetically engineered as an assassin, Grace is extremely powerful, and at least some of her forms are fire resistant due to her being designed to kill Damien, but she is a pacifist, terrified of abusing her strength, and only uses her offensive capacity when her friends are in mortal peril. Her name comes from Grace Sciuridae, a girl whose DNA was partly used in making her (since 'Sciuridae' is the family of rodents which includes the squirrels, the name can be seen as a pun on the common species name 'gray squirrel' - though Grace herself appears closer to a red squirrel in her altered forms). The traits she displays most often are innocence and cuteness. She has been Tedd’s girlfriend since the Relations storyline. With the help of Tedd, she designed the clone form of a green-haired girl with Asian features (and without antennae) which she can assume, and goes by the name Claire when using it. This enabled her to go into the public unnoticed by people looking for her usual forms.

Nanase

Nanase Kitsune is Elliot's ex-girlfriend and Tedd’s cousin. She is another student of “anime-style” martial arts and was initially presented as the best student at the school Elliot and she attend, but it was later revealed that Elliot is holding back out of fear of hurting others (there have been no solid conclusions yet on who is the more competent martial-artist). Nanase is a dangerous fighter and magic user. She has learned to levitate and to transfer her consciousness into little fairy forms near her friends for communication using magic (she actually owns a cell phone, but in her words, "where's the fun in that?"). Nanase dresses provocatively when she can get away with it, as her family makes her dress conservatively in eyeshot. However, she disdains manipulative use of her looks, and her habit of choosing the good over the popular has hurt her social status at school.

Nanase’s new friendship with Ellen has led to some uncomfortable self-discovery, and after some speculation from Justin, Nanase revealed herself as a lesbian to Elliot and Susan. By various ways, all main cast members except Tedd now know that, but Nanase is unaware of that and still considers her $#><ual orientation a secret. Since the Night Out storyline, Nanase has been attracted to Ellen and the latter is aware of that and has voiced frustration at Nanase’s reluctance to come out. Nanase finally came out to Ellen at Grace's 18th birthday party, and the two shared a kiss.

File:Nanase and Justin.gif

A panel of El Goonish Shive showing Nanase and Justin at the dojo

Justin

Justin Tolkiberry is also a student of anime martial arts, though of lesser skill than Nanase and Elliot, and friends with the two. He works part-time in a comic book and trading card games store. Justin is gay and, before he found out that Nanase was a lesbian, he teasingly suggested that she might be one. Justin’s last name is a reference to J. R. R. Tolkien and Gene Roddenberry, and he has a geeky obsession with The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek. He's also a fan of the card game Magical Gatherings, which is remarkably similar to Magic: The Gathering.

In Grace’s Birthday Party, Justin’s unrequited feelings for Elliot have begun to be addressed.

Susan

Tiffany Susan Pompoms was the last major character to be introduced in EGS. Initially a friend of Sarah and an extreme feminist, Susan has developed friendships with all other major characters and a crush on Justin. As a reaction to seeing her father’s affair with a blonde woman and her parents’ subsequent divorce at an early age, events that have been partially shown in the Sleepy Time and Grace’s Birthday Party storylines, she colors her hair dark blue and prefers and enforces the use of her middle name to avoid similarity with the blonde woman. Susan lives with her mother in a mansion and works in a video store.

Susan has taught Sarah to use Hammerspace<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and met Nanase in Paris, where both Nanase and Susan gained access to magic. Relations between Nanase and Susan were portrayed as mutually unkind in Sister, but improved to friendship when Susan let Nanase pick Ellen’s clothes for Grace’s Birthday Party.

Secondary characters

Families and pets

Mr. Verres – Tedd’s father and a secret agent of the government, tasked with covering up alien and supernatural activity. He is divorced, Tedd's mother was abroad when last mentioned.
Mr. and Mrs. Dunkel – Elliot’s parents and, by extension, Ellen’s parents. Very forgiving. It was hinted that Mrs. Dunkel had to end her education when pregnant with Elliot.
Jeremy – “The Creature Nature Never Intended,” Jeremy is Tedd’s pet resembling a cat/hedgehog hybrid, brought home by Mr. Verres.
Brownie – Elliot and Ellen’s pet kitten.

Teachers and students

Greg – Creator and instructor of “Anime-Style Martial Arts” and teacher of Elliot, Justin and Nanase in that discipline.
Principal Verrückt – Principal of Moperville North High School, who believes that the school’s problems can be solved through murals and has introduced school uniforms. He originally appeared resembling Adolf Hitler due to his hairpiece, but changed that when he was told about it.
Mr. Bleuel – The El Goonish Shive universe’s counterpart of Darren Bleuel, a disgruntled physics teacher at Moperville South. He is particularly annoyed by Nanase's insistence on breaking the laws of physics by hovering on school property.
Matthew William Cohen – Student Body President of Moperville North, who appears to have developed a distant fascination with Susan after her outburst following the announcement of the new school dress code. He is named after Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, and Billy West. Occasionally delivers pizza.
“TC” (theater clerk) – Also known as “Da Playah”, a generic gawky teenage male at Moperville North who vastly overestimates his own appeal to the opposite $#><.
Tony – A football player at Moperville North who often picks on Tedd. Grace believes he has a repressed attraction to Tedd.
Melissa – Justin’s former lifelong best friend, and the person to whom Justin first revealed his homo$#><uality, after their first and only date. She accidentally let his secret slip, which then became known to all of Moperville South HS. After that, her and Justin’s friendship dissolved. Ever since, she has attempted to win him back.
Noah – Androgynous male friend of Melissa at Moperville South.
Liz – Disgruntled teenager at Moperville North, hooked on nicotine, doesn't care much about anything.
Matt and Rat – Characters from Dan Shive’s previous (non-web) comic strip at Moperville North.

Other dimensions

Lord Tedd – Tedd’s seemingly evil counterpart from the Alpha Dimension.
General Shade Tail – The Alpha Dimension counterpart of Grace, and Lord Tedd’s right-hand lieutenant. Has a different, male, human genome, which appears similar to the sample of DNA that was originally to be used to make Grace.
The Goo – A pile of goo that Tedd apparently brought to life in science only to be destroyed again by Ellen in Sister. Later, it was revealed that it was actually animated by one of Lord Tedd's Demon Nuclei, sent to kill Tedd, as opposed to being accidentally vivified by Tedd.
Nioi – An anthro-skunk (‘nioi’ being a Japanese word for ‘scent’) from the Alpha Dimension, at the service of Lord Tedd, but apparently well-intentioned toward the main characters.
Kaoli – A young anthro-skunk (‘kaori’ is another Japanese word for ‘scent’) who was split off Nioi by the Dewitchery Diamond.
Beta Tedd and Ellen - Dimentional Counterparts of Tedd and Elliot respectively, Beta Tedd, in and attempt at contacting Tedd (somehow through his computer), left a message to Grace (since Tedd was out )that the Goo was sent by Lord Tedd. Beta Tedd and Ellen are in a romantic relationship.
Second Life Tedd, Ellen, Kaoli and Archie - Dimensional Counterparts of Tedd, Elliot and Nioi, while Archie's counterpart is not known. They form a band with Ellen as lead singer. Their dimension, where Uryuoms and Seyunolu are common knowledge, is named after the EGS story Second Life, not the game.

Project Lycanthrope/Damien

Dr. Sciuridae – Former employee of the company that produced Grace and her brothers. During Grace’s creation, he replaced the genome of the intended human donor with that of his deceased daughter.
Guineas - One of Grace’s three “brothers”, Guineas is the oldest of the group. He is half guinea pig and half human, but appears to be incapable of human speech.
Hedge - Another one of Grace’s “brothers”, Hedge is the second oldest of the group. He is one quarter hedgehog and three quarters human. While in human form, he has blonde spikey hair and wears sunglasses.
Vlad – The last of Grace’s “brothers”, Vlad has parents of several species, most notably birds and bats. A physically and emotionally tortured character, he found transforming between human and animal forms to be physically too painful. Towards the end of the Painted Black story arc, Ellen permanently turned him into a human female, Vladia. Since transforming, Vladia's personality has gone from "tortured" to simply "shy and somewhat reclusive". It is possible that Ellen just turned him into a female version of his intended male human form. As part Uryoom, Vlad/ia can keep any form they have been given, and regards being human as better than being male.
Damien – A pyrokinetic villain with a god complex who attempted to use Grace and her brothers in his plot to rule Earth, but destroyed himself in a rage while fighting Grace. His name Damien is probably a reference to Damien Thorn from The Omen series who killed those who raised him before eventually trying to take over the world.

Other strange characters

Demonic Duck – A duck that looks like a demon and is sometimes summoned by the other characters to create a distraction, often called upon by using the sentence: "Hey, is that a demonic duck of some sort?" Member of the local Distraction Union.
William and Gillian – An Uryuom couple who asked Mr. Verres to help improve their morphing device, leading to the transformation gun.
“The Immortals” – Two obscure beings who are secretly watching Elliot.
Magus – A shadowy ghost who seeks to arrange his own resurrection (after a supposed "demise" caused by a powerful explosion) that would have something to do with Elliot or himself (it's not totally clear) being hit by a Female Variant #5 beam. He is probably the cause of Ellen's “birth”, as he calls himself her father (Tedd shot Elliot with the transformation gun using Female Variant #5, he doesn't know the real reason why he shot Elliot, it was probably due to “Mastermind”, hereafter the gun breaks down, later Ellen-Elliot touches a magic diamond and Ellen is split off).
"The Creepy Kid" - An immortal, with an unknown agenda who appears in the form of a little girl. Probably responsible for the death of Magus, or at least for his return as a ghost.
Agent Wolf and Agent Cranium - Two paranormal investigators working with Mr. Verres. The three were sent to check out the site of a recent dimensional shift, where they eventually met the “Creepy Kid”. Their names are a play on Agent Fox Mulder and Agent Dana Scully from the X-files.

Dan's team

Dan – Daniel Shive’s anthropomorphic squirrel avatar.
Minion – Dan’s minion, according to Dan they get paid more than administrative assistants,
as Minion first proposed to be called Administrative Assistant.
Writer’s Block – A visualisation of the author’s writer’s block.
Writer’s Sphere – Opposite to Writer’s Block (too many ideas), appears in a filler. The Writer's Block's worst fear.

Dr. Germahn's team

Dr. Germahn – A “stereotypical German scientist” who pops in to provide “scientific” explanations.
Amanda – Dr. Germahn's busty and gullible lab assistant and often an unwilling volunteer in his weird experiments, often involving shrinking.
Lisa – Amanda’s roommate and friend and Dr. Germahn’s attorney. She has been hinted to be a lesbian and may have a crush on Amanda, which the other girl remains entirely unaware of despite Lisa's fairly obvious manipulations.
Alice - Dr. Germahn's receptionist and niece.

Locations

Moperville North HS – Primary location of the story surrounding the crew. Elliot, Tedd, Sarah and Susan attend this school. This is also where the Goo attacked Ellen toward the end of the Sister story arc. The school is run by Principal Verrückt.
Moperville South HS – The other high school of Moperville, attended by Nanase and Justin. After Grace’s 18th birthday, Grace and Ellen will also be attending here.
Anime-Style Martial Arts Dojo – School of martial arts owned by Greg, and attended by Elliot, Nanase, and Justin, and others that Dan hasn't shown yet (because of self-proclaimed laziness...).
PTTALUTASF – The government’s “Paranormal Things That Are Of Little Use To Anyone Storage Facility”, a nearly unsecured, low priority building that houses the Dewitchery Diamond. (The Acronym used in the comic, although wrong, is PTTAPUTASF.)
Salty Crackers Comic Shop – Comic shop in which Justin works. Apparently based on Graham Cracker Comics, a greater Chicago area chain.
Video Rental Store – Store in Moperville that employs Susan.
The Nest – Nickname of the hidden facility where Grace and her brothers were born. Until the death of Damien, it was occupied by him, Hedge, Vlad and Guineas.
Tedd’s House – Home to Tedd, Grace and Mr. Verres. Contains a storage locker filled with top-secret information about conspiracies and paranormal phenomenon, and of course Tedd's basement lab where are forged things that nature never intended.

Technology and Artifacts

Transformation Gun (sometimes abbreviated to TF-gun) – Device that changes the molecular makeup of a person, used by Tedd. It is an Uryuom device, reprogrammed with enhanced features by Tedd using object oriented programming (a programming paradigm banned by religious law on their home world<ref name="20030917.html">Template:Cite web</ref>). Formally described as a 'cosmetic morphing device' by the Uryuoms.
- Effects on humans - The transformations are not permanent, ranging from few hours to a month. It is capable of altering an individual to appear as a hybrid of their normal form and some other animal species, with known programmed forms including cat, fox, and 'Jeremy' (see above). It can also alter the target's gender. The device has several built-in forms, but can also be re-programmed for specific forms.
  - Variants - With the current design, each major form has five variants, giving different details to the appearance (e.g., fur patterns, height, breast size, etc.). The fifth forms for male and female impose 'enhancements' (by Tedd's point of view) to ones' appearance; males become taller and more muscular, while females have larger breasts, more curvaceous figures, and longer hair. The variant five forms also increases the target's libido, and causes them to release strong pheromones which affect members of both $#><es for the first 48 hours of their transformation.
  - Gender - Changing genders will 'add hetero$#><uality' to the original gender, meaning that if a hetero$#><ual woman becomes a man, she will be bi$#><ual, having her previous feelings for men as well as new feelings for women. This means a homo$#><ual person who changes genders will still remain attracted to the same $#>< as before. Someone affected by a Variant 5 'enhancement' for their usual gender would be also have no change in $#><ual orientation, but would be affected by the pheromone and libido enhancement 'features'.
  - Clone form - A form that would replace rather than amend the transformed person's original form (not permanent for humans).
- Effect on Uryuoms and Seyunolu - Unlike with a conventional Cosmetic Morphing Device, Tedd's TF-gun is able to perform radical transformations on Uryuoms, specifically allowing them to take a human form indistinguishable from ordinary humans (the reason Gillian and William needed Tedd to re-program it for them). Uryuoms and Greater Seyunolu who are affected by a morphed form are able to re-assume that for at will from then on forth. Greater Seyunolu who are also Lespuko hybrids are also able to combine these to achieve 'legion' forms. Ordinary hybrid forms affect Uryuoms and chimerae in the same way as it does humans, that is, it causes them to appear as their default form modified with features from the hybrid form.
Transformation Gun Tester – Machine to test the TF-gun’s function.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Transformation Gun Modifier – A point and click computer program designed by Tedd that modifies the gun’s effect.
Transformation Belt – A belt, designed by Tedd, which incorporates Transformation Gun technology but lacks the tranquilizer effect, making transformations much more painful to the user. Only capable of changing the wearer to and from an anthro-cat form.
Scanner – A device that scans a person’s body and generates a “clone form” for the TF gun.
Dewitchery Diamond – A magical object which “separates” a curse from a cursed person by creating a still-cursed duplicate of the original. The duplicate is capable of spreading the curse to others.
Tedd’s Glasses – Glasses given to Tedd by his father, enhanced with a variety of features including X-ray vision, telescoping, heat-vision and video-recording. The X-ray vision feature has been removed by Tedd.
Uryuom Workers' Uniforms – Protective suits created by the Uryuoms that can conform to any possible body shape.

Aliens

Uryuoms are an alien race that inhabit Earth. The word “Uryuom” translates to “Alien” in English. Humans somehow do not notice Uryuoms when they wear clothes with slogans like “Human” or “Homo sapiens”, despite the Uryuoms’ two antennae and large, black eyes. Uryuoms can teach a language to someone by simply rubbing their antennae on the said person’s forehead. They can alter their appearance in minor ways, but need the aid of a cosmetic morphing device like a TF-gun for larger changes.<ref name="20030917.html">Template:Cite web</ref> Once they have taken on a form, Uryuoms can morph back to their “base” form and access their new form at will. Uryuoms have no gender, but most of those on Earth choose one as part of their identity in order to better fit in among humans.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Uryuom reproduction - To reproduce, Uryuoms create an egg from an unnamed substance from their body and inject DNA into it. An egg will accept DNA from more than just two parents, and will even accept DNA from other species, e. g. humans.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Lespukos and even some Seyunolus can also reproduce in this way.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Uryuomoco is a fictional alien language, actually an application of a substitution cipher to English.
Seyunolus are created when Uryuom eggs are used to house multiple DNA sources. “Seyunolu” translates to “Chimera”. If no Uryuom DNA is used, then the resulting child will have some characteristics of an Uryuom, but won’t be a true Uryuom. Uryuom and Lespuko traits tend to remain dormant, while traits from other parents are mixed fairly evenly. An absence of Uryuom DNA in a fertilized egg results in a “Roaisol Seyunolu”, or “Lesser Chimera”. An egg with some Uryuom DNA results in a “Tulougol Seyunolu”, or “Greater Chimera”. All types of Seyunolu can shapeshift into a pure form of any of their parents unless the transformation is overly complex, possibly from too many parents. Vlad, for instance, could not transform and nearly died when he attempted to do so. Tulougol Seyunolus are unique in that they can “remember” other forms into which they are unnaturally forced, such as by means of a TF gun, and can transform back into these forms or hybrid versions of their various forms later.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Lespukos are genetically related to Uryuoms. They’re similar in a number of ways, primarily through their shape-shifting abilities. Lespukos are apparently predators, and they can use their powers to grow horns and claws during combat which they can later retract, making them appear either extremely ferocious or extremely docile depending on the situation. “Lespuko” translates to “Rockape”. They live apart from the Uryuoms and are less evolved but stronger than the latter.
- Legion forms - When a Lespuko is a parent in the creation of a Greater Chimera, the resulting offspring could potentially transform with extreme efficiency and be able to combine forms and exert great power. When Lespuko Seyunolus combine forms into legion forms, they can specify every detail that they wish to use, while all other Seyunolus and Uryuoms can only focus on generalities.

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Collected editions

File:El Goonish Shive v1-Read or the Owl Will Eat You.jpg

El Goonish Shive, Volume 1: Read, or the Owl Will Eat You

El Goonish Shive, Volume 1: Read, or the Owl Will Eat You ISBN 1-932775-10-2
El Goonish Shive, Volume 2: The Piece That Does Not Fit ISBN 1-932775-40-4

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References

External links

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fr:El Goonish Shive