chridd

From what I understand, I think a better way of describing this is, rather than violates vs. not violates the laws of physics, the difference is whether she interacts with the virtual world as she would normally interact with the real world without magic (e.g., walking around, picking things up with her hands, etc.), vs. willing things to change. Body switching would of course be an exception because that's not a way one can normally interact with the world without magic.

Confirmed that switching bodies within the spell doesn't cause her to switch bodies in real life. Also, now we know that there is at least one enchantment that isn't a transformation. Second row of second panel (although that's just "likely") Or as she leaves/after the spell.

This is still going to bother me anyways... While computers may or may not be usable in the simulation, I don't think Sarah's knowledge of how they work has anything to do with it. If she just interacts with things physically (e.g., by pushing keys on the keyboard or the computer's power button or moving the mouse or opening a laptop's lid), then everything's based on actual reality and Sarah's knowledge and expectations are irrelevant. If she uses her modify-the-simulation abilities, then the computer will probably just show what she expects (i.e., inaccurate simulation), just like Grace did, again with knowledge of the inner working irrelevant, but she has to choose to use those abilities; this won't just happen if she tries to push buttons on a sufficiently complicated machine. She can almost certainly use her modify-the-simulation abilities to interact with the computer in a way that just shows what she expects (like she did with Grace). A more interesting question is whether she can interact with a computer without using those abilities, i.e., what will happen if she pressed buttons and such. My guess is that that wouldn't do anything (similar to talking to a frozen person), because while she can move the keys on the keyboard, the rest of the computer and the electricity powering the computer is frozen; pressing the key could would complete a circuit that no electricity is flowing through; and there's no clear way to physically interact with the computer to get electricity flowing. If any electric or electronic devices work in the simulation, then, there's probably some special case in the spell (which is definitely possible); but also if pressing buttons on the computer actually does do things, then it will be accurate because she didn't use the ability that makes the spell inaccurate. There's a possibility that someone skilled enough with the spell could use the modify-the-simulation ability without decreasing its accuracy, and it's possible that knowing how the thing you're trying to interact with could help with that, but this hasn't been established, and it's not what's happening when she uses simple items like doors (opening doors is physical interaction, which doesn't decrease the accuracy of the spell). Or, in less words: Sarah talks to a frozen person ⇒ they don't respond (but doesn't decrease simulation accuracy) Sarah modifies the simulation to animate the person ⇒ they come to life but do what Sarah expects Sarah pressed buttons on ("talks" to) a frozen computer ⇒ unknown (but doesn't decrease simulation accuracy); probably either nothing or accurate simulation Sarah modifies the simulation to animate the computer ⇒ it comes to life but does what Sarah expects

Pressing a button might not work (i.e., might just do nothing) because the machine the button is connected to is frozen. For quantum experiments, it could be that none of them can be done with everything frozen, and that anything that unfreezes them will disturb the system enough to change whatever properties one was trying to observe. Most likely, of course, (the boring answer) is that it probably won't come up so it probably doesn't matter.

...or maybe she can use spells in the simulation, but not mutant dangerous rarity maybe-some-type-of-wizard abilities... ...or she's not looking in the right place (maybe the magic is where actual Sarah is rather than where she is in the simulation after walking around), or for the right thing (maybe she's seen magic but didn't know that's what it was)... ...or the simulated version of Sarah isn't using any magic (she wasn't using a spell within the simulation while walking around, and she didn't start frozen)... ...or magic flickers rapidly and freezing time can make it invisible... ...or whatever prevented Luke's spell from working on Tedd prevented Sarah's spell from properly analyzing Tedd's magic...

There's also the effect that nothing in the simulation continues to move (on its own, at least), which makes it seem like a time stop ability (and thus time-related) to someone who uses it but who doesn't know what it actually did (which includes Sarah the first time she used it—and of course the reader was seeing things from Sarah's perspective at first and therefore didn't know what it did either).

No, I haven't. I don't see how it would necessarily be a villain spell (though one could of course do villainous things with that), at least if it's actual switching as opposed to a one-way thing. It would be similar to something she can already do less efficiently with the transformation gun (although it would make it possible for her to hurt the other person's body by hurting herself, though that works both ways), or if she also gains the person's powers it would be similar to (and less powerful than) being a wizard (though it would have the additional power of preventing the target from using their normal powers). Unless she can switch with immortals... In any case, I don't really think it's likely, given what's established (Pandora might have avoided mentioning it in order to cause chaos and reveal magic more, but since now she has a good reason to hide magic, she probably would have mentioned it), but the fact that she was saying what she did sort of seemed to me like it was leading there. Now that has been mentioned, that seems like a more likely twist (if there's going to be a twist at all), especially since she's now around two people with powers whereas the first time she tried it she only switched with Carol, who as far as we know doesn't have any sort of magic powers. And I seem to remember her mentioning that switching bodies was the best way to check for a magic mark, which would be especially true if this were the case...

She's having doubts about whether it affects stuff in the real world, and she's complaining about using the body swap accidentally... what if bodies actually stay swapped once she ends the spell?

I take it the post I was quoting was a reference that I didn't get because I don't watch movies?

Mr. Raven: Let's see... She's super powerful... She ...seems to care about me despite being crazy... She hasn't killed anyone that I know of recently... She obeys immortal law... She saved my students (even though she could have foreseen and prevented the attack in the first place) Psychiatrist: Immortal? Mr. Raven: Yeah, my mother's immortal. Psychiatrist: *makes a note* I don't think he'd be allowed to do that, unless the psychiatrist was threatening someone or had magic.

"I might become more cat-like first": Isn't that what happened to Tedd? "or turn you into a cat,": Isn't that something Tedd's spell can also do? (replacing "cat" with "girl" in both of these) (...now I kind of want it to be able to do one of those things...)

Being born ten minutes before or after midnight, particularly midnight on New Years, is noteworthy enough that someone who otherwise wouldn't otherwise keep track of such things might remember it. (and, of course, we don't know for sure yet that they're half-sisters.)

Or it might stunt his growth or something. Tedd is short, and isn't growing facial hair, so it could be that height-changing transformations interfere with growing and that gender transformations interfere with the development of secondary sexual characteristics (although, of course, that could just be how he naturally looks). (I've also wondered if this is why Grace looks young.)

I doubt it; remember, this takes place before Squirrel Prophet, and she didn't seem to already know about it then (Catalina's and Rhoda's marks seem to be new information to her then). Not necessarily; Shadow Guy might have done other things since then that we haven't heard about (which is how I initially interpreted it); he's done other things before ("It's probably nothing compared to--"). Sure they do. Cat ears definitely belong on her head.

Seems likely. Catalina, no, your cat ears are perpurrfectly fine, there's nothing wrong with them.

Keep in mind, also, that Susan told one person, whereas Justin told the news. (Tensaided still could tell others, but that's still better than the news, where lots of people finding out is pretty much guaranteed. Of course, if he tells people now, they'll just think that he's basing it off what Voltaire said... at this point, he doesn't really know much more than most other people.)

Wait... did Pandora make a bet with herself?

My point was that he (probably) doesn't have direct access to all the signals that his phone can see, but rather that his abilities are more similar to what he could do if he were just using the phone normally (seeing the screen being one possible way that could work, but it could be some subspell that does the same sorts of things). That is, he can talk on the phone, he can see a map and determine GPS coordinates (since there are apps/features that show GPS coordinates) and get driving direction, and he could probably send text messages and browse the internet and take pictures, but probably can't see where exactly the GPS satellites are or the specific bytes his phone is receiving from the cell carrier.

That's one of the possibilities that I've considered; another is that there's some limited resource needed and there isn't enough for everyone. Perhaps there's a limited supply of matter for summons and enlarging transformations and such; the griffins consider Nanase's avatar spell to be rare, so perhaps magic on this side of the world limits its matter use by making magic in general rare, whereas on the other side it only makes summoning spells (and others that require significant amounts of extra matter) rare. (Magic energy is another possible resource for this.)

That's not sensing power (and also the link's not right). It's a vaguely-remembered dream. I'm pretty sure this has already been discussed elsewhere on this forum.

Also, Grace can't sense magic power. She only knows about powers she's been told about (in her dreams or otherwise), or where she's seen the mark directly (using ordinary vision), or seen the effects of a spell, or perhaps deduced or guessed or something (same as anyone else). Luke can, though, and it seems Sam doesn't have an ability. Sam is probably going by some combination of Tedd's appearance (especially if pink isn't a possible natural hair color), things he's said, things Grace has said at some point, Tedd's mannerisms and reaction to things, etc. Like ijuin said, if he had an ability related to being transgender, it would probably be a transformation spell. (Or of course he could get an unrelated ability... bag-of-holding spell (more pocket space!), transform into a creature from Magickal Cards or a comic book or something, flying, ...)

I don't think it's any specific person (as opposed to the number of people), and I don't think "figuring it out" necessarily involves anything the main characters don't already know. My interpretation is that the undesirable situation is where a large number of people know things like what awakening is and what magic marks are and who makes them (things which some people already know, but so far not too many). It could be that there's some particular thing(s) magic doesn't want anyone to know (like greater detail about how it works than what we already know, or certain ways of getting magic), or that there's some particular person/people magic doesn't want to know about magic, but we don't yet have any indication that either of those things is the case.

I don't think it's specifically monster insurance; I think it's car insurance that covers various different types of damage. If monsters don't exist (which the company might be assuming), then the insurance company adding "monster-related damage" to the list of things they cover (at least in theory) doesn't cost them anything, and might convince a few people who believe that monsters exist to buy their insurance instead of their competitors'. (I don't know if insurance companies actually do things like this; potential downsides could include people who don't believe in monsters taking them less seriously, and costs relating to dealing with any customer that does claim to have monster-related damage, even they're not correct.)

But do many other immortals feel this way? Maybe this is something that only Voltaire feels... Perhaps Voltaire is particularly bad at guiding and empowering? Or at using "guide and empower" to his advantage (aside from loopholes)? Maybe he's from some other (half-)universe, one where the rules are different (one where Edward is/would be a knight?), or was once mortal, and so is new to the whole guiding-and-empowering thing? (...is the father of a "Lord" likely to be a "Sir"?) (...or if he is from another universe, maybe he's bound by their rules too, which make guiding and empowering difficult?) ...or his motives are so selfish and obviously evil that almost no one would cooperate with him...

There's no indication that he has direct access to those things; I think he still has to go through the cell phone (as in, something more like the ability to see the screen and hear the speaker and press buttons/touch the screen with his mind, perhaps with some enhancements; if he sensed GPS directly, why/how would he get driving directions?), and he probably has to explicitly activate those features rather than just passively being able to sense those (whereas someone with a tail probably wouldn't have to do anything to turn feeling in the tail on [well, unless they were designing the form and had to wire the nerves themselves, but that's not what's happening here]). Perhaps her spell comes with instincts to get her tail out of the way when sitting.