showler

Does a crown count as a "big furry hat"?

I think it is unfair to say that Mr. Verres has no excuse.
First, you have to consider that the purpose of having a "veil of secrecy" in a comic like this is to maintain some semblance of "our" world.  And in our world the government just voted to take away basic health care from millions of people for no reason.  It is not hard to consider that in the Shiveverse there is a large part of the government that is against using tech or magic to help people.  Especially people that they don't believe exist or don't believe should exist.  Verres has limited power to help people...pretty much his only choice would be to break the veil and I doubt that would work.  It certainly would sink him in a hurry.
Second, Uruyuom tech is inherently time-limited.  I don't believe we've seen any cases of a permanent transformation without mixing it with other magic or using it on a natural shapeshifter.   I wouldn't doubt that there are good hearted people who are trying to figure out a way to use the tech to help trans people (without revealing the existence of Uruyuoms to the public), but the time limitation would make that quite difficult.
And the fact that magic itself doesn't want to be widely known limits your ability to use magic to achieve the same effect.  Even assuming that Tedd's permanent spell isn't something as rare as he himself is.
I wouldn't be surprised if this story goes into some of the reasons why magic and Uruyuom tech isn't used to help everyone, not just trans people.  It's gotta be something Dan has thought a lot about.

I think it is unfair to say that Mr. Verres has no excuse.
First, you have to consider that the purpose of having a "veil of secrecy" in a comic like this is to maintain some semblance of "our" world.  And in our world the government just voted to take away basic health care from millions of people for no reason.  It is not hard to consider that in the Shiveverse there is a large part of the government that is against using tech or magic to help people.  Especially people that they don't believe exist or don't believe should exist.  Verres has limited power to help people...pretty much his only choice would be to break the veil and I doubt that would work.  It certainly would sink him in a hurry.
Second, Uruyuom tech is inherently time-limited.  I don't believe we've seen any cases of a permanent transformation without mixing it with other magic or using it on a natural shapeshifter.   I wouldn't doubt that there are good hearted people who are trying to figure out a way to use the tech to help trans people (without revealing the existence of Uruyuoms to the public), but the time limitation would make that quite difficult.
And the fact that magic itself doesn't want to be widely known limits your ability to use magic to achieve the same effect.  Even assuming that Tedd's permanent spell isn't something as rare as he himself is.
I wouldn't be surprised if this story goes into some of the reasons why magic and Uruyuom tech isn't used to help everyone, not just trans people.  It's gotta be something Dan has thought a lot about.

Tedd might not have known how much energy he has because he was constantly using it to study magic without realizing it.

Having read nothing, my crackpot theory is that Seer's choose the new form of magic if a reset happens.  Probably not consciously.

I assume that the shrapnel hit you in the knee?

The only reason that works is because he expects all his "romantic" partners to be severely brain damaged.

As the protagonist, we never see the pile of "unqualified adventurer" corpses that preceded us and the military boss yelling "we're gonna need another Timmy."

As the protagonist, we never see the pile of "unqualified adventurer" corpses that preceded us and the military boss yelling "we're gonna need another Timmy."

As the protagonist, we never see the pile of "unqualified adventurer" corpses that preceded us and the military boss yelling "we're gonna need another Timmy."

As the protagonist, we never see the pile of "unqualified adventurer" corpses that preceded us and the military boss yelling "we're gonna need another Timmy."

On a topic other than phone integration, Tara memorizing the configuration of the trees is another level of badass for her.

"Hey Dad, you have to believe me now about the whales, a griffin magical scientist confirmed it."

Elliot should be poking various parts of his body to see if he can activate the speakerphone option.