story Story: Monday June 27, 2016

[Scotty 1,061]

http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2207

 

Either Dan never actually thought about it before, or he's just playing with us and spreading the answer out on multiple pages.

[Aura Guardian 57]

I sense Wednesday's question coming...

[Vorlonagent 442]

My own headcanon is that Greg's experience (girl leaving him, binge-watching animae for 3 days before It All Hit Him) adds up to a Minor Angst-induced Awakeneing and ASMA was the result.

I'm still not quite sure how to classify the ASMA moves Elliot, Nanase and Justin were all able to learn and do without being awakened.  I'm tempted to sweep them under a rug labelled "cantrips" (defined as non-Mark spells that that unawakened can learn and use). 

Tedd's watches would be cantrips embedded in a physical device.  "Cannedtrips" if you will...

[hkmaly 490]

36 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Either Dan never actually thought about it before, or he's just playing with us and spreading the answer out on multiple pages.

Or he actually plans to NOT answer that based on the "only explain, don't dump new information" strategy for Q&A.

... but seriously, I'm already finding weird than JUSTIN was not measured. What excuse will Edward have to not test Greg with that wand? Also, how could this NOT be mentioned when he was explaining Greg what his teaching actually does? To conclude, I find hard to believe Greg doesn't know.

9 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

My own headcanon is that Greg's experience (girl leaving him, binge-watching animae for 3 days before It All Hit Him) adds up to a Minor Angst-induced Awakeneing and ASMA was the result.

I'm not sure if it was angst, but that description makes much more sense to me if he actually awakened while watching that anime.

13 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

I'm still not quite sure how to classify the ASMA moves Elliot, Nanase and Justin were all able to learn and do without being awakened.

This is actually first page which speaks about them in way close to classification.

14 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

Tedd's watches would be cantrips embedded in a physical device.  "Cannedtrips" if you will...

There is nothing "minor" about Tedd's watches spells. Spells in Tedd's watches are normal full-power spells as you can get in any other wand, except most wands have at least SOME power source.

 

[Vorlonagent 442]

16 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

... but seriously, I'm already finding weird than JUSTIN was not measured. What excuse will Edward have to not test Greg with that wand? Also, how could this NOT be mentioned when he was explaining Greg what his teaching actually does? To conclude, I find hard to believe Greg doesn't know.

Agreed.  Greg should know if he is Awakened and Ed Verres should have a wand readout to verify.

Justin chalked up his improved abilities as improving his Martial Arts.  It's a pretty reasonable explanation that even Ed Verres might not question without reason.  It's been a day since the Comic book shop and Luke.  There may not yet have been time to do a wand-scan on Justin since.

 

[Vorlonagent 442]

16 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

There is nothing "minor" about Tedd's watches spells. Spells in Tedd's watches are normal full-power spells as you can get in any other wand, except most wands have at least SOME power source.

ASMA abilities aren't minor either...

(apologies for the double post)

[hkmaly 490]

8 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

Justin chalked up his improved abilities as improving his Martial Arts.  It's a pretty reasonable explanation that even Ed Verres might not question without reason.

He had reason to test Justing after the battle with fire monster. But maybe he forgot because he was distracted by Arthur Arthur's not covering truth.

 

[Scotty 1,061]

42 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

... but seriously, I'm already finding weird than JUSTIN was not measured. What excuse will Edward have to not test Greg with that wand? Also, how could this NOT be mentioned when he was explaining Greg what his teaching actually does? To conclude, I find hard to believe Greg doesn't know.

I'm thinking Amanda's "It's funny you should ask that..." will likely lead into stating that Edward did check if Greg was awakened or some such thing.

Or maybe it's just a segue into someone's question about how spell books work.

[partner555 170]

I hope the next question is the magic book as app question.

[Stature 96]

So, are his powers innate? Iunno.

Wanted to throw a bone, but I am afraid of it being chopped like a karate board.

[mlooney 3,417]

I thinks it's rather obvious that Greg is at least dreaming, if not full on awakened. He has at  least two spells.    That "channel my energy into a force field" thing, plus is ranged magic detection, with power levels, against some thing he can't see.  The ability to teach people powers, even if they are "just" illusions might be a 3rd.  His strength and muscle mass also points to magic (see Nanase's magic boobs and her hair for example of body growth due to magic.)  

[Scotty 1,061]

16 minutes ago, mlooney said:

His strength and muscle mass also points to magic (see Nanase's magic boobs and her hair for example of body growth due to magic.)  

This is where things are tricky, Nanase attributed Susan's growth spurt to having been awakened, but for Justin's abs to get the way they were, he would have needed to be awakened for at least a few weeks before the card tournament and it would have been a gradual development or else he would have notice the difference right away. As far as Nanase's boobs are concerned, it's tough to say, she did seem smaller in Susan's flashback, but then Nanase was also around 16 at the time and probably not finished developing anyway. Elliot and Ellen are the only ones that don't seem to have had any physical change due to their awakenings, though they could have had strength and agility enhancements that don't have any visible affect on their bodies. Like Elliot being able to keep up with Noah was possibly due to being awakened.

[banneret 45]

When it comes to Justin, there may be a simpler explanation. The muscles were already developed, and when he awakened some body fat was converted for magical purposes. After all, low body fat is more important for lower torso definition than actual development - you can only make your core so large, and most isolated exercises for the region are inefficient and motivated by vanity. Tedd theorized about Nanase's chest, Elliot has become somewhat softer (youthful) in appearance, and Ellen was always awakened.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

When Dan draws Susan in a Starfleet uniform, it is as a joke.

But Greg is likely to wear those clothes in public on an ordinary day.

[Scotty 1,061]

13 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

When Dan draws Susan in a Starfleet uniform, it is as a joke.

But Greg is likely to wear those clothes in public on an ordinary day.

Susan did wear a TNG uniform for a movie review episode, and Susan's worn Trek inspired clothing before, two other times were in fantasy situations and character development (Elliot dreaming about Susan in a Trois outfit and Susan's messenger avatar) so I wouldn't really say he does it as a joke.

Greg has admitted to cosplaying as Chun Li, but I think all the times we've seen him he's been in his martial arts outfit. I would imagine he worse something more appropriate for the New Years Eve party but aside from that, I don't think he'd go around in public dressed in costume unless he's at a comic/anime convention.

Well maybe he'd get away with wearing the Steven Universe outfit, that one isn't really out of the ordinary, either people will recognize it, or not give any thought to why he'd wear it.

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

no Akuma/Gouki outfit? Bah...

[RainbowWizard 35]

Bet the next question is "Wait... Who's WRITING these darn spellbooks? Is it someone malevolent trying to turn the world into a magical free-for-all brawl with heroes and villains?"

[ijuin 572]

Yes, Pandora is.

[Scotty 1,061]

1 hour ago, ijuin said:

Yes, Pandora is.

Hmmm, you know what would be interesting? If Pandora was THE Immortal that's also the embodiment of magic. That she's pulling a Sheogorath/Jyggalag with her sanity and insanity working independently of each other. When ever we've actually seen her, it's been her insane side, but whatever sent the emissary to Grace in her dreams could have been her sane side. Sanity sees the direction Insanity is going and wants her stopped before she's forced to take matters into her own hands which would cause the system change and might have catastrophic consequences.

[hkmaly 490]

18 hours ago, mlooney said:

I thinks it's rather obvious that Greg is at least dreaming, if not full on awakened. He has at  least two spells.

By definition, anyone having any own magic is at least dreaming.

18 hours ago, mlooney said:

His strength and muscle mass also points to magic

They point to magic in general, but not specifically to awakening.

9 hours ago, Scotty said:

Susan did wear a TNG uniform for a movie review episode

And I don't think it was only occasion she wore it on. She may not wear it on "ordinary" day, but maybe when visiting con? Obviously, not her first one, but she might go to another later.

5 hours ago, RainbowWizard said:

Who's WRITING these darn spellbooks?

Who's creating snowflakes and makes sure they are so different? Who's shaping clouds? Unless you blame Zeus or someone like that, you have no reason to assume someone needs to write the spellbooks. While personifications of natural forces used to be normal, currently the belief that some named entity with human emotions is causing them is very minority belief.

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

If Pandora was THE Immortal that's also the embodiment of magic.

That would make her age unnecessary. The idea is that the time from reset is only thing she differs from other immortals in.

3 hours ago, Scotty said:

but whatever sent the emissary to Grace in her dreams could have been her sane side

... on the other hand, that doesn't mean the emissary in Grace's dreams is not Pandora. It's just emissary - and self-appointment one, not embodiment of magic. And Pandora having multiple personalities wouldn't be surprise.

 

 

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

9 hours ago, Scotty said:

If Pandora was THE Immortal that's also the embodiment of magic.

that assumes there is one. or that immortals work like that.

for all we know the will of magic could be a force beyond even immortal understanding.

[Scotty 1,061]

6 hours ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

that assumes there is one. or that immortals work like that.

for all we know the will of magic could be a force beyond even immortal understanding.

I was suggesting that Pandora might be the source of all magic, and all other immortals are her creations. While the other Immortals are more strict about their rules for limited interference and lifespan, Pandora follows the rules much more loosely at least in the interference part, and practically ignores the lifespan rule because "flair for the dramatic".

The fact that a magic system change has happened at least once before, could suggest that Pandora would have reset at some point, but it was probably either because she was forced to by a third party (humans that got powerful enough to challenge her or other Immortals) or she herself decided to reset things. As I said before, if Pandora is made up of two independent personalities, Sanity and Insanity, then maybe her Sanity could have overpowered her Insanity and basically said "this is out of hand now, time to start fresh again". Of course, maybe Sanity wants to give the people of Earth a chance to retain the current system and stop Insanity from going too crazy with magic which would explain Grace's dream.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

48 minutes ago, Scotty said:

...if Pandora is made up of two independent personalities, Sanity and Insanity, then maybe her Sanity could have overpowered her Insanity and basically said "this is out of hand now, time to start fresh again".

Stop the insanity...?

Oh the golden age of infomercials...

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

that's still assuming there is a connection between imortals and the will of magic at all. which far as i can tell, there's no evidence of, and a few hints in the opposite direction.

It's equivalent to saying one of the Founders is also Q.

[Scotty 1,061]

2 minutes ago, InfiniteRemnant said:

that's still assuming there is a connection between imortals and the will of magic at all. which far as i can tell, there's no evidence of, and a few hints in the opposite direction.

It's equivalent to saying one of the Founders is also Q.

It'd be more believable that saying that the Borg was created when Decker merged with V'Ger and traveled back in time.