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The Old Hack

Story Friday March 16, 2018

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Well, that was... bright, and also entirely expected.  (Just like... maybeshouldn'tfinishthatsentence.)  I have to say, though, for a second I thought Dan had decided to break The Great Ellen Taboo.

Do we know what Sirleck stands to gain from all this?  Clearly it's something rather nice, and Magus must have some idea...

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9 minutes ago, Aura Guardian said:

I'm fairly sure it's a new body, namely Magus's new body.

Yes, that's been obvious to me since the moment Magus convinced Sirleck to help. Right after stating that he needed to find a low-profile new host, Magus stated with considerable emphasis that Magus himself was the ultimate in "low-profile". Combine that with him being young and a powerful wizard, and that's pretty much the ultimate windfall for Sirleck. Raven might have been even better, with being an elf in addition to a powerful wizard, but he's very much not low-profile and taking him could be much trickier.

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Well, so far, we have seen only one extra body, arguably the second of the two Elliots. But what about the other Ellen?

Two consdirations:

  1. We've seen only post-split view of Elliot and Magus, and it shows only what's happening on one side of the box. It has three more sides.
  2. What's going to happen to anyone hit by those fragments?

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I wonder if this will be the launch of a new Inu-Yasha series with some sort of infinity gem splitting into pieces and the heroes gotta find them all.

Inu-Yasha meets Ranma 1/2. It ought to be a fit. They have the same manga-ka.

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6 hours ago, Douglas said:

Yes, that's been obvious to me since the moment Magus convinced Sirleck to help. Right after stating that he needed to find a low-profile new host, Magus stated with considerable emphasis that Magus himself was the ultimate in "low-profile". Combine that with him being young and a powerful wizard, and that's pretty much the ultimate windfall for Sirleck. Raven might have been even better, with being an elf in addition to a powerful wizard, but he's very much not low-profile and taking him could be much trickier.

OMG I didn't even realize that, I mean I knew Sirleck had decided that Magus would be the perfect new host after what Magus said, but didn't think that Magus might have offered himself up intentionally knowing that Sirleck wouldn't be able to resist. Makes it seem pretty much guaranteed that Magus has a surprise up his sleeve for when Sirleck pounces.

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3 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Inu-Yasha meets Ranma 1/2. It ought to be a fit. They have the same manga-ka.

I can extend the analogy: EGS as a whole has always had a healthy dose of Urusai Yatsura with its nutty aliens from very early on. Elliot, of course, has already established solid credentials as a Ranma clone: Martial artist who changes sex and has a harem of potential brides (I think Ranma is still ahead there.) Elliot is also kind of a ronin like the male protagonist of Maison Ikkoku, filled with good intentions but unsure of his place in the truly adult world, and surrounded by eccentric friends. 

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At least it'll be easy to tell which one is Elliot and which one is Magus. Though the panel of Elliot-Magus holding onto the Diamond looks unpleasant.

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59 minutes ago, Scotty said:

OMG I didn't even realize that, I mean I knew Sirleck had decided that Magus would be the perfect new host after what Magus said, but didn't think that Magus might have offered himself up intentionally knowing that Sirleck wouldn't be able to resist. Makes it seem pretty much guaranteed that Magus has a surprise up his sleeve for when Sirleck pounces.

Or at least Magus hopes that his surprise doesn't work out like that potion he used in the match with Terra. I think the real danger to Sirleck will turn out to be that vision thing Elliot found in his spellbook but really didn't understand. Elliot refers to that spell in the conversation with Ellen in the comics immediately following that comic, specifically in this one, but doesn't say what the new spell does. Presumably Elliot told Ellen what he thought about that spell before, but Dan didn't let us hear that part of the conversation. We do know it made Elliot think he didn't need to transform any more and that Ellen agreed; the conversation was really focused on Elliot's sexual identity and the coming change in magic. It eventually wends itself to Elliot's amazing crackpot scheme to help out that anonymous poster who wanted Cheerleadra's help in changing gender, and I don't think the vision-thing-spell has been mentioned in any comic since.

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Elliott using the Diamond for the second time feels like being hit again by lightning.

So, more "powers"??? Magus has to be careful, Elliott is "cursed" before all this.

I like to think Magic's flair for the dramatic, be it intentional, unintentional, or somewhere inbetween for reasons beyond corporeal comprehension, lives on.

Sure. There were "minimal" changes anyway. :demonicduck:

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7 minutes ago, mlooney said:

This does raise the question, did Elliot just get all of Magus' powers as his curse?

 

Part of the modifications Magus did might have been to prevent Elliot from getting his powers and vice versa. While Magus might not mind having Elliot's abilities, Elliot having his could complicate things if Elliot gets angry due to him and his friends being used and abused to get Magus's body back, or for Magus getting Ellen possessed by a vampire.

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:D Yes!!! I've been waiting twelve years for this moment, but that waiting has finally paid off!!!

* recovers composure *

On the one hand, this tells us nothing new.

On the other hand, it looks like Magus is separate from Elliot again, and has finally achieved his goal of getting his own body. I'm going to save some of my celebrating until we confirm everything worked out all right, but I'm still incredibly happy to see this turn of events.

So, now the question is, what next? My best guess is that Sirleck attempts to take over Magus, there's a fight, and in the process one or more artifacts are activated, affecting one or more of the people there (Asheley seems the prime candidate).

Another possibility that occurs to me is the force of the explosion might fling Magus and/or Elliot into those crates behind them, causing the artifacts in them to activate (or at least providing weapons for the upcoming fight).

32 minutes ago, mlooney said:

This does raise the question, did Elliot just get all of Magus' powers as his curse?

The Diamond is supposed to "remove" enchantments, and I doubt possession by Magus counts as that. However, Elliot probably will gain the power to change the color of his hair while male.

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1 minute ago, mlooney said:

This does raise the question, did Elliot just get all of Magus' powers as his curse?

Just as possible would be Magus getting all of Elliot's powers, especially since Magus is more like Elliot's (newest) "curse".

Something else seems more relevant to me than before: Elliot merging with his smartphone when he changed into Cheerleadra the last time in So a Date at the Mall. In this comic while flying back to Ashley and the rest of the adventure party, Elliot admits that despite the troubles he's having with the GPS, he thinks it's really a cool new power, and that she likes everything about her Cheerleadra form, and after a moment, accepts it totally--and in the last panel, gets the vision-thing spell I talked about in my last post before this one.  Is merging power just for gadgets in the current situation?

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24 minutes ago, Drasvin said:

Part of the modifications Magus did might have been to prevent Elliot from getting his powers and vice versa. While Magus might not mind having Elliot's abilities, Elliot having his could complicate things if Elliot gets angry due to him and his friends being used and abused to get Magus's body back, or for Magus getting Ellen possessed by a vampire.

There are at least three good reasons for Magus not to make this part of his modifications:

  1. The KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Unnecessary complications make failure more likely.
  2. Magus is probably more concerned about not harming Ashley at this moment.
  3. Giving Elliot his powers would make Elliot a more formidable opponent to Sirleck when Sirleck attempts to steal Magus' body and getting Elliot's powers could help Magus fight off Sirleck's attempt.

You're quite right that Elliot will be angry with Magus once Sirleck is dealt with, plus whatever else is going to happen such as activating artifacts and the possible appearance of one or more much-more-formidable-than-they-look guards, with or without flashlights. Oh, and possibly a new Elliot and a new Ellen. Maybe even more; three more sides to the box that held the diamond, and what happened to anyone the flying fragments hit.

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3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

There are at least three good reasons for Magus not to make this part of his modifications:

  1. The KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Unnecessary complications make failure more likely.
  2. Magus is probably more concerned about not harming Ashley at this moment.
  3. Giving Elliot his powers would make Elliot a more formidable opponent to Sirleck when Sirleck attempts to steal Magus' body and getting Elliot's powers could help Magus fight off Sirleck's attempt.

Generally Agreed. 

I would add

4: Magus is altering the normal process of the Dewitchery "Diamond".  All bets are off from the get-go.  We don't know how much of the Diamond's normal functioning Magus is changing.  Enough to make it explode suggests a fair amount.

KISS Principle means Magus is not going to care if he gives his spells to Elliot or if he gets Elliot's spells.  He wants his body back.  I would guess the rest is negotiable.  Magus might not even get any ability to "pass on the curse" (this assumes that Magus is coming out as the "permanently cursed duplicate" which may not be accurate, but if we consider the
last time Elliot touched the diamond, Magus would be the cursed duplicate.  What "pass on the curse" ability would Magus even get?  The ability to turn people into permanent spirit-realm shadows?  Fuse people with their dimensional doppelgangers?  Fuse people with Elliot?

Magus claims to be a wizard.  If he's a Wizard by EGS Prime standards, he will probably get Elliot's spells.  If Elliot has a buried Wizard affinity or picks it up from having been fused with Magus, he *could* get Magus' spell list, but I don't know what he gets just from exposure to the Jewel.  He got Awakened last time, so if he has a buried Wizard Affinity, the diamond would likely bring that out.

There's a wildcard that occurred to me.  Magus was originally involved with both Pandora and Sirleck.  And Pandora is a very intelligent, predictive thinker.  Suppose she set Magus up with Sirleck and pretended not to care just to create this moment.  We don't know what magical advice she gave to Magus.  Perhaps she finessed her magical advice in order to finesse the results against Sirleck.  Using Magus as a pawn against Sirleck seems a very "immortal" way of thinking.

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19 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

Magus might not even get any ability to "pass on the curse" (this assumes that Magus is coming out as the "permanently cursed duplicate" which may not be accurate, but if we consider the last time Elliot touched the diamond, Magus would be the cursed duplicate.  What "pass on the curse" ability would Magus even get?  The ability to turn people into permanent spirit-realm shadows?  Fuse people with their dimensional doppelgangers?  Fuse people with Elliot?

In my scenario where the only curse the Diamond is "aware of" is Elliot's changed hair color, Magus would gain the ability to shoot a TF beam that turns the subject's hair blonde. (Or, if somehow missed the alterations Magus made to Ellen's TF beam, it might give him his own FV5 beam.)

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7 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

I want him to take out a Gatling crossbow, yell "CONTACT!!!" and fill the air with bolts.

and we fight in the shade.

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