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Pharaoh RutinTutin

Story Monday May 28, 2018

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http://www.egscomics.com/comic/sister3-285

Ashley, either you have been abnormally affected by magic, or you represent a whole new class of potential magicians of which we were previously unaware.
Isn't it great to have options?

And Magus is trapped in a hostile, alien world with only amazing magical talent and incredibly vast wealth.
Oh how will he get by until he finds his way home?

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7 minutes ago, ssokolow said:

...and I'm going to assume it's a sucker bet that any spells Ashley gets will be transformation-related.

If she wasn't any sort of magic user before, she's probably a long way from getting spells of her own. What she needs is to see at least one low-power spell a few times to use her wizards ability to learn other people's spells. Once she knows one, she can start practicing it.

Ellen's "blonder" beam (http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/2017-07-23-ellen-demo-15) should be a low-power transformation that Ashley would like.

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1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

... I see Dan is experimenting ...

1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Ashley, either you have been abnormally affected by magic, or you represent a whole new class of potential magicians of which we were previously unaware.
Isn't it great to have options?

Is there any difference between those two for HER?

Note that they didn't wasted any time and TESTED her immediately. Maybe they will test Justin next ...

1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

And Magus is trapped in a hostile, alien world with only amazing magical talent and incredibly vast wealth.
Oh how will he get by until he finds his way home?

Probably worse than Sirleck, because he has morality. Also, that "incredible vast wealth" probably 1) wasn't THAT great to start with 2) got smaller after Sirleck paid to the vampires - oh wait. He didn't did he? He promised he pay them but no vampire survived, and he wasn't giving any advances ...

58 minutes ago, partner555 said:

Huh, Dan keeps surprising us at every turn. I assumed Ashley was a natural one.

Me too. Although if she would be, Pandora would probably notice. And Arthur still pointed it as option, but DAN hinted instead that it was PURPOSE of the diamond - or rather the wooden core inside. So, what do we know to turn people into wizards?

37 minutes ago, Haylo said:
53 minutes ago, ssokolow said:

...and I'm going to assume it's a sucker bet that any spells Ashley gets will be transformation-related.

If she wasn't any sort of magic user before, she's probably a long way from getting spells of her own. What she needs is to see at least one low-power spell a few times to use her wizards ability to learn other people's spells. Once she knows one, she can start practicing it.

Ellen's "blonder" beam (http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/2017-07-23-ellen-demo-15) should be a low-power transformation that Ashley would like.

Let's see ... she is dating Elliot, who can transform to any female, and already saw Ellen's FV5 beam ... I don't think she will have shortage of transformation-related spells. But she's WIZARD. That means she can learn any spell she wants. And considering her low power and the amount of spell people around her can show her, it's possible she won't get any OWN spells at all - like, that she will "fill all slots" with learned spells.

 

BTW, Ellen getting additional boost confirmed. And Arthur wasn't able to see anything on the footage but still suspect something happened.

 

Oh. And we lost second "mundane" character, after Sarah. (Or would it be third? Does Diane count?) I approve. Poor Charlotte. She should be next one.

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Well, thanks for falsely egging people on with the "natural wizard", Dan. You know we want to see pure, innate potential.

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Just now, hkmaly said:

BTW, Ellen getting additional boost confirmed. And Arthur wasn't able to see anything on the footage but still suspect something happened.

Ok I was wrong about Ellen not absorbing anymore of the diamond's energy, but I don't think any of us would have called Ashley absorbing some as well. And I would guess that if Elliot and Magus hadn't decided to take their chat outside, they'd likely have absorbed some too... I wonder if that would have made Magus trackable?

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In the modern day, knowing where some one has hidden a large amount of funds, assuming it's not cash, is not they same as having access to the funds.  Knowing the bank that some one has used to keep the money in doesn't give you access to the money, so Mangus may not be as well funded as Ellen thinks.  This assumes, of course, that the money isn't cash or something like some gold bars.

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51 minutes ago, mlooney said:

In the modern day, knowing where some one has hidden a large amount of funds, assuming it's not cash, is not they same as having access to the funds.  Knowing the bank that some one has used to keep the money in doesn't give you access to the money, so Mangus may not be as well funded as Ellen thinks.  This assumes, of course, that the money isn't cash or something like some gold bars.

Considering the amount of time Magus spent with Sirleck, and the fact that Magus was able to bait Sirleck into thinking he could possess Magus after getting a body again,  I would not be surprised of Magus was able to get other information out of Sirleck like where money was kept and how to get it, with Sirleck believing there was no harm in telling since it would all be moot once he had possessed Magus. Maybe Sirleck had already set things up for "Magus" to collect prior to leaving the old man's body, so it'd be just a matter of Magus picking up some documents or something that Sirleck stashed somewhere.

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11 hours ago, hkmaly said:

saw Ellen's FV5 beam ... I don't think she will have shortage of transformation-related spells. But she's WIZARD. That means she can learn any spell she wants. And considering her low power and the amount of spell people around her can show her, it's possible she won't get any OWN spells at all - like, that she will "fill all slots" with learned spells.

In this famous comic Edward Verres exposits that wizards can learn other peoples spells after they awaken, so she'd have to awaken first. Seers are a special case that he didn't know about at the time but we have no reason to suspect Ashley will be able to learn other's spells untl she awakens.

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I have a feeling that Sarah is going to be envious, unless they can recreate the giving of wizard-ness. 

13 hours ago, hkmaly said:
14 hours ago, Haylo said:
14 hours ago, ssokolow said:

...and I'm going to assume it's a sucker bet that any spells Ashley gets will be transformation-related.

If she wasn't any sort of magic user before, she's probably a long way from getting spells of her own. What she needs is to see at least one low-power spell a few times to use her wizards ability to learn other people's spells. Once she knows one, she can start practicing it.

Ellen's "blonder" beam (http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/2017-07-23-ellen-demo-15) should be a low-power transformation that Ashley would like.

Let's see ... she is dating Elliot, who can transform to any female, and already saw Ellen's FV5 beam ... I don't think she will have shortage of transformation-related spells. But she's WIZARD. That means she can learn any spell she wants. And considering her low power and the amount of spell people around her can show her, it's possible she won't get any OWN spells at all - like, that she will "fill all slots" with learned spells.

I don't think wizards learning other people's spells prevents them from gaining their own spells normally. It's not like they have limited slots they can fill with spells. They just have an additional way to learn new spells.

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7 hours ago, Scotty said:
8 hours ago, mlooney said:

In the modern day, knowing where some one has hidden a large amount of funds, assuming it's not cash, is not they same as having access to the funds.  Knowing the bank that some one has used to keep the money in doesn't give you access to the money, so Mangus may not be as well funded as Ellen thinks.  This assumes, of course, that the money isn't cash or something like some gold bars.

Considering the amount of time Magus spent with Sirleck, and the fact that Magus was able to bait Sirleck into thinking he could possess Magus after getting a body again,  I would not be surprised of Magus was able to get other information out of Sirleck like where money was kept and how to get it, with Sirleck believing there was no harm in telling since it would all be moot once he had possessed Magus. Maybe Sirleck had already set things up for "Magus" to collect prior to leaving the old man's body, so it'd be just a matter of Magus picking up some documents or something that Sirleck stashed somewhere.

Note that this is not normal situation. Sirleck DELIBERATELY hidden the money in way someone else than him can get them. Even if that someone wasn't supposed to be Magus - and he probably WAS - it would be easier to get them than normally. AND, Sirleck would need to work hard at hiding his money from Magus, as Magus could easily keep tracking him.

To add to this, Ellen might know some detail we don't which makes her assumption more supported than it sounds.

9 hours ago, Scotty said:
16 hours ago, hkmaly said:

BTW, Ellen getting additional boost confirmed. And Arthur wasn't able to see anything on the footage but still suspect something happened.

Ok I was wrong about Ellen not absorbing anymore of the diamond's energy, but I don't think any of us would have called Ashley absorbing some as well. And I would guess that if Elliot and Magus hadn't decided to take their chat outside, they'd likely have absorbed some too... I wonder if that would have made Magus trackable?

They probably STILL absorbed some, especially considering Magus was directly TOUCHING the diamond. Maybe not as much as Ellen due to not spending as much time around the diamond, yes.

4 hours ago, Alwaysnewguy said:

In this famous comic Edward Verres exposits that wizards can learn other peoples spells after they awaken, so she'd have to awaken first. Seers are a special case that he didn't know about at the time but we have no reason to suspect Ashley will be able to learn other's spells untl she awakens.

She MAY already awakened as well, but it's true we don't have it confirmed yet.

2 hours ago, Drasvin said:
16 hours ago, hkmaly said:

And considering her low power and the amount of spell people around her can show her, it's possible she won't get any OWN spells at all - like, that she will "fill all slots" with learned spells.

I don't think wizards learning other people's spells prevents them from gaining their own spells normally. It's not like they have limited slots they can fill with spells. They just have an additional way to learn new spells.

It's not fixed number of slots like in RPG, but I still think focusing on learning other people's spells will slow down the rate they get their own spells. Especially if the spells their learn will fit them. Wizards own spells will likely be something they want but were unable to learn from others.

Of course, Ashley is the one whose yearning for transformations is blocked by her goodness, who can get minor healing spell otherwise. She may surprise us. Maybe her experience with Elliot unblocked her transformation side. Or maybe she will learn transformations from Elliot and/or Ellen and get own spells which would be the healing ones. Or maybe she will get the combo of feeling what would the target want to transform to and the ability to transform them that way ... that IS something like sharing feelings isn't it? :)

... and, of course, that's ignoring Kevin, who may have his own way how to teach her.

 

 

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Normally, Awakening requires a person to have passed some internal power threshold (working hard, angst, or whatever), but Ashley's exposure to the "Diamond" remains may have bypassed this requirement, which would explain why she is so low-powered even for a beginner Wizard. As with Sarah, her internal energy reservoir is starting from almost nil.

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Perhaps they weren't wrong about what it took to be a wizard, but are wrong about what it takes to be one now. A combination of factors might have been needed to register as a wizard to the tests, just as Uryomoco all read as magically active without getting any magic. Of course, given that we now know that, at one time, they could, and that old rules of magic now work again, I wonder what that will mean for the Uryomoco living on Earth and the hybrids like Grace.

Rule of thumb for magic systems: When it seems people have read the book on magic, throw the book out the window, then dive out after it, set it on fire, strip yourself naked, and then write new rules using the ashes of the book, laughing maniacally.... where was i going with this again?

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14 hours ago, ijuin said:

Normally, Awakening requires a person to have passed some internal power threshold (working hard, angst, or whatever), but Ashley's exposure to the "Diamond" remains may have bypassed this requirement, which would explain why she is so low-powered even for a beginner Wizard.

Even before it was considered possible for someone being awakened by external power. Elliot (and Ellen) both trained ASMA before they awakened, but still, they got imperfect awakening triggered by the diamond. It's possible that the destruction of diamond generated so much energy Ashley was awakened just from that without any training beforehand, AND on top of it she was made wizard despite not having talent for it (and matching power).

(Speaking about it, will Ashley get energy buildups?)

14 hours ago, ijuin said:

As with Sarah, her internal energy reservoir is starting from almost nil.

Sarah's initial energy reservoir is not THAT low. She's D-rank talent with S-class spell ... but there are certainly other D-rank talents, it's just the combination which is so rare. Ashley might be also D-rank (unlike any other wizard, who would be at least C-rank), or she may have even LESS talent.

However ... Sarah needed to actually work hard on growing her energy reservoir. Ashley might not because the diamond got her over that phase.

1 hour ago, Wyrd42 said:

Perhaps they weren't wrong about what it took to be a wizard, but are wrong about what it takes to be one now. A combination of factors might have been needed to register as a wizard to the tests

This is another possibility ... also note that her being awakened (presumably) by artefact from before last reset can be the reason why she's different kind of wizard.

1 hour ago, Wyrd42 said:

just as Uryomoco all read as magically active without getting any magic. Of course, given that we now know that, at one time, they could, and that old rules of magic now work again, I wonder what that will mean for the Uryomoco living on Earth and the hybrids like Grace.

Yes. It's quite likely that Uryuoms showing as magically active will not be false positive now, and that hybrids like Grace wouldn't need to supress their uryuom power to learn magic now. Also, it's possible she will immediately be able to use the watches.

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On 5/28/2018 at 6:22 PM, hkmaly said:

Note that this is not normal situation. Sirleck DELIBERATELY hidden the money in way someone else than him can get them. Even if that someone wasn't supposed to be Magus - and he probably WAS - it would be easier to get them than normally. AND, Sirleck would need to work hard at hiding his money from Magus, as Magus could easily keep tracking him.

But we know that Sirleck was so short sighted in his plan to possess Magus, he assumed that Magus was an idiot who didn't realize he had offered himself up as the next host but instead Sirleck was an idiot for not realizing that Magus did that intentionally.

On 5/28/2018 at 6:22 PM, hkmaly said:

To add to this, Ellen might know some detail we don't which makes her assumption more supported than it sounds.

Ellen was able to glean enough info during Sirleck's possession to know that he had stashed away money, so it is reasonable to assume that even if she herself wasn't able to learn exactly where it was, there must have been something that stood out to make her pretty sure that Magus knows.

On 5/28/2018 at 6:22 PM, hkmaly said:

They probably STILL absorbed some, especially considering Magus was directly TOUCHING the diamond. Maybe not as much as Ellen due to not spending as much time around the diamond, yes.

We're talking about when the diamond shards vaporized, which they started doing just as Elliot pushed Magus out the window. Arthur only mentions Ellen and Ashley having absorbed some of the energy, but not Elliot, I would expect that to know that Ashley had absorbed some, they probably had a way of testing for it, which they probably did on Ellen and Elliot.

On 5/28/2018 at 6:22 PM, hkmaly said:

She MAY already awakened as well, but it's true we don't have it confirmed yet.

Just speculation, but considering the Diamond triggered Elliot's and Ellen's awakening, maybe Ashley absorbing the power from it's shards triggered an awakening as well?

If so, what would her energy buildups be like and will her and Elliot take advantage of them?

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16 minutes ago, Scotty said:
On 5/29/2018 at 0:22 AM, hkmaly said:

Note that this is not normal situation. Sirleck DELIBERATELY hidden the money in way someone else than him can get them. Even if that someone wasn't supposed to be Magus - and he probably WAS - it would be easier to get them than normally. AND, Sirleck would need to work hard at hiding his money from Magus, as Magus could easily keep tracking him.

But we know that Sirleck was so short sighted in his plan to possess Magus, he assumed that Magus was an idiot who didn't realize he had offered himself up as the next host but instead Sirleck was an idiot for not realizing that Magus did that intentionally.

But what? This only confirms that Sirleck likely wasn't able to hide the money from Magus.

19 minutes ago, Scotty said:
On 5/29/2018 at 0:22 AM, hkmaly said:

They probably STILL absorbed some, especially considering Magus was directly TOUCHING the diamond. Maybe not as much as Ellen due to not spending as much time around the diamond, yes.

We're talking about when the diamond shards vaporized, which they started doing just as Elliot pushed Magus out the window. Arthur only mentions Ellen and Ashley having absorbed some of the energy, but not Elliot, I would expect that to know that Ashley had absorbed some, they probably had a way of testing for it, which they probably did on Ellen and Elliot.

We were SHOWN the shards vaporising after Elliot pushed Magus out. But yes, it would be weird for Arthur to not mention Elliot ... technically he might absorbed too little to show on the test, but I guess in that case it doesn't matter :)

21 minutes ago, Scotty said:
On 5/29/2018 at 0:22 AM, hkmaly said:

She MAY already awakened as well, but it's true we don't have it confirmed yet.

Just speculation, but considering the Diamond triggered Elliot's and Ellen's awakening, maybe Ashley absorbing the power from it's shards triggered an awakening as well?

If so, what would her energy buildups be like and will her and Elliot take advantage of them?

... I'm pretty sure I mentioned both of those speculations already :)

Note that energy buildups are only problem when you are NOT using magic. She will likely be TOLD to use magic with/on Elliot. It's as if Fate conspired to force her to live out her fantasies ...

 

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8 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

... I'm pretty sure I mentioned both of those speculations already :)

I was in the process of typing out my previous post when you posted that and hadn't read that post yet, sorry.

3 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Note that energy buildups are only problem when you are NOT using magic. She will likely be TOLD to use magic with/on Elliot. It's as if Fate conspired to force her to live out her fantasies ...

Well yeah, but will they automatically assume that her awakening was improper and that energy buildups are inevitable and preemptively ask her to use magic as a precaution? Or will they not know until it actually happens? I guess they could probably test for it as well but what if the test only registers after an incident with an energy buildup, not before it?

 

 

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26 minutes ago, Scotty said:
38 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

... I'm pretty sure I mentioned both of those speculations already :)

I was in the process of typing out my previous post when you posted that and hadn't read that post yet, sorry.

Oh. I didn't noticed how close they are to each other.

26 minutes ago, Scotty said:
38 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Note that energy buildups are only problem when you are NOT using magic. She will likely be TOLD to use magic with/on Elliot. It's as if Fate conspired to force her to live out her fantasies ...

Well yeah, but will they automatically assume that her awakening was improper and that energy buildups are inevitable and preemptively ask her to use magic as a precaution? Or will they not know until it actually happens? I guess they could probably test for it as well but what if the test only registers after an incident with an energy buildup, not before it?

Arthur: "Ashley, there is a possibility that your awakening improper and you will need to using your magic often to get over magic buildups. We don't know for sure yet -"

Ashley: "Gotta use magic a lot, get it"

...

I don't think her goodness is SO big she would wait for confirmation. That said, I would assume they CAN test for it in advance. Maybe not THIS quickly after awakening, but Edward has that wand still home doesn't he? He can re-test her every week. Also, possibly get Tedd to make non-scary version of the analysing wand. I mean, he would probably do it on his own after hearing the wand second time ... AND it will have bigger display.

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6 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Oh. I didn't noticed how close they are to each other.

It was a case of starting my post, going to supper before finishing it, coming back and finishing it while the notification that you had posted sat at the bottom of the screen. I should click those more often to avoid these things. ;)

9 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Also, possibly get Tedd to make non-scary version of the analysing wand. I mean, he would probably do it on his own after hearing the wand second time

I doubt Tedd would have learned how it worked when Edward tested Elliot and Ellen, he wouldn't have been focusing his insight. Now that Tedd is aware that the wand could be resisted, as well as the fact that he'll be spending more time working on ways to increase people's resistances, he'll likely have to resolve to use the wand as part of his research, and knowing Tedd, making it less scary sounding would likely be a priority.

18 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

AND it will have bigger display.

Why just a bigger display, he could make it an addon to his Gauntlet so he could wave his hand in front of a person all Jedi-like and the information can be transmitted to a new feature of his glasses. ;)

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3 hours ago, Scotty said:

I doubt Tedd would have learned how it worked when Edward tested Elliot and Ellen, he wouldn't have been focusing his insight. Now that Tedd is aware that the wand could be resisted

How is the fact the wand could be resisted relevant?

Now, when Tedd is aware that he HAS such insight, he will be more likely to focus it. Also, as you noted,

3 hours ago, Scotty said:

as well as the fact that he'll be spending more time working on ways to increase people's resistances, he'll likely have to resolve to use the wand as part of his research, and knowing Tedd, making it less scary sounding would likely be a priority.

... he will need it as part of his research and no way is he using it when it's so scary.

3 hours ago, Scotty said:
3 hours ago, hkmaly said:

AND it will have bigger display.

Why just a bigger display, he could make it an addon to his Gauntlet so he could wave his hand in front of a person all Jedi-like and the information can be transmitted to a new feature of his glasses. ;)

Gauntlet is supposed to be secret. But good idea ... he can make it in form of a glove (not the same glove he uses for enchanting watches) connected to glasses.

(The Jedi wave is still unlikely to be the correct motion to activate the scan. More likely, it will be the "talk to the hand" gesture.)

 

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11 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

How is the fact the wand could be resisted relevant?

Just that Tedd could probably use the wand as a goal of sorts, like finding out the threshold being able to resist the wand, it may be a decently high threshold, he may want to try to get it so people are able to resist the wand and thus most magic?

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14 minutes ago, Scotty said:
25 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

How is the fact the wand could be resisted relevant?

Just that Tedd could probably use the wand as a goal of sorts, like finding out the threshold being able to resist the wand, it may be a decently high threshold, he may want to try to get it so people are able to resist the wand and thus most magic?

It will be more practical to train people to resist FV5 ... or blonde beam if you don't want the additional fun. The analysing wand is probably TOO HARD to resist.

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Just now, hkmaly said:

It will be more practical to train people to resist FV5 ... or blonde beam if you don't want the additional fun. The analysing wand is probably TOO HARD to resist.

Maybe, but being able to resist the wand, and possibly all magic, might be what Arthur would like, because then any potential criminals and law enforcment would still be relying on convential methods since using magic would most often end in a stalemate.

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