Comic for Wednesday, Sep 6, 2023

[mlooney 3,417]

https://www.egscomics.com/comic/layers-045

Must be a hell of a spell to use up all of Tedd's magic energy. 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

4 minutes ago, mlooney said:

https://www.egscomics.com/comic/layers-045

Must be a hell of a spell to use up all of Tedd's magic energy. 

I'm pretty sure it is a side effect of exposure to Kevin, although I would have expected nausea, not fainting.

Hmm, snide Kevin remarks aside, Kevin is powered by magic, presumably depends on ambient magic, because students like Ashley can't supply a lot. Maybe he was too much of a parallel load?

<"Dun, duh, dun"> Or maybe he's vampiric? <"Krackle">

[ijuin 572]

Perhaps this is a sign that the blocked magical energy in Moperville has finally started to find its new draining point? If Sarah has been continuing to use her spell frequently, then that could have drained all of the remaining ambient energy immediately at hand.

[mlooney 3,417]

Perhaps, but isn't Tedd supposed to me a magical powerhouse?

[Darth Fluffy 302]

28 minutes ago, mlooney said:

Perhaps, but isn't Tedd supposed to be a magical powerhouse?

Perhaps he gets his power from the ambient environment. I'm imagining them all as conduits rather than generators.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

 

Could this be ordinary exhaustion or illness? 

 

[mlooney 3,417]

3 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Perhaps he gets his power from the ambient environment. I'm imagining them all as conduits rather than generators.

Unlikely, Grace used up the ambient magic during the party and Tedd recharged the wand.  Justin even said something about that.

[ijuin 572]

If that is true then Tedd is either ill, or has done something unusually straining just now. . .

I seem to recall from the whales encounter that using the gauntlet’s overcharge mode is straining, especially if done for too long. Tedd had used that mode to be able to see the whales, which Tedd just now had surmised to be living on just one of many layers of their reality. Might Tedd have just now been attempting a similar experiment and overstrained themself?

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

42 minutes ago, ijuin said:

I seem to recall from the whales encounter that using the gauntlet’s overcharge mode is straining, especially if done for too long. Tedd had used that mode to be able to see the whales, which Tedd just now had surmised to be living on just one of many layers of their reality. Might Tedd have just now been attempting a similar experiment and overstrained themself?

I like this idea, but it seems awfully quick, Nanase, fought with everything she had, including the Guardian Spell for much longer than the few minutes Tedd was at it before she burned out. Must have been some Big Juju magic Tedd was using.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

6 hours ago, mlooney said:

Unlikely, Grace used up the ambient magic during the party and Tedd recharged the wand.  Justin even said something about that.

With an absence of an actual model of how magic works, we have little to go on.

Given your present objection, I'd guess that Tedd acts as a battery, rather than a primary source.

OTOH, the need to feed evidenced in our cast of magic users, particularly if they have been using a lot of magic, says that they are indeed a source.

[mlooney 3,417]

12 hours ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

I like this idea, but it seems awfully quick, Nanase, fought with everything she had, including the Guardian Spell for much longer than the few minutes Tedd was at it before she burned out. Must have been some Big Juju magic Tedd was using.

Tedd passed out almost as soon as the used the gauntlet.  Their whole conversation with the whale lasted about a second.  Still not sure that it's gauntlet or the whale that knocked him out. 

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

 

If Whales treated Tedd badly, complain to their Prince.  I understand he has an office in London.

 

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

3 hours ago, mlooney said:

Still not sure that it's gauntlet or the whale that knocked him out. 

My impression is that it was the whale. It apologized for the resulting headache, and Tedd wasn't burned out afterwards. 

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

When I wrote that uber-magical  Tedd seemed to burn out very quickly compared to the theoretically less powerful Nanase (and, I should have added, Elliot) I hadn't considered that the magical martial artists were used to pushing themselves to their magical and physical limits regularly during their training at Greg's dojo, while Tedd has never done either, until perhaps, this last strip.