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Scotty

Story: Friday February 10, 2017

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18 minutes ago, mlooney said:

The only problem I can see in Tedd's plan is if she has to take a shower after gym.  That would be more than slightly awkward.

I'm basing this on my own high school experience and have no idea how it works in the US, but by the time I was in senior year pretty much all of my classes I chose myself based on what credits I still needed to get my diploma and I managed to get my phys-ed credits in grade 9 and 10. We don't know if Tedd needed to take another phys-ed class for senior year so it's possible she doesn't need to worry about that.

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24 minutes ago, mlooney said:

The only problem I can see in Tedd's plan is if she has to take a shower after gym.  That would be more than slightly awkward.

This falls back to the entire idea of EGS being a big awkward moment. However, I am far more interested in the entire dilemma Tedd is confronting. It is a serious one. Gender dysphoria is no small thing and Tedd is confronted with it in a wholly new way -- one that directly involves her dreams of making magic safe for everybody and the fact that she now believes them impossible to achieve.

I think Tedd is doing this because in the middle of the mortal complications of a possible magic system alteration and the likely loss of the power that made her watches function, this is the one problem it is within her power to deal with scientifically. She may not find a good solution, but at least she can gather data.

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... raining cookies indeed, everybody guessed this. Although we now have the reason confirmed: Tedd wants to spend some time as "basic" girl (not extra-girly, catgirl or anything else) to see if she likes it more than man in case she would get stuck. Hopefully not because fearing magic will reset tomorrow but only because she's not sure how much tries it would need.

... BTW, do they really have gym every day or is she just too impatient to wait for day without gym?

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15 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:
17 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Hopefully not because fearing magic will reset tomorrow

For all Tedd knows, it might. In fact, for all we know, it might.

Actually, Pandora seem to "forgot" to mention how her working on preventing magic reset might be too late. Meaning, WE have more reasons to worry about magic reset happening soon than Tedd.

7 minutes ago, HarJIT said:
1 hour ago, Scotty said:

http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2310

"Did you forget you were transformed again?"

Ha! That's gotta be a callback to the "Tedd forgot to do Something" NP.

Does that make that canon now?

No. While callback to that NP from story telling perspective, what Elliot ACTUALLY have in mind might've not involved Tedd being woman in school.

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3 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Actually, Pandora seem to "forgot" to mention how her working on preventing magic reset might be too late. Meaning, WE have more reasons to worry about magic reset happening soon than Tedd.

Tedd knows nothing about how imminent the change may be and she DOES know Sarah is working to bleed off the excess that lets his watches -- and his Mark -- work. She has plenty of reason to worry.

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9 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:
14 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Actually, Pandora seem to "forgot" to mention how her working on preventing magic reset might be too late. Meaning, WE have more reasons to worry about magic reset happening soon than Tedd.

Tedd knows nothing about how imminent the change may be and she DOES know Sarah is working to bleed off the excess that lets his watches -- and his Mark -- work. She has plenty of reason to worry.

Wait. His mark should be working even without ambient magic. (Also, TF Gun will work even if watches wouldn't, AND Tedd already have gauntlet which stores energy and she presumably can make watches work without ambient magic using same method OR use magic from gauntlet to power her mark). Only the magic reset is dangerous, reducing ambient magic can complicate her research but won't prevent her turning man or woman again.

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54 minutes ago, Scotty said:

I'm basing this on my own high school experience and have no idea how it works in the US, but by the time I was in senior year pretty much all of my classes I chose myself based on what credits I still needed to get my diploma and I managed to get my phys-ed credits in grade 9 and 10. We don't know if Tedd needed to take another phys-ed class for senior year so it's possible she doesn't need to worry about that.

In the US it varies - public schools are local entities (usually separate from other government entities and with some degree of their own taxing authority, while also usually receiving some funding from the state government and occasionally from the local and/or national government). And private schools are their own thing, subject to only some of the regulations that public schools live with but fully responsible for their own funding WITHOUT any authority to tax.

As it happens, I handled the phys-ed requirement the same way you did.

But my mate - growing up in a different school district, in fact in a different state - was required to take that class two days a week (versus every school day) for 4 years (versus 2). And on the days she wasn't in that class, there was no other class for her to take during that period so she had "Study Hall" which meant she sat in the library and pretended to study.)

(My high school had exactly two classes that weren't every-day-at-least-one-semester. Driver education, and first aid. Each of them a half-semester course. In that school district driver education was required to graduate, unless one had a medical waiver. First aid was not, but "Study Hall" was not allowed; so almost everyone who had any chance to get a driver license took first aid.)

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And....I totally goofed when reading the comic, I completely missed that Elliot did say "gym class" and I thought he just said "switch back before class" lol, I just now noticed it re-reading the page.

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Always check if Tedd is transformed (again and again) because of this, right.

I also might be clueless or the animal is hard to recognize in the mural. First guess was dolphin.

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2 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Wait. His mark should be working even without ambient magic.

Some marks would. Tedd has very, very little direct magic of her own without the ambient magic to help her, which makes it different. The other difference is that Tedd's mark spell can make the change permanent, which the TF gun cannot bar extreme measures such as pregnancy. Tedd's problem is what she wants her default body to be.

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At this point, Elliot doesn't know about magic changing yet. And just when Elliot was finally getting comfortable with his own gender fluidity!

I'm guessing that Voltaire's "better world" would be one where humans lose their magic again. Tedd would be immensely useful for humans to learn to use magic again. That makes me wonder why Voltaire didn't just try to kill Tedd, but there might be some Immortal Rule against killing Seers, or simply that just killing Tedd wouldn't be as interesting. Presumably Voltaire has more or less the same boredom problem as Pandora or any other Immortal, particular ones that are approaching or past their "Best By" dates.

It's very credible that Tedd would be quite depressed over having to choose what sex he'd be stuck as, and worrying how this would affect his relationship with Grace and his Dad and Elliot and maybe Sarah. I'm wondering why The Shive decided to address this right now, especially in a Friday comic. Friday comics are supposed to imply more to come, and this one seems to imply a lot more discussion about these issues coming up.

But are they are the only ones who know about this secret private conversation venue? Well, Ashley knows, obviously. Who else might come upon them, perhaps overhearing some of the secret private conversation?

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   I don't know if this is relevant in the current topic of discussion, but from my (continuing) experience in secondary school we are only required to take PE until grade 11, and like every other standard block, it happens every 2nd school day. It seems that Elliot and Tedd also have the same PE block, or at least they know each others schedule. And obviously educated turkeys are highly distinguished from those normie turkeys on gobblr.

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Ok, this is not what I expected.
But now that I think of it, the problem is impossible to miss.

The ability to change gender at will was the first great  dream Tedd pursued after finishing the TF Gun.  Now it seems like it will once again become an unobtainable dream.

The TF Gun and items derived from that device, like the watches, are built on Uryuom magic tech.  I don't know if the gun, or any Uryuom based magic, would work normally if Earth's magic system changed.  Tedd probably doesn't know the answer to that either.  And If I remember correctly, the TF Gun did not make a permanent change.  Wasn't 30 days the upper limit?

Assuming the TF Gun won't work post magic shut down (which is what Tedd is probably thinking while planning for the worst case scenario), Tedd is in a unique position among the gender fluid.  Most people with Tedd's mindset need to decide how to present themselves, and weather or not to seek surgical changes.  Tedd can, right now, become a fully functioning human male or female without changing the essential Tedd.  Right now, Tedd's mind can change at anytime, and another transformation is available at whim.

What Tedd is now considering is the possibility that the transformation ability will be lost and the Tedd will be stuck in whatever form happens to be up when the magic runs dry.

Attention:  The eighteen year old dangerous rarity kid at MNHS.  You must now chose exactly what you want to be for the rest of your life.  The window of opportunity for you to make this selection could close at any time without warning.  Whichever option you choose has advantages and disadvantages.  Will you regret the decision you make (or fail to make) tomorrow?  Next week?  Next year?  In ten years?  Twenty years?

It's ridiculous to demand that kind of decision from kids on any issue.  But we do it on many issues already.  For which job do you wish to apply?  What kind of job training do you wish to take?  Do you want to apply to college?  To which schools will you send an application?  What will be your major and minor?  Are you considering military service?  In which branch will you serve?  Are you a compulsive liar?

 

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Anything based on Uryuom energy should not be affected by any magic system change for the same reason that Uryuoms themselves won't be affected. The watches don't use Uryuom energy which is why Grace can't use them. So even if the system changes, Tedd would still be able to switch genders, but it would be temporary and Tedd could still likely resist it like an enchant at any time. So I guess the choice is more what should the default gender be if Tedd isn't able to use his mark spell anymore.

Though here's something I'm wondering, Tedd doesn't know what exactly the dangerous rarity is all about, not even Pandora knows but she's going to try to find out, hopefully before there's a system change. It's never been clear what exactly would happen if there's a system change. Does it wipe everyone's magic out completely, spells included? Or is it like changing the encryption. people still have their spells, but they're locked out without the password?  The fact that all hints point at Tedd being unaffected by system changes and having the ability to "see" magic, makes it seem like she has admin privileges. So regardless of how a system change affects others, would it affect Tedd's mark spell?

What I'm saying is, while Tedd doesn't know it yet, she may still be able to freely switch back and forth with her mark spell because of simple system protection.

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I can't be the only one who wants to give Tedd a big hug right now and tell her it's all going to be ok. Dysphoria is literally indescribable to someone who has never had to live it. The thought of being granted a 'treatment' (don't know what else to call it) like Tedd's mark and then being told my every use is risking it's loss would be devastating to me.

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11 minutes ago, Dabat said:

I can't be the only one who wants to give Tedd a big hug right now and tell her it's all going to be ok. Dysphoria is literally indescribable to someone who has never had to live it. The thought of being granted a 'treatment' (don't know what else to call it) like Tedd's mark and then being told my every use is risking it's loss would be devastating to me.

You are not alone. Tedd has had her entire rug of dreams and ambitions yanked away from under her and she has to deal with this on top of everyone else. What is strange is not that she is making plans for a worst case contingency but that she is dealing as calmly with it as she is.

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8 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

You are not alone. Tedd has had her entire rug of dreams and ambitions yanked away from under her and she has to deal with this on top of everyone else. What is strange is not that she is making plans for a worst case contingency but that she is dealing as calmly with it as she is.

There's a type of freaking out that's so deep that often other people can't tell there is anything major wrong. I've seen in in cancer patients, their whole world is (or might be) so suddenly and rapidly falling apart that they can't process it. They just go about their life doing what little they can, with whatever control they have, until they can process it into words.

 

EDIT: A word.

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2 minutes ago, Dabat said:

There's a type of freaking out that's so deep that often other people can't tell there is anything major wrong. I've seen in in cancer patients, their whole world is (or might be) so suddenly and rapidly falling apart that they can't process it. They just go about their life doing what little they can, with whatever control they have, until they can process it into words.

Ah. Yes. I can see that. This sounds frighteningly plausible in Tedd's case. I am very glad she has Elliot to support her.

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1 minute ago, The Old Hack said:

Ah. Yes. I can see that. This sounds frighteningly plausible in Tedd's case. I am very glad she has Elliot to support her.

I've been sitting here almost since the instant you posted trying to think of how to respond, but nothing sounded right.  I too am very very glad she has Elliot to support her. I've had a similar destruction of what I thought was my place in the world, and it is nothing to go through alone. As much as Mr. Verres loves his child, he would not be a person Tedd could turn to.

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