story Story, Wednesday May 31, 2017

[Scotty 1,061]

http://www.egscomics.com/?id=2354

Ellen's got an AOE transformation spell? And got it just before her energy buildups stopped? She dodged a bullet there, hehe.

Guessing we'll see exactly what it does during the NP.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

When I first saw the "Mall Form Epidemic" pin-up, I thought "what's the point?"

https://egspinups.tumblr.com/post/149807546940/single-mall-form-epidemic-patreon-post-i-wanted

Apparently, Dan has been planning to canonically introduce that kind of spell effect into the story for some time.

[Stature 96]

So those "times" where she zapped Rich and Larry made some sense.

Shake hands, bzzzt. Transformed!

25 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Apparently, Dan has been planning to canonically introduce that kind of spell effect into the story for some time.

Sure Chekhov this one.

[hkmaly 490]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

Ellen's got an AOE transformation spell? And got it just before her energy buildups stopped? She dodged a bullet there, hehe.

Or the people around her dodged the bullet. SHE could just transform herself back, but if those others would need to be transformed back one after one, it would be hard to keep them all in queue until Ellen recharges ...

(... on the other hand, might not have that long duration. At least if she really unleashes it on school assembly.)

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

Guessing we'll see exactly what it does during the NP.

Probably FV5. Or blonde FV5. Still looking forward to it.

34 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Apparently, Dan has been planning to canonically introduce that kind of spell effect into the story for some time.

Between this, the Mall Form Epidemic and the Catsplosion Catalina was afraid of, yes. Also, catsplosion MIGHT became reality ...

[Scotty 1,061]

6 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Or the people around her dodged the bullet. SHE could just transform herself back, but if those others would need to be transformed back one after one, it would be hard to keep them all in queue until Ellen recharges ...

(... on the other hand, might not have that long duration. At least if she really unleashes it on school assembly.)

I meant she dodged a bullet in that she didn't accidentally use the spell in a crowded area and have it wind up on the news. That's the sort of spell Pandora would have loved to have been able to give someone at the mall in "Marker".

[hkmaly 490]

11 hours ago, Scotty said:

I meant she dodged a bullet in that she didn't accidentally use the spell in a crowded area and have it wind up on the news.

I know how you mean it, but "dodged a bullet" feels like talking about something affecting her personally. This would be bad for magic secrecy (although it might not directly cause reset: the investigation how it happened, on the other hand ...) but she could easily pretend she has nothing to do with it. DGB MIGHT suspect her, but would not prosecute her openly, and if it would be due to buildups they might even label it accident.

... of course, this is Ellen we talk about. She's better than Elliot, but there is high chance she would fail the pretence.

11 hours ago, Scotty said:

That's the sort of spell Pandora would have loved to have been able to give someone at the mall in "Marker".

Definitely, but I suspect that it's not sort of spell which is available as first spell. Also, the "until it runs out of energy" can easily be after two people in case of newly marked person. So, while Pandora would still love it, it wouldn't actually be as dangerous as Ellen casting it.

[Scotty 1,061]

2 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

 Also, the "until it runs out of energy" can easily be after two people in case of newly marked person. So, while Pandora would still love it, it wouldn't actually be as dangerous as Ellen casting it.

Yeah but remember Sarah's got a high end, high energy requirement spell that's like 99% working off of the ambient energy at the moment, a spell like Ellen's AOE could run similarly, maybe even indefinitely if each person affected pulls energy from the area, if the energy has to go through Ellen though it'd just be until the local energy levels drop similarly to when Not_Tengu used up the local energy to power his form/flight/enchantment on the college students/etc. I imagine if it's localized to Ellen, then the transformations would probably be brief, with everyone affected returning to normal shortly after the local energy ran depleted.

[hkmaly 490]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

 Also, the "until it runs out of energy" can easily be after two people in case of newly marked person. So, while Pandora would still love it, it wouldn't actually be as dangerous as Ellen casting it.

Yeah but remember Sarah's got a high end, high energy requirement spell that's like 99% working off of the ambient energy at the moment, a spell like Ellen's AOE could run similarly, maybe even indefinitely if each person affected pulls energy from the area, if the energy has to go through Ellen though it'd just be until the local energy levels drop similarly to when Not_Tengu used up the local energy to power his form/flight/enchantment on the college students/etc. I imagine if it's localized to Ellen, then the transformations would probably be brief, with everyone affected returning to normal shortly after the local energy ran depleted.

... daaamn you're right. What I said would be true in normal case, but in Moperville hight magic area, spells like this can be almost completely powered by ambient energy ... which is likely reason Pandora did it, after all ... so even freshly marked person could use high energy spells like this.

And yes. Worst case scenario, it doesn't need to get the energy THROUGH Ellen, meaning she would actually be able to transform whole Moperville if enough people wouldn't be isolated inside buildings but outside and moving, like say in case of some parade/festival ... (or demonstration).

[Scotty 1,061]

1 minute ago, hkmaly said:

And yes. Worst case scenario, it doesn't need to get the energy THROUGH Ellen, meaning she would actually be able to transform whole Moperville if enough people wouldn't be isolated inside buildings but outside and moving, like say in case of some parade/festival ... (or demonstration).

She probably would have felt like using the spell was a bad idea in general, but she likely knew about the Whale's warning to Tedd about the ambient energy levels by the time she got the spell and been like "Nope, definitely not going to take any chances with this spell."

[Vorlonagent 442]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

She probably would have felt like using the spell was a bad idea in general, but she likely knew about the Whale's warning to Tedd about the ambient energy levels by the time she got the spell and been like "Nope, definitely not going to take any chances with this spell."

...but it would do a great job at depleting the magic buildup.

[Scotty 1,061]

7 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

...but it would do a great job at depleting the magic buildup.

Yes, but Pandora is trying to avoid causing magic to reset, so Sarah is the better choice since she can be discreet about it.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Dis Crete.  Dat Crete.  Who cares what the Cretans are doing?

Watch out for the Macedonians.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

26 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Dis Crete.  Dat Crete.  Who cares what the Cretans are doing?

Watch out for the Macedonians.

Now you've done it. Philip just started crying because he thinks nobody likes him.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

9 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Philip just started crying because he thinks nobody likes him.

Why do you think his son left Macedon and took the grand tour of Persia?

[The Old Hack 2,448]

Just now, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Why do you think his son left Macedon and took the grand tour of Persia?

Bah, that was the first time a travel agency tried to do the Marco Polo tours, but Alexander saw a loophole in the 'and entourage' clause and used it to bring along an entire army so of course the company went under. It didn't help that he insisted on conquering EVERY SINGLE SIGHTSEEING SPOT on the tour. It quite literally took more than a millennium to sort the legal problems out and it was even longer before the better locations worked up the nerve to sign up with the new agency again.

[Don Edwards 548]

6 hours ago, hkmaly said:

And yes. Worst case scenario, it doesn't need to get the energy THROUGH Ellen, meaning she would actually be able to transform whole Moperville if enough people wouldn't be isolated inside buildings but outside and moving, like say in case of some parade/festival ... (or demonstration).

Worst case scenario, the "anyone near me" has a range of a few yards and she's in a moving vehicle on a busy street. So anyone in a vehicle that passes her going the other direction gets zapped, and continues toward wherever they were going while incidentally zapping lots of people they pass...

[hkmaly 490]

6 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

7 hours ago, hkmaly said:

And yes. Worst case scenario, it doesn't need to get the energy THROUGH Ellen, meaning she would actually be able to transform whole Moperville if enough people wouldn't be isolated inside buildings but outside and moving, like say in case of some parade/festival ... (or demonstration).

Worst case scenario, the "anyone near me" has a range of a few yards and she's in a moving vehicle on a busy street. So anyone in a vehicle that passes her going the other direction gets zapped, and continues toward wherever they were going while incidentally zapping lots of people they pass...

That might work faster than parade/festival (and it's more likely to occur ; on the other hand requires bigger range), but it still wouldn't affect more than Moperville ... simply because outside the higher ambient magic the energy will quickly be exhausted.

(And we assume the higher ambient magic field is roughly the same size as Moperville. We know Ellen got outside just few miles out of city.)

Note that she doesn't need to be in vehicle herself: it will be enough if she's next to read and people in cars counts as "near her".

[Scotty 1,061]

3 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Note that she doesn't need to be in vehicle herself: it will be enough if she's next to read and people in cars counts as "near her".

I dunno, I think the initial reaction to being transformed would be to stop the car, possibly causing an accident in the process. Of course it would draw a crowd and emergency responders may end up getting transformed if the spell is still active when they arrive. That would be bad as well actually...

[Vorlonagent 442]

14 hours ago, Scotty said:

Yes, but Pandora is trying to avoid causing magic to reset, so Sarah is the better choice since she can be discreet about it.

Details, details...

That narrow timeframe where Ellen could have accidentally fired off her courageous transformation via buildup, Pandora would have been of the mind to encourage her.

And not to reduce the buildup either. 

[hkmaly 490]

11 hours ago, Scotty said:

I dunno, I think the initial reaction to being transformed would be to stop the car, possibly causing an accident in the process. Of course it would draw a crowd and emergency responders may end up getting transformed if the spell is still active when they arrive. That would be bad as well actually...

1) There would be no difference in reactions no matter if Ellen would be in car.

2) Depends a lot on WHAT street. Sure, on highway interchange the probability of accident is high, but on normal street in city (with speed limit, I assume that's normal even in US) the reactions would be different.

Sure, some might completely panic, and some would cause accident because they stop be able to reach pedals or stop being able to see the street, but I'm sure there are drivers experienced enough to realize they CAN'T panic behind wheel and that no matter what happened, chain reaction crash would be worse.

And while lot of people will stop as soon as possible (for different interpretation of "possible" depending on people), some would definitely decide the best reaction is to get away quickly before it gets worse, not realizing it can't get worse (for them). Some might even notice someone else transformed and not realize they were transformed as well.

6 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:

That narrow timeframe where Ellen could have accidentally fired off her courageous transformation via buildup, Pandora would have been of the mind to encourage her.

And not to reduce the buildup either. 

She wouldn't actually encourage her (at least not in way she would be able to hear) but yes, of course. Only after she realized the risk of magic reset (which was long after Ellen got that spell) and decided she needs to reduce the ambient magic she changed mind ... except, that's the thing: before finding out about reset, she wouldn't need to reduce ambient magic ; after that, she wouldn't risk public exposure.

[Vorlonagent 442]

32 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

\She wouldn't actually encourage her (at least not in way she would be able to hear) but yes, of course. Only after she realized the risk of magic reset (which was long after Ellen got that spell) and decided she needs to reduce the ambient magic she changed mind ... except, that's the thing: before finding out about reset, she wouldn't need to reduce ambient magic ; after that, she wouldn't risk public exposure.

Another case where personal growth and maturity have gotten in the way of a good time. 

[hkmaly 490]

1 hour ago, Vorlonagent said:

Another case where personal growth and maturity have gotten in the way of a good time.

... almost epidemic.