# 89 Magic Giveth, And…
Mar15
on March 15, 2016
at 10:24 AM
Chapter: Coming Of Mage
Characters: Melvin Clark, Tiffany "Red" Thornton
Location: Snack to the Future
Hey kids, seems like the Blue Wizard just can’t get a break.
Speaking of breaks, take one. Get a refreshing beverage, and vote for The Melvin Chronicles!
Then, head over and drop some coins in the ole Patreon Poor Box!
Sincerely,
BACH-MANN & Shhadow
POST NOTICE: Shhadow has been under the weather, so the post is slightly delayed. Fear not, we will see you on Tuesday!
You know, for a guy who plays a wizard, and who has a personal genie, he sure seems unaware of the concept of magic. It would be interesting to see how Melvin first encountered Kazom, and did he get his three wishes already?
Melvin isn’t accustomed to being able to use magic casually. So far, it’s been something he’s had to struggle with to do on purpose.
Yeah, you’d figure he would be more cautious with using the two-word combo, “I wish”, what with socializing with genies.
All his life, “I wish” has been an empty phrase; it’s expressed a desire, nothing more.
Now, it’s pulling the trigger on a gun with unreliable ammo of wildly varying power.
He has long-standing habit to overcome, doesn’t know how to aim, has never been trained in the basic rules of gun safety, and the gun is in fact part of his hand.
I’m gonna cut the kid quite a lot of slack.
While, to be sure, standing behind a cinderblock wall….
I am still bothered by the placement of Kazom’s paw, and I mean that in a good way
I hope he ‘fixes’ it, only to make it worse than before.^^
The best solution, perhaps–but there goes the modeling gig, perhaps. Questions will asked, that’s for sure.
And Red doesn’t twig to what just happened; she’s only relieved at the weight loss and the ultra-relaxed fit.
Dang it, now I have to wait for another strip.
Also, has she gone completely flat, with just bra-topography showing, or just shrunk to a reasonable, non-bouncy size?
Well red got what they wanted.
Y’know, guys a little less dense than they are might take that for flirting.
Did… did he just wish her a cup size or two smaller??
Either that, or they’re pretty much gone. Can’t tell with the bra still there.
Well that’s disappointing. I was really hoping transformation magic would stay out of this. Of course, before Melvin was revealed as a wizard I was hoping magic would mostly stay out of it period, so I guess I should have just stopped way back then. I got into this story for Red’s, you got drive-byed by a genie now you got to live with it arc, and it’s super disappointing to see Her best friend have magic that can solve her problem(barring some writer nonsense saying it can’t for “reasons” which will make no sense). Really disappointing resolution.
Red’s feminine sexuality isn’t going away. Shhadow’s been very clear on that. I’m thinking relieving her physical discomfort with an oversized rack may give her the slack she needs to adjust.
Actually that’s MORE annoying to me, though, not less. The logic of this situation is super simple. A. Melvin stops Red from leaving because ‘dude I magically shrunk your boobs’ is kinda important to tell someone. B. Together, they quickly realize this is a solution to Red’s problem because clearly Jeanie’s magic is not forcing Red to look like Red. It won’t happen because they’re trying to do some ‘skit’ like in a sitcom or something, but it will rely on making everyone act like an idiot when none of the characters have been portrayed as idiots(outside of the pervert friend). Stories that do that sort thing just bug me, because it rings false. Rather than invest me in the story it makes me roll my eyes and want to look away. Understand?
I don’t think that’s how it will play out, exactly, and as long as Red continues having to cope with being female in mind and body, I’m willing to fudge a bit on plot details.
But I think I understand your frustration; I’ll be frustrated to if that’s how it works.
We’ll see.
Yeah, I’m basically just hoping that the next couple of strips provide a really compelling reason to keep me invested. It’s going to have to be significant, immediate, and most importantly, not reliant on characters acting dumb in ways they shouldn’t, though. At least that’s what it would take for me as a reader. I’m not good at fudging away plot holes, especially not ones as large as I feel this one is.
I think what I’m looking for is Melvin being able to tweak the “problem”, not make it go away.
I’m willing to tolerate quite a lot of fumbling, because these are, after all, middle school kids dealing with powers, magical and sexual, they truly do not understand, and can’t learn about without a lot of trial and error.
Simply not thinking fast enough to halt Red’s exit seems entirely consistent to me, particularly given the emotional barrier against a boy Melvin’s age being able to talk coherently, on his feet, about a girl’s breasts. That would leave a lot of us tongue tied.
Incidentally, no one but the genie herself being able to modify a genie’s spell too much is fairly well established canon in the Bottle-verse. Anyone being able to “fix” a spell would make things way too easy.
Well, I mean … it is and it isn’t. The whole, only the person that cast it can reverse it is subverted if you are allowed to change aspects of the spell until the spell is essentially reverted. This strip seems to prove(barring some sort of reversion in the next strip) that Melvin can alter the end effect of the spell since he’s changed Red to not look the same as Jeanie made her look. Maybe he has to ‘technically’ leave Red as a girl, but if he can make her chest small, there’s no reason to assume he can’t change any other aspect of her appearance as well. Expounding on that leads to the idea that he could change Red to look exactly like his old self, making him ‘practically’ male while adhering to the technicalities of not reversing the spell.
We really don’t know all the rules in this universe. We know that one *genie* can’t undo another genie’s magic, but Melvin appears to be a very powerful wizard. Maybe he can. On the other hand perhaps this change he has made will wear off and Red will be back to full size in a few hours, sort of like Jeannie not being able to stay in regular clothes without thinking about it because she reverts back to her genie costume.
I do understand your objection to having an obvious and easy fix for something and everyone ignoring it. Though I think that right now Melvin is so inexperienced and haphazard with his magic that trying to do a full restoration of maleness might be a little too dangerous to risk. Eventually, though *if* his magic can reverse a genie’s, then I’d expect to see that happen.
Actually, if Melvin tried to reverse Red condition of being girl and try’s to change her back into boy, I would expect it to backfire and see terrible consequences as a result. Then Melvin would have to try to get everything back to the way it is now. But, this would be another story arc for another time and another place.
I’m just going off this particular strip’s implications, which is that Melvin can permanently(or even long term temporarily such as like a day at a time) magically change Red’s appearance. That could be untrue, but if it’s not, it ends the story, because ‘waiting for Mel to get practiced enough’ isn’t a story.
Red barely notices her bust reduction, beyond her relief. Very odd. Sorta like every just accepting she’s a girl now.
“Everybody”. Gah.
Quick, wish-em back, wish-back!!!!
Maybe Red going through her period. A girls emotions go up and down and they get real bitchy when that happens. Mood swings and such. At this time in Red development, she probably been a girl for two month now. She going to develop a certain amount of familiarity with her new female body in that time, both physically and emotionally too. So a few thing are going to slip passed her, because she getting use to it. But, still doesn’t want to be a girl, but, she is definitely sliding in that direction.
Let’s face it: girls don’t need periods to be emotionally unstable, amirite? There’s a reason we don’t let ’em vote.
— Wait, what?
Hm. When you listed your handle as “50s Refugee”, I didn’t realize you meant the 1650’s. 🙂
Melvin, son, out with it. Your uhm and ah are about to cost this young lady considerable embarrassment.
“Red? Check you boulder holders. All you got is pebbles.”
See? Clean and quick.
Hadn’t realized the implications of the last strip and this one. Red *wished* that she didn’t need her big bazooms, Melvin wished that, too—and they shrunk. So it’s Melvin that has control of the situation—and, likely, doesn’t realize it.
There is also the possibility that the wish has a different effect in that instead of changing her slightly back or altering her body in such away that is more troupe (which by the way cannot be avoided in any manner) is that the only way to reverse said effect is to make her younger so that she is not the size that she currently is.
Teens do stupid things no matter what. It happens. The problem is that not all teens consistently do stupid things. Wish for stupid things and so for. Melvin was only thinking about helping his friend with the I wish also part. Not that he meant any harm. A mage, wizard and so forth has to learn like any person does. That is unless they are somehow omnipotent and that is an over use there in itself.
I’ll wait and see.
The “I wish” state of mind Melvin gets seems to effect his magic use. I think it’s the non-forced use of magic where he gets better results. It’s probable he gets a clearer picture of what he wants to happen in this state that allows the magic to flow better than when he tries to direct it.
all I can say is NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Did she just unhook her bra under her blouse
No, I think she just doesn’t fill it out anymore, so it sags.
that doesn’t make sense, breast don’t spontaneously change size
They do when magic is involved.
Well Melvin, it could have been worse, you could have taken up Red’s problem.
The shadow coming from an object or person on the right has me curious. Sometimes it’s there… sometimes it’s not.
Get well soon.