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stoutfellowOf the major characters in El Goonish Shive, Tedd Verres is not exactly my favorite; far from it. But he was one of the first to appear, and his actions are central to the development of the plot, so he gets the first entry. Under the cut, of course.
Tedd's parents are both powerful users of magic. Edward Verres, until recently, headed the Midwestern branch of the government office dedicated to dealing with magical problems, and his name is known to the Immortals. Noriko Verres has been described, by someone who would know, as a "legendary monster-hunter". Tedd, though, is utterly unmagical; he has no spells, and will never have any. This distressed Noriko greatly, and may have played a role in his parents' separation. Tedd knows nothing of his mother's abilities; she has been in Europe for years, and does not write. Tedd resents this, though he rarely speaks of it.
He was a small child, with soft features, and so, in school, bigger children who considered themselves harder made his life painful - until the day, in fourth grade, when Elliot Dunkel leaped into the midst of a bullying session, shouting "Leave her alone!". (It was an understandable mistake.) He and Elliot became friends that day, and have remained close ever since.
When Tedd was twelve or thirteen, his father was approached by a couple of Uryuoms. (Uryuoms are a race of extraterrestrial origin, who have lived on this planet for at least a couple of centuries. These two were born in this country. I'll talk more about Uryuoms later.) They presented him with a broken technomagical device, a "transformation gun", capable of changing the shapes of those it fired on, in specifiable ways. They could not repair it; perhaps Edward could, or perhaps he knew someone who could. Tedd overheard, and volunteered. He had already shown considerable mechanical aptitude, so his father agreed.
Tedd not only repaired the device, he reverse-engineered it. In the years since, he has continued to tinker, and now has built a variety of technomagical artifacts - a couple of transformation guns, a belt and several watches with specific transformation spells built in, and a gauntlet which serves as a sort of magical capacitor, storing and discharging magical power and giving him at least a semblance of magic himself.
Tedd is, shall we say, imperfectly socialized. No, let's not be mealy-mouthed: he's a horndog. His fantasies feature all the standard tropes - naughty nurses, bad schoolgirls, and the like - and he has never been shy about voicing them. He's been getting better about that since Grace came into his life, but he's still kind of a pig. Still, he has his good features; for example, the day he faced down a crowd of angry students, supporting Susan's protest of a new school uniform policy, was a major turning point in their relationship. He's never going to be in the front lines in the group's battles, but not for want of courage; and his technical expertise and general knowledge have proven vital more than once. (That same expertise has caused almost as many problems as it's solved, but, well, that's techies for you....)
Tedd's parents are both powerful users of magic. Edward Verres, until recently, headed the Midwestern branch of the government office dedicated to dealing with magical problems, and his name is known to the Immortals. Noriko Verres has been described, by someone who would know, as a "legendary monster-hunter". Tedd, though, is utterly unmagical; he has no spells, and will never have any. This distressed Noriko greatly, and may have played a role in his parents' separation. Tedd knows nothing of his mother's abilities; she has been in Europe for years, and does not write. Tedd resents this, though he rarely speaks of it.
He was a small child, with soft features, and so, in school, bigger children who considered themselves harder made his life painful - until the day, in fourth grade, when Elliot Dunkel leaped into the midst of a bullying session, shouting "Leave her alone!". (It was an understandable mistake.) He and Elliot became friends that day, and have remained close ever since.
When Tedd was twelve or thirteen, his father was approached by a couple of Uryuoms. (Uryuoms are a race of extraterrestrial origin, who have lived on this planet for at least a couple of centuries. These two were born in this country. I'll talk more about Uryuoms later.) They presented him with a broken technomagical device, a "transformation gun", capable of changing the shapes of those it fired on, in specifiable ways. They could not repair it; perhaps Edward could, or perhaps he knew someone who could. Tedd overheard, and volunteered. He had already shown considerable mechanical aptitude, so his father agreed.
Tedd not only repaired the device, he reverse-engineered it. In the years since, he has continued to tinker, and now has built a variety of technomagical artifacts - a couple of transformation guns, a belt and several watches with specific transformation spells built in, and a gauntlet which serves as a sort of magical capacitor, storing and discharging magical power and giving him at least a semblance of magic himself.
Tedd is, shall we say, imperfectly socialized. No, let's not be mealy-mouthed: he's a horndog. His fantasies feature all the standard tropes - naughty nurses, bad schoolgirls, and the like - and he has never been shy about voicing them. He's been getting better about that since Grace came into his life, but he's still kind of a pig. Still, he has his good features; for example, the day he faced down a crowd of angry students, supporting Susan's protest of a new school uniform policy, was a major turning point in their relationship. He's never going to be in the front lines in the group's battles, but not for want of courage; and his technical expertise and general knowledge have proven vital more than once. (That same expertise has caused almost as many problems as it's solved, but, well, that's techies for you....)
