>>150208110
There's something to be said about the need for pretense when it comes to Homestuck's 'magical powers'. In a pesterlog with Rose, Doc Scratch touches on this when discussing her magic powers.
>Knitting needles?
>An inexpensive figurine of some fictional fellow with long whiskers?
>A simple textbook on the zoologically dubious?
>Why would this mundane combination of objects grant a child such an alarming mastery over dark forces all at once?
What matters more is the ideas inherent to the objects. you can wind back a music box. You can go back on a record with a turntable. This is the same principle that alchemy works off of in general. There's no reason the Snoop Dogg Snow Cone Machete should be able to freeze opponents just because it has an air conditioning unit as part of the recipe, air conditioners don't freeze things! But think about how many times you've read one of the alchemizing pages and went "Oh huh, yeah, that make sense" when John makes a telekinesis ghost gauntlet out of some ectoplasm, his PDA and a fake arm. That's the whole conceit.
Pic unrelated, just thought it was cute.