Oh wait, about the gravity crush, he had a leyline to access in that part. That probably would violate the neutral terrain rules.
how does magic work for dresden, anyway? hand movements, magic words, just thoughts, etc? Does it tire them out or anything?
Depends. He can do magic via thought but does so very rarely because it's hard to control like that. Magic words almost always. Hand movements are just extra.
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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick