hello milliways

[callmeleo]

Another day, another mysterious bar appearing out of nowhere. Leo is acquainted with Milliways and its lurking habits. He doesn't even bother calling Zanna; it'd take her too long to come over, and they get doors fairly regularly, so he just goes in and gets some absinthe with crushed cochineal. (Demonic tastes make for very odd mixed drinks.)

Comments

[callmeleo]

"I mean, yeah, but that's just one illusion. I'm thinking- patches of different colored skin, altering the lengths of your individual fingernails, maybe some fur under your sleeves or something. Turning your hair a slightly different shade. That sort of thing."

[calescent]

"We could make it look like I painted my nails and add interesting colors and designs under my dress. Add red highlights to my hair, maybe, they'll go with my wardrobe and everything, sweela colors. Aleko, make suggestions."

[liakoura]

"Make her hair look an inch longer? Make it look like she has ever looked at makeup with more than vague disdain - eyeliner, maybe, blush, lipstick? Make it look like she's wearing jewelry that she owns but isn't wearing?"

[callmeleo]

"All very good ideas. And I'll probably do similar things to you, so feel free to come up with something that works for you as well."

Leo begins muttering Latin at Kiri. It's mostly all the same flexible glamer that Aleko used on his teeth, minus the sigil because Leo is Actually A Witch and doesn't need components on a beginner's spell. Kiri gets very slightly different colors of nail polish on each finger (small differences make it less likely that the spell will just glom onto itself and turn into one spell), interesting beaded designs on her dress, highlights in her hair, slightly longer hair, a small amount of makeup.

[liakoura]

"I've got my teeth thing, uh - I spend more time worrying about how she looks, really, that is one of the things that is both actually important for social status type reasons and formally delegated to me. Nice beads."

[calescent]

"He needs a haircut. Probably no one would notice if his ears were slightly differently shaped. Paint his nails - dark green - and I think he owns a shirt that style but two shades paler so that would work too. And Aleko, when that's done will you nip off and get Jayce?"

[callmeleo]

"He does need a haircut, good call," Leo affirms. Muttering takes place, as do relevant changes. Leo telekinetically lifts the stones from Aleko's array and dumps them into the cart. "Free to go."

[liakoura]

Aleko waves and nips off to get Jayce.

[calescent]

"Nothing more useful than illusions available for the generic magic step of the process?" asks Kiri, still writing letters. She seals a second one.

[callmeleo]

"Uh- I mean, there's probably useful magic I could do to you, but I don't think more magic would speed up the process that much more than it's already sped up, you're kind of saturated."

[calescent]

"If you say so. Are there general principles at work here such that you can be sure you can't make more reading glasses without human sacrifice?"

[callmeleo]

"The general principle at work here with regards to my reading glasses is that they're way too complex for me to figure out how to make more of them at all for another decade or so, but human sacrifice is convenient enough for complex high-power enchantments that I'd be shocked if Grandma hadn't killed someone or other to make them."

[calescent]

"Why does human sacrifice help?"

[callmeleo]

"An immense amount of power is bound up in the human soul, and in tethering that soul to the lump of meat it goes around in. Ordinarily, when you kill somebody, that energy goes out into the environment like waste heat and adds to the ambient magic levels. With the proper procedure, you channel it into the thing you want it channeled into instead."

[calescent]

"I wonder if you could destroy, or for that matter just draw, blessing coins and get something out of that."

[callmeleo]

"They don't do anything for me. Which could just be selective magic, but my gut tells me it's actually you guys doing the heavy lifting on the magic and the coins are just a convenient application of it."

[calescent]

"Well, if there's some conversion rate - blessing coins are easy to come by and don't involve human sacrifice. Jayce! Jayce, this is Leo. Leo, our little brother Jayce."

[spinnaker]

"Hullo, Leo. Gosh, that is uncanny."

[callmeleo]

"Gosh indeed."

[spinnaker]

"Are we doing blessings?"

[calescent]

"We should do blessings. And see if Leo's spells can see any usable magic wafting off of them."

[callmeleo]

Leo sets up a crystal array with space for a blessing bowl. "I'm ready when you are."

[calescent]

"We have a chapel out back, come on."

Out they go.

[callmeleo]

He sighs and levitates the array and follows. Ech. Movement.

[calescent]

Out back there is a chapel. It has a bowl of blessings in it.

"Apparently these don't work for Leo. Jayce, see if you can't draw normally for Leo, grab him three. Elay people are often particularly good at drawing blessings," she explains to Leo.