RP post: An illusion for Meda

[asar_suti]

Asar-Suti is sitting in the magic library, reading up about snakes.

In many magical traditions, snakes are very, very special creatures. Not just in the magic of Gil's world...

Comments

[mycursedface]

Medusa knocks on the door, and then peers around. True to her word, her blue-black hair is out in...well, not all its glory. It hasn't been seen in all its glory since she was cursed. But there is still enough to give a good idea of just how damn beautiful her curly hair is.

"Hello?"

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

It is the snake lady! Looking lovely!

Belatedly, Asar-Suti realises he hasn't asked her name. Or told her his. She looks a bit like the Gorgon Medusa from Greek myth, apart from where in pictures, the head of Medusa generally looks a lot angrier, and the snakes are out, hissing.

"Hello," Asar-Suti says. "You've found me! Erm, I'm Asar-Suti, by the way."

[mycursedface]

"Medusa Gorgos."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"Oh," Asar-Suti says aloud.

So it is her!

"In Milliways, if you meet somebody who looks like the Gorgon Medusa, chances are, she is the Gorgon Medusa! Come in!"

[mycursedface]

"Probably," she admits with a quick smile, slipping in and walking over with her normal accompaniment of sound - the faint rustlings of the snakes, the chime of her feathers and the jingling of her bracelets.

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

Asar-Suti gives her a long, deep look.

Pertaining her hair, that is.

"Disguising the snakes as more of that hair won't be really hard," he says.

"So the illusion will be easy to hold up. The less natural it is, the more magical energy it consumes."

[mycursedface]

"That makes sense. And the snakes used to be hair, too."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

Asar-Suti gets up and comes a bit closer.

"May I touch them?"

[mycursedface]

She flinches, taking a step back.

"Pardon?"

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"The hair? The snakes? So I know what I am working with?" Asar-Suti asks.

[mycursedface]

"Do you have to?"

Although her voice is even, musical as ever, her body is suddenly tense and the snakes hissing uneasily.

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"It would be helpful," Asar-Suti says. "I need a feeling for their energy."

[mycursedface]

"I really, really hate being touched by people I don't know."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

Asar-Suti nods. "How close may I come, before I am too close?" he asks.

People are different that way, and some are a bit complicated.

[mycursedface]

And some give off the feeling that if she were outside and was spooked anymore, she'd take flight.

"Um. I'll let you know?"

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

Asar-Suti stretches out his hand and moves towards Medusa, very much alert to the moment when she will flinch.

He does not, in fact, want her to take flight among the bookshelves.

[mycursedface]

"Now."

He's a foot away.

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

Asar-Suti nods, closes his eyes and just holds his hands still, to feel the energy of the snakes.

[mycursedface]

The snakes are a curse, a scarring of her morphic field.

The snakes are a part of her to such an extent that it's as if she was born to have them.

But there are curls, still - beautiful, blue-black, make-you-stop-and-stare curls - and for all they tell tales of Medusa with snakes, they also tell tales of Medusa with her glorious curls. She's a creature of myth, and myths are easy to manipulate.

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

Asar-Suti touches the morphic field, still keeping the distance that she needs, and starts overlaying the one with with the illusion of the other -- it is easy, the resonance, if strange, is similar and close.

Snake by snake, while staying the same in itself, is covered by the illusion of those curls.

It is easy.

[mycursedface]

And Medusa just stands there, and breathes, and watches.

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

It takes Asar-Suti about ive minutes, and then all her snakes are covered.

But still there; and while nobody can look in, they can still taste all around them as before.

"That was easy," Asar-Suti says.

[mycursedface]

"Oh. Good. Could you, um. Tie into something I can put on and off?"

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"Some crystal," Asar-Suti says. "Stone. Jewel. I mostly use them to bind magic."

[mycursedface]

"Would this be okay?" She asks, holding up her left wrist and pointing to one of her bracelets.

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"Oh, perfect!" Asar-Suti says. "I'll best weave the magic through all the turquoises so if one breaks, or falls out, the others still holds it in and pull it together over the gap in the energy field..." he mutters.

Beat.

"Erm -- may I touch it? It would help."

He holds out his hand.

[mycursedface]

Medusa nods, extending her arm.

"Hands are easier," she explains.

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"Good!" Asar-Suti says. He briefly touches each stone in turn, and each time, there is a little spark of purple energy, a crackle, a tiny puff of violet smoke, and the faintest smell of volcanic fumes.

"Done!" he then says. "We need a mirror!"

He draws a complicated sign in the air, which fizzles in purple smoke as well; then, he holds a rather large ivory-backed hand mirror, which he holds out to Medusa.

"This is what it looks like -- do you like it?"

[mycursedface]

For someone who is as vain as she is (and make no mistake, Medusa is rather vain), she doesn't actually spend a lot of time looking into mirrors. It's always a jolt, seeing her face and her movements reflected.

This is...

Worse.

Better.







"Oh," the Gorgon says quietly, hands going to her hair and touching scales. "I. It's how it used be."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"That was the idea?" Asar-Suti said. "But the snakes are there -- you can still feel them! But strangers can't. If you brush against somebody in a crowd there, they won't notice."

Beat.

"Take the bracelet off and see what happens?"

[mycursedface]

The brief look she gives him is eloquent as to the likelihood of her going somewhere that crowded, but she nods and slips the bracelet off.

Her snakes appear.

(oddly enough, her shoulders relax)

Bracelet on, her snakes vanish.

"It. Works."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"That's why I study magic -- so it works!" Asar-Suti says, grinning. "Course it works! Theoretically, as often as you want. Practically, if the stones fall out, the illusion will become thinner over the centuries."

[mycursedface]

Still looking at the bracelet, Medusa suddenly grins.

"Thank you."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"You're welcome!" Asar-Suti says. "You're far too pretty to hide yourself and your snakes under a burqa at a muggle wedding, so I'm being selfish as well."

[mycursedface]

That gets a laugh.

"Oh, I'm just vain. I couldn't do it. So, thank you."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"I'll see you at the wedding, then," Asar-Suti says. "Want to keep the mirror?"

[mycursedface]

"It's alright, Lucifer has some in the bathroom. But. Yes. I'll see you there."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"Okay," Asar-Suti says, drawing another fiery purple rune; and the mirror vanishes into nothing.

"Does he like coffee?"

[mycursedface]

A touch bemused,

"Yes, he does."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"All the devils I've met here did!" Asar-Suti says, grinning brightly. "So he's no exception! Good! Hurrah for Milliways traditions and coffee-drinking devils!"

[mycursedface]

Now she just looks amused.

"Poor Luce. He's part of a tradition. He'll be crushed."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"Oh yes, Milliways is old enough to have one!" Asar-Suti grins. "Do you think he'll start drinking tea if you tell him, out of simple contrariness?"

[mycursedface]

A wicked, wicked smile.

"I'll just have to see, won't I?"

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

"Tell me about the outcome!" Asar-Suti says, amused.

[mycursedface]

"Oh I will."

[asar-suti.livejournal.com]

Asar-Suti grins at her, and winks.