RP post: In the library, the gods are as capricious as always

Asar-Suti is sorting index cards.

He is worried about Gil, actually; the faun hasn't been his usual self this winter, and he won't talk about it. Asar-Suti often makes up his mind to broach the subject, but Gil has years of practice in deflecting 'Suti's attention -- or is it that there is really nothing gravely wrong?

And these index cards would be unnecessary, by now, if all those medieval and magical types would agree to use the computer to look up things, which really is no evil witchcraft or anything!! But no, for most of them, magic and technology doesn't mix.

Dunces!

"Not you!" Asar-Suti says, realising he has spoken aloud from the stare the cat passing the open library door is giving him.-

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Charlie wanders into the library, looking for something in the stacks; Ben's terminology was beginning to throw him off a bit, so he needs an encyclopedia, or history book.

The yell at the cat skitting in front of him takes Charlie by surprise, and makes him blink at the purple godling. "Something wrong?"

"No more than usual," Asar-Suti says, shaking his head. "At least you an use a computer. Hello! You're the pretty young fellow that Goth keeps snogging -- one of the innumerable Charlies, right?"

Asar-Suti shakes his head. "None of them a match for the first and original one, of course. Ahh, well."

Beat.

"What can I do for you, Charlie-for-whom-Teja-finally-admitted-to-gayness?"

Charlie just blinks at the fellow, but he has to give him points for at least getting it. "Monroe, yes..."

It isn't quite off-putting that the guy mentions 'the first and original' one, and Charlie has to wonder if he meant Charlemagne. "Actually I was just looking for a brief history of about the 1800s, in the United States."

He can definitely go look on a computer, really. "Seeing as Teja's a woman, for reasons unknown to me, I would assume it'd be he finally admitted to being straight. For now." He rubbed at the back of his neck--of course he was still attracted to him, but...it was a jarring difference.

"Oh, you mean enslavement of deported black people from Africa, the Civil War, the building of railroads, the genocide of the so-called Red Indians, he lawless state of what is affectionately known as the Wild West, the beginning of environmental pollution, and the founding of the Ku Klux Klan?" Asar-Suti says. "General muggle history -- shelf between the fourth and fifth window, should be somewhere in the middle. The shelf has a skull motif on top, which I found strangely fitting, for history -- it is bloody!"

Beat.

Then, he grins.

"Speaking of bloody history -- so Mr. Bloody History himself is now a woman, is he not? That must be some sight to see! I hope he was at least made to wear fun clothes. Oh my god -- the Goth with boobs!!"

Asar-Suti cackles at the idea -- there is no other word for his laugh that confers pure schadenfreude.

"More specifically that Wild West bit--talking to a cowboy, I never knew it required such reading." Charlie cocked his head, a little confused, but sighed at the librarian's apt description.

"Oh, he's--she's beautiful, all right...I'm not sure how Teja will handle it, but it really makes little difference to me, in reference to sex." He merely chuckled at the idea of 'the goth with boobs', shaking his head as he went to search.

"I hear you do sex changes yourself, too. Finding the idea of them others funny?"

"Especially if they howl in protest like that Jason, and simply don't get the point," Asar-Suti says, grinning.

Beat.

"I remember having a book on the Wild West that has a big W on the back, in one of those typefaces with huge serifs that they liked," he adds, helpfully.

Another beat.

"So you really swing both ways all the way, and that Goth likes being nailed in female shape, properly, by a proper fellow? Yep, that's lots of fun -- I remember. I just thought there would be more howling and gnashing of teeth, seeing how starchy and misogynist he used to be only recently!"

Charlie merely slants the purple guy a glance at the prospect of nailing Teja in female shape. They haven't exactly expounded on the issue, so it's hard to say either way. "Yes, I really do swing both ways, all the way. Or I'd've called myself gay, if I didn't." He smiled, chuckling as he came back with the book.

"Jason's a friend of mine, actually, we're...cut from the same cloth, so to speak. With minor exceptions. Though it was a little harsh not to change him back when he asked."

Beat.

"Though to answer the second part of your question I'd hardly call myself proper. I'm a little rough around the edges if you get to know me."

"As I told your Gothy lady already, when she wasn't one, yet," Asar-Suti says, archly, "your friend Jason is as good as turned back -- I set everything up, now he merely needs to fulfil certain tiny conditions, and she will be a he again! And no, I'm not saying what they are."

Beat.

"Proper fellows are supposed to be a bit rough around the edges - adds to the maleness!" he then says.

"That explains a lot," he says, though mostly takes the archness with a shrug. "Your perogative for doing what you did to or with him are your own, and require no explanation to me. I merely comment on it, as I see him often."

He smiles, opening the book and resting his chin on one loose fist, and looks up at the librarian. "So tell me, at risk of inciting a comment I probably shouldn't, am I rough enough for you?"

"You're very good-looking, but not too pretty," Asar-Suti says, looking at him. "And you're unflappable -- that Goth would have called me half a dozen nasty things in Gothic by now, for what I said, but you take everything as it is and keep calm. Very male, if totally different from the high-flying, sword-swinging flavour of masculinity."

Beat.

"I'd say I'd wait for the Goth's verdict on how well you perform at the rough bits, but he's less likely to talk about that than" -- Gil about whatever is wrong with him -- "a nun about her clandestine deflowerment, so at a glance, yep, seems you would do."

"Honestly, if you wanted me to go about swinging my sword at you, you'd have to pay me." Charlie grinned, nearly laughing.

"I'm not sure Teja would tell you how well I perform at the rough bits, to be honest. He's a bit closemouthed about that. And about the nuns, not all of them take a vow of chastity. Most are just damned discreet about it." The smile he's giving Asar-Suti right about now could be described as many, many things.

Mostly devious.

"I like you," Asar-Suti says, winking at him. "I should teach you a bit of magic -- that would be fun! You have a devious impishness I always appreciated in my Ihlini."

Beat.

"However, I always thought that the name 'Monroe' only goes really, really well with 'Marilyn'!"

"Cute, but she married a bit too early. And the drugs didn't help."

Charlie smiled lightly. "Teach away, I'm learning all sorts of new things here that really never crossed my mind before."

"At this moment," Asar-Suti says, "I think it would be the most fun if you tried what it's like to be a lesbian!"

Beat, grin.

"Won't do to let that silly Goth be straight too long!"

Charlie laughed at that. "No, really. You want to turn me into a woman."

The phrases 'are you out of your mind' and 'hell no' both float through his head, and he debates seriously saying one or both. What ends up coming out is, "sounds like one hell of a time."

"I want a report!" Asar-Suti says, grinning broadly.

He gets up, lifts his right hand, and draws a very, very complicated sign in the air, made up of bold strokes as well as many little squiggles and dashes. The sign hangs in the air, the palest purple lines, likes puffs of violet chalk; then, suddenly, they catch on purple fire, sparkle in brightest lilac with a whiff of volcanic fires. The sign expands, throws itself around Charlie like a fishing net, glows brightly, and all the lines sink into him.

Beat.

And then everything, sense of balance, hair, posture, even clothes, subtly shifts.

"Wow!" Asar-Suti says. "Will last while the Goth's change lasts as well -- have fun!"

Charlie pauses a moment while the purple lines sink in, blinking; he looks down at himself and is very surprised at what he's seeing.

"Well, damn." He looks up, scratching at his neck idly. "I'm going to point out that 'sounds like a hell of a time' doesn't mean 'sure, go ahead', but...well."

He looks at himself curiously. "You're good at that, at least."

"That is all you," Asar-Suti says, smiling. "My magic only changed 'male' to 'female' in your entire morphogenic information. This is who you would be as a woman!"

He looks.

"Bloody pretty!! You know, the straight guys in this place would pay money to see that Goth and you canoodle as usual, if he's anything like this!"

"He's surprisingly similar...." Charlie murmurs, looking at himself--herself, now.

"Though now I'll have to go ask Bar for some different clothing, since all of mine will be menswear." He looks up, still a little surprised. "I can only imagine Teja's reaction to this."

"I hope you'll have fun!" Asar-Suti says. "How many men ever get that chance?"

"How many have you done this to?" Charlie asks, in return--he suspects Asar-Suti might be the cause of a good many of the aforementioned 'men who get this chance'.

"Down the years -- I really lost count!" Asar-Suti says. "I was a god for millennia! And the focus, and sense of time, for an almost discorporate being of pure magic is very different."

"Well hell, I've only been alive for twenty-eight. My memory must be worse than I thought."

"You're just human!" Asar-Suti says. "Enjoy it, sweetie!"

"Been told I'm a damn genius in bed, though," he calls over one shoulder as he leaves, with the book.

"I'll tell you what he says, in a few days!"

Asar-Suti grins, nods, and watches her go.

Then, he returns to his index cards, in a much better mood. He likes this young fellow -- he's fun.

The magic will last a week, then gently leave the young fellow in his sleep, just as such things tend to do, when they run their natural cause in Milliways.-

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RP post: In the library, the gods are as capricious as always

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