corporeity: (023)
𝑔𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑘𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑠 ([personal profile] corporeity) wrote2024-11-12 12:45 pm

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semicharmed: (boredest boy at eton)

text; un: persephone; substance times

[personal profile] semicharmed 2025-01-05 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Am I the only one with a bad feeling about this?

Literally transformations are like the worst thing about this place


[ Wait, he didn't add any context to this, maybe that would help. ]

All these "treatments," I mean. Especially given the source ... I distrust anyone Portia trusts by default.
semicharmed: (mite unsettling)

[personal profile] semicharmed 2025-01-06 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
[ Matt continues to fret that maybe Gale doesn't approve of him (which is his fault), so the first line of that reply is a balm to his hamster-wheeling soul. ]

The transformations always go beyond the physical.

They always do!

I try to remind myself that a lot of people here either didn't know magic was real before they got here, or else came from truly shitty worlds, but at this point

I don't know, I'm not very good at explaining myself. I wouldn't know where to start.
semicharmed: (don't call me shirley)

[personal profile] semicharmed 2025-01-08 02:59 am (UTC)(link)
Okay, yes, that's a great point. And I can see why people wouldn't necessarily be on the alert, since the tourney seemed fine and the little winter village was like, mostly adorable

but none of that offered to change anybody.


[ Except, perhaps, for Krampus turning people's internal organs into external ones. ]

Have you taken a deeper look at any of it? The lotion and stuff?
semicharmed: (034)

[personal profile] semicharmed 2025-01-08 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Hang on, Matt has to have a full five-minute spiral about the point Gale's made before his main point. The exact topography of it is probably boring to an outside observer, but it boils down to the fact that Matt's been thinking of a lot of that magic as more like regular drugs. Consent-impairing, for sure, but not capable of fundamental alteration. Though werewolves shapeshift all the time and they're fine, so is this a cultural bias of his?

Don't worry, he'll be chewing on the question like a tasty rawhide for weeks if not months. ]


Oh geez, okay. That does push up my personal timeline for investigating

I'll be there. whenever you need


[ He isn't sure if Alina's still mad at him, but the store doesn't have a NO MATTS ALLOWED sign on it or anything. Plus Erik gave him that nice gift card. ]
semicharmed: (crystal vibes)

[personal profile] semicharmed 2025-01-13 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Are we not doing phrasing ...?

Evidently not, because when the name of the game is magic and people he adores are at risk, the thought somehow doesn't cross Matt's mind. ]


Awesome. I'll be there.

[ And as the sun sinks below the horizon, Matt is en route to Sol & Scroll, trusty FEEDETH ME A TURKEY LEG AND TELLETH ME I'M PRETTY tote bag stuffed with freshly harvested herbs, a few essential oils, one of Matt's notebooks (now full of new anxious configurations!), and other bits and bobs. Finding the door unlocked, he slips inside. ]

Gale?
semicharmed: (294)

[personal profile] semicharmed 2025-01-14 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah-- [ Matt doesn't catch the gloves. At least, not with his hands: They arrest themselves in midair, floating into his waiting grasp. Matt quirks a smile down at them, then over to Gale. ] Smart.

[ Honestly, he could stand to wear gloves for more of the stuff he gets up to. He slips them on, then turns to dig into his bag. ]

So where are you so far? I brought some things I thought might be helpful for like, determining the nature of an object or a substance, [ his fingers close on something and withdraw--it appears to be a small gemstone. ] But like I said, I haven't done much with the stuff itself.
semicharmed: (don't call me shirley)

[personal profile] semicharmed 2025-01-23 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Matt frowns suspiciously at the ReSculpt, thinking his own uneasy thoughts about the friends and lovers he's seen altered. The question jars him out of his musing, into a startled smile. ]

Oh, uh. This is kyanite. [ He sets it on the table with a careful clack. ] It's a stone that's supposed to help see through illusions or distortions. I also have ...

[ Matt reaches back into his tote, and swiftly realizes he may have put these gloves on prematurely. Peering into the bag's contents, he inhales quickly, causing a few items to lift into the air: a sprig of honeysuckle, a small jar, his notebook. ]

Honeysuckle for persuasion and psychic insight. Anise essential oil, which is good for a number of things where I come from, but also psychic insight. Plus it smells good. [ His gaze slides back to Gale, and he offers another small smile as the notebook pages flip, flip, flip themselves to the right spot. The page shows a filigree of symbols placed within a circle. ] My method so far with these things is honestly pretty simple ... I just sort of ask it what it is?
semicharmed: (mother nature's son)

[personal profile] semicharmed 2025-01-27 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Matt can't really tell the difference between Gale's forced enthusiasm and the regular kind, but even if he could, there'd be nothing to stop him from projecting. In either case, the solution is the same: Impress him with magic!

And Matt can, at least, tell that Gale expected more oomph out of that clap. He smiles ruefully at him and says, ]
Let's.

[ Matt's magic doesn't require words, as such. Not out-loud ones. What it requires is his focus, an intention to north-star the casting, and the architecture to produce the right notes. Matt inhales, one eye on his notebook and the other on the tabletop, as ribbons of golden light weave themselves into a copy of the design on the page. He compares--a few ribbons wriggle into a slightly different shape--sets the kyanite and honeysuckle in north and south positions. Dabs the anise laboriously onto various spots in the pattern, then onto the inside of the gloves' puffy wrists. The spell circle closes; everything gleams. The words in Matt's mind are part memorization, meant to get him out of his own way. Then such a knower has every pleasure he wills upon the earth, and holds great powers in the grasp of his lotus-like hands. And in part, as he intimated to Gale, they're a simple question:

Who are you?

The answer is somewhere between a vision, a leaf-green whisper, and a smell: hawthorn trees on Saltburnt's snowy grounds, a strange mossy plant climbing their trunks in broad, irregular rings. For a moment, Matt's eyes flicker with verdant tendrils.

Then he blinks, breathless, and seems to come back to himself. ]
semicharmed: (elemental)

[personal profile] semicharmed 2025-02-03 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ It's outside, Matt's about to blurt--which would be pretty cryptic, so it's probably for the best that Gale's question breaks across his thoughts like a pebble to the surface of a pond. ]

I'm great, [ he says, sincerely. It seems to be true: Matt's got a bit of a bounce in his bearing, a light in his eyes that comes not from any mystical plant communion, but the exhilaration of spellcasting. It falls somewhere between the neat pleasure of solving a puzzle--things fitting into other things--and the awe of prayer.

Just as his own ritual strikes Gale as complex, there's only a handful of spells Matt knows how to cast as quickly as Gale can. So he's slightly uncertain as he adds, ]
Did you do your thing? I wasn't supposed to wait for you, was I ...? [ A sheepish smile. ] What'd you learn?