[ action | closed ] laa ilaha, il allah, you gonna shine like a star

[black_black_heart]

Who: Lil/Lev (NPC written by Squid) and Tannusen
Where: Velvet Lust's secret basement, maybe other locations too.
When: Late July, several days before bodyswapping shenanigans.
What: Tannusen's putting the final work in toward learning the fifth tier of one of his schools of magic. It goes sideways, as things are wont to do. Wackiness ensues.
Warnings: Nah.

The fifth tier of any Fae magic was supremely difficult to learn. It took years, often, to go from the fourth to the fifth. This was no exception; Tannusen had been working on this off and on for most of the time he'd been on this strange little world.

On the one hand, it should have been a little easier for him to master Elder Form; he was a shapeshifter. The concept wasn't exactly alien to a pooka.

On the other hand, he was having to learn this basically on his own, with no literature from his Earth to help lead him in the right direction.

It... basically balanced out.

Cue Tannusen spending most of a day with his assorted notes splayed out on the table in the secret basement, Lil's ball ending up surrounded in papers covered in cramped handwriting and weird, probably indiscernible diagrams of things that didn't exist on the 'usual' layer of reality... but very much existed for Tannusen, all day every day.

Comments

[black_black_heart]

"Yes," Tannusen eyed Lil side-long, though there was a lot of amusement in those pretty blue eyes. "Best to get it out of your system now, he's touchy about it." Look at him, resisting the urge to suggest Lil call Cass 'girthy'. RESISTING. He doesn't want to have to pry his charge's throat out of his fiance's rage-fueled grip, okay?

[sarcastass]

"I would never laugh at him."

While he was here to hear it. But the tittering is so so obvious, even as he moved to press a hand over his mouth.

"It's so small, oh my goodness. I'd forgotten how tiny they all were at first!"

[black_black_heart]

"I call him travel-sized," Tannusen agreed cheerfully, and slid the sandwich on a plate over to the temporary human beside him. There was surely some instinct involved in the actual process of eating and drinking, if his accidental spell had gone off correctly? Wouldn't make much sense otherwise, to the tiger. He poured them each a cup of tea, while he was at it. "They're still his height in some places, you know," a foot or so shorter than Lil's current shape. "India is what comes to mind for me, since most of my lives have been out there.

[sarcastass]

It was in fact, instinct, and just like walking and talking and breathing, he didn't seem to think twice about eating.

Though he didn't seem to have a clue how to eat a sandwich, and just proceeded to start picking it apart with his fingers and eating it that way.

Alright, Lil.

Drinking was less though invoking, he just lifted the cup and sipped from it.

"How strange... Then again, considering how vastly different every part of earth is, climate and environment wise, it's really no surprise that humans would take on different builds and heights."

[black_black_heart]

Tannu saw no harm in him eating it however made sense to him. Especially since he was only temporarily human, and was unlikely to find himself picking at things like this around anyone else. Maybe Cassian, if it went on too long.

If it went on long enough that he'd be around judgemental randoms, Tannusen would worry about giving him the crash course then. Faeries from his world were used to being the odd duck, after all, and having to blend in with humanity while not always having a clue how.

"Nutrition and types of labor plays a big role, too. That's why the average Indian guy is still... Cass-sized. Then you shift over to say, north america," and a gesture at himself. The only white body he'd lived in, at least that he had a memory of.

"My other aspect and form are based off the human body I inhabit. Well, Elder-Form aside, I suppose."

You'll have to pardon him for not making himself the first -- deliberate -- test subject, there. Might be hard to change himself back, after all.

[sarcastass]

"Oh! Oh yes I see." Interesting. Still, the comparison between ages was fascinating, really.

"Most seraphs are exactly the same size, with only slight variations. As you go down the tiers, you see more diversity in shape and size." The vast variations among the exact same species of human though was amazing, in his opinion.

And no, Levanael didn't seem intent on being upset about being human. Quite the opposite, it seemed, as he moved to play with a nearby butter knife.

"So even without being a tiger, you'd still be beautiful?"

No. That's not flirting.

[black_black_heart]

"You mean if this body didn't have a Fae soul in it?" Tannusen asked, while casually moving the block of much sharper, not butter knives away from the AI-turned-human.

[sarcastass]

"Yes. If you weren't a fairy, you'd still be beautiful, right? At home, the fae will be gorgeous simply because of what they are. Well... depending on the type of fae, I suppose. They'd be beautiful because of their species."

He tapped the knife against the table, delighting in the vibrations along the handle, each whack becoming steadily harder.

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen shook his head. "Being Fae has nothing really to do with what this body looks like. When it's not inhabited by a Faerie soul, it loses the pointy ears and the weirdness around the teeth and too-blue eyes. The only ones who are pretty by nature are the Sidhe, as they're dreams of beauty and leadership."

[sarcastass]

"Ah, yes that is what I meant. Without it, you'd still be beautiful."

And THUNK.

He wasn't upset. He wasn't even annoyed. He'd just become so taken with drumming the butter knife on the table that he'd now actually stuck the blade into the material.

Oops.

"... Oh! Oh no, I'm so sorry!"

[black_black_heart]

"Yes, well, good genetics, I suppose. My mother was a Sidhe, and Trench isn't bad looking himself, either," at least, when he was wearing the illusion that hid where Tannusen had taken half his face off, "it's just his personality that's so foul."

He eyed the table and the butter knife, and gave a big 'ol shrug.

"It's fine, Lil. I can more than afford a new one; kick the shit out of it if you want."

[sarcastass]

"Is Trench your father?"

He went to pull the knife out of the table, peering at the gouge it made. Goodness.

"I don't want to break your things..."

He moved back to examine the butter knife, skirting his thumb over the edge thoughtfully. Just a butter knife, no real harm in that.

"It's so strange... There's nothing like this sensation in heaven..."

[black_black_heart]

"Mmhm," Tannusen managed to keep his tone casual, as one sometimes had to when the topic was so awful. "He wanted to make sure he had a pretty heir. I was very much planned."

Eugh.

"What, stabbing furniture isn't an angelic pastime?"

[sarcastass]

"Oh..." No, it didn't occur to him why a father would demand a good looking heir. Good looking people get far in life? It was a subject and topic that was beyond him, and Tannusen was a touch too good at disguising his tone to make it sound unimportant.

He didn't push.

"No!"

There we go, that got him.

"I mean- No. No, we don't break things for fun."

[black_black_heart]

It was better if Lil assumed it was unimportant. Refusing to answer at all might have gotten the AI curious.

"So what do you people do for fun? From what I've seen of your kind, I'm going to guess... crossword puzzles."

[sarcastass]

"Theirs jobs, of course."

The very reason they were created. Of course doing this would make them all terribly happy. Camael uplifted humanity, Raguel set the laws to keep them safe, Morpheus bestowed upon them inspiration and dreams.

They all loved it, ergo, this must be fun.

Lil paused of course, tapping the knife against a plate next.

"I... Levanael." He wasn't Levanael after all, and Tannusen knew what the AI did the pass the time.

"Levanael writes. And illustrates his books." Present tense, of course.

[black_black_heart]

"Your creator has moved forward four billion years while you've slept," Tannusen noted, hoping this didn't give away anything too awful. "You may as well use that name for yourself, if you want. No one is going to contest it."

Lil was a lot closer to what Levanael had been, after all. A lot closer.

"I'm friends with him, and I don't think he'd even find it odd, honestly, if you took it up."

See? It couldn't be too bad a thing if the guy had made another friend.

Right?

Riiiight?

Look, he just didn't want to break the little AI-turned-human.

And that probably explained the odd looks he'd given Lil here and there; must be odd, to hang out with a duplicate of a friend, copied before he'd known him?

...Right?

[sarcastass]

"He won't mind?" That's right, four billion years didn't even get a blink of his eye. The earth, and thus himself, were still young yet, considering this entire reality was over thirteen billion.

But surely, if Levanael had gone and made friends, everything was as fine as it always was!

"I... I'd rather not. I am still not Levanael. It would be lying."

[black_black_heart]

"Well, he's not really using it much these days," Tannusen shrugged, "but I think Lily suits you just fine if that's the one you prefer."