synopsychic | (no subject)

Around the Workshop. Want me to come to you?

Damn it, that means it is isn't a boy. Sure. You can portal in, if you like, I'll open it up. I'm at home.

[A few minutes later, she's in, automatically stooping slightly as she comes in.]

You still in, Eliot?

[He's sitting on the couch, legs crossed, reading a book. He's right, his hair really is getting a bit long, and it's curly so it looks a little unkempt. He gets up as she enters, putting the book down on a cushion, and smiles at her.]

There you are. Want a drink? Breakfast? ... or lunch, I can never keep track of time around here.

How about brunch? I heard that's an actual meal. [Smiles at his rambling.] I see what you mean about needing a trim, but it doesn't look bad on you?

It is, and I haven't decided whether I love it for the decadence it implies, or hate it because it's been appropriated by hipsters. [Eliot declares with a sigh.] Regardless, I'll cook. And it looks terrible, but thank you for being kind. What marvelous thing did you have to show me?

"I picked up some new magic," she answers, fighting back a grin. "Non-native to my world, but it's quite interesting. Mind if I show you one of the spells I've been practicing?"

"Go on then," Eliot says indulgently, waving a hand in an imperious sort of gesture of allowance, though he is actually quite curious.

Nodding, she steps back and closes her eyes, concentrating. Purple flames lick up her body, obscuring her from sight for a second as the violet light envelops her, her silhouette pulsing and then growing larger, broader. It takes a bit of time, it's not the most comfortable experience, but once the spell is done, the flames vanish and leave a very large, very male qunari standing there, Asa's bright amber eyes and telltale white hair still braided in her usual style present in the new form.

"You did say you wanted to see what male qunari look like, right?" he comments, voice deep and rumbling as he crosses his arms over his mostly bare chest. It had taken a lot of effort, like Ambrose had warned her, to get the form just right, all the way up to the same shape of horns the Inquisitor has, but it had also allowed her some freedom to play. Keeping the freckles, but adding the gold gilt-work she'd seen some of the more wealthy Vashoth mercenaries get done to their horns, drawing on the mens armor she'd seen in her own band and so on.

"Oh," Eliot says, "That is just not fair!"

He is clearly fascinated by the process and the result, immediately moving forward to examine the Qunari. Asa cuts a very impressive (and delicious) figure now, and if Eliot didn't have a boyfriend, the second sentence out of his mouth would have been some kind of indecent proposal.

"Definitely the biggest hunk of beefcake I've ever had the privilege to see in person. My god. Do you feel any different?"

He chuckles at that and shrugs, looking down at large hands and idly stretching his arms to feel the muscles bunch and relax. "Not a whole lot," he answers, clearly amused at Eliot's reaction. "A bit taller, a bit wider, but otherwise... No. I think if I tried for Bull's shape it might be a lot more different."

He pauses and thinks before lifting his hand a good foot above his own head. "Bull's about this tall. And his horns are huge, so it would definitely feel pretty top-heavy."

"What about the ahem?" Eliot asks, waggling his eyebrows. He is very curious if that feels wildly different to someone who's always had different equipment downstairs.

"Honestly? Awkward," he snorts, not-so-subtly shifting his weight and feeling the very present 'ahem' in his trousers. "How you men function with your delicate bits dangling around like this... though I suppose having good underwear to 'hold it' helps."

Another shift, a thoughtful glance up. "Not terrible, though. I didn't have much chance to 'explore', but I'll be sure to." He flashes a wicked grin to Eliot and adds, "I based the ahem off Bull's, so there's a fair amount to 'explore'."

"It's actually not all that awkward for us, even without underwear," Eliot says, flapping one hand. "Probably because we're born with them and grow into the things."

Then Asa mentions the size, and the magician groans again, closing his eyes and leaning his head back in exasperation. "Of course you did. And I suppose you're going to go find a whole lot of willing and available people to help with that?"

If only Prompto were into threesomes. God.

"It might be a bit... intimidating. I'll see how Ambrose feels about it," he shrugs. It's a bit strange crossing his arms and not having breasts in the way, but it certainly does interesting things with all the thick muscle on display! "So, I take it you approve?"

"Are you kidding?" Eliot asks in genuine surprise, eyeing said muscle wistfully. "Of course I do. You look marvelous. But still quite like you, which is impressive - like your own brother, I guess."

He pauses, then narrows his eyes, cocking his head to one side. "Could you teach me how to do it?"

Thinking on it, Asa shrugs. "I don't see why not. It's colour magic, which was from one of the Jaunt worlds but I never went there. I think it's harder to pick up if you don't have a magical background, which obviously isn't the case for us, so it should be pretty straightforward. One thing though - once you've picked a colour, you can't change it."

Eliot considers this - he's always up for learning different kinds of magic, but he hasn't heard of this particular one.

"So tell me about it," he directs, as he starts to move around the kitchen, gathering what he needs to make a decent brunch - challah loaf, eggs, butter, cream, to start.

"I only know a bit, but there are other colour mages here," he answers, coming to sit and watch Eliot. "If not mages, the books were brought here from that Jaunt. From what I can tell, each colour represents a vice or emotion as well as a range of themes for magic. The one I use is Violet, which is illusory, ambiguity, but also vanity and royalty. From what I gathered, it's a lot about deception and disguising, hiding in plain sight, but also unveiling and understanding arcane knowledge. Blue magic is more elemental, with power of water, air, lightning, but it also has to do with sorrow and grief, so I'm pretty sure you could work a spell playing on those emotions somehow. Green is nature, healing magic, youthfulness, and envy... and life, which I know you can manipulate for some basic necromancy."

Squinting in memory, he continues, "Then there's Yellow which is light, wealth, jealousy, all those good things. Red is fire, anger, war, blood, passion, which then leaves us with... Indigo, Rose and Orange. I those ones are a bit harder for me to remember, I think partly because they seem to be mixed, almost? I know Orange had to do with mischief, Rose with love, and Indigo was... wisdom? I think? I don't know, I could ask Ambrose to help me track down the books, if you wanted to study them properly."

"Violet does sound more like me," Eliot admits, after listening carefully to the Q'unari's explanation. "But I guess I should do some reading up, make sure I'm not missing out on something more fitting. I'm actually not very good at the illusory stuff - I was a physical kid at school, and that's always come easier to me. Shoving things, moving them around, that kind of thing."

He starts cutting the bread into thick, generous slices, gesturing so that the frying pan settles on the stove. A couple of slices of butter are settled in the bottom of the pan, and then Eliot starts cracking eggs by hand.

"So why'd you pick Violet?"

Propping his chin up in his hand, he shrugs. "My own magic is very elemental. Fire, lightning, and a good bit of warping gravity thanks to the Mark, and that's all powerful enough. Why bother adding to that arsenal when I could branch out into something I can't do already?"

He then grimaces and gestures at his head and his rather eye-catching horns. "Not to mention it's hard to sneak around as a Qunari. We're pretty eye-catching."

"You'd have fit in well with my crowd," Eliot says with a smug little smile, then adds, teasingly. "And it doesn't seem like you're using the magic to be any less eye catching right now ... "

He is curious, though. "How does color magic work differently than your kind? Does it need reagents, books, rituals? Or is it more just thinking the spells into being?"

Which is convenient, but a kind of magic Eliot will always be a little snobbish about. In his mind, it isn't real magic if you don't have to work for it (never mind that he was the most naturally gifted magician in his year and never had to work as hard as most of his classmates did).

"Some things I just couldn't get my head around in Thedas. One of my comrades was good at concealment work, and I know he can use necromancy like the mortalitasi, but it was one of those fields I couldn't seem to channel properly," he shrugs, eventually flicking a hand out to dispel the transformation and turning back to Asa's female self. Tossing her braid over her shoulder she adds, "When I was reading I noticed some Colour spells do seem to require a bit more preparation, but a lot of it's just concentrating and knowing what you want to achieve. Much like Thedosian magic. You want something to catch fire, you will that fire into existence. Though if you don't know how to channel your magic properly, you might set yourself on fire."