manofmyword | welcome to my

The deck of Jokers keeps on enchanting. It takes a few days. The ones with various sweethearts get various visits.

Slowly, everybody's aura builds up.

They're not just less powerful than the Bells'; they're different. Joker auras don't tell you they're attached to magic and power; it's not 'look at me, I'm important' or 'look at me, I'm magical' but 'look at me', the end.

Except that that is not the end at all.

Their auras track emotions, like the Bells', but far more responsively. They can be whimsical one second and terrifying the next; they can laugh while their auras cry and cry while their auras laugh. It's all in how you play it.

The initial differences are subtle. Beast's aura can make him seem more human, or more beastly, whichever form he's in. The others of variable species don't seem to do anything similar, at least not to nearly the same degree. Ghosty's is the most interesting, because she can show her aura without manifesting physically; suddenly she has a presence even when she technically doesn't.

Micaiah's aura is the first one to manifest an obviously unique feature, although 'unique' isn't quite accurate, because after a few more hours of spellcasting they all have one:

A soundtrack.

Pretty soon, they're all cuddled up in one of the guest rooms and the music is going strong. With the whole pile of them together, somebody's aura will start playing a song and the rest will either pick it up or add embellishments. It's tremendous fun.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I dunno what the right amount is, but you look pretty enchantery," says Jellybean, snuggling him. "Go find one of you and ask."

Snuggles, kiss on the forehead, paging the most available Bell through Jane -

Here's one.

"Yeah, you're all set, that's interesting special features," says Pattern. "Almost Elspethy. Like - I mean, the aesthetic is wrong but the basic idea's kind of the same. Aura of honesty. And a little -" She squints at him. "Flare for a sec - yeah, and sort of, approachability? Understanding? You're all 'you can talk to me, I will make a sincere effort to get what you have to say, and what I tell you will be true'."

"I haven't met Elspeth yet, but cool," says Cam. "So that's what super-wizardy means."

"Yep!" says Jellybean. "It's adorable. You're adorable."

Cam winks, flares aura, and says, "You're adorable."

"...So," says Jellybean, "how 'bout we take that tour of the solar system?"

"Pattern, any objections if we hang out in Origin and go make out at least once on each planet and moon?" Cam asks brightly. "We could also head back to Syntropy if you'd rather."

"Don't care," says Pattern. "Later!" And she teleports away.

Jellybean kisses Cam.

"I love you," he says happily.

Delicious candy-flavored Jellybean kisses!

First stop: Mercury! Cam teleports them without interrupting makeouts.

Mmmmmmmmakeouts. Jellybean loves him so much.

The solar system of Origin is toured.

Partway through the Jovian moons, Cam says, [We should probably check if the stuff here is smart or if that's just Syntropy. I wasn't addressing anything in Pattern's garden, and planets aren't bright anyway, but we could introduce ourselves to the sun?] Pause. [I should make you able to torch unless you have some objection, and Tilly too when we get home, especially since we can't hook up to Downside.]

Edited 2013-04-07 15:53 (UTC)

[Sure!] says Jellybean.

Cam pastes torching onto his boyfriend, then spins them through the remaining Jovian moons pretty quick and then gets to within reasonable sun-addressing distance and conditions.

"Hello, Sol!"

"I'm a yellow star!" says Sol.

"...Are you now."

"I'm a yellow star!"

"Either Sol is really stupid, or Origin stars are grass," comments Jellybean.

"Yeah. Maybe Syntropy's the only world with smart stuff. That's a relief, actually, way less work for all my alts at making their worlds adequate. Is there a star you know is particularly clever back home that we should check out here?"