Lie Ren (bringstheflour) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-07-11 21:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, lie ren, magnus bane |
Who: Ren and Magnus
What: Magnus makes Ren a glamour
When: After this, late April
Where: The Magic Guild
Rating/Warning: Low/none
Status: Complete
As far as appearance changes went, Ren knew that he could do worse than pink eyes. He’d spoken to a girl who’d lost her ear and had a scar across her throat from getting her throat slit, so he knew this. Still, he knew the pink eyes could be unnerving for anyone who had never seen such a thing, though apparently they weren’t unusual in his dreams, and he had no desire to draw unnecessary attention to himself.
The offer for a glamour was a tempting one, and one that he didn’t intend to pass up. Choosing his jewelry was a bit of a challenge though. Ren had never worn jewelry as a rule - for one, he and Nora could scarcely afford it, and for another, in martial arts competitions jewelry had to be removed.
It had to be something that wouldn’t get in the way, and after some consideration he finally decided that it may be easiest to purchase a small stud for his ear. He’d never had his ear pierced before, though he could pierce his own if need be, and he should be able to wear a small ear stud even when he was competing. It wouldn’t get in his way like a ring, necklace, or bracelet, and seemed like the best choice. So, with his earring in his pocket, he made his way to where Magnus had asked him to meet.
Magnus hadn’t done a glamour in awhile, but it was a fairly easy spell to do, so he wasn’t too worried about it. And considering the glamour was on this man’s eyes, it made it even easier, because unlike with Celaena’s back, it was a rather small body part.
When they were making plans, Magnus had almost suggested meeting at The Institute, but considering the glamour that covered the building, it was unlikely that Ren would find it easily so instead he had suggested the Magic Guild. For one, no one would bother them there and two, the building was easier to find.
Magnus had decided to wait outside for Ren and he spotted Ren fairly easily as the other man approached since the only other people who usually came near this building were other magic users or friends of them, “Ren, I presume?” He asked, smiling.
Ren hadn’t even known that the Orange County had a Magic Guild, though when he thought about it, he really wasn’t surprised. With this many people with powers gathered, it made sense that they would have a place to learn how to control their powers and to meet other powered people. Magic didn’t exist on Remnant (at least, as far as Ren knew then, it didn’t), but part of him wondered if semblances and auras would count as magic in this world.
He’d worn sunglasses, as Abigail on the network had suggested, and he looked at the man who approached him. To outward appearances, the man seemed normal enough, though Ren knew better. “Yes,” he said. “You must be Magnus?”
It wasn’t as if they were trying to keep the Guild a secret, but it just wasn’t something they talked about too much on the Network. From what Magnus knew about the way it was run in the past, someone who was already in it usually mentioned it to other magic users when they came across them and invited them to check it out.
“I am. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ren.” Magnus didn’t blame the other man for wearing sunglasses to hide his eyes, “Why don’t we go inside.” He gestured towards the entrance to the Guild.
“And you as well,” Ren said. With Magnus’s gesture, Ren stepped inside the guild, not entirely sure what to expect but finding himself looking forward to it. Once he was inside, he removed his sunglasses, revealing his eyes, the same colour as the lock of pink hair he had on the left side of his face.
The Guild was a mixture between a makeshift library of various research and magic material; both real and from various people’s dreams as well as various potions ingredients and an area with target dummies to practice spells. It was nothing like he had pictured when he’d first heard about the Magic Guild, but it worked and it served its purpose well and gave Magnus and the other magic users a place to store magical objects and practice without having to worry about non dreamers witnessing anything.
“How long have you been dreaming?” One thing that had always fascinated Magnus was how different everyone’s dreams were and he liked finding out as much as he could about them when others would talk about them.
A slight frown crossed Ren’s lips as he thought about it. “About five months now,” he answered. “Though my roommate has been dreaming for a little longer than that.”
“And what kind of world do you dream about that would give you pink eyes? Are you human in your dream world?” In his dream world it was mostly Warlocks or Fairies who had eye colors different from the norm so it wasn’t as if it was a strange question. As for Magnus’ own eyes, they were currently unglamoured so they appeared to Ren or anyone else as yellow cat’s eyes.
“Yes, I’m human,” Ren confirmed. It wasn’t even a very strange question for his dreams, which were inhabited by Faunas, people that seemed human but with animalistic qualities, such as ears or tails. “I dream of a world called Remnant, though eye colours that would be strange here are normal over there.” At least, no one had looked twice at his own eyes, and he wasn’t the only one in his circle of friends with strange eye colours. Yang’s eyes were purple, Blake’s golden, Ruby’s silver.
“I always enjoy hearing about the dream worlds that are different from our world.” Not that the ones where there was no magic or super heroes weren’t also interesting, but the less mundane ones were just so much more interesting. “Unfortunately unnatural eye colors aren’t exactly acceptable here for the most part.” Now that Magnus wasn’t modeling any longer, he didn’t have to keep his eyes glamoured for things like meetings and photoshoots, “Fortunately, if I need to…” Magnus’ eyes became their original dark brown even as he spoke. “I can make mine look normal again.”
Ren had come to the realization that unnatural eye colours didn’t go over after the looks he’d gotten with his own the first few hours that he’d gone out without the sunglasses. He’d never liked drawing attention to himself, and he’d been hyper-aware of the attention.
He watched as Magnus’ eyes turned back to brown, and he had to admit that he was impressed. That seemed like a very useful skill to have, and one that Ren almost wished he possessed, though he supposed with the glamour that Magnus was going to make, he would nearly have the same ability, albeit with less control.
“Would you like to hear more about Remnant?” he asked.
Magnus only held the glamour for a few moments longer, seeing no reason to keep it up aside from wanting to demonstrate a little bit of his magical abilities so that if Ren wasn’t yet convinced, it would help. “I’d love to.” While Ren had come by so that Magnug could do the glamour for him, Magnus wasn’t going to pass up a chance to hear more about the other man’s dream world.
As the two of them headed deeper into the magic guild, Ren taking in the sights as they went, he explained about Remnant. How the people were forced to live in cities, where they could be protected from the Grimm that roamed the lands. How Grimm were soulless creatures, unlike the animals and people that lived in Remnant, who wrought destruction wherever they went. How they were attracted by people’s negative emotions. But how, despite all of this, people had managed to survive, and even thrive. It could have been a desolate world, and while there were people and criminals who would prey on others’ fears, for the most part, people banded together to protect one another.
“In my dreams, I’m going to a school, Beacon academy, that trains people to become hunters so they can go out and fight the Grimm, and keep those who can’t fight safe from them. I’ve met some truly remarkable people there.” And luckily for Ren, all those who he would consider friends were here in the Orange County. Ren had never been much one for talking, and the explanation was probably more talking than he’d done at once in years. But he found that he didn’t mind talking about Remnant so far. He knew that soon, he’d be dreaming of more horrible things, but so far, his dreams had been more pleasant than otherwise.
Magnus listened intently as they walked, eventually leading Ren over to a table used for research with a couple of chairs and sat down, “That’s impressive. It’s good that there are so many people who dream about fighting and magic so that when the shit hits the fan here, we’re not decimated in a day.” He smirked, lifting one hand, blue sparks dancing around his black painted fingernails. Yes, Magnus was showing off a little, but that wasn’t exactly new for him, “Do you have a specific weapon that you use?”
There wasn’t any magic in his dreams, at least as far as his dream self was concerned, but looking at it from an outside perspective, semblances and dust were near enough to magic to not warrant the correction.
“It is nice. I don’t think my roommate is ever happier than when she has things to fight,” he said, smiling a little. He wasn’t quite sure he understood Nora’s fondness for fighting whatever invaded the county, but he admired it all the same.
“My Stormflowers,” Ren said, a touch of pride in his voice. “It’s customary in my dream world for people to make their own weapons, and mine are twin pistols with blades attached vertically beneath the barrell.” They weren’t particularly strong, not like some of the other weapons in his dreams, but they were also easy to wield, and even the Ren in his dream world relied on his hand-to-hand combat skills more than any kind of weapon. “They haven’t carried over yet though.” It was a bit of a disappointment. Team RWBY and the rest of JNPR had all seemed to have received their dream weapons so far.
Magnus’ brows rose at the mention of Ren’s weapons, “Those sound extremely impressive. I’d love to see them someday.” Magnus might not have had as much of an interest in weapons in the waking world as in the dreams, but from the sound of it, he really wanted to see these pistols. “The Shadowhunters, in my dreams, also have specific weapons that work for them, but everyone mostly uses the same things.” Some had special weapons like Alec and his bow and arrows and Izzy and her whip, but most of the Shadowhunters he knew in the dreams tended to rely on the Seraph blades.
“If I get them, I’ll let you know,” Ren assured him. Truth be told, he was eager for them to finally show up. “What do the Shadowhunters do?”
“I look forward to it,” Magnus had a feeling that Ren’s pistols would appear someday. Most objects like that usually did, “Shadowhunters usually keep the peace in the Shadow World. They take care of the occasional demon that might try to cause trouble and sometimes vampires or werewolves if they get a little out of hand. Every now and then there’s a war, but those are few and far between usually.”
“Do you only go after vampires if they get out of hand?” he asked. It didn’t sound as if he went after all vampires, but it was better to check. After all, one of Ren’s closest friends was a vampire, and if she was in danger, Ren would like to be able to warn her.
“There’s very little war in my dreams, too,” Ren said. “All the negative feelings attract Grimm.” There had been one, eighty years before Ren had started dreaming, which had resulted in nearly everyone adopting names that were either a colour or brought a colour to mind, and after that there had been the Faunas revolution, but there’d never been one in Ren’s lifetime and he hoped it would stay that way.
“I don’t. In the dreams, I’m the High Warlock of Brooklyn, so I generally keep tabs on all the warlocks in the area.” Hence one of the reasons Magnus was so invested in the Magic Guild now, “But usually the vampires and werewolves keep to themselves as a result of a sort of peace treaty with the Shadowhunters. It’s the demons they usually have to really worry about.” He hoped that put Ren’s mind at ease.
“Sounds important,” Ren said with a bit of a smile. He wondered if any such title existed in the OC, though he somehow doubted it. There seemed to be too much variety in people’s powers to really have some kind of hierarchy for these kind of things. He was glad to hear that Magnus wasn’t some kind of vampire hunter though, at least not when he didn’t need to be. That would have been tricky.
The two of them stepped into a large room, one that Ren assumed most of the magic practice took place. Ren, admittedly, had never seen any kind of magic duel, but he assumed that they needed a fair amount of space and this seemed to fit the bill. “For this glamour, do I need to do anything?” he asked.
Magnus turned to Ren and shook his head, “Just wear the glamoured piece of jewelry when you want to mask your eyes. Anyone with the sight will be able to see through it; like myself, but other than that, anyone else will see the glamour.” Magnus’ own glamours were different since they weren’t connected to a thing, but simply came from within himself. “So, what did you bring?”
Ren pulled the new earrings out of his pocket. “I thought earrings might be unobtrusive enough to work,” he said, showing them to him.
Magnus had attached glamours to necklaces and rings before, but never earrings so this would certainly be a new test of the glamour. “I can’t help but notice that you don’t have your ears pierced though.” Magnus said, eyeing Ren’s unmarked earlobes, “However, I think I can fix that too. If you want.” That was also something he’d never tried before, but his magic was capable of so many things that he’d never actually tried before that he didn’t think it’d be that difficult.
“Yeah,” Ren said, rubbing the lobe of his ear a little self-consciously. “I can’t really wear jewelry with my work, but I thought the earrings wouldn’t get in the way too much.” He likely couldn’t wear them at competitions, even if they were just small studs, but it was better than nothing. He considered Magnus’s offer for a minute, and then nodded. “Yes, I think that would be best.” He had been thinking of asking Nora, but he didn’t particularly trust letting her that close to his face with something sharp.
“Just remember that when you take them out your eyes will change back to their current color.” Magnus reached out and took the earrings from Ren, “So you might want to have colored contacts for those times you can’t wear them.” Magnus had hated when he’d had to wear contacts to conceal his eyes so he had been extremely glad when his powers had kicked in, “By the way, do you have a picture of your original eye color?” While he assumed Ren’s eyes had been brown, he wanted to be sure and get the color as exact as he could and after all, who didn’t have selfies on their phone?
“Thanks,” Ren said. He’d never worn contacts before; his eyes were generally strong. He hoped that he’d be able to wear them if he had to. He had heard of plenty of people who couldn’t.
Ren frowned thoughtfully at Magnus’s question. Ren had never taken a selfie in his life, but luckily, Nora took plenty of them. “I think so,” he said, opening up his phone. It didn’t take him long to find one that Nora had sent him, her arm around his shoulders and grinning, and him looking slightly annoyed at her, his dark brown eyes clearly visible. “Here,” he said, showing the phone to Magnus.
Magnus took a look at the picture, focusing on Ren’s eyes in it then, holding the earrings in the palm of one hand, he held his other over it, blue sparks dancing around his fingers as he closed his eyes and focused on creating the glamour.
After a moment or two, he opened his eyes and closed his fist around the earrings, which appeared in Ren’s ears a moment later. The spell similar to the one Magnus used to borrow things from other places. “I hope that didn’t hurt.” He didn’t think it would have, but then again Magnus had never used magic to pierce someone’s ears before.
There was a sting, though Ren didn’t allow it to show on his face other than a slight tightening around his eyes and it passed before Ren was hardly aware of what had happened. He raised his hand to his ear and touched the new stud tentatively. There it was. It should probably have been stranger to have his ears instantly and magically pierced, but, well, he was getting used to all of this.
He shook his head in response to Magnus’s statement, and then said “thank you.”
Magnus couldn’t help but smile as he watched Ren touch his ears, “Why don’t you take a look before you thank me,” Magnus took out his own phone and switched the camera to selfie mode and turned it towards Ren so he could see his eyes.
Ren peered into the screen of the phone. He knew what the glamour would do and he knew his own natural eye colour, so there was no real reason for him to be surprised by what he saw, and yet there was a part of him that was. It was one thing knowing magic existed, it was another seeing it in action. “Just like old,” he said, offering a bit of a smile in return.
Magnus was always glad to be able to use his magic to help someone and this was no different, “I’m just glad I could help.” He turned his phone off and slid it back into his pocket.