Tribulations of an Apprentice Witch
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
If we're going to disguise Star we should probably do it before long conversations with people.
[X] a. Try to talk Ivy into it, but if she still doesn't like it, you'll respect her wishes.
[X] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat (and possibly applied a disguise).
[X] a. Try to talk Ivy into it, but if she still doesn't like it, you'll respect her wishes.
[X] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat (and possibly applied a disguise).
Ivy has a moral claim, but considering what's been done to Star (ripped from her original body, stuck in an amulet for centuries, shoved into Ivy's body) and what Ivy is asking of Star (to jump into yet another body, this time probably an undead corpse) it's a bit hypocritical to object to a little temporary Alteration, especially when it's both the practical option (as Ivy should acknowledge) and it would make Star feel a bit more comfortable.
I'm hopeful Ivy will see reason, but Ivy should not get a veto on this decision. It is originally Ivy's body, but the decision affects Star too as she's the one living in it.
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If it was absolutely vital that the body was altered, sure, but it's not, just more convenient and a bit safer. As such I am comfortable with allowing Ivy a veto here, because if nothing else we have to live with her, be she on the amulet or manage to get her body back.
Star isn't asking on a whim. Ivy herself acknowledged the potential pitfalls if Star is caught pretending to be Ivy. Personally, I think the practical benefits are significant.
It's not really fair to Star, either, to keep her in Ivy's body and not even allow her to take simple, reversible steps that would make that task easier.
Valkur
The True Valkyria, Valkur!
- Location
- Fólkvangr
[x] a. Try to talk Ivy into it, but it's something that should be done whether she likes it or not.
[x] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat.
(You don't very well want to have a sudden meeting with a mysterious noblewoman in your current state, after all)
It never stops getting complicated.
[x] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat.
(You don't very well want to have a sudden meeting with a mysterious noblewoman in your current state, after all)
It never stops getting complicated.
Except that the risks can be managed and minimized, enough that I am rather comfortable with not forcing the issue if it's an absolute no go for Ivy.
Valkur
The True Valkyria, Valkur!
- Location
- Fólkvangr
By the way remember that Valerie the innkeeper saw us talk to this retainer like chick that has NO SWAG. So she may feel pressured to help us now. Also when I mean no swag I mean not at all able to gather information at an Inn like a normal person without being mega paranoid.
- Location
- Nova Scotia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, I mean, Star's a living soul, so technically speaking if you put her in a corpse that was intact enough to like, not immediately kill her, she'd be alive, not undead. It's undead if it's got a dead soul or a some kind of magical facsimile in it. Dead souls are usually not much like a living person and even when they are they're pretty different from when they were alive. This is the main ethical argument for why it's okay to make stuff like common undead -- the soul that's in Brute used to be a person, probably, but it's not really one anymore.
I swear this distinction makes a lot of rational sense in my head.
I don't think any of the alternatives are nearly as effective, nor have I seen any alternatives proposed. As you said, disguising Star has a lot of upsides, and the only downside is that Ivy may be miffed if she isn't persuaded. But if Mina and Star are to convince Ivy, Mina needs to take a more robust stance than nice-to-have. It's not that I want Star and Mina to force the issue, but that Mina will likely have a stronger opinion on its merits if it's something that 'should' be done.
If the idea isn't rejected out of hand, I'm also worried the decision might be delayed until we've already been compromised.
Ah, interesting. Though it's still the case that we've already asked and will ask a lot more of Star than we're asking Ivy for here.
- Location
- Las Islas Filipinas
[x] a. Try to talk Ivy into it, but it's something that should be done whether she likes it or not.
[x] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat. (And apply the disguise)
(You don't very well want to have a sudden meeting with a mysterious noblewoman in your current state, after all)
This seems like the safest and most pragmatic compromise we canmake right now
[x] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat. (And apply the disguise)
(You don't very well want to have a sudden meeting with a mysterious noblewoman in your current state, after all)
This seems like the safest and most pragmatic compromise we canmake right now
[x] a. Try to talk Ivy into it, but it's something that should be done whether she likes it or not.
[x] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat.
@Gazetteer, instead of marking votes as 'a' and 'b', with Kinematics' vote counter NetTally you can add a grouping element. For example, this vote could be "[ ][Ivy] ..." and "[ ][Retainer] ..."
I don't know if that'd be useful for you, but I find it tends to look nicer.
[x] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat.
@Gazetteer, instead of marking votes as 'a' and 'b', with Kinematics' vote counter NetTally you can add a grouping element. For example, this vote could be "[ ][Ivy] ..." and "[ ][Retainer] ..."
I don't know if that'd be useful for you, but I find it tends to look nicer.
- Location
- Nova Scotia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Useful, thanks. I'm pretty unbothered by things like placeholder characters or filing tags (literally everything related to this quest in Google Drive has a file name starting with [TAW] because it sorts better) -- library school will ruin you like that. Anyway, though, I'll try to use this instead in the future.
- Location
- Everywhere, Anywhere, Nowhere.
[x] a. Try to talk Ivy into it, but it's something that should be done whether she likes it or not.
[x] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat.
[x] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat.
Update 019
- Location
- Nova Scotia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Vote tally:
##### 3.21
[x] a. Try to talk Ivy into it, but it's something that should be done whether she likes it or not.
No. of votes: 8
The Laurent, ChildishChimera, mistakenot, Echo 101, Power, Seventeen, ObsidianWings, Muer'ci
[x] a. Try to talk Ivy into it, but if she still doesn't like it, you'll respect her wishes.
No. of votes: 8
Felius, NemoMarx, kinigget, Hannz, SolipsistSerpent, cB557, veekie, djd
Oh nooo, a tie. I'll have to call it, which… in this case might be kind of academic, depending on Ivy's reaction. Which, obviously I know, but you don't yet, because you're here reading this note instead of reading the post.
--
[x] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat.
No. of votes: 13
ChildishChimera, Felius, NemoMarx, mistakenot, kinigget, Hannz, Echo 101, cB557, veekie, Seventeen, djd, ObsidianWings, Muer'ci
And this one wins by a comfortable margin, so that's a lot simpler.
[X] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat (and possibly applied a disguise).
No. of votes: 2
SolipsistSerpent, Power
##### 3.21
[x] a. Try to talk Ivy into it, but it's something that should be done whether she likes it or not.
No. of votes: 8
The Laurent, ChildishChimera, mistakenot, Echo 101, Power, Seventeen, ObsidianWings, Muer'ci
[x] a. Try to talk Ivy into it, but if she still doesn't like it, you'll respect her wishes.
No. of votes: 8
Felius, NemoMarx, kinigget, Hannz, SolipsistSerpent, cB557, veekie, djd
Oh nooo, a tie. I'll have to call it, which… in this case might be kind of academic, depending on Ivy's reaction. Which, obviously I know, but you don't yet, because you're here reading this note instead of reading the post.
--
[x] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat.
No. of votes: 13
ChildishChimera, Felius, NemoMarx, mistakenot, kinigget, Hannz, Echo 101, cB557, veekie, Seventeen, djd, ObsidianWings, Muer'ci
And this one wins by a comfortable margin, so that's a lot simpler.
[X] b. Agree to talk to them, but not before you've had a bath and had something to eat (and possibly applied a disguise).
No. of votes: 2
SolipsistSerpent, Power
"We'll talk to your lady," you say, with a sigh. You hold up a hand as the retainer starts to relievedly beckon you in the direction of the table in question. "But not right now. We've had a long, unpleasant journey, and it's been days since either of us have had a chance to have a hot meal or a bath, so… you and your lady can talk to us after that." You glance around the common room, and at Valerie, still watching you speak with the retainer. "... in one of our rooms, preferably."
The retainer seems to consider that for a moment or two, before slowly nodding. "I… I see," she says, nodding slightly. "I shall… I shall… I'll t-tell my lady at once." With a respectful little nod of her head, she leaves, hurrying back over to confer with the other two occupants of her table.
"I suppose talking to her in private can't create more of a spectacle than that turning into an argument in the middle of the common room," Star admits, walking alongside you as you climb the stairs. The wood paneling of the common room gives way to wallpaper with an abstract pattern of diamonds in a subdued shade of navy, as the short flight of stairs curves around to directly into a narrow, vaguely L-shaped hall. She turns to you, giving you a proper look at her still-cloaked face. "Do you think this is going to be trouble?" she asks.
"Yes," Ivy says, before you can speak. "But it's likely to be less trouble if we at least know what's going on with them first."
You convey this, adding: "Valerie mentioned that there were other people trying to get her to arrange a meeting with this 'Partsmonger' person we're going to see, but who didn't have any kind of reference for her to go off of."
Star tilted her head thoughtfully. "... Yes, that could be them. They must be getting a little desperate, if they're accosting strangers in the common room just because they might have an in with him. That girl looked as though she might faint just from having to talk to us."
"Good clothes and good sword, but no coat of arms," Ivy muses "Not for her family, or for her lady's. Not a servant, then -- and not quite highborn either. Probably from some wealthy landowning family who thought their daughter being the close friend of Lady so-and-so would help their standing. Or the girl's marriage prospects. Or their finances -- Things are less formal in Dunsal than they apparently are in Alpland, of course."
You're on the verge of explaining this much to Star when you arrive at your door, key in hand. It's already open, though. At first this gives you a nasty little knot of worry in the pit of your stomach… until Claud, the cheerful, raven-haired server pops his head around the corner. "Hello, again," he says, stepping into view. "There's a hot bath waiting for you in the suite, and a hot meal on its way as soon as it's finished." Claud is delicately built, but leanly muscular. This is rather hard to ignore, as the unbuttoned neckline of his shirt puts Valerie's quite to shame. He tilts his head winsomely. "Please, let me know if there's anything further I can do for you."
"... thanks," you manage, and pointedly don't turn to stare as he saunters past you back toward the stairs. You're not sure you would have managed so much restraint, had you been alone. Something about the subtle emphasis he placed on the word 'anything' leads you to half wonder if Claud is perhaps earning a little extra on the side by doing more than just waiting tables and filling bathtubs.
Star doesn't spare him a look either, but this is probably because she's letting the cloak drop to the hardwood floor the moment she steps into the suite with her bag following swiftly after it. This accomplished, she makes a beeline for the open door inside. "You said I could go first," she reminds you, as she disappears inside. You catch a glimpse of a tub filled with steaming hot water, and a modern looking sink and toilet before she shuts the door, leaving you alone to close and lock the door out to the hallway.
The suite is comfortable for two people, if not massive, longer than it is wide, with the door you'd come through on one of the narrow ends, a large, curtained window directly opposite you, and the door Star had gone through on the wall to your right. The hardwood floor is covered by a thick rug -- faded, but still comfortable underfoot as you kick your boots off in the direction of the mat by the door and step onto it. Here, the wallpaper is white, with abstract circular shapes set over the background in a regular pattern, reminding you a little of your mother's favourite teapot, which you cracked while you were five. Beyond the two beds, in terms of furniture there is two wardrobes, a privacy screen in the back corner, and a small table with several chairs set around it.
You drape your cloak on the coathook by the door, and, after a moment, pick Star's up by the floor and place it beside it. This seems like a big enough inn that they might do laundry here, for a fixed rate. Noting the mud splatters on some of your clothes, you decide that this is probably going to become necessary.
Thankfully, though, your cloak kept the worst of the water off of you, meaning you're free to slip out of your half-soaked pants, and flop back onto the bed without without soiling the blankets or sheets immediately. When the food arrives you assume they'll knock, giving you enough time to put something else on, so the worst that is likely to come of this is Star seeing you in your underwear, and… given that you'll be rooming together, you decide that this is an acceptable risk.
"I told you that it was nice," Ivy says.
"I believed you," you murmur. "I'm glad we have you here to tell us about this sort of place."
"If you didn't have me here, then there wouldn't be a reason for you to come all this way in the first place," Ivy points out. "You could be… altering cows to produce magical leather automatically, or whatever it is you can do with alteration to impress master witches.."
You snort at that. "Magical cows?" you ask, incredulous.
"And what's so silly about that?" Ivy Demands. "Think about all the time and energy that could be saved on making enchanted leather, if we could just breed cows that naturally produce it! It's a great idea, Mina!"
"Okay," you agree, trying to hide your amusement a little. "Next time, we'll try to make some magical-leather producing cows instead of playing around with ancient family artifacts."
"Well, you'd… probably need charms for that, right?"
"Well, yes."
"My charms are awful," Ivy admits. After a pause, she adds: "And with my luck, I'd somehow end up transmuted into a cow and you'd need to turn me back before someone skinned me for magical leather."
You do laugh at that -- you're supposed to, you hope, although there's a bit of a hurt edge both to the original comment and to your laughter. Both of you know that the situation is bad, but it's probably a good sign that you can laugh again, and Ivy's spending some of her time thinking up harebrained schemes instead of just being sad and angry all the time.
If you're going to broach this topic, it's probably now or never.
"No one saw her face when she came in, I don't think," you say, cautiously. You keep your voice low, in case Star might overhear what you'd rather be a private conversation. "Not anyone who'd recognise you, anyway."
Ivy is quiet for a moment at that. At length, though, she says: "... probably," in agreement.
"You know I wouldn't do anything terrible to your face," you tell her. "You know that, right?"
"... I know," she admits.
"And you know I'm actually good at that sort of alteration," you press on. "I'd be as careful as I'd ever be."
"I know."
"And I'd get your face back the way it's supposed to look afterward," you promise, not quite sure how to read her tone. She doesn't seem outwardly angry yet, but there's a… troubled flatness in her voice that might be cause for concern. "I couldn't forget a face like yours."
"I know," she says, and this time there is a bit of temper present. "But--" her train of thought seems to come to a screeching halt, as she backs up and asks: "What did you just say about my face?"
Whoops. "That… it's pretty?" you say, pushing yourself up to a sitting position, mostly so that you can shrug awkwardly. "Bodies want to go a certain way anyway, so it's not hard to reverse basic alteration spells, but it helps that I know what your face looks like really well. You've got those adorable freckles. And, uh… that nose that kind of goes a little crooked."
"My nose is crooked?" she says, sounding both shocked and dismayed, as well as apparently becoming quite distracted from what else you'd just said.
"No!' you assure her, whispering frantically directly into the amulet. Not that this makes much of a difference as to whether or not Ivy can 'hear' you, given your magical connection. "It's a good nose! It's just… a little bit asymmetrical! It adds to the charm!"
"Now when she comes out, I'm just going to be focusing on her nose and wondering if there's something wrong with it!"
This is really not the way you'd hoped paying her a compliment would go over. "The point is, though," you say, trying to sound a little more firm, "Is that I know how you're supposed to look, and I promise I'd put you right back after."
She goes silent again at that. For longer this time, to the point you almost don't think she's going to respond when she finally does. "It's not like I don't trust you to know what you're doing," she allows.
"So, what's the problem?"
"It's… it's..." Ivy gives the impression of a frantic hand gesture, as if trying to summon the right words out of thin air. "Well, it was… her idea!"
You make an exasperated sound, and your heart sinks. "I thought you two were starting to get along a bit better."
"We are!" Ivy insists. "It's not about… her suggesting something. It's about her wanting to do something like that with my body. My body, Mina! Mine! Not hers! And it feels like… if she starts doing things like that, she'll forget that it isn't hers. I don't have any control over anything anymore. I can't walk, I can't talk to anyone -- I need you for everything." There's an almost heartbreaking, brittle note in her voice now. "You can't know what this is like," she adds.
"I know," you admit, running a hand through your hair. "But, Star knows what it's like."
She goes quiet again, hopefully mulling over what you've just said. "... that's true," she murmurs. "So, I guess I just have to rely on the continued empathy of someone who hates necromancers."
"She wouldn't still be here if she didn't care about you getting your body back," you say. "She could have left at any time, and we just… might have had to look for a new body for you instead of for her."
"Not an option!" Ivy says, suddenly frantic. "I don't want that! I don't want to be in… someone else's skin. It would feel all wrong, I can tell. I know she's stuck with that no matter what, but I hate the thought of it."
You try to make your voice soothing, one hand reaching up to physically stroke the surface of the amulet a bit, wishing you could offer her any kind of actual physical comfort. "No one's asking you to do that. She's here because she wants to give you your body back, not so she can keep it. And you letting me change your face a little will help us get through this easier."
"... okay," Ivy says, voice small and a little defeated. "Alright. I know you're doing the best you can, Mina. You're trying to keep us both happy, even though we keep disagreeing. It's a bit frustrating, sometimes, but you'd… you wouldn't do this if I said no, right? You wouldn't do something like that if I really didn't want it."
"... of course not," you say, because it's what she wants to hear. Although as you say it, you feel a sudden stab of guilt -- your actual feelings are a lot more ambivalent, and you're really not sure what you would have done if she'd actually forced the issue.
"Good," she says, her voice even smaller and quieter in her head.
At this point, the door opens, and Star walks out with a towel clutched around her. You do your best not to stare, just as she does her best not to stare at you in your state of partial undress. "That felt really fantastic," she says, grabbing her bag up from the floor and hurrying with it over to the privacy screen.
"I'll bet it did," you say, beginning to head over to the bathroom yourself. Before you get there, though, you pause, and say: "I talked it over with Ivy, and she says it's okay if we change her face a bit."
"Oh, good!" Star says, as the towel is tossed up over the edge of the privacy screen. You can hear the sounds of rustling cloth as she presumably gets dressed again on the far side of it, a process it's probably best not to let your mind linger on too much.
"So… I guess we can do that before we go meet with that Alplandish woman," you conclude.
"That would probably be best," Star agrees. "I have no idea how that tub works, by the way -- can you refill it without calling for help? After that long on the road and all that mud, I… didn't think you'd want to share my bath water."
You might, but in a rather different context than she was proposing. "It's fine. I know how to use a faucet," you assure her. As you close the bathroom door behind you, Ivy comments, somewhat absurdly:
"My nose isn't even that crooked."
--
Your bath does indeed feel wonderful, and the food arrives while you're still washing up -- a nice hearty stew with seasoning you can't find in many other parts of Weissany these days. There are some advantages to mounting this search in an inland port like Salvograd. The sweet, cloudy wheat ale that gets served with it is surprisingly good as well -- ordinarily, you're more of a wine person.
Once you and Star have set the dishes aside, you pull her out one of the chairs for her to take a seat in, stand in front of her, and take her face in your hands. You think you might detect a faint blush in her cheeks from the intensity of your gaze, but sadly you're focusing too much right now to be able to take much pleasure in that.
"Just don't make me look ridiculous," Ivy moans in your head.
"Any preferences?" you murmur. "If you told me, I could make it look a bit more like you used to--"
"No!" Star's voice is sharp enough to momentarily break your concentration, and you need to start building the spell all over again.
"Okay," you say, a little taken aback. "Try not to yell at me when I'm actually casting the spell."
She sighs. "Sorry. Just, uh… well, I don't want to talk about it right now." She really doesn't seem to -- for whatever reason, bringing up what she used to look like seems to have struck a nerve. "Preferences, though? Uh… I know it might be easier to hide me and all if you did, but… please just don't make me, you know… ugly." Star seems highly embarrassed to be admitting to what to you seems like an uncharacteristically impractical preference.
It's just as well, though, because if you're honest with yourself, you know you wouldn't have been able to make her look less attractive. There are worse vices to have than a desire to look at pretty people, right?
What do you go with:
[x] You're in south-eastern Weissany -- you make her look more like like a classical local beauty, with raven hair and dark eyes.
(She'll blend in more in Salvograd and the surrounding countryside, although her accent might give her away if push really comes to shove.)
[x] You take inspiration from a Lowlander girl who once swindled you out of a month's pocket change -- slightly tanner skin, green eyes and honey coloured curls.
(You're far enough away from the Lowlands that any strangeness coming from Star's status as a woman out of time can be attributed to her being from somewhere else.)
[x] You're going to ensure that no one mistakes her for Ivy while you're here -- eye-catching hair and eyes to befit a fairy princess.
(Attention grabbing, and obviously unnatural, but that's not always going to be a bad thing. It would draw attention away from you, hopefully.)
[x] You settle for brown hair and a down to earth, girl-next-door sort of charm.
(Low key, which may be a good thing, unless she needs to do something to get someone's attention)
Ivy's reaction here was based on a rough calculation of how frequently you've listened to her opinion or followed her advice versus disagreeing with her. So far you've been pretty even between opting for her or for Star -- not that pleasing them is always mutually exclusive; I've been trying not to turn every post into "Leliana Approves +5, Morrigan Disapproves -5". They agree on certain things and on others one or both of them might be ambivalent or neutral.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Actually, forget Star, shouldn't we ask Ivy if she has any preferences? It's her body.
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[x] You settle for brown hair and a down to earth, girl-next-door sort of charm.
Don't you know? Morrigan always disapproves 
[x] You settle for brown hair and a down to earth, girl-next-door sort of charm.
[x] You settle for brown hair and a down to earth, girl-next-door sort of charm.