1286/How I Learned To Top Worrying And Love Leroy

How I Learned To Top Worrying And Love Leroy
Date of Scene:	04 July 2017
Location:	Queensland Park
Synopsis:	Traci shows off what she can do with Leroy to Paisley.
Cast of Characters:	Traci 13, 267

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Traci 13 has posed:
    It's just past midnight, in Metropolis Park. And, the park is pretty much empty. Traci'd had Paisley cast a simple glamor to allow them to slip past the flatfoot making sure that none of the deliquents or homeless were slipping unseen into the park, and they'd found a back part of the park that Traci knew pretty well to stay ouf of the way in. Mostly.
    Each of them dressed in dark clothes to further their ability to remain a little hidden, Traci tells Paisley, "So, I wanted to bring you out here to show you Leroy," she confesses, scritching the iguana on her shoulder, affectionately. "It's not really something that, you know, we can do in the apartment." She grins, sidelong towards her girlfriend. "And, we can see how well you can do with him." She considers, asking, "Do you have any difficulty, or trouble with anything you can do?" A pause. "I mean, that you know you can do. Anything that you feel you need to, you know, practice at?"

Paisley (267) has posed:
    "Not the glamours. They just keep getting stronger wheneever I use them until I start thinking I can do nearly anything. Maybe a small building. Maybe more..." Paisley is shaking her hed, speaking in a lowe voice despite the fact they can't be overheard.
    "I get to see Leroy, huh? You mentioned he was basically a dragon, so... Aren't you, Leroy?" Paisley ofers the lizard a little smile and then continues to walk along, shrugging slowly. "Unweaving was easier than I thought it would be. And I'm working on- how to cotnrol the curses. Most of the other things I get ideas how to do I'm not sure I really want to practice."
    Paisley shakes her head at this and then takes another of those steadying breaths she se seems to use so often. "I'll keep a lock of your hair just in case."

Traci 13 has posed:
    "Keep a lock of my hair?" Paisley is given a wary look by Traci. It's not that Traci thinks Paisley will do ill by it, but, she knows that hair, blood, fingernails, skin - these are all powerful, powerful articles which can be used against her. And that makes her alert. "Why?" Skepticism in her voice, as she gently extracts Leroy from her shoulder, to set him on the ground where the iguana remains, calm, and complacent, looking up at Traci with his odd eyes as if to say: 'I'm ready when you are.'

Paisley (267) has posed:
    "So I can keep track of you," Paisley responds blandly. "Enchantments placed on you, your health, location..." She shrugs slowly and then takes a deep breath. "I think if I worked with it I could probably..." Paisley trails off and then shakes her head slowly. "This is why I don't want to practice that sort of thing." She shifts her weight from left toright and then slowly shakes her head. "It's not like I don't have all thesympathetic connectiosn to you I need, whenever." SHe offers a sheepish smile at this and then takes a half step back. "Okay, Leroy. Let's do this shit."

Traci 13 has posed:
    Traci smiles at Paisley, kisses her cheek, and notes, "He'll still do what I ask, so, don't be afraid." She's not sure if Paisley has ever seen anything like Leroy before, at his full-grown stature. But, she takes several steps back. And, takes Paisley's hand to draw her back with herself.
    Once standing at a safe distance, Traci's eyes focus, narrow, and in another heartbeat, Leroy is growing. Fast.
    The small iguana transforms, nearly instantly to the human eye, from a tiny, adorable little iguana to a creature twenty-feet high, legs so high that a human could pass underneath it. Feet so huge each footpad could step on, and squash a person. He must weigh several tons.
    Huge eyes swivel around, and a huge maw, capable of devoring one - if not two people in but a few gulps of sharp, pointed teeth. And a terrible tail swishes, no doubt strong enough to knock cars aside and thump a person to death.
    Leroy is a walking monster, by all terms of the definition save for the fact he just sits there, eyeing the two girls as if to say, 'Well. Now what?'

Paisley (267) has posed:
    "Damn, Leroy. You've been holding out on me?" Paisley's eyes widen but she doesn't freak out or panic. As always, her emotional reactions are off-kilter at best. Instead of fear she shows- amusement? The rush of adrenaline? There's a certain atavistic sense of danger but the girl easily brushes it aside.
    For a long moment Paisley stares at the 'Iguana' monster's teeth, blinking a few times as she does. She looks over toward Traci and then back to the creature in front of her, drawing a deep breath as she does so.
    "Okay. So." There's a pause while Pais considers this for a long, slow moment. "Like, he could crush me flat. Which kind of gives me ideas for a fight." She holds her breath for a second and adds, "Seriously though, dude. Thumbs up." Paisley puts both thumbs up then, grinning at Leroy, as if to emphasize the point.

Traci 13 has posed:
    Leroy's massive tongue flickers out, and Traci walks up to the gigantic spell-infused lizard, and she scratches his massively scaley leg. "I don't giant-size him too often," she admits, "But, he's there to protect me if I need him to. One of my best friends." And while there might not be some kind of geas binding her to him, there's something almost as strong. Clearly, Leroy is Very Important to her. And, vice versa.
    Leroy has a sense of just how big he is, and remains otherwise still, so he doesn't accidentally trample on one of the girls. "He could crush almost anyone flat," she states soberly. "He can't shoot lightning or fire out of his mouth. But, he can snatch someone into his jaw with the same speed a frog does a fly. And, he's not shy about eating someone. He gets - protective."

Paisley (267) has posed:
    "Can we ride him into battle if we ever get into one of those epic Instance moment and have to face off against an army of monsters or something?" There's a pause and then Paisley adds sheepishly, "I might have played a little bit of Rifts and... Stuff." There's a beat and then Paisley turns to Leroy and says, "Hey, you." She waves at the lizard. "WE're pals, right? Like. You won't eat me if I make Trace mad? Just if I, like, try to hurt her or something? Which'll never happen." She licks her lips briefly. "Is he bulletproof?"

Traci 13 has posed:
"He's flesh and blood, like you and me. Though, like this, he can sustain probably a lot of damage. I mean, it'd take someone like Superman or something to snap his bones. And his scales are pretty tough. He's kind of like a dragon, if dragons were around still in this reality." As if to say that dragons -do- exist, in other realities, or on other planes of existence.
    "And, Leroy likes you. He says you make me happy. And he will protect you too, if he needs to." She snakes a hand around Paisley's waist, "Don't worry," she promises her girl. "He's your friend."
    She seems to enjoy the moment for a long, silent time, a minute, maybe longer, before suggesting, "So. Leroy wants to see if you can make a copy of himself. He's never seen himself like this before. He's curious."

Paisley (267) has posed:
    "Okay. Sure. No problem at all... That's actually the idea I was having. Case weant an army of Leroys behind us sometime."
    Paisley leans into Traci, her head against the girl's shoulder for a moment. When she is told not to worry it seems that her concerns simply leech away. So instead of speaking she joins her lover in silence, resting her weight on her. Eventually, however, Traci speaks.
    Paisley reaches up and gently grasps Traci's choker in her fingers without actually pulling. "Okay. So... Let's see." The girl is concentrating visibbly. She takes a deep breath. ANd.... There it is. An illusory Leroy, almost identical to the first. Some small details are a little off; she's not taken long for the visual inspection.
    "Picturing whatever I wnt is easy. hard part is making it completely convincing, move right, small right. ANd keeping it that way even when stuff changes. What does an iguana smell ike when covered in cherry blossom perfum?" She shrugs. "Okay..." For now, Illusory Leroy stays still.

Traci 13 has posed:
    Leory tongue-flickers out at his illusion-self, and takes a cautious step to it, mindful of the girls position to investigate.
    Traci seems to smile, some. "Okay," she admits, "That's pretty cool. Leroy says it doesn't smell real, though he says it should just smell like an iguana. Soooo not sure how helpful that is," she says with a half-laugh.
    "Can you make him move? Have him do, like, a walking circle, or something? It's like Artemis said, we need to be ready for physical attacks. And, well. Leroy is about as physical as they can get. And deception is one of the key elements of your magic. No reason we shouldn't learn how to exploit that."

Paisley (267) has posed:
    "Yeah. We can make it move and chomp and stuff and- great, it doesn't smell real! What does an iguana smell like anyway? You don't smell like anything to me, buddy!" Paisley calls hotly toward Leroy, though she just rolls her eyes afterward and a smile flickers across her lips.
    Whem Leroy steps to the Illusory Iguana that Iguana steps forward as well. It blinks back, opening its mouth to display those many teeth. After this Paisley tkaes a deep breath. "The hard part is just- keeping up. Like, when I had that panther go after Vanya and she slashed it. So much to keep track off. Blood, how flesh reacts to being cut..." She shakes her head.
    "S'hard," Paisley finishes finally.

Traci 13 has posed:
    "So, you need to practice," says Traci, quietly. "Like I said." She squeezes Paisley's bicep with her hand, playfully, "It's like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. We can practice with some of the small things, first. That way you won't be stuck reading boring books all day, right?"
    "Okay, Leroy. Show's over." She nods to Paisley, too, to indicate to the other girl to drop the illusion. Then, she pulls away her own power from Leroy, who nearly instantly shrinks back down to his normal, Traci-riding appropriate self. She reaches down and scoops him up to place a kiss on the top of his head, and place him on her head, comfortably. "Strawberry and pinapple paste for you when we get home," she tells the lizard.

Paisley (267) has posed:
    "Okay," Paisley agrees quietly. Her chest swells as she draws another deep breath but this oen she holds. "That works for me," she half-mutters. Paisley is squinting as she looks around, surveying her surroundings again. "And the books just- I haven't learnedw hat I need to learn to understand them," Pais admits quietly.
    "I finished highschool, believe it or not. Didn't have a course in magic or whatever the fuck." Paisley reaches out and gingerly scritches Leroy before offering a quiet sigh. "Okay, so where do we want to begin?"

Traci 13 has posed:
    "Why don't you make a nice little white rabbit. Magicians like rabbits. Even Zatanna uses a white rabbit in some of her acts." Though in very, very, unusual ways. Like having a giant rabbit pull a person out of a hat. "Have it run around us. And, make sure that you have the grass ripple as it's running around us. And at least twice, it should stand up, and twitch it's cute little nose and whiskers."
    It's a good start, at least. And much less likely to be noticed by a stray wandering police officer than two twenty-foot tall Leroy monsters.

Paisley (267) has posed:
    Paisley ndos at that and then takes a deep breath. SHe's frowning slightly, staying close to Traci while she considers their surroundings. The rabbit appears then. It steps out of the grass and twitchs its noses, standing all the way up on its hind legs. Then the great little lop-eared rabbit disappearsi nto the grass. It sways slightly and then the ripples become evidently, though only barely. It's a pretty small rabbit.
    Unlike when Paisley was handling Leroy she appears- distracted. The girl gnaws her bottom lip as she works, mimicking movements with faint wiggleso fh er fingers.

Traci 13 has posed:
    "Good." Traci seems pleased. She notices the fact of Paisley's concentration, and how much the girl is working. "There's some wind, too. So that should be rippling the rabbit's fur," she tells Paisley. "Moving the whiskers, and ears. Someone with good attention to detail would notice that. But you're doing really good," she encourages. "And you won't get it all in one night, or even one try. But, the more we work at it, the better you -will- get at it."

Paisley (267) has posed:
    A little wind. Paisley overcompensates and even so it is extremely convincing." There's a pause while the small woman is considering the world in front of her, squinting slightly while she considers what to say next. The whiskers and ears move quite convincingly, however. Someone has spent far more time than Traci might expect watching bunny rabbits move, apparently. That is actually an effortless adjustment. Paisley reaches up and draws her fingers through her blue tresses, pulling them away rom her face while she concentrates. "Should I change up my hair? Pais asks abruptly.

Traci 13 has posed:
    "I think," says Traci, Paisley's comment throwing her for a momentary loop, afterwhich she studies the other girls hair, "We should dye it bright white. It'd look really good against your skin, and against the dark clothes. Highlight your lovely face. And, we should also let it even out some, but keep it long."
    She reaches forward, to run her hands through Paisley's blue hair, before kissing the girls cheek. "A little of it on either side hanging down in front, and the rest down your back." She smiles, slightly. "It'd really make that shade of blue of your eyes stand out more, too."

Paisley (267) has posed:
    "White?" Paisley asks, blinking. Then she takes a deep breath and squints, nodding. "I don't normally stick witha colour this long," she offers, tilting her head to the left while she does. "Okay. White. A little on either side of my face and the rest down my back."
    Paisley nods a couple times, shifting her weight form left to right. "I mean, normally changelings hide the whole eye thing so they aren't super obvious all the time," Paisley observes. "But I can work with that. People usually figure they're weird contacts anyway."
    After that statement Paisley flashes Traci a sy grin before leaning into her a little more fimrly. "Anything else? You've got the clothes down. New tattoos? A piercing? ... Collar?" She's obviously teasing, small hands coming to rest on Traci's sides and slowly trailing down her ribs.

Traci 13 has posed:
    Traci's smile curves, sharply. "Maybe all three." She exchanges a rather mischevious look with Paisley, then, "Let's do your hair, first. And then I'll decide." Some humor, there. She kisses Paisley's cheek again, and then she nods, some. "But, a tattoo, and maybe a piercing? Definitely something to think about. And a collar -would- look good on you," she hedges, thoughtfully. "Definitely go with the whole outfit."

Paisley (267) has posed:
    "Which one?" Paisley asks of the collar before shrugging her shoulders slightly. "All of them probably." She then steps away from Traci, turning slightly so that she can survey her surroundings. "Well, let's check out the white hair thing then." She shrugs slightly and then her hair shifts from blue to white, stark even against Paisley's pale skin. "At least I'm never stuck with a natural hair colour," she offers then, laughing softly as she does.

Traci 13 has posed:
    "I like it," Traci says, moving to finger hand through Paisley's now crisp, white hair. "Just like I imagined it. Keep it like this for awhile, until I tell you to do something different, okay?" It's phrased as a question, but it's more rhetorical, than Traci expecting any kind of answer. Yet, in turn, she doesn't make any offer to change her own hair, yet, even if she does snare a small bit of it between her fingertips, bringing it forward so she can eye it, thoughtfully.
    "Maybe we can go to the tattoo shop tomorrow, and look at some stuff."

Paisley (267) has posed:
    "Okay," Paisley agreed, with her head tilted slightly to the left. She shifts her weight from left tor ight slightly and then glaances at Traci's fingers, where they grasp her hair
    "Tattoo shop sounds like fun. Lots of real estate for art," Paisley agrees then, shrugging her shoulders. White tresses ripple across her form as she moves. Clearly, personal illusions are much easier.
    Eventually Paisley shrugs her shoulders slowly. "In the mean time... The rabbit is watching us."