( miavi. un: x )

[darkart]

[ If you're feeling fancy and bored tonight (today, this morning..), here's a magic puzzle for you. It looks something like:


The parts can be re-arranged into two dozen different runes, which can then be translated into spells. The simpler ones, of which there are fifteen, simply make everything disappear when 'solved'. The remaining, more difficult nine are:

✧ Shimmery, translucent flowers appear around your head and shoulders, for about five minutes.
✧ BANG. Jumpscare.
✧ An enchanted doodle plays Hangman with you, the winning word changing periodically.
✧ Displays a recipe for zucchini bread. The best zucchini bread you've ever fucking had.
✧ Suggestions for what to try at the curry house in Hogsmeade.
✧ Creates a very cold feeling for about five minutes.
✧ Causes the message What else could you have been doing with your free time? to appear.
✧ Displays directions for a spell to turn nicotine cigarettes into clove cigarettes.
✧ Nothing. Unless you have a Dark Mark, in which case, a small black snake slithers into existence from the base of your wrist, wriggling to the inside of your elbow before vanishing.

Once each rune has been 'solved', the drawing vanishes, making doing more than one very difficult; the witch or wizard (or wizich) will have had to have made a copy or cast a charm to preserve it prior to fussing through everything.

( OP's username, x, is not anonymous, though Severus's general disinclination to socialize might leave even 'friends' in the dark. up2u, my sweet beans. ) ]

Comments

[darkart]

[ ... You dork.

(This personality died during the war, didn't it?) (Stop it.)

Severus doodles a little wand in the loaf's hand, a very small rune next to it, and when it's activated it'll let the loaf cast a 'spell'; a drawing of stars and sparks flying. ]

I do play very well, thanks. Nicely, however, you can all bugger off.

[viler]

[ Adorable. Anton casts a spell so it continues to move around on its own, happily waving its wand to make sparks fly out of the tip. The colors change from time to time. ]

Always a charmer.

[ And this is the second time he's complimented you tonight, Sev. ]

Eventually, someone will break down the spellwork on this method of communication, and private conversations may just stop working. Suddenly, owls and their sharp beaks and temperamental attitudes will seem much less complicated to work with.

[darkart]

[ Yes, he's noticed the compliments, and even sarcastic he doesn't really know what to do with them. What if they're sincere? It almost makes him uncomfortable; that fine line between spiteful pleasure at being acknowledged and distrust of something so alien.

It's only because he gives a shit about Anton's opinion when he shouldn't. He shouldn't give a shit about any of them. ]

They're still less complicated. But it's all the more reason to play with it while it's still got core integrity.

[ Severus continues manipulating their little animation - nudging the enchantment to more complex and responsive actions. The end goal, he thinks, is casting spells through the strange pen - instead of just coaxing the person at the other end into casting it on their own. But he's yet to stumble onto a trick, for you can ask the drawing to do whatever you like, but the drawing still doesn't produce its own power. ]

[viler]

Improving it can be just as worthwhile of an action. You never know who might be watching. [ He'd fiddled with it, as Severus have, though perhaps not with the same vigorous intent. He's contemplated on untangling the spells involved in creating the private function, seeking ways to dismantle it — and improve it all at once. If he were more engrossed with it, instead of cataloging it as a side-hobby when he isn't pre-occupied with his duties, perhaps he would already have had some success with it.

For now it stays as a small project, written in papers on his desk, toyed with every once in a while. ]

I attempted to jinx someone through the MIAVI once. [ An offering, but also, because this story is hilarious. ] Unfortunately, it's hardly as effective as a handwritten letter, but I've been told that they still managed to throw up slugs for at least an hour.

[ Because Anton is still a fucking bully with a terrible sense of humour, all things considered. ]

[darkart]

[ Severus has figured out to shore up the privacy function, but still doesn't love it all-- and thinks discussing security concerns might make him look suspicious, so he says nothing. At least if anything ever cracks wide open, his conversations with Lily will just look sort of pathetic. Trying to reclaim her favor. Riddle already knows about his ... failings. ]

Slug vomit, not bad. Not your most sophisticated work, but not bad.

[viler]

Trust me, it wasn't my original intention. [ He opted for something more complicated — why start small when you can go big or go home? But here we are. ] I suppose further investigation into the matter is required.