#marlow karala

[nbpsiioniic]

Magician’s Best Friend: Apprentice’s familiar or other pets

“One for sorrow? Well, then, good thing there’s two of us.”

The bird just shows up at the shop one day, hopping around on the windowsill and making inquisitve noises. Marlow’s charmed (”oh, aren’t you a pretty one”) and learns that not only is their visitor partial to berries from the kitchen, but after a few days, shells and buttons and bits of shiny ribbon start appearing by the window. Pretty soon after that, Eris invites herself in. 

When they realize she’s more than a particularily intelligent pet, Marlow has to take a moment. Those clever eyes looking up at them, the somehow amused voice that croaks partners in crime! at them -- they had a familiar already. Used to have a familiar. But like a lot of their old life, that ended with the plague. They think of sending the bird away, but of course they can’t -- it’d be like sending a bit of themself away. And they’re not the same person as before. They hope Mani would want them taking a second chance.

Sometimes Eris is found perching on one of the shelves, sometimes she follows Marlow around on their errands, often she’s off on unknowable birdy errands of her own.

- Like her magician, Eris is affectionate but a bit of a gadfly.

- She will perch and she will lovingly nibble hair or ears if she likes you. Asra is a frequent recipient of her “grooming”.

- Not only can she talk, she can do impressions - sarcastically imitating Camio is a favorite.

- Chandra and Malak are both big personalities and a lot to deal with, in different ways, but they know the best gossip.

- Faust gets scraps of scarf or especially pretty stones, sometimes, to match her shiny scales.

- Fluffy borzoi fur makes for superior nesting material.

- No matter how shiny, they won’t go for the arm - but Lucio will find himself mysteriously missing coat buttons and trim.

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Day 2: Nonbinary Refinery: Apprentice’s Clothes, Appearance, and Gender Affirming Choices

“Well, that’s all of our components right there.”

It’s hard to believe, even as they say it. The final item, a shed snakeskin, rests lightly in Marlow’s hands, thin as crinkled parchment, while a freshly-molted Faust herself is curled around an enchanted heating stone, gleaming like lavender silk. If a snake can preen, she's doing it right now.

“Thank you, baby,” Marlow says, leaning forward quickly to receive a quick nose bump from the familiar.

Gift! Her exclamation rings out happily.

“I’m just about done with the sigil, here.” Asra looks up from the floor and the complicated chalk design he’s working on. Somehow he’s gotten the chalk all over himself in the process of drawing, dusting his hands and knees, even a few pastelly streaks in his hair. The sigil itself is immaculate, though, a complex interlocking design with seven points, just large enough to fit Marlow.

“You should keep the hair, it’s a look,” Marlow teases, covering the nervousness as they start to unwrap the voluminous layers of their top. Their shoulders, used to drawing inward and hiding the shape of their body, are tense. They imagine they can feel the muscles starting to unlock, though, with the anticipation of freedom.

Asra pushes his hair back, leaving a few more purple-and-green highlights. “Maybe I will,” he says, lips quirking, before his expression becomes serious and soft. “But I think you’re up first.”

Arms crossed about their chest, they sit down, watch as Asra places the reagents around them one by one, at the points of the star.

A polished chunk of rhodonite. A bowl of wild nettle roots. A twisted double spiral of copper and iron. An athame wrapped in a square of silk. Another bowl, this one full of mulberry leaves. A bundle of shimmering feathers, wrapped around with twine. Faust’s shed skin is last, Asra curling it carefully at the point above Marlow’s head.

None of the ingredients, by themselves, are all that rare or expensive. But finding the right combination of them, the one that would spark Marlow’s idiosyncratic magic and lend them the energy to shape their body in harmoy with their mind, that took some doing.

They square their shoulders. Place their fingertips along two points at the inside of the circle. Asra does the same from the outside, lending them his power, and the connection completes, sparking to life.

Marlow feels their hair standing on end, their muscles trembling with sudden stress. The power is so wild, and so much, that they have to fight to temper it with their will. Strange medicinal smells fill the air as the herbs flash into smoke, the spiral and athame buzz and rattle against the floor, the feathers and snakeskin rustle. Power flows along the lines of chalking, making them glow. The carved rhodonite glows, motes of pink light and specks of shadow rising from it and sinking into Marlow’s chest with a soft fwumph.

They gasp, staring straight ahead, fighting the temptation to look down. The skin and muscle ache and pull where they’re reshaped, stingy like a sunburn, an unbelievable amount of pressure pushing in. It mounts like a lightning strike and then dispels with a flash. 

Marlow looks down, dumbfounded, at a droplet of sweat running down their bare, flat chest. They look up and Asra’s beaming at them, hair mussed like he’s been in a windstorm, violet eyes bright. All of the thanks they can muster for his help seem inadequate.

“I’m never wearing a shirt again.”

--

[nota bene: I’m aware some trans/nb prefer a more realistic portrayal. That’s perfectly fine! Just please let me have my escapist fantasy too.]

[nbpsiioniic]

Gifted Child: Apprentice’s Backstory & Pre-plague Life

Named Karala Marlow at birth, Marlow is the child of a Prakran dressmaker (Taravali Sethi) and a wandering apothecary from a southern trading city (Ramin Marlow). Their parents met in Vesuvia while their mother was visiting a friend, fell in love, and Ramin moved to Prakra with Tara, but still travelled frequently for his work.

Marlow was precocious, gifted, but very much a jay of all trades, their interests intense but, with few exceptions, fleeting. They did discover the spark of magical talent within themself with the advent of puberty

When Nadia came to Vesuvia, Tara followed as part of her retinue and Marlow accompanied their mother. While there, they visited Tara’s friend Sana, Marlow’s aunt (any friend of their mother being an aunt or uncle). At this point, Marlow had been en route to apprentice as a jeweler, but spending a lot of time in Sana’s shop and especially meeting Asra fanned their already sparked interest in magic into a blaze. They decided to apprentice at the magic shop instead and Tara, realizing her child had inherited their father’s wandering feet, entrusted them into Sana’s care.

Marlow’s skill with all manner of gems and rocks made them a natural enchanter. Together with Asra, a fellow eclectic and kindred spirit, they took over operations of the shop, selling charms and amulets and talismans, along with tinctures and readings of the future.

For their skills with crafting charms, Vesuvians came to refer to them as “enchanter Marlow” and, realizing that they did not see themself as male or female they welcomed the nickname and simply went by “Marlow” or “Marlow Karala” full-time.