#psychronic

“This is by far the strangest thing you’ve insisted I do,” the mage said as the smoke cleared around her and revealed her magically crafted Supergirl outfit.

The young superhero adjusted her own wide-brimmed black hat in the mirror as she explained, “It’ll be fun, trust me. Lord Hamley never let you celebrate Halloween before so we’re doing it now.”

“I’ve celebrated Halloween before.” Mary ran her hands through her hair casting an illusion to turn her black hair blonde.

“Going to a party consisting solely of members of The Court doesn’t count as celebrating anything…ever,” Jen explained looking closer at her green face to make sure the makeup was even.

“You’ve never seen Lady Hartje intoxicated,” Mary countered as she approached Jen and rested her hands on the superhero’s shoulders. “Remind me again why you’re dressed as a witch and I’m a hero.”

“Because it’s Halloween and on Halloween you dress like the opposite of what you are and do things differently.”

“So why aren’t you a super villain and I this ‘Wicked Witch?’”

“Because it’s funnier for the hero to be the witch and the witch to be the hero. That, and I’m already green, this stuff isn’t coming off anytime soon…I may have just dyed my skin by accident.”

Mary shook her head at her girlfriend’s ridiculous behavior. She was strange, but at least she was happy, and if Mary had to go around asking for candy from people to help her girlfriend enjoy the holiday then she was willing to do that.

“Okay,” Jen said at last as she practically sprang from her chair. “I’m ready, how do I look?” she asked with a spin.

Mary looked her up and down, she was a near exact copy of the character Jen had shown her, only missing one detail. “Don’t you need a broom?” she asked.

Jen’s eyes widened, “Shit, I forgot the broom, how did I forget the broom?”

Mary smiled, Jen was always cutest when she worried about the tiniest details. “Don’t worry about it,” she said calmly, “I got this.” She clapped her hands and created a cloud of smoke from which she was able to pull an old fashioned broom from. Will this work?”

Jennifer grinned from ear to ear, “Yes. Thank you so much.” She kissed Mary on the cheek leaving a faint green lipstick print. “I always forget you guys can do stuff like that.”

“Didn’t you just see me do that with my clothes?”

Jen thought for a moment, “Oh yeah.” Mary shook her head with another smile as Jen threw on leg over the broom and used her telekinesis to lift herself off of the ground. She let out what was suppose to be a cackle, but since Jen kept it quiet it sounded more like a snicker. “I’ll get you my pretty,” she said as if testing the line.

“What?” Mary recognized this as one of Jen’s many references, but since she had never really focused on the non magic society before meeting Jennifer, most of these references went over her head.

“It’s from Wizard of Oz,” Jen provided knowing that she hadn’t seen the movie. “It’s where who I’m dressed as is from…We’ll watch it later. Right now it’s candy time.” She flew through the door and into the hall doing her strange half cackle again, this time with a bit more confidence. Mary began to jog after her.

Halfway down the hall they ran into a demonic figure blocking their way, it stood in the middle of the hall and was bright red with a long tail and wings spread wide, its long red hair was tied in a ponytail. The figure turned around to face them revealing two red horns sticking out of its forehead. Mary immediately recognized the figure as Mimsi Malore in an over the top costume by her aura.

“Hey, where are you two going?” she asked eyeing the costumes. “Are you skipping the ‘party’ this year too?”

“Yeah,” Jen answered excitedly, “I’m taking Mary trick-or-treating.”

Mimsi looked at her in confusion as Mary simply shrugged to say she was just going along with things at this point. The mage then sat on the back of the broom as Jennifer squeezed them past Mimsi’s prosthetic wing. “I’d love to stay and chat,” Jen explained, “but the longer we stay the less candy we’ll be able to get, tell Tom I said ‘Happy Halloween.’” The young duo reached the exit to the circular hallway and disappeared to find their way out of the mage base to hunt for candy.

A moment later Tom Zerlan appeared in the hall out of his and Mimsi’s room dressed as a six-winged angel in white robes and extra mouths drawn on his face, his costume combined with his six foot height would have made him intimidating if Mimsi hadn’t fought monsters twice his size. “Did I just hear Jen leave?” he asked.

“Yeah, she said Happy Halloween and she was taking Mary trick-or-treating? Whatever that is.”

“Aren’t they too old for that?”

“I don’t know, I was raised by The Mage Court, we barely even recognize the holiday, it was your idea to go to this other party.”

“Hey, you’ll have fun.”

Much the same as all were-creatures, sirens are empowered by the moon, it is here, however, that almost all similarities end. As explained in depth earlier in this book were-creatures, most notably werewolves, absorb energy from moonlight and when under the light of a full moon the excessive energy sends them into a frenzy if they are unprepared or unbalanced with their inner creature. With sirens however the concept of a frenzy is practically non existent, for like everything with the naga, they are patient and deceptive. When a naga alter changes into their siren form they may be over taken with blood lust in the same way as a werewolf but they will not go into a rage, instead they will use their newly formed anatomy to hypnotize air breathers and draw them to the water to be drowned and eaten.

One of the most obvious differences between sirens and were-creatures is their change, both physical and mental. When a human alter changes, no matter what form they have they will always retain their lungs. With a naga, however, they become aquatic and their lungs are destroyed and returned each time that they change. This forces any naga who is bitten by a siren to move closer to salt water in order to survive when they change. This is especially upsetting for desert naga who are used to arid climates and are then forced to live the rest of their lives near a salt water lake or beach. Though outside of this there are few noticeable effects in their regular lives. Unlike were-creatures a siren holds a very sophisticated mind for something that could still be considered an animal, this allows the naga to more easily accept and balance with the aquatic creature inside. Though it ought to be noted that it is possible that the siren spirit is deceiving its naga side in order to become the dominant soul. It is imperative that any alter whether human or naga remembers that there is a difference between balancing their soul with their alternate form and letting that form consume them. Should the alternate form gain dominance the alter will for all intents and purposes become an animal and they will be near impossible to be brought back to sentience.

As for the anatomy of a siren it is amazing if not frightening. Even with the teeth of a shark and spiked dorsal fins lining their spine and arms the visible attributes are far from the most frightening aspect of their change. What I personally would declare their greatest ability and most horrifying fact is that their body becomes a sort of instrument upon change. I myself have not heard the music that they create through the chambers of their hollowed bones nor do I understand fully how they create it, but we have all heard the stories of sailors unlucky enough to sail near their packs, or schools as I believe groups of fish are called. From what I can infer I believe that they use the winds of the sea to play their body as if it were a flute and Poseidon the musician, if he hadn’t died in the God War. To give a full description though of a siren is difficult, I find that it can vary greatly from naga to naga, though this is hardly surprising given that werecats tend to have different forms depending where their line originates, and werewolves vary in fur color and texture based on the human’s own body hair. So me telling you that one naga turns from the color of the desert to the color of the beach or a red naga will become pink in hue would be redundant. What should be focused on is the fact their skin and scales become lighter and nearly transparent and if focused on one can almost see straight though them and inspect the chambers that course through their body and allow them to create their music. Their entire anatomy is a testament to the skill and beauty the gods put into us even in the things which most see as a curse. Truly the siren’s beauty and intelligence is the balance to a were-creature’s pure strength and instinct.

Another major difference between sirens and were-creatures is the transformation itself. Anyone who is or knows an alter knows that the change is extremely painful, your bones grow and shrink as your skin stretches and rips only to quickly grow back and be ripped again, all the while your muscles shift and change and your skull reforms itself to hold the extra teeth that you know will only fall out when you change back. The painful process mixed with the increased power of the sentient’s alternate self makes it difficult to remember and therefore determine just how painful the entire transformation can be, but after my time with one of the siren packs schools, I do believe that their process is not as painful as my own. Now please do not think that I am trying to say the sirens do not feel an incredible amount of pain upon transformation, I am merely saying that given the details of what changes they go through and how easily they are able to do it it appears that their change is slightly less painful.

The fourth difference that I believe is of great importance is the subject of their transformations specifically the duration of their change. When a were-creature changes they stay in their animal form for no more than a few days, a full week if they are exceptionally balanced with their two selves, and no more than two nights if the transformation is in a frenzy under the full moon. The longest that I’ve maintained my werewolf form is five days and afterwards I was unable to even pull myself to help and the thoughts of the beast filled my mind for hours. However, when a naga takes their siren form they are able to hold it for over a fortnight, perhaps even longer. The entire time I spent with the siren school, three full moons, there were some naga I never met despite my best efforts to meet them all. I do not think it impossible that some of them were able to hold their siren form for most, if not all, of my stay. My only regret was not thinking to ask about this while I was given the chance.

The last subject I wish to touch on is the siren societal structure. The thing I found most curious about it was how they did not have an alpha or even a group of leaders like most naga families do. I am told that this is best seen when they swim as a full pack school. Though I did not get the pleasure of hunting with them in our alternate forms, for I cannot swim as they can, they told me that when they swim no one is in charge, each member of the school swims together and if one diverts, the rest follow. This is a concept which I struggle to understand and fail to see how it would let them hunt effectively, but I imagine that seeing such a thing would be awe inspiring.